Beau Gaudron – Blog – Page 3 – My blog covering off projects and lessons as the months go by

October 18, 2016July 3, 2023

Wireless Network for an Event

Recently I was tasked with arranging wireless for an event in Newcastle (www.digfestival.com.au) – this isn’t something I normally do so I started researching different options available.

I asked the event organisers how many people were expected and asked if they could take me to the venue to investigate space requirements which they did.

If you need to do this task at all here are the questions that you should be asking:

Is there an internet connection available in the building (if there is test its speed, just because it is there doesn’t mean its useable)
Is there access to power close to where your attendees will be
Are data points available in the room you where you are putting your equipment
How big is the area you are trying to cover
How many people are attending the event

After inspecting the venue there were a few things that I was concerned with:

The uplink to the building was terrible (8MBit connection…)
The only way to get an uplink to our network equipment would be to run a cable taped to a few walls as no data points existed in the function area – or use 4G equipment and not rely on it at all
The size of the room and amount of clients that would be using the equipment

So with this knowledge in mind I started considering what equipment we would need to ensure a stable and useable connection throughout the event. Here is the short list of equipment:

4G Bonding Router
4G Modems and sim cards
Data Plans
Commercial Wireless Access Points
Access to power
Firewall/routing to limit speed and access so a single user could not saturate the connection

Once I started to consider the costs of all these things I realised that for a one off event, we would be spending a significant amount of money on equipment alone – and – would be having to spend quite a significant amount of data access as well.

So with all of that in mind I decided to google for event wireless providers, mainly to get ideas about how other companies provided this service.

I found a company based in Manly called “Pop Up Wifi” and sent an enquiry through their website chat. The owner of the business Andrew offered to ring me and discuss the needs of the event.

I spoke to Andrew and let him know what I had already found out, what my concerns were and asked for the costs and what was required for the service they provide. He said “Just power, everything else is ready to go when you get the unit”

Seemed simple enough, I then asked some questions about SSID’s and they said we can set up two networks one with higher priority then the other and you can tell us in advance so we can configure before the device gets to you. After this I was incredibly confident that the unit would be reliable and suitable for the event.

I won’t discuss the exact costs of the unit here as there are multiple options they have available (Contact them via http://popupwifi.com.au/ for further info) However I will say this, to buy all of the equipment required – just buy it not configure was estimated to be roughly 8 to 10 times the cost of the hire – and then, you would need to have the expertise to configure the equipment or pay someone who did have the expertise.

The rate for data as well was nearly 50% less than buying through Optus or Telstra retail channels. So overall this unit was way more cost and time effective than us setting up a unit ourselves.

Here’s a photo of what the unit looks like:

As Andrew said to me on the phone, all you do is plug it in and he was right – when the unit arrived to our office I simply plugged it in, waited about 5 minutes until I could see the SSID, connected up and could browse. I walked away from the unit to emulate the size of the room that this would be going in to and it had great and reliable range. I then contacted Pop Up Wifi again just to make sure they could see the unit remotely – they could.

The night before the event, we positioned the unit near the audio equipment for the event and did a final test, all still was fine. The following day we powered the unit up and let it run the wireless for the entire time.

The great thing about Pop Up Wifi is that they can give you information as you request it since they remotely monitor their equipment. At the beginning of the day I requested to know the amount of connected clients – it was 22 at this stage. At the end of the day I asked for an update on data usage, they responded quickly with 18GB.

After the entire event was done Pop Up Wifi provided us with a report that showed a breakdown of operating systems of devices connected, total unique devices connected and the amount of data that was used on each source, we were able to see that out of the social networks Twitter was the most heavily used. We were also able to see that we used 39GB of data over the two day event.

The next step after the entire event was to send the unit back to Pop Up Wifi – again, they make this super easy. In the box they send the unit in they supply you with a return con note, all we had to do was repackage the device and put the con note on the box. Pop Up Wifi had already pre-booked the collection and let us know when we needed the device ready by.

If you are planning on having wireless at your next event make sure you contact Pop Up Wifi – they have options available that suit various event requirements at a very affordable price and their devices are incredibly simple to use.

September 27, 2016July 3, 2023

Why use Google Apps?

We are a Google Apps for Work reseller and have been for several years now. We haveve also used Google Apps in our business for nearly 5 years now. This post is about why you should consider using Google Apps.

Low Ongoing Cost

People are always amazed when I explain to them that we can set up an email solution where the ongoing cost per user can be as low as $5AUD per month. Compared to traditional offerings such as exchange, this is very affordable. We have a varying initial setup cost for Google Apps based on a few different requirements – however it has never exceeded the cost of an exchange server!

You can still use se your own domain

If you’re using an @gmail address or @hotmail address for your business you probably shouldn’t. With domain names currently at such low prices there really is no excuse to not identify your brand in your email.

Sync between Devices

Do you find sometimes if you’ve drafted an email on one devices, or sent/deleted etc on one device the changes don’t sync to your other devices? Using Google apps your changes sync across devices. If you’re using an iPhone, and Android or the website the changes are reflected everywhere so you can be sure that you are seeing up to date information and not be worried about whether you may or may not have already sent something.

Distributed Network

You have the advantage of Google’s own servers hosting your email. In the several years that we’ve sold and supported Google Apps the only outages we’ve ever come across had nothing to do with Google. It was either people had let a domain expire or they had changed settings that should not have been changed. Google have multiple servers all over the world that provide the Google Apps service.

