Arno Nel 2.0

Chomp Chomp

Just want to let everyone on dotnet.org.za know that i am not cross posting here anymore. Ill keep this blog up for Office content, but my main blog's focussed has moved away from Microsoft related news, so it didnt seem appropriate.

 The new focus of ArnoNel.com will be on all things Web, from Design to Development, to the new Social Wave. An example of the types of posts i will do is my current Color Series:

1. An introduction to Color
2. What is Color?
3. Color Theory - The Basics
4. Color Theory - Ultimate Resource List
5. Chosing color and color schemes - Ultimate Resource List
6. Generate a Color Palette from an Image
7. Color Meaning, Symbolism and Psychology

 If this interests you, then please subscribe directly to my blog on: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Arno

Other places you can get me:

Most important though, please subscribe to me directly on: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Arno

the Web Monster

This move marks the beginning of a new focus. Ive tried everything on my blog. From my humble developer beginnings to SharePoint, to Information Worker then to Architecture. Throughout this time though, one thing has been pretty constant. The Web. This is where my passion really lies. I am the Web Monster, and here begins my new quest.

Check out the new blog

ClearContext 4 released

Tags: GTD

CLIQ - South African Techies stick together

Ive Started a South African Cliq

Search for "South Africa"  in the directory and join

Creating a Startup - The Ultimate getting started guide

This is definitely one to bookmark. I found this great local site which has a resource list, perfect for the budding entrepreneur.

There are entrepreneur related sites, blogs, resources etc.

Check it out

is BlogRush a “pyramid scheme” ?

the answer is really easy............... NO!

I can understand why people are doubting the credibility of this service. First off, it does sound too good to be true, and secondly, many people have been sold link exchange ideas in the past that just haven't worked. BlogRush is different....

According to their founder:

"EVERY SINGLE IMPRESSION GETS REWARDED FOR *THAT* IMPRESSION AS IT HAPPENS. There is no “promise” of future rewards based on referral activity today. Each and every impression of the widget (and impression of the 5 headlines per widget) is rewarded AS IT HAPPENS. And when all the math is said and done, it also leaves 1 out of every 10 headline spaces left-over for BlogRush to use to monetize the service. So apparently some people think it’s all based on false promises that the network will eventually “catch up” and pay rewards in the future. This just isn’t the case. Every single impression that occurs is calculated and rewarded to the generations ‘above’ — that’s how the math has to work."

If you haven't joined BlogRush yet, i suggest you do.

BlogRush flavors

blogrush will soon allow you to choose from different skins so that the widget more closely matches your blog. Hopefully in time there will be more customization options, although i don personally think it looks that bad.

popurls - the internet dashboard

poprurls is a website that aggregates links for a host of social networking sites, and does it in a way that makes sense. Its almost like an internet dashboard or social networking start page.

BlogRush - Part 2

Ok, well its been about 2 days since I started BlogRush and the stats are pretty good so far:

I know what your site was "built with"

built with is a service that interrogates a website to see what technologies were used in its making. In their own words:
"BuiltWith is a web site profiler tool. Upon looking up a page, BuiltWith returns all the technologies it can find on the page. BuiltWith’s goal is to help developers, researchers and designers find out what technologies pages are using which may help them to decide what technologies to implement themselves."

Check out the results for TechCrunch - Results
Results Snippet:

Blog Publishing

• WordPress

Introducing a good South Africa SharePoint blog

 Id like to introduce everyone to a friend of mine, Zlatan. He has been doing a great job on his blog and do alot around SharePoint, SharePoint Development, OBA, etc.

According to his blog:

"I'm primarily a C#.NET and DB system architect/developer and I also come from an extensive Enterprise Content Management - MS SharePoint 03/07, Opentext - Livelink, Identitech - FYI, Global 360, Meridio, K2.NET, Opentext - Domea (including Business Intelligence - SQL 2005) experience and background especially working mainly for the Public Sector (Local, Provincial and National) and also Corporate Sector. Mostly I'm a Technical Lead/System Architect as well as Project Manager (PRINCE 2 with MSF) on my projects. My main points of interest are MSF, Sharepoint 2007 Enterprise Content Management, also Document and Records Management, also on SQL 2005 BI Solutions (Project Real) and Performance Point Server, C# Development (services and integration), Windows Workflow Foundation, BizTalk Server, and also Windows Mobile Development as well as Scanning and Imaging application development (C#.NET and Image Controls 3) that complements Sharepoint 2007 Enterprise Content Management functionality."

Check out his Blog here 

Increase Traffic to your Blog - BlogRush

Ok, I dont usually fall for these things, but this service looks pretty awesome. Its all over the blogosphere and hitting the social network forums etc.

BlogRush is a new kind of referral network.Essentially, all you do is put a widget on your blog. The widget displays links to other blogs, but the cool thing is that it has context.
BlogRush has an algorithm that works out the topic of your blog and displays relevant links in the widget. Its actually so useful and ive picked up really useful blog posts doing this.
The idea is that for every time the widget displays on your blog, you get 1 credit. This credit is then used to display your blog on other blogs. Simple isnt it?

I am proof that its working. The BlogRush dashboard shows you live stats of how many hits and clicks to your site you are getting.

Check out BlogRush here.

ps, the video on their homepage does a great job of explaining it.

According to their site:

"By adding the BlogRush Widget to a blog, a blogger can get instant distribution for their latest blog post titles across a network of related blogs.

BlogRush users earn "syndication credits" (the right to have their blog post titles shown inside a widget on another related blog) based on their own traffic (loads of the widget) as well as the traffic of other users they refer to BlogRush . Users can automatically refer others to BlogRush via special links on the widget, as well as through the promotion of a special referral URL they are given.

BlogRush is a "Cooperative Syndication Network" that rewards its users for their contributions to the network -- from the impressions they provide of the BlogRush Widget to the referral of other users through 10 'generations' of activity and the impressions of the widget that they provide. BlogRush was designed to be incredibly viral and to provide its users with tremendous distribution leverage to receive exposure for their blog content (onto related content blogs) that they could never achieve on their own; at least without a massive advertising budget.

BlogRush is the brainchild of Internet entrepreneur, John Reese. Mr. Reese is the founder and CEO of Income.com, a soon to be launched social network and media company for entrepreneurs. BlogRush is the first Web property of the Income.com Network, a network of sites and services to help entrepreneurs and business owners succeed. Income.com is based in Orlando, Florida."

Blog re-launch

Ok, its been a long time since i blogged anything, but now im back. This time with a slightly different flavor. Id like to spend more time on all things Web and focus a bit on South Africa.
There is a different, very exciting energy in South Africa now. Lots of web startups around. Many conversations are taking place about Venture Capital and Angel Investing. Im going to do my little bit to support South African startups and web ventures.
This is the beginning.
 

SOA in the real world

John Evdemon has released his rtw book for SOA. Check it out here

[EDIT] There was some book errata.

Corrected PDF: http://files.skyscrapr.net/users/jevdemon/Chapter%202.pdf

Corrected XPS: http://files.skyscrapr.net/users/jevdemon/Chapter%202.xps

Microsoft offers subscription software in South Africa

Thats right. For only R199 ($28.54)  you get to use Microsoft Office 2007 for for a three-month period and first-time users will get an extra three months for free. IW Community Supporter and IW Group Exec at Microsoft Cyril Belikoff said:  "We need to think differently in order to address the needs of the next five billion users of computers and how we can make technology accessible to them".

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