tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52854451234994575542024-03-05T04:56:17.512+00:00Trading SecurelyBackground comments on secure IT facilitiesOaksyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02302779289360898119noreply@blogger.comBlogger218125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-20315853654306288042022-03-09T10:55:00.000+00:002022-03-09T10:55:05.569+00:00Sadiq Khan and business exhibitions<p> I used to attend business exhibitions in London. Thanks to the mayor (Sadiq Khan) and his TfL tax on visitors I avoid going to any exhibition located in the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) of London. As his need for funding grows he expands the ULEZ to put more vehicles in scope, trying to justify it on health grounds.</p><p>Visiting London is expensive. The railway train fares are prohibitively expensive (£226 return advance booking + £13 tube) for travel during business hours. Car travel used to be an alternative, but the combination of increased fuel cost, car parking fees, Congestion Charge and TfL taxes make it less of an option.</p><p>Staying overnight in a hotel on an exhibition day currently is around £350 per night with advance booking.</p><p>The exhibition companies are fighting to regain attendees after the Covid-19 lockdowns. In London they fight against the inconvenience and tide of rising travel costs. For a 2 day trip by train from Derby to a large exhibition in London you are looking at around £600 - £700 including basic food.</p>Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-3898758446762849252021-05-28T18:54:00.000+01:002021-05-28T18:54:12.049+01:00Over a year since Covid-19 Lockdown and they still can't run video conferencing<p> I knew I had a free afternoon, so I signed up to a paid webinar. As in paid, I mean that I paid 20 GBP/hour to attend. The topic was of interest to me, and I'm happy to support the hosting organisation. It is a telecommunications industry body representing the smaller companies who install broadband networks for the public. The speakers and other participants were company executives and directors, consultants, senior Civil Servants involved in telecoms and regulations.</p><p>After at least one year of Covid Lockdown, you'd think these people would know the basics of participating in webinars from home offices and also organisation premises. Not a chance! There were loads of basic mistakes and it was obvious there'd been no rehearsals by the speakers. They'd all appeared to have assumed it would work okay on the day. </p><p>The webinar software worked well with all the usual features, we even had virtual networking "tables" outside the main virtual conference "hall".</p><p>However there were lots of fundamental mistakes from the participants:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Some speakers had no working visual presentation material, and spoke their presentation;</li><li>Some speakers were not ready on appointed time;</li><li>The event had not been rehearsed;</li><li>In most cases the visible background behind speakers on camera was cluttered and distracting;</li><li>One guy had his camera poorly mounted and the picture was frequently shaking;</li><li>A presenter had a poor microphone set up, and his voice faded as he, frequently, moved his body;</li><li>One presenter was drinking from a bottle on camera;</li><li>One had a low resolution camera and an even worse internet connection. She was frequently disconnecting and was often "pixelating" on the screen;</li><li>Some of the speakers had loud background noise;</li><li>Another was backlit with glare lighting into the camera</li><li>Some couldn't get their PowerPoint presentations to work online.</li></ul><div>These people knew their industry well, but the unprofessional approach seriously degraded the impact of the web conference.</div><p></p>Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-35006547576206944992021-05-24T18:46:00.001+01:002022-02-18T17:05:39.154+00:00New Epson SC-P700 printerWe found our Epson 7110 Workforce Inkjet was dead and beyond economic repair, so we looked around for a replacement device. We settled on the Epson SureColor P700 printer. It was pricy to get on the road, but we like it a lot, however it was not all plain sailing. We had a battle to sort out the Extended Warranty.<div>Now, it is just a regular part of the business.<br /><div><br /></div><div>The story is here in this YouTube clip:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xBs1LqFouI0" width="320" youtube-src-id="xBs1LqFouI0"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div></div>Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-29887859647043243392020-09-17T18:03:00.003+01:002020-09-17T18:05:01.962+01:00Glacial Software downloads - Cyberlink<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> In these days of fast internet connections and cloud based network and servers, you'd think that no manufacturer of commercial and retail software would have a poor download speed for upgrades and new purchases. We have a 120 mbps link to our business and around 20 ms latency. It is used daily for video conference, VOIP phones and other online applications. All of our servers are "in the cloud". We know that we have good connectivity.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We've noticed that one application does not seem to make use of our fast internet link. That product is the Cyberlink Application Manager. The software is used by Cyberlink to keep our versions of Cyberlink Director video editing software up to date. Downloading the latest version takes well in excess of one hour. When you start the application to update software, you think it is hanging or locked up. We've worked out it is actually working, but very slowly. The program files are not massive, about 1 gigabyte, but we've learned to start the application and to leave it running.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">It is almost as if Cyberlink has a software distribution server designed by an accountant. Perhaps an old IBM PC-XT on as 5 mbps data link to service all of its customers. As long as you are very patient, the process works.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This is not a one off problem. We've noticed it for the past few months.</span></p>Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-26533327950587001502020-07-09T15:46:00.003+01:002020-07-09T15:48:54.051+01:00Improved cleaning at the cottage<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We're planning to reopen the Holiday Cottage in September 2020 if the Covid-19 situation permits. We'll need to be able to quickly clean the cottage during turnround between guests. We've already purchased <a href="https://www.tradingsecurely.com/2020/07/safe-us-of-ultraviolet-uv-c-to.html">an ultraviolet lamp for general room sterilization,</a> but we also need to have a method to clean surfaces as an integral part of the safety processes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Those involved in the cleaning work will need to wear protective personal equipment, such as disposable gloves, mask and disposable apron when undertaking the cleaning. So the process we've decided to follow is to first irradiate a room with Ultraviolet-C light for 15 minutes. This will destroy any airborne or surface laying virus particles. We'll then move the UV-C lamp to another room, while using high pressure superheated steam to clean high touch hard surfaces and soft furnishings in the first room. This sequence will be followed through each room in the cottage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We'll be using a <a href="https://dupray.co.uk/products/one-plus-steam-cleaner/">Dupray steam cleaning kit</a> to undertake the steam cleaning, thus avoiding the use of chemicals for sterilization. Our guests will not have to be exposed to residual chemicals during their stay. The superheated steam cleaning is also effective at cleaning greasy kitchen areas.</span></div>
Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-65607628822444014342020-07-06T14:19:00.000+01:002020-07-06T14:20:55.823+01:00Safe use of ultraviolet (UV-C) to sterilize small business premises<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Using UV-C light to sterilize the rooms of the business, as part of a cleaning programme between business sessions has its advantages. It doesn't leave a chemical residue and doesn't increase humidity. The process is quite fast, depending on the power of the ultraviolet lamp deployed. However it is not without risk to the operators of the lamp. There are fairly strict EU and USA regulations relating to the health and safety exposure limits for ultraviolet lamps. During use you need to wear protective clothing and goggles/face shields to avoid exposure to the light. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's one example: <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Artificial Optical Radiation Directive 2006/25/EC is 30 J/m² at 253.7nm for a daily 8 hour work shift.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At a distance of 5cm, the ultraviolet light intensity of the lamp we use is around 17 milliwatts per square centimetre. This would exceed the daily safe allowance within a minute if exposed directly to the UV-V light output from our lamp. The further you are away from the lamp the intensity starts to decrease quite rapidly. The shape of the lamp reflector affects how the intensity of UV-C is distributed. Reflection from surfaces can also increase the indirect exposure. As part of the safety procedures the operator should not be in the room when the UV-C lamp is switched on, unless fully protected by UV-C PPE gear. UV-C can be stopped by fairly light protective gear, but you need to keep it away from bare skin and the eyes. The light kills virus/bacteria by damaging the DNA/RNA within the organism. You don't need your own DNA being damaged.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However it is likely that situations will arise when you need to measure the intensity of the UV-C light to make sure you do not exceed the safe limits of exposure. We purchased a specialist UV-C meter to perform these measurement and to also test the safety level of any PPE equipment that we wear. You cannot detect UV-C light by your normal senses. We test UV-C radiation levels before, during and at the end of a sterilisation session. We also document those levels. We also record our tests on PPE equipment. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We purchased a laboratory quality meter. It is a General Instruments UV512C meter. We purchased it via <a href="https://www.coleparmer.co.uk/i/general-tools-instruments-uv512c-ultraviolet-uvc-light-meter/5051302" target="_blank">Cole Parmer</a> in the UK. The following link will lead to the <a href="https://www.lighting.philips.com/main/products/uv-disinfection" target="_blank">Philips Lighting advice </a>on using UV-C for disinfection. We also use it at our <a href="https://www.warmbrook.co.uk/2020/07/using-uv-c-meter-during-room.html">holiday cottages</a>.</span></div>
Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-91042141366301591492020-05-02T13:33:00.002+01:002020-05-02T13:33:21.074+01:00ANSI/BICSI 002-2019 Data Center Design and Implementation Best Practices<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Purely by chance I saw a reference on-line to the BICSI document on best practices for Data Centre Design and implementation. I had a quick look on their website and was intrigued by the document. So I took a deep breath, opened my card wallet, and purchased an electronic version of their document. At $525 (USD) it is no lightweight purchase, but I think a fair investment if you are in that line of business. Mistakes made in the early design processes of a Data Centre can be very very expensive to fix at a later stage in the project. At the very least this document gives a good checklist of things to consider. It also usefully refers to other appropriate standards.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My line of business is more in the area of Trading Floors and their associated technology rooms, but much of the Data Centre best practices are useful to keep in mind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm about 25% through the first read of this document. It is delivered in an encrypted pdf format which you need a code to activate the document. One side effect is you cannot use adobe comments to annotate individual pages. Nor can you print from the document, and while it is understandable from the publisher's viewpoint it is a pain in the butt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is obviously written by people exposed to the USA management style of data centers. In the accommodation section most of the technical and security areas are described, but no mention is made of canteen or recreational facilities for the operations and engineering staff. Believe it or not people are an important part of a datacenter and their welfare is important.</span></div>
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Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-85346675039957122092020-04-21T07:31:00.001+01:002020-04-26T10:21:14.202+01:00Oaksys Tech helping Covid-19 support Groups<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As part of our work to support the local Covid-19 <a href="http://wcrg.co.uk/" target="_blank">support group</a> we are lending VoIP phone handsets to some of the organisers. The handsets are programmed to use the special range of distinctive numbers allocated by us to the team. To ensure good quality voice on the phone we are using Polycom desktop handsets, these are business quality devices designed for office use. Once programmed by us, it should be just a matter of plugging the devices into the the RJ45 LAN outlet on the broadband router in the home and, after power is supplied, the devices automatically connected to the <a href="http://www.sipgate.co.uk/" target="_blank">Sipgate</a> service. The organiser team then obtain the full facilities of a distributed office PABX in their own home. It also protects the personal phone numbers of the organisers from general public exposure. There always are some weirdo's who would want to exploit personal phone numbers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When purchased new, these handset have a price of circa £75 - £100 as they have quite powerful micro computers embedded in the device. In order to keep costs down we've purchased secondhand units from Ebay. These are fully functional older units no longer required by businesses, but look like new devices. They cost less than £20 to purchase including delivery. The particular model we are purchasing have dual power options. You can either buyer dedicated mains power supply units delivering 24V, or they can use PoE (Power over Ethernet cable) which has power delivered via the network cable. The PoE option greatly tidies the cabling associated with using the phone, all that is needed is a single CAT5e network cable plus, in the home environment, a power injector unit close to the Broadband Router.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When used in conjunction with the Sipgate web browser interface you get "click and call" facilities from the VoIP phone with no need to dial the phone number via the handset keypad. You just click on the number and your handset rings. As soon as you pick up the phone handset, or press the speakerphone button, Sipgate will connect the call.