Miley, Author at Daily Cup of Tech

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How Can IoT Change Consumer and Business World?

Miley on October 29, 2017

The world around us is changing at a fast pace and consciously or unconsciously we are changing too.

Let’s think of the conscious choices we have made to make our lives better. Conscious choices might involve giving up on traditional cooking methods and adopting conventional cooktops and appliances, purifying water before drinking, etc.

Unconscious choices might involve decisions you to keep up with the world like traveling by car as opposed to ancient mediums. These are some choices we make. In either case, the way we live and the world we live in is changing.

That thought brings us to the fact that why are we or the world changing.

The answer — to make our lives easier and our work simpler.

No matter what change you consider, you will see that it has become popular because it has made a good difference in our lives which includes how we interact, live, etc.

In this blog post, we will provide a glimpse into the world that IoT solutions are striving to create with emphasis on how our day-to-day life might change for good. To illustrate this, we will be looking at two categories of people – the service-providers and the consumers.

Consumer World

When we talk about IoT solutions, the majority of the world population will fall in the category of consumers. Consumers will experience a new level of comfort and this would result in new expectations.

Comfort Redefined

How we define comfort and luxury today might change how we will do that tomorrow.

When IoT laced solutions make everything smarter and more efficient, they might become the new standard of comfort and luxury.

For example, Amazon Echo taking care of your entertainment with just a voice command, Google Home for diverse needs, etc.

Shift in Demands

Over time, as new technologies are taking the center stage, consumer patterns and demands have become complex.

A new product can create new demands which was not the case traditionally.

With IoT devices making our lives simpler, consumers might start looking for smarter devices that will take care of all the things in one go. The shift can be because the new technology creates a need for it or because customers become aware of the benefits that they avail.

Business World

The IT support companies and service providers who will be primarily dealing with IoT solutions will also change with time.

They will be tasked with a lot of different responsibilities and will have to face challenges in terms of data handling, security, etc. But, two major responsibilities will be to:

Create Readiness

This means that the market should be ready to accept your product. You might have created a hell of a product but the customers are not ready for it. Or there is no use for it in their current routine. That means your IoT solution will fail.

The readiness needs to be gauged from existing trends and respective measures should be taken to ensure that there is a need for your solution.

Adopt Progressive Approaches

Businesses will have to undergo a lot of internal reshuffling in order to meet the needs of the customers and to be effective.

This would mean a revamped hiring strategy, defining efficiency and productivity in line with the new business, providing flexibility like remote opportunities, etc. to keep your business afloat.

IoT has emerged as a cutting-edge solution which is already making way in the consumer world. The more acceptance would mean more substantially visible changes in both consumer and business world,

This post has been written by Chirag, Thumar.

He works as senior web developers in India at NEX. NEX is leading Java software Development Company in India and USA. He also runs his own company which mainly focuses on Java-based web applications using JQuery, Struts, JSF, node.Js, spring, Ext Js, etc. He writes about emergency technology, Java based frameworks & tools, innovative technologies, social media news and online marketing.

Martech

Ways Of Identifying And Preventing Bad SEO

Miley on October 1, 2017

In today’s world of online marketing and the outlandish amount of visibility it provides, it can be easy to fall into the trap of just dabbling in SEO and thinking it will pay for itself in a matter of days. The truth of the matter is that all and any work that gets put into SEO can end up becoming a problem in three seconds flat. Without constant monitoring, all the work we put into optimizing our site can go down the proverbial drain and actually do more harm than good. This is why it is imperative to familiarize ourselves with common problems and learn how to deal with them.

Spotting The Problem

Before jumping the gun, it’s important that we’re aware of the areas that tend to be problematic and are able to spot them. The first and obvious way to notice bad SEO is the sudden drop in traffic, the other would be a warning from Google themselves. If your site has grown an abundance of broken links, spamming or content milling, rest assured that you will be warned. The same goes for keywords they tend to fluctuate and should be monitored at all times to adjust to the market. And, the most malicious of all – fake link removal requests. Simply put, someone is trying to trick you into removing quality links from your site, tanking it in the process.

Perform Regular Link Audits

This will be your first line of defense, checking your links on a regular basis will help prevent future headaches. It can get tedious, but safety should always be our primary concern. By performing regular audits, your business will have enough time to adjust to any problems that might occur and to deal with them effectively without impacting your SEO ranking. Otherwise, we expose ourselves to that awkward “boss conversation” when Google decides to give as a little one-on-one. Link audits only work if they’re carried out constantly, if you get an unnatural link warning – it’s already too late.

