Robert Crane over at Saturn Alliance in Australia e-mailed me recently about some of my blog articles concerning using Sharepoint v2.

Robert, like others, has asked why I'm using Sharepoint v2 to organise my companies information instead of skipping straight to Sharepoint v3 - which is vastly superior. The simple answer I gave is - I needed to hit the ground running and Sharepoint v2 was available and immediately ready to go on our SBS 2003 R2 installation. I'm sure as time allows I'll progress onto WSS v3 but for now the urgent need is to work on my business, not on the technology behind it.

Robert also pointed out a site he maintains, SupportWeb, built using Sharepoint 2007. On it's own the site is an impressive demonstration of what you can build with Sharepoint, but apart from that it includes a lot of information and articles that any IT Professional would find useful. The site runs on a Paid Subscription basis for some content, but many articles are freely available.

Kudos to Robert for the site and the vast quantity of information he makes available to others.

A friend is looking to make a move in the IT industry, and asked my advice on suitable Recruitment Agencies I could recommend to him. I've happily done so, as being a former IT Contractor myself - many many years ago now - I dealt with a lot of really good Recruitment Agents and Recruitment Agencies who I still keep in touch with to this day. There are actually very few Agencies I'd consider "bad", as it's generally the specific recruitment agent you're dealing with that determines your experience.

However, there are a number of tricks that newbies to the job market might wish to become aware of, so when the Recruitment Agent tries it on with them, they can have a good laugh with said agent about how she is trying to pull the wool over their eyes. They will laugh!

• "Thanks for your CV. We've got a job in mind for you, but we'll need a couple of references off you before putting you in front of the client." In plain English this may actually mean - we'll put your CV on our register, but would you mind giving us a couple of potential employers we can speak to about their recruitment needs right away?
• "I notice you're leaving xyz company - who's your manager there?" Or - can you please give me a potential employer so I can speak to them about their recruitment needs. I've also heard they've got an ungrateful bastard leaving them that they might not know about yet.
• A variant on the above, when you don't give up your Managers name is... "Remind me, is Dave Bloggs still the IT Manager there? He isn't? Maybe I meant Dave Joggs. Or was it Steve Biggs? Or Karl Moggs? " The goal here being that eventually you'll put this poor guy out of his poor addled brained misery and give him a potential Recruiters name at your existing place of work.
• "Have you got anything else going on at the moment? We want to make sure we don't pitch you for a job you're already going for." Or to put it another way - tell me who else has got a Vacancy at the moment, we can put our far superior candidate in to pip you to the post.
• "I've got the perfect job for you, but it needs you to start immediately" Or - screw your existing employer, just walk out on them. Never mind you'll have burnt your bridges and acted unethically, they'll desperately need someone to fill the gap you've left! (Agent rubs hands in glee)
• And when you tell them that travelling to The Outer Hebrides from Birmingham each day is too much of a commute "It's your decision, but I must tell you that there may not be any other opportunities for you at the moment" or "Take this job whilst we find you something closer to home in the meantime" For that read, I don't give a rats a$$ about whether you want to commute or not, I want my 20% dammit!
• Finally, when you turn down that role you've been offered "I'm stunned you're turning this job down. I think it's perfect for you" or "I really need this deal - you don't realise the work I've put into it" She's stunned you've turned down this role, but not because it's perfect for you - but because she's f*cking furious she isn't getting her 20% - you ungrateful w*nker!
• And after you do find that perfect role... "Hi, I just wanted to make sure everything was alright" - I just wanted to see if there are any other jobs going on at your new place. Repeat every two months. Finally after twelve months "I've got something that might interest you". In other words, you've done me proud in the past - how about I screw my existing client by poaching you for another client.

Queue the flood of irate comments from Recruitment Consultants about how I'm being unfair by tarring with them all with the same brush or how some of the above practices are "necessary". I'd better watch my step when I visit Bennetts Bar in Birmingham anytime soon, a drunken Recruitment Agent is a nasty thing! Sorry, but I'm merely pointing out that I've genuinely experienced all of the above when dealing with sh!tty or underhanded Recruitment Agencies in my time and this is my blog you're reading, so it's my opinion you're reading - be it right or (possibly) woefully wrong.

