The Internet not only reinvented social attitudes and trends, it brought into existence a whole new way of commerce. Most notably known as eCommerce, online shopping is perhaps one of the most dynamic areas of the Internet. Remember when Amazon first advertised during the Superbowl? Nowadays, online merchants like Buy.com, Overstock.com, and eBay are big name merchants with mass popular appeal. About the only thing that has stopped ecommerce from growing has been the identity theft crisis. A problem which companies like Microsoft and Google are trying to resolve as quickly as possible. However it is still possible to shop online and find some interesting bargains in the process if you know where to look that is.

Shop Smarter

Before heading out on the Internet to do your bargain hunting, it is best to protect yourself and your money. You should setup a separate checking account for all your online purchasing. This way if the account is compromised, the damage will hopefully be minimized to that one account and not your main checking account. I recommend opening the checking account at a completely different bank or institution as well. Some banks even offer online purchasing protection for free, so read carefully and compare different institutions.

Next you can setup a PayPal account and associate it with your new checking account. Although not all online merchants accept PayPal, many merchants do and occasionally you will find some merchants even offer a slight discount to PayPal users. Plus if you want to buy anything on eBay, it is easier to just use PayPal, since PayPal offers buyer protection for inexpensive eBay purchases.

You should also think about applying for a new credit card that you will reserve only for online purchasing. As with the checking account, many institutions offer various buyer protection plans, so shop carefully and find a card that offers the best incentives for you.

Bargain Hunter Sites

Unlike the local mall, the Internet not only offers plenty of places to shop, it also offers plenty of help in finding good bargains. Bargain and deal sites are plentiful and they really do help you track down good deals. The important thing to keep in mind is that not all of these sites give you unbiased opinions, many times bargain sites only work with select merchants, so it is best to use a variety of bargain deal sites, and not rely on anyone exclusively.

(more…)

The best feature of WordPress 2.0 is definitely the addition of Akismet. This comment spam blocking plugin has single-handedly made blogging fun again. Not having to deal with hundreds or thousands of junk spam comments gives you more time to write and post worthwhile content. If you are upgrading, Akismet comes with WordPress 2.0, but you can also check out Worst Offenders, which makes it easier to identify your worse spammers, by giving you a list of the top offenders and their IP addresses.

I’ve been neglecting WebKeyDesign for a while this summer, as I got into doing some computer upgrades and taking sort of a break from all things web related. You can easily tire yourself out if all you do is one thing, and I needed a break badly this summer. Regardless I have decided to do some theme modifications for our site. The big major difference is that the site is a little wider and makes for better viewing on 1024 x 768 displays, instead of 800 x 640. I don’t know any people with 800 displays, so it does not make much sense to target that resolution. The new standard is definitely 1024. I’ve tried to cleanup the CSS code too, which has been added to over time and was building up. I’m not to sure about the graphic colors, I might still change those, but the idea is too keep the same resolution.

Everyone who knows me, knows I love everything Macintosh, and even in the dark days of Classic MacOS, I still did not give up and praise WindowsNT as the greatest of operating systems. The truth is that Apple makes great consumer products. The iMac was about packaging and catering to the consumer and since then Apple has excelled at giving consumers what they want in nice shiny products like the iPod and MacBook. However, after being in the business world for ten years, I have picked up a thing or two about the business world and just how this particular market segment works, and I must admit that Apple just does not get business users.

When I read statements about how Apple is poised to take over and reach critical market share growth, I cannot help but think these columnists are simply deluded. Apple will never reach a major market share without giving business users the solutions that they need. As much as I love the new Black MacBook, it is not a good business solution. In the world of business, you do not buy a laptop based on what color it is or how cool it looks, you buy it because it fulfills your needs and is cheap. Toshiba, Dell, HP, and Lenovo all have business class laptops that can be had for $699. Sure these laptops are not as nice as the MacBook, but in the business world, the boss does not care. In business, the boss gets a great MacBook Pro, and the rest of his staff will have to do with Dell Latitudes.

Being more expensive is just one of the problems Apple faces in penetrating the business world. The main issue boils down to complete solutions. Business needs reliable support, planning, and software.

With Windows, you can get support everywhere and anywhere. If you run Mac OS X, most support technicians will recoil in ignorance and question why you even have a Mac. This is a huge problem for businesses who take it for granite that they can hire or farm out support to almost anyone, since everyone knows Windows. What Apple needs to do is to really offer business users separate support and asure them that they can get on-site support if they need it. This is easier said than done.

The next step is better planning. There has to be better and more frequent documentation of Mac OS X and Apple hardware. While Mac OS X gives users plenty of powerful tools like PHP, Apache, MySQL, it has also given users, programmers, and companies plenty of problems. Like the way SMB Shares work differently on each version of OS X, or the way OS X has developed with some APIs changing throughout the process. Apple needs to be consistent and help their customers plan for these changes.

Last we have software itself. Even with the abundance of OS X apps, OS X still does not have adequate business software. What Apple needs is really iOffice, a suite of applications focused at helping business users. For example, maybe Apple could take a clue from Microsoft on this one. Why not make a professional version of OS X that includes Pro versions of applications needed only for business? The issue is that Apple really has not thought about what small business users really need? Office management, accounting, scheduling, are just some of the areas that come to mind. I would think that if there was such a thing as a $600 iOffice that would handle just scheduling and simple entry accounting, that the small business market would break down the doors to switch. My own personal experience with QuickBooks was trying and I know if Apple could come up with a simplified QuickBooks they would more than save me countless hours, they would get my praises as well.

But all of this would have to mean Apple would have to change, from being the cool consumer oriented Apple to a solutions oriented company. Most of all it would mean Jobs would have to devote some actual talented people and plenty of resources to a market that would not yield immediate profits and which could possibly damage the company’s consumer popularity. I still think Apple iOffice would be a great idea and maybe perhaps Apple could actually help all us QuickBook users who have no clue what double-entry accounting is.

This week, I planned on putting out another guide. Last time I tackled optimizing WindowsXP, this time around, I looked at how I configure my wireless router. Instead of focusing on speed, I thought it would be a good idea to cover security. This is a topic that most consumers don’t understand and while manufacturers have tried to make networking eaiser, the truth is that networking is quite complicated. While I’m sure my guide on Securing Wireless Networks is not at all definitive, it does cover the basic measures you need to implement to have a somewhat secure wireless network in your house.

If you do one thing, make sure you enable WPA and use a random generated password. This alone is absolutely essential.

Feel free to add any comments and let me know what you do to secure your wireless network.