I Love Masterchef but …
Over the last 3 weeks I’ve become addicted to the TV show, Masterchef.
My only complaint is they don’t seem to take food safety very seriously.
I’ve never seen them wash their hands before starting to cook, they don’t mention anything about using different cutting boards for meat and vegetables, and they stick their fingers in the food to taste it. I’ve also seen them share cutlery.
Yuck 
Am I missing something or do all the bright studio lights kill all the germs?
Sphere: Related ContentWireless on ACER Aspire One Ubuntu
http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=164&p=1233#p1233
Concern About Heart Research Institute Fundrasing Practices
I was just door-knocked this evening by a young Cockney guy and his trainee, trying to get monthly pledges for the Heart Research Institute. I had never heard of the Heart Research Institute.
He was a nice guy and stuck to the script. He wasn’t trying to get donations, just a monthly subscription of $10 which anyone can afford according to his patter. A cup of coffee per week, a few cigarettes, a bottle of wine, it’s nothing. And don’t forget there’s so many children out there with undiagnosed heart disease.
We get a lot of dodgy charity doorknockers around here so I asked to see ID, asked him for the address of the charity and then checked his story out on the Internet. It all checked out. To his credit, he wasn’t offended either.
They didn’t have any brochures (costs too much you see), just a tatty laminated A3 3-fold page with nice big font with a picture of a guy in a kayak (obviously a good-news or before-and-after story).
I then asked him if I could keep a copy of the carbonless form with credit card and direct deposit details he was ready to fill in on my behalf. He said “no” for privacy reasons. Privacy? Who’s privacy?
I can’t remember how the conversation went, but I managed to get the blank form in my hand which I proceeded to read to him.
Turns out that the marketing company for whom this young guy works gets 30% of the first 3 years of monthly donations. This was at the top of the form in about 9 point font.
I explained this to him and asked him if he had actually read the form. Apparently not.
He went into his patter about salaries and costs, and all charities use marketing companies and so on. I said I didn’t like the idea of a monthly donation and would rather give a once off donation. He wasn’t interested. Shame, I had my wallet in my hand - opportunity lost.
Do the maths. $10 x 12 months x 3 years = $360 of which the marketing company gets $108. Not bad work if you can get it. And that is just for $10 per month.
He could see he wasn’t getting anywhere with me so cut his losses and bid me a polite farewell. Good move.
I sent an email to the fundraising email on the web site expressing my concerns. I will share the feedback here if it comes.
I guess there are four morals of the story:
1. Read everything on any form you sign, especially if others are filling it in for you. A contract is a contract even if it does come from a charity.
2. If you are a charity or marketing company representing a charity, train staff to be familiar with the terms and conditions of forms. These guys had no idea.
3. If someone want to give you money on the spot for your charity, make sure they can no matter how much it might cause lumps in your cash flow 
4. As part of the review into Australian charities, the government should have better disclosure statements that details the revenue split in each link of the chain, from door-knocker through to charity. They have done it with financial planners, why not charities?
Enough said. I wish them well. Here’s the link to the once-off donation page.
Sphere: Related ContentHow to Force Mount Media in Ubuntu - USB or Hard Drive
Get to the terminal window and, assuming you know what the device name is from the error message, type the following:
sudo mkdir /media/windows sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /media/windows -o forceSphere: Related Content
Selling Your Business?
If you are looking for a business for sale, visit business2sell.com.au
This web site is for buyers, sellers and business brokers. Categories include food, retail, automotive, transport and every other imaginable category. There’s businesses for sale there at all levels of investment.
With the uncertain economic climate it make sense to investigate owning your own business.
Although running your own business can be very hard work, your future is very much in your hands. With the risks involved often go the rewards.
According to the ABS, in 2006 there were over 1.12 million small business in Australia employing a total of over 2.5 million people.
Small business is an attractive option for those who want to leave the corporate grind and build an asset that they can pass on to generations.
Business2Sell.com.au is 100% free website for business brokers. Brokers can join the service and add unlimited businesses.
If you are and owner selling your business, a 3 month listing is just $45. Note that at the moment business2sell.com.au are running a special offer. If you get a listing with business2sell for three months, they will run your listing for unlimited time or until it is sold.
As a buyer, you can search by location, business type and keyword. You can also search by price range.
So if you are looking to buy a business, sell a business or if you are a business broker, visit business2sell.com.au today.
STB2S070209
Sphere: Related ContentDecorating Your Small Home Away from Home
When money is tight, priorities have to be established. It is smartest to invest in good, long term essentials that can travel later to larger quarters: a well-made sofa, a dining table, end tables, some chairs, a bed, and cooking and serving equipment.
