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You haven’t given up on your New Year’s resolution, have you? It’s February, which means that many of us have begun—at the very least—to slack off a bit. Now is the perfect time to reaffirm those noble goals and enlist some help from technology. Here are five goal-tracking apps (collected by the folks at Lifehacker.com) that will help you stick to plan!

• Lifetick
• Mindbloom Life Game
• Goalscape
• Milestone Planner
• Joe’s Goals*

Want to raise the stakes? If you have an important goal that you *really* want to achieve, consider using stickK.com, an app that lets you set up a binding financial penalty for not meeting a target, resolution or commitment. There’s no better motivation!

stickK: “Years of economic and behavioral research show that people who put stakes—either their money or their reputation—on the table are far more likely to actually achieve a goal they set for themselves.”

Read more at Lifehacker.com and stickK.com

*Winner of reader vote at Lifehacker.com

Moving is never an easy feat, but some planning and investment can smooth the transition and keep your employees happy and stress free. Working with a project manager from Key Methods can assist you with these options and save you time and money.

Pop quiz: See if you can guess which password is more secure — Tr0ub4dor&3 or correcthorsebatterystaple. The first password is a jumble of letters (both uppercase and lowercase), numbers and characters, with a few numbers substituting for letters. The second is a string of four common words — correct horse battery staple.

So. Which is the better password? Keep in mind that hackers can design programs to run thousands of password guesses per second….

If you picked the second one — the string of common words — give yourself a gold star! It’s the stronger, more secure password. It’s also easier to remember than the first. And it goes against all of the password advice we’ve been given to date.

“Through 20 years of effort, we’ve successfully trained everyone to use passwords that are hard for humans to remember, but easy for computers to guess,” writes Randall Munroe, mathematician and creator of the brilliant XKCD.com, “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.”

According to Munroe’s calculations, the jumbled password could be cracked in about three days by a program running 1000 guesses a second — child’s play, in other words. The same program would need 550 years to guess the second password, which has roughly 44 bits of entropy (compared to the other’s 28).

What does this mean to you? It means you can stop picking (and forgetting) gobbledygook passwords. Instead, choose a few generic words (avoid proper nouns like your dog’s name or your hometown) and commit them to memory. Time required? Less than a minute. Brain cells required? Very few. Now your passwords are stronger AND easier to remember.

See Munroe’s comic here.

Because sometimes a tiny character can make a huge difference!

/ forward slash
Leans forward. Forward slashes are for Internet addresses.

: colon
Also used in Internet addresses. Traditionally this mark informs the reader that what follows the mark proves, explains, or lists elements of what preceded the mark. (Wikipedia)

\ backslash
Leans backward. Backslashes are for Windows folder and file names.

/ Slash
Former lead guitarist for Guns N’ Roses. Born Saul Hudson in London, England.

- hyphen
Sometimes called a “dash,” but these should be used to hyphenate things.

– en dash
Rarely used. Typography sticklers use them to indicate a period of time. January–June; The years 2001–2003.

– em dash
Indicate(s) added emphasis, an interruption, or an abrupt change of thought. Can be used in place of parentheses or commas in informal writing. Em dashes don’t always render correctly in web browsers. A common workaround is to use two hyphens — with a space on each end.

_ underscore
These are helpful for naming documents that will be uploaded to the web because they separate words and improve readability. (Files on the web cannot have spaces in their names; any spaces are typically replaced with the unsightly % (percentage character).

| pipe, or vertical bar
A lovely character, don’t you think? Very handy for title tags on websites.

If you’ve been thinking of purchasing new IT equipment, 2011 could be the year to do it. An increase in the Section 179 Depreciation Deduction Revenue Code increased the deduction limit in 2011 to $ 500,000 for assets up to $ 2 million and now includes purchases on software. This deduction applies to most equipment your business will purchase, finance or lease so it pays to do your homework on how much spending in 2011 and claiming on Section 179 can save your business.

This means that your business could deduct the total cost of certain purchases on equipment one time rather than having to depreciate it over time. This can have huge tax advantages because large equipment purchases can significantly reduce your tax obligation. Here is an example of the potential savings on a purchase of $ 50,000 for new equipment:

• Original cost of equipment: $ 50,000
• Assumed tax bracket: 35 percent
• Total first year deduction: $ 50,000
• Tax savings on equipment purchase: $ 17,500
• Lowered new cost of equipment after tax savings: $ 32,500

NOTE: If you wait until 2012, the limit on the Section 179 deduction will decrease to only $ 125,000 for assets only up to $ 500,000. More information on Section 179 can be found at Section179.org or by speaking with you tax advisor.

During a disaster, you, your family, your employees, and your neighbors will rely on each other for help. There is a shared responsibility when it comes to your level of preparedness. To be truly prepared, everyone has to work together as a team.

The Red Cross encourages three actions with their “Be Red Cross Ready” campaign: Get a Kit, Make a Plan, and Be Informed. The worst time to scramble for solutions is during an emergency. Start making personal, family, and community preparations now, so you know who to rely on.

American Red Cross Website

Google Reader

Do you return to certain websites on a regular basis? With Google Reader, you can read them all in one clutter-free place, making keeping up with your favorite blogs and news sites as easy as checking your email. Plus, you can easily share articles and save them for later — all it takes is a Google account.

Instapaper

Instapaper is “a simple tool to save web pages for reading later.” Just start an account, click and drag the bookmarklet to your browser’s bookmarks bar, and click it whenever you want to save a web page (i.e. lengthy article or silly video) for later. The nice thing about Instapaper is its accessibility — since it’s web-based, you can access your saved articles from any computer.

[Free] web + mobile

Readability

Like Instapaper, Readability lets you save pages for later as well as “zap online clutter” from web pages to improve your reading experience. Imagine: no more annoying animated ads trying to distract you from the content at hand. The $5 monthly fee supports writers and publishers, helping them continue to produce great material.

[$5/mo.] web + mobile

Long Reads

Not sure what to read? With Long Reads, you’ll never be without great reading material. The volunteer editors at Long Reads take the time to curate the best articles on the web, pulling from great periodicals like the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly and Sports Illustrated. Sink your teeth into some great essays, short stories and long-form journalism.

[Free] web