StickyBits – barcode scanning

Mobile barcodes are quickly gaining momentum – they’ve been around for years, I’ve tinkered with 2D and MS Colour Tags for years. It’s really only been in the past 3 or so months here in NZ that 2D barcodes are starting to gain movement. Of course in the USA we have Google rolling out 100,000 to restaurants to try and ramp this up.

2D Barcodes are unique in that they hold information within themselves, and the scanner app can decode this and tell you the message.

Barcodes however have been around for many years – are line based and represent numbers. Stickybits has come along and joined the two ideas + location together. Using the Stickybitst app on your iPhone or Android device you can scan ANY barcode and attach content too it.

Try this barcode:
If you scan that with your iPhone/Android you should see some info about Studiowhiz.com.

Here however is where StickyBits becomes fun – it’s social. So you are now welcome to add your comments, photos, video and other content to this barcode. When other scan it they can see the history of items added to this code.

It’s a great fun way to share content & I could see review engines for Restaurants/Venues leveraging this technology to quickly and easily gather social recommendations and share feedback straight from the venue. Barcodes on menus, till receipts, napkins or anywhere really.

The thing is you don’t have to generate a complex barcode – snap any barcode & away you go. StickyBits have the ability to make barcodes like the one above, so what are you waiting for? Start tagging the world around you with barcodes!!

How to deactivate Google Buzz

Hot on the heels of my post on How to activate Google Buzz I bring you a quick post on how to deactivate Google Buzz.

You might have noticed there is a lot of noise in Google Buzz and people are now wondering how to clean up the Google Buzz in their Gmail Inbox. Turns out the Google Buzz item added to Google is a LABEL for incoming notes. Unlike Google Talk you can’t separate Buzz from Email – effectively Buzz is email .. just formatted in a different way.

So, if you use Google Buzz, expect to see crap in your inbox.

Help is at hand

Of course this is also a good thing, because Buzz is basically email, you can set up filter rules within Gmail to find any Buzz item and automatically filter it out to another label (How to set up filters in Gmail)

How to Kill Google Buzz

For some however setting up filters will NOT be enough and they will want Buzz gone. After all if you are already using Facebook, Twitter, Tweetdeck, Eventbox etc to manage your life streams, why do you want YET another?

There IS a way to turn buzz off … at the VERY bottom of your Gmail page is a tiny link “turn off buzz”. Simply scroll RIGHT to the very bottom of the page, and there is a row of links. Click turn off buzz and Google Buzz will disappear. (You can turn it back on the same way anytime you like)

NOTE:

This ONLY turns Google Buzz off in your email, it’s STILL in your Google Profile & I’ve not found anyway to turn it off outside of CLOSING your Google Account

UPDATE:

You have to do BOTH – filters & Turn Off … even with Buzz Turned off if anyone @ replies you – it will show up as an email in your inbox. If you are on some marketing list from a Brand, or …. your inbox could very quickly become unusable!

UPDATE 2:

Note: Buzz can re-activate itself if someone adds you to their list – at least that’s what it seems like. I had it turned off, went to lunch, a friend “buzzed” me (I wasn’t following him – yet) and when I opened Gmail again, Buzz was back on!

Stupidity reigns

I’m going to get flamed for this, but okay … !!

I just read a tweet from two of the more respected “guru’s” of the ‘open web’ – Chris Saad and Chris Messina

RT @chrismessina: Someday asking for a site’s API will be like asking which email protocol someone uses. Interoperability FTW!

well .. DUH!

You know what, it’s tweets like this that make me cringe – here are two hugely respected guys, who have done, and do, do great things for the web. Both are huge proponents of the open web & are heavily involved in the Data Portability project (Chris Messina is a founder of said project). Which is why it’s surprises me they put this tweet out.

What’s wrong with the tweet?

I’m all for interoperability and I’m all for open data sharing (in fact I’m all for TRUE data portability – that’s another blog post maybe, if I can be bothered). What irks me is that these two Chris’ think that “one day” we’ll achieve this utopia. For crying out friggin loud, it’s here already. The whole CONCEPT, the whole PREMISE of “API” is it’s a gateway TO another technology.

I find an API, and I leverage it to CONSUME the data. I don’t give a toss what technology is powering it, or what language it was built in. Likewise it doesn’t care if I’m using RUBY or PHP, C# or AS3. It’s an API …

Okay to put it into THEIR metaphore – the API is the email address, NOT the protocol. I don’t ask you if you use IMAP or POP, I simply ask for your email. Likewise I don’t ask if your site is ASP, PHP or .NET, I simply ask for your API.

Interoperability is here now – I can interoperate with AMAZON, GOOGLE, YELLOW, FLICKR, TWITTER and many many more TODAY without knowing anything about their ‘protocol’ – I simply grab their API and go to it. I agree with the last part of their tweet “Interoperability FTW!”

Someday is now

I’m ranting, I know it … but really come on guys. Stop making bold statements that sound cool – but mean nothing. You are two guys in a position to really MOLD and SHAPE the web … so get on with it

How to activate Google Buzz

Google Buzz, it’s all the buzz right now and as we know Google are rolling this out to all accounts as they can. There is however a quick way to get Google Buzz into your account.

It all revolves around your Google Profile. Don’t have one? You’ll need one, and you need to ensure it has some information in it about you – this is what Google uses to build up it’s understanding of you.

