I can’t help but notice I’m really popular with spammers compared to actual users (as indicated by the comments on my disclaimer, though I may disable comments on that page)… if the spammers were actual users, I think I’d be reasonably popular, lol. That would actually help out the cause I’ve been promoting recently as well, thinking about it… and mentioning that, I have an update on that below which is quite important.

It’s come to my attention that the link for The Mental Health Struggle has been updated and moved to Indiegogo. I’ll be changing the link on my last entry too (read that towards the end if you want to know what I said about it first), but if you get to it before I do, but after reading this, the new link is here. I also tweeted the new link when I made my pledge, so use that link as well. I’ll also be tweeting a new link to be retweeted after I finish this post, using the hashtag #TMHS and also/or #TheMentalHealthStruggle (for tracking purposes; don’t be surprised to see one or the other, or both). The reasons for this change of link are threefold; first of all, the £8,000 goal wasn’t going to be reached in the time given, so the organiser asked for the deadline and goal to be increased and decreased to £5,000 respectively. Secondly, it seems that Kickstarter doesn’t allow causes or charities to be funded, which seems a bit bizarre. It does mean though that I’m gonna have to pester those I told again and remove links to the old address, so if you see this, and then see a Kickstarter link to this project in my blog, don’t click on it!

Lastly, they have a website as well which is here. I do hope to remove all the Kickstarter references by this weekend, but this post is partly in case I’ve either missed some or I’m still working on it when you read this. Unfortunately, they’ve had to start from scratch, so be sure to make a new pledge! There are also some new goodies, so check it out before pledging your original amount, or your original level. I should mention that there’s a possibility that you’ll be paying instantly via the Indiegogo link (through Paypal), so this is unlike Kickstarter where you pay after the goal is met. This is just a heads up, just to make you aware of the difference. I can luckily take the hit, so it won’t be too bad, but still, it’s something you need to know.

Anyway, if you have contributed via this blog post, or even if I directly mentioned it to you, please leave a comment below. Additionally, please do tell your friends if you think they’ll be interested in this project… you know I will be!

P.S.: I’m sorry for harassing people again, but you’d rather be kept informed, right? Especially those of you who made a pledge.

P.P.S.: I’ll soon be making another blog entry, only it will be about my experiences with podcasting. Additionally, I don’t expect my website to move now till at least the middle to the end of February, because I’m a terrible procrastinator, and also need to see what I need to move over, as well as set up the stuff on the new host to be ready to transfer over. In the meantime, please check out this project if you haven’t already, it means a lot to me.

Edit: It appears that I had a lot less links made than I actually thought… I think they’re on Facebook more though probably.

So much for doing this every 2 weeks! Oh well, seems I’m much better with monthly and then impulse postings… anyway, I’ve now got everything on here nicely updated, although I still haven’t completely gone throgh with some of my plans; this place is still operating in its own blogspace, but once I see where everything is at, I should be able to start doing my integrations. And speaking of those, I’ve been doing some additional integrations with my business ideas, meaning I’m not spreading myself as thinly. I have plans over the next couple of months to move providers for my IRC network, which shall increase my money by 4 quid a month, which is 48 quid a year, for those mathematically inclined. While that doesn’t seem like a lot, as Tesco do say, every little helps. With the way things are these days, 4 quid is actually quite a lot; for instance, it can get me a little over a day’s bus travel, or lunch for a single day, or alternatively, it could get me 4 weeks’s worth of certain things, especially on special or budget prices… point is that in these trying times, you need to conserve what you can, as you never know where it’ll get you.

