Seller's Workshop: Do you pay too little attention to the over 45s?

GI Insight’s latest study into communications and marketing relevance has found that marketers are shooting themselves in the foot by paying too little attention to the highest earning age group in the UK. The study reveals that an overemphasis is being placed on targeting efforts towards younger age groups, in contrast with the 45+ consumer. This is despite the fact that the 45-65 age band is the highest earning, and that the departure of children from the family home often massively increases disposable income. It also, ironically, creates demand for capital release financial products in parental support of those departed offspring as they set up home themselves.

The research, which looked at public and private sectors, examines the level to which the British consumer/ citizen feels that the most important organisations they deal with on a day-to-day basis are communicating with them. At an individual sector level it found that the retail sectors were best at directing targeted and relevant offers and communication to customers. Poorest performance at personalised and relevant communications occurs in the public sector, both at the local and national government level, showing that Citizen Relationship Management initiatives (inspired by Customer Relationship Management in the private sector) have some way to go in their real-life implementation.

The mature techniques of British supermarkets stands head and shoulders above the other sectors studied. As an aggregated set of sectors, retailers in general are obviously getting the targeting game right more often than financial services, although the finance sector’s average is being dragged down by the poor performance of credit card issuers.

Andy Wood, Managing Director, GI Insight, comments: “Research we conducted last year proved the correlation between relevant communications and customer satisfaction; and customer satisfaction is the absolute pre-requisite for improvements in customer retention and spending. This current study, which has asked consumers about the relevance and targeting of communications they receive, shows a clear disparity between database marketing standards in different industries.

“Customers have come to expect that they will be dealt with in a meaningful and personalised fashion. This expectation has meant that when companies do talk relevantly to their customers the rewards, in terms of customer retention and increasing value to the firm, are often stellar. The research serves as guidance to those sectors that need to improve their standard of customer relevance and targeting, and shows, through the iconic gold-standard of the UK supermarket sector, what can be achieved. Equally, it reveals the prejudice of marketers across all sectors in over-concentrating on the younger consumer.”

David Bradforth, Editor, eBay Advisor, added "With a community as global as that on eBay, everybody - even somebody selling their spare items for a little extra cash - should make an effort to ensure that they don't limit their market. The GI Insight case study exemplifies that."

Seller's Workshop: Create and manage your eBay store with Dreamweaver

David Howell explains how to make a splash with a professionally designed eBay store

When you've been trading on eBay for even a short time you soon realise that just having pages of items listed under your chosen category is not an efficient way for you to manage your auctions. Also, your potential bidders don't want to wade through pages and pages of items when they click on your 'view seller's other items' link. What you really want to efficiently manage your auctions and present an impressive set of items to your potential bidders is a proper eBay store. If you thought that moving into this kind of selling was expensive and technically challenging, think again. With the tools available today, you can have a professional looking online store set-up in minutes.

The basic eBay store you can open will cost you just £6.00 a month and allows you to manage any number of items, but is limited in how you can manipulate the layout and style of each page. You soon feel these restrictions and want to take more control over the layout and design of your pages. If you've already built web pages for your own site with Dreamweaver, why not combine the two? With eBay StoreBuilder from WebAssist you can build complete auction pages, and customised headers from within Dreamweaver just as you would design any web page. Once your pages are complete you can then publish them to your eBay store with a couple of clicks of your mouse.


Tools of the trade
Dreamweaver has recently gone through a major overhaul as a component of Creative Suite 3. If you've been using Dreamweaver for even a short time you'll know the power that it gives you over the web pages you create. EBay StoreBuilder broadens Dreamweaver's capabilities by adding an extension to its basic features. A new menu is created that allows you to build custom pages for your eBay store, and manage the items you already have live. Images and text can be freely added to create professional looking pages that you can be proud of, and that your potential bidders will be impressed with.

Being able to use just one application for each of the web pages you design is a great bonus. You can quickly move from designing web pages for your own site, to specialised pages for your eBay store with just a click. Dreamweaver can become the central workhorse for all your online design work.

With over 800 layout combinations at your fingertips, eBay StoreBuilder gives Dreamweaver users a whole new lease of life. What's more, if you already have an eBay store its easy to convert these existing pages for use with eBay StoreBuilder. And if you have multiple eBay stores operating in different parts of the world, you can create and publish to any of the countries currently supported by eBay all from within the familiar Dreamweaver interface.

After struggling along with eBay's own store updating application eBay StoreBuilder will be a revelation. The ease with which you can link Dreamweaver to your eBay store and effortlessly build new pages and promotional headers will amaze you. If you really want your eBay store to standout from the crowd, giving your store a makeover is money well spent. With the time you save you can list even more items and watch your business grow.

