Here’s a treat for kids from Perceptus Solutions Inc., and our website, print-bingo.com. Teachers, and parents are invited to create free Halloween themed bingo cards using our template word list for All Hallows’ Eve.

Well, we forgot to create and post about using Print-Bingo.com to create custom Canada’s Thanksgiving Day and American Columbus Day bingo cards.

Oh well.  At least we remembered that Halloween is right around the corner, so here is our annual reminder that print-bingo.com is great for creating themed bingo cards to celebrate the day of tricks and treats. Teachers and parents are invited to create free customizable Halloween bingo cards using our template word list for All Hallows’ Eve.

Just like every other word list at print-bingo.com, you are in control.  You can customize your bingo cards to your heart’s delight.

Plus, for a small upgrade cost of $10, you can get even more features.  But even our free service is great for most users.

Get a copy of WinMerge from Sourceforge – it’s a tool often used by programmers to see differences in text files.

Open a command window

- e.g. start –> run –> “cmd”

Create a text file with the names, sizes, and date stamps from folder “A”

- e.g. dir c:\the_documents\*.* > this_computer.txt

Do the same for folder “B”

- e.g. dir \\that_computer\c$\the_documents\*.* > that_computer.txt

Open both files in WinMerge.

- the differences in the two “dir” outputs will be higlighted for you.

Now if you’re still not sure if the files are the same or now, e.g. if the files are the same size but have different date stamps, then search for a utility called “md5sums”.  This will create md5 hashes of all files in a folder.

e.g. c:\tools\md5sums -n “\\distribution\c$\program files\cybex\*.*” > distrib2.txt

That’s it.  It’s been a couple weeks since the last blog post. We’ve been busy at Perceptus.  Our next project is going live soon – retailers with multiple locations in BC and Alberta, watch this space.  Our next product is geared for you!

Today, I discovered a new trap for Canadians who advertise on Google AdWords to Americans like we do.  We advertise heavily outside of Canada, especially for print-bingo.com since the vast vast majority of it’s customers are from outside of Canada*.

The hidden trap? Competitors who don’t buy ad placements for Canadians searching on Google. Let me clarify.

Like every good marketer, I check my ad placements for a key search terms. Google is smart and knows that I’m searching from Canada. So it only shows me ads for businesses (i.e. competitors) that have explicitly enabled their campaigns to play in Canada. Many American firms won’t do this, so I never see their ads.

Long story short, I just realized that when people in America (and elsewhere) search Google for terms that we bid on, our advertising placement is lower than what I see when I make the search!

To test this, find a way to browse the web from an American IP address. I used a (private) proxy server. If you’re not that technically inclined? Ask an American friend. Or maybe find a free proxy based in the US? Or maybe hire us, Perceptus Solutions Inc., for a consult.

So, watch out Canadians. If you’re not checking, your web advertising placements in the USA might not be what you think they are!

Someday I’ll blog about a few other Canadian issues we’ve had, especially how we reduced our currency exchange fees last year. Hint: Google gives really fair exchange rates.

* Yay! I guess we’re an “exporter”!