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Introducing NukeX at a party: a step-by-step guide to survive the introduction so that you get to eat all the chips.

You are welcome to forward this newsletter to anyone you think may benefit.

Since you are still reading this, I guess you were not scared off by the "T"-word. So far so good.

But perhaps you are a bit weary and still deciding whether or not you want to learn more - so we are going to take a quick detour before we get to the main point. Lets ease into the topic - gently mind you, with a quick detour to the next party / braai.

Picture this (it will all make vague sense in the end):

Walk into the room at a party, pick a comfortable spot and shout "FIIIIRE!" at the top of your lungs.

I'll bet that the only reaction you will get will be curious glances in your direction, a few shakes of the head, a few rolling eyes and, if you are lucky, an offer for a drink and a nice valium, followed by directions to the bedroom so that you can take a teenie sleepy with your cozy blankie.

We live in a modern age. First of all fire is not that scary anymore. Secondly, shouting "Fire!" while everybody can plainly see there is none, stopped working in the late 60's when everyone was so plastered nothing other than a direct napalm hit was scary. (This explains why Francois Pienaar actually STARTS the fire before doing the shout thing)

But don't worry, I have another sure-fire (no pun intended) conversation starter that works much better than the "Fiiiire!" caper:

Walk into the room, pick a spot where your back is covered (or a corner if you can manage it), and announce in a loud voice: "Building web sites are easy!"

Be ready to duck within 2 or 3 seconds so that the bottles, glasses, tv sets and couches do not hit you in the face.

When you are sure that all the ammunition has been spent (beware: the less sober ones may take a few seconds longer to locate a projectile, aim and throw) you can peek out from under the carpet. You will notice that the music stopped (perhaps because the hi-fi missed you and went out the window) and that everyone in the room is standing in a half circle around you, and it does not look like they want to ask you for a dance.

Ok, I admit. I might be exaggerating a little bit. It is possible that your friends are better behaved than mine - yours may not throw the TV set at you. One thing is for sure though, if you make a statement like that, you will be "thrown" with a zillion questions / accusations boiling down to one thing: If computer technology is supposed to make our lives easier, then why is it so complicated to use?

Take building a web site for instance. You have to learn how to use FrontPage or code HTML if you want to publish a site for your business, or stay stuck in the pre-information age where you pay twice as much for marketing with half the results. To add insult to injury your business looks like an amateur fly-by-night operation to prospective clients who have grown to expect a reputable business to have a well designed web site!

Back to the party: After the initial assault, you switch to phase two: State confidently (and in a Captain Kirk like tone of voice) that: "ANYONE can build a web site in MINUTES. No technical knowledge or skill required."

That will take a while to sink in. Now wait for the big mouth to shout "bull***t!" (There is always at least one guy who will take the bait)

Now you can tell the whole story to a spell bound audience:

The original "web" as invented by Tim Berners-lee was designed to link research documents and information together. Kind of like a huge electronic book. The language invented for this purpose was called HTML - HyperText Markup Language.
(Mr Berners-lee, is now a knight of the British empire and "Sir Tim" for all us bohemians.)

HTML was intended to present and link text information - nothing more and nothing less.

The invention of web server and accompanying HTML language was so stupendously simple, it was the essence of genius. (It took almost 20 years for people to fully realize how important and significant the invention was)

Any self respecting IT person could learn the language in less than a week and build a web site right away. Something that was never before even remotely possible. In fact, the only way to share information before this was by using File transfers or email.

Since then (about 20 years ago) the internet changed a lot, and today normal people build web sites, but we are still stuck with the limitations (and intricacies) of the HTML language - in no small part due to the fact that there are more than 6 BILLION web pages on the public internet - all based on HTML.

Then came another break-through:

About two years ago Microsoft invented a new technology called dot Net. This technology enable web developers to build applications that run on web servers in much the same way as they build "normal" applications - amongst other things. To demonstrate how devastatingly powerful and elegant the new .Net framework is, they built a portal application and released the source code to the public.

