Jan 30
Bizcamp – This is going to be great
icon1 Keith Shirley | icon2 Personal, Tips | icon4 January 30, 2009| icon35 Comments »

I can write an advance review because I know it’s going to be great. I so thoroughly enjoyed Podcamp and Barcamp last year (especially Pat Phelan’s lunchtime chat) that when talk of organising a Bizcamp came up I knew I had to help out.

(insert name here)Camps are very informal but productive conference type events. They’re referred to as unconferences because you’re not going to be lectured at or given sales pitches in the regular sense. A camp has a general theme to bind it together and everyone is free to give short (15 minute) seminars/chats/presentations about topics they feel are helpful.

Helpful is the magic word – the whole point is to get to know people, get some insight into a topic and be helpful. You can pickup a huge amount of info in small chunks and followup later. I promise – you’ll come home with stacks of notes.

Bizcamp is obviously themed around business. The potential topics could range from funding to how to handle the stress. Unlike a normal conference – the agenda is not fixed. Anyone can decide on the spur of the moment to do a session – you just grab a timeslot on the day. Is there something you wish you knew when you started? Now’s your chance to pass on some pearls of wisdom. You don’t need to do a session at all – just come along for the ride.

I’ll be helping to organise the Dublin Event which is on Sat 7 March 2009. There will be a second bizcamp in Limerick on 21 March 2009.

I’ll be writing about this again but if you need more info then call me ( 087 9112027 ) or Email me K.Shirley@Shercom.com.

Yes – That really is my phone number and mail address.

You can already sign-up to Bizcamp or you can see who is going to Bizcamp.  I’m looking forward to seeing you there.

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Jan 26
Stabilant
4/5

The time has arrived for me to reveal one of the best tools for rescuing PC’s that keep blue screening or freezing and rebooting. It’s a weird gooey liquid called Stabilant 22.

Don’t be put off by the rubbish website that has not been updated since 2001. This stuff can work wonders.stabilant

What does it do?

I won’t quote their website as they use words like amorphous and polymer. For the rest of us it should be enough to say it’s a contact enhancer. You spread it on electrical contacts where it does not conduct electricity until it comes under pressure. This is important with things like CPU contacts or memory. You would go crazy trying to put something on each individual contact but you need to avoid a short circuit at all costs.

The liquid helps make sure that the rough contacts (at a microscopic level) are smoothed out and the flow of electricity is much better. I’ve used this on a number of machines to fix blue screens  – even where everything else seemed ok.

I’d say the liquid can be used anywhere where good metal contacts are needed – inside PC’s, music equipment etc.

What does it NOT do?

You can’t use it on contacts that are corroded. That makes sense as the signal is failing before it gets as far as the stabilant. It can’t help must if the rest of the signal chain is not in order.

Pricestabilant_packaging

It’s expensive – some will say overpriced. If you need it regularly it’s well worth it. If you just need it for some home equipment then I doubt it’s worth it for you.

The first bottle I bought was 200 Euro for 5ml. That lasted years however. The last one was about 60 Euro and I’m a long way from finished. In the meantime I believe it’s even cheaper. Those prices refer to the “pure” version of Stabilant. There is also one that is diluted with alcohol. This is great for working on pins in connectors – you can put on the diluted liquid and the alcohol evaporates off – leaving you with just what you need. You can also make your own diluted version from the pure version.

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Rated 4/5 on Jan 26 2009
Vote on Keith Shirley’s reviews at LouderVoice

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Jan 26
Blog Research
icon1 Keith Shirley | icon2 Uncategorized | icon4 January 26, 2009| icon31 Comment »

If you write a blog for your business then please make sure you complete the IIA Social Media Working Groups survey. It’s really going to help us get some solid numbers for the whitepaper.

Please also have a look at another survey being done by Sinéad Cochrane for postgraduate research. Her survey is targeted at both people that write blogs and those that are just readers. It should only take a few minutes of your time and she’s offering a prize.

