Society and business in the 21st Century
In 1968 Terry Gilliam was some years off his Monty Python fame and eking out a living as a struggling American artist in London.
Midway through the year he was commissioned by the producers of Do Not Adjust Your Set, the British TV comedy show that led to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, to contribute to their 1968 Christmas special.
The results are marvellous as the Open Culture website describes.
We ordinary people should be thankful we don’t have Terry Gilliam in our family.
The Age of Consumerism has its biggest annual celebration at Christmas, but will it remain relevant for future generations?
Around the world, today marks the annual peak of consumerism. It’s interesting how one of the most important dates in the Christian calendar has been adopted by commercial interests.
In non-Christian countries, particularly in East Asia, the lack of a religious tradition shows the modern ritual for what it is – an orgy of consumerism driven by a century of advertising and opportunistic businesspeople.
For the western cultures, the biggest symbol of the occasion is Santa Clause, a figure largely invented by the Coca-Cola Corporation.
It’s often said that successful religions co-opt the festivals and practices of earlier beliefs, many European Christian celebrations are said to be modern interpretations of older rites which marked key harvest and calendar dates.
Today the religion of consumerism has co-opted the older Christian festivals which makes Christmas the grand celebration of consumption that it is.
Religions though are a product of their times, the successful ones adapt to change and thrive for centuries while many wither away as their relevance to society and the economy fades.
The Western religion of consumerism is at one of these points now after a century of unchecked growth.
Will Consumerism continue to thrive as living standards rise in Asia and Africa or will it fade as overfed Americans and Europeans wear out their credit cards and look to defining themselves by something more than the expensive toys they can buy?
Should Consumerism fade, will it be replaced with older traditions or will something else rise to meet the needs of 21st Century society?
Is hard not to hope for the consumerist orgy that is the modern Christmas celebration to fade, if not for our communities then at least for our waistlines and bank balances.
For Christmas 2011 Paul joined Nikolai Beilharz to discuss dealing with problems with your Christmas tech gifts.
We had a number of callers with problems including setting up a wireless network, what to do if a drink is spilled on your keyboard and how older people can get useful computer training.
John from Hobart asked about where he could get instructions on using his computer.
The Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association is a volunteer group bringing together local computer clubs that cater for older folk.
ASCCA’s national members directory lists local clubs by state and contacting the nearest group should help you find the right assistance from your peers.
Watching a freshly spilled cup of coffee, glass of wine or can of softdrink pour into your keyboard makes for one half panic and the other half despair.
If you move quickly and you turn the keyboard upside down then you have a chance of rescuing a laptop computer before too much damage is done. The important thing is to stop liquid getting onto important circuits.
Having turned the keyboard or laptop upside down, leave it for a day for the liquid to dry out. Then its a good idea to take it to the local computer store to see if it the residue can be cleaned up as usually the keyboard becomes sticky and some keys may not work.
Should the liquid damage a desktop computer’s keyboard that’s usually easily fixed by buying a new keyboard but if you’re using a laptop, then the motherboard – the key part of a computer’s circuits – may be affected and that’s usually time to start shopping for a new system.
Most of the tech devices we’re getting for our households require some sort of wireless connection.
If you have a wireless network, it’s important you get the security right as you don’t want neighbours and passers-by using your connection. The IT Queries site has instructions on securing these networks.
Once have a secured network, preferably using the WPA2 encryption standard and a strong password, you can then connect each device. You’ll need the name of the network and the WPA2 password to make it work.
Sometimes some devices want older, inferior security settings and occasionally they just won’t work at all. It may take several attempts to get them to work and it’s worthwhile re-reading our ten tips for setting up technology.
Our next national ABC spot will be on February 9 next year. We will probably have some more spots over the summer break and we’ll let newsletter subscribers know about them as soon as we do. We also post them to the events page.
Christmas is a great time for presents and computer and other tech equipment are great gifts.
But technology being what it is, doesn’t always work as it should. Here’s a quick Christmas check list to help avoid letting technology ruin your Christmas;
Is it compatible with your system? If you have an older Windows or Mac computer the device might not work with your computer. Similarly if your hard drive or memory doesn’t have the capacity required, the whole process might be a struggle.
Does it appear to have been opened or used previously? If parts are missing or there’s signs someone else has used the product, you might have been sold something that was previously returned. If so, it’s best to take it back to the store rather than struggling with a possibly defective product.
It’s Christmas! Chill out and relax, take your time have a mince pie. Don’t rush to set things up, just take it easy. Doing things too fast means you make mistakes.
