Breakable Brackets vs. the Unbreakable Wallet
Another Bust Discussed It’s the end of March and that means it’s time to visit a familar place: last in my bracket pool. Another 50 bucks up in smoke day
Small Bugs, Big Problems: Google and the 737-MAX
Up in the Air With two high-profile crashes in the last few months, the FAA finally caved to well-founded pressure from the global community and grounded
Customer Service: The Right Mix of Man and Machine
Brad Calls for Backup I’ve been dealing with some billing issues for services at my former home that burned down in last year’s California wildfires.
Office 365 Marches On
Outdated Office Microsoft has been absolutely nailing its online productivity suite for years now, and it’s more powerful than ever before. How powerful, you ask? So much so that even the company itself acknowledges its traditional desktop Office as an inferior product, sort of like when you’re at the movies and the guy at the concession […]
Four-Letter Wisdom and Skipping the Galaxy Fold
Profanity and Professionalism Hey, it’s not that I never use profanity–just ask my dog Dante if I’ve ever dropped the F-bomb after yet another cord-chewing
A Moving Experience with Taskrabbit
Keep On Truckin’ (No Truck Required) I got rid of my truck a while back and my wife never forgave me for it. She’s always scouring Offerup for some elegant vase or fabulous coffee table to spruce up our new home, but since I dumped my delivery vehicle and it’s really bad form to stuff […]
Enhanced VoIP and Password Protection and Brad eats Crow!
From an Anonymous Reader Last week I passed on some information on managing saved passwords in your browser for the sake of convenience
Cheap Laptops, An App Named Quiker , Life Without Football
Subpar Bowl Well, if there’s one positive thing to be said about the Super Bowl, it’s “at least we didn’t go to the game”
Feels Like the Future: Rollable TVs and Online Office
Saints and Sinners I want to start out by congratulating our Los Angeles Rams on their upcoming trip to Atlanta for the Super Bowl!
Resolution Revolution 2019
New Year, New Brad It’s the first full week of the year and I´m happy to report that my 2019 resolutions are still intact! I´m trying to learn more Spanish–my wife speaks it when she wants to say something especially complimentary during an argument–and I’ve found Rosetta Stone to be pretty helpful in the pursuit. I’ve had […]
Strengthened Security and Successful Smiling Strategies
Smiling Through It All Next week’s Super Bowl has given me a surprisingly profound opportunity to consider the nature of happiness.
Giving the Gift of Geek
Kids These Days Sometimes I just sit and marvel about how great it must be to have a modern-day childhood. 10 year old me would have walked across a field of Lego barefoot just to lay hands on a smartphone, and goodness knows how much mischief I could have gotten into with a camera drone […]
Amazon: Your next health insurance company
Winter Wonderland Weartest You´ll never catch me saying that Chicago isn’t one of the greatest cities in this coast-to-coast country of ours…spectacular sights, fantastic food, and as an aesthetic note, what just might be the spiffiest city flag in America. What an incredible place to find yourself for a week or so…except, of course, for […]
USPS Joins the 21st Century and SimplTxt
You’ve Got Mail Recovering from the fire is going about as well as can be expected, things are slowly getting back to normal. After getting a new place, I´ve even been able to turn my attention to everyday concerns like the mail. USPS has finally gone digital, rolling out an Informed Delivery service in many […]
Still Thankful
Taking Inventory After taking some time to process everything in the midst of the rebuild, I had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. One reason for my gratitude is the support of my sister, who has called me every day since the fire to see if I needed anything. I mostly refused–I’m a […]
California Wildfires Hit Home
What I Learned from the Wildfire As I begin to write this newsletter from a desk that is not my own early this Sunday morning, I have a lot in mind. By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the wildfires raging through California over the last couple of weeks, and if I’m being honest it […]
Smart Streamlining Your Agency and the Source of My Savvy
Attachment Issues It’s a question I hear all the time should we attach everything to the agency management system or not?
