Dwayne Charrington

Look out fellow Australians, another major corporate entity is about to ravage and assault us with our own ignorance.

Ha. Ha. No I’m not talking about Telstra; I’m referring to eBay Australia. They seem to have decided that we are a very risky country and here I was thinking this whole time it was Nigerians running those eBay fraud schemes </sarcasm>. So they’ve decided to get rid of all online payment methods except cash and paypal, there is a catch to the cash payment method it only applies when the item is picked up from you as well. This means all online payments will need to be made through PayPal. Oh, I forecast a rise in PayPal profit margins this year but that’s for another post.

In eBay’s Words:

“eBay is no longer willing to stand aside and allow payment methods on the site that are proven to be less safe for consumers. You’re four times less likely to have a problem on eBay if you pay with PayPal than, say, if you used internet banking.”

That classic but warming quote came from eBay trust and safety director Alastair MacGibbon. Thanks for looking out for our safety Alastair oh, and your paychecks. I’ve been ripped off on eBay a total of 0 times now, thanks for playing the hero to the person that didn’t need saving.

eBay International is going to monitor Australian developments, see how pissed off everyone is going to get and decide whether or not to do the same in other Ebay stores, lucky us.

How about eBay tries this in Nigeria instead? Somewhere crappy and eBay fraud prone.

Surely everyone has heard of the term ‘The Digg Effect’ used before. Basically the Digg Effect is a term to describe what happens when your website hits the frontpage of Digg. Usually you will get tens of thousands of visits to your website as a result of this and this is usually more than enough to bring down your web server under a mass load of stress and chew threw your bandwidth like pacman on crack.

But just how many of those users who are visiting these frontpage links are using FireFox? I’d take a wild estimated guess and say a fair few of those people would be using FireFox. Now take into account how many of those people could possible be using the FasterFox extension, most likely with the turbo charge setting selected.

Now it doesn’t take complicated thinking to see what I am getting at here. Basically I think the reason the Digg Effect can be so powerful is the fact that a lot of those users are using the FasterFox extension or have hacked their FireFox to make multiple connections to a web server which in turn is a bad thing because it means more bandwidth and processing power used up on your server and we all know a lot of hosts out there can’t seem to handle the Digg Effect very well at all.

My suggestion is to prevent multiple connections from the same IP address to your webserver. In the case of your website hitting the front page of Digg, your website should be able to cope much better. Don’t forget there are other means of reducing the load such as Caching etc. This is just another method.

The Internet one can marvel at it’s complexity, it’s ability to deliver something to your screen instantly far surpasses anything else in the world. But there is a downside to all of this chaos and use to simplicity. We fail to meet the same standards as the Internet does in real life. How often do you go to your local fast food store say for example Mc Donalds? and get your instantly soon after placing it? Not likely as of yet.

We are all too used to having everything available anyway imaginable at the touch of our finger tips. This instant mentality of things has issues on our brains. Soon you’ll be noticing that you’ve become so dependendant on simplicity and instant results that nothing else will compare and waiting 2 minutes for a coffee just doesn’t quite cut it with you.

The reason I say this is because I was recently shopping for a few items at Woolworths and found myself growing suddenly angered and impatient at the guy infront of me counting his small change. In my simplistic mind, he should have just used notes, coins aren’t that good when you’re paying for something that costs over $20!

I’ve been thinking of a theory for a few years now and never have really told anyone about it ( from memory ). So I thought I would share it and look out because it’s a massive theory I don’ think anyone has really voiced or mentioned, it’s quite possible someone has already voiced a similar theory but who cares if they have there is nothing wrong with creating your own theory, right?

Time Travel is possible

Why are we listening to Stephen Hawking about the theory of finding some kind of wormhole?, that’s boring. W have already time travelled and not in the way that you think we have either. We are time travelling when we sleep, we are time travelling when we day-dream and we are time travelling when we are fully alert. What if your subconscious could in-fact travel back and forward in time already and you didn’t even know that this was happening at all. Ever had the feeling of De-Ja-Vu? that’s because your subconscious has time travelled and taken a snapshot of a future or past event. De-Ja-Vu isn’t always clear, it’s more of an aware feeling like you knew something was going to happen or you’ve already done something before.

What if in-fact dreams were memories being played to you suggestively by your subconscious while you slept? The brain is a very complex thing and we will never possibly unlock it’s secrets. Our bodies are quite simply just shells, our brain consists of many area’s and perhaps even modules of invisible matter some of which cannot be measured or seen with human eyes or equipment. What if in-fact part of our brain generated it’s own energy to survive and is completely independent from the rest of the body?, capable of surviving with limited memory after death, this would help support the theory of an afterlife.

Time Travel via a physical means will never be possible, the likelihood of something like that happen is probably one in more than we can count too. My subconscious theory is a viable theory considering a lot of people seem to be able to predict events because they saw them happen in a dream or vision, this is in-fact possible because their subconscious went into the future or past and captured the memory. There is in-fact a parallel universe, most likely just three but there could be as many as trillions of parallel universes. Think of another universe as a layer on-top of our universe and that everything that has happened in our universe (the present) is recorded and played out in another universe (the past). Our subconscious minds could be communicating with these alternate universe’s perhaps that would explain why some people like John Edwards can see dead people and communicate with them. What if in-fact those dead people simply are just in another universe (the past) and that some of us humans can communicate through to these other universes subconsciously.

