Wizardgold

Busy time here but I managed to record a podcast. I would have done it with video for the Wizardgold News but went with audio because I started to record after the light was gone and I don’t like the image you get when working with lights rather than natural light. Although if I was to use my video camera rather than the iSight camera I could have made some adjustments I suppose. Then again there are video adjustments possible in iMovie also.

Any way the upshot is that I did it in audio only. I recorded and turned it into a podcast in Amadeus again. The second podcast all done in Amadeus and I like it. Slight different way of working that’s all.

I talk about using a service called Knowem to be able to quickly see where I have my user name out there. It checks about 120 sites and I can then click on to sign up at the various sites. Basically it is to profect my user name and identity so that no one else can register Wizardgold and use it nefariously. I see there will be a Facebook name thing happening this weekend also. Will you be getting your name registered. Will there be people doing bad things to try a bit of Facebook cyber squatting, I wonder.

In the podcast I give a bit of news about the 20 Questions sites. If you would like to be featured in a podcast talking about whatever you fancy or more specific with thePhoto20Q, Video20Q, Writers20Q, then contact me using the form below. Lets talk !!

With the new 2.8 WordPress, last night I updated most of my sites. Only with one of them do I have a problem.  The text is not showing up in the posts on the site yet are still there in the database. I have exported out the posts also to keep them safe while I do what I have to to sort the problem out. Weird that it only messed up on one of my sites.

As I say in the podcast there will be no Round table meeting this evening. Mostly because of the fact I am working until 10pm and the rest is due to it seeming that it has all been done in the other podcasts. I listened to IMP, Mac OSKen and MacBreak Weekly and Vexed Tech podcasts and there is not much more to say. So I will stick to the Mac 20 Questions style of podcast which is about real users using the computer for real.

I ordered a MacBook and it will have to go to my brothers’ address in Newcastle because I want it with an English Keyboard.

Apple will not send it to my address here in Spain because it is a refurbished model.

If I go to the Spanish site it will come with a Spanish Keyboard and will be 100 Euro more expensive. Total pain in the arse and I did ring up Apple to ask if there was a way around this problem but no chance.

Apple said I could get the Spanish one then pay to have the keyboard changed to an English one at a local reseller. Who knows what that would cost on top of the already more expensive price for the same model.

I did look at the possibility of getting a new non refurbished model but that would have added about €200 on the price.

The refurbished models are great value, about 16% saving and will be totally pawed over by the Apple technicians to make sure that it is in good order. Could be better than buying one of the assemble line as it will have had extra checking.

When I got it this morning it had the older version of the operating system on it and I wondered why I could not load three apps on to it. There was a couple of hundred of mb’s to download to upgrade to the latest version – 2.1 and all went well after that.

I did manage to make it freeze up by trying to do a couple of things with it. I was listening to a podcast and wanted to try out the GPS. Took me about half an hour or more to work out how to get it right again.

Still want to use the Fring app to make a Skype call or better still make a VOIP call for free by using the wifi connection and not have it be a mobile call. Didn’t work when I tried this evening but that could be that the person I tried to call was out or something. Try again tomorrow.

I have to say I am totally besotted with the iPhone. I had read a good bit about the super phone but actually playing with one that belongs to you and trying things out really makes it hit home. It really is an excellent phone. Worth even changing to Telefonica to be able to get one.

I have it connected up to Mobile Me so that I get my emails directly on the phone. That works great and I have been twittering with it also. I expect I will hit the data limit with the plan I have fairly quickly during the month.

When I tried out the GPS program later it worked really well pinpointing when I am exactly on the map. I can see that being really useful when going places. I will be in Birmingham later this week. The place has changed a lot since I lived in the area. I hardly remember some of the street names anymore. I will not be using Google Earth for the iPhone anyway as I have heard it crashes the phone too much.

Tomorrow it is nose back to the grind stone so that I can get making some interviews and recordings for the BravaChat web site. I need to get more Spondicious and Wizardgold podcasts completed also.

I started work at 8am and it was going well enough until the guy working with me got himself sacked for stupidity. Easy done – making silly mistakes and getting caught out. So when I was supposed to have 2 hours for lunch I only got 1 hour and that was not enough.

I was able to see online that there was information on the Movistar site about the 3G iPhone but no chance to do anything about it. I would have liked to get inside a shop and see if there were any iPhones in the shop. Managed to get home 7pm after 10 hours of working during the day and I am fit for nothing. I considered looking in a shop on the way home but tiredness had set in and due to the traffic at that time plust it being Friday when all of Girona and Barcelona descend upon the town, I have no wish to find the nearest iPhone shop. I think it may have to wait until Monday.

Mind you that depends on whether I can get away with us being one man down at the camp site in the reception

Other news today dissapointed me was the discontinuation of my favourite Betfair betting software BinarySoft BDI. Excellent software and great for trading. I was thinking about getting a subscription to it at the start of the Premiership. No chance of that now.

The iMac was due to be dispatched yesterday and according to the email I got in the morning from Apple it did leave the factory on the day it was supposed to leave. There is a facility in the order to follow its progress and I will be doing that on a daily basis. The carriers report back to say where the parcel is when it arrives somewhere new.

Last time I got something from Apple it came to me via Holland then Barcelona. I will be getting excited when I see Barcelona on the tracking because it is only a hop skip and a jump away by then.

The older iMac will be going to a good home with my son. He needs a Mac for his art work for college next year. He wants to be doing Flash animations plus photoshop and Illustrator work, the iMac will be just the job for him.

Looking good so far. Didn’t take too long to make the upgrade, just over an hour and I have a shiny new machine. I like the look of the Cover flow view in Finder.

At the moment I m copying back the previous installed applications back in off the back up drive. Apple do have a thing called migration assistant which I may have to use if this method doesn’t work. The first application i dragged and dropped back in to the new Leopard installation worked al right. I will have to see how it goes with applications that have a password or maybe a special set up. Will be interesting to see that with SuperDuper which I bought this morning so that I could have do a good back up for me.

Talking about back up I am really looking forward to using Time Machine in Leopard.

Oh I took advantage of .Mac and the free 60 days available to try it out. The Back to My Mac feature could be very useful. Seeing as I have multiple Mac computers there are syncronisation benefits with having the use of .Mac. I will give it a good try out for the next 60 days