Recently, I posted on my new toy, the Nokia N95 8GB edition. One might think, given that I’ve had it for 3 days now, that I’d have worked out everything about the phone there is to no, and would have subesequently become bored and moved onto desiring a new toy, like a new Apple Macbook Pro… or a rabbit shaped vibrator. But this is not the case, as I’d have to say every single time I’ve picked up the phone, it’s surprised me with some new (as yet, not found) feature or a faster/better way of doing something.

But you might say it’s just a phone, its not a PDA, and it doesn’t look quite as funky as the iPhone, but it really, just, works! No, its not just a phone, its:

• connected, through constant high speed access to the internet via wireless/3G network;
• for web browsing, email, RSS, social networking; and
• constant voip/skype connectivity for next to free international phone calls
• got an inbuilt GPS with Google/Garmin/Tomtom maps support
• a fantastic camera/video camera for day to day use, which stands up against most of the cheaper consumer modelled digital cameras
• a worthy media player for playing both 3gp/mpeg4’s and divx/mp3 and pretty much anythign else you can throw at it.
• also, all those other things you’d expect from a similar unit. A phone, calendar, address book.

As you can see, for the time being, I like this machine a little bit too much, and I hope things stay that way. Last night I was sitting on the Reading express train, frantic as I’d forgotten to pick up a paper or two at Waterloo station I was worried about how I would fill the next 20 minutes of my life. By the time I’d reached home, I’d updated my Facebook profile, uploaded a few photos taken earlier in the day, read most of the news articles I’d missed in the free tabloids, and watched the better part of the new American Dad episode.

I thought I’d end this by writing a quick list of the best applications I’ve found to date to make the N95 experience even better. Behold, in no particular order:

• 
• truphone - A VOIP/telephone app
• This app literally blew me away. As long as I’ve got internet connectivity (either through a Wireless LAN, or my phone providers 3G network), I can make and recieve phone calls to pretty much any where in the world (yes, Australian mobiles too) for free. I’ve long been used to calling friends and family via Vonage or Skype at home due to the sometimes prohibitive cost of calling an Australian mobile via land line, this is all that, and more from a device you carry on you at all times.

• Mobile Gmaps & Google Maps Mobile
• Just like Google Maps, or Google Earth, with the added benefit of GPS tracking through the phoones GPS. MGMaps is (I believe) a joint project between Microsoft, Yahoo and Google to provide extensive maps/satellite images to the mobile platform, so its definitely the better of the two.

• 
• Opera Mobile Browser
• Yes, the same web browser, which I used for a quite a while before the eventual migration to Firefox permanance (word?!), it definitely seems to out perform the standard web browser speed wise, though its not quite as streamlined, look and feel wise.

• 
• Gmail Mobile
• In all fairness I should probably group google maps altogether, as they’re always fantastic. But this a functioning, fast client for the Gmail mail service

And really, the list could go on forever. But a few more things to check out are:

• TaskSpy - A task/process list with memory/CPU information and the ability to kill processes
• YBrowser - A file browser, text viewer, unzipper to access all areas of the phones storage
• Accelerometer plugin - Plugin to access the phones inbuilt accelerometer (read: Wiimote ninja style)
• rotateMe - An app for auto changing between landscape and portrait depending on the angle the phone is held at (requires Accelerometer)
• FlipSilent - Flip the phone to silence an incoming call, flip it back again to turn volume on again (requires Accelerometer)
• ActivityMonitor - A Pedometer to record steps and exercise activity for the health buff (requires Accelerometer)
• SportsTracker - Same as above with GPS support for distance/mapping calculations
• RSSWorld - An RSS Feed Grabber
• putty - The same SSH Client
• Windows Live Messenger - Enough said

I got my new phone the other day, its a Nokia N95, the new one, that comes in black, because everyone knows, “Once you go black, you never go back”… Or so a lewd popup that came up when I searched for that picture would have me believe.

It’s not exactly new news, as the original version (the silver one) has been out on the market for at least a couple of years now. But there’s been some good fixes added to the new one that made the wait worth it (I’ve been waiting since about September last year). These are mainly related to the battery life, which apparently lasted less than a day of normal use, mines good for 24-36 hours of fairly heavy use so far.

