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Best way to keep tabs on your tabby!
Father-of-two Dave Evans developed an ultra-light GPS which fixes to your pet’s collar and records where it has been.
When the animal returns home the information is downloaded via a USB cable direct to a website which reveals its secret life on Google Earth satellite images.
Mr Evans, 41, said the weatherproof tracker, weighing just 15g, will cost £50 and can be used for cats and dogs.
He said:
Yollo was getting fat even though I was feeding him less and I needed to know what was going on. Now I know he enjoys chasing chickens at 6am every morning and can see his favourite hangouts.
‘The tracker will provide answers for other cat users if Tiddles is playing away or simply show where they go when they’re out on the tiles.’
Sounds like fun. Now I wonder if you can use it on husbands…..
G-paws.com to sign up for news when it is available.
iPod fixed fast!
The little button at the top of my iPod (the sleep/wake)stopped working about a month ago. So I could only use the menu button and then I had to wait for the ipod to sleep itself in order for the screen to go black.
A friend told me about this fellow in Peterborough who she found online that fixed iPods, iPhones and iPads. She bought a iPhone online that was a second and had a screen that was so dark, she could hardly read it. She took it to this guy and he had it as good as new in just a couple of hours. I emailed him late on Wednesday to ask if I could drop it off on Thursday as I had some other appointments in Peterborough. He said to come at 11:30am. I got there about half an hour early (I forgot to bring his phone number with me) and he was very pleasant and said to come back in 40 minutes. I came back about an hour an a half later, and my ipod was all fixed and it cost me $40.
Don’t be put off by the fact that it is out of his home, he does good work and I would rather have gone there than had to deal with Apple (and do we even have an Apple store in Peterborough?)
Check out his site at bananaservice.ca to book an appointment or get a quote.
Never Trust a Photocopier
I just saw this video recently and it is shocking! Don’t forget that your photocopier is as much a computer as your computer is!
New Year’s Resolutions
Can you limit your sitting and sleeping to 23 1/2 hours a day? Great whiteboard animation and although it isn’t new, very timely as we approach the best time to make promises to ourselves.
Happy New Year!
YouTube Videos of 2012
Well, no furry animals this year in the top ten videos on YouTube. But some of these will make you wish there were!
- Gangnam Style – no, I don’t get it either
- Somebody I used to know – cover band from Burlington got a record deal from this parody.
- But you have to check out these two parodies. The first a Star Wars version of the original Gotye song (which I loved) and here is a parody of the parody. It’s quite funny! By the Key of Awsome. (I’ve posted it below)
- KONY 2012 – a serious video about Ugandan Warlord Joseph Kony.
- Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae & Justin Bieber
- Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney – Epic Rap Battles
- A dramatic surprise on a quiet square. – push button to add drama
- Why you asking all them questions? – why are people watching this video?
- Debstep Violin – Lindsey Stirling – Crystallize – beautiful images and music.
- Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen – a Dad finds his daughter rant on Facebook.
- Felix Baumgartner’s supersonic freefall from 128k’ – Mission Highlights
Bring back the talking dog, I say. Bacon flavour?
Here is one of the funnier videos I liked, below. You don’t have to even have seen the video it parodies.
Photoshopping the Past
This is pretty cool, check out A Vibrant Past: Colorizing the Archives of History.
Photoshopped versions of old classic photos. Some more successful than others, but really clever.
Newsletter is published!
When I am very busy, my client’s get their work done first. It makes sense. So I haven’t published a newsletter for a couple of months. Doesn’t help me to promote my business, but I think working hard is promotion enough.
But without further ado, my October Newsletter is available here. If you want your copy when it is first published, consider signing up for my newsletter with the link at the sidebar. I don’t sell or give away my contact list to anyone, and it is safe from any spam. Enjoy!
Bell and Astral Media
Telecom giant Bell has announced plans to take control of Astral Media, one of Canada’s largest media companies.1 Owning more media content creates a profit incentive for Bell to push content that it owns or restrict access to other content it doesn’t control it gives Bell a stranglehold over the media content we consume and delivery of our daily communications.
As Carlton University communications professor Dwayne Winseck says: “Those who control the medium shouldn’t control the message” It would been the control of distribution and content until one roof.
An example of how Bell can control the message: A few rival telecom firms are running expensive ads to defeat this deal. But Bell’s TV network waited 26 days to show the ads, and gave in just a day before the CRTC hearings began in Montreal. This shows their already huge power over content and distribution.
Go to STOP THE TAKEOVER, to vote against this going ahead.
References: Ellen Roseman, The Toronto Star and Stop the Takeover, Open Media, saynotobell
idreambooks.com
I don’t know about you, but when I read a review about a book in the paper, I often like to go to Amazon or Chapters to hear what readers think about it too. If I like the sound of the story still, I put it on my Wish List and buy it when I have enough books to get free delivery. (I could read it on my iPad, but I like to lend or give books away later so I can share a good book, not something you can do easily with a book for a kindle, kobo etc.)
Another website has been launched called idreambooks.com. They’ve used automated software that links to reviews of more than 1,000 books (now, but soon more) from book critics from around the world to come up with a score that is depicted by a little blue cloud. If he is smiling (and his percentage is above 50%) then the reviews are mostly favourable, if he is frowning, well, you get the idea. Books that get 70% or higher get a “must read” tag.
Eventually they will have more and more books, but at the moment they only have the more recent books and reviews. So it may at first be frustrating if you want to look up reviews for a book, only to find that it isn’t there. But in the meantime, there is always google! A good idea that may be what imdb.com is to movies and stars in the future. In the meantime, it is a great way to find a new book you may not have heard of!
Great Customer Service
I pay a company called Akismet to clear out the inevitable spam that I get with my website in the form of comments. I love comments, but not computer generated-don’t make a whole lot of sense – comments that clog up my inbox.
At the end of June I was overdrawn in a little chequing account that I use for Paypal orders. That was because $40 came out without me actually asking it to. Akismet too their yearly fee out of the blue and that caused my bank to charge me the fee of $45 as a penalty. (don’t get me started on the fact that if I didn’t have $40, was I going to be able to pay them $45?) Of course I was furious because I don’t go overdrawn, and I didn’t want my bank thinking me a deadbeat, and I thought that I should have had a notification first that they were going to want that money.
So, I wrote a forceful letter to Akismet, telling them of how upset I was. And expected nothing more to come of it. As usually happens. Well, within a day they sent a message saying that I should have gotten a notification. And within five days, I got not only an email from them apologising for the error (as they hadn’t sent me any email) but the promise that I would be refunded that money, and never have to pay them again! This is a yearly subscription, so that takes the sting out, because they know that even with their refund of $40, I am still out $5 from my bank’s charge.
Now that is how to treat a client. I am happy, I will continue to suggest to clients that their service is a good one to have for their WordPress website, and they get one person telling many about their good customer service practises.
Way to go Akismet!
