Eager to write, but not much to say...

Uggghh i hate this feeling. I'm in a sort of zone here. I keep wanting to say stuff, status updates, comments, texts and tweets. But i'm not actually having conversations. I'm not actually doing anything!


I'm sitting on a plush couch. I've got newsnight on. Some conservative shite, then something else, now Al Gore on a satalite feed.


Yoono is open to the left of my I-bar and i am watching Twitter and Facebook as the evening where's on.

On my phone i have texts message's slowly trickling in organising my day tomorrow which is now almost fully organised.

I am going to the Cinema with DS, then meeting up With Gammaman with DS, for a catch up or some food. Then going to A Hamas Debate in the Society. Then heading home on a late bus to be able to up in time for last minute cleaning, to welcome my sister home.


PG's sick and thus not free for lunch. Budsey has yet to answer.  So i don't know what time i'll head into town yet, as i have no Lunch appointment, yet. I have an open invitation to all my friends on Facebook, but i doubt many will bite.

Social networking? What Social networking?

Does anyone really do that?


After all, few of my friends are as techno-dependent or savvy as myself. I love the idea of Tweeting and the impending possibilities related to Geo-location status updates and augmented reality. Everyone else is more worried about when they can have lunch or fit study in.


I guess when you spend as much time as me on the web, the possibilities of new technologies seem all so great. And yet no one i actually know use's current one's. If they do, they do it on an as needed basis, or when it suits them. Some people still have, "out of date", mobiles. Nokia 3210's and so on.

Others have gotten a new one every year, or even more frequently. Most have iPods and so on, and some even have Laptops, Netbooks or the alien white of Apple's. But this is all for practicle use. Study, work, some recreation and procrastination.

But using social media, to actually socialise. No not yet. For the moment most of my friends seperate reality and social network socailising. Sure status updates and internet meme's cross over into everyday life as source's of information. But they rarely use them as tools for social, activity or change.

Sure Facebook event's are used. Sure Youtube perpetuate's meme's. Sure online article's and blogs are shared information. But very few actually use them.

Very few even update their status, or comment extensively.

Even chat's with relative stranger's are hard to translate into the real world. People react differently to you as a real person compared to your name and display photo.

So why do i love the idea of Augmented Reality and Geo-location? Is it because i'm a geek, or is it because i finally relish the idea that my idea of communicating with the world is becoming more accessable with the real world?


A lot of people HATE iPhone Users. Hell commuters hate those who listen to music, or those still using Broadsheets or reading Chic-Lit. How will they feel when you snap picture's of the world around you to access more information.

To Find out a resturant's review. If your friends want to meet you there, or have been there before. If there's a news story or history to a place. If there are photo's from a venue publically available, or if a product or album is reviewed or previewable on the mobile web.

That's what Augmented reality will do. You walk around the normal world, but can access ALL the information of the web, via applications on your mobile device. Layers of information right there infront of you, and you won't have to be at a computer.

Imagine how this will drag the geeks out into the open. Or make life easier.

Now if only my friends loved techy toys as much as i do.


Hmm, maybe i should write some in-depth email's to my friends. Pass more time.

Oh yeah, i have to organise my own going away party to, forgot about that...

I want a new mobile....

Is it too soon to want a new mobile phone?

I got my INQ 1 back in March or there abouts, as a belated birthday gift. And i love it. I really do. But i kind of want more from my phone. That's why i was eager to upgrade to the INQ Chat 3G when it comes out, which is expected around next month or so.


Now i have no garuntee that it will work when i go to Oz, or if i can even get it down under, but i would love it. But considering the whole "new" network thing and new country aspect i am considering other options. And truthfully i would like to upgrade to a Smartphone.



Now i am an avid, anything else user. I like to use underdogs and unpopular tools in most aspects of my gadgetry and computing. Okay, so i use windows, but thats about it. I use everything else that isn't windows after that.


My toys are visable here:




And this is my current Mobile:






But since i'm upping sticks i'm considering what i would like to buy at the other end.



Firstly i DO NOT want an iPhone. I may have an iPod and may have had a first generation one all those years ago but i'm not a Mac person. Never was, never will be. I like the clunky messyness of Windows and the free market that sprung up around it.

I don't want my computing or gadgets all uniformed to one sleek white style or using all the same software. No, i like variety, and I LIKE FLAWS. It let's you know what you're lacking, and what can be improved. Thats the essance of a good free consummer market. Feck brands and monopolies, give me choice and different standards of quality any day! As long as it all works of course...



Altough, i must conceed that i am a fan of Google. So on the smart phone front i am tempted by anything that runs their "Android" software.


The HTC Hero is the current top dog in that department:



It's sleek, and it's nice. And has all the usual google toys and an app store, small yes, but it exists. And as far as i know it's the second largest.


The next big thing in Android phone's is the Motorolla Droid.

The droid is at war with the iPhone claiming it does things the iPhone doesn't.

I don't get all the hype, but i like the phone.


It looks very nice, but for the near-by future it looks like it will be an America only thing. Not exactly buyable down under then.




Now the iPhone may be a piece of cake and popular, but i don't want it. But i would like a slice of this iPhone Cake:



Fecking nerdy wedding cake, still looks nice though.



Now the Nokia N97 is the Scandanavian offering to the world of Smartphones. It's nice, i do like it, i've held one in stores and i do like the feel, and the qwerty keybored is a plus.

