1 Mar 2008

Today's Stuff

OK so what have I actually been doing all do I hear you ask....OK maybe not, but I'm gonna tell you anyways!! OK here's a very brief [or not] summary, I got up really, irritatingly early - 7:45 & got up & chatted to my mum, trying to put the world to rights, over a cup of tea [win!] & then put some monies away for a rainy day & then hit the shops [uh-ohhhh!!] got some excellent stuffs tho - a couple of hoodies, which I suspect will be nabbed by a certain young woman, especially the Bench one!! Got Maddie some perfume & new one for me...that I'd never heard of before - always a good sign - that means noone else is gonna get it lolz! Also some Gap stuffs a pair of smart black trousers, well I didn't have any, some rad dark-blue chords, a cardigan [like a proper oap lolz!] & a very cool combat-style smart black coat & then went & got a couple of highly mature & not-at-all-silly-things from Toys 'r Us - some new nerf guns - win win win win 8o) just like the one's at my youth centre - pump action 10 shots & some six shooters just for good measure & some Star Wars Lego - yaaaaay Lego!! I've also pre-ordered the Muse Live DVD [H.A.A.R.P.] from Amazon [& more Lego lolz] & a game for my Mac [Command & Conquer: Generals]. Since that hard day's shoppering, I then came home, got distracted by watching the first Terminator movie & 24 Season 2, then actually managed to knuckle down & do some real work. Have just finished the first section for my essay [due in on 12th eeeeek!!], then I've got another essay due in a week later, then the Dissertation will be not that far behind the both of them!!

Right to war people!!!

PS Jsut go get "Soulwax...Most of the Remixes" it's really rather good!!

& another thing

I missed one off my list of geeky & useful...ok maybe 2!!

4] Firefox 3: For all of us who use an actual web browser rather than Internet Explorer [check out this classic blog about killing off IE!!] - Firefox, great news, Firefox 3 is out! for those still using good old Firefox 2 - get the beta version [aka Firefox 3.3 Beta] from this link. The only thing which confused the heck out of me was there was no home button - but it's right there in the toolbar - doofus!! It look a little sharper & definitely runs quicker, plus there are a load of new features - simple things like bookmark tags, feed tags, smart bookmarks, etc. Also it's much cleaner for filing bookmarks - much better!! Check it out, but do remember it is only a beta [i.e. not the final release version] so if you have any nagging issues or reservations - don't get it. The final release should be making its way online after this third beta has been fully tested with the users....us!! So get geeking!!

5] iSquint: OK this is only for you Mac users, but check out the free divx converter from iSquint. In essence all it does is compress the video from a source, say of an episode of Family Guy & shrinks down the size of the screen to exactly the same size as your iPod. Sounds completely pointless yes....well no actually it's a great & unbeleivibly fast way to switch divx [aka *.avi files] movies/tv/whatever so you can watch it on an iPod: classic/g2 nano/touch, all without the expense & hassle of upgrading to Quicktime Pro. I've never had a failed compress & I've managed to get a ridiculous amount of cra...stuff onto my iPod - for example a whole season of Firefly, all 6 seasons of Family Guy, all the Mighty Boosh & all my music video's on, all under 10GB [normally 40GB] so it's quite a saving of space & the quality is pretty good!! If only iPods actually had a reasonable battery life for watching videos on - d'oh!! One day I suppose!

Six out

PS Disclaimer: this was a very geeky blog & I almost apologize - if that was all greek to you I'm sorry, but I'm sure you'll get over it!!!

d'oh!


P.S. for anyone who has the Justice: Cross album......Phantom Pt2 is totally blowing my mind, if you can find it - grab the Soulwax Remix it is just spectacular!! ;o)

iLike

OK here's some very cool [nee geeky] things which have been rocking my socks for the past week[s]:

1] iGoogle: This is very cool little gadget which might save a little time. You can have as many apps as you want on your home page, or just have multiple tabs [a la Firefox] & have as many apps as you want on each tab. Currently I've got mine set up to check my 4 most read blogs, check my gmail & a couple of other apps like google maps search & some time & date app & another cool thing which I'll explain a bit more about in a tick - Google Notebook. I'll give a shout back to Olly Shaw for this info - I blame him & now I've got Maddie using it...let's see who else thinks it's any good?!

2] Google Notebook: OK so this leads me nicely onto something I just discovered this very evening, whilst doing a standard google search [like you do] & saw a little tag under each link called 'Note This'. Just click it & you can add it, ad hoc to a little app, add notations to each link or whatever & then this clever little app can be linked into your gmail account [come on people it's 2008 after all] or iGoogle & be accessed whenever you want. You can put certain links into catgories or folders for simple filing & then deleted when you're finished. Having only used it tonight I'm not sure it's totally without its faults. However, rather than having a ton of bookmarks [that's right not favorites - seriously does anyone still use Internet Explorer?!] when you're doing research, just have a load of notes. I like it!!

3] The other thing I've started using a bit [ok, only if you check my Facebook page with any regularity!!] is the the good old Beeb News Website has added something rather rad to the bottom of each & every one of their articles - tags! Seriously go have a look!! You can now bookmark [see they don't like IE either!!] with:

* Delicious
* Digg
* reddit
* Facebook
* StumbleUpon

The only one of those which really interested me was the Facebook one. All you do [so long as you are signed in on] is click on the the Facebook link at the end of the article & it adds it to your Posted Items, & you can add your own comments etc. I think it's a great way to share some interesting news articles with the world of people who don't check out the Beeb [I'm sure there must be some people out there!!].


Six out