Comp TIA Healthcare IT Technician

The book I read to research this post was Comp TIA Healthcare IT Technician by C V Connor which is an excellent book which I downloaded from kindle for free. This book is one of the most interesting free books I have had from kindle. This is an American so probably all that relevant to the job in Britain especially with regard to legal matters. Most of the topic refers to electronic health records although there is also more general information & I think it's interesting even if like me you are a network engineer who doesn't have much to do with healthcare work. The book is structured in the form of multiple choice questions with each having a correct answer and explanation. Some of the information is things like this. The OHSA are responsible for checking the IT equipment in a health practice is up to the job and send inspectors around from time to time to check. OHSA stands for Occupational Health Safety Association. The best way to save space whilst storing lots of files is to have a motorized rotating file storage unit. A patient who is unhappy with his treatment at a practice or hospital would be able to complain under the Patient's Bill Of Rights under 1 of the 8 parts that constitute that. A person with Alzheimers disease would probably be sent to a non acute health facility for support with life. A nursing station that wanted to have chat software installed so they can talk about any problems with a local pharmacy would have to check with the IT administrator prior to installing it as most software of that type has weaknesses that can be exploited by hackers. It is a really interesting book that's is relevant to anyone working in computers.

Crowfund Investing

The book I read to research this post was Crowdfund Investing For Dummies by Sherwood Neiss which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book is related to another post I did on Kickstarter which can be found at http://scratbag.me  . Crowdfunding is getting people together online to either invest in your business or give to your charity. Usually you either give them a portion of your business, much as with venture capital or with smaller amounts give them a gift like a signed book. The law in America to allow crowdfunding went through in 460 days from its inception which is relatively fast. At that time banks were heavily reducing how much they lend to businesses due to the recession. Crowdfunding requires a certain transparency in running the business as you normally have to let investors know even if you make a serious error. It levels the playing field between corporations and start up businesses. If you can convince people you have a good idea, the world is your oyster, There is a list of crowdfunding websites at http://crowdfundprofessional.org & there is a crowdfunding website at http://crowdfunding.com. Often people like musicians and authors can get books and albums financed on these sites. Something good about crowdfunding is if someone is a fraudster word gets around these sites quite quickly. Also there are websites that enable investors to lend money to projects in the developing world and generally a high proportion of these are paid back. Normally if you invest in a company you must hang onto the stock for at least 12 months and in practise it's normally a lot longer. Also the stock is often difficult to resell. I did enjoy this book and I think it appears quite accurate in what it says.

Kickstarter

The book I read to research this post was Kickstarter For Dummies by Aimee Cebulski which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

Kickstarter is a venture capital or crowdfunding website. Basically you write about a project you want to start which can be a book, a film, a start up business or even something like a charity thing and people pledge to help fund it and usually if you make a profit they get a share of the proceeds. You have to designate how much you wish to raise and what percentage you will give them. You first of all tell them in one word what type of project it will be. You then tell them about the project in less than 135 characters. There is another part where you can tell them about the project in more detail. You need a title for the project, a photo or video & maybe even a website or blog for them to visit for more information. Investors aren't always paid in cash, you might in the case of a book send them a signed copy or another reward for investing a set sum. It's customary to thank your backers whether you achieve your target or not and of course you pay the website a percentage. The default deadline is 30 days although you can adjust that. Kickstarter is at http://kickstarter.com & they have a tumblr blog also called kickstarter. You need to be a USA citizen and have a social security number and payments are done through Amazon.com. This is a very interesting book and if you are a potential investor the projects are categorized on the website. 

Digital Marketing

The book I read to research this post was Digital Marketing by Godfrey Parkin which is very good and which I bought from kindle. This book doesn't add a huge amount of information to what I already know about this subject although I read quite a lot about it and am quite knowledgeable. The most interesting parts are where it describes some less well known social networks like Trulia & Writely which I might check out. There is also some mobile based ones like Grrl & Loopt. It also rather interestingly contrasts some of the not good websites including some of the big players like Selfridges with other sites that are more successful online like Gap. One thing Selfridges do wrong is there is no clear privacy policy. A lot of people nowadays are reluctant to do business with a site that is compiling a mailing list to sell to 3rd parties and expect the site to make that quite clear. One thing Gap do is let people buy certain items from competitors that go with the clothing they offer saving them having to visit several sites. Also they display what you have bought on the same page you browse items so you don't have to keep going from one page to another. The most successful online businesses are the ones that have both an online presence and a bricks and mortar store for convenience but many businesses are going entirely online. I did quite enjoy reading this book which is a reasonable length as well. Believe me I am anything but impressed when a so called book is only a few pages. Finally there is also quite an extensive glossary of terms in the back of the book.

Nuclear Safety

The book I read to research this post was Nuclear Safety by Gianni Petrangelli which is an excellent book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book is about the safety measures in place primarily in nuclear power stations in the western world although it does contrast it with places like Chernobyl. It also looks at some of the accidents they have had like with 3 Mile Island & Sellafield. The earliest example of a nuclear reactor was built in 1942 and was basically inserting caesium rods into a mass of uranium and pushing the rods further in to increase power and withdrawing them to reduce. That type of producing nuclear power is called fission and that type of nuclear power station was called a fermi pile. In fact even though there have been advances in power station technology that is the basic system of how they work. Most nuclear stations are built to withstand an impact of a fighter jet collision and because at one time they had concerns over crashes with Lockhead F104 Starfighters they are the standard one it has to withstand. Hardly any power stations would withstand a collision with a Boeing 747 as it would have to be built deep underground & they are considered much less likely to crash. In the incident at Chernobyl a new device had just been installed and they reduced the power to an unacceptably low amount, not realising it was dangerous as part of testing it. The power station worked at an optimal amount that they shouldn't have devated from. Most nuclear power certainly in the west are built to withstand a moderate eathquake and even a nuclear explosion from a nearby missile. Much of the construction is reinforced concrete and the reactor is normally built in a shell within a shell called a safety cage for added protection. I really enjoyed reading which is around 420 pages and contains no less than 17 appendixes. It's also a very interesting subject in it's own right.

Islamic Capital Markets

The book I read to research this post was Islamic Capital Markets by Abbas Mirakhor et al which is an excellent book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

I think it's a good idea to read about other cultures and religions. The authors of this book teach a course in islamic finance and world markets and so they are quite qualified to write this book. Muslims aren't allowed to charge interest which lets face it can spiral out of control, but can charge a loan fee and also can't invest in things like gambling and must put a portion aside for defaulting loans called sukkuk  and also must give some to the poor. This book focuses on the Malaysian Stock Exchange which has been instrumental in introducing forms of investment acceptable to Islam. It is of course a predominantly muslim country. For many years it was becoming a stagnant stock exchange with many people buying shares and then waiting many years for them to mature and the amount being invested was getting less and less. Government and banks needed some kinds of bonds to be introduced  to help them weather shortfalls in their own finances. Many types of Islamic bond need the purpose of the bond and what it will be spent on made clear. Often the bond is secured on something and has a fixed payout. If it's secured on something the debtors liability is limited. The bank's bonds reach maturity quite quickly and the government ones more slowly. There are also bonds for other industries to raise money and there is also share dealing where you can arrange for them to be bought up by a clearancehouse if they rise or fall to a certain point. Also no one should take on more risk than he can afford which also applies to companies so that a large loan will often be shared by several banks. This of course helps prevent banks and other financial institutions going out of business. I really enjoyed reading this book and I thought it's quite interesting. 