Monitor Site Speed

As one might be aware, a site’s speed directly influences its SEO ranking. Keeping an eye on said speed should be on top of the priority list to ensure smooth sailing. Any changes in site speed should be looked into thoroughly to determine the culprit. If lucky, it will be a fluke or something you can mend. If not, if nothing can be found, then the site might have fallen victim to a practice called forceful crawling. This malicious tactic essentially overloads your server which can even lead to crashes. This is a giant red flag and contact your webmaster right away to figure out what’s going on and find the culprits.

Look Into Webmaster Email Alerts

When setting up everything with our Google overlords, there is a nifty little option called Email Alerts. This little option is easy to set up and gives site owners a real-time notification every time something out of the ordinary happens. These include malware and spyware attacks, any kind of server side problem or any penalty from Google themselves. Aside from the last one, all the others provide owners with enough time to act on these threats accordingly instead of finding out about them two months later when they already see a drop in their rating.

Root Out Content Scraping

One of the biggest no-nos of Google’s ranking policy is the spreading of duplicate content. With this being such a glaring issue, it is extremely important to hunt down duplicate content and have it taken down right away. There are a number of tools like Copyscape or businesses like Websitesthatsell SEO Company that specialize in these kinds of cases. Another option is to file DMCA and be extremely thorough with the details. After all, this site is a business, there is no reason to pull any punches when faced with attacks like these that could literally capsize everything – hit them where it hurts.

Rinse and repeat

Now that these are out of the way, remember to do this often. Everything online is in a state of perpetual fluctuation, there is no telling what tomorrow might bring. This is why constant overwatch is mandatory to keep a business afloat, both for good and bad SEO. It’s a never-ending fight, or if you’re more of a Greek mythology person, it’s the equivalent of Sisyphus pushing his boulder up the hill. However high we may rise, the world will always try to pull us down, and it’s up to us to see whether we’ll buckle under the pressure or soldier through it like our main man Sisyphus.

Insights

The “Official” Geek “Must Do Before You Die” Checklist

Miley on September 18, 2017

The best thing about being a geek is all the awesome stuff the world has to offer us. So without further ado, here is the Official Geek Bucket List:

Build a functional robot.
Get a car that runs on something other than gasoline.
Know how machines I rely on actually run and have at least a moderate ability to fix them.
Explore a cave.
Identify a hidden superpower and use it (okay, a power).
Convert a non-geek to geekdom.
Become a connoisseur of something (coffee, wine, chocolate are expected, become a connoisseur of the unexpected – like standing desks).
Wear a cape in public.
Become someone who wears fascinatingly strange hats.
Win a Nobel Prize for advancing fandom.
Have more to add to the list? Sound off in the comments section below!

Insights

Recovering Your Lost Passwords | How To Guides

Miley on September 18, 2017

Manage to lose your password?

Need tips on how to get it back? Where are some commonly misplaced passwords and videos on how to solve the issue.

Lost Password on Windows 7/8/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMaMPIJDeJ4

Lost Password on Mac OSX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ6AZMk2cy0

Lost Password on Gmail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqEKeJkaGTI

Need help with your password? Sound off in the comments section below and we’ll add more resources.

Further Reading: How to Change or Reset Your Gmail Password

Insights

A New Blogger’s Checklist | Technical Guide

Miley on September 18, 2017

When you are new to blogging, the task of setting up and running a blog can seem to be either extremely easy or extremely difficult. If it seems extremely easy, you are probably in for a really rude awakening. If it seems extremely difficult, then you are ready to make an educated decision about setting up, running, and maintaining a quality blog. Regardless of where you, the fact that you are thinking of starting a blog has probably lead you here to this page. There are a lot of things to do to get ready for a quality blog. While this is not a comprehensive list and there are probably things that I have missed, I hope that this provides you with a good list of things to at least thing about when you are setting up your blog.

Research

Pick your niche area. Write about what you know and love.
Research your niche.
Discover similar blogs.
Know your audience and what they want to read about.
Pick a great domain name and register it.
Decide whether you want to host your own blog or go on a blogging site.
Select a blog host.
Select a trusted WordPress page builder.

