tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622Wed, 01 May 2013 08:46:36 +0000SoftwareInsperationebookGezact!Survive the information age. Discover and learn about all things Internet and how it touches your business ...and the business of life. Sense of humor required. South African readers and technophobes are particularly welcome.http://blog.gezact.com/noreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)Blogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-770317180764577046Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:31:00 +00002013-04-12T09:01:38.177+02:00Buying profitable customersAs small business owners we often wrongly believe the most important thing in our business is our product. We spend so many hours, so much blood (and tears) building, refining, polishing and admiring our products, we are seduced into believing that our product is so good, customers will beat down our doors to get their hands on it. We invest ourselves in our own products. We love http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/Z06mc1VSEMY/buying-profitable-customers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/Z06mc1VSEMY" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2012/01/buying-profitable-customers.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-2546459146126357291Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:14:00 +00002011-07-22T13:37:38.982+02:00Is Facebook becoming obsolete?If you think Facebook is "unsinkable" because it has more than 700 million members, both the Titanic and MySpace have lessons to offer.  As recently as 2008, MySpace was the internet's biggest and most popular social media site.  The company was valued at US$ 12 billion at the time. In June 2011 MySpace was sold for US$ 35 million.  MySpace was the fly.  Facebook was the windscreen. It http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/TcCmW2MeIhM/is-facebook-becoming-obsolete.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)4<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/TcCmW2MeIhM" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2011/07/is-facebook-becoming-obsolete.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-2999850086740725316Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:38:00 +00002011-07-06T10:15:27.874+02:00Do not try to sell on your web siteIs it a requirement for a business to have a well designed web site? My answer is: No, not really. It is as optional as combing your business's hair or brushing it's teeth.Optional at your peril.Consider your business cell phone: Would you say it is an essential part of your marketing? How much time do you spend on it? How much does it cost? How do you get prospects to call you on your number?Nowhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/XV2mfi1PAzk/do-not-try-to-sell-on-your-web-site.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/XV2mfi1PAzk" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2011/06/do-not-try-to-sell-on-your-web-site.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-526066591517421138Thu, 12 May 2011 12:33:00 +00002011-05-13T22:38:50.455+02:00A large percentage of web sites will loose their Google search rankWay back when the web was small with only a billion web pages or so, it was easy to get a top listing in Google.Beer was cheap and the sun always shone. Teenagers were polite and taxis obeyed traffic laws.Then came another ten billion web pages. Facebook, twitter, Mxit, rude teenagers, expensive beer and armed taxi drivers followed. Things got a little complicated. Top listings in Google became http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/3StJ9-I-0p0/large-percentage-of-web-sites-will.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/3StJ9-I-0p0" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2011/05/large-percentage-of-web-sites-will.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-8810501290044816576Fri, 15 Oct 2010 07:46:00 +00002010-10-15T11:38:23.269+02:00Facebook and Twitter become even more powerfulIt is still unclear if Bing (Microsoft's search engine competing with Google) will be the fly or the windscreen in the future the internet, but Bing's recent innovations would worry me - a lot - if I had Google shares.While Google is still by far the largest and most used search engine with Bing at about 16% of the market, we all know how quickly things happen on the internet. Remember the Alta http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/D7EBqupS_GY/facebook-and-twitter-become-even-more.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/D7EBqupS_GY" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2010/10/facebook-and-twitter-become-even-more.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-2141361325249081200Wed, 06 Oct 2010 07:28:00 +00002013-04-12T09:03:44.602+02:00How to market your business on FacebookIt is easy to underestimate Facebook. Some think Facebook is an inane gossip club: highlight of the day is when Tom posts about his lunch, Dick mutters about his nose hair, or Harry reminisces about the merits of Tipex. I get that: people create a Facebook account for the first time, link with a few "friends" and all they see is a lot of "noise". At first glance you are bombarded by "news" that http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/HAnUhUs3Dhk/how-to-market-your-business-on-facebook.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)2<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/HAnUhUs3Dhk" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2010/10/how-to-market-your-business-on-facebook.