Vista - I might be beginning to like it
March 11, 2008
A bold statement I know but when you find something as cool as Snipper you begin to change your mind.
I have always hated print screen and all that it stands for but until now it was the only way to go, until I received a junk email from those bods at PC World.
I found myself reading it against my better judgement, I was on the hunt for a new printer at the time and it’s thanks to PC World that I found Snipper. Good email marketing by them as I will make sure I read the next one for any more juicy tidbits 
What does Snipper do? It snips any segment of your screen and allows you email it or save it for later use. No more full screen grabs, just snip what you need. To find it all you need do is click your Vista start button and type snipping into the search bar.
One little snip for man, one giant leap for Microsoft.
iPhone Update
January 21, 2008
I have recently installed the January update for my iPhone and thought I would share some of the new features with you:
- Multiple Home Screens - Cool feature is this. You can now have as many home screens as you like. By holding your finger on a logo, the screen begins to shake and you can then move apps around or by pulling the logo to the left or right, move it onto another home screen entirely. You access the new home screens with a little swipe to the left or right.
- Bookmarks on Home Screen - To complement your multiple home screens, you can bookmark your favourite websites straight to the home screen. This feature is integrated into the Safari browser.
- Maps Upgrade - Hybrid maps now available. Another cool feature is that with one button tap, the map will zoom into your present location.
All good upgrades and has stopped me from wanting to unlock my iPhone for the time being at least, maybe this was Apple’s intention?
The Top Five Internet Memes of 2007
December 11, 2007
5. Tay Zonday/Chocolate Rain
On the 22nd April 2007, Tay Zonday posted on YouTube a video of himself performing a song he had written entitled ‘Chocolate Rain‘. Little did Tay know that his video would soon become one of most viewed on the site ever and that he would become a celebrity. The song has been parodied by music stars like John Mayer and Tre Cool of Green Day and was performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live by Tay himself. It is ranked as the second most viral video ever by utalkmarketing.com and the video has been aired on TV and Radio around the world including Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show and the BBC Radio 1 Chris Moyles Show.
4. Lolcats
Thought to have originated from the multitude of image chans, Lolcats exploded (not literally, there’s nothing funny about an exploding feline) onto the meme scene in early 2007 with the website I Can Has Cheezburger [sic]. A Lolcat is generally any image of an animal featuring a caption that is almost always written with odd spelling, syntax and strangely conjugated verbs. Lolcats sometimes refer to other well known Internet memes like ‘All your base are belong to us’. Lolcats has since diversified into other areas including Lolgeeks, featuring images of I.T. professionals alongside amusing captions such as ‘Im in ur RSS pushin Atom’.
3. Chris Crocker/Leave Britney Alone!
‘Leave Britney Alone!’ Was the anguished plea of celeb obsessed Chris Crocker, referring of course to going-off-the-rails pop star Britney Spears, when he posted videos to both MySpace and YouTube in September of 2007. By design or not his emotional piece to camera went viral and has so far received over 13 million views and is the second most discussed video on YouTube. The funny and yet at the same time disturbing video has been parodied both on and off the Internet by bloggers and celebrities alike.
2. Dramatic Prairie Dog
The Dramatic Prairie Dog started life as a clip taken from a Japanese TV show in which the aforementioned rodent turns to camera with a Bond villain-esque expression of evil intent spread across it’s furry little face. Posted on YouTube it wasn’t long before this tiny ball of malcontented fluff was popping up all over the Internet in various remixes of the original, including a Dr. Evil of Austin Powers fame version. The Dramatic Prairie Dog is often mistakenly called Chipmunk, Beaver and even Hamster.
And finally…
1. 300/This Is Sparta!
