So you've crafted a new article, carefully copied it into your blog, pressed the Publish button, and then visited the home page to check your work — only to find weird characters strewn throughout your blog article.

You may find characters such as those in the image to the left, or question marks or other gibberish characters such as strange accented A's strewn about your article, but whatever they are, theyÁ areÁ notÁ welcomeÁ. more »

Marketing Vox published an article entitled Boomers Don't Retire; They Become their Own Bosses. Based on an analysis of a study conducted by Ipsos Canada, it indicates that:

For many Boomers, retirement is an opportunity to start a business and become their own boss.
15 percent intend to work for themselves until they die, according to a new Ipsos Reid (Canada) study of Boomers who have either retired early to start their own business, or intend to do so, reports MarketingCharts. more »

Some real questions arise when discussion turns to marketing and ethics.

One hears the phrase "survival of the fittest" in marketing and advertising, and has to ponder what is meant by it.

The phrase conjures up the concept of walking through the marketing jungle with product or service in hand — and being leapt upon and eaten by a tiger or a more "fit" person. In other words, appended to the idea of "survival of the fittest" is the notion that there is a dangerous environment out there such that one might think that everything and everyone is out there ready to swallow one whole. And since things are so "dire" or "dangerous," one might need to resort to activities calculated to be dire or dangerous enough in order to "fight back" and survive — not, of course, having differentiated between a real attack and the general notion that everything and everyone is out to get you. more »

This is a quick tip about how to get around the Internet — something that is not taught when you get an Internet connection.

What is a browser? "Browser" is the generic term for the program that you use to surf the Internet. If you can visit websites with it, it's a browser.

Your browser has what is called an "address bar" — the elongated box that displays the web address of the page you're visiting. If you already know the web address of the page you want to visit, the quickest way to get there is to type it into the address bar, then click Go or hit your {Enter} key.

That's it. You don't have to find a link to click on to visit that website. And no having to go to a "start page" or visit a search engine to search for a link.

On off days, I sometimes suspect that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) don't explain this stuff because they want you to use their start page or their search engine. But there you have it — a little bit of knowlege and a little bit more freedom.

Or, how to waste money for little return

So, your website is finished and is now open to the public on the Internet.

Next, you need to get it into the search engines — Google, Yahoo, MSN and the like. Well, that's mostly true. Sort of. What needs to happen is that search engines need to find out about your website, and the best way for this to happen is for someone else to place a link on his/her website to your website … and search engines will follow those links and discover yours. more »

Every once in a while, people tell me that they're suffering from a slow computer problem. Mind you, they're not saying that the computer was slow when they bought it, but that it's slow now. And Dan, the fellow who maintains our computer network, says that people often just solve the problem by getting a new computer when they don't need to. more »