Thought Socks

I’m going to avoid writing about the the pros and cons of Twitter, which have been much discussed since it’s inception in October 2006. Discussed enough, and by people who’ve used it far longer and are in a far better position than me to comment: I’ve only recently started using Twitter a lot (More than a few times daily). Just Google the subject for millions of posts an articles on the subject. So I just thought I’d share two things I find particularly useful when using Twitter: one general web resource that most hardened Twitterers take advantage of, and one I discovered earlier today that seems slightly less well known.

The first is, of course, TinyUrl. Those who frequent Web 2.0 all know about it, and use it. We use it a lot: whenever we find ourselves with a lengthy URL that needs shortening. And that’s what TinyUrl does: provides short aliases to redirect long URLs. A one hundred character URL (Like http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll- llantysiliogogogoch. com/) is shortened to 23 (http://tinyurl.com/16gu). Tweets (A single Twitter post) can be a maximum of 140 characters, so you can see why TinyUrl is so useful. Those who don’t frequent the web, take note.

The second can be found at Terraminds.com/twitter. Twitter offers a search that lets users search for other users, but it doesn’t let you search within Tweets, which makes it hard finding Twitterers posting about certain subjects. The search function linked to above lets you do this, making it easy to find users posting about certain subjects. Very useful for those who want to make use of Twitters numerous benefits but don’t really know where to start having signed up.

I hope you find one of these things useful (The second especially) - I do.

A list of 8 Cool Twitter Tools.

According to BBC News and the Daily Mail:

High-heeled shoes not only tone the legs and strengthen the pelvic muscles, but they “directly work the pleasure muscles which are linked to an orgasm”
In the past stilettos have been blamed for stress fractures and joint pain but now it seems that the pain might be worth the gain.
Italian urologist Dr Maria Cerruto discovered that a pair of “moderately high-heeled shoes” had beneficial effects.

“I adore high-heeled shoes and I wanted to find something positive about them,” said Dr Cerruto, of the University of Verona. “In the end I achieved my goal.

This certainly gets my vote for worst news story of 2008. Dr. Cerruto, as a doctor should you not being doing more productive things with your time than this useless study? Yes, but you don’t have to. You may do what you want.

I ‘m not so surprised about the Daily Mail, but why have the BBC reported it? This really is a half-baked effort at reporting some news. I just ate some Salmon, didn’t you hear about that, reporter?

According to E! Online the Writers Guild of America strike may finally be coming to an end after just over thirteen weeks. “We are 99.9 percent of the way there,” one source inside the negotiations said. “As of late yesterday, just a few small issues remained.” The strike has cost the industry well over $1 billion.

Although I would probably side with the writers, who want a raise in their residuals (The amount of money made from subsequent airings and purchases of a show or film), if I didn’t love some of American TV at the moment, I can’t help but breath a sigh of relief: Lost and Prison won’t be delayed any longer, which is highly important - things like this are my heroin!

Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Free advertising.

As of today I’ll be offering free, monthly advertising banner slots (125×125 or 250×125). All the details are on the new advertising page.

I’ve read quite a few posts in recent months about making money on your blog; what sort of advertising you can put on your site; how much revenue you can expect etc. (I found Creeva’s post at JourneyToGetPaid and Darren’s at ProBlogger particularly interesting) and having read what they say, I was going to wait a few months at least before considering advertising. However, I’ve decided to make a foray into these unknown waters now because of a post I read (I annoyingly can’t find it now) saying that of the many different things you can do to promote your blog, by far the best is to simply give more than you take, be helpful at every opportunity - be nice. So I’m being nice. Really nice. I’m offering free advertising!

How to Haggle

Haggle: to bargain in a petty, quibbling, and often contentious manner.

HowToHaggle, a site dedicated solely to the art of haggling, argues that while it may be petty, and quibbling, and contentious, haggling is practical and useful: It gets you stuff for less.

It tells us what it is:

• ‘In a nutshell, the goal of haggling is to come out of your purchases with a big smile on your face, knowing that you have not been cheated and that you paid a fair price for the product you purchased.’

Why those who do it do:

• ‘The world is set up to haggle. Every vendor in every country knows your right to haggle. Sure, some might not admit it but they all set the prices in such a way to enable you to haggle.’

How to do it (Too long to summarise well here. Includes real life scenarios, tips etc.)

And mistakes you musn’t make:

• Don’t make a scene
• Don’t get angry etc.

