Tag: marketing

Nobody ever changed anything by remaining quiet, i…

Nobody ever changed anything by remaining quiet, idly standing by, or remaining part of the faceless, voiceless masses. If you ever want to effect change, in your work, in your life, you must learn to persuade others.

Jeff Atwood

It’s not 00, it’s a +

I am getting tired complaining and explaining the difference between 00 and a + in the telephone and fax numbers.  It’s quite simple actually and I wonder why the mistake is so frequent.  So, here it goes in written form, so that I won’t have to explain it anymore – just provide a URL.

If you are writing phone number as 0035799513109, you are doing it wrong. It works for some, but not for everyone.  00 in this case is international dialing code.  Many countries are using 00 for international dialing code, but not all of them, by far.  For example, in Russia, the international dialing code is 810.  So the phone number should be 81035799513109, not 0035799513109. See?

So, how are you supposed to know all these codes for each country and how are you supposed to provide your phone number so that anyone in any country can dial it and get where they are supposed to?  The answer is simple: use ‘+’ for the international dialing code, followed up by the country code, and then the rest of the number.  Each telephone company in every country will replace the plus in the beginning of the phone number with the appropriate international dialing code.  Write the phone number as +35799513109. This will always work.  And where it won’t, the person will at least know what to do with the number.

How to Use Twitter for Marketing and PR

I’ve seen this website some time ago and then was looking for it and couldn’t find it.  Now that I came across it again, I shall post it here for everyone to know.

HowToUseTwitterForMarketingAndPR.com

Enjoy, share, and make sure you forward it to your marketing and PR departments, so that nobody is missing out.  Really.

Where did all the Linux netbooks go?

Adam Williamson asks the question after doing a bit of research across several major vendors and online shops.

where the hell did all the Linux netbooks go? In 2007 you couldn’t buy a netbook with Windows; in 2008 to 2009 you could still walk into a big box store just about anywhere and pick from a few with Linux; now, you can buy one from one store in England with an Android dual boot, one from a hidden page on Ubuntu’s site with an inferior configuration to its equally-priced Windows equivalent, and one from a very well hidden bit of HP’s site with a $132 premium over its identically-specified Windows equivalent.

I am not a big expert in this matter, but I tend to agree with some of his conclusions:

the cynical side of me can come up with a lot of explanations as to where all those pre-loads went, and all of them involve large amounts of money going out of Microsoft bank accounts

And I think that’s pretty reasonable.  After the netbook market is different from the desktop one.  In the desktop world, Linux has a number of ongoing problems, such as office applications, games, and so on and so forth.  But most netbooks aren’t powerful enough to run those applications.  Their primary use is of a simple Internet device – browsing the web, reading email, chatting, etc.  And for this purpose, the operating system is pretty much irrelevant.  Most of these tasks are done in the browser.  And browser-wise Linux is rich – Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and more.

So, how come all these netbooks are now selling with Windows and not Linux.  It can’t be just Microsoft Internet Explorer.  After all, most end users don’t even know what the browser is.  There must be another reason.  And probably it’s not a technical reason.  And as Adam says, it must be some of those reasons that involve large amounts of money going out of Microsoft bank accounts.

If you have any other ideas, please do share via comments.