The BIG Cost Of A Tiny Typo

A casino in Illinois wanted to reward its best customers and get them to come back for a repeat visit. To get this done they mailed out 11,000 coupons which included a few featuring cash prizes of $525.

But thanks to the mistake of a third party printing company, ALL 11,000 coupons were printed with the same cash offer, obligating the casino to a total payout of $5.8 billion dollars in prizes. Although the contest rules included a disclaimer giving the casino the option to change or cancel the offer, the Illinois Gaming Board ordered the casino to honor the coupons. Now there’s one marketing campaign that had owners of the casino praying for a poor response!

Text Messaging Use To Defeat The Taliban

According to an article in Network Computing Magazine, British Intelligence is using text-messaging spam as part of their PsyOps campaign to defeat the Taliban.

When they discover a Taliban fighter’s cell phone number, they bombard it with spam messages such as “We know who you are, give up,” and other demoralizing messages. They also send wrong information by pretending to be other Taliban fighters. The logic? Spam tends to enrage the user receiving it. Is it working? There was no report of the results, although just imagine the Brits having a good laugh over this.

Why Your “Not-To-Do” List Is Just As Important As Your “To-Do” List

One of the New Year’s resolutions we often have is to get more organized and better manage our time. After all, who doesn’t want to get more done? But a big mistake many people make is thinking ONLY in terms of “more” when it comes to getting things done. Why is this a mistake? Because chances are your plate is already full of to-do items; if you want to accomplish MORE, you’ll have to actually start thinking about what you are going to STOP doing in order to fit in the more important tasks that move you closer to your goals.

As we all know, only about 20% of the things you do deliver 80% of the results you want to achieve. Therefore, in order to “get more done,” you have to clearly identify what that 20% is and focus on doing more of those activities, and delegating or ignoring the 80% of time-wasting “stuff” we all get caught up in doing. What are some big time wasters?

• Not having a plan for your day and reacting to whatever shows up.
• Constant texting or online surfing. For many, this is a huge addiction and distraction that can waste HOURS.
• Checking e-mail every 5 minutes.

January Is National Clean Up Your Computer Month (Something You’ll RUSH To Do Once You Read This Survey That Reveals Just How Dirty Your Keyboard Is!)

Since there’s a holiday or month for just about every cause imaginable, it should come as no surprise that cleaning your PC now has its own official month, awarded by none other than “The Vinegar Institute.” But before you dismiss this one, consider this little factoid:

ABC news reported that a study in England revealed that the average office keyboard had bacteria and germ levels up to five times higher than those commonly found on a toilet seat.

The study, headed up by Dr. James Francis, a British microbiologist, took culture samples from 33 office keyboards in London, and compared these samples to swabs taken from toilet seats in the same office buildings, containing nasty germs such as e-coli and staph bacteria. Kinda gives new meaning to the term, “computer virus!” So how do you not only disinfect your keyboard but also get those annoying smudges and fingerprints off your monitor? Here are a few tips:

1. Turn off the monitor. It’s not required, but it makes smudges and smears easier to see.

2. Use a compressed air to get rid of light dust buildup in your keyboard and screen. Never use a dish rag or paper towel to clean your monitor since they can scratch the screen; and you never want to use water on your keyboard!

3. Don’t use products with ethyl alcohol or ammonia based products to clean your monitor. Products like Windex can yellow flat-screen or laptop monitors. Instead, use a cleaning product designed for monitors and use a lint-free cloth designed for the job. Note: Each monitor manufacturer has its own special instructions for cleaning so make sure you read what those are before attempting to clean up anything.

4. Lightly moisten your cloth with rubbing alcohol or cleaning solution to wipe off your mouse or keyboard areas. Never apply the liquid directly to the screen, keyboard or other electronic parts.

5. A Q-tip dipped in alcohol will quickly clean your keyboard. Just make sure you don’t drip the liquid down between the keys.