A reminder that I've also worked with some excellent and honest Recruitment Consultants/Agents who I regularly recommend to other people, both potential employees and employers. I also work with Recruitment Agencies as clients and they are nice and honest people - so I'm not anti-Recruitment Agency, I promise you! :-)

The Microsoft Office Live Team are currently running an on-line competition aimed at Small Businesses, with a prize of a Dell Laptop, £540 cash and (more importantly for some!) a web-site makeover!

I know more than a few company web-sites that could do with a makeover, so what are you waiting for?

You can enter here!

Along with a room-full of other business owners, I recently attended a half-day seminar entitled "Seven Ways to Promote your Business" put on by AnnMarie Hanlon of B2B Marketing Company, Evonomie.

The morning proved very interesting as unlike many Marketing Companies I've come across, AnnMarie seems to have a really good grasp of what "non-traditional" yet modern marketing methods are out there and how small business owners can use these methods to their advantage, often at little or no cost. I've already referred Evonomie to one of my clients who was struggling to find a "switched on" Marketing company of this nature as a result.

The morning covered everything from Blogging to Google Analytics, Web Design to Facebook and even Second Life! I picked up some interesting viewpoints and ideas that I'll be using myself in the future, and the discussion on how social networking site Facebook can be used by potential employers to find out personal info about potential employees was very interesting indeed!

Two quotes from AnnMarie that really struck a cord with me were...

"In five years time, not having a blog will be very much like not having a web-site today"

"Build your business by participating"

Evonomie (naturally!) have a blog at http://business2businessmarketing.blogspot.com/ which is run in a "Question and Answer" style, answering queries sent in by readers. I recommend checking it out.

I read an interesting article today by time management guru and "Getting Things Done" creator David Allen. The article, entitled "It's not about Time" contains a sentence that really struck a cord with me...

"Too much information is not the problem. If it were, we’d walk into a library and faint from the presence of so much data."

Whenever I'm talking to people about time management, the phrase "Information Overload" often comes up. Too many e-mails, too many web-pages to visit, too much information to digest. Never focusing on the job at hand because there's so many distractions, and so ending up never giving anything your full attention.

It's something I struggle with myself. For example - I'll be researching a specific Technical issue via the web, and whilst reading that page another web link on the page will take my interest. So I click that link and find myself reading what I find. Maybe there's another link from that page that interests me, and I click that link and... that five minute review of a single web-page with the answer I needed to move my project forward has suddenly turned into 30 minutes of digesting information! Now that information may be useful to me in broader terms, but it sure wasn't what I set out to actually do!

Or I'll be working on an issue and an e-mail will ping into my inbox. Realistically I know the e-mail can't be that important that it needs my absolute immediate attention, if it were then the person sending it would likely have telephoned me instead - but I find myself distracted from the job in hand to "just see" who it's from. And then maybe fire off a quick response to the e-mail. Or follow a link. Or... you get the idea. :-)

Whilst it's difficult to gain a level of "Self Management" (as Allen calls it) that keeps you disciplined enough to stay on focused on the topic in hand, I think it's a skill that is worth acquiring!

"Self-management is about knowing what to do at any given moment. It’s dealing effectively with the things we have to do to achieve our goals and fulfil our purpose. It’s also about deciding the importance of the varied and constant information coming at us."

You can read the full article here - it's well worth five minutes of your precious time. :-)

Here in the UK we get two Bank Holidays during May - which the majority of British citizens see as an opportunity to sit in hundred mile long Traffic Jams on the Motorway as they try in vain to visit the seaside, but the more enlightened amongst us grasp as an opportunity to go out socialising on a Sunday night as well as the preceding Saturday and Friday, safe in the knowledge that we still have a whole Monday without work to recover relax on.

Anyway, whichever country you are in, it's handy to have these holidays displayed on your Outlook Calendar so that you don't turn up to work when you could be hungover relaxing.

To make sure these holidays are displayed, from within Outlook 2007 go to Tools > Options > Calendar Options > Add Holidays. Select your country (or countries) and click Ok. Voila! Never miss a lie in again!

If you're using any other version of Outlook, then you can find similar instructions on how to add your national holidays over at the excellent Outlook Tips web-site.

