In preparations for this Sunday's LIVE online training I was doing some prep work with Amy's Android phone. Note to self, when it's time to upgrade, stick with a new iPhone 4g if at all possible.
Maybe my frustrations were non-typical, but I found trying to switch worlds from iPhone > Android difficult and a bit frustrating. I got sucked into the the VCast world where Verizon wireless will show me the path to App enlightenment… except it didn't lead me to the place where I could download the stinking Spotify App. I had asked Amy (it's her phone) “how do I get to the Apps store?” I don't know… let's take a look.” Which lead us to the “special” store that Verizon has set up that is missing the most important App under the “Music” heading, which as far as I'm concerned is Spotify.
It's important to note here that I'm a PC guy, but I am slowly understanding the whole MAC thing…
“Abby, can you help me find the Spotify App on your mom's phone?” was very productive. She (Abby is under 25, so she understands both worlds) quickly took me to the Android Marketplace (you'll find it, you just need to scroll down below the deceptive Vcast App World icon) to the “Market Place” where you can search for the Spotify download.
Once (or if) you find it you can down load the Spotify App for your Droid phone.
Once I had the Spotify App installed I was asked to log in… but before I could, I had to approve a somewhat sinister message; Steaming or syncing playlists over your 3g or 4g connection can consume large amounts of data and potentially cost you a king's ransom in digital download fees 🙁
OK, I added that last part about the King myself. But this is important; your Smart Phone (doesn't matter which type) needs to be set properly so any transfers occur via wireless Internet, not a cellular connection. The screen shot I have above shows my iPhone (still trying to learn how to do this with Amy's Android) has syncing over 3g turned off, so I have no fears of going broke paying excessive download fees for syncing music to my iPhone.
This Sunday's LIVE training is over full so I will be scheduling a second very soon. You can click here to join the notification list for future Spotify, iTunes and MixMeister LIVE online training sessions.
Strategies for protecting the health of your Mac or PC computer, from the malware know as CryptoLocker, isn't really much different from what you do to protect your personal health; you're careful with what you consume and have some insurance in place for when you get sick. As a fitness professional, you depend on your body to earn some or all of your income. If it breaks you're screwed. Your Dept Head will only except you teaching off the bike for so long, before deciding to replace you.
You are also very dependent on your computer for managing your music and communicating through email and social media – so if it fails you have a similar problem.
In case you haven't heard, CryptoLocker is a nasty piece of malware (virus) that can infect your computer – YES, Mac users are just as susceptible as PC owners. CryptoLocker encrypts (scrambles) your files so they can't be opened… ever…by even the NSA… unless you send the hacker $300.00 for the key to unlock the encrypt files.
However, there are trojans out there that have surprising and nasty behaviours like encrypting your files with a password you don’t have and demanding money to unlock them. This kind of malware is not new but over the past 18 months it has become significantly more prevalent and the malware authors have written significantly more clever and scary versions.
This kind of malware is now all over the web and your chances of running in to it and being exploited are uncomfortably high. Some of the more widespread examples such as CryptoLocker even include a count down timer which claims if you don’t pay them $300 in 72 hours they will delete the key file so that your data is lost forever. Malware like this is growing more scary day by day including the ability to encrypt all your data but also to spread over the network and hit other systems.
You can search in vain for a solution, but there is no know remedy to recover your encrypted files if you get infected. Well except bypaying the ransom demanded by the hacker – yes, believe it or not, these are honest hackers. Most do send you the encryption key after they receive your $300.00.
Preventing CryptoLocker – don't click that link!
As scary as it sounds, any link you click could install the CryptoLocker virus (or other malware) on your computer. The trick is not clicking that infection link in the first place. The primary places you find those links is in SPAM email and garbage websites offering free nonsense; games, software and (wait for it) FREE MUSIC DOWNLOADS. Don't go there and you're 50% guaranteed that you won't have to send that $300.00 to recover your 10,000 songs in iTunes.
