Justin Germino Ramblings

It must be fairly common to be plagued by battery issues no matter what device uses a battery it would seem.  I seem to have issues with several devices from my Shark Cordless Handheld, JVC Everio camcorder as well as other gadgets that simply don’t hold a charge more than a minute or two any longer no matter how long I let them charge for.

It was only a few years ago that I scoured the web looking for Dell Laptop Batteries because my Dell D800 wouldn’t hold a charge and kept dying the moment it was unplugged from an A/C power source.

My son had a minor battery issue with the Kindle Fire where it wouldn’t hold a charge and showed a ? instead of a battery symbol but smacking the back of the Kindle Fire seem to get it recognize the battery again, none of my other items were so fortunate to get such a quick fix.

As more and more devices depend on batteries, I would think it becomes increasingly more essential to not only improve the power of batteries so that they last longer, but are able to charge faster and don’t suffer from the drain which causes them to be unable to charge even though they were rated for thousands of charges.

I like devices that simply power off before the battery has a chance to completely drain and weaken it’s ability to hold a charge in the future.  Either way chances are if you own a gadget or laptop and you plan on using more than a few years you will likely have to replace the battery before you refresh the device to a newer/better one and replacing a battery can cost a pretty penny for things like laptops.

How often do you have to buy a replacement battery for a gadget?

-Justin Germino

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Fellowes for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

By now you should know that if you have any documents, discs or cards that have sensitive information that must be discarded you should be shredding it to prevent any unauthorized access to the information. This is where you need a shredder that is capable of tackling all jobs from simple papers to media discs.

The Fellowes 79Ci is such a shredder available from Staples for $239.99 and is capable of meeting all of your document and data disposal needs. This shredder features 100% Jam Proof technology that is also the safest in the industry because it detects the presence of fingers and hands with it’s SafeSense technology.

The number one complaint about most shredders is paper jamming, trying to stuff too many sheets of paper to where the shredder begins the shredding and becomes jammed unable to reverse or continue. The 79Ci has a sophisticated sensor that stops jams before they happen, it measures the thickness of the stack as it enters and stops before the shredder could jam if the thickness is determined to be too much for it to handle.

Even if you have papers at a slightly wrong angle, the 79Ci can power through without issue and has a fast reversal so you can pull back and re-align to shred again. An indicator light lets you know how close you are to reaching sheet capacity so you can improve efficiency and productivity by shredding as much as you can in one pass without doing repeated smaller shredding jobs.

The 79Ci is also whisper quiet and able to shred day or night without waking or causing disruption to sleeping family members in the other room or if you shred in shared workspaces.

Did you know that Fellows, Inc. manufactured the first personal shredder back in 1990? Today Fellowes is the leader in producing innovative shredding technologies to make their shredders fast, safe and as efficient as possible.

If you need a shredder, consider the Fellowes 79Ci and you won’t be disappointed.

Let us know what features you want most in a shredder and how often you shred your old bills, documents or data.

-Justin Germino

Picked up some new headgear in [easyazon-link asin=”B001CWXAP2″]Star Wars: The Old Republic[/easyazon-link] for my Vanguard republic trooper Raco Hardeen.

This was actually my first helmet armor piece and picked it up as a green item drop from a boss.  My character is level 17 and I find that it is hard to accumulate funds as most of the skills you send companions to do end up costing more to send them on the mission than you get from salvaging or selling the items in return.

I can’t figure out how anybody can use skills to make more money than they put into them, unless perhaps you can build weapons/armors that sell more than the material costs you put in.  At Armstech 1 though it costs a ton to break down materials into desh or silica and then craft low level weapons to sell for only 97 credits or break back down for more components but only 1/6th as many as it took to create the item in the first place.

Anybody have some favorite skill crew combinations or tactics for earning good credits from their crew skills?

-Justin Germino

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Imagine my surprise when I went to check my Rafflecopter giveaways on DragonBlogger.com and saw this as my contest widget:

I immediately thought there was a problem with Rafflecopter but after doing some digging I realized the language used by Rafflecopter is set in Facebook since Rafflecopter ties to your Facebook account.  My Facebook account undergoes about 2-3 hack attempts per week and with the added security my Facebook is setup to send a page and a code to my phone if somebody tries to login from an unauthorized system.

Well, Facebook by default seems to set the language based on the location of where it is sending the security text, so I have seen my Facebook language change to Mandarin, Russian and Arabic over the last few months due to various attempts to access my account.

The solution is to sign into Facebook, then click on your account settings:

Change your primary Language to something else, click save then refresh the page and set it back to English.

Close browser, open and clear cookies, then sign back into Facebook

Your Rafflecopter language will be restored back to your default Facebook language again.

