Programming...

I've always been in to computers since no age at all and recently since i've been toying around with some HTML and Javascript i've been thinking about computer programming, i've been wanting to get in to it for a little while now and i've even been considering some University courses in computer science. The link is to a site with LOADS of code including C/C++, Java, Visual Basic, PHP, ASP, .NET, ColdFusion, and more. WIth all that i could try my best to get in to it now and it'll benefit me in the future...it seems pretty cool, definitely something i'd check out if i was a programmer. It offers free magazines, t-shirts and members can even enter a monthly draw for a 1GB USB pen drive. Today is their 6 year anniversary so they're celebrating with loads of prizes and fun etc. Programmers eh? :)

Forget Feminism...Psychology it is...............

I know i'd talked about feminism, but i know that post will come eventually but until then, here's some thoughts i had today.

A woman asked me today generally about school, she was a nice woman and as usual i was willing to answer any questions she may have had. She asked me what subjects i do...and i always answer in the same order "ICT, Media and Psychology" i guess my interest in each subject has ranked them that way even though that 'ranking' should have changed, i've said them so much in this order that i've got used to it. On that last note...psychology, this is the one that seems to take people back a bit when i tell them...they almost look twice and seem a little confused and i can tell they're about to ask 'what?!' ...i've had various responses to it, some ask what it's like, some almost think that someone who looks as silly as me can't honestly be studying such a 'complex' subject (it's not as complex as people let on for it to be) and then there's the people who look scared. Right at the very moment when i say psychology, i look them right in the eye and i see fear.....i guess it only makes sense, I'M looking them right in the eye and it's amazing how strange a combination that is...the word 'Psychology' with eye contact...it amused me at first, but after seeing it happen more than once i began to realise that maybe people have a reason for this.

I've always made a lot of eye contact, a lot more than i see people usually making with me...i don't know if my eyes are scary or if people just don't like making eye contact these days at all. Back to my intial point...i think people have this fear of being judged or 'analysed' as it would be better put...and when i naturally make eye contact with people and say i study psychology, they have this fear that i'm analysing them and they start looking away and making shifty movements etc.......................and you know what, they're right haha i have been analysing them :D and so they have every reason to look away.....but what i don't understand is the reason to look away, why are they so scared of being analysed? do most people hide what they have? do i just make more eye contact than i should? ....... i'm gonna give this some more thought.

School Tomorrow...........

So back to school tomorrow....and to be honest i'm not really looking forward to it, if i could i'd spend all my time off doing my work from home...i've been off pretty much 2 weeks now bar 1 day so it'll be good to get back in to the swing of things. Deadlines are approaching fast so i really gotta start working...and it's almost the time of year again where I'll be getting study leave (well ok a few months) but it'll be good to get off and have a lot more time to myself.
I got a good post coming tomorrow about my views on feminism which i hope will be pretty good...it amuses me when a woman seems to have this idea in her head that this is a 'mans' world and that if she's a woman, she means nothing and therefore goes on this rampage to stand up for womens rights etc especially when they use it to talk down to men as if they're dumb...almost as if they're trying to claim the world and deem it a womans world...but my point is that the world should be equal. I'll give a more detailed account of it tomorrow...............



SCRAN!!!

Apple TV Delayed until Mid March

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Computer and entertainment devices maker Apple Inc.(AAPL.O: Quote, Profile , Research) will delay until mid-March its Apple TV device for playing computer-based video on television sets, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

"Wrapping up Apple TV is taking a few weeks longer than we projected, and we now expect to begin shipments mid-March," spokeswoman Lynn Fox said by email.

Read More Here

Exclusive Video Leaked: iPod Firmware Coming, Enables Cover Flow- Engadget

"A little birdie told us that a firmware update for iPods is coming soon, giving you that same Cover Flow view that you've grown to love in iTunes now. See it in action, right here.

The tipster also tells us that we won't see any new-generation iPods before the iPhone debuts, either. – Charlie White"

Looks good, now i just need a new iPod to go with it :D



read more | digg story

Free podcast hosting

I've always liked podcasts, it's still a pretty new concept and lots of 'sub-concepts' if you will are stemming from it. I even hosted a podcast of my own for a while but it was always pretty expensive to host, i used it primarily to get some 'music' out in to the open that i'd been writing. Now with this site you can host your own Free Podcast. I had a quick look around the site and it's definitely a service i think i'll get in to, especially since you can actually get paid to put your podcast out there...

