Category Archives: Business

Business

Online Safety Basics for the Holidays And Year Around

hacker-potential

Photo courtesy of www.telegraph.co.uk

With the holidays coming, the wave of the tech crooks are out in force. Here are some tips to protect yourself.

  • Shop only on secure websites. One indicator of a secure website is the presence of a yellow padlock icon in the browser bar. Another indicator is “https” (as compared to “http” with no “s” at the end) in the web address.
  • Avoid making online purchases in public Wi-Fi hotspots, such as a coffee shop, which can put your credit card numbers and other information at risk.
  • Never send sensitive personal or financial information, such as a Social Security or bank account number, through e-mail. Legitimate companies will not ask you to do so because this is not a secure way to transfer sensitive information.
  • The internet has many legitimate websites that offer vacation homes. However, scammers also put listings on vacation websites. If the price is too good to be true, it usually is.
  • Scammers can use phone apps and games to steal your personal information. Do not download apps unless they are from a known source and have third-party reviews that verify their legitimacy.
  • If you are receiving text messages on your cell phone saying you have won a prize or gift card, do not click on the link in the message – it is most likely a scam and may install a virus on your phone.
  • Consider implementing a two-step protection process for your email account, which pairs “something you know,” like a password or PIN, with “something you have,” like your cellphone or a physical token. This adds an extra layer of security to prevent access to your personal information.  For example, after inputting your password, you will then receive a text on your cellphone, giving you a one-time-use code to log into your email account.  Information on how to set up this two-step protection strategy for each of the following email providers can be found here:

Outlook  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/two-step-verification-faq

Gmail – http://www.google.com/landing/2step/

Yahoo –  https://help.yahoo.com/kb/account/two-step-verification-extra-account-security-sln5013.html

Source: Attorney General of California

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Business, Community Events

Former Professional Football Player Opens the Fade Factory Barbershop

Chad Elliott Owner of Fade Factory Barbershop - Photo by John O'Dell
Chad Elliott Owner of Fade Factory Barbershop – Photo by John O’Dell

“The Fade Factory Barbershop recently opened its doors by well known football player Chad Elliott.  Chad played at Nevada Union, Grant High School, Arizona State University, Syracuse University and thirteen years in the Indoor Football League.  The  hip, new sports themed barbershop is located across the street from Maria’s Restaurant in downtown Grass Valley.

“Not too many shops in town cater to the younger generation and that’s something we’re really trying to lock down,” Chad said.  “When I moved back home (after a 13 year professional football career), I noticed that there was a high demand for a specialized shop that focused on Fades, Tapers, Line-ups, Pompadours, Gentlemen’s cuts, and designs. This town really didn’t have anything like that before we opened up.”

The Fade Factory surely doesn’t look like your typical Grass Valley Barbershop either.  As soon as you walk in you can notice a difference. “The overall feeling of our shop was important to me. I didn’t want it to be boring or stale. I wanted it to be a place where people can come in to have fun, socialize, relax, and actually enjoy their wait times,”

Chad explained. “We painted our walls black and red, we have flat screen TV’s that are constantly playing NFL, College, and NBA games, we listen to music, and we try to present a positive laid back environment.”   So far the business and feedback have been great too.  Working downstairs from Chad, I noticed right away a steady stream of customers coming in and out for his famous fades.

Photo by John O'Dell
Photo by John O’Dell

“We opened less than a month ago and we already have a ton of returning clients, including working with Cheris House Youth Center,. People really seem to  like  the atmosphere.”

As for any other barbershops in town, they may want to take notice. This shop is fresh, fun, new, and exciting. If you like sports, good conversation, free WIFI, music, a great haircut, and a relaxed environment it may be time to switch shops and come check out The Fade Factory.

Photo by John O'Dell
Photo by John O’Dell

When I asked Chad if there was anything else he wanted people to know about his shop he replied, “We are really the only shop in town that stays open on Sunday and Mondays. People need to know that if they need a cut, we are generally open. I also like to give back to the community so I give a 20% discount to all law enforcement and firefighters.”

Chad also reminded us that he encourages parents to bring their kids in for fun designs, sharp cuts, and a clean Christian environment. The Fade Factory seems to be taking off. Check it out.

Call to make an appointment 209-910-8791
Located at 231 E. Main Street
Grass Valley, CA 95945

The official website and hours can be found here: The Fade Factory
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Bits & Pieces, Business, Entertainment, Grass Valley, Restaurants

Review of Bear River Pasta Company

Bear River Pasta Company Entrance

Image 1 of 4

By Judy J. Pinegar, Writer

Recently, a friend recommended I try the Bear River Pasta Company, it was a little hard to find, at 109 Bank Street. Inside it is compact and very clean. There is a refrigerator full of pre-made pasta dishes with the sauce, along with bread and yummy salads for eating in, or taking out for an easy dinner meal. They also make lots of different sandwiches on wheat or sourdough bread with all the fixings. Owners Carl Brenner and Theresa McGuire have done a nice job of creating a reasonably priced venue for quick meals and take-out dinners.

