BLOGGER new post editor

Have I been living under a rock?

While reading bloggerbuster, I came across this post about a simple "read more" feature that suggested that BLOGGER was doing some updates.

I then went here to one of GOOGLE's BLOGGER help pages about new features to the post bar, and discovered it's true! There are some new BLOGGER features! Now it's just time for me to unravel what some of these things mean...

All I've been able to decipher so far, is that we can now use the "...more -->" tag to automatically open up the rest of the post, and we can also adjust our posts to include or exclude literal HTML commands. Sweet!

Adding reactions to custom Blogger templates

I discovered the hard way that adding a simple Blogger REACTIONS widget didn't work if I ventured into the custom template realm. I couldn't add a quick "micro-comment" reaction option to my blog, even when I tried to use the in-built REACTIONS widget offered by Blogger!

Mmm - champs ass flavour!

L4D: Lolcats

I would probably have used that BOOMER picture for a TANK, and got a cat puking as a BOOMER, or maybe used a TIGER as a TANK... but anyway...

Post Apocalypse movies

If you're like me, then you have a small fetish for anything post-apocalyptic. That means you enjoy flicks like Mad Max, The Omega Man, I am Legend, A Boy and His Dog, The Postman, Waterworld (those last two still have a great concept and are PA, so they rock no matter what anyone says), and also probably enjoy games like Wasteland, Fallout, and the like.

Well, go check out http://www.post-apocalypse.co.uk/index.html to get a pretty decent review site focusing on plenty of PA movies, and to reminisce about the old times, and possibly even some flicks you saw as a kid that you just can't remember the name of. I also appreciate the categories they use to rate movies, which I've listed below (which goes to show what ingredients are required to make a memorable PA movie)...

Year:
Civilization Ended via:
Hero Name:
Beefed up vehicles:
Crazy Gang:
Gang leader/villain name:
Other memorable names:
Shoulder pads:
Scenes filmed in a quarry:
Lasers or bullets:
Swords:
Water Shortage:
Petrol Shortage:
Food Shortage:
Bubble Domes:
Mutants:
Nakedness:
Synth music:
Stupid/Ridiculous Ending:
Miraculous rain:

Street Justice ...

Sometimes, a picture can be worth a thousand words... DO NOT PARK IN MY RESERVED BAY!

Spelling 101: definAtely vs. definItely

I am a wordsmith.

Yes, I am, because I said so during my wedding speech and half the audience chuckled nervously because they had no idea what a wordsmith was. One man - Joe Graham (a real man if ever there was one) - cried out "yes, you are!" or something to that effect (to quote him, he shouted "it's a real word, it's true"), so I know that at least half of our closest friends and family aren't ignorant cretins.

However, the sad reality is, today I was dealt a blow to my intellectual haughtiness by a lady who calls herself my "Editor" for the game reviews I'm doing.

You see, it turns out that spelling the word definitely with an A (as in "definately") is absolutely wrong. There's no middle ground here. The word is spelt "definitely" plain and simple. Upon considering her correction, I started to wonder how on earth I had ever spelt it with an A in the first place. The scary thing is, when I type the word "definitely" I instinctively go to the A letter and yet, it's completely wrong. It is obviously an extension of the word 'finite" and I don't seem to be able to convince my hands or my brain of this fact.

Here are a few websites to corroborate my story:

http://www.google.co.za/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=spelling+definatelyhttp://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=definately

The most interesting thing for me, is the definition itself from URBANDICTIONARY.COM says "Idiot-speak for "definitely". One of the most common moronic misspellings found on the internet" and "The word many people use to spell 'definitely' until they suddenly realise they've been spelling it the wrong way" and finally, "'definitely,' as blogged, emailed, or texted by a complete moron."

So there we have it... I am a complete moron. And besides that, I can now confidently say that there is definately no A in the word "definitely". I have been duly rebuked.

El33tonline: WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009

My latest review is online!

Go and check it out at the El33tonline website.

Enjoy :)

http://www.el33tonline.com/past/2009/10/27/wwe_smackdown_vs_raw_2009/

Woohoo! I won! I won!