I found the link to her survey via Darraghs blog. His bio says he’s a storyteller and I can confirm it. He writes some great posts that are a pleasure to read. Go read some of his posts after you have done the surveys – he won’t be around much longer as I imagine his sister will kill him when she sees what he has posted.

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Jan 22
5/5

Time for another little secret of mine that has saved me huge amounts of trouble. If you are regularly fixing PC’s then you must have access to a site like DriverAgent.com.Driveragent

Put simply – Driveragent runs a small piece of software on the PC that scans it and gives you a report on which drivers are out of date. It then gives you the opportunity to download those drivers from the manufacturer or their own website. That’s it – short and sweet and it just works. A screenshot of the report is below – just click to enlarge it.

Driveragent Screenshot

I’ve worked on hundreds of PC’s over the past 20 years and I despair at the thought of how much time I’ve lost trying to find drivers for a PC. The pricing for Driveragent is currently just $29.95 for use on upto 10 PC’s. Compared to the time you would spend trying to find drivers on just one manufacturer site it’s a bargain.

If you are having problems with a PC crashing or running slowly – try the free report from DriverAgent to see what state your PC is in.

Next week I’ll put up a post on the blog with one of my absolutely best rescue tools – it will probably surprise you. To get the update automatically sign up for mail updates or add the RSS feed to your reader.

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Rated 5/5 on Jan 22 2009
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Jan 21

Damien Mulley sent me an email last week with copies of his Online Marketing training notes and his Business Blogging notes. The good news is that he is making them available for everyone. Fair play to him for doing this – it’s a great way of spreading the word. He makes a good point when he says the value in training comes via the trainer and not the documentation. If the notes were the most valuable part we could just read a book.

mulley
Image by grizi via Flickr

I’m going to go through them in detail soon to see it there are any points I need to add to my own trainings. Maybe I’ll find something that I disagree with – Damien seems to like a good discussion. I’ll be seeing him at the Blog Awards but I’ll have to be very sure of my facts first. :)

If you download a copy of the notes from Damien – please make sure to leave him a comment.

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Jan 20
Why do people freak out over Spam?
icon1 Keith Shirley | icon2 Web Issues | icon4 January 20, 2009| icon39 Comments »

Why do some people freak out when they receive spam? There seems to be a weird kind of joy of the hunt within Irish web “guru” circles  when they receive a spam mail.

As an Irish business, God forbid that you should send a spam mail to any of the well known bloggers or twitter users. It might even be that the mail you send is relatively innocent but it probably won’t matter. You’ll be tarred and feathered in public from people on high horses.

I’m not saying it’s right to spam. The Irish government agrees that it’s an increasing problem and a recent news report talks about how the fines can now hit 250,000 Euro. The trouble with the new laws is that I doubt they will be enforced. What we need to do is help everyone understand what they can do to avoid sending spam:

  • Get peoples permission to send them mail. Do it at the same time they sign up for an account if you can.
  • If people sign up over the web – makes sure it’s really them by getting the software to send an automated mail asking for confirmation – This is called double opt-in
  • Make it easy for them to be taken off your mailing lists. Make sure that they stay off
  • If your customer database has not got email addresses or your customers permission to send them mails then phone them and ask them. Yes it’ll take ages BUT a real call will give you the opportunity to keep the communication channel open with your customers. Don’t be afraid to speak with your customers.
  • Just because you don’t receive much spam does not mean that they don’t. Are you really going to be sending them information that is useful to them? Even with their permission – a boring sales pitch will just get deleted. Ask yourself why you want to send mails.

Update via Mulleynet - Denise Cox’s Blog has some great details on the new regulations.

Update2: They say when you look back on things you always have 20/20 vision. I’d like to point out that my link to Damiens blog was not meant to point the finger at him. In that particular post I agree with him – The PR company should have just apologised, removed him from their list and do better next time. When they try to convey the attitude that you should be greatful for being spammed they are damaging their own customers image.

I get 1000’s of spam messages a day and they do annoy me but the piles of junk mail that come through my letterbox at home annoy me more. Dan Sullivan has an interesting post on his blog about how people react differently depending on how they receive their spam.

Please make sure to read the comments for this post – there are a number of interesting answers.

