LinkedIn - Reminder about your invitation from

I received reminders from LinkedIn from a business I know. I let them know that I don’t use LinkedIn but more than happy to keep in contact. What was interesting is the person is skilled with computers but they’d ended up sending invitations to their entire contact list without meaning to. The person said they’d select just the six people they wanted invitations to be sent to and LinkedIn ended up sending invitations to everyone in their mailing list. If this can happen to this person then it can happen to a lot of people.

LinkedIn was a bit annoying because after the first email on the 14^th of July it then sent a reminder on the 18^th at 7:39pm and another on the 18^th at 10:41pm. A few days later on the 25^th of July at 5:30pm and at 6:39pm reminders were sent. To me this is a bit over the top. I have to say a bit annoying. I did let the person know and they felt LinkedIn and high jacked their account so they weren’t happy. A few days later they felt LinkedIn tried to do it again to one of their colleagues. I don’t know if this was a design fault of LinkedIn or a user issue.

I really don’t think this is good enough. If people are sending out invitations inadvertently then it may be an issue with the user interface. On the reminder front a single reminder should be sufficient. This is simply over the top marketing by LinkedIn. I don’t use LinkedIn. I gave it a go for over a year but felt it offered no value to me so I made to effort to cancel the account. I certainly don’t want to be nagged into opening another account.

My suggestion is if you are going to use one of the social networking sites avoid giving the site access to your contact list. Invite your contacts yourself. That way you stay in control of who you invite and your complete contact list doesn’t end up in the hands of the social networking site.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Melbourne Photographer - Des Pitfield

I thought I'd share my portrait photo journey with others. I don't know about you but I'm not generally happy with photographs of myself, but I am very happy with the latest photograph you'll now see on my web site taken by Des Pitfield.

I said to Des I generally don't like photographs of myself but without being too vein, I do know I don't mind the guy I see in the mirror each morning. Surely someone could capture that photo for me.

As it turned out Des captured the photo I'm happy with.

The following are the three photos I've used on my web sites. I personally feel a good photo on your web site is an asset.

The first photo was taken by a family member which at the time I thought was OK. The second photo was taken by a professional photographer. I liked the photo but unfortunately the feedback I got from a person was I looked much younger in person and I did tend to feel it made me look older. Now the last photo on the right is by Des Pitfield and I'm very happy with the result. The photo captures that person I see each day.

Thank you to Des Pitfield for his excellent work. You can find Des Pitfield at http://www.despitfieldphotography.com/ and also on the JustLocal page for Doncaster East (www.JustLocal.com.au/3109).

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/  

MyAnswers has now been updated for Virtual Profit Sharing

MyAnswers has now been updated to be compatible with Virtual Profit Sharing.

Virtual Profit Sharing is the Online Connections loyalty reward program for customers of Online Connections and JustLocal. Virtual Profit Sharing or VPS for short, is our way of saying thank you to clients for referring others to our services. VPS is based on two principles. It is generous and when we benefit so do our customers.

You can check out MyAnswers at www.MyAnswers.biz and using your VPS member code you can now let others know of the solutions available.

Thank you for your support.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
www.JustLocal.com.au

Aluminium can recycling

I’ve often read that recycling saves around 95% of the energy required to manufacture an aluminium can from bauxite. I became curious as to how much energy that really was. As it turns out, each aluminium can our family recycles saves the equivalent of around 5% of our daily electricity usage. So next time you’re putting your recycle bin out you can feel pleased you really are making a difference to the world. Perhaps next time you see that thoughtlessly discarded drink can in the street put it in your recycle bin. The person’s thoughtlessness is your energy offset.

Aluminium Cans - Liquid Energy... Read More

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Alert:You have 2 messages from Twitter Administration

If you receive an email with the subject You have 2 messages from Twitter Administration, then you should delete the message. It isn't legitimate and thus has malicious intent. The links in the email point to a Spanish domain (.es) and the email was sent from France.

Should you receive an email from one of your social networking services you should assume they're malicious. Don't click on links. Open your browser and go to the site using the web site address. That way you can be sure you're not being tricked.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

Apple iCloud should really be called Apple iSync.

There is a lot of talk about “The Cloud” and it can get pretty confusing to many people. Think of The Cloud as a push by computer companies to get people to run their services from centralised machines rather than on your local computer. This enables software providers to provide software as a service rather than a product for you to install on your computer. Many people already use services in The Cloud. If you use Hotmail, Yahoo mail or Gmail you’re using “The Cloud”. So really it is no big deal. Services were already being delivered via the internet before “The Cloud” came along.

