Nic’s blog
I write about building businesses, failing and building a life, not a legacy.
Buying Xbox360 games online: An SA website comparison
Since my purchase of the fantastic Xbox360 I have been searching for the perfect site with the perfect prices and the perfect delivery package to buy my games from online.In this post I will be comparing three sites that I have found.For this comparison I will be looking at three main criteria: Cost of game, delivery package (incl. cost) and variety of available games.The Websites:
digitalplanet.co.za - This site is not exclusively about gaming. You can buy various other products and software. This sort of broad service always puts me off. The site is manageable enough for me not to feel lost.You are able to search through the Xbox games by price tag (R0-R99, R99-R199 etc etc), alphabetically and by page. Nice and easy.
Take2.co.za - The great thing about this site is that I've actually tried and tested it. And it works. On top of that their game-filtering system, or search facilities are great.You are able to search within the specified list of games and filter the search. Filters include asking for what's in stock, sold out, pre-order, local, international and more. You can then sort your filters alphabetically and a variety of other ways. Very handy if you know what you are looking for.
Edreams.co.za - This site has done a lot of promotion on Facebook with banner ads and in fact that is how I found this site. That immediately, for some reason, puts me off. Although I have friends who swear by this site in spite of a couple of late deliveries. This is definitely the most visually appealing of all three sites and is probably the easiest to navigate. Edreams also sells various other products which as I have said, I don't like (although I can't imagine there is a lot of money is an exclusive Xbox or Gaming website).Cost of games:I will be looking at 5 games and comparing their prices across the three sites. The reason for 5 games is that I wanted to look at the most recent (pre-order) games as well as older more classic games.The games and their prices:
Tiger woods '08Digital Planet: R 421.20Take 2: R 453Edreams: R441Cheapest: Digital Planet
Tony Hawk Project 8Digital Planet: R 336Take 2: R 361Edreams: R274Cheapest: Edreams
Lost Planet: Extreme ConditionDigital Planet: R 513.63Take 2: R 538Edreams: Not on saleCheapest: Digital Planet
Rockstar Games presents Table TennisDigital Planet: R 250.80Take 2: R 270Edreams: R137Cheapest: Edreams
Call of Duty 2Digital Planet: R 237.60Take 2: R 256Edreams: R260Cheapest: Digital PlanetOVERALL CHEAPEST WEBSITE: Digital PlanetThere could be a better mix of games but this is what I have chosen.Delivery Package:Digital Planet: Delivery fees range from R30 to R250From their site:
Currently we have a few delivery options. The delivery price is dependant on the size and weight of your product. Delivery fees range from R30 to R250. Please call our call centre on 0860 245 000 for any queries.
Take 2: Shipping to South Africa only - R29From their site:
Deliveries to towns outside of the major Metropolitan Areas ( Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Kimberley, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, East London, Port Elizabeth, George, Nelspruit and Pietersburg) will be done by means of Speedservices Couriers. It will therefore be delivered to the post office where you have a post office box or private bag. If you only have a street address, it will be delivered to the nearest post office. We will notify you by email as soon as your order has shipped and your Speedservices tracking number will also be provided. In most cases the items will be delivered to your post office within 24 hours of despatch.
Edreams:From their site: Calculated by weightFrom their site:
All our shipping rates are calculated according to the total weight of your parcel and destination of delivery.
Variety of games:From the review above it seems as though the only site that is lacking in games when I searched for them was Edreams. The others seem to have availability on most games available and Take 2 will even source and deliver from overseas distributors at a cost.The end result:Overall I like the results that Digital planet have presented. I suppose it really is a matter of choice and experience with each individual site. So if you have experience with any of them please let me know!I am going to be trying out all three sites over the next while and will update as I do. For now, make your choice and get gaming.
Does anyone know what burke means?
I didn't so I have to ask if anyone else knows.Watching TV last night Jen told me that she thought this girl on TV should change her name cause burke (her last name) meant something similar to a twat or idiot. I'd never heard of it.Dictionary.com had nothing along those lines for Burke or Burk.Google either when asking it to define:Burke or define:burk.Urban dictionary however had a wide variety of results:1. Burk: chronic liar, ass-hole, cum licking bastard2. Burk: a male; a boy; anyone who has a Y chromosome3. Burk: fresh, fragrant and full of vigourJen also pointed out how the first two directly relate to one another... hahaha. nice one.Anyways, I thought this was interesting.
