Resolutions. Goals. Plans. Routines. Whatever you want to call them, you’ve

made them. If you don’t already have some tools to help you start 2017 off

on the right foot, you’re in the right place.

In this episode, we talk about the dozen or so apps that I use daily to

stay organized and productive as well as keep track of fitness goals.

We are starting off 2017 the way the podcast was originally intended. We

will hopefully be having interviews of people just like you using

technology in their life, family, and business. In future episodes we will

discuss with guests the tools they use currently or want to use in the

future as well as possibly hash out an issue or frustration they are

experiencing at the moment.

This time of year your email inbox gets filled with invoices, receipts, and

shipping notifications more than any other time. Because of that, you are

much more likely to receive SPAM and other bogus emails that are 'phishing'

you to click on links and provide information to inappropriate actors.

Last week we had the amazing opportunity to travel to Las Vegas for the

Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent Conference where across 3 casinos there

was training, workshops, certifications and so much more. All the sessions

and training were specific to one of the many offerings Amazon has in their

AWS package. It was hard to really get the most out of the conference cause

there was so much information to learn and sessions to attend.

Travel can be stressful. There are hundreds of apps you could use to manage

agendas, trip itineraries, and sight-seeing plans. I just spent the week in

Las Vegas at AWS re:Invent (more on that later) and I used 5 apps to keep

my trip organized and know where I needed to go and what I should be doing

for nightlife.

Video is getting it's second wind. 'Is getting' is already a little

past-tense but Snapchat (or Snap Inc.) is taking it to a new level and they

are doing what Google failed to do. And that is make wearable technology

cool and fashionable.

Imagine for a moment your computer never getting a virus or bogus software

installed. Imagine buying a brand new computer on Black Friday or Cyber

Monday and 5 years from now it running almost as good as the day you bought

it.

Do you have $100, $600, or $1000 to pay for the release of the files on

your computer? Are you even aware that all your important files, photos,

and videos could be held hostage at any time? If you don't take the steps

now, once it happens the only option you have is to pay or say goodbye to

everything stored on your computer.

On October 23rd, 2016 "Half the Internet" went offline.

'IT' happened again. Not because of this week's episode (at least I don't think so) but a big piece of the internet went unresponsive today because of systems with bad or default password configurations. Way more information than I can share in one episode but that is why we are here.

We are here to break down all the pieces that can cause such a mass orchestrated attack and help protect you from them as much as possible. 

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about what happened yesterday but you can prevent your home devices from taking part in the attacks.