I might actually do a month-long challenge at some point  to see how well I could live on a small amount of money per week (reflecting the amount someone in this country has to live on), though I do need to adjust my eating patterns first and plan out a few aspects with it. I also need to get a few financial screws tightened too, because I’ll be simulating what it’s like getting only a certain amount of money, so will need one of those prepaid credit cards. Alternatively, I could just downgrade my current main bank account to a “poor person’s” one, then use that, using my current secondary as my new main, because then I won’t need to pay out monthly fot the PP Credit Card, plus it also means I’ll have 13 quid less leaving my account too! Anyway, this’ll take a bit of research to work out precisely, so I’m not seen as cheating, and honestly I don’t want to cheat. I want this to be legit because it’s a great way to help me budget for starters, plus it’ll be an interesting lesson in general. I’m not quite sure when I can do it to be honest, though I’m thinking I may have to do a 1 week dry run between now and November, because then I actually will start t struggle! Anyway, I either am going to call this project Rich Man’s Joke (if I refer to Bonnie Tyler, will that give you a big enough hint) or Bare Cupboard, reflecting the fact that people with low incomes can barely afford to feed themselves.

I guess, when I think about it this will be my first political and economic project and in some way, it relates to business too because it concerns a big lesson in budgeting. What I might try to do is basically start scheduling stuff up between now and November to see where I can do it and extend it to a fortnight at least, if possible. A month might work, but it has to be very finely timed, so it doesn’t have a huge knock-on effect with anything I’d have planned normally although I want to try to conduct things normally anyway, or at least try to! What I might actually do is just do it for 2 weeks, because I can afford to spend 2 weeks on this, but I need to plan out everything strictly in order for this to work, especially with the self-imposed limits. One thing I will mention is that I recently have purchased a Samba Mobile Dongle for 25 quid, which I’ll be using for the purposes of this project. Why will I be using this you ask? Well, Samba have come up with this concept which allows you free internet in exchange  for viewing a few ads a day.

You get between 3.5-6.5MB+ for each video you watch, and they claim that if you watch 2.5 mins of videos a day, you get 500MB+ per month. Now, the project is only in its infancy at present, so there’s very few ads relatively speaking, and the ads that are there only allow you to watch a certain amount of times… howevet, over time it should start getting better. Either way though, it will be a good field test, especialy considering that I’m not gonna be using my regular broadband for those 2 weeks *gasp* anyway, I think 2 weeks is probably enough, especially to test my reliance on Samba. I’ll be doing a review of the service as well as also making a daily record on my politcs/current affairs/economics blog. Admittedly, I need to see what other people who have taken on this challenge have done, so I can set boundries, and also set the right amount of money. I know however, that I’ll basically just covering the daily costs, and not stuff like rent. Things like my webserver, landline phone, mobile and broadband will be paid from my separate account, as I’m focusing on certain things with this, albeit in real terms. Seeing as I’m already currently on benefits, I’m basically seeing how someone worse off than me will be. Admittedly though, I can only say how this works for me, and maybe the average single person; families have a much different lot and my experiences could not really be the same as theirs.

Anyway, I’ll discuss this all in more detail later as right now I’m working on digitising my library further. I’m also working on my business ideas to consolidate but again, more detail on that later. Things are starting to improve at least, and I should be starting to save another 17 quid a month soon, which is good because that really does add up! I need to start checking on my 50-things objectives, thinking about it. I’ll make another post soonish, especially as I want to talk about some more tech stuff.

{EAV:69ebde1e6d839ea7}
(verification string, please ignore)

Very recently (as in within the past couple of hours), I joined this social network/game called Empire Avenue (EA). It stemmed from being invited to this Facebook app/website called Klout, which some of you may be aware of. Unfortunately, I found out it was in violation of the UK Data Protection Act (granted, the posts are from November 2011, but Wikipedia hasn’t been updated to change the fact), so after I googled this little tidbit of information, I found out there were alternatives, such as PeerIndex (PI) (which I’ve also signed up to) and the aforementioned Empire Avenue. PeerIndex is nothing hugely special, apart from the fact it doesn’t violate the DPA and it’d based in the UK. However, it will suit my needs… not being able to change my username is a bit of a pain, but I’ll live. Anyway, PI basically links to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (as well as 2 others that I don’t have) profiles and analyses them to see what sort of influence, and the like you have. According to it (though it’s not finished analysing stuff), my Index is 43, which isn’t too far behind GOG at 50, which makes me wonder if I really have that much influence. Time will tell I guess.

