StanShinn.com » Reflection

The Co-operative Bank’s Focus on Ethics

Stan Shinn — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:02:31 +0000

Here is an interesting twist — a Bank whose marketing value proposition is “ethics.” The bank is called The Co-operative Bank.They have features including a card that offers 0% on purchases and balance transfers for six months. Another option is a card that earns money for your chosen organization as you make charges to your card.

All in all they have a variety of credit cards for just about any need.Their ethics are their key differentiator though. Looking at some of their statements, they make comments such as:

We believe our commitment to championing ethical values of our customers and supporting communities is unique. From our customer-led Ethical Policy to our heritage in the Co-operative movement, there’s no other organisation quite like us.

Back in 1992, we were the first bank in the world to introduce a customer-led Ethical Policy. 15 years on and we’re still the only UK high street bank with a customer-led Ethical Policy. Take a look at some of our achievements over the past 15 years, and find out why, when it comes to making a positive difference, we’re still leading the way.

Another example of one of their ethical actions:

We believe in taking action against climate change. Since 1998 we have not invested in any business involved in the extraction or production of fossil fuels. This is just one aspect of our Ethical Policy.

Read more about this bank with the innovative focus on ethics at their web site.

Use Taskbin.com For Group Tasks Without Deadlines

Stan Shinn — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:02:35 +0000

This new Web 2.0 app shows promise. Taskbin is a collaboration tool that allows you to share and manage to-do lists among groups. You can flag tasks in order of urgency to prioritize and write notes for yourself or share them with group members.

Unlike other project management tools, TaskBin doesn’t force you to enter deadlines. It’s a simple list manager that gives an unlimited amount of users a lot of flexibility for getting things done.

Check it out at Taskbin.com

SilverStripe Open Source CMS Has Google Support

Stan Shinn — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:13:34 +0000

Want an open-source, free CMS? Low-end CMS’s like WordPress are proliferating; high-end CMS’s like Alfresco are also available. What about the middle?

Content Management Systems (CMS) aren’t the most sexiest applications in the world. When you think CMS, you probably think Vignette, Interwoven or a similar enterprise-level product. Those systems are usually bulky and difficult to use. At the other end of the spectrum are blogging platforms, such as Movable Type or Wordpress, which are renown for being fairly lightweight and easy to use - but often they lack the high-end functionality required in a CMS (content approval process, version control, reporting, etc).

In the middle of this spectrum (Enterprise CMS — Blog Platform) lies SilverStripe, an open source CMS system developed by a small company out of Wellington, New Zealand. It has a simple web interface and was built using PHP5, an alternative developer framework to the more hyped web 2.0 framework Ruby on Rails. SilverStripe was recently named as one of 5 finalists in the Most Promising Open Source CMS Award, part of the 2007 Open Source CMS Awards held by Packt Publishing. Source

Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine

Stan Shinn — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 18:05:12 +0000

Google’s Algorithm now includes more than 200 components to its “secret sauce”:

Mr. Singhal has developed a far more elaborate system for ranking pages, which involves more than 200 types of information, or what Google calls “signals.” PageRank is but one signal. Some signals are on Web pages — like words, links, images and so on. Some are drawn from the history of how pages have changed over time. Some signals are data patterns uncovered in the trillions of searches that Google has handled over the years.

“The data we have is pushing the state of the art,” Mr. Singhal says. “We see all the links going to a page, how the content is changing on the page over time.”

Read full article at the New York Times

BlackBerry 8703e Tips

Stan Shinn — Fri, 18 May 2007 20:13:33 +0000

Recently got a Blackberry 8703e and it rocks! New to a Blackberry? Here’s one thing you’ll want to change. If your deleted messages don’t sync up with Exchange, do this:

In ‘messages’, select:
Messages Options > Email Reconciliation > Delete On > Change Option > Mailbox & Handheld

Here are some other shortcut keys you’ll want to know:

Phone

To call a speed dial number, hold an assigned letter key.
To dial the last number that you typed, press the Space key and press the Enter key.
To assign speed dial to a letter, hold a letter key. Type a number.
To call your voice mail access number, hold 1.
To change the volume during a call, roll the trackwheel.

Reset

To reset your handheld, press the Alt key and the Shift key and the Backspace key.

Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts

Stan Shinn — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 12:56:52 +0000

Google recently added new shortcuts to Gmail:

m - Mute

Archives the conversation, and all future messages skip the Inbox unless sent or cc’d directly to you. Learn more.

u - Return to conversation list

Refreshes your page and returns you to the inbox, or list of conversations.

y then o - Archive and next

Archive your conversation and move to the next one.

Pasta, Meatballs and Credit Card Theft

Stan Shinn — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:36:33 +0000

People are always asking me if it is safe to use your credit card on the Internet. Finally a stat that shows where the REAL security threat resides:

The most common place for credit card information to be stolen is at a restaurant, according to Visa.

The credit card company, which constantly monitors cardholder transactions and data for fraud, has determined that 40 percent of all credit card theft occurs at dining locations — more than at any other type of merchant. source

Agility to Adapt

Stan Shinn — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 23:11:31 +0000

Technology evolves quickly. Within six or nine months of a project delivery, the market may produce entirely new platforms radically altering your build-vs.-buy decisions. Delivering solutions in 30 to 90 day cycles enables regular reassessment of business assumptions.

Projects spanning nine months or more tend to be inflexible. Most project managers are not interested in reworking the base assumptions of an elaborately crafted massive project plan. By contrast, web solutions that are delivered in 30 to 90 day life cycles allow a business to quickly change course and take advantage of newly released technology solutions.

Remain competitive by delivering with web speed in an ever-changing market.

IBackup for Online Storage

Stan Shinn — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:59:24 +0000

IBackup is an application that can perform interactive and scheduled backups of your critical files to an online backup account. I particularly like it in that it has Windows, Mac, and Linux versions, making it one of the few such solutions on the market. It has easy to use native graphical user interface which allows you to transfer your files. The interface supports drag and drop to retrieve or backup your files.

First time users can use an automatic selection, restore and scheduler wizard to easily manage their file backups.

There is an option to receive email notification for your scheduled backups.

Read more about IBackup - Online Backup and Storage

ScrubIT

Stan Shinn — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:31:45 +0000

It’s about time. Want to protect your family against harmful web sites? Now comes this FREE tool to do just that — blocking unwanted sites at the DNS level. I recommend trying this service, and if possible, making this change at your home router level so that your children cannot hack this service.

ScrubIT is a FREE recursive DNS server that regulates what comes into your home or business. ScrubIT “scrubs” the internet so you don’t have to be concerned about what your family members or employees will be confronted with.

We currently profile several million websites and by default block out any pornographic, phishing, and many other potentially harmful sites.