You aren’t running the risk of that one computer in your office that handles your email suddenly failing when you use Google Apps – it’s all stored in the cloud, so as long as you have the internet – you’ll be able to get your emails.

Accessibility

Google Apps will work on a web browser, iPhone, Android, iPad etc. The major devices as well also now have apps that do specific functions from the Google Apps suite for example the Sheets App for spreadsheets or the Docs app for documents.

File Sharing

If you’re a client of Instant Technology you would be aware that we share all documentation with you after we complete or update any of your equipment. We do this using Google Drive. It is secured by email i.e. if you invite a person to a file or folder they are the only person that can see it. Even though you can restrict access you can also allow some files to be public – you may want to do this if you have a page on a website that uses content from a file to update.

One of the other great things about Google Drive is the ability to work collaboratively. If you click here you will see a great example of how this can work. Remember as well you’ve got the ability to collaborate with people outside of your business using these tools as well.

Advanced Search & Spam Filtering

One thing I’ve loved demonstrating to people before they jump on board with Google Apps is just how powerful search is. You can search for the contents within an email, you can specify if you want to see things that include attachments or do not, a persons email. If you’re neat and organise things into folders (Google refers to these as “labels”) you can also search within a label very easily. I know some people that have not even bothered to use labels as they find that the search functionality is powerful enough to find them what they need quickly.

Google also monitors your email for any incoming spam messages and appropriately allocates them to a Spam folder. From there you can either mark them as not spam if they were incorrectly tagged – or – you can click delete forever. Google then uses this data to make sure that both yourself and other Google users don’t ever have that email enter your inbox ever again.

Other Common Questions We Get Asked

Can I use aliases?

The short answer is yes. Google have two ways of using aliases, if only one person needs to see that particular email address you can just add that alias to a user.

If you want multiple people to receive that email then you can add a group that has public posting permissions. There is currently no additional charge for alias addresses or group email addresses with Google.

Can I transfer my existing emails to Google?

Yes – however depending on your current service offering this may take some time to transfer the data. Especially in Australia with our poor upload speeds we have had some transfers that have taken several days to fully upload.

I’m currently using hotmail won’t I miss emails being sent there?

No, we ask a lot of questions before we get started with setting up Google Apps, one being who is your current email provider. Nearly all hosts allow you to forward your ongoing emails into your new Google Apps account, so you shouldn’t miss a thing.

Will I Still Have a Calendar?

Yes, and just like sheets and Gmail the changes will sync across your devices as long as you’ve set them up that way. You have the ability to share calendars with your colleagues as well.

Is it secure?

Yes – we recommend that everyone uses two-step authentication with Google Apps (and really with any application that supports two-step you should use it). On top of using two-step authentication Google also have a site called My Account (https://myaccount.google.com/) that can give you data on where someone last signed in, and provide advice on keeping your account more secure.

Remember though security is really in the hands of the user, never share your passwords, never use simple or easy to guess passwords and make sure that you have policies or procedures in place for if someone loses a device or has a device stolen.

How do I get started?

If you are interested in using Google Apps or have any further questions please get in Contact with us so we can discuss your specific requirements. You will need an existing domain name and your login details for it (or we can register one for you if you don’t have one), a list of the email addresses you would like to use if you are brand new to email – or – a list of all of the current email addresses that you currently use.

It is also great if you can let us know what email service you currently use, but if you aren’t sure don’t worry as we can find out easily for you.

We look forward to hearing from you!

September 22, 2016July 3, 2023

Using an AUSKEY in OSX

If you work in accounting, or if you have a small business it is likely that you’ve had to use an AUSKEY for authenticating with the ATO.

You’ve probably also noticed that it is not the most reliable thing to use – this blog will cover off some of the things to be aware of to get it working on a Mac.

The first thing to be aware of is that Chrome in OSX no longer supports Java, so you can’t use the Chrome Browser with to access the ATO portals any more. You can however use Safari or Firefox.

In my testing I’ve always used Safari and will be covering off what to be aware of for Safari.

Make sure you’ve installed your AUSKEY or transferred it from another computer. By default AUSKEY is stored in the following location: /Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/AUSKey – and in this folder you will generally have a keystore.xml file. This is the file you need for authenticating. If you are moving the AUSKey from another computer make sure you put it into this folder. If you install it via the ATO provided links it will install here by default. To access the folder open finder and press Comand + Shift + G then type in the path listed above.
Make sure you’ve downloaded and installed the latest version of java from java.com/download
Once you’ve downloaded try and access one of the portals such as tap.ato.gov.au – more than likely you’ll get a message saying that AUSKey is not installed. Most of the time this is due to the Java plugin not running. As of OSX Sierra Java is disabled by default in Safari. To turn it back on Go to Safari Preferences > Plugin Settings > Java then turn on the plugin for the ATO sites. SPECIAL Note: You need to hold down alt on your keyboard then press the menu and select “Run in Unsafe Mode” – in the picture below I’ve already done it and you will see it the menu now says “Run in Safe Mode” that is what you want yours to look like as well. Simply turning the plugin to “On” is not enough for it to work.

4. If you receive the error below when you try to login it means that you have not enabled unsafe mode. Go back to Step 3 and make sure you enable it

That is all you should need to do, now if you go and try to access the ATO portal you should be able to login as you normally would.

We have found that quite often after a java update the AUSKey system fails to work. Most times it is due to the plugin no longer being enabled. One of the easiest ways to re-enable it is go to java.com/verify and click the verify Java button. This will then prompt you to enable the plugin again. Once you have done that you should be able to access the portals as you normally would again.

