My Technology Addictions

Enviro Health Manager

We were all told that as technology advanced we would have more leisure time, time to spend with loved ones and pursuing our recreational desires. So why do I now find that I need a 10 day week so that I can get through all my work and still end up working most weekend?

Well in my case I can’t really blame anyone else for my need of more days in the week or working through the weekend. I have been in the last stages of software development for the Mobile Audits program that I have developed in my business About Data to be used by Environmental Health Officers of Local Governments.

This enables them to complete audits of Food Premises, Lodging Houses, Public Buildings and General Premises all through a PDA. The information is collected in the field and then on return to the office the PDA is connected to the desktop computer and then all data is synchronized to a SQL Server database.

My business partner Sandra Morley from Sanmor Computing has developed the desktop component of the software. The Enviro Health Manager system that is on the desktop is very complex and includes, Health Notice, Pest Management, Unit Cost and Waste Management.

The software with the PDA component has been tested in the field by the City of Kalgoorlie Boulder over the past two years.

On October 4th and 5th we visited the City of Kalgoorlie Boulder and installed the latest version of the software. It has been upgraded to now include:

: Property based data

: SQL Server data file

: PDA component to manage in the field audits

: Proprietor/manager signature capture

: Fully compliant with the new legislation

: Health Notice, Pest Management, Unit Cost and Waste Management

: Onsite Training

: Ability to integrate the EHM application with LGA’s financial management system

It has been a massive project, and we encountered several hurdles but in the end we have come through it all with a solid product that allows Local Government to manage their data in an efficient and effective manner.

So now all the hard work is done we are on the marketing trail, flyer’s have been produced and are in the process of being sent to all Local Governments in Western Australia. This will be followed by information packs to be delivered in early 2008.

So now you know why I haven’t been around online, and may not be around much in the nest few months. I will now start working on Swimming Pool audits and the list goes on, but I do really enjoy my work so it is all worth it in the long run.

Running out of Time - 1 weeks tasks - Done

Unexpected work commitments has propelled my into a state of feeling like I am chasing my tail and defiantly running out of time to get my blog tasks completed.

A run down of the tasks for days 8 - 14 include a few things that I have already done.

Day 8 - Comment on a Blog You’ve Never Commented On Before just being part of this challenge has seen me visit lots of different blogs and leave comments. - Done
Day 9 - Run an Advertising Audit On Your Blog Not relevant to this blog - Done

Day 10 - Declutter Your Sidebar As I have worked through the different tasks in this challenge I have been constantly changing the look and functionality of my blog. I made a lot of changes after the First Time Reader Audit and have removed several widgets from my sidebar since then. I like the clean lines of this template, what do you think? should I add more sidebar functions? - Done and continuing.

Day 11 - Dig into Your Blog’s Statistics This has been a fun thing to look at - my statistics. If it wasn’t for you coming to read my blog there wouldn’t be any statistics to look at. As the saying goes a picture paints a thousand words. Unlike Sue I added Google Analytics a few weeks ago and use this along with Sitemeter and Statcounter. They all seem to give a different view of visits and when I get more time will probably cut these down to just two. AS you can see from the image of my stats below, from being involved in the 31 Days to a better blog project I have gone from 0, 1 visits a day to a whopping 95 visits and 200+ page views. This was very exciting, especially with a blog that has only been going for 5 months. So thanks for visiting - Done

Day 12 - Introduce Yourself to another Blogger Over the past 12 days I have introduced myself to many other blogger’s. Both through people involved in the 31 day challenge and also twitter and my del.icio.us links. - Done

Day 13 - Search for an Affiliate Program that Fits Your Blog - Doesn’t fit with my blog type - Done

Day 14 - Analyze Your Blog’s Competition - I looked at this task as a way of finding other blogs that cover a similar field to me. This is an on going process and one of my biggest “Competitors” would have to be Sue - friendly competitors. The wealth of information on Sue’s blog is testament to her dedication in seeking information and passing it onto others. I like using Digg Google Blog Search but most of the time I wander from one article to another on different blogs. I would be interested to hear how you find articles and blog that you are interested in? - Done

Even though some of these task are not relevant to the way that I am using my blog I have added them to this article and provided a link to Darren’s original post in the hope that it may help some visitors and you never know maybe one day I will need this information also.

miniLegends Join the challenge

Today we welcome the newest members to the 31Days to a Better Blog Chocolate Challenge. I met Al Upton through Sue on twitter and we have been trying to encourage him to join the challenge and last night he and his class the miniLegends did. The miniLegends are Year 3 students - 9 year olds from South Australia. It is the first class to join the challenge and Al did note on the blog that chocolate was definitely a motivation. I wish them good luck and hope they have as much fun as I am. We hade better watch out for this lot they have 30+ years start on us. Wow that sounds a lot doesn’t it!!

I have visited their blog and already learnt something that I didn’t know before. I read the post about googlepages and went and investigated. What a fabulous service free web pages that allow you to upload 100mb!!!  You need a Google account and then it is simply a matter of going to Google Page Creator and it took me about five minutes to create a simple page. This would be great for on the fly work, notes for students or even meeting minutes. I think I could even use it as a message board for my kids if I needed. A Great simple tool with 100’s of uses I am sure. I would love to here if you are using it.

Plan Your Next Week’s Posting Schedule

The task for day 7 is to plan my posts for the next week, this would assume that I actually knew what I would be writing about before creating a new post. Some people think that I am really well organised and have things planned out so I can fit everything in and get my family organised and where they should all be when they should be there. Then there are the people who really know me like family and close friends who know that I am not really very organised at all. I get everything done, usually at the last minute but it is finished in time.

Not a good example to my kids especially when getting them to try and organise their study time better. But over the last 6 months or so I have come to the conclusion that this is what I am like and how I work best. I am going to live my life how I want and not worry about how other people see me. This can be very liberating when we come to this sort of conclusion.

So I may have written a post about planning next weeks posting schedule but it is not something I will be undertaking. I would just change the schedule anyway and as I said in my About Me page it is all a matter of when it suits I will post, if family or work commitments get in the way then so be it.

Email an Old Timer Reader

I am now about a week behind posting about my 31 Days to a Better Blog tasks but have been quietly getting them done in the background. This blog is reasonably new and has not hade many visitors (until recently) so the task of emailing an old time reader was not to difficult to under take.  Sue is my longest and most supportive reader so this is who I have sent an email to thanking her for her continued support and encouragement. Sue was the one who encouraged (nagged) me to become more involved in the online communities and create a blog and it has been a wonderful learning experience. Thanks to all who have come and visited and left comments, it is great to know that others are reading what I have written.