In September Apple will be making its iCloud service available. But really, can this be considered a Cloud service? Not really. It is simply using the internet to provide centralised storage and then to enable attached devices to synchronise the data across devices. Thus my reasoning behind why iCloud should really be called iSync. Apple is about providing devices you carry around with you and from what I can see, they want you to have your data and applications installed on your devices. Nothing wrong with that approach at all. It has many advantages such as local performance is often better than services running on the internet and if you have no connection to the internet you can continue to work offline.

The problem with calling the service iCloud is people will be looking for the Cloud based services which are typical of how others are marketing “The Cloud”. This will confuse people. Of course calling it iSync is really not modern or trendy so let’s just put this down to marketers having poetic licence.

Hopefully that makes it easier for you to see the term Cloud will be used by many organisations in different ways. “The Cloud” sounds far sexier than “The Internet”, but what people really need to do is work out what services are being made available and how they can take advantage of those services. Whether it is called iCloud or iSync doesn’t really matter. It is about what the service will do for you.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Power usage calculator and power usage of various household appliances

Using the power meter I sell on the Energy Cost Calculator page I decided to collect the power usage for a number of devices around people’s homes and home offices. The aim is to assist people in determining the amount of electricity appliances use. By our family changing some simple habits we’ve been able to reduce our electricity to under half the average for our size of family. I’d estimate about a $500 a year saving for us, but if we were using the average the saving would be closer to $1,000. I know I’d prefer that money in my pocket each year and all done with very little outlay involved.

This level of saving far exceeds the savings made by installing expensive solar systems so anyone can do it. The best part is there is no up keep, almost nothing to be spent and you’ll achieve more than the government aims to with its carbon tax. Really if everyone just looked at their usage and changed their behaviour a little we could avoid the carbon tax and that would save us all a lot of money in the future. I’m pretty sure by now those who have installed solar systems have realised they’re not saving anywhere near what they expected.

The following are the items that I’ve measured and make available in MyAnswers solution 2112. The solution is available free of charge to those purchasing one of the devices on the Energy Cost Calculator page.

Telstra F2300 Answering Machine
Rank Arena LCD TV/DVD TL1951-BDTP
Acer Aspire One Series Netbook AV10
Toshiba Satellite Pro A120 Notebook PSAC1A-0QV03J
Epson Aculaser C1100 Colour Laser
Compaq 7500 17" monitor PE1163
Acer AL1715 17" LCD monitor ET-L2102.216
Epson Stylus TX210 All-in-one
Panasonic DVD Recorder DMR-XW300
LG Plasma TV 50" 50PS30FD-AA.AAULLH
Netgear Wireless Cable Modem Gateway CG814WG v3 (Optus)
Tefal Avanti Deluxe Toaster
TinyPro LED Projector 2009199
TEAC Std Set Top Box SDR161T
Kye Systems Corp. Multimedia Hi-Fi Speaker Systems SP-G10
JVC Television 25" AV-25LS
LG 6H Hi-Fi Stereo VHS/DVD player V782W
Ozito ECO 320 Lawnmower
Telstra Pre-paid mobile wi-fi
Sanyo Clock Radio RM399
Apple iPad 2
Panasonic 5.8Ghz Digital Answering Machine KX-TG4391AL
Target King Size Electric Blanket GW281

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

What is Office 365?

I've now had the chance to quickly review Office 365 and I can see some areas where I feel it could be better and some areas where I think it could really benefit micro and small businesses.

In a nutshell, Office 365 is Microsoft's attempt at providing software as an online service. You get access to Office web apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote), Email, Calendar, web site, collaboration, instant messaging and online meetings.

My focus is reviewing Office 365 for micro and small business users. It is important to review Office 365 against your needs. The plan marketed by Microsoft to this group of businesses is "Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small business". The plan is designed for up to 25 users.

To quote from the Microsoft site you receive:

- A solution without dedicated IT staff
- Essential email, calendar and web site services
- Free online community support
- Month-to-month subscription

If I look at this list it really doesn't impress me that much. Most small businesses I know don't have dedicated IT staff, they already have email, calendar and in quite a few cases web site services, can already get free online community support (which I think is a poor substitute for decent support) and even though it is a month-to-month subscription, as a business you need to make a decision that will last you for some time.