We can also control this subconscious time travel to a certain extent. Psychics who can touch objects and see visions of past or future events have the power to force their subconscious to communicate to your subconscious in another alternate universe in the past perhaps. Psychics who can talk to the dead are in-fact time travelling although they are in the present, their subconscious is in-fact not in the present but in the past communicating with the dead persons subconscious which can travel into the future and relay what happened to the person.

Before you sleep picture someone you’ve lost in your head, make sure it’s right before you sleep. Picture you want to be there when they died and if you practice long enough you may in-fact be able to communicate with their subconscious and get something in the form of a dream which would really be a memory of your subconscious’ visit into the past.

What are your constructive thoughts on this theory of time travel?

A growing trend amongst Internet bloggers is doing paid reviews, receiving cash for writing opinions on something that may not be entirely true. I’ve seen so many websites endorse a product a company has released and absolutely crucify the other product which may be better in the first place, because it was obviously a paid review. A perfect example of this is Robert Scoble who use to help his mother who worked for Apple when he was growing up and became somewhat of an Apple fanboy in the process. So how did Robert Scoble go from Apple to Microsoft?

Most recently his review of Microsoft’s world wide telescope he mentioned it made him cry.. come on Robert I smell large amounts of cash in your pockets, the only thing Microsoft makes that makes us already cry is Internet Explorer which does not support web standard at all.

So why not? I’ll take the plunge. Big companies want your service reviewed for large amounts of cash? I’ll write the best darn review for you and submit it to Digg and StumbleUpon as well at no extra cost.

So let’s all be like Robert Scoble and forget what we believe in and opt for cash instead of our dignity and credibility instead.

Lately I’ve been thinking about how geeks use to be teased and excluded, never got girlfriends and most certainly never got invited to parties but in this day and age, it’s trendy and cool to be geeky in someway. Not everyone is geeky though, and this post explains why geeks make better boyfriends.

1. They’re extremely smart. They know a lot about everything, always have something to talk about and perfect to take home to your parents.
2. They are mostly polite and well mannered, dress sense isn’t so luckyl… but we won’t discuss that.
3. They won’t take you for granted. Geeks in love really do love you back and mean it when they say it.
4. They offer a secure income and stable future. Geeks are mutli skilled and usually don’t just have the one skill set. They are able to find jobs easily with experience and degree’s and geeks will always be needed. Until robots turn on the earth and destroy humanity in 2028.
5. They won’t cheat on you, well most won’t, they will cherish you for the rest of your life, just love them back.
6. They are mostly all shy.
7. You won’t see a geek yelling out a car window or trying to chat you up. He’ll be sitting on his laptop at the bus stop or train station, you’ll need to talk to him in most cases because he is shy.
8. They can help you with things like sending an email or fixing your computer when it won’t work.
9. They can help you study for a test or something similar.
10. They care when there is something wrong.
11. They’re champion pro surfers….. of the Internet.
12. They can get anything for free.
13. They will turn you into a Firefox user. Geeks hate IE, and your geeky boyfriend will make you hate IE too usually by telling you “IE will put viruses on your computer”.

If you have any of your own drop them into the comments below.

According to various Internet sources, Google, Microsoft and a few others are all preparing to make a bid for Digg. But it would seem that apparently it’s going to be a bidding war between Google and Microsoft, we all know who will win… Google.

Let’s see. Microsoft signed an advertising deal with Diff last year. I doubt Microsoft will pay the price tag Digg wants to sell it for seeming as they’re part of the income Digg receives. Digg has said it will take less than $300 million.

I can see Google turning Digg into a better place than it already is. Google would definitely not have a hard time monetising a site like Digg and could easily make money from the page views, very easily.

It will be very interesting to see what happens with this, if anything happens. Digg doesn’t have a very good past when it comes to successful sales to potential buyers…

Yeah, yeah, we’ve all heard of Robert Scoble before, a few haven’t though. He’s not really a big deal, sure his blog gets lot’s of hits and it’s popular but I wouldn’t trust him as far as you could throw him.

Let’s look into the background of Robert Scoble. He use to be a Mac fanatic, even helping his mother assemble mac II’s when he was eleven years old, so Wikipedia says.

Long story short, Robert Scoble then joined Microsoft in 2003 Scoble was part of the Channel 9 MSDN Video team, where he created videos showcasing Microsoft employees and products. How does a Mac evangelist go from Mac to Microsoft? It’s got me beat, it really does. He left Microsoft in June 2006.

It would appear that Robert Scoble has been bought somewhere along the line perhaps? He went from a Mac worshipper, preacher to a Microsoft preacher, don’t believe me search his blog Scobleizer for entry’s relating to Mac and then entry’s relating to Microsoft, notice the strange thing? Most of his posts are now advocating and preaching Microsoft even though he doesn’t work for Microsoft anymore.