How to activate Google Buzz

1. Update your Google Profile – make sure you provide some basic information about you, places you lived, work place, etc
2. Ensure you have feeds in your Google Reader – Google needs this to understand your content preferences
3. In Google reader – under YOUR STUFF post some comment
4. Go back to your Google Profile & you’ll see

Buzz is now active in your Google account & will show up in your GMail account within an hour or so.

UPDATE: you HAVE to update your Google Profile with enough information for it to no longer be reporting “need more info” – if on your Profile page you are seeing a YELLOW or BLUE information box at the top – you haven’t given them enough information yet.

UPDATE 2: getting SICK of Buzz in your Gmail? Learn how to deactivate Google Buzz in our follow up post

The iPad & Why you are probably NOT the target audience

Unless you were in some time vortex over the past 36 hours you no doubt know that Apple released the iPad, a 3:4 screen with basic computer features. This iPad launched with the usual hype of Apple product launches, and of course  every Apple gear head and iPhone user thought “oh wow” and then “oh stink”

What were you expecting?

Steve Jobs is well known for saying:

Apple will not produce a netbook computer for under $500

Why is EVERY ONE comparing the iPad to a netbook? Oh well okay there is THIS picture from the Apple launch I guess:

But here Steve wasn’t saying that Apple is creating a netbook, rather he’s saying there is a gap in the gadget sector between smart phones and traditional computers (be they laptops or desktops). He’s saying everyone else is filling them with ‘netbooks’ – take what’s good about computers and make them smaller. Apple are look at this differently, take what’s good about smart phone devices and make them bigger.

There are some key items here to remember. A netbook is NOT a full computer, so there are some things you just can’t do on them. A tablet is NOT a smart phone, so again there are things you just can’t do – they don’t make sense to do.

The Apple team have seen what they think is the best fit in this market, they’ve ignored the “trends” and created what THEY believe is the best fit. Sometimes in life that is the hardest thing to do, just because everyone else is doing XY and Z doesn’t mean that’s right.

The complaints

Lets look at some of the complaints from different places. Gizmodo have a list of reasons why NOT to buy the iPad – lets address some of these.

• No Multitasking: This is probably the ONE thing I’ll agree with, there should be some way to run more than ONE app at a time. Just because it doesn’t right now, doesn’t mean it wont. I think it will. Some apps like Pandora may make sense – but then 99% of the target audience won’t know what Pandora is & the built in iPod will be their music player of choice and that DOES run in a multitask mode. So you want to listen to music – use the iPod.
• No Cameras: This I just don’t get. I don’t see WHY you want a device the size of a magazine with a camera in it? You’ve got your point & shoot digital camera, your mobile phone probably has a camera and your computer has a webcam. How many cameras do you want? I just don’t see the NEED for this device to have another camera. (update: don’t bother saying “video calls” .. if you are tech savy enough for video calls, you won’t be using this device)
• No HDMI out: HDM what now? Seriously, go ask your Mum or Dad what HDMI is. Actually ask almost anyone outside of a BestBuy employee or gadget freak and they’ll go …. ??? what? Again, this is a personal device, why do I want HDMI on it? If I want to share media with my TV I’m a bit of a gadget freak, therefore I probably have some Media computer already (XBMC, Boxee, Apple TV etc), or my iMac has EyeTV or … again, I’m probably out of the target audience for this device. HDMI just doesn’t make sense
• No Flash: Why is everyone SO upset about this, and why am I not? For those of you in the know I once was a big Flash proponent (I’m a published author on Flash technology) – but to me Flash has done it’s job & it’s being replaced (more on that in “Youtube – the death of Flash”). Don’t get me wrong, Flash is great for Games and it was great for video, but both Youtube & Vimeo are moving to HTML5 video support. The Flash argument (which is not flash on the iPhone or iPad, but Flash in mobile safari) is mute – you want flash on your device – for what? Video? Move to HTML5 and be done with it.
• Adapters for everything: Of course you need adapters, you are trying to get this device to do something outside it’s primary function. You have to adapt it to do it. It’s a WiFi device .. not USB, not HDMI or others. You want to import photos from your camera? Okay use a USB adapter … OR use an eyeFi card in your camera – I’m sure it wont be long before eyeFi support the iPad.
• No expandable memory, microSD etc: If you are looking to add extra content to the iPad you are poo outta luck. But why do you need too? The iPad is on wifi – store your media, books, music on your main computer, then simply get what you want when you need it. You are not going to import photos from your camera to the iPad – no, you’ll put them on your main computer and then sync only the good ones (the ones in focus) to your iPad. You are only going to store video media on here until you watch it. You won’t store 50 movies on this, 3 or 4 maybe (if you are taking your iPad on a trip), so sync up the ones you want and be done with it. There isn’t a need for memory card readers (& if you really want to, there is an adapter for it)

What is the primary target for the iPad?

Okay, so I’ve said many times above that most of the complaints against the iPad are coming from the current iPhone generation. We are having “well knowing” 16 year old kids – the future of technology – calling the iPad an iFail. Seriously? What does a 16 year old know?

A 16 year old has vastly different needs than the average iPad user. The 16 year needs a netbook, or laptop and an iPhone. They want to be connected, they want to take photos and share them instantly, they want to interact and they want to control what they install on their device. This is not what the iPad is for.

