March 2008

 

Release of LandMark 2007

ChristineHopefully everyone has adjusted to and is enjoying LandMark 2007. There has been a problem or two with old data not upgrading to new formats. However, most of these annoyances have been fixed with our service patches which we post via our website, www.iagri.com. Most problems will disappear when you start entering new data after downloading Service Pack 3 (SP3). If you come across a problem, visiting our web site and downloading the latest update may fix the problem for you. Failing that, give our Help Desk a call on 0800 617 788. Christine loves to Help.

It has been great to get positive and constructive feedback from clients. Keep them coming. It's how Landmark has been developed over the years

Email Addresses - We Need Them!

The modern world has made huge progress in the area of communication. We want to take advantage of this progress to grow our Techpartner relationship and keep in touch with, and inform, you by email of any new updates on the web site. If we are to do this successfully, it is important that clients keep us up-to-date with their email addresses and notify us of any changes made to those addresses. At the moment, we estimate that only about 50% of our client addresses are accurately recorded on our database. Those of you who receive this Newsletter by email needn't do anything but if you are receiving this Newsletter through the post, the chances are that we haven't got your current email address accurately recorded. Remedying this is simple, just send us an email to hq@iagri.com and enter your name in the subject line.

That's all you need to do. (See Below). Don't miss out on all the news and updates.

Broadband

It's great to see that more and more of our clients are using a broadband service. Without exception, those clients who have taken this step speak rapturously about the advantages of broadband when compared with the old dial-up service. "It's opened up a whole new world" said one client. "I can find out about anything and everything by just 'Googling it'" said another.

From i.Agri's point of view, broadband is a blessing for our help desk. Broadband clients requiring our assistance can download a remote assistant from our web site, connect to us at the push of a button and invite us to manage their computer and fix the problem. Problems that sometimes took an hour to fix over the phone, can now be solved in minutes. While the fix is going on broadband users can watch what's happening and talk to the help desk at the same time using the phone line.

Web Site www.iagri.com

We want to encourage you to visit our web site more often than in the past. The number of hits on the site has trebled in the last year and we want that trend to continue. Duncan is working on upgrading the site to bring it into the modern era so you will see some changes to the site in the near future. Even so, old site or new site, this is where we will be making available our service packs and upgrades from now on. Most of these can be run directly from within the web site with a couple of clicks of the mouse. The rewriting, restructuring and future proofing of LandMark 2007 has made this utility more readily available. As well as remedial and development stuff, we will be adding news and comments to the site on a daily or weekly basis. This is part of a process to keep you informed of Information Technology (IT) and associated items of interest. Don't forget other features included in the site such as Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and the "Online Demo". We recommend those with Broadband have a look at this as you might see other aspects of LandMark that you were unaware of but which could be useful to you and your farming/business operation.

Have you considered creating-redoing a website for your farm or business to increase awareness, advertise stock or increase your profit? Contact us if you have as we could provide you with a service to do this or help you to make the most of your site.

Subscription Renewal Forms

Please remember to complete and return subscription renewal forms if they are sent to you with your subscription invoices.

Referrals

Don't forget that for referring a new subscriber to i.Agri, you can receive six months credit toward your annual subscription.

i.Agri's new program security means you can distribute your CD or a copy of it to anyone you like for installation on their computer. We'd be pleased if you did this. You can also refer others with broadband to our website where they can look at our "Online Demo" or for those who don't have broadband ask us to send them a mini demo CD.

If you think they are getting a cheap program, don't worry, LandMark 2007 will run on their computer for an evaluation period of one month before stopping. Should they wish to continue, they will have to communicate with the Help Desk and we will do the rest.

Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

We are aware that LandMark 2007 is not synchronizing with the Version 4 PDA at the moment. Those with PDAs are probably feeling a bit isolated. Don't worry, help is on the way. The software is being upgraded and made even more effective, accurate, versatile and robust. It will be ready for release in a matter of weeks. In the meantime just keep on entering data into the PDA.


Rural Administrators

You may have seen our advertisements in the Straight Furrow, Farmers Weekly and Country Wide recently in which we mentioned a Rural Administration Service. It's an add-on service where our rural administrators will do all the data entry for farmers who are too busy doing other things, or who are not interested in computers but who do want to avail themselves of the decision making information that LandMark can provide. There are two levels of service and these are outlined in the "Online Demo" on our Web site.

Backing Up

When we first recommended Memory Sticks (or Pen Drives) to you in a newsletter about eighteen months ago for backing up, a 128mb memory stick cost about $30.00. Now, for about the same money you can purchase a 2Gb memory stick. That works out to about 16 times the memory for the same price. Memory is getting cheaper and cheaper.

We purchased a calculator sized 160Gb USB external backup drive for $160.00 the other day. It won't always be this way but at the moment that drive could back up everything we have on our hard drives, software and all, from most of the computers that you, and we, own.

In Landmark 2007 backing up to a memory stick has been made incredibly easy to achieve. As was the case in Version 4, you not only get a backup on your memory stick or other media but you also have a backup made on your hard drive in the "My Documents" Folder. What is different is that the Backup no longer overwrites the old files, (as it used to when backing up to the old Floppy discs) but now stores the files with a new name each time made unique by adding a date to the file name. e.g. Tingatui060308.zip. (6th March 08). This is more assuring as the old files are not deleted before each back-up process. When and if the list of Backup Files gets too long it is a simple process to use "Windows Explore" to select and delete the oldest files from the list.

Kiwisaver

LandMark already accommodates the current Kiwisaver requirements. However, as from 1 April 2008 employers are required to contribute 1% of the gross salary for each employee, increasing to 4% by 2012. In addition employers are entitled to claim a rebate of $20.00 per week (up to maximum amount) for employees who are part of the scheme. On (or about) 1 April 2008, Service Pack 4 (SP4) will be posted on our website and this will accommodate the new Kiwisaver employer requirements. This will alter the look of the PAYE and GST reports, add new reports and will require additional entry in the set up module. We are hopeful that any future Government will not change the format!!

Jokes

John is still trying to play golf. Having started at a very late age it is unlikely he'll ever be any good at it. He gets lots of tips and quotes from fellow golfers. Some of these, quotes, but not all, he feels are worth passing on, and may even be encouraging to other budding golfers:

Golf Defined

  • Golf can best be defined as an endless series of tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle.
  • "I wish I could play my normal game....just once."
  • If you do find that you do not mind playing golf in the rain, the snow, even during a hurricane, here's a valuable tip: Your life is in trouble.
  • A 'gimme' can best be defined as an agreement between two golfers...neither of whom can putt very well.
  • Always concede the fourth putt.
  • An interesting thing about golf is that no matter how badly you play, it is always possible to get worse.
  • " I play in the low 80's. If it's any hotter than that, I won't play."
  • If you have difficulty meeting new people, try picking up someone else's golf ball.
  • Golf is the only sport where your most feared opponent is you.
  • The best wood in most golfer's bags is the pencil.
  • To some golfers, the greatest handicap is having the ability to add correctly.
  • In golf, some people tend to get confused with all the numbers...they shoot a "six", yell "four" and write "five".
  • Why is it twice as difficult to hit a ball over water than sand?
  • A player, asked his partner if he could make the green with a five iron and was told, "eventually".
  • When making a statement that he would move heaven and earth to score under 100 a fellow golfer suggested, "Just stick to heaven, I think you have already moved enough earth".