Ahoy there you scurvy dogs

Thanks Frank for the reminder about Talk Like a Pirate Day I'll mix my previous career as a salty sea dog (9 years in the RAN, 7 years at Sea) so it will be a day of Goffas and Maccas, I might go to the Takeaway for the closest thing to SCRAN as I can muster.

BUT...

Best of all Catie (my 3yo Daughter) and I will take a break from singing the once more with feeling sound track on the way to day care and swap it for these too gems...

Best I get ready for my Jackstay transfer from the Study to the Bedroom. So we'll blow the man up, bullies, blow the man down, Way, hay, blow the man down. Wid a crew o'hard cases from Liverpool town. Gives us some time to blow the man down.

The Maid of Amsterdam

1. In Amsterdam there dwells a maid, Mark well what I do say;

In Amsterdam there dwells a maid, And she is mistress of her trade.

Her eyes are blue, her cheeks are red, Mark well what I do say;

Her eyes are blue, her cheeks are red, A wealth of hair is on her head.

Chorus:

A-roving, a-roving, Since roving's been my ruin,

I'll go no more a-roving With you, fair maid!

2. I put my arm around her waist, Mark well what I do say;

I put my arm around her waist, Says she, "Young man, you're in some haste."

I took that girl upon my knee, Mark well what I do say,

I took that girl upon my knee, Says she, "Young man, you're rather free."

Chorus:

3. She swore that she'd be true to me, Mark well what I do say,

She swore that she'd be true to me, But spent my money both fast and free.

I'll go no more a-roving With you, fair maid,

Since roving's been my ruin, I'll go no more

Chorus:

Donkey Riding

1. Were you ever in Quebec, stowing timber on the deck?

Where there's a king with a golden crown Riding on a donkey.

Chorus: Hey ho, away we go, donkey riding, donkey riding

Hey ho, away we go, riding on a donkey.

2. Were you ever off the Horn, where it's always nice & warm?

Seen the lion & the unicorn, Riding on a donkey. Chorus

3. Were you ever in Cardiff Bay, where the folks all shout hooray?

Here comes John with his 3 months pay, Riding on a donkey. Chorus

This plan is lunarcy - Security - Technology - smh.com.au

Now I thought my customers had big expectations for their offsite requirements. Check this out.

IF YOU think your organisation is savvy because it has an offsite data warehouse, spare a thought for William Burrows' plan to store life's blueprints - on the moon.

The journalism professor and former New York Times' space reporter's dream to back up the world's DNA to a site on the lunar surface would read like science fiction if it wasn't for the fact that the general idea is supported by the likes of Stephen Hawking, five Scandinavian prime ministers and a British group compiling a genetic database of endangered species.

Mr Burrows devised the disaster plan with Robert Shapiro, professor emeritus and senior research scientist in biochemistry at New York University, in the 1999 book A Lunar Sanctuary. From there, they formed the Alliance to Rescue Civilisation (http://arc-space.org), which has attracted scientists and thinkers.

So that would be quite some DR project, how do we keep the DR Site up to date? What are our RPO and RTO? I'm thinking the replication across the wide area might be a little behind during high rate of change situations. A job for DFSR perhaps?

Source: This plan is lunarcy - Security - Technology - smh.com.au

An incentive scheme for Synergistic? Could we borrow this idea from this weeks My Business Episode?

David Koch the finance dude and co-presenter of Sevens Sunrise programe has a weekend show called "My Business" while he can be a zoober head sometimes I quite like him generally. So I watch the show even though Mel and Nat are not there to moderate him.

This week there was a bit about Red Baron a scenic and aerobatic joy flight business. The one thing that really stayed with me was how to keep contractors with you when they could work for almost anyone. I wonder what we can do with local IT Pros to help grow the commercial business I just don't have time to work on or in.

Here is what Julia Bickerstaff came up with...

Joel is really happy with his team of pilots who are contracted and paid per flying hour as well as for briefings on the ground.  He believes they could easily work anywhere and doesn’t want to lose them as the success of the flying school depends upon them.  He also knows that if they’re happy they’ll help promote the school but as a new business owner he can’t afford to pay exorbitant salaries.  Our finance expert Julia Bickerstaff gave Joel some tips on incentivising employees.

Julia Bickerstaff: finance Top Gun

• Phantom share schemes work by giving a notional small percentage share of the business to each instructor.  At the end of a given period of time, each instructor will be paid as a cash bonus the difference between what those shares are worth at the start and the end of the period.
• To set up a phantom share scheme you need to work out the way you’re going to value the business and use this method at all stages of calculating incentives. 
• A share scheme like this can be used where traditional bonus methods are difficult to implement.  For example, sales staff will often have key performance indicators based on number and value of new sales.  What instructors do may not result directly in sales, so it may be better to have some employees on a performance-based incentive scheme and others on a phantom share scheme.

Source: Sept 3rd > My Business TV - Red Baron

An incentive scheme for Synergistic? Could we borrow this idea from this weeks My Business Episode?

David Koch the finance dude and co-presenter of Sevens Sunrise programe has a weekend show called "My Business" while he can be a zoober head sometimes I quite like him generally. So I watch the show even though Mel and Nat are not there to moderate him.

This week there was a bit about Red Baron a scenic and aerobatic joy flight business. The one thing that really stayed with me was how to keep contractors with you when they could work for almost anyone. I wonder what we can do with local IT Pros to help grow the commercial business I just don't have time to work on or in.

Here is what Julia Bickerstaff came up with...

Joel is really happy with his team of pilots who are contracted and paid per flying hour as well as for briefings on the ground.  He believes they could easily work anywhere and doesn’t want to lose them as the success of the flying school depends upon them.  He also knows that if they’re happy they’ll help promote the school but as a new business owner he can’t afford to pay exorbitant salaries.  Our finance expert Julia Bickerstaff gave Joel some tips on incentivising employees.

Julia Bickerstaff: finance Top Gun

• Phantom share schemes work by giving a notional small percentage share of the business to each instructor.  At the end of a given period of time, each instructor will be paid as a cash bonus the difference between what those shares are worth at the start and the end of the period.
• To set up a phantom share scheme you need to work out the way you’re going to value the business and use this method at all stages of calculating incentives. 
• A share scheme like this can be used where traditional bonus methods are difficult to implement.  For example, sales staff will often have key performance indicators based on number and value of new sales.  What instructors do may not result directly in sales, so it may be better to have some employees on a performance-based incentive scheme and others on a phantom share scheme.

Source: Sept 3rd > My Business TV - Red Baron

Pay It Forward Foundation

So I was channel surfing tonight and found the end of a movie that had Helen Hunt and that kid from the Sixth Sense and AI (I really like Helen Hunt, in a different way to Meg Ryan but I digress) any way it is called "Pay it forward" is this what we are trying to do with the User Groups we run, where else can I apply this principle?

The Pay it forward foundation may be worth a look here is what it is about now I've only just seen it so expect to hear more from me on this.

Reuben St. Clair, the teacher and protagonist in the book “Pay It Forward,” starts a movement with this voluntary, extra-credit assignment: THINK OF AN IDEA FOR WORLD CHANGE, AND PUT IT INTO ACTION. Trevor, the 12-year-old hero of “Pay It Forward,” thinks of quite an idea. He describes it to his mother and teacher this way: "You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to Pay It Forward. To three more people. Each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven." He turned on the calculator, punched in a few numbers. "Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?"