The instructions above really apply to OSX Sierra but you will find it is a similar process for all versions of Mac OSX.

September 20, 2016July 3, 2023

Replacing Power Adaptors

This is a more common occurrence than what you what expect. Quite often we get calls from people saying that their dog has chewed a laptop power lead, they’ve tripped over it – or is suddenly just stopped working.

In most circumstances if you haven’t damaged the DC connector of your laptop this is a relatively easy and affordable thing to fix. However there are some things to be aware of.

Volts and Amps Of Your Charger and Device

Nearly all DC chargers will have printed on them somewhere, the voltage that they use and the amps that they draw. Before you go out and purchase a new adaptor, make sure you locate this information and write it down first. Below is an example of the numbers you are looking for – be aware though this varies between devices.

The other thing you can test before going to buy another adaptor is that your adaptor has in fact completely failed. Now, if the cords have been chewed through or completely snapped it’s safe to say its time for a new one. If the device seems relatively intact though it is best to check whether or not the device has voltage by using a multimeter. If you don’t know how to do this I’d recommend taking it to a reputable computer shop for them to confirm.

If you can not see the voltage and amp requirements on the power adaptor itself – you can check on your device. Sometimes they may be in a strange place (some we have seen under batteries for example) but you should find a listing on them somewhere.

The Connector Type and Total Current Draw

Many electronic retailers such as Jaycar stock several different power adaptors. The differences between them normally are:

The types of connectors they come with
The voltages they support
The amps/current they support

Most boxes will list what models they support but if possible ask that you can confirm that the connector will plugin to your laptop. Total current draw we should already know from when you got the details off your laptops power supply or the laptop itself (it’s the number that has A after it. e.g. 4.74A)

Buying a suitable adaptor

This is where a lot of people get caught out – so here are the rules to follow:

Voltage needs to be the same as your current devices, if you are buying a multiple voltage device be 100% sure you’ve selected the right voltage before connecting it to your device or you can permanently damage your device
Amps: the amps need to be equal or greater than your current device. You do not need it to be the exact same, however always make sure that the new charger you are buying has equal or greater amps than the original. If it does not have greater or equal amps you will find that your battery will not charge and the device may behave inconsistently.
Keep in mind the size of the adaptor, lot of replacements will be larger than your existing device
Be sure you’ve tested the connections properly before buying if it comes with multiple connectors
This is not too common but ensure that your new device has the same centre pin polarity as the old. This is generally indicated by a diagram that has a + and – symbol and a circle in the middle

If you own a newer Macbook

If you own a newer macbook that uses the Magsafe 2 connection type there is currently 3 adaptors that Apple sell for those devices. They are a 45W adaptor, and 60W adaptor and a 85W adaptor. If you are like me and may need to use the adaptor on several devices, buy the 85W adaptor. Because remember, you can use a device of equal or greater amperage with no issues as the device will only draw the amps that it requires to operate.

Otherwise if you want a specific adaptor apple have a great article on finding the right adaptor here – you can also find the details of the adaptors written on them as well if you are having trouble.

Due to the design of Magsafe you don’t need to worry about centre pin polarity, simply find the right adaptor and you can replace with confidence.

There are generic Magsafe adaptors available for lower costs than direct from Apple, however if you choose to buy one of those try to ensure that they comply with Australian standards or they may be unsafe.

If you need assistance with replacing your adaptor don’t forget you can contact us here

June 8, 2016July 3, 2023

Simple Psychology Selling

Everybody in their job or in their business needs the skill of being able to sell a product or service. This post is about some basic things that you can do to increase your own successful sales rate and has a focus on physical stores – where you can actually SEE people.

Bricks and Mortar Retail Stores

If you have a store where people can physically come and see the products you have an offer this gives you a good advantage over selling online or over the phone. Why? People can see your products in the real world but more importantly you can see them.

If someone comes into your store, half the battle is already won – the customer is engaged enough to look at your products so something has got them in there right? Sure there might be the odd person who is legitimately just killing time but for the majority of people that have entered, they’ve done so for a reason.

So whats your next steps? Before you approach the customer quickly observe them try and gauge what they are looking at, this way you know what to focus on initially. Once you do approach the customer make sure that not only do you listen but watch their eyes and body language as this will quite often tell you more about what they intend on purchasing. At this point if you make any suggestions to them again, watch their reaction if you’re getting negative responses you need to adjust what you are doing because you most likely aren’t catering to what they want. Remember a negative response is not always going to be due to price it could be something as simple as the colour or size of an item.

However if you get positive responses theres some simple things you can do. My favourite is – if possible place the item they customer is looking at in their hands or suggest they try it on, or let them use it. Get them to TRY it. Why? Psychologically people then begin to feel as if the item already belongs to them, they develop a greater connection to the item and are more likely to buy it.

So what should you look for when trying to determine someones action towards a product? Their eyes, their face and their body. If you are interacting with the person pay attention to very simple details, do they move away from you? Do they lean towards you? Are their eyes looking towards certain products or store sections? Do they have a rapid change in demeanour when you suggest something (e.g. Excited to not excited, sad to happy) Pay attention and use your observations to your advantage.

If you’ve been lucky enough to convince the customer to buy something at this point the next biggest thing is don’t stop! Nearly all products will have something additional you can sell with it. e.g. You’ve sold a pair of shoes, offer some shoe care products, You’ve sold a TV – offer a Netflix Card, cables, You’ve sold a phone, offer headphones – you get the idea. Always try and sell more than one item, a lot of times you’ll get told no but a whole heap more times you’ll be able to sell that extra something.