I don't believe it, I don't ever win anything!

------ SMS ------
From: +278200705900662
Sent: Oct 26, 2009 00:09
Subject: Congratulations!

Congratulations!You are our Winner for the UK NATIONAL DRAW for 8 Million Pounds Sterling. Contact:info@lotteryhouse.co.uk Ref: 2010/08/2009 :James Clark

L4D: Comical truths

I'm going to have to start pretexting these posts with a L4D title so you know what they relate to (and for those that don't care, you can skip them).

If you've ever played Left4Dead, you'll no doubt appreciate the subtle humour (and sometimes not so subtle).

Confusion: A side effect of getting old...

Recession Times

I need to start off by stating that the only recession I'm presently worried about is my hairline! This nonsense about global economic crisis has, thankfully, gone straight past me without really affecting my personal employment experience, and so for that I am incredibly grateful as friends around me stumble into depleted salary packages and job losses / retrenchment. Nonetheless, it is with some guilty joy that I reveal to you all my new part-time profession...


That, of game reviewer!

As many of you who know me can vouch, one of my favourite past-times is playing computer games. I am a natural at it. I've had a computer or gaming device since I was born. First came an Atari, then a ZX Spectrum, and so the list goes on! At any rate, what better way to live out one's dream than to actually LIVE OUT ONE'S DREAM, right? Sadly, this is not entirely true. I have discovered that being a games reviewer is a fantasy, not a dream, and the reality isn't all rosey and cowboy midgets riding on unicycles with a tankard of beer in hand... game reviewing can be really hard work. There's deadlines, there's length-limitations, there's editing, there's good moments, and there's a lot more bad moments. Getting a rubbish game can be soul destroying, and fantasy destroying. My first review was a hard slog to finish on time, because I am a casual gamer who likes to fart around and explore, so my two week deadline loomed up heavily and before I knew it, I was pressed for time, and none the more entertained by the game I had to review. Thankfully as time progressed, the game, and the enjoyment thereof, improved, and I can confidently give this game a good rating. Read my review at www.el33tonline.com if you would like to know more :) I have to point out that my review was mildly edited because it was "too long" (what do THEY know :)), so there's some confusion about who or what Mooch is, which is only rectified halfway through my review - that's not my fault :)

(EDIT: Lisa chatted with me after reading this post, and it turns out she didn't edit anything to do with my content. It must be my old age [evidenced by that recession up top] that's causing me to imagine things. I must have heavily edited it myself in my sleep or something. No harm, no foul. It wasn't modified at all by anyone beyond ME)

A brief backdrop as to how this all started:

Tim Twelves came back for a weekend, and we hooked up for dinner at Le Trouquet. There I bumped into some old friends from UKZN (then UND); two of them were Wayne and Lisa. We started to chat, and I discovered Lisa runs a game review enterprise. We started to chat some more - things were said - and eventually a long road down Oltman won his first competition he entered on el33tonline's website (thanks to me). He was so excited about this he unashamedly wrote a novel to them to thank them for his winnings, and to subtly hint that he is capable of writing reviews. When they subsequently asked him to write reviews, I became a little jealous, and approached them to ask them to hire me, which they did. That's the story (open letter to follow at some point I'm sure).

http://www.el33tonline.com/past_article/2009/10/20/gforce_review/

LOUIS is the man!

Thanks to some feedback from the comments to my previous post (see comment #6), we've now got a little bit extra for you... the reality is, apparently YOU are NOT the man, LOUIS is the man!.

If you don't know who Louis is, then google for "LEFT 4 DEAD" or check out this concept art...

YOU the man!

Words don't need to be used to express this... click below and you'll know what I mean.

That be Oltman...

GAZAZ

Does anyone remember a little (legendary) PC component supplier in Springfield called GAZAZ? If I think back to my childhood, I'm pretty certain that was the first supplier my dad purchased a PC for me from..

Well, guess what, Gazaz is no longer in the IT retail business, and have moved their focus over to something a little less related. They now do lighting and power management supplies, and have dropped out of the PC market altogether!

www.gazaz.co.za isn't updated (yet) so go check it out before it gets updated and you can catch a glimpse of what used to be.

