I read in the weekend papers that there was a strong chance of this happening, but it’s confirmed: Crowded House is reforming after a break of 10 years, minus of course Paul Hester who very sadly took his own life in 2005. The great new for fans who were never particularly fond of Tim Finn is that Neil doesn’t seem to be dragging his brother along this time (Woodface being the worst Crowded House record released, and the only one featuring Tim Finn). Neil has also announced that along with touring, he’s been working on a new album for the last twelve months with Nick Seymour: “Time on Earth” that will be released later this year. Personally, I couldn’t be happier, and I can’t wait to they hit Perth, Gold/ A class, what ever the best ticket is and costs, I’ll be there 🙂
Archives For General
Valleywag claims that Second Life is a pyramid scheme. They’re in part right. When I was a lot more active in SL (I’m down to maybe once a month these days and I’ve long since cancelled my paid account) pyramid style banking schemes were common and I probably lost $10-$20 investing some of my money in them. But before you say sucker, I was willing to lose the money, and the schemes always presented in a legitimate way, usually as banks or land investment schemes promising reasonable returns. I’d acquired a far few Lindens and was looking to park some of them somewhere, and hence I did…and subsequently lost them. The ability to cash them out is also a problem, as Valleywag notes, SLby no means has a properly constituted liquid market. Having said all of that I don’t share the general dislike Valleywag has towards SL, but really so much of it is based around porn and gambling I’m not sure that it’s fair to hold it up as being the wonderful thing so many people hold it to be.
Tags: Second Life
Yep, I’ve suffered a bout of grumpy old blogger syndrome. No, I’m not claiming my blog was the first one, but this thread at 901am got me started. The new owners of The Blog Herald (no link love anymore) took it upon themselves to remove my name from the author column at the bottom of the site (note they’ve since removed it all together). Yes: they can do as they please, it’s there site now, but personally I found it a slight against me, 3500 posts, many of which I’d think would still drive large amounts of traffic to the site…indeed I still find old things I’ve written at the site when I’m looking for things on Google, on a regular basis.
I’ve done nothing wrong to the new owners, indeed I covered the buy positively and even participated in some of the conversation about how the buy is representative of an ascendant Pinoy blogosphere…and yet I get removed. Matt Craven, the previous owner *ALWAYS* showed respect (BTW Matt, if you’re reading this, what are you doing now?) and I was happy to return it in droves, the new mob however seem to be about as reliable as a pack of galahs. Indeed, do they want a fight? Pissing off my mates like Krug doesn’t help. Maybe I might consider doing something in the blogging space again. It won’t be another Blog Herald, but something newer, something unique, and something that will whip some ass! 🙂
It really is a sign of a strong and mature market place when quality sites regularly hit the market, and BlogCatalog proves the point. The site is currently for saleThe site sold in 1 day at Sitepoint for $40,000 USD. Congrats to all involved.
(thanks to David for the tip).
Bryanboy shares his experiences with MidPhase. It’s a case of the Shared Hosting scam striking again, the one where by so-called high use shared hosting packages aren’t really because usually buried somewhere in the fine print (never in an easy place, nor disclosed up front) is a clause about CPU/ server usage which states they can cut you off for using too much of a server, usually without warning and with no redress. It’s not just MidPhase, most hosting companies are in on this in one form or another, they sell their high use packages on the basis that most people will never use those levels, and when they do they get suspend accounts, or terminate them: the exact problem I had with Site5 back in 05.
Dreamhost is the only company I’m aware of at the moment that has an open policy on CPU usage where they promise NOT to disable your account, but where necessary to talk to people hosting with them about alternatives should issues arise.
To any people in the hosting business reading this: I’m not anti-shared hosting, and I do understand that you guys have to balance your server loads on shared accounts, but it’s the fraud in promoting memory and traffic levels that could NEVER be met without using a decent portion of CPU on a shared box that I’m against, exactly what has happened here with Bryanboy. If you want to be an honest hosting company, disclose upfront straight away (upfront, not in the fine print) any limits you put in terms of server usage for shared host accounts, and most of all, promise never to suspend or take off line an account without first discussing options with your client (ie talk first, instead of acting first). If you’re doing this, or plan to, let me know, and I’ll happily give you a plug.
Tags: Midphase
I’m looking for suggestions for a script that does a Yahoo! or PHPLD style directory that also includes the ability for visitors to leave comments, ratings, reviews of the site to be written at admin level (or description). It should also ideally have blogging functionality built in as well, in particular the ability to list the latest blog posts/ news on the main page next to the directory. If anyone has any suggestions please leave a comment…I will be personally digging for one in the next couple of days, but what better forum than here to ask the question first.
No comment at this stage as to why I’m looking for the script, just a little side project I’ve got in mind 🙂
The first of the blog directories…and I mean *THE FIRST*, the EatonWeb Portal is up for sale at Sitepoint, current bid at the time of writing is $4k with a BIN of $15k. From what I can read it’s fallen on tough times, zero revenue, although it’s still got a PR of 7. At $15k I don’t think it’s good buying, but if I had a spare 4-5k it would be a good buy…and of course anyone out there who buys the site is literally buying a slice of blogging history.
I read this headline at The Australian: “Debnam turns blogger on NSW tour” and I thought to myself wow! at long last an Australian politician of serious note has started blogging, its taken long enough, finally some of our nations leaders might finally recognised the benefits of blogging. But alas, I was wrong. Totally wrong. PeterDebham.com.au isn’t a blog, even if the spin doctors in the NSW Liberal Party are calling it a blog. Static content with a date put on the top doesn’t make a blog. The only post on the site so far doesn’t even read like a personally written blog post…of course it isn’t, one of the PR flacks would have written it. No comments, no trackbacks…indeed remarkably no archives as I write this as well. Static, boring, same-old same-old spin talk, and nothing more. Is it little wonder that despite having the worst Labor Administration in the nation that the polls are showing Labor with a unbeatable lead going into an election in NSW this year?