WA eBay StoreBuilder - http://www.webassist.com/

PC General: Web Industry Pioneers World's First Carbon Neutral Conference

1000 delegates to ‘attend’ 24 hour global gathering saving thousands of tonnes of CO2

With in excess of 1000 delegates expected to ‘attend’ IBF 24, its inaugural and unique global online event, the Intranet Benchmarking Forum (IBF at www.ibforum.com and www.ibf24.com), is confidentially predicting that this innovative and exciting event will be one of the most environmentally friendly conferences yet - saving thousands of tonnes of CO2 in flight emissions alone.

On 18th June, anyone with an interest or a responsibility for corporate intranets should join the hundreds of companies from the very small to some of the world’s largest organisations (such as Boeing, Visa, Nokia and Kellogg’s) who are already signed up to meet in a unique global online gathering. Delegates will spend 24 hours together from 11am GMT on 18th June at IBF 24: the world’s first major corporate event on the web.

Paul Miller, IBF Chairman and CEO, said: “For the IBF, its members and our guests this unique event this is doubly exciting. Not only will this huge event be the most high profile and significant ever for those involved in any way in the world of corporate intranets but, because of its innovative online nature, it’s also poised to be one of the most environmentally friendly conferences ever.

“We’re fully anticipating that more than 1000 delegates from all four corners of the globe will be attending one or more sessions throughout the 24 hours,” continued Miller, ”and everyone will have the luxury of being able to attend from the comfort of their own desk, office, home or wherever. Translate that into the savings on flights, hotels, cars and so on – let alone the huge savings in time and stress in not having to physically travel to and attend the event – and we’re looking at companies making massive budget savings and contributing, in no small way, to a greener corporate world”.

Internationally acclaimed industry leaders and senior executives from the likes of Microsoft, Google and IBM will make keynote presentations and lead panel sessions. Additionally, delegates will have the unique opportunity to go live - behind the firewall - to some of the world’s most advanced intranets, corporate portals and information workplaces from the likes of the BBC, Nokia, IBM, SAP, Sara Lee, America Electric Power, BT and Nissan.

“One, especially topical area we will be looking at is the concept of social networking and how it can effectively be utilised in a corporate environment,” continued Miller. “This is an issue taxing senior management in many of the world’s leading businesses. Nissan is one company at the forefront in this area and the executive responsible bringing social networking to tens of thousands of its workers, including those on the factory floor, will be sharing his experiences with our delegates. Nissan’s large-scale and innovative social networking site allows users to set up online profiles, blogs, communities and discussion groups, share information and gives employees a way to avoid bureaucratic channels and create new partnerships.”

PC Security Feature: Configure your Mac Firewall

Protect your computer from outside intrusion

Whether you make light or heavy use of the Internet is irrelevant. The simple fact that you have an active network connection means that you’re sharing data with others. Unless you protect this connection you leave yourself open to hackers, who may provide software that shares your financial details - this is particularly the case when using PayPal or eBay.

To protect against this OS X includes a firewall. For a firewall to be effective you need to decide which applications will and will not be allowed to communicate with another computer. Mail, Safari and iTunes should be given a relative free reign as you’re dealing with only one server, whereas P2P applications such as LimeWire should have much tighter restrictions.

For a firewall built into an operating system, that supplied with OS X offers somewhat more versatility than the Windows XP equivalent; but it will always work best when backed up with an effective anti-virus program. Norton AntiVirus 10.0 (www.symantec.com, $49.99) is one of the longest established, and being backed by one of the largest antivirus companies in the world is likely to be the quickest updated against any OS X viral infections.

STEP # 1 | Disable unwanted services

From the Apple menu select ‘System Preferences’ then ‘Sharing’. This opens the ‘Sharing Preferences’, divided into three categories – ‘Services’, ‘Firewall’ and ‘Internet’.

The ‘Services’ tab allows you to state the ways in which other computer users can access the resources you have available. From sharing a personal folder to accessing files on a Windows XP computer; down to FTP access and sharing your printer you’ll need to have a tick in the ‘On’ column if you want that service enabled.


STEP # 2 | Activate the Firewall

Let’s move to the Firewall section. If you wish to protect your computer against unauthorised access the Firewall will need to be switched on. If it’s not, click the ‘Start’ button at the top of this window.

To allow one of the listed services to communicate across the Internet, click within the tick box to activate it. Note that if you’ve not enabled a service within the ‘Services’ window, it will not be available to configure within the ‘Firewall’ window. Select one of the active services then click ‘Edit’.


