Nic’s blog
I write about building businesses, failing and building a life, not a legacy.
Picture perfect peppers
A pretty picture perfect pepper is perhaps the most impressive thing that I have ever grown. My two hands nurtured something so amazing. In fact the folly of the fragrant pepper is to end up in my ferocious pepper sauce, but everything is destined to end up somewhere in the end.
27 Dinner - round two
Chatting to good ol' Mr. Stopforth today he slyly slipped in a request for me to speak at the upcoming 27 Dinner this month. I delayed, and "ummed" and "ahhed" and then hastily accepted the offer before Mike took it away!I am exceptionally excited to be speaking and a little bit overwhelmed (there are some serious online persona's that attend the dinner). I will be talking about my website SA Rocks. This is a great opportunity for me to give the site some exposure and get some much needed feedback about the site. In 7 minutes I have to try my absolute hardest not to make a tit out of myself in front of the genii attending.Vincent expressly asked me not to make myself look like a hero. I am not quite sure what this means but rest assured I will not be attending the dinner in a superman suite (I think).I hope to see you all there, places are limited and filling up fast.
Flickr pro account
I am somewhat disappointed. I have just purchased a flickr pro account for $24.95, the one year subscription. I did all this and there was no fuss made about it. I just gave flickr close to R200 of my hard earned cash and it just about went unnoticed.I logged back in and had to actually look for a little sentence where it alerted me of my upgrade status. I was hoping for bells and whistles telling me what I get for my money, what has changed and the benefits of a pro account. I got bubkis, nothing, Nada, zip, zero, jack didley squat. Now I know what the advantages are, I'm a smart guy (many would disagree) who wouldn't spend the money if I didn't know what I was getting for my cash, but seriously, make me feel important at the very least.
Picasa web album storage - 1GB
Google's Picasa Web Album has just announced that they have now reached free storage space of 1GB and counting. Not to mention improved searching features allowing you to find other people's photos and just some other people.It's not flickr... yet.
Grey's Anatomy dominates Facebook traffic
In case you ever wondered which was more popular, Grey's Anatomy or Facebook, the answer is Grey's.
Early to bed, Early to.. go %$#^ yourself
I am usually not awake and driving before 8:30am. There is a good reason for this. It is not because I am lazy, I promise you I am not. It is not cause I like to snuggle in my bed for an extra hour and it is not because I don't have a job. It is simply because I hate traffic with a passion. To be honest, I can even deal with the traffic. It's the freakin' morons that drive their cars in the traffic that grate my goat (yes, I own a goat now).Why is it that people feel that it is acceptable to drive like blind retarded pigs because they are on their way to work? Drive like regular folk, on a regular schedule in a regular car on a regular road. The fact that you and 4 million other people are on their way to work does not make your irrational and idiotic driving any more acceptable.So do everyone a favour; slow down and keep your head screwed on to your shoulders facing forward. Thanks.
Bare Naked Ladies and Amie Street
Bare Naked Ladies (BNL) and the website Amie Street have ganged up on the die hard muso's of days past. It seems as though more and more bands are releasing their albums digitally before they release on CD. If you can't beat them, join them I reckon.Amie Street is a website that sells artists music. There is a twist however, the price of the songs starts at zero, yes nothing. Then the more downloads the music receives, the higher the price. The price climbs until a roof of $0.98 per song is hit, then downloads simply continue as is!Great idea and I applaud BNL for making use of the technology and massive web market available to them. Let's be honest, the web market is going to take the music whether they are paying for it or not. At least this way they are paying a nominal price and even nothing at one point or another.
I've been tagged
Tyler tagged me. I am so sorry Tyler, I completely missed the post! :) I am meant to be placing down 5 things that you didn't know about me.. let's see what we can come up with.So here goes (thanks for the tag btw):
- I played in a band for about 3 years (Thus Far). Check out some of the mp3's at sovent.
- I am Greek but HATE olives and Ouzo. Sad but true.
- If I could swim in chocolate I would. If I could sleep in chocolate I would. If chocolate were the only food on Earth that I needed to stop to stay alive, I would die. I am a chocoholic and my name is Nic.
- I have significantly more female friends than male friends. Some people say this makes me a bit Metro. I am comfortably straight in case you were pondering!
- I can grow a full beard in about 2 and a half days.
I am told that I need to now tag other people... hmmm. I think that at this stage almost everyone in the known universe has been tagged which leaves me with no one. If I am tagging you and you have done it already just ignore me!To be Tagged:
- Gregor - Cause I haven't heard from him in a while (too much work will kill ya)
- Verge - I wanna see what you have to hide!
- Leon - Someone international.
- Justin Hartman - A new friend.
- The Colony - Cause you interest me alot!
Thanks again to Tyler for the kind words about my first project online and for tagging me!
SA Blog Awards second round
It is time for the second round of voting for the SA Blog Awards. The results are out and there are some incredible blogs that have been nominated and my congratulations go out to all the nominees.
Error messages with a twist
I love it when sites take the care and the time to make their screw-ups interesting!
Who's who online list
Yahoo released a list of the top 50 most influential people of the internet. Founders, Ceo's and others stemming from companies and websites such as TechCrunch, Wikipedia, Google, YouTube, CreativeCommons, Skype, Wordpress, Amazon and Digg are present.Check it out now.
