Is it a Dedicated server OR a VPS? If it’s a Dedicated server, edit the /etc/fstab file

vi /etc/fstab

replace “defaults” in front of /tmp, /dev/shm to

nosuid,noexec,rw

Save the file and remount the partitions:

mount -o remount /tmp
mount -o remount /dev/shm

To secure /var/tmp, rename the existing /var/tmp and create a symlink

mv /var/tmp /var/tmp_bak
ln -s /tmp /var/tmp

Hope this helps

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Many people have tried to define a process for innovation, but most are too abstract for me. Finally I found a book, “Robert’s Rules of Innovation: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival,” by Robert F. Brands, which seems to be more concrete, and chronicles several decades of practical experience to solidify the ten steps:

1. Inspire. The first and most important step is to identify a leader who can inspire and drive the process. In a startup, that needs to be the founder or CEO, and that person has to be regularly and personally involved. This is an imperative.
2. No risk, no innovation. Not every idea can, or will, be a winner. Without risk, there can be no innovation. Innovation teams perform best when they trust that failure will not result in punitive measures. Fear of failure can kill innovation.
3. New product development process. A formalized process with timelines and milestones is a must. This should include at least the key elements of idea generation, prioritization, prototyping, commercialization, and measurement.
4. Ownership. Innovation needs ownership, a champion and team leader within the organization. The champion must have the credibility to convince others to take calculated risks and work outside of one’s comfort zone.
5. Value creation. Successful innovation turns ideas into money, to enhance customer value, and thus shareholder value. Longer-term, enhanced product value begets superior company valuation through your organization’s intellectual property (IP) portfolio.
6. Accountability. This is a critical component of the trust equation, even when the process is akin to “herding cats.” Team members need to feel responsibility for on-time delivery. Slippage is the sure way to jeopardize the entire process.
7. Training and coaching. Proper hiring of people with a natural curiosity, open-mindedness, and ability to see the big picture is the way to create and enhance the right mind-set. Ongoing coaching from the top is essential to maintain the attitude and spirit.
8. Idea management. Build and manage a pipeline of ideas. From time to time, include customers and sales members in ideation sessions. Make sure all team members have some connection with the product – has either used it, or sold it, or assembled it.
9. Observe and measure. Tracking results are essential to optimal ROI. Product life cycles keep getting shorter and shorter, which mandates accelerated innovation cycles. Once a new product is launched, a key metric is the ratio of new product sales to overall sales.
10. Net result and reward. Based on ROI, incentives should be developed for all participants. Reward your people. Frequently, the key motivator is less financial than it is recognition for a job well done. People are your best innovation resource.

Sustainable innovation is really the only sustainable competitive advantage. But innovation is hard, because people by nature resist change, and company cultures are most comfortable with status quo. Yet survival in today’s world of rapid business change requires that you keep one step ahead of your competition. Innovation is what gives life to your business initially, and keeps it alive in the long term. But it’s up to you to make it happen.

Marty Zwilling

The benefits of Ecommerce:

• Ecommerce allows people to carry out businesses without the barriers of time or distance. One can log on to the Internet at any point of time, be it day or night and purchase or sell anything one desires at a single click of the mouse.
• The direct cost-of-sale for an order taken from a web site is lower than through traditional means (retail, paper based), as there is no human interaction during the on-line electronic purchase order process. Also, electronic selling virtually eliminates processing errors, as well as being faster and more convenient for the visitor.
• Ecommerce is ideal for niche products. Customers for such products are usually few. But in the vast market place i.e. the Internet, even niche products could generate viable volumes.
• Another important benefit of Ecommerce is that it is the cheapest means of doing business.
• The day-to-day pressures of the marketplace have played their part in reducing the opportunities for companies to invest in improving their competitive position. A mature market, increased competitions have all reduced the amount of money available to invest. If the selling price cannot be increased and the manufactured cost cannot be decreased then the difference can be in the way the business is carried out. Ecommerce has provided the solution by decimating the costs, which are incurred.
• From the buyer’s perspective also ecommerce offers a lot of tangible advantages.
  1. Reduction in buyer’s sorting out time.
  2. Better buyer descisions
  3. Less time is spent in resolving invoice and order discrepancies.
  4. Increased opportunities for buying alternative products.
• The strategic benefit of making a business ‘ecommerce enabled’, is that it helps reduce the delivery time, labour cost and the cost incurred in the following areas:
  1. Document preparation
  2. Error detection and correction
  3. Reconciliation
  4. Mail preparation
  5. Telephone calling
  6. Data entry
  7. Overtime
  8. Supervision expenses
• Operational benefits of e commerce include reducing both the time and personnel required to complete business processes, and reducing strain on other resources. It’s because of all these advantages that one can harness the power of ecommerce and convert a business to ebusiness by using powerful turnkey ecommerce solutions made available by ebusiness solution providers.

