Good luck and Allahu akhbar...

If your next business target is the Middle East you should first acquire some knowledge about business culture, business etiquette, meeting protocol and negotiation techniques.
It is of the utmost importance to bear in mind the great diversity within the region because not all regions share a common religion, language and culture.
Islam is not only the religion, it is the culture that permeates all levels of society.
One very important rule is to avoid trying to do business in the Middle East during the month of Ramadan, a period in which Muslims fast from dawn till dusk.
Also business hours general activity is reduced depending on the nature of the company or organization.
Their hallo is traditionally the Islamic greeting 'Asalamu alaykum' (peace be with you).
Even though you are not expected to use it, it would sound very polite and friendly.
If your business is going to be mainly on the Internet it is advisable to use a company that knows well how to deal with it.
The internet is the same, but the approach for example to middle eastern ppc management can be in a special way.
You should also carefully choose a Middle Eastern search engine marketing firm.
Your website must be able to reach as many customers as possible so that you will need a middle eastern search engine optimization firm.
If you need a kind of negotiation, remember the Arabs were a trading people and are excellent negotiators.
Remember also that they like to take their time, since decisions are made slowly.
Bureaucratic formalities tend to add to delays.
Do not use high pressure tactics as they will be counter-productive. What can I say more? Good luck and Allahu akhbar...

How to prevent an IT tsunami

"Bank of America has become the poster child for how not to transport data.

Over the weekend, the Charlotte, N.C.-based financial institution announced it had lost backup tapes containing the personal and financial information of 1.2 million customers.
The missing tapes contained U.S. federal government charge account information -- and the personal information of federal employees and U.S. senators."
One cannot be but surprised that certain things can happen, especially when it comes to Bank of America, but it is easier than one can think...
People tend to never do anything until they're burned. Before having a true disaster, an IT tsunami, usually no one thinks it is worth spending the money to protect themselves.
But IT IS.
That is why choosing the right company to help with the Disk backup proves very often to be the right insurance...
It is enough it happens once and you understand how much for the rest of your working life.
Besides, if you chose the right company, when the worst happens, they can help you to restore your data.
The newest and probably best system to store safely data is RAID (redundant array of independent disks, originally redundant array of inexpensive disks) which uses more than one disk drive to divide and replicate data among them.
The drives are said to be in a RAID array, the new way to be accessed by the operating system as one single drive.
Originally they began with five Raid levels (standard schemes) now you can have up to six.
The Raid systems can be classified as Failure-resistant (systems that protect against loss of data due to drive failure), Failure-tolerant (systems that protect against loss of data access due to failure of any single component) and Disaster-tolerant.
That gives extra protection against loss of data, and better help in restoring lost data.
The distribution of data can also be done with software instead of multiple hardware. Of course to achieve the desired protection against physical drive failure, a RAID must be properly set up and maintained by an experienced operator.

How to get and keep a good ROI

My friend Marcus had since long a well ranked website and that, in addition to the fact that he sold good merchandize, made him rich.
"Much richer than what I would be had I invested in a fancy shop in the main street of Barcelona.” he says...
"It cost me very little; I could do my job from home, with few employees and a very little investment."
That is the secret of reaching a good ROI.
"In the beginning, when the Internet was at its dawn, when the websites were few, I could do the job by myself, he says, now I decided to delegate to somebody who can do the job much better than me, so I decided for seo consulting services.
And my decision, so far, has proved to be right."
"Not only have I kept my number of sales, but thanks to good seo consulting services, having a better position on most search engines, I even increased my number of customers"...he goes on...
"But, seo consulting services do not mean just getting a better position on a search engine, they include link building, content creation, hourly SEO, all things that are precious for my business, that I wouldn’t do by myself and, what is most important for me (you know I am a Swiss living in Barcelona, but still a Swiss in my heart), they cost very little... "

Beyond nanotechnology

Over time, as scientists were able to shrink the size of transistors, they could add more and increase the efficiency of circuit boards.
But with transistors getting down to lower nanometer scale, further downsizing is increasingly difficult. Now, a team from the University of Pittsburgh is improving on silicon electronics using--you guessed it--a form of vacuum technology.

The Pitt researchers noted that in a typical solid-state device, electrons often experience collisions or become scattered, (Sound effect: analog slowing and deepening of voice) slowing them d-o-w-n.
(Sound effect: traffic jam sound)The scientists redesigned the vacuum electrical device, meshing it with solid-state electronics.
They created nanoscale vacuum channels that give the electrons a clear, no-collision path.
This speedier movement of electrons could make for faster, more energy-efficient transistors.


more

I do not care what they do, I care for the goals they reach.

Everybody dreams of position 1, just one is able to achieve it.
But in web marketing it is good enough until position 10 or 20, which looks easier, but it is not, considering the number (daily growing) of websites.
Once may be it was enough to have a nice site, good media texts, nice wording and you could have a chance to be among the firsts for quite a long time.
Not anymore.
That is why they invented seo, which is the way to get a good position, but also that is not enough, what you need is a good performing seo.
Do it yourself is very difficult, time and energy consuming.
To be on the top also your knowledge of search engine must be on the top, which means you have to be constantly adjourned of all algorithms and links exchange, and social media and so on...
What you need is a good and experienced company which deals with any kind of search engine optimization: 1st page rankings, increased traffic levels, sales and a positive return on investment.
In my opinion the last is the most important, because, at the end of the day: I do not care what they do, I care for the goals they reach.

Bye, bye Minitel

France is switching off its groundbreaking Minitel service which brought online banking, travel reservations, and porn to millions of users in the 1980s. But then came the worldwide web. Minitel has been slowly dying and the plug will be pulled on Saturday.

Many years ago, long before the birth of the web, there was a time when France was the happening-est place in the digital universe.