If your new quarters consist of just one big room that combines the functions of eating, cooking, sleeping, sitting, and reading, keep furnishings small scale and not too quirky. Pieces that later might took too small in a larger home can always be recycled into more casual, smaller rooms, such as a library or family room, or from the master bedroom or sitting room into a child’s bedroom.
You may also want to physically divide some spaces in a small apartment with roller blinds or dividers or a tall piece of furniture, such as a high chest of drawers. A corner of a living room can be cordoned off to offer some privacy for a desk in an at-home office, or a low row of chests can separate two beds when roommates share a bedroom.
As the world has changed, so has the way we live. The new global economy now gives cities, suburbs, towns, and even rural areas a heightened role to play in daily lives. With no place completely out of bounds, an increased number of residents seek temporary accommodation for pleasure and business in far away locations.
A hotel can sometimes be too impersonal, expensive, or hard to secure on a regular basis; similarly, a friend or family member’s offer of a place to stay wears thin after repeated visits. On the other hand, a pied-a-terre, which translates from the French to a “foot on the ground,” offers an appealing alternative as a little home away from home.
In such abodes, owners can hang their hat (literally), stretch out, and really relax, surrounded by a few cherished furnishings and mementos.
Think of the space in the same vein as a Bach cantata—short and sweet, rather than a full symphony played by an orchestra. These small, second homes-away-from-home pre-sent a refuge from the commotion of a day’s work or play, and a platform to jump back into the world after rest and refreshment.
They become a place to slip into something comfortable and familiar, enjoy breakfast casually, chat or work on the phone, and stash needed belongings and supplies for the next visit.
Because these spaces are not used all the time and are typically small, you do not need t spend a lot on the furnishings. Invest in some good quality primary pieces such as a comfortable sofa am bed, an expandable dining table that can double a! a desk with appropriate chairs, maybe an area rug or two, an end table and coffee table, and a few favorite accents to add warmth and personality.
You might also include a beloved art piece or two, some cherished books, and a favorite inexpensive collection such as snowglobes, fishing lures, postcards, family photos to further the feeling of home.
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Vista Problems 7 - 3 Principles to Get Vista Compatible Hardware
If you already own a printer since Windows XP, there are chances they won’t work on Vista. To find a Vista compatible hardware, you need to be aware of 3 things. In this article I will show you the 3 principles to get Vista compatible hardware.
Principle #1 - Find the “Certified for Windows Vista” logo.
You need to find the logo on your hardware’s packing box, this logo indicates the hardware is design for Vista, and you can expect the
Queensland Business Review (QBR) is it $99 or $199 ?
On the 6th of September I got an offer in the mail to sign up for the Queensland Business Review. It was a good offer - $99 for a year. I wanted to sign up on the spot.
I went to the web site, tried to buy, and found out that there was a problem. It wasn’t $99 as stated on the simulated sticky note, it was $199, a lot more than the offer stated.
Being a fair and reasonable person, I emailed Amelia at ACP Magazines and the contact at QBR to find out what the story was. Several weeks later I haven’t heard anything. So what’s the story QBR? Did someone stuff-up or what?
Would you advertise in a publication with this sort of service, and attention to detail? Not me. We all make mistakes, but it’s a good idea to admit them.
Sphere: Related ContentSpanish Free Lottery Scam - Be Warned - Telstra Mailing List?
Yesterday my aged (82), Mother received a letter from an outfit in Madrid, Spain, about a lottery. You can see the letter and application form here.
There are two scary things about this scam. Firstly it looks like an identity theft ruse as to claim the prize you have to give them lots of personal details including bank account, occupation and passport details - in fact enough to clear out most bank accounts or try to get replacement credit cards.
The second scary thing is that the name these people used on the letter is wrong.
In fact it is the same wrong name and salutation that Telstra, Australia’s leading telephone carrier, uses on their normal business correspondence with my Mother.
What I suspect has happened is that Telstra’s mailing list has been stolen by a staff member of an outsourced bill mailing company somewhere on the sub-continent. If Telstra are smart they would have seeded their list to make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen.
Either that, or Telstra use the same mailing list “cleaning” firm that these scammers use. Either way it’s very, very concerning.
I’ll be writing to Telstra Corporate Affairs and the Queensland Department of Fair Trading tomorrow.
Has anyone else out there received similar mailings? There seems to be quite a lot of it going around.
Sphere: Related Content“All Your Domains are Belong to Us” - domain scam
Have you recently received an e-mail like this (Chinglish unedited) …
Dear Sir/Mad
On 15th Oct. Moffex Corporation sent us an application , they trying to register “yourdomainname” as domain name and Internet Brand. They want to use this name to promote them in the internet and do the promotion Google and Baidu and other search engins. But after auditing we found this name been used by your company . So we sent you email .
