Funny Picture of The Week
March 9, 2009
I will try to keep away from lolcats but I’ not promising anything. So without furthur waffle I start:
Funny Picture of The Week
Click to Make Bigger
A rather amusing thought to the people who haven’t purchased the, ironically named, Quickfire. According to an email sent by AT&T to customers “There have been a few reports of significant overheating of the phone when the AC Charger adapter is inserted incorrectly and forced into the phone.” They ask you to “take special care when charging your Quickfire GTX75 mobile phone.” And give you some handy advice;
The clearly marked, embossed arrow on the AC Charger adapter should always be face-up on the same side as the display screen of the Quickfire when it is inserted into the phone. See the diagram below for proper positioning and insertion of the AC Charger adapter into the phone. You should never force the AC Charger adapter into the phone.
Perhaps they should bundle it with some quickfire-proof accessories. No?
Via Engadget
The Crisis of Credit Visualized
February 25, 2009
Good video, explains the ‘credit crisis’ well.
Hibernation and Design
February 22, 2009
Well I have reserved this slot in my chockablock schedule to deposit some wisdom on my cherished blog which hasn’t been neglected for the past week… honest. Ok so I haven’t really been chockablock and I’m not that wise either but I do want to make a post here… Even though I don’t know what I’m going to post about yet.
Hmmm what have I been doing for the past week? Well I have been on half-term. I’m not sure if this is a common phrase so for those of you who are a bit lost it means that college let me go free and I get to chill out at home… or so I thought. However with harsh, persistent and grumpy nagging from my mum I thought I better try and earn some money. Now for those who don’t know (that’s everyone, most likely) I am trying to get started in the freelancing area of graphics design. Meaning I get paid to do stuff like the image below:
Blog Design - Click To Make Full Size (For Sale)
However ‘getting your name out there’ is rather difficult if you don’t have a portfolio or website. The only solution I could think of to this was to enter some competitions (told ya I wasn’t that wise). Now these aren’t any kind of competitions, they are properly structured and the designers, in most cases, are guaranteed payment. So I entered a few, the trouble is the competition hosts seem reluctant to give feedback and talk to the designers. They seem to start the contest, come back 9 days later and select a winner; or so I experienced. This is rather frustrating as design is a two way thing, neither of you will get what you want unless you discuss personal tastes, choices and decisions. But I digress.
Its a rare thing to see me work. You see, I am a sleepy soul and as such, spend most of my time either in bed or drinking coffee. Naturally by Wednesday I had returned to the bed where I stayed in hibernation until today. So that is why I haven’t been updating the blog with tech related topics or pictures of nasty foodstuffs. I promise to update more regularly… and I mean it this time.
Good day readers of Cybernetic Void.
About The Recent Inactivity And Something Called Baconnaise.
February 15, 2009
Sorry for the inactivity here recently. I had a lot of work and was very busy… Hmm that’s not going to stick is it? Ok to tell the truth I wasn’t busy, I got lazy and have been chilling out in front of the xbox 360 while eating pizza. I have realised a couple of things while being in a vegetative state of can’t be arsed. First, homemade pizza (thanks dad) is awesome. Second, Twitter is a fantastic way to receive news and information. Third, … Oh wait I didn’t have a third point silly me.
To make up for the recent inactivity here I shall show you something that is quite weird and rather disgusting, not only in idea but i suspect in taste too.
GOOD GOD!
Yes it looks rather sickening doesn’t it. If you were eating something I am very sorry as its probably all over your lap and the computer monitor now. I am rather curious of the fact that it says Regular on the front of it. Does this mean it comes in different varieties? Also, who is this aimed at? What kind of person would buy this instead of the real thing? Well readers, I wish you good day and again, I apologise for the lack of posts recently.
Ten Gmail Labs Features You Should Enable
February 9, 2009
I didn’t even know that some of these features were about.
Gmail has been slowly but surely rolling out cool new features ever since they started Gmail Labs. If you haven’t taken advantage of the fruits of Labs, here’s a look at 10 Labs features you should enable.
Offline Gmail
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Probably the most significant feature you can get out of Labs, Offline Gmail takes advantage of Google Gears to turn Gmail into an offline email client. You can search most of your messages, draft new messages, and do pretty much everything you can do with Gmail while you’re connected to the internet. Gmail automatically detects whether you’re connected or not to keep your offline and online Gmail in sync. (Read more)
Multiple Inboxes
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Got a widescreen monitor and a lot of filters and labels you want to keep an eye on? When enabled, Multiple Inboxes displays up to eight different searches or labels next to your inbox for a king-sized dashboard of your email activity. (Read more)
Tasks
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Google has taken a lot of guff for not creating a to-do list app to round out their productivity suite of apps. Tasks may not be a full-fledged app (yet), but it’s a great start. You can even turn an email into a task with a simple Shift+t keyboard shortcut. Once set up, you can add tasks to your Firefox sidebar andaccess it from your cell phone and iGoogle. (Read more)
Go to label
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Gmail has all kinds of great keyboard shortcuts, including combo keys that take you to your inbox (‘g’ then ‘i’), starred mail (‘g’ then ’s’), and more. With Go to label enabled, you can quickly navigate between labels from your keyboard in a similar manner. Simply type ‘g’ (Go), ‘l’ (Label), and then start typing the name of the label you want to go to. Go to label will autocomplete the label, so chances are you’ll be there in a couple of keystrokes. Go to label also works with the next Labs feature, Quick Links.