STEP # 3 | Edit options

The ‘Edit’ window allows you to specify the port on which you’d like to receive networking traffic. Essentially this is the gateway through which an application can talk to another computer via your network connection, until such point as you decide to close the gate.

If more than one application attempts to claim the same port, you’ll find that they’ll not run properly. To resolve this you may find an option within the program in question. Contact the supplier for further details.


STEP # 4 | Advanced Options

With a click of the ‘Advanced’ button the OS X Firewall sneak security options become available. Here you can block UDP traffic (network messages), keep a log of the Firewall activity (who is trying to communicate with you, and which applications are trying to communicate with which servers) and enable the Stealth Mode (essentially hiding your computer).

Individually they provide an extra tool in the arsenal of security applications that will safeguard the long-term security of your computer.

PC General: SELECT4i4 featuring RISC OS 6.10 to be released at Wakefield Show 2008

RISCOS Ltd are delighted to announce that the latest version of RISC OS 6 will be launched at the Wakefield Show 2008.

RISC OS 6 is available to members of the RISC OS Select scheme and this release is the fourth in the series. Currently RISC OS 6 is suitable for A7000, A7000+, RiscPC, Kinetic and VirtualRPC products.

Visitors to the Wakefield show will be able to see the new version of the OS being demonstrated on a range of machines, including Risc PC with Viewfinder running on 22" LCD monitor at 1680 x 1050 x 16M. Virtual Risc PC running on PC with output to 32" LCD via HDMI at 1360 x 768 x 16M. Virtual Risc PC running on Apple Intel Duo-Core 24" iMac at 1920 x 1200 x 16M and Virtual Risc PC running on Appple Intel Mac-Mini at 1440 x 900 x 16M.

Existing Select subscribers who visit the show will be able to take home a Select 4i4 CD at no charge. New subscribers will also be able to take home a copy of Select 4i4 on CD.

A downloadable version of Select4i4 will be available as soon as possible after the show.

The RISC OS developers have made over three thousand changes and improvements since the RISC OS 6.06 ROM was released at Wakefield 2007. The key improvements and changes in this release are:-

Select 4i4 Key Features

• Tunable automatic switching between standard and thumbnail filer views.
  
• Support for 8MB of VRAM when running on VirtualRPC.
  
• New filer layout options: vertical display and reverse sort order.
  
• A number of WIMP optimisations to speed up the desktop.
  
• Faster filer thumbnailing with optimised image generation.
  
• Improved bandwidth for the RISC OS video system.
  
• Enhanced keyboard shortcut support in Filer windows.
  
• Improved Filer configuration options.
  
• Support for DrawWorks XL and DrawWorks Select.
  
• Search filer windows using the keyboard.
  
• Option to enable Filer view inheritance.
  
• Massive speed improvements to Pinboard.
  
• Powerful new rename/copy/move features in Filer.
  
• Optional and configurable 'lazy' thumbnailing.
  
• Improved and configurable focus handling in Filer.
  
• Many bug fixes to FontEd.
  
• Image number indicators on thumbnail icon display for files with more than one image.
  
• Updated FontEd user interface.
  
• Filer user interface update, e.g. new filetype menu.
  
• Thumbnail cache now configurable.
  
• Improved support for font file variants and preserving additional data such as kerning.
  
• New state indicators on thumbnail icon display (processing etc.)
  
• User selectable font for the Alarm iconbar time display.
  
• Updated User Guide.
  
• Improved 'working week' handling within Alarm.
  
• Iconbar, Filer and Pinboard cooperate on exchanging pinned items. 
  
• Video Welcome Guide to Select 4i4.
  
• Faster filer viewer redraws and improved formatting.
  
• Pinboard includes support for removable media.
  
• Improved alpha-sprite support in thumbnails.
  
• Mouse scroll support in filer viewers has been improved.
  
• Configurable drag onto sub-directories to copy/move/save.
  
• Alarm notification position now configurable.
  
• Dynamic selections on Pinboard.
  
• Filer status (sort order etc.) indicated in title bars.
  
• Improved multi-user support in Alarm.
  
• Updated configuration plugins to support all these new features.
  
• Improved SVG export from Draw.
  
• Increased accuracy when scaling objects in Draw.
  
• Smoother mouse scroll wheel.
  
• Updated Toolbox components.
  
• Numerous other improvements to the Application suite (Paint, Draw...)
  

