The following is a list of mistakes recently made that really ought to have been obviously iffy from the outset:
1.    When providing IT to a distant retired relative for the first time, don’t forget to install remote access technology. After many painful sessions on the phone asking, “What does it say on your screen now?” I’ve since made a personal visit and installed LogMeIn. Which is bliss as long as the problem is not being unable to get online, with which remote access cannot help. 
2.    For reasons that are blindingly obvious, when organising two roundtable events for two different brands at the same time on the same day, don’t hold one at a Gaucho restaurant and the other at the Groucho Club.
3.    For reasons that are scarily obvious, when building a new airliner, don’t install a single data infrastructure for both critical flight data and passenger internet access. Unless you particularly want your approach to Heathrow to be controlled by the nine-year-old in row 27 via his PlayStation Portable.
4.    For reasons that are not at all obvious, don’t stay logged into your web email or online bank account in one tab while browsing other sites in another. As Tim Anderson relates, you could easily end up doing a Jeremy Clarkson.
5.    As Clarkson proved, don’t blather on about things that you know nothing about. Which is a good reason for this particular post to stop now.