A Balanced Lifestyle: Sleep Tech and Electric Surfboards
The Undisputed Champ Part of the reason that Apple can claim to produce the official lifestyle devices of planet Earth is their consistent innovation
Big News from AppliedNet – Siri Upgrade and a word from God
Thank You, Nashville! If you didn’t make it to AppliedNet in Nashville, I’m sorry to tell you you missed one heck of a show–and I’m not just talking
AppliedNet Nashville: Come Hungry win an iPhone X
Business and Pleasure Between the event itself and getting a taste of the host city, AppliedNet is usually one of the better weeks on my yearly calendar.
Operation BBQ Relief, Office Bookings, and the New iPhone
Reminders of Resolve The aftermath of Hurricane Florence continues to affect residents of several states, with areas of the various communities
Maintaining the Human OS
Championship Mentality Mental health is finally starting to get the attention it deserves, and we’re a slightly better society for it. Whether you’re aware of it or not, odds are you know someone who struggles regularly with difficulties such as depression and anxiety that can make everyday life into an overwhelming experience. I recently had […]
Links to the Future and Pools on Demand
Saluting a Maverick I want to start off by paying the proper respect to a true American in John McCain. The late senator of Arizona has both his share of supporters and detractors when it comes to his politics, but regardless of whether you ever voted for him he was a noteworthy individual. Following both […]
Connected Cruises and If Your Car Could Talk
Live from State 49 The hottest days of the summer are coming for most of us, but here in Anchorage it’s a very temperate 60 degrees
Is Office 365 Hippa Compliant and more Insuretech
Doctor’s Office One of the questions I always get from people who use Office-365 is how suitable it is for logging sensitive information…for instance, medical professionals rely on HIPPA compliant programs to keep their patient information safe and also not get totally sued. It’s one of the most stringent standards for data security this side […]
Nextdoor Neighbors: Tech Future of Community
It Snakes a Village We recently had a visitor to the house of the reptilian persuasion never quite found out what it was, but as my wife was shooing it
Internet Promises and Connections through Cycling
Promises, Promises It’s always disappointing not to get the Internet speeds you were offered in the sliccompany ad isn’t it?
Saving the World One Straw at a Time
Primegeddon If you had issues with Amazon on Prime Day, you weren’t alone…a major malfunctionat the junction caused the world’s biggest retailer to experience problems with the site worldwide on its most celebrated sales day. The crash happened almost immediately after the start of the sale, and was linked to the sheer volume of visitors keen […]
Everyday Upgrades: Fitness and French Roast
Sound Choices Summer is as good a time as any to slowly become as active as you said you would be on New Years’ Eve
Second City Scenery and the Self-Driving Saga
Windy City Wonders To borrow an insight from the late Frank Sinatra, “this is my kind of town, Chicago is.”
Share-Worthy – Celebrate life and Dad too in this weeks Brad’s Blog
Don’t Forget Dad! Speaking as a father, I know you probably haven’t picked out a Father’s Day gift yet even though dad’s big day is exactly a week from now
The Enduring Internet and the Latest on iOS 12
Forever Online Here’s a sentence you would have never heard in earnest just 10 years ago: have you ever wondered what happens to your social media accounts
Is That a Laptop in Your Pocket
What’s Old is New Again… Not every step forward is a step up, and so I can’t be the only one that sort of misses physical keyboards on smartphones. They were ubiquitous in the era of Blackberries and Sidekicks, but fizzled out almost all at once as screens got larger and devices got ever slimmer. […]
NetVU Atlanta and Google Duplex
NetVU Accelerate Giveaway! I hope you woke up feeling lucky this morning: it’s that special time of year again! The NetVU conference is upon us once more, and we’re giving away some truly sweet tech toys this time around: Apple Airbuds and Amazon Alexa Show! You don’t even have to attend to win!! …but just […]
Your Friends, For Sale
The True Value of You They say the user is the product in any service that is both free and convenient, and Facebook in particular makes a fortune in leveraging the data you directly and indirectly provide. As the man behind the plan himself said with a satisfied smirk in a congressional hearing “We sell ads, […]
Brilliant Buys and Savvy Sales
Home Shopping Season If you’re on the fence about selling your house this year, maybe you should consider making up you mind by the end of the month. According to Zillow, May is the best time of the year to have your property on the market, as on average homes sell two weeks faster and […]
Ultimate Upgrades: Your Life, But Smarter
Rise of the Machines In case my svelte silhouette doesn’t give it away, I’ve gotten more into fitness in recent years. Part of it’s by necessity since I like the way my knees work and the doc says staying active will keep them functional longer, but it’s also easier than ever before thanks to connected […]
Busted Brackets and Cheap Cruise Connections
he Maddest March Yet Like pretty much everyone else, I’ve had my NCAA bracket busted beyond recognition in the first couple of rounds.
