NEW THOMSON ROUTER FROM NILDRAM:
connection speed 14.34 down / 1.14 up
3 x speedtest.net results:
1) 9.85 / 0.7
2) 8.59 / 0.55
3) 10.45 / 0.72

As you can see the new router Nildram claim that we need is slightly slower, but in any case is nowhere near the 16.00 / 2.5 claimed for the new service. I  wish I did the same test before they “upgraded” the line, but from memory it was about 8mb down / 0.5 up - certainly not a lot different.

Conclusion: - dont buy a new modem if you want this service, as its not worth it.

I love this image from Peter Renton’s Blog, originally the “How to Be Happy in Business” Venn diagram by Bud Caddell (available for distribution under Creative Commons License 2.0).

It just sums up what you need to do in small businesses to be successful and happy.

All your websites being scanned are stored in your bookmarks, so if you backup all your bookmarks using the bookmark manager in firefox, it will save them all.  you can then import them onto the new machine (in my case my new netbook) once you have installed the plugin on the new machine.  And hey presto, you are monitoring the same websites on the new machine.  If you really want mobility, email the exported bookmarks file to your web email account, and you can install it on any machine anywhere at any time that has firefox.

www.selfadhesivelabels.com

The site has improved navigation, aesthetics, images, content and overall is a lot cleaner than our previous site, and we are really pleased with it. There has been a lot of clever work involved in this site, but as this is an open forum and I know our competitors watch this blog, I cannt cover them here! However, if any customers have comments on it, please feel free to leave your feedback below.

dell mini 9 running ubuntu netbook remix

I have recently taken delivery of a Dell Mini 9 that came preinstalled with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS.  I’ve upgraded the operating system to the latest Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook remix to make it boot faster and so its consistent with my laptop.  Pictured above is it with the charger and the bag I also bought from Dell.

Overall I’m really pleased with it, it small, light, the battery lasts for hours (like 4 hours+) and ideal as a netbook.  The downside is the keyboard can be difficult to type on as the keys are just so close together and I must have fat fingers!

It boots in 42 seconds from cold, and come out of suspend by opening the lid in 5 seconds flat (I kid you not). I have connected it as a 3G modem over bluetooth to my Nokia E90 by using the hack previoulsy published for my laptop so I can use it on wifi and 3G anywhere where there is a signal.

And it was only £199 inc vat -  a bargain.  I would recommend this as a really goog value netbook solution, and as always with Ubuntu, it just works.

I have never really gone looking for a book such as this, as in most circumstances when we need support I look on google or call our IT support company.  In this respect I dont know what the competition is for a Trixbox support book, but I get the impression that this is a ‘first’.

Overall, I really liked the book, as it uses plain language that a non sys admin can understand to explain what Trixbox is, what it isnt , and how to install, configure and trouble shoot it.  There are simple explanation of lots of functions that I have learnt about the hard way in here, and having read the book, I wish that I had done so before configuring it myself, as it would have saved lots of time, probably about 10 hours of iterative learning.  In this respect, for £28 its very good value. When you put this in the context of the cost of a traditional small business phone system at £5K-£20K - its amazing value as trixbox is of course free and open source.

There are some problems that you just wont solve by using this book and non experienced sys admin.  The major IP network range problem we had that nearly destroyed our migration is not even mentioned in the book .

So, my advice is to buy this book to learn if Trixbox is for you, or if you want to learn how to configure a working system.  Its not going to solve all your installation problems like that mentoned above or instaling ISDN cards, but its a start. It will be a very useful reference for us moving forward - I’m now off to try the direct fax to PDF feature I didnt even know existed now that I’ve read the book!

Its available from here.

Disclosure: I’ve been given a free copy of the book to review and keep, but am under no other pressure or commercial interest in respect of this book.

• Rich (our IT manager) can take it when he is away from home in case he needs remote access ‘in case of emergency’
• I can use it when travelling on business and holiday to work more efficiently than I can do on my Nokia e90, particularly on the train.
• My co-diretor can use it when overseas or on client visits.

My criteria are:

• it must be a small and light netbook type device
• it must have 3g support, as in many places there just isnt wifi
• it must run ubuntu, preferably the ubuntu UNR version designed for netbooks

I’ve really struggled to fit this brief, as there sem to be so few netbooks with 3g.  The Acer Aspire One A110-A 3G seems possible, but it does not ship with ubuntu and seems quote dear.  There is a Asus Eee PC 3.5g modem listed on its website, but I cannt see anywhere to buy it.

The idea of a small, SSD drive netbook device just for mobile use is quite attractive, but it must come with 3g to make it viable for me.  Can anybody recommend such a device?

Take Jones Soda (http://www.jonessoda.com/), the American soft drink maker, for example. If you see Jones Soda on the shelf in a retail store you will see many different labels on the same product. Jones Soda has made custom labels a part of their brand. They encourage their customers to upload wacky photos and they use these photos on their bottles. They use digital label printing to print different photos on their labels so each six-pack will have a different looking label. Since this program launched back in 1996 they have received over one million customer photos for use on their bottles.

St. Francis Winery in California (http://www.stfrancisred.com/) has taken a slightly different approach but is still leveraging variable data label printing. Their “RED” wine comes with 12 different background designs on their wine labels, so when a customer orders a case of wine they will see a different label on every bottle. And on the shelf in the liquor store customers will also see the different labels.

With digital printing technology it is very easy to make every label different. But there are so few companies taking advantage of this. Yet. In the two examples above these companies have made their unique labels an integral part of their brand. Of course, it is important to keep some components of your label the same so you can have a somewhat consistent look but having a part of your product label be variable can really differentiate your product from the competition.

Let’s take an example to illustrate this point. Say you sell premium coffee sourced from Brazil. You could feature beautiful photos of Brazil on your coffee bag labels. Stock photography is so inexpensive these days you could buy photos on places like istockphoto.com for just a few dollars each. You could then position your coffee as the company that has the beautiful photos of Brazil and make this part of your promotion for the brand.

In a few years time this kind of branding will be common place. But there is a window of opportunity right now that allows companies to stand out from their competition by leveraging the power of variable data labels. It is becoming more difficult for companies to do something really different that can attract the attention of consumers. Take advantage of the digital printing technology in this window of opportunity and do something different with your product labels.

Peter Renton is the founder of Lightning Labels, an all-digital label printer based in Denver, Colorado. He writes regularly about the label industry on their company blog at http://blog.lightninglabels.com.

It is just quite amazing that the community has provides such good software for “free”, and I an very pleased to use and advocate it.  Thank you to the community for your work in relation to this latest release.