Nic’s blog
I write about building businesses, failing and building a life, not a legacy.
I'm back on Twitter
I am not sure why but lost night I decided to try my hand at Twitter, again.Things might not have changed much since I lambasted the use of Twitter as an ignorant abuse of time and technology available to one. I still feel the same but think that there might, maybe, be some advantages to using the services via IM.I am still not sure what they are but hopefully will find out. As I was told last night via Twitter, "Twitter has become a new sort of IRC".Or something.
links for 2007-10-15
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Add the following HTML tag to your web page after the tag, before the tag:
Offer your readers full and partial feeds
I have posted a fair amount in the last month about full vs partial RSS feeds.Finally I was given a solution by a reader of this blog. You can, and I think you should, offer your readers the chance to choose whether they want full or partial feeds. All it takes is one simple plugin for Wordpress blogs.The DualFeeds plugin allows you to manage your feeds in such a way that all your readers will be contented. The lines are clearly drawn and people are split almost 50/50 when it comes to full vs partial feeds. I haven't made my mind up and no longer have to.From the DualFeeds Blog:
This plugin creates ‘dual feeds’, allowing you to offer your readers both a full post feed and a summary feed. This works for all post feeds (category, author, etc), not just the main site feed. Comment feeds are unaffected.
iPod Touch - The full review
Wow. So it's been about a week or so since Carly brought me back my iPod Touch from the UK (Thanks Shnitz). This thing is absolutely fantastically phenomenal.It is smaller in capacity than other available iPods - a max of 16gb are available. I decided to spend the cash and get the 16gb Touch. What a decision, worth every penny. The actual Touch itself is minute, measuring a whopping 8mm in width.The screen (you know, that touch thing) is amazing. In fact it is virtually impossible to scratch the screen, have a look:To be honest I didn't need a new iPod but I have had mine for almost four years now and felt that I deserved an upgrade. I am going to be going through some of the great things you can do with the iPod Touch. The things that I am going to chat about are the cool things that I like about the Touch, not what it can do, what I have missed or what I might have left out.
User Interface (UI) - To start with the UI is a thing of beauty. The designers have done a sterling job to make the UI simple, fast, easy, visible, pretty, sleek and any other nice word you can think of. Add the touch ability of the iPod and combine it with this amazing UI and you have a winning combination.iCal syncing - This is definitely one of my favourite features of the Touch. I have synced my iCal and all my meetings on to my Touch and now will never miss a meeting. When an event is added to my iCal and my Touch is plugged in it automatically syncs with my iCal. When a calendar event pops up, you know about it. The Touch beeps and alerts you of the meeting, if you have set alerts to activate on iCal. I now have a mobile meeting diary.The only downside of the Calendar on the Touch is that you cannot add events in the Touch, it must be done in iCal.Address book - be sure to use your Touch as a backup address book incase you lose your phone. Simply add in as many contacts as you like, their emails, cellphone numbers, photos and names. Great little feature.Movies - I have yet to convert a movie in to an iPod format that will play. This is definitely one of the things that frustrates the most with the Touch (and many other iPods as i hear it). I have just downloaded the IMtoo iPod video/movie converter and will try that out later.
YouTube - Apple struck up some sort of a great deal with YouTube. YouTube is included as a feature on the Touch's main menu screen. Simply connect your wifi, tap the YouTube button and surf your way around the sites available videos. Flip the Touch so that it is horizontal and make use of the wide, crisp, crystal clear picture. Fantastic.
Photos - Mac users will be extremely chuffed with the Touch. Simply sync your Touch with iPhoto, choose the folder you want and sync away. Easy. Again, just as with the YouTube videos, flip your Touch horizontally to get the full effect of your photos and the wide, clear screen. Be sure to use your finger to "flick" through your long list of photos, or simply slowly guide your finger across the screen to slowly view the photos on the Touch.
Music - Everything that any previous iPod has had is available on the Touch. But there is more. View your album art and flick through your entire music collection by flipping the Touch horizontally and perusing the album art. Tap to view the artist, tap again to view the songs, tap the song you want and bam, there it is, right in your ear.
Itunes Store - I couldn't buy music as I needed an account with relevant information. I am not sure if you can use the iTunes store at all in SA, if you know let me know. What you can do is preview albums, hop on to your favourite cheap online store (or other method) and get the stuff you've heard at the Itunes store!Blogging - If you run a Wordpress, Typepad, Blogger, iblog or any other blogging platform for that matter then blogging will be a breeze on the Touch. Just like blogging on any other computer, laptop, or device that has a built in browser, the Touch is simple. Just enter the admin panel of your blog, type away and hit publish and you are done. Simple, easy, effortless.Google - A google application is built in to the Safari browser. Simply double tap on the url address bar and the Google search bar pops up. Type in the word you are looking for and hit the search button. Done, dusted, simple, easy.Apps - Only recently have Apple decided that Apps are unavoidable and have opened up their list of must-have web apps. Visit www.apple.com/webapps for a full list. To use the apps simple visit the same url in your safari Touch browser and tap on the "view web app" option. Again, very simple.WiFi - Wow the wifi on the Touch is pretty simple if you aren't an idiot. I. Am. An. Idiot. I'll tell you why I am an idiot, because I insisted that I could not be dumb enough that I couldn't connect the Touch to the wifi. It could not have been me, it must have been a faulty product. Surely. No, not so much.After much deliberation, after much research and after much frustration, I figured out that I had entered the WEP password for my home wifi incorrectly. STUPID. So my little tip for Touch wifi, make sure you enter the passwords correctly whether at home or at a pay/free restaurant wifi hotspot. I am now connected to wifi and browsing is blissful.