"MyPodcast has created an easy-to-use ad serving platform that has the power to deliver a unique ad to every single person that downloads a podcast from our servers. What that simply means, is by moving your podcast to our network you automatically will start getting paid for EVERY single download your podcast receives."

That's a pretty cool idea, so now when i put new music out there i can get paid to do so. Your podcast even gets submitted to the websites directory to be accessed by loads of people from all over the world guaranteeing publicity for your podcast. Decent site worth checking out.

Another Day Off...

So i ended up with another day off, but not all was lost, i tried to do some work and have sort of succeeded...i got a lot of well needed ICT done, only another 9 pages to go and i should be sorted. My other coursework i'm doing is media...i MIGHT put a picture or two up here of it, but it's not finished yet so i might leave it for a while before i do. I need some dimensions and ideas of how to make a CD booklet...an actual booklet to go inside the CD so if anyone has any info (i'm looking at you Ally) i'd be grateful if you could send it my way (just dimensions etc.)

Back to work it is then.....

Big News at PayPerPost...

Looks like PayPerPost the online advertising site I’ve recently become very fond of is announcing some big news in the next few weeks and us “Posties” have been asked to guess what it is. In my opinion, it really could be anything, they could be adding more features to the site like new browsing features for opportunities or they could be announcing a partnership with a big company, maybe it’s something related to RockStartup…or maybe they’ve been bought over by a big company already. They could be announcing that they’ll be advertising during a big sporting event or something….it really could be anything. Personally, I heard a rumour they’re announcing that they’re going to announce that they’re out of beta and that the site is complete (of course they’re adding a few more features first) and then they’re getting in to television advertisement before they merge with blogger.com and it becomes part of the site. I can’t say if the rumour is true…but I heard it from a pretty reliable source so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens, I dunno about everyone else, but tbh I’m pretty excited about this, PayPerPost really is a great site and it’ll be great to see it out of beta with some new features.

Belfast Giants...

So i have to admit...i'm a pretty big Belfast Giants fan!! For ages i haven't been in to any sport what so ever...i used to skate(board) an awful lot but i've pretty much ruined my back in doing so and i became a bit too lazy to keep doing it...so for a few years i haven't been in to much sport at all. Last season (05/06) Lauren took me to one of the games, the game that was the debut for Theo Fleury for the Belfast Giants (i'll ramble about him in another post soon ;-) but give him a look on wikipedia if you want) and ever since i've been hooked. I've been following the league this season more than ever and i have to say...it's a great sport. Unlike football, what attracts me to this, is the lack of sectarianism...i HATE hearing about sectarianism within football!!

From now on on the blog for the last month of this season i plan to give regular updates on the team and how we're doing in the league, who we're playing etc. and i hope to do the same next season as well.

We're 3rd in the league right now after the team have unexpectidly lost interest all together recently and we've hit an all time low for our team, we won so well last year and now this year we've messed up so badly that it's unlikely we'll win the league. Coventry are first in the league, Sheffield second. Belfast are playing right as we speak so lets hope we can win tonight!! and that sheffield lose putting us back up to 2nd place...with some recent changes to the line up i know we can do it...the pressure is increased, but we can still try our best to defend the title.

New Music.........

...As i just mentioned i was going to play guitar, which reminded me of this pretty cool site i found a while ago. Unsigned.com... as the name would suggest, it's filled with loads of unsigned bands who are likely to break on to the music scene pretty soon. There's loads on there! Anything from Grunge Artists to Blues Artists. I think the site's great for finding new music to listen to and it's definitely cool to check out some up and coming artists from all over the world before they make it big! Some pretty cool guitar work on there too...great if you're in to learning new stuff. You can sign up as a listener or as an artist your self and get your own stuff out there for everyone to here..........i think i'll go sign up now.

*coughs*

So yesterday i thought my flu was clearing up...i guess not, i woke up today feeling pretty bad, i hurt all over and i have a cough so i dunno if i'll be back at school tomorrow. I'm getting pretty far behind with work and stuff there and as typical as this sounds, it isn't really all my fault. Sure i've been off, but i haven't missed one thing because my teachers have all disappeared on a rugby trip for the week...so whilst i have deadlines to meet this week, i have no one to help me reach them on time.

I've been trying to post here a lot more often, sometimes i don't really know what to talk about...for example this! i feel like i'm going no where but i'm making an effort, i might end up posting some stuff that i find on digg on here if i think it's interesting enough, but i'll see. I think i'll go play some guitar.............

