Technically Living - Technology & Life from a husband, father, and moderate geek

Dealing with growth in small business can sometimes be difficult. Not being
able to take on more clients because you don’t have the time is a good
problem to have. However, this probably means you are leaving money on the
table and that it is probably time to hire on some help.

There is an unlimited number of streams to gather content for any interest
or passion you may have.

How do you collect and manage it all?

In the coming episodes, we will walk through the primary uses and benefits
of using the following tools, address similar tools, prices, and caveats.
We will also share a unique way to use the tools that some may not have
thought of.

Teleconferencing is usually a huge pain in the rear. What feels like an
infinite amount of solutions are available out there for broadcasting and
sharing video -- all of them offering a likely chance of technical issues
and average quality at best. My guest today has the solution for all of
your business's telecommunication needs.

The Technically Living Podcast is working its way back into your
podcatcher. Bare with us as we start spinning backup up. We cannot thank
you enough for keeping subscribed or finding us since the beginning of the
year.

In this episode, I briefly discuss the additional features most people with
an Amazon Prime membership might not even know are available to them. The
first two are feature enhancements and the rest are some pretty neat
additons. Take a listen.

Adam Huber of Adam Huber's Detailing talks with us about the software tools
and resources that he uses to stay organized in his mobile detailing
service as well as keep in touch with and network with his customers.

Resolutions. Goals. Plans. Routines. Whatever you want to call them, you’ve
made them. If you don’t already have some tools to help you start 2017 off
on the right foot, you’re in the right place.

In this episode, we talk about the dozen or so apps that I use daily to
stay organized and productive as well as keep track of fitness goals.

We are starting off 2017 the way the podcast was originally intended. We
will hopefully be having interviews of people just like you using
technology in their life, family, and business. In future episodes we will
discuss with guests the tools they use currently or want to use in the
future as well as possibly hash out an issue or frustration they are
experiencing at the moment.

This time of year your email inbox gets filled with invoices, receipts, and
shipping notifications more than any other time. Because of that, you are
much more likely to receive SPAM and other bogus emails that are 'phishing'
you to click on links and provide information to inappropriate actors.

Last week we had the amazing opportunity to travel to Las Vegas for the
Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent Conference where across 3 casinos there
was training, workshops, certifications and so much more. All the sessions
and training were specific to one of the many offerings Amazon has in their
AWS package. It was hard to really get the most out of the conference cause
there was so much information to learn and sessions to attend.

Travel can be stressful. There are hundreds of apps you could use to manage
agendas, trip itineraries, and sight-seeing plans. I just spent the week in
Las Vegas at AWS re:Invent (more on that later) and I used 5 apps to keep
my trip organized and know where I needed to go and what I should be doing
for nightlife.

Video is getting it's second wind. 'Is getting' is already a little
past-tense but Snapchat (or Snap Inc.) is taking it to a new level and they
are doing what Google failed to do. And that is make wearable technology
cool and fashionable.

Imagine for a moment your computer never getting a virus or bogus software
installed. Imagine buying a brand new computer on Black Friday or Cyber
Monday and 5 years from now it running almost as good as the day you bought
it.

Do you have $100, $600, or $1000 to pay for the release of the files on
your computer? Are you even aware that all your important files, photos,
and videos could be held hostage at any time? If you don't take the steps
now, once it happens the only option you have is to pay or say goodbye to
everything stored on your computer.

On October 23rd, 2016 "Half the Internet" went offline.

'IT' happened again. Not because of this week's episode (at least I don't think so) but a big piece of the internet went unresponsive today because of systems with bad or default password configurations. Way more information than I can share in one episode but that is why we are here.

We are here to break down all the pieces that can cause such a mass orchestrated attack and help protect you from them as much as possible.

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about what happened yesterday but you can prevent your home devices from taking part in the attacks.

There is light at the end of the tunnel I promise you. However, for the next couple years yet we are all going to be stuck with having to remember a bunch of passwords for a whole plethora of accounts. Some of which we only access once or twice a year.

October is National Cyber Awareness Month and in this week's episode, I will share some tools and tips on setting great passwords, using different ones on each site, and most importantly discuss why it is so important to follow all these standards for password creation in the first place.

I GET IT. You're sick of all this security talk. Why can't companies figure it out and protect your information better?

That is a really good question.
...and I don't have a solid answer for you. For instance, at the end of last month (Sept 22nd) Yahoo! announced that upwards of 500 million of their accounts have been stolen in a hack. The sickening part is they could have been taken 2 years ago and Yahoo! is just now announcing it.

We've all been there, having to pay someone back for that soda they bought you or for picking up the dinner tab because you actually did forget your wallet. Maybe you left it in your other purse - who knows? The fact is you owe someone money for something and you just assume get it taken care of immediately.

