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Showing posts from January, 2007

And finally, traditional English cricket commentary comes to the Web

Despite not actually liking cricket I do fondly recall both the BBC theme music and the cracking commentary by the likes of Brian Johnson - some of it even had a child like me giggling. Noizy blogs about how it has returned via the 'ball-by-ball' text commentary over at Cricinfo - read and enjoy . Thanks Noizy for sharing it.

Microsoft website blooper on the 'Office Word 2007 top 10 benefits' page

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This posting could/should've been title, "It's easy to sit there and mock. Which is why I like it " - which I thought was a Jack Handey but I was wrong. As spotted by an eagle-eyed colleague - check out the Office Word 2007 top 10 benefits page The initial blurb is all about "professional" and "easy-to-use": We then have number 1 benefit which tells us how we can now concentrate on getting the words right: And then, ah, oops ... For those that didn't spot it have a closer look

Wellingtonista: Cheers drive / Nothing on / Wellingtonista boos: ads on our sacred space

The Wellingtonista is the blog for you Wellingtonians (in the widest geographical sense) and here's the latest articles for you to enjoy: Wairarapista Cheers drive Nothing on Wellingtonista boos: ads on our sacred space

last.fm - your music when you want it

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Life online is getting easier and easier - I have the ability to communicate ( email and chat but unfortunately not web cam), create, find and use words and numbers ( blog , Google Docs and wiki ) and share/edit my photos ( Flickr with its myriad of 'extensions' ). The final pieces of "stuff" that I lying around the house that I would love to stick online are: Books Movies Music Oh, there are oodles of printed photo's but I know I can scan them in and upload to Flickr ... I just haven't ... yet ... ever ... oooh, too many photos to think about. Books are unlikely to go electronic until I can use something as easy - sitting in bed reading a laptop ain't the same! Movies (personal and home made, not the other sort) - bandwidth, that's the issue. I could, possibly, stick the videos up onto YouTube but it would take a month of Sunday's and playing it wouldn't be the same. And, what do I do with all those VHS tapes? Music . Ah, now there&#

Scary Mary trailer - Mary Poppins for your nightmares

Part of the mashup world - enjoy, but don't show the kids:

If Microsoft made the iPod video

Hee hee

The Police getting back together for one gig

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Whilst The Police (band, not upholding the law organisation) were a seminal part of music youth I don't have an huge emotional attachment to the music. Mind you Zenyatta Mondatta was the first LP I ever ever bought taking my hard earned (given) pocket money down to Monmouth Woolies. Those songs do take me back to my bedroom in Wyesham . Anyway - they're back together for a one-off "gig" at the Grammys in LA on 11th Feb.

Charlotte's visit, a pictorial overview: part one

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Jack and Meg have just said tara to Char, a cousin from Christchurch. Here's a few of the best photo's from her awesome visit (dates in January 2007: 22nd , 23rd , 26th , 27th )

Subterfuge, coding and beating the man

Read the story how two guys beat 'the man' by un-cancelling an Apple software development project and ending up on the front of the New York Times celebrating the mass release of their software. Favourite quotes: ... I was frustrated by all the wasted effort, so I decided to uncancel my small part of the project. I had been paid to do a job, and I wanted to finish it. My electronic badge still opened Apple's doors, so I just kept showing up. ... We were saved by the layoffs that began that month. Twenty percent of Apple's fifteen thousand workers lost their jobs, but Greg and I were safe because we weren't on the books in the first place and didn't officially exist. Afterwards, there were plenty of empty offices. ... At 2:00 one morning, a visitor appeared in my office: the engineer responsible for making the PowerPC system disk master. He explained things this way: "Apple is a hardware company. There are factories far away building Apple computers. One of

Stories and how they 'are' your life

Not only are stories what you live your life they are also the medium by which you engage with the environment around you. Probably - I am of course implying that my outlook on life ("my story") is the way that you should see your life. Dave Snowden has two unrelated story (narrative)-type postings over at Cognitive Edge that caught my eye, Fractal narratives & identity and Antiquitas saeculi juventus mundi - cracking titles aren't they? Stick with me/him though. The first article is best summed up by Mr D Snowden: ... Those stories provide the basic patterns through which we filter and perceive the world. You cannot argue logically on the basis of personal self interest in the face of such power. Instead you have to understand, nurture and evolve those stories over time. ... As an example he uses what is, I suspect, a scenario we can all empathise with: Think of family gatherings, Christmas after all is not too far behind us. In the modern age families no longer

So Riversdale, what do you want to be when you grow up?

