that canadian girl

Category: Blogging & Online Media

  • Overflow Launcher – Get it for free!

    If like me, you’ve tried using Quicksilver as an app launcher, you might benefit from using the Overflow Launcher by Stunt Software. It’s available for free through Macappaday today instead of the usual $14.95. I’m sure Quicksilver does a zillion things more, but I know I’m not alone in not having done more than use it as quicklaunch… so this might be better suited to me, since my dock is getting longer and longer with all sorts of junk!

    Macappaday is giving away a free Mac application every day until Jan 1st, so have a look every day for a new one!

  • And I would walk 500 miles…

    Nah, actually, I wouldn’t. And neither would they. But they’d walk 96 miles, they would!

    Wicken Fen walk“They” are two newly married couples who will be walking 96 miles across the Scottish Highlands in May. The idea sprouted in October, and slowly the sheer grandeur of their Scottish escapade is starting to make itself known.

    “Kindly, the boys produced a sort of aerial view of our walk on Google Earth – mmmmm………Is it too late to back out? We are walking very far! Its almost hlafway to Cardiff from Cambridge! Going shopping for new equipment will help ease the stress levels.”

    It’s promising to be quite a funny read over the next few months, as Steph shares her socks-maths and Annabel wonders the likelihood of fitting SingStar in her backpack. 🙂

    I can’t give much advice on anything fitness-related, but if anyone wants to share camping/trekking tips with them, I’m sure they’ll be welcome!

  • Ugg boots to be "in" again this winter?

    I’m not exactly a fashionista myself, but I do like finding out from the likes of Gemma and Kat what the current fashion is all about.

    However, today I thought I’d take some tips from Heather Hopkins at Hitwise. According to her recent research, searches for Ugg boots have increased six-fold compared to the same time last year – the chart is worth having a look at. She’s even managed to pin-point the most popular colours this season – “raisin” followed by black.

    “Did the recent cold-spell cause the surge? There is a definite seasonal pattern in searches for “ugg boots” […] Searches for “ugg boots” peaked later in 2005 – in the week ending 26th November 2005, but last week’s peak exceeded the peak from 2005 by 69%.”

    So, should we all run out and go buy a few pairs in case stocks run out? Like Heather, I think I’ll pass on this trend, as I’ve done in the past with leggings and skinny jeans, thankyouverymuch.

  • Akismet, the plugin no blogger should go without

    “Akismet has caught 16981 for you since you installed it.”

    Having a poke around my WordPress dashboard, I realised quite how hard Akismet has been working for me since I upgraded to WP2, many moons ago.

    Sometimes the best features of an app are the ones you don’t notice.

  • Daily Mail journo angers "googlers and bloggers"

    Now, I won’t be the first to comment on this. He’s already angered Kat, Andy, Ashley and a number of other bloggers.

    So who’s this man? He’s Keith Waterhouse (see the 2nd article) , an aging technophobe who writes for one of the country’s best fish & chips paper provider, uhh, newspaper I mean.

    Keith babbles “Seasoned googlers, of whom there is already a vast tribe, are nerds, anoraks and braces-wearers of the worst sort who spend every working moment searching the infernal engine for other people’s blogs.”

    Having read the full article, I found it completely daft that someone managed to publish such a pile of shit in a national newspaper. I have no problems whatsoever with people having a dig at bloggers. After all, if everyone embraced the blogging revolution, we’d have nothing left to make us feel cutting-edge, avant-guarde and fresh.

    But having a dig at “googlers”? Either he doesn’t understand the name (which, at the ripe age of 77 would be quite normal, no offence intended here!) or he truly thinks that the millions of people, seasoned Internet users or not, who use Google are all “brace-wearing nerds”!

    In the first instance, I would usually find it quite sweet that someone of an older demographic at least attempts to join the social conversation on the topic of search engines, however misinformed, but we’re talking about a paper with a circulation of 2.3 million here. Even bloggers with a pool of a few thousand visitors will check their sources before publishing something, but clearly that’s not one of Keith’s worries.

    What can I say, I find it boggling that an editor allowed such misinformed rubbish to be published!

  • Over this way!

    A few days ago, I bought a new domain, thatcanadiangeek.co.uk, for a laugh. The plan, sort of, is to divide my marketing, advertising and techy banter from the personal thoughts, photos and other bits.

    At the moment, I’m using a WordPress template I found in the Themes bin, but that may… or may not… be temporary.

    I’ll most likely cross-post between the two blogs, but at least it means I’ll be able to keep the business rubbish in one place, and the sentimental family guff separate. Now the question is: Will I manage to keep both updated regularly enough or will one of them die? Well, having met a bunch of bloggers, writers and freelancers in the flesh recently, I feel I’ve got a new breath of life and a renewed interest into blogging my ideas.

    So here we go, the birth of thatcanadiangeek, an affirmation of my hopeless geekiness.

  • It doesn't get any better than this

    On a passing visit to London yesterday, I came across Art. Not a Monet, not a Warhol, and certainly not a Da Vinci. But I did see a Banksy with mine own little eyeballs! Somewhere between Kings Cross and Exmouth Market, we were greeted by it. (Click on the image for the full picture of the little girl at the ATM)

    Banksy ATM artHe redecorated an old bricked up window with an ATM and a little girl. Without opening up the art vs vandalism issue again, I can’t help but feel thought-out social commentary graffitis are as welcome in the city as its own inhabitants. Banksy makes a point with his art, which is why I have more respect for a guerrilla artist who’s effectively building a brand for himself while making us think, rather than the cheap taggers who seem to have the London to Cambridge train line covered, repeatedly scribbling their name illegibly in spray paint.

    I know his art hasn’t been appreciated everywhere, but in busy London, it just fits in. It’s part of the story.

  • Del.icio.us replaces the shoutbox

    Small but lovely change made to the sidebar, you can now see my del.icio.us links.

    I pondered getting rid of the shoutbox and mentioned it to Andrew before going off to the pub on Friday lunch, and when I came back, he’d already done it! Damn genius, that boy! 😉

  • A Meme – It's been a long time

    A blogger’s guilty pleasure, filling in a meme. I’ve got an immense backlog of things I want to post, as many personal ones as great marketing finds and business ideas. But it’s like having the choice between a double spiced rum and coke or a glass of water, I’ll choose the one that pickles my brain and leave the healthy stuff for later.

    I found this meme on Keris Stainton‘s blog, she’s another Shiny Media writer who I’ve yet to meet (Hi Keris!).

    So here goes nuffin’…
    (more…)

  • Peps Media: Doing what we do best even better

    For the past few years, I’ve been thinking it’d be great to have my own business projects and work for myself. While I’m not there yet, we’ve taken our first steps towards it by setting up Peps Media, our own web design and online marketing company.

    Peps MediaIn reality, we’ll be doing what we’ve been doing for years; helping people websites and small applications, writing content and building themselves a strong identity. It’s just that now, we’re focussing our energies to do it on a larger scale. And it also means we need an accountant to tell us what to do with all that paperwork…

    I’d like to believe we are not only skilled at what we do, but we love it. We both feel so strongly about our own areas of interest, I hope we can inspire other businesses to have an online presence that’s not average or good, but great, for it to reflect the rest of their business.

    To share news and give coaching to those new to online marketing, I’ll be posting blogging, marketing and branding tips on the Peps Media blog.

    Here are some of the services we offer, but it doesn’t end there. If you think you’d like to speak to us about it, or know someone who does, get in touch.

    • Web site design
    • Blog setup and creation of bespoke templates
    • Coaching for corporate bloggers
    • Brand positioning and logo design
    • Copywriting and document review
    • Search Engine Optimisation