The koek, jou moer and Mr. Norris

Charl posted this on twitter. Definitely worth hoping on the bandwagon. Found the video at Blueworld.

Coldplay jumps on download "revolution"

I just received an email about Coldplay releasing their new album. It's coming in june. But for those die hard Coldplay techie's you can head over to their website from Tomorrow at 11:15 SA time and download the first song off their new album.They join the likes of Radiohead with this endeavour. It seems like the download era is beginning in all sincerity and bands are starting to realise the power that their listeners hold...online.

Slave bloggers, blog till you die

Brilliant:

Twam - The new spam from twitter

Spam is everywhere, it's mass, it's personal, it's viral and now it's on Twitter. Twam is really baffling me and consuming a fair amount of my strategic thought.I am trying to understand a few things:1. How do these twammers choose who they are going to follow to make up the 20 000th follower.2. What value does it offer them? If I don't follow them I can't see what they tweet.3. Are they real people who have actually clicked "Follow" 20 000 times?4. Why would you follow and receive updates from twammers?Let me explain; a twammer by my definition is someone who insists on following thousands of people and in return hopefully get a percentage of those people following them.Example:This personAnd this personAnother form of Twam is the constant links that are posted from people promoting their blogs. Mass twammers who follow thousands of people are the worst sort of link-twam posters. It's frustrating.I am all for posting links to your blogs if they relate to the current discussion or if you genuinely feel that people will find it of interest, but don't twam me with every post. I have been trying out twitlink-something-or-other (there are too many apps nowaday to rememeber all their names). I don't like it and will be removing it soon as I can remember where it is!Basically I just don't know how it is that I am lucky enough to be chosen by people like the two above as someone worth twamming. Is it when you reach a certain number of followers? Is it location driven, can they possibly be following your content and think you have a common ground? Surely not. Whichever it is, leave me alone.

Answerit vs Google vs Wikipedia & trustworthy sources

Strange. I honestly did not believe that Answerit would manage to take on the mighty Google with a question that I posed.Yet I stand corrected. Answer it might not have provided me with the perfect answer at all but I was able to narrow the answers significantly. While on Google I was wading through ten tons of word related answers to a question taken out of context. One. word. at. a. time.So this was my test question: What is the largest website in the world?It's broad so the answers could vary, specific enough to warrant a genuine answer, and relevant to the people who might be interested in the topic. So I did help the service out a bit. It was a fairly easy question to garner some answers.People took to it like wildfire (relatively of course). In 3 hours I received 9 answers. That's good odds I think. Of those nine there were some relevant answers, some ill-researched ones and a question or two posed back to me. Very community orientated.When I asked Google the same question, the answers were fairly dismal. Nothing that was relevant or helpful.This is only one question, one example and very, very early in the life of Answerit. It is not a search engine, don't misunderstand me, but let's be honest, we all use Google as an question/answer service.I have some reservations that can only be proven in time. One of these is the Wikipedia phenomenon. This is basically a temporary version of what Wikipedia is or has become. You can pose a question, on a topic and have a host of people (in the future) rally to find you the right answer. Wikipedia is permanent and it appears to me that questions posed on Answerit are available for a week. So it's much more of a quick fix answer service. Nice.But how can we actually trust these answers? Are sources sighted? Are the people answering community members or hired by 24.com? Are they average joes who sit in their dark basements taking pleasure out of giving me incorrect information? You laugh, but those people exist and they are screwing with your mind right now.So basically, I like the service, I think it needs a bigger community and I think it might need to explain a bit better why we should trust the answers it provides.

Crowdsourcing my Tattoo - It's web 2.0h

I have done a lot of drawing, thinking and talking over the past few months regarding my tattoo.There is a lot of design work that goes in to something like this, something so permanent.I am at a bit of a black hole. I have design, ideas and ways that I want things to work out. I have pooled my resources, googles, downloaded free brush sets, drawn, redrawn, traced and visualised. But I think that I need some popular opinion or some professional assistance.So what I am asking for is a little help. I want to crowdsource some ideas for the design of my tattoo.The size of the entire thing cannot exceed the dimensions of an A4 piece of paper. Below is some of the design that I have (a cropped version of what I have, there is alot of stuff missing), if you want more, please email me and I can send you what I have so far: nharalambous at gmail dot com.I can't and wont promise to use stuff that is sent in to me as is, but I can be sure that I will use the ideas and credit the designers on this blog when the final design is placed on to me arm. By the way, the design is for my left arm, above the elbow and below neck/shoulder.