iPod Touch browser - Apple has obviously chosen to use their Safari browser as the browser of choice for the Touch. This is without a doubt one of the best things that they could have done for the Touch. The browser looks good, it is smooth, it picks up wifi in the area and it offers multiple tabbed browsing. Without a doubt this is one of the coolest functions on offer for the entire Touch. I am so used to tabbed browsing via Firefox that going back to single window browsing is almost an impossibility.
Incredibly the Safari browser allows you to zoom in or out of any area, aspect or picture of any website that you browse. Mobile browsing as you know it is dead, no more simplified, basic, text websites. The Touch offers full browsing capabilities, full view of any website on the web. Some sites such as Facebook have created a compatible site for the iPhone and iTouch which makes browsing their site fantastic. Double tap here, zoom in, double tap there, zoom out, full picture download, full interactivity and anything else you could imagine!
Ipod touch blogging
This is my very first blog post from my iPod touch. I am incredibly impressed with versatility of this thing. Coming up, a full review of the touch. Check back soon.
A day at the Turffontein race course
What a way to spend a Saturday, at the races. A friend of mine's father had some horses running (donkeys if you ask me) so we went through to Turffontein race course for the day.I have never been much of a gambler but decided that today was my day to make some cash.I was given a crash course in betting and odds and the styles you can play as well as looking at horses and deciding which looks like a winner. Perfect.On we went to the betting area. I placed my first bet on Race four. Swingers Box (which means that you pick four horses or so and if any of them place top three you win), a horse to place and a horse to win. I came up short. R100 down.Next one I bet another swingers box. It "shat in" apparently and I walked away with R250 odd. Great, I was up. Then we went for lunch to a fantastic little Portuguese restaurant. Starters, queen Prawns, a couple of brandy and cokes and life was good.Then the final race of our day before heading back. I decided to play blind, picked four horses in the swingers box, picked a winner and a place. It just so happens that I picked the winning and second place horses to finish my day R450 up. What a pleasure.All in all, if you have a couple bucks to play with, definitely something I would suggest doing. But getting caught in the gambling trap is easy at the races with the hype around you, so watch out and keep your cash in check!
In honour of the Vincent/Bolton T-War
T-shirt illustrates front and back of the same shirt
links for 2007-10-12
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ster and it only convert the first 30 sec ?
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THE ANSWER TO THE WI-FI PROBLEM
Al Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize 2007
WOW! Isn't this interesting? Al Gore has finally won something. And to be honest, if I were him I would rather win the Nobel Peace Prize than the presidency of the US of A.From CBC:
Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore and a United Nations climate change panel won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the news Friday in Oslo.Gore, a vocal environmentalist, has made headlines around the world with his Academy Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.
Go Al with your bad self. I am impressed that a cause such as his is getting its due exposure. May it continue and may we switch off our lights and save energy!
Atheism and Christianity - someone needs to be right
I have been very cautious about bloging on this topic. The reasons are obvious. But I feel that it is time.It is no secret that I am an Atheist. Anyone who reads this blog will know that and I have no problem with others knowing it either. It is not something that I am ashamed of, as much of society dictates people in my position need to feel.I have been reading Jarred Cinman's blog on ThoughtLeader recently and he has made some great arguments on the topic, see "Why atheists are just plain right".My stance on religion (or lack thereof) comes under fire on a daily basis just about. I have no problem with this as I enjoy the topic and enjoy rational, reasonable debate around the topic.Note my use of the words rational and reasonable. There are some arguments that I will never accept as final from a christian; "Just have faith" is one of them and, "I simply believe" is another. Let me put it to you this way, I don't have faith and I don't believe. That is that.In the same way, I want to express something to those that challenge atheism and feel that we are wrong: We (atheists and christians) suffer from basic but opposite assumptions, I believe there is no god, you believe there is. At the end of the day this is where the argument starts and this is where it will always end. We do not believe the same thing. Simple.In my mind there is a very obvious reason for the raging debate however and this is where my post really starts. The reason is this:By the very nature that christians believe in the bible - which states that you need preach the word of god - they must innately believe that anyone who does not believe in the bible or Jesus or god is wrong. That's me. I'm wrong.Now I am taking a very scientific and analytical stance here. When I argue, I argue by asking what the difference is between my "wrongness" and how I perceive your beliefs to be "wrong"? There is no difference. Christians ask me to disprove the existence of their god, I ask them to prove it to me. They ask me to disprove heaven and I ask them to prove hell. There is no solution here.Yet without a solution we are lost. Why? Because one of us are wrong according to our belief systems.I am not going to continue providing examples, explanations and justifications as I think this is a very circular argument that will ultimately take us back to the starting point of differing belief systems. But why, why must I be wrong? Take a second and think, is it possible, for a split second, that you could be wrong?