If you are eating in, you microwave the dish of pasta, and your choice of salad and freshly toasted bread is brought to you. We tried the Spaghetti and Meatballs, apparently the hands down favorite seller!  It was delicious, and so were the Garlic and Pesto Breads! We also shared a Carmel Balsamic Gelato which was fantastic!  Lots of other flavors of gelato were also available along with Cannoli and Tiramisu.

A second refrigerator was filled with many different kinds on homemade pasta as well as homemade sauces, enough to serve a family. There is also a supply of Italian specialty items, oils, candies, cookies, beautiful wooden wine stoppers, nic-naks and potholders. The salad items also include many varieties of olives, nicely displayed.

We took out some fresh made Fettuccini and the Tomato Basil Sauce, along with some nice homemade pot holders. All and all it was a great find, and I am sure we will come again!  Check out the full menu at their website www.bearriverpasta.com. Bear River Pasta also attends local events and street fairs, and catering as requested.

For their menu and more go to their website Bear River Pasta Company

Their telephone number is 530.274.1760

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Business

Anonymous Online Reviewers Made be Subject to a Lawsuit

gavel

Recent cases are challenging the rights of online reviewers to remain anonymous against the right of businesses to pursue defamation claims. In one of the latest cases, Yelp filed an appeal all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court that challenges a court’s order to release the identity of allegedly defamatory reviewer.

In the case, Yelp Inc. vs. Hadeed Carpet, the company Hadeed challenges whether a set of negative reviews posted on Yelp were really authored by real customers. Hadeed had filed a complaint and asked Yelp to supply documents containing the full name, gender, birth date, IP address, and e-mail address of the authors. The company used a Virigina statute that says anonymous communications must be revealed that “may be tortious or illegal.”

Yelp refused to supply the information and the incident first went to circuit court, then the court of appeals, and now the Virginia Supreme Court is being asked to weigh in.

Yelp argues that if  “a company is able to identify its critics by doing no more than representing that it believes that its critics are not customers, consumers and others who have valuable contributions to make to public debate, but who worry about retaliation, will be chilled into silence.”

But businesses say it’s unfair to provide them with no recourse when they’re targeted by an anonymous review that they know to be false.

The topic is raising First Amendment issues. “Under our Constitution, anonymous pamphleteering is not a pernicious, fraudulent practice, but an honorable tradition of advocacy and of dissent,” wrote the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995. “Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority.” However, speech that is deemed defamatory can fall outside First Amendment protection.

Source: “When Should the Authors of Anonymous Online Reviews be Revealed? Yelp Challenges a Court ‘Unmasking’ Order,” Forbes.com (Feb. 7, 2014)

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Business, Grass Valley

Visit to Olive Vitality, Grass Valley, CA

 

Matthew & Jeanette Angell proud owners of the Olive Vitality. Photo credit: Jeanette Angell
Matthew & Jeanette Angell proud owners of the Olive Vitality. Photo credit: Jeanette Angell

Last Sunday Judy, my daughter Teresa and I walked the streets of Grass Valley like tourist coming up from the Bay Area.  Having not walked down Mill Street for a while, I was surprised at the many new stores that have opened and of course the many that have closed.

One great new store is the “Olive Vitality” which opened last March. Claiming the freshest olive oils and vinegars on tap, which looking at the inside of the store, I believe it. I counted over 21 different flavors of balsamic vinegar!

You name the flavor of balsamic vinegar and they seem to have it. For example, flavors of strawberry black cherry, dark chocolate, cinnamon pear, espresso and the list goes on for 21 flavors. It seems like all of their balsamic vinegar is imported from Modena, Italy

Olive Vitality show room. Photo credit: Jeanette Angell
Olive Vitality show room. Photo credit: Jeanette Angell

Besides selling regular olive oil, they like to infuse flavored into olive oil, creating a series of mouthwatering oils to be used for just about every occasion. A few examples, organic basil olive oil, blood orange fused olive oil, organic butter olive oil, and again the list goes on.

The store is well laid out and the owners Matthew & Jeanette Angell are gracious and eager to give you samples of their many exotic products.  Be sure and visit them when you are in town at 126 Mill Street, Grass Valley, CA.

For more information, you can go to their website Olive Vitality

Their telephone number is (530) 273-8336

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Business

Steve Jobs Spaceship Office Complex Construction Delayed

httpv://youtu.be/TkNMVtwBBTM

 

Apple’s ambitious new second campus, which looks like a spaceship design straight out of Hollywood, is being delayed according to new info from Bloomberg . The huge circular new headquarters won’t be fully operational until 2016, according to revised plans filed with the city of Cupertino on November 14..