I'll show you mine - The macattack

So Nebomax tagged me asking me to show him my desktop, here it is:

How you know you're not NB in your friends mailing lists

When those spammy, mass, rubbish emails that state that you MUST send this mail on to 10-gazillion people or face a frightening and certain death consisting of horns, the devil, skin-melting-torture and any other rubbish...are sent to you.

A brief conversation with Mushypeasontoast

MushyPeas chatted to me today on gmail, this is what transpired:Nicholas (Jabber status): not. bovvered. ye. no. but.Peas (Jabber status): is addicted to cappuccino.Peas: but you look bovveredlook at your faceNicholas: yePeas: youre clearly bovveredNicholas: butnobutPeas: ye no ye no ye noNicholas: yeHAHAHAHAPeas: did you just tell me my dad needs a crane to get out of bed in the morning?Nicholas: HAHAHAHAno butPeas: did you just call my muvva an alcoholic?Nicholas: ye, butPeas: are you disrepsectin me?Nicholas: no butPeas: are you disrespectin my family?Nicholas: tha' is wicked badno butPeas: that is well shamefulNicholas: ah, peas, you making my day!! :)Peas: no dude, YOUR status just made my day!And then a brief interlude of normal conversation and straight back innit:Peas: watch the one when she's in french classits by bestNicholas: Ah, that is hilarious!!!do you shave your armpits miss?Peas: "you use razors miss? in frenchland?"hahahahaNicholas: hahahahaPeas: suis-je bovvered?Nicholas: BWHAAHAHAHAHAclassicPeas: est ce vous disrespectez ma famille?Nicholas: HAHAHAHAPeas: est ce que vous appllez ma mere une pikey??NON. JE SUIS PAS BOVVEREDNicholas: oh dude, stopcan't. take. the. chav.Peas: in fact, Im gonna go watch it RIGHT NOW

20 albums to educate your children with

I attended a 1st birthday yesterday. I gave the child in question a strange birthday present for a first birthday. I gave him his very first two music albums. That got me thinking about the music that I would try to educate my child with one day.So here is a list of the 20 greatest albums that will help to educate your child, one day:#20Elvis, 30 #1 hits

#19The Beach Boys, Today!

#18Tracy Chapman, Tracy Chapman

#17Simon and Garfunkel, Bridge over troubles water

#16Cat Stevens, Early tapes

#15Elton John, Goodbye yellow brick road

#14The Foo Fighters, In your honour (Disc 1)

#13Nirvana, MTV unplugged in New York

#12Marvin Gaye, Let's get it on

#11Aretha Franklin, Lady soul

#10U2, The Joshua Tree

#9Greenday, American idiot

#8Fatboy Slim, You've come a long way baby

#7Jamiroquai, Emergency on planet Earth

#6Dave Matthews Band, Under the table and dreaming

#5Fleetwood Mac, Rumours

#4George Michael, Older

#3Bob Marley, Legend

#2The Beatles, 1962 - 1966

#1Queen, Greatest Hits I & II

OK, so I cheated on #1 and gave you a double hit. But Queen, it gets no better.I've thrown in some way back classics, some soul, some funk, some punk, some rock, some now and then and some never to be repeated again.These are my 20, not necessarily the best 20 ever in the world, just my 20. This is very subjective. But if I ever have a child, I want him/her to know these bands, groups or individuals. In my life, they defined me and my taste in music.So thanks to Jayx for this little idea. I am not fond of tagging on blogs, I hate writing ten things, 5 secrets, 50 ideas blah, blah, blah. BUT I do love music and I am extremely interested to know what bloggers listen to and what they regard as classic, eternal music.So I am ammending this post to ask ten other bloggers to post their TOP TEN albums that they would educate their kids with.Here goes:JayxMatthewJustinVincentPaulRafiqSheenaCodaGrantMikeGregor(OK it's more than ten, so shoot me).I hope you all respond and post your top ten albums!

