Online Marketing at Canada's Web Shop

PHP Programming Support Tools

Dan Bernardic — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:19:49 +0000

Here I am at Canada’s Web Shop, and I would like to talk about the PHP development support tools that I like to use and why. I have used some of these tools in the past, and am familiar with their usage and benefits, and some of them are in their infancy themselves, and this [...]

Keeping a Consistent Social Profile

Lyndsay Walker — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:00:43 +0000

Whether you’re representing your company or yourself, it’s important to be easily recognized by a photo or image. Think about big brand campaigns… whatever they do, their colours, fonts and graphics are the same throughout. How many times have you glanced at a billboard, web banner ad or commercial and immediately know the company because [...]

Communication is key with customers

John McDonald — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:32:51 +0000

It amazes me how simple communication can satisfy a customer and no communication can cause frustration and can cause customers to jump to conclusions. I recently took my boat into get repaired to a mechanic that we know quite well. I took it in on a Wednesday and they said they would look at it [...]

Google Presentations is Free PowerPoint?

Justin Nedecky — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:53:24 +0000

We learn to treat the Google Docs software different than other software, when we don’t wait years for the next improvements to our applications. If you haven’t used a Google Docs application recently, you should find the interfaces much improved. I recently discovered how far the Google Docs presentations application has come — Ironically, Google [...]

Is NoSQL the future of databases?

Jonathan Dart — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:55:43 +0000

Unfortunately the title of this post is nonsensical. NoSQL isn’t any one thing, it’s a broad spectrum of emerging technologies. NoSQL could be used to describe just about any data store that isn’t a traditional database, and it turns out there are many flavours of databases. I haven’t used any NoSQL product personally but I [...]

Wave Google Wave Goodbye

AJ Batac — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:44:19 +0000

I wrote about Google Wave before and even asked people if they wanted invites. But yesterday, Google decided to stop its development. I’m not sure if I’d be sad or happy about it, I have mixed emotions. Here’s the official statement from Google We were equally jazzed about Google Wave internally, even though we weren’t [...]

Re-Organizational Technique: Card-Sorting

Chris Savoie — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:27:29 +0000

As your website grows and expands its content and user base outside the initial scope for the project, it often becomes necessary to consider a re-design or re-organization in order to keep navigation intuitive and get the most from your content, preventing it from getting lost in a hard-to-navigate-to location. Usually a content re-design starts [...]

Twitter and Blogging helps with recruitment?

John McDonald — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:25:27 +0000

Something interesting happened last week when we were recruiting for a web programmer. We had gone through our interviews and reduced the candidates to 3 and we were getting close to choosing our candidate. We chose our candidate and he was pleased with our decision and he said that he was excited about working with [...]

Interacting With a chroot Environment

Chris Chatelain — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:23:10 +0000

Some services are capable of running in a chroot environment without having to build a separate chroot environment for them. OpenSSH and bind9 are both examples of chroot aware services. Simple config options will get you on your way to secure use of either of those. But for other services, like Apache2, things get more [...]

Winnipeg Fringe Festival Starts Today

AJ Batac — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:04:41 +0000

The 23th annual Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival starts today until July 25. The Fringe is currently the 2nd largest North American festival of its kind. The street in front of our building is going to be packed for the next couple of days and we’re looking forward for a fun-filled week!

Website development is all about teamwork

John McDonald — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:24:31 +0000

I recently met with a prospect and we were reviewing their website in the meeting and he said something to me that stuck in my mind. He said that when they got their website developed they told the website developer exactly how they wanted the site to be laid out and that is how they [...]

What did Lebron James teach business owners?

Kevin MacNeil — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:29:55 +0000

It’s a rare moment in history when a professional athlete holds North America’s attention for six weeks of summer plus an hour long nationally televised special. When we see a basketball player garner attention like a presidential candidate it’s not a stretch to think Lebron James might have changed the way people view athletes. But [...]

Trade Show Tips

John McDonald — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:18:39 +0000

A few months back we had a booth at a digital day conference and I thought I would share my thoughts on what I feel you need to do at a trade show if you have a booth and if you are attending. If you have a booth: Ensure your booth is professional and has [...]

Fête du Canada

AJ Batac — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:54:55 +0000

From us here at Canada’s Web Shop, advance Happy Canada Day! (Photo source: I took the photo at Kingston, ON. A beautiful city located in Eastern Ontario.)

HST, Taxes in Canada, and e-Commerce

Justin Nedecky — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:44:36 +0000

HST is coming to Ontario and British Columbia July 1, 2010. Are your e-commerce stores ready? There are implications for small business and online retailers. HST is not simply PST + GST. For the purpose of this article we’ll stick to what online retailers need to know for selling goods between provinces, i.e. if/when/how the [...]