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well, that's all of the theory, now for the practice. When we received the secondhand devices, we found the units still had their programming from their previous owners. Some the previous programming was quite specialised. Normal configuration programming by us did not allow the phones to function correctly and connect to Sipgate. After a lot of research, we realised we had to completely wipe the memory on the phones, not just a standard "factory reset", we had to reformat the memory using a well hidden function on the phones. We then set up a FTP software server to hold the appropriate historic version of the software and basic configuration files. We were able to track the software and files down on the Polycom support website. It took quite a lot of Google research and the downloading of multipage administrator manual pdf files. Normally telecoms engineers go on training courses to learn these processes, we didn't have that luxury and spent about five hours hard work and experimentation to getting it done. Now the phone automatically visit the servers via the Internet, to pick up the latest configuration when they are powered up or restarted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However once we'd "cleaned" the handset memory and reloaded the phones with new copies of the software they work just fine. Now that we understand the process, it is quick and easy to remotely program the handsets. It was time well spent. We're about to handover the devices to the volunteers, plus network cables and power units, all suitably sterilized with isopropyl-alcohol wipedown and exposure to UV-C disinfection lamp. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We already use VoIP phones in the holiday cottage, but there we'd installed a brand new handset so we didn't have any configuration problems.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The only remaining problem is get the recipients of these VoIP handset to plug them in and to use them So far the reprogrammed handsets have not been connected following delivery. There are no reported problems, though we've since discovered the recipients have called in a network engineer to resolve network problems in their home.</span></div>
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Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-4533313996636390062020-03-14T12:24:00.001+00:002020-03-14T12:24:38.121+00:00Event Bookings<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've recently been organising an event which needed to have tickets issued, and also capture contact details of the attendees to allow follow-up email messages. A couple years ago I'd come across <a href="http://www.trybooking.co.uk/">www.trybooking.co.uk</a> which is an Internet Cloud based system run by a small British company based in Kendal. I liked it then and used it successfully for some free ticket events. They don't charge a fee for free tickets. It is fully featured and takes the pain out of issuing, controlling and following up of tickets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the recent event I decided to charge a small fee, to weed out the non-serious prospective attendees. I've looked at several different USA based systems, but was not happy with the features. I recalled the Trybooking system and decided to give it another go. Since my last use of the system a couple of years ago they have improved an already good system. From the attendees viewpoint it works well on PCs, tablets and Smartphones. </span></div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Their fee for chargeable events is 15p per ticket and 5% for card processing.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After collection, they deposit the money into your chosen bank account.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It has a good automatic interface into our wonderful <a href="http://www.xero.com/" target="_blank">Xero</a> accounting system.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It handles refunds well.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It handles VAT correctly.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can do gift certificates and flexible offer voucher codes.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It has good reporting facilities.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There's automatic interface into social media such as Facebook.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is easy to embed the booking interface, such as "Book Now" buttons, into other web pages.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is multi-user.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It gives barcode check-in with an internet connected smartphone for multiple "gatekeepers"; reads pre printed tickets or smartphone screen tickets.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can view who was checked in to the event and when the check-in took place.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm in the process of using integromat.com and zapier.com to provide sms alerts and <a href="http://www.dropcowboy.com/" target="_blank">voice message </a>alerts in the case of needing to announce changes to events and/or reminders that the event is about to take place. This is a bit more complicated, but doesn't require programming skills per se. The next step will be to add a squared.com interface to allow the use of touch bank card, apple pay and google pay payments at events. I'll also add an automated <a href="http://www.mailchimp.com/" target="_blank">Mailchimp</a> interface for marketing at some point.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For one-to-one meetings I use <a href="http://www.acuityscheduling.com/" target="_blank">Acuity Scheduling</a>. This ties into my personal Google Calendar and allows people to book meetings with me, in my free time slots from their web browser. It can also take credit/debit card payments for the meeting fees. This uses my squared.com account to process the payment. All is tied into my Xara accounting system.</span></div>
Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-35002092185269522362019-06-14T11:05:00.000+01:002019-06-14T11:11:14.665+01:00Going to Exhibitions<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the useful activities a business owner/executive can undertake is to attend national trade exhibitions. It need only take the investment of a couple of days a year of your time, but the long term rewards can be great. It helps to keep your trade knowledge current and can help you spot new opportunities. I've been going to such exhibitions for over thirty years, and one soon learns techniques to make the best use of your time while you are visiting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sometimes it is worthwhile visiting stands where you already know the exhibitors quite well, because it gives them the opportunity to show you new products and services they might not show to you during the normal course of business. However the best opportunities are obtained by cruising the exhibition floor and stopping by stands that might have a product/service that piques your interest. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Often conversations with exhibitors will lead on to discoveries you'd not seen at first glance as you pass the exhibition stand. You soon learn to ignore the trinkets artfully placed on the stand to slow you down and thus give the salesman a chance to descend on you. You also learn to avoid eye contact with the barkers/touts who are engaged to engage you with chance conversation. Your time, spent getting to and attending, is precious, save it for those products which are genuinely interesting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I tend to ignore the "seminars", mostly the information is boring and a poor return for your investment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However some exhibition organisers can go over the top in "preparing" you for the exhibition, taking a nannying and patronising approach! Here's an extract from one of the multiple emails arriving in advance.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1zJtGzItLT2GIRCcRYSk6A_IZ0TCkKEQmKBDnVEq6hJ-L5lj_QFpCf9shlLSPKkW7UTD8EC1I0Xb49Tez-nfV-fDZe0al7DKiBlFyyUSnge3op3sjfbS-eD5WwR-Um_lb9Dzaew8pCY/s1600/2019+0614+UBM+Guff.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="825" data-original-width="676" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1zJtGzItLT2GIRCcRYSk6A_IZ0TCkKEQmKBDnVEq6hJ-L5lj_QFpCf9shlLSPKkW7UTD8EC1I0Xb49Tez-nfV-fDZe0al7DKiBlFyyUSnge3op3sjfbS-eD5WwR-Um_lb9Dzaew8pCY/s400/2019+0614+UBM+Guff.PNG" width="327" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Check your route"... I travel the globe on my own for business, finding the location of of an exhibition is not exactly difficult! The people sending these types of emails were probably just cells in the ovaries of a young teenage girl when I started attending trade exhibitions.</span></div>
Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-76446082189978418482019-05-19T19:00:00.002+01:002019-05-19T19:04:04.867+01:00Why pay excessive phone tariffs?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We have a colleague working over in Saudi Arabia. The standard BT call tariff to her landline is £1.45 per minute, plus a 23 pence call setup charge. Fortunately with are using Google GSuite and it's associated Google Voice. The cost per minute is £0.07 and no call set up charge. Our last call was 62 minutes long and cost us £4.54. If we'd used BT it would have been: £90.22 for the same duration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you need to make good sound quality International business calls, look no further than Google Voice. If you are calling the USA, the rates are even better, the calls are free. An incoming direct dial phone line is about £5 a month. The Google software allows you to administer call services for the team and as an option you can have the usual PABX facilities.</span></div>
Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-90424491758079697902019-05-06T09:26:00.002+01:002019-05-06T09:31:56.381+01:00What happens to your email in a crash?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Imagine the situation; you are working on your PC reading your email and suddenly the lights go out. There's been a power failure. When you return to your PC and switch it back on, nothing happens. It will not restart. The disk has been corrupted during the power failure. You suddenly get that sinking feeling when you remember that all of your emails and attachments for the past five years are on that PC.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"You did do a routine back-up of your email database. Didn't you?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Your back-up file was on the hard disk? Now you really are stuffed aren't you?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"No, not to worry; I keep a copy of my documents on Dropbox, so I'll be okay."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Didn't you keep a copy of your email database on Dropbox? No? Oh dear!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've heard this scenario all too often. It is a great pity when you realise that you can keep a copy of your important files offsite on Amazon for a few pence. Amazon's <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/glacier/">AWS Glacier</a> storage allows archive of files cheaply with a retrieval time of just a few hours. It works out at about half a cent/penny per gigabyte per month. You can have a faster retrieval on AWS, but that is slightly more expensive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">More about this, and how to achieve it, later...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've just done that for my wife's email - it was 8 Gbytes! The peace of mind is priceless.</span></div>
Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-61548113764214083312019-04-14T08:09:00.000+01:002019-04-14T08:09:44.391+01:00USA transaction fees<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of our websites are hosted in the USA. The bills in $USD for this are charged to my business Visa Card. The bank converts this USD amount to pounds GBP. For each transaction there's a foreign currency processing fee starting at 1 GBP and increasing with the value of the transaction. It is not listed as a separate bank fee in the bank statement so it is easy to overlook. This can represent up to 10% of some bills.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've just been through our list of overseas suppliers and have changed the credit card on file to one of my Revolut Debit cards. There's no foreign currency transaction fee and it is at the Interbank Exchange rate. Less money to the greedy banks.</span></div>
Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-52737020748394936782019-04-12T11:42:00.000+01:002019-04-12T11:42:12.138+01:00Calculating Foreign exchange costs on Credit Card expenses<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're just getting used to Xero accounting software at Oaksys Tech Ltd. We switched over from an ancient copy of Sage 50 in preparation for the new HMRC (UK tax) rules on electronic tax reporting. It was our accountant's suggestion and we cannot thank him enough, accounts are so much easier on Xero. As a consequence we are getting a much better understanding of our expenditure and income. One of the big bugbears is handling credit card bills for foreign exchange transactions and reconciling them against the original bills (in foreign currency). The conversion rates used by the banks never seem to match published Forex rates, and we have to add adjustments when reconciling the credit card statements against bills.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has finally dawned on us that the reconciliation differences are bank fees for forex transactions embedded in the the credit card statement lines. Dohh! Probably every accounts clerk knows this but we didn't. So now we burrow into the detail of the "printed" credit card statement and record those fees as bank charge adjustments. They are not split out automatically when Xero loads an electronic feed from the bank.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If we have been working overseas on a project, staying in hotels and travelling a lot, all the bank fees start to represent a significant cost. It either comes out of our profit or we pass it on to our clients.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have found an alternative approach to this issue. It eliminates those unwanted bank charges. We use a debit card which does not charge fees for inter-currency transactions. Foreign exchange takes place at inter-bank rates. You can chose to pre-buy currency, or just use the rate at the time of transaction. The card is from <a href="http://www.revolut.com/">Revolut.com </a> It works in a wide range of currencies and provides a feed to Xero.</span></div>
Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-54155301097233148872018-11-05T11:43:00.002+00:002018-11-05T11:43:20.554+00:00Banks have a cheek!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In both the national and local newspapers this morning I see the NatWest Bank running large advertisements proclaiming how friendly and helpful they are to their customers. The advertising fees they are paying must be enormous. Yet, in our town and the adjacent towns they've closed our local NatWest Branch offices. It is now an hour's round trip to get to the nearest Branch, plus add the cost of fuel and parking. When they closed the Branch, their managers claimed it was because the locals didn't use the Branch enough. However I don't think I ever went into the local Branch office without encountering a queue during the previous four years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A clear case of marketing over substance. These people really have a cheek. A few, or even a flood of, dubious adverts are not going to win us over.</span></div>
Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-50970501757924788112018-11-01T10:53:00.000+00:002018-11-01T10:53:01.069+00:00How secure is your business?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have served many businesses over the years. The majority did not own the building from which they operated. Often there would be either a lease or a long term rental from a landlord/freeholder. The business would have to rely on physical security provided by the landlord. The landlord would seek to keep costs low by not providing substantial physical security features for a general purpose rental. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first step should be to undertake a risk assessment to understand what risks from which you want to protect the business. You then need to evauate what methods are available to provide the necessary level of protection. One option might be to move the vulnerable part of the business away from the area of risk. However when it comes down to basics there's often no substitute to having strong physical barriers to keep the bad guys out. CCTV systems and alarms are mainly of deterrent value.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By strong physical barriers, we mean better perimeter fences, stronger doors, stronger windows, stronger walls, floors and ceilings. The elimination of intruder hiding spaces will help too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If the tenant business wanted to undertake works to install stronger physical security in their rented/leased property, they will have to seek permission from the landlord. The business would also have to undertake to fund the removal of security features when they vacate the property. Some physical security measures, such as protective walls, are quite heavy, and some buildings do not have spare structural capacity to take the additional dead weight loading. It may be necessary to lnvolve a structural engineer in the discussions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You also need to be sure that any physical security measures do not contravene safety regulations and building codes.</span></div>
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Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-49692502003871372882018-10-28T08:24:00.001+00:002018-10-29T07:04:48.202+00:00Back up your office PCs<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would your business survive if you suddenly lost all of your desktop computers? How would your business cope if you lost your accounting data and client records? Could you recreate your design documentation and suppliers lists?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's many ways you can suddenly lose your desktop computers and PC Servers. It might be a power surge at the worst possible moment. You might arrive in the morning to find a break-in had occurred overnight and your PCs are missing or destroyed. In these days of Internet threats, you might find your hard disk contents have been irretrievably scrambled without any warning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The point is that total data loss of computer records can and does happen without any warning. If you are sensible, you'll have procedures in place, and tested, to help you recover from such a loss. Those data back-up procedures should be automatic and not rely on human memory to be performed. In legacy computer set ups, this would often take the form of a magnetic tape drive which copies important data files from the hard disks every day, or maybe once a week. The magnetic tapes can then be stored in a safe location, to be retrieved if you need to recover data. The bad news is that magnetic tape back-up is not always reliable when you try to retrieve the stored data, and on top of that it can take hours to read serially through tape to find the piece of data you need urgently.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With faster Internet links and the establishment of Cloud Computing there is an alternate approach to maintaining back-up copies of your desktop and server PCs. It is possible to rent disk storage space from the likes of Amazon, IBM, Microsoft and Google running on their secure central server farms. You can have programs running in the background on your PCs and servers to perform the back up process. When you need to recover one or more data files, it is possible to retrieve them via an internet link. So if your premises have been trashed, flooded, burnt out; it is a relatively straight forward job to reconstruct your services in an alternate location(s), provided it has a good Internet link. If you use the right software tools the regular back-up process is reliable and unobtrusive without the need for constant operator intervention.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After some experimentation with Dropbox and SugarSync, we have settled on the use of Amazon AWS data storage with a Cloudberry Labs front end software to simplify the industrial strength Amazon interface. We'll cover more on this in a later article. </span></div>
Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-79439876798465282932017-06-21T18:40:00.000+01:002017-06-21T18:40:06.505+01:00Pick up the phone!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, after a period of research via the Internet we decided to purchase a couple of pieces of equipment for the company. These were premium quality items, built to last, and as such should represent a reasonable profit to the suppliers. We made a short list of suppliers who we'd contact to discuss placing an order. They were outside of our normal portfolio of suppliers. The equipment is heavy and we'll need to organise additional manpower to receive and install the units.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We started to make the supplier phone calls at 9:30 am this morning. We'd already sent an enquiry, three working days ago, to a well publicised supplier via email because they don't publish a contact phone number! This supplier (importer) is fronted by a national celebrity whose name is part of the branding. We'd received no response, so they were struck off the list. As their's was the most pricey item we'd be saving money anyway, so this was no major blow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We then started to work down the list of suppliers. The first three suppliers didn't answer their phones and the calls rolled over to voice mail. We didn't bother leaving a message. The fourth supplier had an answerphone message asking us to call a mobile phone, when we called the mobile number, we were advised the owner was not available and to call again later. All of these suppliers have established web sites with the expensive equipment advertised on their pages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fifth company we called answered the phone promptly. The person on the other end was knowledgeable and friendly. He had to check some information with the supplier and asked if he could call us back, rather than us waiting on the phone. He called back 10 minutes later with the required information. We placed the order over the phone, Their profit margin should certainly pay that gentleman's wages for the week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We just wonder why, during normal business hours, companies cannot have someone available to answer their phones. There are lots of methods of doing this cheaply yet efficiently. The first four companies lost the opportunity to receive an order, and subsequent follow up business. </span></div>
Orchardmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06205869124907872693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-43657213912938378502017-05-11T17:26:00.000+01:002017-07-02T06:26:25.038+01:00Paypal - problems with account limitation and the alternatives<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We're trying to set up a separate PayPal Account to isolate transactions relating to our holiday cottage. We want them separate from the main Trading Floor Business. However PayPal are proving to be a real pain! To such an extent, that we'd hesitate to recommend them to our clients and friends. In fact we'd recommend them only to our worst enemies. PayPal is demonstrating appalling communication skills in this case and their Customer Support and Complaints Team seem largely ineffective.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We have a primary address in a town called Belper in the middle of the English countryside. We want to operate a side business in a nearby town called Wirksworth (8 miles away) at our holiday home. This is all above board; the local authorities know and the national tax bodies know about this set up. Our bank account is based on our Belper address. We own both properties outright with no mortgage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We've provided Paypal with copies of identity documents and also address proof documentation. Yet they have chosen to limit the associated PayPal account effectively rendering it useless. They appear to ignore the proof of Id/address even though we have provided it five times with explanatory notes. Yet, other than a Case Id: PP-005-824-712-983, they have given us <b>no explanation</b> for the non-acceptance of Id/Address proof. They <b>don't provide</b> us with an appropriate <b>contact email address</b> or <b>contact phone</b> number to talk to the people validating our identity. We've repeatedly asked them to call us and explain the problem. Radio silence from Paypal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We've spoken with their customer services - they couldn't help. We've submitted a complaint through their official complaints procedure. The response was: we handle cases in order of receipt and it will probably take several weeks to get to that point. We've even approached them by Facebook and had the case referred to the "right people". It's hopeless and smacks of Internal Politics. There's still no meaningful contact from their validation people, just a dumb "something's wrong..." message at a sign-on screen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We have purchased one of their PayPal Here card readers, but with a "limited" account it is about as useful as a £75 chocolate oven glove. Not to mention the abysmally poor battery life on the PayPal card reader, but that's another story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is no way to do business and is very much against the PayPal Strategy outlined by the PayPal CEO Dan Schulman (14th Feb 2017 - Goldman Sachs)</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">!! Their behaviour has taken us from being an organisation who, for several years, used to recommend PayPal to clients, to an organisation who would advise against using Paypal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We've given up and signed on to <a href="https://squareup.com/i/206383F4">Square.com</a> It was up and working within a day. Their card reader will arrive in a couple of days. Square's software is much better than the PayPal offering.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>Edit: 16 th May 2017</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In fact PayPal are so unhelpful and uncommunicative, after using PayPal for almost 15 years as a business, we've decided to sever all ties with them. Any employee/associate expense form using PayPal payment will be rejected. Any supplier insisting on Paypal Payment will be dropped. Their domain name will be blacklisted on our firewall and any email from them treated as Spam.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>17th May 2017</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We just redirected the pre-agreed payments which had been via PayPal on the main business account. Alternative payment routes now set up. We've reviewed all Paypal purchases over the past few years by our business and associates and are about to mailshot the suppliers warning them to have alternative supply purchase funding arrangements. Change of policy note has been issued to all associates warning not to charge business related expenses via their personal PayPal accounts. The Square.com testing is going well and their mobile terminal is being well received. We anticipate it will be live soon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The online shop facility will be set up using Square.com and weebly.com shop rather than PayPal buttons as we'd planned. This route is a bit more expensive per month, but at least the receipt of cash will be more reliable and not exposed to the obscure quirks of PayPal support. Once we've moved away from PayPal services we are unlikely to return.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>18th May 2017</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We've tested payments live on the new web site using the Square payment system. After some more website development we'll soon be live. The process of connecting payments was pretty straight forward, has been approved by Square.com and didn't require an affidavit sworn in front of a judge, with passports, bank manager and character witnesses which we assume in the absence of communication from PayPal is what we'd need for the other approach.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>19th May 2017</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Money taken from our cards during testing with Square.com reached our bank account today, so no substantial problems there. Unlike small business hostile PayPal, Square.com have checked our Id, undertaken credit checks with credit reference agencies all within the time scale they publish. Invoice payments and refunds all work just fine. One of our clients, who'd been thinking about payment solutions, saw what we'd done and have signed up to Square. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Paypal apps/accounts have been deleted from all our mobile devices within our organisations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>21st May 2017</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now the only action planned by us is to close the PayPal account and to walk away from them. We'll leave it a few weeks to see if anything comes of our official complaint, but we're not holding our breath. We fully expect PayPal to act like a typical dumb large American corporation and not the business friendly corporation their adverts claim to be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>24th May 2017</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We've removed banking authorisation and credit card details from Paypal for our business.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>25th May 2017</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We'd had a software problem between the Square/Weebly interface. We reported it to both suppliers customer services. In each case they were helpful and had good communication with us. Square.com in particular were very proactive in keeping us informed as what was happening. The problem is now fixed. I've been working in computing and telecoms since 1970; I know things can go wrong with software. What is so important is how you respond to the customers. Both Square and Weebly passed with flying colours. In comparison working with PayPal is like kicking a dead dinosaur along the beach.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u><br /></u></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>Late evening, same day</u>: Ohhh! Are we seeing some progress? Not: ... PayPal have assigned a new case Id: PP-005-842-910-593. There's still no other attempt at contact, other than a same sign-on message requesting Id data. People, you had a scan of my driver's licence on Day 1, perhaps you need a DNA swab? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We wonder how many other people have been treated to these inflexible arbitrary procedures. It is now amusing, but of no commercial interest to us. Perhaps we should run one of those <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg1ckCkm8YI">Youtube video clips</a> "What happens when you blend a PayPal card reader?" We do have an unwanted device.