It also has an app store. Via Ovi. A company Nokia swallowed to make it's new toys for their toys. It also aims to be a very social collection of aps, with geo-location, events, calanders, facebook, twitter and other things.

It's nice, but it's main failing, it's a Nokia.

I've always disliked Nokia. I don't sware by any brand, and in mobile terms Nokia always seemed like Apple to me, before Apple came along.


The nice, but to nokia, Nokia N97





For a non-smartphone option there is the slightly odd Samsung Ping.

Now the mobile phone critics, yes they exist, don't like it. But i think it has a charm. And a slight brilliance.


It has some in-built Facebook and twitter aps, but not of the same standard as other phones, and not as nice as INQ. But look at it!



Not the best colour, or angle. But it's Qwerty, with a sideways numerical keyboard, along the side of the screen, or the top of the keyboard, depending on your angle.


The Number keys work as a normal phone when in phone mode.

But then you can pop out your QWERTY keyboard and chat away like mad.

I like it. It's not pretty, but it has a charm, and it has the right idea.


The Nokia N97 and the Droid have this, but they're very powerful, very specialist and very expensive, and not garunteed to be available down under.

The Ping however, is odd, a normal phone, and has a nice keyboard. I really think it's quaint and i wouldn't rule it out just yet.




But the Piece de le resistance, the one i have wanted ever since i heard of it, is..... The INQ CHAT 3G!!!


It's an INQ. I love my INQ. It's mobile web and social networking and handy, but it's cheap and friendly. It's a starter phone for those looking to use all mobile internet has to offer.


And now it's new generation has in-built twitter. The chat is even better, with a Qwerty keyboard.




But the problem with INQ, that i can anticipate is that it doesn't have a long lasting sustainability. I already want to replace my INQ 1 for this better one. I know i can add Java based applications as i wish, such as Snaptu(a handy multible tool) and Google Maps and Opera MINI ( a web browser), but what about a year or two down the line?


My old phones, were that, just phones. I didn't expect them to update. But with the demands of the mobile web and social networking trends are driving change in mobiles.


To ride the wave of this change it would be almost better to get a phone that can change with the times. That does update.


Android phone's will do that. Future Nokia smartphones will probably do that. The Palm Pre and blackberry's will certainly do that, but they're also expensive.

The iPhone. The iPhone was always a scam. The first model a tease. The second a further tease. The 3rd almost what you'd expect. But it doesn't have MMS, or didn't at first. Instead people fork out money for several dozen apps to get the cool toys and useablity they should have had as standard but have to pay for themselves.


With Android phones, there will also be expense, with Nokia, expense, with Blackberry, expense. With INQ Chat, there isn't.


It does, almost all of what i want from the get go. And any freely available programe i want i can add as needed.


The only thing it doesn't do, that i would love, is have better picture useablity. Maybe a inner-camera for video phone, which i'd never use.

A Light/flash.

A stronger camera.

And Twitpic. I love blogging, i would use the QWERTY keyboard and the web, or inbuilt GMAIL to blog. But if i take picture's, i would like to blog them!


iPhone and other people are blogging with picture's on Twitpic and yFrog right now. Why can't cheaper mobile users do the same?


Maybe i'll just wait.


I hope to get my INQ chat 3G before i go, hopefully. And take it with me. But who knows.....


I still can't decide, but i do want to deeply consider this before i get there, and when i get there.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Q-Rated: Reviewing Web 2.0 and it's toys

Now as an avid web user i have to say i spend a lot of time wondering what to do with my time on the web.

One thing that i have found is that i want to assimilate and read as much information as possible without having to scroll through old tweeter posts or facebook posts. I also want all that information as up-to-date as possible.

This is where "web 2.0" comes in.

No longer is the World wide web a static page based thing.

Now it's ALIVE!!!


Not quite like Frankenstiens monster but it's at least a busy place.


So what's happening on the internet right now?

Well there's a search engine for that.

OneRiot.

It may only be starting out but it is a real time search engine. It follow's the trends of what everyone is searching for and is basically all about current News, Gossip and internet Meme's.

Ye know, the dreggs of the internet. And i approve of this idea.

It also is trying to role out location specific sites, So eventually there will be a OneRiot.ie....



Now how exactly do i keep up with my Facebook and Twitter-ing, well i have yet to decide.

There is of course the old way, the websites, but this can be slow and boring. And if you're busy then chat's can get annoying.

DIGSBY
 
For Windows Live Messenger(MSN to old foggies like myself), Google Chat and facebook you have Digsby.


Digsby is great for chatting. It even combines accounts. It notify's you of incoming emails and even has Twitter and Facebook capabilities. With the facebook recently updated.

It is rather impressive and customisable. It is invaluable sometimes, but due to my slower, older computer sometimes i don't use it.

YOONO
An alternative is Yoono, and its far more Twitter based, but it also has nicer pop-ups.

It sports Google chat, MSN, Facebook, Imeem, FreindFeed and twitter to name but a few. And it has some nice little sounds for notifying you. It's not intrusive and isn't as demanding of Processing power as Digsby.

It's tweeting and status updating is also really good.

It even has it's own internet browser built in to help you look at links when you want to. Although you can set this to your default Browser.

It also sports a shareaholic button on every tweet and newsfeed item, for those really excessive sharer's.

There is a really small twitpic intigrated into update's and notifications.So you can see pictures right inside the tweet, which is very handy, but they are small...

It even has a Re-tweet button.

