Out with Thunderbird, in with Google…

So when I finally post my new ‘installing ubuntu’ blog, you will know that I am unhappy with how Thunderbird is behaving. This is unfortunate timing for Thunderbird, because lately I have been looking through all the ‘new’ google apps.

I’ve always like Gmail, and to be honest, was a little sad when I switched to TB, because it meant I wasn’t using gmail on the web anymore. Google Reader is the RSS feature of google, and what with all my switching computers and rebooting etc. I thought that it made sense to start using that. It’s all online, and easy to access, which for me is a big plus.

Reader is VERY easy to use, and I like that I can put feeds into folders. For example, I have Luke’s blog feed, and his del.icio.us feed in one folder entitled ‘Luke’. When I view that folder it doesn’t discriminate  between any of the feeds, just shows me what the latest published thing was.

I like that everything is online, easy to use, and fits together. I’ll continue to use Google online for my emails and RSS, until I get sick or it, or want a challenge and try to fix whatever the problem is with Thunderbird.

Until then, feel free to ’stalk’ me on twitter: www.twitter.com/Sunshinetalia

 

1337

My fiance sent me a message today that said I was ‘1337′. I inquired as to what that meant, but he wouldn’t tell me. Upon googling to tonight I discovered what Wikipedia says about ‘1337′, or ‘leet’.

Leet or Leetspeak (1337 or 13375p34k) is written form of slang used primarily on the Internet, but nowadays also in many online video games,^[1] which uses various combinations of alphanumerics to replace proper letters. The term itself is a degenerative form of the word “elite“, and the language it describes resembles a highly specialized form of electronic shorthand. At first the word leet was used as an adjective, to primarily describe the behavior or accomplishments of others in the community. In that usage, Leet generally carries the same meaning when referring to either the game prowess or, in original usage, hacking expertise of another person. From adjective form its use then expanded to include use as an expletive in reaction to a demonstration of the former qualities. With the mass proliferation of Internet use in the 1990s into the 21st century, Leet has since become a part of Internet culture and slang.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet

Urban Dictionary.com was able to give me a translation of the entire alphabet in this hacker language.

A language in which numbers and symbols are put together to look like letters. Some people create their own 1337 letters and it makes them look more 1337 by fellow 1337-speakers. Here is an alphabet of 1337 letters I know and have created:

A: 4 or l\ or ^ or @ or /\ or /-\
B. l3 or 8 or ß or ]3 or l:
C: ( or < or © or ¢
D: l) or l> or ])
E:3 or £
F: l= or # or ƒ
G:6 or 9
H: # or l-l or (-) or !-! or }-{ or }{ or l+l or )+( or !+! or }+{
L: 1 or ! or ][
J: _l or _/
K: l< or l( or l{ or l<=
L: l_ or ! or 1
M: l\/l or /\/\ or l\l\ or ^^
N: l/l or /\/
O: 0 or () or <> or * or ø or Ó or °
P: l* or l> or |D or l^ or l+
Q:& or (\) or ¶
R: l2 or ®
S: 5 or $ or §
T:+ or 7
U: l_l or /_/
V: \/
W:|/\| or \/\/ or |/\/ or \/\|
X: >< or }{ or :-:
Y: ¥
Z: 2

()/\/\9 7^l+l+ 15 73)-( 1337 #l\:-:<>l2 1 +()l_l> _/<>* ^l3°l_l+ /\/\3}-{ #1213l/ll>!!!1!!11!1!! )+(3 |D\l\/l/l2.

translation:Oh my god that is the leet hacker I told you about my friend! He owns.

So now you know a little bit of info when someone says that you’re ‘1337′. And you also know how you can write to other people as well! If I were you, and I wasn’t a hacker, I probably wouldn’t go trying it though. Some people might get a little testy about stealing their language?

 

Zotero

I just went and installed Zotero, a firefox extension perfect for assignments and things like that. I love it when I stumble upon things that are useful like that!

One of the great things I love about firefox, there again. It goes so nicely down the bottom of my screen- unobtrusively sitting there until I need it! Similar to Google Notebook, which I also just got.

So the way it works is it recognises if you’re on a page that you would reference and a little icon appears in the URL. You can click it and it will add it to your library. Then at a later date, when you’re online or offline (who the hell is ever offline?) you can organise it into categories. You can add tags, notes, links, say what it’s similar too. It’s really handy.

If it doesn’t recognise that you might want to reference something then you can always add it in manually.

So I thought that this was a great tool for doing assignments, and I think I would use it even for blogging- a great way to reference things properly. Should bloggers take this into consideration more?