Monetizing

Decide if you want to monetize your blog or not.
Know when to monetize your blog.
Find ways to monetize your blog:
1. Pay per click ads (Adsense)
2. Pay per post ads (PayPerPost, ReviewMe, LoudLaunch)
3. Flat rate per month ads (Text Link Ads)
4. Pay per thousand impressions ads (Feedburner)
5. Donations
6. Subscriptions
7. Sell merchandise (CafePress)
8. Other
Select appropriate channels for generating income.
Select ways to receive money
1. PayPal
2. OneBip

Design

Select blogging software (server and client side) to standardize on. Server Side
Client Side (Thanks to WordPress for the list)
Tell stories without any code, install Free WordPress Slider – Smart Slider 3.
Become familiar with basics of web design such as PHP, SQL, Java, HTML, etc.
Select an appropriate theme for your blog.
Customize your theme to make it your own or make your own.
Add a favicon or make your own.
Decide on other services your blog will supply:

Getting the Word Out

Make sure your blog has an RSS feed that is easy to find and subscribe to.
E-mail your friends about your new blog.
Write appropriate comments in other blogs that you have relevant content in your blog.
Set up to ping Technorati and other blog cataloging sites. Make sure you claim your blog.
Make a free business cards and hand them out.
Sign up for Google Webmaster Tools.

Work Ahead

Have a number of posts ready to launch as soon as your blog goes live.
Resist temptation to blast all of the posts out at once.
Plan series and weekly features for your blog.

Monitor Your Blog

Decide on a proper tracking system.
Watch specific information about visitors to your site:
1. Daily visits
2. Daily pageviews
3. Average pageviews per visit
4. Daily RSS readers
5. Inbound sources
6. Popular content
7. Entry pages
8. New vs. returning readers
9. Countries readers from
10. Web browsers readers using

Maintain Your Blog

Make appropriate changes to better suite your audience.
Keep content fresh so that readers keep coming back. Update at least a few times a week.
Respond to comments on your posts.

Tips from Blogging Experts

Kaitlan Whitteberry, Social Media Manager, and Tiffany Rivers, Director of Marketing of iOFFICE, Inc. offer this. “We have found that while understanding your audience is the ultimate key to success, ensuring the conversation revolves around them shifts the focus back where it belongs. Your job as a blogger is to enlighten your audience with information they haven’t been previously exposed to, but also to ask what they want to learn. You should want to be their ultimate guide. Where they look first when seeking information. If you start by focusing on providing relevant content, that speaks to their needs – your list will grow itself.”
Teresa Matich, Copywriter at Clio, says: “When growing an email list, we’ve found it’s most important to keep quality top of mind. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel—we get the best results by consistently delivering quality, on-topic content, as this respects list members by staying in line with what they expect to find. Flooding their inbox with mediocre content simply doesn’t work. Whatever other tactics you use to grow your email list, always put the quality of your content first.”
Dana Baardsen is the founder of Agile Trend Media. She shares with us her unique strategy for DynaPro Direct and lets in on her insight: “Growing a brand’s blog is fun, and if it’s not, you’re not doing it right. It’s crucial to be savvy with SEO, feature catchy (not click-bait) headlines, and provide serviceable and accurate information regularly — but it’s even more important to ditch your personal itch to micromanage every piece of content. Here’s why: By allocating energy to public relations and opening up your site to editorial collaborations, you’ll feed new energy into an otherwise one-sided stream of content. What happens when you schedule collaborative blog content regularly? An increase in engagement, views, shares, likes, sales, and fun!”
Dave Chesson, lead editor of Gun University says: “Making sure you understand the searchers’ intent, or what it is they truly want when they are searching the internet for an answer, can be a large part to blogging success. Take for example our article on different shooting ear protection. The truth is, searchers were looking for a list of ear protection, as well as an understanding of the different types. If we had just lumped them all together in one list it wouldn’t have served the people looking for in-ear protection or electronic. So, take a look at your target topic, and ask yourself what it is the shopper or searcher really wants.

Insights

CMS Roundup | List of 70+ Content Management Systems

Miley on September 18, 2017

There are 100’s of content management systems out there. Here are some popular ones:

Got any you want added to this list? Let me know in the comments section below!

Products

USB PC Repair Kit Resource List

Miley on September 18, 2017

PC Repair System

I was thinking a PC Repair Toolkit Resource Section would be nice. There are a variety of free and/or open-source tools for file recovery, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-malware, system info & system maintenance.

With a wide open description of the system, I was free to put in pretty much whatever I wanted to.

System Contents

There is a lot of work from different people that go into the applications in this system. In general, I just put the system together and make it work as one. This is a list of all the programs on the system, giving credit where credit is due.

Insights

Maximizing Cell Battery Life in Emergencies

Miley on September 10, 2017

We all have been in the situation of a long day in the airport or even just out and about in a strange city and our lifeline to our work and family is starting to fail us. It does not help the current situation that the proceeding night we did not put our phone on the charger.

