Life, the universe and everything - Technical Ambitions

http://www.snapbill.com/
Flexible recurring billing made easy.
Powerful cloud-based billing system for any business.
Online invoicing

I have been fortunate to have been able to use Snapbill for the last year as an online invoicing platform. I say fortunate because it is one of the few companies I have worked with online that supply the service that they do. There tech support was second to none. If I emailed them someone came back to me virtually instantly and tried to help me. They even helped integrate some stuff for me and gave me examples which helped me along the way with the integration of their service right into my site. They are truly an amazing service.

Really cheap to use and worth every cent.

When you need to use an invoicing system that is integrated right into your backend system of your site I would suggest giving the guys and gals at Snapbill.com a trial run. I am 100% sure that you will be very glad you did as they give the most excellent service I have received online till today.

You can try it for free today by going to this link

http://www.snapbill.com/

support@snapbill.com

Regards
johnkweber

A J Mantel (paintings)

My grandfather A J Mantel was an artist who painted in watercolors (mostly anyway). As a child I watched many hours as he sat quietly first drawing and then painting his masterpieces. I was always fascinated by the skill that he displayed in mixing the colors and ensuring that whatever he was painting turned out to look like a photograph.

I remember clear as daylight him telling me that he considered himself first and foremost as a painter and not an artist. He considered an artist to be someone who could create a drawing or painting from within his mind, whereas A J Mantel would copy some postage stamp or postcard or picture and then turn it into a larger precise color copy.

As children some of my siblings must have gotten a lot closer to him than I ever did as his "artiness" rubbed off on them. They also managed to make beautiful paintings and even in my grandfathers time I remember my sister Marisa Nel (Weber) being one of his favourites as she managed to do almost naturally what he took many years to master. Marisa also made a few beautiful paintings but alas hung up her brushes and palette along time ago when she became a mother. One day I am hoping she will have time to be more creative again and paint some more for us.

Sydney Keith Weber (my father) also has some paintings that he can boast with as well as Sydney's sister Dorothy Klatter (Weber).

In honour of my grandfather A J Mantel I have created a site where people who have paintings that he made can place them online for the enjoyment of the family as well as create some sort of line of history of some of his paintings. Many of them were sold to clients and I remember some went to a gallery near East London where my grandfather lived for as long as I can remember him.

On the site I have allowed for the other family members to also portray some of their paintings. As many of my friends know, I got married in April 2012 to Hannah Brandt Weber (J S van Eck) and she also seems to have the knack for the oil canvas. So you will also her paintings on the site. Ofcourse as her husband I am probably biased towards her a teeny bit - lol.

I hope that the many people who have A J Mantel paintings will join our site and place high quality images of my grandfathers paintings on the site so that we may preserve them for the future and for our grandchildren to also admire what their great grandfather had accomplished.

- johnkweber 2012

A J Mantel

It was amazing to watch Pebble come to life with the crowdfunding model as viewed by KickStarter

Never before have I been more excited than seeing those Dollars climb past the $10 000 000 mark. These guys have a product that the world believes in and this is where I think the turning point starts for funding a project. With Venture Capitalists starting to diversify by investing in multiple small investments instead of going all out in one large project and investment, this seems to mark the beginning of a new way of getting funding for your homegrown project.

Here is a list of a few crowdfunding sites to get your project kickstarted.

https://www.crowdtilt.com/
http://crowdfunder.com/
http://wefunder.com/beta
http://www.indiegogo.com/
http://www.microventures.com/
https://www.secondmarket.com/
http://www.studioneat.com/pages/about-us
http://www.rockethub.com/
http://www.kapipal.com/
http://www.unbound.co.uk/
http://www.kickstarter.com

But the post that kickstarted this article was at http://www.kickstarter.com - Pebble epaper watch

- johnkweber

Guest house - Caledon23 - George

I rarely promote a guest house even though I go regularly to them. I love just going out and spoiling myself and my partner every now and then and what better way than to go relax at a guest house where everything gets done for you. After the running around of the week there is a need to just relax and enjoy.

This December I had the good fortune to hit the road and just see where it takes us. It was great. NO planned stays anywhere. SO there was also no reason to rush anywhere. Everyone said we were mad to just go on the whim and yet we found places to stay even though December is a peak season. We ended up being referred to a guest house that had just been started by a lovely couple. Hendrik and Linda Aucamp.

Man what a pleasure. Hendrik is a builder and I think he spared no expense to make the place beautiful. He really went to town and as he says, "Why skimp on the little things since they are the things everyone notices." For the very first time in about 20 years I woke up feeling refreshed and without any stiff or sore back. I now realise the importance of an awesome bed. We tend to spend so much time in our beds yet we skimp on the one thing we really should splurge on.