Most recently he was boasting about Microsoft’s new world wide telescope, claiming that it will change the world we live in and that seeing it made him actually cry, wtf? The review smells of paid-to-review. Microsoft unload some cash to Scoble, they know he is influential and has high traffic, people think Microsoft has made something good and Microsoft get good press for their new product. I think Robert Scoble has some explaining too do, of course nobody else would dare mention what I have because everyone is all lovey dovey Scoble, not me.

It’s funny how all his Mac posts are mostly bad and ill favoured to Apple. However everything he has blogged about Microsoft has been good, I haven’t seen a bad thing said about Microsoft by Scoble in a long while, all I see is praise. As far as I am concerned, Microsoft have nothing to be praised over. They release a shit OS Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7 sucks, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 doesn’t address any of the issues in Windows Vista relating to speed and reliability.

Not only is Scoble biased towards Microsoft than Apple he is also selling out. Read an article on Tech Crunch about how Scoble use to be an advocator of a free blog with no ads but now all of a sudden has decided to place ads on his blog, as if he needs the money, he has enough money without needing ads. He’s basically saying "Thanks for making my blog popular, now fuck you and click my ads so I make more money".

Read the Tech Crunch Article - Click Here

Okay, you’ve heard about Microsoft’s new Web Browser in the works, Internet Explorer 8, right? If you haven’t then you probably don’t surf the Internet that much. Well as we all know Microsoft have said it will support web standards and so many people have been getting excited and yes I agree about damn time, but Internet Explorer is still going to suck and I’ll tell you why.

1. It’s not a different web browser, it’s still Internet Explorer. Why should everyone all of a sudden go ‘Yeah IE is cool now it has support for some web standards’. It isn’t going to happen as many people think it is. Microsoft have had years to change it’s ways and implement standards compliance. Had they done that 6 years ago, Internet Explorer would still have better market share.

2. What makes you think it’s going to support, all web standards so easily? If it’s Internet Explorer and they claim it will support web standards compliance, is it fool proof and thorough? Will it really support web standards so easily? Or only most. For all you excited folks know, it’s still going to need hacks to work.

3. Firefox has themes, awesome add-ons and huge backing from a lot of companies, Google, say no more. Microsoft is anti development with Internet Explorer and we all know Microsoft only decided to do this because of their anti-trust suit, which they lost.

4. Firefox is completely open source and you can easily develop for it. It’s often updated, a new version comes out faster than Internet Explorer comes out with new versions.

Needless to say, Internet Explorer won’t be much different. It might have the trademark, bloat to the max, heavily skin and use all of your ram traits of a Microsoft product but I doubt it’s going to be anything groundbreaking. Before you Microsoft fan boys start on me, I’m not anti Microsoft. I use a Windows PC and nothing else, it’s just Microsoft have gone shit ever since they released Vista and they know it. But I think they can turn it around, hope is not all lost yet.

I’ve already made some predictions for the year 2008 but I predict something else why not it is march 2008 after all.

I am only going to make one prediction this time, but one that will have a huge impact. We will be sure to see a dot-com crash in 2008. It will be more prolonged and deeper than the crash of 2000.

The crash will be driven by a recession and prolonged slow growth in the US. Global investment capital will flee to quality, ending the speculative dumping of cash on Web 2.0 startups.

Venture capital firms will try to limit their losses by forcing many of their companies to either liquidate or seek a buyout. Buyout prospects will be poor, however, as the cash rich companies find themselves in a buyers market and let those seeking a saviour come face-to-face with the spectre of bankruptcy before finally buying up the assets on the cheap.

Startups that manage to acquire some funds before the crash will have a nice little egg to sit on but will find very little opportunity to rest on it. Most startups will be forced to change their revenue models, possibly more advertising. Internet advertising will become a hands-at-throat scenario with little profits too be had.

The big wigs will not be immune to this disastrous event. Google, in particular, will find itself balancing on a wooden peg leg, with the advertising market suddenly slowed or frozen and substantial new competition. The desperate competition with dwindling opportunity will drive profits in online advertising to near zero. Google and Yahoo! will find their available cash dropping and will do substantial layoffs to ensure that they survive the dot-com crash of 2008.

A scenario like this will not only affect pockets but also a persons privacy. Much like we saw after the 2000 crash, it is likely that those with little to lose will attempt scary new forms of advertising *cough* Digg. The Web will become polluted with spyware, a new type of virus and horrible annoyances. None of this will work and there will be lawsuits and new privacy legislation introduced, but we will have to put up with it while it lasts.

It will be a dire scenario, but definitely one that looks much like what we saw after the dot-com crash of 2000. That was a much smaller crash without the fuel from broader problems in the US economy, but we still had investment capital shut off for a few years, most startups shut down, and the remaining startups shift business models. We also saw a dramatic rise in pop-up advertising and spyware including spam email.

The crash of 2008 will be similar to that of the 2000 dot-com crash but with deeper and longer lasting implications. Needless to say it will affect everybody. I think Web 3.0 won’t be happening for a few years after the dot-com crash.