Anyway, EA is very much the same sort of tool, but it offers more options to connect (such as Flickr, WordPress, YouTube, FourSquare, Google+ and the only one I don’t have, Instagram) as well as being able to link Facebook Pages, though it seems to be more FB Apps to be honest. Anyway, this brings me to the second part of the title, given PI and EA were both about getting social, and gauging my actual influence (as well as expanding my reach) within the networks I’m a part of, plus it is a great way of exposing yourself to new people, especially if you see yourself as a brand, which ties into the personal value mention above, but more on this later. Anyway, from what I gather, EA is a much expanded version of Klout and PI, and incorporates elements of Facebook in the sense you have what is a wall and status updates, plus you also have something that is a bit like Friends For Sale, which is what intrigues me the most about it, and reminds me about what Wilson Luna said about adding value, and also I believe he was saying you should set yourself up as a personal brand (he certainly suggested registering your name as a domain name!). Anyway, the way it works is that you invest shares in people, and from what I gather, like an actual share market, the shares appriciate and depreciate in value.
Read the rest of the entry »

Warning: This post contains some mild profanity.

This is just an short update while I work on my main post (which should be out over the next couple of days), but there’s an article over on ZDNet which  essentially states that the 3D TV “revolution” is a waste of time!  I could have said that ages ago, but yeah… 3D TV is totally pointless.  I’m actually even wondering if the 3DS might be a bit giimmicky, but I’m gonna let it slide for now.  3D TV itself is rather pointless as a technology, but then the companies seem to expect (or rather hope) that we’ll spend money on a technology that at present is nothing more than a gimmick, especially when we’re barely taking advantage of HD at present!  Yes, I’m all for innovation and all that, but honestly, 3D TV is pretty much just a fad at present and I don’t see it becoming any more than that considering we’re still trying to get used to HD, which as of yet still isn’t a standard technology.  The ZDNet article implied that instead of adding a new gimmick to TVs, they should focus on making HD TVs more affordable and available to the masses.  And given in the UK there’s a Digital Switchover planned over the next couple years, I do think this is more important.  Admittedly though, where I live has no digital coverage at all, and only poor analogue coverage… I wish that were sorted out.  So, instead of fixing present tech, people seem more focused on “The Next Big Thing”, even though in this case, what’s being touted as such is just a gimmick.

Okay, maybe I should go back to the 3DS; I had a chance to play one for a little while, both at the airport before flying to the States and also in a local Walmart, so I am at least reasonably well informed about the 3DS.  I have also glanced at the 3DS Wikipedia article, and while I’m intrigued by the majority of the 3DS’s specs, I’m still not 100% sure about the 3D aspect.  Even more amusing is the fact that the cameras haven’t even been upgraded from the 0.3MP!  It’s not like I’m expecting something like 16MP with the cameras, but the least they could do is increase the sensors to 1 or 2MP; those are cheap enough to at least provide decent resolution on a larger monitor; consider the fact that the SD Card can be used elsewhere, like for printing pictures to paper… also consider that a picture resolution that is over 3-6 times larger than the camera of the DSi, which means sharper pictures.  There has already been comments (based on what has been said in the article) that 3D versions of movies look worse than their 2D counterparts, but then again that is to be expected given the way the films were initially filmed.  I suppose though, to give Nintendo its due, it did at least stick 2 camera sensors on the front so the 3D effect would probably look better than what you see in the movies.  Ironically, I was actually thinking Anaglyph 3D was cool (and still do to an extent), but I really don’t know how 3D adds to movies… sure, it looks good with a still image, but when it’s done with an entire movie, it starts to lose its appeal.
Read the rest of the entry »

I could have sworn it was longer than a month (no need to get nitpicky!) since my last post, but it appears that I am roughly within the threshold of a month. I have a fair bit to write, but I can’t fully go into anything now, as I’ve got a concert to go to. I sadly haven’t won a Wonderborg as of yet, but the search will go on. I have lots of plans for the new year as well, although again I can’t go into them. One thing I will mention though is that the DiggerCast is finally going out of its test phase and into a proper one, although this won’t happen till February. It also got mentioned on someone’s podcast, although at present, I’ve no idea what podcast! I will find out though. I’m also tightening up my website structures and bringing in AdSense across the board on my sites from next year, although I can’t do much at the moment apart from add another forum, as after that, everything else is in lockdown until I move stuff to the new server, though updates will still occur as it makes things less of a headache to sort out.

