The Blank Slate attack campaign is pushing out one of two ransomware to unsuspecting Windows users via Microsoft-themed malspam. An attack begins when a user receives a malicious spam (“malspam”) email message. As in previous instances of Blank Slate, the email’s subject line doesn’t give away the attack. It incorporates seemingly random numbers and letters, […]… Read More
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By Gregory Pings
His home is in a walkable, bikeable central neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. Chris Smith began telecommuting part time in 2000 in order to save the 20-minute drive (on a good day) to suburban Wilsonville. His telecommute grew to full time, and he finally gave up his cubicle in Wilsonville a few months ago.
“Everything gets done, but it takes focus on priorities and outcomes to make sure nothing critical gets dropped.” – Chris Smith, Xerox.com Site Architect
“Social events with colleagues are really the only reason to go the office,” Smith pointed out.
The site architect for Xerox.com, Smith manages a small team that runs the technology behind Xerox’ web marketing properties. The team sets standards for technology, and provides services for each of Xerox’s branded web sites in more than 160 countries around the world.
Most of Smith’s meetings are conference calls across multiple time zones. His team — employees, contractors, colleagues and stakeholders – are in Wilsonville, the U.S. east coast and the United Kingdom.
“At times I’ve contracted with agency teams in Eastern Europe or Latin America,” he noted. “It makes absolutely no difference where I’m sitting when I take those calls.”
On top of this, Smith serves as vice chair for Portland’s Planning and Sustainability Commission. He’s worked on “The Portland Plan,” an overall strategic plan for the City, as well as their Climate Action Plan, Comprehensive Plan, Transportation System Plan, and more specific issues that range from inclusionary housing to bicycle parking. This work frequently involves meeting with folks in the community outside of commission meetings.
“My idea of work-life balance has morphed into work-life ‘blend.’ My Xerox, Planning Commission and personal responsibilities are all in the mix, more or less all the time,” he said.
How do you set the page free?
Tweet us using #SetThePageFree, or share your thoughts in the comments below.
Discipline, priorities and flexibility
Smith’s blended approach provides a lot of flexibility, so prioritization and time management are critical. “It could all get overwhelming without good discipline,” he explained
Sometimes he can’t attend a community meeting that he’d like to, but he says Portland has more meetings than he could attend anyway. Formal meetings of the commissions and boards he serves on get priority, however.
Smith’s typical day looks like this:
But it’s not always that clean. For instance, his Xerox calendar is blocked out for the Streetcar Board that meets on Wednesday mornings. Smith avoids double-booked meetings with some cobbled-together tools that sync his Xerox calendar in Outlook with his personal Google Calendar.
His days are knit together with meetings, phone calls and coding sessions, but Smith says he needs only three things to do his job:
His home office maximizes productivity. A sit-stand desk holds three screens: One is logged in behind the Xerox firewall and has a webcam for conference calls. Another screen is connected to Xerox properties hosted in the cloud, and the third is for media.
“It’s very productive,” Smith explained. “I use the ‘outside the firewall’ screen for my planning commission work.”
Technology pulls everything together
“I live in a web browser,” Smith said. “My preference is Chrome, with a wide range of development tools, but I also use Microsoft Edge because our customers are generally split between Chrome and Microsoft browsers. I also rely on a variety of code development and collaboration tools.”
While on conference calls, he multi-tasks. A lot. His iPad Mini is essential when he’s on the move. It allows him to deal with the occasional Xerox issue while in a planning commission meeting – or while stopping for breakfast on his morning ride. Back at home, Microsoft Garage’s experimental Mouse Without Borders lets him share one keyboard and mouse between his two main computers.
For Smith, “setting the page free” begins with tools that allow him to meet with teammates and partners from around the globe, exchange information and ideas immediately, and execute complex code. None of this is tied to an office or even a particular machine. One result of Smith’s “page set free” is staring at you right now. This blog could not exist without his team’s attention to our widgets, updates, and patient answers to our questions about this and that.
If you think that’s impressive, go to Xerox.com and consider the tools, technology and people who make it possible to tell you what you need to know about our products and services or engage with our experts. And you’re able to interact with our site across the globe – in local languages.
“Everything gets done,” Smith observed, “but it takes focus on priorities and outcomes to make sure nothing critical gets dropped.”
(The Set the Page Free in the Modern Workplace summer series will be published each Friday on Xerox Connect. Subscribe to this blog so you won’t miss a thing.)
