Archive for December, 2006
Seasoned greetings
Hi all,
I just want to wish you a very happy holiday and a great 2007.
Regards
Brad
Black Belt Babe
It has been a while since I wrote about my daughters Karate training and I thought it only prudent to warn everyone that we now have a bonafide blackbelt in the family (I prefer the phrase “ninja assasin” but she assures me that Ninjitsu is not the same thing as Karate and I really should try to keep up).
The grading was in November and was a dramatic affair, especially for her as half way through her Kata (a series of set moves) she dislocated her kneecap and fell to the floor crying in pain. Wifey, already in action as first aider calmly walked over and after assesing that girley could stand, promptly put the knee back in place.
Able to walk again she went on to do all her kata again, fight in kumate and perform some spectacular self defense moves.
Blackbelt insued. Everyone cheered. Loudly.
Little bud, who was also grading, achived his second kue belt (brown with one stripe) in an amazing feat of “pulling it out of the hat on the day”. We were flabagasted and very happy.
Somehow I managed to be recruted into being club photographer and took over 380 pictures. I setup a private online gallery for club members on a sister site to ideasplace – MyPictureDesk.com and the URL was distributed in the club. They must of been pleased with it, they don’t do things like that lightly.
To say I am proud of both my kids achievments would be a serious understatement.By the age of 14 the most I had done with my life was get locked in for spending too much time in the computer room after school and hold the local record for non stop CB conversations (sleep was for wimps).
On the Monday after the grading I bored everyone I could corner at work with the story. Everyone was polite but I don’t think that interested – I can’t blame them but I just couldn’t contain it, I was still exited and so proud. That’s just part of what being a Dad I guess.
iPhone Monday
Well Monday came and there was an iPhone release, but not by Apple – in a bizzare turn of events Linksys have released some VoIP WiFi phones under the branding “iPhone“.
If Apple had any intention of using the iPhone trademark on their (alleged) upcoming devices they will be stuffed now. With the supposed release date being so near, they will just confuse matters if they use the same name, if that is even legal with copyright laws.
In an earlier post I mentioned that the company who own the iPhone trademark (a VoIP company in the US) had no contact with Apple regarding them using the name although there was a report that Apple had registered the name in the far east for some reason.
From the Linksys site “iPhone and Linksys are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc.” - iPwned!
I think it is a shame that Cisco have chosen to spoiler the release of the Apple devices in this way, but I guess business is business and you can’t buy the press they are getting for their new products.
When the Apple phone device(s) are launched, I very much doubt they will carry the iPhone branding after todays events, so it begs the question what will they be called. I have come up with a weak few but please join in and post some in comments:
- iPod Phone (or iPod Mobile)
- iCall
- iHandy (for all our Germanic readers)
- iCell
- iCommunicator (too long)
Bit of a theme going
Even the least observant among you may have noticed a change in site theme. I have been running WordPress pretty much standard since I moved over but have been hankering for something a little more original for the site. Well its not that original but I found this nice theme on the WordPress repository which I took a liking too, so I thought I’d try it for size, at least for a while.
Any comments please leave them in the usual place.
And yes, I know its grey, I found it easier on the eye than the alternative blue text on green that I was considering (be thankful for small mercies OK).
Mmmmm Green…
Mac Surfed – er
For many years I have been a fan of the Mac news concentrator site MacSurfer.
For as long as I can remember has been the first place I go every day for the latest in Mac news and views and is my browser’s home page.
Phil Pearson runs the site and was very kind to link to one of my postings (which has always been an ambition) and upped my hits a little over the last day or so – Hi new folks!.
Sadly the turnaround of links on Macsurfer is such that I missed my site being linked but the evidence is there in the stats and that’s cool.
If you haven’t been to Macsurfer yet (where have been going all this time?), and you are a fellow macolite, you will find it an invaluable web resource.
P.S Macsurfer has a subscription service which gets rid of the ads on the site (which are pretty unobtrusive anyway) and supports Phil and his editors to continue running the service.
MacWorld Poll
The UK MacWorld magazine’s website has a poll running at the moment which reads:
“Macworld reader poll
I wish Apple would hurry up and launch the…:
- iPhone
- Widescreen video iPod
- Smaller/lighter MacBook Pro
- Eight-core MacPro
- iTV
- UK iTunes Movie Store
- Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
- Something else”
I think that the “All of the above“option is missing. I want it all and I want it now!
It looks like MWSF might be a good one.
More iPhoneyness
I have never seen so much speculative claptrap being pushed around by bloggers and news sites as there is at the moment regarding Apple’s allegedly soon to be coming mobile phone.
From extolling its virtues, non leaks by net ‘celebs’ to one site saying it is already a flop. Jeez guys let them release the bloody thing before you comment. You don’t know what it is going to look like, no-one outside a select group inside Apple and the manufacturing plant in China does.
Steve may have shown it to a few ‘friends’ but the rest of you are just guessing. For those of us who are pro Apple this is counter productive. The raised expectations in public perception regarding the device will undoubtedly not be met causing a feeling of disappointment among the faithful.
The resultant feeding frenzy will lead the inevitable dropping of the AAPL share price. You know its true, we have seen it over and over. The market is so jumpy around Apple that an unconnected analyst saying that they “think” the price of the unit will be higher than they originally thought make the shares drop two dollars. No evidence just a hunch.
The Nay-sayers will win whatever, nothing made on this planet at the moment could meet the expectations of the Apple acolytes and so when it is just a phone with an iPod built in they will pronounce the impending doom of Apple and “it was all inevitable wasn’t it?”. Apple bashing will once again become the order of the day and I can feel the word “beleaguered” floating back.
Here’s the news guys, it will be a phone that plays music. That’s what everybody asked for and that’s what they made. Sure it’ll have a few nice Apple’y touches there’s going to be a surprise or two and a tie in to a couple of other services but at the end of the day its just a phone. Chances are it won’t even be called iPhone. The holder of that particular trademark in the US says he hasn’t been contacted by Apple yet. It may come out this Monday but is more likely to be announced at MWSF. They may launch their own phone service or may tie in with an existing provider, I think they are more likely to sell it unbundled, own the box + freedom of connection.
Now that’s out of the way the one we really want to see is Apple’s next Phone, it going to be brilliant, Listen…….
Shop Steward
My friend David is a habitual entrepreneur and to give him his dues, he doesn’t stop trying his hand.
The latest venture (which I wish him every success with) is to sell swimming wares to the various swim clubs in the local area, a gap in the local marketplace he says.
Anyway I have been playing with online shop software as part of my own little online project and told him that it was relatively easy to achieve. To prove the point I set him up a shop. No https but a shop none the less that does products and stock and orders and other shop like stuff. It took me about an hour including a poorly hashed together logo for the site, and used the Cube Cart PHP/MySQL script provided via fantastico on CPanel.
CPanel is a web based software provided by some hosting companies to allow their customers control over their web space.
The system is great.
CubeCart has gateways to various online payment companies and associate partners (that promote your site) and although there are a few rough edges, it is more than capable of running a online presence for a retailer until it starts making real money.