Anythings an upgrade from the entry level £20 Prepaid mobile I’ve had since I arrived in the Ukey, but there are some big plus’s that make it worthwhile. Probably the main one of these is the camera in the phone, a 5MP beast which performs quite well, especially when compared to any camera phone I’ve seen before it. These photos were taken with the phone:

No complaints there! This is great as previously I’ve almost always gone out with a camera, phone and whatever else is required for that particular outing, now all I need (for most occasions) is the phone.

Hey Everyone,

Another pointless milestone, last night HD911 tipped over 2,000 users since the start of october, which means we’re getting just over 500 hits a month.  Ooooh.. Eeeee.  Amazing stuff.

Not since Weebl.com’s Badger, Badger, Lions and Tigers (only in Kenya) or the excellent dub of All your Base are Belong to us have I seen an internet phenomenon sweep as far, or as wide so quickly as Two Girls, One Cup (2Girls1Cup). Unfortunately for reasons beyond my control, I’m unable to link to the actual spectacle as it goes against the extremely high mora standard that HD911 has tried to stick to since its inception, however a quick google search will yeild results in seconds. I must say, it is most definitely NSFW (Not Safe for Work), and NSFSC (Not safe for Stomach Contents), nor is it in anyway cool, but its worth seeing none the less.. Neither I, nor the other managers (and there are hundreds of them) here at HD911 endorse or take any responsibilty by damage (mostly vomit) caused during the watching of this fantastic clip.

But this isn’t my point, the video in question is old news, it came, shocked and left endless destruction, similar to the Asian Tsunamis of December 2005. Well sort of anyway, but I know better to suggest on a world scale they’re anywhere near as important for that would be a sensationilst, unfathomed and utterly false statement, but it was great none the less.

This school report (faked or not, I don’t know) came to my attention recently, and even days after reading it for the first time I’m still in fits of laughter. It’s not gross or disturbing in anyway, just a critical review (in a true film review style). I challenge everyone to read it, and if you don’t find it as funny as I did, then I owe you a Mars Bar or something. I’ve linked straight from Halogrid forums for these partly because they also provide a great insight into this wonderous beast, and mostly because I’m just plain lazy.

Update: I’ll host them myself, damn forums.

Yes, its that time of year again, not Thanksgiving, or Christmas, but then time when Armin Van Buuren fans from accross the globe make their vote heard, for the final show down. ArminVanBuuren.net is once again hosting the voting poll for the best tracks of 2007, in the lead up to the XXL end of year mix that is sure to once again bring joy to the new year.

All you have to do is jump on the website and pick the five tracks that you liked the most from this years A State of Trance radio mixes and then Armin plays a mega mix of the favourites.I won’t spill my vote (apart form the obvious - Das Berlin - Til’ the Sky Falls Down), but its always good to get a good mix of the best songs, and not the annoying favourites that are stuck in everyones head as of the last two months or so, so jump on and vote.

Voting closes sometime mid December so be (relatively) quick. And I might see someone, anyone?! at Turnmills in London on December 21st when the man himself plays.

Update (28/11): I was thinking today I should provide some suggestions to the undecided, so here they are:

• Ronski Speed (feat Julie Scott) - Love all the Pain Away
• Solar Stone - Seven Cities
• John O’Callaghan featuring Audrey Gallagher - Big Sky (Agnelli & Nelson Remix)
• Jose Amnesia feat. Jennifer Rene - Wouldn’t change a thing (Original mix)
• Cerf, Mitiska and Jaren - Saved Again (3rd Moon remix)
  
• Armin van Buuren pres. Perpetuous Dreamer - The Sound of Goodbye (Simon & Shaker remix)
• 4 Strings - Catch a Fall
• Agnelli & Nelson - Sleeping at Airports
• Forerunners - Lifecycle

…. To name a few!

Just a quick one tonight, but I’ve been considering expanding on my blogging at HD911 by starting a new blog with just work, career and tech stuff to go along with my recent push toward doing more personal work to try and build a name for myself. Obviously, I can’t let anything happen to Curious Perversions in the UK, what with the rave reviews from the BBC’s Mashed, Independant reader reviews at wordpress.com and the recent surge in activity and traffic from Digg, so I’ll endeavour to keep this level of brain fart up and possibly improve on both the quality and frequency of future posts.

Obviously, the idea with this is to seperate the serious content from the joke/satire/bulls**t, we’ll see how it turns out eventually anyway..

