Freeware of the Week! [UltraVNC]

The Inari Twitter feed is going to be quiet today, as I am going to be away, fixing a computer that seems bedevilled with problems. I think I’ve been dealing with this machine for over a year now, and every time something goes wrong, I have to take at least six hours out of my day to go round and visit it.

When I get there today, I’m going to be installing UltraVNC, to make my life a little easier. This is a program that will allow me to see what’s happening on the miscreant PC’s screen from my laptop here at home, and will also enable me to control the PC remotely, so I will no longer have to take a chunk out of my day to troubleshoot minor problems. If you’ve been thinking of setting yourself up as a computer repair person, this could be very useful for providing support to customers without having to drop everything and go to them in person. Alternatively, if you need to deal with data on your work computer while you’re at home, UltraVNC is a quick and easy way to do this.

UltraVNC can be set up to run on a network or via the internet, and includes optional encryption plugins, text chat and a Java viewer that also supports file transfers. There are also multiple add-ons and plugins for the program, including encryption for those of you who are security-minded.

Unless you are particularly fond of schlepping to the houses of friends and relatives to fix ailing computers in return for very little reward (although lunch at the place I’m visiting this afternoon is always fantastic), UltraVNC will come as something of a godsend. It can be set up to run on multiple PCs, making the job of providing support to computers in different locations a breeze. Download it, install it, tell your non-tech friends not to bother it, and give yourself some peace of mind today.

Can a Modern Business Survive Without a Landline?

Thinking back to yesterday’s post about business cards for social networkers, it occurred to me that aside from a brief period when I was living in my “palace,” there has never been a time when I have had a landline dedicated to my business.

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t been running to payphones or borrowing other people’s phones. I have always had my mobile phone, and I get the majority of my work through email correspondence anyway. Despite all of this, I do feel… awkward giving out business cards with no physical address or landline number.

Were I in the retail trade, I would beg, borrow or steal office space to make my position look more legitimate. A quick Google search for “virtual office” would help me set up a quick front that I could print on my business cards to reassure clients that I was not a fly-by-night organisation. Does it really matter, though, in the age of e-commerce and electronic transactions?

I have no idea where the Amazon distribution centre is, but I do buy from them because they are a large company, and I trust them to deliver the goods I order. Smaller companies, on the other hand, can expect to be subject to a greater degree of scrutiny, including having their contact details checked. I would never order from a company that had only a PO Box listed, but I do wonder if it is the same for independent contractors.

Generally, I do believe that anyone who is selling products via retail would do well to have a physical address where their customers could reach them. Those who carry out consultancy services are less constrained. I understand why a number of entrepreneurs would want to keep their home address concealed from their customers, but the fact remains that buyers want to know where their goods are coming from. If your house is rundown, undergoing construction, or simply filled with children’s toys, rent garage space.

For freelancers and independents, it shouldn’t be a problem if the only numbers you provide are to your iPhone or BlackBerry. Provided you are available and able to work, it shouldn’t make a difference. Regardless, bear in mind that your clients may not be as technologically advanced as yourself. In addition to your numbers, you also need to make sure that you can be contacted via email, instant messages, or any other means that your clients may use.

Overall, I think the sentiment for landlines is changing. However, for more formal (ie. the bigger) companies, there might still be a mental block as far as mobile and landline numbers go. Despite this, I am not fully convinced that there is a conspiracy against mobile numbers. As such, at the moment, I believe that fast movers – whether with mobiles or landlines – hold the initiative. I just hope they all get an equal chance.

[Image by alexkerhead]

The Social Networker’s Business Card

If you live the majority of your professional life online, you probably belong to more than one social network. When it comes to letting your contacts know how best to find you, however, you may want to limit how many networks you list. This is especially the case when trying to design a business card to hand out to people.

The traditional business card lists a name, company name, perhap a physical address, definitely a phone number, and (these days) email address and website or blog address. I haven’t seen a fax number listed anywhere for a while now.

The difficulty comes in deciding which of your social networks to list on your business card. Do you choose the ones you use most often, or those that potential clients are more likely to use? Should you provide a link to your Twitter feed, or your Facebook page? Do you remember if there’s anything embarassing on any of your social networks that you might want to delete before prospective employers take a look?

The easiest way to manage such things, of course, is to have more than one account. Perhaps augment your personal profiles with accounts that you operate under your business name. Just as there are two Twitter feeds associated with this blog, so I have more than one Facebook page, and a LinkedIn profile that has nothing to do with Inari Media. I can therefore be as informal as I please on the profiles where I interact with my friends, while maintaining a professional persona when I’m looking for work.

When deciding which social networks to list on your business card, I do find that it is probably best to use those which are widely used. While most people will have heard of Facebook and LinkedIn, they will not necessarily have heard of Sphinn unless they are involved in internet marketing. Stick to the big ones, include your Skype number, and don’t forget your email address!