A years subscription to the Select scheme costs from £99. Full details can be found on the RISC OS Select website at: http://select.riscos.com/

Details on RISC OS Six itself can be found on the RISC OS Six website at: http://www.riscos6.com/

PC General: Windows XP SP3 released to manufacturing

Final update for Windows XP released to manufacturing

Windows XP SP3 includes all previously released updates for the operating system, as well as a small number of new additions that should not significantly change the Windows XP experience. Windows XP SP3 will be released to the web (RTW) on April 29, 2008, and Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer. For customers deploying Windows Vista, enhancements to Windows XP SP3 (such as Network Access Protection or NAP) will make it easier to co-manage Windows XP and Windows Vista within the same corporate environment. 

For further information regarding Windows XP SP3 RTM, please visit the TechNet Forum blog post at http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3214173&SiteID=17.

PC General: UK employers braced for unprecedented outbreak of “GTA flu”

Experts predict widespread absence as eagerly awaited game debuts on Tuesday 29th April

Experts are warning UK employers that Tuesday 29th April will see a never-before seen wave of absenteeism, with thousands of gamers faking illness to play a highly-anticipated video game.

Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV) is the first new game in the critically acclaimed series for almost four years, and goes on sale across the country at midnight on Tuesday 29th April. Gaming commentators believe that moving the on-sale date from a traditional Friday release, and the allure of being the first to play Grand Theft Auto IV, will see the country erupt in a widespread outbreak of “GTA flu.”

GTA flu is likely to be a twenty-hour illness, with those calling in sick joining a massive legion of gamers who have already booked a legitimate day off to enjoy the game. Widely predicted to sell 6.5m copies internationally in its first week, GTA IV will be a record-breaker, outstripping sales of music and film, further propelling the games industry to the forefront of entertainment.

George Walter, Editor of GamesRadar.com, said:

“As far as gamers are concerned the release of GTA IV is the biggest event of all-time. To put it in perspective, this is like the launch of a new Star Wars movie, or England playing in the World Cup Final – there’s nothing as huge or important. Gamers have been waiting for a new GTA for four years and I can completely understand why they are prepared to take time off or pull a sicky in order to get stuck in as soon as they can. Nobody wants to miss out.”

James Binns is Publishing Director of games magazine, Edge:

“Having worked in the games industry for 15 years, I’ve never witnessed anything like the hysteria building around GTA IV. This game series has become culturally significant and a new chapter is a major global event, as important as a new Harry Potter novel. Gamers want to be the first to experience GTA IV and don’t want anything to spoil their enjoyment. Businesses need to be prepared for the array of excuses and 24-hour ailments that will hit their workforce as GTA flu grips the UK.”

At eBay Advisor, we believe that people rushing to get a bargain on eBay will follow a similar pattern; whether it's GTA 4, the new Harry Potter movie or simply a must-have bargain.

PC General: Adobe Advances Dynamic Media Workflows at NAB

Adobe is showcasing new technologies and initiatives that are helping to drive innovation across dynamic media content creation, delivery, and playback at the 2008 NAB Show. Adobe is spearheading an effort to begin defining an industry wide open file format for digital cinema files, which is planned to be called CinemaDNG (see separate press release), and delivering native support for the Sony XDCAM EX camera format in Adobe® Premiere® Pro CS3 software. For capturing live audio and video to stream in real-time to Adobe Flash® Media Server or the Flash Video Streaming Service, Adobe is offering Adobe Flash Media Encoder 2.5 software as a free download. Adobe also is helping to bring intelligence to dynamic media by allowing the incorporation of metadata into its professional video product line. All of these breakthroughs are being shown at the 2008 NAB Show, April 14 – 17 (Booth SL 3220).

“Adobe is committed to driving innovation across dynamic media content, delivery, and playback,” said Jim Guerard, vice president of Dynamic Media at Adobe. “Our customers are building businesses in a rapidly changing media and advertising landscape. Thanks to our partner ecosystem—from CDNs to plug-in vendors—Adobe technologies provide a virtually complete and integrated solution that allows our customers to create content once, then seamlessly distribute and monetise that content across the widest possible array of playback environments.”

At NAB, Adobe is previewing technology plans that help bring intelligence to dynamic media through metadata in future versions of its professional video software. By automating the creation and flow of information assets, post-production tasks can be simplified and accelerated, enabling audiences to search content rapidly and easily. During distribution and playback, content owners and advertisers can take advantage of new monetisation opportunities to target ads more precisely. Also at the show, Adobe announced it is leading an effort to begin defining an industry wide open file format for digital cinema files, which is planned to be called CinemaDNG. CinemaDNG is an industry-wide initiative to define an open file format for digital cinema files to ensure accurate archiving, simplify workflows, and provide richer editing possibilities. In addition, Adobe is extending its commitment to tapeless workflows by announcing native support for the Sony XDCAM EX camera format in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, augmenting its previously announced support of the Panasonic P2 format.