Let be give you an example of where I think the *almost* perfect situation for the iPad is. (biased to my situation of course). Here at home we have 1 computer, its an iMac, we have an old 21″ CRT tv and I have an iPhone. Our iMac happens to be running an eyeTV USB adapter to become our primary TV. My wife is a book NUT & had been considering the Nook (the fact that is not out in NZ is beside the point).

Often in the evenings, we want to relax and watch some TV, while doing that it’s sometimes nice to check email from family, update the family blog, read up on the newspapers & tech blogs, maybe do a bit of Twitter and Facebook – casual internet. But of course when the TV is on the iMac (we hardly use the old CRT one) it’s hard to multi task and do email. An iPad would fit nicely on our wifi network and allow us to casually surf the net. We coud find recipes and save them, my wife could book mark craft ideas to do with our 2 year old and we could order movie rentals etc for the weekend.

Of course we love to read books (my wife more than me) so for her to have at her finger tips hundreds of thousands of books – is awesome.

My wife is not a great gadget freak – she’s your typical mum. Happy with what ever mobile phone she has (can it place calls and get SMS?), she loves our iMac, but hates the fact it cost so much (Apple prices in NZ are not cheap!). This is the FIRST device she’s looked at, and within 60 seconds she was “You mean you could get rid of all this (pointed at the book shelf) and I could have that? And do email?”

If I had the cash, it’d be the ONE gadget I could now go and buy with her blessing, without having to “explain” to her why we need it. (we don’t have the cash, and it’s a luxury so we won’t – but you get the idea)

Sumamry

The iPad isn’t intended to be a kill all to the kindle, nook and Netbooks of the world. It’s meant to be a complimentary connectivity and media device. It compliments the other digital devices in your life. It brings the power of the internet into a simplified device.

You want to make phone calls – use your mobile phone
You want to do skype chats & video chats – use your computer
You want to stream media to your TV – use your media center
You want to do video scrubbing, audio production – use your media suite

You want to casually surf the web, read the paper with a coffee, flip through a magazine, update your email, check your your new niece on facebook, send out a tweet and read a book – use your iPad

The iPad is not revolutionary, it’s just a hunk of metal & glass
BUT it does it’s job and it does it well.

How I slashed 10 years off my mortgage

Mortgages – something most “grown-ups” have these days. Big heavy things that rest around your neck for 20, 30 or 40 odd years. I’ve even heard of some UK based mortgage companies allowing people to take on mortgages to be passed onto their kids.

Mortgages – the evil (?) that allow us to buy homes, businesses and other large scale items that in theory help us live our lives.

My mortgage has 26 years to run on it, it’s burning through my income like nothing else, and right now in the housing market the way it is, I’m not seeing the returns on the property that I might have 10 years ago. Still I’m not that far into the whole house ownership thing to worry about that. Sadly as mortgages as structured in the first few years you pay mainly interest, and a little principal.

My mortgage is up for renewal and an opportunity presented itself for me to make some significant in-roads into my mortgage.

How I slashed 10 years off my mortgage

Last time I renewed I was caught by the raising interest rates, the falling economy and a few other factors. My wife and I decided that we’d lock in at an “okay” interest rate for 18 months. That rate was just under 9% pa.

This meant we scrimped and fought for every cent & dollar to live – but at least we managed to pay the mortgage.

Now, 18 months on, we survived that time of tightness & sure we don’t have the new lounge suite, nor Sony Alpha DSL or 50″ Plasma TV and our kitchen isn’t finished.  But we made it.

Of course we are about to renew the mortgage at the current interest rate of just over 6% pa. That’s just shy of a 3% drop.

It dawned on us that we’ve already be paying $WXYZ a fortnight & haven’t really missed it (okay so we have missed it but…we survived) – so lets leave the repayments as they currently are. Sure it’ll continue to be a bit tight for another year or so – but we’ll slash 10 years off our mortgage & save ourselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest!

Learnings

If you have a mortgage, pay as MUCH as you can. You will be amazed how much difference $10 a fortnight can make. If you can go to $50, $100 or more … then do it. Sacrifice a little now – to gain a LOT down the track! Do you really need THAT 50″ Plasma or will your current TV do? Do you really need an iPhone or will your Nokia be fine for another year?

* note: of course I realise that in 12 months time when I renew again, interest rates will have changed and 10 years might end up being 8 years … but any year OFF the mortgage is a great year!

Challenges in life

Life’s one of those funny things, when you are in the middle of it there is always lots going on. When you look back, you wonder – what did I really do? What have I achieved? Of course the start of a new year is often prime time for thinking about these sorts of things.

How many times have you pondered: “how many hours did I waste in the office last year?” – don’t get me wrong (esp if my work mates or boss is reading this), I enjoy my job, even more so now that I’ve some new areas of responsibility. But life is too short to spend it all wrapped up in an office. I spend on average 8 – 10 hours a day sitting at a desk working. I’m blessed that my job is one that I am passionate about. Hey, I work in the web & mobile spaces – two topics I can easily talk & dream about all day long.

In 2010 however I want to explore ‘life‘ itself more. Of course 2 and a bit years ago my wife and I welcomed our darling little girl into our lives – she has taught me more about life than I think I’ve taught her about the world (alphabets etc). Coming home at the end of a day to see her at the back door with a big grin “Dadddddy” – yeah that’s life! To sit here trying to blog, with her banging away on the fireplace with a broken wooden spoon – it’s annoying, but it’s life.