It is important to indeed let them know you are not in your favorite pub but just your phone battery has decided to fail you at the worst time.

What are some immediate actions you can take to send those last emails or touch base with your family?

Saving Your Battery Power

One of the current dilemmas of our generation is why the hell can we fly across the globe, travel to the moon, and now we can personally fly with a jetpack but we still cannot pull together enough intelligence to produce a battery that lasts more than half a day. Due to our obvious addiction to smartphones, it is a questionable scenario to say the least.

Consolidate the Energy

First thing to understand is what uses the most power on your phone?

Optimizing the phone and ring settings are going to be the first step in combating early battery die off. Most phones are similar in what consumes the battery and also newer phones will offer a click of a button to turn on such applications as “Ultra data Saving Mode” and the ability to limit background apps.

The data saving mode should be under the data usage section in the settings. Apps running in the background that have updates and push notifications (Especially Vibrating) such as Facebook are going to drain your battery faster than a fat kid chasing an ice cream truck.

Switching to airplane mode allows for less energy to be used when the phone is constantly trying to pull gps coordinates or trying to connect wifi in low setting situations.

If you are going to be using the phone, then it is better to turn off the gps manually as it is one of the biggest battery drainers. Dimming the screen should be turned off with the data saving mode. However if needed to be done manually you can go under brightness and slide it down to the lightest setting.

Preventive Measures to Take

If you are lucky enough to have thought ahead before the catastrophe of dying communication, then you are one step ahead than most people. There are a couple of things you can do to be prepared for the dying battery scenario.

Buy a Power bank

Power banks are essential nowadays with our arsenals of gadgets we use on a daily basis. They are simply a “bank” where you are able to store energy and then utilize it later for most any usb device that needs to be charged.

Carry a Power Cord

Most Airports and some newer coffee shops will have a public outlet that is easily accessible to any person buying their products. This can be a gamble as in popular places it can be hard to find an outlet not being used during busier times. Another way to get around this is to plug your usb cord into your laptop assuming their is power left on the pc.

Buy a USB Hand Crank Charger

Nothing beats good old sweat and muscle when there is no power within reach of your setting. A hand crank allows you to manually generate power by rotating the crank and a moving magnetic field pushes the electric current through a coil of wire.

What if the Phone Stops Working after Charged

You have charged the battery on your phone and taken all troubleshooting measures to only find out your communication machine has decided to stop working. After you calm down from Facebook withdrawals, it is time to either find a replacement or look online for a cell phone repair store.

Insights SaaS

The Best Digital Nomad Software for Staying Productive on the Road

Miley on September 10, 2017

As a digital nomad, it often seems impossible to stay focused and productive while out on the road. And this can easily become your truth if you fail to utilize the best productivity resources at your disposal.

Instead of waging war on your mind because the nomadic lifestyle is calling you and you just don’t feel like working, utilize the best tools available to you to ensure your work is done so that you can continue funding your nomadic life.

With that said, let’s take a look at the most popular productivity resources available right now.

As soon as you start using them in your business, you’ll notice a major difference and focus, motivation, and productivity problems will become things of the past that you’ll gladly wave goodbye to in your rearview mirror.

Trello

Are you trying to manage multiple projects while living the digital nomad lifestyle?

If so, Trello will feel heaven sent!

This project management tool can honestly organize everything. It’s perfect to manage to-do lists, and it can easily help you keep projects, campaigns, and individual tasks organized and on point.

When you begin using this app, you will never miss a deadline again. You’ll always know when the next part of a project is due, and you’ll leave yourself ample time to work on it well ahead of schedule.

Clockspot

When living the digital nomad lifestyle, using Clockspot in your business is an absolute must. And this is especially true if you are managing multiple people working on multiple projects at the same time.

This program allows your freelancers and virtual assistants to “clock in” and “clock out” from anywhere in the world.

Plus, it lets you input specific project information at a task level, so you’ll know exactly how much time your staff takes whiling working on a particular project. And you can use this information to bill accordingly.

Not only that, this software makes it easy to generate payroll reports, overtime pay, and it will even manage workers’ time off.

And our absolute favorite thing about the software is lets you see which employees of yours are working in real time.

Slack

Many digital nomads work in collaboration with team members located all across the globe. It’s often difficult to keep in contact with the members of your team as you travel around the world.

It’s easy to set up Slack groups online. Add team members to specific groups, and you can even open up numerous chat rooms based on specific topics or categories.

Plus, this software makes it possible to directly message members of your team so you can communicate with them one on one, in real time, when necessary.