We only can keep the domain names safe in our auditing time , once over this period , we should accept their registration , So, please ask your It manager or responsible person to contact me as soon as possible .
I’m looking forward to hearing from you .
Glen
Tel: +86-0513-8011 8538
Fax:+86-0513-8011 8539
Email: Glen@mordenwork.cn
website: www.mordenwork.com.cn
===========================
I believe this is yet another scam or deception that tries to get people to register the .cn equivalent of their .com.au or .com domain name. There’s another blog post here that explains what’s going on.
The e-mail isn’t very clear about this and an unwary person may think they are about to lose their existing domain name to the mentioned Moffex Corporation. They are not, this is just a sales pitch from a .cn domain registrar trying to get people to buy their.cn domains through them.
Has anyone else received these e-mails?
Sphere: Related ContentEmpathy - Inside the Mind of the Sales Prospect
We’ve done some study to help you understand how your sales prospects process information, how they will react to your personality, and how they will make decisions. We’ve outlined seven clearly identifiable personality types, and carefully analysed the three that you’ll encounter most frequently. We call this summary the Thought Map, and it’s one of the most advanced weapons in the sales guerrilla’s bag of tricks.
Most of us adopt one of these phases as our primary personality genre, but we may shift from one phase to another, depending on the relationship, the environment, or stressors. Whenever people interact, they invariably do so from one of these phases.
Let’s look at an example. A senior superannuation salesman, and a sales guerrilla at heart, was introducing a new superannuation plan to employees of a northern Queensland city, but he couldn’t seem to generate much interest. The fund was good, and this sales professional had worked long and smart to get it approved by the local government.
During the enrollment period, he sat in a small room in the local government office waiting for the staff to come by to hear about the new plan and sign up for it. In the first week, only five people came to hear the offer.
The first employee was so shy she hardly said a word. She sat with legs crossed, hands folded in her lap, and listened to the presentation. She didn’t ask a single question or even offer her name, let alone sign up. She seemed afraid of meeting any stranger. “My manager asked me to come over and pick up some brochures,” she said as she left.
The next was aggressive and evasive. She asked pointed questions about dividends and rates of return, then stared out the window as he answered. She expressed concern at “being sold a bill of goods,” but she was certain she knew how to deal with salespeople. “I’d look like an idiot,” she said, “if I signed up for something like this without analysing it thoroughly.” She took the brochures and left.
A third employee was polite and seemed to take a sincere interest, nodding his head in agreement with everything. He was a gentleman, agreeing that it was a good investment, and that he had a real need. He even showed the sales guerrilla pictures of his family, and talked about his plans for the future. He was very apologetic in the end, but he didn’t sign up. From his objections and questions, it was obvious that he really hadn’t heard half the pitch.
The fourth was direct and distant, as if the only reason he was there was that he’d been told to go. He wanted facts and figures, not the big picture of a comfortable retirement he was hearing. “How do I know that this is the best plan available? What guarantee do I have that your company will achieve this rate of return?” he asked. He challenged the company’s track record and the salesperson’s credibility.
The fifth employee was nice. She seemed confident, relaxed, and genuine. She asked relevant questions, listened attentively, and, to her ultimate benefit, she signed up. As she was filling out the application forms, the sales guerrilla wondered what made this person so unique.
He asked other employees about her. Everyone who worked with her talked about how good they feel when she was around. She’s always fair, they said, and she cares about people and their work, and she shows it. She’s always willing to do her fair share of the work, and more. The guerrilla was beginning to understand. With her view of the world, he could see why she was able to recognise the benefits of the new plan without feeling anxious about the salesperson’s reaction.
The salesman decided to follow her example. If I were really committed to being fair, caring, and sharing, he wondered, what would be the fairest way to get this information to all the staff, to show them that we care about their quality of life after retirement?
That gave him an idea. It would be unfair, and perhaps even unlawful, if all the employees were not given an equal opportunity to learn about the plan and a chance to accept or reject it. He raised this question with the HR Manager. The HR Manager agreed, and issued a memo via e-mail to all employees.
Everyone would be required to attend a group meeting in a meeting room where they could hear the whole presentation and ask questions. After the meeting they could either sign up to the new plan or sign a waiver saying that they had heard a complete explanation and decided to decline.
With this new strategy, over 70 percent of eligible staff enrolled in three weeks. The salesman repeated this approach in other towns all over Queensland. His fair-for-all-concerned approach increased sales dramatically, rocketing him to top producer in his company.
By observing one of the principles by which guerrillas operate, this salesman was able to find an unorthodox way to deliver his message to a large number of prospects, and discovered greater personal and financial success. He started to wonder if there was a way to be more effective with prospects like the first four he had met.
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