So, what is 2010 going to hold for you? For me it’s going to be a challenge, a huge challenge. I’ve new areas of responsibility at work which excite (and scare) me. My wife and I are considering a new place to live, which leads us to the “do we sell this house or do we rent it out” type questions. And then I go and decide I want to race in the Transsyberia Rallye!

I’ve set up a whole project, website & twitter account for the Rally Challenge 2010 – and I encourage you to go check it out. Needless to say, I think once in a while we need to tackle and try the impossible. I might make it, I might not, but at least I’ll get to the end of 2010 & sit back with a beer and be able to say “Dang, I gave that a darn good crack & had a heap of fun on the way!”

So what are you doing for 2010?

Start-ups making a change for good

We hear many stories these days about start up businesses doing some amazingly cool things. It seems we are in the age of the entrepreneur, any one can start a new business, build it up and … well the number of people who’ve made millions (billions) from their start-ups is far greater in the past 10 years than it has ever been before.

We’ve start-up businesses that help us socially connect (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook), businesses that bring digital media to the TV (Boxee), businesses to help with our contacts (CloudContacts, Soocial), countless mobile phone solutions and many many more.

The internet has played a massive part in this generation of start-ups. Now anyone who can code HTML and CSS can build an online business – infact we’ve now got start-ups who specialise in helping you build your start up with less code (280Atlas). We are in the day and age where if you can dream it – you can build it (or find a person or tool set that can build it for you).

What’s beyond this?

Sure we know that the chances of your business making you as rich as Mark Z, or Sergey Brin are one in a hundred billion, in fact the chances of your start-up lasting longer than 18 months are slim to none. BUT, if you can pitch it right, get it in front of the right people and you have the right idea – with good investment and business advice you’ll have a FAR better chance of making it work!

No doubt you’ll be looking for investment in the tens of or hundreds of thousands. From time to time if you get “that” idea you might be looking for multiple rounds of investment with numbers in the millions. And that’s great, you’ll get rich, your staff will get rich and your investors will get rich.

Is there more than that?

What if YOU could invest in a business? What if you could help someone who is also pulling long hours, who’s future rides on this business? Could you help someone make a difference in their business to take it to that next level?

There are hundreds of thousands (probably millions) of small business owners in this world, itching for investment to help them take their business to the next level – and you & I can help!

While our technology start-ups need large sums of money, many life changing (hmm that should be life enabling) businesses, need just a few hundred dollars.

Kiva.org

You can think of Kiva.Org as an investment house – you sign up and for a minimum of US$25 you can invest in a business that can make a difference. The way Kiva works is pretty simple. Business owners (working with local Micro-finance companies) make an online profile, they tell you about themselves, their business (or idea) and how much they need to borrow. They also tell you about their repayment plan.

You simply look through the massive number of profiles, looking per country, or per industry type, or … like any sound investment advice you are encouraged to find businesses you are interested in. I love fresh bread so often look for those in the baking industry. I found someone yesterday looking to expand their organic coffee farm & anyone who knows me, knows I’m passionate about coffee.

Here’s a mind blowing fact for you, Kiva.org is on track to have distributed over US$100 Million in 2009 and aim to distribute over US$110 Million in 2010. That’s US$100 Million from people like you and me – going to start-up businesses that are life enabling for people, families and communities.

• Learn more (sign up & start loaning!) at Kiva.org

Freeset

Freeset is a Jute Bag & Organic Tee-Shirt start-up based in Thailand, a start up with a massive difference. Freeset specialise in creating jobs for those looking to escape prostitution in the streets & slums of Thailand.

Like Kiva.org, Freeset encourages you to get to know their story, to learn about the women who’s lives are changed through new jobs, jobs they can take pride in. You can get involved by supporting their business. Their Jute bags are awesome, and YES they can do custom orders for your business, event, show, group etc.

Is your start-up looking for swag? Why not create your own line of Jute Bags and/or Organic T-Shirts that are really well made, quite cheap and help this start-up business continue to make a massive difference

• Buy Jute Bags online
• Learn more about Freeset
• Learn more about custom Jute Bags for your conference, start-up or group
• Learn more about Organic Cotton Tee Shirts from Freeset

Summary

In a world of modern web & technology focused start-ups, it’s easy to get wrapped up with the dream of making ourselves wealthy. These pools of wealth affect usually only a small cross section of society – generally those in already “wealthy” nations.

It’s great to see other start up’s leveraging modern technology to fuel the growth of life enabling businesses – helping us to create revenue streams for businesses that will enhance far greater slices of communities in far less wealthy states.

So … remember it’s a big world out there. Lets see businesses thrive, lets see businesses (start ups in particular) helping each other, all around the world, to create jobs, opportunities and life changing moments for people, through people like you and me!

Google Wave – what now?

