If you read this book a 1000 a years ago it falls in that prophecy feel to it the sense of authority. It is very relevant because it talks about the internet and the affect on human nature. It’s kind of meant to be a internet scripture to get you thinking about internet technologies and how they related to marketing and the future of how everything works. It predicts the end of certain practices and major shifts of power. My sign would not say “The end is near!” but rather it’s just getting started. The internet very much represents the One Mind idea that we are all connected. In our world we attempt to recreate how our inner most workings are also setup. It’s probably unlikely the internet will always be the only technology used to connect people.

Imagine a hard drive that can store everything that the internet has but everyone has one. It stays synchronized with all the data on the internet with no cables, no wires or wireless. Rather it uses entanglement to tap in to the universe’s vast network already in place. You think the Matrix was just a movie. Well most of it was but the idea of the Great Matrix is web that connects the entire Universe. Computers will never take over the world they can barely take care of themselves. For now we entangle with each other using slow technology of fiber cables draped at the bottom of every ocean in the world. This is a great book to get you thinking it probably won’t revolutionize your marketing online or anything like that but it will change the way you see the internet and idea of interconnectedness of people. Even if those people are in Nigeria and want you to know that you have already one 1,000,000 Euros.    

http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/products/ProductDetail.jsp?productID=BK_ADBL_000005&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

When they say for dummies they really mean it this time. This book was help in that it helped me affirm I am not that far behind on managing my time. It also lead me in to a more interesting conversation about time management. I am not sure who this book would be good for. If you were a house wife for 20 years and suddenly had to jump in to a busy work schedule definitely a good read.  

Allegedly Bill Gates wrote this book and it was one of the first books I got in to when I realized I wanted to be a business owner. It’s interesting how Bill manages documents at Microsoft. There are only 8 paper forms at Microsoft mainly because they are government forms. I think for a high tech person this book would not be as useful. I think this book is out reach to the many companies and managers that do have a lot of paper forms and processes. It was published in 1999 right before we though the world was coming to an end with Y2K. I listened to this book on audible.com I think it would have been more interesting if Bill had read it himself. If you are already high tech then this book probably will sound dated because you probably do deal on paper anyone either. It does provide a useful reference when talking with customers if you deal in the high tech world.  

Recently I moved in to a new house and one my speakers blew a capacitor. After replacing the capacitor the speaker worked great for about 5 minutes but then smoke began billowing out of the back. It still sounded okay but it I suspected based on the smoke… the speaker was just not repairable at least not by the likes of me. No matter I already ordered a Bose Companion 5 desktop sound system from the Bose web site. It’s a USB system so there are some downsides if you work your computer hard like mine. When I am building an Installer in Install Shield sometimes music will crackle a little. If I am compiling a large project in Visual Studio the same can happen. Also if you have downloaded low quality music online sometimes it sounds worse on these speakers. Music from Napster sounds amazing. Bose uses research from MIT to build these speakers and for the money these are the best sounding speakers for music and games. There are actually two speakers in each speaker unit which lends it’s self to surround sound effects. It’s a lot of money for speakers but I using PAs before and they cost just as much and don’t sound anywhere near as good. The control pad allows you to tap it for mute and you spin the wheel to adjust the volume. Right now I am listening to L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole. I love the way it sounds. Running Windows 7 everything works great.    

When I read the articles about the new Google OS I couldn’t help but be reminded of the Insurance giant AIG being grilled by congress where one of the congressmen said “I can’t believe it’s not insurance” joking on the “I can’t believe it’s not butter” commercials. I’ll just say it I can’t believe it’s not an OS. It’s a self sustaining web browser application with no evidence it even supports devices or any thing outside of using Google Apps and browsing the web. That being said that doesn’t mean it won’t be a fast web browser since that’s all it can do. It’s basically a gimmick to say it will lour Windows users away from a decades that went in to perfecting Windows. Google hopes you will drop your PC computer for Cloud computing where all your stuff is on there servers. It seems to me with the progression in to quantum computers we won’t need Google or Microsoft to have our powerhouse computing system very soon in the future.

