You can’t have missed the bru-ha-ha over the Apple iPad.

Apparently it’s all wrong …

• No camera
• No multi-tasking
• Not a full operating system
• Restricted to App store
• No USB
• … and on and on

Now, some of that stuff I think will be present in version 2 (the camera seems pretty much guaranteed) but it amazes me how so many geeks think this product is aimed squarely at them.

Not for Geeks

OK, so the mighty Steve made a big play about it being better than a netbook, but in my view this has always been a Kindle killer.

• The form factor
• The price
• The battery life
• The book store

It’s a colour Kindle that runs applications.

A computer Grandma will love

Regardless if you think this is an ebook reader (I do, but you do not have to agree with me), ask yourself what your parents and older relatives do with computers, or want to do. Think about your friends and relatives who are not IT savvy but would like to be more online for whatever reason.

• Web (which might mean eBay initially but even some government services are now online in many countries)
• Email (again, even some official communication is now arriving electronically)
• Facebook etc
• Photographs (who prints out photos any more? OK, only yesterday we did, but certainly not most folks under the age of 30)
• Crosswords/Suduko/Puzzle/stuff
• Knitting patterns and the like
• Recipes
• (ie. pretty much mainstream non-geek stuff)

Which of those things really need a fully equipped computer, operating system, or even multi-tasking? None is the answer.

Flash could help some of that, but it is by no means essential to the experience.

Geeks need not apply.

I think geeks need to remember that IT is not their sole territory any longer. When the iPod came out the geeks revolted saying it was all wrong, but those white earbuds soon became a badge of cool (something we geeks do not understand) and the geeks were silenced by sales data.

I’m not saying the iPad will be as big as the iPod. I am saying that the geeks need to butt out and let the actual target market decide.

Personally, I never buy version 1 of anything unless I absolutely have to. I’m waiting for the iPad 3gs like I did the iPhone

If you are using WordPress then Gravatar support is now built in. Other software or services might be supported too. When you are developing your own software tool or service though you might feel out of luck.

Well, good news! Adding Gravatar support to your own software is easy

A gravatar is simply an image hosted centrally at Gravatar.com using the following URL structure.

http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Where xxxx would be replaced with the unique identifier for the particular users Gravatar.

How to do you discover the unique ID for a user? Simple – the key string is simply the person’s email address put through an MD5 conversion.

So my Gravatar is http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/772bb0ad28f9cdd045aca3ac25500a12 which is chris ..at.. chrisg … .com, and when used, creates the following JPG image. If you want to convert an email address to an MD5 hash, simply use this helpful web service. Enter the email address, convert it, then copy and paste the result at the end of the Gravatar URL above, replacing the unique ID with your new one.

Most programming languages have an MD5 function available, for example in PHP you would use the md5() function:

echo md5($email);

.. to output the MD5 hash of a supplied email address.

You can also optionally add a size parameter in the form ?s=300 where the size is in pixels.

Eg.

http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/772bb0ad28f9cdd045aca3ac25500a12?s=300

]]> http://www.cogniview.com/convert-pdf-to-excel/post/gravatars-software-programming/feed/ 2 http://www.cogniview.com/convert-pdf-to-excel/post/gravatars-software-programming/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Codswallop/~3/mgl_r0gah2E/ http://www.cogniview.com/convert-pdf-to-excel/post/and-the-winner-is/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:11:54 +0000 Yoav Ezer http://www.cogniview.com/convert-pdf-to-excel/?p=369 A couple of months ago, we celebrated the 4th birthday of PDF2XL – Cogniview’s flagship product. As part of the celebration, we invited you (our blog readers and customers) to leave a birthday greeting on the blog.

We also promised that the authors of the 10 best greetings will receive a $15 Amazon gift card. And that the best greeter will win a Flip Mino Camera. Well the party is over and it’s time to give out the prizes…

But before I reveal the winners, I’d like to say that we were really moved by your reaction. I’ve personally read the 190+ greeting several times and I’d like to thank you for letting us know that we make a real difference in your lives. It means a lot to me and the rest of the team here at Cogniview.

