2008 June

Archive - June, 2008

The legend George Carlin passes away

June 23, 2008 in Personal with Comments Off

I was saddened to hear about the death of one of my favourite comedians yesterday. I only really got into George Carlin in the last few years. I had seen him in movies before (Like Bill & Ted and some Kevin Smith films) but I hadn’t seen any of his comedy. His views on politics and the world in general were a breath of fresh air. He had the same magic as the late great Bill Hicks.

Like Carlin, I was brought up Roman Catholic however I am now an Athiest (and have been for many years). I’ve read a lot of books on the contradictions of Religion and how Religion has evolved from past beliefs (paganism etc) which is why I made an immediate connection to him and his views.

He truly is a legend and I’m disappointed I never got the change to make it to one of his gigs (I was planning on squeezing one in my next trip to the states). Think I’ll say a prayer to Joe Pesci for him:)

Here a few of my favourite clips from the man himself

Some Quality Fast Food Service

June 23, 2008 in Personal with 2 Comments

I’m not a big fan of Fast Food however yesterday myself and my friend Barry were in Glasgow shopping for some clothes for our holiday and we went to KFC for quickness.

Heres what happened :

Me : Hi there, can I get a a Wicked Zinger meal with a sprite.
KFC : Of course sir, what drink would you like with that?
Me : A sprite please.
KFC : OK so that will be £3.59
Me : The menu says its £4.29
KFC : Oh you want a ‘Wicked Zinger Meal’?
Me : Yes
KFC : So that’s a Wicked Zinger Meal with a coke.
Me : No I want a sprite

At this point the guy walks away to get the order. Another guy at the counter came over and asked if I wanted any ketchup. When he was asking me this the first guy arrived and popped down a coke. I then had to tell the 2nd guy that the first guy messed up and I wanted a sprite.

I know fast food jobs are low paying, I know that Fast Food joints have a big staff turnaround too but damn, is it really that hard to employ people who have an IQ higher than a 4 year old?

Fring is pretty good

June 18, 2008 in Geek Stuff with Comments Off

I installed Fring on my phone tonight. Fring is a free script which allows you to access all major messenger services through your phone. It allows you to chat and call via AOL, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Yahoo, SIP, AIM and Skype. It also has Twitter too!

The messenger service works pretty good. You can chat and call as you normally would. Some features are obviously missing though it does allow you to send files through it. The windows messenger live script I installed has a lot more features and is more suitable for using msn however Fring connects you to all chat scripts at the same time. Which is good and bad at the same time. I have some contacts on Google Talk through using gmail and I have less than 10 skype contacts. However, I have dozens of contacts on msn messenger and having all chat scripts on at the same time is obviously not smart.

You will get an alert for every message you receive and twitter updates too. The problem is, typing on a mobile phone is obviously slow and cumbersome so it isn’t really suitable for chatting to more than one person at a time (even though it handles it pretty well).

The Twitter part of well is limited but it works really well. You don’t see older messages, you only get ones which were received since you had Fring on. If you want to see older messages you simply login to the main Twitter site anyways so it isn’t a big deal. So in this regard it works really well for updating your Twitter when your on the move. Which is pretty handy if your out and about and want to quickly let friends and colleagues what your up to and then log off.

I have set mine up so that Twitter and Skype are logged on when I switch Fring on. If I want to chat to a friend on msn it’s probably more practical to use the windows messenger live script so that I’m not bombarded with too many messages at once.

I don’t have an internet bundle packaged with my monthly contract but since I work from home anyways I’ll only really use it when I’m stuck. My phone does have wifi though so I could always quickly logon when I’m at a friends house and chat for free!

If you want to add messenger to your phone, I’d recommend checking Fring out.

Some random affiliate emails I have received this week

June 18, 2008 in Internet Stuff with Comments Off

I get bombarded with emails from affiliates every day. I do unsubscribe from some and spam others however I do keep tabs on some on the offchance there is a good promotion or good news story.

Here are a two I have received this week.

From CasinoBlasters

Hi Kevin Muldoon,

Hope all is well.

I tried calling you with the phone number you had originally signed up with XX XX XX unsuccessfully.