When getting all of this information on your business card, don’t be afraid to be imaginative; it does not all have to be squeezed on to one side. One of the most elegant solutions I have come across on a business card so far was remarkably simple: while the card looked perfectly normal on one side, the reverse had a username above icons for all the social networks where the individual concerned could be contacted. You can use the free tool at Namechk to see if your username of choice is available across multiple social networks. Register at all those you need, and you won’t be left listing different accounts for how you can be contacted.

It may seem odd, going back to printed paper when so much communication is electronic, but it is important to remember that you may not always have a computer to hand. Business cards are useful for handing out at conferences and networking events; they also serve as a handy visual reminder of who you are, which is quicker than scrolling through an address book. Social networkers don’t need to dismiss the idea of business cards out of hand; in fact, they can use them to be even more social.

[Image by Stabilo Boss]

When Will Kenya Be Happy?

Just days after the Daily Nation reports that Kenya can now consider itself a failed state, sharing membership of this dubious club with pariahs such as North Koriea, Burma and Afghanistan , an outfit calling itself the New Economic Foundation has released this year’s Happy Planet Index (PDF available for download). Do you want to move to Costa Rica? That’s apparently the happiest, greenest place on earth, topping the table of all ranked countries. Kenya languishes at 125, with Tanzania the only East African country with a lower ranking, at 140.

Now, these reports are exercises in both semantics and statistics. It is impossible to get a comprehensive overview of what is happening on the ground by collating information and standardising it for multiple countries. Nevertheless, the people who are quickest to complain of western prejudice when conditions in Kenya are criticised would do well to ask themselves what they are really angry about. Are they annoyed that outsiders have seen fit to point out our flaws, or are they angry at those in charge for not making as much progress as they promised?

Personally, from the perspective of national pride, the results of the Happy Planet Index are disapppointing, but not wholly surprising. We may be some of the friendliest people on Earth, but we can’t really say that Kenyans are happy. Crime in the cities is rampant, inflation is hitting every household’s expenses, unemployment is still far too high, and the political arms of state seem incapable or unwilling to make good on the election promises that were made. I don’t expect Kenya’s ranking to rise before these problems are at least addressed, let alone solved.

The wellbeing of a nation depends not only on its GDP, but also how it looks after its citizens. While it is all very well to focus on economic development, ignoring the plight of those left behind or disadvantaged in the process must not be forgotten if society as a whole is to remain cohesive. Unless this happens, only those at the top of the pile will be happy.

[Image by Chrissy Olson]

Freeware of the Week! [Avidemux]

Last week, I rashly agreed to do a favour for a clueless friend before hearing all the details. It turns out they wanted a video montage, and they needed it in a hurry. Did I mention that up to that point I had precisely zero experience in video editing? Having had trouble getting XP’s built-in Windows Movie Maker to work, I took to the web to see what was available.

After a quick trawl and a couple of experiments with programs that were obviously intended for experts rather than a hack such as myself, I settled on Avidemux. I chose it not just because it looked simple, but also because I could go running to its wiki or forums if I got stuck. Avidemux bills itself a sa video editor for simple editing and filter tasks which is exactly what I was looking for, which the added bonus that it could also supports a range of outputs for files, includng MPEG and DVD, which is what I needed.

I’m not going to lie to you: this is not going to be the most in-depth review of Avidemux, because I know very little about video editing, even after my baptism of fire, and I used the program intensively for a short period of time because I needed to get something done. Nevertheless, while my inexperience occasionally led to wailing and gnashing of teeth, Avidemux proved remarkably easy to use.

The main GUI doesn’t overwhelm with buttons or options, and it took me very little time to figure out how to play files, select the points where I wanted film cropped or deleted, and even how to strip out audio to substitute something else. The feature for going through a video using the slider or frame by frame to find the exact point where I wanted to make a cut worked smoothly, and the process of appending clips to each other was a breeze. I saved all the clips I used and the overall montage as a project in the program, which made hunting them down when I needed to make changes much easier. And once I had everything ready, there was even an Auto wizard to convert the montage into the format of my choice. Overall, my experience with Avidemux was painless, and if I ever needed to fiddle about with video files again it would be my first port of call.

Painless doesn’t equal perfect, however. While there is a wiki and forums for support, the lack of a built-in help file was a real bugbear for me. So too is the fact that Avidemux leaves it up to you what format clips are saved in, which led to some confusion to me when I was went to retrieve them the first few times. Despite this, however, I would use Avidemux again, and have chosen it as Freeware of the Week today because it is quick and easy to get to grips with, well-supported, and is also open-source and cross-platform. If you think you might need to edit some video in the future, you can’t go far wrong with Avidemux.

[Image by Spelio]