Fascinating article over at Jeremy Dean's blog titled Why Career Planning Is Time Wasted outlining why we (humans, the fleshy bits behind the computer things) are "... are incredibly bad at knowing our future selves". Key quotes follow but I urge you to read it for the full context and greater goodness: ... Everyone has their own internal trade-offs. How much routine do you like: boring but safe)? How much do you like travel: exciting but you'll be away from loved ones? How much do you care about earning more money: and taking a more boring/stressful/less fulfilling job? Whatever the outcome of all these swings and roundabouts along with many more, the reason that deciding what to do with your life is so difficult is that it involves predicting the future. ... It turn out that when next week rolls around they generally don't like the variety they thought they would. In fact they are significantly less happy with their choices than the group who chose their sandw

The rugby season is upon us

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And dashed early in the year it is. And WHAT a rugby year it will be. Wellington Sevens : For those off to the tournament this weekend, have a blast! Super 14 : don't forget to add me to your virtual competition , player name MiramarMike. Go the Hurricanes (first game in Brisbane v the Reds this Saturday evening) Six Nations : All building blocks to the World Cup for the boys from the Valleys - first game against Ireland in Cardiff this Sunday. And here's to more humiliation for the English ;-) World Cup : Only 161 days (5 months 10 days) before the first game of the competition kicks off - and that's the last time I'll do that!

Integration between Gmail and Google Docs

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[Update] Official Google Blog posting with the following screenshot: As you've probably read earlier I have recently completed a shift to Google Apps for your Domain (title is still as zingy as ever!?!) enabling Vista Coaching to support its business activities online - I shouldn't and won't call it "run their business online" as that's not what they're doing, that occurs face-to-face with clients. Anywho - one of my gripes was that the Google Docs isn't a part of the package and without it it's not something I'd recommend others to do. However, it's obviously coming as Google Docs is now a part of the wider Gmail integration. What does that mean? If someone sends you a Word/Excel document as an attachment you can now "Open as Google Document" . This places the Word/Excel document straight into your document 'repository' (Google Docs) and away you go - awesome. The one piece of info it loses though is the connection

Second Life

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By now all of you fine gentle people will have heard/read about the weirdness that is Second Life and if not then I would count yourself lucky and move on to other blogs with humour and fine writing. Second Life - the online world that you can live in. For some reason. I myself (and me) have only recently had this ScFi thingymabob brought to my attention and am still shaking my head and wondering what the world (this one, the real one, the one you and I live in) is coming to. After registering ("MAB Boyle" is my alter/ulter/utter-ego) and downloading the installation I spent around 45 minutes choosing the eyelash length, shirt colour and material before walking into a stream to see what would happen ... nothing. I can't see me clicking on it for a very long time. Within Second Life there are clothes designers (not real clothes) making money *, there are real lawyers entering the world to take the virtual baddies away and now Sweden**, the land of elves, is gonna open a

Vista Coaching and the adventure of the Internet

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As you may know my wife runs her own life coaching business called Vista Coaching and one of the challenges recently given to me was to update her current online presence - ie, the website . As Liz is already using Google Docs and Gmail for the majority of her business type stuff I thought I'd find out how comprehensive the Google Apps for Your Domain offerings [ search ] are and what the cost in my time and her money would be. It also tied in directly with an exercise at my work with a CEO directive of "let's be as creative as we can on how we support the day-to-day business activities" ... ie, why host, support and maintain an email system ourselves when it could (maybe) be done as a service. And so, to prove a point to myself I set myself the following tasks: Register the domain name 'vistacoaching.co.nz' Redirect the Vista Coaching blog (Blogspot) to ' www.vistacoaching.co.nz ' Get emails for '...@vistacoaching.co.nz' using the Gmail i

