Thursday, November 22, 2012

Some great office gadgets for Secret Santa



Every year offices all over the UK partake in the long held tradition of Secret Santa. Now, this can be a stressful time, what if you get that guy who never speaks to you? Or your boss?? Well here at Office Stuff we think you can never go wrong with some office gadgets. So here is our top 5 list:

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

iPad Mini: More of the Same – But That’s Not a Problem


The iPad Mini was announced earlier this month by Apple. Naturally, people were pretty excited about the features that would be included in the product. Apple have pretty much always delivered with innovation and small touches that make a big difference.

So, the iPad Mini came out, and everyone was pretty sure that it was just a smaller version of the iPad 2, which was released last year. To be honest, they were right, but why is this a problem?

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Great Halloween Activities in Office


Halloween has quickly become the second most popular holiday in America. It’s rubbing off on people in the UK too, who are keen to get in on all of the Halloween traditions the season offers.

Decorations, costumes and sweets are the main staples of the time and, although Halloween is only one day, the few weeks leading up to the night can be just as fun as going out on All Hallows Eve itself.

This year the day falls on a Wednesday, right in the middle of the working week. Chances are parties will be held the weekend before, or after – to coincide with Guy Fawkes night – but there’s no reason not to celebrate it at work. Several ideas you can implement are:

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Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The Importance of Ergonomics


Most of you out there will be reading this at a computer screen, slouched in some form with one hand on your mouse and the other propping up your head. It’s comfy, right? It’s not great for you though.

Work stations have always been a problem since the traditional ‘desktop’ layout came to be commonplace. The fact is, the work stations that we use just aren’t designed around us and our bodies needs. Give it long enough and you’ll start feeling some tweaks and aches in your lower back and wrists. Leave it too long, it could develop into full blown musculoskeletal disorders. Not a great thing.

Monday, October 08, 2012

3 Things You Need for a Successful Start-Up

Kevin Systrom - Creator of mobile-hit Instagram
Start-ups are all the rage nowadays. From shows like Dragon’s Den, The Apprentice and all the success stories we’ve heard about mobile start-ups like Twitter, Instagram (recently bought for more than $700million) and Angry Birds, we all know that if you get a great idea then you can make a fortune almost overnight and take off in big ways. All it takes is an idea and a bit of hard work right? Not quite. Here are 3 essential things that every start-up CEO needs.


Wednesday, September 26, 2012

3 More Seriously Cool Offices


We made a post a while back about 3 amazing offices to workin, well here’s 3 more to tantalise you and start bugging your manager for a redesign of your own workspace.

BANK OF MOSCOW

First up, we have the offices for the Bank of Moscow in Kuznetsky Most. Designer Alexey Kuzmin has managed to keep the architectural integrity of a beautiful building and seamlessly integrate modern comfort and design elements. Centred around a hexagonal entrance hall, it leads into a plus and white interior that looks like one of the comfiest place to work.




SKYPE CLOUD 9

Well, maybe the Bank of Moscow is the second plushest place to work. The Skype’s ‘On Cloud 9 in an Historical Brewery’ offices in Stockholm look like the physical embodiment of the company’s software; light, soft and comfy. Designed by PS Arkitektur, the use of rounded shapes and bright colours, as well as some incredibly cool lighting, encourages a far more relaxed feel to the offices and feeds the creativity that the company expects from its employees.




COORDINATION ASIA

The Shanghai offices for the design company Coordination Asia are incredibly suave and elegant. Some might think that they are a bit dark, a bit moody and perhaps not the ideal office environment, but it would be hard to argue that the offices don’t just ooze of great taste and stylishness. Looking more like a rockstar’s apartment than an office, it must be said that Coordination Asia have created a beautiful place to look at, even if working in it isn’t your thing.


Wednesday, September 05, 2012

5 Portable Apps to Make Your Life Easier

A USB stick is a must-have for anyone working with computers. It’s great for backing-up important files or transferring files to a home PC or laptop. They come in especially handy if you have to use somebody else’s computer. Here are 5 apps to load onto your USB drive in order to make dealing with other computers less of a hassle.