Can you email me the best number to reach you, so I can discuss important information on how to increase the revenue you generated for yourself with Casino Blasters?

This is in regards to your account with username XXXX that to date has generated $10,187.68.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Evano

I have to admit, I wasn’t aware I made this much from just the one site. I am tempted to create a casino related site to see if I can generate some more income from it. From the looks of it the competition is a lot tougher, I wouldn’t go as far as saying the market is saturated, but it’s definately a lot busier than it was when I was developing some casino sites around 2002 & 2003.

From PepperJamNetwork

Dear Kevin Muldoon,

You have been terminated from the WebmasterRadio.FM affiliate program. Please remove your links, as you will no longer be eligible to receive a payout for leads or sales generated. This decision was made based on a variety of reasons, and we wish you luck in your future affiliate marketing endeavors.

Thank you.

Affiliate Team

Absolutely no explaination why I was dropped from the affiliate program though I assume this decision was obviously from webmasterradio and not PepperJam. I wasn’t promoting them so maybe thats a reason however it just seems strange that they would accept my site and then decide to reject it less than 2 months later. Would have been good if they told me why instead of just saying a ‘variety of reasons’. Oh the joy of being vague!

Banners Mall Suck

June 14, 2008 in Internet Stuff with 8 Comments

I have been looking to get some banners design for BloggingTips lately. I’m going to promote the main blog and the forums on some related blogs.

For years I used 20 Dollar Banners but my email to them was never replied to so last Friday I placed an order at Banners Mall. They told me 3-4 days max on their website so on Tuesday I contacted them for an update as I hadn’t been emailed. They later replied and told me that it would be finished by the next morning. Wednesday morning came and went. I emailed again on Wednesday and Thursday for an update and got no reply so on Friday I lodged a dispute with PayPal. Finally, today (Saturday), 8 days later I get an email from them saying

Kevin…our designer has not responded to us with your banner…havent been able to get a hold of him. I’m very sorry about that…did you receive a refund yet? otherwise I will make sure you receive your banner today.

When I told them I just wanted a refund they said I would get it later today (I still haven’t got it).

I’m still looking for a decent banner design service so if you know of any please let me know. If you’re looking for some banners designed yourself, do yourself a favour and avoid Banners Mall like the plague.

Metal Gear Solid 4 out today

June 12, 2008 in Films, TV, Games & Music with Comments Off

When I wake up I should hopefully have my copy of Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3. Just when I was starting to play GTA4 a bit less they go and bring out the game I’ve been waiting to get for years!

The one player game is supposed to be amazing however I’m looking forward to trying out the online multiplayer modes too. Anyone else getting this?

Here’s a video preview for those who haven’t seen it

Why I’m not excited about the 3G iPhone

June 9, 2008 in Geek Stuff with 9 Comments

I’ve read loads of tech sites over the last few days talking about the release of the new 3G iPhone. I got to use the first iPhone went out came out the other year. Then it was lacking 3G support when every new phone had it. They have rectified that but they have kept the 2 megapixel camera.

I’m not disputing that the iPhone is a nice gadget however it really does lack in a lot of areas. Remember, this is a device you need to use day in day out. Heres why this phone never interested me :

There are no hard keys. I have used a few HTC mobiles and a few LG mobiles which had no hard keys and whilst the touch screens work ok however they are far from perfect. I like my phones to have keys.
Only has a 2 megapixel camera. Why didn’t they put a good camera in this phone? The Sony Ericcson W900i phone I bought about 2 and a half years ago had a 2 megapixel camera!
No 3G Video Calling – A 3G phone without the ability yo use 3G video calls??
The amount of memory is really good but feature wise it really lacks behind a lot of phones out available today

The main reason why I’m not considering a new phone

The main reason I’m not considering a new phone is because I just got one 2 weeks ago. I got the Nokia N82.

The N82 is one of the best phones available in Nokias N-Series range. One of the main reasons I bought this phone was it’s camera. It has a 5 megapixel camera. The camera boasts a Carl Zeiss lens, a shutter to stop dust and best of all an Xenon flash. I thought about getting the Nokia N95 8GB however the shutter and improved flash swung the N82 in my favour.

