10 Awesome & Inspiring Blogs for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners

Are you an entrepreneur, solo business owner or freelancer? Are you keen to get regular business advice but don’t have the time to work out which blogs to subscribe to? Well, we’ve done the research for you.

Here’s a collection of business blogs aimed at entrepreneurs and small businesses. These have been chosen for their insights, advice, presentation and overall appeal to business people. Hopefully you’ll find these blogs cover all the business management advice and business trends analysis for your needs.

1. Harvard Business Review

Harvard Business Review is a staple in any entrepreneur blog collection. The blog delivers timely business analysis and professional management advice.

2. Young Entrepreneur

When you’re just starting our with your business venture, things can be a little tough. Young Entrepreneur focuses on the things you’ll need to know – financing, bootstrapping, identifying opportunities and making sales.

3. 64 Notes

64 Notes gets straight to the nuggets of gold by bypassing straightforward management tips and filling each post with those eye-opening things that change your business from alright to amazing. They also write a lot about how to avoid being the start-up that failed.

4. The Personal MBA

The Personal MBA is a blog dedicated to teaching all the tips and tricks you would have learned if you had done a degree in business. It recommends books, summarises books and draws on advice given freely by great minds in business. If you follow this blog you will learn a great deal about managing your business.

5. Instigator Blog

Instigator Blog is a very insightful blog, mainly discussing thoughts relevant to small business and entrepreneurs, written by an entrepreneur as he works on his business.

6. Fast Company

Fast Company is a major business blog, covering business news and trends. It’s vital information if you want to know where business is heading.

7. Entrepreneur Blog

Entrepreneur Blog is a site dedicated to providing business insights to entrepreneurs. It will analyse business failures, successes and trends, while offering sensible advice for any business owner.

8. The Entrepreneurial Mind

The Entrepreneurial Mind is a business blog written by a Belmont University professor of Entrepreneurship. His academic insight into the world of the entrepreneur is a great balance to the news and trends offered by other blogs.

9. Creative Web Biz

Creative Web Biz is a great blog for all the artistic entrepreneurs out there. This is a place for those people who are entrepreneurs, but don’t much care for all the business management advice and trends. This blog is entirely focused on how to get that art out there and sold. Highly recommended for musicians, artists, and makers of other crafts.

10. Work Happy

Work Happy is a blog offering advice for anyone in business for themselves. It’s useful for freelancers, small business owners and entrepreneurs alike. It features a lot of video presentations from entrepreneurs to keep things interesting.

Bonus: Entrepreneurship Interviews
Entrepreneurship Interviews added itself on to the list by being a wealth of information in the form of interviews with entrepreneurs. It’s not much to look at, but there is a lot to be gained by listening to what other entrepreneurs say candidly about their own business ventures

Makeuseof.com

PlayStation Phone: This Could Be a Thing

PlayStation Phone speculation intensified Wednesday as blog Engadget showed off what appears to be an actual Sony Ericsson phone with PlayStation buttons.
Sony declined to comment on the rumor (same as last time this rumor surfaced), but Engadget reports that it's heading to market "soon" -- like 2011 soon. The prototype unit shown in the blog's photos has a long multitouch enabled touchpad in the center, support for microSD cards, 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, and the screen is 3.7 to 4.1 inches.
Given Sony's push for a fully integrated PlayStation Network across all its devices, a PlayStation Phone doesn't seem outlandish. Getting it to market right after the Windows Phone 7, however, seems risky.

PCWorld.

Facebook Clickjacking Attack Spreading Through Share Button

Facebook users came under attack from a new clickjacking scam that could result in lost money as well as aggravation, spread by the social networking site's Share button.

The scam culminates with a list of surveys, similar to those used in a 'Dislike' button clickware scam discovered earlier this week and a Like button scam uncovered in June, according to anti-virus developer Sophos, which uncovered the con.

Those behind this latest Share button scam want Facebook users to answer a few questions within a simple survey; one blank is the request for a cell phone number. By providing their cell phone number without reading the fine print, users are subscribing to a paid-phone, automatically renewing service that charges $5 per week via the cell phone bill.

"Unfortunately, most people won't read the fine print and will willingly hand over the information and likely won't notice the charges until the end of the month," said Onur Komili, researcher at SophosLabs, Canada, in a company blog.
Some consumers remain wary to conduct mobile transactions but perception, reality aren't in sync
The State of Mobile Security

Facebook has removed fan pages associated with the scam, he said.

In this latest scam, Facebook account-holders see a fan page and are offered the chance to see the "Top 10 Funny T-Shirt Fails ROFL," according to anti-virus developer Sophos, which came across the clickjacking scheme today. Once unwitting Facebook users load the page, the tab grasps the malicious script from an external domain that forces users to automatically share the page on their profile, said Komili.