And now the winners…

Vaughn said…

“Happy Birthday PDF2XL! You deserve it because you have made my birthdays much happier since I started using you. You see, I have the worst birthday imaginable, April 15! Tax day!!! Before you came into my life I spend most of my birthday manually typing data from my brokerage accounts into Excel. Now just a few mouse clicks and my PDF reports are nicely transferred and formatted into Excel just the way the IRS folks like them. So you have not only reduced my procrastination induced stress, you have also made some revenuers very happy. I guess that’s a good thing, huh? Happy Birthday!”

Shawn Setnicky from the Sonali Corporation NJ, USA said…

“I’ve been using PDF2XL for awhile now. It has saved me MANY, MANY hours of time. Each year I get a list of about 8000 names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, etc. The only problem is it’s in PDF format, and not easily manageable. If you want a nice Excel format they charge you 25 cents per name! That’s $2000, I’ve done it three or four times now, you do the math. I’ve estimated I’ve saved over $10,000 using this software and countless hours.
Happy Birthday! Thanks for the great product.”

Raja Sharma from Assurant Inc., Tustin, CA said…

“Our PDF’s were wild, and our morale was low.
Then came PDF2XL, and our faces began to glow.

What took 6 hrs to decipher can now be done in 1.
Now for the other 5 hrs, we just party and have fun.

Thanks to you for this tool and I’ll put it to you straight.
I’ll recommend it to everyone, because Cogniview is great.

So for this 4 yr anniversary, it is my pleasure to say….
Keep “excel-ing” in what you do, and wish you a Happy Birthday!!!

Good Luck n’ Happy 4th Anniversary!!!”

Pierre Mantha from the Britec Computer Systems Ltd.,Toronto, ON Canada said

“As major integrators of Sage BusinessVision software, on a recent upgrade from a competitive product the client could only provide us with PDF files.

From everything from Customer Databases, Vendor Databases, Inventory Databased – all form of reports came in PDF format only.

PDF2XL saved the day (or really the month). Based on the volume of data there is no way we could have tackled this project without PDF2XL. What would have taken litterally months of work to rebuild new structured tables took a 4 to 5 days.

Keep up the great work Cogniview – A Happy Birthday and to many more to come.”

Kris said…

“The day you were born of your parents minds was the day the world changed forever! Happy 4th birthday PDF2XL.
You took a 12 hour job and made it into a 2 hour job by reading over 500 pages of cell phone activity and creating an Excel document that was sortable and searchable. You save my company at least 10 hours of work. You saved my client three days of reading, high-lighting and writing down the activity. And you saved her thousands of dollars to have someone compile the information.
GREAT JOB!”

Jenna Z said…

“Dear PDF2XL,
Happy birthday from a user
Through documents I’m a cruiser.
It may sound cheesy
But with your help it’s easy
And you’ve kept me from being a boozer!
Thanks for the time-saving, sanity saving help! Happy fourth birthday!”

Eugene Hashimoto Said…

“Happy B-day to you and the team. It is really impressive to see the list of customers who have written. Definitely a sign of you superior product and more so, you excellent client service. BTW, you can keep the $15 gift card if I win and invest it back into your company. We really need companies like yours to succeed.
All the best,
Eugene”

Dan Wilcox said…

“My head felt as big as the Liberty Bell.
My brain was smoking like the ashes from Hell.
I was pulling my hair
And was full of despair.
Suddenly I found PDF2XL
Now everything is just going so well
And I am always so eager to tell
How I convert all day long
And still keep going strong
Thanks to Cogniview PDF2XL
Happy Birthday”

Victor Guettlein said…

“Congratulations on your 4th anniversary.
What an awesome product PDF2XL is. Do you know how much time and money PDF2XL has saved me? Literally hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars! Plus it makes me look like a genius to both my vendors and clients. I am actually a genius, and owning this software is just further evidence.
Keep up the fantastic work and innovation!”