American Idol - a tool for promoting christianity

What a load of absolute bullshit.This has me going. I am blown down by the blatant christian attempts to take over a secular business show.When did American Idols become a christian show broadcast on a christian channel? It hasn't. I wonder how much the church paid for the "top 8" to play this song?Have a lovely listen:It pains me to place this sort of stuff on my blog but I just can't help but wonder how the hell this got on to TV??I know that the states is struggling with political independance, secularism in schools and "religious terrorists" but this video/situation strikes me as propaganda.It's as if they are saying, "Oh look how proud your American Idols are too sing about the lord, and only a good American Idol would sing about the lord and if you want to be an American Idol you must sing about the lord." Bollocks.What would've happened if one of them said no? What would've happened in the press if one of them was jewish or an atheist? I am dissapointed and am probably not going to watch this innuendo-pushing-program anymore. Done.

Some ideas I've had recently

Here's just a short list of some things I've been thinking of lately:The music industry needs to get its head on straight.What needs to happen is that CDs need to go bye bye. Ok that was harsh. They don't need to go anywhere but there needs to be an effective solution to purchasing digital music in stores.Here's my suggestion:Stores like Musica and CD Warehouse need to offer customers the option to purchase a removable disk (flashtick) that they can use as a "CD". Instead of going in to a store to buy a CD you can use the flashstick to plug in to a computer, pick music song by song, album by album, genre by genre or any other which way that they like, save the music, pay per song, check out, swipe credit card and legally have purchased digital music.I love shopping for music, not online all the time and this provides me with a perfect and effective solution.Then taking this a step further, I think that the flashsticks need to be identifiable as a specific customers flashstick. Why? So that you can go home, plug in the flashstick and connect to the store online. Then pick your music again, enter your credit card details and bam, you have music on your flashstick.Obviously there are issues that need to be worked out, but I'm not that guy. I am an ideas man, let someone else make it happen!The next idea has to do with PVR.This is what PVR is:

The PVR will revolutionise the television experience and the way you watch television.The DStv PVR Decoder is a Personal Video Recorder and decoder in one. With your DStv PVR decoder you will be able to take control of your television.Some of the exciting features of the DStv PVR decoder that you can look forward to include:* Record 80 hours of TV Programming* Pause live TV* Watch two channels and record a third channel at the same time* Rewind programming* Fast forward and slo-mo programming you have recorded

So the idea stems from a night at the pub. Someone I was drinking with was missing a programme, so he tried to call home to get someone to record it. Nothing. Another person at the table was however, recording the self-same programme.Here's the kicker. In the era of Internet and gaming platforms that are able to hook up to wireless and networked internet connection, why can't I send a recorded programme from one user of PVR to another? This should definitely be a function. P2P2P sharing (programme to person to programme).On top of that, if we have Internet capabilities then we should be able to set the PVR to record a programme from a mobile website that is linked to our account via the TV guide. I visit the mobile site, login with my PVR number or code, pick a timeslot, programme and option and BAM you are recording. Too easy.What do you think? Am I losing my mind?

Bring competitive rankings back to Afrigator

In my honest opinion I think Afrigator has lost some fight since it decided not to rank blogs against one another. We, as bloggers, have egos. We also believe that we are the best and like to pit ourselves against one another.Afrigator offers a unique opportunity that sites like Amatomu don't. Continent-wide competition.Basically I like to know if I am doing well nationally but also on an African basis too. Tell me if I am #20012324 in Africa or if, in fact, I am up there with the best of them.I wanna know how many SA blogs are in the top 50 in Africa, what the numbers are like comparatively; Africa vs SA.I also would them to make it useable and accessible. Don't hide my ranking on a number that appears obscurely somewhere in my profile after ten clicks. Say it loud in my profile area. Tell me on the homepage, or on the ranking page but broadcast who the top ten are, locally, regionally, nationally, on the continent etc, etc.