Protecting your home wireless network is paramount. Keeping prying eyes and rogue devices off of your personal internet connection is no doubt important but did you know how you have your network configured at home could be affecting how secure you are when you are staying in hotels or enjoying a latte with a friend at your local coffee shop?

Apps come and go. Great ones are a dime-a-dozen but sometimes when a great idea hits the market only to be pushed out by the big guys you get a little bummed out. Meerkat shutdown this last week. I used Meerkat right away and they pretty much got squashed by Twitter's Periscope.

I'm Guilty! I switched to Periscope too.
But now I'm asking for forgiveness and trying to make it up. The creators of Meerkat took all their skill and know-how and created a group video chat app called HouseParty and it can be downloaded here (iOS) and here (Android)

No Excuses! I slacked off this week and I didn't get a full episode recorded. However, I am excited to announce that I have some great high-quality episodes in the works leading into the end of the year.

In this episode I list a dozen or so apps that I highly recommend you give a download and try out while traveling locally by car or flying somewhere as well as some apps to use while at your destination.

Getting There
- Travel by car: Waze - uses Google Maps and adds some helpful features to your travel maps, including police and accident locations as we traffic congestion and nearest gas stations

- Travel by Air: App In The Air - free app for importing your airline information. Will help you keep on time with travel updates for when you should be at the airport, checked-in, through security and boarding. Will even help you communicate and get all your text messages while traveling internationally.

- Tracking Family: Life360 - a great app to use to track family and friends temporarily while on travel. If you need to have a car in your motorcade drop off for a while, no big deal because they will be able to see where you end up during the whole duration of your trip.

One the Way
- Field Trip - Learn about history and fun tips in your current location
- Ingress - Pick a side and stick with them to battle around the world for property and landmarks.
- Pokemon Go! - Gotta catch them all... That's all I'll say about that one.

Where to eat
- Yelp - discover great locations and venues for activities, food, and drink
- Swarm - Make every place you eat or visit a game and earn rewards for doing so.
- Foursquare - My personal favorite. Find shops, restaurants, and venues in your location and they the best tips from those who have been there before.

Making memories
- Prisma - Artificial Intelligence for your photos. Turn every photo you take on vacation into a fun work of art.
- Snapchat - Use fun holiday and location filters to add some spice to sharing your fun weekend pictures with family and friends.
- Google Photos - You are going to need a place to backup all the amazing photos you take so do me a favor and listen to this week's Tech Tuesday Tech Short and learn about Google Photos and why you need to be using it.

//giphy.com/embed/NvwLXMoF3fUze

via GIPHY

Thank you all!
For all the listens and share. Our download and listener count is on a steady incline and I owe it to all of you for your support. We do this for all of you and we can not do any of it without you.

This is Part 2 and the wrap-up of the question - What is the cloud? We recap what was talked about in last weeks episode as well as try to give a very high-level overview of what cloud services can do for us in our everyday technology exchanges.

In this episode we discuss:

- The 3 types of cloud platforms (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS)

- How pieces of cloud services can fit into each of those platforms

- Scalability and Productivity

- Arguments against cloud computing

- How to secure and have backups of your data in the cloud

- and tips on how to create and use secure passwords

There are countless cloud apps and software services you can use. Getting a grasp on the right ones for what you need can be difficult. So much so that you may never know where to start. If you want some short and simple tips to help you become more familiar with technology please join our newsletter and you will receive a short email every Tuesday with some quick tips you can take action on immediately.

If you can't wait that long contact us here and we can get started right away answering your questions.

This week's Tech Short is about SnapChat memories. If you aren't using SnapChat yet, now is the time to get started. If you have used it before you may be interested to know some of the amazing features SnapChat is now offering with their addition of 'memories.' Take a quick listen and see what you think.

Cloud computing revolutionized the way we use our technology. We touch multiple cloud services on a daily basis but might not understand how you are using them? Are you using them to their fullest potential?

In this part 1 of 2 series we discuss:

- What the cloud is
- Where the cloud came from
- Where it is located
- Who can access the cloud
- and some of the services that are available

Zak Fick is here to talk with us about his view of what life will look like 5 to 10 years into the future. We discuss an entire day from waking up to your coffee starting, not at a scheduled time, but because you actually got out of bed; all the way to how dinner is delivered to your family at the end of the day.

EPISODE CORRECTION: Zak graduated from the University of Sioux Falls (not the University of South Dakota as I mistakenly mention).

Roughly 20% of us use them and unfortunately, they are littered with things we don't want or don't use. They just take up precious space that we could be using for our photos or music. In this episode, I'm talking to iPhone and iPad users about all the apps that come loaded on iDevices, rather you want them or not. I explain some of the best uses and unique tips to add productivity and organization to your everyday life.

You do not need an Apple computer to get the benefits of all the Apple Cloud services. The trick is just making sure you use those default apps correctly.

In this first episode, I introduce myself and a potential future co-host as well as discuss the future expectations of the show and what you can expect to get out of the Technically Living Podcast.