The Brave Programmer

Yay! I’m a finalist in the 2010 SA Blog awards. Please vote for me.

robert@integralwebsolutions.co.za (Robert Bravery) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:05:42 GMT

Can you believe it. My blog is listed as one of the finalists in this years SA Blog awards. Thanks to you guys.

I was nominated in two categories

The Ogilvy Best Media and Marketing Blog
Best Technology Blog

But only made the top 10 in the The Ogilvy Best Media and Marketing Blog

Please vote for me

So my call to you is to please vote for me. I originally asked you to nominate me, which you guys did, and I appreciate it so much. But the journey is not yet complete. You have to now cast your vote.

You can do so in Two ways:

Click on the SA Blog Awards Finalists Badge.

Go directly to the 2010 Blog awards voting page. Scroll down till you get to the The Ogilvy Best Media and Marketing Blog category. Second in the list of categories. Then look for my blog listing. It is listed in alphabetical order, in seventh place.

It is listed as “integralwebsolutions.co.za/blog.aspx”. Click the radio button. You’re not done yet. Scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Please type your email address, the security code and click Submit.
You will be sent an email to confirm your vote.
To complete your vote, click on the confirmation link in the email. If the confirmation link doesn't work out for you simply reply to the confirmation email.

I never thought I would be in the top 10, but there you go. Would have loved to be listed in the Technology category. But at least I am in the top 10 of one of the categories.

This is much appreciated. I will let you now the results as soon as I do. There are a bunch of great blogs that I am competing with. So the competition is tough. Whether I win or not, it’s been an exciting journey. Just to be recognised by you guys is prize enough for me.

How to build influence and help friends with a newspaper

robert@integralwebsolutions.co.za (Robert Bravery) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:02:50 GMT

Remember the old days when the newspaper was the most widely used form of updating yourself with the latest happenings around you. Remember how so many people would sit with a cup of coffee and glean over the newspaper, reading articles that they were interested in.

Since the dawn of electronic media the printed paper has suffered a lot. But now you can get back to that familiar scene of sipping on a cup of coffee and reading your daily newspaper with paper.li

Twitter Daily Newspaper With Paper.li

Paper.li is a web app that turns your Twitter stream into a daily online newspaper. Your Twitter newspaper is updated every day just like the morning printed newspaper.

A small internet startup based in Switzerland called SmallRivers, developed a Web app called Paper.li that basically lets you turn Twitter streams, tags and lists into daily online newspapers.

Paper.li takes your Twitter stream and extracts links to any news stories, photos, videos, etc. Using what the company calls “semantic text analysis tools” to analyse the Twitter stream. It then determines whether the stories are relevant. Resulting in the links and related content in sections based on the context of the link that are displayed in the paper.

Paper.li allows you to sign in with your twitter account and gives you three options to produce a daily newspaper based on the information you want to read. You can:

Add you name and create a newspaper about you and your social network based on all your followers (like this one: The Robert Bravery Daily)
Add in a #hashtag that you monitor or wish to keep a good eye on and you read about a lot.
Add a Twitter list of specific people you want to read about daily (like this one: Bloggers Daily)

Note: Because paper.li in still in Alpha, you are only allowed to create 10 papers in total. So use them wisely.

Paper.li also creates and arranges categories and topics based on your stream. Popular topics include:

Helping Friends

Since your paper.li papers can be about lists, people or hashtags – there is great opportunity to help people. Their Tweets and links, blog posts and stories are then featured in your newspaper. With direct links to their blog posts.

Being mentioned in a daily newspaper , or anything for that matter, is almost always good for a Twitter user and their blog. Bloggers are always on the lookout for ways to promote their blogs and stories. What a better way to help them out by creating a online newspaper that features their stories on a daily basis.

Taking it a step further, while hovering over the author of each “article”, you can see the original Tweet, and take several actions:

You can reply,
Your can retweet
You can favourite
You can Follow/Unfollow the tweep

What a great way to pay back to the social media and blogging community.