Facebook is trying to take on the Internet and Email an' all an' all
I just read this post on the Facebook blog. It says that you can now send messages to people not on Facebook via their emails.When typing a note, message, invite or anything else, simply type in an email address and click send. The person on the receiving end will be able to view the message and/or respond to events without registering. Following a "wall" conversation does involve the person signing up.At the end of the post the author (a developer and I am guessing the developer on this particular project or app or development) states the he (in the third person) will never, ever use email again.PAH!! You talk such utter rubbish you arrogant tosser. Facebook can claim all they bloody well like that this sort of minor development will stop people from using email in the real world (read: world outside of Facebook). Get real buddy. Facebook is seriously starting to piss me off, seriously. Alot. Everyday.
ThoughtLeader Launches
In a very quiet and contained blog post today Vinny Lingham posted about M&G's new multi-user blogging platform for leaders of industry and thought; ThoughtLeader.I am a big fan of the work that M&G have been doing, that's no secret but I really like this initiative and have been waiting to blog about it for a while. The concept is a simple and effective one. I am looking forward to seeing who else M&G can get on board but for now here are some of the bloggers:Guy BergerHeather FordJarred CinmanMatthew BurbidgeMax KaizenMike StopforthVinny LinghamAnd many others.
David Airey's blog is a must read
I know that many bloggers aren't in to the whole optimization concept. Whether it be optimizing writing, appearance, communication or any other aspect of a blog. But David Airey has a blog that have not been able to get off for the last week or two.
He talks about a variety of topics in a succint and simple way that makes sense to me and clearly to others as well. I think the blog will (might) appeal to the Quirks, Cherry's and Jo's of the SA blogosphere as well as any blogger who is in the process of a redesign or generally looking to spruce up their template and approach to blogging.Some featured articles that I found that have definitely helped me at SA Rocks and soon on this blog too:5 important design aspects of any website or blog6 tips to improve your blog articlesTop 5 essential WordPress PluginsAre these good or bad business cards?Some points I particularly like from articles that I have read on his blog: Link your blog posts to and from your blog posts. This will help to keep the reader on your site for as long as possible.Clean things up. Get rid of anything unnecessary in your sidebar.Choose a colour scheme.I am sure that many in the SA blogosphere will glance over the blog and palm it off as useless gimicky rubbish. I don't think so however.If this sort of thing interests you then do yourself a favour and visit his blog. Just like most how to sites suggest, David has contacted me and thanked me for my comments. Nice touch and one that I think many of us overlook. Person to person is always best. Always.
Zimbabwe and international sports
Why on Earth is the world still willing to play sports against Zimbabwe? I don't get it.SA was rigorously boycotted throughout the world when it came to sports back in the day. A similar political platform is in place in Zim. The people are suffering but the sports teams are still being hosted or played against.Explain it to me, someone, please. I am not trying to have the sports men and women punished for their idiot presidents/dictators actions but it needs to be done.Zim needs to hit rock-solid-bottom on every front and then maybe, just maybe others like Mbeki and the rest of Africa's presidents will not even entertain the idiot dictator at conferences.
What to do after some blog downtime
My blog (this one) has been down for almost a week now. What a mission, what a ballsup, what a pain in mine and Justin's asses.Initially we thought we were dealing with a server problem. Not so much.Then we thought it was a DNS problem. Not so much (not so good after many email arguments).Eventually Justin discovered that a plugin I was using was messing with things in a huge way. So we (when I say "we" I mean Justin) upgraded to WP 2.2 and deleted the plugin.This seems to have worked and all that has happened in the interim is that I have dropped in ALL rankings EVERYWHERE. Oh well..It was a refreshing break not having this blog on the back of my mind constantly. The break did come at a bad time though with many things to blog about that were extremely important and obviously groundbreaking at the time. Now, they are all meaningless!!Anyways, here's to a new lease on this blogs life. I am going to get back in to this blog and make things happen. I am going to plan my blogging like I do on SA Rocks and move forward from there.