Either way, 2011 is looking like a good year… well, better than this one in any case

Which means eventually I’ll be making one of my customary huge posts again soon. I plan to do a report of sorts on the Dublin Paranormal Convention this Friday. Additionally, I should mention that I lost the bid on the Wonderborg, which is unfortunate, but it does happen. I am currently looking for other ones as I really want a second one to play with to further my robotics stuff, which may end up gettings its own blog at the rate I’m going, or rather an A.I. and Robotics blog, in addition to coverage on a future projects blog.

Anyway, the main reason why I’m making this short post is because I stumbled upon this interesting post on someone’s blog (which was linked from a chat site I frequent,  named UKCB): National Novel Writing Month 2010, but given I’m still trying to get things sorted out, it’s unlikely I’ll be able to participate in this year, though I will however be committing myself to it next year, especially as I hope before the end of the year to take up writing again in some form… most likely with a new Forum Sim (Roleplay) I’m working on with a friend. as part of Xeno Storm, so watch out for that, and the addition of a wiki.

And also, I managed to find a full copy of my detective/comedy novel from 2004, although admittedly I’d end up rewriting it from scratch (though would keep a few elements) if I were to look at redoing it these days.  I’ll upload it in its current state soon (and update this post when I do) as a scrap to my DeviantArt, as well as to the XS Wiki, when it’s up and running.  Given it took me years to find the document, I want to have it in a safe place that’s not on my desktop, which is deciding to act up.  Just keep in mind that if you do read it, I know it sucks… it was written by me when I was younger and had certain things on my mind at the time.  I think the premise could still have merit, although I’d rather get myself into the Forum RP before I take that on as a project for NaNoWriMo. Admnittedly, I may just decide to develop it away from it instead and run with another idea; I can’t predict that far ahead though. In the meantime however, I have a lot of stuff to work on with websites, most notably a client’s site, followed by the XS RP forums and the wiki, then I’m going to look at other sites that may need attention, though I think I might spend this month focusing on XS entirely, with the exception of the client website.

I nearly forgot… I’ve now officially cancelled my ST Online subscription for the time being, so I’ll now have more money to invest, though with Lord of The Rings Online now becoming free to play, I’ll be focusing on tht a bit more. I’ve also been busy with Bush Whacker and Backyard Monsters on Facebook and I’m hoping before the end of the year, I’ll have a proper gaming blog to work with! I’m also off to Ireland on Friday for 2 weeks, so I’ll be writing a bit about that, no doubt, in addition to the Dublin Paranormal Convention, and also a security conferance I’m going to be attending towards the end of my trip.

It’s going to be a busy couple of months either way by the looks of it!

It feel like it’s been ages since I last had a blog entry…. actually it has!  As you might have guessed, a fair few things have happened.  I’m gonna do them in random order, because right now I forgot a few things, due to being ill for the past week, though the past 3-4 weeks haven’t been great, but that’s not a topic for here.  Anyway, first of all, I have recently discovered The Oatmeal, with the help of a few friends and the wonders of Facebook and I had to admit, it’s quite good.  Hell, I even got a few questions answered, such as ones regarding i.e., e.g. and apostrophes.  I also learnt about how Anglerfish mate, which was fascinating in a crazy way!  I’ve also been reading about how unethical Internet Brands/vBulletin have become, helped in part by their announcement as to their taking legal proceedings against a start-up known as XenForo, formed by two ex-vBulletin developers (one being the former Lead) and also another former member of the vB staff, whose position there I forgot, though he acts as the XF business manager.  I’m not saying a lot about it, save for the fact that as soon as it’s feasible, I’m switching to XF and selling off my vB4 Suite licence, if anyone is interested in one, although admittedly, I can’t sell it off till my requirements in XF have been met.  I plan to buy a copy to play with the API, and am opening up the opportunity to play with it to members of my sites.  This is actually the first time I’ve felt really motivated to learn the API for something, especially as it’s in PHP, meaning I can learn some transferable skills!  And frankly, I need to learn something as I’ve had bad luck with finding jobs, and locally there’s no more jobs going at the moment!