Systems that only offer few features generally don’t sell well remember Web TV? Google’s core issue is that they grew very quickly and depend on innovation practices instead of a cow boy antics like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs which came from inspiration. Malcolm Gladwell’s new book “What the Dog Saw” talks about small time people making boat loads of cash with no focus groups or marketing firms but with inspiration. I will say Google may find a market for their Google thing in 3rd world countries in emerging markets. We take things like Office and Windows for granted and if those tools come at low enough cost people in other countries could benefit from low cost Office technologies and overall lower cost system. Windows 7 is already lower cost in other countries but options are nice. This particular item seems to be attempt to create drama where it doesn't exist.   

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8369611.stm

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On the drive home today I saw at least 8 grown men walking around with a shopping cart or bag with their stuff. These people didn’t look like ordinary homeless people just broken but rather people who were homeless recently. When I was younger and more arrogant I simply believed people were lazy and thus wouldn’t work. There are probably some people in that situation.

I also came to know sometimes you can become bankrupt with the people around you and suddenly things can spiral downwards with no end in sight. This new infinity for the homeless folks has caused me to realize that most of us are closer to homelessness than we think. For me personally half a decade ago I myself almost became homeless. Once you are late with rent with an apartment they will tell the next apartment calling for reference the one thing you did wrong even if you paid on-time for the term on your lease. I was divorced and my credit at the time was not looking to good. I offered the landlord my deposit for my mistake for being late on the rent and to offer me a reasonable reference. He kept the money and still gave me a bad reference. About 1200 dollars which I guess what I get trying to work the system. You could become homeless just from the fact no one wants to rent to you. At the time I posted a plea for help on roommates.com for someone to rent me a room. After having no luck for weeks wouldn’t you know it several people offered to help me out. Now I live in a very comfortable house but I can never forget how people will try to walk over you when you are in a bad situation. I can’t imagine what folks are going through now. 

At the time for me recently single, broke and trying to figure it all out. I often gave my last dollar to a homeless person. In my Mind I had what I needed to spiral back up. Often people fall for a trap that leaves them homeless, friendless and hopeless. If you have been broken by the world then you can understand this. If you haven’t been broken then you may have no idea what I am writing about. I have unique perspective to know what it’s like on both sides but I tell you truthfully you should bless and give to those who have nothing or are homeless. Not because you have to but you can see firsthand how the universe provides for you with ease and abundance abounds for some. I would suggest that anyone not living well is suffering from some kind of illusion. Worse yet the scammers and drug users are also suffering from a kind of illusion. Even when people try to con me as I walk out of a store that they need 8 dollars to get their car out of impound. If you have every had a car impounded it can be like 250 a day. It really sucks. This con around for a while is a played out to scam some one out there money.

For some reason I can forgive that and see that the person is confused and doing the best they can. Someone probably taught them how to do it. It was probably a thrill the first time they did it. It works pretty well and you can get by until something better comes along. I wonder if I had become homeless because no answered my ad on roommates would someone have taken me in and showed me how con people out of their money… There is lot of evidence that suggest that if we had been in their place with their level of understanding we could be up to those tricks ourselves. I think that’s why at first we have the capacity to resent them or ignore the homeless or con people completely. The discomfort comes from our own lack of understanding about how the world really works. In LA people are famous for holding a sign saying “just need a beer” or something appearing overly honest. I remember a man who was on the exit of a freeway who I gave money to when my car lined up with his. His sign said “God loves you”. Although I can’t not tell you to give I can tell you to see if you are inspired to give. To give should never feel like a sacrifice.        

Los Angeles Mission

There are many ways that manufactures and distributors provide product data to their customers. Generally with margins down to the minimum there isn’t a lot of money to make sure you have fantastic e-commerce ready data. ProjectThunder works with manufactures, distributors and sales agents to catalog and provide data through client software AND even Web Services so that savvy customers can access their data real time online via their own software and infrastructure. You might expect you have to use EDI and spend a small fortune. ProjectThunder have built data repositories for catalogs with 200,000 thousand products as well as smaller catalogs with 15,000 products. You might not think this is critical to your business but when your competitors offer this low cost technology to enable sales agents and distributors of products organizations will come to expect top rate e-commerce ready data.   

