How do they know I want to work from my new home on a skin care business?

You know the Internet is a scary page (not really). There are always a lot of people ‘hacking’ at servers and sites on the Internet. Even more scary, the people/companies who are storing your personal information (Sony, WordPress, Citi, others) are saving information in insecure formats.

To say the least, this is annoying. So how can you protect yourself? First thing you should do is check if your email address has been or is being distributed via these hacked databases. The best place to check this is ‘Should I Change my Password?‘ If your address has been compromised, this site will tell you.

You should also update your password regardless. One of the best ways to create a password that is long and “random” is to use a Password Haystack. Using a haystack allows you create a long, easy to remember, and secure password.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2079423,00.html

https://shouldichangemypassword.com/

https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm

1. Convert restaurant websites from FLASH to ANYTHING else
2. Edit website marketing copy (text) from 15 word sentences to the appropriate five word versions
3. Learn how to use Adobe Dreamweaver (but not HTML) and build email templates using only tables
4. Become a ‘Social Media Expert’ – no special skills required

What am I missing?

On the streetcar this morning there was a copy of the Willamette Week complete with an article on ‘The Selling of Stumptown [Coffee Roasters]‘. After reading the article, I was bummed. I like Stumptown coffee. I like other coffee. I go to Starbucks from time to time because they are everywhere but I don’t pretend the product is something amazing. Starbucks is just coffee, and soon, so to will be Stumptown. It will go from something built with passion and love to something built to satisfy a group of investors and board members. Of course there is nothing wrong with that. I am not going to argue that Starbucks is a corporate monster and is only interested in making money…they are, and that’s OK. They sell coffee very well.

As a consumer, I know that my small coffee roaster or beer brewer is interested in making money, we all are. I just like saying, “You’ve got to try Stumptown coffee, it’s some great coffee and you can only get it in a few places.” It’s not rational to dislike something because it became popular. It’s my desire to be different that has allowed me to like all the same things as everybody else.

Business is business. Passion is not a business, it’s how you start a business. You start roasting coffee or home brewing beer or making music because you have a passion for it. You do it well and other people will want to buy it. Then you have to make a decision, do I grow and try to make a lot of money or do I stay small and satisfy my customers as is? It seams that a lot of places in Portland choose the stay small route.

Will I be buying coffee from Stumptown? The short answer is ‘no’. The long answer is ‘no – because they moved the HQ to Delaware and now there are fewer dollars going back to Portland and Oregon.’ I like the buy local thing. What I really like about buy local is that the money stays in the community. It does not get shipped to another state because of tax breaks or other perks. There are too many local roasters paying taxes to Oregon and Portland. I will be going there instead.

http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-17590-the_selling_of_stumptown.html

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/stumptowns-investment-partner-shows-an-interest-in-other-top-coffee-companies/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/dining/for-stumptown-espresso-might-be-big-business.html