The mad ramblings of an optimistic technophile

Google+ Invite #googleplus

2011-07-05T00:15:00.000+01:00

I am a sad individual.

I want to leave Facebook and join Google+.

But the only way I can do this is to plead/implore someone - anyone - who is on already on Google+ to send me an invite or invoke one of the many workarounds that seem to exist.

Up yours Zuckerberg.

Provinces within Kingdoms of Camelot

2010-01-10T20:56:00.002Z

There are 24 Provinces in the Kingdom of Camelot arranged in a contiguous 5x5 grid. If you keep going in any direction the map just wraps around on itself.

I have created two maps, the first is centred on Bodmin Moor, and the second takes a more traditional approach by starting with 0,0 in the top left corner of the map.

You can see that Bodmin Moor lies between coordinates (150, 600) and (499, 749).

I have colour-coded the maps to highlight neighbouring Provinces to Bodmin Moor, i.e. it is quicker to get to (and from) Camlann, Orkney, Dore, Parmenie, Cellwig, Tintagel, Cornwall and Astolat than it is to the other 15 Provinces.

Note that there is no Province between coordinates (300, 300) and (449, 449). Perhaps the developers of KoC are planning something special later in the year... (?)

For those that prefer their maps with 0,0 in the top left corner then this one just for you. :-)

My favourite Android apps

2009-12-17T21:42:00.004Z

Firstly, let me say that I got my eager hands on the T-Mobile G1 (the first Android phone) almost as soon as it became available so I have had over 12 months experience with Android phones and apps and I have downloaded many hundreds of them from the market and elsewhere over that time. What have I learned over all this time? That Android is a very powerful and flexible mobile OS with great potential. And what about the apps? Well, apparently there are over 20,000 of them now, and whilst there are some absolute gems there's also a lot of rubbish too.

My stand out favourite apps...

Any Clip Pro (Blues Labs)
Apps Organiser (Fabio Collini)
Astro (Metago)
Barcode Scanner (ZXing Team)
BBC News (Jim Blackler)
Bloo (Dimitris Couchell)
Bublmap London Tube (bublmap)
Buzz Deck (mippin.com)
Evernote (Evernote)
Facebook (Facebook)
Flashlight (Devesh Parekh)
Google Sky Map (Google)
Group Ringtones (Appventive)
Listen (Google)
Maths Workout+ (Workout Games)
OI Safe (OpenIntents)
OpenSudoku (Roman Masek)
PicSay Pro (Shinycore)
PicSo (Tiki Move)
Pkt Auctions eBay (Bonfire Media)
Qik (Qik)
Record It (Austin Reid)
Scoreboard (Google)
Shazam (Shazam)
SMS Backup (Christoph Studer)
Sound Manager (Daniel Roozen)
Spotify (Spotify)
Tip Calculator (iStockManager)
TouchDown (NitroDesk)
Twidroid Pro (Zimmermann & Marban)
Voice Recorder (Mamoru Tokashiki)

I am constantly changing the apps that I have installed on my phone as new ones come out and old ones fall by the wayside, but this list is the mainstay of the apps I have installed at any one time. They're all well-used, much loved and make my life that little bit better. :-)

Google Chrome Extensions

2009-12-16T13:04:00.000Z

Here's a list of my current favourite extensions on Google Chrome v4.0.249.30

AutoCopy
Bit.ly
Blog This!
Chromed Bird
ChromeMilk
Doc PDF/PowerPointViewer
Facebook for Google Chrome
Google Mail Checker
Google Quick Scroll
Google Reader Notifer
Google Sidewiki
Google Tasks
Google Wave Notifier
Inline Search & Lookup
Notebook
Picnik Extension for Chrome
RSS Subscription Extension
Send from Gmail
Slideshow
StumbleUpon
Wikipedia Chromium Edition

If you find some others that are really useful or better than these then please let me know.

Google Chrome has always been good

2009-12-09T15:34:00.001Z

Google Chrome has always been good but now with version 4, Mac support, extensions, bookmarks synching and some serious speed enhancements it's easily the best and fastest browser.

Chrome makes my 7 year old laptop feel like it's a super-charged supercomputer with the way it surfs the web with incredible speed and grace.

If this gives us a sneak preview of what we can expect from Chrome OS then I can't wait. Effortless, safe, secure browsing with full functionality and rich content all packed into a lightweight, affordable browsing device. Yeah baby - bring it on!

in reference to: http://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/fldmleagmkblgoeodhdlhdejhhngdihi (view on Google Sidewiki)

You can't make this stuff up

2009-11-24T15:30:00.001Z

This is undoubtedly fantastic news for Ged Galvin and it's got me wondering what future marvels others may benefit from.

