IT Geeks

There is lots of excitement on Twitter – apparently PayPal is coming to South Africa and this is likely to be a very influential development for small business in South Africa.

PayPal is a product which allows for secure transacting online without having to hand out your credit card or bank account details.

This has obvious benefits for South Africans looking to establish online businesses. If customers know that they can interact securely then more and more people are likely to look at online transacting.

This is good news! Will post more details when I find out more of them.

Cape Town,Yola Inc., one of the nation’s largest free website builders, today announced it had surpassed 3 million users, tripling its user base since January ‘09 by helping small and medium businesses create, host and grow professional, customized websites. Yola’s easy-to-use, drag-and-drop technology enables its users to create websites that feature the latest, most popular business-oriented widgets such as Google Maps, PayPal, Skype, and YouTube. Because Yola’s users can build and host their websites inexpensively, the company estimates it has saved its users a total of $120 million while enabling their sites to draw in a total of 28 million global impressions per month and 9 million global visits per month.

“Thanks to Yola, my company’s website is professional instead of stale,” said Patrina Ozurumba, the owner of Next Steps Career Solutions based in New York, NY. “I used the simple and free template just before getting serious press on CNNMoney.com. With the new site I was able to put my business’s best foot forward.”

“Yola gave me control over my website while saving me time and money,” said Ling Hou, owner of the San Francisco-based tutoring service Ling Ming Mandarin. “Before Yola, I was spending too much time and money working with a web designer. With Yola’s easy-to-use and professional site builder I make my vision happen. I am thrilled to have a service like this.”

“I absolutely adore Yola — they’re a teacher’s best friend!” said Kelly Geigner, a public school teacher in Bloomington, IL who created the site Teacher Tracks. “I use the service and its various widgets to share educational resources that I have created and identified with my students and colleagues. I’m so glad to have Yola as a teaching resource. I encourage everyone to give it a try and I think you’ll love it as much as I do!”

“There are many things I love about Yola,” said Meghann Bush of MKB Designs based in Baltimore. “The design tutorials are invaluable for learning how to build a site. Also, Yola is constantly trying to bring new features, new information and exciting programs to the users.”

“The Web is the phone directory of the 21st century,” said Vinny Lingham, CEO of Yola. “If you want your customers to find you, you have to be online, and you have to look good. Through Yola’s website-building and hosting tools we are able to make sure every business can effectively do business on the Web.”

I am just reading a story on TBI about an Irish start-up called Goshido which used social networking site LinkedIn to raise $230000 in financing for their small business.

I have been meaning to blog about LinkedIn for a while and this story jumped out at me as a good one to look at LinkedIn.

Truth be told – until January this year I haven’t really used LinkedIn as a networking tool. As much as I despise a lot of these social media tools, I’ve been keen to use things like Twitter, Facebook and Skype to communicate without necessarily building my online LinkedIn presence.

I’m starting to get into it now and beginning to make some nice contacts on the platform which I wouldn’t make through the other tools. The main takeaway for me is that LinkedIn seems to offer more professional credibility.

What are your thoughts on using LinkedIn to grow your professional network?

iSolve Learning Solutions, a division of iSolve Business Solutions (Pty) Ltd and Microsoft ‘Worldwide Partner of the Year 2008’ for Learning Solutions, is shocked by the past matric results — cementing the fact that no new entrants will be entering the market for the next 5 years. As a possible solution, iSolve is encouraging current IT professionals and university graduates to harness and improve on their skills to secure their future in this skill-strapped industry.

Microsoft and Prometric have reintroduced the Microsoft ‘Second Shot’ campaign in an effort to encourage people to get certified and subsequently address the ICT skills shortage in Africa.

There is a growing concern that SA will continue to lack ICT skills for years to come, especially considering that less than 50 percent of matriculants passed mathematics and science last year. This will force companies to continue to import skills from other countries and subsequently increase the cost of doing business.

Tracy Leathem, iSolve Learning Solutions Practice Manager, says it is now time for companies to improve on the skills they already have. “In an effort to improve the ICT skills shortage, Microsoft and Prometric have reintroduced the Microsoft ‘Second Shot’ campaign. If learners write a Microsoft International exam and fail on their first attempt, their second attempt is absolutely free.”

The company’s vision is to be the leading Microsoft Technology and Softskills training service provider in Africa. Its core training methodology is ‘Applied Competence’, one that addresses a range of scholastic and technical skills.

“More importantly, iSolve Learning Solutions has a holistic approach that ensures that its students are fully competent, work oriented and can easily integrate into any given environment. This model is effective in the development of career paths and encourages lifelong learning,” she concludes.