• Lower transaction costs – if an e-commerce site is implemented well, the web can significantly lower both order-taking costs up front and customer service costs after the sale by automating processes.
• Larger purchases per transaction – Amazon offers a feature that no normal store offers. When you read the description of a book, you also can see “what other people who ordered this book also purchased.” That is, you can see the related books that people are actually buying. Because of features like these it is common for people to buy more books that they might buy at a normal bookstore.
• Integration into the business cycle – A Web site that is well-integrated into the business cycle can offer customers more information than previously available. For example, if Dell tracks each computer through the manufacturing and shipping process, customers can see exactly where their order is at any time. This is what FedEx did when they introduced on-line package tracking – FedEx made far more information available to the customer.
• People can shop in different ways. Traditional mail order companies introduced the concept of shopping from home in your pajamas, and e-commerce offers this same luxury. New features that web sites offer include:
  • The ability to build an order over several days
  • The ability to configure products and see actual prices
  • The ability to easily build complicated custom orders
  • The ability to compare prices between multiple vendors easily
  • The ability to search large catalogs easily
• Larger catalogs – A company can build a catalog on the web that would never fit in an ordinary mailbox. For example, Amazon sells millions of books. Imagine trying to fit all of the information available in Amazon’s database into a paper catalog!
• Improved customer interactions – With automated tools it is possible to interact with a customer in richer ways at virtually no cost. For example, the customer might get an email when the order is confirmed, when the order is shipped and after the order arrives. A happy customer is more likely to purchase something else from the company.

It is these sorts of advantages that create the buzz that surrounds e-commerce right now.

There is one final point for e-commerce that needs to be made. E-commerce allows people to create completely new business models. In a mail order company there is a high cost to printing and mailing catalogs that often end up in the trash. There is also a high cost in staffing the order-taking department that answers the phone. In e-commerce both the catalog distribution cost and the order taking cost fall toward zero. That means that it may be possible to offer products at a lower price, or to offer products that could not be offered before because of the change in cost dynamics.

However, it is important to point out that the impact of e-commerce only goes so far. Mail order sales channels offer many of these same advantages, but that does not stop your town from having a mall. The mall has social and entertainment aspects that attract people, and at the mall you can touch the product and take delivery instantly. E-commerce cannot offer any of these features. The mall is not going to go away anytime soon…

Business entities have long taken advantage of this simple marketing tactic due to the effective result that it has the potential to deliver. Employing this tactic today is far more cost effective than it has ever been in the past. This is due to the easy availability of promotional products through the internet.

On researching you will be able to find hoards of online shops dealing in all kinds of promotional products. Such websites offer excellent services to their clients giving them the ability to order customized promotional products.

With the passage of time the range of promotional products has also expanded. Today business can move out of the traditional office dweller items such as mugs, pens and calendars to promotional products that are more in tune with current trends and modern developments. This is not to say that conventional promotional products have lost their value. You could very well be amazed at the kind of key rings and mugs that some of these websites have to offer. While conventional promotional protections have taken a new twist in terms of design, a whole new line of promotional products has been introduced taking the whole concept into a new direction.

The USB Flash Drive is one of the most effective technologically advanced promotional gift that companies can make use of. Websites dealing in promotional products will have USB flash drives in various styles and of varying capacities. They will also give you the chance to get your company name and logo along with any special message printed on the surface of the USB drive. Another technologically advanced product that can be used as a corporate giveaway is an MP4 player. Again companies dealing in promotional products will be able to offer you some very creative varieties in this category as well. The relevance of such promotional products to modern times is unquestionable which is the reason why they are extremely effective.

Another category of promotional products is tailored around the taste of the corporate worker. This category includes items like Navigator padfolios, conference bags and zippered portfolios. Such products are not only stylish but they are something that corporate workers can make use of on a daily basis which is why they are successful in producing the desired results.

Companies that have the youth as their target audience have a plethora of promotional products to choose from. The environment friendly Eco 100% Owl Deluxe Backpack for example is a great choice for such companies. Ultra cotton T-Shirts with the company logo and brand name can also be used to target the youth. Other items like an ultra cool Koozie collapsible can cooler and a mini carabiner clip light bottle opener are also out of the box products that can hit the mark with the general public.

And, if businesses want to compete in what is a cut-throat and fast paced world, it is essential they harness the power of such technology. Not only does it offer an effective method of conducting business, but if used intelligently, IT also allows companies to stay flexible and thus meet the changing demands of consumers more efficiently.

However, although IT can provide many benefits, if it’s not managed properly, it can cause untold damage. For example, if your server crashes, resulting in your website going out of action, you may have an adverse affect, causing you to lose customers or sensitive company data.

On the other hand, there are a plethora of new software systems and hardware devices which are brought out all the time. Not keeping abreast of the latest developments could see you lose out to competitors. That’s why it is vital, if you have limited knowledge of IT or your company heavily relies on the successful operation of various IT systems, that you employ the use of a specialist.

In reality, not dealing effectively with your IT operations could cost your business not only financially, but also in customer loyalty. And, because the IT marketplace is so specialised, it is definitely worthwhile investing in someone who can offer your business expert knowledge and tailored advice.

There are two ways to go about employing IT staff: either hiring an individual or team in-house, or contracting the services of an outside agency. Whichever route you opt for will depend on the level of support you require, as well as your budgetary requirements and existing capabilities.

It is important to be aware of certain considerations however, when looking to recruit IT staff. For instance, in order to find the most suitable person(s) you need to create a clear job specification, detailing exactly what you expect to be achieved, as well as any core skills required.

Additionally, it’s important to find people that can display a variety of up-to-date IT skills. They should have a good working knowledge of the various computer systems, and be able to respond positively to any arising issues. As such, their ability to remain calm under pressure is vital.

Due to the demand for experienced IT specialists, it can sometimes be hard to find professionals that have prior knowledge of dealing with industry situations. Therefore, it may be worth hiring someone at entry level, who you can then personally train to deal with your business specifically.

Regardless of whether you decide to bring someone into the business on a permanent basis, or you employ the use of an outside company, it’s vital that you think carefully about what level of business IT support you require. And in doing so, not only can you improve the overall running of your business, but you can also improve your businesses capability of competing in the marketplace.