NEWS+BLOG

Now I know that all of my fellow RSS addicts will look at that title and say "well Dah!" but I am not talking about images within the feed article itself.

This morning I noticed the face of the latest Australia's Biggest Loser evictee, Michael, looking out at me from my NetVibes feed reader in News.com.au's National Breaking News feed.

Tricky, News.com.au! very tricky!

Now this is something that I have never seen before and it certainly did catch my eye over the 80 or so other articles on the screen.

Oh and congrats Michael on the weight loss! Amazing effort!

 

Unfortunately no. I'm just a fool!

I just spent 15 minutes trawling through ninemsn.com.au, news.com.au, zdnet.com.au & gadgetguy.com.au trying to find some good examples of web advertising banners for a client of mine and i could not for the life of me find a single web banner.

I thought I was loosing my mind. Where had all the advertising gone? Has the whole world conspired to abolish web banners without telling me?

Then it dawned on me! I saw this little red icon in the bottom right of my FireFox window.

Apparently Ad Block Plus a nifty little FireFox extension was doing its job perfectly. It was blocking all traces of banner ad's and because the sites that I was viewing were built using liquid CSS the gaps where the ad's should have been were simply closed up. Not a trace of advertising to be seen. I didn't even realise it was running and had been since this computer was configured.

As a quick experiment to really see how much advertising there was out there now I turned off Ad Block Plus and no the world has not conspired to abolish web advertising. Ad's have gotten bigger and flashier than ever! Not that there is anything wrong with that. I can certainly see that there is a definite need for advertising as it helps to pay for all of the free content I am getting.

Unfortunately for me I find banners very distracting and often draw me away from the content I want to read. Congratulations Advertisers you have done your job I am drawn to click! Unfortunately for you I can turn you off and focus on the story at hand.

 

Everyday for the past 7 business days I have been skipping to the letterbox (actually I have been rolling my chair over to the admin desk) to check for the delivery of my eagerly awaited letter from Google!

This magic letter was to herald the delivery of our Google AU Local Business Listing PIN as reported on the 6th of Feb.

Upon seeing the colourful Google logo and emiting a little squeal of delight (I'm a geek i know, but these things excite me, don't judge me for that!), I tore open the (rather thrifty on Google's behalf) folded envelope and followed the instructions.

Then my bubble was burst. I now have to wait up to six weeks for our listing to be updated as Google only refresh their listing approximatly every four weeks. What the?

Upon inspection of the prior mentioned thrifty envelope (a simple folded piece of paper with three stickers holding it together) i noticed that the letter had been dispatched from Jamaica N.Y and not Australia. I second my previous "What the?".

Oh well, I guess the wait will give me another reason to post a blog in a month's time.
I am still going to frame this Google letter though, after a bit of photoshop work of course to add my name in there instead (don't judge me)!

 

And now for something completely off base. I just Stumble!Upon'd a Digg story about some very exciting new tech. 74 year old Joseph Longo, founder and CEO of Startech Environmental Corporation has developed a revolutionary garbage disposal unit.

But this is no ordinary garbage compactor or hollowed out space rocket ready to send our banana peels into outer space!

It's a Plasma Converter.

What the hell does that mean you ask?
Well as described in Slice of Scifi it works its magic by;

"This annihilation process is described like something similar to the the big bang, only in reverse in that you get nothing from something, instead of something out of nothing. Inside a sealed vessel made of stainless steel and filled with a stable gas—either pure nitrogen or, as in this case, ordinary air—a 650-volt current passing between two electrodes rips electrons from the air, converting the gas into plasma. Current flows continuously through this newly formed plasma, , creating a field of extremely intense energy very much like lightning. The radiant energy of the plasma arc is so powerful, it disintegrates trash into its constituent elements by tearing apart molecular bonds."

