 Glorious Springtime . . . It's a great time to smell the flowers, visit the beach for a day, read a good book under a shade tree and enjoy the new growth in nature and in business. Looking for new ways to cut costs, extend your impact, attract new customers? Look over these mini-stories we've developed for you in Wordpix Notes. Let us know how we can help. Your Wordpix Team
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| | Get Your Dodger Dog - with Avocado Topping! Dodger fans tested a gourmet avocado topping for the famous Dodger Dog hotdog last September at Dodger Stadium. The Chilean Avocado Importers Association's avocado ambassadors dished out the toppings. Next trip to cheer the Dodgers on, try the new "Avo Dog," as it's called in Chile. (Americans eat 26.8 million hot dogs in a single baseball season. Babe Ruth once ate 24 hot dogs between double-header games.) |
| Of Interest: Internet Users Increase by Leaps and Bounds. New report by Boston's IDC says the world generated 161 billion gigabytes of digital information in 2006. That's equivalent to twelve stacks of books that each reach from the Earth to the sun. By 2010, web users are expected to total more than 1.6 billion.
| | Soho Corner: Write This on a Rock: Leveraging Technology is One of the Best Ways to Stay Out of the Business Obituaries. Who said that? None other than Jim Blasingame, the Small Business Advocate. In his signature tongue-in-cheek manner, Jim says humans have used technology ever since the first cave man used a tree limb as a lever to move a rock. The successful businesses are those that get excited about new technological advances that can help them stay competitive. (Read the full article (and others) here.) Leveraging current technology, some companies install systems and software to more easily process orders, improve customer support by offering interactive telephone services for call-in clients, using all-in-one database programs for customer information input and job tracking records. What can your business do to make your business more efficient through the use of technology? California Gets a "D" - or is that an "A"?: The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council recently published the results of a survey of the Friendliest to the Least Friendly Policy Environments for Entrepreneurs. We're sorry to see that, in the list of 50 states with 1 being friendliest, California was ranked 49. Our take, because we live and operate a business in thriving California, is that the sheer volume of people and small businesses in this state feeds itself. The business climate is excellent in spite of less-than-friendly policies. (New Jersey took the position of 50; South Dakota was first and Nevada was second.) Has Suzanne Somers Heard About This? The recent trend of spammers to get you to open a spam email is to use a celebrity's name (or a major world event title) in the subject line. It's just one more trick by a highly organized spammers' network to work its way into your life and, eventually, your wallet. Here's the rule: Never open. Here's the second rule: Never click on a link or open an attachment. Stay safe. |
|  Calling All Los Angeles FLOWER MARKET Wordpix Solutions, publisher of this e-zine, has been hired to write and produce a hardbound pictorial history book about the L.A. Flower Market (American Florists Exchange). We are actively seeking first-person stories, experiences, anecdotes and photos and memorabilia of the Flower Market, local flower farmers who once trucked their flowers fresh from their farms to the downtown Flower Market and related stories. Visit the website for details: www.FlowerMarketHistory.com .Fans. |
| | Just for Fun: "Although desperate to find work, I passed on a job I found on an employment website. It was for a wastewater plant operator. Among the job requirements: 'Must be able to swim.'" Michael Leamons/Reader's Digest When your new software program has a "bug" in it, don't panic. Just chuckle when you think of the origin of that cliche: The bug was a moth trapped between the points of Relay #70, in Panel F, discovered by Grace Murray Hopper in 1945 while working on the Harvard University Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator (a primitive computer). Operators removed the moth and taped it next to the entry for the incident in the log they were keeping. The entry reads: "First actual case of bug being found." After that, bug sweeps and "debugging" were routinely conducted. In 1991, the Smithsonian Institution accepted the log, bug included, into its exhibit inventory. (P.S. The term "bug" was also used to describe problems in radio electronics during WWII.) By the way, this background comes compliments of James S. Huggins, whose "refrigerator door" website is a delight. Take a peek at www.jamesshuggins.com. |
| | Watch Out for Smishing: When bad guys send an SMS (short message service) message to your mobile phone, sometimes announcing you will be charged a fee unless you visit a specific URL, that's called SMiShing. (The term was coined by researchers at the McAfee security software firm.) Upon browsing to the URL via computer, you can quickly get hit with "drive-by" downloads that install hidden software on your computer to steal passwords and do other questionable acts on your system. Bottom line: Ignore and delete unwanted cell phone messages. Related: Reduce the number of telemarketing calls to your cell phone by visiting www.donotcall.gov or calling 888 382-1222. |
| | Something Easy for a Change: Want to edit and organize photos on your PC? PCWorld rated six no cost downloadable programs: Corel Snapfire, Google Picasa, HP Photosmart Essential, Kodak EasyShare Software, Shutterfly Studio and Snapfish Photoshow Express. Picasa earned top honors. All the programs upload your pix to a particular website for easy uploading; but Picasa uploads to the Picasa Web Album site and to Google's Blogger.com. It allows printing from many sites. None of the programs offered editing that allows you to work on specific areas of a picture (such as red eye removal), however. |
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