by Michael Best | Feb 22, 2024 | General interest
In a recent article in a prominent industry magazine, a writer offered advice that I need to take issue with. As usual, there’s nothing to be gained by naming the magazine or the writer, not so much because it might come across as unnecessarily confrontational but also because my criticism is of what was written and published, not who wrote and published it.
The article made sense to a point in that it suggested that sharing ideas, frustrations, and problems with other business owners could be helpful and might lead to creating a supportive network. The problem is that he meant other members of the industry. On the face of it, it sounds all nice and friendly in a holding-hands-and-singing-kumbaya kind of way. I would however remind you that these people you’re being urged to share everything with are competitors.These are the same competitors who undercut your pricing to lure your customers away and would gladly hire your best staff members given half a chance.
So how much do you want to share? Do you really want to risk giving away a competitive advantage by telling all? I’ve never understood businesses that discover a process or product that gives them a competitive advantage and then go public with the details. Why would you risk a competitive advantage all for a bit of publicity?
It of course makes sense to share and consult but, for goodness sake, do it with informed, trustworthy people who have no interest in competing with you: that would almost definitely not include competitors..
by Michael Best | Feb 19, 2024 | General interest
RGCS of Edinburgh has reported in their newsletter that Apple IPhone users are being urged to use a new feature called ‘Stolen Device Protection’ which was rolled out in a recent update to IOS.
You should take notice of this if you use an iPhone or if your employees use iPhones, whether you supply them or not. It can help prevent someone who has stolen your device and knows your passcode from gaining access and using it. It’s designed to provide additional security when your iPhone is away from familiar locations that you designate, such home and work. The feature protects by factors such as security delay and the need to authenticate by Face ID or Touch ID before certain actions can be taken on the device.
It’s an opt-in feature that can be turned on in Settings. It however requires the use of two-factor authentication for your Apple ID and setting up or enabling: a device passcode; Face ID or Touch ID; Find MY; and Significant Locations.
by Michael Best | Feb 15, 2024 | General interest
I believe that it was Zig Ziglar (1926 – 2012) who talked about working on your business rather than working in your business. He was making the point in the context of growing a business. More recently, I re-read an article I’d kept on file in which the same on-your-business-not-in-your-business point was raised in the context of a textile screen printing shop.
The article started out being about a shop with a printing probelm.They were dealing with a deadline order to print in white on burgundy nylon running shorts that they discovered were actually polyester shorts when the dye bled into the print. This led to to a closer examination of why this was allowed to happen and how the shop was being run. A list of management problems were unearthed in the process:
- A production manager running the press, leaving nobody to manage the production or run the shop.
- A poor screen-coating technique.
- A high temperature in the shop at around 49 Celsius.
- Accepting the job with too tight a deadline with no time allowed for dealing with problems.
- No standard operating procedure for minimizing problems.
- Poorly trained production staff.
Unfortunately, this is quite common in the industry. How does your shop stack up against this list of management problems? is someone managing to prevent crises?
by Michael Best | Feb 12, 2024 | General interest
I recently had my website developer install Wordfence, a website security service for WordPress sites. We’re trying out the free version at the moment on an e-commerce website I own and I’ve just received the first weekly report. To say that it was an eye opener would be to understate it’s impact.
The report on attacks from numbers of IPs, originating countries, and failed logins that Wordfence blocked and listed was astounding—they numbered in the hundreds. I would never have guessed the extent of nefarious activity out there. I asked our website host what the impact of this activity would have been before we engaged Wordfence. “Nothing, the sites we host are “hardened” which means that we lock down security. What Wordfence does that we cannot do as quickly, is stop attacks on plugins in which someone has found a vulnerability. WordPress plugin exploits are the number one way sites get hacked.”
But it was the answer to my question about why there had been 165 failed attempts to log in using my name and hundreds using speculative usernames like “admin”, “test”, “guest”, “username”, “123456789”, and others. “That is people trying to guess the passwords for the accounts. This is common and why passwords should be complex.”
So, I’ve changed my attitude to complex passwords. I’ve resolved to stop regarding them as a nuisance and to make sure that I follow the advice about changing passwords regularly and making them as random, unpredictable, and complex as possible. I urge you to as well. And perhaps consider a website security service—it’s rough out there in cyberspace.
by Michael Best | Feb 8, 2024 | General interest
So, the glitter and microplastic issue continues!
A few months ago I contacted the textile and apparel editor of a prominent printing industry online magazine and explained my quest to persuade textile screen printers to stop using glitter. She agreed to publish an article on the topic. I considered such an article about the glitter and microplastic problem in a prominent industry magazine a breakthrough, especially as another industry magazine chooses to turn a blind eye and still irresponsibly publishes articles promoting glitter prints.
The article was published. Unfortunately, it did little for my quest though and was actually disappointing for three main reasons.
First disappointment: After accurately listing the ecological problems associated with traditional aluminum and plastic glitter, she inaccurately suggested using “biodegradable” alternatives from two German manufacturers. I checked out their websites. One of the manufacturers makes a polyester glitter which is also a microplastic problem, and the other makes a plant-based glitter only for face and body applications specifically for the “party scene”—it has nothing at all to do with the textile industry.
Second disappointment: A footnote to the article says that the author wrote it with the assistance of Google’s Bard, an AI platform. Clearly, she did no research into the manufacturers Bard incorrectly included, thereby undermining the credibility of her article.
Third disappointment: When I pointed all of this out to her, the response was, “Oh well.” That’s it. No apology or correction offered. Just. “Oh well.”
The quest continues, but in the meantime, we’ve learned a couple of things from this exercise. First, so far there appears to be no legitimate “biodegradable” alternative to plastic and aluminum glitter and it’s hard to see how there could ever be—to be “biodegradable” the glitter would have to be water soluble, which makes it unsuited to any garment that has to be washed. And second, it’s probably a good idea to be a little skeptical about what we read in industry magazines, especially if it’s written with the assistnce of AI.