RockStartup...

Ok so you may have noticed the affiliation with PayPerPost lately, i've been hearing quite a bit about this 'RockStartup' so decided to check it out for myself. Basically, it's the reality tv behind setting up a Web 2.0 company. It follows Ted Murphy on his journey in to setting up PayPerPost.
I think the show gives a great insight in to the initial set up and further promotion of the company and it's also interesting to see how the company has progressed since the intial set up. I"ve just recently finished watching the latest episode and have featured it below as it is my favourite to date. It features a lot of talks and negotiations with other companies and people discussing the company. I think it's interesting to see how the company works behind the scenes.



I always find whilst watching the show that it can be a little confusing as to what's going on, things can move a little too fast with little explanation sometimes and I’m left wondering what just happened and end up almost assuming what just happened. It’d also be nice to see slightly longer episodes and maybe if the episodes were longer, it’d give more time to fill in the blanks and give a little more explanation.

When Influenza Attacks: Volume 2

I ended up missing razorlight last night which was kinda gay...but at the same time not at all a bad thing. if i did go i'd probably end up sicker....and now i have a lot less money to pay off to people which isn't so bad. I hate being sick, i end up sleeping in til about 3 or 4 and sitting up all night which isn't very good for my overall recovery...and day time tv sucks! There's also little food down here and i'm getting very little work done and i'm already about 2 months behind with ICT coursework....not a good time to be sick but i'll have to make do with it at the minute.
Hopefully i'll still be able to get some pictures up from last nights concert from my friends who went, apparently the seats were decent but at least i'm able to pay for my incubus tickets without struggle now! Hopefully will have an update later!

Review My Post

PayPerPost have recently introduced a new feature to the site which enables you to make even more revenue from your blog. I mentioned a while ago about how you can get paid to blog and this is again a new way of doing so. Review My Post (see link above) allows bloggers to review other bloggers’ posts and get paid for doing so, it’s a great way to make some money and increase interest on your site.

The Program is open to all bloggers who aren’t interested in writing sponsored posts. Bloggers can easily add a small badge at the end of every post encouraging other bloggers to review their post and easily build traffic and revenue with very little effort.

This definitely seems like a great new way to increase revenue on your site especially without writing sponsored posts and an even better way to increase interest and generate back links to your site simply by placing a badge at the bottom of EVERY post on your blog. The more posts the badge is included in the more variety bloggers have to review and potentially this means more revenue!! A reader just has to click on the ‘Review My Post’ button, sign up, and review the post and as soon as they get paid, you get paid $7.50!

Review My Post is definitely worth checking out and one more good reason to check out PayPerPost.

When Influenza Attacks: Volume 1

I thought i'd dodged it...i thought i'd actually survived an illness that seems to be plaguing everyone....but no....influenza has attacked and instead of going to see Razorlight tomorrow night...it looks like i might be stuck in bed instead (although if i do go i will put up some pictures and what not) ...i'd do anything for some scran right now but just feel too weak to go downstairs and get some, i have a feeling i'm gonna end up off school with my life revolving around my xbox rather than coursework like i should be doing in school yet one teacher is no use and the one who helps me out most has gone on a rugby tour............no substitutes either.......eugh....i hate the flu, my mum has had it for a couple of weeks now and i thought i was class dodging it for so long, guess that never lasted, maybe a good nights sleep will help me and i'll be able to go to the concert....will keep ya posted, i'm away for some scran.

Big Money Opportunities!

For a while now I’ve found quite an interest in making money from the internet and since I spend the majority of my time on here, what better way to do so? I’ve browsed numerous sites learning about new schemes until I learned about blog marketing where I came across one particular site, PayPerPost.com.

PayPerPost is a site that hosts many high paying opportunities for bloggers who are willing to post for money and as a result, they are 'paid-per-post'. I've definitely had my share of browsing through numerous sites like this, but what makes PayPerPost better than any other is that they only charge a 35% service fee compared to ReviewMe. They charge a 100% mark-up, this means that you're losing out on half of your money where as PayPerPost allows for high traffic and lower traffic bloggers alike to take high paying opportunities more often and as a result you end up with more money.