Google Drive

Google Drive is an incredible backup tool for a number of reasons.

For starters, it’s a great way to stay exceptionally organized. And since organization is so crucial while working on the road, having a tool like this at your disposal is nearly invaluable.

We also highly recommend Google Drive because you get 15GB worth of storage space for free, which is a lot better than their competitor Dropbox.

Plus, with Google drive, you can have multiple people working on the same project files at the same time without any confusion.

If you are working on a large project and multiple people need access to the files, storing them on Google Drive makes it possible for everyone to work together in unison without having to email files back and forth. That can get very confusing and it’s obviously something you would rather avoid.

Google Drive makes it possible to avoid project chaos and confusion.

Text Comparison

GlobalVision Text Inspection compares two unlike documents to manage the accuracy of text along the artwork, document, and packaging creation workflow. It’s perfect for making sure there aren’t any unintended changes as your text moves from your copy document to artwork to print.

Conclusion

While living in the digital nomad lifestyle, you need to do everything in your power to stay focused, organized, and motivated. Using the productivity resources recommended today will make your life a heck of alot easier while traveling around the globe.

Development

How To Mess Up An App in 3 Steps

Miley on September 10, 2017

It’s so easy to make senseless mistakes when outsourcing the app development process. One minute you’re riding high and feeling like a million bucks when you suddenly realize you goofed big-time and made a huge mistake or three. Hopefully this never happens to you, but it’s possible so pay attention to the cautionary tale we’re about to share with you today.

I imagine you’ll be kicking yourself if you make dumb, easily avoidable mistakes!

Instead of leaving your app development project vulnerable and at risk, learn from our fictional friends and avoid making other people’s mistakes.

So pay attention to a simple three-step process specifically designed to completely mess up your app development project! Once you learn from the biggest boneheads in the biz, you’ll know how to avoid making the same mistakes.

Step #1: Did You Ignore the Time Zone Difference Again?

Our whiz bang team outsourced their app development to an overseas developer with a nine hour time zone difference. Great job! I’m sure they saved a bundle, right? They better have because they just turned their app development project into a living hell!

Guess what? The developer has every intention to work on the project during her normal 9 to 5 business hours. Since her 9 AM starts at their midnight, our crackerjack team is going to have plenty of sleepless nights in the coming months. Congratulations for making such a foolish move! Time mastery is different for each individual.

They may convince the developer to meet them halfway so they don’t have to completely throw their schedule off until development is complete. But there’s no guarantee she’ll do anything to alter her work schedule.

So dear reader, if you do plan to hire somebody outside your time zone, you better figure out how you’re going to effectively communicate with your developer with this huge time zone difference standing in your way.

In a perfect world, your development outsourcer will have at least 4 to 6 hours’ worth of overlapping time during the workday. So you really should steer clear of any developers on the other side of the world. Otherwise you’ll be working while your developer is sleeping and vice versa. You seriously need to avoid this at all costs to spare your sanity!

Step #2: Don’t Forget to Send Your Developer 100 Emails a Day!

Thank God their developer is in another time zone! Otherwise she’d end up strangling every member of our dingbat team if they were within a reasonable distance. The easiest way to force a developer to put a hit out on you is to constantly email questions, whine about silly concerns too often, and constantly ask for different updates – you know, the things you paid this dev to take care of.

By over-communicating with your developer, you may have the best intentions at heart, but you’re actually sabotaging your project. Your developer needs to enter the zone and not be bothered at all during the workday. Your constant interruptions are making it impossible for her to make meaningful progress on your app development project. So if that was your goal, touché! You did a fine job!

Step #3: Testing! Who Needs Testing?

Those sly devils! They thought they’d avoid testing altogether to save a couple of bucks. They failed to put services that do error monitoring in place, and they never even thought about hiring an in-house testers to make sure their app was up to snuff.

Now that they’ve officially launched and their app is actually making some headway in the marketplace, they’re getting dozens of angry emails every five minutes from unhappy customers! Why? Their app has a million bugs, it freezes constantly, and some of the best features don’t even work!

They shouldn’t have tried to scrimp on testing and error monitoring and neither should you. Now they have an angry mob in front of their office with torches and pitchforks ready to burn them at the stake! I bet they wish they bothered to test their app before launching, right? They’ll never make that stupid mistake again, or so I hope.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed our fictional three-step app developing process. If you go this route and follow these instructions, you’re bound to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars, develop an app that’s a complete piece of garbage, and piss off every customer you’ve ever had! If you want to go the right direction, high-quality software development, we encourage that more and wish you good luck my friends!