If you read long
articles on line in Firefox and need
to pick up where you left off, pick
up Scroll Marker [No longer available. Ed-9/16/19]
In Windows
Explorer's detail view, if you want
to resize the columns so you can see
the full file name, hit ctrl and +
on the number pad (laptop users will
probably need to use their function
key to get this to work) together
and the columns will resize to the
width of the largest entry. To
resize only one column, double click
the divider at the top of the column
(your cursor needs to change to a
bar with expansion/contraction
arrows). Instead of clicking on a
folder to expand it, you can hit +
on the number pad when it is
selected. Hitting * on the number
pad will expand all of the folders
and - will contract them.
Find out detailed
information about your systems
hardware, software, versions, and
license numbers use the free utility
at <http://www.belarc.com/>.
It will even help you check your
security. This is a great tool for
technical support situations, like
when you need to reinstall some
software and need the installation
key.
Vista Business
and Ultimate will let you recall
earlier versions of a document by
right clicking on the file and
telling it you want to restore a
previous version. ANY modern
version of Windows will work with
Executive Software's Undelete <http://www.undelete.com>.
We use it at Iron Horse for fast and
safe recoveries of files, even from
our file servers. We sell it too,
of course.
To save a YouTube
video, go to <http://keepvid.com/>
and enter the URL you want to
download. You can download videos
from many web sites and save them to
your iPod, for example.
To search
Craigslist classifieds from multiple
locations, use <http://crazedlist.org/>.
You will have to lower the security
settings on your browser to use the
site.
Finding Money for Your Pet Projects
(1)
Many people think
that in difficult economic times,
they can improve their situation
significantly by harder negotiation
or shopping for lower priced
vendors. Focusing on price alone
ignores the much larger monetary and
non-monetary benefits of other
approaches to obtaining value for
your efforts. If you want to get
more bang for your buck, you need to
think more along the lines of Return
on Grief (TM, see <http://www.ih-online.com/hs73.html>)
and work with someone who cares more
about you and your business than
selling you an item and calling it a
day.
I will be making
a number of recommendations here.
So far, I have enough to fill three
Horse Sense newsletters. To some
people, it may seem that I'm
repeating myself with a new point.
All of these points are somehow
related because I'm talking about
various ways to maximize the value
of your efforts. Sometimes we end
up at the same place by taking a
different train of thought. That is
OK. Some statements will strike a
cord with some people, and some with
others.
We never claim to
know everything at Iron Horse and
learn most of our truly useful
information from clients, partners,
and friends. Please share any ideas
with us you feel will help someone
else. We'll put your name in lights
if it is new to us (and you want
your name mentioned)!
(1)
Reexamine what you are doing.
What you are doing now may have made
sense to you a while back, but it
may not any more. For example, a
client added one phone line after
another. Eliminating some of those
lines and combining the rest into a
single circuit saved thousands of
dollars a year. In many cases, you
should have someone from outside
review what you are doing to see
whether it is appropriate. They can
ask the "stupid" questions, like
questions where you "know" the
answer, but the answer has changed.
Even organizations with significant
resources can miss opportunities to
save. I'm happy to tell the story
of one government customer for whom
I was able to identify $360,000 in
hardware savings, $40,000 in yearly
recurring maintenance savings, and
several million dollars in yearly
telecommunications savings by
challenging some assumptions they
had.
(2)
Say no. Anything you don't
do is easy. Streamline your
procedures. Prioritize your
business needs, and then allocate
effort and dollars towards those
needs. One of my former employers
hired me to implement and teach
others how to use a new payroll and
personnel system. I was to teach
myself out of a job. By creatively
saying no to people, like refusing
to do work I had just trained my
boss to do (don't try this at
home!), my staff of one was able to
complete the project 9 months ahead
of schedule and $250,000 under
budget.
(3)
Use consultants. Use outside
resources to do the heavy lifting of
figuring out what you need or
performing more specialized tasks.
We have hundreds of clients for whom
we research and implement solutions.
Look at it this way: properly
diagnosing and setting your broken
leg is best done by professionals.
Then it is your job to properly
follow up, manage your
rehabilitation, and, of course, live
with the results.
Warranties are a
measure of the level of confidence
that manufacturers put into their
products. Manufacturers calculate
how many returns they might see
during a given period and add this
cost into your purchase price. So,
longer warranties can cost you more.
Right now, some
companies are quietly lowering their
warranty periods and changing their
terms so you can have a less costly
product. An identical product
purchased a couple of months ago may
have more protection than one
purchased today. The product itself
may not be any less reliable now,
but they have the option of making
it so when they lower the warranty.