If you're a Brit, then enjoy your Spring Bank Holiday this Monday! :-)

I was perusing the Birmingham Mail newspaper the other day when this advertisement by a fellow West Midlands based IT Consultancy jumped out at me.

Unfortunately, it jumped out at me for all the wrong reasons. Can you spot the problem?

I've hidden the companies name and contact details to spare their blushes...

With this increased competition I feel I must keep up our own promotional efforts here at Tubb Towers, so if you are looking for IT Suppoprt at very reasunable rates - feel free to give Ntelink IT a kall anytim.

(Apologies to the guys at Dave's Bike Repairs and IT Shop the company who placed this ad - I simply couldn't resist...)

Just a heads-up that the 2008 AccredIT UK Conference will be held on 24th June 2008 at the Motor Heritage Museum, Gaydon, Warwickshire. It's a free event and you can sign up on-line.

AccredIT UK is a quality mark scheme aimed at IT businesses that I recently got involved with, mainly as a method of kick-starting me to improve my own internal business processes and deal with the day-to-day running of Netlink IT in a more efficient manner. It's certainly hard work to implement such processes, but the benefits once you've done so are ten-fold. If you're not sold on why processes and systems are a good idea to help you grow your business, go read Michael Gerber's "The E-Myth Revisited" and then start wondering how this Gerber guy knew to write this book when it's quite obviously all based on you individually. You've never met this man, but he's writing all about you! Has Gerber been spying on me? How come he's saying all the things I'm thinking when I put my mind to growing my business? Great book. :-)

Anyway, places for the above Conference are sure to be limited - so make sure to register today if you intend to attend. I'm sure it will be worth a day of your time.

If you're going along, drop me a note to let me know, it'd be great to see you on the day!

I've mentioned the excellent KeePass "Password Safe" software before - it's an Open Source application that enables you to generate and store strong passwords for web-sites, keep your credit card details and store any other sensitive information - all in a secure fashion. As the software is available for both Windows and Windows Mobile (as well as a multitude of other Operating Systems) you can easily setup your KeePass password file to be synchronised between your devices so you always have your passwords to hand. I find this invaluable!

Now there's no excuse for keeping the same password (or a minor variation of) for all those different web-sites - instead you can have unique and very strong passwords that you don't have to remember, KeePass will remember for you!

KeePass has recently been updated to v1.11 on Windows, and v0.4.6 on Windows Mobile. The Windows Mobile release now contains the ability to cut'n'paste URL's, usernames and passwords between Windows Mobile windows - a solution to one of the bug-bears I had with previous versions.

That man Andy Parkes strikes again - this time bringing to my attention some lunatic intrepid individual who has managed to modify my baby an Eee PC with an additional eight items including a USB hub, a GPS receiver with its own antenna, a Bluetooth module, a second SDHC card slot, a Flash drive, a power switch, an FM transmitter and a modem - so reports El Reg.

Oh, and he's running Windows XP on it too.

In fact, modding the Eee PC seems to have become a very popular past-time - there's even a Wiki page dedicated to how you too can mangle £200 worth of laptop with a soldering iron for fun.

Good luck! :-)

The GG was very proud this evening to share some geeky knowledge with me that I wasn't aware of. "Did you know..." she beamed, already knowing my answer... "that you can use the BBC iPlayer on the Wii?"

Minutes later I'd purchased the Wii Internet Channel (basically a version of the web browser Opera with some Wii-esque modifications) directly from the Wii Shop for the princely sum of £3.50, and visited www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer to find, sure enough, that I could sit and watch Stephen Fry's briefing on the future of Public Broadcasting first shown on the BBC's Parlimentary Channel this weekend.

Ironically, I'm typing this blog posting up on the GG's own Apple MacBook on which the iPlayer doesn't work! The BBC promises support for the Mac by the end of 2008.

Who'd have thought you could use software on a Nintendo Console, but not on the Apple Mac?!

It's 20:45 GMT here in the UK and I'm waiting to go into a Telephone Conference Call with some American colleagues. Whilst I wait for everyone to come on the line I'm naturally using my time productively (ahem...) to setup my new "going out" mobile 'phone - the Sony Ericsson k850i.

What's a "going out" 'phone? Well I normally use a T-Mobile MDA Vario II on a day-to-day basis - but when out socialising then that particular rather chunky beast spoils the cut of my (if I do say so myself - very fashionable) trousers, so I keep a slimmer (or "candy bar" as I've heard it called) 'phone for these occasions.