Facebook account hacks are very common, I encourage all users of Facebook to increase security by setting up notifications if somebody access your account and 2 factor authentication to where you get a page for each system that isn’t registered that tries to access your account.

-Justin Germino

Google apparently got rid of the Feedburner Socialize tab which allowed you to automatically publish your blog feed to Twitter, but there is still an easy way to access it.

Here is a video on how to still access Feedburner Socialize and some alternatives:

For those who want to read a solution, here is the summarized information.

All you have to do is click on the Publicize tab

http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/publicize?id=smtdov849meaqtrplpocq47pcc

Then replace the word publicize in the URL with socialize

http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/socialize?id=smtdov849meaqtrplpocq47pcc

And you will still have access to the Socialize screen in Feedburner

I don’t’ know if Google plans to remove Socialize forever, but there are better tools to promote your feed on Twitter than Google Feedburner.

Alternatives to Google Feedburner

My personal preference is Dlvr.it which allows you to publish your blog feed across Twitter, Facebook (profile or fanpages), LinkedIn, Tumblr and more.

Another option is Twitterfeed but this specifically only publishes to Twitter like the Feedburner socialize.

Hootsuite allows you to read in a blog feed and publish to any social media network including Facebook pages and groups!  Hootsuite is by far the most advanced and full featured tool of them all, but not all services are free like Dlvr.it and Twitterfeed for the RSS feed and publish services.

For an article on how to configure Dlvr.it for your blog feed, I suggest you read this one: http://www.dragonblogger.com/post-rss-feeds-social-media-dlvrit/

-Justin Germino

The rate at which technology has advanced in the last few decades or so is quite astonishing and is something that has helped to shape our lives into something really quite different from how they used to be. It wasn’t so long ago that to speak to another person that is far away, we would need direct physical access to a telephone line but nowadays we don’t even need cables to send files and data to each other.

iEverything

The current trend is in smartphones (iPhones) and tablet computers (iPads) that give us greater accessibility to the net than ever before. Touchscreen technology and tilt screen controls mean that we don’t even need controllers or keyboards to use the latest gadgets. (Remember the iPod?) Having technology products that are so easy to use means that we can work and play from just about any place, at any time. Being able to share information remotely and at great distances has changed the way that we work and play, but advances in technology are by no means over.

Mind Control

Technology already exists that allows us to control what is happening on the screen using nothing but the thought patterns in our mind. Although still very rudimentary, it is a technology that will undoubtedly develop into something that will be used in every household and have many more functions than it does now. Should you need to create a new report for the office, for example, you will no longer need to type into the keyboard because instead you could just think of what needs to be done and it will appear on the screen in front of you. Such technology will also have applications in games with competitors quite literally having to out-think each other to win.

Is VR Finally Very Good?

Virtual reality is another technology that is still in its infancy and is not too far away from becoming commercially viable. It won’t be too long before from a room at home we can immerse ourselves in a virtual world, and the possible applications are endless. Again, the gaming sector will benefit hugely from such technology as the notion of 3D gaming takes on a new meaning. We could even find ourselves in virtual meetings in virtual board rooms, with colleagues that can be located anywhere else on the planet.

Carbon With a Twist

New materials are also going to change things dramatically and the latest new high-tech material, graphene, looks set to make things very different indeed. Very strong and flexible, yet only wafer thin, graphene can be used in electronic products meaning we could soon have telephones and computers that simply roll up into a small tube or even as a band to be worn on the wrist. Once graphene becomes a commercially viable product the electronics that we use will take on an entirely different shape and form that they have now.

Exciting Innovations

One thing for sure is that fans of technological products have a lot to look forward to as we are set to see some very exciting innovations on the market in the coming years. In addition to the better known products, some of which have been outlined in this article, are other lesser known developments and innovations that haven’t even been conceived of yet. The games that we play and the way in which we work is likely to change considerably and whole new job categories will be created as the way in which we go about our daily lives changes. The technology that we have now is finding itself an increasingly important part of our everyday lives and even people that would otherwise shun new developments for the old ways are beginning to make the most of what can now be achieved

With so many new developments in the pipeline, the way you play poker at Poker Stars.co.uk could one day be very different from the way you play now I would imagine.

I realized that I had never shared our tour of the Vatican Museum from last year on my blog yet, so to capture what was one of the best vacations of my life I decided to recap a little.  Our first day arriving in Rome, Italy was exhausting. There is a 9 hour time difference on top of 12 hours of being on a plane to arrive in Rome from Arizona. Virtually no sleep on a plane I wound up watching 2 movies and read some of Dune: House Corrino novel on the plane instead.