Rendez-Vous - Jean Michel Jarre

I am reviewing the music album Rendez-Vous by Jean Michel Jarre which is a very good album. Jean was the first instrumental artist to use predominently an electronic synthesizer which at that time was a relatively new instrument. Of course other artists like OMD & Howard Jones would add to what he achieved. He had a huge pop hit with the single Oxygene 4 and the album Oxygene. Most of the tracks on his albums are named after the album followed by a number. His dad was Maurice Jarre the film music composer perhaps most famous for the soundtrack to A Passage To India which was oscar nominated. He is also married to the actress Charlotte Rampling. He also apparently released an album with a limited edition of one and it was sold for loads of money at an auction. Rendez-Vous 2 was used in an advert on tv in Britain quite a long time ago. The best track on the album is Rendez-Vous which didn't quite make into the UK Top 40 Singles Chart which is a shame. This album was released in the mid 80's. His best albums are probably Equinoxe & Chronologie. He has done a lot of high profile open air concerts in places like London's Docklands & Houston and many of these have been released as live albums as well as having interesting alternate versions of many of his more well known tracks. Finally I do really enjoy listening to this album.

Crowdsourcing

The book I read to research this post was Crowdsourcing For Dummies by David Alan Grier which is an excellent book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

Crowdsourcing can be done on social media sites but most companies prefer dedicated sites like http://mturk.com which is mechanical turk owned by Amazon and one of the biggest sites of its type. Some sites specialize in something like design or computer programming. Crowdsourcing basically is getting a large group of people to help your company or charity reach its goal for which they may or may not get paid or may get some kind of gift. There are different names for the different types of crowdsourcing. Crowdfunding is getting a large group of people to help you raise funds and this is well suited to social media. Crowdcontests are where you get people to submit something like designs for something and a winner is chosen and that person gets paid. The amount offered has to be quite substantial to attract interest. Microtasking is when a task is broken up and a little given to each of a group. Macrotasking is when 1 person is chosen to do a job. These kinds of sites let you employ very specialized people at a cheaper price than if you employed them locally. Probably the biggest crowdspourcing site is http://fiverr.com although it can be limiting in that all jobs pay 5 dollars before deductions. I thoroughly enjoyed this book which is on an interesting subject and packed with information for both businesses and those looking to make a bit of extra money. 

Arrival - Abba

I am reviewing the album Arrival by Abba which is an excellent album. Abba's name comes from the first letter of each of their christian names & the fact they were 2 married couples was considered very romantic by their many fans prior to the divorces of course. They are from Sweden & became famous by winning the Eurovision song contest with Waterloo & had so many hits they were Sweden's second most successful export after Volvo cars. They were successful practically everywhere although had trouble cracking the USA market where they only had one no 1 single. Arrival was the last of their mega selling albums although when interest was rekindled years later Abba Gold, a compilation of their songs would probably become their most successful album ever. The album Arrival featured the hugely successful, title track, Dancing Queen & Money, Money, Money. They are one of the most successful pop groups of all time and epitomized glamrock. Dancing Queen was written to celebrate a royal wedding in Monaco, hence the song name. There is also some good album tracks on this album, the best probably being Tiger. I do really enjoy listening to this album. 

And I'll Scratch Yours - Peter Gabriel

I am reviewing the tribute album And I'll Scratch Yours by various artists doing Peter Gabriel songs which is very good. The idea behind the album is they are some of Peter's favourite artists and obviously that's where the title comes from. The phrase You Scratch My Back And I'll Scratch Yours being shortened. Some of the artists include Elbow, Arcade Fire, Lou Reed & David Bowie.There are 2 versions of the classic song Don't Give Up, as well as versions of Biko & Games Without Frontiers. A lot of the tracks appear to be album tracks but are still quite good. Peter used to be in the rock group Genesis in what many regard as its heyday but after an argument left the group. Phil Collins who also had a successful pop career as a solo artist was also in the group. Games Without Frontiers is probably my favourite song by Gabriel but his most successful song was probably Sledgehammer which sadly is missing from this album. He was well known for having quite an experimental type of sound and wasn't afraid to take risks musically. I did enjoy listening to this album. 

Second Life

The book I read to research this post was Second Life For Dummies which is an excellent book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

Second Life is a social media site a little like World Of Warcraft but it isn't a game but a virtual world on the internet. Users who are called residents visit this website and hang around with friends or explore the virtual world. Apparently 16,000 acres of virtual land are added every month. There are other virtual reality sites like Virtual Business but Second Life is the most popular. Users can create an avatar, an animated character that represents you. You design this character and can even animate it in animation software and import it. A basic account is free. If you want to buy land you need a premium account which includes 1,000 linden dollars to start and then 300 linden dollars per month. Linden dollars are a virtual currency unique to this site that can be bought and sold for real currency or used to buy virtual gifts. Some people get virtual jobs on the site where they don't get anything like a living wage but if you enjoy doing it, it's a bonus. Some people even pay people to play the part of their virtual children. Many organisations like businesses and universities are cashing in on the Second Life craze. Businesses sell virtual gifts and universities offer virtual copies of there campus and also the fact that it's a virtual world lets you explore virtual educational models. They also often let you listen to and join in on lectures for students. I really enjoyed this book and am tempted to join Second Life.

Social Networks

The book I read to research this post was Social Networking Spaces: From Facebook To twitter And Everything In Between which is a very good book which I read at http://safaribooksonline.com

This book mostly focuses on Twitter & Facebook but also looks at quite a variety of social media sites including blogging platforms, photo & video sharing sites & virtual worlds. The book has quite a lot of pictures and is fairly long. I was quite impressed that they cover sites like second life and google+ and even mention virtual business and evite. There is a chapter on meetup.com which they call the original social network and allow users to find local people and basically meet up somewhere. Second Life which is a virtual world has replicas of Dublin City Centre, The Louvre & The Sistine chapels among its places to explore. You are given an avatar and can buy virtual things like clothes and a house. This can get rather expensive but one benefit is you can buy gifts for other users with out the need to post them. So they don't need to give out their postal address. I must admit I think the concept of virtual gifts are a bit of a con. This book also covers you tube but surprisingly not pinterest. One of the authors is a 3d artist so she has designed some models which are exhibited throughout the book and are quite impressive. I did enjoy reading it and it's a very interesting subject that I can't understand why there aren't more books on. 

Online Reputation Management

The book I read to research this post was Online Reputation Management For Dummies by Lori Randall Stradtman which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book does cover everything about this topic as I think a bigger book would be necessary but it does a good job of covering the essentials. In this day and age particularly for businesses it's more difficult to keep a uniformly good image. Also if someone libels your product it's not straight forward taking them to court for damages especially if they are in another country. A lot of potential abuse comes from trolls which all you can do is ignore them, delete their comments and get them banned from that particular site. Other folk you should reason with and if they have a strong greivance take the conversation to another medium like email or phone. You should also keep them informed of any developments in dealing with their complaint. Many smaller companies have only 1 person who deals with their online image but bigger companies have a team who each specialize in different aspects. Something suggested is a website called Klout.com where they let you search on social media on topics connected to your products or services. I may join a site called http://getglue.com which lets you review films, books and music and of course is loosely connected to the book topic. There is also a service at http://wordtracker.com that lets you find the most commonly used search terms. I did enjoy reading this book and did find the topic quite interesting. 