I am really happy to recommend Caledon23 Guest house in George. Situated in Caledon street number 23 (the place to be apparently in George) it was a stay to remember. Hendrik and Linda are a really friendly and outgoing couple and I know that you will enjoy your stay there.

OH - and the best thing is the price. For a guest house that has all the finery that they have I was expecting to pay a fortune. However the price is almost the most attractive item. At under R800 for a couple bed and breakfast included it was amazing.

If you are ever in the neck of the woods in George, go look up Hendrik and Linda Aucamp at Caledon23 Geust house. You wont be sorry. -

johnkweber

Purchase this kindle book here

For a hardcopy book you may email : captainnewman@gmail.com (author)

Dr. U “Tol” de Wet Pienaar.
Former; Chief Director, South African National Parks Board.
Many people contribute their efforts towards the running of a successful National Parks Service. This is equally so with Provincial Parks and similar organisations. All those who live and work for the betterment of the environment or the education and the well being of visitors, play a vital and important role towards those ideals.
This book is a light hearted rendition of incidents that occurred during John’s service, for both the National Parks and the Provincial Parks service, for which he was, both contracted frequently or fully employed.
The National Parks employ Scientist, Technicians, Rangers, Engineers, Mechanics, Restaurateurs, Retailers, Administrators and Stores Controllers. People working in the parks service that come from every walk of life, those who are making their contribution tirelessly.
John was with the National Parks Aviation division, serving a multiplicity of roles and his stories expose his specific experiences that happened in his daily activity, of which some I was involved personally.
It is therefore true, besides all the animal species in the National Parks............. People live there also.

Introduction
I met John Newman a few years ago and from the very first meeting, I realised that he has amazing skills and talents. While working and using these diverse skills and talents the stories he has collected are now something we can read and enjoy.

This book is a hilarious look into his amazing past, telling of just one or two of the jobs he has been fortunate to do throughout his life. His dedication to the tasks he tackles shows up in the fact that he piloted aircraft and helicopters in the Kruger National Park. We as the reader now get to read of his extraordinary experiences whilst working as a pilot in the KNP.

After having heard all these stories related to me first hand by John, I just knew that they had to be written down, so that others could end up reading them and enjoy them as much as I did hearing them.

John is the type of person who wakes up virtually every day with a new idea that has never been expanded upon before. It truly is amazing how he is just fortunate in that department. I have come to appreciate him for his unique problem solving skills and I also know that we will be seeing a few more books coming from John’s pen as he has many ideas he must still share with the rest of the world

- John K Weber

I was really most impressed with this book. After having read James Caan's The real deal, I knew that this book would have valuable information in it. The way he tells his story makes for easy reading.

If you are wanting to change your career or whether you have been off work for a long time, this is the book for you. I can imagine that this could easily become a prescribed book for school leavers as well since it contains really great information as to how to go about getting the Job you really want.

From setting up your CV to the interview, he talks about everything. Bear in mind that James Caan made a lot of his money actually placing people in jobs. That's the reason I thought this book would be valuable in the first place. He has perfected the art of the interview and he shows you what you need to do to be prepared and to ensure that you land the job you want.

If I can sum up this book in a few words it would be this. "You are about to change the rest of your life, DON'T leave anything to chance."

Get this book now and read it as this will change the way you approach the next career move. I guarantee it. Its not a feeling, its a fact.

I was fortunate enough to be able to see Antonio Forcione (guitar player of note) in Kalkbay this month. The concert was held in the Olympia bakery and it was quite a show. The setting lent itself quite nicely to a rather intimate show and the other two guitarists, Tony Cox and Saudiq Kahn were ofcourse exceptional as usual. Tony is an excellent story teller and makes everything an interesting experience, Saudiq plays extremely nicely and the guitar he had sounded so phenomenal BUT then, enter Antonio Forcione.

If you ever get a chance to see Antonio Forcione live and in concert, beg, borrow or steal the money for the entrance fee and you will see the show of your life. Apart from being a bit eccentric, I have never seen a more impressive display and guitar mastery in my entire life. I never even knew people who had such talent existed. My styles I have always admired are Merle Travis, Tom Bresch, Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Buster B, Marcel Dadi and most recently a gentlemen called
Bruce Keener. However these gentlemen all have a style that sounds pretty impressive and even have some speedy fingering which will blow your mind. Take for example Jerry's Breakdown. Man awesome stuff and difficult as hell. However, enter Antonio Forcione....