Adobe continues to expand its industry footprint for dynamic media playback. For broadcasting live events such as concerts, webcasts, or sporting events, Adobe Flash Media Encoder 2.5 software now allows users to capture and stream live content in H.264 with Adobe Flash Media Server and Adobe Flash Player. As the world’s most pervasive playback software, Adobe Flash Player is installed on 98 percent of Internet-connected PCs and more than 500 million mobile devices and handsets worldwide ship with Adobe Flash® Lite™ software. Adoption of the latest update to Adobe Flash Player 9, which supports H.264-enabled HD content, has set all-time records by achieving 62 percent market penetration since its release in December 2007.

“Adobe's innovations are reshaping the digital video industry and helping us reach our audiences and monetise our content in new and exciting ways,” said Greg Clayman, executive vice president, digital distribution and business development for MTV Networks. "Adobe Creative Suite® 3 Master Collection software and Adobe Flash are fantastic tools that help us create and distribute content for audiences worldwide.”

PC Security: Pro-tibet movie scams and rigged websites

McAfee Avert labs has discovered that cyber-criminals are using Pro-Tibet movies to infect users of Windows PCs.

The movie files claim to show a cartoon that ridicules the effort of a Chinese gymnast at the Olympic games followed by images supporting a free Tibet. However, while the movie runs a Keystroke Logging tool is installed onto the user’s PC – which is also hidden by a Rootkit, making it harder to detect and remove.

McAfee Researcher, Patrick Comiotto, said:

“This is a pro-Tibet Rootkit. What looks like a simple Flash movie actually silently drops a number of files onto your PC and then hides those files.”

Please see the following link to the Avert Labs blog which provides more technical information and screenshots:

http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2008/04/14/is-malware-writing-the-next-olympic-event/

This is the second time in a week miscreants have taken advantage of the Olympics – just days ago McAfee discovered that pro-Tibet websites were being modified by attackers to host malicious software.

The “Fribet” Trojan horse was placed on hacked Web sites and subsequently loaded onto the PCs through a Windows vulnerability: http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2008/04/10/friebet-attacking-your-backend-database-from-your-backyard/

Dave Marcus, security research and communications manager at McAfee Avert Labs, said:

“Cybercrooks are increasingly taking advantage of the high general interest in the Olympic Games to trick people into giving up personal information or to load malware onto their PCs. If you want to watch the Olympic Games it is better not to do it by opening a file that appears to be a movie that comes in e-mail.”

Sellers Workshop: Second Sight for 350Pages Website Builder

With nearly 2000 new users every week, the recent successful launch of the free version 350pages website builder is now followed with the release of the Lite and Standard versions. 350pages is easy to use with many unique features - fully customisable, professionally designed templates and graphics, including rotating and vertical graphics, a photo editor, a photo unloader that resizes upon upload, drag & drop objects on the page, scale photos and graphics in real time, photo galleries and photo slideshows, to name but a few. It also includes the hosting of the website with a massive 250MB of space for the Standard version.

The 350page system is so constructed that users can edit each object on the page and the instant visual feedback enables them to fine-tune the appearance of their website quickly and easily. The free format drag-and-drop and instant scaling technology allows users to position and size the contents of their page exactly as they desire. Users can experiment with different colour schemes using the innovative colour editor that gives them suggested matching colours and gives them easy access to different ways of choosing specific colours. High quality graphic headings and buttons are produced automatically using professional graphics templates. Users simply choose a design from the extensive library, add text and instantly see a graphic created specially to fit onto their page, with the colours correctly adjusted for the best possible appearance. The Photo Galleries have thumbnail size images that open into a slideshow of larger images and for Business users there is also an e-commerce feature.

“Our extensive experience and vision with online website builders has enabled us to create the ideal solution for anyone with a computer. Our goal is to be a one-stop total solution for a multi-purpose page builder that enables anyone to build websites and online scrapbooks, create leaflets and posters, and generate images for use in powerpoint”, said Chairman Nova Fisher. "This is an exciting innovative product which we are convinced is the way of the future. People will need to access their information and files from anywhere at anytime so they can update their web-pages when on holiday or on business or at a friend's house."

At a special introductory price of only £34.49, 350pages provides hundreds of customisable page templates, over 900 customizable graphics, over 2000 photos and clipart and a huge 250MB of storage space. The Lite version is only £24.99. 350pages will retain a free version whilst developing more sophisticated features in the premium versions.