Brad’s 23rd Century Retirement Plan
One Day at a Time (for 279 Years) I’ve started looking into retirement options before it’s too late–or at least, that’s what I set out to do recently. Apparently if I want to maintain my standard of living after I punch the digital clock for the last time, I’ll be putting in full shifts on […]
Changing Cyber Regs and Internet Masterclasses
Empire Statement The laws on the books are finally starting to catch up with the realities of the world, and the updated New York cyber reg
This Week’s Upgrades for Your Life
Be Where You Are It’s really amazing to the sum total of human knowledge and a global communication device fit into your pocket, isn’t it? If we’re being honest, it’s sort of addictive…we’ve all seen that table of friends enjoying a night out with their smartphones, silently scrolling through their Snapchat. You may have even […]
The Future We Were Promised and Super Keyboard
Where’s My Jetpack? We were told as children that in the future people would be wearing jetpacks and jumpsuits
Stealth Screens and Insurance by Amazon
Fall of the Trojans Well, it’s been a couple of days and I’m still recovering from the big game–that is, UCLA extending its win streak by taking down archrival USC at home on Saturday. The Lady Bruins even threw in a victory over their counterparts from Southern Cal Monday night just for good measure. With […]
Super Bowl Heart Attacks and Universal Translator
Making Contact For my readers who travel on a regular basis, you know there are two things you can’t necessarily rely on to be in every location
Facebook’s Facelift and Amazon’s Automation
Pray That I Do Not Alter It Further.” If I’m being honest, I myself am not a huge user of Facebook—I just cut out the middleman and share my vacation photos
The Flu Goes Viral
Office Expansion If you’re a regular user of Office 365, the online component to Microsoft’s time tested productivity suite, here’s a great product that give you even more value from the package: Barracuda Office 365 Essentials. This convenient upgrade gives you access to advanced features such as email archiving and email encryption for the protection […]
New Year, Same Geek
…and we’re back! First things first: Happy New Year 2018 to all my readers! By now just about everyone is settling back into their everyday routines, which have hopefully been amended to reflect all those ambitious resolutions made just last week. A simple alteration that has made a tangible impact on my quality of life […]
Falls and Screen Shares
For Your Family I wish I could start off with better news, but this is important to me and could be to you or someone close to you as well. My mother had herself a bit of a fall recently, and unfortunately she sustained some injuries including a concussion and blood loss in the incident […]
Talking InsureTech and InsureTurkey
The Season Begins Happy Thanksgiving! Yes, check your calendar, it is actually the end of November. With that in mind, carving a turkey can be either an engineering challenge on the scale of the Golden Gate Bridge or an effortlessly efficient process, depending on if you know what you’re doing or not. For the many […]
Slick Sales and Christmas Chromebooks
California Wildfires Before the fun and games kick off today, I have to take a minute to address something that continues to affect many of my fellow Californians. Even though the pictures and videos from the disaster paint a dramatic image t’s hard to get a sense of the devastation that the ongoing wildfires have had […]
No Holiday for Hackers
Hacking the Holidays Tis the season…for email phishing and other scams. Unfortunately, cybercrooks are well aware of the increase in online activity that comes with this time of year, and with tools such as keystroke loggers and spoofed links in widespread use, it’s no surprise that a recent survey says at least 15 percent of […]
Netflix Around the World and Billing Issues
Worldwide Workaround Did you know that streaming services like Hulu and even YouTube have different content based on what country your account is currently based in? It’s all due to convoluted licensing and distribution details that can be neatly summed up by the phrase “because money,” but that doesn’t make it any less annoying when […]
Video Vigilance and 14K Chairs
Video Vigilance It’s amazing how the Internet and the proliferation of WiFi have transformed the face of home security. Where once it was a planned Saturday afternoon of watching a burly stranger come into your home and weave a web of wires, now it’s a simple matter of mounting a few cameras, possibly downloading an […]
Is It Really November Already?
