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Webitz - Checking out the Web from an amateur's point of view
This blog has been a bit on the outer for the last couple of weeks. Partly because of the usual additional busyness of Christmas, and partly because I've been less energetic than usual as a result of all the fuss over my prostate biopsy and its aftermath. (Aftermath might be a rather overloaded word to use in the circumstances, but it'll suffice.)
Anyway, in an attempt to bring it back into public view, as it were, I'm posting two posts in a row. (Wow! says the world.)
Apparently, iSuppli principal analyst for computer platforms Matthew Wilkins said recently. apropos of the fact that notebook sales have finally overtaken desktop sales: "This marks a major event in the PC market because it marks the start of the age of the notebook."
(Mr Wilkins obviously likes to use 'marks' in his statements regularly. Or maybe he was caught on the hop and didn't have time to use more elegant phraseology.)
Regrettably, the downside of this is that notebook thefts have increased 48% in the last two years.
One of the good things about a desktop PC was that it wasn't that easy just to walk off with. For a start there's all that danged cableling, and the fact that you've got to find out where the owner has the thing plugged in (and even then you might unplug the heater or the CD player or a host of other possibilities). Then the keyboard goes swinging behind you as you lift the hard drive up and away; the monitor remains firmly attached (especially if it's one of the older style ones) and mice, speakers and sundry other attachments (in my case a hub and a wi-fi thingamebob) all refuse to unloose themselves with speed.
Yup, it's certainly easier to walk off with a notebook.
Which is why we clung to ours constantly when we were overseas; which is why it frequently travelled inside a backpack that was firmly attached to either myself or my wife. Lifting that notebook would require lifting one or other of us as well.
Therefore, it strikes me that the answer to notebook theft is to attach a person to the notebook. This will ensure complications for the thief, and possibly also a good solid biff in the eye.
One of the blogs I read almost every day is Seth Godin’s. I’ve always found him an interesting ideas man, someone who makes you rethink stuff you thought you knew, or challenges your preconceptions.
He’s very hot on dealing with the ‘value’ of the Internet, particularly in marketing terms. So many businesses have rushed into Internet action, doing the same old things they’ve always done (especially in terms of advertising) and have then wondered why things don’t work, or change, or why the profits don’t increase.
But the Internet is a whole big new ball game. Even now, people are still only just getting then hang of it. Some of them, anyway.
And advertising on the Net. I guess people read the ads (I do myself sometimes) but it’s curious that the horrible little text ads that Google and other firms do are just as effective as the long banner ones with animation – in fact often more so. The ones I find least effective are the ones that invariably appear when you open some page - imdb.com, for instance, has had the same ad appearing for what seems like months now, to the extent that it’s annoying. Repetitive ads don’t work on TV, although the advertising people seem to think so; they don’t work on the Net either. (The worst thing an advertiser can do, in fact, is have the network show the same ad constantly throughout the night when you’re trying to watch a movie on TV. But they keep doing it.)
In a post called Confusing Activity with Action, Seth writes: For big brands and marketers with significant budgets, the Internet represents a loss of leverage. Money doesn't buy you as much attention, and you have to work much, much harder for every eyeball.
He goes on to say that individuals actually have more leverage on the Net, and have it without spending a cent in more cases. In fact, individuals and tiny little one-man band businesses,such as those that sell weight loss pills are better off than many of the big businesses.
The Net turns marketing on its head, but a lot of brand names and big businesses haven’t figured it out yet.
While we were in England last year, one of the annoying things was trying to use the laptop when we were away from a broadband connection. Even though it's wi-fi, the issue was usually trying to find an Internet cafe, or a hot spot, or some other alternative. In general we managed, but it was annoying just the same.
We could have done with mobile broadband, which now seems to be taking over from wi-fi altogether. (So much for all the effort certain cities have put in to be wireless-friendly - the technology was there all along wherever there was cellphone reception.)
Some of the hotels we came across charged the earth for wireless connection; they must have been making a big profit out of their customers on this alone. And sitting in an internet cafe while your wife gets frazzled because she doesn't want to be doing that, isn't healthy for the relationship either.
The new system even allows you to switch between carriers and countries without difficulty, something that was a pain while we were in Europe. Probably some of the problem was the antiquated style of cellphone I was using - it doesn't have anything like 3G capability, and mobile broadband requires that, as does much of the other new technology in this area.
One of the new names is GOBI, and they're advertising on their site that you can go anywhere and be connected. (Anywhere is always a bit subjective, but for the most part it'll work.)
It's a pity I have no plans to be travelling overseas again in a hurry. This is definitely the way I'd go next time'. (And I'd get some car insurance quotes before I left as well: that was another thing that is a big rip off overseas!)
My other Orble blog, Workreport.net, has been getting the lion’s share of posts lately, mainly because I’ve been writing a good deal about my prostate situation, the biopsy and subsequent interesting times I’ve been living through.
This blog has been feeling neglected, so I’m going to have to up the ante on here a little
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For many years we had a TV stand that had been the original wooden casing for one of our earlier TVs. It must have been solidly built, since, once we’d removed the TV that no longer worked, we used to put later models on top of it (one at a time, of course) and use the area below (into which a couple of shelves had been placed) for videos.
In fact, I think that old stand is still around somewhere, no doubt being used for books, or ornaments or something.
We recently bought a TV stand that appears to be solid wood. In fact, it’s pretty light, but at least our current (heavy) TV sits on it without any sign of creaking or groaning on the part of the stand. This one has a couple of little doors at the bottom, where you’re supposed to store DVDs or other paraphernalia. And best of all, it has castors, so the TV can be moved from room to room if necessary. The DVD player sits on top (of the TV) and the video player (which suddenly refused to work last time we tried it) is in a special place between the cupboard and the TV area
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For some reason, the rhyme, I had a little nut tree, has been flittering around in my brain for the last hour. I thought I'd check out on the Net whether anyone knew what it meant.
More than one place claims it as a Mother Goose rhyme - some even say Mother Goose wrote it (oh, dear!). And if that wasn't uninformative enough, one site (which won't be nameless) prints it out as this
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While talking to my boss this morning about the office blog, which I maintain, he implied that blogs are the most effective way of reaching people. Well, maybe blogs that are well known are, but blogs like the half dozen I contribute to at various times don’t do any serious reaching of people at all. Even though I wish they did.
I’ve just been looking at the NZ NetGuide site, where they list a bunch of blogs that are the ‘best for 2008.’ Now you’d think that out of that list I’d have heard of at least some of them. Nope. Nary a one
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330 Posts dating from January 2007
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