Newsletter Archive

The password is dying. Most people haven't noticed.

[Image: An old brass key and crumpled paper notes sitting out of focus on a desk, next to a phone showing a glowing fingerprint] Something has changed...

28 Sept

What a new AI model actually changes for a business like yours

A chemistry explainer, a cropping tool for clients, two typing games for the kids.

22 Sept

Can your chatbot be talked into anything?

68 messages trying to break it, nothing leaked.

3 Sept

The card surcharge dies on 1 October

[Image: A café card machine with the familiar surcharge sign crossed out] You know the little line on the card machine: a surcharge applies to card pa...

28 Aug

The Fake Jez

On Wednesday afternoon one of our clients got an email from "Jeremy Jez Dawes".

26 Aug

The Singing Teacher and the Website That Listens

I want to tell you about Jodi.

17 Aug

Nobody knows who wrote the most published text on Earth

[Image: A 1960s dry transfer lettering sheet carrying the words Lorem ipsum, beside a brass magnifying glass in an old type workshop] You've seen it a...

12 Aug

What fleetpages actually is

A reader asked what we actually build websites with now.

10 Aug

The Claude training nobody pays for

I've been talking with a client this week about getting their team properly using Claude, and the same question came up that comes up every time.

7 Aug

Pro Cool 4: How we built a shop with 24,021 products

[Image: The Pro Cool online shop: search 24,021 industrial air con parts, browse by category] This one's a bit different to the rest of the series, mo...

5 Aug

Pro Cool 3: When your apps start talking to each other

[Image: Claude using a connector to do real work: it looks up a business's ABN and details, then writes a tidy summary] So far: the starter kit, then ...

3 Aug

Pro Cool 2: The connectors that aren't in the marketplace

[Image: ProMCP: run your trade business from Claude, a chat showing jobs due and unpaid invoices] Last time: the starter kit.

29 July

Past peak WordPress

[Image: Jez and Panda out on a morning walk] I got off the phone with a client who wasn't sure what he'd done wrong.

28 July

Pro Cool 1: If I set someone up with AI today

A while back I spent three and a half hours in Troy's office.

27 July

Teach it who you are first

[Image: A simple diagram showing one short About my business profile card, with arrows out to the everyday work it shapes: your emails, invoices and s...

20 July

The police called a client about a fake version of their domain

[Image: Two browser address bars: the real yourname.com.au marked safe with a padlock, and a fake yourname-au.com marked with a red warning] A few mon...

13 July

Our website is now three websites

[Image: A short tour of the new jezweb.com: the entry screen, then the AI, web and hosting sections] We just rebuilt jezweb.com.

6 July

I built my daughter a tool in half an hour

[Image: Someone relaxing on the couch with headphones on, listening to an article instead of reading it] My daughter and I are doing our first aid cer...

29 June

Start with your worst admin job

[Image: A small business owner at a desk, a pile of paperwork turning into one tidy spreadsheet on the laptop] Last edition I made the case that AI ha...

26 June

No, you can still text your customers

[Image: A phone showing two text messages: one from a mobile number marked with a green tick, one from a business name sender] If you have seen the he...

23 June

AI isn't new. Being able to trust it is.

The tech didn't suddenly get clever.

12 June

The AI Tax

A 20 to 37 percent price uplift at renewal, justified by AI features you didn't ask for.

5 June

How Marcus Actually Works

Last time I introduced Marcus Webb — an AI agent running on a Mac mini at Jezweb who works as a developer on our team.

1 June

Marcus Webb Doesn't Drink Coffee

There's a Post-it note stuck to a Mac mini in our office.

25 May

Remember When IT Was Fun?

I got a reply to the Mac email from David Maunder, who's spent 17 years in IT at Liverpool Plains Shire Council out in Quirindi.

22 May

You Used to Own Your Software

The line between paying for a service and paying because you can't leave.

18 May

The default trap

I've been looking at websites built on Lovable, Bolt, Manus and the other AI website tools.

11 May

I asked 49 AI models to write about pea gravel bike paths

There's a real US company called Hello Gravel that was selling pea gravel as a surface for bike paths.

8 May

Apps That Forgot What They Were For

Dropbox used to sync files.

4 May

What Happens When Someone Buys Your Ecommerce Platform

If you run an online store in Australia, there's a decent chance you've felt the ground shift under your feet in the last couple of years.

1 May

How I Fixed a Client's Shipping from Tokyo Airport

I was sitting at Tokyo airport on Wednesday afternoon, waiting for my flight home, when a WooCommerce client called.

27 Apr

Christmas Eve 2024 vs Christmas 2025

If you've been reading this newsletter from the start, you might remember the story I told back in February (https://jezmail.au/archive/christmas-eve-...