Melbourne Photography Tour

You could attend a photography class or a photography workshop, but have you thought about a photography tour. Real world photography provides the opportunity to grow your photography skills with the guidance of a professional photographer.

WoWshotz now provides photography tours in Melbourne by day, Melbourne CBD by night, the Dandenong Ranges and  some of Victoria’s most scenic destinations.

You can find WoWshotz on the Doncaster East JustLocal 3109 page.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Photography workshop Melbourne. Why not do a photography tour?

You could attend a photography class or a photography workshop, but have you thought about a photography tour. Real world photography provides the opportunity to grow your photography skills with the guidance of a professional photographer.

WoWshotz now provides photography tours in Melbourne by day, Melbourne CBD by night, the Dandenong Ranges and  some of Victoria’s most scenic destinations.

You can find WoWshotz on JustLocal and the Doncaster East JustLocal 3109 page.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Kitchen renovations, bathroom renovations - Master Renovators

Welcome to Master Renovators, a business providing quality kitchen and bathroom renovations. You can find Master Renovators on the main page of JustLocal (www.JustLocal.com.au).

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
Cost effective advertising for local businesses

Herding Dog Training Melbourne

Most people think of Border Collies and Kelpies when they think about sheep herding, but if you check out the Herding Dog Training site and you’ll see other dogs are also suited to herding training. If you feel your dog has a predisposition to herding and want to have an enjoyable day out with your best friend in a fun activity, contact Charlie Brincat and book a training session.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Flybuy dollars unclear to Coles staff

Flybuy dollars is a new feature of the Flybuys program, but unfortunately because it is new, I had a concern staff may not know what to do. Today a person I know went to Coles and presented their Flybuys card and let the cashier know there was $30 dollars on the card to use. They asked their supervisor who said the money would come off at the end, which it didn't.

The problem with a new system like Flybuy dollars, is at the start, staff are unlikely to have been trained and it will only be after a couple of people don't get what they should and then complain, and then the staff will know what to do.

If you want to avoid the frustration and disappointment the person I know experienced today, it may be a good idea to wait a couple of weeks before trying to redeem Flybuy dollars.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Alert: Cloud service (Hotmail) experience of Barry Collins, editor for PC Pro

My Hotmail account had been hacked alright, but that was only the beginning of my problems.... Read More

When I read the above article on PC Pro it reinforced the message I am trying to pass on to others about using Cloud services, which appears to be largely ignored by consultants and the IT industry.

Most cloud services use an email address to log on to the services. As you use more services from the provider (such as Microsoft or Google) you continue to place more of your information on the internet. The standard approach to security on computers for years has been a username and password combination. Now with cloud services, when you use your email address, you are providing others with the first part of accessing your internet based data. All others now need to access your data and services is a password.

Now IT people will suggest strong passwords, and may even use strong passwords themselves, but I suspect most people will use relatively easy to remember passwords. If you run a business using cloud services for your staff, how are you making sure every one of those users is using a strong password. Chances are you aren’t. If people can change their own password, then in time there will be a lot of weaker passwords being used. With a recent list of published passwords I obtained from the internet, around 15% of users use a subset of just 100 passwords. That means potentially one in six of your users will be using an easy to hack password. You’ve provided the username as a public email address and human nature will do the rest.

When I reviewed Microsoft’s Cloud service (Office 365) I considered that making the email address public (there was no way to change this, in that when the first email is sent the username is known), was a serious limitation and as a result I wouldn’t actively promote Office 365 to clients. I consider the username you use to log on to cloud service, should not be your email address. Google’s service is only marginally better, but in general for me, still not good enough.

Before you start using cloud services to host your important data, think about the increased risk to yourself and your business. When the data is on your computer behind a local area network, it is still at risk. But once your data is on the internet the risk is much greater. Can you easily see if anyone is trying to access your data? The answer is generally no. If someone logs onto your account without your knowledge could you tell? Again the answer is generally no.

The article by Barry Collins is just one story of a cloud based user’s account being hacked. Had his account been hacked and simply been monitored without any spam being sent out, I’d be pretty confident Barry would never have been aware of his account being hacked. To me that is pretty scary. Then if you check how the one email address is now used across multiple services as the username is bad enough, that the one password is also used is a real concern.

