http://www.conradstrydom.com views and commentary from a web engineer Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:03:31 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="attachment_289" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lancerrevolution/3710832872/"][/caption] My mom is looking to buy a car, so I was asked to use my  superpowers of search and to find her a few candidates online. My only instructions: it must not be too small, it must not be to slow, it must cost less than ... http://www.conradstrydom.com/2009/10/22/looking-for-cars-online-and-ruminations-on-wasted-opportunities/ [caption id="attachment_28" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="image via gapingvoid.com"][/caption] More and more companies are latching on to social media marketing as a way to get their product across. Large companies are hiring the cream of social media consultants to establish a social strategy involving sophisticated monitoring systems, CRM integration and even hiring banks ... http://www.conradstrydom.com/2009/10/07/want-to-spend-bucks-on-social-media-marketing-read-here-first/ I ran into a new social network today called SpiffBox.com, and the only reason it caught my attention is that they allegedly pay users to use their site, i.e "the more social you are, the more you earn" ethos. "Interesting", I thought to myself, mainly because I am not a fan ... http://www.conradstrydom.com/2009/10/06/spiffbox-com-pays-you-to-be-social-but-thats-not-the-point/ Dave Powers is a charismatic character by anyones measure.  He runs a little site called RCPowers.com where he orginally shared his passion for R/C aircraft via the mediums of Video and Text and has healthy activity on his YouTube channel. This quickly turned into a fulltime career that branched off ... http://www.conradstrydom.com/2009/06/19/personal-brand-gold-rush-is-the-end-nigh/ Vodacom wants me to use the what is left of my remaining free anytime minutes so I can get 10 gift minutes. One has to wonder how cheap service delivery is to make this worth their while on the off chance I may use some billable minutes, I suppose they ... http://www.conradstrydom.com/2009/06/15/vodacom-gift-box/ Seriously, it's no lie. This is what I am thinking on my day off (thank goodness for tuesday holidays = looong weekends) as I am slowly sipping a perfectly chilled chocolate stumpie. Some might crack a beer to sip on the couch, but me, I crack a Stumpie. hmmmm. The last week ... http://www.conradstrydom.com/2009/06/15/i-love-steri-stumpie/ While there has been a lot of talk afoot about the newly launched Facebook Usernames feature, I took some time to evaluate the Facebook Mobile Texts experience.  I was blissfully unaware of the SMS features that existed previously, until receiving a prompt on my Facebook to go and check it ... http://www.conradstrydom.com/2009/06/13/the-facebook-mobile-text-experience/ Today I was put on the spot and asked to explain REST as it pertains to Web Services, unfortunately I found that I could not articulate that which I know and ended up basically flubbing the opportunity. Uggh, I was so angry at myself. The truth is that REST is not ... http://www.conradstrydom.com/2009/02/10/a-bit-on-restful-webservices/ Every day on the schoolyard a familiar scenario plays out where a group of kids all huddle around someone with a cellphone, pumping out the latest and greatest MP3 over the built in speaker. These kids can also be seen on their bicycles playing the same songs, walking in the ... http://www.conradstrydom.com/2009/02/10/mobile-phone-data-projectors-paradigm-shift/ I was a suffering from caffiene withdrawal when I saw this post of a Blow Controlled mobile phone, and the following crazy scenario played through my head, this is what I would have blogged if it was all true (which it's not): [Start of silly fictitious post here ...] Amazing, finally someone ... http://www.conradstrydom.com/2009/02/04/pantech-releases-blow-controlled-cellphone/