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Are you a shy entrepreneur? Often times great business ability and the ability to network don’t go hand-in-hand.  The New York Times has an article that provides tips to overcome your introverted tendencies and start networking effectively. 

While most people instantly think about approaching strangers whenever the term “networking” surfaces, that doesn’t have to be the case. You can begin by “seeking out familiar faces, such as relatives and friends,” she says. “Starting with someone you know makes it easier to get your networking career under way.”

Click here for the full article.

Another great article on the subject comes from Ivan Misner, PhD., the founder of BNI (Business Networking International). After years of developing networking business and giving speeches in front of large audiences, Ivan discovered that he was an introvert.

Now more than ever, I truly believe that whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, you can be good at networking.  Both have strengths and weaknesses.  If you can find ways to enhance your strengths and minimize your weaknesses, anyone can be a great networker.

Click here to read the full article from Entrepreneur.com.

The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal that would have blocked the use of a new digital video recorder system.  The new system resides of the servers of cable providers and allows the user to record and playback shows without the need for a cable box.  The new system also allows viewers to skip commercials.  Because of the ability to skip ads, the new system was opposed by televisions networks, movie studios, The Screen Actors Guild, songwriters, music companies, Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the NCAA.

Can anyone say videotape?

Click here to read the full article.  Click here to read the full case.

The people over at ThinkGeek.com have some terrific products for the techie in your life that already has everything.  Check out this USB powered mini monitor.  This is the perfect second display four your IM client, Skype, PC Gaming tools, PhotoShop tools, music player or video.  It is USB powered so no external power source necessary.  I want two!

A New York Supreme Court judge has ruled that a wife’s surreptitious downloading of her estranged husband’s emails does not meet the definition of eavesdropping under New York law. The court ruled that downloading is not an interception of a communication between people.

“It is this court’s understanding from the reading of the statute, legislative history and case law that the purpose of Penal Law § 250.00 is to prohibit individuals from intercepting communication going from one person to another, and in this case an email from one person to another,” Justice Sunshine wrote in Gurevich v. Gurevich, 42358/07. “In the case at bar the email was not ‘in transit,’ but stored in the email account.” Read the full article.

The moral of the story; keep your usernames and passwords secret, or at least change them when you are going through a divorce.

Have you reviewed your life insurance portfolio lately?  Do you know the benefits of using permanent life insurance as part of your retirement planning? Permanent life insurance offers benefits for income planning purposes: The vehicle serves as a “hedge” against the prospect that income tax rates will rise in the future.

Click here for an article from National Underwriter that talks about making cash value life insurance part of your income plan.

Alan M. Ralsky, 64, known as the “Spam King,” plead guilty to fraud and money laundering in Federal Court.  The guilty plea was entered on behalf of Ralsky and three other co-defendants.  According to Spamhaus an Internet Spam tracking group, Ralsky and his associates sent out millions of junk e-mails using botnets to relay the messages. Ralsky admitted to sending tens of millions of e-mails in an attempt to manipulate the prices of Chinese penny stocks, and then selling the stocks at inflated prices.
Read article from Washingtom Post

I can’t believe this!  If you want a job with the city of Bozeman, Montana, they expect you to divulge the user name and password to “any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.”

Are they serious?  I understand that they want ot make sure that a prospective employment candidate is not hiding anything offensive or even illegal online, but to give unfettered access to a government employee is outrageous.  Do your background checks and do all that you can to insure you have the right candidate, but don’t ask for Internet username and passwords to do it. Why should an a potential employee trust the safety and integrity of their good name to a government employee.

The city says it is only looking for evidence of illegal activity. For the same reason it  might as well ask for open access to a candidate’s financial accounts for the same reason.  Would you give them access to those accounts? Not me.  Read the whole article.

If you think iTunes is expensive, try paying $80,000/song!  That is what a jury in Minnesota said Jammie Thomas-Rasset owed after she willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs.  This is the first case of more than 30,000 similar lawsuits to make it all the way to trial.  I guess RIAA is serious.  Click here for the full article.

Well now you can have Homer Simpson tell you where to go.  Homer’s voice can now be downloaded onto TomTom’s navigation devices, complete with goofy laughs and exclamations. Other voices available for the TomTom device include John Cleese, Mr.T and Kim Cattrall of ‘Sex and the City’.  Click here for the full article.

The days of the paper resume are gone.  In fact, sending a paper resume may get you disqualified even before it is opened.  NPR did an interesting story about the job market has changed.  Below are the common mistakes made analog job seekers in the digital marketplace.  Click here for the full article.

Job Seeker Faux Pas
Hiring managers say they stay clear of candidates who make these digital job-seeking mistakes:

• Not having an updated profile, with recommendations, on sites like LinkedIn or similar sites relating to your line of work.
• Having a husband-and-wife e-mail address.
• Having an AOL address. Some executives say those are very outdated.
• Not doing extensive research about the company, its culture and the position you’re applying for.
• Not filing your resume digitally, even if you bring paper backups.
• “Cold” e-mailing executives with whom you’ve never made a prior connection, either online or in person.
• Asking an executive you’re hoping will hire you to be your “friend” on Facebook.