Pearl Technology

06/18/2026

Game Day Connections at Dozer Park

Parked at Dozer Park, home of the Peoria Chiefs. On game day and every other day, the connection that matters most is the one that just works. Play ball.

06/17/2026

Though MFA blocks the most common ways accounts get breached, it does not block all of them. Are you aware of what it stops and what it doesn’t? It’s important to use MFA, but it’s not the only step to take for your business’s security.

06/16/2026

Half your meeting rooms sit empty while people fight over the other two.

You probably can't prove it, which is the problem. Most offices run on a booking calendar that stopped matching reality a long time
ago.

Here is what room scheduling and occupancy sensors show once you turn them on:

Ghost bookings.
Rooms reserved on the calendar and empty in person. Usually more than you would guess.

The popular few.
A handful of rooms everyone wants, while others go untouched all week.

Wrong sizes.
Two people in an eight-seat boardroom because it was the only thing free.

Once you can see the pattern, you stop guessing. You right-size the rooms you have, fix the booking flow, and often avoid leasing or building space you don't actually need.

The data is cheap. The square footage you save is not.

✅ save this if your team argues about meeting rooms more than it should.

06/15/2026

Listen as Pearl Technology's Dave Johnson discusses the on The Greg and Dan Show.

Here are some takeaways:

We have all gotten them; urgent texts about unpaid tolls, delivery fees, or random messages from strangers. This is called
“smishing,” or SMS phishing.

Some people are not just deleting these—they are engaging back, pretending to be someone else, sending jokes, or wasting the
scammer’s time.

This practice is known as “scambaiting,” and it has become popular on Reddit, YouTube, and social media as a way to fight back or get a laugh.

It feels harmless, even satisfying—but cybersecurity experts warn it can actually make things worse.

When you reply, even with nonsense, you confirm your phone number is active and that you are willing to engage.
• That information can be sold or shared among scam networks, increasing the number of scam attempts you receive later.
• Chances are very good that your personal information has already been involved in data theft and is available on the Dark Web.
– Now the scammers have your active phone number and can use it to find your other information, sometimes including your address.
• Even casual conversation can reveal useful details such as your schedule, time zone, job, family situation, or travel plans.
• Simple actions like replying “STOP” can backfire by confirming your number is valid.

Scammers often play the long game, collecting bits of data over time.

There is also a human factor; some scam operators are working under coercion or exploitation, so engagement may unintentionally contribute to that system.

The safest approach is simple and consistent: do not respond, do not click links, do not call numbers in the message.

Best practice to remember: “Ignore, block, report.”

Greg and Phil talk with Dave Johnson of Pearl Technology about scambaiting, the practice of intentionally engaging with scammers to waste their time or expose their tactics. He explains why responding to scammers is generally not a good idea, shares tips on recognizing scam attempts, why ignoring th...

06/12/2026

AI maturity has 5 stages.

Knowing which one you're in tells you what to do next.

Most businesses jump straight to buying tools and skip the steps that make those tools stick. That is why so many AI projects stall.

Here is the progression we see across SMBs:

1. Curious.
You are reading about AI and talking about it. Nothing is in production yet.

2. Experimenting.
A few people use ChatGPT or Copilot on their own. No standards, no shared playbook.

3. Operationalizing.
One or two workflows now run on AI with real oversight. You can measure the time it saves.

4. Scaling.
AI is part of how several teams work, with training and governance behind it.

5. Embedded.
AI runs inside your core processes, and your data feeds it cleanly. New use cases are easy to add.

Knowing where you actually are makes the next step obvious instead of overwhelming. That is the whole value of naming the stages.

✅ save this and figure out which stage your business is really in.

06/11/2026

Most phishing emails give themselves away in five places.

Your team probably catches them by feel. Feel stops working the moment one email looks legit enough.

Here is what to check, every time:

1. The sender domain.
Read the full address, not the display name. micros0ft.com is not microsoft.com.

2. The urgency.
"Act now or your account closes" exists to stop you from thinking. Real companies give you time.

3. The link.
Hover before you click. If the preview does not match where the email says it goes, stop.

4. The attachment.
Unexpected invoice? Unexpected file? Confirm with the sender through a channel you already trust.

5. The ask.
Gift cards, wire transfers, password resets you did not request. The goal is always to move money or access.

Five seconds per check. That is the whole defense.

✅ save this and send it to whoever opens the invoices.

06/10/2026

Most businesses adopt AI in the wrong order.

They start with the exciting tool, plug it into a mess, and wonder why it does not stick.

The order that works is boring. That is why it works.
1. Fix your data first. AI is only as good as what you feed it. Scattered files and half-updated records produce confident, wrong answers.
2. Pick one painful workflow. The one that wastes hours every week and has a clear before and after.
3. Prove it on that one thing. Measure the time saved. Get the team using it daily. Build trust with a small win.
4. Then expand. Once one workflow works and people believe it, the next five are easy.

Most AI projects fail at step 1 and blame step 4.

Start with the data. The rest gets a lot simpler.

✅ save this for the next time a vendor pitches your team an AI tool.

06/09/2026

Rising Above at Tower Park

The van under the tower at Tower Park in Peoria Heights, still the best view in the area on a clear day. We think about connections at every level, from the rooftop antenna to the server room. Worth the climb.

06/08/2026

Listen as Pearl Technology's Dave Johnson discusses on The Greg and Dan Show.

Here are some takeaways:

Online pricing may no longer be the same for everyone; retailers are exploring personalized pricing, where price is based on what algorithms think you’re willing to pay

Companies already collect extensive data
• Browsing history, location, device type, purchase habits & even how long you hover over a product

AI-driven pricing tools can turn data into individualized price offers in real time, raising concerns among researchers & regulators

Last year, Consumer Reports recruited more than 400 shoppers to log onto Instacart simultaneously & fill their carts with identical groceries from the same stores
• 3/4 of the products showed different prices for different shoppers, with some items varying by as much as 23%

Key concern: price discrimination without transparency—especially for essentials like groceries or transportation
• Algorithms may unintentionally create bias
– Pricing by ZIP code can mirror racial or economic disparities
• Urgent needs could trigger higher prices
– We’ve historically seen this in airline pricing

There are also privacy & cybersecurity risks as more personal data is shared across platforms & companies

What consumers can do right now
• Compare prices across devices or browsers
• Use private or incognito mode to reduce tracking
• Start searches on aggregator sites like Expedia or Kayak
• Consider using a VPN to test location-based pricing differences

Important trade-off: personalization can work in your favor too
• Retailers may offer discounts if you appear price sensitive
• Blocking tracking may mean you only see the highest list price

Bottom line: You can’t eliminate your digital footprint, but you can manage it—be aware the price you see may not be the price others see

Greg and Phil talk with Dave Johnson of Pearl Technology about personalized pricing and how it is increasingly used across online platforms and services. He explains what it means when prices change based on user behavior, location, and device type, and how it can affect consumers differently. He al...