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Running two copies of Sage Job Costing simultaneously

A long-term client of mine was facing a productivity issue.  They work in a Sage Line 50 + Sage Job Costing (v8) environment, with two registered companies on each application.  When authorising a purchase, they require a purchase order number from Job Costing.  Because their database is so big, it takes a minute or so for the POP window to display (this is the window that provides the purchase order numbers).  Read More »

Live Below The Line

First off, a big thank you to Eric for allowing me to promote this on the company blog.

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Recently I was told of something called the Global Poverty Project (GPP). My heart sank upon hearing the name – “Oh great, another one of THOSE organisations”. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all the time and effort that people put into raising funds for the poor, but the funds never seem to do much. Read More »

Getting the Brother HL-2040 to print under Ubuntu 11.04 “Natty Narwhal”

Our Brother HL-2040 printer is a great little workhorse, and has always worked pleasingly well under both Windows and Linux (and as a shared printer). However when I upgraded from Ubuntu 10.10 to 11.04, it went a little bit haywire. No matter what I did, the printer’s response was to print infinite blank pages. Fortunately, the fix is easy! Read More »

NetHui 2011

Last week, Eric, Jordan, and Roger had the opportunity to spend the week at NetHui 2011.  The event was organised by InternetNZ, who are the delegated administrators of the .nz internet country code.  The theme of the event was “Shaping the Future Together”, and was run in an unconventional ‘barcamp’ style. Read More »

It’s hard to use its?! Quick apostrophe guidance!

I’ve always been a stickler for grammar.  However the other day I struck a brief piece of uncertainty, when I was pondering whether to say it’s, or its. Read More »

Excel: Find the last word in a cell

A friend needed a quick hand the other day, to get just the last word from a cell.  He was splitting names into First / Last name, but didn’t want to use Text to Columns because the people on his list had anywhere between zero and three middle names. Read More »

Make Ubuntu fit nicer on a netbook screen

Every time I install Ubuntu on a netbook, there are a couple small changes I make to maximise my screen real-estate. (Note I don’t use Unity desktop, which you can find in Ubuntu Natty 11.04, and Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.10; I like Classic better) Read More »

What can you do for New Zealand?

The weekly NZCS e-newsletter, Newsline, often contains some excellent articles. A recent contribution by Rod Drury (Kiwi Entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of Xero), was particularly good, and so I thought I would share it with you.

You can find the original article at http://www.nzcs.org.nz/newsletter/article/156: Read More »

Does chopping IT training pay off? (Repost)

In this afternoon’s NZCS Newsline, NZCS CEO Paul Matthews (who I greatly respect) had written a particularly poignant article entitled “Does chopping IT training pay off?”.  I couldn’t possibly say it better, so I’ve reposted the article in its’ entirety below.  You can find the original post at http://www.nzcs.org.nz/newsletter/article/157.  And if you’re not already a member of the New Zealand Computer society, now’s a good time… Read More »

Why you should get your systems audited regularly

Auditing your system is a crucial task that is often overlooked by small businesses. An annual system audit will give you an overview of the state of your system, from the ground up: network, power supply, backups, server, workstations, etc. It should also include recommendations from a professional; for example, if your server is three years old, you might get a recommendation to start allocating some income to replace the server in a couple of years. Read More »