Friday 19 February 2010

RIP Eze


There are certain people that are always a pleasure to see. They "warm up" your life, filling it with happiness and laughter.

Iain Burns, AKA Eze, was one of these people.. always smiling, telling jokes and making people laugh.

Whilst I did not know him that well, it was always a pleasure to see him, sitting in the pub laughing about something.

He will be massively missed by many people. Rest in Peace, buddy xxx

Friday 12 February 2010

The Tech Buzz

- Google Buzz: OH YAY! YAAAY! Another social media site that I can sign up to , and post everything that I am doing at all times of the day! Sadly, the latter portion of that statement is sort of true and whilst I have refrained somewhat in recent months, I am guilty of this, so here was another way of wasting my day away, not actually doing stuff, but posting about it.

I will admit that I was marginally shocked this morning when I opened up my Gmail account, and was greeted with a introduction screen, that basically said “O, HAI! Come see what you can do NOW with your Gmail account”. I was excited to some extent.. Facebook was being a pain, and had introduced many features that I really didn’t care for (privacy being jeopardized, and having to read every sodding comment by every single of my mutual 500 friends when they posted things directed to each other.. oh and by the way, Facebook, I don’t care how many of my friends like pickles) . The site had also changed its layout around 3 times in the past couple of months and was terribly terribly glitchy, sometimes not even working at all. This was the reason that I had basically abandoned many social networking sites from the past, since I started all those years ago, when MakeOutClub was still the best thing ever. Friendster came along, started acting up, so moved onto myspace and then facebook, everytime each site started getting too many error messages.

Google haven’t managed to get the Euro/US market in this area. They attempted a site with Orkut (yes, I have one of those too but its defunct much like my myspace and friendster profiles), that failed everywhere but India and South America, and GoogleWave, which was meant to take over everything but slightly fell flat on its, um, “face” as it was too “developer” based.

SO now, they are killing two birds with one stone. They do not need to build up another following.. they already have millions of users with GMail. They have already roped in both Flickr (one of the biggest photohosting sites on the internet) and Twitter (although slightly held back because you can post FROM Buzz to your Twitter but not the other way round). Will this take over Facebook? Dear God, I hope so.. then Zuckerberg or whatever his name is, can get of his high horse and realise that his site’s popularity wont last forever. And unfortunately, unlike the music side of MySpace, Facebook really has nothing to hold onto and will be a distant memory in the SNW like Friendster.




IPad- Are you a Mac or a PC? I, for one, am def a PC. I love Windows, and have been using the system for God knows how many years. My Apple love only goes as far as my Ipod, which, no matter how indifferent I am to Apple, is the best MP3 player that I have owned. I have neither bowed down to the IPhone (my loyalty lies with the other team, Blackberry, here, as well), think that the Touch is terribly overpriced for what you get, and wont even CONSIDER trading up a laptop with a Macbook that will cost more than 3 times the price.

I was slightly indifferent to the hype surrounding the IPad. I read up on it before the release and things that were being predicted sounded pretty cool.. and many of these features were not available. An awesome webcam? No. Not too big? No. Super thin and elegant? No.

When it was finally released, we were faced with, what essentially is, a massive Ipod Touch. Yay. I laughed. Considering I had been waiting to see if this was better than getting a Mini Laptop, I was bitterly disappointed. Not only did the tablet not have a webcam (something, according to tech sites today, is probably going to be changed in the near future), but the most memory you can get is 16GB, and the damn thing doesn’t even play flash sites, so no online streaming programmes for me. Save yourself a couple of hundred quid and go with a Dell Mini laptop.. far more functional, and better value for money.

Other PC companies, such as HP, are following suit soon though, with their own tablets, so maybe hold off till then.

Saying that, if Apple want to send me one to review fully, who am I to say no?

I love Etsy.

Thursday 4 February 2010

Current Top 10!


1. Social Media Fatigue:

Whilst I actually never thought I would say it, I am bored of everyone know what im doing 24 hours a day. And whilst I was interested before, I am not interested in what people are doing 24 hours a day either. I WANT people to text me to ask if I am going to a show. I WANT people to ask where I am when im not somewhere. Distancing yourself from sharing your every waking moment is the new tweeting. And maybe it’s a good thing, as apparently, spending too much time online can lead to depression as stated here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8493149.stm

2. Summer Fest Announcement time:

According to an oversized rat in Pennsylvania, there is still six more weeks of winter left.. so what better than being reminded that, REALLY, summer isn’t that far away. All fests, from the majors like Hellfest, Download, and imminently, Reading, to the smaller euro hardcore jaunts like Filled With Hate and Ieperfest, have began announcing their line ups. Whilst most of us will have to pick and choose, it just means that we will only have to brave the cold winter months for a tiny bit longer.

3. Being in your 30s.

Its apparently the new “20s” now. Heh.

4. Holiday Songs:

Ke$ha, Timbaland and Nelly Furtado, and of course the black eyed peas to remind you of good times.

5. Valentines day hate.

I have ever only had one good Valentines day which involved flowers in the morning from a stranger (RIP Chris BTN) and then seeing SOIA. To this day, I have not had a good one, and still hate it with a passion. Fuck you Valentines day. Fuck you to hell.

6. The return of awesome tv season.

Around this time of the year, everything is looking kind of slow. Christmas is gone, summer is seems like its an eternity away. Which makes the return of awesome tv shows all the more better.. especially since I was totally over Glee after the 5th episode. Grey's Anatomy, and Greek are my current favourites. But in the same breath, we bid a sad farewell to "jersey shore". FIST PUMP!

7. Spotify

I have been raving about this service for roughly about a year now. I have mentioned it HERE. Anyhow, I am still loving it as it means that i dont have to go out of my way to find shit that i cant be bothered to look for and download onto my ipod.

SO. Heres the fun part. I want to listen to some new stuff. Recently, all i have played on my spotify is Manic Street Preachers and various pop songs im obsessed with (that are probably about 10 years old because that is when I finally latch onto a popular song haha).

Help me fill up a spotify play list full of stuff to listen to before I go out.. This could be anything from hardcore to soul to the cheesiest pop (which is what i have started out with).

Link is here:

Help. May.

Knock yourselves out kids.

8. Lounging.

Going out is awesome. But really, I would rather stay in, and lie on the couch and watch tv. In 10 years, i will be going to my local Waitrose in my velor tracksuit and Ugg boots carrying my Chanel handbag.. you wait and see. Alternatively, when I win £85m on the lottery tomorrow, this will also happen.

9. The Excitement of New Awesome Bands.

One of the best feelings in the world is watching a UK band, thinking, "fuck.." and then getting excited about seeing their name on upcoming bills. It happens literally once in a blue moon, and as there was a blue moon a couple of weeks ago, the band in question are "Breaking Point". Literally, have seen them twice, and both times, they have blown me away. Check them out. One of the best new bands to come out of the UK:

http://www.myspace.com/thenotoriousbxp

10. PMA.

There are certain people that are simply mood hoovers. They suck all the life and good feelings out of a person. When I am around such people, and they begin to bring me down, I think of this. Rid yourself of this.