Life Without Toast - Sibling Rivalry

Inspired (I seem to be getting a lot of inspiration these days) by Meg, here's my "Tweetstats".

Points of interest: I've been Twittering since March 14th, 2007 at 1.04pm. I have updated (to date) 4,591 times, with a daily average of exactly 7.0 Tweets. I Tweet mostly on Wednesdays and/or mostly between the hours of 12pm and 1pm. The only statistical anomalies are July '07 (when I was in Alaska for most of the month) and October '08 when I spent the month getting married and honeymooning in South Africa, Botswana and Mauritius).

I'm not going to post all the graphs (you can see them at the "Tweetstats" link, above), but I am going to post the Wordle of my most frequently used words, #1 of which is "work" (boring!).

(all @replies have been removed).

What are your Tweetstats, fellow Twitterers?

Posted by Matt at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I (as in we) haven’t posted in a while, so I though I’d change that by sharing this NERD-LARIOUS rap video about the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Switzerland.

You have to be an ÜBER-nerd to write, and video, a rap song about a gigantic atom-smasher. The best things is, if you listen to the lyrics (and read the helpful subtitles) you will almost definitely (unless you’re a HUGE NERD) learn something about the LHC. All the science is spot-on. And it rhymes.

Posted by Matt at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I was looking for a transcript of this to write a rambling post with several interesting points of view. But then I though I’d just let you watch it (it’s 30 secs).

Is the Internet ready as a monetized distribution mechanism? The South Park people have put every episode, ever of their show online for all to watch (although apparently they don’t work in the UK), with three 10-15 second ads during the video, one at the beginning, one just before halfway through and one three-quarters of the way through, which can’t be skipped or forwarded. The ads seem to be on a random loop.

South Park Studios seem to have taken a traditional medium (ie, cartoons, on telly) and put it online in a way which makes money, without the major studios (or Cartoon Network specifically) making too much of a fuss about it, and with little or no reaction from the online news/tech people. This is the way forward. If you had the choice to watch Battlestar Galactica next week, on Sky One, with four 3-minute ad-breaks, or watch it tomorrow, on your computer, with 4 or five 10-15 second ad breaks, which would you do? I know what I’d do. And I wouldn’t be taking anything away from the content creators, as I would be watching it on their website, with money from their ads going directly to them. No torrents, no dodgy “rapidsharing” or whatever. Just TV programmes, on the internet, for free.

Discuss.

Posted by Matt at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

So as I am sure you all know by now I am a total techophobe. It's not that I don't want to know or understand, it's just that mostly people who I want to know stuff from talk about stuff at me (this is not their fault its just I go into a daze when people start talking about certain topics).

So help me someone. I got a new iPod, it's lovely and is black and shiny. It's just a normal iPod Video 30G from the US of A from Ebay yah? So I connected it to my lovely laptop and it was "syncing" or whatever (iPod furiously flashing at me to not disconnect) this took about 10 mins or so as it was getting all my music and that, so I just turned it on there and all my music is NOT on it. What is the deal with this. It's 30G and only has about 3G of stuff on it. I know I have more stuff than that as I checked it and my stuff is not on it. Weird no? As in basically on my Creative I had about 3000 songs or more, but on this I have 827, where is all my music gone to? Its still in "MUSIC" on my vista blah laptop so why did it not "sync" or whatever hmmm?!

In other "geek" news I discovered today that I have the typing speed of a legal secretary (rawk - I knew all of that frantic emailing was would be worth it in the end!!) but I do not "touch type using the correct home keys - whatever!) . I want to learn to touch type now, just to do. I think I will be able to do it. Currently I only use one of my fingers on my left hand and three from my right so if I am only using 4 fingers now and I start to use four from each hand that will therefore double my typing speed yah? I am also deadly on Excel, who would have thought that would ever happen? I hate Excel. It is the bane of my life and it hates me back as much as I hate it.

Anyway, I am off to bed, if anyone knows what is up with my iPod please help me!

Posted by Babs at 1:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

I will give someone any exorbitant fee they require if they knit me this hat.

There's even a pattern of sorts available.

Or, you could just knit it for me because you are awesome, and so am I.

[H/T: BoingBoing; photie credit: TiddlyPeeps]

Posted by Matt at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

...Or online in the Dell shop.

Now I know Matt hates Windows etc and so do many other people but I like it because I know how to use it and all that jazz and if there is one thing to know about me is that I like using things that I know how to use.

I got a new laptop - not from a second hand store...and I LOVE it.

It's a total beaut...Dell Inspiron 1525 with a Ruby Red exterior, I still call it Raspberry because it is that colour that stains your clothes and your fingers when you go to the end of my parents garden and gorge yourself from their raspberry bushes, yum, I can't wait till Summertime when I can do that once again.

So my new laptop is great, its fast, like about a million billion times faster than my old one mainly due to (or so I am told) the amount of memory on it, and it has built in wireless (which my old old oldey one didn't) and it has a bluetooth receptor or whatever it is called and its RED, it feels like silk to touch, amazingly nicer than my old crappy dull black rough one.

I am delighted with myself!

I am not however delighted with Dells telephone people. Yesterday when I was trying to get through to customer services to ask a very very simple question about my laptop which had not been delievered yet it took me 7 phone calls before I gave up trying in the end. I was disgusted to be honest. I called them SEVEN bloodywell times. I got through to numerous different departments, all in India I think, all of whom put me through to the wrong person even when I was promised that I wouldn't be and then they all eventually put me through to an automatic answering service thingy who told me that Dells opening hours were between 9 and 5.30pm and their offices were closed even though I was calling between 12.45pm and 1.45pm. I was almost in tears with the frustration.