I really appreciate that Barry shared his story so others can benefit from his experience. Before you put your important data on the internet you should do a risk analysis. In effect if someone hacks your account they could get access to all your online documents, correspondence you send to and receive from others, your entire contact list and possibly much more. What someone else could then do with that information is simply beyond our imagination and a considerable concern.

I work on the assumption that every online service has probably had a percentage of their users’ accounts hacked. One day that could be my account. The information I have stored online is very limited. I don’t store client information online. I don’t have most of my client’s email addresses or details online. I have a great deal of public content online, but otherwise most of my content is kept offline. There is still a degree of risk because even if my content is offline, I am still connected, but the risk in my opinion is much lower and in life, it is never possible to remove all risk, but it is good to minimise risk where possible.

If you’re considering using online or cloud based services, make sure you inform yourself as to the risks. Start by asking yourself what would happen if all the information you have online was made publicly available to everyone. What exposure would that mean to you? Consider legal risk, risk to your reputation, potential loss of customers, possible inconvenience and costs should your information become public. When you put your information online you increase your risk. Make sure you educate yourself as to what those risks could potentially be and are they offset by the use of the online service.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for help with your computer problems.
No problem too small.

My5 Flybuys Coles product groups

The new Flybuys program is about to launch. One item which came up in coversation was the new My5 promotion which isn't quite clear, but will become clearer in time.

According to the Flybuys site there will be over 800 product groups people can select from and register 5 product groups.  Then if they buy from that group they can get a 10℅ discount on those items subject to certain restrictions.

The question which came up today was, can the product groups be changed? According to the Flybuys site, once the groups are selected they are locked in.

This means people will need to review their past purchases if they are to maximise the value of this new Flybuys program. It will be interesting to see the strategies people come up with.

When the Flybuys system changed from one point for $1 spent to two points for $5 spent a few years ago, it meant the value of the Flybuys program dropped from around one cent per dollar spent to 0.4 cents per dollar spent, making the value of the program generally much less.  The new Flybuys program again returns the one point for $1 spent, making the program better.

When considering reward schemes it is a good idea to review the scheme, but because of the very low value of reward schemes, it is not wise to buy items just for the rewards.  Buy items as you normally would and consider the reward scheme a bonus.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Optus Movie Match answers available on the internet

I received a letter from Optus yesterday with a competition. Whilst I’m not interested in entering, the Optus Movie Match competition was a bit of fun. The competition is a mural of movies. There are 26 movies in total to find hidden in the mural.

I was however disappointed to see the competition is really only open to Facebook users. I personally don’t think it is a good idea for businesses like Optus to push their customers towards companies like Facebook, as it has the potential for them send customers to other services.

For example at one stage I used to use the TV guide from Optus, but then if I recall correctly, the advertising on the page lead me to another TV guide and I’ve never returned. Facebook is largely an advertising company and if you’re sending your clients to Facebook to view your material, there’s a chance you may be sending them to your competitor without realising it. If possible try to run your competitions without putting yourself in the position where you may inadvertently use the services of an advertising service. The rule of thumb is if you’re not paying for the service, then they’re making money from your somehow, so you should be asking yourself, how do they make money and how that could affect you. Of course by using such a service there is the potential you could gain customers from the service, such as if people referred their friends to the competition, so you need to look at both potential gain and losses. In this case I’m already an Optus customer and if I wanted to play the competition, Facebook would gain another customer at Optus’ advertising expense.

Also what I found interesting was, when I searched for the Optus Movie Match competition using Google, I noticed the searches “Optus Movie Match answers”, Optus Movie Match competition answers”, Optus Movie Match competition” and checking the results provided a page with the 26 answers. The more astute of those entering competitions know the power of the internet. Not sure if I agree with the cloud representing the movie Australia, so make sure if you’re using crowd sourced answers you check them yourself.

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

MyAnswers: Microsoft Word 2003 on Windows 7 prompts for licence every time.

The following MyAnswers solution 2214 is now available:

When I open Microsoft Word 2003 on my Windows 7 computer I am prompted to accept or decline the licence every time. How do I stop this happening?