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-3246791525456523159Tue, 14 Sep 2010 09:22:00 +00002010-09-14T17:27:41.308+02:00Creepy demo of the future webI watched the new music video by Arcade Fire I got a little freaked out.The video shows off the amazing capabilities of HTML5 - the new porposed web standard "language". In essence HTML5 makes many new features available to web designers, including animation, video, interactive editors and so on. Techno-mumbo jumbo to most, but the possibilities are incredible as the experimental music video http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/HRQL4vkZDlo/creepy-demo-of-future-web.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/HRQL4vkZDlo" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2010/09/creepy-demo-of-future-web.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-7199824687800846318Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:04:00 +00002010-08-31T14:49:42.740+02:00WACS! Was the sound of the cable slapping home."WACS!" sounds like the loud and satisfying sound when you smack! the ball just right, doesn't it?So, for a second, imagine plugging a huge big internet cable into Europe's side with a loud WACK! sound. :-) The West African Cable System (WACS) just announced that they are extending the existing undersea cable from Portugal to the UK while, at the same time, increasing the design capacity from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/4sU4AeQndVo/wacs-was-sound-of-cable-slapping-home.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/4sU4AeQndVo" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2010/08/wacs-was-sound-of-cable-slapping-home.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-1367833740277813630Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:39:00 +00002010-08-16T12:52:33.064+02:00Social media is an evolutionary step of humankindToday it's Friday. The 13th. Good luck to all you friggatriskaidekaphobiacs. Remember to duck. Proactively.To the rest of us, and to the friggatriskaidekaphobiac hiding safely under the desk, lets take a break and spend a little time with the braai-idjits:The braai was at Jens's place. It was a pleasantly warm winters day in Cape Town. Not a breath of wind. The rooikrans fire painted tendrils of http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/1jGV4hlsqBM/social-media-is-evolutionary-step-for.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/1jGV4hlsqBM" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2010/08/social-media-is-evolutionary-step-for.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-5020159821114823838Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:06:00 +00002010-08-10T12:10:10.009+02:00The importance of backing up your emailThe POP3 protocol (used to retrieve email) can either be configured to leave mail on the server or delete mail once downloaded. Most people set their mail software to delete mail once downloaded in order not to have to download the same mail items every time. Once the mail server receives an instruction to delete mail, that item is permanently deleted - it does not go into a deleted items folder http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/m70B8mlev4k/importance-of-backing-up-your-email.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/m70B8mlev4k" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2010/08/importance-of-backing-up-your-email.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-1484350865342760638Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:31:00 +00002012-03-07T15:57:43.716+02:00The single most desired responseYou read the post about effective web sites right? Let's flesh out the concept a little more, by introducing you to the principle that can make or break your marketing: The single most desired response. And now we teach an old dog a new trick I often hear people say they are not sales people - as if they are genetically incapable. As if they don't have opposing thumbs. If you are one of thesehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/mUSOIrpVA10/single-most-desired-response.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)2<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/mUSOIrpVA10" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2010/07/single-most-desired-response.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-2819782965848832479Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:02:00 +00002010-07-08T14:32:42.011+02:00The devil in the deep blue SEAcomMillions of ADSL users in South Africa are still suffering from broken or slow internet access after the SEACOM undersea cable failed on Monday. If you (like most people) are affected by this outage, here follows a quick explanation of what is happening. (If you are not affected because you are using Telkom and the SAT3 cable, this may be your last chance to make fun of the SEACOM users...after http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/wY1nWDluEaw/devil-in-deep-blue-seacom.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)3<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/wY1nWDluEaw" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2010/07/devil-in-deep-blue-seacom.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-2237603859294889926Fri, 02 Jul 2010 10:39:00 +00002011-02-10T14:02:55.403+02:00Four hundred and nineteen MILLION good reasonsA few weeks ago I posted an article on effective web sites (A spade does not a hole make a.k.a effective web sites) where I talked about the fact that just having a web site is not a solution in itself: it is a tool, a means to an end.As is often the case, that article was inspired by a fellow member of the idjit tribe: this time whilst pondering strategies for annoying other idjits at their http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/AABiOyucsEc/four-hundred-and-nineteen-million-good.