Interlink - the courier company who delievered the laptop tp me were wonderful on the other hand and even called me twice to tell me where my package was, once to tell me that the driver was in the area and would be delivering withing the next hour and then again to tell me that the driver was just driving through the gates of where I work. I love them officially, but not as much as my laptop.

Ok, so I think you all get it now, I love the laptop, it loves me, I am scared of Vista though, but I will be ok in a while, at least I know how Windows works mostly!! :)

Posted by Babs at 12:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Everybody's (well every Mac user's anyway) favourite screenshot-snapping, annotating, uploading, hosting and embedding application Skitch is now out of private, invite-only beta and into full public beta.

If you have a Mac, and take screenshots in any part of your daily work (or out of work, for blogging n' shit), Skitch is indispensable. I've been using it for ages now, and it seriously improves the whole experience of screen-grabbing, getting rid of all the pain and actually making it a pleasurable experience, helped in no small part from the totally brilliant website, myskitch.com, which comes as part of the package. Watch the intro video to see how:

Scott McNulty from TUAW called it "the coolest thing I have seen at Macworld that isn't an iPhone", and he's right. It's awesome.

If you have a Mac (it's Mac-only), and you've ever taken a screenshot, you've no excuse. Download it right now.

Posted by Matt at 8:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Adrian sent me a mail today. He's of the opinion (which I share) that Twitter is totally brilliant, and that everybody who blogs, and a few who don't, should totally be using it, since it's evolved from it's "what are you doing?" roots to become a lot more, namely a huge community of people talking to each other about all kinds of crap, asking for advice, sharing links, and generally it's a great resource for what's what in the world of the interpipes. and it's still that great "what are you doing?" thing too.

Adrian wants people like Dan (and a few others I'm sure) to start Twittering. Adrian uses Twitteriffic for posting his "tweets" when he's using his computer (as opposed to when he's out-and-about, where he texts them using his phone, like a lot of others). I used to use it too, but more recently it's changed from Freeware to Shareware, and I hate paying for stuff (especially stuff which used to be free) so I've started using Tweetr, on my Mac at home and my PC in work.

In his mail Adrian also requested I do some sort of how-to detailing how to install Tweetr on your PC and how to link your Tweets to your Facebook status and that sort of thing. Which is what you are now reading.

Posted by Matt at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

My guide to upgrading to Mac OSX (oh-s-ten) 10.5 ("Leopard"), the easy way:

1. Backup your main boot volume (usually entitled "Macintosh HD) using Superduper. Check your backup, to make sure it's backed up.
2. Insert OSX 10.5 disc into CD/DVD (Super)drive.
3. Double-click "Install Mac OSX".
4. Click "restart".
5. Make a cup of tea.
6. Smoke a cigarette.
7. Look impatiently at your Macs' screen several times.
8. Wait two and a half hours 50 minutes about half an hour.
9. Type in your password.
10. Oh look, my desktop is exactly the way it was before I upgraded my entire operating system. Everything is just the way it was.
11. Except, you know, shinier. And therefore better.

Thus endeth the lesson. Now try installing Vista in the same way.

Posted by Matt at 9:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Babs came over last week, because her Laptop (a 3 or 4 year old Dell) was running "a bit slow", or something. Apparently she now needs an excuse to visit her big brother. :-P

Anyhoo, I would've though that she had some aptitude or knowledge of computers and how to keep them kosher. In this day and age, I tend to assume that most people who use computers for most of their working day have some sort of a clue.

Any IT professionals are probably laughing out loud right now. Lets just say I was very wrong. From looking at others peoples' machines in work (because they asked me to, not because I like "looking at their shit"), and now from ploughing a furrow though the muddy mess of my sisters machine, I now realise that everyone, or at least the vast majority of people, are mucking fuppets when it comes to anything with a keyboard and a screen (this includes phones, ATM's, etc).

SO. Halfway through deleting (or "uninstalling", God I hate Windows) 75% of the programs on Babs ailing Dell (do you ever use this? No? Why is it there then?! DELETE), I decided to update things like Adobe Reader (yes, I could have installed something else, but that would just complicate things further), and Firefox.

This is when I actually started laughing.

Which versions of these programs do you think she had installed? Bearing in mind that Firefox is now on V2.0.0.9 and Adobe Reader is on v8.1.1.

Firefox: Version 1.0.7. Last updated early 2005. OMG.

Adobe Reader: Not even Adobe reader, but Adobe ACROBAT Reader, the really old one. Version 4 or 5 point something. Seriously. Old. Older than her machine. I hate Dell too.

I know that it doesn't make much difference to how a computer runs, but having the latest version of whatever web browser you use is vital I think. I have set up auto-updates on Babs machine for Firefox now.

Also (God help us all) she was using McNortonAfee for anti-virus. I'll have to get back to her on that one, I ran out of time, and send Babs home with her Laptop de-fragging on the passenger seat.

Next time I'll have to have some install discs ready, methinks. And perhaps an external drive and a copy of Ubuntu.

Posted by Matt at 9:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (24) | TrackBacks (0)

Uploaded with Skitch!

Posted by Matt at 1:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Uploaded with Skitch!

Posted by Matt at 1:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

They've just re=printed this t-shirt over at Threadless, and I think anyone who spends any time cycling should definitely plonk down the 15 dolla and buy it, it's totally cooltacular. Me, I drive everywhere, so I think buying it would be a crime against cycling, and also cyclists.

Posted by Matt at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

This is me, testing that Google Maps embedding thingy wot is new and shiny.

Posted by Matt at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Matt at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have a few more. If anyone wants one, let me know with a comment or a mail to the usual address. It's an absolutely brilliant program if you need screenshots and you have a Mac.