I caught myself on numerous occasions counting his fingers to see whether he really only has 10 fingers. Man he utilizes every inch of his guitar and his fingers, hands, palms, back of his fingers in the bass slides (finger under the bass string) and playing like a double bass while all the time keeping rythm by playing the front, back and sides of his guitar and still playing the melody by using harmonics, slides, hammer ons, pullofs and literally any trick you have ever seen in the books or on the net. It is all there. Fingerpicking, blues, rock, flamenco and he seems to have mastered them all.

He will think nothing of stopping a tune because his guitar is slightly out of tune, fix the tuning and then restart. The crowd was so mesmerized that they did not even notice these slight little things. They sat at the edge of their seats and they were listening intently to every little note or sound in some cases that was coming out of that guitar. I have never seen a guitar take such abuse and yet produce such sweet sounds.

I can truly say that it changed forever the way I will look at or think about a guitar.

Do yourself a favor and try to experience first hand the experience that is Antonio Forcione. If you like guitar music in any form you will not be sorry.

This must have been the most enjoyable book I have ever read. I think in part it might be due to the fact that the way James seems to handle life resonates with some sort of chord that resonates in my life as well.

This must be the book that has touched me the most and in some way I think it is due to some of the raw emotions that James puts forward when dealing with his country of origin. The woes of the poor people in that country make me look at my own country and I am busy trying to figure out how it is that I can make a difference in my world.

I can truly recommend James Caan - The Real deal.

I could not put this book down and read it in one evening. It is captivating and the knowledge that James has regarding staffing and recruitment means that his next book on how to find the best job coming out in Jan 2011 shoud be just as excellent a read.

According to a very interesting bit of research that I read a few days ago, it seems that advertisements that feature a QR Code or almost 60% more likely to be clicked than normal ads that have text or just a picture.

It seems that the newness of this QR Code technology is a reason that most people are scanning these QR Codes in ads etc.

Apparently the group (cant remember who they were, sorry) created ads that incorporated QR Codes in their pictures banner ads and they had a hit counter attached to the QR Code so that they could measure how many people viewed the ad compared to other ads on the page.

http://deeptechnology.co.za

Once again I have sunk my teeth into something, this time something so awesome that it gives me sleepless nights due to the excitement and thinking about the whole business every waking moment.

SO what is it that excites me so much? This time around it is affordable housing. My partner John Newman from Deep Technology, (Diverse Energy Efficient Projects) has for a number of years held a number of patents, one of them being a design patent on a modular house that is set to change the way people build homes in the future. Once we have some decent pictures I will place them online for your viewing pleasure.

SO whats so exciting about this project? Firstly the house is cast out of a number of pieces and put together in a short six to 8 hours. The cast sections are transported to the site where using some ingenious designed tools the pieces are put together and voila you have a house up in no time at all.

Take note that we are not talking low-cost housing here, we are talking affordable housing meaning normal average guys such as myself will be able to afford a home at last.

The average house nowadays requires that the family (husband and wife) earn around R59 000 combined income to qualify for a bond. This then affords the couple a modest size house (example in Victoria park 49 square meters Costing R790 000) What on earth can one do with 49 square meters?

The houses we are making will give you a minimum of 75 meters squared and allowing the owner to build on 1.8 meters x 5 meters sections at a time. This effectively offers you the ability to resize your home in next to no time at all.

So YES, I am all excited and will keep you up to date as to how the whole story pans out.

Take just one little consideration here. An average house costs you R1 200 000 currently and you can rent that house out for around R5000 maximum, of course depending on the area where the house is situated, now for a fraction of that cost you can purchase a house and still get the same amount of rent out than you normally would on the expensive houses.

The nicest part of all is that everybody needs this commodity. Even you do! Think about it, soon you too might be staying in one of these homes.

Too exciting for words.

Look for more information - coming soon at http://deeptechnology.co.za

The one problem with the HTC Desire so far for me is that every now and then one installs an application that does somethig weird to the magnetometer or even more weird to the nice pinch to resize in the browsers etc.
I have over 1000 plus contacts which were easily transferrable to my HTC Desire from the Nokia E90 I had before. (Select all and send business card via bluetooth. It takes a while but they all go across in a few minutes.)

However, I have had to reset the HTC Desire a few times now in order to get certain functionality back such as pinch resize or the HTC Desire magnetometer that goes awry.

SO this is my process now. I exported all my contacts to my gmail account contacts list. Its quite easy actually:
You go to the "people" widget on the HTC and then you "Export" / Export to SD Card / Choose the Phone choice and it will create a VCF card with all your contacts in it.