Without a doubt the most popular meme of 2007, and I say just meme dropping the ‘Internet’, as this particular lulzy example of memery crossed the boundary from the Internets and into the real world with the fury of, well… 300 Spartans. The Zack Snyder sword and sandal epic will be remembered in years to come not for it’s retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae but for the wonderfully over the top delivery of lines such as ‘This is Sparta!’ and ‘Tonight we dine in hell!’ The actor Gerard Butler’s toothy screaming face has burned itself into the psyche of movie goers the world over. On the net this meme has taken the form of thousands of photo manipulations that range from the flawless to the hilariously amateur, videos and animations including remixes and home made interpretations, songs and a rash of clubs and groups on sites such as Facebook and MySpace. In the MMORPG, World of Warcraft, it has even replaced the long running ‘LEEERRROOOYYY JENKINS!’ as the de rigeur call to arms. In the real world the anthemic battle-cry of ‘This is Sparta!’ can be heard screamed with gusto everywhere from drunken revellers in bars to students on college campuses. It’s sprawled in graffiti on city walls and adorns t-shirts, mugs and anywhere else its fantastically amusing quotes can be placed. This meme is a monster.
Cutts Caught Doing The Dirty At Google
December 7, 2007
Picture the scene. Dinnertime at the Googleplex and the following conversation ensues:
“Hey Matt, you jumpin online for a game of World of Warcraft”?
“Er no, i have to, erm….pop out for a second, got a few errands to run”
“Hey no problem man, keep fighting the fight”
“Erm… yeah I will, gotta go”
When Matt returns he is looking sheepish and a bit disgusted with himself. The disgust soon fades when he reaches into his pocket and feels the fibre of the advertising payment check nestled deep within it.
Hey, he has bills to pay like the rest of us right?
He gives a smile, a wry smile…… those bloggers that sell paid links won’t think bad of him for taking the payday, for saying one thing and doing another….. will they?
Matt Cutts Lands Lead Role In Movie Sequel
December 5, 2007
Matt Cutts has made a huge impact with his war on spam, so much so that movie moguls have snapped up the heroic Googlebod for a starring role in 300 part 2. Details are sketchy but the above screenshot was leaked by an undisclosed source.
It’s a true story - we made it up ourselves.
Pownce Invites
November 21, 2007
Is anybody still bothered about Pownce?
We’ll soon find out as I have 5 invites going spare.
If anyone out there would like an invite, just reply to this post in the form of a limerick rhyme. If you don’t know what a limerick is, shame on you!
Best ones will get an invite sent by yours truly, we’ll get to be friends and everything!
Here’s an example of a limerick:
There was a young man from Ealing,Who had an expectorant feeling,but the sign on the door said “don’t spit on the floor” so he looked up and spat on the ceiling.
Good luck!
Barcamp Leeds
November 20, 2007
Last Saturday I took a wander down to the inaugural Barcamp Leeds event. After driving round in a circle for what seemed like an eternity, I finally found somewhere to park and made my entrance.
Things were already underway when I arrived, 4 separate sessions were being held and although I missed the start of them, I had a quick look at all 4. My fear with events like this was that the speakers would use the platform for nothing more than a glorified sales pitch. There was little evidence of this if truth be told and i sat in on a talk about some new mapping technology which looked very interesting indeed.
When the first round of sessions had finished, I managed to hook up with a couple of my friends, who happened to be hosting an SEO clinic later on in the day. Bizarre really, considering that after meeting at the recent(ish) Leeds Geek Up event, you would have sworn that they were mortal enemies!
Anyway, Dom & Mark I’m told did a fantastic job at helping some of the event participants evolve their SEO project plans. I couldn’t hang around all day so missed the clinic, and the Nintendo Gameathon, and the after event party (grrrr!)
I did manage to drop in on a session with Mark regarding Drupal. We have both been experimenting with various frame working and CMS platforms and are yet to find one that meets the needs of the designer, as opposed to the programmer.
After struggling to hear the Thai host (lovely guy, awful grasp of English pronunciation) do his best to extol the virtues of Drupal, I left the session no further forward. This is not a slight on the host who was a great chap but come on! We were trying to get our heads around some technical information and I’m afraid I just couldn’t understand what was being said.
It was agreed though that Drupal seems to be aimed more at developers, it has a steep learning curve and isn’t really designer friendly. Light CMS seems to be the only option for the time being although I’m just not a fan of the pricing model.
Back to Barcamp; Mark won himself an iPod Nano the lucky so and so! After ringing him on the evening to find out how the clinic went and being berated for leaving early, it was decided that Barcamp Leeds was a resounding success.
That has to be good for
Roll on Barcamp 2008 - I may even stay for longer than 2 hours 