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)2<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/AABiOyucsEc" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2010/07/four-hundred-and-nineteen-million-good.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-8196352565976933591Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:40:00 +00002010-06-18T14:58:34.113+02:00PhishingAngling is a very relaxing hobby - for people and fish alike.People like the beautiful setting, the quiet relaxation, the fact that you need only one hand for the fishing rod - the other can be used for holding a cold beer.Fish like the free food."Fishing" is different from "angling".People like fishing too, but fish not so much: but imagine fishing from the other end? Being the fish I mean: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/mkuXBpWDQIk/phishing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/mkuXBpWDQIk" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2010/06/phishing.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-2471391280432508896Thu, 27 May 2010 13:15:00 +00002010-05-28T12:18:29.747+02:00A spade does not a hole make a.k.a effective web sitesI like to braai. Not eating nor cooking the food so much, but the braaiing. You know: the ritual of lighting the fire, preparing the grid, staring into the flames, sipping a beer, irritating your friends.For instance, at an away braai an effective irritation technique is to sniff expertly at the wood before you stack it. The idea is to pretend you can detect the exact degree of wetness, and, if http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/Np3PRhyvoO8/spade-does-not-hole-make-aka-effective.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)3<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/Np3PRhyvoO8" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2010/05/spade-does-not-hole-make-aka-effective.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-2115951657099145752Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:32:00 +00002009-09-25T12:45:54.468+02:00Spring clean - tuning your Windows XP computerI remember when I was about 9 or 10 years old, my mother owned a small red Datsun car. It gave her endless hassles - mainly because it was serviced maybe twice in it's decade long file.It was about 120...in car years...and much of those were spent driving (proverbial) dirt roads.Trying to start the car in the mornings was an exercise in faith: Many mornings it refused point blank to start until http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/g8NxQbDBjJM/spring-clean-tuning-your-windows-xp.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)3<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/g8NxQbDBjJM" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2009/09/spring-clean-tuning-your-windows-xp.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-6651757218804220667Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:35:00 +00002009-08-07T13:51:08.403+02:00Ten candlesHectic! Awesome! Wicked!I believe "sick!" is also a term used to mean "good"...or "cool". And "cool" means, well, "good" to us old folk who were born before 1980. What is with that? How did "cool" become "sick"? Wtf? (What the flip)I spent a lot of time feeling old lately because Cozahost turned 10 years old in July. To put that in perspective:In 1990 Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau proposed http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/lCswOh8IwK0/ten-candles.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)3<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/lCswOh8IwK0" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2009/08/ten-candles.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-2354697811392883733Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:18:00 +00002009-06-12T13:05:13.461+02:00Infinite computingI was 13 when I spent my entire 3 week school vacation learning how to program my Sinclear ZX81 computer. Days and nights disappeared in for loops, variable assignments, gotos and the paraphernalia that makes up the BASIC programming language. The machine had 1 Kb of memory (that's 0.0001 Megabyte or precisely 1024 letters). No hard disk. No stiffy drive. No data storage of any kind. When http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/B2XgFzyrrI0/infinite-computing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)9<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/B2XgFzyrrI0" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2009/06/infinite-computing.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-4563261719044872721Fri, 22 May 2009 10:46:00 +00002009-05-22T12:53:41.910+02:00Un-voodoo'ing internet access via your cell phoneIn a previous post about cell phones, dentures and public swimming pools, I talked about how pervasive technology became. Everybody has a cell phone and they take it everywhere. Thing is, internet access via cell phones are still a bit voodoo to many users - so that is what this post about: un-voodoo'ing internet access via your cell phone.The first thing to mention is that most "old" cell http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/6Y4RzvpNyo0/un-voodooing-internet-access-via-your.