A waste of bits and bandwidth

Ok, [tag]Google[/tag] [tag]busted[/tag] me… No more [tag]GoogleX[/tag] lest I start receiving letters from their legal department.

While reviewing your application, it has come to our attention that you may be using Google Brand Features, including Google trademarks, logos, web pages, screenshots, or other distinctive features on your site without prior consent from Google.

You must first receive Google’s permission before using any of Google Brand Features on your website. This policy is available at http://www.google.com/permissions/guidelines.html.

Once you have resolved this issue please contact us and we will be happy to continue to process your application. If you continue using these Brand Features on your site, you may be further contacted by a Google representative.

Thank you for your understanding.

Regards,

The Google Team

At least they were polite…

I had yet another jaw-tightening experience with the mental deficients of a well known electronics retailer recently. I have no idea why anyone shops there; I mean it’s not the cheapest place to go for your geek goodies. So why was I there I hear you ask? I had a gift card that still had a few bucks on it and I figured that I would use it up.

I go in there and decide to buy GTA San Andreas. The balance on my card should cover the game and then I’ll be done with them. Plus, I figured since Dad gave me the card he’d be happy that I was using the money to buy a game that allows you club pedestians with bats, shovels and marital aids. Anyway… I waltz in, decide on the PC version (that was a mistake BTW, should have gone for the xBox version) and get in line. “Damn, three people ahead of me and only one mental deficient taking money. *jaw tightens* Great, the customers at the till are idiots too… WTF are they doing?” The line continues to grow with now agitated customers as the idiots at the till still aren’t done.

Now another mental deficient comes and opens another till “Great! What? Credit only? No, I have a gift card. What the hell is going on here?” One guy out of 9 in line goes up and pays by credit card. Now another mental deficient opens another till but you still can’t pay with cash so no one moves. I show my gift card and am told that it will be fine. You can imagine what comes next… The game is $2.19 more than the balance on the card so I hand my mental deficient a $5 bill. Confused, the junior mental deficient consults with a senior mental deficient. “I’m sorry, we can’t accept cash at this till” *jaw fully locks up* “Are you telling me that I can’t give you $2.19? Give me my card back!” The junior and senior mental deficients scurry around trying to decide what to do. Finally they relent, but I still can’t pay them. I have to cut in front of the other agitated customers to pay $2.19.

Nice experience. I should have made them cry…

[tag]Lists[/tag] are all the rage these days so I figured that I would throw my hat in the ring and create some of my own. For the first entry, a list of [tag]Web 2.0[/tag] applications that I’ve been using and actually finding useful. Useful being the keyword here.

There are a million different Web 2.0 sites littering the web and many mirror each other making it difficult to see the forest for the trees. How many [tag]social[/tag] bookmarking sites or personal homepages does the internet really need? With that being said, onto the list.

News: At Newsvine, you can read stories from established media organizations like the Associated Press as well as individual contributors from all around the world. Placement of stories is determined by a multitude of factors including freshness, popularity, and reputation. Contribution is open to all, and editorial judgement is in the hands of the community. They were in a closed [tag]beta[/tag] for the longest time and since they opened I haven’t used it as much as I thought. Good general news site.

Buzz: Popurls is a very recent addition but I like it a lot. Covering digg.com, del.icio.us, newsvine.com, flickr.com, reddit.com, tailrank.com, slashdot.org, youtube.com, news.google.com, topix.net and comagz.com, it’s more of an aggregator but still well worth a look. The best part of it is that you can check all these sites at a glance. ‘Your Pop’ is coming soon, so that could be interesting.

Calendar: 30Boxes is an online calendar that seems to be the best of the pack, at least until Google’s [tag]CL2[/tag] comes along. They recently added an import feature though I mainly use it for tracking work related items.

Homepage: Netvibes and Pageflakes are two personal homepages, allowing you to customize what appears on the page to your hearts content. I give the nod to Pageflakes as it includes tabs allowing me to have a work and a personal tab.

There is a lot of hype surrounding all these new Web 2.0 technologies, most of it unwarrented. Didn’t Microshaft come out with Active Desktop 10 or more years ago? AOL has had keywords since day one and everyone made fun of them (myself included). Call a keyword a [tag]tag[/tag] though and it’s cutting edge Web 2.0…

I think the biggest downside is that there is no technology to consolidate all these pages into one page. When I launch Firefox, I have 5 tabs which open and that sucks. Why can’t I put all this content onto one page? So, if you have some wild desire to hop on the Web 2.0/AJAX bandwagon please don’t design another homepage. I don’t need another del.icio.us or ma.gnolia.com just put a page together allowing me to have all my info in one place. Great. Thanks.

A pretty complete list Web 2.0 applications can be found here if you’d like to explore a greater variety.

Not that this makes any difference to you, but the vast [tag]Sevenapril.ca[/tag] domain repository is now on the new server. I managed to move everything over on Tuesday and from what I can tell, all is well. I’ve turfed all the files on the old host so I guess this is for good.

Now that I have over 20GB’s of storage to play with, I guess it wouldn’t kill me to post the occasional file. So a few weeks ago I was listening to one of my favorite [tag]podcasts[/tag] and they mentioned my site. I’m walking to work and listening to The Tim and Tony show and before I know it, they’re talking about my site! How freakin’ weird. To that end, I snipped out the ego-boosting part of the show for your listening pleasure. Please don’t hold it against them…

I’m also switching themes for a short period of time. Mostly because the default [tag]K2[/tag] needs some work and I just haven’t had any time to work on it. Until now. So, I won’t subject you to my [tag]theme[/tag] experiments. I’ll just turn it back on as it gets closer to being done.

Well, very good then.

I can’t believe it’s already March. The past few weeks have been super busy and the time has just flown past. MiHwa is back in [tag]Seoul[/tag] now and it feels a bit empty around here. I wouldn’t say quiet as she didn’t really make any noise.

The worst part was leading up to her departure, not after as everyone seems to think. “Hey, it’s February, only a month to go…” Soon it’s the last week, the last day and then the last hour. “See ya this summer…”

I’m moving [tag]webhosts[/tag] as well, so the site might be unavailable for a day or two. I guess it doesn’t matter; I don’t blog much anymore and no one is reading. I’m not sure when I’m going to do the switch; I’ve been testing the system on a spare [tag]domain[/tag] and I finally got it sorted tonight.

I moved to Dreamhost and so far I’m pretty happy. They’re much better than my current [tag]hosting[/tag] company. Have a look at their plans and click here if you decide to go for it

One of the big selling points was that I can host all my domains under the same plan. I got one with the hosting plan in addition to the one I bought a few weeks ago. I’m up to four now and and yet I can hardly find time to blog anymore. Whatever. Domains are cheap and it’s not like I was planning to set up new blogs on them.

Right. Well I guess it’s back to the kitchen to try and figure out what all that stuff is…