Definitely a site worth checking out, anyone can use the site regardless of your monthly traffic, high or low. Disclosure is of course required from all bloggers. You could earn up to $1000 for one single sponsored post and you may even boost your blogs traffic and earn you a plethora of readers interested in your content each week, you can even choose your opportunities under specific categories such as 'Computers & Interent' that interest you in order to get the most consistent content. Worth a look indeed ;-)

A Week Off.....Sort Of

School ended last thursday for some time off...and i'll be honest, i haven't really done much other than played my Xbox and hence the lack of posts on here. It has been quite enjoyable though...living by the sea is quite nice actually, it has it's benefits...such as this.



A mere 5 minutes from my house lies this...quite a nice sight to behold even at this time of year when it can be quite cold, although there has been an evident rise in temperature here in the last few weeks, it's been mild enough for me to leave my over sized coat behind although as a result i think i'm getting a cold now, i'm sneezing too much. I need to fix my sleeping pattern too...once again, it has become messed up after numerous late nights involving the xbox (live) and some redbull....and afterwards the general browsing of the net occurs until i finally feel fit to sleep at about 4am.

Valentines Day....

Another Year has rolled right around...and we've reached Valentines Day yet again, a day where couples (usually) show off their love for one another with roses, kisses, chocolate and hugs. I must have seen hundreds of roses today...unfortunately i didn't actually get any at all. I've been going out with Lauren 2 years today...which is kind of strange...but what made Valentines day any different to any other day? To be honest i don't really know at all...but everyone else seems to enjoy it, with chocolates, happiness and all these roses...if you're like me who happens to be late on getting anything at all...why not check out this place and send some roses to someone special. I remember quite a while ago i received my first rose, what an embarrassing day that was! It came during class at school...everyone stared at me the whole time in a state of wonder of who it could be from (it was from Lauren but i didn't tell them that) ...it kind of challenged the stereotype of guys buying girls roses all the time too, which was cool i guess. To be honest i'd still be embarrassed if i received a rose from someone, but hey it's all in the spirit of Valentines Day so why not send some roses to that special person. Have a Happy Valentines Day ☺

New brain scan that can read your intentions -- Pre-cogs, anyone?

A team of world-leading neuroscientists has developed a powerful technique that allows them to look deep inside a person's brain and read their intentions before they act.

Personally...i disagree with this, what we think and do can change in different situations and environments and so our intentions at the time change also, therefore, the intentions predicted during the time of the scan can immediately change after the scan...especially if you're like me, and you like to keep some thoughts to yourself....Our thoughts are our own and it almost feels like some sort of privacy invasion to let a scan predict behaviour.....sure behaviour can already be predicted, through close psychological observation...which kind of annoys me, i don't like people knowing what i'm thinking. I've come across two types of people in my 16 years of living...those who can follow my train of thought easily and understand what i'm saying/thinking perfectly...and those who simply can't.

The scan seems a bit inaccurate...and definitely has some ethical issues and i'd say a pretty low ecological valid result. This scan is supposed to predict my behaviour based on what? 50 participants from America who are 20 - 25 years of age? Surely they can't generalise that age group of those participants and assume that what their intentions are, are what our intentions are....it wouldn't be the first time it's happened either. Pre-cognition? No thanks, i'll keep my thoughts to myself. My mind is the only place i can think (obviously) , do, say, dream, create and basically do anything i feel like and not be judged, criticised, laughed at, violated or invaded. [/defensive behaviour]

An interesting read none the less....but it's at this point i feel science and technology have come too far to actually comprehend what a person is thinking...and not just a rough guess, but a scan that does so for them. The government have found a way to monitor us pretty much all the time, but this takes the biscuit.

read more < digg story

Thinking of buying an HDTV?

So HDTV's are becoming the IN thing to have these days, it's all about having a great set up in your living room that delivers the greatest user experience. Recently we've been looking in to buying an HDTV ourselves but due to the way the room is, we need extra long cables in order to get the system set up pretty well. So i was browsing the web and i stumbled upon this site, i would also like to point out that i am receiving compensation from the site for mentioning their site. hdmi cables ...basically it's a great site with extra long HDMI cables which can be quite difficult to find at times, but this site has it all. We ordered some cables from it and now we were able to get the best quality from the TV even with a 10 metre long cable! There's a wide range of products available such as HDMI to HDMI, or HDMI to DVI. It's a cool site, so check it out if you feel like it!

And the Addiction starts again...

