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Climate change has had quite an effect on the management at UKFast recently. April became a month of spring cleaning and development in order to head into the summer months with the most robust network possible. Find out more of what has been going on in April @ UKFast below. We're also gearing up our podcasting studio and so I've looked into the reasons why your business should get vocal this month. We've got some open source updates on the way and the top ten is a great selection of the web's best business podcasts. Before we dig in, can I wish everyone a restful (or prosperous, for those working) bank holiday weekend. See you on the other side. |
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April @ UKFast - Prepping for May Madness
We’ve been listening to all your feedback over the last few months and the Development team has been concentrating on revolutionising the Reseller area and the domain name search system. Usability is the key, so we’ve introduced tabbed navigation amongst other innovations. Our offshore clients (a growing breed!) are also receiving special treatment, with a dedicated accounts system this month. The Network itself has been bolstered with further bandwidth upgrades to the London-Manchester pipes. Spring madness has also driven us to upgrade all our shared Linux servers, offering more capability to those enjoying their communal benefits for years to come. We’re busy as ever with our sponsorships this month. And it’s all good news. The Airwaves-Ducati team are definitely the superbikes to beat this year. Gregorio Lavilla and Leon Haslam are currently first and second in the championship after three rounds and in Rugby Union, the Sharks are still 5 points clear of the pack with only a couple of games left this season. We wish them all the best for the last home game of the scheduled season this Friday as they take on Bath at Edgeley Park. Following hot on its heels we are sticking in the capital as lead sponsor of the Blogging, Podcasting and RSS conference - Delivering the New PR. Aimed at Communications specialists across the business and public sectors, the event teams us up with the University of Sunderland as well as bloggers and podcasters from the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and the US to discuss these new methods of communication and their affect on every business. If you’d like to come along then email me and I will put you in touch with the event organisers. And finally, the UKFast blog has given birth! Having given the opportunity to a number of staff to contribute to the blog we have discovered an excellent tech blog to accompany our business blog and senior developer, Chris Norton will be putting his uncannily sly tech slant on the world a couple of times each week at www.ukfastblog.co.uk so why not subscribe to our feed and join us each day for a few minutes. Visit UKFast at the exhibition
For FREE tickets to the exbibition, sign up online now!  For once, the updates are Open Source
The warning from the agency within the Department of Homeland Security said failing to use the latest versions would leave computers open to malware that could enable an attacker to commandeer a PC. US-CERT said some of the vulnerabilities involved the way Firefox and Thunderbird handle URLs or images. So this week’s tip is about reducing the risk to your computer by unknown sources. Mozilla has updated Firefox to patch two-dozen vulnerabilities, most of them critical. So head over to the Mozilla website to get Firefox 1.5.0.2 Mozilla also has released fixes for Thunderbird and for the Sea Monkey browser suite, which is the replacement for the now-defunct Mozilla suite. If you’re interested in finding out more about Sea Monkey then now’s your chance! If you’re new to Mozilla – then this is also a good opportunity to get acquainted with a set of Internet solutions that rival Microsoft’s best. Vote for UKFast
Trade Shows in a virtual world – part 1 With Internet World just around the corner it seems timely to look at the opportunities presented by this traditional form of marketing. In part one of this Marketing Minute we’ll look at why it is important for UKFast to play a major part in Internet World and next month, in part 2, we will have a retrospective to assess the success of the show. It’s with a sense of irony that the UK’s top providers of Internet solutions are all gathering together under one roof to promote an industry that reduces the very effectiveness of trade shows. However, the importance of being there lies within this paradox. As quickly as the Internet improves global communication and reach, it reduces human contact. And this means we work in an industry where our clients never actually have to meet us. For the majority of us, if we are going to enter into an important partnership with someone where communication is likely to take place only by email or telephone, we want to be doubly sure that we are choosing the right partner. We have to very quickly develop a sense of trust, which is often difficult at a distance. Internet World is an important opportunity for UKFast to promote the relationship building side of the company, the human face in a faceless industry. With more than 5000 delegates already signed up to the show, we will be looking to introduce the people behind the solutions to each and every one of them. Our strategy for attracting visitors is still under wraps, but I can tell you that we will be drawing on our sporting affiliations along with a whole host of other surprises. I will talk about each one next month and we’ll look at their effectiveness, individually and as a collective approach. Spotlight on the MD – Just for once! This week, Lawrence Jones + UKFast had the honour of being the Manchester Evening News Business Profile. So, I thought this might be a good opportunity for you all to find out a little more about the man at the helm over here. MEN’s Chris Barry spent an afternoon with Lawrence, discussing everything from Chorister school right through to clustering! Take a look at the PDF for the end result. And as well as reading about him, you can now listen to him on this week’s podcast.
You may well have just downloaded the UKFast podcast – so this feature feels very timely. We also touched on podcasting a few months ago in the Hot Topic, but it’s amazing how quickly a new innovation moves in this industry. Not surprisingly, the broadcasters and media moguls have picked up on it most fervently. The vast majority of the podcasts available on iTunes are from BBC Radio as well as other music stations and media outlets such as the Guardian. However, we are now seeing an emergence of podcasting amongst brands and before long the business community is going to be downloading these personalised radio shows in the same way that we check our email every morning. But what’s even more potent is the way that podcasts are designed to be downloaded to iPod’s and other mp3 players, which means that wherever you are, you can be listening to your favourite business casts. Before too long, managing directors will research their days meetings by listening to their visitor’s latest podcasts. Business casts in the US are already very popular. In the UK, Honda is the first big brand company to be developing a regular podcast – but many more are sure to follow. Nike has already made a big impression on the form with its sports podcasts, while the UK based Runners World has got involved by providing informative podcasts from British Athletes about the Flora London Marathon. At UKFast, we are very interested in developing a community of business podcasts and would love as many of you as possible to get involved. We’d like the UKFast cast to become an important information and discussion forum for businesses on the Net and by working with you we can offer your company publicity that will reach a global market, in a form that is easily accessible, automatic and convenient for your audience. I’d love to hear from any of you interested in getting involved. Email me your thoughts and we can take it from there. Jonathan.bowers@ukfast.net Podcast Alley is one of the best places to find out more about the podcasts available for download and it has clear and concise Business section. Here is the sites current top ten business podcasts: 8. The Cranky Middle Manager Show 7. KarmaBanque Radio 6. Mad Money Machine 5. The M Show 4. For Immediate Release 3. The SalesRoundup Podcast 2. Killer Innovations 1. Manager Tools Just before we go, I’d like to wish the Sale Sharks the very best of luck for their final home game of the season tonight. The boys take on Bath at Edgeley park and a 5 point win will see us sit at the top of the table for the semi-finals. We’re just a few steps from the Premiership trophy now!! Best wishes,
For more information on the range of UKFast products and services go to http://www.ukfast.net/index.html 
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The UKFast spring clean was ambitiously set for completion before the heady month of May. And we’ve just about done it!
Last month our techie tip was about Mozilla’s Thunderbird. Since then, the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team has advised people to upgrade to the latest versions of the Firefox Web browser and the Thunderbird email program in order to plug numerous critical security holes.
- Business podcasts