I should explain why I think community support is often a poor option for users. First I find there are quite a few members on community support forums who are rude and obnoxious. Whilst most are pretty good, the few spoil it for everyone. My experience is you will be offended by these people at some point in time. I don't like putting my clients in a position where they can get offended. I've found some of the advice to be substandard (from well meaning people) to the point where users would damage their computer should they take the advice. Since free support is just that, if a problem is hard and requires some effort that is where a quality paid support person will make sure the client is looked after. The other aspect is I find those putting a lot of energy into forums tend to become blinkered to other options, often obsessively pushing their cause. Users may not get a balanced opinion when there may be better options. Users can make better decisions if they're assisted and provided with options and information in a relatively unbiased manner. I don't generally find that on community support forums. It is simply the way forums work.

My initial impression is the sign up is cumbersome for Australians with Telstra being positioned between users and Microsoft. For some this will create confusion and means they will need IT support for the sign up, which really shouldn't be the case. If you're not the type of person who can set up your own email then you will need assistance. I felt a number of the features such as SharePoint will probably not be used by micro and small businesses and the web site tool is very limited in what it offers.

I looked at the needs of a few of my clients (micro and small business) and in each case it would be hard for them to justify moving to Office 365. Office 365 does offer some good new features for them, but at the same time they lose features they need.

If you have a business that doesn't have a web presence, you are using your Internet Service Provider's email address, or worse, Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo mail for your business, and would like to be more mobile, then Office 365 could be a very good match for you. But do make sure you take into account what you'd like to do in the future so you don't outgrow Microsoft's service.

My aim is to assist clients by providing them with advice and guidance as to whether Office 365 can be used as a tool in their business. I know of at least two businesses who could potentially benefit from moving to Office 365.

The funny thing is if Microsoft had simply provided the option for people to upload their own html or PHP based site rather than their restrictive canned approach, I'd have quite a few more clients. There are some real benefits to be had from using Office 365, but the restrictions make migrating to Office 365 much harder to justify.

It really is a case of reviewing the client's needs and then seeing if Office 365 can match those needs, or whether a different solution is required.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Has your password been hacked? Top 20 passwords.

The recent activity of hackers making passwords of hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of people public is a concern, but not only for the reason that these people’s accounts have been compromised, but what it means to everyone else. Yes that means you.

What it means is if you are using a password you think is secure it may not be. Armed with a simple list of commonly used passwords the ability to hack someone's account now becomes much easier.

I decided to check out a hacktivists site and found a file which they made public with 62,000 email addresses and passwords. Yes those using those email addresses and passwords across multiple accounts such as Facebook and Email could have had all their accounts compromised. We know that. But what is less apparent is these databases can now be used to try to hack into other people's accounts.

I decided to take the list of 62,000 email addresses and passwords and create a list of passwords. Visually checking the list there is quite a bit of duplication so the appearance of some passwords may be overstated. However the list does give a good feel for the usage of passwords.

To help my clients my thought was to enable you to see if your password appears on one of these databases being made available by the hackers. We know names, places and dictionary words are common lists used by hackers. But now hackers have a more targeted list based on the actual usage by people. The question is, has your password been hacked? Does your password now appear in a hackers database making it easier for others to hack into your account.

The next thought I had is how do I make the list available to others. Making a list available on line for others to check sounds like a good idea, but really, who’s to say I'm not a hacker trying to get a better list of passwords. I've seen a database where you can check if your email address is on the hackers’ databases they've released, but really who is to say this simply isn't a site designed to collect additional email addresses. You can't be too careful.

 

I decided to make the list of passwords available to clients as an Excel spreadsheet. That means people download the spreadsheet and can check it on their computer. There is thus no sharing of your information and everything is open. I had thought about a program but again who is to say the program isn’t collecting information you enter. A spreadsheet is a good way to share the information and you can use Control+F (the find facility) to check for your password.

The following is the top 20 passwords. If you're using one of those passwords you should immediately change it.

123456
123456789
password
romance
102030
mystery
ajcuivd289
shadow
tigger
123
bookworm
dragon
sunshine
reader
12345
purple
maggie
reading
1234
angels

The spreadsheet with the full list of passwords to enable you to check your password is available free to clients of Online Connections and Justlocal upon request.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Alert: Domain Notification: ELDRIDGE - KELVIN This is your Final Notice of Domain Listing - OZEFILTER.COM

I received an email last night with the subject Domain Notification: ELDRIDGE -  KELVIN This is your Final Notice of Domain Listing - OZEFILTER.COM.