Posted by Matt at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been using the über brilliant screenshot/screencap utility Skitch for the past few weeks (thanks to an invite from Adrian) and have found it to be utterly, stupendously brilliant. I mean seriously, if you take a lot of screencaps as part of your daily work/routine, this is the best application I've ever come across for doing just that, and deserves a place in your dock (yes, it's Mac only). That little logo there to the right was snapped, cropped, resized, uploaded and linked to in a matter of about 4 clicks and 2 seconds. Really, it's totally tubular.

You can see a demo of how it works here.

Because I've been using it about a week or two, and as Plasq are nice people, have seen fit to throw me a few spare invites. If anyone wants one let me know in the comments, or by an email to the usual address.

Posted by Matt at 8:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (25) | TrackBacks (0)

From Art-Lebdev Studio, Russia. Yeah, the guys who make (or claim they will one day make, and sell) the Optimus Maximus keyboard. But the Tetris Fridge Magnets (or "Tetrius", as they're called, presumably to avoid litigation) aren't as vapourwarey as the Optimus. In fact, they're stuck to my fridge right now, as in the photo.

Posted by Matt at 10:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

How to set up a local fileserver using an Apple Airport Extreme Basestation:

1. Buy an Apple Airport Extreme Basestation.
2. Plug a USB external Hard Disk Drive into the USB port on the Airport Extreme, and turn it on.
3. Insert the Airport CD into your Mac, and follow the instructions.
4. Open the Airport Disk Utility.
5. Err... That's it. Your files are now served.

I love Apple.

Posted by Matt at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

If you're a regular around these parts, you'll know that myself and Adrian have had several arguments debates about the merits of online vs offline applications (ie NetNewsWire vs Google Reader).

Well, lookie what I found in my Google Reader today*. A little button proclaiming something new:

But I'm looking forward to doing that installing. And saving some of my Google Apps data locally, where I can always get at it. At the moment, they seem so have only rolled out the Google Reader functionality**, but as Google Gears is open-source, I'm reckonin' it won't be long before it works for like, y'know, everything.

*_{Sorry Gordon, just saw your comment on the previous post. You found it first, I'll admit. :-)}
**_{With a "Please note, however, that Google Gears is not yet intended for general use" -type warning.}

Posted by Matt at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

As a wee follow-up to my recent post on how to use Google to convert units of measurement, here's a few more Google tricks I've found on my relentless trawling of the intertubes.

On top of the previously -mentioned conversion tool, Google is also a fully-functioned calculator. Just tupe in the sum/problem, and Google will do the work for you. It even does complex problems and percentages, as well as power-of problems. Have a look at 20% of 4^5 as an example.

Did you know you can use Google to find out how good a movie is? Not just to search for a review, mind. Go to www.google.com/movies and type in your movie title. Here's an example for Shrek the Third (looks pretty good, might have to go see that).

Being a new-found Mac junkie as I am, I was delighted to discover that the big G has a portal dedicated to all things Mac, and it can be found at www.google.com/mac. You can find Mac versions of programs like Google Earth and Sketchup, Gmail Notifier, and (spit) Google Toolbar for Mac.

Finally, if you're looking for a weather forecast, why bother with any other website when all you needs to do is type (for example) "weather Dublin Ireland" (without the quotes) into the G and they'll give you a lovely 5-day 4-day forecast to look at.

See also: Google Labs, Google Moms, Google Dilbert, Google Translate, and many, many more.

Aren't Google great?*

*_{Apart from when they're evil, of course...}

_{Interesting side-note: If you're a Gmail user, go to your "Deleted Items" folder. Instead of saying "Empty Trash" as it used to, it now says "Empty Wastebasket". Interesting huh? No? Just me on that one? Well at least it doesn't say "Recycle Bin", blah blah mutter mutter...}

Posted by Matt at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Matt at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Sorry It's been a little bit quiet round here. On top of the fact that Babs can't access the internet where she works at the moment, and has therefore not been able to fire off any of those brilliant middle-of-the-day random stream of consciousness posts that she's so brilliant at, I've been like, busy.

Thanks to everyone again for all those birthday wishes. Thanks for the cards, presents, texts and mails. Thanks to everyone who came to the party. Thanks to everyone who ensured I didn't actually reach into my pocket once that night, and for ensuring that I got thoroughly plastered, and was the recipient of the most ferocious hangover since the last one I had at Christmas, after the staff party in work with the free bar until 7am. It's weird just turning 30, in that it's exactly the same as being nearly 30.

Then, still suffering from the same hangover (I'm 30 now you know, they last longer at my age), for the past two days, I've been working. And going to the last couple of days of my college course. On Monday I was in work at 8am, and in college at half 9. And in work from 4pm until 11.30. And then, roughly the same again today. And then a normal "rest of the week".

I am BOLLIXED. And I have so much to do.

Posted by Matt at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

And this proves once and for all that I am cooler than Gordon McLean.

Posted by Matt at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (18) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Babs at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I got an invite to Web TV service Joost several weeks ago. I also got three invites, which I advertised on Twitter and Lifehacker, and which were snapped up within seconds.

Well, now that Joost is semi-sorta out of Beta, I now have oodles of invites. I put a comment on the Joost Invite Lifehacker post, inviting people who want invites to mail me, and got a bajillion mails almost immediately.

So, if anyone else wants an invite, mail me at the address at the bottom of the sidebar (Life Without Toast At G Mail Dot Com, without the capitals or spaces), or leave a comment.