Is Timbaland the "Web 2.0" of the music industry

What I mean by the headline is this: Is Timbaland the shiny gleaning, gloss covering the logo's, brands and sounds of today's musicians?I think so. I think the trend of web 2.0 is strong online as the trend of Timbaland's sound is in music. And you know what? It's pissing my off. Have a look here for a YouTube list of Timbaland stuff.Madonna is the latest victim:Let's have a look and listen to some other artists who have fallen prey to the sights and sounds of Timbaland (and his accomplice Justin Timberlake):Nelly Furtado:Omarion:Visit this link - embedding disabled.The Pussycat Dols:Timbaland himself:And another:50 Cent:Now it may appear that I am berating this trend. I'm not. I'm saying that Timbaland is the pervasive artist/producer that everyone wants to get their hands on, understand, duplicate and be a part of. Just like web 2.0.Hell, for someone of Madonna's stature to work with Timbaland and JT must mean something is being done right. Or it means that Madonna can't innovate anymore and she needs Timbaland to reproduce his innovation for her.Much like web 2.0. People innovated and other followed suit with reproductions, Facebook took the MySpace model and made it better for some, there is Bebo, Linkedin and many, many, many others. Much like Timbaland in fact. You have him and his sound and then you have many other producers trying to duplicate his sound and vibe.Britney Spears is the perfect example. Not sure who produced this song, but it's got a Timbaland feel about it:So in a nutshell what I am saying is... where is Timbaland 3.0? I am over Mr 2.0, let's bring on the new vibes, the hip trends, the music innovation. Timbaland did a great job, but everything he does sounds the same and now every mimic is sounding like Timbaland and doing an average job of it.

Nudjit nominated for a logo award

Justin just alerted me (Thanks to Google Alerts) that Nudjit.com - our gadget review blog - has been nominated for a logo award at LogoDesignLove.The process is simple. If you dig our logo (and we hope you do) you simply comment on THIS POST nominating Nudjit as your logo of choice.The list of blogs we are competing with is fairly esteemed, the likes of Gizmodo, Boing Boing, GigaOM and OHGizmo! are all present and accounted for.We would absolutely love your support so head over to the LogoDesignLove blog and leave your comment in support of Nudjit!Thanks to the LogoDesignLove bloggers for recognising Nudjit so early in the game for us.

It's April fools, but it's over

No, I haven't quit, unfortunately for some. That last post was my feeble attempt at an April Fools joke.And also, let me state out loud: I AM NOT ENGAGED. That was my Facebook April fools. It worked brilliant! Thanks to Jen for playing along. B-e-a-utiful.

I quit

I've given this alot of thought, I've tried really hard to justify blogging on this blog but to be honest, I'm over it.This blog has made me friends, lost me friends and possible made me more enemies than one blogger needs.I'm going to continue blogging on SA Rocks and on any blog relating to work wherein I am obligated to blog. This one however, I'm not obligated to blog on. It's been three years or so and I think that I've received all that I can from it.I am interested in blogging with/for/in partnership with other bloggers and possibly on other blogs/platforms/projects so let me know if you are in need of some controversial rants.But for now I bid you all good day.

Nicharalambous.com hits 1 000 000 uniques and other possible April fools headlines

Tomorrow sees April Fools kick in to full swing. I am sure that some bloggers have little tiny jokes planned. I don't.But my favourite part of the day involves watching the news websites and print publications try to outdo their readers with stories that don't really exist.Here are a couple that I think might appear:Obama and Clinton expose their secret love affairGraeme Smith recognised as best captain in the history of cricketThe Cheetahs finally win a Super 14 matchRobert Mugabe receives Nobel Peace PrizeGeorge Bush noted as the smartest man aliveZuckerbeg admits to being an arrogant fool, sells Facebook for US$10millionBill Clinton takes the Democratic vote in 2008Zille, Zuma and Mbeki partner up to fight crimeWhat do you think?

