I don’t really feel I can add anything to that title.
Just to pass you on to the BBC website to read more.
Nick just pointed me towards a site named Ajaxload which is really useful for generating loading icons while waiting for things like AJAX content to load into a page. You select the type of spinning “loading” symbol you want and set the colours and it generates all the code for you. Have a play.
If you haven’t heard about Grand Central (I hadn’t) it is a telecommunications service bought out by Google last year which basically helps you manage your phone calls. The basic idea is that you register with Grand Central and you get one phone number that you can give out and you never need to give out another.
So for example, and to be honest I am somewhat just guessing based on what I have read, but you get a number from Grand Central and give that out. Then when you get a new phone and end up with a whole new number (because for some reason most people don’t port their numbers like us sensible people do) they just put their new number into Grand Central and people and because everyone else uses their Grand Central number they won’t know a difference.
Notably this would be really useful for me though as currently I have two phones, one on Vodaphone and one on o2. This is ok but it means I have to have two numbers which means distributing two numbers. Using Grand Central I could give out my new number and when someone called it it would ring both my phones.
It also offers a number of other cool features including listening in to voicemail being recorded, recording of calls (both parties are notified to comply with privacy laws), voicemail notifications by email, have different callers put through to different phones and the ability to switch phones in the middle of call (battery running out - switch to your landline).
It’s currently in beta and only available in the United States but looks very interesting. Have a read on their website if you want to know more.
Because I don’t really feel I have linked it enough, I’ve posted a calendar of all the graduation and end of year events connected with The Circle so that everyone knows what is going on. Which is something almost every night and when there isn’t something on that will probably mean we’re just in The Old Bar. Anyway, you can find the calendar here.
Having been reading the debate regarding Jason Calacanis’ post how to save money running a startup I feel I should step up the mark and take on my usual roll as devil’s advocate.
The first point I would note is that many of the critical responses to Jason are just plain harsh. They seem more like attacks than criticisms.
More overly though, I agree with a lot of what Jason has to say. The fact is, you do need the people in a startup to work really hard. Whether this is a case of hiring the right people in the first place or getting rid of them when they don’t work hard seems to be irrelevant. Have you seen the failure rates of startups?
Other criticisms seem to be just in denial about the world. Stilgherrian writes that Jason is basically suggesting we should “hold meetings at lunchtime so people never get a mental break from work.” Let’s not pretend most companies don’t do this because most of them do in some form. Work at any office job and chances are you will end up eating lunch at your desk because the company wants you to so you will be thinking about your work all lunch time. It happens at The D too, get this, managers on a night (because there is only one of them) can’t clock out and go off and have a break because there has to be a first aider on shift. So they have to eat their break food in the office. Point is, its nothing new for people to be encouraged to be work focused on their breaks.
I would also dispute the point that the workaholic lifestyle can’t be maintained. I am fully aware there are many arguments to say I don’t work as much as it would seem (uni holidays are long, some work doesn’t really count as work, etc) but I generally do something like a 50-60 hour week and I work every day. Even if you don’t count that, I was working every day over summer doing a real job if you don’t wish to count a full time degree and again that was doing 50-60+ hour weeks and going weeks on end without a day off. I’m still here, I haven’t exploded yet. Why? Because I love a lot of what I do.
Allen Stern seems a bit more supportive but some of the comments seem a little naive to me. Duel screens are like cellphones and dishwashers. You get along fine without them until you actually try them, then you can never go back. Well worth it. Flexible hours is also incredibly important. We geeks, as a people, are not known for our 9-5 lifestyles.
Congratulations to Si who has just being accepted onto my blog roll. His ramblings have been offering some fresh content to my Netvibes on a reasonably regular basis which seems to be somewhat of a rarity these days. On saying that most people have posted within the past week or so. I might do a little pruning of those who havent.
I was Googling the spelling of necessary to make sure I had got it right when the top result of the search caught my eye. It was an article on Forbes entitled is sex necessary? It makes the case that sex is important in your overall health.
Benefits include a reduce risk of heart disease, weight loss, improved fitness, reduced depression and less frequent colds and flu.
Remember how we were repeatedly told Google doesn’t translate results for you?
Maybe it happens by magic? 
I was reading a topic on Cozy Campus (an adult webmaster forum) earlier today about the gossip blog PerezHilton.com.
Standard ad (150×200):
One week: $9,000
One month: $30,000Hi rise (150×600)
One week: $16,000
One month: $44.000And before you say, “Yeah, but how many of those ads is he selling at those prices?”, take a look at his site and count them.
I count 15 standard size ads and 5 hi rise.
That’s over half a million dollars a month. I always said there was qood money in gossip blogs.
I got watching The Four Horsemen to which Rich posted the link on the Atheist Society Facebook group which consists of a roundtable between Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett (how amazing is that!) which is well worth a watch to get an insight into the minds of these people.
One of the questions they asked I thought was particularly interesting, the issue of whether as atheists we actually can make a difference.
There is often a general feeling within the community that we can’t, that we are never going to manage to convince anyone to give up superstitious beliefs. I disagree with this attitude though, it has always felt to me like if that is what we honestly believe then we are really just wasting our time. Luckily, I don’t feel like this.
As Dawkins says, he runs into people all the time who have seen the light after having seen one of Dawkins’ lectures or reading one of his books. People who until this point fully believed their faith have it shaken and give it up to rationality and science.
Of course, at least for the moment, I don’t have the reach of someone like Dawkins and Hitchens but I’m sure this demonstraits the principles and indeed I see it working at the local level too. While I’ve yet to have one of the Christian Union come up to me and say “wow, you’re right, this whole faith thing is just silly” (to be clear we haven’t lost a member either ;)), I have a small list of people forming of reformed fence sitters now proclaiming the lack of a god thanks to my evangelism.
Dawkins puts it right when he says there is a huge pool of people who haven’t really made up your mind yet who can be shown the light. And I’m not just talking about people who describe themselves as agnostics, indeed I probably don’t include these people - I leave them for Gijsbert’s preaching. But people who describe themselves as beliving in god without really doing much about it - the 75% of whatever of people who put Christian down on their census form really are still up for grabs.
And just remember - it’s a million points if you convert Carl ;).