5 Attitudes Without Which You Will Have Trouble Reaching Your Goals

You probably made resolutions at the beginning of the year. Whether you have achieved your goals or not, there is no need to feel sorry for yourself. You still have time to comply with these resolutions. But you would still have trouble getting there if you don't adopt the appropriate mindsets. In my view, these are 5 attitudes that remain paramount when it comes to raising to the next level:...

Read more
Stay up to date with your favorite topic on social platforms

Stay up to date with your favorite topic on social platforms

Having written Notiflux and AUDE (Automatic Updates Distribution Engine) some time last year, I thought I would play around with the Facebook and Twitter APIs and keep posting links to some fresh news and articles in real time. So depending on the kind of things you like, you might want to join or follow some of those pages:...

Read more
Useful Job Search Websites For Programmers In The UK

Useful Job Search Websites For Programmers In The UK

Job boards are websites that facilitate job hunting. There are many career websites designed to allow employers to post job requirements for a position to be filled; prospective employees can locate and fill out job applications and/or submit digital resumes for the advertised positions. Those sites may also offer employer reviews, career and job-search advice, and describe different job descriptions or employers. As a technology specialist in the UK, here are some of the websites I found helpful in the past few years....

Read more

On reading books and self-education: My Essentials

There are a lot of great skills you get from school/university lectures, no doubt. But on the other hand, for some specific and practical "super powers" you want to acquire or enhance, you have no other choice but teach yourself. The potential reasons are legion. That could happen by mere interest or if you want to deepen your knowledge in one of your subjects. Or maybe for the sake of personal projects, say learning some essential life skill they don't teach you in class. So yes, when college doesn't prepare you for life battles, you have to coach yourself. Anyway, I am not here to complain about any education system. I am writing this post because I would like to share the best and most useful books I went through, as I have been reading a lot lately. I read on a variety of fields and for each of them I am suggesting the top books (according to my humble opinion). Here we go:...

Read more

Because your projects need a symphonic soul: Some Motivational Songs

Music is like magic... They say music can alter moods and talk to you (Eminem said.) In those tough times when you go so tired/hopeless about your goals as they seem so far/unreachable, music is definitely one of the weapons at your disposal (beyond the fact that loud music helps stay awake when you write code at night) ; Motivational music helps you to keep going and to pick yourself up whn you are at your lowest. Well, I just thought I would share some songs that I find particulary helpful and motivating. I hope you would find among these soem that would help you too. I am not claiming that they are the best motivational songs ever or anything like that, these are just what I listen to. So without further ado, here is my top 10 :...

Read more

6. Communication Techniques (on marketing for programmers)

The promotional mix, which is the overall range of techniques available to the marketer, comprises many elements but I am going to focus here on Internet marketing: the distribution of products, information and promotional benefits to consumers and businesses through internet technologies. Internet promotion is very convenient for a developer on a low budget (global reach at relatively low cost, metrics, dialogue with users, avoiding the necessity for intermediary salespeople...). The main ways to go about it include:...

Read more

5. Branding (on marketing for programmers)

What's the difference between products and brands? A product can be anything that has the capacity to satisfy customer needs whereas branding is the process in which companies distinguish their product offerings from the competition. the benefits of brands: Company value, because the financial value of companies can be greatly enhanced by the possession of strong brands. Consumer preference and loyalty: strong brand names can surely have positive effects on consumer perceptions and preferences. If we consider fan boys, like the Apple fan boys, who purchase nothing but what comes from Apple (Mac, Ipod, Iphone, Ipad, etc). Most of the time, their choice depends more on the brand than on the actual devices quality. Barrier to competition: the impact of the strong, positive perceptions held by consumers about top brands means it's difficult for new brands to compute. For example, Google has become very notorious as the best search engine on the Internet. Even if a competitor like DuckDuckGo, Microsoft Bing or Yahoo (or you) come up with better algorithms, most of the online users would probably still use Google, as they got the Google brand on their mind. High profits: Strong, marketing-leading brands are rarely the cheapest (Here again, think different, I mean, think Apple). A good brand name should...

Read more

4. Market segmentation and targeting (on marketing for programmers)

Marketing segmentation is the identification of individuals and organizations with similar characteristics that have significant implications for the determination of marketing strategy. Therefore, market segmentation involves the division of a diverse market into a number of smaller submarkets that have common features. Consumer segmentation can be done according to many factors:...

Read more

3. Research and Information Systems (on marketing for programmers)

Marketing research is extremely important. Truly market-led companies recognize that they need to always be in touch with what is happening in the marketplace (and so should you). Customer needs are continually changing, often in ways that are very subtle. If we consider the history of computing, where we went from enormous machines, to smaller ones, to reach the home personal computer; and from disconnect machines to the need to connect them as a network and then to the Internet. There were then so many resources online that there was a need to sort them(as Yahoo did), and them to search through them (as Google did). More recently, there were a need to take the physical life social experience online (as Facebook did) and now we can feel that the people need is to take the internet everywhere we go, and we are slowly going mobile. Many of the technological revolutions happen accidentally but most of them are the results of relevant research and observation. Online, there are many (cheap) ways a programmer can find out what people want:...

Read more

2. Understanding the customer behaviour (on marketing for programmers)

It’s mostly about understanding how people spend their money, that is : who buys, how they buy and what the choice criteria are. who buys? And more importantly, who is important in the buying decision? That’s not always the same thing, the person that conducts the transaction is often different from the person that’s going to use the product. Both can be different from the person with the power and the financial authority to make the ultimate choice regarding which product to buy (parents?). And of course, there may be some other persons influencing the outcome of the decision or even trying to impose their choice criteria on the decision. As you see, there may be many actors that you would need to convince that your product is the right one. how do they buy?...

Read more
Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))

Monthly Archives

Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))