Remote control for your ears.
Wife yelling at you? Husband snoring all night? Boring meeting? No worries, just turn your ears off.

Remote control for your nose.
Public toilets stink? Work in the sewers? Cleaning up the kids puke? No worries, just turn your nose off.

Remote control for your penis.
Erectile dysfunction? No staying power? No worries, at the flick of a switch you can stay up all night.

Come on... I know you can think of some better ones than this.

in reference to: Man uses remote to control his 'bionic bottom' - Telegraph (view on Google Sidewiki)

Google makes more books available to you

2009-10-12T17:27:00.001+01:00

I applaud the tenacity with which Google has pursued this. I believe that only someone with Google's honesty and scale could have reached this settlement and that it is the best compromise at the present time.

Let the wisdom spread.

in reference to:

"Ale"
- Op-Ed Contributor - A Library to Last Forever - NYTimes.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

How I use Twitter

2009-09-25T22:06:00.035+01:00

I use Twitter as a social networking tool, or to put it another way, as a means of conducting a two-way conversation between real people.

Discovery
I prefer to use email newsletters and RSS feeds for keeping up to date about a product, service or company that I have a long term interest in. I have found that if I try to use Twitter for this purpose then I get lost in the haze and I don't know what I've missed. If the product, service or company that I'm interested in does not have an email newsletter or RSS feed then I create one. This is easy to do. If the primary source of information is Twitter then I create an alert using TweetBeep and subscribe to the resulting RSS feed. If the primary source of information is elsewhere (not Twitter) then I create an alert using Google Alerts and subscribe to the resulting RSS feed. There are lots of other wonderful tools and different methods of information discovery but I find this nice and simple and it works for me.

As a result I only have 2 places to go in order to stay up to date with all that interests me;

My email account (Gmail)
My RSS reader (Google Reader)

If you want to follow the news stories that I've found particularly interesting then you can do here.

Social interaction

I use Twitter to have a personal exchange with real people that I would otherwise not meet and with whom I have something in common, albeit sometimes very fleetingly. This might be something as transient as we both have the same problem with a product or company (one-off type events) or something more persistent like we both support the same sports team.

From time to time I will seek out new people to follow by searching for various terms that interest me at the time.

When to follow and when not to follow

I WILL NOT follow you if...
1. you are selling something (excessively).
2. you make me go somewhere else to find out what you are saying (too often).
3. you are abusive or insulting to something/someone (and they don't deserve it).

I WILL follow you if...
1. you are interesting or if we share the same interests.
2. you are funny.
3. you enrich my life somehow (it is possible and yes, it does happen - you know who you are)

I MAY stop following you if...
1. you tweet too much.
2. you don't tweet enough.
3. you become quarrelsome, uninteresting, a bore, distateful or abusive.

Swearing
A note on swearing on Twitter: I don't mind swearing on Twitter; in fact, when used carefully, the occassional four-lettered word can be very amusing, but I don't like profanity when it's abusive or insulting.

Want to know how rude you've been on Twitter? Well, there's a third party tool for that. Cursebird searches your timeline looking for swear words and then tells you how rude you've been. I was quite shocked at my own score. "Blatter swears like a Scottish Comedian. 183,717th worldwide. Swears 21. Score 93 out of 100." That was when I last checked anyway... :-)

Have you got any tips for me?
I hope you found this article useful, but I'd be really interested if you didn't and you have found a better way of discovering news and interacting with people. If that's the case please let me know!

There's gold in them there hills

2009-09-24T17:00:00.002+01:00

I just love this story.

Gold-digger discovers treasure in field and gets rich.

:-)
in reference to: BBC NEWS | England | Staffordshire | Huge Anglo-Saxon gold hoard found (view on Google Sidewiki)

I like Obama

2009-09-23T23:44:00.001+01:00

I'm so pleased that Bush has gone. Barrack Obama is the right man for the job. He's an inspirational leader and he talks sense. It's all good.

in reference to: BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Obama urges world to stand united (view on Google Sidewiki)

Another step change

2009-09-23T21:22:00.001+01:00

We look back at how businesses used to operate in the mid 19th century and are staggered at the cumbersome way in which they communicated internally and externally. Email, the web and mobile phones have completely changed all that.

I have a suspicion that my children will look back at this current era and be staggered by how we used to operate large organisations using email.

I think it will take a few years before individuals and organisations get their minds around what Google Wave has to offer but those that adopt it should be able to radically transform their communications yet again. Google Wave is going to allow the world to communicate easily, securely and efficiently.

I can't wait.

in reference to: Google Wave Preview (view on Google Sidewiki)