April 24th, 2008
Anthony
Brendon wrote that what we see when we look at a webpage depends on our perspective. As web developers we look at a site and see all the aspects that make the whole, while others can look at the page and just see a picture. Then they judge the site by whether the picture appeals to them, rather than by how effective the site will be as a tool.
We’ve long argued that you can treat your website as a business expense, or as a business investment. If you look at it as a picture, then its an expense. If you look at all the aspects that define how the site will perform, it becomes an investment - hopefully a profitable one!
Look at your site as an Employee!
I’ve just thought of a new angle - consider your site to be another employee for your business. You want it to work for you and make money for you, don’t you? So…
- Find an employment agency
- Meaning your web development company
- They’ll GROW your perfect employee
- When you hire an employee, you have to pick one from all the applicants
- Imagine you could grow one based on your specialised requirements!
- Put your new employee to work
- Your vat-grown employee can take on any persona you define, to better represent your business,
- Can work tirelessly 24 hours a day,
- Is the perfect salesperson to attract and field initial enquiries,
- Will follow your instructions to convert enquiries to sales!
How cool would a vat-grown employee be? One who can do all of the above? One who you pay to have grown, who doesn’t ask for a weekly wage to keep working for you?
Well, that can be your website!
February 26th, 2008
Anthony
I just got off the phone with a nice Indian-sounding gentleman named Kevin, who was trying to convince me to change my electricity supplier to his company. He was trying to point out how much my bill has increased in the last few months, and what a great deal he could give me.
But I missed every third word. I’m not great with accents to begin with, and the amount of static in the line was not helping. Then the line cut out for 5 seconds. We tried to continue, and the line cut out again. So I hung up.
Kevin called back, and I explained that I’m not going to trust my electricity needs to a company that can’t make a phone call. I’ve since googled the company, and couldn’t find any mention of it. Also not sure how they obtained a list of customers belonging to a competitor (my current provider), or how they got my billing history. I’m certainly not impressed.
So, do you know how well your company being represented?
February 26th, 2008
Anthony
Generally, I hate receiving spam. Probably 80% of the email my work account receives is spam, which makes Monday mornings a drag as I sort through my emails. But every now and then, I get one that stops me in my tracks.
If you think about it, you could come up with all sorts of amusing ways this proposal could have taken place. Did he gift-wrap his “p0rn star” instrument in a ribbon? Was there a piercing involved?
I leave you with:
November 21st, 2007
Anthony
I’ve probably posted before how Brendon and Mel operate Brandboots.com - a site selling Ugg Boots.
Brendon writes on Tailored about how Ugg Australia was driving his Online Ugg Boot Store out of business by providing a higher quality of boot at lower prices, with better customer support to match.
From my point of view, this has quite an upside. Christmas is typically the busiest time of year for Ugg Boot retailers - Americans and Europeans are feeling the cold, and Ugg Boots make great Christmas gifts. And this year, I don’t have to field phone calls from Ugg Boot customers! Merry Christmas to me!
October 4th, 2007
Anthony
Last night I got another strange email:
Dear xxx,
My Name is xxx, I am an Software Engineer, and i belongs to Kerala, India. while i was searching for an article, I just came to know about you through the website www.tailored.com.au , So we both are working in the same field. I would like to know, will you be able to share friendship with me. I expect positive results from you and look forward to speaking with you.
regards
xxx
This email came to my work account, which is listed on tailored.com.au. I thought it was kind of wierd, and a little creepy. But the other staff here have received the same email.
This appears to be a more targeted approach to phishing. The phisher has located an ‘about me’ page, found my email address, and customised his email to target me. (Somewhat poorly, I might add). Still, this is a little frightening - There’s a wealth of information online about all of us web citizens, and its available to anyone who takes the time to look for it.
This is a little scary. Its incredible how many people still get taken in by Nigerian scams, even today. More personalised phishing emails will surely sucker even more people in.