Building Influence

It is always great to have your content shared and to be recognised. By following anyone on Twitter they have a chance to be featured on your paper, if they are featured and they actually are paying attention they might just appreciate it.

When you feature your followers on a service like paper.li they are more likely going to be recognised and in turn recognise you.

When I created my first paper.li newspaper, within days I was also featured in other tweeps newspapers'. It’s a reciprocal thing that has potential to become a huge community building mechanism.

By recognising others you in turn build influence. It’s a never ending circle, the more you recognise others the more they recognise you. That's influence.

Conclusion

I think its a great services. Still in Alpha though, so probably has some improvements to make and iron out some bugs. But overall a nice job.

Check if your articles are included in my daily papers.

What do you think of paper.li? Is it a service that you might make use of? Perhaps you think it just a waste of time? Let me know.

Remember you can win a weeks worth of free ad space just for commenting. The best comments during the week will get a weeks free advertising space. Check out: Win free advertising for your blog

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Technorati Tags: blog,blogging,promotion,online news paper,twitter

Gmail vs. Yahoo! mail vs. Hotmail

robert@integralwebsolutions.co.za (Robert Bravery) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:09:41 GMT

Ever since the dawn of time mankind has an insatiable urge to communicate with one another. It seems that ultimate loneliness is no communication at all.

From the early days of smoke signals to bongo drums to messenger boys mankind has found better and better ways to stay in communication.

Communicating over vast distances became a problem. This was wrought with danger and took loads of time. Then came things like wired communication, radio and telephone. Mankind was once again happy.

Then mankind began to get uneasy again. We wanted a cheaper, faster, personal, immediate form of communication. Enter the world of e-mail

To begin, only the select few had access to this precious technology. Then something amazing happened. Free email was born and everyone on the planet with internet access could get free email and stay in touch.

Mankind was happy. But then, as more and more free mail services came onboard we were stuck with a choice. Which free online mail service should I go for?

Hotmail a.k.a Windows Livemail.

Hotmail, probably the most well known of the big three free online mail services. The Hotmail web-based email service was founded by Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia and launched in July of 1996. Hotmail was one of the first free webmail services. It was subsequently acquired by Microsoft in 1997.

Windows Live Hotmail offers an unlimited amount of storage. But they have a strict abuse policy in place. Most people believe that you are unofficially limited to 5GB mail box size. Although there are people from around the world that have 25GB, 19GB and 21GB mail box sizes.

Windows Live Hotmail also allows for 10mb attachment limit for each mail.

Windows Live Hotmail offers no direct pop features although you can use Microsoft products like Outlook Express and Outlook to pop your hotmail box. You would need Microsoft connector for Outlook.

Hot mail is not the fastest service available. But when you sign up with a Live account you also get access to all the Live services like SkyDrive etc.

Windows Live Hotmail lies second behind Yahoo! mail in terms of market share with roughly 254 million users world wide.

Yahoo! mail

At the moment, Yahoo! mail is the king of the hill when it comes to online mail market share. With around about 256 million users worldwide it seems that Yahoo! mail is just on top. But it must be said that it seems as though Yahoo! mail is losing users on a monthly basis.

Yahoo Mail is very good, allowing users to access other email accounts (POP-in), but only offering POP-out access for an additional fee. They have unlimited storage, but just like the other service providers, also have a strict abuse policy. Although there are cases of them actually limiting your mail box. So their unlimited storage is actual.

Yahoo! mail offers a 20MB attachment limit. With news and IM integration.

Yahoo Mail overall runs very fast and offers an intuitive, Outlook-like interface. They also have awesome Instant Messenger(although less people seem to be using Yahoo Messenger for some reason) and RSS integration right into the mail platform.

One of my bug bears of Yahoo! mail is the ads for the unpaid free service.

Gmail

Otherwise known as Google mail. It might surprise you to know that Gmail actually come in at a strong third position. With roughly 150 million users world wide. They are slowly growing and might even over take Hotmail who have about 156 million users.