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

MyAnswers: All the icons on my Windows XP desktop have underlines under them.

The following MyAnswers solution 2213 is now available:

All the icons on my Windows XP desktop have underlines under them. How do I change this back so I can again double click on the icon?

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

Pizza Templestowe - Panic Pizza Menu

Pizza Templestowe

Looking for reasonably priced, good quality pizza in Templestowe. Panic Pizza is located at The Pines Shopping Centre on Blackburn Road. We’ve found the pizzas at Panic Pizza to be tasty and reasonably price. To make it easier for locals to order pizza from Panic Pizza, I’ve provided their menu online and you can also find their menu on the JustLocal 3106 and JustLocal 3109 postcode page.

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

How to calculate the payback on a solar panel

Solar panels are becoming cheaper and it is now possible to get a 12V solar panels for a very reasonable price. If you’d like to purchase solar panels and use 12V around your home to replace electricity provided by an electricity retailer it can now be done, but the question becomes, is it cost effective?

The technique I use is to plug in the purchase cost, wattage, peak hours of sunlight and current retailers electricity pricing into the Energy Cost Calculator which gives me who much I could potentially save per year. Then divide the savings by the original cost and you’ll get the number of years it takes to pay back the cost of the solar panel.

You should keep in mind the solar panel is just one component. You will also need wiring, a battery charging regulator and a battery (plus labour), if you wish to store energy for use when the sun isn’t shining.

There are times when using solar makes sense financially and then there are times when it is hard to justify. Using the Energy Cost Calculator is a good approach to helping you make a more informed decision.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au  

Alert: Track Advice Article - Tracknoreply@auspost.com.au

I received an email today which initially, I thought was possibly one of those scam emails we receive all the time. It was a plain text email with the usual links, no real branding, letting me know a delivery was about the arrive. The problem is, it was a legitimate email from Australia Post as a result of a purchase from an online retailer. The retailer uses Australia Post for warehousing and delivery. When people place an order with the online retailer they simply send of an email and Australia Post does the rest.

The problem I see is that as more people buy online we’ll become so used to receiving this type of notification. It only takes scammers a few minutes to create a fake email which looks exactly the same and could easily trick someone. A client of mine once opened such an email because they were expecting a delivery and infected their computer, so real experience shows it is happening.

To me there was no need for this email. I’d received an email at the time of ordering and the email had the link so I could check the progress of the delivery and already knew it was about to arrive. This type of email from Australia Post will only make it easier for people to be tricked an infect their computer or be scammed.

If you receive any unexpected email I suggest you don’t click on a link in the email. Go to the web site and enter in the details you need to, to get the information you want. The link in the email is only a convenience and that convenience is causing thousands of Australians to infect their computer with a resulting expensive repair bill.

Take care with unexpected emails.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.

 

Photography courses Melbourne 2012 - CVC Studios Camera Skills Workshop

CVC Studios – Camera Skills Workshop starts April 17^th

Find out how to make the most of your digital camera
Learn about the rules of photography and how you can take great photos
Limited to 10 people
Book now to start on April 17
Four Tuesday evenings and a group field trip
Just $295

To register for this course, which is one evening a week over four weeks, phone 9842 0222

The program is designed for people new to photography and for photographers wanting to improve or refresh their knowledge and skills.

Learn how to use all the settings available on your digital camera. Understand when and how to use aperture and shutter settings. Use your camera in manual mode to control exposure and take creative photos.

Find out about the 'Rules of Photography' learn about light, composition and develop practical skills to make the most of the technology at your fingertips.

To reserve your place or for more information please call 9842 0222 now or email des@cvcstudios.com.au

CVC Studios (Des Pitfield Photography) can be found on the JustLocal 3109 postcode page.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au/3109

Flying Dragon Templestowe menu now online

Chinese food lovers in Templestowe can now find the take-away menu for the Flying Dragon Templestowe restaurant online. The advantage of having access to the take-away menu online is you can place your order before leaving home and generally by the time you arrive your meal be ready saving quite a bit of time.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au/3106  

 

MyAnswers: Microsoft book disk to scan computer for malware.