So what becomes of all those torn apart molecules? They are turned into an obsidian-like glass used as a raw material for numerous applications, including bathroom tiles and high-strength asphalt, and a synthesis gas, or “syngas”—a mixture of primarily hydrogen and carbon monoxide that can be converted into a variety of marketable fuels, including ethanol, natural gas and hydrogen.

The only trash this little beauty cannot tear apart is nuclear waste as it is already in its natural atomic state. As a destructive child who still enjoys pulling things apart, this thing sounds like a wonderful toy!

You can find a full detailed review on popsci.com.

So! How long will it take for our local governments to bring this into the environmental election arsenal? At an easy $250 million per unit it's peanuts. Especially seeing as it can process roughly 2000 tons of waste per day which is apparently what an average large city will produce.

The byproducts can also be sold by the government or better yet put to good use fixing our roads, supplementing our power supplies or even our petrol bills!

Imagine a world without landfill and renewable energy provided by our own waste. Cool!


Credits: Image sourced from Popular Science.
Quoted from: Slice of Scifi

 

As a mid twenties, married, home owning professional, i like to think that i am most organisations target audience.
This makes it fairly easy for me to get inside my head as a target audience.

As i tell every person i meet, my primary source of information relating to products and services is the Internet.
My FireFox homepage is Netvibes where i hook up to all of my news and industry information via a ridiculous number of RSS feeds, my second tab is Gmail and right there next to it is Google.

News, Mail, Google.

So if i am looking for information on, well, anything, i head to tab number three. If i can't find you there, then i am sorry i just don't know about you.

However!

Recently the big three, Yahoo, Google and Windows Live Search have launched or updated their online mapping offerings and as previously reported Google has finally launched Local Business Listings for Australia.

As soon as i saw this feature launched i was straight onto the site to register us, Cyberdesign Works, for a listing. Whilst i was there i thought i would check out what else is our there in the Local Search arena.

Yahoo!7 run localsearch.yahoo.com.au I am not entirely sure where the get their listings from (it looks like Truelocal.com.au) but i did find us already listed which was nice.

Windows Live Local whilst it looked good i could not find how to get listed. Hopefully my "help" email to Live Search will yield a response.

There are also other great local directory sites such as:

Street-directory.com.au
Truelocal.com.au
Not to mention good old Yellowpages.com.au
DLook.com.au also provides free business listings however minus the map and direct link to your website. Their group qouting facility makes up for this by allowing you to source qoutes from a number of businesses in a single form. Links and an improved profile are available via upgrading your listing.

In discovering these resources of localised business listings, for me, it makes it even more important for the businesses and services that i am searching for be listed. Now because i can, i want to get a map, so that i know exactly where you are located, i want to know your opening hours because there is nothing more frustrating than arriving just on closing time or getting a recorded "our office is currently unattended", and i want to know if you will accept my card. Then once you have passed all of those tests i will check out your website where i want to find what i am looking for, and the price if possible.

For businesses that rely on walk in or area specific traffic it just makes sense to able to be found in a local directory, and as a great supporter of community (or is it just laziness?) I would much rather buy locally, so get listed!


NOTE: Yahoo!7 also provides a great little service called Yahoo!7 Fuel Price Watch, listing the cheapest petrol in in Australia. An invaluable service seeing as everyone us jacking up prices "due to the cost of petrol".

Have a play with Mobile Maps and Local Search as well.

UPDATE - Thanks Meg for picking up my oversight of DLook.com.au
If anyone has a suggestion for alternative Local Business Listing sites please let me know so that i can update this list.

 

The days of your old printed street directory shoved under the seat of your car are certinally numbered with the increasing popularity of portable GPS units (such as Road Angel). The giants of online search however have other ideas and are locked in a battle to win over mobile phone users with mobile search and mapping applications.

The three major search players Google, Windows Live Search and Yahoo have all recently either updated or launched their mobile search and mapping answers to the market.

As a hardcore mobile users from way back i of course jumped at the chance to tinker with my toy whilst being told where to go!