Results Based Medicine

My doctor, the blood tests, the x-rays, they all came back. They all came back idiots. I'm pissed off.I just figured out that I have to pay the doctor that saw me R250 and then claim back from Discovery who will only pay a portion of that price.What should I pay for? Knowledge?I think not. I was told, conclusively, that I should sit through the illness, wait it out and feel better. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?That was the incredible knowledge that my doctor, x-rays and blood tests gave me. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Jack. Shit.Now I am being told that I have to pay the idiots that sent me from pillar to post getting x-rays and blood tests. Why did they force me to do that if they were going to give me the same answer, over the phone, after hours and hours of waiting? Why? Now I must pay them for what?If someone can conclusively tell me exactly what I should pay my doctor R250 for, then I'll pay. But I got nothing.1. Pay for his time? He should pay me for mine: I was made to wait 30 minutes before my "consultation", before and after my x-rays, before my second consultation, a trip home, twice, blood tests.2. Pay for his knowledge? I got "Sit through the illness" and no diagnosis.3. Pay for the x-rays and bloods? I was forced to do those and they were both inconclusive.and 4. They should pay me for petrol. I spent alot of it driving up and down to those twits.Needless to say, I'm leaving my doctor.It's sad.What my doctors really need is a bit of education regarding the 30 second generation.Here comes the important part, so if you're intrigued, listen closely to yourself when you read this out loud:I will not wait 30 minutes for an appointment, not anymore. I will not take shit from anyone, irrespective of their "authoritative" position. Doctor's are as deserving of my respect as I am of theirs. They need to realise that my time is now more important than theirs, in the past it might not have been perceived that way, now it is. Make it snappy doc and make it right. And finally I am results driven. Don't give me rubbish answers that you think will baffle me cause you know what, I can actually research your diagnosis nowadays on this crazy fad called a net-site, it's this new, connected medium. Madness. I know. Get with the times and show me some results.

Six career limiting moves you could make online

Career limiting moves are, basically, moves that could put you in a very awkward position at work. These Career Limiting Moves (CLM) could mean the end of your job, a dead-end in your job, a stagnation of growth, embarrassment with colleagues or senior management among many other potential problems.Online makes it all the more simple to incur a CLM. Before you'd need to go to a club, do something stupid and risky, have someone from work see you with their own eyes, have that person bring it up at work and then on top of all of that, have your boss actually take their word over yours.Today it's much simpler to look like a fool and limit your career.Here are ten potential CLMs that you might be making right now.1. Updating your statusFacebook should actually be given more than one point. Facebook videos, photos, friends, walls, tagging, status updates and much, much more can all affect your colleagues opinion of you. Going out, getting drunk, partying, bunking work and recording all of this on Facebook is silly.Updating your status telling the world that you are having coffee away from work when you told work that you were sick is a mistake. Don't make it.2. Secret office romancesSome companies don't necessarily condone office relationships. So don't go and put that sort of information on your Facebook page, blog or pictures on any other online profile that you have. Think about it, choose love, job or privacy. Simply put be discreet.3. Recording your life one shot at a timePhotos are amazing but keep in mind they can be proof. The next time you add photos to your Flickr account remember that you're not the only one who can see them, everyone else can. That is, unless you set the photo's status to private. I suggest you do that with photos that might appear to be questionable. You know your company. Are they liberal, conservative, party animals or free thinkers? If they are extreme-conservatives take down that photo of you dressed up like Marilyn Monroe.4. Speak your mind but be smartEveryone who reads this blog knows that I have a big mouth and firm opinions but I know that I can blog about them because my company is fairly liberal. Some might not be. So think through your blog posts. Don't simply blog the first thing that comes to mind. Think about the effects of your posts, I definitely consider most of the ramifications of every post that I write these days. I've learned my lesson, lawsuits and getting fired are not fun no matter what you might think.5. Bad mouthing peopleBeing opinionated and being arrogant and foolish are very different approaches that have different outcomes.Opinionated people tend to not to be frowned upon. They tend to be taken notice of and you could benefit from this greatly. If you are nervous at the office and have strong opinions on your blog about people, politicians and situations it might pay dividends for you at work. However if you are arrogant and aimlessly, recklessly target individuals on your blog or another platform prepare for a firefight.6. Bad SpellingI kan like to make for sure that spalling is okai somtimes.But let's be honest this blog isn't perfect when it comes to grammar and spelling. I am well aware of this and I've been lucky that my dearest readers often check up on me and point out the errs of my ways!You need to be very careful because some people are very picky about language. It's an integral part of many, many jobs. Remember, 'i' before 'e' except after 'c'...or something like that.photo credit: massdistraction