Nic’s blog
I write about building businesses, failing and building a life, not a legacy.
IPhone IFever becomes an IFrenzy
I admire Apple on so many levels for so many different reasons. Lately It has been thanks to my MacBookPro that I admire Apple (I am converted).However right now it is the Iphone "IFrenzy" as I have coined it, that has me intrigued. Apple makes announcements but there is no need for them to. They simply need to fart and people like the aroma. The Iphone is set for release in the states very soon and this information has people in a tizz. Bloggers are blogging about it, techies are teching about it and laymen are wishing they knew what it could do.Here is a video to give you a bit of insight:Wow. But with a price tag of around $499 I think I'll give it a skip. In fact, I wont need to as it is unavailable in SA for the next, um, ever just about.Back to my fascination with Apple. I am sure they have had their ups and down as a company. Hell with Microsoft capturing a large majority of the industry Apple have done a sterling job but not without their fair share of stuff ups.What absolutely amazes me is that they cannot go wrong at the moment (last 3 or 4 years). They simply "let something leak" to the press and they are sitting pretty and riding the wave of rumours that extend throughout the blogging community world wide. Let's just be serious for a second here, they are so good at what they do that as a South African blogger with almost no access to the IPhone I am blogging about it and posting video footage about it. That is incredible.As a young businessman I am definitely trying to take a page out of the Apple book and learn from their unbelievable ability to whip up a media frenzy on a whim.
Young Dumb And Full Of ...
Being a young entrepreneur has opened my eyes to numerous things in the last year. The most amazing of all of these things is the astounding amount of young people doing incredible things.Be it entrepreneurs, media practitioners, young accountants, academics or wood importers (yes, there are people who import wood), there are young people succeeding and making millions.It really does beg the questing though, how do we manage? How do these young and successful people deal with the pressure of being broke, being wealthy, carrying employees, salaries, decisions, organisations, reputations, meetings, dinners, parties, presentations, financials, tax, registrations and more? How?I am not sure that all of these young go getters are managing to do all of this to be honest. I am sick of seeing people loving life, happy as the day is long and rich as shit. Bull. Ask any entrepreneur and they will tell you that their success did not come easy and did not come fast. It came after planning, work, failure and diligence.There are many young people in the SA industry at the moment who are youthful, talented and going to be successful. There are also many people who are young and talented but who are also arrogant, naive, idiotic and moronic if they think that the sun shines out of their ass and the job will make them who they want to be.You make the job, the job does not ever make you. Let's just be honest here for a second, reputation is not everything, practical experience and a history of success is. Your friends make you, you on the same level, make your friends. Do not let the job taint your life, your lively hood and your friends. There is more, at our age (my age of 23) than the job. There really is.
Kakfunny Or Just Plain Kak?
I like the idea of a Kakfunny blog but I am not exactly sure what the point is?Is this some attempt at diversifying the blogosphere by bringing many bloggers under one banner or is that an oxymoron?Not only do I like the idea, however confusing, but I love all the bloggers that are contributing to this blog (except for phlipy, never read your blog, sorry!). I am still somewhat baffled by the concept. I can't really see the aim, outline or goals for the blog (not that there need to be any necessarily) and without a clear and defined angle you've got shit.Yes, these bloggers are funny, but for now it seems as though the posts are independent of one another and these bloggers may have just stayed on their own blogs and ranted alone. Let's see some interactive blogging, some threads in posts and some common themes. Please. Otherwise all that you are doing is forcing me to unsubscribe from your RSS and subscribe to one blog featuring all of my favourite bloggers.These are the featured bloggers:
This is my impression of what their blog could/should look like:
Kevin, your blog will be missed, ill be trying to figure out which new blog on the block is yours. I agree with Tertia on the boredom with the blogosphere for now. Hence all the "link" posts on this blog. struggling for content at the moment.Good luck to the KaKKlan (kkk????), I will be reading and linking.
Watch This Dog Chase Its Tail
This is absolutely awesome. I went to a predrink party at a friends house this weekend. There was a dog. Its name is Doug. Doug is seven months old and doesn't really know he has a tail.His balls have been removed so he has to do something for fun. What Doug does it chase his tail. Watching the video below you will notice that Doug does not seem to realise that his tail is attached to his body. Doug will chase his tail in a circle, get dizzy and give up for a bit. Doug will then get excited, wag his tail and get irritated that the foreign object is hanging around again and begin chasing once more.Brilliant:
Ronaldinho: Touch Of God
Holy shit (pun intended) this dude is phenomenal. Watch the movie below and tell me something: Is this movie real? Could it have been doctored?This video has been viewed something like 13,000,000 times with over 7000 comments on it. Incredible, but is it real?
Don't Pump Petrol? What A Load Of KAK
What the hell is me not pumping petrol on a specific day going to do? Sure, there will be a few thousand people not pumping petrol, so fucking what?The petrol companies will lose a couple million, a couple hundred million? And then? Then the next day all the people who didn't pump petrol on that specific day will go the next day and pump their petrol and then give their money back to the people they are protestin.I know this sounds defeatist, but lets just be honest for a second, the big organisations don't give a royal shit about anything that any of us do.At the moment I can't really think of a better alternative to this sort of protest if it even counts as a protest but I am certain that this is not the best way to do it. If you are truly committed to the cause then go get yourself a hybrid car or start riding bicycles or catching public transport to ease up on the consumption of petrol but be logical about it.Can anyone think of a more effective way to combat the high petrol prices? Anyone?
