Summer's HERE!

Woohoo!
As such I updated my Blog template.
Happy blue Summer days.
Aw.

Jaiku Killed My Blog

When I signed up to Jaiku, I thought it would be a neat way to filter out the many small posts from my blog. Rather, it filtered out almost ALL the posts to my blog.
It's just so much easier to post a tiny status update to Jaiku rather than writing a full blog post.
But I'm going to start getting back into it.
I'll be moving to Qld in January, and I intend to start using the blog the way I used to. I'll even try before that.
--
This message was sent from my mobile.

A Benefit of Jaiku

Now that I have a Jaiku account, I can post all the little, dull things to Jaiku, saving the blog for the more interesting posts.
Jaiku will also stream my links from del.icio.us, so keep your eyes on the sidebar to the left for any interesting things I have found on the 'net.

EDIT: The del.icio.us feed doesn't seem to stream very well (it isn't posting the most recent addition), so I will have to play around with it a little more before I can be sure it works.
Also, I've lodged a feature request that the Web Badge show the source of the "presence" so that you can tell between the ones I write, and the ones that are bookmarks, photos, and blog entries.
It seems like a handy tool.

Joined Jaiku

I succumbed.
You can now see my presence on the left-hand side of my page.
It will fill with my Flickr photos, del.icio.us boomarks, and (oddly enough) my Blog posts. It will also fill with any little messages I send it.
Let's see what it's like.

To Jaiku, or not to Jaiku?

Hmmm. I've been looking at Jaiku for a few days now, and am torn whether or not I should join.
I originally saw the idea of mini-blogs with Twitter, and with the recent addition of the Twitter Web Badge for Blogger, I was tempted to use their service. However, I dismissed the idea because I can always just email in little status thingies into my blog from my phone anyway, and it doesn't cost me a cent (whereas I have to send an international SMS for Twitter to work). But since that dismissal, I keep seeing Jaiku around.
Jaiku have a S60 3rd Edition client. This means it will run on my phone and communicate with Jaiku using my phone's Internet connection, rather than international SMS. This also means there is a more powerful interface - it will update my location automatically, display who is online etc, etc all from my phone. Plus Jaiku links with things like del.icio.us and other feeds - so that's cool. So it seems a cool little service.
But I keep thinking... does it do anything that I can't do already?
Is it useful to separate little status messages from my normal Blog?
Do I really want people to know where I am?
Another question is whether the client disables itself when I leave the broadband zone - which would be expensive/annoying if it doesn't.
So. I will decide soon.

With Web 2.0 there seems to be a lot of doubling up of services. Another example of this is Facebook. I already have MySpace, and I'm barely using that anymore anyway (is that what happens when you get a girlfriend?), so will I still care enough about Facebook in 4 months time to justify signing up now.
Plus, I like my Blog - I don't want/need a MySpace Blog, nor a Facebook one - and unless Jaiku integrates well with my existing one, I doubt I will want/need one of theirs, either.
So many questions. I am overwhelmed by Web 2.0

Song of the Moment

Hi folks!
Just decided to add a little bit to the left hand side of the page where I will state my favourite song of the moment. There will be no regularity to updates, but whenever a song enters my head and stays there for a significant amount of time, I will post it to my blog. I may even link to lyrics etc. Won't that be fun?

Listening to: Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble of Shadows - Résumé...

The Cold Makes Me Late

Yargh. Winter. I hate it. I love it. I hate it because I can't get out of bed in the morning. I love it because it makes bed so nice to be in. I hate it because remaining in bed makes me late, which means I leave late, and because it's winter, it's dark when I leave work. Today is one of those days. I slept in an hour today. I was meant to get in at 7:30am so that I could leave work at a decent hour. It's 8:15am, and I'm in the Lane Cove Tunnel. And I'm hungry - but that's another matter.
But that's one thing I like about my job, you're not late until it's 9am. So, while I'm late because I wanted to start at 7:30am, I'm not late in my manager's eyes. So, yay!
I (or Leanne) will be uploading the photos from the Hunter Valley soon, and I'll give an accompanying blog post when they are up.
Cool. On the bridge now. Be at work soon.

