Month: May 2016

In all our aspects of our lives, technology is advancing. From our homes to our office spaces, we are becoming reliant on technology to make our lives more enjoyable and productive. The motoring world is no different, and technology is improving all the time.

We have become reliant on certain features in our cars, such as airbags, power steering and electric windows, which at one time were nonexistent. One of the biggest advances in recent years is satellite navigation systems which help us get from point A to point B without the need for a pesky road map. Eventually, the technology mentioned in this article will become as commonplace as the features we use today, and we will wonder how we ever managed without them.

The innovations listed below are only available in high-end vehicles at the moment. While the expense is high, the advantages of having a technologically adept car are many, not least the safety factor essential for every road user. Legal services such as Gruber Law can help in a road accident, but these new technologies can reduce the risk.

The future is here, and your driving experience is set to change.

Automated parking

One of the biggest nightmares for most drivers is finding a parking place, especially in a confined area. This handy feature does all the work for you, allowing you to sit back while the car navigates into those tricky to judge spaces.

Biometric access

No longer will you need to use a key to open your car door or start the engine. This new development is designed primarily as a deterrent to keep away car thieves, as biometric technology allows you to use your fingerprints to gain access. There are other advances in development, including voice recognition and retina scanning for unlocking your car.

Driver assist systems

Again, designed for our safety, the use of cameras and sensors fitted to the car will warn the driver of any dangers ahead. For example, when a vehicle enters your blind spot, or should you be driving too quickly to the car ahead, the system will apply the brakes to avoid collision with the oncoming driver.

Active health monitoring

Ford has been the pioneer in this life-saving technology, but other car manufacturers are following suit. Many of us know how scary it can be to drive and fall ill. We need to care for ourselves in the car, but we should also be concerned for other road users. Health monitoring technology is designed to warn us of any potential danger signs within our health, such as ECG monitors which can detect our heart rate, and blood pressure readings which can warn us to pull over and take a break.

Cadillac has introduced seats which will vibrate when they detect the driver is falling asleep at the wheel. For those of who find driving stressful, are newly developed seats which gently massage our backs while allowing air to flow through a ventilation system, to make our journey more comfortable and pleasant.

These days, it’s the norm for businesses to use remote workers at least some point through the working day. While this offers the company and employees much greater flexibility, in many cases, it also opens the doors to all kinds of security risks. Whether it’s a contractual arrangement or an ad-hoc, casual part of your company culture, you need to be doing everything in your power to keep your network, systems and devices safe. While remote working security needs vary from business to business, here’s a list of pointers that will give you a great starting point…

Keep Laptops, Phones, and Tablets Safe

Lost or stolen mobile devices are easy pickings for hackers if there aren’t enough decent security measures in place. You need to be doing everything you can to keep these assets safe. While there are various technical barriers you can apply here, it should all start with a clear-cut policy for using mobile devices that all your employees should be aware of. Make sure your employees are keeping their devices with them and in sight at all times, and never leaving them in cars, hotel safes, and so on. You should also ensure everyone’s setting strong passwords, and look into second-factor authentication features like a Fido u2f security key. Finally, mobile device management programs can help you to recover laptops, phones and tablets if they’re ever lost or stolen.

Keep Security Layers Up to Date

Any devices that are owned by your organisation obviously need to be protected using antivirus, firewalls, web filtering, encryption and other preventative measures, but so do any devices owned by your employees if they’re using them for remote working. This can be a little tough to negotiate at times, as your employees may feel that it impeaches on the personal use of their devices. You may have to address this issue through your company security policies, either by restricting employees from using their own devices for high-risk, business-critical activities, providing secured company-owned devices, or making certain protective measures mandatory for all privately-owned devices.

Set Rules for Public WiFi

Any devices connected to public WiFi can be vulnerable to attack, which can obviously present a big issue to people on your staff who have to work from conference centers and hotel rooms. Ideally, your staff should only be connecting to trusted, secure networks, but obviously this isn’t always practical. With this in mind, you should have a part of your security policy forbidding employees from using public networks for any kind of sensitive or business-critical activities. It’s a good idea to draw up some specific guidelines outlining the kinds of activities and systems which staff can and can’t access while they’re connected to a public WiFi network.