(here's a snippet of their profile on the website)

GAZAZ is now established as one of the largest PC peripheral distribution companies in South Africa. The company has successfully supplied computer dealers for over 18 years. Our signature lines, ProView, Chronos, Apollo, JetWay, ChiMei, A4Tech, DiVoom, Intel and Microsoft, are sold on a national and African international level by some of South Africa's leading retail stores. Our premium products are also available through our extensive dealer networks. GAZAZ has always been devoted to providing its customers with special attention by focusing on their individual services, quality and value requirements. As GAZAZ boldly leads into new frontiers, it remains committed and dedicated to its founding objective of helping people improve their lives through new and real technology. In this fast changing computer industry, our company has continuously satisfied the demands for the latest technology. GAZAZ is well known for its top brand products. Competitive pricing and efficient services in both of our sales and technical division remain as first priority and attribute to our long standing and future success. Our aim is to be a leading distributor, innovator, developer and marketer of computer hardware, peripherals, products and full PC systems, which provide superior value to our customers in meeting their information technology needs and ensuring quality within computer products and providing a fair profit for our shareholders. Born to Lead, Bred to Perform . . . “Computer Excellence”

Management Managing Director: Mr. Dennis Lin General Manager: Jessica jessica@gazaz.co.za Technical Division Byran byran@gazaz.co.za Sean technical@gazaz.co.za Accounts Division Nancy nancy@gazaz.co.za Nikky accounts@gazaz.co.za

Quite something, these Taiwanese IT suppliers!

Not good enough from wayward SRC members

I've just caught wind of a few wrongs that some leaders within the various campuses' SRC bodies, and a public "name and shame" exercise was undertaken, whereby the SRC members responsible (or rather, irresponsible) had to issue a public letter of apology. Following is the contents of that letter, but I have to rant and object to the fact that these people are still even around at all; they should be forced to resign their posts at the very least. This smacks of the style of ANCYL and their unreserved support for Leonard Chuene's lying. Leonard Chuene is still, to this day, the president of ASA. Such rot can't be good for anything, and the sooner the idiots at the top learn to expel the immoral brothers, the better. Remember these names. If they come for a job, don't give them a car, and if they are teaching your kids, move your kids to another class...

To: The University Community
Following our appearance before the Executive Dean’s Tribunal, we hereby write this letter to express our most sincere apologies for conducting ourselves in a manner that is unbecoming of student leaders.
During the July 2009 vacations, while on the Vacation Executive, we had hired a university vehicle for bona fide business purposes. Unfortunately the program we were to attend no longer took place and we then used the vehicle for private purposes to attend a party at the Plush Lounge. The vehicle was then, unfortunately, stolen while parked in the parking area, and it was wrongly initially reported to the University that the vehicle had been hi-jacked.
The university has suffered a financial loss as a result of our actions, and we have also disappointed the students who elected us, as well as the organization that deployed us to the Westville LSRC. Hence, once again, we would like to apologize to all relevant stakeholders and give an assurance that such behavior will never be repeated.
N. Makhombothi (President: Westville LSRC)
M. Mbanjwa (Finance and Projects Officer: Westville LSRC)
M. Mlambo


Apology to the Edgewood Student Community

Following my appearance before the Executive Dean’s Tribunal where I pleaded guilty to charges of unauthorized use of the University vehicle assigned to the ELSRC, I would like to apologize unreservedly for negligently and intentionally misusing the university vehicle. I have committed myself to paying for the 300+ kilometers traveled, as well has having other sanctions imposed on me by the tribunal.
Regards
Thabani Sboniso Majozi
Deputy President E-SRC


To the Edgewood Student Community
Apology
On the 2nd of May 2009 I utilised the University vehicle assigned to the ELSRC for personal purposes, and while doing so the vehicle was damaged in an accident. I subsequently made a false declaration about the accident to the University. I have pleaded guilty before the Executive Dean’s Tribunal, and I have accepted full financial responsibility for the damages, and accept the sanctions placed on me by the tribunal. I wish to emphasis that my unauthorized utilization of the vehicle was personal, and had nothing to do with the political organizations to which I belong. I wish to apologize unreservedly to the Edgewood student community, and to commit myself to not making such a serious error of judgment in future.
Hoping that my apology will be accepted
TC Nkosi
ELSRC President
September 2009