So I’ve been fortunate (?) enough to be part of the Google Wave roll out and I’ve spent some time playing with it. This isn’t going to be a long post there are enough other posts for that on the web – you can find some of them here:

• Google Wave – Full of ambition
• Full Google Wave Guide
• Hands on with Google Wave

This post however is my quick thoughts:

• Google Wave is a well executed, well designed system for communication
• It is a mixture of IM (skype, GTalk) and email. It’s almost email in real time in that you can see other members typing things – you can edit these messages as the arrive. These are called Waves
• “Waves” are ‘recorded’ in a time line so you can play it back and see the edits in sequence
• There are some nice features, include Google Maps in a “Wave”, or a YouTube video, and a Yes No Maybe module
• That’s it
• Yeap that’s it

So umm sure you can share files (but so can email), you can … umm … well … actually, you can’t do much more than that. At least not yet. As a platform it’s interesting and shows some merit, but as a solution right now it’s …. well … basic to say the least.

I can’t even integrate my Google Docs into Waves, I can’t really do much with it. Yes I have friends in there and yes we are using it in context of discussing things… well discussing Google Wave.

So there is a lot of hoo-har over Google Wave, and I do believe that the technology has merit, however I’d have thought & I was expecting more, much more. I’m not actually all that blown away (yet).

Notepods – iPhone design essential

So, you know .. the iPhone, it’s that fancy thing all them new kids have in their pockets. (he he he .. okay I have one too).  Well anyway .. it’s great, awesome in fact.

But there’s something new on the block, that’s like the iPhone but never runs out of battery, the screen never dies and well you’ll never have wi-fi problems.

Introducing NOTEPOD’s …

Notepod – a funky new note pad that has been designed to look like … well, yeah it doesn’t really take a rocket scientist to figure that out now does it.

Full size of your lovely iPhone these are a great tool for helping sketch out your iPhone app. With the familiar screen & black surround on the front, and on the back a nice grid – with heavier grid corners showing the corners of the screen.

With 100pages in each notepod, there are plenty of pages here for you to fill up with your apps.  I have to say too, the team at Notepod are great – their customer service is fantastic!

Hurry, get them now, they are proving hugely popular – more so than the team were expecting! Always good.

You can get a 3 pack (that’s 300 pages) for US$17.95 .. not the cheapest pads, I’ll admit that .. but hey, they are FUNKY as all heck!

Change in the church?

This year has been … is being … an interesting year for me. At the turn of 08 to 09 I knew that this year held so much promise, so much potential. The media was hyping the year up in the negative sense, doom and gloom, financial ruin on every corner. Yet in the midst of this noise I heard something different, a message of change, a message of power, a message of freedom.

It didn’t come from one place, it didn’t come from the media but all of a sudden 5 or 6 different pastors that I, from time to time, listen too all started talking about a change in the church. This year I’ve explored a little of what that means, but I’ll be honest – I can be pretty lazy at times. I can get quite fired up about something but then wane off and .. well all the huff and puff goes.

So why am I writing this here, on my blog of all places. I need to be a little more on-to-it, to keep myself in line and push forward. See yesterday I was involved with the team helping for a day seminar with John Burke (from Gateway Church) – I was doing some techy stuff. It meant I had the opportunity to talk with John and to spend the day listening to him. For those of you who don’t know, John is Snr Pastor at Gateway a church with this catch phrase:

No Perfect People Allowed – Come As You Are

Tradition & the church

I decided yesterday to send out a tweet asking those who were around “what stops YOU from going to church?” … I was expecting all sorts of answers, the answer I got back (I should have expected) threw me, made me really sad and then really angry.

The People – that’s what stops me

What the … ?. How utterly messed up is that? WE – those who are supposed to be Christ like, WE are the reason people don’t come to church. And it’s little friggin’ wonder really. Too many churches (people) have forgotten what it is to be followers of Christ, and have simply become followers of tradition. For example … show me where in the bible it talks about:

• infant baptism
• a church leader having the right to absolve sins
• to hate gays, lesbians or smokers
• to act piously, superior
• to have only 1 person in the faith who can talk to God on your behalf

It doesn’t .. God doesn’t. These are things that the church has piled on top of faith to make “religion”, to build up something that people can kind of hold onto, but can never really be free of. I hate to say it, but the churches of yesterday (and many today stuck in yesterday) have probably done MORE damage, to the true faith, than good.

Talk to ANYONE who grew up in a Catholic church, Anglican, Baptist or Presbyterian – many of these faiths/denominations crippled people with rules, with crap that the seniors in the church deemed as right.

The real faith

It’s because of this model, because the church has been rocked time and time again by scandal, by fights between churches about gays in church, about infant baptism about. ….. about CRAP, that people want nothing to do with Jesus. Why can’t churches just drop all this pretense and get back to the gospel? Where is the truth, where is the helping? Where is Christ??

I was listening to Rob Bell from Mars Hill Bible Church talk about this, he shared a story that goes like this. His friend was an alcoholic, who joined AA to help recover. His friend invited him along. Sitting in this AA meeting Rob suddenly realised “THIS, is church”. There was no preaching, no drums, no band, no singing, no prayer and no religious crap.

So why was that church? Rob friend said to him “where else can I get 5 phone numbers of people who I can call, 24/7 and say ‘HELP’ and I know there will be a voice on the phone, with no condemnation, no judgment .. instead with love, understanding and compassion”

We got it wrong

How did we as “the church” get it so $%&^#ing wrong?? How can an AA group be more like the church of Christ than the baptist church down the road? How can we, ‘the people of the church’ be the reason people don’t want to come to church?

I know that there are many many people out there desperately looking for the answer, a solution to their problems. They are lonely and looking for friendship, they are stoned and looking for support, they are drunk and need help, they are in financial trouble but they don’t come to the church – why would they. ‘We’ just judge them, or we try to change them into cookie cutter templates of what is “right”.

