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.