Manufacturers make it very difficult to open boxes; this is not entirely an accident. It’s also common with tech stuff to have little components and gizmos which are easily lost in the box. So be careful removing all the packaging and keep it to one side.
Once again, it’s time for another mince pie while you read the manual. In there you will find all sorts of useful information. Including how not to mess up your system. Usually, you’ll also find a description of the parts in the box, check you haven’t left something small but critical in the box.
Sometimes something simple is wrong, it could something as basic as a disk or plug is in the wrong way. Take it easy and relax.
If things don’t work, relax and have another mince pie. It’s often something simple. Don’t do anything drastic, if you’ve had a few drinks or it’s getting late, leave it for tomorrow morning.
If it doesn’t work, don’t worry. You can return it or call a tech later.
Remember Christmas is a time for sharing and relaxing. Don’t let your computers and technology upset your holiday.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
This post first appeared in the Xero Accounting Software Blog, the advice for protecting your computers and networking equipment applies for home and business users.
The holiday season is here and for many it’s time for a much needed break. Before doing so it’s worthwhile taking a few precautions with your computers and other electronic equipment.
While most of us are moving our data to the cloud, there may still be some data that remains on your office systems. Bear in mind that if your router is damaged or desktop computer has gone missing, you won’t be able to access the web.
And even though your systems will spend much of the next fortnight turned off there are still risks such as power surges, fire and theft etc. There’s even the risk of a virus creeping in when you turn things on when you return. So here’s some things to consider before you leave.
The New Year is a good time to refresh passwords, so review what your key login details are and update them to stronger, more secure phrases. I personally like using phrases like a song or poem and dropping characters into the spaces so a password might look like: Mary$had$a$little$lamb
You can make the passwords stronger by adding numbers and capitals as well.
Staff turnover happens in all businesses and you may have forgotten to remove some former employees from your accounts when they left. The end of the year is a good time to review who has access to your cloud and remote access accounts.
If you’re a social media user it’s also worthwhile checking what applications you’ve allowed to access your Facebook, Twitter or other online services. That mafia or farm game looks harmless, but often you’ve given it the right to post things and collect data from your account, so take off the ones you no longer find useful.
Even when turned off, most modern computer equipment still has power running through its systems. This puts technology at risk during storms or brownouts. Printers, modems, routers, should all be turned off and disconnected from power and communications lines.
Network, telephone line or cable connections should be unplugged – power surges can often affect phone and cable network connections. In fact you should unplug anything that connects your equipment to the outside world.
Give thieves as little temptation as possible. Electronic equipment has a high resale value and is easily moved. Lock away anything portable and draw the curtains or blinds in rooms where less portable equipment is kept.
If you have an old laptop or mobile phone sitting around it’s not a bad idea to hide away the modern equipment and leave the old stuff in an obvious location. This is a variation on the old “leave ten dollars in the cash draw” ploy that gives thieves something without them ransacking the place. Don’t leave the sacrificial laptop in plain sight or you’ll be inviting break-ins.
One of the advantages with cloud computing is that many of your backup needs are taken care of. Unfortunately you still need your own local backups.
In most offices not everything gets saved to the cloud and that information matters. For many small business years of work is sitting on the hard drive.
External hard drives and DVDs are the most popular ways of saving backups. Your backup should include documents, email, address books, favorites and bookmarks.
Store the backups away from the computer, preferably offsite. I recommend making two copies, leave one onsite for easy access and store one elsewhere. If something terrible happens to your home or office while you are away, your data is at least safe.
For home offices, it’s a good idea to leave a copy of the backup with your neighbours or a relative in a nearby suburb. An old client of mine swaps external hard drives with his mother- in-law at church each week so he has a reasonably up to date copy of his data somewhere he knows he can get to.
Your computer is the very last thing you should turn on. Turn on modems, printers, external drives and network equipment before your computer. If you have a cable or ADSL Internet connection, give it a few minutes to connect before trying to log on.
While you were away new Internet nasties in the form of viruses, Trojan horses and spyware will have come out and there’s a good chance some of them may be waiting in your inbox.
Before checking emails or surfing the net, update your security software and check for any system updates. Don’t do anything on the net until everything is updated.
Christmas and New Year are times when you should relax. There’s nothing worse than returning to find office equipment and valuable data lost. By backing up your systems and taking some precautions you don’t need to feel anxious about your business being up and running quickly when you get back to work.
Enjoy your holidays and let’s all look forward to a great New Year.
