Now I hate online advertising as much as the next man, but…

I find myself clicking on Facebook adverts, the targeted ones they have down the right hand side on some pages. I mean, they really are targeted quite accurately. How about this one which I saw the other day??

That’s just an example of a few I’ve seen and this particular one couldn’t be targeted better. Facebook knows I run Linux because it’s probably listed on my profile from when I first set it up.. My eye was immediately drawn by the Tux icon. I keep seeing more and more adverts which are of interest or are relevant to me on the side of Facebook, which proves that “social advertising”, or whatever they want to dub it, is the way forward. To get me, someone who actively blocks adverts online, clicking is an achievement in itself. I’d say the money the company spent there was well worth it despite me not buying anything from them.

Having spent some time studying marketing at university, it’s quite clear to me that Facebook and the like have an edge over other advertising mediums because they can deliver adverts to those who are most likely to click them.. In fact I’d much rather see adverts which might be relevant to me, even if I don’t click them, than this random flashing distracting nonsense which you see on most websites.

Been meaning to write something about this for a while now.. and it’s based on the following observation: I don’t log into MSN Messenger much any more. When I do, I don’t use it that much.. Pidgin will sit there idling, with my “away” or “busy” status showing… Back in the day, it used to be something I would log into as soon as I logged onto my laptop, see who was online and probably start a conversation or two. Years ago, in what I would describe as the MSN glory days when I was still using Windows, I had Messenger Plus! installed to totally customise my MSN experience and I would at times have upwards of 30 contacts online on an evening and be talking to several of them at once. Not so much these days.

Is this typical IM conversation a familiar scenario to you?

“Hi.
Hey.
How are you?
Fine thanks, you?
Yup, fine.”
……

And what’s the point of even bothering with that??

Is instant messaging itself dying?? A lot of people now prefer to write a message on my Facebook wall or send me a message (which is essentially an email) via the same website. It doesn’t have to be instant any more.. It’s fine to post a Facebook message and wait for a reply. If people do want an instant or near-instant response they know to SMS me. The fad of being able to instantly communicate with other people via the Internet seems to me at least to be well and truly over.

Has instant messaging died out completely then? No, definitely not. I wonder if it’s just the demographic similar to me, those who have embraced Facebook and now use it for most of their online communication. I still idle in a fair few IRC channels, mainly ones related to open source projects I have an interest in and on the whole the channels I’m in now are used regularly…

So IM is not dead but it would be interesting to see what MSN traffic has been like since Facebook has really taken off.

iPhone not so great after all?

http://pleasefixtheiphone.com/

Found this website just now.. It’s a list of the iPhone users’ top gripes with their beloved device. As I quickly scanned down the list, I saw many things which my Nokia can do quite happily, yet which frustrate iPhone users on a daily basis.

#1 Copy and paste. The N95 can do copy/paste, no problem. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it can do it.

#2 Tilt to view emails in landscape. Once again, the N95 screen will go landscape in any application, even Email. An old firmware upgrade to the N95 8gb has enabled screen auto-rotation.

#3 Ability to view Flash content. That has again been added in a firmware upgrade of the N95 8gb’s firmware.

#4 Unwanted application icons can’t be hidden. I can just bury icons of applications I don’t use in a folder on the menu so they’re not in the way all the time.

#5 Can’t use the iPhone 3G Internet connection to browse on a Macbook. But the N95 lets me access the Internet on my Asus.

I could go on and on… Guess the iPhone isn’t so great after all.

I know, how out of date is this post… LUGRadio finished ages ago, much to the dismay of fans. I have obviously neglected the blog as of late and meant to post something about this ages ago. But as a homage to the most brilliant of podcasts, I give you:

Jono Bacon drinking an Ubuntu beer...!

I was told, in my weekly meeting with my line manager, about a new feature on the Specsavers website. Thought I’d share…

It allows you to try on frames virtually, from the comfort of your own home which is a great idea. A customer at work today even said, that it being her first pair of glasses, she felt embarrassed trying on frames in the store with other people around so she’d try them online and come back in.

