IT Fun Stuff

Virtual Water Cooler

by

Last month I had an article (‘It’s about who knows you’) published in InTheBlack, CPA Australia’s monthly magazine.  I was very happy with that for two reasons – firstly it was a paid commission article, which is always nice, and secondly they kept my title.  In all my experience of writing articles and publications, that has almost never happened. 

The June 2008 article is about the issues around social networking and what can happen when people aren’t careful with such websites.  Since InTheBlack paid me for it, I’ll wait a little before I post the whole article – although my favourite pull-quote that was used was:

“Some people do not like candid photographs of themselves pole-dancing or imitating a fascist dictator being made available online”

The first one is a veiled reference to a certain swimmer, and the other is a reference to… well, a company that I contacted at least four months ago and said that perhaps they might be embarrassed about that photo.  Apparently, so far, they’re not. Which I happen to think is silly – particularly given the sensitivities of some of their clients – but perhaps I’m overreacting.  Still, I’d personally rather keep my renditions of Deutschlandlied and impersonations of Joseph Goebells at cocktail parties quite private thank you very much.

At any rate, the second article has now been published (‘Virtual water cooler’) and I have to say that by the time the InTheBlack graphic guys have finished with it, they always come up looking like roses.  I like the introduction they added at the top of the article:

“Ignore social networking sites at your peril.  Keeping an ear out for quiet murmurs of your customers online is a better strategy than waiting for them to yell“

So this month’s issue is out – I’ll post the full article in about a month or so.  Look for it in your mailbox:

 

Feedback from ‘Don’t be the Llama Loser’ presentation

by

Today I received the feedback from the ‘Don’t be the Llama Loer:  social networking websites, your business, and your career’.  Overall the feedback was good.  The ratings :). are provided below (5 is excellent, 4 is good, and so on):

Overall rating of the speaker:  4.38

The content of the program:  4.16

The duration of the program:  4.21

Overall rating of the venue:  4.37

Was the content in line with your expectations:  16 said yes, none said no.

There were some supplementary feedback comments as well in response to the question ‘List areas that could have been covered better or in more detail’:

Things about side-effect of social networking sites.
The interaction of real life social networking with on line social networking or how to use social networking site.
Organise interest groups around particular topics.

I was a little surprised that the duration still scored well – I’m sure it went over by half an hour.  Still it was always going to be optimistic to cover the material in half an hour.  I’m also quite said that my large array of ‘people kissing llamas’ pictures didn’t rate a mention. 

The one below probably says it best:

 

Itsy bitsy teeny weeny umpc’s

by

I’ve taken the jump and decided to buy an HP 2133 mini-note laptop.  These seem to be a category of computer all on their own called UMPC – Ultra Mobile Personal Computer.  Or alternatively an ULCPC (Ultra-Low Cost Personal Computer), since the HP 2133 seems to not match a number of people’s requirements for such a beast:

It’s certainly low-cost generally ($999 from Harris Technology) for a fairly well-specced notebook that is less than the size of a largish book.  I did check out the eeepc, but frankly that machine’s keyboard is far, far too small to do anything serious with.  I don’t think I managed to type a sentence without a typo, and even though I’m looking to get as light as possible, I would like to be able to some serious work with this baby when possible.  See the comparison video below.

 

Overall the reviews seem to ping the HP2133 mini-note for its poor processor, trackpad, and battery life.  Also the glossy screen gets pinged too. 

Essentially I want the machine for using in meetings and on the plane – although the Vostro is great, it’s pretty darned heavy to walk around and, with my new life going back to Uni to do my PhD, it should be good to have the option of the smaller ‘netbook’.  I don’t really care about processor speed so long as it does stuff – I don’t need high-end graphics to write stuff.

I couldn’t see myself doing any work at all on the eee pc, although the eee pc 9″ model has a great screen and is really really light – put a good keyboard on that machine and it’s mine, mine mine.

Perhaps I’ll try Ubuntu on the HP – it comes with Vista Business which, as I’ve said, I’m not all that keen on.

Oh – and beware – I think the sweet machine to get is the 1.7 Via with the 2GB RAM & 160 GB hard drive – Harvey Norman has the 1GB RAM Version for $100 less, but I’m not prepared to take THAT much of a performance hit.

It’s my itsy witsy teeny tiny polka dot eeepc…

by

Hmmm.  I saw this post over at News.comau (“Little Laptops“) and was intrigued by the eee pc 900 – a subnotebook with a teeny tiny keyboard and a smaller sibling with a killer price.  It looks like the new product will come here at about $650 (?) and arrive on about 18 May.  I did some more research (whirlpool, trustedreviews) on this little baby.

I already have a nice big luggable desktop replacement, but there are times (like when I fly) that it would be nice to have a very small laptop.  I went to Myer today to look at one and these things are incredibly light and feel fairly robust – the eee pc 701 is mostly shipped with Linux.  The keyboard, though, is definitely not full size and there’s no way that they’re power machines.  But most of the time – I am not playing Warcraft or using Visio, I am blogging or writing.  I don’t need a mega machine to do that with.

This would be my luggable:

I am seriously thinking about getting one when the price comes down a bit – it will allow me to indulge my passion for Linux, experiment a bit, and quite frankly if it doesn’t work at $600 it might be useful to know that.  The keyboard is very small though and it feels like a toy, but it also feels pretty rugged and will allow me to walk without bending over on those interstate trips where I don’t really need the full power of my vostro.