Some minor revisions to the plans are causing a delay in plan approval. The plans have been modified to relocate an auditorium, elimination of a bridge over a creek and to avoid moving dirt offsite during the construction phase. All these changes were made by Apple and not a requirement of the city. Due to red tape on the city’s part, it’s doubtful if construction can start right away.

The circular-shaped building design planned in a 176-acre space in Cupertino, Calif., is now expected to be under construction until at least mid-2016, about a year later than originally projected

The city was made aware of the submitted changes in August, but by filing in November, an approval in early 2013 is unrealistic, said Brandt. Apple initially planned to have the complex completed by 2015.campus-project-delayed.

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Bits & Pieces, Business

Microsoft Windows 8, Microsoft You Must Be Kidding

Windows 8 Start. Note that when you first get into the Start you have such useless apps such as camera, XBox games, Xbox live and other apps of no use to a business PC.
Windows 8 Start. Note that when you first get into the Start you have such useless apps such as camera, XBox games, Xbox live and other apps of no use to a business PC.

 

I made the mistake of downloading the trial version of Windows 8 thinking it was an upgrade to Windows 7. No, it’s tablet software and downloading it on a PC is, like Microsoft are you kidding? Why don’t you tell people its tablet software and not suitable for PC’s?

The first thing that comes up after you figure out that you have to tap any button on your keyboard to log in is an interface that Microsoft calls Metro or the start screen. I’m sure that’s a wonderful tablet feature. So the first thing I did once I roamed around for a while was to get rid of such useful things as Xbox live, Maps, Messaging, Camera (my PC does not have a camera) and a whole bunch of worthless apps that might be useful on a tablet but not on a PC and most of them will not work on your PC anyway.

As I stumbled around, I finally got to the normal interface and away from Metro.  Now where is the start button? Oh, Microsoft did away with the start button.  So I Goggled to find out what happened to the familiar start button that’s been with every version of Windows. Well, it’s gone. So more searching and there is a workaround by downloading ViStart.  ViStart puts the start button back where it was on all the other Window versions.

Now how do I find my programs without ViStart? Well, programs are now apps. You get back to Metro, left click your mouse, look at the far left corner and there is a rectangle. Click on that and your programs, err, apps appear and  are spread out with little icons over four acres of real estate. It would be OK if it was a tablet, but on my PC, you had to use your mouse and slide the apps across the screen. I use 1920 x 1080 resolution. I don’t know what it would look like if I used a lower resolution, maybe like it was on 10 acres of real estate and you would scroll for an hour.

There's that icon "Setting". click on that, click on the power icon and than you can restart or put your computer to sleep. Of course to get there you have to go to the lower right corner with your mouse to pop up those icons.
There's that icon "Setting". click on that, click on the power icon and than you can restart or put your computer to sleep. Of course to get there you have to go to the lower right corner with your mouse to pop up those icons.

So the next question, how do I turn my computer off or put it to sleep? First time I had to Google to figure out how to turn off a computer.  Well, you go to the far right corner and some icons come up. Click on the lower right hand corner and several icons come up, including settings. Click on settings and there it is “power”. Click again on power and you can put your computer to sleep, restart or shut down. Are you getting it now? Click, click, click.

So after playing with Windows 8 for awhile, I went to recovery on my HP computer, made three recovery disks and reinstalled Windows 7.  Once that was done, I had to download the driver for my video card and restart the computer in save mode.  Then I could install the driver for the video card. Of course, restoring the HP computer to factory new meant that I had all the original bloat ware that comes with an HP computer. So the next hour was removing the bloat ware and re-installing my programs.

In short, Windows 8 is like Windows Vista which was a disaster. I think Microsoft has a team of engineers who work to see how bad they can make every other upgrade of Windows.  That way, whoever buys the bad version, will be ready to upgrade right away to the next version. In short, I would not recommend Windows 8 to any serious PC user in a business environment. It is a disaster. .

Related articles

How to restart, log off, sleep and shut down Windows 8

Windows 8 to be the next Vista?

Six Ways Microsoft is killing the traditional desktop in Windows 8

Hands on, Windows 8 review

 

For all your real estate needs
Email or call today:

John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
Civil Engineer
General Contractor
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

DRE#00669941

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Business, Real Estate

Facts On The 3.8% Health Tax

 

Tax
Tax (Photo credit: 401K)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A 3.8 percent levy on certain investment income was included in healthcare legislation two years ago, and now misinformation about the tax’s application to home sales is being passed along over the Internet and e-mail, throwing some prospective home sellers into a panic. In actuality, very few owners will be affected by the new tax taking effect in 2013.

