CommerceCubes

To Wii or not to Wii

June 17, 2008 – 8:39 am
Every since I went out and bought my Nintendo Wii I must say it has been a journey.  It is unlike any other gaming system that I have ever played.  I am the type of gamer that likes to play a game get up and go and do something else.  Sometimes I feel like it and at other times I don’t. The Wii boosts a very unique controller and the first time you touch it most people are not quite sure how to use it.  Nintendo has long been thought of a very childish gaming system but the Wii seems ready to shake that reputation. So how do you Wii? With friends and loved ones? By yourself? And what is your favourite game for the Wii?

Posted in General, Gaming | No Comments »

Sign your Life Over to Facebook

January 30, 2008 – 8:58 pm
I’ve been on facebook for about the past 8 months or so and it’s a great little tool but I cannot help to think that people new to the site don’t want to sign their life over.  This bags the question “How much information should I put on Facebook about myself?”  The question is about as individual as the people who use Facebook.  The more liberal people add all the information in the free world to the site and more conservative people have trouble adding their birthday to their profile. By the nature of a social network, it wants to learn about you but to what degree?  I mean you don’t leave all the windows open in your house when you go to bed hoping that no one looks in.  Just a little food for thought. Luc Cautious Facebook’er

Posted in General, Ranting & Raving | No Comments »

WIFI, Coffee and Techno Shut-Ins

January 29, 2008 – 4:35 pm
A lot of businesses use various tactics to get people to come into their shops to spend money.  “Save $50 on this” or “Buy 2 and get one FREE” are commonly used battle cries that retail shops use.  I wonder if anyone thought that the advent of laptops, coffee and wireless internet would bring about a new business demographic.  Lots of people have laptops these days (shoot I’ve got one too) and more business professionals use laptops.  One of the newest business battle grounds have become coffee shops.  You can schedule everything from your laptop and meet clients in a central location… what could be better? A lot of business professionals were restricted before to a desk in their residence and now that landscape is changing.  Don’t some of your best ideas come when you are out and about?  Say in a coffee shop?  I’ve found myself setup at Williams Coffee ...

Posted in General, Computers, Technology & Programming | No Comments »

WebmasterFarms, Education and Life in General

January 28, 2008 – 2:32 pm
It's been a long time since i officially started writing my blog here on a regular basis and a lot of things have been happening since i last wrote.  For instance, my business is now up and running (more or less) called "WebmasterFarms.com" that offers service for people looking for help running an online website.  I recently got engaged to a wonderful woman as well and i have been doing courses at UBC for Web Analytics.  All that rolled up into one means i've had less and less time but with that being said i think that commercecubes can take a different spotlight and act as a business blog for my own business lessons, life lessons and things of that nature.  Looking forward to posting on here more.  Talk soon Luc

Posted in General | No Comments »

Save 10% of Everything You Earn and You’ll be Rich Someday

September 11, 2007 – 9:14 pm
Many people have heard of the idea of paying yourself first, the concept is not new or anything, but many people simply have not heard about it.  It works basically on the idea that every pay day you take a certain amount and tuck it away for investing purposes.  Simple enough right? Well how much should you save to start with?  After all, living is not cheap with the prices of gas rising, real estate always growing and everything keeping pace with inflation.  What if you saved 10% of every pay that you received?  You’d eventually become a millionaire (possibility a few times over).  I know that you are thinking that 10% is not that much money and well you are sort of right, it isn’t, and if your pay check looks like this then are you really going to miss it?... Monthly Pay: $2500 x 10% = $250 That leaves you $2250 ...

Posted in General, Life Tools | No Comments »

Finding a Job that Fits

August 10, 2007 – 11:39 am
I was having a conversation the other day with a girl that I went to grade and high school with.  She has an excellent education (A Degree and a Diploma) and is feeling like she is just not moving anywhere so she had decided to start looking for a job.  The problem is that she doesn’t know what she wants to do or where to focus because so many different things are appealing in job markets.  How many people out there are just fresh out of school or maybe you have been out of school for a few years and are looking to change jobs but you are not sure how to do it?  If we were in a room you’d see most people are in the same boat as you.  Why do you think that is?  Most people know what they don’t want to be doing with their lives ...

Posted in General, Life Tools, Jobs & Careers | No Comments »

80/20 Rule in Life

April 26, 2007 – 4:50 pm
Lately I’ve been reading Richard Koch’s, 80/20 Way of Living, and I’ve found it to be a very profound read. Keep in mind that I am a 27 year old guy when you are reading this, I’ve had a good taste of the world to this point and have found things that work great for me and others that just don’t work well in my life. We all choose our paths either consciously or unconsciously but to make the best decisions I find that you must be fully awake to the fact that you control a lot more of your life then you ever thought was possible. Now I don’t want to get too preachy but think about it, when was the last time that you made a conscious choice in your life that you really wanted? Did you get that raise? Did you meet ...

Posted in General, entrepreneurship, Life Tools | No Comments »

Too many dishes on your menu?

March 26, 2007 – 8:24 pm
I was reminded of a simple business lesson today watching Chef Gordon Ramsey help someone with their failing restaurant.  The restaurant owner had some 70 odd items on his menu.  He couldn’t prepare enough food fast enough to keep up with the demands of his customers.  His service was failing and he wasn’t turning a profit (in fact he was in the negative).  I notice that many business owners, some new and some with years of experience do similar things.  They offer too many services which bring down the over quality of service for their customers in general.  Now I never want to be in the restaurant business myself but watching that program I’ve got to say was a real eye opener. When he took the menu down to 12 items the service improved, customers came back and business life was healthy.  Because I am in the web development industry I ...

Posted in General, entrepreneurship | No Comments »

Can Virtualized Teams really work?

March 21, 2007 – 3:15 pm
I’ve been seeing this as a growing trend in business. The term “Virtualized” is more of the idea that a team can work from anywhere and come together and collaborate on business issues. Most companies today do not function like this because…. a) the role they fill is one that demands them to be “physically” there b) There company believes that in order to get the most productivity out of an employee they must be in a physical location Most people and companies don’t work like this yet because of “fear of the unknown” but I see this making up a larger part of businesses that can get away with it because of the lack of physical overhead, the freedom it gives an employee and the potential for greater productivity and the fact that most people in Canada and ...

Posted in General, entrepreneurship | No Comments »

Rethinking the Direction of CommerceCubes

March 7, 2007 – 10:16 am
I’ve been debating over the last month or so what to do with CommerceCubes in terms of running it and also how to run it, its purpose and what I hope to achieve by running it.  Because I am focused elsewhere currently and there are only so many hours in a day this leaves little time to be posting daily on CommerceCubes right now.    Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be moving my “how-to” type articles to my current project to WebmasterFarms.  Some of the scatterbrained articles from the past couple months highlight my lack of focus but as a trusted mentor of mine told me recently “It’s time to focus”.  Most rookie entrepreneurs and business owners never get far for one reason or another or they want to take over the world by creating as many companies as possible to weaken the risks associated with starting a business.  ...

Posted in General, entrepreneurship, Lucas' Projects | No Comments »