The words Attention: Important Notice and the expiry date being today's date are sure to put some people under pressure.

What I found particularly interesting was this email reminded me of the letters I'd received in the regular post. Now I know my domain isn't expiring and isn't with this organisation. The notice actually doesn't seem to list a business name and includes none of the usual links to a web site. It is a scam and sadly some people will fall for it.

My thought with scams is surely it wouldn't be too difficult for Yahoo to close the email account as soon as they find out someone is sending a scam. Given they log everyone who signs up for an account which I suspect would include an IP address, perhaps they may be able to identify locations being used to create and send this type of scam. But just as equally if the telephone number is a real number couldn't the telephone service provider block this number or redirect it. Finally surely if the intent is to obtain money the credit card companies could suspect the merchant account. But of course this may just be a scam to obtain credit card numbers. For scams to work there are a number of parties that need to participate and perhaps the legitimate parties in the transaction need to work out ways where they can quickly redirect traffic to minimise the harm to others.

As always with your domain if you receive a notification go back to your records, check the dates and registrar and only renew using the registrars web service and not via a link in an email. If you wish to pay by fax then initiate the request and don't respond to a request out of the blue. Before taking action based on any email you receive, pause for a moment. Ask yourself what action you need to take to better protect yourself. There is always a simple action you can take such as going to the site (not using a link in an email), making a call, or contacting your support person. Act in haste and you'll likely make a mistake you'll regret.

Kelvin Eldridge

http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

If something doesn't feel right you should listen to your instinct.

I read the blog post on Credit Matters (Why Did You Do it?... Read More) and shortly after watched a TV news report on people buying cars without ever seeing the car, where there was no traceable contact information and yes the people were scammed and lost their money.

It is important in business and in private life, when dealing with others, to know the person is who they say they are. Scammers are ever present both in business and our private lives. Kim Radok had a good story to share in his post Why Did You Do It?

Next time you’re about to do something that doesn’t feel right, remember evolution has given you the tools, the instinct to know when something doesn’t feel right. If you get that feeling that something doesn’t quite feel right, don’t just go for it. Pause for a moment and think things through.

As an example I once worked for a partnership and was offered a company car as part of the salary package. There was an agreement I needed to sign. I said I couldn’t sign the agreement as it contained a clause which meant I’d have to pay out the company car should I leave and I wasn’t prepared to take that risk. Sometimes things don’t work out and we need to plan for that situation. The human resources manager said it was a formality. The partners had never enforced the payout before. So based on what I believed was a verbal commitment and understanding signed the letter of employment. My gut feeling was correct and that was a very costly mistake I learnt from. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it.

If you’re in business check out Kim’s blog and benefit from the wisdom he shares.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Is the Australian Government appealing to our basic greed with the carbon tax?

I've noticed a sad trend in our society which is the government seems to put into place what it wants to do and does so by appealing to our basic greed. Yes. Our greed.

The government is currently saying something like 70% of households will be compensated. The question I have is why?

I read once that somewhere around the 1920's government worked out if it wanted to take something from people, a way to make it easier was to give them something in return. That is raise taxes in one area but give something back in another which is less but people feel like they've gotten something in return.

If carbon is a real issue (and I believe our excess usage by all of us is a problem for future generations) then why is the government trying to create a carbon trading scheme which in effect looks to me like they're trying to create another share market. Using our tax dollars to make something from nothing.

For example when the government offered people to swap over their light globes a large number of people had someone come in and swap over their light globes. From what I read each light globe cost us $10. One household I know had 43 light globes. That's around $430 for an hour's worth of work which we will all end having to pay back. This is an example of basic greed. People getting what they think is something for nothing, but in the end we all end up paying. i felt a better way would have been to allow us to trade in our old light globes at the local council which could have been done for a fractions of the cost.

When it comes to solar panels those installing 1.5kW systems took the opportunity to get around a $5,000 subsidy which of course we all end up paying for with greater electricity bills. That feels to me like basic greed by some people at the expense of their neighbours. A better approach which is being done now is to invest that money into large scale projects where the economics is better than installing solar panels on a house by house basis.