‘Tis (Almost) the Season Okay fine, I’ve seen the public service announcements…it’s a few weeks too early to be scouting for Christmas and Hanukkah gifts. We have to let Thanksgiving have its’ turn, it is holiday law. Still, I’m always encountering neat little gadgets that make everyday life just a bit more convenient, and those […]
Maximizing Your Time (and Your iPhone)
It’s Happening! This week marks the grand debut of the newest flagship lifestyle device from Apple, the hotly anticipated iPhone X. I’m sure even if you haven’t heard about its’ all glass display, wireless charging capabilities, and FaceID user authentication, you may have caught wind of its price tag of one thousand dollars–wait, press release […]
Wonders of the Universe and IT for Insurance Agents
World’s Most Wondrous Waterfall If you’re wondering where I’ve been for the past few weeks, I’d love to tell you about my recent trip to Argentina
5 Days in Las Vegas
Tale of Two Cities It’s just about impossible to avoid the latest attack to grip our nation, particularly with last week’s AppliedNet event emanating from Las Vegas. It was particularly sobering to me because the city is typically a bustling neon playground for older children such as myself, and to have it torn apart by […]
Equifax Hack Aftermath
Damage Control I would say by now I’m sure you’ve heard all about the big Equifax hack that has left millions of social security numbers and other critical personal data vulnerable, but the media coverage for what may be the biggest digital security compromise in the modern era has been remarkably light. Not that running […]
Fearless Flyers
Stronger Through Tech Before the fun starts, I want to start off this week by sending my continued thoughts to those affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma as well as my readers in the Great Plains and Pacific Northwest who are dealing with massive wildfires in their respective regions. While obviously tragic, events like these […]
College Football Kickoff and a Laborless Day
A Bear of a Game Well, college football is finally back, and in a big way. If you haven’t yet heard, my UCLA Bruins somehow engineered one of the greatest
What a Wonderful World (with WiFi)!
American Eclipse In case you’ve been living under a rock—or outside the one we all share—the first full solar eclipse to take place over the Continental United States in many of our lifetimes is set for next Monday and it’s going to be blanking spectacular. The “path of totality,” which is NASA-speak for “front row seating,” cuts […]
Brad Ruben: Ambassador of Earth
Say Hi to Hannah! I’m proud to start off this week by introducing my readers to a longtime friend of Archway! Hannah is a social media and digital marketing wiz (the geek doesn’t fall far from the nerd tree) who happens to have her own consulting business at sincerelysocial.net. Hannah is long overdue for offering her signature brand of marketing insights […]
Is Tech Affecting Your Happiness?
Technically Happy It seems like just a month or two ago that everyone was bidding a fond farewell or other final “F’s” to the year 2016, but somehow we’re well over halfway through the year. Time is sort of funny that way, either months at a time run together into a bland oatmeal of everyday […]
LA Drivers on Expired Drugs
Empire State Strikes Back It might be too little, too late, but I do at least find it encouraging that governments are at least attempting to catch up with the cybercrime epidemic with state-level security legislation. New York is lighting the way with a bill known as NYCR500, which applies to all agencies that transact […]
Are You Even Ready to Be Rich?