Cafes & Bars

For those of you that don’t know for around 5 years I owned and operated a coffee business in Newcastle NSW. Coffee shops in particular are very interesting for the sales process as you are generally working on high volume low price products (not all the time though). So how can you deal with that?

A very easy way to do this is to answer any questions from potential customers suggestively. Take the question “What sizes do you have?” most people will answer this the following way – Small, Medium Large. There is a problem with this however, the first thing you say is what sticks in the customers head and most likely what they will go for. Next time you are asked this question say medium first, then say small and then large. You’ll be surprised at how many people will opt for the larger size.

If you sell food items as well e.g. muffins, baked breads anything that you can take away you can use this to your advantage to sell a coffee. How? If people ask how much this is you can say its $4.50 BUT…. with a coffee its only $4 or whatever pricing structure you decide. Although you are discounting (a very small amount) you’re then increasing your average sale. It may not sound like much but if you can convert 50% of your customers to take a snack and a coffee rather than just a coffee, or just a snack that will lead to a significant increase in revenue.

If you own a bar you can easily play on social aspects in groups. For example if two guys or two girls approach a bar but only one buys a drink, simply say something like “Does your friend need a drink to?” every opportunity you have to sell more than one item you should take it.

Product rules for all bricks and mortar stores

One thing that I think a lot of businesses need to change is displaying products. If you’ve got the product and you’ve got the space. SHOW IT OFF! Every extra second you take to complete a sale is time that a person can decide that they no longer want whatever it is you are selling.

People shouldn’t have to get the answer “we might have that in the store room” or “maybe out the back” – sure if you’re a shoe shop or clothing shop you might have other sizes stored away, but you should certainly have at least one size for people to see. If a person comes in and sees exactly what they want they’ll either buy it or it will give you time to discuss with them buying more products. If you’ve got to waste half your time “checking” if something is even available because you failed to display it you’ve lost that opportunity and in many cases the sale. I challenge you to record any time this happens and see if it leads to a sale, or if the customer walks away.

Know Your Product

When I was much younger I was asking my friends dad about a product in a store he worked in and I said “Have you got one yourself?” and he replied “I’ve got one of everything in this store” which was obviously not true – however he did know as much as possible about all of the products on offer to be able to assist anyone and sell to them.

Take the time to learn the features and benefits of your products and services so that you can confidently sell them. Remember people are trusting you to guide them, sure they might of read a few things online about what they are buying but you should always be able to offer that extra bit of knowledge thats missing from their research.

Limit putting up barriers to sales

Recently I was at a store and heard a person that enquired about a particular item and was told “Sorry we don’t have that in stock, not sure when they are back in”. This is one of the most terrible things to say. Why? You’re completely ending the transaction with the customer without even trying to sell something to them.

The first thing you should do in this circumstance is offer an alternative product if one is available. Keep the conversation OPEN – don’t ever close it straight away. If the customer doesn’t want it and specifically wants a particular product offer to order it for them. For some reason so many retailers try to give the spiel of it might take weeks to arrive purely because they are waiting to do big orders from a particular supplier. If you’re worried about this tell the customer you can get it quicker if they pay a freight fee – again keep the conversation OPEN.

At this point, if you’ve hit walls of no, or I don’t want to most likely the customer will be ready to go somewhere else. In this circumstance see if you can recommend something else nearby that may stock that item – they’ll see a lot more value and integrity from you if you do this instead of just sending them on their way.

Rules for any store

Acknowledge and welcome your customers. The best way I can describe the importance of this is imagine if you walked into your friend’s house or your family’s home and they just stared at you and didn’t say a thing. You’d feel incredibly strange. This is exactly what happens to customers that walk in to your store and you don’t say a word to them. Always take the time and the effort to acknowledge and greet customers in your store, if you’re on a phone call thats going for some time take a few seconds to say hello to the person in your store and if that phone call is not leading to a sale nicely end it – focus on the people in your store ready to buy.

The most important thing

Measure everything that you can – your success rate, your failure rate, where did customers come from initially? Why did they buy? Why didn’t they buy? It sounds like a lot initially but you can do some of this very easily for example set up a tally sheet for a few things you can track easily and add a mark each time it happens. This can be as simple as a few categories like: Did not buy due to not in stock, Sold more than 3 items in a single sale, Sold over $50 in one sale. Start small – yet think BIG.

June 2, 2016July 3, 2023

Securing WordPress – A basic guide

If you have a self-hosted wordpress site you’ve probably read a few things about how insecure the platform can be – however if you follow a few standard procedures when you install wordpress you can limit the vulnerabilities that someone may be able to exploit. I’ll cover some of these below – some are very simply, others take a little bit more time.

Update or Remove Plugins

If you’ve got plugins you no longer use de-activate and delete them. Leaving a plugin installed even if it is not in use can open you up to vulnerabilities.

If you’ve got plugins that are out of date, update them. More often then not updates includes patches to security issues. Later on in this post I have a screenshot of WPScan that will show you some things to look out for in your plugins directories.

CHMOD and/or move your wp-config.php file

By default when you install wordpress it uses a file called wp-config.php to configure the link between wordpress and a database. This file is normally stored in the root directory of the wordpress install – meaning its publicly accessible by going to http://www.exampleurl.com/wp-config.php most web servers will return a blank page for PHP files, but some misconfigured servers will spit this file out in plain text….