Maintain Good Email Encryption

Email is among the most commonly used digital communication channels when it comes to staff members out of the office, and one that’s the root of a lot of major security breaches. Robust management of corporate email accounts, along with solid encryption, is a non-negotiable must. Installing apps such as Mimecast is an obviously smart move. However, if you make a point of raising awareness of the vulnerability of email, this can also do a lot to embed safe usage within your business. This should include training your employees in spotting common cybersecurity threats such as phishing emails, along with clear policies on the kind of information that your staff can and can’t communicate through email. Usernames and passwords are obvious no-no’s, but there may be a lot of other information you can’t afford to let hackers access depending on your niche and model.

Hiding Devices from Prying Eyes

Yes, there’s enough to worry about when it comes to purely digital threats. However, your employees all need to be aware of the physical threats of using mobile devices as well. Just as you would make sure your pin number is well hidden when using an ATM or pay point, you need to make sure your employees are being smart and discreet whenever they’re typing login information on a mobile device when they’re out and about. They also need to be aware of the risk of eavesdropping and other general snooping from people in the immediate vicinity. These days, it’s easier than ever for someone to snap a high-resolution photo of a screen in public, so don’t leave your business open to this very real risk.

Be Aware of External Storage

USB sticks and other external storage devices can occasionally be a vessel for malware, and have to be screened before you allow them to be plugged into any company devices. A lot of business owners and representatives come back from conferences with a free USB stick that’s infected with malware, unbeknownst to both them and the event organizers. Make it part of the policy to stop anyone from plugging one of these devices into a business computer with a lot of important information on it, for example to display information during a meeting. Until the security buffs in your IT department have the opportunity to check them, any kind of external storage should be treated as a threat.

Teach Staff About Public Computers

While in the majority of cases, your staff will have their own devices that they can use to get remote work done, every now and then someone may have to use a public computer, for example in the business suite of an airport. Make sure all your staff are aware of the security risks, and taking steps to avoid any kind of breach. They need to position screens so that they can’t be seen by anyone around them, never use public computers to send sensitive information, use private browsing wherever it’s available, and never tick those “remember me” boxes on login screens. They also need to be clearing browsing history and deleting downloads when they’re about to close an internet browser. It’s generally a good idea to keep these rules in a template email, and send them to anyone who’s going away on business before they leave.

Technology has changed the way we live – the way we work, the way we entertain ourselves, and even the way we travel. Before, you were left to your own devices when going abroad, no matter whether for work or business. However, nowadays, you have a whole host of gadgets and technological tools that you can use to make your trip easier and more enjoyable. With that in mind, read on to discover some top tips on how to use technology effectively while you are travelling.

Keep your phone charged while on the go – The invention of the rechargeable battery pack insert for iPhones, Samsung phones, and other popular smartphone brands has been welcomed with open arms. This is ideal for those who are travelling and are going to be out and about all day. You don’t need to worry about your phone dying and you being unable to access Google Maps. With a battery pack insert, you will essentially have at least two full battery’s worth of phone life. You can actually see other technology trends that have taken off here.

Leave voicemails without calling someone – You may be wondering how to leave a voicemail without calling, but it is a feature that is available today. If you are leaving your loved ones at home and you are in a different time zone, this is going to come in very, very useful. There’s nothing like waking up your partner at 1 am in the morning because you are in Australia and you want to tell them about something amazing that has happened! Instead, you can leave a voicemail without disturbing them.

Download the Google Translate app – Let’s face it; there are going to be times when you are abroad and you don’t really know what on earth is going on! This is where the Google Translate app comes in very, very handy. Whether it is baffling road signs or mysterious menus, you can enter the information into the app and you’ll be able to find out what is going on.

Make sure your maps can be used offline – Don’t forget that you aren’t going to have access to Wi-Fi all over the world, and the last thing you want to do is turn your mobile data on, as you will have a nasty bill waiting for you when you get home. Instead, make sure you can use your mobile map app offline. To do this, you need to preload the destination when you are at your hotel or apartment. By doing this, the GPS will work without data, and it will still direct you as you move along.

Have an offline backup plan – Lastly, make sure you have an offline backup plan should you find yourself in a hotel or an airport with a spotty service, or find that your international mobile data bundle is not working. You need to have a plan in place so that you are prepared for such a situation. The best thing to do is screenshot all of your important travel documents beforehand, as well as a map of the area you are travelling to.