I haven't had much opportunity to do much serious checking-out of the Joost service, but from what I've seen, it's pretty good, and just needs a bit more content for it to be brilliant. All you need to do is ask for an invite to check it out for yourself. Joost is a free download for Mac and PC, and there's a Linux version in the works.

Posted by Matt at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (32) | TrackBacks (0)

Does anyone like my magic screencap?

I'll get me coat.

Posted by Matt at 1:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night, while idly dicking about with Google Earth, I put a start point of my parents house in North Dublin (which isn't actually on the map) and an end point of my house in South Dublin into the "Get Directions" area, just to see what it would come up with. While nothing as ridiculous as "swim across the Atlantic" came up, it did come up with a rather more convoluted route than I would have. And then I saw something funny.

Have a look at the full-size image, it's really weird seeing a 4-lane motorway fade away and turn into a field (like a magic tractor). You can also see clearly the blue line which accompanies the directions, which seems to be telling me to drive through that same field, and then along the miraculously-appearing motorway.

Posted by Matt at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I didn't know this, and just found it out by accident. If you want any unit of measurement converted to any other unit of measurement, just type your calculation into Google in words, and it'll do the calculation for you. Brilliant eh? Well, it is in my job, where metres and feet cross paths on a regular basis.

For example, here I typed "8.8 metres to feet".

Posted by Matt at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Via Greg Veen I came across Websites As Graphs.

Also, have a look at some other images tagged with "websitesasgraphs" on Flickr, some of them are amazing.

Posted by Matt at 7:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

(Or: Why I Am Buying A Mac)

Oh! Windows, you are so totally utterly rubbish,

With your "downloading updates" and "restart now" every fucking day.

Your viruses and bloatware anger and frustrate me so terribly much,

What can I do to make you go away?

Lo! A mystical place place called the Apple Online Store,

An utopia of shiny happy user-friendliness, Core 2 Duo™ and "It Just Works",

People may say I'm just a slutty gadget-whore,

But in reality, what other option is there when Windows is so totally borked?

Soon, there shall be podcasts, movies and stop-motion video,

Visits to the Lifehacker/software/Mac page, and no restarting,

Aqua and iSight and that cool transformer that the cable wraps around, woo-hoo!

I'm so awfully excited, oh yes, I really, really am, that Windows and I are parting.

FIN

_{[yes, I am aware that this ode does not follow the "rules" of an ode, but I don't need no STEENKING RULES, m'kay?]}

Posted by Matt at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (26) | TrackBacks (0)

Oh and click through to the Threadless site, the detail on this one is very, very cool.

Posted by Matt at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I got this in the post today from Hong Kong. It's a KingMax 4GB USB drive. I can't put into words how small this thing is, so I took this picture with a pencil for a size comparison. The pencil is of the standard size (it's a Faber-Castell Columbus 2103 HB, pencil-nerds), and the USB drive is of the teeny-tiny size. And I plugged it into my PC, and it really does hold 4GB.

So, in theory, why isn't the iPod Shuffle available up to 4GB? And surely you could fit more than 8GB into a Nano too? Wouldn't a 16GB or 32GB Nano just be the absolute bollocks? Or even a 32GB iPhone (if you're stupid enough to buy an iPhone, whenever it eventually comes out)?

I love tiny technology.

Posted by Matt at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

So I was idly browsing my site stats, looking at how we're doing on the hits-pages-visits front (not bad, as it happens), when I noticed a discrepancy. Namely, this image comes up at number 28 on the "top urls" chart. Weird, as the post that image was in was like, a year ago or something.

Then I thought of looking up "kitchen confidential book review" (without the quotes) on the Big G. Turns out my review of the Anthony Bourdain book is at number 8! Very interesting indeed. Either there are very few reviews of this book (there are loads) or the review was a pretty thorough/good one, and lots of people clicked on it (bit big-headed of me, but definitely possible).

So, for all those people who came this way looking for that review of the excellent Kitchen Confidential, and ended up having a poke around to see what else there was, hello! Welcome to the madness. There's some good stuff hiding away in the crevices, from what I've heard. Have a look, you know you want to...

Posted by Matt at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So I was looking at Claire's photos of Knocknasink in Co. Wicklow (very Lord-Of-The-Rings-ey), and she points out that new-ish feature where you can add a map to a photo page, pointing out where the picture was taken. I zoomed in on the map and found that the satellite photos of the area (a fairly remote place) were really good, and they're supplied by Yahoo Maps.

See, I've been checking Google Maps and Google Earth's satellite imagery of North Dublin, to see if you can see my Mam and Dad's house, in Garristown, on them. Basically, you can't. When you go to Google Maps/Earth and look at most of North Dublin, it looks like this:

Posted by Matt at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the toy I always, always wanted, ever since I was a nipper.

Also: Best. Favicon. Ever. Seriously. Check it out. This is the LEGO shop one, the one on the main site is red. Genius.

Also (part ii): LEGO BATMAN! :-)

</inner child>
</geek>

Posted by Matt at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)

Via Dan, and only because he tagged me. The bugger.

Okay, so now I want to her what tracks QE and Calista come up with when they do it, coz this is me, tagging them.

Posted by Matt at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

GEEK ALERT: This post is very, very geeky. Non-geeks should probably give it a miss.

I started using Google Reader about a month ago. I was using Sage before that, which is a more lightweight reader, an extension for Firefox, and while it was fine while I used it, I gave Google's offering a try and now there's no going back.

For a start, it looks and operates in a very similar way to Gmail, with an AJAX-ey interface which updates in realtime, so I never have to hit that "refresh" button to see who's posted something new. It's got a lovely "mark all as read" button too, which is nice for when a news blog has posted a hundred things since I checked and I couldn't be bothered reading them all.