How does a Product Library work? A product library works by keeping a copy of your data from your ERP or Product Management system online with images and descriptions on a web server that expose WSDL and SOAP that allow developers to connect and update their own systems with BizTalk or writing code. For less savvy customers we provide a client software that anyone can install and use to filter and download images and a CSV file with data needed to import in to a proposal system or e-commerce catalog. Empower your customers to sell more and do more with your products. ProjectThunder provides the developer support and end use support for any client software used to download data directly to the desktop. Call ProjectThunder for a Product Library with your product catalog today. 

Being a newbie is okay because we are all new to something at some point. What you don’t know can hurt you. Your merchant provided is most likely making a good living off your money. Your thinking but Calvin I have a 1.9% on my merchant account. The fact of the matter is YOU DONT HAVE A 1.9% you just think you do. If you examine your statement thoroughly you find out that only standard visa and master card customers work out that way. What we know is that most people use specialty cards with points, miles, Starbucks etc. Guess who is paying for that… You got it you the merchant because you don’t have enough trouble already that you have to give away 1-2% of your gross back to you customer for free Starbucks.

If that is all it was then that might be okay but your merchant sales person also adds on a commission on those transactions. They figure you are getting screwed anyways might as well lay it on thick. My business spent 1000’s in extra fees so a sales person who talked with us for 20 minutes could make a cut of every transaction. He was more like our pimp than a partner in our business. I don’t know about you but I am not that generous.

We partnered with a expert in Merchant accounts through Chase Paymentech to offer our customers the lowest possible prices. How low? In fact there are only two places you can get it cheaper period. One is a not good company but the other is Costco. Why work with us if you can get your coffin, rotisserie chicken and merchant account under one roof? Well try asking Costco about Visa PCI compliance or explain to you in detail how the merchant payment industry works and how to use it as a tool not a drain on your business. Ask Costco about connecting your account to software like e-commerce shopping carts. If you are still with me then you are starting to see you can get the expert technical knowledge as well as a merchant account as cost effective as Costco from ProjectThunder. Save money get real advice and help on payment technologies. Leave the chicken to Costco and call ProjectThunder for a free comparative quote on your merchant account and integration. You deserve better empower your Voodoo.            

For 1000’s of years commerce or the marketplace has been part of our lives. Merchants have been trying to perfect the “sell” and increasing share of wallet on order sizes. If merchant in Palestine was compared to a Macy’s online web site the fundamentals of merchandising would be the same. The Voodoo Shamans refer to this world as the marketplace because well… everything is for sale. eBay has even attempted to sell organs online before catching their multitude of goofs. 

How does merchandising help bring in more sales? you have probably heard the class 7-11 merchandising analogy of putting the diapers by the beer. When husbands go looking for diapers the God sent relief of BEER is right there for them evaluate. Imagine how that related to merchandising online. Most “shopping” carts simply display products in the order added to the web site. Completely meaningless. This is because an engineer built the solution not a merchandiser. 

Merchandising could mean something as cross sell or accessories but also means showing your best products first, enhanced search with processes in place to always show customer search results even if there isn’t an exact match. Maybe you sell Zune’s online but someone searches for an iPod. Some  people really want an iPod but many people really just want an MP3 player. If you can cross reference your search results then you can begin to make sure people find what they are looking for.

You can also take your best selling high margin products and make sure they are front and center. You can score products and show them in the order of all relevant critter such as sales rank and inventory. Merchandising also means pre-planning and executing promotions for seasonal items. I guarantee you Macy’s online who uses Omniture Merchandiser to pre-plan and create all the merchandising for Christmas and it’s already in their system. When certain dates comes to pass the system automatically deploys new merchandising strategies. ProjectThunder designs and deploys custom merchandising systems WITHOUT monthly fees. You pay for the work not the value based pricing. You deserver better empower your Voodoo.   

Custom e-commerce merchandising systems