I do love it, but sometimes i prefare Digsby for it's chat windows. No one is on my MSN too often and Facebook Chat isn't on Yoono Yet, which is the real kicker. Also i can't get Google Talk to work, i'm not sure why, but i think it's the whole "college email" thing.


TweetDeck

TweetDeck is basically one of the top ways you can tweet on Twitter. It's a rather good aplication. It even has Twitpic built into it so you never have to go to another page to view a picture. And they are full size which is very handy.


I view tweetdeck as my HARDCORE tweeting application. It keeps track of whats going on and has group functions and so on.

But if i want to read the tweets, i have to actually have the window open. This is a pain.

It only has a flash notification up in the corner of my screen, and this is nothing, it doesn't tell me anything, other than there is a new tweet.

Digsby and Yoono show you the tweet, Digsby shortens it if it's too long, but it shows it.


Tweetdeck now also has FULL facebook news feeds. But it's not as interactive. You can't like stuff and comment as easily as Yoono or Digsby.

TweetDeck has large proliferation and is used by a lot of twitter users. And you can see all the cool Tweeter's and Tweet-Celebs are using it.

The facebook is still weak, but it's a growth that can't be ignored. I don't use it however. Ever since this new build i've used it less.


Flock (internet Browser)

Other means of getting Twitter and Facebook and other services.

I won't deny the fact that i am a Flocker.

Flock is a "Social-Networking" Browser.

Under the hood, so to speak, it is just Mozilla Firefox, but it comes with it's own constant connection to your Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, Photobucket, youtube, Gmail and it also has it's own Media stream search tool for photo's and video. It also boasts a blog writting tool that i have used frequently.


 It also has a rather nifty Clipboard for Text and Photographs. You can literally drag a photo off a web page into the clip board and it save's it. You can then drag the photo into blog post's or emails and it does the linking and pasting for you. Which is rather handy.

 Facebook's chat and notification system is also built in. However this is bizarrely faster than Facebook.com itself. Facebook experiance's so many hick-ups from updates that it leaves out notifications sometimes, so i'm left staring at the one's i didn't click on in Flock, wondering what the hell?

However, despite it now being my default browser it's Twitter and Facebook functions lay dormant.
They just don't look as nice and the notifications aren't the same. Also not all actions stay in the Sidebar pane when you use them, like friend request's and other notifications.




It requires more user action instead of being hand fed the information. Which is what Yoonom, Digsby and TweetDeck all do on certain levels.


Flock however is a sturdy browser and can accept Firefox add-ons.

So Shareaholic, Stumble-upon Toolbar, Foximusic and Google Toolbar.

There's other little buttons and tweeks about the place that make it a very handy browser.

But it's not without hick-ups. My computer is slow, and thus isn't actually built to handle it. This won't be a hick-up for most people, but it sometimes leaves me pulling my hair out.


Digsby also can create this problem. Yoono however is rather low demand and is suitable for some people who have yet to embrace the power demands of vista or windows 7, or even still just have a pc thats 4 or so years behind.



In short, i just can't pick and choose!

Flock all the time, as it's my browser.

Digsby most of the time for chatting.

Yoono for reading whats going on as it happens.

And Tweetdeck when I want to do some hard core tweeting, which isn't too often.

I've seen the future....

And it may as well be garlic bread.

After all the idea of behind my new favourite gadget maker is all about adding something good to something well known and making it far better.

Garlic butter to Baguette's in this case being Affordable internet and social media to a cheap entry level phone for everyone....

I'll try and cut the jargon as much as possible. But i've mentioned many a time before how much i love my INQ 1 mobile.

From Blogging

I got it on 3 for 69 Euro pre-pay and i have never looked back since.

Now i haven't ever been to flashy or up to date with mobile phones. My first phone, which i still own was a Motorolla T2288 the generic Wap version of that FM radio phone that was heavily advertised circa 2001/2002.

Then after 5 years i switched to a Sagem as the old motorolla couldnt charge anymore. The sagem was a sturdy clam shell design and yet after a year and a half i broke it's only breakable part, the charger port....

So on to my Motorolla E770. A Videophone and an absolute brick in shape compared to most phones. It wasn't even advertised or on display in the shop. It sold so badly it was gathering dust. But it was perfect for me and served me well for a couple of years.


But then i saw it. Some rainy winter's day in ireland. I had been lusting after an iPhone or a knock off but mainly had my eyes on the LG Viewty because of it's 8 megapixel camera. Why i don't know.

But then i saw the inq 1, and then i read it was a "social networking phone" i fell in love.


The facebook phone as it is often called is not exactly advanced but it bridge's a gap that other phones don't.


As the people at INQ put it everyone else is "catching up" with apple's iPhone and will lose. Instead inq wants to make phone's that listen to their customers and provide what they want and what they really use their phones and the internet for.


And what do most of use the internet for? Social Networking. Some 60% of us apparently. That's a hefty market. And since few of us can really get an iPhone or it's "competitors" or even get a cheap knock off from Hong Kong, we can get a normal mobile that has basic internet and built in apps Like Facebook and Windows live messenger.




Now the garlic to the baguette. INQ now has 2 new phone for pre-Christmas release.


The INQ Chat and The INQ Mini or AKA the Twitterphone with Qwerty keyboard and Twitterphone Lite.


Gawk if you must:




QWERTY Keyboard Twitterphone!