I was planning on doing something with the WonderBorg and seeing if I can recode the programming application into something that supports both serial and USB infrared transmitters, but I amn’t sure if it’ll work now, but I might wait till I have a look at the application before I give up.  The WonderBorg is a nice piece of kit though if you’re into robotics, but they’re hard to locate now and are usually quite expensive; mine cost me £4.99 and they usually retail for £100+!  I want to get a second one at some point, but they may be hard to source.  I promise that I’ll talk about more later, but I’m really finding it hard to focus for now, but rest assured when I’m better, I’ll be able to focus more so I can type about more… still this is as much a little update as it is a reminder for me to type more and type up a little of what’s been going before I forget (yes I’ve been that bad)!  Still, it’s only a matter of time before I get better and will be going back to my few thousand word count essays XD

Until then, I’ll see you lot later.

Before I begin,  I’ve noticed that Twitter now has an apps system, which surprised me at first but I guess it was to be expected.  At least it might make things a bit more secure anyway.  I’m going to have to apply the same modification to the DiggerCast as well, I think and also the radio site, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.  Moving onto WordPress 3.x, which is the reason I am even aware of the new Twitter Apps system, I’m impressed at how much easier it is to update everything and also how much clearer the update information is displayed.  I’m not sure if it’s necessarily faster or anything, but it feels, well better.  I’m certainly looking forward to using it in my current and new site deployments anyway.  Although thinking about it, updating the DiggerCast seems a little redundant, given I’m folding it back into the Stormhaven Radio website, in order to have a podcasting platform to work from; I’m finding it a tad annoying at the thought of setting up a separate single blog site and domain for every podcast I have, so I’m just going to put them all within the radio blog as it’s cleaner.  If I want a domain, I can just tack it onto the WordPress blog url somehow, which might take a little tweaking, but it’ll be worth it in the end.  I really should learn more about webservers and HTML/CSS and PHP though.

One thing I’ve also started to do is with the help of my server provider is install AWStats, in order to process server stats locally, although unfortunately it appears I cannot access any of my past site access logs, if any were ever kept.  Shame that.  At least I’m using StatCounter to keep progress on my sites; one of my sites (Therians dot Net – TdN) actually surprised me by indicating I’ve had over 1300 visitors to it in the past month, which isn’t bad going!  This site is a little lower on the scale, but hey at least it has exposure.  This site and TdN are the only active sites on StatCounter, though I do have more planned.  I would be putting the DiggerCast in as it is an active website, but it’s moving soon and I don’t fancy complicating matters with it just yet.   Besides, I’m still testing stuff out and it’s doubtful the stats would be all that impressive anyway.  At least though I have the groundwork sorted for when I do start it all, which I should soon.  I also need to sort out my IRC network’s website and plan out a prototype chat site, which should be fun.
Read the rest of the entry »

So, yeah first post this month and it’s been more than 2 weeks since my last post!  I could has sworn it was at least a mont, but there you go.  Anyway, I guess I should be mentioning that’s been going on in my world since I last updated (though I really need to start writing in my LiveJournal again instead!).  First of all, I’ve been looking for a job, and out of the 3 places I’ve applied to, I’ve gotten 2 rejections so far.  The third company (which coincidentally is the first one I applied to) has yet to respond to me, but I’m told by my employment advisor that’s a good thing, so I’m going with that now, even if I am a little on edge over the whole affair.  Oddly enough, the last company I applied for is actually the first to give me a response, which is quite amusing.  The second one has had the most progress, but alas I didn’t get an interview.  I’m gonna start looking for more work opportunities when I’m next out, so it should be interesting to see what comes up.  Just as well I’ve a handful of CVs to give out now as well.  Anyway, with all that out of the way, I’d like to mention some recent things I’ve noticed.  First of all, as you may have noted by the random word placement, this weekend is the one which International Speak Like A Pirate Day will occur on, tomorrow in fact.