Long time readers have heard me implore you to use strong passwords for your email accounts. NOTE: you must have listened because I'm seeing far fewer SPAM emails, sent from hacked accounts. CryptoLocker doesn't get installed in your computer by hacking your email, no, but the SPAM emails going to all your friends in your contact list. Most people have learned to ignore an email that says; “Hi there. I saw your picture on facebook and think you're cute. Click this link to see pictures of me!” But a few haven't.
But what if I am infected?
Beyond sending the $300.00, the only known option is to completely wipe your computer clean / restore to factory settings and restore from a backup that predates the infection. If your last manual backup was two years ago – then that's what you'll have to work from. Sorry, there is no other solution 🙁
If you're using an automatic backup service to the cloud; Carbonite, TimeMachine, Windows Backup, etc… you're in luck. All of those services have multiple restore points – you can go back in time to before you were infected, and recover those old, encrypted files. But only after you've first wiped your computer clean so the files you re-import aren't reinfected.
I copied this from Carbonite's help page that explains:
Restoring a previous version of a file lets you correct any accidental changes.
Each day a file is backed up, Carbonite maintains a version of that file.
You can view up to 12 versions of a file to restore (depending on how many times the file was backed up and how long ago it was backed up).
You can restore a file you have deleted from your computer hard drive (as long as the file was deleted within the last 30 days).
LTF Instructors get a 15% discount – are you taking advantage of this?
I could lease a nice car for what I'm paying Verizon Wireless each month. Service and data plans for daughters; Abby and Carly (two iPhone's), Amy's Droid Razr M and my iPhone run $250.00 a month = $3000.00 a year.
It may not be for you, but that's a serious amount of money to me 🙁
So my ears perked up this morning when I heard an interview on Fox for a company that said Americans pay something like $50 billion more than they should for cell services. The guest, the founder of savelovegive.com, explained that they have an easy way for you to analyze your monthly bill and compare the different service plans.
I didn't take the time to look, but I'm guessing there are other companies that do something similar. What makes savelovegive.com unique is that you can choose to simply pocket the money you save using their service or contribute it to their chosen charity – The Seven Bar Foundation.
The Seven Bar Foundation, a 501(c)3, is the brand for the empowerment of women. As a social enterprise it fuels microfinance institutions by driving profits with purpose with cause-marketing brand partners. To reach a critical mass with its ladder symbolic message, the Foundation hosts the top couture and luxury lingerie shows in the world – Lingerie New York, London Miami, etc. Together with the Foundation’s alliances we enable women in need to start or grow their own small businesses, breaking the cycle of poverty for their children via microfinance. We believe that microfinance is an effective tool to combat poverty and empower women because it fosters self-reliance and encourages sustainable development. As loans are repaid to our Microfinance partners, the funds are then reissued to other entrepreneurs. Investments in Seven Bar Foundation will help countless women over the long-term, constantly growing in size and increasing its impact with every woman that the funds reach.
I love anything that empowers people to become productive 🙂
Using savelovegive.com was free, really easy and took me all of ten minutes to set up. Eight of the ten minutes was consumed by trying to remember which of our four lines was the Primary # and then resetting the forgotten password.
That $102.00 a year could go somewhere better than Verizon. If you choose to spend on on yourself maybe a Spotify premium or ICI/PRO subscription?
You create a user and password at savelovegive.com and then confirm the email they send. The actual tool that analyses your service is called Vera. Enter your cell # and password and Vera goes to work. I was shown four plan options and the potential change in costs. Plan option 1 showed I can save $102.00 a year just by making a simple change to my service.
Now to be fair, Amy watches all our expenses like a hawk (she was a CPA when I first met her), so we were already pretty close to optimal. But the conformation was both comforting and a bit depressing… I was hoping to see some huge, untapped savings we could take advantage of.
If you opt to make the suggest change, savelovegive.com generates an email to send to your carrier this the new plan data. Hit send and hopefully they will respond. It's when your carrier responds that the changes will be made – savelovegive.com doesn't make any changes directly, just shows you which changes to make.
If you're concerned with savelovegive.com having your personal info, I suggest running the test and then you can go back and change your password.
If you try this let other's know your results below.
P.S. savelovegive.com is a great example of a website built using HTML5 – the new hypertech markup language that we were discussing earlier in regards to iPads and how they won't display the Flash audio player that uses the old/current version of HTML.
