Conflicker 3–April Fool’s Joke or Computer Armegeddon?

Two things we know for sure.  Conflicker 3, the latest computer “worm” has infected millions of computers and it’s going to do something this Wednesday, April 1.  Beyond that, opinions vary dramatically on what effect this thing might have on your computer.
Worst case is that the hackers who created this monster have evil plans to [...]

A Special Note for Real Estate Agents

Mining the Store is a podcast for all small business owners so we usually don’t get industry-specific.  But it would seem that our last post might have particular relevance to those in the real estate business.
We all know that this is a difficult and confusing time for potential home buyers and sellers. It seems like [...]

Small Business Email Marketing

I’ve written on this topic in the past, but it’s so important I think it’s worth revisiting.  As I write this, I’m printing a coupon I received via email this morning.  It’s from a company that emails me often and I look fortward to their messages.
Here’s the thing.  It costs virtually nothing to send email.  [...]

It’s “Quality Season”

With Spring come baseball, the Final Four, longer days, and lots of the color green.  The long winter is over (at least here in the Heartland of America) and it’s time to get back outside.
Another sign of spring is the beginning of the process for choosing winners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and [...]

No Recession on St. Patrick’s Day

As Casey Stengel might have said, “Nobody goes to the St. Patrick’s parade anymore.  It’s too crowded.” As you can see by the photo, St. Louisians came out in droves for both St. Patrick’s parade this week.
In spite of $6.50 Guinness and $8.00 shots, Irish (and those who wish they were Irish) celebrated the [...]

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

March 17 is a day when any self-respecting blogger of Irish descent almost has to blog about St. Paddy’s Day.  You know, the wearin’ o’ the green, Erin Go Brah, Irish coffee and all the rest.  It’s also a day when a lot of “pretenders” put on silly green hats and “kiss me” buttons in [...]

The 912 Project

Mining the Store is a business blog, not a political blog.  But it seems that lately I’ve been writing about politics more often.  Obviously the political situation, especially the economy and efforts to fix it, are crucially important to all of us trying to make a living.
We humans are complex creatures.  We have differing views [...]

A Small Business that Got Big

Lest anyone think that MTS is anti-big business, let me set the record straight.  What we’re about here is fair competition.  Big companies  aren’t inherantly evil (with a few notable exceptions).  Every large business is just a really sucessful small business and we should try to learn from their successes (and their failures).
Case in point:  [...]

A Win/Win for Buy Local

Around here we’re pretty much coffee fanatics.  At least my bride is.  The doctor took me off caffeine a couple of years ago so I guess I’m a faux-coffee fanatic.  Anyway, recently our faithful Bunn started leaking water.  Not a lot of water, but enough to be a pain in the neck.  There’s nothing worse [...]

D-Fence (clap, clap)

One of the perks of being a blogger is that you can put whatever you want on your own blog.  Today I’m going to depart from the usual to brag on one of my kids.  Son #3, Patrick Buckley MSMAS, today successfully defended his master’s thesis at the University of Alabama, Huntsville.
After Patrick saw the [...]