My E-Commerce: February 2008

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Innovative Gizmo (3) - My Mighty Smart Pen

Introducing the Pulse from LiveScribe - the mighty pen which can synchronise notes and audio recording.

Beside, it also can work up as language translator and calculator.

Source: CNET News.com

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

UK to get tough with illegal downloader

If you like to download illegal music or movies online, you may have to take note of this new development. UK government is working on a new law to have these illegal downloader's internet connection to be cut off.

Under the new proposed new law, action will be taken against the users who use their account to access pirated material by the internet services provider. There are estimated around 6 million people are downloading files illegally in UK. These illegal downloading of music and movies are costing the industry to lose million of pounds in revenue every year.

Among the contents of the new proposed law are ISP who failed to enforce the rules could be prosecuted and details of customers suspected in illegal downloading can be made available to the courts.

Source: BBC News - Illegal Downloaders Face UK Ban

Electronic Commerce - Blog Carnival (19th February 2008)

Welcome to the February 19, 2008 edition of electronic commerce. (Vol 2, No. 4, 2008)

Ask Matt presents Free Traffic Tactic Videos and Understanding that SEO Malarky... | iamUncovered.com posted at BlogTactics.com, saying, "Free Traffic Tactic Videos and Understanding that SEO Malarky…"

Ask Matt presents Automated WhiteHat AdSense Sites That Work posted at IM & Affiliate Marketing Product Testing, saying, "Simple, effective and profitable whitehat adsense site building system"

Andrew Erickson presents Email Marketing for Ecommerce - Part I: What Is It? Why Do It? posted at WebSite Werx.

MyQuo presents Buy Computer Components Online posted at MyQuo.com, saying, "Here’s a tip that the average consumer doesn’t know. Buy your computer parts online. Most people go to Walmart, Best Buy or their local computer store to buy computer components. Sure they get the part right away, but they are paying for the convenience."

Robert Phillips presents Creating Attractive Covers for DVDs posted at How to Create a DVD without Spending a Dime.

Carol Bentley presents Outsourcing or when DIY writing is best posted at Carol Bentley.

Woody Maxim presents It really is a numbers game posted at Woody Maxim.

Jose DeJesus MD presents Business Credit Cards and Why You Need them posted at Physician Entrepreneur.

Tim Gary presents Are Your Customers Just Fresh Meat? posted at Internet Success Bites.

Mark Riffey presents Righting a wrong: How business owners show they give a rip. posted at Business is Personal.

Mitch McDonald presents Training for Computer Programmers posted at HOW TO LEARN COMPUTER PROGRAMMING FAST OR GET A JOB EASILY.

Joshua C. Karlin presents The Best Fundraising Idea posted at Marketing & Fundraising Ideas.

Ian Richardson presents A Niche is a Notch. Catch? posted at Make Everything EzyAs123.

Stephen Dean presents B.S. Excuses For Not Using Scarcity In Your Sales Copy posted at Stephen Dean's Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.

Kathleen Gage presents Your Recommendations Just Don’t Work! posted at Street Smarts Marketing & Promotions, saying, "Many people who want to market using the Internet are seeking highly effective ways to do so. Learn one proven strategy to give you position, credibility and visibility while increasing the numbers in your opt-in subscriber list."

Dave Origano presents Are You Working For Google - A Lesson In Business Destruction posted at Online Marketing & Exponential Business Growth Blog.

Rob Moshe presents Live Your Best Life By Serving Others posted at Rob Schaumer, saying, "This is not necessarily a fitting post for your carnival. Once the project starts, each day I will recognize a fellow blogger that "Helped""

Hill Robertson presents Stay Passionate About Your Passions posted at Hill Robertson, saying, "Look at the passions you have had throughout the years to better understand how to keep your passion."

Hill Robertson presents Reasons to Build a Customer List posted at Hill Robertson, saying, "One of the most important things to be successful in any business is to have a customer list."

Praveen presents Minimalist Marketing posted at My Simple Trading System.

Aaron Anderson presents An Ounce Of Protection Is Worth A Pound Of Cure posted at Online Business Blog.

John Crenshaw presents The Biggest Scam Your Bank Gets Away With Everyday posted at Truthful Lending dot Com, saying, "This little known scam accounts for a huge portion of fees paid to banks every year and is going on right under your nose. The worst part is, it's completely legal."

Blogging

Tiffany Colter presents Lesson Learned and How I got here posted at Writing Career Coach, saying, "This blog discusses how to have success from the beginning of the first day of this New Year!"

Fred Black presents You Can't Learn to Swim Sitting on Your Couch... posted at Fred Black: Internet Business Blog..

E-commerce

Kingsley Tagbo presents In Search Of A Mentor posted at HOW TO LEARN COMPUTER PROGRAMMING FAST OR GET A JOB EASILY.

Matthew Paulson presents DataSync Business News » Blog Archive » A Comparison of Zimbra & Outlook’s Web Clients posted at DataSync Business News.

Andrew Erickson presents Merchant Processing 101 posted at WebSite Werx.

American Entrepreneur presents Q & A: How to Keep Up With Small Business Growing Pains posted at American Small Business News.

Andrew Erickson presents Merchant Processing 102 posted at WebSite Werx.

Robert Phillips presents Customer Support: Opportunity or Hassle? posted at CYBERCA$HOLOGY.

Internet

Kingsley Tagbo presents How To Recession Proof Your Career posted at HOW TO LEARN COMPUTER PROGRAMMING FAST OR GET A JOB EASILY.

Freddie L. Sirmans, Sr. presents Can The US Prevent A Starvation Crisis? posted at Can The US Prevent A Starvation Crisis.

