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Archive for June, 2006

Google Spreadsheets

June 13, 2006 By: Richard Category: Google 2 Comments →

Google spreadsheets image
Google spreadsheets are supposed to be launching today and you can take a tour of what they have to offer right here.

This online spreadsheet program is compatible with CSV (Comma Separated Values) and XLS file formats. XLS being the microsoft format.

Features include:

  • Number change formats
  • Sorting by columns
  • Formulas
  • Uploading your own spreadsheets
  • Keeps your own formulas intact
  • A host of formatting facilities
  • Collaborate online with other users you choose
  • Secure online storage
  • Save and export

Google also have a word processor at www.writely.com

Looks like Microsoft have a competitor for their new online Web services - Office Live.

What appeals to me is savings on ‘office’ software and Web accessibility from ‘anywhere’. In theory anyway, and subject to any security issues.

Interesting times.

Death of the Sales Call?

June 13, 2006 By: Richard Category: General No Comments →

Seth Godin has hit the nail on the head again. I so totally relate to the effects this type of interuption marketing has on any time-challenged businessman.

I probably get at least two calls a day from telecoms companies (the unenlightened ones) asking me if I want to save money on my BT account. I haven’t had a BT account for more than five years!

So perhaps you can understand how angry and frustrated these people make me - and they’re so thick. I used to tell them right at the beginning of the call, “I don’t have a BT line, I’m on NTL”. But do they listen? I’ve asked them to remove me from their databases. Thay say, “Yes”. Do they? No. You’d have thought they would, bearing in mind it would mean they could make additional calls to other prospects, but no, this has never occurred to them.

Now I either place the phone down on the desk and carry on working, or let them talk at me, making the occasional acquiescent noise until I decide to inform them I don’t have a BT line.

The one thing I can’t afford to do is sense it’s a sales call and immediately wish them a hasty goodbye, because I did that many years ago and it turned out to be a prospective client who rightly got upset and terminated the call.

It seems there is no satisfactory way of dealing with these unwanted calls in order to minimise wasted time. So if any of you have any bright ideas for dealing with these sales dinosaurs I’d love to hear from you.

Apologies for the bug (and Iomart again)

June 12, 2006 By: Richard Category: Blogging No Comments →

Don’t know if you’ve spotted it, but there’s a trackback link to a blog that commented on my "Iomart Aniversary" post and it displays after the last post and not after said "Aniversary" post.

I would have done some debugging, but I’ll be changing from Blogger to Wordpress blogging software very shortly. :)

Really must respond to the "UfindUs" post, because the author actually has the answer to the Iomart issues right there in his response. And reading between the lines he seems to be on the customer’s side.