It’s from Gateway and it depends on who you talk to as to whether this is really a laptop or a tablet PC or as Gateway calls it, a Convertible Notebook.
Whatever you might call it it’s just been released in the US and if I lived in the US then I could definitely see one in my future. After all, if it’s good enough for Bill then it certainly is good enough for me 
You can find out more about it right here
I wish I could say that the hectic pace of yesterday has settled down again but I can’t - the pressure of work continues and I’m dashing this off in a few spare moments while I grab a coffee - 4.30pm and it’s only my second of the day.
Yesterday I rambled on about instant messaging systems and small business and today I would just like to add a one or two additional thoughts.
Using an Instant Messaging system to close a business deal is no more dangerous than using email or even the phone. The safest business deal is the one that’s closed with a firm handshake and an opportunity to look the other person in the eye.
Now of course, you can’t do that with ICQ, Messenger or any other IM but nor can you do it with email, the telephone or even mail so to think that doing business via IM is filled with danger is a little silly.
However, any prudent business person will always take precautions when it comes to doing business that way. We never start a text job until we have been paid at least 50% up front. There are simply no exceptions and anyone who wants to see the work before we see the money is politely told to look elsewhere for a writer.
We always ensure that every important business message is backed up. Most IM software have a history option but sometimes it is not enabled by default. If you are going to use an IM system for business make sure that the history option is enabled and even then copy and paste important conversations into a word document for further backup.
I’d like to say that we have never been conned by anyone who wanted to use our services and came to us via IM but I can’t. We have been caught but then others have been caught when work has come to them via email, letter or phone.
The risk is always there but you work to minimise that risk because doing business via IM is just too convenient to ignore.
Wow, a couple of days ago I was looking forward to a few quiet days where I might be able to catch up with my work but it never seems to work out that way. Just as things began to settle down more work came in and I’m back knocking out a bunch of articles and reviews.
In fact I’ve been doing it for over 12 hours so far today (and it’s only 4pm as I write this) so I thought I should semi-escape for a few minutes just to try and regain my sanity. I say semi-escape because all I’ve done is take the laptop out onto the back patio to write this. At least I’ve escaped from the office for a short while.
Yesterday I posted a comment in a thread over on Home Office Voice about using Instant Messaging for business purposes – silly me because Martin immediately asked me to recount our experiences and so here I am.
Martin’s thread was commenting on the growing trend among businesses to conduct important business via one of the various types of Instant Messaging but to us it’s really nothing new.
Most of our clients are online and are a segment of the online industry that has almost always used ICQ to conduct business. We have been using it ever since we started in business and these days nearly every major order we get comes to us via ICQ.
We find that it is invaluable because anyone who relies on email will know just how easy it is for important emails to get culled by the various spam filters that most of us employ these days.
Now that is not to say that there isn’t plenty of ICQ spam because there certainly is but it’s not hard to tell the difference between someone who wants to talk to you about business and a dopey Russian Cam Girl who has been given a bunch of ICQ numbers to cycle through every day of the week.
There is also the problem of friends, and sometimes business associates who just want to chat and Toni frequently has her ICQ turned off for that reason. I’m a little less polite than she is and if someone just wants to chat a terse “Bugger off I’m busy” usually does the trick.
You may wonder about things like record keeping with business done via Instant Messaging but most have a history function and all you have to do is make sure that it’s turned on and then every word that’s exchanged is recorded and stored on your computer.
Of course, if you are worried about the informality of Instant Messaging you can always close the business transaction with a phone call or with an email but once you start using and Instant Messaging system you will soon find that even those final closing formalities are usually not required.
I’ve left the most important benefit of using something like ICQ till last and that is the fact that is usually occurs in real time. When you are discussing business via email there is always a gap on the proceedings while people are reading those emails but with something like ICQ you talk to the person and they respond almost immediately.
If you are a writer or a designer you get to pick your client’s brain in real time, you can ask relevant questions to clarify important points that might be missed via email and it’s easier for you both to understand each other.
Very few of our orders these days come to us by any other form of communication and we would be lost without it. Don’t be afraid of using Instant Messaging in your business transactions. Once you’ve have tried it you will wonder how you ever managed without it.
I’ve just been reading a very interesting piece about bank fraud and how it almost brought the British banking system to it’s knees. If you want to read something really scary you will find it here.
While the article didn’t have a lot to do directly with small business and home based business survival I did find an interesting reference buried in it that does have a lot of relevance for us.
What is your MTBU?
What is your maximum time to belly up?
That is a term that was coined Donn Parker of the Stanford Research Institute. He found that a business that relied on computers for their cash flow fell into catastrophic collapse if those computers were unavailabe or unusable for a period of time.
But it seems to me that any small business or home based business is vulnerable in many areas and it would be prudent for us to be able to identify those areas tat affect our particualr and establish a MTBU.
Why do we need to do that?
Because when something goes wrong we then know just how important that particular problem is to our business and hopefully we will have some contingency plans in place to deal with that problem.
Those problems don’t only apply to computers either. What’s you’re MTBU if several of your clients fail to pay you on time? What’s you’re MTBU if you should fall ill? What’s your MTBU if a major piece of equipment should fail?
Those are just a few of the things that you should be looking at.
If you’re one of the growing number of online businesses that uses Skype for free phone calls across the road or across the planet I’m sure you will be pleased to know that there is a Skype virus loose on the Net.
It won’t come to you via Skype and and it doesn’t actually infect Skype but it will create havoc on your computer.
It comes in the form of an email that claims to contain version 1.4 of Skype’s voice over Internet Protocol software. Opening the attachment with the email doesn’t install Skype at all but it does install the Trojan.
Skype did release a new version of its software back on October 10 but it does not distribute any of its software via email.
If you have any doubts you should always visit the Skype website at http://www.skype.com/security/.
Apple have just released their latest desktop computer - the iMac G5. It comes in two versions - 17 inch or 20 inch and what you see is what you get. There’s nothing else to this computer so it’s not going to hog a lot of space on your desk top.
The features of the iMac G5 include:
a new PCI-Express ATI Radeon X600 Pro or XY grahics processor
128MB of dedicated video memory
OS X Tiger operating system
pre-installed AirPort Extreme Card for wireless connectivity
It also comes with USB2.0 and Firewall 400 ports, composite and S-video outputs, audio in and out so you can connect almost everything from cameras to extra hard drives to this computer.
You can find more information and have an online demo here
These days we run our web design and copywriting business in beautiful Hervey Bay, Queensland.
Our business is partially distributed and that means that most of our people work from their homes ... and are spread all over the world too.
You can find out more about our business by heading over to
Total Website Management
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