The set-top box program which will cost around $300 per pensioner for something that can be bought for around $50 is another example of people taking without thinking about the cost to others. i would have hoped those in our society with the greatest life experience would so know to the government offer knowing that it is other who will be paying for their greed. The government of course wants to phase out analogue TV and I'd suspect it is perhaps to sell off the bandwidth for more licensing fees.

Now we get the carbon tax. We're being told about 70% of people will be compensated. But really why? Why not bring in a plan where those businesses using excessive amounts of energy have to reduce their quotes or face heavy fines. Fines heavier than if they reinvested the money in green technologies to reduce their impact. According to a report on A Current Affair recently just 50 companies produce 50% of the carbon emissions. Surely the government could work with those companies to start reducing their carbon emissions and to do it in such a way that costs to consumers cannot be increased.

To me carbon tax appears to be a cash grab by the government. I don't think this should be necessary. We should all aim to do our part to reduce our usage. It really doesn't take much.

The irony of the current situation is if we look at our electricity bill we are rewarded with lower tariffs if we use more electricity. Surely we should be rewarded for using less rather than more. Those who cut their usage should be rewarded.

Sadly it just appears the government is trying to raise around $20 billion dollars a year of additional revenue which will end up costing us up to $80 billion dollars a year once those cost go through our industries. This is an enormous overhead for future generations. A burden I don't think is fair on future generations. An overhead that once in place will never be removed.

I didn't use the the government program to replace light globes but instead chose to purchase lights using my own money. I didn't install solar panels but instead chose to reduce my energy use by around 50%. However I won't have any choice with the carbon tax and neither will future generations.

I hope people can see that if the government is offering something, they are generally taking away more than they are giving. Don't be greedy. Your greed will only hurt yourself and future generations. Look at your own usage of resources and look at ways of reducing your footprint on this earth.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/

Apple iPhone iOS 4.3.4 now available.

The security issue with viewing potentially malicious PDFs in the Apple iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch operating system has now been patched and the updated iOS 4.3.4 operating system is now available.

This update applies to the iPhone 4 (GSM), iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, iPod Touch (4^th generation) and iPod Touch (3^rd generation).

I'd highly suggest downloading and installing the update as soon as possible.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

What do you love, yes, what do you love?

Google has recently release a new tool called What do you love which you can find at http://www.wdyl.com/. The question I have is I wonder what are the first things that come to peoples' minds if they were to search for one thing when they test Google's new tool.

For me I live in Templestowe. I love things local which of course is what JustLocal is all about. So my first search was Templestowe to see what would appear. I was please to see my blogs appear.

For the second search I was a bit more reluctant. It was my own name. You never know what you are going to see when you search your name. Perhaps there's something exciting, perhaps there's something you'd prefer not to see *laugh*. In any case it is a bit of fun.

Give Google's new tool a go and perhaps if you have time, write a comment and let me know what you love.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/

PS. I did find this tool locked up my browser on one occasion.

Windows Vista SP1 no longer supported. Should you buy Windows 7?

One marketing strategy I’ve seen from Microsoft tends to confuse people and it happens every time a service pack reaches the end of its support life. I saw this a while ago with Windows XP and when I read the news item, it really made me feel that Windows XP support was ending. It wasn’t. It was only for those with an older service pack. The following is a section from the Microsoft blog.

I wanted to remind folks that as of today July 12th, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is no longer supported. We recommend folks look at upgrading to Windows 7... Read More

As we can see there is a recommendation to get people to move to Windows 7 and thus a sale for Microsoft. But there is no need for any purchase. Simply upgrade to Service Pack 2.

If you don’t need to upgrade to Windows 7 there really isn’t much point. Simply upgrade your computer, whether it be Windows XP or Vista to the latest Service Pack. For those using Windows XP don’t get concerned. Windows XP reportedly will continue to be supported until 2014. By this time your computer will be nearly another three years older and Windows 8 will have well and truly arrived, perhaps even Windows 9. There isn’t anything wrong in skipping operating systems. If your computer is working for you and upgrading to later operating system doesn’t give you anything more, then why spend the money. In addition the money spent buying an upgrade, because they really are quite expensive, can go a long way towards part paying for the cost of new system complete with the latest operating system.

During my time supporting clients I’ve rarely upgraded clients’ operating systems to a different version. In fact can only think of at most about three-five computers so the clients machines were all on Windows XP and that’s out of many hundreds of computers. The computer usually reaches end-of-life before the operating system.

