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Your Online Footprint

November 29, 2010 by 1 Comment
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The CEO of Google has suggested that once you leave college, you may want to change your name to distance yourself from all the dumb things you did as a younger person and can't erase from the Internet. Of course if you change your name, you won't be associated with any of the positive things you did either. I'm not sure we are going to see a bunch of people changing their names, but I do know that a lot of people are dealing with an online PR problem.  If you haven't searched Google for your own name, you really should.  Ask yourself, "if a prospective employer, date, graduate school, business partner or life insurance underwriter saw these results would it help or hurt my … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Technology

SpiderOak Storage and Backup Review

November 15, 2010 by 16 Comments
Screen shot 2010-11-15 at 1.44.54 PM

SpiderOak offers a service similar to Dropbox.  However, where Dropbox seems to be concentrating on ease of use and simplicity, SpiderOak seems focused on creating powerful software with many different options. The downside is that SpiderOak isn't something you are probably going to have your grandma setup for herself.  The upside is that it lets you do all kinds of things that aren't possible with DropBox. DropBox gives you a folder that you can sync across computers.  This works well and provides a very simple mental paradigm.  "I put something in the folder on Computer A and it shows up on that folder on Computer B. Spider Oak lets you backup arbitrary folders and lets you … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With:

Executive MBA Programs

November 8, 2010 by 2 Comments
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When I wrote Never Hire an MBA, I think some people thought I was recommending against any type of MBA degree. This isn't the case.  If anything the arguments in that post would support the idea that an MBA is valuable. My main point was that employers need to make sure they don't get blinded by the MBA credentials and make sure they are hiring people with more than just a diploma. If you are an employee looking at an MBA, you have quite a few options. In this post I want to discuss executive MBA programs and how one of these programs might support your career goals. Executive MBA programs are designed for people with experience who are in the middle of successful careers and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Development

Self Directed IRAs

November 2, 2010 by 5 Comments
Money Myths

I've been learning a bit more about Individual Retirement Accounts and wanted to share a few things I've learned about how flexible IRAs actually are. Obviously talk to a qualified financial advisor before acting on anything you see here. If I got anything wrong, please let me know in the comments where everyone can read it. Most people think of IRAs as being something you can invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and that is about it.  If you really look at the law, it is much more generic than that.  In fact the actual tax law only lists a handful of things that IRA can not be invested in.  Here is the list: Artwork Gems Antiques Coins Life Insurance … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Money