Opera@USB or Firefox Portable
A life-saving must-have for any USB drive, it means that you will always have your choice of browser in case the foreign computer uses Internet Explorer or another unfamiliar piece of software. It has the added advantage of keeping all of your add-ons and bookmarks stored to the USB, so there’ll be no trouble finding the sites or tools you want to use.

PdfXchange Viewer
This is another piece of software that means that loading files onto another computer is a piece of cake. A fair amount of computers (especially if shared, for example computers used in presentation rooms) do not have a PDF viewer on them and installing one can take time and become increasingly annoying if you require administrator privilege. This piece of software means that you’ll be able to open any PDF files that you may need in an incredibly well-designed format.

VLC/KMPlayer
These are multimedia apps that let you play a whole host of videos. It’s a personal choice which to use, as they both mean that you can play media files without having to worry if the foreign computer has the correct codecs installed. VLC has been downloaded over 100 million times, which means it’s pretty solid. KMPlayer has a huge range of features involved though, including video and picture capture, audio sync and subtitles.

CCleaner
That’s not a typo. This handy little app is a great way to clean up any slow, clogged computers. Mainly to be used by those dealing with computer issues, it can clear gigabytes of rubbish data and tidy up the registry of the computer, resulting in a faster, cleaner and safer computer. Just make sure that you get permission from the computer owner first.

TruCrypt
TruCrypt is a great security tool that encrypts all of the data on its host USB. This means that if your USB is lost or stolen, which is easy when they’re so small, you can be confident that the information on it remains under wraps. It runs constantly but doesn’t slow down your drive even when decrypting and encrypting in real time.

Kit out your USB with these features and you’ll find that there’s not much you won’t be able to do away from your main PC when you have your trusty USB in hand.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

3 Ways to Use Your Lunch Break Effectively


As you proceed through your working day and deal with whatever task comes across your desk top, many things can happen. You may be tired, stressed and hungry, counting down the minutes until that precious half an hour or 45 minutes for lunch. Once it finally arrives you’ll wolf down a sandwich, a packet of crisps and back to work it is.

But surely there’s a better way to spend the time? Well, it turns out that the answer is yes.

1. Relax during your breaks
You’ve dragged yourself out of bed, commuted and gotten on with your work. As the day’s gone on you can feel the stress and tiredness building up behind it all. Your lunch break is the perfect time to remedy the situation.
Depending on what relaxes you when you’re at home and what your office environment is like you may decide to alter my suggestions but here’s the basics.
Once your break starts, save all of your work and put your computer into standby mode. If you have a portable music player like an iPod, mp3 player, iPhone etc. Then whack on the headphones, choose music that relaxes you and retreat into your own world. Take your shoes off, recline back in your chair, read a book. Hell, you could even sit on the floor and meditate for a while if you like. The important thing is to let go of all the stress and head back to work reenergised and motivated for the tasks ahead.

2. Buy more free time for later
Your lunch break is generally a designated time of the day, a small period of free time unfortunately sandwiched between two blocks of solid work. Getting personal tasks done before and after work may seem unappealing because of how tired you’ll generally be, so use this time to do anything you need, such as phone calls to the bank, dealing with estate agents/teachers/landlords and so on so that you can relax once you get home.
For those of you with longer lunch breaks and a close gym, this is the perfect time to get some exercise in. Depending on how close your nearest gym is, 45 minutes is more than enough time to exercise, shower and get back to work.
Getting all of this out of the way will mean that you’ll have used time you would have spent idling around the office and bought time for relaxation and personal time once you walk in your front door.

3. Eat some lunch!
This might seem obvious, but you’ll have noticed I haven’t mentioned it yet. Make sure that whatever you do with your lunch break you eat some lunch and eat well. Vary your diet through the week to keep your body alert and healthy while you work. Generally you’ll be sedentary for most of the day and it’s important to take care of your body even then.
Eating right can also give you the energy to focus on work and plough through your tasks, making the day pass much quicker.
An idea for those of you in large offices is to form a cooking club. If you gather another four people or so then you can take it in turns to bring in a lunch each day. Making lunch for five is not much more effort than making your own and you’ll only have to do it for one day a week. It’s a great way of putting in little effort, getting a home-made meal everyday and varying your diet.