Connect the HTC Desire to your PC via the USB cable, so that you can get to the .VCF card that was just created.

Log into your gmail account and click on the contacts menu choice on the left side. Choose the "Import" menu choice at the top right of the contacts list now and select the .VCF and press Import. This will load all those contacts into your Contact list in Gmail and the next time you reset your phone and you resync with Google all your contacts will be then available again on your HTC Desire.

Have fun. It is the most awesome phone I have ever had and I will not go back to Nokia, iphone or anything else I dont think. I find it hard to believe that something better is still going to come out one of these years. I am extremely excited to see what is going to happen in the mobile arena in the next few years. If the HTC Desire is anything to go by, then we will have wonderful phones in the future.

Around 6 years ago I was in the Netherlands still and had lived and worked there for 5 years or so. I had a great time but there were things that got to me as I wrote about in the book which is also on this blog at Living in Europe sucks.


As I was laying on my bed one night it was in the
sweltering heat so I opened up the window and was just
looking out into the dark thinking about the future
when this came to mind. It must have been weighing
heavily on my mind that night because since then I have
thought about anything again with such intensity. (well
enough intensity to write a poem about it)


I am sitting at my window,
looking out into the night.
My heart is filled with fear,
as I contemplate my plight.

My future is the trouble,
the present is a blast,
my major problem now is,
I am longing for my past.

A fantastic paying job,
I am living in a bubble,
the only problem that I feel,
my past is still my trouble.

There are three in this equation,
my small child and my wife,
and of course there's me,
as I contemplate my life.

After long deliberation,
I come to some conclusions,
I realise that my future,
must be my past without illusions.

So now I have decided,
just what I will do next,
forget the past, embrace the future
and start by finishing off this text.

Forgiving somebody some transgression against you is the best medicine you can ever give yourself.

Having an unforgiving nature will make you sick. In the long term it can cause serious illness.

God is willing to forgive you if you ask Him to forgive you for anything, this means that you have to be able to forgive or He will not forgive you.

This is evident from the parable that Jesus told.

Matt 18 verses 23 to 35 Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who wanted to reconcile accounts with his servants. When he had begun to reconcile, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But because he couldn’t pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, with his wife, his children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and kneeled before him, saying, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will repay you all!’ The lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. “But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, who owed him one hundred denarii, and he grabbed him, and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ “So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will repay you!’ He would not, but went and cast him into prison, until he should pay back that which was due. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were exceedingly sorry, and came and told to their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him in, and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt, because you begged me. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?’ His lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was due to him. So my heavenly Father will also do to you, if you don’t each forgive your brother from your hearts for his misdeeds.”

So forgive others or God might deliver you to the tormentors and this is where you can get seriously ill and many bad things could happen to you. FORGIVE, it is for your own health and benefit. Most of the times people who you feel have transgressed against you, are not even aware that they have done so. Dont hold anything against anyone else as it is a waste of time. Dont forget, lest you make the same mistake twice but most definitely you should forgive.

I never thought that personal branding had any place in the little mans world. However it seems I have been purely mistaken. When starting out with my internet endeavours I thought about it for around 5 seconds and decided to sign everything I do with johnkweber. This I did mostly because I was not really sure of any other cool name to use.

So I started this branding image type thingy and soon found out that if you use a name often enough people will start reffering to you by that specific name (in this case BRAND) so even at work to most of my colleagues I am now johnkweber (spelt more like john kweeber) I dont really mind since I started it all but there are exceptions when branding can do damage as shown below. Specifically mistakes made by others.

In hindsight I guess it turned out ok because the is only really one johnkweber that uses it the way I do. The flipside ofcourse is the problem that I have currently with Google syndicating news articles. Around 1989 there was an article in a newspaper in USA somewhere regarding a certain John R Weber that allegedly raped and murdered his wife Emily Weber. Google seems to have done a scan of the page and the OCR was performed incorrectly and suddenly John R Weber now becomes John K Weber.

This proves to be quite a nightmare to fix since ater having searched in Goolge for johnkweber as I usually do once a week at least (to thank people that have mentioned me in their blogs etc) I saw this article that goes "John K Weber rapes and murders his wife Emily Weber"

In my endeavour to get this fauxpas fixed up I chatted to Google a number of times and it moved the article to the very first page on the google search for johnkweber. This due to the fact that the answers and arguments are open for everyone to see on google answers. DAMN.

