Steven Paul Jobs, the computer tycoon of the computer industry is no longer with us, but his memory will last forever in the hearts and minds of Mac users, iPhone users, iPad users, and much more.

Steve Jobs was both a computer inventor and entrepreneur. Born in 1955 in San Francisco, California, his driving purpose was to develop products that were both functional and elegant; and he did just that which earned him the respect and honor of computer users everywhere.

It was just recently here in August of this year that Steve announced that he was resigning as CEO of Apple due to not being able to carry out his normal duties due to the ravages of pancreatic cancer. He also announced at that same time that he would remain as chairman of the board.

October 5, 2011, will long be remembered as a sad day. The family announced that Steve Jobs passed away peacefully in his sleep. As you go to Apple today, you will be met with a black and white picture of Steve in one of his contemplative poses that only he could do so well, along with his name and the years of both his birth and death. As you click on the photo, you are greeted with a moving obituary.

As you read Bill Gates’ statement on The Gates Notes, you come to realize how much Steve Jobs meant to fans, colleagues, competitors, and just anyone he came into contact with. “The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. “For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor.  I will miss Steve immensely.” – Bill Gates

We couldn’t agree more Mr. Gates. His effects will carry on for many, many years. We are very honored to have been graced with the incredible knowledge that he possessed. We are also very lucky to have been the recipients of the wonderful technological gadgets that he passed our way.

Rest peacefully, Steve Jobs; and thank you.
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Pam Lokker is a skillful writer and proficient virtual assistant. She is co-owner of Borlok Virtual Assistants — the place to get global expert VA services with quality and on-time delivery.

There are several things you can do to ensure that your website will be a gold mine and provide bountiful traffic and cash — and not be a bust. Let’s take a look at some of the things you can do to protect your website from turning away traffic.

Ensure your links are active!

I’m afraid one of my pet peeves is when I go to a website, click on a link to go read more about something or purchase a product and boom, zilch, nada. I just sit there and don’t go anywhere or I get the dreaded 404 error. What a letdown!

For those of you individuals out there that advise newbies that mistakes are okay, Stop It! A working link is vital to the success of your site.

Check your links on a scheduled basis!

I can hear you now. I don’t have time to go through all my links to check them. Woe is me. Listen to me people. One bad link will turn a visitor to your website or blog away never to return. We need to do everything we can to make our sites a pleasure to be on.

If you, yourself, don’t have time to check those links, then outsource to someone that will. You can find lots of providers that will do this work for you at a very economical price — places where you can Find Virtual Assistants on oDesk , or Hire Virtual Assistants on Elance, or even search for excellent providers on Guru.com

Random check multiple links

A link that does not work will turn people off from ever coming back to your site, or even your article, report, eBook, or what have you. Take the time to check multiple links every so often to make sure nothing has changed to make them inoperable. The investment in time that you make to do this will go a long way to get potential clients for your services or potential buyers for your products.

So what are you going to do to ensure that your website is a gold mine and not a bust? Are you going to take extra care when your create your links to ensure they are active and work right, or are you going to rush into things and not preview your work? Remember the old adage, “haste makes waste.” Are you going to do routine checkups of your links on a regular basis? Or, are you even going to periodically check 2-3 links to make sure they work? Hmmm? I recommend you highly follow all three recommendations so your website, blog site, or article is widely successful.

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Pam Lokker is a skillful writer and proficient virtual assistant. Borlok Virtual Assistants is the place to get global expert VA services with quality and on-time delivery.

Stop! Click Here! to read more about Content Crooner.

Just recently we received enough money that we could upgrade our office equipment. After doing some research, we packed up into the truck and were on our merry way to Best Buy to purchase a new laptop, a new hard drive, a modem, and a router. The salesman was very helpful – up to a point. We explained that we wanted to network our three computers together and did they know the cost?

You see, they have an in-house computer technology company located at Best Buy called Geek Squad.  The salesman quickly explained that Geek Squad would be able to network us, hook up all our computers, install virus protection and other software that we got and do it in our home at our convenience. HOWEVER, when it came to getting costs on what the final charges would be for their services, the salesman suddenly became not so helpful. When we were asking questions, he was writing everything down and kept saying he didn’t want to forget anything as he would need to check on his computer for the costs. He did say that there was a package that would be perfect for our needs. But, guess what? He indicated that we could have protection for the laptop in case we spilled drinks on it or dropped it, or what have you. We could have another service for the hard drive, and something else for the networking.

Okay. Now, of course, we were excited about this as he also said there was a special price on the package. Folks, somehow we ended up at the cash register still without getting a straight answer on what it would cost for all the things we needed for the Geek Squad. We thought he was ringing our charges up. Boy, oh, boy, was he. I swear we stood around for at least an hour, if not more, waiting, waiting, and waiting. When we asked him what was taking so long, we were told that their network computers were in the process of being upgraded and were slow.  Hmmm, that didn’t give us a warm, fuzzy feeling. Why didn’t the Geek Squad fix them??? Several times we almost walked out of the store and almost told them to forget it. They are VERY Slow! If it were not that we needed this equipment for our business, we probably would have.

Anyway, when they finally got the sleeping giant computer to give up its wealth of information (and that was wealth for the store), we discovered that each and every part of the warranties and hooking up the modem/router, networking, was all billed separately – there was no package. We wanted to make sure that we got appropriate warranties on our brand new equipment so we would be protected. Readers – imagine our surprise when we discovered that 1/3 of the total cost was for Geek Squad! We are a small business; that hurt.

So, after grinding our teeth and buying extra band-aids to cover our wounds of hurt feelings, we went home and waited for the scheduled day for the technician to arrive. Finally it arrived. I want to tell you that we had the best technician we could ever hope for. He was helpful and went above and beyond the call of duty. He answered all of our questions and treated us with respect and dignity, customer service that is long-gone these days. He did not treat us like we were idiots or imbeciles and he did not act as though we were bothering him. We are 100% pleased with the work that was performed by this technician.

After the excellent service we received, we were quite surprised to hear a report from KPHO 5 TV on a study they did for technician companies in the Valley that were gouging customers and performing work on computers unnecessarily just so they could get more money for their service and seeing Best Buy’s Geek Squad as being a strong offender.

So what is the bottom line of our experience? Did we learn anything? You bet we did. First, when shopping at Best Buy, we will always ensure we get a definite price on service work before we get to checkout. Be prepared to wait  as the cashiers are not speedy. Secondly, there are good technician companies; and there are some that are not so good. We highly recommend that anyone who needs a technician to do work on their computers research the different companies that are in your area. Good places to check are the Better Business Bureau (if you are in the U.S.) and other respectable rating agencies. Also, as always, listen to your gut instinct. Don’t be swayed by “I want it now,” unless you are prepared to pay extra costs that more than likely will arise.