The following MyAnswers solution 2212 is now available:

Microsoft has now made available a boot disk which enables you to boot and scan your computer for malware.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

One page web sites for local businesses.

Over the years I’ve been amazed that local businesses often don’t have a presence as simple as a one page web site. I suspect the main reason is if they approach a web designer they’ll often be quote hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, when to get started it can cost much less.

To put this in context, all a small business generally requires is one new customer, or keep an existing customer from going elsewhere and their web presence can pay for itself.

Many times when I’ve wanted to buy take away for family or friends, the only menus we can find online are the big companies, yet most of the time we use the smaller local businesses for ourselves. I’ve done some testing over the years and small take-away businesses can get a reasonable amount of business by having their menu online. At worst they don’t lose potential business from good customers when the customers need to see a menu online.

To show local businesses the value of promoting themselves online I’ve now sponsored a number of local business to provide them with an online presence. They are the businesses I use so now they’ll gain my business when I need an online menu.

 

Flying Dragon Chinese Restaurant, Papa Loui's Pizza and Pasta, Bolton Fish Shop, Panic Pizza Doncaster East, Middle Camberwell Fish and Chips

If you own a small business and would like to have your menu online for your customers, but don’t want to pay a small fortune, then send me an email. The way I set up a small business is I create a one page site with their menu and then help them sign up for hosting and registering their domain, By getting the business to register domain and sign up for hosting they retain total control which is a strategy in business. Most web design businesses tie businesses in so if they want anything done, they have to go back to the designer to get expensive changes done. My approach is to have businesses use me if they want to, but because they have total control over their site, they can easily have someone else, including a family member or friend, look after their site. No lock in means businesses use my services because they want to, not because they have to.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Helping micro and small businesses with a cost effective online presence.

Alert: Apple Store - 100 AU$ credit, Apple Store - BONUS OFFER

I noticed a couple of emails pretending to be from Apple today offering $100 credit for $9. I hope that at this stage people realise these aren’t real offers. In the past I’ve noticed scams targeted at Apple users get a large amount of traffic, most likely because Apple users aren’t used to being targeted. With Apple now having a much larger user base, even compared with just a year ago, Apple users are now being more actively targeted.

You should discard any such offers. The rule of thumb is, if it sounds too good to be true then it probably isn’t, applies very much in this case.

Whilst in this case of these emails are poorly formed and writing the dollar value as 9 $AU, is something we’d never use in Australia, good fakes are very easy to create and can easily trick people. One email contained a htm attachment as a form. I’ve not seen any business use such an approach, but only scammers. The other provided a link to a site and it was obvious from checking the link, it was not an Apple site.

The bottom line is trust your gut instinct. If something doesn’t feel quite right don’t click on it. Delete the email. Most people say to me they thought something didn’t feel right just before they infected their computer, but still went ahead. Their gut instinct could have saved them a couple of hundred dollars in support costs cleaning up their computer and also much grief.

If you are in doubt about an email then consider having it checked out by a computer professional if it really interests you. For example I charge clients in intervals of one tenth of an hour and an email can easily be checked in that time to determine it isn’t legit. You could also contact the company sending the offer (not by responding to the email) and if it is legitimate, they’ll let you know. Of course the answer most times will be it isn’t legitimate.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Chinese Restaurant Templestowe - Flying Dragon now on JustLocal

A favourite eating place with Templestowe locals is the Flying Dragon Chinese Restaurant. You can now find the Flying Dragon’s menu on the Templestowe page of JustLocal (3106). Call ahead and save time ordering your next take-away Chinese meal.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au/3106

Doncaster Pizza - Papa Loui's Pizza and Pasta

I decided recently to drop in to The Village on High Street and purchase a Pizza from Papa Loui’s. I ordered a capricciosa and said hold the anchovies. The pizza was very enjoyable. OK. I have to admit, I do like pizza and wasn’t disappointed.

Papa Loui’s is located on High Street in Doncaster. They’re well positioned for picking up a pizza on the way home to Doncaster, Templestowe or Templestowe Lower. Papa Loui’s prices are also very good.

You can now find Papa Loui’s menu on the JustLocal 3108 page. Call ahead when picking up pizza and save some time.

Bon appetit.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au