For further information and to get your free 350pages go to www.350.com

PC Security: Is the UK prepared to defend itself against a cyber attack?

With the anniversary of the Estonian cyber attacks looming, there are reports which state that senior officials are bracing themselves for a repeat performance. In April of 2007, cybercriminals crippled most of the country’s web-based public services and stories about smaller attempts to hack into electronic government systems continue to be seen.

McAfee’s Virtual Criminology Report, for which interviews were carried out with security specialists from institutions across the globe, such as SOCA, NATO and the FBI, has predicted that cyber attacks are moving towards highly funded and well-organised operations for political and economic purposes.

But who should be dealing with these country-wide threats in the UK and how well prepared are we?

Greg Day, security analyst at McAfee says: “It is a real concern to hear that senior officials expect to see more country-wide attacks when responsibility for dealing with such critical emergencies in the UK remains unclear. The UK has been less forthcoming on such issues compared to other countries and James Brokenshire, the UK Shadow E-crime Minister, recently highlighted this as an area where the UK lags behind other nations. For instance, NATO has established an international Cyber Defence Management Authority to tackle cybercrime and the US military is developing its own cyber-attack capabilities.This is clearly an area that is being viewed as growing in importance and was one of a number of topics we discussed at the Council of Europe’s recent Cooperation Against Cybercrime conference in Strasburg.”

Buyers Workshop: The art of communication

When buying on eBay, the convenience of bidding does tend to stop us from asking questions. Just in case you’re the inquisitive type - as you should be - we take a look at the ways you can communicate with sellers

We tend to treat eBay in general as the worlds biggest impulse purchase shop. No longer is it considered the biggest flea-market in the world; with a mixture of people clearing out their attack and multi-million turnover businesses amongst there members; it’s a medium through which you can easily furnish a home; buy for a new baby or buy a car.

Too much of eBay is done on impulse. A prospective buyer sees a description of an item; then a photograph to go with that item. They decide from that they want to make a bid; do so and then are disappointed with the end product.

If you make use of the eBay channels of communication, it’s very easy to ask questions of people who are selling items you may have an interest in.

If you need to clarify the quality of the item, do so before you bid. Whether they’ll deliver to your location, ask before you bid. Whether the device will work with your particular brand of hardware (computer or otherwise) - ask before you bid.

The secret of success on eBay lies in communication. On eBay there are a number of means, but we’ll look at two of the more significant ones.

We’ll start by looking at how you can use ask questions directly from a listing page using a message system; then (in eBay Advisor issue 4) we’ll take a look at ways to use Skype to get quicker answers to all of your questions. As they say, it’s good to talk.. before you bid.


Ask seller a question: Contact a seller through eBay

STEP ONE: Begin by browsing through eBay for items that may be of interest. In this instance, we’ve found Official eBay Advisor; an understandable curiosity. There’s no pictures, but a good sell line for the item itself. It’s this sort of item you should ask questions of. Click the item to open the listing.

STEP TWO: To the right of the listing window you’ll see a sidebar detailing the sellers feedback history, how long they’ve been on eBay and some of the options you have available. There’s a section entitled Ask seller a question, within which is Email the seller. Click the email link.

STEP THREE: This will open what is essentially an email window. Click within the subject box and you’ll have a number of options to select. This allows you to tell the seller the nature of your query. We’ve got a general question about what the item is exactly. Click General question about this item.

STEP FOUR: Ask your question, but keep it polite and straight to the point. There’s little point in getting into an argument through eBay, as one of you will end up reporting the other further down the line. Double-check that your question isn’t answered on the listing. If you’re happy to do so, click Send.

This article continues, in issue 4 of eBay Advisor, with a step-by-step guide to Skype

Small Business: Promote your eBay Store

It’s essential to promote your eBay store - nobody will visit it unless they know of its existence. David Bradforth takes a look at ways you can use Google for website promotion.

When putting together your website, there’s one very important thing you’ll need to remember - there are an awful lot of them out there; many of which aiming to get the same audience for which you’re aiming.

eBay will to an extent look after the site promotion for you; providing optimised data directly to Google within any terms or phrases you so desire but ultimately the effort for promotion on your website has to be your own.

You need to ensure that there’s something unique about the way in which your site is promoted in order to ensure you get the right type of audience.

How does it address the needs of its audience? What’s particularly special about it, in comparison to other sites of a similar nature offering perhaps the same product base for a very similar cost?

The techniques we use for promotion will ultimately reflect upon the success we experience from that promotion.

Using bulk e-mail (or spam) will probably not achieve the desired result. In many countries it’s now illegal to send unsolicited mail via email or post, and you could find yourself in hot water with your internet service provider.