What makes a good, well, anything? A good meal? It depends on our personal preferences, but there is always a bottom line. A good meal will always be cooked through; it will have a variety of tastes and a few flavor combinations that work together without fighting each other. A good song? It’s got chords that work amongst each other tied to a mathematical beat. It will also be in tune! What is this all about? Well, anything good in life, be it business or at home – it follows a certain set of rules, and it only breaks them for explicit reasons. Sushi can be raw. Some music follows patterns that play with structures and math. Everything good will usually, in most circumstances, stick to the rules. With this being said, what makes a good website? What are the rules that cannot be broken under any circumstances? What rules can be bent?

A good website will always have one thing that is true. It will look good, and it will run well. This is an unbreakable rule, and even websites with weird designs will still be well-oiled machines underneath the hood. There is nearly no excuse for a site that doesn’t work. A site fails to work for a number of reasons, but almost always it will be because of a problem with the code. This can be remedied by a few afternoons of self-education or a designer. Even well-made sites can be held back by web hosting, so get a service that works and allows your site to be as speedy as it should be. A good site looks good and actually works.

A good site always has space. Every web site is almost physical in its design, and that means it needs space. Think of a site as a room. If it’s a small room, it can’t fit that much within its walls. If it is a larger room, it can. A physical place solves this issue easily, simply put, no more people can enter until people leave. However, with a website, an overload of visitors means that the site goes offline when visitors exceed server space restrictions. For a business, this means that no business takes place if your site is more popular than predicted. A good site? It can handle visitors.

Optimization is another thing. Unless you’ve been under a rock for years and years, you’ll know that phones can access the internet and get onto websites. This means that a website has to work on smaller screens. If your website doesn’t run on a phone or a tablet, you’re going to lose visitors. Any website worth it’s salt will optimize its website for users on a smaller screen. If you don’t, they can’t visit, and it is only you and your site that loses out.

These are the rules that can’t be broken. Your site needs to look good, it needs to run on all sorts of devices and it needs space. You can be a bit more creative in other areas, but don’t bend these rules.

Working from home has become increasingly popular for a few reasons. First, it’s actually a lot cheaper than running an office. If you work from home, you can avoid the expensive cost of renting or buying a business property. And, if that’s not a good enough reason for you, there’s also the fact that you get to completely avoid the morning commute. As well as this, your business becomes more competitive and flexible. In fact, there’s a good reason to believe that in the future most online companies won’t bother with a business office at all. But, if you are going to do this you need to know how to set yourself up for business at home. There are a few things that you’ll need and a few others we’d definitely recommend.

On The Cloud

Whether you’re using your own cloud server or simply piggybacking off another that already exists, the cloud is an essential piece of digital tech that you need in your business home office. With a cloud server, you’ll be able to easily connect with other employees, colleagues and yes clients. That’s important because it’s crucial to remember that you will be competing with businesses that have all the advantages of the modern city office.

Of course, it’s not just about staying connected. Working on the cloud gives you security too, and in the age of endless hacks and online dangers, that’s essential for business owners. Working on the cloud, you should easily be able to keep your info safe and secure.

Private

Of course, a cloud server isn’t the only way to keep your business secure. You need to think about privacy too, and you can find out more about this on a site such as VpnsRus.Com. VPNs are a virtual private network, and they give you the option to completely mask your activities online. That is useful for preventing a possible hack and keeping your business info safe and secure. It also allows you to control exactly who is using your business network and ensure that only people with permission can gain access to it.

Comfortable

Although, creating the right home office isn’t just about making sure that you are connected or even that your business is secure. You also need to think about comfort because comfort impacts productivity. To keep productivity levels high, you must make sure that you are not being limited by your business set up. One of the best ways to prevent this is to invest in an adjustable, sitting standing desk. Check out Staples.com for more information on furniture like this.  That way, you can raise the desk through the day to give yourself a change and stand through the day. Research has shown that this can easily increase productivity.

Organized

Finally, you need to make sure you are prepared to organize your time working at home as any typical working day. By doing this, you can make sure that don’t lose levels of efficiency simply because you’re not in a controlled office environment.

We hope this helps you set up the perfect home office and ensure that it doesn’t in any way impact your level of work or the success of your business.