The Relentless Stream of Consciousness » updates and info

Excessive travel

Guy — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:46:37 +0000

Just a quick post to note that I won’t be able to blog over the next few weeks. I’m just back from a business trip to Weybridge, then I’m off to Kiev on business all next week, then a week in Mallorca for my first proper holiday of year, then a few days in Ibiza spending all my money on overpriced booze and overpriced clubs! *Phew* Wish me luck in not collapsing from exhaustion, and assuming I’m not asleep for the whole of next month I’ll be back to blogging once I’m back in early September. In the meantime, follow what I’m up to on Twitter and see where in the world I am on Dopplr.

Guy

Gmail contacts update

Guy — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:18:02 +0000

Gmail has finally updated its contacts manager so that users can stop it from automatically adding every address they e-mail to their contacts list. I actually really like the way they’ve done it, by adding recently and most frequently e-mailed lists, addresses from which can then be easily transferred to contacts. It’s a long-overdue fix to the annoying behaviour of a supposedly “helpful feature”. For more info, see the Gmail Blog, here.

Anyway, now that my contacts aren’t going to end up overloaded with randoms, and in the interests of integration between e-mail and IM, I’m going to start using my Gmail address (guy.rintoul@gmail.com) for Google Talk, although I’ll still use im@guyrintoul.com for MSN. Please update your GTalk contact lists as required. My full contact details can be found here.

BarCamp review soon

Guy — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:47:28 +0000

Better late than never, I’m back to blogging after going to BarCampLondon4 at the weekend. Somewhat ironic that I was possibly surrounded by the highest concentration of laptops in the world, and yet I’ve only just got round to writing this Anyway, in a nutshell, I had a great time - met lots of really interesting people and attended some fascinating talks and discussions. If you’re interested, look out for a full review on Friday morning - I’m off to Scotland for RockNess, and (assuming I stay awake) the train journey seems like a good time to sit down and write it

Lifestream and BarCamp

Guy — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:16:09 +0000

Just a couple of quick things I wanted to post.

First off, I’ve edited my About page recently so that it now includes a lifestream. This means that not only does it list my profiles around the Internet, but also aggregates information about what I’ve been doing on all of them onto one page. Check it out here if you fancy stalking me

And second, hot on the heels of BarCampNorthEast last weekend, I’m off to BarCampLondon4 tomorrow (can’t wait!). While I’d like to blog from there, my laptop’s from the prehistoric age and about as portable as a large lump of concrete. If you want to know what I’m up to, follow me on Twitter - or, indeed, the aforementioned sparkly new lifestream. Slides (subject: “The Geography of Technology”) will be posted sometime next week.

That’s it for the moment. Ciao!

Upgrading Wordpress

Guy — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:06:19 +0000

I’m in the process of upgrading Wordpress (the software that powers this blog) along with all the plugins and customisations that I use on here. As a result, there may be some glitches or creases I need to iron out over the next day or two. If you do spot anything out of the ordinary, please let me know

First impressions of WP 2.5 for anyone interested - not sure I like the new interface, which feels a bit clumsy compared to the old one. However, the ability to automatically upgrade my plugins is a lifesaver, considering I have about 30 installed which I had to manually update one-by-one up till now.

Guy

Update: OK, so ignore the thing about the interface being clumsy. Firefox was clearly having an off moment, and now that it’s rendering the interface properly it is *sweet*

Re-blogging

Guy — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 10:35:57 +0000

After much delay, I’m going to start blogging again. Really, I am What with one thing and another I somehow fell out of the way of it, but I’m going to make a concerted effort to make sure I keep it going this time. Just a quick disclaimer, though: my posts might be slightly fewer and further between than previously, as I now have a day job rather than sitting around all day - er - “studying”

Guy

I’m alive!

Guy — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:05:54 +0000

No, really, I am… although you could have been forgiven for thinking otherwise, considering I’ve not written on here for over two months

Since moving to Newcastle to start my new job I’ve not had a chance to blog much, what with work, being out more in the evenings (I go rock climbing now!) and having to use my friend’s PC because mine kinda died. I’m hopefully getting a new computer (shiny shiny MacBook) next month, and once I do I’ll endeavour to start posting regularly again

Until then, why not follow my thoughts on my Twitter?

Guy

Busy, busy!

Guy — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 22:51:07 +0000

Sorry I’ve still not blogged anything since I got the site up and running. I’ve been busy getting stuff ready for the next couple of weeks, as I’m off on holiday with my mate this week, then moving to Newcastle to start my new job straight after. All of this means that I won’t be blogging for a wee while longer, but bear with me and I’ll be back on here as soon as I can

Guy

Blog’s back

Guy — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:22:27 +0000

It may be a week overdue, but I finally got round to finishing the changes I wanted to make, so the site’s back up and running. Over the last week, I’ve made tonnes of minor changes to the code that should hopefully make it just that bit nicer to use, including adding Lightbox functionality to images

People who use a feed reader to view this blog should note that due to changes in the code and content structure, some old posts may show as updated or new in your software. Apologies for any confusion this causes - as I start posting again, this problem will go away.

Guy

Five day party!

Guy — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:30:11 +0000

As the title suggests, you shouldn’t expect any posts on here for at least the next five days as I’m off to a party at my mate’s house. Chilling, drinking copious quantities of beer, going out, playing paintball, trampolining and driving around the Yorkshire Moors on an old London Routemaster bus are all on the agenda Though, not all at once… Can’t wait!