I see multiple hacked emails each week, that are sending out links to Malware sites to everyone in their contact lists, coming from the accounts of ICI/PRO members and subscribers to our weekly newsletter.
I've had websites that I personally maintain hacked in the past and sending out SPAM, as if it's coming from me.
I'm aware of friends and family who's identity was stolen, creating enormous hassles and expenses to clear their good name.
I'm also very aware the many of us spend a great deal of time online – actually it's not many… we all do. The truth is that there are Hackers watching and waiting for an opportunity to steal your identity and have you pay for their trip to Hawaii, or buy them a new 60″ flat screen TV.
Most importantly, I'm aware that many of you appreciate learning of these hazards, here from a trusted source.
So when I received this advisory from www.trustedsec.com, advising me that the healthcare.gov has serve security issues, I felt it was important to share this with you – so you can protect yourself and your family.
TrustedSec’s CEO David Kennedy released a written and oral statement for the Congressional meeting with the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology at Capitol Hill today (November 19). The meeting was to discuss the security concerns with the healthcare.gov infrastructure. The purpose was not to point out flaws to negatively show the website in any political view. TrustedSec remains neutral and agnostic to anything political related in regards to the Affordable Health Care Act. The purpose was to show that there are serious security concerns with the website. Our concern always remains the protection and security of the United States and it’s allies.
TrustedSec’s CEO David Kennedy will be presenting to Congress on Tuesday November 19, 2013 at 10:00AM ET on the security concerns around the Affordable Healthcare Act — healthcare.gov website. The website has been under scrutiny lately with not only performance issues but a number of glitches and security flaws that have been identified by TrustedSec as well as other independent security researchers.
David will present both a written and oral presentation to the Congressional committee on the security concerns around the website as well as a live demonstration on how an attacker could use information from the site to attack individuals that have registered.
It really is a big deal. There are people finding the personal information they entered at healthcare.gov, using a Google search, if they are even finding healthcare.gov in the first place 🙁
Our recommendation is to stay clear of healthcare.gov until these these security issues have been addresses and unbiased security experts give the all-clear.
Suggest finding someone who looks like this to help you evaluate your online registration system – or review the one you're using now.
Prospective Indoor Cycling Studio owners have hundreds of both challenging and easy decisions to make, long before they're ready to launch. Considering that your new studio will be a real business and the purpose of your business is to make money, the registration system you choose* to collect your money is pretty darn important… in fact it's crucial IMO. With multiple solution providers of online registration systems – how do you choose?)
I'd start by answering the: how easy/intuitive are the registration and collect the money process?
In the online world, marketers describe collecting the money as a conversion – I call it making a sale. Conversion percentages = what percentage of visitors who somehow end up on your registration page actually convert? Conversions don't always equate to sales. They can also be; create a user's profile, register for a class or even just join your email list.
Any difficulty the visitor experiences during the process can reduce the number of successful conversions (you don't get the money).
Now I don't need to tell you that different people, react to online “difficulties” or “frustrations” differently. You could throw any amount of digital confusion at either of my two girls and they'd still figure out how to register for your class. But there are potential customers who aren't comfortable with online anything.
Testing the registration and collect the money process
You're probably not the right person to test and compare online registration systems. The fact that you are here reading this tells me you are comfortable using a computer and are probably routinely using it to make purchases online.
I suggest finding someone in your life who's not all that comfortable with technology and ask them to help you evaluate the various systems. For some of you it could be your Mom (hence the Mom Test), a friend or family member that's similarly technophobic.
Here's how I would structure your “Mom Test”.[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
Contact each company's representative and ask for a link to the home page of an actual studio that uses their system/software.
Collect each studio's link
Sit down with your evaluator and have them go through a complete registration process: Create a user's profile and then register and pay for an actual class. Yes, this will cost you a few dollars > what you learn will be invaluable.
But please don't waste their time and ask the studio owner to refund these small purchases.
While your evaluator is going through the registration process, You Need To Sit On Your Hands and offer no direction or assistance. Just watch exactly what happens and how she/he responds.
How quick was the process?