Lets read the bible for a second if we may:

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death”

For those wanting check that, it’s in Romans Chapter 8, verse 1 and 2.

What if …. ?

What if you knew you could come and talk to me about anything, and know that I wasn’t going to judge you. Instead you were met with love, compassion and a honest frank discussion? What if there was a place you could go to where you didn’t have to pretend, you can come – long hair, tattoo’s, piercings and all. A place where you could meet with other people and talk about the things you face in life.

What if you could meet with a bunch of people where the statements like “I watch too much porn”, “I had an affair”, “I was abused as a kid”, “I am broke” or “I shoot up just to get through the day” were not only allowed but were …. addressed, talked about. A place where you were given the tools & friendships to help.

What about a place where you can come together with others to enjoy life, to share the ups and downs and to just get on and live.

You … today

What’s your church like? (and by church I mean, church, soccer club, pub, darts team, bowling alley) Do you have a group around you where you can be you? Does this group allow you to let it all out? Does this group encourage you in your life?

If not, why not? Because maybe, just maybe a Jesus who encourages this, is a Jesus people might just want to know. Forget the religion, get rid of the tradition – let’s find the Jesus of the bible & see where He takes us.

Me?

I’m still exploring but I’m starting to see more and more what this is about – I’m on a journey, to drop the pretense of being a ‘christian’ (which growing up in the church, is something that can come naturally) and find out what it means to be ‘a Child of God’, a ‘follower of Christ’.

For those of you reading this, that know me well, those I work with or hang out with, or go on bagel runs with – I challenge you to challenge me. Go on, ask me the hard questions, tell me what you think of … well this post, my story etc. I’m not perfect, I make mistakes and you are the people who’ll see them … but I want to be real, I want to be honest.

I’m not ABOUT to become a bible ‘basher’ – don’t worry, I’m not into that & don’t think it works, but if you are up for a coffee & a chat, then lets talk, I might even shout you the coffee

Challenge me, ask me, push me – but be prepared to answer this question for me “what stops you from knowing Jesus?”

The ramblings

I know I know it’s been a little while since I actually blogged here – yeah I write things from time to time but what am I writing? What am I doing here?

Goals, Targets and Celebrations

If you want something in life, most people will tell you “set a goal” have a target, reach it, celebrate it and move onto the next one. I’ve had little goals and things for this blog and recently I hit one, 100,000 unique visitors in one month.

Right, so, did that … now what? Well I guess doing it again would be cool, and again and again – but to do it the first time I used a trick, Link Baiting. What’s the purpose? Well the purpose of Link Baiting is quite literally bait people to bring them to your site. But if the site has nothing of value for them, then they split.

I’ve been evaluating somethings not just in the blog but in life.

Build me a website – I’ll pay you

Why is the world so focused on money? Why do people keep coming to me saying “build me a website, I’ll pay you”

Let me say one thing up front: just because I can build you a website doesn’t mean I want to, just because you can pay, doesn’t mean you can afford me.

See my focus has changed lately – sure I have bills to pay, mortgage to cover and really could do with extra cash for a new car, new toys etc. But I’ve had a change of heart lately – it’s called becoming a Dad. If I’m going to spend time in front of the computer away from my girl, it’ll be on my terms.

You still want me to build you a web site – well it’s going to cost you, like REALLY cost you!
If I’m going to spend time in front of the computer away from my girl, I’d rather it be for personal projects that MAY turn into something … I don’t want your extra stress or moaning about this pixel or that pixel.

So let me say this: take your offer of a website that you can pay for and give it to someone who cares – I don’t.

Life, church, God and all that ….

For many years I’ve separated who I am from what I believe. Why – because people say “oh you are a christian … one of those church people – you are ……” and the proceed to judge you, put you in a box and assume you are like every other christian they’ve met – or read about in the media.

Well excuse me but screw that – so for that reason I’ve put my faith over here, and lived life over there … but you know what, I’m slowly bringing the two together, because you know what, you can’t separate your true faith from yourself, not if you want to life as Jesus truly did.

As for the judging – fine judge me, I’m not perfect, I still swear too much, lie some times and do things that … well I shouldn’t. Unlike some “christians” some of my best friends are lesbian, gay, alcoholics, car guys, druggies ….. and who cares. I don’t go around to them saying “Oh we christians hate you” … no I simply am a friend to them, just as they are to me & I love them.

Sure, I might loose some twitter followers, this blog might drop in traffic … who cares.

I feel a lot more free now to explore things, to see where life takes me. Because my nights are not taken up with silly web projects to earn an extra $$ (and pay more taxes) I’m free to explore music, try things I’ve been to scared to do before.

For example, I’m playing bass at church on Sunday – 200 to 300 people will be there and I’m playing Bass. Not because I’m a great bassist, I mucked around on my brothers bass as a kid, I know the basics, but I’ve NEVER played in public, heck I’ve not picked up a bass in over 10 years – yet I’m giving it a shot. At practice on Thursday I was asking myself “what the hell are you doing?” – the answer, I’m living life!

I also am helping to lead some of the worship – that means signing in front of up to 300 people, and when you are someone who struggles with pitch, that can be really hard to do. Again why do this? Because I’m living life

Besides, if you can blog about sex, or racing your car or …. as part of your tech blog – then I can talk about God, or faith or .. yeah maybe I can even mention the J name without worry ….