Those using Firefox plug-in NoScript receive a warning, cautioning them that NoScript "intercepted a mouse or keyboard interaction with a partially hidden element." At this point, users have the option to keep the element locked, which is recommended, or disregarding NoScript's recommendation and opening up the link.

However, those Facebook account-holders not running NoScript or not paying attention will find their profile pages sharing content that links them to a malicious domain, said Komili.

"Clicking the link sends you to one of many fan pages all serving the exact same content. It seems a fan page is chosen at random," he said.

Anyone victimized by this scam should select "Remove" to clear the content from their profile and help prevent the further spreading of the social networking disease, said Komili.

Sophos was in the process of publishing detection of this so-called Sharejacking threat as a Troj/FBJack-A and its software is blocking the domain that hosts the malicious code, he said.

Informationweek.com

Chrome OS tablet from HTC reported to ship in November

 An HTC tablet running Google's Chrome operating system will be sold by Verizon Wireless in late November, according to an unnamed source cited by the blog Downloadsquad.
The blog's source specifically said that the tablet will appear on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. The blog said the tablet would probably be heavily subsidized by Verizon to compete against the Apple iPad.
HTC and Verizon could not be reached for comment.
The blog also speculated that the HTC tablet would have plenty of popular features, in keeping with HTC's Nexus One smartphone tradition. Those include a 1280-by-720 multitouch display for the tablet, 2GB of RAM, and a minimum of 32GB of storage, the blog said.
But the big interest value would be Chrome OS, since Google has mostly made a splash with Android for smartphones, and a number of Android tablets are expected in the coming months from Samsung and others. Samsung is reported to be showing a new Android 2.2 tablet at a consumer electronics show in Berlin early in September.

FierceWireless reported in July that an HTC spokesman had noted widespread interest in tablets and said HTC would participate if it could find a way to offer "clear value and differentiate ourselves."

Chrome was introduced as an operating system to power netbooks, not tablets, although some analysts have noted that Chrome could work in both.

Computerworld

What can WiMAX bring to smart grid program?

GE exec Mark Hura looks at ambitions for smart grid program.
 GE last week announced that it has launched a pilot program to implement smart grid technology that uses Clearwire's WiMAX network to deliver data to both customers and utility companies.
What makes a carrier green?
 GE says that it will work with utility company Consumers Energy to deliver WiMAX-based grid sensors and energy meters to more than 6 million customers in Michigan. Smart grid technology is typically defined as any information technology that helps power companies more efficiently monitor power demand and allocate capacity. GE says that this particular smart grid pilot project is intended "to demonstrate how real-time wireless communications between meters in the home and the utility's network management and control systems can improve efficiency and reliability for all."
 In Network World's interview with Mark Hura, GE Energy's smart grid commercial leader, we discuss GE's broader ambitions for its smart grid program, its timeline for deployment and its reasons for choosing WiMAX over LTE.

 What do you hope to achieve with this pilot program?


Our WiMAX smart grid deployment is an opportunity to showcase the advantages of leveraging 4G communications for smart grids for both utility companies and consumers. It allows utilities to have a standard communications technology that includes the proper security protocols. WiMAX technology is based off of standards that are already being used in the industry.
 This is a communications standard that has the appropriate amount of bandwidth and latency, and that allows utilities to use their networks for more than automated metering and communicating with metered devices. It also allows for enabling renewable energy sources on the grid. It has more capabilities than the infrastructures that exist today and they allow for new applications on the networks such as alternative energy sources and storage technologies on a community level.

 Can you give a timeline of what we can expect to see implemented and when?
Our timeline is going to be based on utility decisions of how quickly they are going to implement their own road maps for deploying this technology on the grid. The important thing to remember when we look at WiMAX technology is that it will be widely deployed by end of 2010, covering all major markets across the U.S. So based on that I think you'll start to see deployments picking up in late 2010 and then accelerate over the next two to three years.
Why should consumers and businesses care about WiMAX-enabled smart grid technology?
Consumers and businesses will have the opportunity to understand how they use their energy and to understand how to manage their energy consumption more effectively. Having a communications platform based on 4G technology can provide real-time information back to consumers. It can tell you what your usage is at a particular moment and that can help project what your usage may be into the same day or the next day. So for instance it can tell you how you can use different energy sources for different times of the day. It can tell you how to best program devices that perform energy-intensive tasks to work only at off-peak hours to save money.

Why did you decide to go with WiMAX instead of waiting for LTE?

We took a look at the two real 4G paths that carriers are deploying, WiMAX and LTE. LTE has not been released commercially yet, whereas WiMAX is based on an IEEE standard and is commercially deployable right now. It also has a huge ecosystem all around the world. Eventually we see a future ability for appliances to leverage both WiMAX and LTE but for right now we think this is a good opportunity to leverage an existing network technology to benefit both consumers and businesses today.