 

Lyric Censorship

I just read an article online, from the Australian, it was about how Powderfinger (my favourite band) may be facing a ban on some lyrics on their forthcoming album, Dream Days At The Hotel Existence.

The song Black Tears is about Aboriginal deaths in custody. The second verse describes a scene similar to one version of events surrounding the 2004 death of Aboriginal man Mulrunji in the Palm Island watch house (off far north Queensland).

‘‘An island watchhouse bed, a black man’s lying dead,” a line from the song, is said to refer to this death. The reason for wanting to censor the lyrics, and as far as I can see, is how closely it relates to this particular case, and the fact that the release date for the album is so close to the trial of Sen-Sgt Chris Hurley who is facing assault and manslaughter charges is the Townsville Supreme Court. His trial is on the 12th of June, just 10 days after the expected release of Powderfinger’s album.

The album’s release might have to be postponed is Queensland, and online, which would suck, not just because that’s where I live, but because Powderfinger are Queensland boys themselves- Brisbane, Sunshine and Gold Coasts.

I thought it was interesting when Luke sent me this link because I had just been listening to an interview on Triple J with Rob Hirst, previously of Midnight Oil. Rob had mentioned when inducted into the Aria Hall of Fame last year that the Australian music industry isn’t producing songs with political grunt (or something to that effect).

Below is an extract of his acceptance speech at the Aria Hall Of Fame night:

“Last week GW Bush finally admitted that Iraq may prove to be his Vietnam, but Vietnam inspired some of the greatest protest songs ever written. Not so now, surprisingly, even when hundreds of thousands of Australians crowded our streets to demonstrate their opposition to another senseless war. Maybe complaint rock is still being written, but is ignored by an industry hypnotised by get-famous-fast TV shows. Bless you, John Butler, but you shouldn’t have to do it all by yourself.”

Anyway, back on subject, one shouldn’t expect Powderfinger to release an album that doesn’t have at least one politically minded song. On Double Allergic it was JC, on Internationalist it was Belter, on Odyssey Number Five it was Like A Dog, and on Vulture Street it was How Far Have We Really Come?.

Of course there are many more songs on each album (I’m not counting Parables For Wooden Ears, I don’t know it well enough) that are politically minded, and so there should be, but these are just one from each album that I picked out.

 

Installing Fonts in Ubuntu

My friend emailed me a font, Beginners Alphabet (it’s freakin’ hard to find, so if you need it, email me). I had searched everywhere to download it, but couldn’t find it ANYWHERE.

That’s all beside the point though, It was REALLY easy to install fonts in Ubuntu. I opened the file using the fontreader (Can’t remember if I downloaded that one or not… let me know if you have problems), and then pressed install!  I always try to install them to the system, not just for personal use, but that doesn’t always work. Seeing as I’m the only one who uses my computer, it doesn’t really matter.

So it sounds REALLY easy, right? Well it is. The only reason I’m writing this is so that I don’t forget how bloody easy it is when I go to do it again. Oh, and because someone might not have a clue where to start, and this might help them. That’s really the reason I write anything in this blog… so let me know what you want to know about…

 

Tips For Bloggers

I am the author of three blogs, and I by no means claim to be an expert, but I think I know a few little things about it. I’ve put together a bit of a list of some things that I like to do in my blogs that I think work.

1. I like to keep a certain amount of my life private. A mistake I’ve made, which I’m sure many others have as well, is that I’ve made really personal blogs. I have talked about people and situations and really just bitched my heart out and cried online and all sorts of terrible things. So my resolve with all of my blogs now is to remain a little distant- not to name other people, and not to talk about what I did that day. As you may have noticed, my personal blog is about things that INTEREST me, not necessarily things that I’ve done.

If you want to talk about a certain someone you might consider using a fake name, or just going lightly on what you say.

With all of that, in Teaching Talia you will still hear me talk about kids and teacher aides and teachers and lecturers… I just make sure that what I say is professional, and that I wouldn’t mind them reading it.

2. I reference. Something I’ve learnt from years of highschool and Uni is that referencing is necessary. I find that referencing, or linking as it is called in the blogging world, is great even just for me when I read back on what I’ve done.

Linking is the basis of the whole internet really, and so we should all link to each other. I particularly like to link to people if I’ve read their blog and got an idea from it for my blog. That way we all feel more like a community as well. Links make the world go round, and your google rank go up…

3. Encourage Comments. I don’t think I do this well enough, but it’s been said enough times that I can say it as well. “Ask people to comment and tell you what they think”!