Samsung Galaxy S4

The book I read to research this post was Samsung Galaxy S4 which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

The samsung galaxy s4 is the most technologically advanced smartphone currently available and is also one of the most popular. This book is a good guide to its features and as with a lot of smartphones the documentation with the phone is a bit brief so I think this book is a necessity for the potential owner. It has an eyescan feature so if you are watching a film and look away it pauses the movie until you look back at the screen. It also if you are reading an ebook will let you advance forward or back a page by merely swiping your fingers across the screen without actually touching it. It can recognise your face which is part of the security set up on this phone and often this will be in conjunction with a pin or password for increased security. When you look at the screen it lights up and when you look away it powers down which is much better than the going into standby of conventional smartphones. The sensor on the phone also optimizes the picture displayed according to where you are looking. Many android apps are made exclusively for this phone and as a result have increased functionality. The google play store is the most popular android app selling website. You do have to watch out for rogue apps probably more on the less well known selling websites and should always watch what information is being collected by the app and whether it's doing things like dialing out for no apparent reason. Many of the selling points do scan apps for malware but you have to be careful. Always check the reviews and only use apps that are fairly well established or come from well known developers. 

Micro-Entrepreneurship

The book I read to research this post was Micro-Entrepreneurship For Dummies by Paul Mladjenovich which is an excellent book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book is probably of most use to those looking for a second or extra income to their main job rather than those looking to do something full time. Of course if you are successful you can always turn to doing whatever it is full time. It covers a huge amount of ways of getting potential income and there is lots of advice on things like outsourcing work and accounts. I did do a post a while back about how some people do lots of little jobs on http://fiverr.com and although only get about $3.67 per job or something like that do lots of jobs and make a nice second income. Also look at the arts and crafts section of http://about.com and consider personalizing some of the projects and selling them on http://etsy.com & http://ebay.com. Your business should at the very least have a facebook page, blog & twitter presence. Many would add a website with ecommerce and a linkedin page. You should look at what your skills are and a couple of good sites for being a virtual assistant and making money are http://elance.com & http://mturk.com. You may find you need to concentrate with regard to being assistance adapt your skills to what's available. With doing something like arts and crafts or even buying cheap in one place and reselling the key is to specialize and be a bit different to everyone else. I really enjoyed this book which is absolutely brimming with ideas.

Prism - Katy Perry

I reviewing the album Prism by Katy Perry which is excellent. This is the latest album to come from Katy and features the singles Roar & Unconditionally although I think the best track is This Is How We Do. Her previous album Teenage Dream spawned 5 no 1 hits in America. I think she also had 6 top 10 hits in Britain. Roar featured a fantastic pop video with Katy as a kind of Tarzan & Jane character. I think Unconditionally would have followed Roar to no 1 in Britain but the pop video got delayed. Prior to becoming a successful pop star Katy was a successful songwriter penning songs for Britney Spears & Kelly Clarkson among others. I think Prism is quite different from her previous album, Teenage Dream and maybe slightly darker. She was voted the sexiest woman in the world by Maxim in 2010. She was briefly married to Russell Brand and apparently he didn't like the idea of her being in charge. Also apparently one of them wanted a family and the other didn't. Getting back to this album it's been number 1 in lots of countries including the UK & the USA. She is in the Guinness Book Of Records as having the best start in sales of any digital artist with her first 2 singles selling over 2 million each. She did realise quite a nice but controversial track called I Kissed A Girl about lesbianism which was very successful. I would definitely say this is her best album to date.

Philharmonics - Agnes Obel

I am reviewing the album Philharmonics by Agnes Obel which is an excellent album. Agnes is Danish & originally from Copenhagen although nowadays she lives in Berlin. Both her parents were quite musical & she learnt to play the piano at an early age. Her piano teacher encouraged her to play music she liked. She also went to a school were she did lots of things like pottery but left at 17. She was in a group but didn't like not having freedom to play what she liked. This album was released in 2010 & was particularly successful in Germany, Belgium & Denmark. She has since done a 2nd album called Aventine. This album Philharmonics has quite a haunting cover where there is a silhouette of Agnes which is a bit like something from a Bergman or Hitchcock film. She also did really well at the Danish Music Awards & has performed at the itunes festival in London & Paris. She is definitely a rising star. Surprisingly I got this album at a car boot sale and had never heard of her prior to playing it but the album is really good & the music is a kind of relaxing folk music with her on piano. Finally I would recommend the wikipedia page on her which is very interesting and which I looked at. 

Britney Jean - Britney spears

I am reviewing the album Britney Jean by Britney Spears which is a very good album. Jean is Britney's second christian name and this is her 8th album. Apparently she was on a contract for 8 albums so they must be busy renegotiating that. Her first single from this album made no 1 on the British Singles Chart. There is a nice mix of songs on the album although they are mostly a kind of popish dance music. I think the best single she ever recorded was Toxic which was a huge no 1 in Britain & off the In The Zone album. Britney did start a teenage popstar revival and is the biggest selling teenage popstar of all time. She was on the Mickey Mouse Club along with Justin Timberlake whom she had a relationship with. He wrote a song about the relationship called Cry Me A River. She has been married twice the 1st rather controversially happened in Las Vegas and didn't last very long. The second became the subject of a reality show. She also starred in a film called Crossroads which was generally panned by critics but was quite successful at the box office. She also had a kind of nervous breakdown and was in the newspapers for doing things like shaving all her hair off. Thankfully she is over all that now. Finally if you get the chance to see her latest pop video to her current hit single it's pretty good. 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4

The book I read to research this post was Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 For Dummies by Joel Scott et al which was a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

Funnily enough I think this was the only version of this software they did a dummies book although there are lots of other books on more recent versions. This book was released in 2008 at a time when this program was software on a cdrom, so you need a server to run it on and SQL Server & Exchange Server to run it. More recent versions have crossed over to cloud computing & might be classed as Software As A Service or SAAS. Nonetheless I think this book is interesting and sometimes you can buy new software on sites like Amazon that are unused but old. CRM or customer relationship management software started out as something to help salesmen manage their customer details but although the name has stuck they now have branched out with many more features so it is quite relevant to employees like managers. Among the deatures is a product catalogue builder which is most useful to sales people. There is also a campaign which can be used for any kind of promotion and includes a mail merge feature so you can type a letter once and automate the process of adding clients details to each letter. There is a report builder which is a free download for budding programmers and is also included with Visual Studio which if you subscribe to the most recent cloud version is free to departments with 5 or less programmers. I did quite enjoy reading this book and I am sure the most recent version can't be that different to this version of Dynamics CRM 4.

Squarespace 6

The book I read to research this post was Squarespace 6 For Dummies by Kris Black which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

Squarespace is an online tool for creating websites, because they also do the hosting it saves you the hassle of uploading your site like with programs like Dreamweaver. Squarespace came about when its creator was doing college courses in web design & programming and decided to combine the 2. Initially he used the program himself and then his friends started using it and the rest is history. Squarespace is easier to use than conventional software and the interface is quite intuitive. There are squarespace apps available for smartphones & 2 apps which can be used with it are notes & portfolio. Many people update their website via tablet or smartphone. You can integrate it with a wide assortment of social media sites and you can have a search box to make it compliant with search engines. You can even add search terms to photographs and video. You can add a stream to social media sites so when you update your website the social network is automatically updated or vice versa. There are 2 payments and you should always take advantage of the free trial. There is a limited standard account & a professional account. The latter lets your website grow to any size for a flat rate. There is also a developer account where programmers can sell their services to companies and sublet the site to them. I really enjoyed this book & thought it's very interesting.