Launching web projects

I’m a web nut, have been since early 1994 when I built my first web page … and I’m finally putting my online skills to use for the kingdom of God.

My little web project The Bible In A Year is right now in alpha testing and I’m working through the issues around copyright for distributing the bible, integrating with Twitter, Facebook and other services. It’s fun, it’s challenging and if I’m the only person that uses it .. fine. It’s nice for a change to work on a web project where the end goal is not to sell it to Google for $$$ (which seems to be why most web projects start these days).

Summary

If you are still reading – great, congrats. You reached the end.

What now? Well what are you doing in your life? Do you have balance? Are you happy – really happy with life? Are you laying a foundation for a future that you can build on? Maybe you are laying the foundation for a business, or like me, maybe you are just laying foundation for experience.

What ever it is, we make choices in our lives, and we have to live with these. Make your choices, life your life – Be ALL you can be, don’t live a life of “what if’s” ….

I wanted to build a blog that had 100,000 visitors in a month, done that.
I want to lead people in worship of the creator of the universe – okay need to learn to sing, right lets work on that ….

What’s your dream? What are you doing to bring it closer?

Exploring WolframAlpha

Tonight I’ve been having a play around with WolframAlpha … it’s not really due to go live until Monday US time, but they are doing some load testing and other bits over the next couple of days. If you are lucky, you might just find it running.

So what is WolframAlpha?

Well to be honest, there are plenty of articles out there answering this. None the least Wolfram’s own FAQ will give you the great answers. I can tell you this, it is NOT (I repeat) NOT a search engine.

As you can see from the image above a search for www.studiowhiz.com does NOT return any results or links to this site. What the site does tell us is thing it knows (note that, these results are what WolframAlpha knows about) about studiowhiz – the domain.

Why all the fuss?

Well see, people have come out and said that WolframAlpha will challenge Google, make wikipedia freak out and .. well almost every other statement under the sun.

Meh, okay sure, whatever … lets just stop for a second and figure out why there really is fuss around this new site.

Computational Knowledge Engine

WolframAlpha is built ontop of the hugely successful Mathmatica – this (Mac app) has been powering some of the top research and mathmatic research teams for years. This gives WolframAlpha unparalleled computational understanding – meaning it can take our simple (or complex) queries and return results that it deems valuable to you the user.

WolframAlpha is different to Google, in that Google actively seeks out your website, indexes the content within and then drives traffic to your site.

WolframAlpha leverages the web (information sources) to populate it’s own database of knowledge, from which it pulls information (compares information, does calculations etc) and shows this information to you. It does NOT link to your site, or other sites.

WolframAlpha could revolutionize the internet.

WolframAlpha could change the way we use the internet. Lets say you are doing some research on the population of Italy – why visit 5 or 6 websites to hunt out the information you want, when one question on WolframAlpha provides ALL the information you need in one page?

WolframAlpha is not about finding data, WolframAlpha is about providing answers.

Why do I like it?

I love it, I love it’s differences to what’s out there now. I love the look, the polished finish to the design elements. I love the SPEED (actually I can’t believe how fast it is!) I love the underlying sense of humor.

I can see this being a great tool for parents (itching to help with kids homework), I can see students & professors loving this tool.

What I find puzzling?

The name – okay sure I know it’s from the mind of Dr Wolfram – … but seriously … have you tried saying the name? I was talking about WolframAlpha in a presentation the other day and it’s a tounge twitser.

The other thing I find weird – results (all results) are served as images – yeap, images.

Not really sure why they might do that – it’s going to cost more in bandwidth, CSS could make the text just as nice & you wouldn’t need the “click to copy” system they have in place now. Sure some stuff just HAS to be images … but  …. Maybe it’s to stop screen scrapers .. ?

The end

I’m not 100% sure I see it revolutionizing the internet – but … WolframAlpha is the first (and probably one of the best), new solutions for mining data on the internet.

To wrap it up, here are some fun things to try on WolframAlpha:

• Musical notes C E G Bb D F# A
  
• Complex maths (well Sqrt X + Cos X)
• Compare GOOGLE and APPLE – financial
• Check out caffeine – I love the molecular structure

Sure fire secret tips to drive up traffic

Traffic – websites live and breathe with it – without, well we might as well all pack up and go home. I’ve increased traffic to studiowhiz.com by .. well a ton recently. The past week has seen this site having over 70,000 unique visitors stop by.

How do you do it? Well traditionally it’s hard to build up traffic and maintain it, however you can get spikes in traffic reasonably easily. What you do with that traffic is up to you, but here are my “Sure fire ways to drive up traffic to your site”.

1) Talk about Social Networks

Talk about social networking, typically talk about how to get more friends on Twitter, Facebook or StumbleUpon. These posts are big hitters as people love to brag “I have XXX number of friends”.

2) Tear apart a gadget

This one is a bit expensive – but will drive HUGE traffic to your site, that will stick around, at least long enough to view your pics. Tear apart a gadget. This of course is time sensitive, but if you are one of the first to have exploded views of the next iPhone on your website – you are guaranteed a traffic increase.