There are currently 50,416 plugins available in the WordPress repository. Out of these, roughly seven percent are security-based plugins. At the same time, when you search Google for “WordPress security plugin,” 14,600,000 results come up. How can you choose a plugin from all these options? To answer that question, it’s important to understand what a […]… Read More
The post How to Choose a WordPress Security Plugin that’s Right for You appeared first on The State of Security.
Today’s Stories Blue Apron IPO off to a rough start Microsoft confirms Cloudyn acquisition, sources say price is between $50M and $70M Instagram implements an AI system to fight mean and harassing comments Uber crosses the 5 billion trip milestone amid ongoing issues A brief history of the iPhone Credits Written and Hosted by: Anthony Ha Filmed by: Matthew Mauro Edited by: Joe… Read More
It’s still hard to say if the voice controlled aluminum can will be the next smartphone or the next Segway, but either way brands are preparing. This morning Adobe launched a new set of analytics tools, Adobe Sensei for Voice, to help brands take advantage of conversational data to improve targeting and ideally conversions. Adobe says it can consume data from Alexa, Siri, Google… Read More
The NEW Citrix Recertification Program offers you more flexibility than ever to maintain your certification and receive a skills refresher with our latest training. You can:
Together, the joint solution helps you adopt much richer and more centralized work environment improving the efficiency of …
Every week, new courses and workshops are published to the growing Treehouse Library! Here’s a short list of what we’ve added recently, upcoming course highlights, and our weekly video update of What’s New at Treehouse.
Start learning to code today with a free trial on Treehouse.
Go Language Overview– Jay McGavren (172 minutes)
This overview of the Go programming language is designed for developers who are already familiar with another language. It’s a quick tour of the language’s core features such as interfaces and goroutines.
Markdown Basics– Wade Christensen (59 minutes)
Learn the basics of Markdown—a simple, text-to-html tool used to format writing on the Web. It’s used to write blogs, forum posts, technical documentation, and more. Whether you’re having trouble formatting GitHub README files or want to learn about Markdown in general, this course is a great place to start.
AWS with S3– David Baumgold (52 minutes)
Whether you’re building a major web site, backing up vacation photos, or sharing large files with friends, Amazon’s Simple Storage Service, S3, will come in handy. In this course, you’ll learn the basics of setting up S3, creating buckets, and controlling file permissions.
HTML Basics– (July 2017)
Learn how to write the language common to every website: HTML (HyperText Markup Language). HTML describes the basic structure and content of a web page. If you want to build a website or web application, you’ll need to know HTML.
Introducing JavaScript– (July 2017)
Learn the fundamentals of programming by building a JavaScript video game. This fun, exploratory course teaches you basic concepts like variables, values, conditional statements and functions by interactively playing with code while creating a game.
Start learning to code today with your free trial on Treehouse.
The post New & Upcoming Course Highlights: Go Language Overview, Markdown Basics, AWS with S3 appeared first on Treehouse Blog.
Organizations that have fallen victim to a ransomware attack once are likely to suffer multiple attacks, revealed a new survey. The findings come from Druva’s Annual Ransomware Report, which polled over 830 IT professionals in various industries across the globe. The majority of respondents (80 percent) said they have seen a rise in ransomware incidents, […]… Read More
The post Survey: Half of Organizations Hit with Ransomware Experience Multiple Attacks appeared first on The State of Security.
When it comes to ransomware attacks, it’s sort of like that old joke that goes: “Doctor, it hurts when I do this” and the doctor responds “Well, don’t do that.” Clicking links embedded in email and …
We’ve recently teamed up with SDxCentral to help evangelize the value of orchestration in support of modern cloud and container-centric enterprise data centers. SDxCentral just launched their 2017 Container and Cloud Orchestration Report to take the pulse of the industry …
Many entrepreneurs have an adventurous spirit by nature. Not only do they put their livelihood on the line to pursue the dream of self-employment, but this same exuberance usually drives them to explore new cultures, ideas and experiences.
In the past, running your own business meant being tied down most of the year and buried in work. However, with today’s incredible array of online tools, the modern-day entrepreneur can work almost anywhere at any time they want, becoming a Digital Nomad or Expat Entrepreneur. You might still have the same workload, but at least you can chip away at that workload at home in the Caribbean or at a coffee shop in Bali.