Listening to: Solaa - Steps in Time (those that opened for Shapeshifter).
--
This message was sent from my mobile.

And Introducing...

...Leanne!
What with all the interesting things found in life and on the Internet, I feel that to try and report on it all just isn't possible by myself.
So, after seeing examples of cool things that Leanne has come across, I have decided to add her as an author to my blog.
So she will now post interesting things she comes across on the Internet, and after email is set up on her phone, she will also be able to post interesting things while out in the world (probably photos, too, if Telstra allows attachments to her emails). She will also add a different perspective to events that we have attended, and report on any that she attended.
So, without further ado, I present...
LEANNE!

Tag/Label Cloud

Oooh! Look at that! My "Labels" section is now arranged in cloud form. I did this using these instructions.
Isn't that pretty? As to keep it looking neat, I've set it to only show labels that have more than one entry. Why would you want to see labels with only one entry anyway?
So yes. Enjoy.

New Layout

So I just spent about 3 hours updating my Blog Template so that I could have my details on the left and my links etc on the right.
In the process of this I had to expand the width of my blog, and in the process of that I had to remove the round edges of the header.
Such is life, I suppose.
Now I may just consider getting funky with colours... at least they're easy to change.
Please let me know if this modification caused anything funky to happen when you view my blog.
Cheers

New Layout

Well, a change in the existing layout.
I'm going to change the picture to the side more often, as well as the text below it. More dynamic, y'see. More interesting. More representative.
It'll be hot.
You know it.

Less News

In the interest of clutter, I have gone through and deleted some of the news posts. I will also post less news from now on, as I went a little overboard with how many I posted, and my actual posts were quickly swamped.
Peace out.

Filtering with Labels

So I just spent that past (far too long) adding labels to my old posts.
I didn't do it with great detail, but what I did try and do was add the label "personal" to any posts that involved an event I'd been a part of, or an opinion of mine.
So now it means that you can filter out any of the news snippets or links that I put up on my blog just by clicking on the "personal" label to the side of the page.
Yay! How good am I?
(Sorry TC for wasting your time/money)

RSS

Hi there. Quick update coz I'm bored (I'll see if I can type up the final half of my weekend update tonight, but my new HDD for my iriver arrived yesterday, so the installation of that is getting the priority...).
But anyway.
I just thought I'd point out a handy feature of blogger to all of you addicted to my blog.
Did you know that my posts are automatically linked with an RSS feed?
What does that mean? Well, it means you can easily subscribe to my blog and find out when I've updated it! Just use Firefox (or your favourite RSS feed subscribing application)!
So, in Firefox, click on the orange icon that appears in the address bar and it will open up a bookmark dialogue box. I recommend sticking the bookmark in the "Bookmarks toolbar folder" so that you can access it easily. When you click on the new bookmark, a slide menu will open up withg a list of my most recent posts, click on one of them to read it. How easy is that!?

Also, you may like to know that the PBF and spamusement websites also support this wonderful
feature!
Also, also, if you prefer IE, the new IE 7 will support RSS, and the new Yahoo! Mail Beta supports RSS feeds too. Mad fun. That is all.

Listening to: King Crimson - Starless and Bible Black (the classic prog-rock album)

First post!

Hey folks!
Thanks for tuning in.
Well, I've been at home bored for two days, and as so often happens when one it bored, they start trying new things. This blog is one of those new things.
I thought this morning that I should keep a diary/journal, and being a great big smelly nerd, I figured that this would be the best way.
I will document travels (rather than sending so many emails), rabbit on about weekends. And whatever else tickles my fancy.
Man that sounds gay.
Ok. That's enough from me...