You can "star" posts you want to check back on, similar to the "starred" mails thingy in Gmail, which is great. You can also share posts publicly, and very easily, by clicking the "share" button (my shared feeds are here, just in case you want to have a look). There's a function to enable a del.icio.us-like "linkroll" too, but I'm very happy with the one I have now, so for the moment I won't be using that. Still, very cool.

One other very, very cool thing is that if you put the feed for a podcast into the reader, when you look at the resulting feed it looks like this:

So there you have it. I thoroughly recommend Google Reader for all your feed-management needs, and seeing as it's part of "Google Labs", and therefore experimental (not even "Beta" yet), it can only get much, much better. Give it a go.

Posted by Matt at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (31) | TrackBacks (0)

Played Wii for several hours last night. Wii Sports really, really wrecked me. I'm quite unfit, and I never thought a videogame would ever make me feel like that. My arms hurt, my shoulders hurt, and my neck is stiff. Let me tell you, it sounds like I'm talking shite, but seriously, try playing Wii Boxing, Golf, Bowling and Baseball for a couple of hours without tearing a rotator cuff or two. If you can, you must already have a reasonable level of fitness.

Thoroughly recommended though, even if it did curb my Zelda-playing a smidgin. And money spent on the Wii is money saved on a gym membership!

Posted by Matt at 9:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There was an article on Slashdot yesterday linking to another article on InformationWeek, about consumer opinion regarding adverts on the intertubes. Apart from the article's hilarious confusion between spam blocking and ad blocking, it brought up some interesting points, namely people hate ads, and some people are willing to go to some length to stop themselves ever seeing them.

I use Adblock on Firefox at home and at work, so that if any sites I visit regularly feature annoying ads that wreck my buzz, I can block them out completely, and never see them again. In fact, when I visit these sites on another computer, I hardly recognise them anymore, as my usual experience of them is ad-free, clean and easy. I also use CustomizeGoogle so that even the big G's "targeted advertising" is thrown in the bin.

So, readers, here's a little poll. Get your friends to do it too, as I'm very interested in the results.

Posted by Matt at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

For those of you (like me) who do a fair bit of browsing from their phones, you may like to know that Opera Mini v3.0 has now been released. Your favourite mobile phone browser now features RSS feed-reading loveliness, even faster page-shrinking trickery, secure connections for banking and the like, and photo uploading (though I can't get it to work with my k750).

Go and get it, it totally kicks ass, and even makes me think seriously about giving the full-on version of Opera more of a serious look than I have before. Comments?

Posted by Matt at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

<geek>

</geek>

Posted by Matt at 7:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Right, so I spent a couple of hours tonight (much to Nikki's chagrin) creating some new stuff for the archives page (just in case anyone looks there apart from the DRS's*).

Firstly, I created a list (on the main archive page, just under the 'Recent Posts' section) of the last ten posts from myself, and then the last ten posts from Babs. Go there now, and have a look. See? Nice, isn't it? Not bad, eh?

Secondly, as you can see from the big fat link beside the title of each list, there's now a new archives page for ALL posts by me, and another page listing ALL posts by Babs. Which is also nice, and not bad.

This is mostly for me, to see what I'm capable of in the copy-and-pasting stakes, and creating the odd original bitín of code myself, with this Moveable Type thingy, and this other PHP thingy, and possibly extending the functionality of the LWT a little bit. Mostly for me, I say, but definitely a little bit for Adrian, who's poor head has been fucking WRECKED since he lashed this blog together for me, with constant "how do you do this?" and "can you do this for me?" -type questions. Now, Adrian's a mate, and I hate asking my mate's for TOO much, in anything at all. Ade's been brilliant, but it's really time I started doing some of this shit myself. So I have, and this is what I've done for starters.

_{*Dirty Rotten Spammers}

Posted by Matt at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (14) | TrackBacks (0)

So. After I made that podcast that everyone's talking about, I decided that it might be a good idea to put in on my actual iPod, to see what it sounded like. So on Saturday (a little late, seeing as the podcast went public on Friday!) I plugged me iPod into me laptop, to do the auld sync-aroo, and something most unexpected happened. Nothing.

Well, I say nothing, but actually what happened was Windows Explorer opened up and showed me stuff that was on my iPod. iTunes didn't even quiver. iTunes didn't recognise my iPod in the slightest. I looked up the help files on the Apple site and it seemed to be a common problem with this new iTunes version 7.0.1. "Open 'my computer>manage'", they said, "and start the iPod service in 'services'". So I did. iTunes saw my iPod. For about a second. Then it was gone again. Rinse, repeat. Same result.

Posted by Matt at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

^{(...Idly strolling through Tesco...)}

Hmmm... Sandwich, sandwich, sandwich. These are all crap, I'd be better off going to M&S. In fact, fuck this, I think I will...

I think we need Jam. And butter. That schmancy Italian coffee I got in town will only last until the end of this week.

Tesco Value Digestives are really good. They're at least 95% as good as McVitie's, and they're only 37c. THIRTY-SEVEN CENTS! How do they do it?! It's Witchcraft I tell you!

Hang on. This can't be right. Tesco Anti-Virus...?

"Bollocks", I cry.

No, it's really real.

Holy shit! Tesco Office! Like Microsoft Office, only not quite as good, and it's ?30! THIRTY FUCKING EURO!

Hmmm... If I didn't already have MS office on my computer, would I buy this? Probably not. I'd probably download Open Office, despite it's myriad bugs and problems, because it costs exactly nought cents...

