Archive for the ‘Advice’ Category

Ok, so this article might be a bit ‘technical’ for a blog that focusses on sales and marketing, but the subject affects pretty much every PC user, so we think it’s well worth highlighting.

We’re assuming that most of our readers know what a hard drive is (and what it does) but if not, you might want to take a quick look at the Wikipedia definition here.

Hard drives are something that we rarely tend to worry about… until they go wrong that is. If you’ve ever been unlucky enough to suffer from a hard drive failure, then you will know exactly how inconvenient this can be… at best temporarily preventing you from working, and at worst, losing months (or even years) worth of work… not to mention the hours spent trying to recover data, and the enormous cost to your business.

If hard drive failure hasn’t effected you already, there’s a good chance that you know someone who has suffered from it. If you’ve ever wondered why it can happen, it might be worth taking a look at the video below (which shows the inside workings of a hard drive in action).

Scary stuff isn’t it! With extremely delicate parts moving around so quickly, it’s perhaps unsurprising that things can go wrong!

Unfortunately there’s not much you can do to prevent hard drive failure, but there are a number of steps you can take to prepare for it. The expression “prevention is better than cure” is most apt here… and the best prevention is to back up your data regularly (ideally every day, but at least once a week).

It’s also worth ‘keeping an eye out’ for potential trouble, and whilst drives can (and do) fail without warning, there are a few symptoms worth looking out for:-

Computer won’t let you save a document
Frequent computer Crashes
Slow performance
Strange Noises

You can read about these in more detail at Lifehack.org

So if you haven’t done so already, now might be the time to back up your data… we’ll be posting some tips on this in a future article.

Image by a11sus

If you’re a smaller business looking to raise finance from an investor, it’s quite possible that you will need to prepare a PowerPoint presentation. If so, it might be worth taking a look at an article by Guy Kawasaki, a venture capitalist. As well as the easy to remember ‘10,20,30′ rule, the recommended ten slide structure seems like a really logical starting point for your presentation. The article is a couple of years old now, but still makes for an interesting read.

How to change the world

Travelling by air nowadays can be a bit of a nightmare. It’s not so much the flight itself, as the ‘pre-boarding drama’ at the airport. Just exactly how early should you arrive at the terminal? how many ‘carry on’ luggage items are acceptable? is taking liquids on-board still prohibited? and what are your rights if your flights are cancelled, overbooked, or delayed?

In the case of delayed or cancelled flights, some airlines don’t tend to be too proactive when it comes to explaining what you may be entitled to (at best, they may try and ‘palm you off’ with an upgrade on your next flight, at worst they might offer nothing at all).

At some time or other, most of us experience delays or cancellations. We recently experienced a cancelled flight ourselves… so we thought we’d do a bit of research. We were surprised to discover an organisation called the ‘Airport Transport Users Council’ (AUC). The AUC is affiliated to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It is the ‘UK’s consumer watchdog for the aviation industry‘ and offers tips and guidance for passengers. The AUC site also highlights a European directive (EC261/2004) which (unlike rulings on bendy bananas) would actually appear to be quite useful. By answering a number of questions, you can quickly and easily establish your rights, and whether you are entitled to any compensation.

AUC – Home page
AUC – Your rights if your flight is cancelled
AUC – Your rights as a passenger under EC261/2004

So whether you’ve never flown before, or you’ve stacked up thousands of frequent flyer miles, we recommend that you take a quick look at the site. If you’re really organised, you might want to print a copy of the directive keep it with your travel documents! That way, if your next flight doesn’t go to plan, you will be in a much stronger position… possibly even saving yourself from being ‘bumped’ off the flight by another passenger. At the very least, you can be reassured that the ‘know it all’ check-in counter assistant isn’t ‘getting one over on you.’

Happy travels!

The scenario
Clients often supply us with jpegs and bitmaps (such as company logos) for use in artwork. Unfortunately, there are some instances where we are unable to use these. It’s not us being awkward (honest!)… it’s all down to maths (apparently).

Vector vs Raster
Artwork created in a professional design package (such as Adobe Illustrator or Quark) is created using a mathematical relationship, so that no matter how much you enlarge it, the image remains consistent. The files created are technically known as vector graphics. Jpegs and bitmaps however use something called raster graphics (a collection of square pixels). When you enlarge these, the image suffers from ‘pixelation‘.

Raster and vector graphics tend to serve two different purposes. Raster graphics are often found in PowerPoint presentations and on websites. Their low quality and file size makes them ideal for this purpose. When it comes to print design however, there are very few instances (that we can think of anyway) where raster graphics are preferable to vector artwork. Here’s a quick (and very general) rule of thumb for when we can (and can’t) use those pesky jpegs:-

Rule of thumb

• We can generally use jpegs for websites and e-mails (where file size takes precedence over quality).
• In smaller print (eg. a small leaflet) we can sometimes use jpegs (subject to the file size and quality).
• In larger print (eg. a poster) it’s unlikely that we can use jpegs (but there are certain exceptions).
• In all instances, we will of course let you know which of your source files are suitable… so if in doubt, please ask!

What if I am unable to supply ’scalable vector’ artwork?
Dont’ worry, it’s not the end of the world! Many designs can be re-created from scratch, but please bear in mind that this will add cost (and time) to your project. The more complicated a design, the longer it will take to create (so it’s usually worth hunting down that CD with the original artwork!). We’ll discuss our preferred source file formats in another article… in the meantime If you would like any further guidance on the source files we require, please do not hesitate to contact us.