Disqus - Latest Comments for smperris

Re: THE BEST DAY EVER…in CANBERRA!!?! (+ PERTH ninja gig, tomorrow!)

Shane — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 06:26:12 -0000

I lived in Canberra for 7 years. It's a fucking amazing city, but only if you let it be. Most of the time it's just suburbia like everywhere else, but every now and then, you let down your guard and MAGIC happens.

Seriously. Any Australians reading this - if you have a bad time in Canberra, take a look at yourself. Awesomeness is where you find it.

Although I have lived in Sydney the past two years, I still find myself missing the old girl from time to time.

Re: amanda fucking palmer for sale

Shane — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:33:54 -0000

Karina, it was most definitely our pleasure, and without your organisation and the generosity of your family to let us all into their house, none of us would have had the experience.

It was lovely to meet you (and everyone else!) and, most deeply and sincerely, thank YOU :) It couldn't have happened without you.

Re: amanda fucking palmer for sale

Shane — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 05:53:01 -0000

Amanda, I can honestly say that Friday night at Karina's house was easily the best gig I have EVER been to. After burying our beloved pets the day before, you and Kim were just what we needed (and Helen is still on a high from playing for you and from what you wrote on her piano).

I don't mind the serious money - no other show comes near to the intimate and open performance you two lovely ladies gave to all of us at were there. It was worth every penny.

I would hate to think that you would stop doing larger shows (the buzz of a crowd is a wonderful thing) but if you ever decide to do another Aussie BBQ in Sydney, we will both be there (piano and all :D )

Oh, and just wanted to mention that Friday night has inspired both Helen and myself to get back to writing music again. Your spirit and energy touched us like nothing else has. Thank you so much.

Re: making space for the mess…PLUS: NEW geraldton gig & sydney NINJA GIG!

Shane — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 07:29:19 -0000

There is spontaneous and then there is erratic. Wednesday night was good, but it wasn't great (if that makes sense). It felt under done, and under prepared. I got my money's worth of entertainment, don't get me wrong, but the show didn't hold a candle to last year's Opera House gig (which, until Friday night, had been the best live show I had ever seen by any artist. Friday night was another level again. Wow!).

Everyone has an off night, and you are lucky in that you have a supportive and forgiving fan base. I guess if you were looking for advice from someone who could never do what you do, just be careful not to take that support and forgiveness for granted. By all means experiment and be flexible (it's part of why we all love you and your work), but the fact you felt doubt so strongly that you felt compelled to share it is telling, almost as if you feel it was a missed opportunity to create something truly special (but now I'm probably just putting words in your mouth, so to speak).

Ultimately, people were entertained, and that's the aim of the game, really. Learn from it what you will. It certainly won't stop me coming back for more.

Re: Leading up to a week without Jebus

Shane — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 07:38:49 -0000

Jesus, you're taking some chances if those apps are irreplaceable :P

I've tweeted some of these at you but for prosperity...

Evernote could conceivably be replaced with a combination of OneNote and Skydrive or whatever the hell Microsoft calls its Dropbox thingy. OneNote is actually pretty slick and is the one app that Windows users can laud over Mac users.

Simplenote I've never used, but Simpletext on WP7 is a text editor with Dropbox integration. Close?

2do - GTD style stuff is MIA on WP7 from I have found. I use Pocket Informant on the iPhone (fuck me dead I love that app) and I have found _nothing_ that even comes close. I think you're going to be out of luck, too.

Meebo - people still use IM? Really?

Tripview - shit out of luck. Tripview is actually a deal breaker for me. I don't know how people get around on Sydney public transport without an iPhone. Seriously. How do they do it?

Dropbox - shit out of luck. There's not even an official Skydrive app from Microsoft. What's up with that?

Good luck, Pete. You're sure as hell going to need it, or cheat by using your iPad for everything instead.

Re: Why? Why? Why? But Why? Why? Why not? Why?

Shane — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:48:48 -0000

Writing again? Yay! I've been largely off-grid for a couple of weeks and was pleasantly surprised to see a burst of posts from a couple of your sites in my feed readers.

Good to see you're back, Andrew :-)

(also, great advertisement for RSS. I'd never have thought to check back after such long breaks, but here the posts are, pushed out to me. Ain't tech grand?)