Tracy Duke Said…

“PDFXL2,
My job would surely suck without you,
I used to type for 2 days straight,
Then there you were like a soul mate,
Happy Birthday four years old,
To other offices your story I’ve told,
May you be downloaded for many more years
Resting the fingers and bringing good cheers.
Congratulations and Happy Birthday!”

Leisa from Cedar Rapids, IA said…

“Because of your product I have been able to be more productive in my job. What used to take me days to convert by hand now only takes me a couple of minutes. I would like to applaud you in your quest to make life easier for us who have to work with .pdf files. I love this software so much that I have told others within my company and they have purchased it as well.
You are unsung heroes in my opinion!! Who would have ever thought that there would ever be software that could transform .pdf files in a click of a button! Thank you so much!”

And the 1st place goes to…Peter Dallimore from Stanbridge’s Hobbies, Australia which said…

“Happy Birthday and THANK YOU. What a terrific product. For years I struggled to get my suppliers to send me their invoices as an electronic file – I tried and tried – I even offered to send them my Purchase Orders electronically – but no – they are a backward looking lot!!!! A little glimmer of hope – I bought a scanner and some opposition software to make my own PDFs of invoices – it did not work – that was a was of money. Then success came – I was able to get my suppliers to send PDF invoices via email and then I found COGNIVIEW – IT WORKS – SO EFFORTLESSLY – Last night after a long day at work I received into our stock system a 24 page invoice – 320 lines – from one supplier – it only took 20 minutes to receive into stock – all because COGNIEVIEW created a csv file that I could then import into my system.
Why am I so grateful – you let me have 2 hours extra sleep last night!

Thank you – PS I do not want the gift – the software is enough – and by the way – your support is fantastic too. With 90000 product lines and 250 suppliers you help make it all happen.”

The ‘Excel to PDF Converter’ is the first out of several open source projects we will be releasing in the coming months and it is the only free Excel-to-PDF converter that supports hyper-links.

here is the official Excel to PDF Converter product page.

Plus… we need your help to make ‘Excel to PDF Converter’ better. That is why we are offering the following ‘bribe’:

We will be giving away 10 Amazon Gift-Cards, worth $15 each, to people that will download ‘Excel to PDF Converter’, play around with it and post their feedback as comments on this blog post.

The gift cards will be given to 10 most helpful commenters.

I know that you’ll find Cogniview’s Excel to PDF Converter useful and I hope our little bribe can convince you to get involved with this project.

The project is for me to create a course on setting up WordPress based websites, and it got me thinking about how WordPress is not just a blog package for many of us any longer. I have written about this a little before but I think the idea has gone from being a geeky curiosity to an established fact. Course members added lots of ideas to my already growing list of ways this application can be used.

In the last year I have set up dozens of customer’s corporate websites using the software. This is not unusual, even the Number 10 Downing Street (home to our country “leadership”) runs on WordPress.

Here is a list of types of WordPress site I managed to come up with. I am sure you will agree, it can do more than just blog …

1) Blog (text, podcast, video) - OK, this one is obvious and goes without saying, but I think it is important to note how WordPress has given content creators an easy platform that does not require being tied into gated communities and paying through the nose for the privelage.

2) Static site / company website - As mentioned above, this is so common place now that I can’t imagine using anything else.

3) Lead capture site / Squeeze page - Lately I have been using WordPress for gathering contact details through free offers (send someone to a site where they can get something cool in return for putting in their contact details). Where before I would have used a static HTML site, using WordPress allows me to rapidly test, tweak and optimize the conversion rate. Plus there are other pages like privacy page and so on that need to be set up using a similar look and feel.

4) Single product sales site – Where before I might have used a download service, one of those download protector software packages, or some other system to deliver my digitial products like ebooks and videos, now I can use WordPress plus Wishlist member plugin to protect my download products. Not only does it provide a convenient and secure download area, but it reduces customer support through having built in password recovery, and also allows me to “drip out” bonuses.