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>27 May 2017</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We finally had some direct email contact from PayPal, their executive escalation team. It is much more communicative. Apparently the problems have been caused by a technical issue. The technical issues have now been fixed and our account released from limitation. Well not quite!! After a couple of iterations of the limit/release cycle our account is still limited and their people are now away until Tuesday (weekend and public holiday). We'll maybe provide an update on 30th May; but you have to say it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the PayPal systems.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>30th May 2017</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No further direct contact from PayPal. Just a repeat login notice requesting information already supplied and yet another Paypal Case Id: </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">PP-005-856-518-845. They really are hopeless at communication. So far this past 30 days they've lost the commission on £1678 which would have been normally directed through their system by our organisations. If they have lost the information already supplied by us, they are technically in breach of Data Protection law. Also there's been no response to the official complaint from us which was submitted 29th April.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>7th June 2017</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We've been assured by the Paypal Executive Interventions Office that our account is not restricted, yet when we sign-on to their system we still get the message that PayPal needs to validate our identity. We think this is due to the "technical fault" which is under investigation, but to be honest we are uncertain. We're not sufficiently reassured that the PayPal account is in a sufficiently stable state to direct any business through it. The last thing we want is to have money locked into the account or worse, having to tell customers that PayPal has restricted the account.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">16th June 2017</span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There still no sign of PayPal fixing their problem with client validation. No response from them on the formal complaint.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>2nd July 2017</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Paypal dinosaur has totally forgotten this problem. It remains unresolved. Meanwhile square.com is working just fine.</span></div>
Oaksyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02302779289360898119noreply@blogger.com0Wirksworth, Matlock DE4, UK53.082819 -1.570676999999932453.044669 -1.6513579999999324 53.120969 -1.4899959999999324tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-324123620218055072016-12-29T11:47:00.004+00:002017-01-06T07:58:07.951+00:00Corel back in the Sin Bin<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You'd think I'd know better after my career in computing and IT infrastructure stretching back to the 1970s. Back in the 1990s I burnt my IT Manager fingers by installing Wordperfect as a standard word processing software for our company. It left scars. But no, I recently gave into temptation and purchased a Corel Software product for my new PC. I've been left disappointed, wishing I'd spent the money on better products.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My trusty 10 year old PC cannot provide enough memory to sensibly run the modern bloatware software need to run safely in today's Internet environment. I've been finding I've had to stop background programs to ensure others could run. So I've paid a specialist to build me a workstation with far greater memory capacity and processing power, using Windows 10/64 Bit. I've gone from a a maximum of 6 GB to a current 32 GB and the potential to install at least double that amount. As part of the upgrade I've purchased new copies of software applications as I want to keep the old box available in the background. I'm pretty scrupulous about using only legally licensed software.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On the old box I have an old copy of CorelDraw Graphics Suite X4 which provides CorelDraw and PhotoPaint. It is perfectly adequate for office graphics, some photo handling/editing. On the new box I decided to purchase a full copy of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X8 and loaded the 64 Bit version to be able to take advantage of the larger memory on the PC. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then I decided to transfer my computer peripherals from the old machine to the new PC. Most were just plug and play, starting to work as soon as I plugged them in. Amongst those there is a Panasonic KV-S1025C document scanner. It is a professional quality device which is fast, reliable and rarely jams. I took the precaution of downloading and installing the latest 64 bit drivers from the manufacturers Panasonic site. The scanner now works fine with all of my new software <b>except</b> the CorelDraw X8 software. It will start the scanning process but as the scanned document is loading from the scanner the CorelDraw software collapses. The Corel X4 software worked on my old PC including the scanner, but I'd had to downgrade to the 32 Bit version of Corel some years back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After doing some research on the Internet I discovered I'd have to use the same work-around for the new Corel software. Corel have known about this problem for years but haven't put the investment in to fixing their software to work reliably on both 32 Bit and 64 Bit scanner interface software. Anyway I decided to persevere and made contact with Corel support. I mentioned in my query I'd updated the driver software to the latest 64 bit version. Their response was I should visit a third party website who provide alternate scanner driver software for $80. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When I protested I'd already installed the latest Panasonic drivers the Corel Support team asked me to perform an audit scan of my PC configuration, they helpfully provided a link to a freeware software product (winaudit). Unfortunately the URL link is reported as a malicious link by Google Chrome browser. I don't fancy loading malware on to my new PC so I replied to Corel asking if they had an alternate scanning tool to allow them to investigate the problem in their software,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nope, apparently they can only use winaudit. So I guess that is the end of their support efforts! I already have problems with Corel about <a href="http://oaksys.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/a-major-flaw-in-corels-wordperfect.html">UK price gouging</a> but this failure to provide a reliable scanner interface for graphics software in a 64 Bit environment is the last straw. I'm off to Adobe and the Corel product can languish unused on my PC. I just wish I'd read <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corel">this</a> wikipedia entry before making the decision to purchase a new copy of Corel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Edit: <b><u>The Corel Helpdesk saga continues</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Corel people are now trying to clear this from their stats:...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">27th Dec</span>: The first request by Corel that I download and run malicious freeware software</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">28th Dec</span>: I respond that I don't like loading malware on my PC. Do they have an alternative?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">29th Dec:</span> Corel respond it is the only tool they can use.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">2nd Jan (00:35)</span> Corel ask me if the issue is resolved</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">2nd Jan (06:55)</span> I reply no it isn't resolved, as I don't run malicious software</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">2nd Jan (07:33)</span> Corel sends me a blank email; subsequently I discover it is a repeated request to download and use the malicious freeware.