But before I finish, how’s this for a name for a tour: “Get NSW Back in Front ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Living the Issues Tour”. Why didn’t they just call it “I’m a complete and utter wanker tour”, my suggestion at least has a better ring to it 🙂
Tags: Peter Debnam
Disclosure: I am a former member of the NSW Liberal Party, as well as having been a staffer in my past life. Thankfully I cured myself of that affliction.
Wow, the world is so surprised: iPhone and AppleTV. Certainly whilst the phone looks somewhat appealing, taking a hard look at the product specs for both under whelm, and certainly you’d think that at the end of the day the hype was totally undeserved…but then again maybe I’m not drinking from the same Apple Kool Aid fountain that most of the blogosphere and MSM are drinking from.
Lets take a look at each product.
iPhone
It’s a phone…running Mac OSX. Wow (not). But it’s made by Apple so it must be the best thing since sliced bread!
Touch Screen
The all in one touch screen is being touted as a major first for mobile phones, and yet any half arsed geek can tell you that this sort of touch screen technology has been around for years, although be it perhaps not always in such a small and thin package. Did you ever wonder why other mobile hardware firms aren’t using this technology? easy, it’s not real world friendly. Where’s the iPhone cover or slide device to cover up the screen? there isn’t one. So when it’s sitting in a pocket, a briefcase or a handbag, what’s going to happen with the touch screen? Easy, you’re going to get phantom button pushing, and you’re also going to get a screen that scratches something bad (and as we know Apple has a history of products that scratch easily). Other mobile firms know how people use phones in the real world, Apple doesn’t.
Memory
OK, so 4gb and 8gb is fairly big memory for a mobile phone, but this isn’t just a mobile phone. The sales pitch for the iPhone is that it’s the swiss arm knife of mobile phones. 4gb and 8gb isn’t going to go very far with a decent music collection or a couple of movies. And from what I can see from the product specs, there isn’t an expansion slot either, so you can’t add memory to the device…and vice versa, if you take a pile of pictures you cant take a memory card out of the phone to get those shots printed at the local camera shop, or to easily access them on a friends or your own computer. If this last statement seems odd, go and watch your non-geek friends with their camera phones and digital cameras, or even go to a local printing store and watch how 99% of the time people use a memory card to transfer photos. Mind you, with only a 2mgp camera maybe not all that many people will be using the camera features, after all most top of the range phones start with a 3mgp camera and there are even higher resolution products coming onto the market.
GSM, but no 3G
If there is one outstanding feature (or lacking feature) that should cut through all the hype, it’s the iPhones lack of 3G. Of course I can hear everyone saying that 3G doesn’t really exist in any substantial form yet in the US, but the United States isn’t the rest of the world. A quick look on Wikipedia shows most of the Western World, plus a whole pile of the rest of the world now has 3G networks. In Australia, network carriers such as Telstra (the nations largest) no longer sign people up on GSM plans, it’s all 3G. GSM has become the fall back when there is no 3G coverage, as my own phone on the Optus network switches between the two (I don’t live in a Optus 3G area). Apple has designed a phone with a near immediate redundancy across huge areas of the planet…and yet it’s being promoted as an internet device! 2.5 GPRS might provide marginal surfing speeds, but without 3G it’s not a high speed internet device. But it’s got WiFi you say! Great, but free WiFi isn’t highly spread outside of the US either (or should that just be San Francisco?) Can you imagine Nokia launching a brand new phone that ran only on 2G?
AppleTV
Steve Jobs is taking the piss right? Apple TV? Where exactly does it do TV? Let’s see, you can stream stuff onto your TV. You can download stuff from iTunes and watch that on your TV…or can you, the main product page talks about syncing with your computer? So what is it exactly? It’s a media extender with a pissy little 40gb hard drive that provides no actual TV functionality at all.
I suppose the question is why? why are Apple so adverse to adding a TV Tuner, a decent hard drive and some PVR functionality. That’s the TV box not only of the future, but of the present. DVD recorders with built in hard drives are one of the biggest growing segments of the retail market. Straight PVR’s themselves continue to grow, particularly in the US through the tie ins with TiVo and similar services with the Cable TV companies. Windows XP MCE boxes already do all of this and more.
There is nothing exciting about AppleTV except the ridiculously high price tag: $299 US. $299 for a media extender? You’d be better off buying a XBox 360, you’d be looking at a similar outlay, and it least you could play games on it as well!
Tags: Apple, Steve Jobs, AppleTV, iPhone
901am reports on Netgear’s launch at CES of a new media player, the “Digital Entertainer HD”. Admittedly it does sound like a nice product, but do they have to tell lies in selling it:
“The Digital Entertainer HD is the first device that makes Youtube videos available on a television, claimed Netgear?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s vice president of product marketing Vivek Pathela.”
Bullsh*t. Windows XP MCE edition plays YouTube videos on a TV via a very simple plugin. It plays Google Video videos as well as videos from Grouper and DivX Stage 6. I’m running an earlier version of the plugin (that only featured YouTube and Google video), but I’ve been running it for the better part of a year. Simply, Netgear has lied. I’m betting that some of the alternative software packages to MCE out there have YouTube capability as well. But before you say I’m talking software not a “device”, isn’t a MCE box a device? You can buy them online, both from mainstream retailers and specialists as well. Netgears box is after all nothing really more than cobbled together computer parts, and somewhere inside of it will be software to run it all.