Then again, Average Joe probably hasn't got a clue about Open-Source goodness. He'll buy Tesco Office and like it. He'll think it's the best thing since... Well, either Tesco Digestives or MS Office, depending on where he's coming from. Hmmm... It appears Tesco office is just Ability Office with a Tesco sticker on it. And Tesco Anti-Virus is the godawful Panda in sheeps clothing.

So I was totally right with my cry of "Bollocks!" then...

_{(...Goes to M&S for a superior sandwich...)}

Posted by Matt at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

^{WARNING: GEEK ALERT}

if (person = terrorist) {
            punish_severely();
} else {
            exit(-1);
}

_{[stolen from via BoingBoing]}

Posted by Matt at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (19) | TrackBacks (0)

In relation to Seamus' questioning of value of the ?2 per question answered on the AQA service, I decided, in fact, to go ahead and ask AQA the question:

What will the winning Lotto numbers be this Saturday 19th of August?

I'm going to trust AQA and see if I win the lottery this Saturday. If I am successful, I will inform AQA that they should probably increase the cost of the service.

AQA: They don't do 'the future'.

UPDATE: I am no richer today than I was yesterday, despite AQA's best efforts. I deduce that there is no need after all for them to raise their prices above the ?2 per question they currently charge.

Posted by Matt at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Taking a cue from Dan, I have investigated the AQA service, seeing as how it's now available in Ireland. You simply text a question (any question) to 57275, and you get the answer back a couple of minutes later, for a fee. Dan's had a lot of fun blogging questions and answers, so I thought I'd shamlessly plagarise join in on the fun, and have a go myself:

Me: "If you only have one leg, and you go into a shoe shop, do you have to pay for two shoes or can you just argue "but I only want one"?"

AQA: "There are no shops that specifically sell single shoes, but they could be ordered. Bear in mind that many amputees have artificial limbs and would want two shoes"

Well, that's that cleared up then. AQA: Any Question Answered.

Posted by Matt at 9:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)

From the same school (LED-based techno wizardry) as the Pac Man Spoke Lights, comes the 'Time Fountain'...

Isn't it lovely? I'd love to make one, but I'd probably blow it up, and/or ruin the carpet with the glow-in-the-dark goo.

_{[via Linkbunnies and Endgadget]}

Posted by Matt at 7:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I just started using Microsoft Outlook 2003, after using a completely different email program that almost nobody uses for a few years, and getting nicely used to it and it's little idiosyncrasies and quirks. I knew how to use it, anyway. I don't really know my way around Outlook. The '2003' version has this little 'Favourite Folders' box, which I'm sure someone in Microsoft R&D though was a great idea, but I have no use for whatsoever. Trouble is, it's taking up valuable space, and I can't find any way to get the fucking thing out of my sight. Anyone got any tips out there?

And any other Outlook-ey hints and tips would be greatly appreciated too!

Cheersamundo dudes (and dudettes).

Posted by Matt at 1:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Hmmm. When I opened my Gmail this morning I got an interesting surprise. Gmail isn't Gmail anymore (it's still beta though?), it's now Google Mail. What's all that about? Wasn't it Google Mail to begin with, a couple of years ago? And then it was Gmail. And now it's Google Mail again.

I do wish those Googlers would ever make up their mind.

Posted by Matt at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

_{Funniest if you're a geek Star Wars fan who has watched 24, imho.}

Posted by Matt at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Seeing as most of the time these days, my spambox is crammed full of mails in Chinese, a good spam is hard to find. So Spam of the Week will now be Spam of the Month (I don't think anyone really cares about it anyway except me, but feck you all, I'm gonna keep doing it anyway).

It's not really Spam anyway, but more like 'Flarf', in that it's not really trying to sell me anything or con me in any way, but more the spam I like is just nonsensical gibberish, lifted straight from crappy romantic fiction with some meaningless extra 'words' thrown in there for good measure.

So this week month, I am giving the prize to 'Daryl Gould', for this:

I have a place I go when I feel like this. costa beige She held her bloody palms out toward him for a moment.
"And that's where your car is now, Paul ? somewhere between Route 9 and the Grider Wildlife Preserve, somewhere in the woods. ""Good. Now that he was dead, Paul could look at him. "Paul put his own spoon down. "Paul, are you really done? "And he had returned to his cal?che without so much as a response to Geoffrey's question. Rainage knew her slightly ? had observed something white lying on the ground of the Congregational church's cemetery as she entered it to put flowers on the grave of her husband, who had died the previous winter. bluebill

_{Wouldn't you love to visit a place called 'Costa Beige'?}

Posted by Matt at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

As a wee follow-up to my Opera Mini™ for Mobile article, here's a teeny list of websites that are particularly good when viewed through the tiny window of your lovely Opera Mini browser.

• Gmail Mobile
  Gmail mobile is totally brilliant. It's essentially a stripped-down version of Gmail (as most good mobile sites tend to be), with all the essential parts on view and all the unnecessary bumph thrown away so as not to skyrocket your phone bill every time you want to check a mail. Each Gmail mobile page is only 1kb, so it's perfect for checking those mails while on the move. It's not quite a Blackberry, but who wants a frickin' Blackberry anyway (clue: not me)? It rocks. If you have a Gmail account and a mobile phone, have a look.
• Flickr Mobile
  I mentioned this in my aforementioned article about Opera Mini, and it really is great. Again, a stripped-down Flickr, but none of the functionality is lost. You can view your and your friends photos, photos by tag, you can look at comments on your pics and you can even upload a photo from your phone. So everything you'd need from Flickr if you were using it on a bus or train, really. Top Marks to this one too.
• Wikipedia
  This one is really good, but I'm not sure if it's an official Wikipedia interface or just some kindly soul making Wikipedia browsable on a mobile. Either way, it works. Perfect for those heated discussions in the pub with friends, and the 'I don't think you're right' moments. Now you can prove they're not right (unfortunately, it can also prove that you're not right, too).
• Google Mobile (obviously)
  It's Google. It's on your mobile. That's it. It's good.
• Sevitzdotmobile
  My good mate Adrian has also made a mobile version of his excellent blog. It's just like the others, a stripped-down version of the main website. He's a clever bloke, our Adrian (I want one of these btw).