Networkworld.com

Scientists find turbulence in Saturn's rings

The ringed planet Saturn, brilliant jewel of the night sky, has revealed new insights into the behavior of its rings for scientists studying signals from the Cassini spacecraft still flying through the Saturnian neighborhood after six years in orbit.

"We now have the clearest view of the rings' beautiful crystalline structure pasted onto the real night sky," said Jeffrey Cuzzi of NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, leader of the Cassini-Huygens mission. "Gazillions of icy particles are constantly colliding with each other up there as they orbit the planet ... moving as waves under the influence of moonlets we've discovered orbiting inside gaps between the rings."

The tumultuous nature of the particles in Saturn's seven main rings and the gaps between the planet's rings, where those tiny moonlets cause ring edges to wave like ripples on the shorelines of space, are being described today in the journal Science.
Saturn's rings, through even the best of telescopes, look like series of thin flat discs grooved like an old phonograph record. But that's far from the truth: From Cassini's images and data, researchers have determined that each ring is a turbulent collection of orbiting particles - 95 percent water ice glistening in sunlight and the rest some strange kind of rubble tinged in red-brown here and there.
"That color may be some kind of organic materials," said Cuzzi, "but to me it looks like just plain rust - iron oxide. How it got there we don't yet know."
The ice chunks range in size from a few inches to tens of yards. As they orbit the planet, gravity turns some into huge clumps and pulls others apart, and they batter each other chaotically.
Beyond Saturn's major rings, Cassini scientists report they have detected several other faint rings that seem to be composed of minute amounts rubble and "microscopic dust."
The physics involved in their evolution suggests they are similar to the "protoplanetary discs" of rubble that on a much larger scale mark the earliest stages in the formation of the planets in the solar system.
But just how long ago the rings of Saturn formed and where their material came from originally remains a mystery, the scientists say.
The rings and the icy matter they contain are far from stable in their orbits around the planet. Instead, they appear to be changing constantly.
"Saturn's rings show dramatic variability (over) decades, years, even weeks," said the scientists.
Cassini's instruments have also revealed that strange objects occasionally shoot through the rings from far beyond the planet - comets, or asteroids, perhaps, but know one knows, Cuzzi said.
Each of Saturn's rings is labeled by a letter according date when it was discovered. Between Saturn's A and F rings lies a space 200 miles wide called the Encke gap. The gap holds several "ringlets" and gravity from a strange object named Pan, only 12 miles in diameter, disrupts the rings and causes waves along their edges.
Another gap exists between the thin ringlets of the Encke gap. It is called the Keeler gap, and here Cassini has discovered a lumpy little moonlet only 5 miles across that is also creating waves on the edges of Saturn's rings.
Amid all of Saturn's rings and ringlets lie 13 significant gaps, where Cassini mission scientists have been hunting for evidence of other moonlets. The absence of moonlets inside Saturn's C ring remains "baffling," the scientists say.
For now, the origin of the rings and much of their turbulent behavior will remain unknown, the scientists say, "until we have understood the powerful dynamical processes that have formed, and continue to shape, these elegant structures on time scales reaching from yesterday to billions of years" ago.

From http://www.sfgate.com/

Cisco Quits WiMax Radio Business

The decision to cease making WiMax base stations gives a boost to Cisco's Long-Term Evolution portfolio.

 WiMax is taking another hit as another major supplier -- Cisco -- confirmed that it is quitting the WiMax radio access network business and will cease making WiMax base stations. However, the networking company said it will continue supplying IP core and WiMax edge products like Wi-Fi and femtocells to WiMax customers.


The decision gives a boost to Cisco's Long-Term Evolution portfolio, which was strengthened in recent months by Cisco's acquisition of Starent Networks. Clearwire, which is majority owned by Sprint Nextel, has been the major deployer of WiMax in the United States.
Cisco got into the WiMax business through its acquisition of Navini Networks for $330 million in October 2007, but most carriers have since snubbed WiMax for the more efficient LTE. WiMax has been more popular in non-U.S. markets and its users, including Clearwire, have noted that it is relatively easy to shift network infrastructure -- and subscribers -- from WiMax to LTE.

Navini had a head start in WiMax and had supplied equipment to several startups scattered around the world. Its largest U.S. customer, Xanadoo, in Texas, said it had signed up more than 14,000 subscribers two years ago. Navini's use of MIMO antennas and Smart Beamforming technologies received high marks from many carriers. Navini's networks also were selling in countries with emerging business technologies.
When Cisco acquired Starent for $2.9 billion a few months ago, the acquisition also appeared to seal the doom of WiMax as a Cisco base station supplier. Starent was already gaining major contracts from LTE carriers like Verizon Wireless, which is scheduled to roll out the first U.S. LTE network later this year.

InformationWeek