Quick Links
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Quick Links adds a new sidebar to Gmail just below your labels. When enabled, Quick Links can be used to bookmark anything in Gmail, from a common search to a specific email. It’s an incredible way to set up quick access to common searches without setting up a filter and label.
Superstars
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By default, Gmail ships with one yellow star to help you better keep track of and call out important emails. With Superstars enabled, you’ve got a whopping 12 different icons to choose from. You can even search for different superstar types specifically—especially handy if you want to set up some Quick Links with your Superstars!
Canned Responses
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Do a lot of repetitive typing, do you? With Canned Responses, you can set up canned replies so you can quickly and easily fire off that same old reply without succumbing to the pains of RSI. Your hands will thank you. (If you’re really serious about canned responses, check out Texter [Windows], TextExpander [Mac], or Snippits [Linux]).
Custom Keyboard Shortcuts
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Love keyboard shortcuts but never quite got the hang of the layout of Gmail’s keyboard shortcuts? With Custom Keyboard Shortcuts enabled, you can customize any of Gmail’s default shortcuts to your liking. Handy!
Forgotten Attachment Detector
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Save yourself the embarrassment of the second whoops-I-forgot! email with the Forgotten Attachment Detector. It scans your email to determine whether or not you had meant to attach a file and alerts you if an attachment is missing.
Pictures in Chat
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The Pictures in Chat feature does exactly what it sounds like: adds user icons to your Gmail Chat window. This one won’t boost your productivity all that much, but it’s a nice little tweak.
*Goes off to edit settings in Gmail*
Mind of A Hacker
February 8, 2009
A rather interesting short video about the mindset of hackers and how they think.
Devon Owned by Snow
February 8, 2009
Snow In Bampton
Although the title of this post might be a tad inappropriate at first glance, it really isn’t.
It seems when the UK gets a little bit of the white stuff everything grinds to a halt and everyone starts crying. I’m sure that the Americans who got snow this year will laugh at the picture above and think we are a bit weird however an Englishman would normally cower in fear at this amount of snow. It must be said that we don’t often seem to get snow in Devon/Somerset and as such it came as a bit of a shock this year.
You wouldn’t think a few inches of the white stuff could actually affect anything, after all it looks harmless, but it seems that everyone likes to make a fuss about it. A college in the same town that I go to closed but the stuff had melted by lunchtime. Radio stations were urging us to stay indoors unless a trip out into the Antarctic like conditions was absolutely necessary.
Now there isn’t really a point to this post other than ranting about peoples attitudes towards the recent weather. So I will cut it short and leave you with this thought, Devon wasn’t actually owned by snow but the people in it wanted it to be and so it was.
Four reasons why public Facebook status updates won’t kill Twitter
February 8, 2009
In a rather interesting article Mike Butcher outlines why the status updates of facebook wont put twitter out of buisness.
Here’s a short post on why I think Facebookallowing you to make your status updates public won’t affect Twitter as much as somemight think. (In order to get Facebook statuses, you no longer need to use a session ID to access statuses).
1. Twitter totally changed the model in social networks. Previously the model had been “friend” someone. Facebook requires consent for “following”. Twitter totally switched it to “Follow”. The model was now – at least if your updates were public – opt in, not opt out. That meant that public Twitter accounts could spread much faster than Facebook ones, since Facebook accounts are set to default to closed.
2. Twitter is “mainstreaming” the Follow model faster than Facebook. Facebook’s users are not used to this at all. They may well find Twitter easier to understand than changing the way they use Facebook already. What you do on Facebook is often quite different. Twitter is much more about communication/conversation.
3. Facebook’s business model is predicated on them owning your social graph. You might think you own it, but they do, in effect. Twitter has flourished by giving life to an eco-system of other services which can tell you lots of interesting things about your social graph, via their API. (One of the coolest ones lately is Twittersheep).
4. @replies on Twitter are almost always public. That’s powerful. @replies on Facebook won’t be because so much of your social graph will probably stay closed (that’s my view at least).
I have to agree with him. Facebook and twitter are different. Facebook is a great way to interact with friends but Twitter is more about news and sharing content. The content that is posted on Twitter is very different from the content posted on facebook. Twitter is less about you but more about your opinion.
Amusing Superbowl Ad
February 2, 2009
Well as you may have noticed (or may not have if you live somewhere other than the US) the Superbowl has just taken place. You must understand that the Superbowl would not be the Superbowl without the ads, rather like fish without chips. However, can the Superbowl be the Superbowl without the Superbowl? What I mean to say is, can you enjoy the Superbowl without actually watching the football part? Well I will let you make your own mind up on that one however please let me aid you by showing you an ad which I thought was rather amusing -