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Jan 16
Blog SEO – Publicising Your Blog
icon1 Keith Shirley | icon2 Uncategorized | icon4 January 16, 2009| icon32 Comments »

The deadlines have been set. I’ve got 1 week to update the sections on SEO and publicising your blog for the IIA Blogging whitepaper. A major part of it will be from the comments people made on the draft copy that was made available online and the comments made during the workshop. The podcasts are also available if you are interested.

If you have anything you think should be included – be quick and let me know. Shortly after the deadline the version will be locked and sent for print. Online versions will be available sooner I’m sure – but people still need a copy in their hands.


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Jan 16
Business Blogging Survey
icon1 Keith Shirley | icon2 Web Issues | icon4 January 16, 2009| icon33 Comments »

As part of the work of the IIA’s Social Media Working Group we decided to undertake a survey among businesses that are blogging in Ireland.

The survey is now available and we would welcome responses from anyone who is blogging on behalf of their business in Ireland. Many are agreed that there are significant opportunities for business who engage with blogs and bloggers. It is time to try and quantify this.

The results of the survey will be made available to all and any individual blogger who responds to the survey will be featured as a case studyI.

takes less than 10 minutes to complete. So whether you are blogging as part of a sole-trader business or working for an organisation employing hundreds, please take the time to give us your input.

PS Thanks to Brendan for allowing me to plagerise his text.

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Jan 15

Supervalu Carlow are running a special offer until the end of January – for every 50 Euro you spend on Thursday and Fridays you get 6 Euro off. It’s in the form of savings stamps but they can be cashed immediately.

That’s 12% off – Not bad in a cut throat industry. After that it’s continues but at 3 Euro per 50 Euro.

It’s my local Supermarket so I was wondering if the prices are higher in the first place – negating any savings. I decided to test it against Tesco to see what the totals would be – and boy was I surprised.

Here are the products I was able to compare directly – no special offers.

Supervalu Tesco
Kleenex Balsalm €2.50 €3.00
mixed ovals €2.20 €2.19
avonmore milk – super €1.44 €1.44
cesar 4 pk €4.01 €3.99
Charleville Edam Slices 200g €3.79 €3.69
avonmore cream 500ml €3.89 €3.99
fruit n fibre €3.11 €2.99
Haagen-Dazs – 500ml €6.38 €6.35
Persil Bio Small & Mighty 730ml €5.81 €5.99
sour cream €1.49 €1.59
Roma Spagetti 500g €1.55 €1.49
Pomgranet juice €2.53 €2.89
Heinz Curry beans €1.19 €0.75
john west tuna €1.46 €1.49
cif cream €1.43 €2.10
kleenex tissue double €3.66 €3.64
Charleville grated cheese €3.19 €3.09
Total €49.63 €50.67

I was surprised that Tesco was more expensive – and that the prices were either almost exactly the same or wildly off.

The funny thing is – price is not everything. I would have accepted a slightly higher price for Supervalu as it’s so convenient for me.


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Jan 13
I Love Paying Taxes!
icon1 Keith Shirley | icon2 Personal | icon4 January 13, 2009| icon3No Comments »

That’s it – I guess you think I’ve finally gone mad. The point is however – if I’m paying taxes then it means either:

  • I’m making a profit
  • I still have a job

Both of those points are things that can’t be taken for granted at the moment and I always try to find a silver lining.

ooooooppppppsssss!!!!
Image by confusedvision via Flickr

I’ve never really minded paying some(*) taxes when I can see what I’m getting for it. Unfortunately in the last decade I think there has been a sinful amount of wastage going on. The solution to many problems seems to have been – just throw money at it. I hope that one positive thing that comes out of the current recession is that we and the government will pay a lot more attention to getting value for money.

(*) I say some because there’s a limit. My personal preference for income tax would be a flat rate of 25% (after a buffer for low incomes) and get rid of most of the benefits that are being made available. I don’t mind the high tax on petrol – if I use more I pay more. I think the VAT rate is too high and really discourages spending – there should be just 2 rates – zero and something like 10% or 15%.

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