Sunday, April 27, 2014

The Block 2014/2015. Is this the next location for The Block?

I've read the producers of the The Block have purchased an office block at 121-127 High Street, Prahran, which is near Chapel Street and opposite Swinburne University. The building is glass fronted and currently, if viewed through Google maps, shows the company name of viXtel.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
Real local advertising.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

10th Entrepreneur workshop dates for May and June.

Gary Hipworth - Business Coach and Rohan Merry - Entrepreneur and Sales Coach, are holding their next 2 Day Workshops on the 8th/9th of May and 12th/13th of June. The 2 Day Workshops are for Entrepreneurs who want to take their business to the next level and become better business people and achieve sustainable success.

The 2 Day Workshops will be help in the Geelong CDB. For more information visit www.10thentrepreneur.com.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au/3225
JustLocal - Real local advertising.

Friday, April 25, 2014

GoDaddy - Important information regarding your discontinued product(s).

This made me laugh.

I just received an email from GoDaddy letting me know nicely, that because certain products are no longer in high demand, that as from June 25, 2014 the products listed below in the email would be discontinued.

I thought is this a scam. No it looks legit. What products!. Where's the link they mention for each product.

Then I realised that since perhaps I didn't use any of the products being discontinued, there was no list to send me. Yes an email that provides me a list of discontinued products that doesn't contain a list at all.

I think they're just trying to play with my mind and I reckon it worked. LOL

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 901 703 for IT support.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

What's My Time Worth calculator just released.

I decided to write a calculator that would make it easier to work out how much time they were spending on various activities and then they compare what they've earned for the time invested.

You can find the calculator at http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/whatsmytimeworth/ and I've actually called it What's My Time Worth.

As an example I joined a networking group some time ago. Most people factor in the joining fee and then the weekly breakfasts, but few factor in the value of their time. I would have spent at least five hours a week going to the weekly meeting, preparing for the meeting, meeting with other members of the group for what were called dance cards at one stage. Plugging in that I spent 5 hours a week and putting in a notional time cost of $30 an hour (I'd easily make that if I were employed), and selecting 48 weeks for a year, that total is $7,200 of time.

The question then is did I make that money. First I should add I quit after 8 months so the figure should be 2/3 which is $4,800. Well the reality is I didn't even have to factor in the time when considering if it was worth it. Direct costs for membership plus breakfast was around $1,500 and I made $1,800 in the eight months. So cleared around $300. Definitely a waste of my time and energy.

How much are you spending on activities such as social networking? Have you worked out the time cost? It really is an eye opener. The best thing is once you are aware you can make better decisions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support. 

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Appears filming set up in Little Collins St

Noticed cars being positioned in Little Collins Street, between King and Williams Streets. Lights and a support vehicle would indicate some filming about to happen. Perhaps avoid for a while if driving.


Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you require help with your computer.
No problem too small.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Movie review of The Counselor. - Give it a miss.

I must admit I was a bit biased about watching The Counselor. The marketers seemed to have decided that Australia is not important enough to localise the spelling to 'counsellor', whereas they did so for the British market.

However against my better judgement I decided from a choice of four we'd watch The Counselor from iTunes using the Apple TV. My judgement wasn't far off. This is probably the worst movie I've seen from Apple's iTunes store. Long self-indulgent difficult to hear narratives from crooks being philosophical were totally unbelievable. Brad Pitt should be careful in the roles he picks as this one did nothing for him and will make me question his movies from now on.

The lesson here however is simple. Check the reviews. Whist I expect there will be quite a few fake reviews, if you notice, the number who hated it far exceeds any other category. That to me is an interesting observation and should help me avoid similar disappointments in the future.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Saturday, April 19, 2014

10th Entrepreneur can now be found on JustLocal 3225 postcode page.

I'd like to welcome Gary Hipworth and Rohan Merry's business 10th Entrepreneur. You can find 10th Entrepreneur on the Point Lonsdale page www.JustLocal.com.au/3225.

I asked Gary why 10 Entrepreneur and thought his response was worth sharing.

Statistics say that only 1 in 10 start-ups survive and thrive whereas the other 9 either die or limp along. The 10thentrepreneur has the secrets, i.e. business system that we introduce them to - to survive and thrive!

All the best Gary and Rohan.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au/3225

Friday, April 18, 2014

Alert: Googlebot can't access your site.

I decided recently to simply let a number of domains go that I don't use and aren't generating any traffic. Some months ago I also decided to delete all the domains I'd entered into Google's webmaster tools.