3) Top/Ultimate lists

The internet loves lists! Many of the top ranking posts on popurls.com are lists. Pick popular (related to your site) topics and write some lists. Of course having some meat on your site is going to help in the long run – otherwise lists are useless. NOTE be original, find your OWN content to fill your lists. No one likes seeing the SAME fonts, the SAME Photoshop tutorials!

Oh and you want to make big lists, top 5, top 10 are okay but lists with 20+ really pull in the traffic. Lists in the 100’s – are pure GOLD in the sense of traffic. Think 101 ways to make you a sex guru or 103+ Photoshop Tutorials, maybe 99 ways to build your Twitter brand – all gold!

4) (nsfw) – Not Safe for Work

Any hot blooded male will tell you the (nsfw) tag on any link is like a bright red button – just begging to be clicked. At work or not, (nsfw) is a 99.9% sure fire way to get people to visit your site. Of course you need to balance this up against your site’s purpose and target audience. But hey, there is no denying it brings traffic.

5) Rising/Falling stars

Facebook’s young CEO Mark Zuckerburg, Twitter’s Ev Williams, Robert Scobble, Allen Stern (who?), Diddy, Bruce Willis – talk about people, talk about trends. It works for the tabloids, gossip rags. Heck Perez Hilton does nothing but talk about famous people – usually falling, ungracefully from fame. Many of the web2.0 stars have alerts set up to spot articles with their name/brand in them & many will link to these. These posts can bring in huge hits in short term traffic, but links from these folks to your article bring in LONG TAIL traffic (think $$ gold mine!!)

6) Secrets of …

Every one loves a secret – if I know something you don’t you want to know it! It’s like forbidden fruit, and it’s how many of these online “get rich quick” schemes work. I know how to make more money in a day than you do in a year – pay me $9.99 now and I’ll tell you. Okay so we are not doing that but you are reading my secret traffic tips right now. How about “102 Secret tips of Photoshop Legends” or maybe “100 Secret Fonts you never knew existed?”

7) Digg, Delicious & StumbleUpon

“Build it and they will come” – well maybe, but certainly not “write it and they will visit”. Sorry you are going to have to do SOME work to spread the love of your link a little. Learn about link sharing through StumbleUpon, Digg and Delicious (not forgetting Reddit and others – go find them my pretties). These tools can be huge in helping you to drive up traffic to your site. Foster that by including easy links (buttons), and encourage link building, pinging and trackbacks. (Note: check out our bonus video to learn how to leverage DIGG for your site)

8) Sensationalize – hype, extend

Another tip from the gossip rags – sensationalize. “I had Mark Zuckerburg’s Baby” – is going to probably grab some attention. Tabolids have been over hyping and preying on our nature to believe the extraordinary – so leverage that. Don’t do it all the time, and don’t over do it – but write carefully thought out titles. This is also known as Link Baiting – but hey, it works. Again what you do with the traffic is up to you & sometimes this isn’t traffic you want. But in the end the numbers don’t lie – if you need to make a splash, sensationalize: Instead of “Unaltered Britney Spears Photos” how about ” Britney Spears nude photos” – you then go on to explain the photos are nude, as they have no photoshop work done to them, not the … well you get the idea.

Summary

I could go on and on, but that wouldn’t leave room for me to share one last secret – “REVISITS” eg: “Secret Traffic Generation Tips – Revisited”.

Feel free to share your tips in the comments – remember this is a DO FOLLOW site, so feel free to link to your OWN list of Traffic Generating Secrets as part of your comment (just don’t spam)!

Here’s a great video showing how to leverage DIGG for your site:

Best Practices in Social Media Integration for Web Publishers and Content Providers (Web 2.0 Expo – Bob Buch, Digg) from Steffan Antonas on Vimeo.

2 invaluable OSX time saving tips

I have a few friends who are swapping from long time Windows usage to Mac usage. There are a couple of things they do on the Mac that … well they could do better. First up they load up the dock with EVERY single application & secondly they rely on the mouse to much for opening everything.

Here are two handy tips that will save you HEAPS of time on the Mac.

Quick Open Applications

I get hassled by Linux users that OSX is for pointing and clicking … and to a degree it is. Why type when you can click n drag & skip heaps of steps? Still, there are times that typing is heaps faster. Many people go to lengths to install Quick Launch apps like Quicksilver – well if you don’t want the hassle of learning a fully fledged launcher then just use what is built into the OS – Spotlight.

Hit Command (apple key) + the space bar and Spotlight will launch.
Start typing the app name, eg: Phot

You’ll see that Spotlight very quickly finds your app as you type, then hit Enter to launch it.

Steps:

• CMND + SPACE
• Start typing app name
• Hit ENTER / RETURN to launch

Quick Launch Apps from Finder

The next handy tip is about customising your finder windows to suit your needs. All Mac users know to open a file in an application you simply drag that icon onto the application & it’ll launch and load the file. Very handy if you have the application in the dock – but we don’t want a crowded dock – so what do you do?

The finder windows are customisable and you can add a few of your most used applications quickly and easily so you have access to them from anywhere at anytime.
First: grab the application from the applications menu and drag up to the top bar of the finder window

Second: hold on the gray finder window for 30 seconds – until very faint gray boxes appear

Third: drop the application in place

To use: now simply drag any compatible file that you want to open up to the application icon in the finder window

That’s it, done! You can have as many apps as you want up here, but remember again, don’t get too carried away.

Note: you can also drag FOLDERS up here so you can have quick links to often used folders.