Tuesday, December 09, 2008

OC Webdesign absorbed by Agito Websolutions

OC Webdesign soon turned out to be missing something. A real designer, some who can make a good website look great. So I contacted the best designer/graphical artist I know, Ruben (my brother).
He was enthusiastic on the idea of an own startup. But we soon realised OC Webdesign couldn't be the name for that. So we looked for something better, and came up with: Agito. Agito is Latin and stands for: "I think of". What we want to do is make people think about their websites, and take them to the next level. Think further.
Agito.be is online since a couple of days, and OC Webdesign is transformed to a second blog of mine (in dutch this time), to share the trouble and hopefully benefits of my own/our own startup company.
Agito Websolutions has the same values OC Webdesign stood for. Affordable but professional websolutions, focusing on SME's. We chose for websolutions instead of webdesign, since we also want to provide custom-made web-applications.

So check out www.ocwebdesign.be and www.agito.be to see where these stories are going...

Friday, November 21, 2008

OC Webdesign.

I have a new project online. OC Webdesign.
OC Webdesign focuses mainly on SME's, to offer affordable but maintainable websites.
Far too often, websites are very expensive for small companies and self-employed businessmen. Most webdesigners ask prices per webpage, and ask an enormous amount of money for updates and fixes.

OC Webdesign focuses on flemish SME's at this point, so the website is in dutch for the moment... Don't hesitate to contact me if you want some info in English/French.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Corporate Blogging

Last week I went to an e-business seminar, that brought me some insights on corporate blogging. Not only is this an excellent marketing tool, it also allows you to inform customers with what you are doing. Last but not least, it forces the writer to think and rethink what he has been doing, and why he has been doing that. Of course, blogging takes time, but I believe when you put effort in it, you will benefit from it.

In that perspective, I've started a blog on the two main projects I've been working on the last year. Vidivic and TalkerBee (I've mentioned both in some earlier posts).

I believe the blogs can bring some extra motivation, on sharing thoughts and bringing value to our company. Let's see how long they live actively.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Mont Ventoux: The Story

Yesterday evening, at 1800 CET, we returned from our trip at the Mont Ventoux. This seems like a good time to post a little report with some pictures...

Day 1 (Thursday May 30th): We decided to start driving on Thursday, because we had to make it to the sign in for the Ventoux, which closed on Friday at 1900. We drove about 450km, and spend the night in The Auberge Jean d'Arc in Langres. A quite old hotel, with louzy beds.

Day 2 (Friday May 31st): After a nice breakfast, we drove the last 500kms to our apartments, called "Domaine le Pas Du Ventoux". After unpacking, we went to sign in for the climb the next day. We decided we tried to start at 8.00 in Bédoin. The climbs from Bédoin and Malaucène are considered the toughest, so if we had energy after the first climb, Malaucène would be the second, Sault the third... We went to bed early, to be fit for the big Day. It had been raining all week (also when we arrived), but people were telling Saturday would be slightly better. Fingers crossed.

Day 3: D-Day. I woke up at 6:30, when I could take the following picture, my first sight of the Ventoux.




We took the car to Bédoin, where the Ventoux was already waiting for us.
First climb: We decided to take a steady but not too fast tempo, since we had no idea of what was going to come. The top lies at 22km, with an altitude difference of approx 1600meters. After 7kms, I had a flat tire, which we could change in about 7 minutes. After that, we didn't have any real trouble, the climb was tough, but everything went fine, and we reached the top after a little bit more than 2 hours.


Ruben was quite exhausted and decided not to take the climb from Malaucene next, but descend to Sault, to relax a little bit and try that climb. Dad decided to join him and me and Filip started our downhill to Malaucene.
Second climb: Arriving in Malaucene we took some time to eat some energy bars, bananas, drinks etc. After filling our pockets with some more food for on the road, we started our second climb. Where Bedoin starts with 5km that aren't so though, Malaucene hits you in the face from the start. I decided to keep my heartrate below 170 at all time. This went quite well, and we made it to the top in 1h58, which was very satisfying, as it was one of my goals to do one of the heavy climbs in less than 2 hours.


We ate a small lunch in Chalet Renard, where Ruben and Dad were arriving at about the same time. Ruben decided not to go for the top, but Dad did, where he finished his second climb. After lunch, Ruben and Dad went down to Bédoin, and Filip and me decided to go for the third climb in 12 hours. We started in Sault in a beautiful weather. But when we arrived in Chalet Renard, about 6 km from the top, weather was turning, and we felt some light rain. We decided to continue to the top, which we reached in 1h47. At that point, we couldn't see much further than 10 meters, it was raining heavily, and the wind was terrible. Arriving at the top, we were immediately sent to a garage, and received some warmth-blankets. Cycling down was out of the question, there were busses coming to the top to bring us (and about 60 other cyclists) down.


Our bicycles were brought to Bédoin the next day. We then did a cycling tour around the Gorges the La Nesque, a beautiful nature area. This concluded our short trip which I will not forget soon...

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Heading off for the Mont Ventoux

Today, after work, we (Dad, his colleague Filip, and my brother Ruben), will head off to the south of France, to cycle on the Mont Ventoux on Saturday.
I've been trying to get in shape this winter doing some Spinning in the local fitness-club, and started training outdoors on the first of April. In march, the weather in Belgium was so lousy, we couldn't train much outdoors... With a busy job, and not so much free time to spend, I managed to train about 1000 km outdoors, combined with some spinning, and indoor training on my race-bike. I know that is not really enough, but I feel alright, with a loss of 5kg bodyweight.

The ultimate goal is to climb the Ventoux 3 times, from the three surrounding towns, Bedoin, Malaucene and Sault. Which should add up to a total of 135km, and 4390 meters of altitude difference to bridge. But, since I have completely no idea what to expect, and how my body will react to almost two hours of non-stop climbing (one climb), we will have to wait and see if this is a reasonable goal...

The weather forecasts are satisfying, I've been relaxing the last week, and preparing everything to leave. I've been changing my diet the last couple of days, to get some more carbohydrates into my body. This is the fuel for the muscle, but it's not easy to get enough. To give an example, the two days before the big day, you should get +- 600 grams of carbohydrates per day. In eatable stuff, thats: 12 slices of brown bread (100 grams ch), 5 bananas (100 gr ch), 300 grams cornflakes (200gr ch), 750ml of sportsdrink (100gr ch) and a nice dinner.

So, I'm off to eating my second cup of cornflakes now...

I'll post some pictures with a report when I'm back on tuesday.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

New service: TalkerBee

TalkerBee Logo

 




Today, we pre-launched TalkerBee. TalkerBee enables webportals and community websites to easily integrate Instant Messaging and Presence.

Integration is targeted to be as simple as integrating advertisements (e.g. google ads). Furthermore, communities do not need to share private data of users. TalkerBee does not need users' passwords or access to the user database.

TalkerBee fully relies on XHTML and Javascript, so no installation is needed by end-users. On top, the IM components are fully customizable and can be integrated in any website.

TalkerBee website