The timing fits in quite well really, as next week I’m planning to take the site down for maintenance for a couple of days to make lots of changes. Why not use the next few days to catch up on anything you’ve not yet looked at? I’ll be back up and running about halfway through next week.

Guy

P.S. If you want to follow the party shinanagons, check my Twitter feed. My current status is now also displayed at the top of each page on my site.

The unintentional hiatus

Guy — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 02:27:21 +0000

For some reason known only to fate, the laws of nature, my drinking habits, an excess of lethargy and my slacker tendencies, I haven’t posted on here for weeks. This post is mainly to apologise for this, but also to ensure that I get round to posting tomorrow lest I expose to all three of my readers that I have no willpower even when I’ve committed it to [online, blog-like] paper.

Watch this space for the ~~best bits~~ “best bits” of the last fortnight.

Guy

Update: Having just posted a story about 3D Mailbox, one of the worst ideas ever, I figured “best bits” needed to be in inverted commas

Mallorca and my degree

Guy — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 22:39:34 +0000

I got back from Mallorca yesterday after a great week chilling out, diving, drinking and just having a laugh with my friends. However, I spent the whole week slightly worried because my exam results were due to come out the day before I came home and I really thought I’d totally screwed up my exams. In the end, I decided not to get anyone to text me my results because I didn’t want it to stop me having a good time. Turns out, I didn’t need to worry - the suspense got to me and I checked my e-mail on the tarmac at Edinburgh airport on the way home, and to my shock and surprise (not to mention happiness) I got a 2:1. So, all in all, a very good week

Guy

On holiday

Guy — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 11:33:53 +0000

Just a quick post to say that I’m away on holiday to Mallorca for the next week, so I won’t be blogging until 6 July at the earliest. I have quite a few interesting articles I’ve found this morning but I don’t have time to blog them right now, so watch this space next week.

Guy

iTunes rental call

Guy — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 01:49:35 +0000

I had my call played on CNET’s Buzz Out Loud podcast today, which excited me no end because I’m a total geek. It has, however, served to emphasise that I hate hearing recordings of my own voice. Anyway, my point was this: Apple are rumoured to be planning a movie rental store, which would require modifications to the FairPlay DRM allowing files to expire after 30 days. While Steve Jobs has so far strenuously resisted the idea of a music subscription service, if Apple are willing to consider a movie rental service what’s to stop them doing the same with music in the future?

BOL episode 493 is here, with my call around ¾ of the way in.

I’m back!

Guy — Thu, 31 May 2007 19:05:18 +0000

Over the last few weeks when I’ve supposedly been on an Internet ban, I’ve nonetheless managed to bookmark quite a few interesting things. Yes, my ethernet cable did migrate back into my room. Anyway, I’m going to post anything that’s still relevant over the next couple of days so prepare for a deluge of stuff

Guy

Self-imposed Internet ban

Guy — Sat, 12 May 2007 19:03:07 +0000

Don’t expect any posts for the next fortnight or so. My finals are about to start and I have no willpower, so my ethernet cable will be living in a friend’s room until she deems I can have it back. I will, however, have limited e-mail access via the Gmail Java app on my phone.

Am I addicted to the Net? I think I may possibly be…

Guy

Finals Fear

Guy — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 18:25:21 +0000

About 17 minutes ago, Finals Fear kicked in big-time. My finals are in about 5 weeks, and I still have tonnes of work to do for them so this is just a quick note to say that my blog’s going on holiday for a wee while. I might post intermittently but don’t expect regular words of wisdom again until the end of May. Please feel free to carry on commenting, though, and I’ll reply when I have time.

Guy

P.S. Keep me in your RSS feeds… I’ll be back

Joined Jaiku

Guy — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 17:39:30 +0000

Just a quick post to say I now have a Jaiku profile. It’s basically a Twitter-style status service, but with RSS import facilities. I now have one stream which includes updates from everywhere - my blog posts, Facebook and Twitter statuses, Flickr photos, del.icio.us bookmarks, Upcoming events, Last.fm music, and recent YouTube favourites. There’s even an RSS feed so it’s easy if anyone wants to follow everything I do. Take a look

My Jaiku profile is here, and the RSS feed is here.

Away in Tunisia

Guy — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:36:24 +0000

Just a short post to say that I won’t be blogging till 22 March at the earliest, as I’m off to Tunisia for a Geography fieldtrip. I would blog from there, except (a) that’d be a bit obsessive, sad and anti-social, (b) I’ll be on the northern fringe of the Sahara in the middle of nowhere, and (c) if I did somehow have access to the Internet, I’d probably not be able to read half the sites I normally do because Tunisia has a terrible record of oppressing the Internet (more on that when I come back to the UK).

Guy

I’m a geek

Guy — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:14:01 +0000

You know you’re a geek when you dream that you’re in an episode of Buffy then Vampire Slayer. I can’t remember much, but I do remember that a monster (disguised as a blonde woman) kept turning Willow into a chicken’s egg. And then Willow kept hatching out of the egg as a frog, which I suppose means she was hatching out of herself. Weird. What made it especially geeky, however (aside from the fact I dreamt about a Buffy episode) was that the monster travelled around via RDF feeds (none of this RSS or ATOM nonsense) and predicted the future using the Internet.

Does anyone know a good shrink?