Happy New Year, SSL Certificate, Wallpaper, Zendesk Buddha Machine, Tweet In Review

Happy Lunar New Year

It will be Lunar New Year, sometimes called Chinese New Year, on Wednesday this week. There were several celebrations in Seattle on Saturday. Here's a photo of the Chinese Dragons, although, I think these were more like Vietnamese Dragons. My future brother-in-law was coordinating this group as they made their way around "Little Saigon" in Seattle.



Here's one of my brother-in-law cleaning up after the fireworks went off in front mother-in-law's shop.



It was a fun time to be in Seattle, although it was really loud when the firecrackers were going off!

New SSL Certificate

We've switched providers for our SSL security certificate. We're now using Network Solutions for the service. We're very pleased with Network Solutions other services, such as e-mail and web site hosting. We now have one provider for e-mail, DNS hosting, and our SSL certificate. This makes things simpler, easier, and more affordable.



February 2009 Wallpaper

Here are a couple of photos with a February 2009 calendar that make great wallpaper for your computer. Enjoy!



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Zendesk Buddha Machine

The kind folks over at Zendesk sent along a 2nd Buddha Machine for my continued support with tweets and blogging about their awesome help desk solution. Here's my son opening up the package that arrive this week from Hong Kong. The Buddha Machine plays relaxing ambient music. Check out the FM3 Buddha Machine Wall



Tweet In Review

"What you should know about writing job descriptions " http://tinyurl.com/akyteq 12:31 AM Jan 28th from TweetDeck

IOMA HR Compensation Survey online: http://tinyurl.com/au8y6d 8:54 AM Jan 29th from TweetDeck

How to communicate with tact and professionalism training course (PDF link): http://tinyurl.com/bflwmv 8:58 AM Jan 29th from TweetDeck

Kind of a cool looking car, but I doubt we'll see these driving around town anytime soon: http://tinyurl.com/bpnpmq 11:29 AM Jan 29th from TweetDeck

Interesting free form database for Mac OSX and an article describing it: http://tinyurl.com/ypnuw7 http://tinyurl.com/cvob7f 11:33 AM Jan 29th from TweetDeck

Do you have an iPhone and enjoy listening to NPR? Check out the NPR Mobile app on the App Store. Awesome! 12:17 PM Jan 29th from TweetDeck

ust got picked to be an Admin for the "Active Assignment Weekly" group on Flickr. It's a nice vote of confidence from the other Admins. 12:26 PM Jan 29th from TweetDeck

Fist Full Of Talent blog just posted 1st "TV Show". I liked it, it was well produced and informative. http://tinyurl.com/3ofsud 2:39 PM Jan 29th from TweetDeck

Sign up for the 2009 Western Management Group Consumer Products Sales Comp Survey just announced: http://tinyurl.com/al7uxw 1:04 PM Jan 30th from TweetDeck

We're exhibiting at the WorldatWork Total Rewards 2009 Conference & Exhibition, May 31-June 3, in Seattle, WA.: http://tinyurl.com/de8jwe
1:08 PM Jan 30th from TweetDeck


Well, that's it for now. I'll be back at the end of this week.

2 New Tips and Tricks in the Help Desk

I've been adding new items to the NextComp help desk as I get questions or comments from subscribers. There are two new items today, one based on a question from a subscriber and one as a result of the online training.

If you haven't signed into the help desk before, it's really easy.


Visit this website: http://nextcompnet.zendesk.com


On the right side of the page, click the Sign Up link.
Enter your name, email address and a password.


Then you'll be able to view the online knowledge base and submit and track help requests through the system.

Of course, contacting us through plain old e-mail works great too!

Clips To Relax To (Zendesk Buddha Machine)

Thank you to Michael at Zendesk for sending me a free FM3 Buddha Machine. It's a small self-contained music player with 9 different soothing songs. Well, not really songs, more like clips that range from 2 to 40 seconds. The clips repeat until you flip a switch to play a different clip.

My 7 year old daughter loves to listen to soothing music at bedtime, so as a surprise gift I gave it to her tonight. She loved it and said "thank you daddy!" and smiled.

Five essential tools for the Internet worker

Here are my top five favorite tools for working on the Internet. I define an Internet worker as anyone that can work anywhere anytime as long as they have a computer and an Internet connection. And coffee. Of course.

I just updated the template for the NextComp blog. Check out the Twitter update over there on the right --->

That got me thinking about all the great tools I use that are completely web-based. So here's my top four web -based tools.

• Blogging: for keeping track of what's going on. I use Blogger and Typepad to write blog entries and Bloglines to keep track of other blogs.
  
• Twitter: for quick "status" updates.
  
• Basecamp - for organizing my work life.
  
• Help desk - I use Zendesk for taking a load off my mind and building an online knowledge resource.

The last essential tools is Mac OS X. The Internet is so deeply ingrained in the OS that it makes working a breeze. Plus I can run Windows virtually for my development work.


What about Facebook and MySpace? I don't use them, although I know a lot of people that do. I just don't have a need at the moment. Maybe in the future.