From Blogging

Twitterphone Lite

From Blogging

They are both beautiful and they now feature always on Twitter. As well as an improved Facebook app and other snazzy little trinkets like Windows Live and so on. However Last.fm support has been dropped, i don't use it on my current INQ 1 but it was a nice feature. Also the promise of an eBay app/widget has disapeared/been swept under the carpet, which is also a pity.

But a cool new thing is that the new Inq's feature direct support for music via doubleTwist. doubleTwist will also alow the inq's to use iTune's songs without having to sync with iTunes. None of that iPod only crap that apple stuck onto their iTunes bought items, your music is your music you should be able to put it on any device.


I am really looking forward to these phones. I just hope that i can swap my old INQ for the new INQ Chat. I'd settle for the mini but i'm all thumbs as it is and i hate predictive text, a real qwerty keybord sounds like a god send.

Also imagine the "tweeting" on the go, the facebook on the go, the Gmail on the go, the Twitpic's i could take, the blog's i could write in brief or even long! All providing i'm in an urbanised area with a signal and have a pre-payed internet credit!

Yeah that's the ONLY downside to my inq and will be with these. I live in the country side. My phone will ONLY do it's best things when in urban area's. Otherwise it just acts as a normal phone. But hey, when at home it's all i need it for anyway!


Giddy geekiness now over.

A quest for simplicity, that was not so simple.

Oh what a productive non-productive day i've had.

You see i should have been studying, or writing and of course cleaning the house. I also have at least two loads of washing to get done and a massive pile of ironing to do as well.

But you would be able to tell by the stubble i am forming that clean or ironed cloth's aren't really on my agenda at the moment.

WEB-Watch:

A Report on Streamlining your useage:

Now i like many prolific web users have more web identities than you can shake a stick at. Now happily it's not more than i have friends, but it might not be far off.

Now a problem arrose in recent day's after i made myself a new "business" email account.

I made it with the hope that i would use it for some future entrepreneurial venture, blogging unification, or whatever.

With 2 iGoogle Account's it started to get messy checking my new Work Email and still using Google Reader in another Tab.

So i asked myself, and then google search, is there a way of viewing more than one email service from the same place.

Now i'm aware Gmail can harvest an entire email account and then recieve that account in a Gmail account but i didnt want that. I wanted them seperate.

So first off my search led me to Fuser.Com

Now Fuser sounded very promising. It can read every email account out there, feed's your twitter and even myspace and Facebook. Unfortunatly it's only a beta. IE it's not finished yet. I tried in vain but i couldn't get any of my 3 email accounts to work with it.

But i kept the account anyway as i think it will be useful in future.

My Search then eventually took me to a technology blog website that led me to "Pageonce".

This Interesting service allows you to view all your inboxes but not emails, to sort your social networking service's such as twitter, facebook, myspace, youtube, lastfm and others in the same place, and tonnes of other feature's i don't have a need for such as banks, travel companies and utilities.

The idea behind it is that you can view all the activities of your web actions in one place. However for the moment it seems it only shows you whats happening and doesn't let you control them all.

I for one like this service, although i may explore the concept further and seek it's cousin's for an better experiance. As far as i can tell there are other's but i haven't found them yet.

The next one was Iminta.

A interesting service that allows you to view all the internet activities of your friends in one live stream. So if they Digg or suggest a blog to follow you can see it, if they tweet you see it, if they update their status you see it. And the same the other way around.

You can also limit what certain groups of freinds see, and whether or not some of your information is public.

This shows promise, although it require's sending those pesky request emails to people. And i hate sending those!

The Death of my social networking.

Now as a prolific internet user i joined a good few things over the years.

Adult dating site's usually forget you once you never fully activate your accounts by paying, so that's not really a nuisance.

However normal social networking site's you don't use can be.

Somewhere in the ether of the internet is another Profile with your name and email that you don't look after. It may be out of date and seriously neglected. It may look like you have no friends or whatever.

Hence i got rid of some of my profiles. 3 of them basically.

I removed accounts from the following social networking websites:

Tagged

Netlog

Nimble

Tagged had an interesting match system but i never actually made a new friend or potential partner of the obosite sex from it, so i decided to get rid of it.

Netlog is a rapidly expanding website but frankly i had no use for it and none of my friends are on it.

Nimble was supposidly the next big thing in social networking but it really isn't when facebook changed it's tack and is now the ONLY place to be.

Now Bebo also is languishing in decline. I only use it to talk to 1 of my friends. A dire state of affairs but the truth. But i won't get rid of it just yet. Too fond of the memories.

It also is rather good. It has everything everyone else has, it also has good navigation and can stream your facebook and Twitter posts, but not your actual feeds of everyone you know on those websites. It also has band page's which have a rather basic music player. But when myspace is the most popular and successful place to be a BAND there's less of a point to it.

BUT I'M KEEPING MY BEBO!!!

Q-Rated:

Iusethis.com has now opened my eye's to what the world is using on their computers.

This meant i went on a bit of a mad spree of downloading of things i thought would be very useful.

I could list them but there's little point. I havent reviewed them all yet.

But what do i use you may ask:

Well for the internet i use Google Chrome.

In recent weeks my Media playing needs are fulfilled by Window's media player but i am also a large user of iTunes.

I do have Winamp and Real player, but they languish unused...

As for other toy's i use Google Picasa for pictures. But i will be product testing "GIMP" over the next few days. It stands for some software thing but i can't help think of those feckless masochists in latex or leather balaclava's with zips on the mouth. It's supposidly an open source software similar to Photoshop, so i'll give it a bash.