There are two ways to resolve issue – the first is by leaving the file where it is but changing the permissions on the file – you can do this if you have a file manager very easily. You just need to find wp-config.php then right click and go to file permissions and change them then click change permissions. If you’ve got world ticked here thats a big issue that you should fix right now – although if you tested if this file was accessible using the URL example above with one of your own sites, it means that world permissions were already set.

The second way and more solid method of dealing with this issue is to move the wp-config.php to a non-public accessible directory if your web host allows it – then in the original config file link back to it. That way you are basically using a dummy config file that links back to the actual file but in a directory that is not accessible from the web. There is more detail on this here should you wish to do this. Please be sure to change permissions on this file as well.

Delete readme.html

WordPress also adds a file to its root directory when it is installed or updated called readme.html – although not as harmful as having a public accessible config file this file shows the exact version of wordpress you are running which could be used by someone to figure out what vulnerability they may use to attack your site. You can simply delete this file without causing any issues to your site.

Update wordpress itself

WordPress release updates frequently that contain security updates – for some reason a lot of people don’t do these as they think it may break themes or some other content on their site – although this is true in some circumstances it is an incredibly poor practice security wise – you should ALWAYS update your installation to the latest version as it becomes available.

Update your theme or remove old themes

If theme updates are available the same thing generally applies – most of the time they contain security updates and should be updated. If you’ve got old themes you no longer need – delete them as they can still expose you to attacks even if they are not active.

Use Complex Passwords and Change the Username from Admin

By default wordpress normally installs with an admin user – its best to change this to something else and set a complex password. Why? In the next section I mention WPScan – this tool has the ability to brute force attack wordpress installations and all you need is a dictionary file and the username – so changing it from the default of “admin” can make this task just a little harder for people to do then usual.

Test your installations

There are some online tools that will test your URL’s and also some offline ones. I have been using this website as an online tool to check security: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan/ on this site all you need to do is enter your URL and click to check it.

Beyond the online tool I have used WPScan (http://wpscan.org/) – WPScan allows you to get a lot of information about an installation such as plugins and vulnerabilities that are in them. It will also warn you of any files that exist that may contain a version number (e.g. readme.html – as mentioned above) – below is a screenshot of this site showing some of the current issues here (which are being fixed as we speak)

As you can see from the above screenshot this tool has been able to very quickly identify to me some issues with the site such as directory listing being enabled on a lot of directories, an out of date theme and a publicly accessible readme file.

Please be aware as well that in the above example I’ve only done a basic task using WPScan – it actually has some more severe scans that may expose a lot more.

If you would like me to test your own site contact me with a request and I’ll show you what I can find. This is only a brief article outlining some simple procedures you should follow – if you want to learn more there are thousands of resources about wordpress security online.

May 26, 2016July 3, 2023

Slack & Zapier for Office Communication

I’m Slack but what is Slack?

If you work within a team or just need to communicate within your own organisation you’ve probably realised that this can be a difficult task at time.

Emails get missed, people aren’t on top of everything that is happening within the business and communication generally doesn’t happen anywhere near as much.

This is where Slack (www.slack.com) comes in. Slack allows you to not only add in your own employees as part of the “team” but also external providers. With collaboration becoming more and more prevalent these days it’s important to be able to work with others in an easy, managed manner.

Instead of having to sort through multiple email boxes to figure out what people are communicating it on you now have a communication program that everyone can have access to, yet if you need to do private communication that is still possible as well.

Here is a screenshot from when myself and a friend used slack to collaborate on a business that he was running at the time:

(If you want to know how to add another person to your Slack team here is the link https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/201330256-Inviting-new-members-to-your-Slack-team)

Slack organises your communication into channels that you can decide upon, create descriptions for and share in. It allows you to share files, code, video, GIF’s and more within the app itself & the other advantage – its completely searchable. (Note that there are limits to search on Free Accounts – more info on pricing here: https://slack.com/pricing) Outside of public channels you also have the ability to direct message between yourself and others, or create private channels or private direct messages.

Slack also has a lot of nifty features such as reminders that allow you to set one off reminders for your colleagues or recurring reminders for yourself – https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/208423427-Setting-reminders

Supercharging Slack – A few Tips & Tips

Slack is great alone but paired with other tools it becomes even more amazing. One of these tools is Zapier – so what should you do with Zapier and Slack? One of the best things I’ve set this up for is to gather all of a businesses social content into one channel. We have a channel in slack called #social – using Zapier we have created a “Zap” that posts into our #social channel whenever a new photo is posted to Instagram, a new post occurs on Facebook or whenever we tweet.

Why did we do this? This allows our entire team to see what content we are producing on social media and encourages them to engage with it – because from Slack we can click out directly on to the content we have created regardless of what network is was posted to.

I encourage you to look around at what else you can do in Zapier as it is an incredible tool for automation. Also be on the lookout for any services you already use that may have their own Slack integrations.

If you write a blog – or if you want to monitor your client blogs Slack has its own built in feature called /feed – this is the “command” you can issue to slack to ask it to watch out for new RSS feeds from a particular site. If you have slack – try this out by adding our blog – simply enter the command below in the channel where you wish to receive the updates and press enter:

/feed instanttechnology.com.au/?feed=rss2

If you have client blogs you want to see regularly I suggest you add a channel called #clientblogs then use the feed command above to feed their blog into it.

If you’ve got files you regularly need access to access in slack – its as simple as pinning them to a channel. This way you can open the channel details and click on “Pinned Items” to see anything that has been pinned. However as mentioned above – you also have an incredibly powerful search in Slack which could probably find whatever file you want anyway.