Helen steps in to the present
I love this:Helen you are my new bestest favouritest politician in SA. Talk about progressive. Barak on Facebook, Giuliani's daughter joining her father's opositions group on Facebook and now Helen Zille talking to the public via Zoopy. Very impressive.
Have blog titles started talking to one another?
I though this was great. I doubt many will agree. But I think that somehow the world of text has begun talking amongst itself and placing itself in relevant positions for the reader.Hmmm...interesting:
Demetri Martin tribute post
This post marks the start of a long legacy of posts dedicated to my absolute favourite comedians: Demetri Martin.So here goes:
A social network that pays users
Yuwie seems to be different, but then again they all claim to be different. I like the ones that claim to be what they are and actually turn out to be just that.I have signed up for Yuwie.com (thanks Paul!). According to the apparent payment model that Yuwie is offering, Paul who referred me, will be receiving some cash for me signing up under him (that sounded dodge).Only time will tell but for now, let's be honest, what is the harm of one more social network that even offers to pay you to make them rich?Have a look at Yuwie, now...again, I asked the same about spock, what's with the name?
Do not buy a Guess watch
I recently received my degree from Rhodes University (about 4 months ago) and at that time was given a Guess watch as a gift. I think that over the past 4 months I have worn the watch less that it has been in repairs. The watch itself is incredible, well designed, individual, innovative in its design but does not have a strap that seems to work.I have now returned the watch twice to have it repaired. I refused to accept another repaired watch so forced the issue of replacing the watch. Each time the watch strap breaks it has to be sent to Zürich or some other far away place to be repaired. What is that? And surely if you are sending the watch so damn far you are going to try to ensure that the watch is actually fixed when you send it back? Not Guess. They seem to like having irate customers at their door.The saga continues after today. I went to the Sandton Guess store to inquire about the status of the new watch (note not the repaired watch). She didn't even know which watch it was and where it was in the world. This is going to be interesting.
Spock scares the daylights out of me
After seeing The Bourne Ultimatum (TBU) today and visiting the next generation website, Spock, I am officially concerned.TBU was a good movie about espionage and the US of A. How one man brought down a black-ops department that was killing off US citizens amongst others. Nice concept, realistic implementation of core spy concepts surrounding the CIA, NSA, ASAP, RSVP and any other acronym you can think of. Cool stuff.But then I stumble upon (yet again) Spock. I have visited Spock before but had a bad feeling about the core idea behind this website.From the site:
Spock is the online leader in personal search, helping users find and discover people. With over one hundred million people already indexed and millions added every day, Spock is building the broadest and deepest people specific search engine.
Over a hundred-flipping-million people categorised already? That is frightening stuff if it is true. I am not naive, I am well aware of the fact that my information is online and anyone who wants to find me can, it's not particularly difficult.Today I revisited my Spock experience and I am terribly frightened. In essence my experience of Spock is one of personal indexing. What I mean by this is that they subtly ask you to add information about yourself by answering some questions. Questions such as what colour hair you have, where you were born and what colour eyes you have are standard. I don't like giving out this information. I am not being forced to at all, but the concept makes me uncomfortable.I am now searchable among 100 000 000 other people. That's a lot of people.Now let's get paranoid for a second. Lets assume that the Spock website is funded by a company, Clearstone Venture Partners who's CEO could possibly be (in some far off parallel reality) related to the director of a special operation within the CIA. Now this gent in the CIA has direct access to over 100 000 000 people on the spock website. That scares me. It scares me when I think about passport restrictions being whispered around the world. It scares me when I think about Arabs in the UK and US and the types of lives they are being forced to lead thanks to the colour of their skin and place of their birth. It scares me to think that the only people who are safe are those who have never touched the internet or anything to do with a network of any sorts. It saddens me to think of the possible impact that this sort of website could have on all online pundits and enthusiasts alike.I am interested to see where Spock goes. Lastly, what's with that name, Spock?