It’s better instead to use a search engine such as Google. You can use Google in two ways - to directly promote your site by allowing Google to find it and index it; or using the Google Adwords programme as a means of setting an advertising budget then ensuring tht your spending never goes above it. With many thousands of hits a day, you’re guaranteed site success. With a domain name directed to your eBay store, the promotion is complete!

Make it easier: Simplify things for Google and promote your site with ease

STEP ONE Visit the Google homepage at www.google.co.uk or www.google.com, depending upon the country within which you wish to index your site. If you index through google.com, your site may appear within local country sites as well. Start by signing in - click the Sign In button towards the top right.

STEP TWO As you’ll be advised at this point, by signing into your Google account you can personlise your experience. If you’ve created a custom home page, for instance, it will appear after you sign in. Enter your email address and password, then click the Sign In button to continue.

STEP THREE This will return you to the Google homepage, although your email address will now appear towards the top of the window. Further personalised items may now appear - such as the Google Docs advert towards the bottom of the window. We’re interested in adding our site for crawling. Click About Google.

STEP FOUR This opens the About Google page, within which is a selection of useful (and not-so useful) Google information. Within the For Site Owners section is Submitting your Site. This explains the process Google uses to add URLs to the engine, and allows you to submit your own. Click the link as shown.

STEP FIVE This part of Google allows you to share your site with Google, as well as the world as large. As it explains, you need to add the URL in full, including the http:// prefix (e.g. http://www.essentialseries.co.uk/). Add a few comments, explaining the nature of the site then click Add URL.

STEP SIX Google advises you that the URL has been added to their system, and the next time the engine sets out to crawl for new URLs it will be one taken into consideration. There are however no guarantees of inclusion - but for a well-optimised site with good content you should quickly find yourself listed.

PC Security: Windows Vista Service Pack 1

Released to Windows Update in the middle of March, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 offers particular improvements in performance as well as support for a number of new hardware and software standards. David Bradforth takes a look at what is on offer.

Service Packs are released for Microsoft's major products on a semi-regular basis. They are used to address any problems present within the software, and occasionally to add new features to the software itself.

The first Windows Vista Service Pack was released to Widnows Update and the Windows Download Center on March 18th 2008. It presently supports English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese releases of Windows Vista; with support for the remaining languages to be released in April.

A document published by Microsoft towards the end of August 2007 laid down the scope and intent for the first service pack - reliability and performance; administration experience and better support for newer hardware and standards.

In issue three of Essential Windows Vista, we'll take apart the first Vista Service Pack release; showing how to install it and, through tutorials elsewhere in this issue demonstrating the ways in which some aspects of it have improved.

One area in which notable improvement has been made is performance. File copy operations, hibernation, logging off on computers connected to network servers, the speed with which JavaScript is dealt in Internet Explorer, network file share browsing, Windows Explorer handling of ZIP files and Windows Disk Defragmenter. You can also select individual drives to defragment.

New to Windows Vista is support for new hardware and software standards including the exFAT file system, 802.11n wireless networking, IPv6 over VPN connections and the Secure Socket Tunelling Protocol.

Two changes within Service Pack 1 have come around as a result of concerns from software/technology companies. One is the desktop search - users can change the default search program to one provided by a third party; and that program will be able to tie into similar services within the operating system.

This came in part due to a complaint from Google, whose Desktop Search application was suffering by the presence of Vista's built-in desktop search.

The other significant change is the introduction of a set of new security APIs for the benefit of antivirus software. Antivirus software currently relies on an unsupported practice of patching the kernel, which can ultmately be broken when there's a change to the operating system.

By introducing a supported set of APIs, Microsoft are stating for the benefit of programmers and the software companies that you've got an approved way of doing such things.

DirectX 10 has received an update. DirectX 10 version 10.1 updates the requirements for Direct3D 10 hardware. New graphics cards will be required to support DirectX 10.1 if they wish to be Microsoft accredited.

In this article we'll take you through the different aspects of Service Pack 1. We'll start by taking you through the procedure of downloading and installing it to your system.
As with any new piece of software, Service Pack 1 has issues as well.. why not post your experiences below?

Buyers Workshop: Xara Xtreme 4 launches

Xara announced today a new release of Xara Xtreme and Xara Xtreme PRO, the world's fastest graphics program. But it's not only the speed that makes Xara Xtreme so popular, as it has pioneered many of the graphics technologies used in the industry today.

Favored by many professional designers for its slick workflow, Xara Xtreme is priced to be within the reach of all computer users. It's versatility makes it ideal for everything from graphic design tasks, DTP style documents, a wide range of photo handling tasks, website graphics and now complete website creation.