Chatter

The book I read to research this post was Developing Applications With Salesforce Chatter by Rakesh Gupta which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book is rather short but is part of the same series the book on Yammer which I did yesterday was also part ot. It can be split into 2 halves with the first portion about using Chatter & the rest on writing apps. Chatter is similiar to Yammer in that it's a program you can run on a company server that allows a corporate social network normally for employees at a company. You can have 1 main group and then lots of smaller groups for maybe different departments. You can have a community group which allows in trading partners and customers to participate in a group. You can also have hybrid groups where part of the network is stored on cloud computing and the rest on a company server. Like Facebook & Yammer each member of a group has a feed to keep them updated as to what is going on. In addition to group members there are a group owner and a group manager both with additional powers. This program integrates and is owned by salesforce.com and there suite of products. Your customers can buy either a standard licence or plus licence that allows them to participate in your Chatter group. Obviously the plus licence grants more powers. In addition as well as the standard version of Chatter there are developer, professional, enterprise & unlimited versions. The developer edition is for people learning Chatter and app writing. I think most companies can get by with either the standard or at most professional version. I enjoyed reading this and it's an interesting subject but is somewhat short. There don't seem to be many books about Chatter which is a shame. 

Yammer

The book I read to research this post was Yammer Starter by Ralph Roberts which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book is a bit on the short side but is on an interesting subject and I think alot of the information is quite relevant especially to IT people in businesses. Yammer is the original corporate network solution and there is a free version along with a premium and enterprise versions. For most businesses all they need is the free version. It integrates with Microsoft Dynamics CRM & MS Sharepoint and obviously there is probably going to be hosting fees involved if it doesn't run on a company server. Microsoft bought the Yammer company for $1.2 billion several years ago with a view to promoting Dynamics & Sharepoint. You can't have subgroups in Yammer but you can have 1 big corporate group and then lots of separate smaller groups. Obviously when you join a group you need your company email address and this has to be authorized by the network administrator as an allowable member. Of course there are alternatives to Yammer like Chatter & other companies like Sugar CRM & Salesforce.com are eager to promote their own CRM solutions.Also Yammer integrates with Twitter & Facebook and has things like newsfeeds which are similiar to the latter. I think a lot of the program which is downloadable from Yammer.com is quite intuitive especially if you have experience of Facebook. I did quite enjoy reading this book although I thought it's a bit short. 

Social Media Security

The book I read to research this post was Social Media Security by Michael Cross which is an excellent book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book looks at the subject of social media security mostly from a business point of view although a lot of it is relevant to home users. Many companies are giving their employees access to social media as a part of doing their job. This can be things like promoting the company on social networks but also increasingly they are using it to stay in touch with clients and of course blogs are self explanatory. Much contact relationship management software integrates with sites like facebook & twitter. An interesting point raised is when you join a site and they ask to look in your email account for clients  already on that site they usually have access to those peoples email addresses which is a potential security breach. 13 million users on facebook in the USA alone use minimal privacy settings which is great for anyone contemplating identity theft. They suggest using a separate Gmail or Yahoo for activating and using with social media sites. You should think of social media sites the same way you think of the city you live in, in that there are nice people as well as total undesirables like the posh areas & ghettoes in a city. You should think before writing anything do you really want to share information with all and sundry. I really enjoyed reading this book which is as you can see on a very interesting subject that I have barely scratched the surface of.

Asset Allocation

The book I read to research this post was Asset Allocation For Dummies by Jerry A Miccolis et al which is an excellent book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

The idea of asset allocation is diversifying your investments to minimize risk and at the same time maximize the potential of what you can make. You obviously shouldn't invest everything in the same investment and equally in the same type of investment. Also you don't want your investments maturing at the same time to avoid paying loads of tax. You should arrange things ideally over a 10 year period so that a little matures each year and obviously one exception to that is you may want a lot of your investments to mature when you retire and bear in mind you could be alive for a further 25 years so if you don't have private pensions you need a lot to maintain a reasonable standard of life. In the book they rate Exchange Traded Funds or ETF's higher than stocks and shares and risk endured should be proportional to potential gain. A certain portion of your wealth can be invested in a tangible investment like real estate or something like antiques, bear in mind with the latter it's a very fickle market & certainly if someone values something at a certain price it might get a lot less at an auction. The home you live in like the car you drive shouldn't be regarded as an investment unless you intend to sell it at a profit at a later date. They usually call these kinds of costs a use investment in that you are buying them to use. This book is aimed at the American market but the general advice is sound & I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. 

Salute - Little Mix

I am reviewing the album Salute by Little Mix which is an excellent album. It's their 2nd album & they were the 1st group in the history of the X Factor, a UK talent show similiar to American Idol, to win the show in its history. They are an all girl group and were made of 2 members from 2 groups that never made it. There mentor was Tulisa Contostavlos who was also one of the judges. Following their win they were signed to Simon cowell's SyCo Records & in America signed to Columbia Records. They had the Christmas number 1 with their first single, actually in Britain there has been some controversy about the number of Christmas number 1's from the show which seem to claim that spot every year. Their 1st album includes a track co written with Girl Aloud's Nicola Roberts. There first single which is probably the best track on their 2nd album was recently number 1 in Britain. They seem to be having a lot of success in the Irish & Scottish charts in addition, perhaps not surprisingly. They have sold over 3 million records. Most of the tracks on the album tend to be uptempo which is probably playing to their strengths although there is a couple of ballads. I think it's a decent follow up album. One final fact is on the X factor they were initially called Rhythymnmix but changed it because that name was used by a charity although they did it voluntarily.

Mobile Web Design

The book I read to research this post was Mobile Web Design by Janine Warner which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book was written in 2010 when I think it was more of an issue writing a website which was compatible with mobile phones. It's probably not a surprise they haven't updated the book but as a book on its topic it's a great book. Strangely enough there doesn't seem to be many books available on that topic. I'd suggest if you are looking at doing a mobile friendly site try weebly.com which is at least compatible with android & iphone and has a free option which I use although I did buy a domain name & if you are looking for more advanced features they do a paid option. One interesting fact in the book is there were 87 varieties of blackberry, all slightly different making keeping your site compatible with all a nightmare. Obviously nowadays most smartphones are compatible with things like CSS which helps make the job easier. The 1st iphone was compatible with CSS 2. You do still get problems with getting a site compatible with mobile devices & I get plenty of comments about that subject on my blogs. I think some site like blogger give you the option of making your blog mobile friendly but technology is catching up rapidly & it's worth bearing in mind only around 20% of your traffic is mobile. I think if you are interested in this subject this book along with Mobile Marketing For Dummies which I recently covered is a good starting point. Incidently I have 2 sites on weebly at

http://scratbag.net & http://oldescratbag.com I would welcome it if anyone wants to have a look at them.