When we arrived in Rome we took a taxi to our Cicerone hotel which was just a few mere blocks from Vatican city. We arrived at around 10am and my wife and I knew we had to get on a tour of the vatican museum that same day or else we may not get to see it. The following day was our cruise and we wouldn’t be in Rome until the last day of our journey where we only had enough time to see the Coloseum.

While in Rome we had lunch at Portofino Cafe which was amazing, my wife couldn’t stop praising the Latte which always came out at the perfect temperature and flavor while chiding Starbucks for making their latte too hot when first served.

The people were mostly a mix of tourists with some local Romans, nearly one in 10 people had a small to mid sized dog on a leash that sound down beside them and the fresh produce stands filled the air with fragrant scents of basil and canteloupe.

Our tour of the Vatican Museum commenced at around 2:00pm where we couldn’t believe just how massive the art collection was. At over 70,000 pieces you felt so rushed in a 3.5 hour tour and just couldn’t spend enough time looking at all the artwork. I had almost used up 1/2 of all the pictures available in my camera just trying to capture as many pieces at the museum as possible.

This is partly why I decided to make a video recording and do a little narration to convey just how incredible seeing the Vatican museum is in person:

The ceilings draw your eye and you just can’t imagine how artists such as Rafael worked for years bent over on ladders painting such magnificent works. The size and scope of the long painted ceiling is almost impossible to believe and gain a sense for without seeing it in person. The Sistene Chapel itself prohibited all picture and video of any kind so I was unable to get images of the artwork from within.

The walls of tapestries also are so old that they prohibit photo’s as the light could damage the inks and tapestries themselves from the flash. I tried taking some photo’s without flash but the images didn’t come out but it is simply amazing seeing 10′ high woven tapestries of such ancient art.

Here is the gallery of the Vatican museum artwork and tour I put together:

More sculptures, jewelry, paintings than you can absorb in a single day I was convinced that to truly enjoy seeing everything at the Vatican museum you would need at least 2-3 days and spend a good 6 hours each day just looking at the incredible artwork all around you.

You literally are seeing history in art and feel closer to something grander and greater than us all here.

-Justin Germino

I read an article in the paper the other day how on average citizens in various Europe countries save about 3x as much income as Americans. This of course isn’t true for everyone but was taken based on polling and averages. With economic times as tough as they are and the housing crisis which has affected everyone people cannot afford to live in the dark anymore and live barely making ends meet.

Human lifespans are longer than ever, Social Security and other pension programs will not be around 30 – 40 years from now in nearly the same capacity if at all that they exist currently. There is nobody to ensure that you will have enough money to retire unless we invest in our own future. The old adage of saving 10% of your income is no longer enough to take into account the inconsistencies of the future, the new recommendation I read on a CNN Financial site was that a minimum of 15% of your salary should be put away into diversified investments if you want to maintain the same style of life when you retire at 70 years old.

Note: This was based on 40 years of saving 15% of your annual salary to maintain the same standard of living.

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Also 70 is the new retirement age, no longer is 55, or even 65 considered the forecasted retirement age anymore. I don’t know about my readers but I want to retire long before 70 because I just think your quality of life at 70 generally is much less and you can’t anticipate how many years you will have left. I have to consider the average lifespan of 78 years means that if I retire at 70, then I will have average of 8 years to enjoy my retirement life. If I retire at 65, then at least I would have 13 years on average before hitting the average age.

Likely, lifespan will increase even further with the upper middle class and wealthy having average life spans into the 90’s within 30 years from now, I still see the affluent, educated, wealthy having higher lifespans due to generally affording better medical care and paying more attention to medical health and issues. The other side of the coin is that let’s say you were to retire at 70 years of age but you would live until you were 105 years of age, can you build enough savings and retirement to live 35 years without depleting your retirement fund? Considering that CNN Financial article once again said the average person will need $220,000 in finances just to cover their medical costs in retirement, and this doesn’t include that Medicare and other programs provide benefit.

Like it or not, unless you make a humongous salary or are blessed with family wealth or inheriting large sums of money it will be up to you to carve out enough income to support yourself and possibly your spouse through retirement. Almost gone are the days where one person can stay in one job for decades or work one job and still put away enough to retire, most have to afford a 2nd part time job and this is where some sort of entrepreneurialism can help and one of the reasons why I have taken up blogging over the past few years.

Another way is simply scaling back your lifestyle and living within 50% of your salary and income means. Just because you can afford brand new high end car leases/purchases or houses just under qualifying as mansions doesn’t mean you should. Live only with what you must to enjoy your current situation and think minimal, put as much away as possible and always make sure you build a nest egg to absorb at least 1 year of unemployment if you can just in case.