I’m not a trainspotter by any stretch of the imagination, but I have a weird admiration of trains and all things transport. Same goes for cars, buses, boats and planes, its something that I find interesting whether reading about transport history, or about the newest fastest plane, train or mag-lev, or simply watching Top Gear or Fifth Gear on the televisision. But recently I’ve been watching a different kind of traffic. Something far more boring, and about as eventful as a small country town, and that’s the web traffic graph for this site.

You may remember a week or so ago I wrote a few thoughts about the release of the new version of Ubuntu, due to which I was riding a tidal wave of visits (in comparison to the previous time this blog has been open) for a number of days totalling over 400 page hits in 5 days (almost half the total hits since I moved the site to this new domain). Don’t laugh! This is good for HD911, any self respecting site probably gets this figure within an hour, or the likes of google whom I imagine hits this figure every nth of a nanosecond.

 Dismal Beginnings

Since the Ubuntu boom of late October things have dwindled completely, to a point where I’m averaging less than 20 hits a day now. Yes, like the impending recession after the mining boom, or the transport slump in the U.S since September 11 (why I can even attempt to compare this, I don’t know), my webgraph looks a lot like the recent stock performance of Northern Rock bank after their recent credit/lending crisis.

There’s only one reason for this too, I’ve got to pull my finger out and post some interesting content.  Time will tell, but I’ve got forces working against me, like my mediocre writing ability, these random darting thoughts in my head,  these bats in the sky, (Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?) or the damn snakes on this plane.  But let it be known, the vision of HD911 is to grow from its meagre beginnings to become something, and do this it will.  Someday anyway.

But its been interesting none the less.  We’ve recently launched three sites at work and its been interesting seeing the different interest in each due to product knowledge, advertising and type of the site.  For instance, our company site, new revamp, which has always been a solid performer has been on the increase ever since the launch.  No boom, just rising steadily.  Another, which has had a heap of marketing and a push in the past is dwindling now where as another with short term (I won’t say viral, but similar) marketing has gone from being a no name to having a huge influx of users on a daily basis.  I’ve also realised this Search Enging Optimisation (SEO) stuff is not for me, least not as a full time job anyway! I’m a doing man, and working in a position where you carefully lay the ground work for possible future gain is a little to unexciting for me.  It’s vitally important though.

Damn it man, why can’t I think of something to increase exposure to my name, or even a tiny bit of passive income on the side.  I’ve laid in bed for the past fortnight or so trying to think of something that I could do for money on the side, from creating/selling something, to eBay seller (ech) or maybe just doing out of hours freelance work.  I just need an idea, something that I can get off the ground and get started, then let it run from there.

Ah, the classic line, I just need an idea, from the dodgy con artist to the pre 1950’s American Novel/Movie of the inventor/travelling salesman yearning for the American Dream.  I want my own peice of american dream, white picket fence and all, or maybe not the fence, but you get the idea.

Irrelavent, but I liked the title.

I need to do a little retooling myself I think, just really sit down with a glass of Single Malt and think.  But this mind doesn’t think, it darts all over the place at a 100 miles an hour, just whilst completing this sentence I’ve already considered watching House, some porn, playing Counterstrike or living like a normal person and go and get some sleep.  However, I’m hoping that by writing these words down, I’m actively thinking, brainstorming and retooling this amazing head of mine, so that I can put this wild imagination to some good use.

Sometimes I think you’ve gotta grab an idea, however stupid it may seem and run with it, I can only imagine that’s how the likes of YouTube, Facebook and similar started.  Not that I think I could think or create anything as simple yet so perfect, but who could complain with YouTube being sold off for $1.62billion, or the Microsoft purchase of x% of advertising rights on Facebook this week making the proposed net worth of the company over $15billion.