This pretty much means that I’m going to spend a lot of time in Guild Wars (GW), hunting for treasure and also collecting copious amounts of grog, go me!  On a related notw, I’ve also gotten myself a second account, which works out cheaper than buying 4 more character slots, especially given that I got Guild Wars Prophecies (Prophecies) for 99p, after my Reward Card discount, which was quite nice indeed.  I coincidentally, by sheer luck managed to get a copy of Eye of The North cheap (second hand with an intact code) off Amazon so I can bring my characters up North and get them reserved for Guild Wars 2 (GW2).  Unfortunately, this means I’m only limited to the entire Tyria continent, which is by no means a bad thing, but I tend to like exploring the whole world.  All that said though, I’ll most likely get the other campaigns over the next while, when they are cheap enough.  I’m working on a few different title tracks for all the characters over two accounts at present, most notably Survivor (as the name suggests, it means you are not to die), of which I have 4 characters over all 3 campaigns marked for.  I also have a couple of characters going for Defender of Ascalon (reaching L20 in the starting area).  Before I continue, I’d like to reassure readers that this isn’t just going to be about GW, I just want to mention it now, as I’ve never really mentioned it before and it ties in nicely with the grog and loot collecting!  Anyway, with that aside, I’ve been working on all of this for quite a while now, though the second account only has been around the past month.  Still, there’s plenty to keep me going till GW2 comes out.  Coincidentally, if anyone ever wants to ever hang out on GW, let me know and we can do so.
Read the rest of the entry »

So yeah, it’s nearly the end of August and being completely honest, I haven’t had a lot to write about up until now.   For starters, I’ve finally managed to pick up DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 3, Lego Rock Band and Beatles Rock Band, all of which I’ve been wanting for ages.  The Rock Band games were brand new though the DJ Hero was second hand (and much cheaper than anywhere else!).  where possible, I am trying to buy second hand, but the issue is that sometimes brand new is cheaper than second hand, so I have to save my money.  Rock Band 3 is on the horizon, and there will be no doubts as to me getting it, especially with the fact it now includes a keyboard controller, which quite honestly has me drooling like a hungry dog in a butchers.  It’ll be great to be able to play another game that lets me learn on a keyboard, given I have plans to learn it.  Synthesia is a good thing, but I do think I might need something a little, well… easier to start with, plus I think I need some additional support, though that said having a 25 key keyboard is a good thing on the basis that I can start off with a handful of keys, then work my way up.  Besides that, I also have plans to start up a band with a friend of mine, though it’s not likely to take off properly for some time; more details on this later on.

I did also manage to pick up a few PC games as well, for quite cheap.  I got myself Evolva, Mass Effect, Star Trek: Borg and Space Empires V and with the exception of the ST game, they were all new!  I ended up spending a lot on games the past week or so nut they were so cheap I couldn’t help myself!  Staying on the subject of PCs, my desktop has developed a slight issue where one of my SATA power connectors has broken so I can only have one hard drive going at a time, which quite frankly sucks.  Thje laptop isn’t fareing well either, given that the screen has gone all funny on it.  I do hope it’s just a loose connection because otherwise I’m going to have to shell out for a new laptop, given the gfx card replacement is a good 200-odd Pounds!  Thankfully, my desktop problem is only a couple of quid to fix, though I might get a spare one, in case it falls down again.  In case you’re wondering how it fell, it was simply a case of me getting tangled up with my mouse lead and pulling on the desktop and knocking it down.  Thankfully, it was just that which was damaged… the hard drives seem to be fine which I consider a small miracle.  Not that I could afford to replace them at all.  Not the best week for my computers, is it?
Read the rest of the entry »