Want to bring attention to something or someone in slack? Thats easy slack has two ways of doing this – if you want the attention of everyone that has joined a channel simply type @channel – click on the button that shows up then type your message and press enter. To gain the attention of a single user simply type @username and follow the same process.

What does Slack work on?

This has to be one of my favourite features of Slack – it works on a variety of platforms (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Linux, Mac, Windows, Web) and – it looks the same regardless of what device you are using.

So if you’re thinking about something to use other than email for communication be sure to check out Slack – remember a free version is available but I would say that you’ll love the product so much that you’ll be happy to pay for it.

If you want to know more about Slack reach out to me on Twitter or Facebook

April 28, 2016July 3, 2023

Using Snapchat

Why Use Snapchat?

Snapchat has had explosive growth and this month has become more important than Instagram in terms of engagement for youths. It is also edging very close to matching – if not exceeding Facebook’s video view count. So this means you have the ability to reach an incredibly large audience that is still growing in size.

So what can you do in snapchat?

Snapchat allows you to message 1 to 1 with users, send short videos to them or photos (snaps) in a 1 to many style or one of the most utilised features now being used by brands and individuals is “Stories”

What are Snapchat Stories

Snapchat stories allow you to create several photos or short videos (15 seconds per video) that can be added to your daily “Story” these snaps will exist in the snapchat platform for 24 hours – after that they disappear and can no longer be viewed. Many people praise this form of communication as it forces people to push incredibly “in the moment” content and is considered more real than some of the content that is being released on other platforms. If you want to see a really good example of someone utilising a snapchat story – add GaryVee (Gary Vaynerchuk) on snapchat and check out the content he posts day by day.

Using Snapchat Snaps, Videos and Stories

Something that seems to confuse people with snapchat when they first use it is the platform really takes advantage of the fact that it is on mobile devices – instead of having a bunch of buttons like most other apps do – when you open snapchat once you have signed in the first screen that you see if the screen that allows you to take a “snap” either as a still photo or you can hold your finger down on the record button to do a short video. Now once the video is complete you can easily add things to your snap by using the buttons that have now shown at the top of your snap – or, my favourite by swiping left or right. Once you’ve set your snap how you would like it you can either use the arrow button on the right to send it directly to certain people OR if you click the small square with a + button in it this will add the snap to your story. There’s a few more buttons that are on this screen but I encourage you to try them out for yourself to get used to snapping!

Using Snapchat for Messaging

As I mentioned above Snapchats interface isn’t totally driven by buttons for example, if you want to view different sections of the app try swiping left, right, down and up on different sections on the app. For example – if you wish to send a message directly to one of your contacts, swipe right on the main screen then you can use the magnifying glass to find the contact you wish to message, tap on them then type your message and hit the send button. Don’t forget as well you can still take photos or videos in this section and also add photos from your gallery.

A quick tip though – snapchat by default does not save any direct messages, if you view it and go out of that section of the app its gone. However a quick tip – if you wish to save a message, simply long press on the message and snapchat will save it for you. Note though – that this only works for text, videos and photos once viewed disappear. You can screenshot a photo or video in snapchat but it will notify the other user that you have done so.

Viewing Snapchat Stories & Other Content

From the mainscreen, instead of swiping right swipe left and this will show you at the top – your story, below that the discover tab, next down is Live and then recent updates is stories from any of your friends. To view anything on this page simply tap on the icon and you can begin viewing. The channels listed under Discover are sponsored content by businesses that snapchat have allowed, under Live you will generally find an event that Snapchat have curated based on snaps in that area and recent updates are as mentioned earlier – the people you have added as friends. If you want to stop viewing a story simply swipe down for the story to stop.

Gaining Snapchat Viewers

One thing that confuses people with Snapchat is there is no real built in “discovery method” for a new user to find other users. The way most people add people to snapchat is by using the Add from Address book function that will scan your phones numbers and check if the numbers match any snapchat users – you can then click on add friend. Once you have done this you can send direct snaps to that person – with snap stories however unless the user has their settings for allowing everyone to view stories you will not be able to see them unless they also add you back as a friend.

So what about beyond your phone contacts? Well this is where snapchat make it interesting – the little yellow ghost that you have on your profile when you sign in or that is on the add page if you use the snapchat web address (mine is here) functions basically the same as a QR code but is referred to as a “Snapcode”

On the Add friends section of Snapchat there is an option called “Add By Snapcode” – all you need to do is tap on this and then scan the code from a website, facebook, a screenshot pretty much anywhere it is available to add that person to your snapchat contacts. So if you want users to add you in snapchat beyond those that are in your phone already – you’ve got to revert to the old school method of telling people you are on snapchat by posting either your username, or even better your snapcode on all of your other social or communication platforms (for example, add it to your email signature! or add it as your snapcode as your facebook profile photo)

What content should I post on snapchat?

This is another thing that seems to perplex a lot of people, the content you post should be relevant to the message you are trying to convey or relevant to what you wish people to be engaging with you for. Above I mentioned Gary Vaynerchuk – he is renowned for growing businesses and social media – so what do you think his snap stories are about? They are about the places he is speaking at, business, social media and he also very successfully uses the platform to sell his books and to announce public meetups.

Create content that really showcases you and the industry that you are in. For example if you a retailer this could be a video of inside your shop, a story showing different products you may have on that day, don’t be afraid to talk directly into the camera to make it personal. Don’t feel like you’ve got to only show things your working on or related to business – remember that you are human to so create content of your day to show that you are in fact a real person e.g. if you go to a coffee shop to meet someone post a snap of the shop you are in or – better yet if you are talking to people in a bar take a snap that includes you talking to them.