I also use TweetDeck. Twitter is good, but i can use this to update more regularly and to sort people's tweets by groups and colums as well as seeing my @replies and Direct message's all in the same place. It also has inbuilt tweetpic compatability to save on opening a webpage or another tab. It's trends are a bit shite though, it doesn't give you the live feed of the trend the same way the Twitter webstite does, i'm still hoping this will change.

LastFM. Okay so no one actually see's what i listen to, but i like the ability to know what i listen to and how much. I always have it on the go.

Windows Live Messenger. AKA MSN to those who have been using it as long as me. 6 Faithful years i think, at this rate. It's essential!

Winds of change:

I just got Firefox 3.5 and i have to say i may start using it more often. For ease in the use of my several accounts i may use it for one email while i use chrome normally. But also for it's toolbar functions and other applications. I will road test all of them but i think using all these added tools may improve and add to my internet usage the way i want it to be.

The same may be said for Opera Widgets. I have yet to fully test all Opera has to offer but i may also bend that way...

Unfortunatly it's Unite Service is a 1 account per copy of the browser affair. Which in my mind is a croc of shit. It means i can't access all that stuff using an opera browser from college computers. Which is what i would love to do with it. But security and so on means for now, such a thing can't happen.

But i may put Opera Mini on my INQ1.

I through, the support service's offered by INQ have discovered that i can add ANY java based Application or game to my INQ1. So i will definetly be trying out a lot of toys on my phone in future. Stay tuned for more in that regard!

Sorry for the nerd out, but it's what i was up to today. And unfortunatly there will be A LOT more to come...

I'm Gooooofy for Gooooooogle.

I've said it before and i'll say it again, i use A LOT of google things.

Picasa for my Photos.

Picasa web albums for photo hosting for my Google Blogger Blogs.

Google Chrome For internet use, althout it taxes my current computer a bit.

Blogger, obviously.

Gmail for College Emails.

Google Talk For College Email's and Society Friends.

Google Desktop was tested on my computer but it took up to much memory...

Youtube, cause who doesn't???

Google Maps /Google Earth

I have and unused Orkut account.

And i recently switched to reading blogs on Google Reader for conveiniance and organisation of my Reading fix.

Google Product's i hope to use in the future, because Google seem's to be a evil power i freely would buy into:

Google Wave - To reveloutionise the way i communicate, duh!

Google Latitude - To make cyber stalking me and my friends easier, if i needed to.

GoogleVoice - To have a phone number that can call ANY of my phone's from the same number depending on who's calling me.

Google's All For Good - A Local Area Charity and community search service for being involved with google users near-by who don't spend their whole life using google tools.

Google Chrome OS for Notebooks: In 2010 or so if i have money i'm getting a Notebook with google's OS, cause i would love to have it!

Basically i know google is basically the new Microsoft. But face it. Microsoft, got soft in recent years. Other people are just better than them, Apple beat them at office and music work, they also beat them at Mp3 players. Google Beat them at search engine's, and now has it's own browser and zillions of other tools. After all Gmail is hugely popular, although the Lapdog of Microsoft's quick buy's, Hotmail is probably the biggest Email provider after the like's of Yahoo.

Google is possibly a big evil corporation. But it has nice idea's, is very friendly, is slightly hippie like, is very useful and damn it they provide a lot of "open source" things, what ever that means!

Long may they enslave our live's! Cause i'll love 'em for the white sheen they bring.

A blog full of photo's...

So as i mentioned previously i had a stock pile of idea's and so on that i wanted to stuff into my blog post's over the next few days. That didn't exactly happen and i even left out an intended video from my previous blog.

So to keep up with continuity and to circumvent that fuck up with my facebook feed, this whole post will be dedicated to photo's and a video or two.

Snap Happy:

From Blogger Pictures

This is the Sprite that was magically Coke from last Saturday.

From Blogger Pictures

This is the door of "Exchange Dublin" on Sunday morning.

From Blogger Pictures

This is an interesting bit of graffiti from "shag alley" behind the George and beside Dublin Castle.

This is my product testing of the NEW Jolt Flavours that have finally arrived here in Ireland. They've had these for years in the states but a clerical technicality left the Koln and Netherlands plants still producing the classic Jolt Cola in it's olde plastic bottle.

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

I have yet to try the red one. They are VERY expensive as it is. The cheapest i've found them is about 2.60. The first red one i found was 3.99. Insane considering the normal 500ml plastic bottle is 1.50 and the tall can's about .99 to 1.20 or so.

And just for it's lusty goodness here's the origional:

From Blogging

From Blogger Pictures

A funny sticker covering the normal sign's on the luas.

Q-Rated:

Now i mentioned my new mp3/mp4 player before. It is a bargin i have to say, spatious, and handy.

However i payed for what i got. It's supposidly worth $80 but i got it for €35.

Now it wasn't easy getting music onto it. iTunes only detect's iPods. Winamp crashed, Realplayer crashed. doubleTwist which is meant for any device, also appeared to crash, and is useless at sorting music. So i resorted to Windows media player. Yay it worked, although the music tags were a bit off... I then disconnected the device, but i didn't do it properly. Hence i fucked up the machine. So after that my dad had to access it using command prompt and delete everything from there and use changelog and all these things i don't understand to get rid of crazy non-existant buggy files that spread across the inside of my mp3 player. It was a bitch basically. Then eventually we fixed it and all was good.

So I started to put all my music, or most of my music on it. Some 11 gb or so. I had to leave it running over night.