But don’t pack your bags and buy your plane ticket just yet. A smart entrepreneur also knows there’s plenty of value in planning ahead before taking off on year or more of remote work. Here are 10 things to do before you start your journey as a nomadic entrepreneur:
1) Create Your Brand and Website
Since your laptop is your mobile office, your website is your mobile storefront. Your business name, logo, Pantone colors, slogan, voice/tone and font all flesh out online as your brand to potential customers. Your website is what ties all these elements together and brings your company to life. With a professional brand and website, you’re more likely to get clients that will help fuel your digital nomadic travels. So, spend some time creating (or paying someone to create) a great website for you. A popular option is SquareSpace since their tool has drag-and-drop widgets to easily build a website if you’re not a website designer. WordPress is also a universally great option for the back-end of your website.
2) Determine Your 30-second Elevator Pitch
It’s been said that first impressions are made within seven seconds. To create a positive, lasting impression on people who could become paying customers of refer your business in the future, you’ll need an excellent elevator pitch. This is your micro-commercial about who you are, what you do and why a customer needs your service or product. A strong pitch shows passion, organization and direction.
3) Create Business Cards
Do people still use business cards in this digital age? Yes! Hand one to the person who just heard your elevator pitch, so they’ll have a way to find you and your business afterward. People may forget your name, business name or website after a quick conversation, but giving them something tangible will jog their memory and provide a way to get in touch later. And, a small box of business cards is easy to add to the one suitcase or bag you’re bringing with you from the states. A popular option for high-quality business cards is Moo.com.
4) Choose a Business Structure
No matter where you live and work, there’s a government that wants your money and potential risk with doing business. Choosing the right entity type can protect your assets, give customers confidence that you’re a legitimate business and provide legal protection if you happen to have partners or investors. An LLC is a great choice for digital nomads.
5) Get Accounting and Business Expense Software
Dealing with the bookkeeping side of your business can feel like a full-time job on its own. Fortunately, you have a plethora of amazing accounting and business software options to choose from. PC Magazine has a great list of 2017’s best accounting software where you can find the one that best fits your needs. The right accounting software will set your business up for success, ensuring you get paid on time, track your business expenses and have time to explore the city you’re traveling.
6) Sign up for Remote Work Websites
You have the ability to work anywhere in the world, but you’ll also need a dependable workload to fund these adventures. The good news is now that working remotely is increasingly more popular and entrepreneurs are setting out for distances unknown, there are a ton of websites dedicated to remote job listings. While some websites focus on a specific industry, others have job boards for endless opportunities. You might want to check out FlexJobs, We Work Remotely, Working Nomads and CloudPeeps (to just name a few).
7) Determine a Communication Platform
Whether you’re keeping in touch with clients or calling your mom, you don’t want a sky-high phone bill. Skype is the old standby that works great and syncs with your mobile phone, but there are also great alternatives like Join.me. For a small fee, you can add members to conference calls, record the conversations and incorporate a variety of helpful tools.
8) Get a Bank Account That’ll Work Internationally
There’s a lot to consider when choosing the right bank for your business: you may have an ecommerce business with international customers, need to do all of your banking online or have a small business that requires a cost-effective solution with minimal fees. It’s also important to find a bank that’s going to allow you to relocate full-time outside the U.S. if this is your plan (for example, Simple does not). And, fees like Foreign Transaction Fee can add up, so check if you’re bank charges these types of international fees. Spend some time researching what bank will work best for you while traveling internationally. Discuss your needs with a representative before handing over the cash.
9) Buy Extra Electronics
You have a conference call in 10 minutes, but your computer is about to die; the power cord prong is bent and won’t work. How are you going to access that Google Doc to see your client’s proposal? Here’s the answer: you go back in time, think about what could go wrong and buy an extra power cord, battery, headset, phone charger and anything else you need to run your business consistently.
10) Join Online Networking Resources
Stepping into the unknown can be terrifying, but having support as you plan your journey can feel like the best kind of safety net. Check out these helpful resources: The Digital Nomad Empire is like the ultimate guidebook written by those in the know. Tons of digital nomad networks have been created such as NomadList, Nomad.Network and Web, Work, Travel.
Pursuing one dream doesn’t mean you have to give up on another. With planning and the right tools, you can live your dream of traveling the globe while building a business that you love. Who could ask for more?
The post 10 Things to Do Before Heading Off as Digital Nomad Entrepreneur appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.
