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lol we're already at the "it wasn't that bad stage". Another 6 months, it'll be the best break ever!


so it never ends???

Am planning a round the world the cruise for when we are 65, then when it docks, we'll go the other way round. In fact we'll stay on it till we run out of money, then we can sponge off the kids

Or if Yell buy us, we'll rent one of Bransons spaceships which should be working by then and retire to the moon

The Home Retail Group which owns Argos and Homebase, has reported its profits down 60% , mainly down to Argos and poor electrical sales.

BBC News - Argos and Homebase owner sees sharp fall in profits

Interesting statement: "HRG hinted that it could close some of its stores over the next few years, noting that it had about 300 store lease renewals or break clauses due in the next five years - about 30% of its outlets."

Uh oh....

Seems a deja vous post from last year
Argos wobbles and boss steps down...

Interesting feedback, but still confused. You could have taken a book on the tube, and you can only read one book at a time, or do you have magazine type things on there?

Christ, I'm starting to sound like a technophobe Must be Clives bad computer karma...

Toddler tantrums, static caravan parked in the Somme and 2 days trapped inside an industrial unit converted into a softplay warzone

But nippers loved it, so all that matters... me and the missus now need a holiday

To be fair, looks like we were actually quite lucky with the weather hearing about the rain across the rest of the UK, as we managed a few nice days out.

Here's some more info from the latest update, from Matt Cutts (Mr Google)

Another step to reward high-quality sites - Inside Search

Interesting paragraph:
"We want people doing white hat search engine optimization (or even no search engine optimization at all) to be free to focus on creating amazing, compelling web sites"

They really are going after the SEO industry this year

If you have been heavily spinning content, using ropey link schemes or are just generally cramming your content full of keywords, then be warned

Oh dear, bit of an advertising fubar for Apple

They have been touting it's 4G capabilities, which it turns out is only compatible for the US and Canada. So they've been told to remove any 4G references from European sales literature.

"4G mobile phone networks, which promise much faster web surfing, have yet to arrive in the UK.

But even when they do, the frequencies to be employed for the new networks in Britain - and the rest of Europe - are different from those used in the US and Canada.

That means that the "4G" iPad, in its current configuration, can never connect to 4G networks in Europe."

BBC News - iPad '4G' claims face scrutiny from UK regulator

So save your money and buy an iPad 2

lol, no green fingers in my house that's for sure, we're a bunch of plant murderers

Apparently we are on the cusp of a revolution in the way we read books, or at least according to a new joint project between Microsoft and US book seller Barnes and Noble.

"The Nook e-reader was launched in 2009 to compete with Amazon's Kindle, allowing users to buy, download and read digital versions of books and magazines.

Its content will now be available to the growing number of people with mobile devices running Microsoft software."
BBC News - Microsoft invests in Barnes and Noble's Nook e-books

I suspect this may be an age thing. I can't imagine reading a book on a tablet or reader, but no doubt youngsters can't imagine having to pick up an old fashioned book

Or are you a Kindle or digital book convert?

Scraping is a curse we are all afflicted with, most of them are automated bots, and it's just to populate adsense pages. The latest google updates are supposed to get rid of a lot of this rubbish, plus (I'm sure SEO bods will correct me) as the originator of the published article, you will get any google juice, anything else will be duplicates.

Is it worth implementing the google author tag (linking back to your google+ page) which will tell Google you are the bonefide owner (plus add your mug shot in the search results).

Hi SharClar, good topic!

Will confess to winging it when it comes to HR and falling back on corporate experience managing people, although did get employment contracts drawn up.

Have had to fire/let go about 6 people over the last few years. As long as you are fair, give monthly appraisals for new starters, feedback honestly, make it 2 way, and get them to sign it, have a decent probation period, then you can't go too far wrong from my experience. Although this was hard learned after being threatened with a tribunal after laying someone off in my corporate life

Think Linda's right, will prob be 20 employees+ before you even consider the overhead expense of an internal HR person.