5) Multi-product ecommerce site – Once you start selling from your WordPress site, it doesn’t take a leap of imagination to start thinking about selling multiple products from the same site.

6) Reviews site – Think back to when you last booked a hotel or vacation. You probably visited at least one review site. Affiliate marketers often like to set up a site where you review products in return for a sale commission on anything that is purchased. WordPress makes building one of these sites so much easier.

7) Photo gallery – It’s not just Facebook, Flickr and Picassa that can be used to display your photography, and WordPress is ideal if you don’t just want to show off but to sell your work.

Twitter-style site – Automattic released a special theme just for creating an internal or group Twitter type site where you can interact with short “tweet” type posts. This is great for project management, group notifications and discussion.

9) Membership site – If you want to create a password protected client area, online course, or monthly “continuity”, as mentioned earlier, WordPress is now ideal when used with Wishlist, but also much easier and cheaper to work with than the alternatives.

10) Resume – The resume is dead. Long live the resume blog! Much like company sites, if you are not filling Google with positive references then you don’t exist when it comes to certain jobs, and it is only going to increase in liklihood that your HR rep looks first to Google before checking any of your paper credentials.

I have a couple of hours to finish this WordPress based online course. Wish me luck!

Any more ideas for how WordPress is being used over and above blogging? Please share in the comments …

Perhaps when productivity systems go bad it needs a new definition, is it still productivity when you get negative results rather than a positive impact?

Either way, I am increasingly seeing people implement systems that are designed to make them more productive, that are putting a distance, poor customer experience, and critical word of mouth between them and their customers.

My first experience of this was when a popular productivity guru asked for my help with the blog he was aiming to set up. I replied a couple of times asking what help this person needed … and got no reply. I felt brushed off so quietly asked a couple of close contacts who were familiar with us both what the game might be.

You know the answer already.

“Oh yeah, he does that. He probably sent a bunch of those emails. And you know he doesn’t respond to most of the email he gets. If he needs you he will be in touch, otherwise forget about it.”

So he asked me for help, but didn’t have the curtesy to acknowledge my reply or even tell me my help was no longer needed.

He saved a couple of minutes from his busy day, I am left with a bad feeling about him and even had discussions with my close contacts about it. Even worse, he does it so much that it has become part of what people expect him to do!

If someone asks me about this person or that person’s products, will I feel inclined to recommend them?

Another case recently was I had signed up for a membership site. In this service the owners personal email is supposedly given out. But when you email it, for any reason, you get the person’s VA. With copy and paste style scripted replies.

Fair enough, use assistants. I applaud that when it gives you more time to give care and attention where it is needed.

But not instead of giving care and attention.

If there is a problem with a credit card, an invoice, you need a password recovery, and so on, those are exactly the type of things you would want to either automate or hand off to an assistant.

But when someone buys your information product and they have questions outside of the “first line support flowchart” then you need to step in with quality responses.

At the same time I joined the aforementioned membership, I also signed up to some courses by a couple of individuals who are hyper productive. If I didn’t know better I would think they were some sort of cyborgs sent from the future, or at the very least taking some serious medication

But you know what? They give you personal attention when it is needed and have systems in place where the personal touch is not required.

Bottom line, what is the point of being productive if it damages your brand? Do not sacrifice long term value for some short term time savings.

Have you experienced anything like this? How do you make sure your productivity benefits you, your business and your customers? Please share in the comments …

But for me it is my least favorite of the big social media tools. I try to like it. I try to use it. It doesn’t work for me because of small irritations, and I find myself just going in to housekeep friend requests and “suggestions”, block applications, that kind of thing.

While I have been looking at different strategies I have seen some small glimmer of usefulness. It has enough potential that I want to persist, no matter how annoying I find it.

I have been thinking about how Facebook could be made more useful for me and other small business users.