Mobile Marketing

The book I read to research this post was Mobile Marketing For Dummies by Michael Becker et al which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book is a few years old so some of the technology in it might have been superceded like at the time of publication Windows Phone 7 hadn't been released yet. Apparently in developing countries almost everyone who can afford it has a mobile phone because the infrastructure of a standard phone network just isn't there. This book is about marketing your company for people with mobile phones and a lot of it's geared towards the smartphone market. A lot of companies get a mobile marketing agency like www.constantcontact.com. An interesting technology is IVR or Interactive Voice Response where a customer phones you and is presented with a menu where they press a button or speak into the phone to activate an option an example is www.angel.com of a provider. Some banks like Western Union are allowing people to buy stuff direct from their mobile phone an interesting example is Amazon where you simply enter your password and your credit card details are entered automatically once set up initially. If you get a mobile website I have one at http://oldescratbag.com a good provider which I use is weebly or try

http://starcut.com .Some companies use a bluecast provider at shows or exhibitions etc where a message or photo etc is sent to people walking by your stand by bluetooth and they have the option of accepting it or not. An example is

www.aura.net . Also a website I recommend which is all the latest mobile technology news is http://engadgetmobile.com . I enjoyed this book and it has a lot of information about mobile marketing crammed into it. 

Time Management

The book I read to research this post was Brilliant Time Management by Dr Mike Clayton which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

Time Management isn't about saving time but is about being more productive in your use of time. An important aspect is learning new skills which should partly be aimed at saving you time in the long run. If you have a high powered job it's likely it is not productive doing a job like decorating your kitchen. An expert can do it in half the time you can and you should work out what your time is worth per hour. Of course to do this take your salary and divide it by the hours worked in that period.It's quite likely there are more pressing jobs that require your skills. Another aspect of time management is delegating work and this should be done in a way that you aren't taking advantage of the junior employee. You should never give him a task as a punishment for example. You should also look at developing his abilities but not in a way that he is doomed to fail. A distinguished time management expert once said you should write down the 6 most important tasks in a given day in order of importance and then work through them sequentially until they are done which seems good advice. This book not surprisingly is aimed at managers more than others but is a great book. I also really enjoyed reading it and think it will help me in managing my time.

Home For Christmas - Susan Boyle

I am reviewing the album Home For Christmas by Susan Boyle which is very good. Susan came 2nd in Britain's Got Talent a few years ago and many thought she should have won. It's a talent show but differs from the X factor or American Idol in that the acts don't just sing. Anyway Demi Moore the actress heard her sing presumably on youtube and tweeted about it on twitter and all of a sudden she was a major pop star on both sides of the Atlantic. She has got a fantastic singing voice, one of the best you will ever hear. Anyway this new album is a collection of christmas songs as selected by her fans and is a mixture of carols and xmas pop songs. The best track is probably Greg Lake's I Believe In Father Christmas. I think the best cover version she ever did was Wild Horses which was originally a Rolling Stones song. In a way it's a shame all the songs are cover versions but it's still worth listening too. 

Google+ Marketing

The book I read to research this post was Google+ Marketing For Dummies which was a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

Google+ which is sometimes called Google plus has the URL http://plus.google.com. You don't want to market exclusively on Google+, it should be a part of your social media promotion along definitely with twitter and facebook. Google+ is the kind of social media site where you will have to lure people to your website to actually make purchases although as with all the google online tools they all integrate with each other and that includes adsense and adwords. Actually google makes more money from advertising than facebook insights although the facebook service is better at targeting ads. Bear in mind if you advertise something like a blog post in Google+ the search engine will give it preferential treatment when it comes to ranking it. Also bear in mind they rank video and photographs higher than just text. One of the beauties of this social media is you have circles like classmates and friends so if you do a post you can target it to a specific audience. Also they have video hangouts where you can make a video call to upto a total of 10 people at one time and have the option of posting it to you tube also owned by google. You can also post it to a circle in Google+. Some people try to get famous people or experts together in a hangout and have a kind of conference which they can post like a podcast. One person got Archbishop Tutu & the Dalai Lama together in this way. I enjoyed reading this book and it's an interesting subject and although I joined Google+ a long time ago this book has rekindled my interest and I think I might start using it. 

Social Media Commerce

The book I read to research this post was Social Media Commerce For Dummies by Marsha Collier which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book as the title says is about marketing your business on social media and selling your goods or service. Many people nowadays especially if they are buying something expensive will look on social media sites like facebook and twitter and see what there friends recommend. Even one customer having a bad experience whilst dealing with your company can turn out to be very costly in terms of potential business from their friends. One mistake a lot of companies make is spending too much time on social media sites and getting bogged down in things that are unimportant. You have to be selective and you should also spend a little time enjoying yourself on a social media whether that be having a conversation with a friend or reading retweets on twitter. Facebook & twitter are probably the best social media sites for you to actually make sales. Linkedin & Google+ are good for showing off your work and in the former case you can ask and answer questions. Bear in mind if you have a technical support problem, there are a lot of tech savvy experts on social media sites and they are often only too happy to answer any queries. Also you should avoid the hard sell when marketing your business and bear in mind ideally you want to keep the customer for life and earn repeat business. There is a site called merchant circle which has local versions and if you have a business that does most of its jobs locally might be worth checking out. I enjoyed reading this book & it is quite interesting.

Something else I was going to mention is there is a site at http://headliner.fm which is a site for marketing your website. I have used it for one of my sites and was pleased with the extra traffic. When you join they give a set amount of virtual money and if you recommend a site or blog on either tumblr, facebook or twitter you get paid in virtual money. Then you can use that to get other users to promote your site on their tumblr, facebook or twitter accounts. You can only promote 1 site at a time although you can always upgrade to a pro account and also if you run short of virtual money you can buy some with cash. Obviously you have to be careful what you promote ie no get rich quick schemes, but I think it's a brilliant idea.

Social Media Metrics

The book I read to research this post was Social Media Metrics For Dummies by Leslie Poston which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book is about if you have a website or blog using online tools to measure things like the number of visitors and what pages they looked at and then using this information for marketing purposes. It also includes things like any social networks pages you may have and I think is primarily aimed at small businesses. The most famous web analytical tool is google analytics which is covered in quite a lot of depth and while the basic version is free there is a premium version for big businesses priced at $150,000 per year. Radian 6 is another product aimed at big businesses while many smaller concerns can probably settle for a free product like mint not to be confused with the finance site. The website for mint analytics is http://haveamint.com

There is of course also services like facebook insights which give you data concerning your product page and most social networks have something similiar. Sites like twitter let you advertise your account for more followers or promote a hash tag both of which are paid services. Twitter apparently has been charging quite a lot for these services and are in the process of introducing cheaper services along the lines of google adsense to make them more competitive. I assume it will be like pay per click rather than a flat rate. I really enjoyed reading this book and it has a lot of useful information.

Sugar CRM

The book I read to research this post was Sugar CRM For Dummies which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

Sugar CRM is a customer relationship management piece of software that has a community edition that is free and open source as well as paid versions which professional and enterprise. This book does a good job of telling you what the differences are between them. Roughly 85% of the code in all 3 is identical and for most businesses the community edition is adequate. In the paid versions there is an offline client but you will need hosting for all 3 which can be self hosted, or hosted on one of Sugar CRM's servers which are competitively priced.  It works with various flavours of windows or linux and you need a database which can be the open source, mySQL also you need Apache or IIS. The paid versions integrate with Microsoft Office and in particular Outlook. You can use OpenOffice with it though to save money. A good feature in the paid versions is the manager can send messages to all his team in one go. All 3 versions contain modules like calendar, notes & also let you communicate with customers. There is also rival software by other companies like salesforce.com & Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 which generally you have to pay for. Also because sugar CRM is open source many people have written add ons to enhance the functionality of it and these are normally free. I enjoyed reading this book although to get the most out of Sugar CRM you may have to do additional reading it still provides a good introduction.