The manufacturer is also not likely
to give you full value for the
warranty decrease, so they can make
more money in the long run. The
"fine print" can be worth a lot to
you, so pay attention to it.
The absolute best
warranty is the one you never have
to use. Some warranties are easier
than others to exercise no matter
what the fine print says. There are
contracts, and there is customer
satisfaction. I've found that highly
detailed warranties and bureaucratic
companies are often hell with
warranties. Those manufacturers who
want a close relationship with their
customers and value customer
interaction and satisfaction will
make the always painful process of
getting support or warranty work
done as painless as possible.
Some warranties
are a really good deal. Some are
not. You have to live with your
choice, so warranty and support
agreements are important. In
addition, warranty, support,
maintenance, and upgrade costs often
dwarf the cost of the product itself
over its useful life, so
concentrating only on the purchase
cost of a product can be very
unwise. For example, because
laptops are quite often damaged, a
warranty and support agreement that
has a rapid turn around time and
covers accidental damage can be
extremely valuable. It is easier to
determine that something is broken
rather than proving how or why it
broke. I usually recommend such
no-fault warranty and service
contracts to people buying laptops
because they are so easily damaged.
(5) Do
less. One place where you
can save a lot of time is in window
dressing. Often, we get requests
for quote and often answer with a
simple text e mail reply. For some
clients, this doesn't work. They
want a highly formatted document on
letterhead. We can produce these,
but it doesn't change the pricing,
delivery, or anything else of
consequence. It does delay the
response time quite a bit. Just
because you can do "more" doesn't
mean you should or that it is worth
it. Studies have shown that efforts
at window dressing in business are
one of the biggest reasons computers
haven't delivered on their
productivity promises. After all,
with a computer, shouldn't we ask
for and provide more information,
make it look prettier, store more
information, etc? Not if you want to
get real work done.
(6)
Get someone else to do it who values
your business. I'm amazed
when people spend an enormous amount
of time researching something when
they can get inexpensive or free
advice from someone who does that
type of thing all the time. I often
tell people that I've been doing
what I do for a long time. If you
manage to stump me and the people I
know, then you are either (a) good
(b) in trouble or (c) both.
Seriously, if you have a problem,
ask us for help. If we cannot help
you, we may well be able to point
you to someone who can.
In general, you
aren't going to get this kind of
help from a large company. They
often only know their own products
and services. Smaller businesses
look more at the problem and its
solution than products and services.
(7)
Think small. Wolves don't
survive by eating caribou, but
smaller game. Smaller projects
entail less technological and
business risk and tend to give those
involved more direct input and
control so they can build solutions
that work for them. There is also a
greater feeling of accomplishment
and recognition for those affected
by the project. While large
projects are sexy, smaller ones have
a much better Return on Grief.
(8) Be
prepared. There is a lot of
emphasis on bang for the buck and
Return on Investment at the moment,
and it is shortsighted. I can prove
to you that these ideas don't work.
If you were to look purely at costs,
anything and anyone that wasn't
bringing money into the organization
should be terminated. That means no
insurance policies, no accountants,
no management, no security
software.... You get the idea. If
you start thinking about Return on
Grief, you also start thinking about
building a strong, reliable, secure,
flexible, and resilient
architecture. You need to be able
to answer the "What if....?"
questions. For example, in Horse
Sense 73, I talked about an avian
flu scare, what could happen, and
gave simple health and business tips
to keep you going <http://www.ih-online.com/hs73.html>.
Usually, technical problems pale in
comparison to human ones. How would
you survive key employees being
unavailable for a week or more? In
short, planning for the future may
not pay dividends immediately, but
down the road can prove invaluable.
Do you have a good business
continuity plan? "He who fails to
plan, plans to fail."
(9)
Maintain what you have in good
order. Just like your car,
you need to keep your computer
network in good running order. Are
your UPS batteries charged so that
you can survive black or brownouts?
Are your backups good? Do your
computers need a hardware or
software spring cleaning? Do you
need to delete old and useless
information that is making it harder
for you to find what you need? We
can give you examples of discovery
and cleanup jobs that had enormous
Returns on Grief. Invest in
preventative maintenance, bandwidth
management, desktop management, disk
defragmentation, and other tools and
services to keep the old stuff
humming. Heading off potential
problems before they become problems
is a smart decision.
(10)
If you can't hire staff, consider
outsourcing functions. You
can get professional help for a
fraction of the price of someone in
house. Ask us about your options.
In some cases we can provide you
with the help you need directly. In
other cases, we can act as advisors
so that you get the help you need.