My last phone had a 2 megalpixel camera and whilst it was good for the odd fun snap, it was a terribly poor camera and the pictures at night were awful. The quality of pictures with this phone is even better than my Sony T7 camera, and that cost me £350 a few years ago.

Of course, being a smartphone the N82 has a huge amount of features. It came with a 2gb micro SD card however I’ve ordered an 8GB one. It has a built in GPS receiver and has Nokia Maps built in, it really works well. Didn’t think I’d see the day I’d have Sat Nav on my phone!!

It also has wifi, 3g video calls, mp3 player, n-gage gaming, push email support and some handy applications like quick office. You can also install applications for skype, twitter and msn etc.

Again, the main reason I love this phone is the camera. When I was in New York in March I hardly took any pictures because I had to carry about a camera and my phone. I only really had room for a phone in my front pocket so the camera was always left…haha, yes, it came down to jean pocket space!! Seriously, this truly is the all in one device I have been looking for. I’m going on holiday in 4 weeks so I’m sure I’ll use it a lot.

What phone do you currently have? Do you have anything in mind for your next phone?

Google launches GMail Labs

June 8, 2008 in Internet Stuff with 1 Comment

Last week Google announced GMail Labs, a new option in Gmail where you can try out loads of new features that they have been messing around with.

To add one of the new features all you need to do is login to your Gmail account, go to the settings page and choose the labs tab. You will then see all the new features you can try out.

Personally, I like the ‘Superstars’ and ‘Email Addict’ options. Go check it out

Floyd Mayweather Retires

June 8, 2008 in Personal with Comments Off

I was surprised to see Floyd Mayweather Jr announce his retirement from boxing the other day. I have only seen about 4 or 5 of his fights but in every one he oozed class. Lots of undefeated boxers talk about retiring but most end up going on until they lose their undefeated status. Of course, theres a good chance he will be tempted out of retirement in a few years. Once the boxing bigwigs get together and put together a multi million package for a return it will be hard for him to turn it down.

However, he did say in his retirement announcement :

I am sorry I have to leave the sport at this time, knowing I still have my God-given abilities to succeed and future multi-million dollar paydays ahead, including the one right around the corner (the proposed De la Hoya fight).

“But there comes a time when money doesn’t matter. I just can’t do it anymore. I have found a peace with my decision that I have not felt in a long time.

Read the announcement at BBC

What topics should I write about on this blog

June 4, 2008 in Internet Stuff with 2 Comments

I have been meaning to update this blog more often as it’s the blog I enjoy updating the most. The reason I have not updated it much recently is because when I have a lot of work to do, that other work takes priority.

Just like everyone else, I am looking to make more money through the internet and lately I have found some interesting methods of doing that (not groundbreaking but interesting). I have thought about writing about some of the topics however I am unsure if I should.

Here’s the deal. This blog is essentially my personal blog and business blog rolled into one. It’s a good place for me to write about things on my mind and since I work online sometimes these things are sometimes related to web development, making money on the web or whatever. My aim for this blog is not to make money though I can’t say I’ll never place ads here.

Perhaps I’m thinking too far ahead but I’m scared that if I started writing more posts on web development and making money I could be a victim of my success. There are one reason why this could be a problem – I could never sell this site. I have had this domain for years and have used @system0.net email addresses for the majority of sign ups. It is also my identity on the web and I call myself System0 on many forums.

You might be asking why this is a problem? Well, from working online for 8 years the one thing I have learned is that every site has it’s price and there will come a point many times in your online career when you need to re-evaluate what websites are your priority. I have sold quite a few sites which I thought I would never sell because of either my personal life (eg travelling) or because another site started making more money and needed my full attention.

Due to this I have thought about maybe starting a new blog to talk about web development topics. Once which I can personally blog on which I could sell if I found my situation changed (though I’d probably just hire some writers). Quite a lot of traffic to this blog comes from my blog BloggingTips however I’m sure many visitors are disappointed to arrive and see me talking about a film I saw or whatever.

I’m not 100% on the idea but I think that writing web development and making money online topics would be better posted on another domain. I would be able to promote the blog more easily too. Of course, this would mean this blog would be more personal and include more random rants by myself!!

What do you think? Any suggestions or feedback on this would be greatly appreciated

Kevin Muldoon