John W. Furst presents Love Or Hate GoDaddy And Bob Parsons? posted at E-Biz Booster Blog, saying, "No matter what your position about GoDaddy is. Be sure there is something you can learn from them and apply it in your business."

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

Technorati tags: electronic commerce, blog carnival.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

This is my workstation

I have been getting a lot of books from publishers from the past few years and it is almost taken out most of my table's space. After coming back from the Chinese New Year holiday, I decided to tidy up the table and now it look neat and clean. No more twin towers of books but two-tiers of books now.

Before: Taken a day earlier using my Nokia 6610i

See how messy it was.

After: These pictures were taken using my colleague's new Nokia N95 (5 megapixel). See the differences in term of the image quality.

The monitor screen is showing my blog page. So this is my workstation! (which occasionally is my blogstation too).

IT services for businesses

During the recent festive dinner with my old pals, Peter who has migrated to Boston mid last year told me that he is going to set up his own company soon. He asked me whether I can advise him on some matters related to the IT set-up for his company. Actually he did asked me whether I’m interested to join him in Boston as his IT staff, which I politely rejected his offer since I’m quite comfortable with my current environment here.

However, I did recommend him to seek out help form the IT outsourcing experts which may be beneficial for his company in long run. Boston IT Consulting would be a perfect choice since it enables the company to focus on its core business and operation rather than worrying about the IT supports and requirements.

The highly customized Boston IT Services would provide comprehensive IT assessment on IT infrastructure audit, project planning and budget review. Besides, it also provides one-stop hardware and software procurement, IT systems and technology integration, and security management such as business continuity and patch management which are crucial for a company’s operation. In term of the IT process improvement and cost cutting initiatives, Boston IT would have the expertise and knowledge to help Peter to develop its strategic IT development and applications in his company in long run.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Microsoft's past high profile acquisitions

The recent Microsoft's offer of USD 44.6 billion to Yahoo! on the Feb 1, 2008 is the largest megadeal done by Microsoft so far to buy established businesses. Traditionally, Microsoft performed smaller deals to acquire technology when it comes to acquisition.

Among the past other high profile acquisitions are: (in USD)

1997 - WebTV Network ($425 million) - Internet TV and online shopping.
1998 - Hotmail ($400 million) - web-based email
1999 - Visio ($1.3 billion) - diagramming software
2001 - Great Plains ($1.1 billion) - accounting software maker [accounting, payroll and online transactions]
2002 - Navision ($1.33 billion) - HR, accounting and customer relationship software
2007 - Tellme ($800 million) - speech recognition maker
2007 - Aquantive ($6 billion) - Internet advertising firm
2008 - Fast ($1.2 billion) - enterprise search market

For more information, read this article - CNet News.com: Microsoft's acquisition track record

What is the next acquisition? Yahoo! has rejected the super megadeal bid by Microsoft. Do you think it will bid for Google?

Tech Tags: microsoft acquisition software Internet computer firms

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Innovative Gizmo (2) - Mobile Phone

Students from Royal College of Art, UK conducted a competition on mobile design with the theme - Outperform, Outsmart and Outmaneuver Everything on the market. These are some of the output:

VASE - an empty vessel which the owner can add the features or functions as they want.

TEIKO - for children which includes games, parental control and GPS technology to monitor their movements.

Other:

Source: BBC News Technology - In pictures: Mobile design competition

Friday, February 08, 2008

Innovative Gizmo - CD Case Holders

Just pictures - Nice to have one of these at home.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

43 Billion SMS sent during New Year period of 2008

A total of 43 billion SMS being sent by cellphone users throughout the world during the recent New Year Day period. This is an increase of 30% as compared to the previous period last year.

Filipinos remained as the top users with 1.39 billion texts, followed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand.

Malaysians were sending 951 millions SMSes from 3 mobile service operators, Digi, Maxis and Celcom while Singaporeans were sending 180 millions SMSes.

Its popular because of its ease of use, speed of delivery (it may not be true in some instances but generally it is fast) and can communicate with multiple recipients.

Well, I may have contributed to the 951 millions figure as I did sent out quite a number of SMSes to wish my friends Happy New Year 2008 (at least almost 75% of the list in my cellphone's phone books - I guess slightly more than 100).

How about you? How many SMSes did you send out each time during the festive seasons to wish your friends and relatives?

Tonight is the day before Chinese New Year celebration and I already received a few CNY SMS wishes. I'm going to send out some CNY sms tomorrow too. Guess how much the mobile service operators can earn from the SMS market alone?

Happy Chinese New Year - Gong Xi Fatt Chai

Related post:
Are you addicted to SMS?
SMS - how big is the market.
SMS - a new record for Malaysian!
SMS and RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury)
SMS: I am the KING!

Tech Tags: SMS worldwide

UK Banks tighten rules on credit card

In view of the increasing number of credit card holders missing their payments, UK banks have tighten up rules on the credit card usage. Such drastic moves are important to curb overspending among the cardholders.

Egg, an online bank has banned 160,000 debt-ridden customers from using their cards. The move will affect 7% of its 2 million credit card customers who have higher than acceptable risk profile – they are spending over their credit limits or failing to make even minimum repayments every month.

HSBC is turning away half of its credit card applicants as compared to one-third which they used to turn away.

Barclaycard is blocking some customers’ ability to withdraw cash on their credit card as it is a classic sign of financial distress.

Others are slashing 20% of their customers’ credit card limit since August and clamping down on credit card customers who they fear are spending money they will never repay.

These may be the jolt needed for some of the credit card users as they are a growing number of people relying on credit to manage their day-to-day living.

Personal opinion:
I believe such moves are necessary to curb the alarming increase in credit card debt worldwide. Rather than dishing out credit cards to the applicants, banks should take a more pro-active move to help customers to control their card spending such as: