Luminosity of Free Software, Episode 10
02:30 - 19:00 Plasma Workspaces 2: http://community.kde.org/Plasma/Tokamak6 19:00 - 27:00 QML: Is it Javascript? Not really .. 27:30 - 47:00 Vivaldi open har...
By: Aaron Seigo
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Luminosity of Free Software, Episode 10 - Video
I understand sales and appreciate good marketing. In fact, I just completed the manuscript for my new book, "The Smartest Sales Book You'll Ever Read", which explores these subjects and reaches some groundbreaking conclusions about them.
Jon Stein is the CEO of Betterment, an online investing site. I am a fan of this site. It follows sound investing principles, charges low fees and uses low management fee exchange-traded funds in the stock and bond portions of the portfolios of its clients. A competing site, Wealthfront, follows the same basic philosophy. Investors who are using retail brokers would be well advised to consider Betterment and Wealthfront. They are far more appealing options.
Both Betterment and Wealthfront are struggling to generate assets under management. According to its Form ADV Report filed with the SEC in October 2012, Betterment had only $159 million in assets and 18,855 accounts. Wealthfront reported $187 million and 2,704 accounts in its Form ADV report also filed in October 2012.
While these online sites fill an important niche for investors, they do have their limitations. A recent article in Forbes by Stein was titled "Why I Choose Software Over A Human For Investment Advice". It really was a marketing piece for Betterment. Stein makes the case for replacing personal contact with investment advisers with online services like Betterment. He correctly notes that software is not influenced by emotions and has no conflicts of interest, among other benefits. That's all true, but his argument falls far short of making his case.
Online sites like Betterment and Wealthfront may be excellent alternatives for smaller investors who do not require a customized portfolio. For investors with significant assets, they have serious limitations. For example, as I noted in a previous blog post, laddered bonds may be suitable for some larger investors. This is not an option offered by online sites.
There are other constraints of online investment firms. They only provide investment advice. There are many other aspects to wealth enhancement. These include advising on investments in tax-deferred plans not managed by the adviser and considering the benefits of tax-free bonds, capital-loss carryovers, phase out of miscellaneous deductions and alternative minimum tax issues and many other issues.
Wealth enhancement is only one aspect of wealth management. A competent adviser will be concerned about wealth transfer, wealth protection and charitable giving, if appropriate.
A wealth adviser will review all of your insurance policies, your income tax returns, estate plan, buy-sell agreements, employment agreements, health care proxies, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, powers of attorney and all other agreements relating to your financial life. He or she will become your virtual chief financial officer and will be the focal point for all financial decisions.
I wish Betterment, Wealthfront and all other online registered investment adviser firms continued success. Every client they get will not become a victim of the securities industry, and that is a very positive result. However, these services will never replace those of us who are real wealth advisers to our clients.
Dan Solin is the director of investor advocacy for the BAM Alliance and a wealth adviser with Buckingham Asset Management. He is a New York Times best-selling author of the Smartest series of books. His latest book, 7 Steps to Save Your Financial Life Now, was published on Dec. 31, 2012.
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Software Won't Replace Humans for Investing Advice
PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Guidance Software, Inc. (GUID) today announced the Company will issue financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013 after market close on Thursday, May 2, 2013. A conference call is scheduled for2:00 pm PT / 5:00 pm ET.
Guidance Software's President and Chief Executive Officer Victor Limongelli and Chief Financial Officer Barry Plaga will discuss the financial results followed by a question and answer session with analysts and investors.
To participate in the conference call, please dial in five minutes prior to the start time at:
You may also listen to the call live or hear a re-broadcast later by visiting http://investors.guidancesoftware.com/events.cfm. A replay of this call will be available from 8:00 pm ET Thursday, May 2, 2013 through 11:59 pm ET, Thursday, May 9, 2013, by calling (404) 537-3406 or toll-free at (855) 859-2056, passcode 30942149.
About Guidance Software:
Guidance Software is recognized worldwide as the industry leader in digital investigative solutions. Its EnCase Enterprise platform is used by numerous government agencies, more than 65 percent of the Fortune 100, and more than 40 percent of the Fortune 500, to conduct digital investigations of servers, laptops, desktops, and mobile devices. Built on the EnCase Enterprise platform are market-leading electronic discovery and cyber security solutions, EnCase eDiscovery and EnCase Cybersecurity, which enable organizations to respond to litigation discovery requests, proactively perform data discovery for compliance purposes, and conduct speedy and thorough security incident response. For more information about Guidance Software, visit http://www.guidancesoftware.com.