The Brazilian Economy

The book I read to research this post was Brazil Is The New America by James Dale Davidson which is an excellent book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book argues that Brazil is the economy to watch in the coming years and will attain the status Britain had in Victorian times & the USA currently has of being the strongest economy in the world. Brazil has had problems like debt and runaway inflation which was at around 6,000% and resulted in high speed cheque clearing systems that are only now catching on in the rest of the world. Brazil has abundant natural resources and is one of the 5 biggest nations in both area and population. Despite that it has a young population that is rapidly growing unlike China where the population is generally aging due to measures to curb any increase. Also Brazil is relatively sparsely populated with much land that is cheap and can be cultivated which has been attracting farmers from abroad. Brazil is the world's biggest producer of beef and poultry. The potential for alternative energy is huge with many fast flowing rivers and sunshine. There has been crude oil discovered which they are developing and the cost of crude is likely to rise in coming years as light crude becomes scarcer and they have to turn to more sulphurous crude which is more expensive to refine. The people in Brazil tend to be either very poor or very rich and a problem in developed countries is the cost of a benefits system which is right but does slow down the economy. I would like to read more on Brazil and I did really enjoy reading this book and it's an interesting subject.

Islamic Finance

The book I read to research this post was Islamic Finance For Dummies by Dr Faleel Jamaldeen  which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

Islamic finance started to catch on in the 60's & 70's & was a sector of the banking industry that was quite resilient to the banking crisis partly because they couldn't sell the debts from mortgages onto someone else. Basically they aren't allowed to charge interest on borrowings or give interest on deposits. They can charge a fee on borrowings and can pay a proportion of profits on deposits however. Also the money deposited by muslims can't be invested in things connected to anything like pork production, gambling, pornography, weapons, booze, cloning tobacco or illegal drugs. Cloning is a new regulation. Also islamic banks are subject to sharia regulations and other islamic regulations like accounting. London leads the way in Europe with the Islamic Bank Of England although the Luxembourg Stock Exchange was first to use Islamic Finance. Equally with insurance they can't pay an interest dividend or no claims bonus and instead bus proportion of profits for not claiming. The islamic population is growing very rapidly especially in Asia & Africa & this is very much seen as a growth industry. The author of this book works at a university and is a specialist in Islamic Finance. I did enjoy reading this book and found it very interesting. Many banks like Lloyds TSB & HSBC are also getting involved in it.

Climate Change In South East Asia

The book I read to research this post was Environment & Climate Change In Asia by Victor R Savage which is an excellent book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book is quite a complex work written in sections by different professors at various universities in Asia and some may find it a bit daunting to read but it's interesting nonetheless. I certainly enjoyed reading and learned a lot about things I knew very little about. The book was financed by Shell Petroleum and a lot of it centres on Singapore which being a city state and a low lying port stands to suffer more than most if nothing is done about climate change. Some states like the Maldives accept they are going to be over run by the rising sea level due to climate change and even a rise of 60 cm would be disastrous for Singapore. Other ports at risk include Shanghai & Beijing. Particularly in Singapore which is quite a forward looking country efforts are being made to protect the coral reefs offshore & there is a tiny national park which comprises of 50% of flora and fauna found there. Elsewhere a problem is China uses 50% of the world's cement output in building which isn't sustainable. There are plenty of national parks in Asia but in the world as a whole 44% live in urban areas and of course in many parts of Asia the population is growing rapidly. Often any restrictions are lax to try and promote business with the result that rivers are often polluted and often by people dumping untreated faeces rather than factories. Many people who wash in the rivers daily have skin conditions and bowel problems. In cities the quality of life for many is very poor with many especially in places like Cambodia & Laos surviving on less than $2 per day. This book is definitely worth reading.

Prezi

The idea for people like teachers and businessmen in particular who normally use Microsoft Powerpoint to do presentations and slideshows, this them more options. This is very much an up and coming technology. Because you aren't constrained by the limitations of what you can draw in Powerpoint and also the limitations of static images in the form of slides. Prezi is online and has many templates to enable you to do a job and allows you to use animation as well as the many open source graphics many users have produced. Also if you produce a work of art you can save it and re use it. Many people draw pictures in programs like Adobe Illustrator or Smartdraw both of which it's compatible with. You can also post your work on the internet which is encouraged and it's compatible with many sites like blogs, social media & especially sites like twitter and facebook. A normal user can get a free account which gives them 100 MB of storage and watermarks their work but works otherwise. There is a normal account priced at $59 per year which gives them 500 MB of storage and obviously removes the watermark. There are also specially priced charity organisation and education accounts which are either free or paid but superior to a comparable business account in terms of cost. I think this looks like an interesting website which I may very well sign up to. There is also a useful site at http://jingproject.com where they have a tool that helps you capture what is on the screen and may prove useful in producing slides as well as a site at http://wordle.com where they display word art you can reuse. I really enjoyed reading this book which even has a section on the psychology of selling for those doing presentations to sell stuff.

Social CRM

The book I read to research this post was Social CRM For Dummies by Kyle Lacy et al which is an excellent book which I read on the website

http://safaribooksonline.com

There is a lot of information in this book which is aimed at people who are looking to promote a business on social media and integrate a CRM package with it. Most businesses will be looking to promote on facebook and twitter the 2 biggest social media sites but sometimes niche sites like frquent flyer if you are travel oriented can generate a lot of business. A CRM package which is one of the ones they mention is a little known one called Address Two which is easy to use and priced at $10-15 a month. There is also an open source free CRM called SugarCRM which might be worth checking out. Salesforce is also pretty good in that it's a whole suite of products that all integrate although it costs a bit than those 2. You may come across what they call superfans who over support your product and in extreme cases may make false claims for your product as they get carried away and can cause a bit of trouble. You should try and treat your fans equally and not be condescending to them. There is a lot more information in this book and I have barely scratched the surface. I really enjoyed reading it and it's definitely one of the better For Dummies books. 

Data Warehousing

The book I read to research this post was Data Warehousing For Dummies by Thomas C Hammergren which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book was written around 2008 so lacks some of the most recent developments like facebook marketing, cloud computing & microsoft azure to name but a few. It's interesting however as I think some companies and organisations especially with sensitive information might want an onsite solution rather than something like a cloud computing database. Also it has information on vendors of different types of database ie data mining and one of the main players is

http://sas.com

but anyway a lot of the information on vendors is relevent. There is also the option of a data mart a smaller version of a data warehouse which can be for a small company or be to summarize the results. In practice a data warehouse would probably be a server with several workstations connected and programmers and analysts would be working on these. The leading program for data marts is probably SQL Server by Microsoft & the leading players in heavy duty databases are probably IBM & Oracle. Of course a good data warehouse will more than pay back in dividends what the set up costs were. Typically you will store sales information, branch by branch and competitor information and maybe company information like employers etc. Of course the trend is to use relational tables and do crosstab queries to get information. Basically this means using lots of interrelated small tables. I did really enjoy reading this book and learned a lot from it. I would suggest though see what cloud offerings there are before building a data warehouse. 