Then it wouldnt disconnect from my computer. In fear i would fuck it up again i didn't know what to do. So eventually i turned the computer off, and it worked fine.

However... The music is VERY poorly tagged. And the player on the device is awful. It doesn't shuffle. It claims it does but it doesn't, or for some odd reason shuffles the odd track here and there. It's annoying. And it take's forever to scroll trough the music. I got what i payed for, or rather what my dad payed for.

It also doesn't have the best battery life, it doesnt seem to have a proper stand-by like the iPod. So if you want to turn it off for a while, it's best to shut it off all together. Oh well, it's spacious, carries files, play's videos, plays music despite a piss poor player and it's nice lookin' who care's if it's a cheap pile of shite!

From Blogger Pictures

Video Kill's:

In a promised video posting i'll give y'all this. Possibly one of Wacko Jacko's best songs. I barely knew it at all, since it was never played on MTV in my youth, back when they played video's, and it wasn't really on the radio. I think i might have known it from a double tape of HISTORY that i had but with Tape's you usually just listened to one side or both if you had a player that would flip it for you, switching seemed pointless in those days.

So enjoy Man in The Mirror:

So goodbye for now.

Photo's of my toys.

So to show you all what i own. I will take photo's of the multitude of gadget's i seem to posess.

Plus some links and image's of thing's i would love to have...

Q-Rated:

All my Toy's:

From Blogging

Click to enlarge.

This is the break down of what is there:

4 Disc men. Only the one on the top left still works. The rest all broke for varrious reason's over the space of 2 1/2 years. Yep i'm gifted at breaking things.

My Alarm clock. Not very good but i need it to wake up to feed the dogs.

My Portable Dvd player and remote. Great for watching Frasier Dvd's in bed, or movies.

On old normal camera who's ownership is a mistery but i have it anyway.

My old camera. It's slightly damaged so i only use it to transfer photo's to my computer. The batteries in my very good Kodak waste easily, but this older one work's as a webcam so i use it to upload all my photo's via it's sd card slot.

My First phone. A Motorolla T 2288. One of the first WAP phone's and the generic version of their well advertised "fm radio" phone of the time. It's at least 9 years old now, still works. New batteries, new arial. Still goodish condition.

My 3rd phone. In the interum between this phone and my first was a cute little Sagem for about a year and a half that i had after 5 years of using the Motorolla. I then got this baby. She's a Motorolla E770. They don't make 'em like they used to. It was a Vodafone specific mobile with Videophone capabilities and an improved wap service. It lasted me more than 2 years. It wasn't a well selling phone because of it's "size" but it was perfect. I got very good use of it. Although the videophone was never used. Great light on the back of it as well. Very handy for adult affair's in the dark trying to find that damn profalactic. I switched it over to Meteor to save money. This rendered the wap useless and it's java games bought farely eventually stopped working. I switched from it only 3 months ago in favour of the next item.

My INQ1 Social Networking phone. Oh i love this little thing. When i have good coverage, ie when in an urban area it's amazing. It can do so many internet related things. Facebook is in built and so on. It has a moderate camera as well that is good for quick photo's for blogging and so on. I've mentioned this phone a lot and it has it's own label. I love it. Although i could upgrade eventually...

Creative MuVo TxFm. This was my "2nd" mp3 player. My first was a first generation iPod that wasn't really mine. This little baby is one hardy little thing. I didn't use it too often. Favouring my plethora of Disc men and my cd collection. She had limited space of 512 MB so she wasn't exactly sizeable. But she also has fm radio. I let it go through the washing machine and it still worked. But in time it's power button stopped responding due to fidgeting with it. I used it mainly as a USB stick for college. Although recently it stopped doing that also.

Tevion 5937. It's not actually mine. It's my dads. I mistakenly swapped it with my dad for my Warfedale Mp3 player which i bought the week before i got my iPod Nano 4th generation widescreen. Which is a different story. I swapped for this to use it as a sort of usb stick for college stuff. Unfortuntly my old computer didn't detect it. It also doesn't take any random file. So it's a useless lump of 2gb of space that is worth nothing to me. It has a weak interface and is frankly nothing special. I don't use it at all.

Pray for my Wharfedale. It was also a black mp3 player. 4 gb, great mini-jack ear phones that could defen you and could carry any file types like a portable hard drive. I liked it. It only had one problem, it's stand by didn't save power. If you paused it it would continue to run and it would drain the battery. I didn't get much use out of it. I bought it with house sitting money for about 60 quid in Argos. But when my parents returned from the UAE they arrived with an iPod Nano 8 G. A death sentance almost for the Wharfedale. But it was still a portable hard drive. I then swapped it. And now my dad has missplaced it. Nay good for that little thing.

This is a similar model: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220436070043&ih=012&category=73839&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1

My iPod Nano 4th Generation widescreen 8 GB. I have used this baby for over a year now. It's earphone jack is slightly damaged and thus several earphones either only play on one side or end up breaking when used with this iPod. The current one's i'm using seem to be lasting a good bit longer so fingers crossed they don't break. I have at least 1 spare pair left. But i don't want to chance it. It's nothing special. It's an iPod. It is too thin to play games on without giving my pain's in my thumbs. It's powerful, sleak and nice. It was out of date within 2 months of getting it but it's going to keep working for at least a year or so more. However i am starting to struggle to fit JUST 8 gb worth of music onto it. So i recently bought a new mp3 player on ebay.

