So in part one of this mini-epic I responded to a comment author on another blog. In it, I addressed the, as I see it, flawed thinking in their approach to the use of filtering software or appliances.

In this second post I want to put forward some of the benefits, again as I see it, of why we should spy.

So, without further ado: (more…)

John over at Church IT has put up a short post about “Monitoring Your Church Staff’s Internet Usage“.

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that I’m a wee bit passionate about protecting your own equipment and in helping guide your children down the path of healthy surfing and computer use. So you won’t be surprised to know that I’ve added a comment or two.

Today, the following comment was added:

I just don’t know about actively monitoring staff or employee computers. It seems like spying. I’ve always found that having everyone sign a computer and internet agreement policy and then locking down everything that wasn’t email or internet browsing through the router was plenty. There’s no reason to spend any amount of money or time installing monitoring software. It makes people feel like you don’t trust them and they don’t really work anyway. If you just have to see what your staff has been doing on the web most routers keep a log of every site visited and with what computer and at what time.

Well I was going to type up my reply on John’s blog but it started getting a little long, so instead I’m answering it here. (more…)

I’ve long been an advocate of people not needing ‘formal qualifications’ to get into the computer industry. And by formal I mean university degrees or 48 GCSE’s (or whatever your age 16 school exams are called).

However, that’s a subject matter for another time and another post. What one can’t avoid, so it seems, is the need to have a technical certification. Companies seem to turn a blind eye to experience and especially recruiting agencies. I know for a fact that certain agencies in the UK use an automated scanner looking for keywords for certain roles – so your CV arrives and is never seen by a human until after it’s been vetted by a machine. This is life now and so if you’re wanting to get into the network field, then as  bare minimum you’d need to start with a Cisco Certified Network Associate (or CCNA) certification.

This one exam (or two depending on route taken) certification is seen as the ultimate (more…)

Those of you that have been reading this blog awhile may have noticed that my suggestions tab disappeared.

Two main reasons – it never saw any action and I forgot to re-apply the code when I changed my theme. However, I was reminded today by an email from the founder of Skribit that I’d lost my connection.

But who & what is skribit? Well if like me you tend to hide under a rock and pop up occasionally you may have missed the launch of this some 18 months back. However since then it has effectively been in active development and although their about page still claims this is the case the email also reminded me that they are now ready for ’showtime’.

In short they’re coming out of their beta phase and are ready for more. Anyway, they are a group of bloggers and internet entrepreneurs who, like me, want to blog more but get stuck for ideas.So along comes a way to utilise your audience to provide insights, ideas, etc for you to blog about.

So skribit, essentially “cures writer’s block by tapping your blog’s readership for post suggestions“.

This is done by clicking on the skribit “Suggestion” tab that appears (hopefully) on every page you visit – so whether you land on my home page or on a sub-page you should be able to click it and add your suggestions. As a suggestee you can even create your own skirbit account to track your suggestions and receive notification when it has been blogged about.

I think it’s a great tool for bloggers like myself who struggle with ideas and getting input from readers is always the aim of any blog. If this is one way for the reader to get an idea blogged about then great. If it encourages folks to read or use the site more, then even better.

However, I feel it’s one major drawback will be the reader themselves. I don’t know why and certainly don’t understand but some blogs just get more commenter’s than others and those that do will find skribit used whereas those that don’t will find that it is likely that their skribit button doesn’t get touched.

C’est la vie I guess – but anyway, it is back and here’s to seeing your ideas and suggestions as to topics you’d like to see covered.

What has life taught you?

I find at the very young age of 46 that I’m not as young as I once was but I’m not referring to physical age here but rather the fact that me being the age I am has made me understand / realise / learn things that otherwise would never have been. Confused, well let me launch right in and see if I can untangle that … and so without further ado let me bring you “stuff life has taught me” …

• Your self belief is stronger than anyone or anything else.
  Let’s face it. If you have an idea for extra money or some hair brained scheme (more…)