Blogmark Gone, Amagama Begins and Maher About To End
The Mail & Guardians old "blogging" platform seems to be gone. What remains is a Wordpress based multi-user replacement called Amagama.Amagama looks very cool I must admit and I personally love the functionality of the Wordpress platform. But Not everyone shares my views on the topic.Many of the old blogmark users are up in arms and taking up arms to batter Vincent Maher (M&G online strategist and brain behind Amagama). There have been some extremely nasty and rash responses to the M&G's decision to get rid of Blogmark.
KC, Arb, Marijayn, Morticia, Dolce and Dolorez – oh it had been easy enough to track him down. They knew his cellphone number even. This was not the time for electronic communication, however. This would take a personal touch. A very firm, cold, silvery touch…“Vincent?â€â€œTired grunt.â€The four in unison said sweetly: “We are here about our blog.â€Vincent cowered as he saw the nail files, sharp ones…“Matt!†he shrieked.“Oh, we already had a word with Matt,†said Arbchick, smiling as she reached out and firmly grasped his hair.“Now, let’s talk about fixing things up around here,†said KC wiping her blood stained fingers on her Levis.
Another:
Where is my old blog and post?Why can’t I log in under my old name and password?It says I can’t register as Flutter as that name is already taken.
And Another:
Vincent Maher is a sell outIf I wanted this type of blog, I would have stayed with my blogspot one.YUCK.
Ok enough with the nay-sayers. They are idiots. Maher has some great points and logic behind the M&G's move to Wordpress and Amagama. Blogmark was a "blogging" platform without any blogs. That is a load of hogwash. It was a glorified forum that the users seemed to enjoy. It was old, decrepit and ugly. Simple. I wish I had a screenshot, but alas that old system is no more.The new system is simple, clean and easy to use. The users that say otherwise are complete bafoons. It took me literally 3 minutes to sign up, verify my account, change my theme, edit my blogroll and save it all. That is simplicity in its finest form if you ask me.With approximately 1500 or so active users the handful of people who are unhappy are just that, a handful and my advice is this: If you don't like it, leave, now, soon, immediately. There are many more bloggers who will take up the platform when you leave and the world of blogging is best without your ignorance. It's people like you that prove Bullard right (and he just might have been right about the blogosphere looking at the old blogmark users).There are, apparently, many other emails coming in to Maher threatening his life because of the change. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE???? Petty, that is the only word I can think of right now that wont get me in to trouble. You are all being petty. It's a blog, it's a better looking and more functional blog and guess what, Amagama actually provides you with... A BLOG! So take it, use it and enjoy it, or don't and piss off you morons.
Is MyDigitalLife Tripling 10c Payment?
I have been hearing some kind of rumour regarding my post yesterday about MyDigitalLife (MyDL) paying authors. Yesterday I spoke of 10c per page view, now I hear that sometime next week any author will be receiving triple the payment per page view. That means that per click/pageview on any of your posts as an Author at MyDL you will receive 30c instead of 10c.This, as far as I know is still just a rumour. I am trying to get Townboy to speak up and make some kind of commitment either way, but nothing. If this is true that means a tidy little some of money for SA Rocks at MyDL next week.If you aren't an Author or even a member at MyDL yet then I suggest, just in case, you get to their site and have a look around. 30c per pageview in payment is not a bad offer at all, if it's true.
Locally Hosted SA Site Will Not Succeed
There is a very good reason for this I might add, it has to do with expensive and ineffective hosting packages offered.SA Rocks is now down due to exceeding of bandwidth limits. Brilliant. So what hosting organisations in SA are saying is they are happy to take our money but will only let our sites run up to 2GB per month of bandwidth. What rubbish.There is no promotion of success, no assistance to become a prominent website, it is as if hosts just don't want to see local sites succeed. Why, why is it not possible, what is wrong with this damn industry?I am now forced to either pay 9c per mb over 2GB, or host internationally, both are lose lose for me. Does anyone have any fast and effective suggestions?Update: My hosts have been extremely gracious and increased my bandwidth for the last days of this month. What nice guys/girls!
AmaZeitgeist - Vaginas, Sunday Times And Laughter
I couldn't help myself with this one. There isn't really a proper sentence made, but the combination of words are just incredible:
Earn Cash Per Page Impression
MyDigitalLife (MyDL) has recently started a programme that allows verified authors on their website to earn 10c per page impression. This is a brilliant idea.I don't believe that it will be particularly lucrative to begin with, however I think that the concept is an excellent one that will promote the correct approach to citizen journalism and blogging.Townboy is the townplanner at MyDL and says that the payment initiative is meant to incentivise people to become better bloggers and potential citizen journalists who are paid for their stories by MyDL.Not everyone is an author on MyDL and only authors are able to receive the per page impression payment. Most of the members at MyDL are regular bloggers who blog for the enjoyment. Yet, there is a movement towards improved content from specific users who show promise in their writing skills. These users can become authors on MyDL and begin earning some pocket change!The cash that is earned is paid back to authors in sums of R50, I am still figuring out how and when that payment is received. I have begun submitting SA Rocks content to MyDL. So keep a look out and see what you think about the concept. I have also made some suggestions to Townboy about making the process more simple to integrate between someone's original blog and their MyDL blog or contribution area.If you have any thoughts post them here and I will alert Townboy of them.
A Social Network With A Cause
Change.org is a social network that I think is fantastic. It is not trying to get you to talk about how drunk you got last night, how many people you slept with and who you are in love with. Change.org wants you to talk about politics, about change and about social injustices.Yes this is a bit of a dramatic cause to be blogging about so early in the morning but one that is close to my heart and my political views. Silence is not the solution here, awareness is. Visit Change.org now, screw Facebook and their pseudo important agenda's. This is a site worth networking through.