This is what's to come:

From Drop Box

It's a 16 GB touch screen Mp3/Mp4 player. It's a knock off of the iPod touch. But it feature's SD card compatability, an FM radio and a copy of the software used to run the iPod touch. It also support's any java games. I got it for 35 euro on ebay, a bloody bargin. I should recieve it soon.

The last item there is the auto tuner for my Guitar. I haven't used it or the guitar in a good while but i have it none the less.

Oh btw this is the guitar:

From Blogging

It's a Stagg. It's basically just a copy off a Fender Stratocaster. But it's built by a company called stagg. I don't use it that often any more but she's a beauty. I pick her up now and again, ye know to relive those teenage dreams of being able to play or even better be in a band.

Thus complete's my Q-Rated bragging about my gadgets.

A Handbook To Madness 2: A Manifesto

The last handbook to madness was one of the earliest posts. After a request from my then only reader, Kaffee, for an explanation of the Anonymity system i posted a guidebook of sorts to who's who in my little world. Well that was pointless considering so many more people are now on that list and complicated things have happened over time and so on.

This Handbook is different. This handbook, this great flight of fancy and imagination. Is a means to consolidate and update my blogging into one coherent and organized structure that will take care of all my random posting's. It is both a Manifesto for change and a guide to the contents of my blog in the past and what i intend to include in the future and possible events in the near by future too!

Table of Contents:

Super Title's and what they will each mean

Le Future: Things that could happen in the nearby future, and my intentions for my blog and life on certain paths...

SUPER TITLE'S And a new Method To My Madness:

SUPER TITTLE'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes this is what i will call Each section of my blog and how they will appear. Basically for each blog post i will fit what i am writing about into one of several SUPER TITLE'S and then rant about them within that heading with optional sub-title's. They will also, be distinguishable by being in bold or caps and separated. They will also now be the main and hopefully only thing included in my Label's. This will be to facilitate search's for other occurrence’s in each Super Title.

There are 19 SUPER TITLE'S that i feel will cover both wickets/all base's or whatever metaphor/simile i need.

It's Life Jim (but not as we know it):

(Diary entries of any or all content) Label's: Life, It's Life Jim, Diary.

This will most likely be the majority of my posts and will require sub-title's more than most. But hopefully with the Super Title system will be broken up more and will not be required as much as you may expect. My life, my thought's on my situations that don't fit super title's and so on.

High Society:

(The Society, debating, campus politics and friendship/kinship/brotherhood): Society, College, School.

This one's a no brainer really. It already exists as it is. But with my involvement not being what i want it to be due to my failure to vote for myself and the busy nature of next year but i will still include this part of my life and all the friendships and interesting stories gained from it.

Cinephillia:

(An old blog of mine now contained in this blog): Cinephillia.

As with the nature of the old blog this will be a look at my love of movies. Movie's i have recently seen, Whether in the Cinema, DVD, TV or Online. It will also cover any critique's i may have from time to time.

Music Or Misery

(Also an old blog now contained in this blog): Music

Music is a big part of my life. I listen to it all the time. I therefore think i have a certain taste and opinion related to what i like and why i think it's good. Of course that's just snobbery. I in my liberal mindset believe Music Criticism is impossibly wrong and heavily biased. But i'll happily critique what i know about and like. Basically I will talk about artist's i love and how or why i love them and the odd time put down others because i don't like them at all...

Abondonia:

(Older, new, and moded computer game's and why they are amazing): Abondonia.

Abondonware is the name given to software that no longer has a platform that can utilise it and or is out of date, hard to buy and rare. It is also a name given to older computer games. I play a lot of older computer games. They're just better. Also my pc isn't top range and i don't have the thumbs for Console's so PC games of yester-year are my go to joy. Open TTD and Civili(z)ation II being my main joys in the life of gaming. Plus other games that i have lying around and so on.

A nerdy gaming SUPER TITLE that you won't see to often, but it's a SUPER TITLE none-the-less.

Celebtastic:

(My view of the celeb world and current stories): Celebs, Celebtastic

I read several things around the web about celebrity and so on. It's called boredom, we all have it sometimes. So in an effort to remain relevant or to show i exist in the same plain of reality as the rest of us i will occasionally mention why Slut A is drunk and why Douche B is well a Douche. Stuff happens out there, we can't help but notice it and hey, i might as well mention it.

Newshound:

(News is happening 24/7, i will mention some...): Newshound, News, "insert popular news story or twitter trend name here".

As i said news happens 24/7. If something is happening in the world i will mention my thought on it, however opinionated or brief. I will endeavor to weigh in on what is happening and hope to inform as well as develop comment on it. It is after all a main facet of the blogosphere to comment on the world around us and the NEWS is how it is usually done for us by various media.

Lounge Athlete:

(my occasional interest in that alien world of Sport and physical activity): Sport, "insert sporting event here".

I am NOT a huge fan of sport. I don't follow any team in any sport. I do not follow any particular sport. But i do, like many follow big sporting events. The World Cup, The Olympics and Wimbledon. I never miss these things, they are my main and only sporting fix. If anything Wimbledon, being annual is my main area of sporting knowledge. And thus i will talk about Tennis with more fact's than i will any other sport.

