Nic’s blog
I write about building businesses, failing and building a life, not a legacy.
27 Dinner Time
It is almost that time again. The 27 Dinner!With about an hour to go, my 'speech' is still semi-complete and in a bit of a shambles, but I am hoping things will come together. After the Cape Town reviews one needs to be somewhat careful about talking at a 27 dinner. It's also not like the crowd is small. With over 100 people registered for the event there is much to be concerned about.I am simply going to try to keep things short, sweet and effective. I am also hoping to capture the crowds with my dazzling wit and incredible looks (uhu).If you are one of the lucky people attending I will see you there. As Mike mentioned in his post today, I am the dude with lots of facial hair and mostly likely to be sitting by the bar if there is one! Lets hope SA Rocks goes down well.
MyBlogLog site fraud?
I recently conducted a Google search for a site that I own (wont mention it, thats not the point of the post). One of the top results, top 5, was for a user on MyBlogLog who claims that he/she owns and runs the site.Amazed, intrigued and a bit shocked I hopped on over to the profile for one Hecubus. This user has "laid claim" to about 200 websites. One of these sites is mine, however there are much, much more interesting sites that this user claims to own or run, including: Starbucks.com, Xbox.com, blog.myspace.com and xanga.com.What is this about? I am somewhat confused and a little concerned. Is this some sort of website url fraud? Is this some sort of hacking or simply a "slight of hand" that I have missed?
Teazers... Ooops!
Now we all know that Teazers is around, and we have probably all heard about the extremely intelligent and entrepreurial Lolly Jackson. However I do think that a LARGE part of the Teazers income is generated by the mail genetic structure and occasionally pure drunken stupidity.Teazerz Rivonia, Case in point:
Sh'thouse Comics - HILARIOUS
Incredible Accoustic Guitarist: Andy Mckee
A friend of mine sent me this link a few minutes ago. This guy is mind-blowingly-unbelievable-incredible-brilliant at what he does. And what he does is play the acoustic guitar. I don't need to say any more, his guitar does all the talking.This video is of Andy playing Africa - Toto.For fun, check out another video by Andy!
SA Rocks Badge Competition
I have just launched a competition at SA Rocks.Design a new SA Rocks badge and win a South African Rugby Jersey in time for the Rugby World Cup! If you feel like sponsoring or offering any other prizes please feel free to email me at editor@sarocks.co.za.Get on over to SA Rocks to check out the specs and the contact details.
PS3 vs Xbox 360
Wow, I just saw an advert for both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Now I am an Xbox fan myself (yes, yes Microsoft and all that) so I am a bit bias. But be serious here for a second and look at the price difference between the two systems. This is ridiculous. Any day of the week I will choose a cheaper system with as much to offer as the more expensive system.
Google's Scary Master Plan
This is an incredible "pocumentary" [possible documentary] about what Google could be doing, might be watching and is using to make the entire human race transparent. No secrets from anyone, at all, ever. Scary, but possible.
Demetri Martin - Comedian Extraordinaire
I have featured Demetri as a Fresh Faced Comic before on this blog. I decided that he needs to be featured more often, so here is, ever funny, every present guitar. Awesome.
Jo'burg gets busy
We all know that Jo'burg is not a small place. I firmly believe that there is a boat load of stuff for people living in Jo'burg to do. I have never been interested in finding these spots, until now.Jenwynne is making it her goal to discover new places in JHB.
JHB is a huge place with tons of stuff to do, but how do you sort the rubbish from the fun. Easy, I'll be your test pilot.
So if you live in Jozi and are interested to see what makes this city a rocking one, check out Jen's blog.From what I understand she is open to suggestions and contributions, so if you know of somewhere that you would like tested, email her, or comment. If you have been somewhere that you think should be reviewed, drop her an email too!
Why can't del.icio.us and Flickr remember my login?
I have a gripe with Flickr and del.icio.us. Why can these two sites not log me in automatically or at the very least remember what my username and password are? I have all the plugins, add-ons, hook-ups, screw-ups, updates, down-dates, downloads and everything in between. Hell, I watch these sites like a hawk for new versions and upgrades.At the moment through Firefox I am running the nifty built in del.icio.us plugin that shows me all my saved sites through del.icio.us. The only problem is that to tag a site for del.icio.us or to view any of my bookmarks I need to login. To login I actually need to visit the del.icio.us site and physically type in my details and login. Do me a favour and remember my login.
Next is flickr, I have had this issue with flickr for a while. Firstly you have to have a Yahoo! login to use the service, I wonder how many people are deterred from the site due to this? I can image there are a few. Then, every time I want to make us of the actual flickr site, check my groups, friend, photos or comments I need to login. I have recently upgraded to a pro account with flickr, for my $25 dollars or whatever it was for the year, can this site not just remember my login?Now I can feel you flickrholics itching to tell me that you have noticed that flickr now provides an option on login to sign in for up to 2 weeks and remain logged in. What a load of hogwash. That has yet to work for me. Does that mean that I need to keep my browser open for 2 weeks for this service to work? Someone please explain this to me.These are two incredible services that have changed my online activity like no others, but please do me a favour and remember details. Seriously.