1. Ignore fan page requests forever - After I have ignored a fan page suggestion for the fifth time, sometimes in a week, I yearn for a button that says “No and I never ever will”. This behavior is caused by the fan page owner inviting all their friends repeatedly, this should be either fixable at the recipient end (block forever) or have a restriction on how many times a person can be invited at the senders end.
2. Block every application suggestion – I want to be able to opt out of every application suggestion, request or invitation. Instead I would explicitly seek out and join the ones that do interest me.
3. Filter friend requests – If someone has MLM, teeth whitening or the name of my school anywhere in their profile then most likely I do not want to have anything to do with them. The few who I would miss through this system I would seek out or find through connections.
4. Change “Fan Page” to be named something less sucky – Really, “Fan” page? Who wants to be a “Fan” of someone? Couldn’t they make fan page be something less objectionable like “Contact” page or something? OK, my suggestion isn’t much better but at least it would not feel as ego-ish to have one.
5. Granular application permissions – Why does a map application need access to all my details? Apparently applications are going to get access to our email addresses too? I want to be able to set how much applications can access as I seriously do not trust any of them with my information.

All of those are irritations and requests to make the experience less of a chore but I have a big suggestion that I think could make Facebook way more useful.

My big suggestion? Be able to hold events on Facebook!

I see it as being a video conference feature. Individuals could talk to friends, family and contacts 1:1 like with Skype (possible to do via simple flash application which would overcome the technophobe aspect of getting relatives to use desktop applications). Webinars and teleconferences could be held directly on Facebook, so you could use the invite and event features but not leave the system.

Picture someone with a huge audience like Gary Vaynerchuk sharing an invite with all their contacts and the recipient just needing to hit one button to be taken directly to the event with no software, accounts or settings to be added or changed? I can see this being a great tool and revenue opportunity.

I’m sure Facebook will not see any of these suggestions, much less act on them, but I enjoyed writing this as social media therapy

My name is Chris Garrett and I am an iPhone addict.

Yes, it is true. Evidence, unfortunately, is slapping me in the face as I write this.

First I was distraught when I dropped my beloved iPhone in a mop bucket full of dirty water, drowning it so completely that it had to go to the iPhone hospital and be replaced with a refurb replacement (£150 at the Apple store). While the replacement is in theory identical, and should be good as new, I still miss my original (and worry about who has access to the data stored on it!).

Next, during my recent trip to Las Vegas, I clocked up £100 in roaming data fees in just a few short hours of pretty normal usage. The only thing that stopped that figure being way higher is the fact I am on Pay as You Go and they would not allow me to top up any more within a 30 day period. Yes, strange as it may seem, o2 phone network do not actually like you to send them more money. They would rather you be stuck in a foreign country with no way to make calls.

Now, lesson learned from USA, I am in another country, craving the use of my funky digital friend, but unable in case I use all my call time up Twittering, Flickring and generally messing around with the mobile interwebs. And it is driving. Me. Mad.

Fact is I need mobile data. There is not enough usable wifi (free or paid) to replace that always on 3G connection. Most useful travel functions (eg. Maps!) need some sort of data access, once you get past making calls. Even my music now comes down streamed. Even the internet connection in my hotel that I am writing this post via, well, plain sucks. Normally there is a time or a data limit. This connection has both. $0.68 per megabyte, 1GB transfer, and either two hours or 24 hour limits. That’s cheaper than the £3 per megabyte of roaming 3G data I have to pay, but not much better.

This shows two things to me:

1. I need help with my iPhone addiction
2. Apple need to sort out this expensive roaming data thing, it really sucks.

I was reading through the archives here at ‘Codswallop’ and it dawned on me that this blog is way too serious.

If this continues (I said to myself), we’ll develop a reputation of all-work-and-no-play guys. And since being dull is a grave offense, I’ve decided to share with you our weird (and sometimes interesting) life here at Cogniview.

And we’ll start the ‘life is wonderfully weird’ series with our next door neighbors.

They operate a sound testing lab. Which is pretty cool. But what’s really cool is that they build their testing environments using all sorts of strange materials. And they are using the public parking lot to store their strange stuff.

And today, it is cut-up tires…

If you know how you use cut up tires for sound testing, please, please – share it with us in the comments