Gmail offers unlimited storage but this has been linked to the paid service. Although they advertise unlimited storage, when I log into my Gmail account, I am greeted with the familiar 7.5 GB limit. Although this is a moving target, because it seems the closer you get to your limit, the more you seem to get. So who knows?

Gmail offers a 25mb attachment size. The largest limit of the top three.

Of the three, Gmail is probably the fastest with the ability to use Pop with any desktop mail client.

Gmail also has integrated Gtalk (their Instant Messenger platform) directly into the GMail interface, and continues to add other functionality as well(such as integration with Docs & Spreadsheets). Most recently, they launched the new social networking feature Buzz as a part of the Gmail interface.

In June 2008, Gmail introduced Gmail Labs. It’s a tab on top of settings, that lists features that are rough and have gone through almost no filtering. The Gmail Labs feature that allows you to turn on and off some experimental features. When a feature is deemed “useful enough” to a wide range of users, it then graduates from the “Labs” section and becomes a standard feature.

Conclusion

For me I like Gmail better. Perhaps because I use it the most. I have it integrated into my desktop mail client, so it just performs in the background. I hardly have to use the webmail interface.

It is speedy, and simple. I don’t want to be bombarded with other stuff while reading mail online.

I do have both Yahoo! mail and Windows Live Hotmail, but use these more to catch spam that has somehow bypassed the spam filters.

The amount of unique users of all the above three differ depending on which stats you read. But most put Yahoo on top with Gmail in third place

The above graphs shows us a trend with regards to the online mail community. The top line is Yahoo! Mail, then the second from the top is Windows Live Hotmail, and last in 3rd place is Google's Gmail. It is evident that online mail is on a downward spiral. Why is this?

Probably because of a new phenomenon called social networking. Where communication is instant and many people opt to communicate this way and forgo the email route.

A rough summary of the Top three

	Yahoo! Mail	Window Live Hotmail	Gmail
Unique Users	256 mil	254 mil	150 mil
Storage	Unlimited	Unlimited (5gig)	Unlimited (7gig)
Attachment size	20mb	10mb	25mb
Growth	16%	8%	25%
Pop-In	Free	Free (MS Add-on)	Free
Pop-out	Paid service	Free	Free
Spam Protection	Supported	Supported	Supported
Integrated IM	Yahoo! Messenger	Hotmail Messenger	Gtalk
Anti-Virus	Norton	Trend Micro	Gmail Anti-virus
Mobile Mail	Supported	Supported	Supported
Forward email to other accounts	@ monthly fee	@monthly fee	Free

So which online mail service do you use and why? Which do you think is better?

Remember you can win a weeks worth of free ad space just for commenting. The best comments during the week will get a weeks free advertising space. Check out: Win free advertising for your blog

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Technorati Tags: Email,Gmail,Yahoo! mail,Windows Live hotmail

Blogging: A hobby for loners and egotists

robert@integralwebsolutions.co.za (Robert Bravery) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:04:21 GMT

This is a guest post by Chris Hinton.

When I first started blogging (2003) my friends at work didn’t really get what it was all about. Not that they were ignorant of technology – I worked in the e-commerce department of a large bank. “Why not actually talk to people?” they asked.

Blogging was seen as a hobby for geeks; sitting in their rooms writing out their thoughts but not really interacting with real people.

Later that same year I went to a church service in the centre of London. This particular church was very big on the use of technology, which meant it was quite a surprise when the speaker said this, “All these people writing their blogs, as if the world is just hanging on their every word. It’s just an exercise in ego-stroking.”

Blimey, so bloggers are either loners or egotists – do I want to be labelled with either of these?

The thing is, I couldn’t disagree more. In fact, I think if you come at blogging with the attitude of wanting to be left to your own devices, or of just broadcasting your thoughts without listening to others you’ll fail spectacularly.

**You gotta talk**

Blogging’s a remarkably sociable affair – comments and social media are important ways to extend the blog’s reach beyond static articles.

They help you explain points that people aren’t understanding, and a good conversation on Twitter or in the comments can draw in new readers.