Apology to the Edgewood Student Community

Following my appearance before the Executive Dean’s Tribunal where I pleaded guilty to charges of unauthorized use of the University vehicle assigned to the ELSRC, I would like to apologize unreservedly for negligently and intentionally misusing the university vehicle. I have committed myself to paying for the unauthorized trip, as well has having other sanctions imposed on me by the tribunal.
Mthembu Khayelihle
Secretary-General ELSRC

Google Calendar SMS reminders

This is an appeal rather than anything otherwise meaningful... but it should be considered a meaningful appeal, because it has a purpose!


I don't seem to be getting any GOOGLE CALENDAR SMS reminders any more, and I was wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same problem. My last SMS received to VODACOM was 30 September 2009, so I have a feeling VODACOM has done something, but I need others to verify this so I can figure it out. Please drop a comment if your GOOGLE CALENDAR still works, and what network you're on, and the latest verified SMS?

Zombie Survival Tips

I'm not in a position to divulge precisely why I am suddenly starting to post more tips about zombie survival, lest I cause a general panic. Suffice it to say that I am aware of my responsibility to humanity, and that I am fairly fond of most of my friends and family, and wouldn't really want to have to hatchet your head from the shoulders.

Anyway, I digress.

I feel it is my duty to do as much as I can for as many as I can before the day arrives, and as outbreak coordinator and survival commander-in-chief for this side of the Umgeni River, I intend to have the largest survival taskforce working under my leadership. After all, I've met the sort of "Zombologists" preparing for the outbreak, and trust me when I say that when that day comes, it's only going to be a matter of time before most other divisions will suffer the trials of a full-blown apocalyptic battle for survival.

The key to surviving the Zombie Apocalypse is mental preparation. My statistical analysis of the kinds of mental stresses and anxiety caused by a sudden realisation that the world is actually crumbling and fast closing in on you and you have no way out, suggests that 4 in 5 survivors will succumb to Zombie Apocalypse Stress Related Psychotic Disorder (ZASRPD), and either eat their own dog, or go on a psycopathic survival quest and kill anything else that moves.

However, I digress.

The key to this post is to make sure you are all mentally prepared. How do you begin this process? You think like a survivor.

What you need to do is the next time you're waiting in a shopping queue, look around. Check out your surroundings. Say to yourself "if there was an outbreak right here, right now, where would I go to?". Follow this question on with related questions, such as "if my buddy here was slowing me down, would I have time to wait for him to get to safety, or should I trip him up now to slow down the horde?" It's a tough question to ask, but the reality is, in the heat of the outbreak, you may just have to do it.

There, that's the real key to this post - although my advice to notice your surroundings is a key aspect of survival, the lesson today is not so much hanging on the process of ascertaining your surroundings and how you'd escape, but most importantly, to make you realise that to survive in a Zombie Apocalypse, you're going to need to make sacrifices. If you've got a buddy that's been bitten, or someone who's twisted an ankle, if it goes down to a foot race between you, your buddy, and a horde of hungry KFC-employee-turned-zombies, you're going to need to ditch your friend and feed him to the Colonel. If you aren't prepared to do this, then trust me when I say there's going to be a KFC Zombie Survivor Cheese Twister with extra hashbrown, and we all know no-one likes hashbrown in their Twisters...

(you're the hashbrown, you idiot... if you didn't understand my KFC analogy then you're as good as dead and you're going to be the one that gets ditched, so accept it now and eat your dog)

Behold, the potato baby!

At this rate I'm going to need to have a label just for "unfortunate / awkward names"...

XBOX Live and splitscreen

We've got this thing called XBOX Live, and we've got this thing called splitscreen. Some of us even have this thing called Left4Dead. All of these things work great when you merge them with this thing called an XBOX360. I believe for now I have discovered a very underrated formula that sums up the meaning of the grand total of these things:

XBOX360 + SPLITSCREEN + LEFT4DEAD + LIVE= HAPPINESS.

