Archive for April, 2010
An (G)oogle at a cynical conspiracy
An (G)oogle at a cynical conspiracy
Google has always seemed to be a friendly company, and have always taken the face of a company with a smile. Are they starting to change that and take a more underhanded approach, or have we just never known what goes on behind the scenes?
I work for a company that deals with Google and several financial services companies, and therefore keep a very close eye on the rankings for various forms of insurance and so on. With us keeping such a close eye, we notice trends as they develop, and watch how the rankings fluctuate on a long term, as well as a short terms basis.
As we monitor this space, we realize how highly saturated as well as how competitive it is. And this is how the perfect opportunity for the development of a cynical view point arises.
Google is the leader in the search market all over the world, and therefore has many companies in the palm of its hand. Google is in an extremely strong position in terms of manipulating the market.
Step back and get your critical thinking hats on: when Google makes changes to the rankings, it often results in many companies frantically running around trying to get back to where they were – or better.
It is suddenly a mad frenzy, which leads to actions without thought, and they simply end up throwing money at the problem. Where does that money normally go? PPC advertising. You might think this is normal and there is nothing cynical with that, but what many don’t realize that the money going to PPC is in fact going into Google’s AdWords campaign and therefore going into Google’s pocket.
Help Save The Cape Town Ballet
This is a plee to help save something of beauty in Cape Town: The Cape Town Ballet
The Cape Town Ballet has really been struggling of late, and many think that Ballet is a dying art form. It has definitely taken a back seat with kids becoming far lazier in recent years, and with the invention of new technology and gaming consoles, kids are not bothered about becoming active and embracing such an art form.
Kids today would rather sit on their behind and play video games or watch TV than take on such a beautiful thing as dance in general. With this, the Cape Town Ballet has started to suffer, and they are in serious financial support.
This is not something that can just disappear and be forgotten. This is an art form, and something that is beautiful, delicate, elegant and something that needs to be preserved at all costs. I would go further than saying this is just a hobby or sport for some, but rather an educational experience watching Ballet.
I am a guy and do not particularly find any interest in Ballet, but I still think it is an awesome thing. Such grace and elegance is required, and it can educate you in the art of hard work, discipline and fill your life with colour and beauty.
Here is my request:
I challenge and beg you to donate towards this worthy cause. Save the Cape Town Ballet, and save a piece of Cape Town’s beautiful heritage, and provide people with the avenue to express theirselves.
I challenge you to match my donation of R100! The bigger the better! We are looking for 100 000′s of Rands, so we really do need some big donations!
Captain Awesome’s Opinion: MWEB Sucks
With the good news for the South African Internet market over the last few weeks, we highlighted the many uncapped ADSL options that providers are bringing to the table.
This is my story of using uncapped ADSL so far.
I initially was very skeptical as there were previously uncapped options already available, and they were all much more expensive than the latest offerings. I wanted to know why there was such a difference and how come, all of a sudden, uncapped Internet was affordable.
Chris over at iMod had been set up with an account from Mweb, and he seemed very happy. They were an option I thought. I was currently with Afrihost and was extremely happy with their service, and therefore was seriously considering them. I had used OpenWeb in the past and therefore I decided not to rule them out.
I did the normal thing when one is about to spend a fair amount of money or change a service provider: research. This lead me to discover that Afrihost had thresholds and essentially meant that their service would not be truly uncapped. This service with its great pricing would be sufficient for someone using around 60-100GB a month. I was looking for more.
My next step was to try Mweb as Chris seemed very happy with them. I automatically assumed that a “top” company like Mweb would have a simple sign up process, and I would be online in minutes. Boy oh boy was I wrong. The sign up process after about 10 minutes lead me to a hanging server error. It appears that my request was just simply not being picked up. There was no notification to say there was an error, or if it was successful. I was left with the worst situation possible: was my money being deducted with no product, but I had no idea as there simply was no information provided.
Captain Awesome is Officially a Geek
So many people just throw around terms around loosely these days and many people end up calling others by the wrong terminology.
Here is a simple graph that I found that helps people classify what you really are. Either a geek, nerd, dweeb, or dork.
What are you? Leave your comments below!
Captain Awesome is officially a geek according to this graph!
- Captain AwesomeHappy Birthday To ME
So it is my birthday today! Awesome!
Just thought I would try and bring some light to a very dark and wet Cape Town!
So this makes Captain Awesome the very old and fragile (how I feel this morning ;) ) 19. Crickey I am getting old! I need to start considering what I am going to do with my pension and which old age home I am going to stay in soon! I better start scouting!
I am busy singing happy birthday to myself in my head, but not very loudly as my head might explode! I got another toy from McDonald’s from Robin for my birthday! I will post a pic soon!
Happy birthday to me! My party is on Saturday! Sunday is going to be a very difficult day!
- Captain Awesome