To shutdown or not to shutdown
Would you be able to go an entire day without your computer/laptop/macbook/ibook or whatever the hell it is you use?Shutdownday is an initiative that is calling for people to switch off their computers on the 24th of March.Well the odds are in favour of those who think they can. Let's be honest, there is no way to actually prove that anyone has switched off their computers. It is a nice thought though.I must be honest, I think I can, I'm just not sure I want to!This is what shutdownday.com has to say:
Be a part of one of the biggest global experiments ever to take place on the internet. The idea behind the experiment is to find out how many people can go without a computer for one whole day, and what will happen if we all participate!
Um, lets be honest, if 50 000 people shut down there computers there will be another potential billion who wont. I think that if the experiment is purely for research sakes, then the organisers might come up a bit short. I may be printing this post out and eating if there is some substantial effect on the world if people stop using their computers for a day.In fact I will go so far as to say that if there is some major effect on the world from the shutdownday I WILL PRINT THIS POST OUT AND EAT IT. You can hold me to that.
Work at a hospital...
I think I missed my calling in life. This is what happens when the patients are sleeping and the interns start to play I imagine!!
Philips all over shave
What a great advert. Couldn't help but post it. Wonder what the legalities surrounding posting an advert are? hmmm...Anyways, this is just hilarious and very well thought out.
Southpark's #1 moment
Rolling Stone reckon that this is South Parks most memorable and amazing moment ever.I had a nice chuckle.Disclaimer: if you don't like canabilism don't watch this video.
Fresh Faced Comic and Ana Free - I Listen
I haven't posted a Fresh Faced Comic in a while so in that light I am putting up a musician first, to apologise and then showing you a Fresh Faced Comic.Here is Ana Free - I ListenThe Fresh Faced Comic... Kind of.This dude is an absolute shocker. None of the opinions or views in this video are shared by this blog.This is Bicep Boy:
Amatomu - Rate, rank and share
Amatomu is being heralded by many as the South African Technorati. This is not a bad description as far as I can see it. You get to post your blog in the list, it gets ranked, your feed gets posted, you get exposure, there is a tag cloud, there is a widget (a must have!) and a cool stat counter that show's you your blogs influence on the market!These are all great but for me the simplicity of the site is what sets it apart. Vincent Maher (online strategist from MG Online) has done a sterling job of making a complicated process and concept look and feel incredibly simple to the average blogger. The process is almost and just about idiot proof and this is an important and necessary feature. Not all bloggers are coding experts or IT freaks. Many, if not most, are simply trying to blog their thought.Amatomu is an incredible tool to get your thoughts out there. Join today, lets crash the MG server and show our support for innovation in the South African market.Some may argue that MG being behind the site is a problem. I say hell no to that. I think that media organisations taking the leap in to the burgeoning online market is refreshing and needed. Congratulations to the team for their efforts and result!P.S: What is that name about, Amatomu? Sounds cool but possibly a bit hard to remember.Tyler, screw you for beating me to this post!! For a detailed look at the features, read Tyler's post!
SMS spam out of control - Homemark
I have already posted about spam on this blog. Email spam and SMS spam, email being the focus. But now it has really reached epic proportions. Not a day goes by when I don't get SMS'd about winning something stupid, paying someone stupid or someone stupid bugging me.I need to ask a very serious and honest question: Where do these people get my number from?Today it was my brother who was SMS'd the following:
CONGRATULATIONS you have won an INFLATABLE BED from HOMEMARK. To Claim your prize call 011 430 6000 quote ref: xxxxxx. Terms & Con apply.Reply NO to be removed.
Now notice how they abbreviated "conditions" to "Con" ironic hey? Then they do mention that I can reply NO to be removed, but they haven't said from what? If I have honestly won something why would they be giving me the option to be removed?I called the number and this is what they wanted:Me: Hi I've won a bed.Call Assistant: Wonderful sir, our winning caller lines are busy please could I have your name and number for our database so that we can call you back?Me: No thank you, I just want my bed.Call Assistant: Yes sir, but I will need your name and number so that we can call you back.Me: Speaking of my number, where did you get it?Call Assistant: One of your friends or family must have provided your details when they bought something from us.Me: Well I don't agree with that.Call Assistant: If you give me your number sir, I can remove it from our database.Me: Yes thanks.Call Assistant: Thank you sir.What a scam! All they were after was my name and number, there was no bloody bed. Homemark is all over the TV all bloody day, is that not bad enough? Now I need to be spammed when I'm not watching TV too?