I’ve got no idea if the same applies to Australian batteries, but it’s still amazing none the less: 32 AA batteries from 1 6v
6 Volt Battery Hack! You’ll Be Amazed! – video powered by Metacafe
Im sitting in the lobby of the Hotel Adagio San Francisco waiting for check-in. Funny how the staff at an expensive hotel are ruder than the cheap Best Western I stayed in last night: “Check-in isn’t until 3” I was told, where as when I rocked up at the Best Western yesterday at 12 they were overly helpful and found me a room straight away. Sure, the hotel room at the Best Western probably won’t be as nice as the one I’m checking into, but sometimes it’s the little things.
I’ve been trying to get an upgrade on the flight back: looks like a Qantas scam. For acquiring Frequent Flyer points and paying I’m considered full economy, but I’m not for a business class upgrade, and hence it’s 72,000 pts vs 48,000 or something like (I’ve got 60,000). Grrrr, not sure I can go that long with limited sleep again…hopefully this time the loud Americans sitting next to me don’t need to piss 7 times in a 14-15 hour flight…particularly when I’m trying to sleep.
TechCrunch 40 starts tomorrow. I’m live blogging it at TechCrunch along with Nick Gonzales. Crazy stuff with a cast of thousands, amazing speakers and having seen the list now some bloody good startups as well.
Last thing: Jason Calacanis mentions San Francisco’s homeless problem. I thought I saw it bad the last time I was here, I was obviously in the good side of town. There is a homeless person in front of nearly every second building…as an Australian I find it very, very disconcerting. At least they aren’t like Canadian beggars (well Toronto beggars), they don’t aggressively jump in front of you asking for a dime…most of the time they are passive, but it’s still weird. The oxymoron of being at the centre of the richest empire in the history of the world, only to find yourself surrounded by the poor strikes again.
Ben Barren was telling me this week that he finds himself posting a whole lot less and instead Twittering: he’s right for me as well, I spend far too much time Twittering and less time blogging, I’m not sure whether this is a bad thing or good thing, and I am still blogging heavily, just not here.
Any how, two new podcasts up at On The Pod, both involve Ben Barren. On the Pod 5 is a direct interview, #6 is the blogging session for Influence. Topics vary and include blogging, marketing and PR, Web 2.0, Australian VC and much much more. Ben’s a great guy to interview: I could have gone on for hours in the podcast.
As for travel, I’m in the air again these coming weeks after being in the Hunter Sat-Tuesday this week. I leave early Saturday morning for TechCrunch 40, I’ll be in the Valley until Friday, home Sunday then off again Thursday fortnight for the Australian Blogging Conference in Brisbane. I shouldn’t complain, it’s a privilege to do this sort of traveling, yet on the other hand it would have been nicer space over a couple of months instead of 3 trips in as many weeks, and she who must be obeyed is not a happy camper. Ironically she’s spending a week in Cairns for work “training” in October, I can get my own back then 🙂
More pics, maybe some more blogging and podcasting from the US next week.
I was upgraded to Silver Status (One World Ruby) last month and the trip East for Influence is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to use it. Checking in at the business class queue in Perth this morning was great, particularly after the at least 2km walk from long term parking at 6:30am (they’ve done away with the buses…bloody Perth Airport Corporation). I’m writing this from Brisbane; unfortunately I’m stuck flying JetStar to Newscastle and the plane is 55 minutes late…the perfect excuse to use the complimentary Qantas Club pass I received with my Status upgrade. The food a good, the beer is cold, and best of all it’s free. The Wifi on the other hand is a little slow, but at least I’m not paying for it. A couple more decent trips in the next 12 months and I’ll get to Gold, which means Q Club is included. Cheers 🙂
A little message to My Mac, an official Apple reseller located on Flinders Street, Melbourne.
That’s My Mac, My Mac of Melbourne, My Mac Apple Reseller, My Mac Apple Melbourne 🙂
After experiencing the same issues with Firefox in Mac OSX as I had previously encountered under Windows, about a week ago I switched from using Firefox to Safari full time. Unfortunately something in the WordPress code doesn’t work in Safari so I’m using Firefox on occasion, but only for writing posts.
Short version: love it.
Safari 3 under OS X is quick, it renders pages nicely and it is a total pleasure to work with.
But it has limitations.
For starters, there isn’t the plugins available for Safari as there is with Firefox. You also cant customise certain features, for example I’m not a fan of how it deals with an overflow of tabs; in Firefox I can reduce the tab size and fit a whole lot more on a line.
So how does one get Apple to make Safari better?
I suppose the question may have a similar answer to how do you get Mozilla to make Firefox more stable and less of a memory hog?…both are probably impossible, but I’m open to suggestions. Also if anyone has any recommendations for Safari plugins, I’ve noticed a few about but haven’t tried any yet.
This weeks SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday is an interview with Lucas Ng, who does in house SEO for Fairfax Digital. Cool in some respects that Australian online players are now employing SEO talent to maximize their search engine rankings and position.
Aside from the cliches (f*ck Rand, have you never met an Australian before?!?! do you even know where it is?) it’s not a bad interview.
I’ve just received a call on my mobile that I thought I’d share with everyone rather than complain to the TIO and ACCC.
The phone rings, I answer it.
There is silence, then a foreign ring tone….a sure sign I’m about to talk to an Indian Call Centre.
Me: Duncan Riley Speaking
Call Centre: I’m calling from Primus Telecom and am calling to say that we will be sending you a free phone
Me: OK……., so it’s totally free
CC: Yes
Me: free calls?
CC: You get $29 worth of calls a month
Me: so I get $29 worth of completely free calls
CC: We are sending you a completely free Nokia 53XX
Me: ok, so what is the catch
CC: We are sending you the phone today
Me: I still don’t understand, will the calls be free
CC: you will have $29 worth of calls a month
Me: but will I pay for those calls
CC: $29 a month
Me: so it’s not free
CC: we are sending you a free Nokia 53xx
Me: But I already have a phone
CC: We are sending you a new phone sir.
Me: But I didn’t ask for a new phone
CC: We are sending you a new phone sir.
Me: but I’ll have to pay $29 a month to use it
CC: That includes $29 worth of calls
Me: but I don’t won’t a new phone
CC: you don’t wont a free phone sir?
Me: no, I don’t.
CC: Good bye Sir. (Hangs up).
The worst thing: if I hadn’t asked questions and just listened to “we are sending you a free phone” and thought “you ripper, a free phone” I would probably have agreed to accept the phone, which would have then locked me in to some sort of Primus Plan without knowing it; after all, they would have a voice recording of me saying that I am accepting the phone.
To say this is an appalling scam would be an understatement. I wonder how many unsuspecting Australian’s have received “free” phones from Primus to only discover a month later that they are stuck on a $29/ month plan. Lets hope someone important (ie: in the relevant Commonwealth Statutory Body) reads this and takes action.
I’m being polite tonight, Twit is far too nice. What I don’t get is how he figures we should be fed news by “impartial journalists” when there is no such thing as an impartial journalist, in the same way there is no such thing as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. Typical of the MSM and its supporters: they continue to delude themselves by stating that they remain impartial when they are no different than bloggers or anyone else.
(via Deep Jive)
It’s sort of like giving your child a Windows PC, it’s the B prize, the second place award where the winner received an iMac or Macbook Pro. Now if only it was Fake Steve Jobs 🙂
The insult is about 2nd grade as well, by 4th grade they got to a far more creative standard 🙂
The good part: it was one of Fake Steve Balmer’s better posts.
