Bring Back Those Days

"Those were the days." A common phase among people that are out in the real world. Being a kid meant having summer vacations where you had about 90 days of freedom to invent and create without getting smack for coloring outside the lines, and suddenly losing summer feels like losing an arm in a battle you don't remember having. Until the day you die, you're going to have phantom twinges of hope for a three-month holiday that is never ever coming. We can bring it back; in fact summer vacation happens every night. The fun of summer was that you were free from the routine that someone else invented for you. So one of the things that you can do is learn a new skill or take up a new hobby such as application development or learning a new language. Fun fact: doing new things releases dopamine in the brain which can dramatically increase your mood and your overall outlook on life. Get out there and have summer vacation every night.

Coffee: In the News Again

Doesn't it seem like every month there is a different article touting the benefits of coffee and then directly followed by one that says it is bad? Compounds native to the coffee bean include antioxidants that have been linked to a lower risk of skin cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and diabetes. The latest, published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings, studied health records of 45,000 people who reported their coffee-drinking habits and concluded that younger people under age 55 who drank more than 28 cups a week were 21% more likely to die prematurely during the 17 year study than those who drank less. So is that morning cup of coffee a health-booster or a health hazard? That answer depends on how the studies that examine this question are designed, and by extension, the type of coffee in question — as well as who is doing the drinking. Unlike the latest analysis above, some studies in the past did not adjust for factors other than coffee that could affect outcomes like mortality, cancer rates or cognitive measures. To complicate matters even more, these effects can greatly vary from person to person. Plus, our bodies tend to adapt to the various components in coffee, including caffeine, so each individual’s response to it may even change over time.

Cloud Telephony

We have all heard that IP telephony can really improve a business but do you the actual benefits? One of the main advantages of internet phones is the simplicity that they offer which can be a huge relief when you consider just how many different ways we have to communicate. Cloud telephony requires no on-site equipment. That means you don’t have a PBX box taking up space in a closet, or thousands of feet of copper wiring in your walls or cable ducts. In addition to being simple, it is also more mobile. In a world where work never really stays at work, it is good to be able to use any device to access your documents. Cloud telephony products’ simple, flexible design greatly streamline phone system management. And the less time spent managing your phones, the more time you have to do value-adding work. Cloud phone service enables you to focus on what really matters