For more information contact iSolve Learning Solutions on (011) 807 9525 or visit www.isolve.co.za

Got this via e-mail today

1. Chuck Norris invented C++ after roundhouse kicking C – TWICE.
2. Chuck Norris is the Domain controller.
3. Chuck Norris has the IP 0.0.0.0
4. Chuck Norris can ping 256.256.256.256 and get a reply.
5. Chuck Norris can hack into ANY bank with his palmtop.
6. Chuck Norris’ computer boots into Windows XP Pro even though only DOS 6.2 is installed.
7. Chuck Norris’ email address is ChuckNorris. He IS the internet domain.
8. Chuck Norris is mailer-daemon.
9. Chuck Norris is Dr Watson.
10. format c: is the request to have Chuck Norris come roundhouse kick your PC.
11. Chuck Norris has Windows XP on his Apple MAC (Sorry Chuck, that’s already been done!)
12. Chuck Norris never gets the page cannot be displayed error.
13. Machine code is another name for Chuck Norris language.
14. Chuck Norris CPU doesn’t have a fan.
15. Chuck Norris can write DVDs on floppy drive.
16. Chuck Norris invented the internet.
17. Chuck Norris can paste pics in Notepad.
18. Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked his 14400k modem & thats how we got ADSL.
19. Chuck Norris’s Dot matrix printer prints photos – in colour.
20. Chuck Norris uses Notepad as a database.
21. Chuck Norris’ PC speaker gives him 7.1 DTS surround sound.
22. Chuck Norris monitor has no glare…no-one glares at Chuck Norris.
23. Chuck Norris can edit PDF files.
24. Chuck Norris rips CDs with his hands.
25. Chuck Norris can download Metallica mp3s using Naspter.
26. Chuck Norris has a yahoo account with hotmail.
27. Chuck Norris has an Intel CPU on an AMD motherboard.
28. Chuck Norris can program a MAC with excel macros.
29. Chuck Norris website has never had a hit – Nobody hits Chuck Norris’ website.

I’m a pretty patient guy and spending my day watching a mail server, I’ve become quite immune to the barrage of spam that comes into our various mailboxes on a daily basis.

One thing that I cannot accept those is that my ISP is unable to filter out mails with the word “VIAGRA” in its subject line or “from” line. I mean come on – if there is a mail which is likely to be span then something with key fields like that including the word Viagra should jump out at the filter.

We certainly don’t have a cheap and cheerful web hosting solution but this surprises me on a daily basis.

Via one of my mates…

Bill Gates: Love him or hate him , he sure hits the nail on the head with this!
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair – get used to it!
Rule 2 : The world doesn`t care about your
self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about
yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won`t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6 : If you mess up, it`s not your parents` fault , so don`t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren`t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent`s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they`ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn`t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don`t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you`ll end up working for one.

This is a link recommended by South African tech entrepreneur Vinny Lingham for a product called Dropbox.

Vinnys description:

This is probably the most useful application I have found in a long time! I moved most of my files into my Dropbox folder and now I can access them from my iPhone, Desktop and Laptop! It’s really fantastic

What is Dropbox:
Put your files into your Dropbox on one computer, and they’ll be instantly available on any of your other computers that you’ve installed Dropbox on (Windows, Mac, and Linux too!) Because a copy of your files are stored on Dropbox’s secure servers, you can also access them from any computer or mobile device using the Dropbox website.

Check this product out at https://www.dropbox.com

I have just received an automated message from a website called “Crosslink-Builder” basically asking me for a link exchange between their site and one of our sites.

Quite obviously it is an SEO tool (Search Engine Optimisation), but it is the first time that I have seen an automated message where a site is basically recommending reciprocal links between similar sites.

Has anybody used this service before? Any feedback on results?

I was just reading this story on CNN about the death of “MythBusters” contributor Erik Gates who died in a fall recently.

The story went on to say that on its Twitter page the MB team tweeted: “Team MB wishes to express our deepest sympathies on the passing of our beloved rocket expert, Erik,” followed by “You were an honorary MythBuster and will be sorely missed”

I was just scrolling down through the comments under the article and it was interesting (and a little funny) to read some of the comments about the appropriateness of using Twitter to express condolences to the family. Somebody pointed out that Ashton Kutcher had used Twitter to express his sympathy to the family of Brittany Murphy who also died recently.

This comment was a pearler for me… but maybe it has some relevance:

Sending condolences via twitter is like proposing to your girlfriend via an answering machine message – “manners” is 100% right.

Every step we take forward in technology is sometimes accompanied by a step backward in common human respect.