EU leaders are wussies...exept for Gordon Brown
I never thought I'd say that about a British Prime minister, but Brown has really taken a stand. He has outright stated that he wishes to be nowhere remotely close to Robert "I harm my own people" Mugabe.What a boy. Meanwhile the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, came with the thunder declaring her rage against human rights injustices. Then she sits with Thabo Mbeki and crumbles.What is that? She has come forward and endorsed Mugabe's presence at a summit to take place in Lisbon. She's an idiot, that's what I have to say. She has done so many incredible things already in her short time as chancellor. But then she endorses Big Bad Bob's presence?This is bad because other EU leaders are as ficle as she is and will jump on the "support bob harming his country" bandwagon.I applaud Gordon Brown for his blatant disdain for that tosser Mugabe and I only wish that other leaders will take the same, not a similar, the same stand. I cannot for the life of me understand how any leader of any country can willingly stand in the presence of a "leader" like Mugabe. Does it not repulse them?Screw the "politics" of the situation. Good men and women need to take a bloody stand and make the evil men dissapear (interpret that as you like).Surely if someone wanted Bob dead, he would be dead already. With all the conpiracy theories running around the world about JFK's assasination and every other political situation, here's one for you:Someone wants Bob alive and in power. Someone, somewhere is shit scared of information that Bob has on them. It may have been the Blair/Bush administration, but that is now gone and Brown's administration is pissed off with Bob. Good.
Is Afrihost trying to take over SA ISP?
It seems to me that Afrihost is actively seeking out website and organisations to host. I just received an unbelievably irritating mass email from hellopeter (that I haven't had the time to unsubscribe from) telling all their users that they are moving to Afrihost after being approached.
Hmmmmm... makes me wonder. To be honest, I love afrihost (how's about some free hosting?) and since I moved SA Rocks on to their server I have had nothing but great service and little downtime, in fact, in the entire year so far I have had nearly close to 3 hours of downtime - off peak.So maybe it is worth trying if they are going to make the effort. Could Afrihost be the turn of cheap hosting in SA? Let's bring the blog back to SA!!This is an open call to Gian Visser, the CEO of Afrihost, to get a cheap, local alternative for blogs to make use of for hosting options.
Music's gone mainstream and it's killing the die-hard listener
I, for one, am not fond of maitstream music. It's nice and I can recognise the value of it when I'm at a club or with friends or something froo-froo like that.But it is really pissing me off lately that radio stations have finally seen the light and recognised under-ground rock, pop, funk, heavy metal, hip-hop, emo, alternative or any other genre. Why I am pissed off at the "new discovery" by the radio stations is because radion stations have a tendancy to kill a song long before it deserves to be killed.Why is it necessary for stations to play 30 seconds to mars every hour on the hour? Hell, why is it necessary for radio's to play them at all. They were mine. Now they are dead because the radio killed them.
"Video killed the radio star"
- Methinks not. Here's my version:
"Radio killed the underground star"
And to be honest, radio is killing the die-hard listener. I get upset when a hear a tiny tot of twelve singing the tune of a Papa Roach song. They are not mainstream.Don't get me wrong, I grasp the concept of mainstream equalling money for the band, but many of the bands I love have my money and I paid for them to be mine. Not some tiny-bopper-pimple-faced-wanna-be-gothchild.Rant Over.
Now an SA man is looking for Maddie McCann
Oh come on!A while back I watched a show on Carte Blanche about a guy who claimed he could find the bodies of six girls who were victims of Gert van Rooyen, a paedophile. The girls have been missing for more than ten years. Carte Blanche advertised the show as the solution that parents had been looking for and that they had found the girls.Guess what? Bullshit. I called it while watching the show and I'm gonna call it now. I hope I'm wrong and maybe this dude can find Maddie, but I don't think so.I think Maddie is gone. And to be honest, what the hell is this South African guy going over there to try and accomplish? Months they've spent looking for this little girl and he thinks he can toddle over there from the Southern Hemisphere where we've watched it on TV and not even sniffed DNA of the case and solve it?Why don't you just stay here and look for the lost SA children Mr Danie Krugel? Make something of you "gift" Mr Locator and save the children here.Danie is simply another human being trying to get a high profile case so his face can be on CNN/Sky/BBC or wherever and catch the last 5 minutes of his 15 of fame.