CST News

What an amazing start to spring. Sue and I have just had a weekend away in Wanaka and the locals up there are all talking about the start to spring – 23 or 24 days in a row without rain. But we are not too far away from that here. We can just hope for a good period over lambing as well as help us home gardeners. I even mowed the lawns on the Sunday we returned from Wanaka and did not need chains or four wheel drive on the mower!

But Wanaka was nice – great to spend a couple of days chilling out and walking the tracks around the lake edge. What a growing place Wanaka is – someone said when we were talking that there are over 2000 sections on the market in Wanaka. What a booming economy that must encourage.

Life at CST has been busy too – Blake is busy with repairs and other on-site work for customers such as printer installs and router setups etc. We could always do with another sale or two but no complaints in that area either.

Website of the Month

Thanks to Connie for this site. To use Connie’s words “people ask odd ball scientific questions. In other words serious answers to absurd hypothetical science questions. I find it fascinating reading and there seems to be no end to the number of questions. A web site where the brain is put into action”

Have a look here.

Great Picture

This is especially for my favourite eldest daughter. I know she enjoys cats and thought she might enjoy this one especially.

‘Our Favourite Laptop’

We sell lots of these laptops because they are the best available for a reasonable price. The HP ProBook is a commercial range of laptops – rather than a home user level. This means that the componentry is once step up. HP back this up with a one year, next business day, on site warranty. What this means is that in the unlikely event of a warranty claim, HP visit you or us on site to do the repair – no sending the laptop away on the courier.

The ProBook range has just come out with the updated G2 range – bigger, faster better and less expensive! As well, they come with Windows 7 installed but with a legal copy of Windows 8 in the box if you wish to install at some stage in the future.

HP Probook 450 G2 i3                                  $1029.25 inc GST

• Intel Core i3-4005-U 1.7 GHz processor
• 15.6” screen
• Intel 4600 shared graphics
• 4 GB RAM
• 500 GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive
• DVDRW
• Wireless
• Webcam
• Bluetooth
• Windows 7 Professional with free Windows 8 upgrade (discs supplied)
• One year parts and labour onsite warranty

Apple Wristwatch

With all the hype over the new Apple phones and wristwatch, I thought this was good.

35 Websites You Didn’t Know You Needed
Look here for a fun site. Some really mindless and pointless stuff here.

Advance warning that one or two of the sites use words you may not wish youngsters to use.

Are bad email habits wasting your time?

Are bad email habits distracting you, wasting your time, and causing miscommunications with clients, employees and others? Making a few simple changes to the way you handle email will help you improve focus, save time, and communicate more effectively.

Here are five bad email habits that could be holding you back—and positive alternatives to get you moving forward.

Bad habit #1: Sending emails late at night, early in the morning, and on weekends. This sends clients the message that you’re on call 24/7, so they treat you that way—which ultimately stresses you out. It also sends employees the message that you expect them to be on call 24/7—which stresses them out.
Instead, try: Limiting the hours during which you and your employees send work-related emails. Prohibiting email from, say, 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., will give everyone time to unplug, rest, and recharge.

Bad habit #2: Using email to discuss topics best suited to other means of communication. Overly complicated emails lead to confusion, while scheduling meetings by email leads to endless chains of “reply all.”
Instead, try: Finding alternate ways to communicate complex or sensitive subjects. Use calendar tools to plan meetings, IM or chat to discuss simple topics, and phone or in-person conversations to deliver bad news or hash out complex issues.

Bad habit #3: Setting alerts to be notified of every incoming email. Getting pinged every time you receive an email is distracting and makes you less efficient and productive.
Instead, try: Turning off alerts (unless you’re waiting for a very urgent email). Set specific times to check email, such as in the morning, before and after lunch and in the late afternoon.

Bad habit #4: Using vague, unclear subject lines. Generic subject lines like “Hey” or “Meeting” or “Question” require recipients to open the email to see what it’s about and makes it harder to search for relevant emails later on.
Instead, try: Using specific, detailed subject lines to speed comprehension and save time.

Bad habit #5: Sending overly long and complex emails. With more users checking email on their mobile phones, an email that’s too long will likely never get read—it will just get ignored.
Instead, try: Limiting email length to five brief sentences, max. When more detail is necessary, use attachments.

Also consider using email rules to automatically sort incoming messages so you can focus on the most important ones first, and unsubscribing to emails you no longer want to receive (instead of just deleting them every day). By changing your bad habits, you’ll gain control of your email, become more productive, and communicate more clearly with employees, partners, and customers.

E Waste

An interesting article here which is scary for all of us. It is easy to read and does not require a PhD to interpret the comments. Unfortunately this is one of my hobby horses so I tend to get a bit paranoid about recycling.

If you have electronic stuff to recycle, bring it in to us or take it to the Green Island Recycle Centre on the way into Dunedin. We will charge you (as does the Recycle centre) but we do it on a cost recover basis – no profit, just that feel good feeling that are contributing to saving the world.

Important Safety Recall

On August 26 HP announced a worldwide voluntary recall and replacement program for certain AC power cords used with some laptop adapters sold from September 2010 to June 2012.

If you have an HP laptop purchased in this time frame, please go to this web page and carefully read and check the details.

If you have any problems or issues, do not hesitate to contact us.

For Sale On Behalf
We have just sold a customer a new printer and of course the old toner does not work in the new printer.

So we have a Kyocera TK-110 toner cartridge available. Retail price is $220 inc GST but I am sure the owner would accept a sensible offer and you could save a few dollars. This will work in a Kyocera 720, 820 or 920 printer.

A Serious Last Item – Post Script

I have just had a call from a customer who has had their bank account literally cleaned out. She rang to pass on the info so that we could reiterate that we should all change passwords and ensure our personal security is up to date. I am sure the bank concerned will look after her but as she said, the feeling of having someone in your bank account is like having a burglar in your home.

Please check your internet security.

Just a Nice Picture

I thought this was a nice way to finish the newsletter.