Career Focus Magazine - Another New Product from CIMC

I wanted to introduce you to a new product from CIMC. Career Focus is a new career exploration and preparation guide. This 32-page, full-color magazine combines essential guidance with web activities and "skill builder" opportunities to help prepare users for college and the workplace.

Topics include career clusters and pathways; plans of study; personal selling points; online tools; college planning checklists; interview strategies; and keys to career success. Career Focus also provides workplace re-entry strategies for those who have been absent from the workplace for a number of reasons. It is a concise guide to planned success for high school students and adults.

Download sample pages from Career Focus (PDF file, 136 KB)

Contact the Customer Service Division at 800.654.4502 to place your order today!

TweepsMap: Map Your Twitter Followers

I found an interesting site called TweepsMap that allows you to visualize your Twitter followers by country, state, or city. I have always been a big fan of Google Analytics for this blog, but TweepsMap helps with my curiosity of just where my followers are coming from. I also think TweepsMaps can assist you in determining your marketing effectiveness with Twitter.

According to the site:

Will you send tweets without my consent?
No, we only send tweets if you keep the automatic Tweet checkbox on the home page selected, or explicitly click the Tweet button on the map

Why do I need to authorize TweepsMap every time I visit the site?
We don't store the access token, once you leave our website and your session expires we delete the authorization token you provided us from Twitter

Will you store my twitter authentication credentials once I leave your site?
No, we only keep your authentication token as long as you stay on our website.

Not all my followers are showing on the map?
Some twitter accounts don't have their location set, or is not set to a city, state or country hence we are unable to determine the location of these accounts. Our tests have shown that less than 10% of followers don't resolve to accurate locations.

Try TweepsMap and let us know what you think.

25 Worst Passwords of 2011

Is "password" your password? If so change it immediately! I realize the temptation to use a simple password that you can remember and to use it on all of your accounts, but it isn't very smart. If they can hack one account then the next account will be hacked (let's say your bank account).

SplashData created the following list of 25 worst passwords based on millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers. Here is the top 25:

1. password
2. 123456
3.12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football
 
According to Splashdata CEO Morgan Slain:

"...if consumers or businesses are using any of the passwords in the list, their passwords should be changed immediately."
 
"Hackers," Slain said, "can easily break into many accounts just by repeatedly trying common passwords. Even though people are encouraged to select secure, strong passwords, many people continue to choose weak, easy-to-guess ones, placing themselves at risk from fraud and identity theft," Slain said. "What you don't want is a password that is easily guessable. If you have a password that is short or common or a word in the dictionary, it's like leaving your door open for identity thieves."
 
Even though thieves have more sophisticated hacking tools at their disposal today than ever before, they still tend to prefer easy targets, Slain said.

SplashData offers some basic advice to make your passwords more secure:

• Use passwords of eight characters or more with mixed types of characters.
• Avoid using the same username/password combination for multiple websites.
• Use different passwords for each new website or service you sign up for.

Please read the article in its entirety at: When "Most Popular" Isn't A Good Thing: Worst Passwords of the Year – And How to Fix Them

50 Free Apps We’re Most Thankful For

Image from Lifehacker.com

Earlier this week, Lifehacker asked readers to share the free apps they are most thankful for and they received thousands of votes covering the desktop, mobile phone, and devices in between.

I am happy to see that a few of my own favorites are on the list including Dropbox and Skype, but I have also found several apps that I'm not using that I need to check out.

Here are Lifehacker's top 50 free apps we're all most thankful for (and a few of their own).

Do You Matter?

You matter today...Change a heart...Change a mind...Change a mood today. This is your assignment....YOU matter!

Angela Maiers gave a great presentation during TEDxDesMoines that I wanted to share with you (link):


I also wanted to share Angela's blog and a portion of her latest blog post:

The 12 Most Important Ways to Let People Know They Matter

1. Begin and End your sentences with “YOU”
2. Acknowledge Everyone
3. Listen With Interest
4. Click HERE to read the rest of Angela's list.

Please take a few minutes to read the rest of her post. See what a little encouragement does for this kid?