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How humiliating! 

See you own't get excitement like that in the backwaters of Wales 

Sometimes ambling across this interweb takes you somewhere that grips your attention, and genuinely gives you food for thought. This video from Dr Mike Pound, Nottingham University is one of those times.

If you can't be bothered to watch it, then just change all your passwords now. If you do watch it, you'll understand why 

So in a nutshell, the longer your password is the better. Maybe go with 10+ characters, don't add numbers at the end, add them randomly in the password. Add non letters like the @ or # signs. Mix upper case and lower case, and steer clear of actual words

The one that got me was if you replace "E"'s with "3"s or "I"s with "1"s, you are making hackers job easier as lots of people do this, so they assume you will do it.

So the old advice really does stand up. Have a long random character password for each service you need to log in to. Where you keep all these passwords is the next question, but there are numerous options and digital vaults from the likes of Norton, to apps you can download. Just search digital password vault on Google.

If a service offers two stage authentication, ie you need to add a third piece of information to login such as a series of numbers randomly generated from a Google authenticator app, then make sure you utilise it.

Even with your password compromised, then currently if you have 2 stage authentication, johnny hacker still can't login. Unless of course Dr Pound shows us otherwise 

I've got to be honest, I'm trying to get excited about the thought of running around the streets zapping imaginary things with my mobile phone, but the kettles on and I need a sit down

We first talked about augmented reality (the technology behind Pokemon Go) back in 2012, and it seemed very exciting and made QR codes look antiquated.

But we've note seen anything particularly exciting until now, as the Pokemon marketing machine rolls in action.

If you have missed the hype, in a nutshell you download an app to your phone, and run around like a lunatic chasing little cartoon characters in the real world, that you can only see by looking at your phone. Apparently you can team up, fight each other, and that's about as much I know.

But from a business opportunity, sponsorship is the next big thing, with sponsored locations being offered on a cost per visit. So the corner shop could have a big advert that pops out as players approach it. No doubt we will see all sorts of marketing opportunities and new styles of creative as advertisers explore a new media.

So I imagine for early adopters and companies with a creative outlook there could be some interesting opportunities. 

At least it will get kids out of their bedrooms and running round the streets, although there seems to be a genuine concern of people getting run over as they run around staring at their phone screens!

If you still can't make head or tale of it, here is the official trailer:

So what do you think?

A great marketing opportunity, a new way to keep fit, or are you sat there like me thinking whatever next?

Just to be awkward, I can  The sooner the better.

All we are talking about is communication, of which email can be hugely inefficient. Spending at least an hour a day emptying an inbox or responding to emails can't be the best use of someones time.

I've no doubt email will be superseded by a newer technology or morph into an unrecognisable as yet unseen format, as peoples working habits and communication styles change. Probably more real-time, collaborative, rather than static question and answer, as peoples expectations on response times increase.

"I sent you an email an hour ago and you haven't responded..."  <delete>

20 years ago you would have been locked up if you talked about self driving cars. 15 years ago people never would have believed a small hand held device could serve as a phone as well as run an office.

The humble email has served us well for a long time, but is now ready for an evolutionary change IMHO.

I'll tell you what Andy, you've got me really interested. Just looking through their site and all seems above board and compliant, and as you say it's owned by Paypal.

At first glance at least it looks really good. Will sit down next week and go through the numbers and see if it is worth using. Currently use Worldpay, but the interface is atrocious and we are seeing more and more paypal transactions, so certainly worth considering.

Should ask them for a finders fee or affiliate link

It looks really slick Andy

I just worry about the security risk of taking card details via my actual site. Assume you are PCI DSS compliant to cover yourself.

Be interesting to hear your feedback regarding the abandon rate and see if it makes a big difference. Maybe you will win me over

Having used Win 10 now for a while (it was preloaded on a new machine), I genuinely love it. 

I still use the classic shell add on to give me some bits and bobs that I want, but I like it. It's fast, and haven't had any probs. I still have Win7 on my laptop, and flipping between them, I much prefer win10. 

Never thought I'd say that! 

Couple of shocks last night, bumbling Boris as the UK's senior diplomat, and thanks Mr Osborne, you're fired 

Only hope the deficit planning and pain we have all been through now doesn't go back down the toilet and we start leaning on the UK PLC credit card again.

Was a very entertaining PMQ's yesterday, May has some big shoes and expectations to fill and fulfill. Genuinely think I'll miss Cameron, even though I never really rated him before.

Meanwhile in the Labour camp, we now have Owen Smith running for leader. Looking at the alternatives, I reckon Mr Corbyn is here to stay  

The only reason I didn't delete this post as link bait spam is simply why???? 

What possible use or point is an archive (incomplete by the way) of a public tool that has long been dead and serves little purpose? 10/10 for managing to squeeze some more mileage out of the Pagerank debate, but it's long been irrelevant.

Or is it just nothing more than low grade link bait for eyedomain com?

Hi Shaun, welcome to the forum, and a fascinating thought provoking post!

Just trying to get my head round your example using your hypothetical numbers.

So 10x jobs at £100 and you get £1000, but if you ramp up to 20 jobs, then your price per job decreases 50%?

I don't really understand why that would be? Obviously a discount for repeat business and regular customers, but you must have a standard price list or package you charge.

I know some old school photographers have been slow to adapt to the digital world, and still charge per individual picture, maintaining they retain copyright. Making professional photography an expensive proposition. I tend to go down the route of doing a deal and paying for your time, ie it's your professional expertise I'm paying for, not the number of pics. So snap as away as many pics as you can, and then just give them to me on a memory stick.

Up sells then tend to be cleaning images up, enhancing, or flogging canvass prints, frames etc.

But it's hard work being a one man band, doing the admin, marketing as well as the work, so fitting that into 40 hours can be a challenge unless you outsource some of the load, leaving you to just generate revenue.

A photographer I know is great at networking, and spends loads of effort in wining new business, but his admin is poor and he never targets or communicates with old clients, missing out on really easy and obvious revenue opportunities.

So I think the key, especially as a small or micro business is to work smarter not harder. Working 50, 60 hours a week isn't good for anyone, health or home-life, especially as we get older. I'm guilty of it and recently have really tried to reduce hours, but sometimes spike up to silly hours when things are hectic. 

Concentrate on revenue, easy opportunities, and free up time and stress by using a VA, getting  a part timer in, or even a £3.50 an hour apprentice 

Another photographer I know does really well with the local schools. He's their go to bod, snaps all the school events, usual class pics, sports days, nativities, etc, and parents download the pics they want. He's also very active in the local community, any local event, Queens birthday party, Halloween parties he's always there doing pics, seems to be a good money spinner and pretty low effort required.

Being self employed and self motivated is the hardest job in the world. This is where forums and networking groups can help, if nothing more than blowing off steam or a bit of banter

Hopefully hear more from you