Don’t be afraid to use Snapchat to sell your products – it’s an awesome platform for that.

The best part about snapchat is its really hard to fake something, you’ve got 15 seconds to do a video and it can’t be edited in a big way so you’ve really got to be good at engaging to make the platform work for you. Remember that if using stories though you can string a bunch of photos or videos one after the other.

GeoFilters

If you are using Snapchat make sure you have GPS enabled and you will be able to utilise GeoFilters. GeoFilters are basically an overlay of a graphic that shows an event or an area where you are in. Next time you take a Snap swipe until you can see a GeoFilter – you’ll be surprised where some exist. Be aware though that they are not available everywhere. Another thing that often gets overlooked is Snapchat also have “On-Demand” GeoFilters that can be created and purchased, this is great if you have an event you are running or a wedding for example where you would like a filter.

The filters that you see in most locations is considered a Community GeoFilter – that is it is submitted by anyone for use by everyone.

So What are You Waiting For?

Go and download snapchat!

iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/snapchat/id447188370?mt=8
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.snapchat.android&hl=en

Dont forget to add me by snapchat username: beaug-87 or by SnapCode

April 28, 2016July 3, 2023

A Crash Course in Twitter

All too often when I talk to people and ask are you on twitter you still surprisingly get the answer “I don’t understand it” I think this is partly because of the twitter news feed where people initially feel like they are just missing out on everything. So here’s a brief overview explaining a few concepts in twitter and how to make it work for you:

Twitter Handle

A twitter handle is simply the username that you decide to use for twitter, try and make it relevant to you or if you are a business your business name.

Following an Account

If you go to an account that you are interested in clicking “Follow” will then load any tweets that are sent from that user into your news feed. If you are new to twitter a really easy example to use is if you go to Triple j Plays twitter account: https://twitter.com/triplejplays – once you are here click on “Follow”. Now that you are following that account if you go back to your home page you will see tweets from them showing in your feed – this account I’ve used as an example because every time the radio station Triple J plays a song they tweet what it is so you will see your feed update with posts from them frequently

Engaging with Other Users

There are a few different ways to engage with other people on twitter – retweeting, replying, direct message or liking a post. In the picture below the buttons are as follows along the bottom from left to right:

Reply – Retweet – Like – Tweet Activity – Extended Menu (allows more sharing options)

So what does it all mean?

Reply

A reply is a simple reply that is in response to whatever tweet has been sent, this is a public response that everyone can see. When should you use a reply? If you want to engage with the person who has posted the content

Retweet

A retweet takes the original tweet and then reposts it to all of your followers. When should you use this? A retweet gives you two options after you press the button – retweet immediately (just press the blue retweet button) or retweet with comment (type your comment before pressing the blue retweet button) Retweets are useful if you are trying to bring greater awareness to the original tweet or if you feel that the audience that follows you on twitter should also see something that has showed up either in your feed or somewhere on twitter.

Direct Message

There are two ways to direct message someone number one is to go to the twitter account you which to DM and click the cog then go to “Send A Direct Message”. How is a direct message different to a reply? A direct message is directly between you and the user whereas a reply can be seen by any twitter user.

The other way is along the top of your twitter profile click messages then new message – note however that you will need to know the twitter handle of the person you wish to message using this method

#Hashtags

Here is an example of what hashtags aren’t for even though it is quite hilarious. So how should you use hashtags and how should you follow them?

First of all here is some examples of hashtags that are not that great and I’ll explain why:

#postmanthinksihaveaproblem #imgoingtothebeachtoday #stillstuckinthesameplace

The first issue with these hashtags is they are rather long, twitter only allows you to have 140 characters per tweet which is less characters than the original specifications for SMS so you effectively are wasting a lot of characters on something that will not gain you much attention on twitter. Why is this? If you are going to use a hashtag on twitter first search for the hashtag and see how many results come back. For example the #imgoingtothebeachtoday shows two tweets whereas the hashtag #beach shows multiple results – so which one do you think is more likely to be seen by other people? If you are going to use hashtags on posts nearly every time you are better off riding the wave instead of creating your own. Use short hashtags that are relevant to your content and search for existing hashtags always to make sure your content fits the current trends.

Now that you know some basics about posting using hashtags what about following along with one? Personally I have found Tweetdeck to be the best product for this, you simply do a search for a hashtag you wish to follow then add it as a column to your tweetdeck. This way as tweets occur using that hashtag, you’ll see them in that particular column. See the screenshot below for some examples. Here are a few hashtags you might like to follow and a great website that can be useful for finding out hashtag trends and definitions.

#auspol – used to keep track of political news in australia

#smallbiz – used for small business news

#iOS – used for any news related to apples iOS platform

And the website for hashtag trends and definitions: https://www.hashtags.org/

So why follow hashtags? Currently there is quite a trend where worldwide news is actually breaking via twitter through hashtags. An example of this in recent years was the MH370 missing plane, at the time when this event occurred if you followed #MH370 you would know updates to the story before any major news outlet picked up stories. This hashtag is acutally still actively used now – this really shows the power of using hashtags to group together content from an event.

This is by no means the number one guide to using twitter, but I hope for those of you that are slightly scared or “dont understand” the platform that it gives you some ideas on how to get started on the network.

Oh and don’t forget you can follow me on twitter

February 13, 2016July 3, 2023

Lakka on Raspberry Pi 2 with Dualshock4 Wireless Controller

After my last blog post I’ve had a few people contact me about whether the Playstation 4 Dualshock controller can be used. I started to research this and found that a lot of people were using them with a USB cable but I could not find anyone using them via bluetooth in Lakka – only people using them with complicated connection methods for RetroPie.

