Being the hardcore geek that I am, I shall be firmly planted in front of our telly at 10pm this evening for the first episode of series 3 of the IT Crowd.

Copyright © 2008 for Colin Seymour (Permalink)

I’ve just noticed Google rolled something else out when they rolled out the Gmail themes: they’ve now added a “Promote”, “Remove” and “Comment” button to each search result:

(Of course I was going to demo by searching my own name ).

It will be interesting to see how this affects search results and the profits online marketers make. If users “promote” or “remove” a website, will it only affect that user’s search results or will it affect the overall search ranking for that site for everyone?

If it has an impact on the overall rankings, we could see those “SEO Gurus” losing a lot of money as users “remove” those useless crap sites you always find in search results which are purely there to get you to click ads. It’ll also make search results a lot more useful and relevant. That said, it’s easy enough to code something to automatically do the “promote” clicking, so I don’t think it’ll be that simple.

Details of exactly what effect these buttons will have are quite slim at the moment, so we’ll have to wait and see, but the Times has an article on the new functionality that’s worth a read.

Will “SEO” finally take on a new meaning - a meaning that more closely represents what the acronym actually stands for, and not what it’s become known for? Or will a whole new acronym come to light?

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Hot air balloon wafting over the Napa Valley.

Copyright © 2008 for Colin Seymour (Permalink)

The Official Gmail Blog are reporting that GMail is about to get a major face lift, that is if you want it to. They’re introducing some pretty cool looking skins (30 or so of them apparently) so you can change your Gmail look to suit your needs.

Apparently, you’ll be able to change your themes via the Settings -> Themes tab. I’ve checked by Gmail account and no “Themes” tab yet, but I expect it to appear in the next few days.

Here’s a sample of what you can expect…

Read the rest of GMail Gets Skinned (16 words)

Copyright © 2008 for Colin Seymour (Permalink)

It’s quite a bit later than last year, but Christmas is finally upon us. The shops are starting to fill up with Christmas tat and the adverts have started on TV in a big way. I wonder if the “economic downturn” (read that as “the consequences of some super greedy bankers playing silly buggers with other people’s money”) has caused the shops to hold off a bit. Claire and I were discussing last night how there has been a definite break between Halloween/Guy Fawkes week and the big push on Crimbo advertising this year.

Anyway, only 5 more weeks of Crimbo shopping left, and if the current talk about deflation takes hold, you may just find it considerably cheaper to leave the shopping to the last minute, but do you have the balls?

So, get you padding on (you’re not going to let those bargains slip by without a fight are you?), warm up the credit cards and get shopping. And if you’re not in the mood, try a bit of Dominic The Italian Christmas Donkey to get you in the mood.

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A British inventor has finally proven that the dream of a flying car really isn’t as elusive as some would like to think, and you don’t need millions and millions of cash to do it either.

Read the rest of Flying Car Going To Timbuktu (268 words)

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It’s quite appropriate that I’ve just spent the afternoon on Remembrance Sunday removing shot from the rabbits we’re having for dinner.

Copyright © 2008 for Colin Seymour (Permalink)

I think I’m finally starting to think more like a photographer. I noticed the stripe effect of the design on this building whilst walking along Market Street in San Francisco so took a pic, and it turned out really well.

Copyright © 2008 for Colin Seymour (Permalink)

Interesting links for 12 Oct 08 - 6 Nov 08:

• Future of speed cameras under review in Wokingham - I really hope this comes to fuition. Depending on the route I take to work, I can pass 6 speed cameras in 13 miles, two of which you can actually see from each other they're that close.
• Gwen Stefani and baby Zuma pic online under a CC license - Hee hee. Gwen Stefani named her son after the leader of the ANC.
• Saru makes emblem choice - King Protea is in, but the Springbok isn't lost, it's just relocating to the right breast. Sounds fair to me. The Protea is the national emblem after all.
• Time called on more than 300 years of history with introduction of two-thirds of pint - Sounds like a good idea to me. Now just to convince the drinkers that it's a good idea.
• Upscale curb appeal goes green - We saw this on the news whilst in the US. Councils and estate agents in the US are paying people to paint the front lawns of houses of foreclosed (reposessed by the bank) homes so they are more appealing and don't "degrade" the neighbourhood.

Copyright © 2008 for Colin Seymour (Permalink)

I’ve nearly had a heart attack. I’ve just learnt that the Bank of England have slashed 1.5% off the UK interest rates bringing them down to 3% - the lowest since 1955. Crap for your savings, but brilliant if you’ve got a tracker mortgage like Claire and me.

Copyright © 2008 for Colin Seymour (Permalink)

Welcome to the second part of our honeymoon trip. It’s been a while since I posted the first part as I’ve been busy working my way through the photos. I also had to wait until the end of October to upload them as we were really close on using up our monthly broadband bandwidth allocation for the month.