Re: Most disgusting bugs. Ever.

Shane — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:23:43 -0000

Yep, sure looks like them. Thanks Sam!

I'm not sure if the liquid is smelly, but they sure do excrete something hardcore when they are disturbed. Ever since the gang disbanded, there have been some seriously hardcore black stains on the concrete outside the front door. It looks almost like a small oil spill (and looks just as toxic).

Bless you, weird and gross Australian nature :)

Re: A digital divide of usability

Shane — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:27:42 -0000

I have noticed that a lot of the people in the 50+ age bracket in my workplace (small to medium sized government Department) do the exact same thing with IE. Personally I hate having any sidebar inside my browser and I don't understand it at all.

I do find it interesting that it really seems to be a generational thing but I can't for the life of me think why that would be the case.

Re: And We’re Back…Sorta

Shane — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 08:17:53 -0000

I don't think you would have lost many, if any, RSS subscribers. I think most people who use RSS have a 'set and forget' mentality. I'm guessing they don't unsubscribe when a feed goes dormant, they just realise one day 'Hey, that site hasn't pushed out an update in a while. Huh.' I think your RSS readers are almost all still with you through all of this. Hopefully that's some sort of comfort :)

It's a pity that Feedburner has no competition because the way they collect numbers provides really flaky, inconsistent results.

Re: A blog about nothing... - The backyard

Shane — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:34:08 -0000

Disqus can be a bit fiddly. I'm always logged in to the service so I never notice these things. Glad it's all worked out for you :)

Re: A blog about nothing... - …and this is what 0C looks like at 7am. I really...

Shane — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 07:38:50 -0000

Well you did visit at night. I'm fairly sure The Grand Tour didn't include a trip outside in the cold and the dark to see a largely dead lawn and a weed infested garden.

We treat our guests a bit better than that. We make them cut up the vegetables instead :D

Re: A blog about nothing... - Most phallic piece of playground equipment. Ever....

Shane — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:25:24 -0000

The kicker is that the damn thing is so much fun to ride. It goes round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round with almost no effort at all. I get so dizzy it makes me feel sick. Awesome fun.

It helps me to understand why the local teenagers hang out in that park and drink alcopops. What better way to spend a Saturday night than a slamming a couple of Breezers and a getting in a quick ride on the Dizzy Phallus?

Re: Sadly, Jaiku isn’t much of a Twitter alternative

Shane — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:10:12 -0000

You know, I only just realised how douchey I look with the second half of that comment (and I'm normally not _that_ douchey). Sorry about that.

Ah, the internet - archiving my idiocy for future generations.

Re: My Gmail Inbox Is Filled With Spam Linking to Google Groups

Shane — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:17:20 -0000

Weird. I've actually had emails from Google flagged as a potential phishing scam (from memory it was a Google Earth newsletter - it's on my blog somewhere). It's proof that nothing's perfect I guess. Every now and then spammers work out how to get around the Gmail filter and it usually takes a couple of weeks for Google to catch up.

I must admit that I haven't had much spam make it into my Inbox in quite a while. I guess my email address isn't out there enough yet :)

Re: The Blogging Dream

Shane — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:05:59 -0000

My dream is simple - to write something that other people find to be worth reading. I'm never going to get huge traffic, rake in obscene amounts of Ad Sense dollars, feature on TechMeme or any other of those 'traditional' measures of blogging success.

All I dream about is repeat readers, low bounce rates, a handful of comments on posts and the occasional "Nice post. Well done" from the B- and C-list bloggers that I read, respect and would like to buy a drink for one day. Maybe even enough advertising income to cover my meagre costs for hosting etc.

Modest goals I know but we can't all be superstars.

Re: What ever happened to blogrolls?

Shane — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:57:33 -0000

I'm starting to see blogrolls being replaced by RSS feeds of the writer's Google Reader shared items. Keeps it more up to date and demonstrates not just what they are reading but what they think is important enough to share.

Re: Backup Online With Jungle Disk

Shane — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:10:38 -0000

I've been sitting on the fence on this one, mainly because I fear how long that first backup/upload will take at 1 Mbps. Jungledisk sure does look nice though.