You could try ending your post with a question, or you could just beg for them at the end, whatever suits.

4. Find a niche. As my fiancé says, ‘there’s not many left’, but find one anyway and write about it. A topic, interest point, or maybe just… you!

5. Update regularly (but not to regularly!). I like to update my sites relatively frequently, but sometimes I think I might do it a little to much. If you’re anything like me then you’re subscribed to about 10 different blogs at any one time, so if they’re all updating every day, then it’s hard, and almost frustrating if they’re all updating every day. But do update about two or three times a week.

6. Don’t ramble on. One thing I’ve learnt is that short paragraphs, and a blog written to the point is the best. Small paragraphs are easy to read, and easy to skim. Don’t write a 500 word blog if it’s about nothing…

7. Photos are good. People like to see what’s going on, and mixing your blog up with a few photos is always a good thing. I upload my photos onto either Flickr or Myspace, that way they’re stored for free, and I can easily link to them. If you use Flickr then you can put slide shows etc on…

So that’s my deal with blogs and writing blogs!

 

Lost In Translation

 When Lost In Translation came out in 2003 I was keen to have a look at it. It looked arty and interesting- my kind of movie. Unfortunately I heard quite a few bad reviews for it before I got the chance to watch it, and so I didn’t. FORTUNATELY though Luke had only heard good reviews, and some quite recently, and so when we were at the video shop last Tuesday, we decided to give it a go. I’m so glad we did because I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It’s an art house film, that’s for sure. My brother walked out half way through because it really wasn’t his thing, and that’s okay, but it was totally my thing. It was interesting, and sweet. I really enjoyed the cinematography, which always managed to capture the moment, as well as the music- always fitting and charming. It stars Scarlett Johansen, and Bill Murray. I loved Scarlett in The Prestige, which is up there with the best of them, including the one I saw the other day, The Illusionist. GREAT movie.

So I would definitely recommend Lost In Translation- it makes you think, and what I really like about it is that it’s not all sexy, slutty and a waste of my time and innocence. It’s a relatively clean movie that can be a little depressing, but is overall really good.

3 1/2 stars.

 

Self-Sufficient

Samso is a small Danish island that is completely self-sufficient. The 4000 people who live there have been converting their energy usage to green power since 1998, and now it is 100% run on the power they create themselves.

The small island is about two hours away from the Danish mainland, and while when you first go there things might seem a little like what your Grandma describes in her stories, it’s really a glimpse into the future. A green future.

Their vehicles run on biofuel which they grow themselves, and 75% of their heat comes from solar power and biomass energy. Straw from their land is burnt in central plants and the water is heated and tunnelled through the island so everyone gets some. There are ten turbines which create an offshore wind farm- 100% of the time. Because of these wind farms Samso is now carbon neutral- the energy they create from the wind farms compensates for the emissions from their cars, ferries etc. and other non-renewable energies. How great is that!?  Sometimes Samso’s turbines create so much energy that they are able to sell their energy to the mainland!

Watch an interview by CBS’s Mark Phillips with one of the farmers on the island, Erik Andersen.

Thanks to MetaEfficient and CBS News for this great story!

 

Pandora Music Player

I recently found this great new music player for Pandora. Pandora is an online music player, go here for more details.

The only problem is that you have to run it in your web browser, well, not anymore. A new app has been created, and here’s a little note from it’s creator, Luke:

Here’s a little app I created to fix that problem:

Pandora Player

 

Pandora Player will put pandora in it’s own application, so you can keep it aside from your regular browsing experience.

 

Windows only at this stage – the mac versions a little buggy and the linux version hasn’t been tested.

 

Haven’t tried it in Vista, just XP.

 

So please, feel free to redistribute!

 

AAPL vs MSFT

This chart is the share price of Apple Inc. in blue (right scale) and Microsoft Corp. in red (left scale), traditionally rival IT companies, over the past six months.

As you can see, there was a temporary boom in Apple shares when the iPhone was released. It soon went back to normal, but continued to steadily rise after that.

Also, ever since the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft’s stock price has pretty much crashed.

Throughout the history of the two companies, both prices have been increasing at quite similar rates. That is, until about a month ago – the 27th of February.

Microsoft’s price has decreased quite substantially since then, and continues to fall, while Apple’s price has rocketed. That’s not taking into account the new version of Mac OS X (Apple’s operating system) which is expected to be released in June – an announcement that many analysts expect to cause another price boom.

Could this be a sign of things to come?