More importantly, though, if you want people to come and read your writing you have to cover subjects that are relevant to them. How do you know what’s relevant? Well, you could do a lot worse than actually asking. Keep an eye on Twitter, ask your e-mail list, or put a “how can I help?” post on your blog, and see what people tell you.

Ignoring your readers is a road to blog obscurity, so start talking and start listening. Build a community, and draw people in by showing them they matter to you.

I’d be curious to know what you think about this subject – why not tell us in the comments?

About the Author:

Chris Hinton

Website: Geek Speak

Twitter: @cdhinton

Chris is a pastor (officer) at The Salvation Army in Glenrothes, Scotland along with his wife, Dawn, he was a programmer and website designer. He is mad on new technology (especially Apple), sci-fi (especially Doctor Who) and motorsport. Chris tends to post on a whole load of random stuff, purely because his interests are so wide!

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Technorati Tags: Blog,Blogging,Social

Carnival of Blogging - August 23 2010 Edition

robert@integralwebsolutions.co.za (Robert Bravery) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:53:00 GMT

Welcome to the August 23, 2010 edition of carnival of blogging.

Ferrari Dude presents Top 25 Google Android Apps for Public Health Professionals posted at MPH Degree, saying, "The following top 25 Google Android apps for public health professionals include health apps, communication apps and apps that could make any public health professional’s work and social life more convenient."

Domain presents How to be an Internet Ninja : The Chronicles of Domain Name Ninja: Social Bookmarking and how it contributes to search engine rankings posted at The Ninja Blog, saying, "Beginners guide to social bookmarking"

Adil Amarsi presents Top 3 Sales Copy Mistakes posted at Copywriting | Internet Marketing | Make money online.

sharons719 presents Top 25 BlackBerry Apps for Public Health Professionals posted at Masters of Public Health, saying, "Public health professionals have many different responsibilities. Advances in technologies can help take away some of the pressure of these responsibilities."

Ziki presents Online Marketing Lesson 3 - Make Money with ClickBank (Avoid Sneaky Vendors who Might Steal your Commissions) posted at Video Marketing Strategies ;).

CHANG KAN presents Wireless-Detective - Wireless Snffer and Interception Tool posted at Wireless-Detective, saying, "Wireless-Detective is WLAN Interception Tool manufactured by Decision Group. It is widely used by Law Enforcement Agencies for WLAN Lawful Interception all over the world."

JohnQ Stakes presents Top 20 Health and Fitness Mobile Apps: iPhone vs. Android posted at Nurse Practitioner Degree, saying, "Mobile applications for both the iPhone and the Android have a variety of uses. One of the most common and popular uses is for health and fitness."

Blogging

Rosetta Thurman presents Two Newbie Blogger Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Personal Brand | Blogging for Branding posted at Blogging for Branding, saying, "This is an article about how blogging can affect your personal brand."

GreatManagement presents How To Handle Negative Comments posted at We Build Your Blog, saying, "So, how does one really handle negative comments?"

Pat Doyle presents Best Keyword Research Guide – Part 1 posted at Internet Business | Pat Doyle, saying, "This article is part of a series that explains what keyword research is, why it is important, and how to do it the easy way."

Tod presents Criteria for Writing a Great Blog Article posted at Tod.FM, saying, "Keep this list in mind if you want to create the best articles you possibly can."

MoneySecretRecipe presents How Anyone Can Get Paid To Blog With Google Adsense posted at MoneySecretRecipe.

Robert Zirk presents How to Use Categories and Tags Efficiently on Your Blog posted at Robert Zirk's Blog.

Networking

Joe Revod presents Where Do You Get Backlinks? posted at Internet Business Make Money Online With Welly Mulia.

Soccial Media

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Facebook Straits posted at Mad Kane's Humor Blog.

Hudson Horizons presents Twitter’s Newest Enhancement Makes Sharing Easier | Hudson Horizons Blogs posted at Hudsonhorizons.com RSS Feed, saying, "Hudson Horizons Social Media Marketing, Website Development, SEO and Web 2.0 Blog provides important information on Social Media Marketing, Website Design, Website Development, Web 2.0 Development, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and will help you to increase your business online."

