Posts

Here it is in all it's glory - JSP101 Defence Writing Guide

There is actually a lot of useful stuff in here.

oh gawd not again! You'll need your own solicitor on the payroll at this rate 

So where about have you ended up and is this retirement/semi-retirement?

M&S meal deal for me and the missus, living on the edge....

Ahhh that's because you've been staring at the sun...

It's just a URL test. When we coded the forum we didn't think about the profile URL. If you choose a two word username and leave a space, this becomes part of your profile URL. Computers don't like spaces so supplement them with % which can make URL's look visually odd.

So we plan (one day) to rewrite a blank space with another character. Realistically it will be a "-" "_" or a "."

I think the dot looks better, others views seem to prefer the underscore.

So just a bit of URL vanity and house keeping, good spot though 

Outstanding sir

The blog Jan is referring to is Proposed MOT changes

After years of hearing Google advising against using SEO consultants and all you had to do was read the Google Webmaster Guidelines, we now have a video from Google on how to hire an SEO!

It's actually pretty good and if you are considering hiring an SEO then definitely watch and absorb this. If nothing else it may save you some money from a rank amateur or overseas spammer.

Any questions or thoughts, shout.

You've not mentioned it... much 

I think this is great news and shows the government and state security services are taking cyber crime seriously.

One of the biggest issues is education, and website owners and internet users can take more responsibility by taking security more seriously.

A lot of ecrime is opportunistic, ie kids running simple scripts from hacking for dummies looking for easy targets. Basically a digital version of leaving valuables on display in a locked car. This can be defeated by using complex and different passwords, two factor authentication where available, along with common sense when it comes to unknown email attachments or social engineering (hello this is Bob from tech support, can I have your password...) 

Hopefully youngsters coming through school and colleges are more cyber crime conscious and savvy than us older farts 

Definitely run away. There are endless opportunities if you are looking to invest in a business, but you can only make an informed decision if you have access to all the facts and information. If an owner is being unhelpful or alarm bells are ringing, move on.

One of the biggest banes of my life is email 

Take a day off and the inbox has 100+ new emails in. Take a week off and you open your email application with dread.

Email in this day and age is starting to feel like an obsolete business tool. I seem to spend most of my time cleaning out spam that made it through the spam filters, or tracking down important emails that ares stuck in the spam filter 

Some of the important or potentially important/interesting ones take so long to get to the point they may get inadvertently deleted as spam or rubbish.

So saw this article about email etiquette and how the American Military use it and thought what a good idea 

Keep it to the point, functional, with an uppercase statement at the beginning of the subject line telling you what the purpose is.

• ACTION – Compulsory for the recipient to take some action
• SIGN – Requires the signature of the recipient
• INFO – For informational purposes only, and there is no response or action required
• DECISION – Requires a decision by the recipient

Then for the main email text, keep it short and sweet. 

Military personnel know that short emails are more effective than long ones, so they try to fit all content in one pane, so the recipient doesn’t have to scroll. They also eschew the passive voice because it tends to make sentences longer, or as the Air Force manual puts it, “Besides lengthening and twisting sentences, passive verbs often muddy them.” 

You can reads the article in full here: How to Write Email with Military Precision

Maybe we need to tweak some of the subject options. Imagine how much easier going through your inbox would be;

• SPAM - just delete me, you haven't won the lottery and don't need any SEO services.
• SALES - just delete me, you don't want whatever it is I'm flogging.
• ENQUIRY - could be interesting, worth a read, maybe a bit of business?
• WIFE - don't delete, treat as urgent and action straight away

Reckon this could catch on? Or can we just scrap email completely and use that funny thing you have to talk into for important communication?