So that's about it. Once again, all these sites are best viewed on Opera Mini for mobile, because of it's amazingness.

Posted by Matt at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

While reading Lifehacker yesterday, there was an announcement of the release of version 9 of the Opera browser. Whilst reading the comments on the post, some dude commented that Opera Mini for mobile was awesome, so I decided I'd give it a try and downloaded it. As it turns out, it's completely brilliant.

For a start, it's only a 96kb download, so that bit only took about five seconds. It's incredibly easy to set up, requiring you basically just to start the application and it takes care of the rest. It's Java-based, so it should work on any mobile device you can think of. The interface is very intuitive, looking for all intents and purposes like every web browser you've used on your PC, with an address bar at the top, a Google search bar below that, and it also has another search bar under that which can be used to search sites like Wikipedia (handy for those pub quiz nights!), Dictionary.com, Technorati and a few more.

What really impressed me was it's speed. Whatever the browser that was in my phone when I bought it (either a Sony or a Vodaphone one, either way it crap), it is slooooow. Opera is FAST. Seriously, it's like having broadband in your pocket. No, really! It can download this here blog in about 4 or 5 seconds. It also does really cool things like re-sizing all images on a page so they fit in your phone, and re-aligning text so it's readable within the constraints of your phone's screen. It's got a bookmarks folder too, and you can set it up so that individual bookmarks of your choosing are displayed on the 'homepage' (as in the screenshot on the right). It also stores your full history, a feature that is (shamefully) missing from most default mobile browsers.

So all in all, as a browser designed specfically for a mobile phone, I'd have to give Opera Mini a resounding 10 out of 10. It's lightweight, fast, and has no bad points at all that I've discovered. If you want to browse any website when you can't really whip out a laptop, or where there's no wireless internet, accept no substitutes.

_{incidentally, the Flickr mobile site is brilliant too!}

Posted by Matt at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Some clever soul has only gone and composed a Wikipedia article of Every Problem Ever Solved By MacGyver, I highly recommend you pop over there now and have a look at this valuable resource, which includes details as to whether each particular 'chewing gum, elastic band and 2 matches'-type solution really could've worked, in actual reality like.

Via TCAL

Posted by Matt at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Have a quick look at this and tell me if it isn't the coolest thing one of the coolest things you've ever seen:

Via Gizmodo, Youtube and MIT.

Posted by Matt at 8:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

After all this talk of on-again-off-again Germanic infamy, I'm going to relax it all down a bit, with another Spam Of The Week™.

Following a few interesting BoingBoing posts about the phenomenon of 'Flarf' (spam/net inspired absurdist poetry), I decided to compose a flarf poem entirely out of a spam mail that I really recieved in my inbox.

I've entitled this little ditty "Re: [17]" (I'm sure you know why)

He never forgot these things
these words, these names.
in 1862 into account
She was glowing with excitement

And there was not just one piling but two;
the pain was the pilings
and part of him knew
for a long time before
most of his mind had knowledge of knowing
that the shattered pilings were his own shattered legs

But oh, Mr Rancho Grande!
"At least, not if I have just a little luck"
She looked at him with no anger or suspicion
only faint curiosity
Did that mean he was making progress?
Paul crawled over to his bed
pulling himself on his elbows
and got hold of the coverlet

That night I changed your medication
for something a little stronger
and when I was sure
you weren't going to wake up
even if someone exploded
a grenade under your bed
I got my little tool-kit
from the cellar shelf
and I took the keyplate off that door
in 1975...

Not bad, not bad. Reads quite well, and it even sounds like it's making sense about halfway through, but I assure you, dear readers, it really, really isn't.

Posted by Matt at 7:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ages ago, while watching something on Rocketboom or reading something on BoingBoing (or somewhere else, I can't remember), I ended up on the Boxxet (box-set) site, and signed up for an invitation. Then the other day, I got a mail from You Mon Tsang (founder of Boxxet) saying my account had been activated, etc, so I went along and had a wee look.

Boxxet appears to be a fancy-schmancy aggeregator of sorts, but then there's a little bit more. As it's in beta, there isn't a lot of content, but it seems you can create a boxxet with just about any content you desire, and the aggregator will fill it up with news stories, blog posts, pictures and other related content. The aggregator seems to be kind-of 'clever' and in my first boxxet there was a link to Google's very first search page, which I had never seen before, and some other stuff including a 'Chuck Norris Facts'-style blog post, but about Jack Bauer, which I found hilarious ("When life gave Jack Bauer lemons, he used them to kill terrorists. Jack Bauer fucking hates lemonade"), if slightly derivative.

Posted by Matt at 8:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

My ever-resourceful little sister has uncovered the Wikipedia definition of the very 'Dublinese' word Scanger. I recommend you all follow that link down to Wikipedia and learn yourselves some proper Irish slang. The discussion page is especially good, I've found, the arguments for and against the inclusion of the article in Wikipedia are actually longer and more detailed than the actual article itself! Controversy breeds the best arguments.

(the closest UK equivalent to 'scanger' is 'chav', but they are definitely two different genuses of the same species species of the same genus)

Posted by Matt at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

You know spam, yeah? Those silly emails you get every day advertising everything from cheap Viagra and Rolexes to eternal salvation to the latest breakthrough in sex-organ size enhancement? You know sometimes (not often, but sometimes) you open them, because the subject line sometimes sounds remotely funny and/or interesting? No? Well I do. Sometimes.