Ken G. presents Blogging is Dead! Long Live the Blog! posted at Random Thoughts, Notes, & Incidents, saying, "Newsweek has (once again) declared the death of blogging and all forms of social participation on the web. I say that never before have so many people been writing and publishing on a regular basis."

James Feudo presents The Social Media Trap posted at Overnight Sensation, saying, "Sometimes getting immersed in social media can have unexpected results."

Sig presents Why Forums can be a VERY Negative Experience (but survivable) posted at Zen and Mountain Biking, saying, "Why forums might not be a good place to showcase new products or ideas...."

Nesher presents Promote your blog through Dagaloo posted at Blogging for Good in the Modern World.

Blogging

Larry Dignan presents 30 Best Blogs to Learn More About Acupuncture posted at MedicalCodingCertification.com.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of blogging using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Technorati tags: carnival of blogging, blog carnival.

Facebook Sues Teachbook for using the word "Book"

robert@integralwebsolutions.co.za (Robert Bravery) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:22:00 GMT

It seems that when you get as big and powerful as Facebook that the God complex is inevitable. Facebook have started proceedings to sue a very small social network group, Teachbook for using the word “Book”

The social networking giant, Facebook, with more than a half-billion users worldwide, filed a complaint in a California court Wednesday about the not-yet-operational site, Teachbook, for trademark infringement.

The beginning of the suit reads:

Facebook has become a worldwide social, cultural and political phenomenon. With fame comes imitation. Here, Defendant Teachbook.com LLC rides on the coattails of the fame and enormous goodwill of the FACEBOOK trademark. Misappropriating the distinctive BOOK portion of Facebook's trademark, Defendant has created its own competing online networking community in a blatant attempt to become Facebook "for Teachers." Despite Facebook's protests, Defendant has willfully and deliberately persisted in its misappropriation of the Facebook brand, forcing Facebook to protect its user community and the strength of the Famous FACEBOOK trademark through this action.

It’s a David and Goliath story. I mean really what does Facebook have to fear. Teachbook is hardly a threat, or is it?. With 6.5 million teachers in the US, and who knows how many from around the world, they could see themselves grow quite substantially. But really, Facebook has published over 500 million users. Hardly a contest, don’t you think?

Teachbook, is a community for teachers where users can share lesson plans, get advice, and connect with other educators.

This also raises the question, will other companies that use the words “Face” and “Book” in their company name also be sued. What about some one trying their hand at social networking and using the word “Book” in their title, Like “BookClub”, or "Faceoff".

I guess the question is, is Teachbook a copycat of Facebook. I’m positive that they are not the only ones out there. So then why the big fuss?

What do you think? Are you like me who thinks it’s totally ridiculous or do you think Facebook have a right to do so? Do you think they should?

Remember you can win a weeks worth of free ad space just for commenting. The best comments during the week will get a weeks free advertising space. Check out: Win free advertising for your blog

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Writing for the web: Good web design

robert@integralwebsolutions.co.za (Robert Bravery) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 06:31:21 GMT

In this series I have concentrated a lot on the actual skill of writing. But a big part of having your blog, website noticed is the actual site design. It matters not if your writing skills are top notch but your website sucks.

Web design can be deceptively difficult. It involves achieving a design that is both usable and pleasing to both the owner and the readers. It must deliver information and build brands. It must also be technically sound and visually coherent.

So in order to get people to actually read your fantastic copy on your blog, make sure that your design is pleasing to the eye.

Here are a few tips.

Know your audience. Website design reflects your character and will appeal to certain people. Know your audience so you design with them in mind.

Load times. In countries where bandwidth is not a problem, the temptation is to have large files on the site, i.e. flash, video, pictures. Remember not everyone that reads your blog has a 20mb line. Keep your site as fast as possible.

Offer something valuable. Make sure each page on your site has something valuable to offer.

Popup windows. No, no, no. Very annoying.

Neat and easy navigation. Navigation on your site determines how long a visitor might stay and explore your site. Make sure your navigation is available on all pages.

