So it’s rare that I’ll review another site, but as the rumors have been spreading about the possible return of a full-force TechZi (and completley new Zi Media whilst we’re on the topic), I’ve had a crack team of ninja monkeys, suited up in the finest gadgetry money can buy, running around the interwebz and hunting out new sources for information. Beyond the usual, boring, “one stop shop” gadget websites which seem to cover everything mundane and absolutely nothing of interest, or (shock horror) anything AMUSING, you’re hard pushed to find anywhere which offers anything to cheer you up, but one such site (besides the-ever-so-hilarious TechZi itself) is Gadget Advisor, a site I’ve really taken a liking to. Seemingly in my absence, they’ve taken over in being the blogosphere’s number one kickass center of all things spiffy, and have covered everything from the trusty Universal Remote (an absolutely awesome innovation from Logitech) to the uber-wicked networked media player, which until it’s feature on the site, I hadn’t even heard of, proves that you have to go “beyond” the usual gadget blogs to find the best in the business.

Rather like TechZi, they don’t just stick to the gadgets or the hardcore hardware technology, but have numerous tutorials, comparissons and reviews, again, covering everything from backup online solutions to 101 (actually, 21) trusty firefox plugins that no self-respecting geek should be without. Rather unlike us, the good people at Gadget Advisor can actually be bothered categorizing things in alphabetical order.

Our ninja monkeys are still working on that. Afterall, y’all don’t mind complete and utter mis-spellings, total anarchy and absloute chaos, so long as the content is coming, right?

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EDITOR NOTE: Seriously y’all, come 2009 Zi Media is getting a facelift AND some new facepaint. More importantly, the content will be flowing thick and fast, and to be honest with ya’, we’re really quite excited. We’re looking forward to it as a sort of “final show down” with some of the biggest gadget blogs in the game. Afterall, we’ve got the connections and sources to get the scoops that only “anonymous tipsters” can offer the big boys. We, on the other hand, have solid reliable data. I mean, you don’t hear anyone talking about the heavy Feedburner integration with Twitter which is due just around…

Um… I said nothing. Watch this space, geeks and gadgeteers!

So I’m kinda fedup with Virgin Media. We switched to Sky TV several months back and it’s far surpassed anything I could have hoped for. It’s not that we were disappointed with Virgin’s TV package, just when Sky One got dropped, it meant an end to Battlestar Galactica, and that just wasn’t gonna happen. That and the fact that Virgin have started capping net surfing speeds at specific times of day (downloading files from sites will be capped at exactly 100kb or 200kb depending on the hour of day) which in my mind, is flagrantly proposterous, and downright unacceptable. That and the fact they’re breaking their own Terms Of Service. We PAY for 1mb download speeds, so to deliberately restrict it below that is a breach of the consumer agreement.

So we (that is to say, myself and my dad) were shopping for a brand new spiffy broadband package and we wanted to know your thoughts.

What sort of connection would we be looking for? Preferably one with unlimited bandwidth for my downloading needs, and a really fast speed so I can do so faster, and not have to leave my Mac on overnight when usage is less heavy.

(If you’re in the UK by the way, I highly recommend you use the site a comparisson site for searching, I’ve taken a liking to Broadband Expert but there are numerous ones out there).

Unless we wanna go super-high-end, it is looking like Sky offer the best package, especially when bundled with the TV we already have.

The only downside I can see is that we’d need to move our phoneline over to BT. Crazy, but that’s life I guess. *rolls eyes*

Even with the line switch, then monthly line rental, and the broadband and phone charges from Sky though, it still works out cheaper than Virgin, and the net would be 24 times faster. *rolls eyes sardonically… AGAIN*

Sorry for the informal style of this message. Y’all will have to hold on for another few months I suspect until blogging becomes the norm again at TechZi. Got some exciting stuff planned to inject some life back into the site, though.

But in the meantime - comment and send over your thoughts on the matter. And help us plot ways to get our own back on Virgin. Muhahahahaha! (That was a joke by the way, Mr Branson, please don’t axe my net connection since I…. *ack*)

- David

P.S. On a side note… Has anyone tried mobile broadband? I’d also be interested in hearing your thoughts on that given the fact that I’m on the move now more than ever with my MacBook, traveling and such.

P.P.S. How could I forget? As a marketer I love seeing the bonuses and offers they run to incentivise people to sign up, and right now, the current trend seems to be that of giving everyone free laptops.

Don’t even ask. That’s what happens when technology gets cheap. The perceived value goes up whilst production costs go down. And I daresay the smart companies are buying the netbooks at wholesale prices too. Sheesh-kebab. They must be making a tidy profit.

When you buy a car of the ilk of the Aston Martin, you’ve generally got quite a bit of money to play ball with, and whether or not solely for hilarity, or primarily because their average customer isn’t a simple “Mr” but rather a HRH Prince, Princess, Sheik, Count, Countess, Monsieur, Aston Martin has decided that it be necessary they include it on their signup form for snagging of a die-cast car.

If you’re a right his royal honourable HRH Arch-duke highness type dude, with all the Earl, Frau, Baron and Viscount qualities that are to be expected (heck I’m just making this up now), then you might have a good laugh over the amusement that Aston Martin provides.

Matthew for the tip on this one! Great scoop!

We’ll miss him. The big nerdy guy, who quite frankly, was and is one of the world’s greatest and most generous men.