I find that most people, myself included (Although once in Camden I did something that might have been haggling …), are far too embarassed to haggle for things; the information generation especially. We shop mostly in commercial chains where there isn’t really any chance of knocking down the price (I give you $85! ~Borat). It hasn’t crossed our minds. Perhaps HowToHaggle will enter international web conciousness and change that. Maybe next time we find ourselves at the local market or in Brazil, we’ll save a couple of quid on a bunch of bananas.

Haggling in Brazil … something for next year.

I recently started reading Leo Babauta’s excellent Zen Habits blog. It covers

“achieving goals, productivity, being organized, GTD, motivation, eliminating debt, saving, getting a flat stomach, eating healthy, simplifying, living frugal, parenting, happiness, and successfully implementing good habits.”

It’s the first five items on the list that I feel particularly apply to me: I’ve been worrying a lot recently about the exams I have in a few months and whether or not I’m going to have the motivation to do the necessary amount of work/revision. I like to think (As those sloths like me do) that I’m chronically lazy, which of course is just my way out of doing things I don’t want to, and my way in to laziness. A bit of advice on getting out of the rut of laze and unfulfilment might come in handy, I reasoned.

Each Zen Habits post has been full of this advice, from 30 Things to Do to Keep From Getting Bored Out of Your Skull at Work to yesterday’s 17 Unbeatable Ways to Create a Peaceful, Relaxed Workday, and each made me feel increasingly that I had to act on Leo Babauta’s (Who incidentally appears to be the most healthy, fulfilled person ever) advice. So when I read my first ‘Create a New Habit‘ post, which encourages readers to undertake a new life-improving challenge a month and post about it in the Zen Habits forum, I decided action must be taken:

This month I will be attempting to note every single, small and large, purchase I make, and to do 10-20 minutes of revision a night. It’s a small start, but I ‘m going to keep it up. If I do (Which I will!), then in March I will be running for 20 minutes early each morning,as well as keeping up my old habits.

I think that if I approach my ‘habits’, as they’re called, with a bit of self-discipline and continue to read of Zen Habits, and combine both these things with actually really wanting to know how much dough I get rid of this month, and wanting to run in the mornings, I’ll have no trouble keeping up.

Thank you Zen Habits - I hope you make my life, and others, a little better his month, and continue to in the future.

A couple of days I discovered Polarclock. It’s great: It looks amazing (A completely different, completely gelling colour scheme each time it starts), and it tells you the time.

Gets my vote for the web’s best screensaver.

I love a lot of TV advertisements at the moment.

I particularly love the music. Companys aren’t just picking good, suitable songs - I’ve even discovered some wonderful artists through TV ads, like Yael Naim, an Israeli, who’s track ‘New Soul‘ features in the recent Macbook Air ad.

This is great for whatever is being advertised - if you like the song then you favourably associate it with the product. For example, the Orange adverts are brilliant, and the accompanying music is wonderful, so I find myself leaning towards signing up for an Orange service if it’s available as an option. Well done Orange - this must be how you keep going: your good advertising makes up for your dreadful products! Your broadband customer service is bad, your mobile reception is dire (Or at least where I live), but you are bathed, in my eyes at least, in an enticing, golden light, thanks to Devendra Banhart.

We all know this - that good advertising makes all the difference. But currently advertising is really quirky, and really great.

TunesonTV is a superb site dedicated to the latest great tunes on TV, and if you find yourself wondering who wrote that song from that ad, the chances are Commercial Breaks and Beats know who did.

I’m late, once again.

After hearing about how wonderful Twitter is for a few months (And how not-so-wonderful), I’ve just signed up tweeted for the first time.

You can read these ‘tweets’ here. I think I’m going to find the experience very enjoyable!

I’m only regularly tuning in to one show at the moment:

Mock The Week (BBC 2, 10pm, Tues.)

It’s ceaselessly amusing, and the next episode always seems that little bit funnier. Think Have I Got News For You, but hipper, and ruder. And funnier I suppose.

The five regulars, including irish stand-up comic Dara O’Briain, are wonderful, and not in the slightest bit similar. They’re comfortable with one another having done a few series now, and the chemistry shows; the atmostphere breeds humour. Two guests each week make up the numbers, but don’t simply do that, often being as funny as the regulars themselves.

Check this out if you’ve the opportunity. Some videos here, and here.