Consistency. Make sure your site is consistent across all pages, Use the same theme, colours, font’s layout etc.

Use web safe colours. There are thousands of colours that we can use. But only a few are what we call web safe. That is colours that your browser will recognise.

Colour choice. This is an important one. Colour determines the mood of your site. It also determines the mood of the visitor. Choose your colours wisely. Also, make sure that there is proper contrast between background and text. ie. Red on blue just hurts real bad.

Ads. Too many ads and that's all I see. You don’t want to distract from the copy on your site. If it’s money that you are worried about. Build up a user base, then the few ads you do have will pay off.

Usability. Think about what users actually do. Where will they go and how will they get there. Adhere to standards as much as possible.

Typography. This relates to the layout of your site. Things like font choices, font sizes. Spacing, consider more white space on your site. It gives reader’s eyes a chance to rest. Line length and line spacing. Don have too many long lines that are tucked in tightly together, difficult to read. Keep your paragraphs short and to the point.

Use design element effectively. Use colour, contrast, size and other design elements such as graphics to direct the users eyes to the important areas on your blog or site.

Flash. Keep flash to a minimum, use it to add effect.

Sound. Oh a big no no. Don’t have background sound. If you must have sound on your site, leave it up to the user to play and stop it. Give them the choice.

Moving objects. Oh this is so 1990 and amateurish. Animated gifs all over the place. Not professional, despite being irritating.

Remember you can win a weeks worth of free ad space just for commenting. The best comments during the week will get a weeks free advertising space. Check out: Win free advertising for your blog

New here, or perhaps you've been here a few times? Like this post? Why not subscribe to this blog and get the most up to date posts as soon as they are published. Get involved in our community. Help promote other bloggers. List your blog in our directory for bloggers. Blog Directory for Bloggers

Technorati Tags: Blog,Blogging,Web site design

Web Developers Carnival - August 16, 2010 Edition

robert@integralwebsolutions.co.za (Robert Bravery) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:47:00 GMT

Welcome to the August 16, 2010 edition of web developers.

JoelGray presents Ways To Make Money With Google posted at Internet Marketing Ace.

AndrosenDsouza presents Top 25 Google Android Apps for Public Health Professionals posted at MPH Degree, saying, "The following top 25 Google Android apps for public health professionals include health apps, communication apps and apps that could make any public health professional’s work and social life more convenient."

Tyra Ronan presents Top 25 BlackBerry Apps for Public Health Professionals posted at Masters of Public Health, saying, "Public health professionals have many different responsibilities. Advances in technologies can help take away some of the pressure of these responsibilities."

General

joesonic presents Geospatial Talk | What is special about Geospatial? posted at Geospatial Talk.

Mark Graybill presents Java, Javascript, and the Installation Hurdle posted at An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards, saying, "Choosing a programming language while teaching high schoolers to develop web pages and to program. Pros and cons of Java and JavaScript."

PHP

Khayrattee Wasseem presents How To Code A Singleton Design Pattern In PHP 5+ posted at 7PHP dot COM.

Khayrattee Wasseem presents How Relevant Are Business Goals In PHP Software Architectures In An Era Of PHP-Loving Web-Based Systems posted at 7PHP dot COM.

Web 2.0

Bailey Digger presents 50 Best Illustration Blogs on the Web posted at Web Design Degree, saying, "Illustrators are finding inspiration and tips on how to improve their technique on the web. From cartoonists to those exploring digital art, illustrators can learn a lot from each other."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of web developers using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Technorati tags: web developers, blog carnival.

The life of a blogger

robert@integralwebsolutions.co.za (Robert Bravery) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 06:02:33 GMT

So you thought that blogging will make you stinking rich and very famous. You thought that you could make easy money blogging just a few hours a day. I am so sorry that you were disappointed.

The naked truth is that blogging is often hard and time consuming. Very few earn enough money to live on.

But is that your sole reason for blogging?

By robertbravery | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

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Technorati Tags: Vlog,Blogging,Fame,Fortune,Money