So here's what I got in my spambox yesterday:

Unknown sender. No Subject. That's not a very good effort is it? I mean who's going to open that?

(ok maybe I would, just to get the screengrab, but you know what I mean...)

Posted by Matt at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

For anyone with even a passing interest in technology and the web, anyone who's ever wondered exactly what 'Web 2.0' means, and almost every blogger worth their blog, the 'eTech' conference in San Diego last week was choc-full of great news, developments and gadgets that I found fascinating and educational all at once, even if I only read about them (much as I would've loved to be there). Click the picture here for a gazillion (ok about 60 or so) links to articles all about what exactly the web and apps like RSS, Atom, Ajax, blogs, and pretty much any online application you can think of, and a few more besides (like Google, eBay, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, the usual suspects) are thinking up to make your web-based experiance all the more interesting, user-friendly and downright cool in the next year or so.

(nb: Web 1.0='readable' web, Web 2.0='writable' web. Easy eh?)

Posted by Matt at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Check this out, it's the coolest bike spoke decoration in the history of bike spoke decorations. If I had a bike, and a few days, and a shitpile of LED's and a bit more soldering skill than I do now, I'd totally be doing this.

(Via Kotaku and Make Blog)

Posted by Matt at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

In an email conversation with Adrian yesterday, the subject of a recently-missing favicon on Dan's blog came up (it was missing due to being transferred to another server and conversion into php, etc, etc). I was a bit peeved, because favicons are truly wonderous little pictures, and are an essential part of my interweb browsing experience.

You see, I use Firefox, and I use it well. I have about 30 or so extensions installed, giving me everything from weather updates to extra buttons on websites to speedy downloads of every file on a page in 3 or so clicks to getting rid of the ads on Google to opening a tab in Firefox which contains, get this, Internet Explorer. My interface is very customised to make browsing a pleasure and never a chore, so I can have several sites visible at once, and every site I visit regularly available with one click. I use the bookmarks toolbar as pictured here, with only the favicon visible for each particular website. To do this, simply save your favourites in your bookmarks toolbar folder, in your bookmarks. Right click on your main menubar and make sure your bookmarks toolbar is displayed. Right-click on any bookmark and you will get a 'bookmark menu' - click on 'properties'. Delete all the text in the 'name' field, and click 'ok'. Ok? Easy eh?

Posted by Matt at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

...I have absolutely no idea! And yet there appears to be an oversized light-sword of some description embedded in the ground in the Docklands in Dublin...
Can someone indicate to be the exact significance of this 'monument'? Or is it a 'sculpture'? Whatever it is, it's definitely a lightsaber. Seriously. No really, it is!
I wonder was there a battle between two enormous Jedi on the roof of the Millennium Tower (the building in the background) or something. That seems the most likely explanation...

[UPDATE: I have done a bit of research as to what exactly the significance of this particular 'thing' is, and have come up with... nothing. Nada. Anyone else know what the story is?]

Posted by Matt at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

Apparently I don't know my SDRAM from my DDRAM either (either that or a HP desktop from 2000 doesn't support more than 128 megs of RAM per slot?). And apparently neither does your average 'guy behind the counter' at PC World. Needless to say, sister's computer still cream-crackered.

[/geek]

[UPDATE: It seems that a 6-year-old HP desktop really doesn't like 256MB DIMMs at all, 128MB bought, works like a charm]

Posted by Matt at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the latest issue of 'Wired' magazine there's an article entitled 'Geeks in Toyland', which details development of the next generation of LEGO's award-winning programmable robotics kit, Mindstorms NXT. I found the bit about the software licencing particularly interesting reading:

"Lego decided to let the modders flourish; it even wrote a "right to hack" into the Mindstorms software license, giving hobbyists explicit permission to let their imaginations run wild"

Isn't that great? Wouldn't it be great if more companies thought like that? Seeing as most software companies want the 'right to hack' into your computer to make sure you're not doing anything 'wrong' with their precious software.

I *heart* LEGO/LEGO kicks ass.

Posted by Matt at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So I got an email from my sister Rebecca last week:

"Our computer is f*cked. It's UNBELIEVABLY slow.. there is something seriously wrong with it. Any time you try to get it to do anything even open a document, it hangs and takes about 5 mins to open ... Do you think you could call out some evening and sort it out?"

So after going to see out new house again with Nikki yesterday morning and having coffee n' cake in Mugs in Dalkey (where Andy works) I drove across over to her house (an hour and a half away on the other side of county Dublin) yesterday at about 4pm and after tea n' a sambo, sat down and gave it a go. Took about 5 minutes to boot up. Hmmm. Windows XP, I don't remember them getting that. No programs installed that are particular memory hogs. Right. I see.

"Virtual Memory too low, Windows XP needs more memory. MOOOOORRE MEEMMMOOOORRYY!!!!" (or something like that)

Ctrl. Alt. Delete.

Physical Memory total: 89MB

Commit Charge total: 218MB

Well that clearly won't do, will it? I opened up the tower and there was one 64MB and one 32MB DIMM card. I've only been 'into computers' for a while and I had never even seen a 32MB DIMM before (in an actual computer I mean, I've seen them in pictures)! So I gave them the old 'WinXP into 96MB won't go' and a quick lesson in swopping RAM cards out and told them to give me a ring if that didn't work. I'm sure I'll be called out again within a week, but seeing as I kinda owe them a huge favour, it's cool.

Posted by Matt at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)