Was there any place where they got stuck
Did anything happen/change that caused them to question anything? Am I doing this right? Why was I taken here? etc…
With any luck you'll have a fun time doing this and learn a lot about what works and what doesn't, making your final choice easier. After all, you and your successful studio is going to be married to this software for years to come 🙂
[/wlm_private]*Of course this isn't the only reason you would decide on one registration vendor over another. If you have other questions you can ask me here.
Scosche RHYTHM+ Heart Rate Monitor Strap works with ANT+ and BLE devices and consoles.
I'm thinking this new Scosche RHYTHM+ Heart Rate monitor strap could be the best I've ever tested – for a bunch of reasons that include removing what I feel has always been one of the biggest objections to wearing a HR strap.
Despite all of our collective efforts explaining the benefits of training in specific heart rate zones, we're lucky if we have 30% of our participants monitoring their heart rate. I know that some classes are better than that, but based on all of the surveys I've done in the past that's about where we are.
Why?
If I put on my salesman's hat, I know that people don't buy a product or service for lot's of reasons. Salespeople call these objections. If you want to make the sale, you typically need to remove or minimise the prospect's objections; who in this instance is our class participant.
So what are the often stated objections?
No interest – it's almost impossible to sell anything to someone with no interest.
Too expensive – for relatively lowpriced objects like an $80 HR monitor, the selling price objection is often masking some other issue – or – means the prospect isn't seeing enough benefit.
Too complicated – do the manufactures of HR monitors actually use their own products? Setting the typical Polar watch is needlessly complicated. I've gotten to the point where I refuse to help people set their HR watches before or after class because I can't get sucked into a 30 minute project where, more often than not, I'll fail. See #5
Too confusing – as an industry, with all of the branded zone based training systems, we've made heart rate training impossibly confusing for new participants. IMO if you're talking about anything more than three zones based on thresholds, you've lost many of your club athletes. See #5
Too stressful – It's stressful to me when I'm offered a coupon the grocery store, good for my next visit. Why? Because then I'll have to remember the coupon the next time I'm there – which I won't when the cashier asks me; “do you have any coupons?” Our members aren't any different than me or you: getting to class on time is stressful enough. I don't need the added stress of remembering my HR monitor… finding both of my shoes is tough enough. See #8 for the source of even more stress.
Willful ignorance – face it, there are people in your class who want to believe they're burning 1,000 calories in a 45 minute class, where they don't break a sweat. You'll never sell these people on any form of performance measurement (these are the peeps who cover their power console so they can't see their wattage) unless you're running a special on unicorn spit detox syrup.
Uncomfortable – the old versions of hard plastic HR chest straps were very uncomfortable. The new soft straps are an improvement – but they are still not pleasant to wear. Many women won't even think of wearing a HR strap for anatomical reasons. Then there's the other type of uncomfortable as in; “I'm not comfortable opening my shirt to put this strap on, with other people around” 🙁
Unreliable – how many times have you found yourself thinking; IS THIS THING ON? Is the strap battery dead? Maybe I need some additional spit on it? Do I need to shave a horizontal stripe across my hairy chest to get this thing to connect? Wait, who's BPM am I seeing here?
That's 8 realistic reasons why you see so few people wearing a HR strap. The new Scosche RHYTHM+ Heart Rate monitor strap addresses many of the objections I've listed above:
Not complicated – the HR watch is the source of most of the confusion. No watch = no confusion. The RHYTHM+ pairs easily with any bluetooth device (iPhone / Android) using any fitness App that has a HR function. It also pairs with ANT+ monitor consoles found on the Schwinn AC, FreeMotion S series and Spinner Blade Ion. Sorry – the RHYTHM+ doesn't connect with the Keiser M3.
Removes a little stress – It's so small that I can tuck it into my shoe. So if I find both I've also got my HR strap 🙂
Super comfortable – just slide it onto your forearm. Because it uses optical sensors it doesn't need to be moistened and it's not affected by hairy arms. And no one will feel embarrassed when they put it on.
Better reliability – there's a little red light that shines when it's on and it comes with a USB charger.
You'll find more info about the Scosche RHYTHM+ Heart Rate monitor strap here.