There are good business reasons to upgrade, such as having all users on the same operating system, and some good reasons not to upgrade, such as costly peripherals (printers, scanners, cameras, etc.) not working. So make sure if you upgrade that you’re doing it for the right reason rather than Microsoft’s posts which aren’t really explaining all the options a user has.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Alert: Apple iPhone, iPad, Touch PDF exploit

I just read the following article about how Apple is rushing to patch and exploit which malware writers can use and deliver via a PDF, either via a site or email, and moments later received a suspicious email, which was an obvious fake using Google as the sender.

http://m.theage.com.au/technology/security/hackers-expose-flaw-in-apple-ipad-iphone-software-20110707-1h3e1.html

That was a gentle prod and I felt I should let my customers know about the exploit.

If you're using an iOS device, until Apple has patched their software and you have installed the update, you should take extreme care opening PDFs from people or sites you don't know.

Because it requires quite an effort to update iOS devices, I've seen quite a few devices which aren't being updated. The effort is the updates don't go direct to the device but via a computer. Devices such as the Touch or even and iPhone can go for months without being connected to a computer and updated.

I've found in the past with the iTunes gift voucher malware, a large percentage and a very large number of Apple users (significantly greater than the market share for the devices) took action as a result of the email malware.

Because Apple products feel more like a device than a computer a false sense of security can be created.

Take extreme care with PDFs if you are using an iOS device from Apple. that is an iPad, iPhone or Touch device.


Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Alert: Facebook Support has sent you a message

This morning I received three different messages to three different email addresses I use with the subject Facebook Support has sent you a message.  If you receive these emails you should immediately delete them as they are not from Facebook. Both the link and the Submit button will send you to a site which is not a Facebook site.

In this case two of the three emails ended up at a site Canadian Family Pharmacy with ads promoting Cialis and Viagra. Given the sites are possibly short term disposable sites you shouldn't trust the sites in any case.

My advice is if you ever receive an email to an online service you use such as Facebook, Twitter, bank sites, etc., don't use the link in the email. Go to the site by open your browser enter go to the site like you normally would. That way you reduce the chance of being tricked by phishing attempts. Also there is a potential the link may take you to a malicious site which might end up infecting your computer. Another great reason for not clicking on a link in the emails.

What I thought was interesting with the three emails is the links in each email was for different web site. This just goes to show that in the one spam attempt the spammers are now using multiple sites. If one gets closed down quickly (in this case one site didn't work) they've increased their chances of their spam mail out working.

The tip I really want to get across to people is if you receive an email with a link, even if it is from an organisation you know, don't use the link. Open your browser and go to the site using the site address. Phishing attacks are so clever in how real they look and it is very easy to be tricked into revealing your account details. If you know someone who is perhaps not as good with computers as yourself, pass the tip on to assist them.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/
http://www.justlocal.com.au/

Thank you to Anthony Osborne for contributing to JustLocal Rowville

When I first designed JustLocal I was at a stage in my life where I found I could help a couple of dozen businesses with my consulting skills but for me that wasn't enough. I wanted to find a way to share my skills with a much larger number of people. JustLocal was the result and is designed to enable me to help thousands of people.

I don't work in the same way as others. I don't build a business to employ people and create a typical business structure. I believe in empowering a people. To work with others in a cooperative manner for the benefit of the team. My motto is friends helping friends and I believe when we help each other we all grow.

Anthony Osborne, whom I met whilst running for the last state election, contacted me for assistance with an internet presence. We both ran as independents and what impressed me about Anthony was he was proactive and persistent. Now whilst JustLocal is about helping businesses and comes from a business perspective, Anthony came from a different direction which was to help his local community to be informed about council news, local news and events in the local area. The structure of JustLocal is set up so one or more people in a local area can use JustLocal to assist their community. By helping Anthony to achieve his goal of helping the local community I also achieve my goal of helping others and for me that is what JustLocal is about.

I'd like to welcome Anthony to the JustLocal virtual team and am excited for what the future will hold, how JustLocal with the help of Anthony, keep the local community informed and  to strengthen the local community.

You can read posts by Anthony on the 3178 blog (http://justlocal3178.blogspot.com/) and you can also find the blog on the 3178 JustLocal postcode page (www.JustLocal.com.au/3178) which covers Rowville and Lysterfield.

Thank you Anthony for your time, effort and support.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/