This week we shipped bilingual job search and scam protection for the jobs board, made Calallen its own city, and got the sell-the-slot board ranking by real outcomes instead of date. The biggest move was Spanish language support on /jobs, that's the single biggest thing that shipped. Spanish-speaking workers in the Bend can now search and apply in their language, and employers don't have to translate a thing.
Job posts stay in English. Search, filters, forms flip to Spanish.
NPCLocal is our local-services site that connects Coastal Bend folks with local pros, plus a jobs board.
By The Shop · Dispatch from Alice
If you speak Spanish and you're looking for work in the Coastal Bend, you can search the jobs board in Spanish. Hit the language toggle on /jobs and the whole board flips. You can read job titles, filter by category and city, and fill out your application all in Spanish.
English-speaking employers don't have to translate their posts. They stay as written. You're just getting a Spanish interface so you can navigate and apply without switching tabs or using a translator.
When someone posts a job, we run it through a scam classifier. If it smells wrong, fake urgency, upfront fees, promises that are too good to be true, the post goes into a hold queue instead of going live right away. I review it and either approve it or trash it.
Calallen used to show up as part of Corpus Christi on the job board. Now it's a standalone city. If you live in Calallen and you search for jobs in Calallen, you get Calallen jobs. If you want to expand your search to nearby cities, you can do that too.
Search for jobs in Alice and you'll see Alice jobs first. Below that, you'll see a section that says 'Also hiring nearby' with jobs from Robstown, Calallen, and other towns a short drive away. You don't have to run separate searches to find work in the surrounding area.
When you use one of our repair calculators, say you're figuring out what a roof costs or what you'd pay for a foundation fix, you can hit a share button and get a permalink. That link has your estimate saved in it. Send it to someone else and they see your exact numbers without running the calculator again.
If you're on the NPC Laser site and you notice the little laser dot in the corner, try triple-clicking it. Or if you remember the Konami code from old arcade games, try that too. Something unexpected happens.
We like this one because it comes straight from the FTC and covers all three threats in plain language, from spotting phishing emails to backing up files and what to do right after an attack hits. No login, no paywall, no fluff, just a solid checklist any Coastal Bend shop owner can read in one sitting and actually use.
We found a full free course, 59 step-by-step lessons with videos, written by certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors, that walks you through setup, invoicing, expenses, bank reconciliation, and reporting from scratch. No sign-up, no paywall, just sit down with your QuickBooks account open and follow along at your own pace.
We like this one because it tells you to run a quick walk test first so you know whether your problem is weak coverage or a bad hop between nodes, and that keeps you from buying gear you do not need. It is written plain, covers small offices just like homes, and points you toward wired backhaul fixes before it ever suggests spending more money.
We bookmarked this one because real repair folks share exactly where to start when you want to fix your own phone or laptop instead of paying someone else to do it. Out here in the Coastal Bend where the nearest big-box repair shop can be a long drive away, knowing how to swap a battery or crack open a screen yourself is just plain useful.
This is the free, no-sales-pitch playbook straight from the federal agency whose whole job is keeping businesses safe from ransomware, phishing, and hackers. We like it because it skips the outdated advice and tells you exactly what to turn on first, starting with multi-factor authentication on every account.
We like this one because it skips the jargon and walks you straight through what the 3-2-1 rule actually means for a small shop, including real tool picks and a cost example you can steal right now. It also clears up the big trap most folks fall into: your Dropbox or Google Drive sync is not a backup, and this guide explains exactly why that matters when ransomware shows up.
