What an absolutely interesting evening! There really are a lot of great ideas out there and plenty of talented people making them a reality (many of them 20 years younger than me).
More on this when I’ve had some sleep (in three days times).
I’ve long recommended AVG for home users. But since the release of version 7.5 there’s been a slow decline in the quality of both the support and the product itself.
The lesson when a result like this comes from the blue is to treat it with suspicion. If one virus checker flags a problem like this, hit it with a couple of others to confirm the problem.
I think I’ll have to change the free anti virus recommendation on the PC Rescue and IT Queries websites. It looks like Avast! is the best choice and I’ll keep AVG and Anti Vir as the alternatives.
I’ve always believed you shouldn’t say anything on the net that you wouldn’t like to be seen next to your photo on the six o’clock news.
Well you also shouldn’t put anything on your Facebook profile your boss might read. This is a message between a manager and an ISP tech staffer in Sydney last week.
From: The Boss
Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:35 a.m.
To: Kyle XXXXX
Subject: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008
Hi Kyle,
Please provide a medical certificate stating a valid reason for your sick leave on Thursday 21st 2008.
Thank You
The Boss
===========
From: Kyle XXXXXX
Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:38 a.m.
To: The Boss
Subject: RE: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008
Boss,
1 day leave absences do not require a medical certificate as stated in my contract, provided I have stated that I am on leave for medical reasons.
Thanks
Kyle XXXXX
=========
From: The Boss Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:39 a.m.
To: Kyle XXXXXXX
Subject: RE: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008
Hi Kyle,
Usually that is the case, as per your contract. However please note that leave during these occasions is only granted for genuine medical reasons. You line manager has determined that your leave was not due to medical reasons and as such we cannot grant leave on this occasion.
The Boss
=========
_____________________________________________
From: Kyle XXXX
Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:43 a.m.
To: The Boss
Subject: RE: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008
Hi Boss,
My leave was due to medical reasons, so you cannot deny leave based on a line manager’s discretion, with no proof, please process leave as requested.
Thanks
Kyle
=======================
From: The Boss Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:50 a.m.
To: Kyle XXXXXXX
Subject: RE: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008
While Canberra looks after the big end of town, smaller businesses are going to have to fend for themselves. Here’s six tips to harden your business against coming bad times.
Six Tips to toughen your business
It takes an economic crisis to get some really bad analogies going. A great example is Henry Paulson’s claim to Congress last July that he had a bazooka to use against the bad guys.
Now firing bazookas into storms is probably not a good idea. In fact, if the thing was actually loaded Hank might have bought down Ben Bernanke’s helicopter, which might not have been a bad thing for those worried about hyperinflation.
These silly and pointless parallels show how out of touch the US regulators and government have been in the last few years, unfortunately last week’s stimulus package shows things are little different in Australia.
If Canberra’s aim is to maintain employment then the stimulus would have been far better used to encourage investment, for instance increased depreciation allowances on new capital works or a payroll tax holiday.
Even better would have been money, not studies, into training, research, education and infrastructure. All of these are real investments that generate employment and have all been neglected by both Liberal and Labor, state and Federal governments for at least the past 17 boom years.
Instead, it’s business as usual in Canberra with consumption and property speculation being favoured over real, long term investment. From the assistance given to the banks it’s also safe to say that the big end of town will be looked after as well.
The message from Canberra is clear: Small to medium business can go whistle. If anything, we’ll be expected to pay the taxes once the surplus has been squandered.
To pay those taxes, our businesses are going to have to survive the downturn. We need to act early, firm and decisively to ensure this.
My business had a near death experience in the 2001 IT downturn, these are a few lessons I learned from that and the 1990s recession;
Watch your cash flow. It’s become fashionable in recent years to say “I don’t need a business plan”. That’s sometimes true when times are good but never when times are bad. Watch that cash flow spreadsheet closely.
Get your costs down. Eliminate anything unnecessary and look closely at how you can reduce your outgoings such as rent, vehicles, phones, computers, power and travel.
Don’t tolerate bad debtors. Tighten your payment terms and stick to them.
Eliminate the trouble areas. A small group of products, customers, suppliers and employees are responsible for 80% of your problems. Indentify them and get them out of your life.
Reduce inventory and product lines. Get rid of it anything that isn’t performing. The fact Coles are experimenting with this at the moment shows how important this is.
Reduce your debt. A lot of businesses have been kept afloat by debt and many smaller ones have relied on the proprietor drawing down on their home equity. Those businesses are about to go bust: Don’t be one of them.
There’s hard work ahead for all us and last week has shown our governments are going to be, at best, useless. You need to act decisively to guarantee the future of your business.
It’s also a good idea to steer clear of ministers and Reserve Bank governors wielding bazookas.
Avoid computer disasters is the topic of the next ABC spot.
One thing that hadn’t ocurred to me is the risks of being sleepy. However this is real as Barclays’ Bank found recently.
I genuinely feel sorry for the first year associate as it’s the sort of mistake I would make late into a 14 hour day.
Another risk are hidden columns in Excel. Too many people use them when they should be avoided except when absolutely necessary.
The fallacy with Excel’s hidden column is that it simply reduces the column width to zero and unless you’ve protected the spreadsheet this is easily changed back which is what the law clerk did.
But the biggest lesson is to proof read your documents before sending them, with Excel it’s a good idea to double check your numbers as well.
I went along to the Sydney launch for Global Entrepreneurship Week tonight.