My old Sony Ericsson k600i with it's 1.3 megapixel camera was starting to look a little dated, so it was off to eBay to treat myself to the k850i - and very cool it is too! A "Cybershot" 'branded phone - it comes with a nice 5 megapixel camera and some very neat photo enhancing technology. Naturally it's also 3G capable and runs Java too, plus has Bluetooth and all the usual gubbins.

Unlike my MDA Vario II, the Sony Ericsson 'phones don't run Windows Mobile and thus don't synchronise their contact list with Microsoft Outlook. Therefore I've got a select few friends and family numbers only in my "going out" 'phone, and the thought of transferring these numbers manually between my old 'phone and the new 'phone seemed quite the chore. Never fear - Mobyko to the rescue! Once you've registered for free with Mobyko and given it your make/model of 'phone and your telephone number, you can sync your Contacts "over the air" to their secure servers. In my case, once I'd done this I then told Mobyko I'd moved to a new 'phone, popped my SIM card into my k850i and sync'd those contacts back! Voila - no manual transfer necessary! Mobyko also has a Facebook plug-in that allows you to sync your contacts Facebook profile pictures to your 'phone - and the ability to save SMS, MMS and Videos from you 'phone to their servers too - all very neat!

Sadly, transferring my Mobile Web-browser bookmarks from the old 'phone to the new one wasn't quite as automatic, but it did give me a chance to review some sites that you might find useful yourself...

Flickr Mobile - m.flickr.com - Upload those MMS shots directly to your photo stream!

Google Products - www.google.co.uk/m/products - Google Maps, Google Mail and by the time you read this, Google Time-Travel (probably...)

XE Currency Converter - www.xe.com/wap - Useful foreign currency converter

Directory Enquries - wap.bt.com/wap - Cheaper (as in free!) than calling 118 rip-me-off...

Facebook Mobile - m.facebook.com - Update your Status from the pub to let everyone know you're drunk, not just those people with you!

Must dash - time for me to go talk to some American's - enjoy the links! :-)

I've had a couple of people ask me about Service Pack 3 for Windows XP recently, and what features it contains.

The simple answer is... none that you're likely to find interesting!

The biggest benefit to XP SP3 I've found thus far is that when I'm building or upgrading a new PC, installing the XP SP3 update means I don't have to install hundreds of smaller updates instead - as SP3 "rolls up" those other updates!

For the full story you can find a good FAQ on Windows XP SP3 at the excellent Paul Thurrotts Supersite for Windows web-site.

If you're running Windows XP (be it Home or Professional) and want to upgrade to SP3, then it's now available from the Windows Update site or as a standalone download.

If you're a user of the AVG Rescue CD then you might find the following script from my good mate Matt Barton of Ostrich IT in Devon useful.

Quite simply, if you drop the script as an "auto run" on the USB key-disk that you store your latest AVG definitions for the Rescue CD on, then each time you pop that key-disk it into a USB slot, it will:-

1. Delete any existing definitions on the key-disk
2. Download new ones direct from AVG's FTP site
3. Quit - leaving you to safely eject the USB key-disk and go!

Thanks to Matt for providing a quick and easy solution to keeping your USB key-disk up-to date with those ever changing AVG definitions!

Here's the script:-

del /q *.bin
ftp -i -s:%0

open ftp.grisoft.cz
anonymous
update@update.com
lcd .
cd pub
cd softw
cd 70
cd update
binary
hash
mget u7avi*.bin
quit

After my recent investigation in how to get Office 2007 file icons showing in companyweb under SBS 2003 running Sharepoint v2, I noticed that the .PDF file format - commonly used by Adobe Acrobat - is icon-less too. How to resolve this hugely important issue? Well...

On your SBS server, in the file C:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\60\template\xml\docicon.xml add the following line under the 'By Extension' section

<Mapping Key="pdf" Value="pdf16.gif"/>

Then copy this icon to your server by right-clicking on it from Internet Explorer and selecting "Save As". Save it to the following location on your SBS box as the filename pdf16.gif

C:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\60\template\images

Then restart the IISAdmin service on your server, and voila - all sorted!