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Recently, I wrote a post as an avid podcast listener, and a podcaster myself (my podcast SubscribeMe.fm turns 1 year old in just a few weeks!)
I first submitted it on Reddit.com, and it was promptly deleted by an auto-moderator.
I woke up next morning, to see a huge number of responses, including some nasty ones. But you gotta take it in your stride when you post in a public forum.
Here’s the full article, published on my podcast’s site:
Smartphones are evolving at such breakneck speed, thanks to Apple and Google, that they’re killing a whole range of gadgets…
The demise of the legendary Flip camcorder says it all.
Is your product (or company) geared to deal with such an incredible onslaught of change?
Did you know: Google recently launched their first, full-length, online magazine called ThinkQuarterly.
At Google, we often think that speed is the forgotten ‘killer application’ – the ingredient that can differentiate winners from the rest. We know that the faster we deliver results, the more useful people find our service.
But in a world of accelerating change, we all need time to reflect. Think Quarterly is a breathing space in a busy world. It’s a place to take time out and consider what’s happening and why it matters.
Our first issue is dedicated to Data – amongst a morass of information, how can you find the magic metrics that will help transform your business? We hope that you find inspiration, insights, and more, in Think Quarterly.
Matt Brittin
Managing Director, UK & Ireland Operations, Google
Just when I thought that I was one of the most “web savvy” and “tech savvy” people on earth, who could never be tricked into downloading anything that would infect my computer…
BAM!
My laptop gets infected by what’s come to be known as the “Google Redirection Virus”.
The symptoms are very obvious…
You do a Google (Yahoo or Bing) search, and when you click on any of the results, then it redirects you to a totally unrelated page on a completely unrelated web site that has all kinds of ads on it. My Google toolbar for FireFox even blocked some of the sites as spam/malware sites, and did not allow me to actually visit them.
So I first consoled myself following this rude shock that in spite of having McAfee Virus Protection on my laptop, using only Firefox (no IE) and being extremely “download paranoid”, I had still ended up a victim of this stupid virus.
And then I started my Google search (every time I did a search to research this virus, guess where the first Google result took me? To a spam site, of course! The virus was still very much in action!
The first thing I found, was that the virus had changed the way my Firefox browser connects to the interwebs.
See how the setting had changed to “Manual proxy configuration” to point to “127.0.0.1” on port “64646”.
First thing to do is to change the setting to “No Proxy” and hit “OK” (unless you’re actually using some other proxy server).
That seemed like it solved the redirection issue, but I had to be absolutely certain. So back to Google – without the redirection issue.
And that’s when I found more and more people talking about the Hitman Free Virus Scanner software.
The software itself has a cost associated, but they allow you to do a free scan and even remove any viruses it may find, for free, using their free 30-day trial version.
If you don’t wish to fully install the anti-virus software, just select the option to run a free “one time” scan of your computer.
Worked like a charm!
It picked up on many malware files on my laptop, as you can see below.
Here’s what it looks like after it cleaned up all the garbage (required a reboot to fully delete one file).
So here I am, after cleaning and rebooting – totally virus free (or so I hope!).
Now that I’ve destroyed whatever little confidence you may have had in “big name” anti-virus programs, go read more about the Hitman tool, and get rid of the trojans!
Happy Trojan Hunting! 🙂
– Ravi Jayagopal
PS:Â Feel free to pass this link on to others. And as always, don’t forget to comment below. Cheers!
“It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times”, wrote Charles Dickens.
That’s exactly how it has felt for the last couple of years.
On one hand, my wife’s father, and both my parents – all passed away in a span of 3 years, leaving our kids with no grandparents, and leaving us utterly devastated.
And on the other hand, my career has gone from good to Great to UNBELIEVABLE! (including the ALL CAPS & “exclamation point”). My wife and I both have been able to quit high-paying jobs, become full-time entrepreneurs, move to beautiful and pleasantly sunny San Diego, California. We work full time from home, we’re always there when the kids come home from school, we eat lunch together as a family every single day, we basically do whatever the heck we want, whenever we want – all while we grew our business by 1,000% (yup, one thousand percent) in less than 1.5 years.
So yes, it has been the best of times, and it has been the worst of times. A very big roller coaster ride.
And as the year comes to an end, I have been reflecting on where to go from here.
From a career perspective, I do have a best-selling book under my belt, a successful online business together with my wife, and am part of a wonderful community of customers, associates, partners, peers, and fans (yup, I apparently have some fans too!)
I am looking to take my personal brand to a new level this forthcoming year: I plan on doing more blogging, more speaking, more consulting and more coaching. And it was during this time that I happened upon a course called “Experts Academy” being promoted by a person named Brendon Burchard.
I was first introduced to Brendon’s products earlier this year when all of the big marketers in the industry were promoting his product. I received an email from at least 20 different people pitching his product “in my face”.
To be honest, I was a little turned off at that point. Plus I was in a different place in my life at that point, and did not give it further thought.
Over the months to follow, after the hype had died down and the launch had ended, I somehow kept running into Brendon’s videos, audio and other content from time to time, and the more I watched and absorbed his material, the more his brand grew on me. And I found the stuff he was teaching to be something not too many people taught (or taught like he did), very powerful and eye-opening – even for me, someone who has “been there, done that” in the online marketing world.
So this time around, when I found out that he’s re-opening the doors, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
I’m in a place right now where I am looking to actively and aggressively go into the “Expert” space, and launch more products in the coaching, consulting and seminar space.
This is exactly what the doctor ordered for me. And I have already decided to buy the course. Most people would consider it “expensive”, but for me, it’s going to be pretty “cheap”, because this is exactly what I’ve been wanting to learn, courses like this from someone who has proven themselves are rare to come by, genuinely good people like Brendon are even rarer, and the value I’m going to be getting from this is going to be so immense, that it is going to be the best gift I’ve bought myself in a long time.
Going by his free videos, his reputation, and his results, I predict this is going to be the product of the year. And if you could purchase just one thing over the next entire year, then let it be this one.
Even if you don’t buy the course, it would be crazy not to at least check out the bucket-loads of amazing free coaching that he’s giving away as part of this product launch. And as you watch each video, be sure to study the whole launch strategy – especially the “12 positioning tools” video that teaches how to market yourself as a a high-value, highly-paid expert starting starting today.
I have never, ever watched any “how-to” video for longer than 10-15 minutes at a time – ever. But I watched the first video which is like 45+ minutes long, in one sitting, completely mesmerized, furiously taking notes, while my brain was going so nuclear with all of the possibilities, that it could’ve probably powered my entire San Diego neighborhood!
Oh, and use this free FireFox plugin (one of my favorites) to download the launch videos, as even the free information is just too good to be skipped and forgotten. You will be watching them many times over, so make sure you save them to your computer for offline viewing.
– Ravi Jayagopal
P.S: So Where You At? What have you planned for 2011?
Do comment below.
PPS: Some of the links in this blog may result in an affiliate earning for this web site. We do not recommend products for the sake of earning a commission. Rather it’s the other way around. When we want to recommend something, we check if they have an affiliate program. If not, we recommend it anyway.