My backup plan: Lex Friedman

Macworld cares about your data, and you should too. If you don’t backup, assume that you will someday lose data that is important to you. We’ve covered the basics of how to keep your Mac backed up, and Macworld editor Dan Frakes has already written about his own setup for backing up. Here’s mine.

I like to make backups of my files both on-site (in my home) and off-site. I’ll start with my approach to on-site backup. [read]

What Frugality REALLY Means: It’s Not About Being Cheap

Frugality. It’s not exactly an alluring word, is it? Most of us worry that being frugal means living a bleak, depressing life, missing out on “normal” society.

The truth is, frugality simply means applying a bit of thought to how you spend your money. It’s not about being cheap or miserly; it’s about taking control.

Why You Should Give Frugality a Second Chance
Don’t you just hate it when you end up wasting good money because of a dumb mistake? [read]

War looms as Sony hints that it will abandon iTunes

SONY has signalled it may withdraw its artists from Apple’s iTunes store and withhold its games from the iPhone in a sign the two companies are on the brink of all-out war.

Sony plans to open a competitor to iTunes, a music streaming service called Music Unlimited, in Australia soon.

Another service launching later this year will enable mobile phone users to pay and play first generation PlayStation games on their handsets. The head of Sony’s games unit in Australia said it was unlikely to be available on the iPhone or through iTunes. [read]

Finding Happiness at Work

At first glance this might seem a bit irrelevant to being a business owner. Finding satisfaction, even gratification, might be a reasonable goal. Certainly generating a profit can be seen as a reasonable objective. But finding happiness? This tends to bring to mind visions of a somewhat cantankerous grandfather making a statement like, “Work isn’t meant to be fun – that’s why they call it ‘work’!”

While we recognize that running and building a business isn’t all fun and games—and many aspects of it are certainly not “fun”—could it be that an essential element is missing in our work? Whatever happened to being happy? And not in the fleeting and superficial sense of the word that is often used today. But happiness as it was intended by the Founding Fathers when they spoke of its pursuit in the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. Happiness as it was thought of by the classic thinkers and philosophers who saw it is an essential pursuit, men such as John Locke, Epicurus, and Aristotle. [read]

What’s Your Back-Up Plan?

If you haven’t already experienced it first-hand, you’ve certainly witnessed a friend going through it: That particular 21st century pain of total, irreparable data loss. It begins with a horrible sinking feeling in your stomach as you realize a huge portion of your creative work has been vaporized – and, “Oh God!”, you failed to back it up. [read]

Mastering Photoshop: Noise, Textures, Gradients and Rounded Rectangles

Often, it’s the little details that turn a good layout into a great design; details such as subtle textures, shading and smooth shapes. Photoshop contains a vast array of tools for embellishing a design, but choosing the right one isn’t always easy. Being the obsessive-compulsives that we are, we’ve conducted a huge range of experiments to determine the benefits and disadvantages of each technique. Here, then, is an obsessive-compulsive’s guide to some frequently used tools and techniques for Web and UI design in Photoshop. [read]

It’s Time To Kill Multi-Tasking

What’s the outlook for productive creativity in the coming year? In two phrases: Multi-tasking is dead! Long live single-minded focus!

We recently pinged the 99% twitter audience for feedback on how they’re adapting their productivity regimes to be better, faster, smarter, and just generally more awesome in 2011. When the results came in, every single productivity resolution voiced seemed to relate to the rejection of multi-tasking. [read]

How QR Codes Can Grow Your Business

What are QR codes and how can they help your business? Keep reading to find out.

Quick Response codes (QR codes) and other two-dimensional codes are expected to achieve widespread use this year – and for good reason. Consumers want immediate access to what’s relevant and QR codes are being used to make that possible. [read]

Little Words with Absolutely Huge Meaning – Use Them

As children many of us hyped the statement, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Clearly, it doesn’t take long to realize that words have far more weight than we want to realize. They influence thoughts, feelings, actions and states of mind. Even little words often have big meaning.

I was wrong

Think about it. Whether you want to land your dream job, improve your friendships, save your marriage or retain your employees; the words you choose can make all the difference. The simplest little words, which we take for granted, have the power to hurt or heal, to inspire or discourage, to help or to hinder. [read]

12 Things I Know About Business at 55 That I Wish I’d Known at 25

Thirty years ago I accidentally started a business. As a 25 year old disc jockey turned radio spot salesman, I was ready for adventure when one of my clients suggested that he set me up in my own ad agency / production business. I’ve spent the last thirty years learning why this may not have been the best idea nor the shortest path to success. But since I’m unable to go back and tell my 25 year old self what I’ve learned, maybe some of it will help you, whether you’re 25, 35, 45, or – God forbid! – 55, like me.  [read]