However – after doing some research this morning I’ve managed to pair and configure a Dualshock 4 controller via bluetooth with Lakka and a Raspberry Pi 2 – here’s how to do it:

Step 1:
SSH into the device using this command ssh root@IPADDRESS. The password you will need to connect is just root.

Step 2:
Start the program bluetoothctl

Step 3:
In bluetoothctl issue the following commands:
– discoverable on
– pairable on
– scan on

Step 4:
This is important, I had no idea of this as I don’t have a PS4 I simply borrowed the controller off a friend. To put the PS4 controller into Pair mode you need to press the Share button and the PS Home button together – the LED will then continuously flash indicating it is in pair mode

Step 5:
As with the Dualshock 3 instructions, watch the screen for device connection/announcement messages. It should say something like the message below

[NEW] Device D0:27:88:27:CB:CD D0-27-88-27-CB-CD

Once you see that, you can now use the connect command to connect and bind to the Mac address

connect MACADDRESSGOESHERE

After you issue this command, you will see a line that says Name: Wireless Controller – this name you need to write down, or screenshot/copy paste as we will need it later. See the screenshot below for what I am referring to.

Dont forget to issue the trust MACADDRESS command after you have a successful connection.

You should now see the controller has a solid light indicating it is connected and paired.

If you are like me you probably thought, great this will be exactly like the DS3, Lakka will just figure this out and autoconfigure. Well – unforunately it doesn’t.

Fortunately… there is a way to make it work – and it really isn’t that difficult – if you’ve been able to do the commands above and have a basic understanding of linux commands you should be able to get this all to happen.

First of all…

Why does the controller not autoconfigure? This took me a little bit of reading and cycling through the directory structure of Lakka to understand – but here’s the why.

In the retroarch.cfg file (/storage/.config/retroarch/retroarch.cfg) there is a setting joypad_autoconfig_dir that tells retroarch where to look for files that autoconfigure a controller when you plug it in/connect the controller via bluetooth. Currently in that directory there is no file that will link up to your bluetooth connected DS4 – so as far as Lakka is concerned it has no idea what you’ve connected and therefore will not try to autoconfigure the controller. The default location for the joypad autoconfigure files is /tmp/joypads

Do you remember how earlier I said make sure you record the line Name: from bluetootchctl ? If you didn’t start from the beginning of this post again because if you don’t have that theres no point proceeding on to the next steps.

Special Notes

OpenELEC that Lakka is built on has certain parts of the file system that are deliberately completely unable to be written to. Unfortunately the default joypad folder happens to be one of these places. Luckily there is a simple way around this.

Step 1:

Hold down Share and the PS Home button until the controller turns itself off i.e. the LED light goes out

Then…

Download this file Sony-PlayStation4-DualShock4-Controller-Bluetooth

Step 2:

For the sake of simplicity all I did was copied that file to the joypad directory that you can access by browsing the Lakka network shares from another computer – I’d suggest doing it the same way

Step 3:

We need to edit retroarch.cfg – now to do this you first need to stop the retroarch service. Refer to http://www.lakka.tv/doc/Configuring-Lakka/ as to how to do this. Once you have stopped the service move on to step 4

Step 4:

Now the service is stopped we can edit the file:

nano /storage/.config/retroarch/retroarch.cfg

The line we want to edit currently reads:

joypad_autoconfig_dir = “/tmp/joypads”

Edit this line so it says this:

joypad_autoconfig_dir = “/storage/joypads”

**Tip – in nano to find a word press Ctrl + W then type in the word you are looking for and press enter

Once the line has been edited press Ctrl + x – nano will warn you changes have been made – type y to confirm the changes, press enter and the file will be saved.

Step 5:

Restart retroarch by typing:

systemctl start retroarch

Step 6:

You should be back on the main Lakka Screen (the orange coloured one) all you should need to do now is press the PS Home button once and the controller should pair again, and then you should see a message saying that it has autoconfigured and you can now use the controller. The controller should also show its status light as a solid colour.

Step 7 (Here if Step 6 didn’t get your controller working and some special notes):

If you need autoconfiguration of other controllers make sure you copy the relevant files from /tmp/joypads to /storage/joypads – otherwise all you’ll be able to pair up or use is your DS4. For me I only have a DS3 and a DS4 paired so I just copied those files from the original directory.

If your controller still did not autoconfigure:

If you open up any of the autoconfigure files you will see the first line says:

input_device=”Some Controller Name”

Lakka uses that name to match up to the device you are using for autoconfigure. In my setup the controller when paired was simply called “Wireless Controller” (which is how the file your downloaded has been configured) – I’m not sure if this will be the same for everyone hence telling everyone to get this important detail from bluetoothctl.

If your controller does not autoconfigure make sure that you have edited the first line of the *.cfg file you downloaded earlier to match the name you got from bluetoothctl

For me the DS4 controller actually had force feedback whereas the DS3 did not so it was a nice extra feature. If your controller name was different if you could leave a comment to let me know what it is that would be great as we could pass that on to the Lakka development team so they can include these files in future releases.

I am using the following bluetooth adaptor (mentioned in my previous blog post is where to buy):

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)

I am running this version of Lakka:

Linux Lakka 4.1.13 #1 SMP Tue Dec 22 09:40:55 CET 2015 armv7l GNU/Linux

Here is a video showing me using both the PS3 and PS4 controllers in game on my setup