The application was called IBuySpy and it was a web site that could be used to build web sites.

For example, if the title of the site read "IBuySpy", then the webmaster could login, click on the title and change it to "I Buy Spy", click save, and voila, the site is updated. No special software, skills, tools or brain surgery required.

Not long after that, a community of programmers took that source code, polished and extended it and released a product called DotNetNuke (DNN for short). The DNN team took the original application and created a stable and robust technical framework that programmers can use to add more and more functions. It introduced the concept of "skins" to change the look and feel of a web site and "modules" than can be plugged-in to perform various functions automatically.

Realizing that this is extremely powerful and useful technology, Cozahost took the DNN source code and produced our own version (which remains compatible with DNN) with improvements.

NukeX was born!

By this time your audience might start to become a bit restless and start to surreptitiously look for suitable projectiles, so for your own safety you have to move off the history topic and on to a future that is so bright they'll have to wear shades:

In the future, you will be able to login to your web site, click on a paragraph of text, click update and your web site will be updated.

Insert a pause here for effect. ;-) And then continue:

"Want to change the font of the text or make it bold? Okay, click on the edit button, highlight the text, select the font click apply. Looks ok? Maybe change the color a bit. Select the text again, select the color and click apply.

Hmm, looks better.

Want to show a picture of your product on the site? Select "Picture" from a list and click "Add". Now click the edit picture button, select the picture on your PC and click apply.

Come to think of it, one should always have an "About us" web page on a site.

Let's add one. Click add page. Type the name of the page. Click update.

Ok, now we have a home page and an "about us" page. What about the menu - how will users get to the page?

Oh. The menu updated automatically to show the new page. Cool.

It would be really cool if we can make our price list available for download, so select "Documents" from the list and click add. Click on the edit button and select the document that must be made available for download. Click. Done.

Wait - not everyone should be able to see the price list. Our nasty competitors will have a field day. Click on documents and click on authorized users only. Good. Now only our own clients will be able to download the price list.

Talking about price list, we will be announcing our new product next week. That should go on the web site too.

Ok. Click "announcements" and click add. Click the edit button for announcements and type the new product announcement. Select the end date for announcement (we don't want to come back and edit this while we are on leave). Click update.

Done. The announcement will display till next Thursday and then disappear automatically. Way cool.

While we are at it, let's add an event calendar for marketing events and product launches, frequently asked questions, a user survey, links to our purchase pages. Click, click, click. Done.

Hey, look at the time - it took a whole 30 minutes to build this new web site!"

This is the point where someone in the audience will remark sarcastically: "Beam me up Scotty!", and snigger behind his hand.

Done deal. Out for the count. Now you own the crowd. Now you can tell them more about NukeX - not about the future, but the here and now, because the software is ready and waiting for them to build a web site - in minutes. Right now. Free of charge to all Cozahost clients.

Mention that their competitors are probably busy building their sites using NukeX right now...that's sure to clear out the room chop-chop and leave you in peace while you eat the Lays chips. :-)

And that brings us to the end of the detour.

NukeX is a new state of the art software technology to build and maintain web sites quickly and with no technical knowledge required. If you know how to drive a mouse, and you can type a sentence in under 5 minutes, then you can build your own web site. No bull. If it were any easier, it would be illegal. :-)

Have a look at the new NukeX web site - I'm sure you'll see a world of opportunities for your own business.

Cozahost is looking for partners to help us bring affordable and sophisticated web sites to every South African business. If you are a reputable and competent company or individual in the IT industry, you are invited to join us in a partnership that will earn you an additional revenue stream - and your clients access to technology that is nothing short of revolutionary.

Take a few minutes and have a look at our brand new reseller program...

Here are some quick links to CozaHost services and products:

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Thanks for reading this newsletter and we hope you enjoyed it! Please contact us if you have comments, suggestions or questions - we would love to hear from you!

Wishing you happy, safe and productive computing - till next time.