Rags to Riches to Rags… An accountant might raise an eyebrow at the frequency with which I use my Amazon Prime subscription, but I’m generally good with money. I pretty much have to be since I’m not the heir to a candy bar fortune or anything, but who knows…somebody reading this might have a rich […]
A Pirate’s Life for You
Dante’s Infirmary Well, I certainly had a mixed bag of a weekend. It started out on a real down note when our dog Dante was attacked by a pack of coyotes right in our backyard…he did the best he could to defend himself, but by the time I heard what was going on and ran out to […]
Secretly Saving the World
What Do I Think I’m Doing? In case you didn’t know, this newsletter is a labor of love…any extra exposure or new clients we pull in by rambling about the wonders of the modern world are just a bonus. Another thing we love doing that more directly keeps the lights on around there is developing […]
Super Internet Safe Mode
It’s Not Stalking, It’s Market Research! If you’ve ever wondered how those ads on websites get so suspiciously specific, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that it’s based on tracking your web history. It’s somewhere in the chasm between creepy and convenient, and if it falls closer to the former for you, Incognito Mode […]
DocuSign of the Times: This Week’s Big Cyberattack
Disastrous Deja Vu *sigh* I had really hoped to lead off with better news this week. Popular digital verification service DocuSign was just the latest victim of the cyberattacks that appear to be ramping up with the recent proliferation of hacker tools. This latest attack centers around phishing emails, or messages that appear to be […]
ATTN: Both Brad’s Blog Superfans
Blank Space Is there anything more annoying than running out of storage space on your phone? Of course there is, but I’m doing A Thing here, come on. That seemingly uninhibited ability to draw any digital resources from any source of your choosing—automatic data backup, streaming music, videos, email, scheduling, games and a map of […]
I’m Watching You, UPS
Salute the Season Can you feel summer coming? That’s right, Memorial Day is traditionally thought of as the season’s unofficial kickoff, and for good reason most of our minds go to BBQ’s and good times with family and friends on one of the few days of leisure guaranteed virtually the entire American workforce. Still, this […]
About that Global Cyberattack
Warning Shot Heard ‘Round the World Sheez, I step out of the office for a few days and a massive cyberattack affects government utilities and services in dozens of countries around the world. I’m not saying the two are related, but then again no one has ever seen me and Batman in the same room. Anyway, the […]
NetVU, Daas, Money Making Fax Machine
Thank You, Nashville! NetVU was amazing as expected and it wouldn’t be right to start out in any other way than by sincerely thanking everyone who took the time to come out and pay Team Archway a visit during the event. It was a treat to meet some readers of the weekly newsletter as well […]
Countdown to NetVU Nashville
Gotta Be In It to Win It NetVU is tomorrow and I have to say, I’m pretty excited. We’ll be at the event meeting and geeting for the duration, and if you’re feeling friendly you can stop by our booth for a free entry into the big gadget giveaway that will see some of you […]
NetVU Nashville Goodies Giveaway
Music City Meetup Team Archway is coming to Music City for NetVU this year, and if you’ll be in Nashville for the big event, now is your chance to win one of those fabulous whatchamacallits I’m always giving out. Just stop by the booth to enter, and you can even visit with us a second […]
YouTube TV Throws Down the Gauntlet
Better Meditation through Technology Okay, if you’ve been with us for a while you know that I’m a big proponent of meditation. I’m not looking to manifest myself on the astral plane or anything—at least during the week—but it’s pretty hard to argue with the obvious benefits of taking a few minutes on a daily […]
Gadget Giveaway and Upgrading the Oscars
To Err is Human I’m sure by now even those who weren’t participating in any drinking games or office pools involved with this year’s Oscars have heard of the awkward snafu that ensued when the wrong winner was announced for the biggest prize of the night. Jokes about “La-La Land” winning the popular vote and […]
Blackberry Smartphones: In Loving Memory
Even More Amazon If you’re looking for yet another way that Amazon Prime account besides free two day shipping on a countably infinite range of products and a free six-month subscription to the totally-not-failing Washington Post (no, seriously!), Amazon Prime Music is pretty easy to fall in love with. The music streaming service is free to use […]
Remember When Flying Was Fun?
Head In the Clouds You know, flying commercial is often an experience in and of itself, but I’ve always secretly fantasized about owning a private jet. It just seems like the most convenient way to go about one’s travels…think about it. No cramped seats. No spending an entire flight with my carry-on under my feet […]
This Email May Be Habit-Forming
Thanks, Tommy Just in case there are any Atlanta Falcons supporters in my readership, don’t take this personally…I even waited a day to say this out of respect. Still, I have to say, seeing the Patriots rally from a 25 point deficit to win their 5th Super Bowl was one of the most exciting things […]
Greetings from the Republic of California!
Bearing Down After coming out red-hot to start the season, my Bruins have been on a bit of a slide lately.
Underwear And Politics
Serenity Now You know, I try to avoid discussions on the subject, but it seems every possible human interaction leads to an open forum on politics these days. I can’t get through so much as a supermarket checkout line without the clerk relaying the latest memes from Twitter, and I get it…I do. It is […]