This is swarm
Vincent Maher seems to have a new addiction (not smoking, that's an old one) and its name is Swarm. The MG swarm is a real time representation of what the viewers of mg.photos are looking at.Now at first glance to those who aren't really sure of the significance of this swarm it could seem like a bunch of pretty circles rolling around a black page. It's not. It is an incredible way to view the happenings of the site without staring at blank stats and words and numbers.So without further ado:
Six degrees of social networks
The theory of six degrees of separation is a fairly well known one. For those of you who are in the dark, this is a theory that states that [almost] everyone in the world is no more than six steps away from every other person in the world. It's a pretty nifty theory I think.The reason that I am talking about this theory is that many people know the theory in relation to Kevin Bacon (the actor). I have heard that every person in the world is within six steps or less of Kevin. Firstly I always wondered how is that actually possible, prove it. Then I would wonder why the theory uses Kevin Bacon and not, for example, James Dean?Anyways, The Oracle of Bacon is one hell of a cool site that illustrates links from any Hollywood star, dead or alive, to Kevin. Go ahead, make my day, try and find an actor alive or dead without a link to Mr Bacon, I don't think you can do it.Then on to more pressing and interesting business:Six degrees of seperation and social networksFor a while now I have been wondering about the myspace/facebook/social network craze that is about. I wonder why, I wonder how, I wonder how many and what is it that these people are after. I think that the six degrees of separation is a very good explanation of what keeps people coming back.I have just over 160 friends on Facebook. If you don't think I do, go check my facebook out. Now let's put this theory to the test. There are approximately 7000 South Africans on Facebook. If I have 160 friends and counting and you multiply each person by 6, you get 960. That is an immediate network of 960 people that I know through my network of 160 (that's one step). If each of those 960 people multiply by 6 and extend their network to 5760 then within 2 steps I know 5760 people. One final example: take those 5760 people and extend their network by 6 and you get 34 560 people. There aren't even close to that many people in SA on Facebook.(Disclaimer: My mathematical understanding of six degrees of separation might be completely out of whack, but for the purposes of this post you just need to understand the principal of what I am trying to get across)I firmly believe that it is this theory that makes social network sites such as Facebook successful. If I had no desire to push my network to the extend of its network then I would have no drive to use these sites. Six degrees to keep social networking sites running.
Sharepoint expert enters blogosphere
My friend and business partner Courts has eventually entered the blogging world and started up Sharepoint Expert. Courts claims to be the brains behind most of the websites that he and I develop, I think he's right but it really sucks to hear that!We are working on a new site that should really excite students interested in the social nature of the Internet, especially in South Africa. Keep a look out for that release in a week or two. Check out this blog, Sharepoint Expert or the Studentwire Blog for more information.In his personal blog, Courts will be talking about his experience with Sharepoint as well as his everyday boring life :).Check it out and wait for a new template!
Facebook introduces advertising
Unless I have been sleep-social-networking lately I haven't noticed any adverts on Facebook. Until recently that is. For weeks I have been trying to figure out how they make their money.
Cancer shavathon
Today is the day. Now is the time for you to shave or your head if you ever felt the need. No one looks at you funny, no one judges you and in fact, people applaud you for supporting the cause. I love it. I think it's a fantastic idea that is always well supported and rightfully so.If you haven't been able to get down to one of the official spots then sit at home, take your top off sit your butt down and shave that head. Now is the time.I went to Cresta Shopping Mall today and was blown away at how many people were sitting and doing their part. The non stop stream of people were in high spirits and willing to part with their hair and air out their follicles. Ofcourse there is always the option to show your support and get your head/hair spray painted. This is a great alternative for those of you who have anal retentive bosses who don't understand the fun side of life and the joys of living outside of the box!
Copyscape - check your content
After me content theft issue Leon emailed me about a site that allows you to check up and see if your content is being copied. I can't decide if it's working or not but it seems to be a great help in the war on content theft.Copyscape allows you to enter a Url in to the search bar and then searches your content with other sites for copies. The results are displayed as a regular search engine. I am still trying to work out if it just picks out lines, posts, links, headings, pictures or what as criteria. It's still interesting to see where your content is distributed around the web.
SA heads up Security Council
It seems as though South Africa has taken of presidency of the United Nations Security Council for March. We are an extremely young country within the Security Council and I think that this is quite an accomplishment!!
Content theft
I think it's taking a couple of days for Technorati to pick up on this post and the inadvertent link, but someone has completely lifted a post from SA Rocks. To the point that they are using the photo which is hosted on the SA Rocks server.I am extremely grateful that Kidtivity enjoyed the post so much that they lifted it verbatim but I am somewhat upset at the blatant and shameless lifting of the content. It's not as if the post is 100% fresh and new, but at least sources were credited and references made to the appropriate sites. I have alerted the blog editor and will patiently await a response.The blog seems to be brand-spanking-new and has one post on it... not a very good way to start a new blog I might add; ripping off someone else's work. Is this really what some SA bloggers are doing? If so I am concerned. How many other posts have we all missed on blogs that slip under the radar?