Bangerz - Miley Cyrus

I am reviewing the new album Bangerz by Miley Cyrus which is a very good album. Miley is the daughter of country and western singer Billy Ray Cyrus and is a very successful singer and actress. This album has heralded a raunchier image and her 1st 2 singles from it have been huge hits. Apparently Miley is 21 today although I decided to review her album which has just been released & was unaware it was her birthday. She is probably most famous for Hannah Montana and the songs she has done connected to that series. She has a fortune estimated at $120 million & there was a bit of a scandal when someone hacked her Gmail account and distributed sexy pictures of her which weren't intended for release. She had a long time relationship with actor Chris Hemsworth for 4 years but that has ended. The best song on the album is probably Wrecker Ball and there are 16 tracks which are quite varied & the album is better than I expected. 

Alive - Jessie J

I am reviewing the 2nd studio album from Jessie J called Alive which is an excellent album although not quite as good as her debut. She has released a single from her new album which featured her with a shaved head and raunchier new image in the pop video. Her full name is Jessie Ellen Cornish and she is from London. She had 2 no 1 singles and a total of 6 top 10 singles from her debut album which is one of my favourite albums ever. The best track on that album Who Are You? was Price Tag. Her new album features 18 tracks and each one is quite different to the others and I think it's a decent follow up. I think the last single she had is the best track on Alive. It's also the opening track. Jessie J is well known to millions in Britain for being one of the judges on The Voice, which is similiar to The X Factor & American Idol. She did 2 series and her fellow judges were Will i Am & Tom Jones. A lot of people preferred The Voice to similiar shows because the judges had more of a mentoring role with the singers. Jessie has also toured supporting Katy Perry whom she has said she is a huge fan of her music. 

Social Collaboration

The book I read to research this post was Social Collaboration For Dummies which is an excellent book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book is aimed at people doing charity and social projects but a lot of what is in the book applies to business. The kind of thing in this book is someone recruits volunteers to help in a project where they have to appoint a leader and stay in touch with email or CRM software to monitor their progress. There are websites like Yammer & Chatter which are social media but cater for this kind of thing. If you opt for CRM software the 2 big players are Dynamic CRM & Salesforce.com. If you have a huge project consider a wiki like MediaWiki which powers Wikipedia among others. There is also a website called Podio which is aimed at organisations like this and is a website with paid extras I think. For some low budget projects organisations use a social network to stay in touch. If you use twitter for this anyone on the site can read your messages and on Facebook & Linkedin the privacy in this respect isn't much better. I did really enjoy reading this book and I was looking for things that could be applied to work rather than charity work. I learned a lot from this book and am tempted to sign up to Yammer which is open source and free. 

Amazon Web Services

The book I read to research this post was Amazon Web Services For Dummies by Bernard Golden which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

Amazon is the biggest cloud service provider in the world. It's also one of the cheapest and the author quoted another provider provided a similiar service for 8 times the price of what Amazon were charging. Also Amazon itemize your bill so you know exactly what you are paying for which again is something many providers don't do. AWS begin with them offering Simple Storage Service later abbreviated to S3 in the days before cloud computing existed. It allowed you to store upto 5 GB per file which nowadays is much more and you paid according to how much storage you used. Nowadays there are more than 25 separate service offered and new ones coming online every few months. It used to be if you had a computer you upgraded it roughly every 2 years so as to keep within the system requirements to keep software compatible with your computer. With cloud computing the provider has to provide the heavy duty hardware to run the cloud  service so you can upgrade your computers less frequently. Also usually when software is offered as a cloud product it's offered at a cheaper price than if if it was on cd rom or dvd rom. However you pay a monthly subscription. I really enjoyed reading this book particularly because it explain what a lot of the AWS individual products did in understandable terms.

Windows 8 Phone

The book I read to research this post was My Windows 8 Phone which is a very good book which I  read on

http://safaribooksonline.com

There are quite a lot of books on development of apps for windows 8 phone but not many on how to use one of these phones. This book does an admirable job of that. It's got lots of screenshots and is quite easy to understandable. They do say it's the best phone operating system for newbies to this technology. I have a Nokia Lumia 810 which I absolutely love but wanted to take my knowledge of it to a higher level. It integrates with Windows 8 for PC's for things like to upgrade the operating system. You can download updates on the phone but they recommend doing it via the computer and wi-fi. It's really easy to personalize your phone with things like a photograph as a wallpaper on your screen and a theme. There is a scrolling screen like other smartphones. Accessing an app is as simple as scrolling down the screen and double clicking a virtual button with your finger. If press it and hold it down a shortcut menu appears including a delete app option. Some of these phones only have a camera on the back and there is of course a video recording virtual button. On most of these cameras there is no flash and some of the better ones have a hdtv resolution on the screen. I enjoyed reading this book and have learned quite a lot from it.

Foursquare And Business

I am reviewing the book The Power Of Foursquare by Carmine Gallo which is an excellent book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

There aren't many books that have been written about Foursquare which seems a shame. This book offers general information for businesses promoting themselves on this site and also presents case studies of how other companies have done it. I really enjoyed reading this book and it keeps your interest throughout. Foursquare in case you are wondering is a location based marketing site that is also a social network. It's free to join and users can review places like businesses. If you are in a strange town you can get out your smartphone, power up your app and find places like hotels, restaurants and places of interest. You can also find users also from your locality and arrange to meet them as well as current friends who may also use the site. The site requests that you either put a photo or avatar on your page so friends can find you. One person who is a museum guide in Atlanta has rated literally every relevant business and places of interest in the city. He has done this without any payment because he enjoys it. If you become the best Foursquare customer of a business at a certain location you achieve mayor status for that establishment. Sometimes a real battle can brew up giving business to that company. Also many companies give special discounts or virtual badges to Foursquare users. Finally the book also includes an interview with the 2 co founders of Foursquare.

Mint

The book I read to research this post was Teach Yourself Mint.com In 10 Minutes which is an excellent book which I read on

http://safaribooksonline.com

Each chapter is meant to take 10 minutes to read hence the name and there are plenty of screenshots of webpages. I think this book is the only one that covers this topic and although it's fairly short it covers all the essentials. I think if you went to the Mint website you could work out how to use the site but reading this book saves time. Mint.com is a finance site owned by Intuit the accounting software company that is free to use and lets you see at a glance all your financial information on one site. It does this by you connect things like the companies you bank with, get loans from, your credit card, your mortgage and any investments. It even lets you include anything expensive you own like a car or an antique. A lot of people are reluctant to include things like loans but it enables you to take advantage of the budget feature if you do. There is also a goals feature which can be something like saving for a holiday or retirement or even a custom goal. When you enter things like a loan or mortgage they will tell you if it's cheaper elsewhere and this is optional though, also they don't share your financial information with any 3rd parties. I am really tempted to join this site and I did really enjoy the book. 

Pop Art - Lady Gaga

I am reviewing the album Pop Art by Lady Gaga which is an excellent album. Lady Gaga did top the singles chart in Britain a couple of weeks ago with her single Applause and this album looks set to do the same in the album chart. The music is mostly dance music with a couple of ballads and several remixes of her recent single. I know she had health problems a while back but this album is really on form. All the tracks are rather good with Applause probably being the best track. I have all Lady Gaga's albums and my favourite track ever by her is Bad Romance although Poker Face is apparently her biggest selling single. Applause also has a very good video although my favourite video by her is probably Alejandro. She is also a very talented song writer and probably a little under rated in that respect. I am glad she appears to have stopped releasing albums that had a couple of new tracks and the rest were remixes which she has sometimes done. 