New in this version 4 release are:

• Ultra-fast non-destructive photo editing features,10 times faster and resulting in files 10 times smaller, than other graphics tools
  
• Real-time, fully shaded, 3D extrude
  
• Multi-core support. An average of 40% faster and up to 80% faster on dual-core processors (Xtreme Pro only)
  
• WYSIWYG website creation. Supports free-form web page design, 'anything anywhere' and advanced features such as text flow around shapes, mouse-over effects, pop-ups and more
  
• Real-time 'flow around' text repelling
  
• more than a dozen other new features and improvements.
  

Charles Moir, Managing Director of Xara Group Ltd said "The truly spectacular performance of the new photo handling, plus the fact it's completely non-destructive, moves us into new territory. The 3D extrude is simply gorgeous and, of course, faster and more slick than on any other tool. The website creation feature has been described as a significantly useful feature by beta testers."

"Xara Xtreme was always the fastest graphics tool around, but with availability of multi--core processors, users of Xara Xtreme Pro can now take advantage of these processors for maximum performance. And with the support of our parent company, Magix AG, we're making the product available in multiple languages for the first time", he added.

Xara Xtreme and Xtreme Pro are probably the most powerful, versatile graphics software, at a price to suit anyone's pocket. Xara Xtreme retails for only $89 and Xtreme Pro is only $249 (plus VAT in the EU)

For a full list of the new features see xara.com/products/xtreme/features/
You can see some examples of work created by our customers at xara.com/gallery
Demonstration movies showing Xara Xtreme Pro in operation (WMV format) are available from: xara.com/products/xtreme/tutorials-demos/

PC Security: Super Spam Me

Inspired by Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me, McAfee have tasked a group of individuals to complete an investigation into how life on the Internet would be in the absence of a Spam filter. The experiment, online at http://www.mcafeespamexperiment.com/uk, has details in a number of superb online blogs. Below we've given two of them.

Day Two: if at first you don't succeed.... live dangerously...
In real life I change my e-mail address frequently. Why change? Sometimes to get a better deal, sometimes to run away from spam. Until this week I’ve seen very little spam: but the deluge started two days ago. How? Where?

In the past 48 hours I’ve visited almost a hundred websites, registering as a customer, asking to be put on mailing lists, and filling in surveys. I’ve clicked on URL’s and received confirmation that I’m registered. They know I’m here. The result: a hundred or so legitimate emails and just over a dozen spam messages.

Let’s change the scene, leave the McAfee world of S.P.A.M. and look at real life.

I have a number of personal e-mail addresses, and have my own domain. I rarely, correction, never visit sites that supply “medicinal compounds” and the only banking institution that I access is that of my own bank. Three times a year I go to comparison sites for my various insurances. I visit e-bay and a few reputable news and survey sites daily. I’ve never blogged until this month. I surf safely.

The result? This week my personal e-mail accounts have received in excess of 300 spam messages per day offering medicinal compounds, asking me to verify my bank account details, offering me Rolex and Breitling wristwatches at ridiculous prices. In the last hour more than fifty have come through. I’m using a Dell laptop and a distinctive address for the McAffee project, and a different Dell laptop and different addresses for my personal mail. The only commonality is the connection to my ISP!

So, after Two Days - a dozen S.P.A.M’s and a couple of hundred personal spams! I’ve nothing to lose: tomorrow I’ll live dangerously!

Vic

Day 3: Honestly, some of these websites must think we're as stupid as they look.
Unbelieveable! http://www.progressingemail.com has about a billion surveys to complete, some of which ask for credit card details, they check to see if you phone number is valid - fair enough. However they also think that the user is stupid enough to put their credit card details over the internet on an unsecured connection to a company I think I could throw further than I trust.

Fortunately for the sake of this experiment I am actually completely stupid and now only await to hear the amazing news that I’ve just won $50,000… will let you know

Have filled out about 30 surveys and am starting to receive email that has nothing to do with the surveys I’ve taken.

Simon

PC General: McAfee discovers Nuwar April Fool's Card

McAfee Avert Labs have uncovered a new April Fool’s Nuwar card which is doing the rounds.

The greeting card has the subject line “Happy April Fool’s Day!” – after users open the card, after five seconds, it will try to download the file called funny.exe to users’ PCs. If users click on the image, it will try to download kickme.exe and if people click on “click here” the Nuwar will try to download foolsday.exe.

Please see the following link to the Avert Lab’s blog which includes a screen grab of the card and further details: http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2008/03/31/nuwar-isnt-fooling-around/