Do I really need a blog, twitter & facebook? Is a website not enough?

Do I really need a blog, twitter & facebook? Is a website not enough?

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I run web design courses in various shapes and sizes, using mostly Joomla and WordPress as the underlying framework. Students often ask me why they need to go the extra mile. Is a basic website not all they need?

My answer to this question often depends on the sophistication of the audience.

Before I answer this one let me clarify something quickly. I operate in George,  which is in the Garden Route, where the typical web design student is a small business owner that sells to real people within the local area, and not to online customers.

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Repositioning the Garden Route as a Technology Destination

Repositioning the Garden Route as a Technology Destination

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The Garden Route has long been a quiet tourist destination, with little technology focussed business happening in the coastal towns of George, Knysna and Mosselbay.

The top industry sectors in the region has always been tourism and agriculture, with building and property development coming third. Recent economic changes has seen the building industry shrink, and the ongoing drought has made agriculture less sustainable. The economic profile of the region needs a change in order to sustain growth and employment.

Repositioning the region as a technology destination is not only a smart economic move, it is also the ideal move given all the region has going for itself already.

It has the infrastructure, the people, political will and the ability to make it happen.

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Garden Route IT Consortium Press Release

Garden Route IT Consortium Press Release

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GARDEN ROUTE IT CONSORTIUM READY TO BECOME TECHNOLOGY HUB

A consortium of Garden Route based companies is ready to launch an IT technology hub in George which will create jobs and train up new skills.

George’s IT company owner Imel Rautenbach is currently drumming up support for the initiative at provincial and national level.  The consortium aims to use the Western Cape Province’s business arm to market and develop in order to get launched nationally and internationally. IT technology and electronic centred businesses will be the engine that will drive this local initiative. “The idea behind pooling resources and skills is to keep all our software and hardware developmental work in the Garden Route. We already have around 30 businesses on our data base that have all the necessary skills and technology to form the nucleus. “

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Keeping tabs on your bandwidth usage

Keeping tabs on your bandwidth usage

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I run a business which rents out fully serviced office space on a short and long term basis.  One of the services I offer my customers is internet access.

During the last few months the average ADSL bandwidth usage has grown to over 50 GB per month.  As bandwidth is still relatively expensive in SA (I use Afrihost’s excellent value for money ADSL at R29/GB) I needed to see where this actually goes. …

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Working the cloud

Working the cloud

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cloudIn the last year or two my working life has pretty much moved from a traditional office based setup to an almost purely online existence.

Thanks to the huge surge in online applications and cloud computing, combined with more affordable and faster  broadband connections it is now possible to make full use of online apps in South Africa.

These days I rotate between a office Laptop with a big screen, a desktop at home, an ultra portable netbook and an iphone. Each device has its time and place, but it has always been a nightmare keeping everything in sync, from contacts to emails to passwords to documents.  This was even more of a pain every time I had to re-install any of these devices.

Well, now it is a different story, and those about to re-install as part of their Windows 7 upgrade should take note.

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Windows 7 on the Aspire One

Windows 7 on the Aspire One

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aboutsmallI took the plunge this weekend and installed Windows 7 on my Aspire One D150 netbook.

Initial indications are that it is remarkedly zippier than the dated Windows XP that was on their previously. Note that I am not going to comment on any new windows 7 features, as this post is about the netbook install itself.

aspireoneThe install was done using an external USB CDROM drive, from the official 2GB DVD image. The total install time was less than 30 minutes, taking far less time than expected.  The only issue encountered during the install was that I could not re-format the origina lWindows XP partition. This resulted in the final result containing some of the old non windows directories on the C: drive.

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Web design requires a decent hat stand

Web design requires a decent hat stand

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hatssAs someone who builds websites on an almost daily basis I often find myself in a situation where I need to wear multiple hats.

What follows is a simply breakdown of the many hats worn day to day:

The audience listens to the client, sometimes the message is clear, concise and to the point, other times it is passionate but vague, other times it is simply dreary. Everyone needs to have there say, as truly great clients can come out of small beginnings.

The assessor then needs to read the viability of the task at hand, and decide the way forward.  Knowing what it takes to please the customer is a skill the assessor cannot do without.  Sometimes it is better to walk away from a seemingly lucrative deal when the client needs are simply above what is practical or realistic. Trying to please everyone never works.

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SA ISP Dashboard, let users make up their own minds

SA ISP Dashboard, let users make up their own minds

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mweb

End user experience is a key decider when it comes to making a hosting or bandwith choice, but this is the most elusive measurable of all.

With the increased innovation taking place in the ISP hosting and ADSL offerings area it is becoming more difficult for users to make an informed choice.  It is often the extreme points of view, both good and bad, that surface on the web, distorting the real user experience.

I am proposing the creation of an impartial dashboard where everyone can view and compare the real life performance of the product offerings from the various ISPs.

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Afrihost ADSL = value for money

Afrihost ADSL = value for money

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Afrihost recently introduced their now well publicised R29 / Gig ADSL plan for prepaid bandwidth.  As this is much much lower than the R49/ Gig that prepaid bulk bandwidth costs at WebAfrica, my ADSL provider for the last three years.

As I use lots of bandwith every month (40 – 50 GB) I sat up and took notice when the offer surfaced. It would save a lot of money each month, but then performance is also an important factor. I use and supply lots of local services, so local bandwith performance is as important to me as international performance.

There is thus good news and bad news with the ADSL bandwith that comes from Afrihost (via the IS network). Local traffic is noticibly slower (Click the orange graph) whereas international traffic is noticibly faster (Click the green graph). …

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Want creative freedom? get Morph

Want creative freedom? get Morph

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I am a keen and long term supporter of both yootheme and RocketTheme, having long ago given up on free templates. The time you save using a professionally designed template means there is simply no comparison.

I also make extensive use of the template addons, like the lightbox effects, sliders, accordians and other tools that are available from these template masters.

My one frustration has always been the limited choice, as both only brings out one template a month, and editing these into unique variations does make life a bore. …

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