The most important thing to remember is to manage your time effectively! Make sure you eat during your lunch break, but also leave room for whatever else you want to get done. You’ll notice that lunch breaks are far more enjoyable by following these steps and you may even feel better overall too.
image credit: arkworld

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Top 3 Mac Book Air rivals

MACBOOK Air 2011
Size: 0.3-1.7 thick
Weight:1.08-1.35 kg
Runtime: 7 hours (WiFi on)

While the latest version of Macbook Air (2011) is still the leading ultrabook of the market with up to 7 hours of wireless surfing and its 1kg weight, Apple's competitors are looking for their share of the market. 2012 brought some brand new models from all major manufacturer, but are those ultrabooks better than the MacBook Air?

Difficult to compare; on one hand we have a delightful combination of hardware and software, with the MBA’s multi-touch trackpad, nearly instant wake up from hibernate, great and not bugged applications, perfectly shaped aluminum case with backlit keyboard and MacOS X…

On the other hand we can see some good MacBook Air imitations (aluminum case, light weight) but unfortunately they are running Windows 7 OS. Moreover some manufacturers provide special drivers to enable some limited and buggy multi touch-pad functions; others optimize their ultrabooks to allow hibernation wake-up under 2 seconds... But none of those competitors can keep up with the MBA’s 7 hours of battery usage.

But the real problem is not the hardware or the quality of their products, but the Windows OS. Even the MBA runs only for 4 hours when is booted on Windows 7, and has equal performance to the other Windows OS ultrabooks.

I would say that the MBA hardware is not as good as other ultrabooks presented at Cebit convention, but the latest MacOS X is by far more powerful than Windows 7, at least when it comes to portability, battery life and multi-touch trackpad support…

Here the top 3 Windows Ultrabooks:

LG Z330 and Z430 Super Ultrabook
Size: 1.47 cm thick
Weight: ~1.3 kg
Runtime: N/A

Asus Zenbook UX31
Size: 0.3-1.7 cm thick
Weight: 1.4 kg
Runtime: ~6 hours

SAMSUNG Series 5 (14”)
Size: 2.09 cm thick
Weight: 1.84kg
Runtime: ~6 hours

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Opus Energy SME survey finds companies are turning to renewable energy generation


New research from Opus Energy, a UK based business power supplier, suggests a growing amount of interest among small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in generating renewable energy from their own businesses. One third (32%) expect to introduce anaerobic digestion, wind turbines, solar panels and 38% expect to generate their own renewable energy within the next five years.

Despite recent cuts in energy prices, and perhaps faced with finding innovative ways to generate income, a vast number of SME business leaders questioned in the Opus Energy survey expected to be producing renewable power within the next five years, with business owners between the ages of 18 and 34 more likely to make the investment earlier.

Opus Energy recently launched its power purchase agreement product which enables customers to generate additional income from renewable energy, whilst reducing their carbon footprint and powering their businesses. The survey highlighted that a relatively high percentage of SMEs (59%) felt they would be interested in producing their own energy if the Government provided subsidies.

The research also found that many SMEs (42%) said they would switch to generating all or some of their own energy from renewables if it could be proven that they would make a profit from it. This has persuaded Opus Energy to call on the energy sector to make it easier for companies to gain the information they need to get started. The business currently offers these details on its Renewables webpages.

Craig Birch, a Lincolnshire farmer who also runs a green waste composting company, is a good example of an SME owner who is investing in generating renewable power. He installed a wind turbine on his land in May 2011 and is already benefiting financially from renewable energy generation and believes he is contributing to sustainability at the same time.