This doesn’t mean one has to be frugal to the point of being unwilling to spend any money at all, but one must overcome the “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality that has become rampant in society and this mentality and way to save and be financially responsible is hopefully something I can instill in my children. Unfortunately in this life money equals security and you need to make sure that you and your family are secure.

-Justin Germino

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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Spartan Race for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have always had a casual interest in joining a walkathon or a race in the future, but when I saw some information and read about a Spartan Race I became interested to learn more.

The Spartan Race is of course the American Gladiator of races in my opinion, this is a series of International Obstacle Races that are not for the lazy but are meant to challenge those who want to push themselves to limits they didn’t think were possible. I searched and found there are 2 Spartan Race events in Arizona both of them being Spartan Sprint events.

The Spartan Sprint which is the lowest rung of the pyramid consists of over 3 miles of muddy running with over 15 obstacles worth of challenges. Spartan Races are not just designed to be physically challenge but are designed to bring maximum fun and memories which is especially true if you sign up with friends and groups and participate in the events together.

All participants in a Spartan Event get a daily workout routine, newsletter, and inspiring messages to help get off the couch and reach the finish line.  You just sign up, show up and never give up which is a great quote. Nothing breeds motivation like having a deadline and a goal, if you have something already set and signed up for you are more likely to be motivated to get to work and start preparing for the event.  Spartan Race even offers Kids races and a women’s network.

Be a modern day Spartan and sign up for an event that will challenge you mentally, physically and build your confidence and energy.  I encourage you to learn more about the Spartan Race and see why it is so much more than simply a run or walkathon by visiting their faq: http://www.spartanrace.com//spartan-race-obstacle-course-faq.html

-Justin Germino

When approaching any online entrepreneurship you must consider your online influence, influence is your ability to reach an audience as well as your ability to convert your message into profitable actions. There are many ways and things that measure influence, Klout for example claims to analyze your social media accounts and measure your influence on those social networks as compared to peers. This tool does provide great analytics and is a tool everyone involved in social media should use, but not completely rely on. After all the tool is flawed and can be inaccurate whereas some people only need a few people to retweet, share a message or call a few actions to be considered influential if their target is a smaller niche or a more direct subset of the online population.

Website tools like Alexa, Compete, Google Analytics…etc all provide a good framework for tracking how your site is doing but remember that you don’t technically need a ton of traffic if you have the right approach to make a decent living, you certainly don’t need to have 2 million visits per month to your website or blog to make a decent living from it. I have seen this with bloggers getting 1/3 the amount of traffic on DragonBlogger.com yet still able to clear 3x my site income in a single month by being more tightly focused on specific products and affiliate sales.

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One thing about influence is you have to protect it once you establish it, it has become easier than ever to have reputations destroyed online which can cost you and your business a lot of money and take a long time to recover from if you are not careful. This means if you employ or hire others to maintain a public image of your business on social media then you need to make sure they only clearly display the image you want displayed. This of course doesn’t prevent the owner from making a blunder which can lead to massive PR repercussions and few are more damaging than if you make or sell a product that many consider inferior or simply disappointing.

You must believe in what you sell and not treat your audience as just “someone to pay you” but instead believe they are someone taking a chance on your service and product and someone you are to make sure they become a loyal follower and supporter for what you are producing. We have all seen how the most loyal fans stick up for the companies and products they truly love, and everyone who offers goods or services hopes they can have their own loyal fan base.

A recent example is New Trent which is a company that offers iPad, Kindle Fire and other accessory items. They are building a loyal fanbase with their pilot program where they offer huge discounts and even free products in exchange for reviews and feedback/surveys on how they can improve their products and what they can offer that would be of interest. I think their approach is magnificent and I myself purchased a few products from them over the years, but also receive quite a few now and again to review and share feedback on. I am a die hard supporter now after joining their program and participating over the past several months.

Increasing Social Media Influence

Influence is always something you need to keep track of and have a measurement with which you can use to accurately judge your audience reach which in turn could be selling power. If you feel you don’t have the influence you need then there are some ways to quickly build audience and attention. Rather than focus on SEO or keyword optimization you will want to directly interface with customers who follow your company on social media accounts and interact.

• Take the time to ask questions on what your potential customers want
• Take the time to poll for support
• Samples, trials and giveaways of your product to raise awareness
• Answer or solve somebody’s questions related to a product you provide
• Watch for trends, hashtags around your niche and jump in the conversations

These are just some helpful tips to engage and be more interactive, don’t rely on auto-tweets and messages broadcast on your account to represent your business, take the time to directly interact or hire someone trusted (knows the policy around communication) and make sure you have interaction every day to avoid looking like a non-active social media entity.

-Justin Germino

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