What do you think?

Is it me?

Out went the old supercar style and in comes this new minimalist style with warm colours perfect for winter!

I must be feeling all Mulled Wine

And there are updates, with this site now available on your iPhone in a new iPhone-esque style or you can choose to switch back to the normal style you see on the web normally, its up to you.

I’ve updated the ways you can contact me and my social media links as well as added links to all my instant messaging accounts. I use Adium so I am signed into them all at once, how handy!

The site now has Twitter integrated into it so you can see all my tweets, be they boring and informational or exciting and controversial, its whatever enters my mind and maybe some things that shouldn’t!

There are live visitor updates and maps so you can see who comes to visit from around the world.

Thats it for now I am a bit busy this weekend launching my new podcast, The Sleepy Sunday Show, which is a spin off from the main podcast, Atlantic Wave Radio.

This new show explores another side of me, musically, and I will be playing a selection of more sedate, relaxing tracks and instrumental tracks that I describe as being perfect for a laid back Sunday morning or afternoon. You might want to come and join me, the links for both podcasts are in the links section on the left.

And if all this spurs you to action I have installed a new comments system, that even allows you to leave a video comment if you want rather than simple text. Give it a try out, there is no need to signup for anything.

Thats it for now, See you soon

Steve

I have a couple of bones to pick with the mighty Google.

Why when I search Google for a product does it give me umpteen million shops in the listings? Isnt that what the Shopping link at the top of the page is for? Please Google remove the shopping links from the main search, where possible.

Make my searches more relevant, if I am searching for a product lets say a Philips Senseo coffee maker or maybe a Canon camera then why am I almost NEVER directed to the manufacturers website? There must be some cash in directing customers towards manufacturers for sales and support of their products.

I want to be able to search for a manual for my DVD player and actually be pointed to the PDF file from the manufacturer. Instead, right now I have to spend 10 minutes searching to find what I am after, isnt that what your computers should be doing for me?

OK, we can search, and we can search for words and combinations of words but really we need now to move on, search needs to find what we want faster and ditch the unwanted commercial crap…unless I ASK for it. i.e. If I am searching for “Buy Philips Senseo” then fine.

Google and their ilk need to improve their search and we need to be educated by them to improve our search terms so as to give thier apps a chance at finding what we want and find it faster.

So come on Google, you must have done some user testing how about applying more of that to your search product?

I have uploaded a temporary halloween style theme to the website to scare you!

Will anyone else be watching Most Haunted Live at Halloween?

Until its safe for me to come out from under the bed, enjoy!

Comments

In the last couple of weeks I have been frustrated and annoyed by a number of blogs, newspapers and other websites that have comments systems that require me to signup.

When I read an interesting storyline I sometimes get that urge to reply or leave an alternate viewpoint, come on, dont we all from time to time?

It adds to and enriches the original story that was posted. In most cases!

I understand spam is a major frustration, it is for all of us, yet I just don’t have the time to signup for umpteen websites that I may only visit once a year, in some cases less.

Now, I am happy to fill out captcha’s and work out a few bits of math or click on an email link to verify I am real and not some nutcase selling herbal appendage enhancements. That is fair enough.

So anyone with a blog or a website or in a position of power at any organisation, please, think of us poor lowly users out here and let us join in, it lets us vent, show our thoughs and generally engage with your content, which ultimately helps you.

This posting is my comment, to all of you.

Why Not?

Take one from the left and one from the right,
repeat until all combinations are available.

I want to mix and match all things.

I want to use flickr to store my photos but maybe my friend prefers to view with Picasa, why cant he?

I want to announce via twitter but my friend wants to receive via iChat, why cant she?

I want to talk on my pc but my friend wants to receive the call on her mobile….She CAN!

Because the terms, conditions, the basic usage policies and interconnect agreements have been made, we are able to make calls to almost anywhere in the world.

Why cant data pass this way in this era of cloud computing?

Why cant we forge open standards of communication that allow room for expansion and interconnect and are not just elaborate walled gardens?

Why Not? is the question for the future!

Get Your Cyborg Name

I like the word, Nullification.

Just added a live visitors log so you and I can see who is viewing the site and roughly where they come from in this world of ours.

Its supplied by FeedJit and you can get one as well just visit their site over at http://www.feedjit.com

Thanks

I am still around, haven’t vanished off the face of the earth.

I have been very busy with my other websites and that is taking up a fair bit of my online time at the moment.

I will be back to update this page soon, dont fear!

It allows me access to a huge library of new musical talent quickly and easily but every time I log on I get either sad or angry.

Why such emotion? Well what I see is one huge lost opportunity that does a disservice to the artists, podcasters and end users that visit the site.

It fails to deliver on so many levels it shouldnt even exist but just like Microsoft a few years back, there simply was nothing to better it, so it stayed at the top of the pile.

Well that surely doesnt cut it any longer does it?

Am I the only one that sees huge opportunity for the artists to connect with new audiences that will then purchase their music? Podcasters to feature and connect with bands and their communities as well as ways to obtain their tracks with even greater ease and finally end users to be able to interact with the music and the podcasters playing it in new and exiting ways?

This could all be done with only a little re-programming but it could also be done in a way that actually generates several good quality sustainable income streams for the site.

I am surely not the only one that wants to see this site continue and in fact prosper in the world of new media that Mevio wants to play a big part in?

This site, unloved and maybe unwanted by Mevio is the one part of the company that could be profitable, popular and stand the test of time. Wake up Mevio, act to save this site, it could be the one thing that saves you once the venture capital dries up.

Podshow was centre stage at the dawn of the new media revolution, now where is it in relation to the Revision 3’s of the world?

WAKE UP MEVIO - Before its too late!!!!

Black Box

With that in mind its about time we changed one bit of kit that has been around for a long time and is in desperate need of upgrading.

The infamous aircraft black box, Cockpit Voice Recorder or Flight Data Recorder.

This device holds the key to solving many in-flight problems, not just the fatal ones as the unit records systems and voice information during the flight.

How many people realise however that the unit often doesnt record the full flight and that recordings vary in terms of usefulness due to the amount of sensors sampled?

With the advent of flash memory its about time we had a basic upgrade to allow full flight voice recording, maybe even longer and when possible more full instrument recording.

As systems become digital with the ability to report their settings over a fast internatl network and storage becomes every cheaper, why would you not want to record as much as possible?

Take for instance the Quantas baggage hold explosion the other week. There is no record of the explosion on the voice recorder because it only records around 30 minutes of audio on a loop. So all they got was the plane landing in Manila, not a lot of use! a $40 USB recorder could record for 48 hours or more.

Time, me things, to move on!