Love, Actually:

(Love is the thing.) : Love, Love Life, "insert current fancy here"

Shocking as it may be but everyone has a love life. And even without a love life it is still called a love life despite lack there of. So in my quest for a partner in life and so on i will comment on it from time to time here. From fleeting fancies, to hopeful suitee’s, to anyone i may date or experience intimate moments with. This will be the Tunnel of Love and so on. It will mainly be full of whining and postulating, but if things look up here and there it could be all mushy and gooey and you'll hate me for including it.

Brick O' Brack:

(You can't have one without T'other): Misc, Brick O' Brack

Random thing's that fit no label, or fit more than one and hence for sake of ease will go under miscellaneous or Misc.

Video Kill's:

(Youtube and other viral flash boxes): Video Kill's, Youtube, "insert funny viral video trend here"

As is the nature of the web in this day and age there are these things called video's that play moving image's that entertain us. If one entertains me and i find it worthy of my blog i will added it to my blog and show it off to you.

This will break my blog though and cause it's feed to my facebook not to display the video or any words in the blog. Why this happens i do not know, but the same go's for photo's.

Web-Watch:

(It's Where it's @) Web-watch, web, interweb, "insert popular website here"

I am a prolific web user. I use it all the time. This SUPER TITLE will mention every part of my web use that i wish to share with you. From the blogosphere to Twitter Trends, to Web Browsers themselves, to New "IT" websites, To old one's, To place's where "it's" @.

Examblor:

(Academia, my college study life and so on): Examblor

As a nursing student, it's something i can't avoid. It's the monster in the room, exams, and so on. It is a big issue and so is my academic side as a whole. So i will cover it from time to time as it will have important factor's on many part's of my life.

Muse's:

(My story's, Lyric's and idea's, patent pending..): Muse's, Writing, Screenplay's, Lyrics, Poem's etc

I have what i would like to call an "active imagination". And with that i have many idea's and thought's which form many of my untapped "talents". I want to eventually write several books and create several tv show's or movies. I also from time to time write lyric's/poem's and i may share a few with you. I also have idea's from time to time and it would be nice to share some of them as well.

Q-Rated:

(Gadget's and how i love them): Q-Rated, Gadgets.

I am a man. Hence i use gadgets, it's a given. I have several Mp3 players of various make's and size, i have a webtastic INQ 1 mobile phone that i brag about a lot, i have a pile of broken disc men, a portable dvd player and i have 2 camera's. I love gadgets. If i could i would buy several kick ass mobile phone's, mp3/mp4 players just to test them or to have them. I would also love a laptop or notebook or pda, scratch that a touch screen blackberry/pda. Basically i would like many a thing i can't have. But it doesn't mean i can't educate myself about what kick ass gadget's and manly toy's are out there. So i will mention it all here, all very Q-Rated.

NB I would get a pink Nintendo DS/DS lite just to have a DS!!! No matter what condition or colour, if it works i'd have any gadget!!!!!!

Health & Illness:

(Health and healthy living and illness's and poor life behaviors): Health & Illness, Nursing, Health, Illness, H+I, "insert health scare/pandemic of the moment here"

As a Nursing Student, a human and citizen, a mental-illness groupie and a socialist, this is all very important to me. Health and it's opposite illness are very important thing's for society and humanity. So i will mention these things many a time in various forms and weigh in my thoughts, official and abstract... (sometimes sterilisation, genocide and quarantine seem too tempting to logical to ignore...)

Snap Happy:

(Camera's and photo's i've taken or love): Camera, Snap Happy

I'm no professional. I don't know or understand the "rule of thirds" but i do love photographs. I love them in all shape's and size's. From early lithographs’ and Auto-chrome's to my own snap happy way's within my "social life" and for recreational use. Camera's and their by-product's are an important part of life and with the disposable nature of digital they are even more common. Even my portable phone and telegram machine has a camera. So expect awe inspiring old timey photo's from by gone era's or interesting nugget's snapped by my hand.

On The Box:

(Television and it's shows): TV

I watch tv. We all Watch TV. It's just a case of what we like to watch. Well i will tell you what i watch, why i watch it, what i think is good and why it is so. So stay "tuned" and don't pick up the remote.

WARNING: Crime Drama, Medical Drama, Sci-fi and British Soaps/Drama and Comedy/sit-coms/Panel Shows feature heavily.

So that is the SUPER TITLE'S list. To recap the SUPER TITLE'S Are:

IT's Life Jim

High Society

Cinephillia

Music Or Misery

Abondonia

Celebtastic

Newshound

L0unge Athlete

Love, Actually

Brick o' Brack

Video's Kill

Web-Watch

Examblor

Muse's

Q-Rated

Health & Illness

Snap Happy

On The Box

This is all to facilitate easier search's and to also break up my blogs. I also hope that it will allow me to run trends of several smaller blogs throughout my posting. Thus separating each field of blogging under these SUPER TITLE'S and letting you all know what the hell i was on when i wrote each entry.

It's Life Jim:

The Future:

Well what's in store for the rest of the summer? Hmm well first we have to see the result's of Examblor and then study, work, and grovel accordingly. It's an extensive situation and i will discuss it under an Examblor post next week.

Other items of interest will be that DS is home. This Means cinema trips soon. So more Cinephillia is inevitable. But also his 21st is this summer. And there is a provisional plan for a trip to Amsterdam. So that could possibly happen. Provided Examblor result's are not to evil and snarling, festering and draining of my life-force.

A reading of the new Ross O'Carrol Kelly book, and inevitably a post in the style of that most popular dubliner.

It all hinge's on that Examblor post next week, so hush hush, stay tuned, Xo Xo and all that jazz.