PraxIS Jan. 2008

08-01 Contents: Jan'08 IT Risk, Auditing, Quality, Euro changeover, Free spreadsheet MBA book

ISSN 1649-2374 This issue online at http://www.sysmod.com/praxis/prax0801.htm   [Previous] [Index]  [Next]

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Welcome to PraxIS

And welcome to 2008!

Patrick O'Beirne

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1)  IT Risk and Quality

Bad Health Informatics can Kill

http://iig.umit.at/efmi/badinformatics.htm This document contains summaries of a number of reported incidents in healthcare where ICT was the cause or a significant factor with at least one link each to a source.

HMRC manual on data protection was protected data

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/17/hmrc_manual/

From The Guardian via The Register: "HMRC restricted details of its security procedures to senior officials, it has emerged, just weeks after the department pilloried a junior official for loading the UK’s child benefit database onto CDs which were then lost. Junior staff – ie, the sort of people who will probably be doing most of the grunt work in any large organization – were treated instead to a web-hosted much more general version, reminding them of the need to respect confidentiality, the [Guardian]  reports."

http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/24.92.html  Risks Digest coverage of the HMRC debacle.

Frequently Avoided Questions about IT auditing

http://www.isect.com/html/ca_faq.html

Gary Hinson offers a blackly humorous view of IT Auditing. Gems include

IT auditors' favourite phrases: "Just because you’ve always made this mistake doesn’t mean you should continue to do so"

IT auditees' favourite phrases: "Don't be ridiculous, that'll never happen here"

15th EuroSPI Conference, Dublin, Sep 2008

European Systems and Software Process Improvement and Innovation

3.-5. September 2008, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

http://2008.eurospi.net   Conference Web Site

http://www.eurospi.net   Initiative Web Site

Conference themes:

- "Experiences with the Implementation": It is not enough to describe a new method or idea. We need proof or case studies that the method worked.

- "Improvement and Innovation ": The applied methods and techniques shall have a focus on innovating and improving processes and products.

- "Related Benefits in the Organisation": The papers shall outline the measured / analysed benefit for the organisation.

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2) Euro Changeover

Cyprus and Malta switch to euro cash

Two small countries, both former British colonies, brought membership of the euro club to 15 on Jan 1st 2008.  For numerical calculations, their situation is similar to Ireland which also had a national currency heavier than the euro and therefore different price gaps appearing on conversion.

The adoption of euro currency did not put off the bargain hunters in the January sales. Sensibly, sales people took time to explain the two prices to shoppers, who were asked to pay and accept change in euro. Nobody was put off by receiving change in liri if the shop ran out of euro coins. That happened in small shops when people handed over large notes such as Lm10 (10 Maltese Pound is about 23 euro). Some prices were rounded up, although this invoked the ire of the changeover coordination agency. A car park and a doctor's office had both been issued with the first warning. Malta's 1 euro and 2 euros coins will bear the Maltese cross.

In comparison, the 2007 switchover to the euro in Slovenia was followed by higher prices for some services, such as restaurants and cafes. Consumer price inflation in the ex-Yugoslav country was about 3.5 percent in 2007 and 3.7 percent is predicted in 2008, compared to 2.5 percent in 2006.

In Cyprus, only the Greek Cypriot south of the island changed over, the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognised only by Turkey, will continue to use the Turkish Lira. Cyprus' euro coins will be inscribed in both Greek and Turkish, with designs that include the mouflon or wild sheep, a national symbol of the island which thrives in the United Nations-patrolled buffer zone. The euro will also become legal tender on British military bases in Cyprus, the first part of sovereign British territory to adopt the currency. The UK Telegraph predicted that entering the euro would trigger a property boom across the country with prices increasing by a third this year.

www.euro.gov.mt  Malta Euro Changeover Web Site €1 = £0.429300

www.euro.cy  Cyprus National website for the euro. €1 = £0.585274

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3) Spreadsheets

Office 2003 update abandons older file formats

http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205207131

"A recently released service pack for Microsoft Office 2003 software suite renders inaccessible files saved in some older formats. The bulletin states that Microsoft Office 2003, Service Pack 3, blocks a number of file formats -- including Microsoft Word 97 for Windows and Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh. Also blocked are file formats found in some older versions of Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, Lotus Notes, and Corel's Quattro spreadsheet and Draw programs. "

Seattle Accountant offers free book on Excel for MBA

http://www.stephenlnelson.com/free_stuff.htm   Stephen L Nelson's "MBA's Guide to Microsoft Excel" comprises 15 chapters, c. 2Mb PDF each. The site also has many free templates and books on Excel 2002.

Dave Hawley's Golden Rules for Excel Development

http://www.ozgrid.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76234  Ozgrid offers 15 rules for Excel and 21 for VBA development.

Spreadsheet Check and Control: 47 key skills to find and fix errors

http://www.sysmod.com/az.php?a=190540400X&b=Spreadsheet+Check+Control Available worldwide from Amazon.

http://sysmod.buy.ie/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=188  Our offer - free shipping to EU .

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FEEDBACK

Simply send your comments to FEEDBACK (at) SYSMOD (dot) COM

Thank you! Patrick O'Beirne, Editor

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4) Off Topic

I prepared a 2008 calendar based on photographs from our travels in 2007. It was nicely done (although somewhat expensively) by Photo2People.com in Denmark. The pictures can also be seen on my Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/probeirne
 

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Patrick O'Beirne, Editor
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"Praxis" means model or example, from the Greek verb "to do". The name is chosen to reflect our focus on practical solutions to IS problems, avoiding hype. If you like acronyms, think of it as "Patrick's reports and analysis across Information Systems".
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