The tax will only be on investment income of upper income taxpayers. Included in the definition of investment income is capital gains from home sales above a certain amount and for households whose income is above a certain amount.  This means individuals who make $200,000 a year or more, or married couples who earn at least $250,000 a year are affected. Additionally, the tax is only applied to home sales if the proceeds exceed $250,000 for an individual, or $500,000 for married couples. And there still are other income and tax particulars that are considered before the 3.8 percent tax is triggered.

The National Association of REALTORS® recommends that members become familiar with the tax, but avoid coaching their clients on the policy because the amount of tax will vary from individual to individual as the elements that comprise adjusted gross income differ from taxpayer to taxpayer. NAR has published a brochure on how the tax works, which is now available online.

Download the 3.8% tax brochure (PDF).

Source:NAR and “Realtors Say Despite Efforts, Tax Rumor Keeps Spreading,” Glens Falls Post-Star (NY) (03/10/12)

 

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Business

The Nigerian Letter or “419” Scam


I wrote a blog about the Nigerian scam sometime ago.  I’m repeating this warning from the FBI since I know someone who fell for this scheme.  The person would not tell me how much he lost, and he was somewhat sheepish about it.

So anyhow, here goes, hopefully it will prevent someone from going off the deep end and losing a lot of money to these dirt bags.

“Nigerian letter frauds combine the threat of impersonation fraud with a variation of an advance fee scheme in which a letter mailed from Nigeria offers the recipient the “opportunity” to share in a percentage of millions of dollars that the author—a self-proclaimed government official—is trying to transfer illegally out of Nigeria. The recipient is encouraged to send information to the author, such as blank letterhead stationery, bank name and account numbers, and other identifying information using a fax number provided in the letter. Some of these letters have also been received via e-mail through the Internet. The scheme relies on convincing a willing victim, who has demonstrated a “propensity for larceny” by responding to the invitation, to send money to the author of the letter in Nigeria in several installments of increasing amounts for a variety of reasons.

Payment of taxes, bribes to government officials, and legal fees are often described in great detail with the promise that all expenses will be reimbursed as soon as the funds are spirited out of Nigeria. In actuality, the millions of dollars do not exist, and the victim eventually ends up with nothing but loss. Once the victim stops sending money, the perpetrators have been known to use the personal information and checks that they received to impersonate the victim, draining bank accounts and credit card balances. While such an invitation impresses most law-abiding citizens as a laughable hoax, millions of dollars in losses are caused by these schemes annually. Some victims have been lured to Nigeria, where they have been imprisoned against their will along with losing large sums of money. The Nigerian government is not sympathetic to victims of these schemes, since the victim actually conspires to remove funds from Nigeria in a manner that is contrary to Nigerian law. The schemes themselves violate section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code, hence the label “419 fraud.”

Tips for Avoiding Nigerian Letter or “419” Fraud:

  • If you receive a letter from Nigeria asking you to send personal or banking information, do not reply in any manner. Send the letter to the U.S. Secret Service, your local FBI office, or the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. You can also register a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission Complaint Assistant. 
  • If you know someone who is corresponding in one of these schemes, encourage that person to contact the FBI or the U.S. Secret Service as soon as possible.
  • Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts.
  • Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your cooperation.
  • Guard your account information carefully.

Source The FBI

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Business

Popular Web Sites Shut Down Today in Protest

Image by Sashala via Flickr
Image by Sashala via Flickr

WordPress.org, Craigslist, Wikipedia, Moveon.org, Reddit, and Firefox browser creator Mozilla are among more than a dozen Web sites that are going dark on Wednesday for a 24-hour period to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), which critics say threaten free speech on the Internet.

The antipiracy legislation is a move by Congress to crack down on the sales of pirated U.S. products overseas. But U.S. Web site makers say that the legislation infringes on their freedom of speech and could have potential widespread, negative effects for Internet users.

“The proposed bills pave the way for authorities to shut down Web sites accused of online privacy — something that concerns huge sites like Google, Twitter, and others,” Fox News reports.

Google, Twitter, and Facebook — who also are strongly opposing SOPA — say they will not be participating in Wednesday’s blackout. However, at midnight Eastern time Wednesday, Google blacked out its logo on its home page in protest. Visitors who click on the blacked-out logo will be directed to more information about the protest.

The 24-hour blackout starting Wednesday on more than a dozen web sites is expected to detour millions of Internet users.

“We want to give people a visceral example of what would happen when content is blocked,” Rob Beschizza, managing editor of the blog Boing Boing, told USA Today. The blog will be shutting down Wednesday, giving visitors an error message that explains the protest.

Source: “Web sites Go Dark in Protest of Proposed Legislation,” USA Today (Jan. 17, 2012) and “Sites Go Dark to Protest Anti-Piracy Proposals SOPA, PIPA,” Fox News (Dallas) (Jan. 18, 2012)

Read More

Wikipedia: Stop Online Piracy A

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