EnCase, EnScript, FastBloc, EnCE, EnCEP, Guidance Software and Tableau are registered trademarks or trademarks owned by Guidance Software in the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be used without prior written permission. All other trademarks and copyrights referenced in this press release are the property of their respective owners.
GUID-F
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Guidance Software to Announce 2013 First Quarter Results
SolarWinds Will Distribute Its Standard Toolset to IT Professionals Who Register by May 31st
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwired - Apr 17, 2013) - SolarWinds (NYSE: SWI), a leading provider of powerful and affordable IT management software, for a limited time is offering IT professionals in Australia and New Zealand the opportunity to get a free copy of its SolarWinds Standard Toolset.
SolarWinds Standard Toolset is a collection of essential network discovery and troubleshooting tools that enable engineers to diagnose problems and manage SME networks.
SolarWinds Standard Toolset helps professionals to:
"We are pleased to announce that we are offering IT professionals in Australia and New Zealand free copies of our SolarWinds Standard Toolset from now until May 31," said Sanjay Castelino, vice president and market leader of SolarWinds. "Standard Toolset normally costs AUD280, but as long as IT professionals register with SolarWinds at http://go.solarwinds.com/apac/netman/standard-toolset by May 31, 2013, they can download a free copy of the software which will give anyone that downloads it an easy way to diagnose and analyse their network in order to ensure that it is working properly."
A recent NetAdmin survey of 312 Australia-based IT Professionals, conducted in October 2012 by SolarWinds suggests that:
"SolarWinds free tools are a staple of engineers. The free tools provide an opportunity for engineers in Australia and New Zealand to respond to the issues related to shrinking IT budgets."
Designed with feedback from the thwack forum, the SolarWinds user community of over 150,000 IT professionals, the robust product portfolio from SolarWinds includes network management solutions, server and application management and dozens of free tools for IT management, and a free Alert Management product.
IT professionals in Australia and New Zealand can register here to take advantage of this incredible Standard Toolset offer until May 31st.
*The SolarWinds survey was conducted in October, 2012 via an online survey service, resulting in over 312 system administrators' survey responses. No prizes or incentives were given.
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SolarWinds Offers Free Software to Help IT Professionals in Australia and New Zealand Improve Management of IT Networks
In celebration of Earth Week, try four small, full-featured (and free!) software programs that don't use much disk space or memory.
Meson Player (32bit, 64bit, Mac)
Meson Player is a tiny music player without a conventional graphical user interface (GUI). The lack of a GUI puts the bulk of the application control in hot keys rather than the usual mouse and click. Using your keyboard's number pad, you can quickly skip tracks, turn volume up or down, and save and open playlists. Meson Player can handle a variety of audio file formats as well as Internet Radio playlists. Meson Player also supports the multimedia keys on some keyboards for advanced functionality.
Barely consuming any system resources, the software leaves a light footprint on your computer and declutters your computer screen. Just set it, forget it, and remember your hot keys. The only issue for users without multimedia keys on their keyboards is that they should be prepared to sacrifice their NumPads for controlling Meson Player.
Writemonkey
Self-dubbed as "zenware," Writemonkey falls somewhere between note-taker and word processor. It was designed to allow writers to dump ideas onto a blank canvases, quickly and easily. By removing all the distractions of standard word processors and providing a basic black background with yellow-green text, Writemonkey embraces the idea of "write now and edit later." Don't let it fool you with its basic interface, though--Writemonkey is a full-fledged word processor. Right-clicking will bring up the full context menu that allows a host of additional feature such as changing the look, color, layout, typeface, and size. My favorite feature? The option to hear old-time typewriter sounds when keys are pressed.
With intuitive and basic design, Writemonkey is a great app for distraction-free writing. It's light, fast, and portable--there's no installation required. Simply download and run the executable, and you've taken the next step toward writing that Hollywood blockbuster.
Tiny Burner
With the developments of smaller and cheaper USB drives and the ability to back up your data via online "cloud," CD burning doesn't have the same appeal. Every now and then, however, you'll find yourself reaching for a blank disc to burn family photos for that one relative who insists on keeping their Windows 98 machine. And more likely than not, your computer will lack any disc-burning software aside from the built-in Windows program. Tiny Burner is here to help users in such times. There's no need to fork out money for software you use once a year. Tiny Burner can handle all types of optical discs--standard CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, and the now defunct HD-DVDs.
Load the disc you want to copy, and Tiny Burner automatically runs. Drag and drop files to create your own ISO. With Tiny Burner you have access to a large number of media-creation tools offered in paid suites. As befits the theme, it all comes with a minimum drag on your system resources.
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Leave a smaller PC footprint