Foursquare

The book I read to research this post was Sam's Teach Yourself Foursquare In 10 Minutes which is a very good book which I read on

http://safaribooksonline.com

I assume the 10 minutes in the title refer to each chapter which are quite short and succint.The book is around 125 pages and contains quite a lot of information about Foursquare. It is a location based marketing site which in turn is a form of social media site. The idea is you have friends whom you tell where you are and you have followers who tell you where they are but aren't told where you are. This allows more privacy than say facebook and the idea is you can meet up with your friends or followers and if you are in a strange place you can get recommendations ie for where to eat. If you visit somewhere the most you become mayor until beaten by someone. Some places give a free gift to the current mayor. There is quite a long process in putting a business establishment into Foursquare and establishing ownership which typically takes 10 days and Foursquare do check you are who you say you are. Your clientele can also rate your business from 1-5. Foursquare is the biggest location based marketing site with over a million members. They offer apps for most of the major mobile devices and this is essential to tell people where you are. Finally some businesses offer virtual gifts which is still in its infancy but sure to catch on. I really enjoyed this book and it's very interesting.

Android Forensics

The book I read to research this post was Android Forensics which is a very good book which I read at http://safaribooksonline.com . This book is all about doing digital forensics on an android phone and it was released in 2011 so doesn't include Android 3.2. The most interesting part was the history of Android near the beginning and the information on doing digital forensics on an android is interesting but a lot of it is written out in steps that you probably want to go through it on an android phone whilst reading it to fully understand. I am sure if a reader was a digital forensics examiner with a bit of experience, I am sure they would fall in love with this book. Most of the exercises assume you are running linux on a computer with Ubuntu VMware & the Android SDK or software development kit. There is an overview of the various software you can use for digital forensics on this type of smartphone some of which are free and others are retail software. Some are only free to law enforcement agencies and digital forensic laboratories. There is one program called MobilEdit that will copy the data on an android with one click. Sometimes especially if the device is damaged or password protected they have to remove the chip and read it externally. They also have to put the phone in airplane mode, seal it in a special bag to prevent transmissions and temporily let the phone provider or ISP know to disable the smartphone. I really enjoyed reading this book and I must admit I find digital forensics quite interesting.

Business Gamification

The book I read to research this post was Business Gamification For Dummies by Kris Duggan et al which is a very good book which I read on

http://safaribooksonline.com

This book is a great introduction to a complex subject but if you decided to market your business in this way I would suggest doing some additional reading and employing some specialists to implement. The term business gamification is a relatively new one and refers quite literally to making you employees jobs and the process of people buying from you into a kind of game with rewards. On a simple level you can have an employee of the month award or a buy 5 of product x and get one free promotion. A lot of it is about interacting with people on social media and driving people to your website. A lot of companies will have a kind of game on their website which can be something like a one armed bandit with rotating symbols like recycled bottles if you have a waste recycling company. It can also be things like featuring a customer or employee on your website or having certain levels on your site that are only open to people with a certain achievement like they have achieved x sales or purchased x of a product or even sent your company a like on facebook. This can also be integrated with a location based marketing site like foursquare where people can be encouraged to ie visit your restaurant with their friends. There are gamification specialists like badgeville or you can try an open source solution like zurmo or open badges. 

Negotiating

The book I read to research this post was Negotiating For Dummies which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. The author is an agent who represents actors including Elizabeth Montgomery. This is one of the best books I have read on this subject and it includes sections on things like dealing with your children and also an awkward boss among other things. When you think of it we negotiate as part of everyday life and often a lot more frequently than we realise. One important point is you should remain true to yourself and set limits across which you adamantly refuse to go. It's also important to research your client and try and find out what he wants and try to accommadate him but at the same time get what you want. This is called win - win negotiating. Something I read in another book is a good negotiation shouldn't necessarily be unpleasant for either party and you should both be willing to do business again. It's also important you set out your case honestly and explain why you won't do certain things. I really enjoyed reading this book and with the author having a background in acting it was nice to see he used lots of examples of negotiating in films. Apparently the FBI uses the films, Dog Day Afternoon & The Taking Of Pelham One, Two, Three as part of their training for recruits in negotiating. The former is based on a true story and features Al Pacino as a bank robber who takes hostages and a negotiator has to try and negotiate their release. The latter film is about a hostage situation that wasn't handled very well. 

Digital Crime And Forensics

The  book I read to research this post was New Technologies For Digital Crime And Forensics which is an excellent book which I read on a subscription website at http://safaribooksonline.com . This book is a proper heavy duty digital forensics book and is probably not suitable for newbies to the subject but if like me you are quite knowledgeable it's a great book. This is definitely one of the best books I have read on digital forensics and I was so engrossed in it I forgot to phone somebody and didn't remember until after I finished it. It's written in 2011 so is up to date and I was interested to learn there are issues with using MD5 which is a hash tag program used to verify files on a digital device like a computer. Apparently they tend to use AFFLIB. This book also covers things as diverse as traffic signal systems where security is really beefed up and they have something called redundancy which means extra capacity and security. It also looks at mammograms where they use watermarking so if a doctor is viewing something first time it tells him if anyone else has viewed it along with what part they have viewed. It's a decent length book and one of the beauties of this website is they form a long page you scroll down out of a section in a chapter which is great if like me you speed read. 

Correction

I did do a post which I think said starbucks paid £8.6 million in taxes but I speed read the book I was reviewing so I think that must be a mistake.

Social Media Marketing

The book I read to research this post was Profitable Social Media Marketing by Tim Kitchen et al which is a very good book and which I bought from kindle. This book is about marketing your business on social media networks and also tells you quite a bit about how their company Exposure Ninja can do this but is good in its own right. The book contains sections on the main networks Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin & Google+ as well as a section on blogging. I always use hosted blogs which are mostly free but a business needs a self hosted platform because you can configure it more and if you use one like Wordpress there are tons of plug ins that are mostly free. Also you must watch what people are saying about your business on social media sites and give any derogatory comments a polite answer. An example is someone accused starbucks of not paying tax to which they left a comment saying they paid £8.6 million in the last year. I know quite a lot about social media and there isn't that much in this book that is new to me but it's well written and quite interesting. They maybe could have done with a section on pinterest. Also I would like to read a guide about somethiing like Rebel Mouse or Foursquare as it seems everyone who writes one of these books writes about either Facebook or Twitter. I did quite enjoy this book though.

Landscapes And Geomorphism

The book I read to research this post was Landscapes & Geomorphism A Very Short Introduction by Andrew Goudie et al which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. This book covers a wide variety of landscapes and events such as the dust bowl in America in the 30's to the glaciers in New Zealand to the coral reefs of the Pacific & even the low lying landscape of the hills around London. Darwin on his voyage on The Beagle became the world's leading authority on Landscapes and wrote much about it in addition to his work on evolution. His work on coral reefs still holds true despite many other's theories being superceded by the discovery of plate tectonics. One of the most interesting landscapes geologically is South Island in New Zealand where the Pacific Plate meets the Indian Plate and has resulted in the upheaval of the Southern Alps along with the huge glaciers due to the huge amount of rainfall. 1/4 of the world is permafrost including 50% of Canada & 85% of Alaska. One of the most massive upheavals is the Himalayas Kakoram Mountains where an area half the size of the United States is almost entirely above 4,000 metres and contains almost every mountain over 7,000 metres in the world. Much of the aging of rock is done by dating the radioactivity of the quartz found in it as due to its great age it generally difficult to date it by other means. I enjoyed reading this book which I'm sure you can see is very interesting.