João Rufino’s Blog

The current economic crisis is something that frightens the most of us. However, there not much I can do about except wait for the best for all the people that are being affected by it.

Recently I came across an ‘explanation’ of what happened. In this video George Parr gives a raw and funny opinion of what happened.

My knowledge of all this is very limited but I’m forced to agree that the comment in this video makes a lot of sense.

Better days for everyone…

Posted by João Rufino under Business & Misc | No Comments »

Recently I attended a presentation about all sorts of malware but what really impressed me was the spyware presentation.  The number of people that in fact pay to have some sofware that think it ’security’ and brings them to a safe computer is impressive . It is not just the irresponsible and ‘less interesting’ ads that pay for this business but in several cases it is the common user that thinks they are paying for an anti-virus service and they are in fact paying these companies to create even more potentially undesirable software. Paying for a false sense of computer protection and for a sense of reliability that doesn’t exist is as frustrating as it gets.

Because some of these softwares are installed in a stealth mode and you can’t uninstall them as any other program. If you are interested in this phenomenon or you think you are facing this problem, please visit http://spywarewarrior.com.

Have a nice day

Posted by João Rufino under Business & Internet & Misc | No Comments »

When I wrote my first post about this back in February I mentioned that I would get back to this and here I am.

Back in 1994 Rubin* identified many many reasons why so many products and systems are difficult and frustrating to use. According to his handbook:

• A broader user base with greater discrepancy between user and designer in terms of skills & expectations
• System components related to usability are developed independently by specialized teams
• Product development emphasis on machine or system, not on the person who is the ultimate end user
• Design of usable systems is a difficult endeavor, yet many organizations treat it as if it were just common sense.

Although these conclusions were applied to the ‘offline’ business they also can be extrapolated to the online one. When developing a product or a system that it is intended to be used by a Human we should focus on:

Continue Reading »

Posted by João Rufino under Business & Internet & Marketing | No Comments »

I decided to post about Google Technology around the 1st of April of 2002 (more than 6 years ago!) As explained in the official page it was a revolucionary method of indexing. By collecting flocks of pigeons in dense clusters, Google was able to process search queries at speeds superior to traditional search engines, which typically rely on birds of prey, brooding hens or slow-moving waterfowl to do their relevance rankings.

It is important to say that the technology back them was already very good but PigeonRank’s success relied primarily on the superior train-ability of the domestic pigeon (Columba livia) and its unique capacity to recognize objects regardless of spatial orientation. The common gray pigeon can easily distinguish among items displaying only the minutest differences, an ability that enables it to select relevant web sites from among thousands of similar pages.

You can read all about it in the page I mentioned before because PigeonRank helped the internet to be what it is today!

Posted by João Rufino under Internet & Misc | No Comments »

Since my first post on Internet Marketing or Emarketing, I intended to write more about this subject. According to my Analytics data it is also my most visited post.

In this post I elaborate on a few reasons why Internet Marketing is something that any business should dedicate special attention.

It is relevant for businesses of any size and gives them access to a massive market at an affordable price (not like TV or print advertising). It allows you to target your audience and truly develop a personalized marketing campaign.

Here are some of the benefits it could bring to your business: Continue Reading »

Posted by João Rufino under Business & Internet & Marketing | 1 Comment »