Be that as it may I went to JHB to talk to a number of guys about a security product I was punting and when they did a MEMEX search on my name (checking if I was who I say I was) it turned out the Memex took the Google article as its main tagline since it scored so high in Google Ranking that it must be me and nobody else. Try explaining this whole scenario to non internet type people. Man what a time I had. Anyway they all seemed to end up seeing the light and now at least I have documented in one more place (this blog entry) what the real story is.

So when thinking up brand names be careful what you wish for as weird things crawl out of the woodwork when you start owning something, even a name.

Scrum and Agile are two buzzwords that currently rank high on the list of technical jargon. Awesome ideas and methodologies which can seriously enhance the way your staff delivers products, which when implemented wrong could be the biggest mistake you have ever made within your company.

The thought behind Agile is that staff members self manage and self motivate themselves to get products off the shelf. An Agile team basically sets itself up with the mandate to get work out the door. The fact that the project is self managed within the team means that you have an awesome bunch of people that are highly skilled but even more important, highly motivated which are now engaged with what they are doing and therefore churn out amazing results and therefore excellent products.

Scrum masters on the other hand are not managers at all but motivators and their only goal in life should be to assist the team to ensure that there is nothing impeding them to do the best work that they can achieve. So when Scrum masters start saying which work will be done and how long it wil take, then you start facing the problem that once again the team member actually doing the work is not in charge of his own life or surroundings, we all know how detrimental that could be to the IT developer type guy. Don't tell me what to do, then tell me how to do it and then to top it all tell me by when I must do it.

These thoughts have come to mind whilst reading another good book called "Why work sucks and how to fix it - Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson" The book website and Purchase from Amazon

The book describes a way to work called a ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) where every person is captain of his or her own ship. This means that your time is your own, your way of working is your own. You decide how, when and where you wil work. You still work (maybe harder now than ever) because suddenly just being at the office for 40 hours is not what you are being measured on, you now need to produce results that are directly measurable. Meaning this : No results, no job.

I suggest it as an excellent way to start working. Managers, change the way you measure your staff input. Make them excited to go to work for a change. Allow the staff to give you the best hours that they can. Not everyone works well from 8 to 5. Rather let the guy or girl who works best from 22h00 till 04h00 give you excellent results than let them just be in the office from 08h00 till 17h00 and not produce quality. It seems like a no brainer to me.

I am excited about this new year as it promises great things. Enjoy 2010

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."
--Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch

I have just heard one of the most amazing lectures ever. It was delivered by Randy Pausch and is available for you to hear on the interent. When Randy realised that he had pancreatic cancer he realised that he could do nothing with the cards he was dealt, it was how he played the hand that has made his lectre so popular. Millions of people the world over have heard his inspiring lecture. It is all about living life and what is needed to ensure you get something out of life.

The one big lesson I have taken from it is that when you dream, you must not dream small little dreams. DREAM BIG. It is only when you dream big that your life takes on a more significant meaning. You have to fulfil those dreams ad it is too easy to fulfil small little dreams. These are also needed to allow you to focus on the smaller little more achievable goals.

A man without a dream is a lost man. Wandering around without purpose or passion. So go ahead now and start dreaming big. The dreams are your minds way of telling you that you can achieve them. Your mind will never set you up for a fall. So dream big and trust in your dreams. It is probably the most important thing you can do for yourself.

Thank you to Randy Pausch for teaching me so much in so little time. Even though the lecture was meant for your kids, it has inspired me in my life and I feel great that I was able to listen this life changing lecture and hope that you (the reader) also take the time out of your life to listen to it. It might just be the first act in your changed life.

The lecture, even though Randy does not talk about his impending death is charged with sadness and life. Randy shows little or no sadness throughout but you as the listener is charged with the knowing that he will die soon and that the positive attitude that he is exuding is about to change a lot of peoples lives.

ENJOY.

It is extremely frustrating now that Google shows the revenue that one earns in the currency for the country you reside in. Due to the exchange rate for the Rand for instance the amount changes per day. It is never stable and one really never knows the exact stats for the month since the figures change so drastically from day to day.

I rather preferred the fact that it showed in US Dollars and not ZA Rands.

The other thing that I have noticed that was changed for the worse on Google Adsense program was the fact that you could view the revenue you have made since the last payment. This feature is no longer visible and it really is a crying shame since it was actually quite a nifty feature.

A short while ago, Google held an opinion poll regarding the service they were delivering via Adsense and I am guessing that the rework they did was based on that research. It just goes to show that research is also just one way of measuring satisfaction of service. There should be many more ways used to judge satisfaction of a service or site.