Yahoo Search for Mobile (YSM) - http://mobile.yahoo.com/search

I signed up for the beta testing of Yahoo's answer to mobile search and mapping a number of weeks ago and finally got accepted via an sms (nice touch Yahoo). I did encounter problems when i attempted to download the application onto my Nokia 6288 so as yet i have not been able to actually test this product.

I have left a help ticket for Yahoo and am awaiting a response to my problems.

Windows Live Search for Mobile (WLS Mobile) - http://wls.live.com/

My first impression of WLS Mobile was very good. the maps are very readable, directions came up very quickly and were correct most of the time. The main problem i encountered howoever was that all distances were measured in miles and not KM's. WLS Mobile has however just come out of beta so i hope that this issue will have been fixed in this release.

Google Maps for Mobile (GMM) - http://www.google.com/gmm

With the recent launch of Local Business listings on maps.google.com.au i feel that GMM is currently the best mobile mapping application of the three (i bow to my google overlords). It is very easy to search for a specific business name or a business type in a specific suburb or just key in your address. All business listing results are currently pulled from TrueLocal.com.au however Google is accepting business submissions abet with a lengthly submissions process (damned snail mail).

I am however experiancing difficulties in downloading the correct version of the GMM application for my handset, apparently the file size is too large for my Nokia 6288 to download, thus i am using a generic version which does not correctly map my buttons and as such does not allow me to zoom in. A pain if i accidentally zoom out. Google will hopefully respond soon.

Both WLS Mobile and GMM managed to find an address for me and was able to calculate directions from our Artarmon offices. The kicker is that both applications gave different directions! Both GMM and WLS Mobile also required me to be very specific in how i keyed in my desired address. eg

49 Herbert St, Artarmon, NSW, Australia

Having the application know that i am in Australia would be a nice touch however having to key in the country is not a critical hinderance to usability.

The next big thing will be the ability to use your GPS enabled handset to connect to these mapping services in real time, then the Search Giants will really be telling you where to go!


NOTE: Oh the beauty of having a photographic studio in the office. No bodgy screenshots for me! Thanks Matt!

 

Google Maps Australia has just announced the launch of Australian Business Listings.
this feature ahs been available in the US for sometime now and i have been eagerly awaiting its launch down here!

Whilst at launch Google are drawing business listings from TrueLocal.com.au you have the ability to submit your own listing directly with Google containing all of your contact details, opening times and your own description.

The interesting thing is that in order to verify your listing you must wait by your letter box for a snail-mail containing a verification PIN!

I can understand this from a security, spam and verification point of view however in this digital age you would think that there would be some way to verify online. Not that I am complaining mind you. I am just happy that the feature has become available to us!

 

You never know where it will pop-up!

 

For Christmas '06 John (our director), and I decided not to send out the obligatory corporate Christmas card, instead we thought we would save some trees and send our clients Christmas e-cards instead.

Two days before we wanted to dispatch our e-cards we got around to briefing Homaira (hom-i-ra) one of our fantastic designers on the idea. The brief was:

"We want a Christmas card, but online. And animated!"

Comprehensive wasn't it! BUT, from this Homaira managed to create this brilliant animated Christmas e-card.

The response was fantastic, so we have decided to open the doors to an e-card package, whereby your company can purchase the; design, animation and dispatch of your e-card for a fixed price. We can even customise each card with the name of the recipient and tell you who opened the card and if they clicked any links as well.

You don't have to wait until Christmas either. E-cards work famously for any message such as invitations or promotional messages.

 

Damn i just realised that it is February already!

Whats happening for Cyber in Feb!?? Lots!
Stay tuned for the launch of the following new sites:

aafonline.com.au - Australian Aluminium Finishing
easywaytea.com.au - Easy Way Tea
easy-living.com.au - Easy Living Home Elevators
platinumpackaging.com.au - Platinum Packaging Jewelery packaging and Watch Winders

And Lots more!

Its going to be a big month!