I came then as a surprise that I got a message from Webmaster Tools with the subject 'Googlebot can't access your site.' The body of the email contained the following.

Over the last 24 hours, Googlebot encountered 1 errors while attempting to retrieve DNS information for your site. The overall error rate for DNS queries for your site is 100.0%.

The problem isn't that Googlebot can't access the site. I know that. I've let the domain expire and so I expect the website is no longer available. Nothing new to me. What is new however is even though I deleted all records for all sites in Webmaster tools many months ago, Google is still tracking those sites and associating them with me. You would think delete means delete. No so with Google.

Before entering your domains into Google's Webmaster tools decide whether or not this has any long term implications for you. For most people it probably doesn't. My concern with Google is the more they know the more I can be disadvantaged by the data they collect on me. I've noticed multiple times once I get a good presence in Google they cut my traffic in half or less. I don't know if that is a deliberate strategy to encourage me to spend money on Google advertising. I've tested Google's paid advertising in the past a number of times and the cost far outweighed the return so no matter how Google decides to gut my traffic it doesn't help them get business. All it leads to is distrust of their services.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Accountant Cranbourne: Marked Focus - Mark Peterson

I'd like to welcome Mark Peterson from Marked Focus to the JustLocal Cranbourne page www.Justlocal.com.au/3977. If you're located in Cranbourne or the surrounding area and need the services of an accountant, contact Mark.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au/3977

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Westpac credit cards rejected at Shell and Repco. Issue appears Commonwealth Bank's ATM network giving issues.

I was quite surprised this morning when I went to pay for a battery at the Repco mechanic. The Mastercard failed. When they called for merchant support they couldn't get onto them. They tried multiple times but the service just kept dropping out. That was about 11 am. Then at about 1:30 pm I filled up at Shell in Templestowe. This time using the Westpac AMEX card and again it failed.

It appears the Commonwealth Bank are having issues across their systems. The issue then wasn't with my card, but I suspect both of these businesses probably use the Commonwealth Bank's services.

This is a good reminder that you have the ability to accept a credit card payment using another service if required.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Alert: Star Air Conditioning Brisbane blog spamming to promote their business.

Received a comment on one of my blogs regarding air conditioning. My blog has nothing to do with air conditioning. The problem is Star Air Conditioning is most likely using a third party company to promote their site and their promotion consists of visiting any suitable blog and writing comments just to promote their business.

In this case the comment was written by someone at the IP address 180.234.195.68 which was located in Dhaka Bangladesh.

You should avoid using businesses that use blog spamming. These businesses are not thorough in checking the suppliers they use and don't seem to care who they use to promote themselves. Not the type of business I'd want to use.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au 

Saturday, April 05, 2014

Corryong - The Man From Snowy River Bush Festival from 3rd of April to 6th of April.

Stopped at Corryong yesterday (Friday) to find they're having The Man From Snowy River Bush Festival. Rain has caused parts of the festival to be cancelled or delayed. The re-enactment of Jack Riley's famous Man From Snowy River ride has been postponed until 9 am Sunday. Hope the rain holds out.



Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Thursday, April 03, 2014

Alert: Notice to appear in court.

Today I noticed a number of emails with the subject of 'Notice to appear in court'. The emails contains in most cases a date and time to appear in the court of Ballarat, but one also contains in the court of Sydney.

I've not seen malware writers target people by using a court appearance as a tactic to get people to open the attachment, so I decided I'd highlight these emails all contain an attachment which contains malware and you should delete these emails.

As at 6:49 am Melbourne time only around a third of the email clients I checked this malware against detected the malware. The commonly used anti-virus products from Microsoft, Avast, Malwarebytes, Panda, Norman, TrendMicro and others did not identify this malware.

Keep in mind for new viruses often the only protection you have is you. New viruses will have been written and tested against a wide range of anti-virus programs to ensure they aren't detected. It then takes time for the anti-virus companies to investigate the malware, develop a solution and then distribute the solution to all their users and this can take up to 48 hours. A very large window of time for malware writers to benefit.

If you receive a suspicious attachment trust your instinct. Many people I look after who have been infected say, 'My instinct told me I shouldn't have opened that file'. Listen to your instinct. Nature has developed your instinct over millions of years to protect you and generally it does a very good job.

In MyAnswers solution 2457 I share a new approach I used recently to remove malware from a client's computer. This solution also contains the site I use to check if a file contains malware and it is very good at finding malware, but keep in mind that site still may not detect very new malware.

Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if your require IT support.