Aussie Blogger » Miscellaneous

oziwi – social networking down under

Matt Emery — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:04:26 +0000

Oziwi.com – home of Australian’s, New Zealander’s and Pacific Islander’s, or those interested in the same, and is a good place to learn about, and network with each other, invoke some traditional rivalry, or enjoy mateship Down Under as only we can. Owned and operated by Ozi’s, Kiwi’s and an Islander, Oziwi, launched in March 2008, is a social media network where friends from the edge of the world share their lives and xplore popular culture.

Check it out here: http://www.oziwi.com/

Flickr’s Desktop Wallpaper Pool

Matt Emery — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 15:38:25 +0000

Over 1,800 Flickr users have posted their favorite wallpaper photos. Minimum 1024×768 resolution.

read more | digg story

The 10 Best (and 10 Worst) Companies for Customer Service

Matt Emery — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 08:25:33 +0000

A few companies excel at making sure their customers are happy; more commonly, dealing with a customer service rep “builds character” and raises blood pressure. Here are 10 notable examples from both ends of the spectrum.

read more | digg story

‘Air shower’ could cut water use by 30 percent

Matt Emery — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 08:16:29 +0000

The scientists have developed a simple ‘air shower’ device which, when fitted into existing showerheads, fills the water droplets with a tiny bubble of air. The result is the shower feels just as wet and just as strong as before, but now uses much less water.

read more | digg story

4 Reasons Why Windows Vista Is Just Not Worth It

Matt Emery — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 08:13:25 +0000

As you all may have heard, Microsoft has released Windows Vista to manufacturing yesterday. A momentous event? Well that just depends on who you ask, and if the person is myself then you are going to get the following four reasons why I personally would not even bother with Windows Vista.

read more | digg story

Trying Out the Zune: IPod It’s Not

Matt Emery — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 04:01:32 +0000

David Pogue – tech writer for the New York Times et al – gives his honest “hand’s on” opinion of Microsofts “second” attempt at killing the iPod – the Zune.

read more | digg story

Safety and Security Online

Matt Emery — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 02:33:10 +0000

Here you can download new safety and security publications that are dedicated to helping you protect your computer, yourself, and your family.

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=56122fd1-36f5-4243-af39-527b78d399e1&displaylang=en

Windows Vista Security Guide

Matt Emery — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 02:25:13 +0000

The Windows Vista Security Guide provides recommendations and tools to further harden Windows Vista. Use the GPOAccelerator tool in this Solution Accelerator to efficiently establish the Enterprise Client (EC) environment or the Specialized Security â Limited Functionality (SSLF) environment.

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=a3d1bbed-7f35-4e72-bfb5-b84a526c1565&displaylang=en

P2P Speeds Cut in Half by Australian ISP

Matt Emery — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 15:34:54 +0000

The Australian ISP Exetel has decided to cut bandwidth for P2P traffic in half from noon to midnight. This move will save Exetel about $45,000 per month, while it only takes $75,000 to implement the bandwidth throttling mechanisms.

read more | digg story

Australia Can Go Back To “Pre-Internet Era”; Warns Google

Matt Emery — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 15:30:41 +0000

AFP reports that Google has warned Australia that if they pass certain law that will make it easy for site owners and copyright owners to take “legal action against search engines for caching and archiving,” it can set the country back to “the pre-Internet era.”

read more | digg story

225 pranksters shop in slow motion at Home Depot – hilarious

Matt Emery — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 14:15:00 +0000

Improv Everywhere is at it again! This past Saturday, 225 people descended on Home Depot in Madison Square Park to shop in slow motion. This is the same flash mob group that organized the fake U2 rooftop concert and invasion of Best Buy with lookalike-employees.

read more | digg story

Coolest photo you will see today

Matt Emery — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 14:26:14 +0000

Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour. This is a five minute exposure taken from about 7 miles away from the pad. Taken with a borrowed all-manual Nikomat camera, 24 mm lens, f/16, Kodak Royal Gold 100 film. When the exposure was stopped in this shot, the shuttle was approximately 229 statute miles downrange.

read more | digg story

Superb high resolution wallpapers (up to 2560×1600)

Matt Emery — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 14:26:10 +0000

An excellent source for free backgrounds, sorted by user rating. The images are available in all common resolutions, from 2560×1600 down to 1024×768, and are very diversely themed.

read more | digg story

Tired of prying eyes at work?

Matt Emery — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 14:26:08 +0000

My boss recently decided that we’d be more productive if we adopted an open floor plan, which includes having all monitors facing outwards so he can keep a constant eye on what we’re working on. In order to continue reading digg in peace, I whipped up a little proxy app which I thought some of you might find useful.

read more | digg story

The Best Photographers on Flickr

Matt Emery — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 14:19:15 +0000

This photo slide-show is amazingly awesome. It features the best photographers on Flickr and presents their best work. Sit back and enjoy, I think I can safely say you will not be disappointed.

read more | digg story

MacOS X Demo

Matt Emery — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 14:18:50 +0000

I put a little video together to show people who don’t use Macs or what the big deal is or even if they’re thinking about getting one but aren’t sure because they don’t know what to expect. It’s 28 minutes long and covers most of the basics. I could have gone on and on for 24 hours talking about all the cool things, but I hope this satisfies.

read more | digg story

I want a Firefox Extension to …

Matt Emery — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 14:17:39 +0000

200+ extremely useful Firefox extensions that save time and effort.

Windows XP to Ubuntu Linux

Matt Emery — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 14:16:58 +0000

Most of this was written back in September. After about 6 weeks of heavy use, there’s nothing that has me wanting to move off Ubuntu. It’s remarkably solid and well-designed, and maybe no more than 2 years away from being something anyone could use. Definitely a keeper.

read more | digg story

The History of Windows in Screen shots

Matt Emery — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 14:16:16 +0000

An interesting look at the history of the Microsoft Windows OS through screen shots.

“Firefox” the word NOT in the new 2.0 spellchecker, good or bad?

Matt Emery — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 04:44:38 +0000

Just something I stumbled upon when using the Firefox 2 spell-checker; the word Firefox by default (using British English dictionary) is not in the Firefox dictionary. Check out the screenshot, or try it for yourself.

Trivial yeah…. but hey, I love Firefox, and little things like this interest me.

Obviously “Google became an official word because we “google” things, in the sense that it is a verb. However, I don’t use Firefox in that context, for instance I don’t say, i’m going to “firefox that link”, or i’m going to “firefox me some pron”.Even though Google is now an official word too, it still does not feature in the Firefox spell-checker, either does “pron” or “1337″ or “LOL”. I think the dictionary should include some more of the web language we use. Suggestions?