Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot

Here are some links to keep you entertained this weekend:

• Google bullies Twitter into NoFollowing user’s profile pages: Rather e-v-i-l of them methinks
• Drum Machine: An amazing piece of online art
• Never Underestimate the power of a freebie: Giving away stuff always attracts attention. The question is whether it’s the right type or not.
• Wordle: Build a tag cloud with anything you like
• The Push to cure Spinal Muscular Atrophy: Great write-up by Mike Arrington
• Wavepad Sound Editor: Free audio editing software
• How effective is social media? Some thoughts about social media effectiveness down at whooah.biz
• Twitly: Seperate the people you follow in Twitter into groups
• Enjoy a stress free diet: How to make sure you don’t get stressed out
• Photographic proof that cats are evil: Eeeek! We have three in the house
• Chrome Weekly Wrapup: If you missed all the Chrome news this week, here it is, all in one place

This Honeypost is dedicated to two online friends of mine having a hard time. One’s getting better, and one’s off to surgery on Monday. Hope you’re on your feet soon, Suni and hope everything will be fine for you, Kat.

The Isle of Man Chapter of the BCS (British Computer Society) is holding a talk on the 18th September entitled World Class Service Delivery. We have a great speaker coming along, Peter Wheatcroft who has a wealth of experience in the area, particularly after help Alliance and Leicester achieve World Class status for this IT Service Delivery. Here’s a short synopsis about the subject matter:

Astonishingly few companies within the UK are benefiting from the advantages that come from world class accredited service management. This talk presents a distillation of the best practices in IT service delivery. We will touch on existing and developing global IT standards, and IT performance aspirations including ITIL v3 and related best practice methodologies.

Service Delivery is becoming more and more important in all aspects of business today, but particularly in the computing world. It doesn’t matter if your business focuses on high performance Polaris RZR racing cars or if you just make shipping boxes, business users demand and expect IT to provide a certain level of service. ITIL Management promises to be able to provide this, but as usual, there’s usually a gap between the promise and the end-user’s experiences. It will be great to hear from a seasoned practitioner in the area particularly one who has written a book about the subject: World Class IT Service Delivery

I’m planning on being there. If you’re in the Isle of Man, and work in IT, you should be there too. Drop me a line and I’ll buy you a drink

I got a comment today from one of the readers on this blog:

Hi Owen,

I’m looking around for the Media Corner widget you’re using. I can’t seem to find it. Can you provide a link?

Thanks,
Andy

I’m sorry to disappoint you Andy, it’s not actually a widget you can download and use. It’s actually part of a brand spanking new theme I’ve been working with Hyder from FreshPressThemes. It’s a Super WordPress Theme that gives you the power to configure the way your blog is laid out, whether you have pictures, adverts, tabs, featured posts, sidebars and loads of other things. And then there’s the Media Module that you’re seeing at the top of my sidebar. This is a Super feature that lets you upload pictures or point at different videos around the Web. And that’s only the start, we have loads of other things planned for it (but that’s a secret)

Anyway, FreshPress Themes is getting a brand new design and as part of that there’s going to be a grand competition with this theme as the prize. If you want to be the lucky guy, or girl, that wins a free copy this is your chance, simply enter your email to sign up to our newsletter and product updates and you will be entered into a draw. One lucky chap will get this Super theme for free - with free future updates for life.

Looking for a VPN for your company or home setup? Well OpenVPN is an Open Source option that boasts all the power of most commercial solutions. Here are the details:

OpenVPN is a full-featured open source SSL VPN solution that accommodates a wide range of configurations, including remote access, site-to-site VPNs, Wi-Fi security, and enterprise-scale remote access solutions with load balancing, failover, and fine-grained access-controls. Starting with the fundamental premise that complexity is the enemy of security, OpenVPN offers a cost-effective, lightweight alternative to other VPN technologies that is well-targeted for the SME and enterprise markets.

And here’s a great-writeup that offers a step-by-step rundown of how to install and configure it on a home network.

Chrome Logo

Chrome: Google’s new browser. The only way you would not have heard about this is if you’re hiding under a rock as all the technology news sites are talking about it; certainly Techmeme has been flooded with information about it over the last couple of days. So .. here are some personal pointers about it:

The Good

• It’s as fast and lightweight as you could wish any browser to be.
• I love the start screen that shows you your top used websites. You don’t have to define them, it just figures it out from your browsing pattern.

The Bad

• Well, it’s still in beta, so a number of things are lacking. It’s not terribly buggy, but don’t expect to use 100% of the websites you used to use before (example Facebook)
• I haven’t seen any specs for an extension framework. I won’t be switching away from Firefox till I have AdBlock and FireBug, just to mention my 2 favourite plugins.

The Ugly

• The security guys have already found some potential security holes.
• Does Google really think they own all the content you use your browser to submit. That’s a major faux pas.

The main thing you need to realise however is that this is just the first iteration of this software, so there’s bound to be bad and ugly bits floating around. Some initial skepticism has already been addressed, for example, Google does not directly monitor what sites you visit, but they still have a way to go yet.

What did you like and what did you hate?

I’ve just put some final touches on the new theme to try and improve the way it looks. I’ve spaced out the sidebar widgets a bit and configured the footer to use 3 widget bars instead of 2. I’m not too sure if I have too much going on in the narrow sidebar widgets, so happy to accept any criticism from anyone.

I’ve also activated the Sidebar Ads module to see how it works and it seems to complement the blog really nicely. I’m using the Top Ads module to display some photos from the Isle of Man, which aren’t quite the right size, so that needs correcting.

Anyone see anything else they don’t like?

Came across a great video today while browsing the website of dotPerformance, a local web design agency here in the Isle of Man. It’s by Mike Wesch, an assistant professor or Cultural Anthropology. Enjoy

Interesting huh?