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">4th Jan (02:58)</span> Corel sends me another blank email. Subsequently I discover it is a Corel reminder to say they are waiting for information.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">4th Jan (19:24)</span> I log into their help desk system and record a message repeating that the scanner works fine with other software, but not the Corel software and no I don't want to load malware on my PC. I asked the Helpdesk to escalate the matter if they don't know how to fix it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">5th Jan (07:51)</span> The Corel Support Tech now tries repeating the earlier advice of using third party <a href="https://www.hamrick.com/reg.html">Vuescan software</a> ($80) to solve the problem of Corel software not properly interfacing with my Panasonic Scanner. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">5th Jan (13:21) </span>Pointing out they were now going in circles<span style="color: blue;">,</span> I rejected spending on third party software to possibly fix the Corel problem. I repeated the request for them to escalate my query.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">6th Jan (07:30)</span> The Corel Support tech, comes back saying the VueScan software download is free. I respond with a link showing the prices charged for the third party software. It's fairly obvious this poor chap has no solution in his arsenal and is hoping I'll give up rather than him having to escalate the issue to his management. I've noted on the response if he doesn't escalate the matter I will, which I think is fair warning.</span><br />
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Oaksyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02302779289360898119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-75008404703472141022016-12-16T11:11:00.000+00:002016-12-24T08:16:24.430+00:00Hotel Blacklist<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Hilton chain of hotels is on my blacklist. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In my line of business I get to travel a lot on technology project work. It will mean that I get to stay in international city centre hotels for spells of up to three weeks at a time. I don't particularly like staying in hotels, but regard it as a necessary evil. I generally sign up to the hotel loyalty scheme to accumulate points, but infrequently use those points until I'm going on a holiday with my wife. I'd prefer if the hotels just had lower rack rates for regular customers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Hilton Hhonors Scheme decided to confiscate my points with them because I'd not used their scheme for a couple of years. So much for loyalty! They continue to send me automated emails about all of the "opportunities" I'm missing with their hotel products. This theft needs punishment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I now boycott their Hilton chain and subsidiary hotels. I'll stay somewhere else when in a city. I even have an automatic blacklist on their domain name so all their email and web sites are blocked and treat as Spam in our offices</span>. </div>
Oaksyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02302779289360898119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-29868734606741407592016-11-30T20:32:00.002+00:002016-11-30T20:32:57.227+00:00Royal Mail deliveries<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've just lost a day of my life waiting for a parcel from Amazon. The parcel was sent as "Special Delivery Guaranteed" and was due today - 30th November. As it is a parcel which has to be signed for I waited in all day. Amazon and the Royal Mail have fancy mail tracking web sites which are about as useful as chocolate teapots. They just said "It's out for delivery", no specific time for delivery just - it's out for delivery. By 18:30 I emailed Amazon to find out what has happened to the parcel. Ignoring the management speak the message from Amazon was "Tough, wait until it's delivered." Shortly afterwards the status on the website was updated to show "Parcel returned to depot." So currently I have no idea when this parcel will be delivered.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Royal Mail should update it's website to add some new status messages:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's gone out, but is unlikely to arrive on time</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We can't be bothered to deliver it today, maybe next week</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have delivered it to a post office for your collection, take a 4x4 SUV to reach it</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Collect it from the sorting office between 0530 and 0630 in two days time</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The driver was late back from the pub, maybe deliver tomorrow</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This nonsense will continue until the Government dictates that any failure to deliver a "timed delivery" will be compensated at the rate of 8 hours of the Minimum National Wage unless 12 hour notice of failure is provided in advance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As for Amazon? I'll not do any Christmas shopping via them.</span></div>
Oaksyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02302779289360898119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-39256352809805427192016-11-23T17:32:00.003+00:002016-11-23T17:32:27.173+00:00Trouble with WmiPrvSE.exe?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For months now we've noticed a Microsoft process called WmiPrvSE.exe continually running on our PC (Win7 Professional). There was no apparent reason for this but it was consuming a steady 5% of CPU resources on a 4 core cpu. We did a lot of online research but could come up with no reason. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, almost by accident, we discovered that if we stop CCleaner running in the background then the problem with WmiPrvSE goes away. I guess there must be some kind of permissioning conflict.</span></div>
Oaksyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02302779289360898119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-64109114173084195482016-05-19T19:45:00.001+01:002016-12-29T10:52:45.037+00:00A major flaw in Corel's Wordperfect Office X8<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Corel are sending me emails enjoining my company to use their latest office software. Wordperfect Office X8 Standard. Unfortunately they still haven't fixed the major flaw in their product. They could do so at the stroke of a pen. I've previously identified the flaw to them, but they've chosen to ignore this flaw.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Their product is priced in the UK at 164% of the USA price. This is unacceptable to me. It is naked and blatant price gouging.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I must remember to tweak my email filters to stop the Corel email.</span></div>
Oaksyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02302779289360898119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285445123499457554.post-59623632702040030772016-05-03T07:11:00.002+01:002016-05-03T07:11:24.135+01:00Reward for $2.6 Billion loss?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Executive pay is seriously out of kilter when a CEO stands to make lottery jackpot money (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36185888">$55 Million</a>) on top of an existing massive salary for presiding over $2.6 Billion loss of annual sales income. She should be fired with no compensation along with the people who supported her original employment.</span></div>
Oaksyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02302779289360898119noreply@blogger.com0