Party on like it's 1977 - you're invited to my 40th

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After much consultation I have decided that my 40th birthday party will be themed around 1977 . That is the theme is '1977' and not that I am going to go back in time and get back to you by 1977 with the theme. Aaaanyway. Reason - don't need one, it's my 40th. But seeing as you've asked and have taken the time to settle down for a long answer let me set you right. For me 1977 is a definitive year, there's 'before 1977' and there's 'after 1977'. Before 1977 cool people were born, after came the kids. Before there was naff sci-fi films (2001: A Space Odyssey aside), after there are eye-popping CGI rides. Before 1977 the clothes were of an era, after there was ... the 1980's, fair enough. Before 1977 there was funky, loud and great music , after there was ... the 1980's! 1977 ( in the UK ) is defined by 3 things for me: Star Wars Grease (which I discover is 1978 ... but my memory is far more reliable than the internet!) Sun Star Wars wa

Happy Australia Day

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And if you want a wee bit of Australia on your wall check out Luke's partners paintings being sold on TradeMe:

A work day that might have broken the camel's back

Luckily Martha and Jessica were there to make me laugh out loud!

MiramarMike is also at Windows Live Spaces

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Like the Bebo and MySpace accounts it's there to drive, herd and coral the users to this blog :-)

Need a good painter?

Check out this dude

BBC to use YouTube allowing streaming/downloads of TV programmes

Cool as - BBC programmes via YouTube , now that would be a feather in the YouTube/Google cap. Whilst I'm on on the BBC - they are looking at creating a safe online (3D?) world for kids ... I can so totally see Jack living in it forever and ever.

Virtual Super 14 - MiramarMike is back in the race

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I'm on and in the Virtual Super 14 (first game 2nd Feb) as MiramarMike , add me to your list and watch me whip your rugby choosing ass .... or something. Of course the 'Canes will be providing the greatest amount of entertainment on their way to the final on 19th May . Fixture lists, results, game reports at one or all of these: Rugby + news sites Rugby + NewZealand sites PlanetRugby Super 14 The Dropkicks blog NZRU Super 14

MySpace and Beebo - I have them

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I don't know why ... well I do, it's about enlarging the net to drive the fishes into my clutches at this blog :-) MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/miramarmike Beebo: http://MiramarMike.bebo.com I have no intention of updating them unless they become horrendously more popular than here and then I'll move without a moments hesitation. Until that time however, the real me is still here on the blog. Mind you, if you want to invite me to be your MySpace/Bebo friend then don't hesitate to do so.

Recent Readers - how I added them and what it means (MyBlogLog)

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Some of the more observant of the intelligent readers will have noticed an ever changing bunch of faces to the left (at the top) and may have wondered what the jolly heck is going on. Well sit yourself down and let me tell ya! I've joined up to a blog tracking service called MyBlogLog (now owned by Yahoo!). It tracks a number of things such as where you click and, if you're part of the MyBlogLog network what site you've been to. My wee page is at: http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/MiramarMike/ How does this all affect you - not a jot, but by all means gaze lovingly at the faces as they appear and even click on through to see who they are. The statistics collected is all automatic (much like Google Analytics that I also use) and won't contain anything personal about you or anything I can use to trace you down and become your own personal stalker - promise. The top 25 links clicked are displayed back to you as you hover over them ... of mild interest if you want to f

the wellingtonista: Craft2.0

Craft2.0 TheNewDowse is due to re-open on February 17th. There are exciting activities planned for the 4 weeks following, culminating in da da da dah! Craft2.0. Craft2.0 is going to be on the 17th of March, and will be a craftacular, a spectacraft, if you will. ... ... read the full article

Pictures of Walls ... sounds bad, is funny

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Thanks to DoF at Rest Area 300m for the link to Pictures of Walls Some that made us giggle here at the office (there's many, many more ...):

Edit your Flickr pictures online using Preloadr

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I like Preloadr ... I'm using it when I need to edit photo's - no more having to think that the photo's have to be edited using a PC - yaaay! Hat-tip to Smileycat and the Online Image Editors Compared article [Updated 5-Feb-2007] Nice review of online image editors at Techcrunch: Online photo editing review