Anyway, here it is. It carries on from the end of the first post, so you may want to read that first to put this one into perspective. You don’t have to though, I think you’ll get the gist of things easily enough.

Read the rest of Our Honeymoon: Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Lakes (1,407 words)

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Just dabbling with the Photo Booth application and the built in camera that comes with my fancy new computer. I’ve never seen my nose so small

Copyright © 2008 for Colin Seymour (Permalink)

He’s done it, and quite convincingly. In what has been the longest and most expensive US presidential campaign ever, Barack Obama has succeeded in becoming the 44th President of the United States.

Apparently his first decision is what rug to buy for the Oval Office in the White House.

Copyright © 2008 for Colin Seymour (Permalink)

I’ve been looking at the world of HDR photography for quite some time, but haven’t actually done anything to enter it. That was until last night.

If you’re not sure what HDR photography/imaging or high dynamic ranger photography/imaging is, I’ll provide a quick explanation courtesy of Wikipedia:

[HDR or HDRI] is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.

Read the rest of Entering the world of HDR Photography (260 words)

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We went and watched the latest James Bond movie - Quantum of Solace - on Friday night.

Despite what all the critics have said, I thought it was a good film. It’s the first time a sequel has ever occurred in the James Bond series, but don’t let that put you off. I thought it was very well done and still full of explosive action and a good story line, though I can understand some people getting a bit confused by it or losing track.

Sadly for the die hard Bond fans, there weren’t any fancy gadgets or the “Bond, James Bond” line and he did have to nick a suit or two rather than magically have a suitcase or wardrobe full of them (British government bureaucracy would have had something to do with this in the early days ), but if you think about it, it’s quite appropriate. The last two Bond films are meant to date back to Bond’s early days as a spy - when he still has to prove himself, “earn his stripes” and become the cold-hearted agent everyone has come to love.

Anyway, this is definitely one to go see if you watched the last movie - Casino Royale - and have a couple of hours to spare.

One bit of advice: make sure you sit at least 10 rows back. We sat in one of the neck breaker rows (3rd) and I feel we missed out on the whole picture at times as the action scenes happened so quick I found my eyes straining to keep up and take it all in.

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This made me laugh: the English is quite clear and easy to understand, but the Welsh underneath doesn’t say the same thing. Instead is says “I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated” as this was the automated email response the Swansea council received.

Copyright © 2008 for Colin Seymour (Permalink)

Last week Volkswagen weren’t having much of a good time: their shares were down more than 50% and the hedge fund vultures were circling as they started to bet heavily that the VW shares would fall. To make a bit of money off this, they short sold the equivalent of 13% of the VW shares with the intention of buying them when they had fallen, but they were a little short sighted (excuse the pun) and it’s hurt them in a big way.

Read the rest of Hedge Funds Bitten By Their Own Greed (285 words)

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It was only yesterday I was commenting on how winter has arrived already. Well, I can confirm it most definitely has. It snowed last night. It’s certainly not the thickest snow I’ve seen in the UK, but certainly think it’s the first time it’s snowed in October since I’ve lived in the UK.

Here are a few pics I took last night just before bed and then one this morning…

    

Getting my car out was a challenge too. The snow had mixed with the rain that preceded it, so I had to chisel off a thick solid layer of ice and snow from my car. The snow/ice combo was just like the ice build up you get on the edge of the freezer when you don’t close the door properly. Great fun to remove and fecking cold, but not as much fun as watching the neighbour realise he couldn’t actually get into his car. All the doors were frozen shut .

Copyright © 2008 for Colin Seymour (Permalink)

I can declare winter 2008 officially started today for me. I had to scrape ice off my windscreen this morning for the first time this winter, and boy was it a tad chilly doing so.

Copyright © 2008 for Colin Seymour (Permalink)

One of the things that amazed us about TV in the US was the state of advertising on TV. We all know there’s a lot of TV in the US and it’s continually punctuated by adverts, but Claire and I were surprised about the types of adverts and their frequency.

For a start, they actually have adverts for the spam you get in your email. Whilst we were there we saw adverts on TV for Viaga, Cialis and free credit reports, just to name a few, and these weren’t only limited to late night TV either. The radio isn’t much better with Blue Collar Comedy on Sirius airing an advert aimed at men that promises to “make you thicker and wider”. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination, but lets just say the radio advert didn’t. Surprisingly, there were very few “lady product” adverts.

Another very common advert, both on TV and the radio, was for prescription medication. They all went along the lines of “Have you got X, Y and Z? Then tell your doctor you want new ABC from DEF. It’ll change your life”. The advert would then go on for at least another minute or two explaining all the side effects. The whole format of the advert seemed really odd; they spend 30 seconds telling you why the product is so good and how you should be telling your doctor how to do his job, and then they spend nearly three times that time telling you why it’s bad for you (it may even kill you) and why your doctor should really be advising you on what you should be taking. Seemed contradictory to me.