You can actually order and pay for the glasses on the website too, then you come into the store to complete the order and arrange for collection. So this is Specsavers taking on the online-only retailers of glasses.

First: upload a photo of yourself (or use the stock images). Here’s a really bad one of me I just took on my phone. Still in my uniform look…

Second: select the centres of your pupils in the photo.

Finally: try frames on by clicking the “Try” button. You can adjust where the frame is on the picture till it looks right. You can also add the frames to a list to compare them.

Here’s one of me wearing the £125 Osiris 605 frame. You can switch between different colours, but this frame only comes in black. My actual frames are way cooler than these, but they’re not on the website and we don’t have any in stock at the moment either, so there…

And you even get a copy to print out with all the frame details on it to bring into store so we can make them up for you. Shove that D&A!

—–

Related articles…

• Know Your Frame Choices
  
  • ^ Some useful info if you’re looking at getting new glasses..
• Specsavers focuses on automation
  
  • ^ For the open source advocates reading this…
• Specsavers focuses on Australian expansion
  • ^ One of our managers is leaving to start his own store in Aus.. Lucky git!

Some fellow has made a pretty nifty Flickr plugin for Wordpress. Install it up & authenticate it. Simple stuff. Low and behold, you get a little Flickr icon when you’re writing a post, adding a photo from your Flickr collection is a few clicks away. Brilliant.

In other news & using the aforementioned plugin, check out my chilli plant - now featuring a couple of *red* chillies! Mmm, they look so tasty. Can’t wait for harvest time..

Before: what a mess…

It’s nowhere near as fun as you’d think. My back still aches from being under my desk for ages sorting out cables.. Still not amazingly tidy but it’s definitely an improvement. And the worst thing is, I’ve run out of power sockets. So I’ll have to start daisy chaining which isn’t a great idea. Hope the electrics in this house can cope… Probably better than my last house when I had all that and more running from just the one power socket there was in the room which must have been built when all people had to power was their bedside lamp.

After: oh look, some carpet!

Today I…

woke up,

went back to sleep,

woke up again,

got up,

had a shower,

made lunch,

walked to work,

worked,

walked home,

watched a bit of tv and…

…wasted a few minutes of your precious time by making you read this post. Come again!

Mwuaha…

Figured it was about time I sorted my Firefox bookmarks and that is a *huge* task. I’ve deleted loads that don’t work anymore and attempted to sort out the remaining horde of mostly what I’d call “things which might come in handy one day“… Whilst doing so I found some old gems which I think everyone should have in their bookmarks.

http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ - much easier than asking someone on IM if they can connect to a site that’s down for you. Useful for when the Internet decides to be annoying.

http://www.tempemail.biz/ - it’s a must-have if you need to register for a site you’ll never visit again.

http://www.bugmenot.com/ - or you could see if there’s already a shared login on bugmenot.

http://www.doineedajacket.com/ - better than a weather forecast, it’s all you need to know when you’re about to head into the outside world.

http://www.picturesofwalls.com/ - random thing I found ages ago, some photos of funny graffiti out and about.

…I got distracted from bookmark-tidying by doing this post, so my bookmarks are still a mess. *sigh*

I should have done this long ago. Every time I get McDonalds for lunch at work someone has a dig at me about it. Maybe they’re just jealous because I eat so much crap and don’t put much weight on, heh. But the other day I had a change of heart and decided to turn over a new leaf. I signed a piece of paper which said, words to the effect of “from this day forward I will not eat at McDonalds ever again. (Except on Sunday mornings before work)”. Sunday mornings are a tradition and if there’s been drinking the night before, it’s actually quite a nice start to the day.. In general though, I’ve been having way too much fast food lately, it’s not only expensive but it’s not that nice either.. I may not put on weight from eating McDonalds but it’s probably not doing me a whole lot of good; so I am never having McDonalds for lunch or dinner ever again. Burger King is still a maybe but I am going to cut down. It’s official. I’m off now to make my lunch for work tomorrow, a nice bagel with some ham and salad, oh and Reggae Reggae Sauce!!