The wind turbine produces between £40,000 and £50,000 per annum in income for Craig’s farm, and the equivalent sum of energy needed to power half his village. In addition, his import supply agreement with Opus Energy has created over £1,000 per year in cost savings for Craig on connection capacity charges and standing charges. This is approximately one quarter of the total contract value for the exported energy.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Software Every Office Needs

Productivity in the office can be increased if staff has the right software. Although each office would require some unique software to improve productivity, there are applications that should be on every computer in any business setting;
Microsoft Word and Excel MS Word and Excel are two of the most popular programs in the world. MS Word is more than just a place to jot down notes, the program offers spell checking, word count and table options to increase versatility. MS Excel, Microsoft’s spreadsheet program has also become a must-have piece of software. It allows users to keep track and arrange information in a simple way.
Skype Although there are other VOIP services that can compete with Skype, it’s already considered a leader as well as the pioneer in the industry. The fairly recent inclusion of mobile phone support has made Skype a must for every business. Skype-to-Skype calls are also free allowing your business to save money on phone calls and unnecessary travel expenses.
Microsoft Outlook Just like MS Word and Excel, MS Outlook is a key piece of software for any business. The program removes the need to keep logging into email accounts and keeps all of your emails in one place. The software also allows users to schedule meetings and keep track of tasks.
Norton Antivirus Norton Antivirus is a powerful application that protects computer from a range of viruses. Aside from software and network security, Norton also provides options to back up your data.

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Top 5 Foods to Boost Productivity

Food is more than just fuel for your body. It’s also a fuel for your mind which means good food can boost your mental performance and productivity. More often than not, you need to undergo a regular diet of healthy food to ensure your productivity in any work conditions.
But aside from your regular diet, there is actually food that can give you a quick boost to become more productive. Enjoy these types of food while at work and notice your productivity improve in no time.
Honey It is a bit surprising that honey could actually boost your productivity. But the orange liquid can help you greatly deal with stress. It can also help with fatigue, sore throats and even digestion problems.
Milk Milk does not necessarily boost your brains but it has a powerful contribution to your body because it’s extremely rich in proteins, vitamins and other minerals. Milk can also help develop the immune system which means you will never have to miss work again since you are consistently healthy.
Whole Grains Whole grains are rich in fiber as well as other vitamins and minerals. The fiber content is very beneficial to the body because it has the ability to deal with stomach problems as well as flushing out the dangerous toxins.
Dates Easy to digest and there are tons of available soluble formats of dates in different pharmacies and groceries. They are rich in fructose and sucrose or simply sugar and they are known for their quick boost of energy.
Olive Oil Great for the skin and known to prevent cancer, olive oil could even prevent aging because of their antioxidants. It’s a bit more expensive that regular oil but the health benefits are more than enough for its price.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Top 5 Most Comfortable Keyboards for Frequent Typers

If you are in front of a computer screen for at least eight hours a day, you need to invest at least a small amount on a good keyboard. This is the reason why computer peripheral companies are looking for ways to innovate the keyboard to improve productivity with ergonomics. Fortunately, there are some companies who know how to make an amazing line of keyboards.
SteelSeries Shift
The SteelSeries Shift is one of the most durable keyboards on the market. It’s the perfect solution for those who want a versatile piece of typing equipment. It’s perfect for gaming as well as business and at home. WoW (World of Warcraft) players will definitely enjoy the keys and design.
Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750
The best thing about the wireless Solar Keyboard K750 is that you don’t have to purchase any batteries just to run the keyboard. It’s surprisingly useful and the ergonomic design is just enough for everyday typing.
SteelSeries 6Gv2
The 6Gv2 is another keyboard from SteelSeries which offers a better keyboard configuration for gaming. It still performs well for day to day typing through improved ergonomics which will help frequent typists.
Rosewill RK-9000
Rosewill RK-9000 is a mechanical keyboard which means it creates a click sound to encourage typists to type faster. Aside from the sound, it is also a keyboard specifically built to handle continuous pounding.
Das Keyboard Model S Professional Silent
The Rosewill RK-900 is often compared to Das Keyboard because of its mechanical sound. Das Keyboards are regarded as the leader in mechanical keyboards because of their near-perfect clicking sound with durability and ergonomics.