New community – cre8buzz

by Ian Posted on August 19, 2007

cre8buzz
10 days ago Carol at My View of IT invited me to join her at cre8buzz which is a new blog community. It is currently in beta, so you need an invite to join, but there are about 200 members at the moment.

Once you join, you select a community to create your profile under. Mine is under Technology > P.C.

On your profile page, you can add links to existing websites and blogs, add photos to your gallery and make posts on your blog on the cre8buzz site. You can to a degree customise your profile page in terms of section location and theme by modifing the html for the left_sidebar,
main and right_sidebar sections and adding your own CSS style to the theme. I have adjusted mine so that it is a similar theme to my blog.

my cre8buzz profile

From the cre8buzz website:

We built Cre8buzz with one question in mind: How do we get EVERYONE more…

* More exposure
* More visitors
* More views
* More friends
* More followers
* More comments
* More feedback

How do we help people cre8 a buzz of their own?

Our answer; Cre8buzz, the place where everyone in the world has a chance to be seen, heard, and found!

Everything you post on the cre8buzz site has the opportunity to be rated by the other members, the higher rated items get higher visibility.

The disadvantage I see to this site over a normal blog, is that it encourages feedback and comment in the cre8buzz community rather than on your blog itself. Also, to be seen as blog posts that could be rated, you would have to be double posting everything, once on your blog and again on the site.

I am currently rated No. 1 in the PC community, but then I am the only member.

If any of my readers want to try this out, let me know through my contact me page.

Posted in Blogging | Tagged | 4 Comments

Cat rules

by Ian Posted on August 19, 2007

When I was checking out the comments on Vijays blog for his My Life, Rated! post, I followed a link to meeyauw‘s blog. I found the Feline Laws of Physics post listing some of the Feline Laws of Physics from Moggycat.

For anyone with a cat, these are all too true. Here’s some more from Moggycat:

  • First Law of Energy Conservation (Feline Thermodynamics Law 1) Cats know that energy can neither be created nor destroyed and will therefore use as little energy as possible.
  • Second Law of Energy Conservation (Feline Thermodynamics Law 2) Cats know that energy can only be stored by a lot of napping.
  • Kirk’s Law of Cat Magnetism Dark coloured clothing attracts light coloured cat hair in direct proportion to the darkness of the fabric. The converse is also true.
  • Cheung’s Law of Random Comfort Seeking A cat will always seek, and usually take over, the most comfortable spot in any given room.
  • Newton’s First Law of Pill Rejection Any pill given to a cat has the potential energy to reach escape velocity.
  • Newton’s Second Law of Pill Rejection Any cat restrained for the purposes of administering a pill has the potential to reach escape velocity.

Dan at Dan’s Blah Blah Blog posted a brilliant piece on 2nd August titled Taking the Cat to the Vet. You have to read the comments as well (293 of them at the moment).

Posted in Fun, General | Tagged | Comments Off on Cat rules

Fun game

by Ian Posted on August 19, 2007

bloxorz

I came across this online game, Bloxorz at http://www.albinoblacksheep.com yesterday and have found it really good for killing a lot of time. The idea is to get the block through the hole using the arrow keys to move it. If the block rests on one of the round pads then sections of the floor disappear or reappear. There are also pads that only activate when the block rests on them while on its end and orange floor sections that collapse if the block rests on them while on its end. I have got up to stage 28 at the moment, but keep forgetting to note the passcode for the current level down so I can restart from that point.

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I must practice what I preach

by Ian Posted on August 19, 2007

Back in April I posted ‘How often do you update your software?‘ when I talked checking the versions of installed software other than just Windows and AntiVirus.

Anyway, yesterday, being totally certain that I was up to date, I ran the Secunia website Software Inspector on our desktop and was surprised to find a few software applications showing as out of date. Adobe Flash player was a version behind and the previous version of SunJava was still installed despite the current version being installed. I have had this before with SunJava, as it doesn’t uninstall the old version when upgrading, so I should have remembered. The software inspector explains this and details how to resolve it (remove old versions from Add or Remove Programs).

My AntiVirus software, Avast, checks for updates every 4 hours and is set to audibly announce the updates. After a while you get used to the ‘Virus database has been updated’ message and I personally won’t turn it off. If you do not have current antivirus software or your existing software subscription is expiring, I would thoroughly recommend Avast, it is free for home use and the virus signatures are regularly updated, often a couple of times a day.

Posted in Computers, Software | Tagged , , | Comments Off on I must practice what I preach

Why RSS feeds are bad for me

by Ian Posted on August 12, 2007

RSS
RSS feeds are brilliant. They allow you to keep up to date with websites and blogs without visiting the website or blog.

RSS feeds are bad. They allow you to keep up to date with websites and blogs without visiting the website or blog.

Both of these mutually exclusive statements are correct for me. They allow me to get my regular dose of posts from blogs with my emails. The bad part is, as I’m very bad at leaving comments, I don’t then visit the blog itself.

  • I must make the effort to visit and comment on other blogs, not just read the feeds.
  • I must make the effort to return the compliment, by visiting and commenting on the blog of anyone who visits and comments on mine.

If my reasons haven’t put you off, here is my feed:


Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe by Email

Posted in Blogging | Tagged | 5 Comments