Would I be correct in saying that this works best for backing up files rather than a complete backups? (eg disk images etc)

Re: When I run out of quota, what then?

Shane — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:20:01 -0000

http://www.internode.on.net... has all the information you need on data blocks.

I didn't realise you wanted naked ADSL though. I'm not sure if Internode is as competitive when it comes to naked pricing. I stand by its customer service though.

Re: When I run out of quota, what then?

Shane — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:49:28 -0000

Can you get Internode ADSL2 on your exchange? I know its download quotas aren't as high as whoever you are with but you do have the option of buying more quota in bitesize chunks instead of having to upgrade your plan. Also, while NodePhone VOIP service does use up your quota, the VOIP is never shaped even if the rest of your downloads are.

Customer service is second to none in my experience as well.

I'm not in anyway associated with Internode in any capacity beyond being a very happy customer.

Re: Sadly, Jaiku isn’t much of a Twitter alternative

Shane — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:24:39 -0000

The message on the front page of the site has been there since the acquistion. That goes a lot further than hibernating on purpose.

Jaiku is losing ground. If Google wants to capitalise on the service rather than the knowledge gained in its creation, it needs to act fast.

Re: Sadly, Jaiku isn’t much of a Twitter alternative

Shane — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:44:34 -0000

Jaiku commenting is good but I found a more engaged local community on Twitter. That's why I haven't gone back to Jaiku.

I also don't think you can compare the iGoogle gadget to something like Twhirl. It doesn't even come close. A desktop app needs the ability to read and respond to comments without going to the website or it just won't work.

Finally, I don't know if you recall but Jaiku had a couple of months of 503 gateway errors making the service just as useless as Twitter downtime. I never really went back after that.

I like Jaiku, I really do. Google is letting this one slip through its fingers as well and it's a shame. Maybe there's a lot more to the theory that Google bought Jaiku as a way to get Jyri and Petteri.

Re: Sadly, Jaiku isn’t much of a Twitter alternative

Shane — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:38:16 -0000

I moved back to Twitter from Jaiku largely to play with the AIR apps that had sprung up. It was through using the AIR apps that I finally 'got' Twitter. I think a decent cross platform desktop app will give people the same 'Ah ha!' moment for Jaiku.

Oh, and not to nitpick too much (I am prone to being to pedantic at times), but there's a typo in the link to TechWhimsy - the 'e' shouldn't be there (you can use it to replace the 'a' in my last name :D ).

Re: Google Dropped the Ball on Jaiku

Shane — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:21:59 -0000

An argument I have heard a number of times is that Google didn't buy Jaiku for the service but rather saw it as a way to get Jyri and Petteri onboard. If you've ever seen any of Jyri's presentations or heard him in interviews, it's obvious he's done some seriously deep thinking on social networks and ways people relate to each other. Petteri appears to be similarly switched on.

The jewel in the Jaiku crown has, apparently, always been the Symbian 60 client for Nokia phones (I can't say for sure as I've never owned a Nokia). It's possible that Jaiku will come into its own as a service if/when Android is rolled out in sufficiently large numbers.

The final possibility is that, like Microsoft before it, Google has become too large to be agile and that new acquisitions will be absorbed at glacial pace as sexy new start-ups battle to integrate with Google's systems.

It's interesting, and with increased Twitter stability I see Jaiku being talked about more and more. Time will tell I suppose.

Re: Google Sites (nee JotSpot) Now Open For All

Shane — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:27:13 -0000

I've seen in a couple of places (Amit at Digital Inspiration most recently) that all external links will be nofollow. Pages is nofollow as well, isn't it? Of course, that hasn't stopped Google Pages becoming a hotbed of spam and porn either but at least they don't show up in the search engines unless you do a deliberate filter by domain (the Sunbelt Software blog regularly reports on Google Pages spam if anyone's interested).

Re: louisgray.com: Just Like High School: Your Blogging Clique Will Move

Shane — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:51:08 -0000

Right. I still haven't tried FriendFeed (I don't need yet another call on my time right now) but I keep forgetting about ReadBurner. I must try harder to remember, although when I checked it just before it seemed to still have a lot of the usual suspects. Maybe that's just a function of the time of day.