Posted June 11th, 2010
There is a running joke with several of DuckDuckBlue’s clients that when it comes to email, I tend to be a bit…epic. I don’t deny it — coming from the background of being a geek and a professional writer, I just can’t help myself.
Recently, I received some valuable, and greatly appreciated, feedback from a couple of new clients about my epic tendencies. They told me that they felt overwhelmed by the amount of information I provided and left them wondering what to do next and whether they should move forward at all.
I was very upset to learn I’d caused them to feel that way, and since then I’ve been pondering the best way to avoid it in the future. It’s difficult to handle, though, because it’s a conflict between two of our core values.
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Posted in DuckDuckBlog, DuckDuckBlue | 1 Comment »
Posted April 21st, 2010
This week is Administrative Professional’s Week, and today in particular is the “official” Administrative Professionals Day (née Secretaries Day). I’d like to take a moment to express my appreciation to DuckDuckBlue’s two Virtual Assistants, Candy Beauchamp and Sara Carbaugh.
Candy is the Chief Number Cruncher at OffAssist, a VA bookkeeping firm based in Austin, Texas. In addition to being a Virtual Assistant extraordinaire, she’s a good friend, and was one of DuckDuckBlue’s first clients. If you’re in need of bookkeeping services, Candy is the one to get.
Sara is the brains behind Your Creative Ally (formerly Right Click Office Services). She offers everything from administrative assistance to social media wizardry for “creatives” — actors, authors, artists, and probably some other professions beginning with “A”. If you’re creative and you know it — call Sara. 
I can’t say enough about how wonderful both of these ladies are. It’s a line everybody uses, but they honestly do take care of the things that would keep me from getting done all the things — well, all the things you guys are waiting for me to get done. 
They’re awesome, and everybody should know it.
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Posted in DuckDuckBlog, DuckDuckBlue | 3 Comments »
Posted April 3rd, 2010
Web support involves more than just fixing websites. Part of what I do is educate clients about life online, and today’s lesson is about passwords.
I’m going to talk about passwords because someone I know — a VA — experienced a password hack recently, involving a PayPal account. Yes, it really does happen to everyday people, even people you know, and I don’t want it to happen to you.
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Posted in DuckDuckBlog, Security | No Comments »
Posted February 15th, 2010
Wordpress 2.9.2 has just been released to patch a recently-discovered security bug that allows logged-in users to view posts that have been sent to the trash, regardless of who authored the post. It appears that any logged-in user can view these posts — even “Subscribers”, who generally have little if any access at all.
Wordpress is recommending an immediate update for any site that allows untrusted users to create accounts, which would include any with open registration. I would extend that to any site that has non-administrator users — even trusted users shouldn’t be able to see other user’s posts, especially deleted ones. (They were probably deleted for a reason.)
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Posted in DuckDuckBlog, Security, Software, Wordpress | No Comments »
Posted February 14th, 2010
One of DuckDuckBlue’s commitments to our clients is to provide superior customer service — we want your entire experience with us to be a positive one. I take this obligation very seriously, and am constantly on the lookout for ways we can improve.
Being a business customer, every so often I get a phone call or letter from my bank’s merchant services rep, offering amazing rates and an avalanche of new customers if I sign DuckDuckBlue up to accept payments by credit/debit card. We currently accept invoice payments by check, money order, and Amazon Payments, and though I’m occasionally asked about PayPal (which we do not accept), I can’t remember a client ever asking about paying by credit card.
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Posted in DuckDuckBlog, DuckDuckBlue | 4 Comments »
Posted January 30th, 2010
Internet Explorer 6 Users: At last count, some 20% of web users were still using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 browser. Thanks to Google, that number will be dropping drastically in the near future.
Starting March 1, Google Apps will no longer work with IE6. This is only the beginning — expect it to spread until all Google services are inaccessible or severely crippled in IE6. It could have something to do with the massive attack against Google that exploited a security hole in IE6 (the same one we warned about earlier this month), but honestly, it’s about moving forward.
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Posted in DuckDuckBlog, Firefox, Google, Security, Software | 1 Comment »
Posted January 22nd, 2010
As many of you know, at DuckDuckBlue, we’re not limited to supporting websites — we’ll happily set up your other web services, including the wide variety of offerings from Google.
It doesn’t end there, though. We don’t just want to help you Googlify your business, we want to help you get the most out of it as well. If you use Gmail and are a Firefox user, today is your day.
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Posted in DuckDuckBlog, Firefox, Google, Software | No Comments »
Posted January 14th, 2010
Windows and Internet Explorer users: Make sure you’ve updated to the latest version of Internet Explorer. Microsoft issued a security bulletin this week warning that all versions of IE are vulnerable to a new attack.
In plain English: All you have to do is land on the wrong website for the attackers to be able to launch malicious programs on your computer.
An urgent security update has been released to fix the problem, something Microsoft doesn’t usually do. If you have Automatic Updates enabled, then your system will take care of itself — if not, you should immediately download the fixes from Microsoft Update.
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Posted in DuckDuckBlog, Security, Software | No Comments »
Posted January 5th, 2010
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!
Fremde, etranger, stranger.
Gluklich zu sehen, je suis enchante,
Happy to see you,
Bleibe, reste, stay.
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome
Im DuckDuckBlue, au DuckDuckBlue, to DuckDuckBlue.
I’m so pleased that you stopped by DuckDuckBlue’s freshly-launched DuckDuckBlog. For those unfamiliar with DuckDuckBlue, we’re a web consulting firm for Virtual Assistants and other web-based professionals — we provide end-to-end web support and other online technology services to make your online life easier.
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Posted in DuckDuckBlog, DuckDuckBlue | No Comments »