September 26th, 2007
Anthony
We sometimes forget that even experts must occasionally consult the documentation, lest they slip and fall.
September 26th, 2007
Anthony
I’ve been battling for a while now with a certain bug on a certain site. I don’t see this bug anywhere else, and I wasn’t able to figure out what the issue was. I eventually (trial and error) narrowed it down to some javascript. If I removed the script, the site worked. (Minus the scripted functionality of course). If I kept it in, this happened:
I found a few articles discussing this issue, and linking back to Eoghan O’Brien. His fix (defer=”defer” on the javascript) didn’t help me though.
My issue was with SWFobject. Long story short, I ended up having to do this:
<script type="text/javascript">
window.addEvent('load', function() {
var so = new SWFObject('flvplayer.swf','mpl','240','200','7');
...
so.write('player');
});
</script>
Yes, I use mootools. Instead of doing <script src=”#” defer=”defer”> I was able to defer the EXECUTION of the script instead, by adding it to the onLoad event sequence.
Still don’t know why it works, but now my page opens in Internet Explorer (IE6 and IE7, also Avant Browser)
September 6th, 2007
Anthony
Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of spam along the lines of:
Subject: man, who filmed this thing?
If your dad sees this video you made, he is going to kill you. Go look at it: http://www.youtube.com/……
Then the youtube link goes off to a IP-based website, no doubt to install some spyware or something. I certainly didn’t click it.
Can you imagine how many kids will see this email, think “Oh shit, who had a camera at that last party…” and click the link?
July 13th, 2007
Anthony
The ACCC has an important role in Australia:
The ACCC promotes competition and fair trade in the market place to benefit consumers, business and the community. It also regulates national infrastructure services. Its primary responsibility is to ensure that individuals and businesses comply with the Commonwealth competition, fair trading and consumer protection laws.
It serves to enforce the idea of “fair trading” and it covers all aspects of the marketplace, including customers, retailers, and wholesalers. If I felt a business was doing false advertising, or was denying me a refund, I could report them to the ACCC.
Now, the ACCC has filed suit against Google, Google Ireland, and Google Australia. Oh, and the local Trading Post. From the ACCC website:
The ACCC is alleging that Trading Post contravened sections 52 and 53(d) of the Trade Practices Act 1974 in 2005 when the business names “Kloster Ford” and “Charlestown Toyota” appeared in the title of Google sponsored links to Trading Post’s website. Kloster Ford and Charlestown Toyota are Newcastle car dealerships who compete against Trading Post in automotive sales.
Seems like the Trading Post bought ads that LOOKED like they were advertising Kloster and Charlestown, when in fact they pointed to the Trading Post’s site.
Read more at The Australian. Also see Slashdot discussion.
The Trading Post has settled, and the ACCC is now going after Google for displaying the ads.
If this suit holds up it will set a precedent for very heavy ad monitoring responsibility on the part of all search engines, not just Google.
For clarification, note that the ACCC is not suing for money (aside from costs). I’m not exactly sure what they want - there’s a list of demands on the ACCC website, not all of which I understand. It seems like they want Google to say sorry, and not to let it happen again. This would include better separation of organic and paid listings, and implementing some kind of systems for Pete’s Red Widgets cannot appear when someone searches for Fred’s Red Widgets.
July 2nd, 2007
Anthony
Didn’t take long? For some time now, people have been snapping up iPhone related websites, and now (Monday morning) my work account has received 3 iPhone scam emails.
The emails have the subject line “Congratulations, you have won a new iPhone from Apple.com!”
They actually look slightly legit. Apple always sends out their emails as a large graphic file, akin to a print advertisement. This spam email has the same graphic as a legitimate apple email does, promoting the iPhone. All links, of course, are routed through an IP address.
Remember, if an email tells you that you’ve won something, its pretty much certain to be a scam. No Virginia, you cannot win a contest you never entered.