There are some ingenious people and ideas out there (even if they’re not generating a profit):

•  The Sandwich Guide - However many 100’s or 1000’s of ready-made sandwhiches there are at any of the UK’s 100+ supermarket, coffee shop and corner store chains, this guy strives to review and rate all of them.  Pointless… maybe?  But I know I’ve checked there for tasty lunch ideas a few times already, and with a big reader base, and others writing content for you, its no work, and possibly a steady (albeit small) revenue from advertising coming in.
• Web2Msg - Again, another simple idea, which has been done many times before I’m sure.  Allow kids, cheap people and people without mobile phones to send free SMS’s, and relying on ad revenue.
• Digg, DotNetKicks, Reddit, Delicious, Slash Dot - The perfect idea, digg especially.  I’d say no other site on the web has as much influence over what users will see, based completely on users that have seen it before and have rated it.  The world famous slashdot effect, garunteed to bring all but the most mighty web servers too their knee’s.
• CAPTCHA Beater - Nobody likes spammers, they are the scorn of all delivered content ranging from snail mail, email, forums, this blog (thanks akismet, over 200 messages caught already).  You’ve got to hand it to these guys though, they’ve embedded the jumbled images (CAPTCHA’s) that you have to decipher from all over the net into a porn game, where to see more and continue with the game you have to enter the code.  The second the code is submitted the automated bot running the game can then get past the spam check and the cycle continues.

There are thousandsmillions of ideas out there, and this list could go on endlessly, so I’ll stop, but this is just an example.

Now, back to thinking.  Think Shannon.  Think.

Through much thought and deliberation, I’ve finally decided on the best song ever created. It’s a big call, and no one man should be allowed to make it, or mutter the words for that matter, but I’ll do it anyway. The fact of the matter is, its impossible to make such a call, as noone has exactly the same tastes, and those who do will most probably not like exactly the same thing anyway. But this is a blog, my blog, works streamed from my head, so I call the shots.

Disclaimer: I must say, if you don’t agree with me, and have another suggestion then I’m all ears so please comment.

I’m not an ageist, my criteria for the choice of song means it didn’t have to be brand new. This one has been floating around for a while, and it really gets my Juices flowing.

Scan to 2:11 for the best bit

It’s Dash Berlin - Til the Sky Falls Down. I most recently heard this in Leon Boiler - Intuition Recordings @ Amsterdam Dance Event 18/10/2007.

It forms an elite group (of what must be about a thousand songs) which all rate in my BTMOAT listings, featuring such classics as:

• Bedrock - Heaven Scent
• Sarah McLachlan - Fear
• Sarah McLachlan - Fallen
• Karen Overton - Your Loving Arms
• Gustavo Santaolalla - The Wings
• Holden & Thompson - Come to Me
• 4 Strings - Sunrise
• John O’Callaghan - Big Sky

What’s your favourite song ever? Cut me down..

Writings been a little slow this last three or so days, I haven’t felt the creative juices flow, and quite frankly I couldn’t think of anything to write. This lack of imagination, creativity and motivation toward the cause has left me in despair, a serious need to speak my mind, which contains nothing. In the immortal words of Peter (yes, that one), “Wait! Wait! (I’m just thinking up another story)”

To cure the drought, and appease my ever increasing Google guests I shall fill in this gap. Shock horror, I’m now at almost 50 hits a day, and my pagerank is about as high as Michael Jackson is beautiful, Google, MSN, and BBC.com watch out, because HD911’s coming right at ya. Now if only I had a pull, or witty attraction like I can has Cheezburgers cats.

The Camelbak , bush survival, or just convenient beer?

Anyway, I introduce to you the beer belly. The greatest invention since the Camelbak, perhaps even better as it serves two purposes, two allow rehydration with no hands required, neither to drink, or carry it, and it show’s off one of mans greatest acheivements. The BeerBelly. And for the similiar minded female (or weirdly perverse male), there’s the WineRack, a drink holder that when full will turn your flat chest into C Cups, or your D’s into G’s. The beauty about the whole idea of course? You’re replacing two fatty organs, with a fat-inducing liquid of your choice, though it should be beer. If not beer, then Tucker Max Death Mix (great site, the mans a comedian), consisting of “750 ml Everclear® alcohol, 32 oz Gatorade® energy drink and 2 cans Red Bull® energy drink“.

This otherwise petite lady is packing so much punch, she’s bursting at the seams. “Thanks WineRack”, shouts one reader

Whilst suprisingly unflattering in the flesh, under a shirt or wife beater, you’ll be guaranteed to look the goods.

Now, considering how narky airlines are about the 100ml rule, and about packages strapped to chests and stomach, I will give £100 to the first person who can prove they wore one, filled with the liquid of their choice, through customs. Just for trying, your more then welcome to reap the benefits of your crime on the plane ride over.