Since no age at all (Probably about 4) i've been drinking coffee! Now i know you're thinking 'what kind of parent gives their kid coffee at that age?!?' ...well, mine do :P When mum was pregnant with me, she apparently drank nothing but coffee and i was born like a heroin baby, except i was addicted to coffee. For a while i tried ditching the habbit and drinking tea like most people do, generally, i hate tea and infact about 15 minutes ago i stated 'i think i'll start drinking green tea' which is apparently pretty healthy for you. It's been a while since i had a cup of coffee...but with just one cup, i feel normal again. I feel less tense, more relaxed and generally don't care about too much.....Aye, i think i'll just stick with the coffee, even if it does stunt my growth (i think that's a myth) i'd far rather be happy and less stressed than tall and angry.

Hearing...

After my last post, about sight, i felt a little intrigued about hearing...i think i have some sort of super hearing, i know this can be linked to me being young and having good hearing, but i was playing my xbox today, put in a different game and it told me 'this game is not support in PAL 50hz, please change the display settings to PAL 60hz' or something to that effect...i did so, strangely i could hear the change in high pitched frequency, i dunno if his is normal, but i could hear the change, when it's at 60hz, the sound is higher pitched, when it's at 50hz the sound is slightly lower...no one else was able to hear these frequencies when i asked them to and no one seems to believe me that i can hear them simply because they can't hear them.

A similar incident happened at my aunts house once, she had a mouse...and so had one of these devices that sends out a high pitched frequency that only the mice are supposed to hear in order to drive it away.............low and behold i could hear the thing!! i was staying at hers for a week at the time, EVERY night i could hear it, high pitched ringing in my ears...all night! Is my hearing special or is it just a result of being so young? i still haven't found anyone else who can hear the frequncies.

What do blind people see?

Ok, so before you say 'nothing' ...i think this should be considered.

It can be easy to assume that a blind person does not actually visualise anything in the visual modality...some may also say 'they see darkness' ...but do they? darkness is the opposite of light, and if you're blind, light cannot be seen, so to distinguish the opposite of light, you need to have first experienced light. Maybe a blind person DOES see purely darkness, but doesn't actually realise it because they can't compare it with light. Maybe they say green, blue, orange, red, yellow or all the colours of the rainbow...but because they've never experienced light, they cannot compare it.

I imagine it would depend on why they are blind in the first place. I don't know much about the reasons behind blindness but I imagine it can either be caused by damage in the eyes or damage in the brain. Maybe if it's the eyes that are the problem, it'd be the same as being in a dark room...or if it's the brain...well...who knows, it's easy to say blind people see 'nothing' but it's hard to imagine 'nothing'. One can assume that a lot of this all has to do with light receptors...but let's forget those for a second and think about our brains.

The brain of a blind person must be very interesting, their brain will be more active than ours i think, being able to visualise anything they want, of course, they'll have nothing to really base this (their visualisations) on without sight to begin with...but i imagine the rest of their senses will be hightened quite a bit and from touching, smelling and specifically hearing things they may be able to visualise things us sighted people may not be able to visualise at all. Visualisation may be more vivid and original as they don't have the reality of sight to distract them. Which brings me to my next point...what if a blind person were to start experimenting with psychoactive drugs like marijuana and acid? would they visualise anything at all? What about their dreams? what would they consist of? Would they hear more and thus visualise newer things, would they be able to draw it? convey it with sound? music? even so...without psychoactive drugs, this is already an amazing gift to have. This also reminds me of this.

I saw a pretty interesting post a while ago about how colour blind people see things differently to none colour blinded people (see link) that helped to put things in to pretty good perspective and has been very thought provoking yet again...What if the way i see red, is the way someone else see's blue...it would be impossible to tell, because from the ripe old age, someone would point to the colour and say 'this is blue' ...they would visualise and interpret that as blue and when they see that colour they would know it's blue, but what if we all seen colours differently...what if the way i see blue is the way you see red, we'd NEVER be able to tell, but due to the fact that we would have been taught all the colours at a young age, or any age, it wouldn't cause any complication because we wouldn't be able to visualise the colours in a different way...it's impossible to prove and disprove.

A lot of this is all very complex for me to imagine myself, it's difficult to imagine not having any sense of sight or visualisation within the brain, sure, if i were to be blinded now i'd be able to visualise, but it's baffling to imagine not having visualisation or anything to base our mental visualisations on other than using other senses, sound is what interests me the most...experiencing the world phonetically, connecting sound with vision and colour. This being the case, blindness could be classed as a gift in it's own right, as there would be ability to experience the world in a completely different way than most of us do, without reality's main distraction; television.

I've found few links on the internet that touch on this topic and i simply wanted to ask some questions about it myself, this post is merely speculation and definitely had no intentions to offend anyone.