One confounder to this fairly simple equation is the advent of GOLD memberships, and how they suck the $$ out of any couple's finances. Although I am stating the obvious (obviously), I'll explain what I mean, specifically...


You see, when Kat and I want to play splitscreen co-op with our buddies over XBOX LIVE, then we need a headset for optimal results. The problem is, only GOLD membership allows the use of a headset in a PARTY, so that means when we play, I hear Slimonavitch and Oltman barking orders and screaming for help, and I have to relay these messages over to Brattex(1), sometimes in the heat of battle. Sometimes, even Brattex(1) needs to relay a message to one of them, while I'm in the heat of battle, and it becomes quite distressing for me to play messenger of messages, messenger of God, rescuer of downed survivors, and overall survivor saviour. It's become quite frustrating at times, that Slimonavitch has even considered buying another GOLD account just so we can overcome this, but that leads me onto my next problem; we'd still need another headset.

We've tested out a NOKIA headset, since it has the 2.5mm jack and 3 comms rings on it (stereo+mic), but for some reason, which I suspect is the mute button, it won't work on the controller. We thought we could at least hook up a stereo headset, and share one earpiece each, so my splitscreen buddy could at the very least hear the instructions - no dice so far though.

Then Slimonavitch - in all of his novice glory - figured out that if one goes to CONSOLE SETTINGS and selects PREFERENCES, there's an option under AUDIO that says output audio to HEADSET, SCREEN, or BOTH. Voila! Now at least we can survive (in the meantime) with one headset and we can have some degree of easier communication for Brattex(1) to hear what the other teammates "over yonder" are saying via the TV!

VMware conversion error: Error: Unable to obtain the IP address of the target virtual machine running the Converter helper server.

While running VMware converter, one may encounter this error;

Error: Unable to obtain the IP address of the target virtual machine running the Converter helper server.

For those who may not know how to fix it, it's really easy (and I feel a little ashamed that I have to post the solution here, but who knows, someone may need the help, so step forward my young Padawan, and pay attention)...

A quick google takes us to this page; inside is a handy little tip -

Helper virtual machine

Source computer

22

The helper virtual machine must be able to establish an SSH connection with the source computer. By default the helper virtual machine gets its IP address assigned by DHCP. If there is no DHCP server available on the network chosen for the target virtual machine you must manually assign it an IP address.

So all one has to do is specify an IP for the Helper VM, which can be done in one of the pages through the configuration process of starting the CONVERSION TASK.

Google Chrome offline download

This is a brief update for a useful pointer for those that didn't know.

You can download and install Google Chrome via a "standalone" / "offline" install file, located here.

Enjoy!

Google Gadgets for BLOGGER - Discussion Box

Good morning class of 2009, and happy Oktober Day to you all (in my mind it's spelt with a "k" and it's a special day, okay?)!

Today begins the first of a series of Google Gadget reviews for weblogs (AKA 'blogs).
The first topic to discuss is a "Discussion Box" gadget that I pulled out from here.

(NOTE: for a comprehensive list of all the Google Gadgets I've reviewed so far, check out http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tuj6iooM7UX6iJax1ZEcUyw&output=html.


This little gadget promises quite a lot; a discussion box that gets placed on your main blog page kind of like a rolling commentary of, well, comments. There's no anonymous posting, so you don't get horridable trolls making stupid remarks, but I don't see any way of controlling or managing general Google ID's from joining in, which poses a slightly potential security risk.

I have to say, I give this gadget a thumb's down, purely because it can work quite great for what I need, but it can also just not work AT ALL, and the erratic nature of the reliability makes it an unwanted gadget :(.

When it works, it looks kind of like this (in fact, JUST LIKE THIS):















BUT when it doesn't work, it looks kind of like this (in fact, JUST LIKE THIS):














I have to point out, the working screenshot is from a FIREFOX browser which is signed into GOOGLE, and the fail screenshot is from an IE7 browser which is also signed into GOOGLE.

If you can get it to work CONSISTENTLY without that traceback error, give me a shout. As it stands, this has to get a thumb's down.