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)3<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/6Y4RzvpNyo0" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2009/05/un-voodooing-internet-access-via-your.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-9162051909110982101Fri, 08 May 2009 08:27:00 +00002013-04-11T16:59:01.019+02:005 things to watch out for when you register a domain nameIf you don't own your organization's domain name you can be abused, threatened, ridiculed, defrauded, blackmailed and worse....anything up to (but excluding) alien abduction and anal probes. I do mean to scare you. It's so simple to register your domain name, it's just silly not to. The cost and effort is minimal. The risk of loosing your domain name to an abusive 3rd party is absolutely not http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/d7KxhwB0lRw/5-things-to-watch-out-for-when-you.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/d7KxhwB0lRw" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2009/05/5-things-to-watch-out-for-when-you.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-229998528210812020Fri, 08 May 2009 08:21:00 +00002009-05-08T10:37:47.962+02:00The true unsung hero of the internet.How many phone numbers do you know? Off-hand I mean - in your head?Not a lot I'll bet. Most people rely on their personal phone books on their cell phones, computers or paper.I don't even remember my own cell number most of the times...and that's not (just) because I hate phone calls.I don't try to remember my own phone number (or anyone else's for that matter) because I have a theory that my http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/D-shO32_g48/true-unsung-hero-of-internet.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/D-shO32_g48" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2009/05/true-unsung-hero-of-internet.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-1036588005894100330Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:37:00 +00002009-04-17T11:46:07.989+02:00Cell phones, dentures, public swimming pools and the InternetWe are a connected nation - despite the spectacular failure of the Government's policy of "managed liberalization". For many years Telkom was allowed to starve South Africans of bandwidth. 1 Gb of capacity in South Africa costs about R 50.00, as opposed to about R 2.00 in the USA. The CITY of Luxemburg has about the same amount of internet capacity as the entire South African nation.Insane.Andhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/KejcfZW-QlY/cell-phones-dentures-public-swimming.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)2<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/KejcfZW-QlY" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2009/04/cell-phones-dentures-public-swimming.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-8156606724282275953Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:17:00 +00002009-04-03T13:41:54.339+02:00Time is a weird thing. A tie-your-brain-into-knots thing. Incomprehensible.Take this "now": You are reading this for the first time. That "now".N o w.This now will he will be forever gone - after you read this sentence.Poof! That's it - gone.We are now in another (next), now. You can never, ever, in all eternity, read the previous paragraphs again for the first time. You can read the next paragraph for the first time to repeat the experiment (in the future), but the http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/tOgfpRwYqYs/time-is-weird-thing-tie-your-brain-into.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/tOgfpRwYqYs" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2009/04/time-is-weird-thing-tie-your-brain-into.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-7838783539008709389Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:27:00 +00002009-03-27T11:03:32.882+02:00How to detect sneaky incompetentsAfter the last post about Brandy's propensity to bite the hand that feeds it, I've had to endure countless innuendos about Zorro's manliness, and, by association, my own. So, last night after dinner and a few stiff digestives, I decided to post a picture of Zorro making his scary face (on the left).A picture fit to make Cujo wet his panties and go hide under the bed.Proof beyond doubt that he is http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/Bf9btxYMmhc/after-dinner-and-few-stiff-digestives-i.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)2<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/Bf9btxYMmhc" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2009/03/after-dinner-and-few-stiff-digestives-i.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7727260224166364622.post-212823186593264677Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:51:00 +00002009-03-13T11:14:59.751+02:00Always assume postitive intent, but Brandy does biteI told you about my Labrador, Zorro: A big black guy. He is 10 or so, but seems to believe (and behave as if) he is still a puppy. He poops more than I feed him. Everything is his favorite: Eating. Sleeping. Pooping. Playing. Birds. Cats. Snakes. Sticking his head under water. His collection of toys. E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.This dog is so docile, I've seen a three year old dig a bone out http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gezact/~3/GVoJcua9h3A/always-assume-postitive-intent-but.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Waldo Louw)2<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Gezact/~4/GVoJcua9h3A" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.gezact.com/2009/03/always-assume-postitive-intent-but.html