Bill Gates in his many years as the public face and top-dog big-daddy clippy-sucking ruler of Microsoft left at the end of last month to a royal fanfare, but not before we had time to revel in his glory (and misery).

Rock ON!

- Internet Explorer (Making the net accessible to millions of non-techies.)
- Microsoft Office (It may be costly, but it works. Most of the time.)
- Windows XP (Solid, reliable, workable, generally plays nice.)
- Xbox 360 (Score one for Redmond! w00t w00t! s0nY n00bS!)
- Open-Hardware (Not monopolizing on hardware causes problems… But it brings prices down.)

The EPIC failures

- Internet Explorer (For delivering billions of webpages in completely broken fashion.)
- Microsoft Office (Clippy landed you here… There’s no forgiveness!)
- Windows NT (Thou shalth not think of thee abomination.)
- Windows Vista (ARGH! The compatability (or lack thereof) burns… It burns!)
- Microsoft Bob (… -_- …)
- Open-Hardware (Prices come down… But the driver errors, the BSODs and the general badness suck.)
- Anti-piracy Technology (Everyone… Even legitimate users has suffered “Windows Genuine Advantage” hell at one point or another.)
- Microsoft Zune (Raise your hands if you have one? Point made.)

Of course now I’ll get a load of Microsoft-Bob-loving-Windows-Vista-sucking-Internet-Explorer-praising-(WTF?)-Microsoft-Zune-owning phreaks of nature defending their favourite products.

But life is life, and frankly, everything hasn’t gone the Microsoft way.

Some things have succeeded, afterall.

Legitimate, scientific proof of perpetual motion in action. Jellied cat. The saviour of the universe, free energy for all and undoubtedly the cause of World War III. Cats selling on eBay have jumped in price to an average of $73,579 with this startling new development and governments of all nations are offering $2,000-$3,000 for mint condition cats delivered in original packaging. Unopened preferable. Jellied toast has also reached an all-time high with sixth graders flogging them to their school friend’s parent’s boss’s at a rather ‘tasty’ (no pun intended) $100 a piece.

Not a clue what I’m on about? Watch the video already.

As you can see, the cat with jellied toast cannot possibly make contact with the ground, as both cats always land on their feet and toast always lands butter/jelly side down. The math is (as the video explains) incredibly simple. “The forces of the cat-jellied toast composite fall towards the ground which is described as the mathematical formula f times bracketed x = k over x creating an assetosis (sp?) graph which shows that as the composite approaches the ground it will deaccelerate until it overcomes the force of gravity at which point it will float and all downward kinetic motion will be transfered into a spinning movement.”

You know you’re a geek when you understood half of the hilarious above jibber-jabber.

The name is Citizen. John Citizen. I was born on the 12th of June, 1975 and my passport is due to expire mid-December 2014. I’m an Australian citizen currently living in the Lord-Of-The-Rings-ish setting of Helms Deep. It’s a fair way away from any post offices, but I can get by. God bless FedEx!

I’m thinking of growing a beard. Or maybe just a little goatee. Hmmm… That might be a good idea. I hear the Gondor women love ‘em. Of course I’d probably prefer an Elfish bride, but I’m in a bit of a dire situation here. What the heck… I’ll see you in he… Um… Mordor!

Ladies and gentelemen… David has entered the building!

via the Australian Passport Office Peoples

After my longest break from blogging pretty much ever, I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things with a new post every few days and then gradually ease back into the daily posting schedule. I really appreciate you RSS readers of mine not dropping off and we’re not all that many behind where we left off. Traffic is strangely still going strong and I want to thank each and every one of you for sticking by me.

So why the sudden lack of posts? Affiliate Defined launched and heck, it ROCKS.

John says: I just purchased the Affiliate Defined ebook and I must say I am very impressed. It’s probably the best ebook I have bought in the past few months. David really knows his stuff.

AdSense-Guy says: Absolutely agreed! I rarely recommend (or read) any “guru” book, just because most are crap. This kid (or his ghostwriter) is very straightforward and the technics DO work. Good luck with it! I had my first results 30 minutes after starting to work me through the immense load of content…

Of course anybody can say anything. How much money are people makin’? One student had a $20k week. Others made that amount in 3 days. A total newbie made $100 in his first 3 days (to me, that’s more impressive than all the big numbers put together). 13 months in the making, and I’m happy.

Of course, after 3 days I pulled Affiliate Defined off the market. I had a load of upset people e-mailing me complaining they hadn’t been able to get a copy. Tough luck, I guess. Maybe I’ll relaunch sometime. Maybe I won’t. The fact is, though, I’ve been neglecting my blog and now as I have a little more time on my hand’s I’ll be back to blogging at my best.

Hold onto ya’ knickers dorothy, David’s in town!

Yicrosoft Directory is a keyphrase given by Ryan over at SEONoobs.com for a 30 Day SEO Challenge for SEO newbies. Although there are a some SEO experts involved I’ve got my eye on Alejandro Reyes’ Yicrosoft Directory Blog.

Yicrosoft Directory was probably coined because of the recent talks about Microsoft placing a huge $44 Billion bid on Yahoo. As Microsoft and Yahoo (or Yicrosoft) go back and forth in negotiations there are some really cool logos, websites, videos, podcasts of people talking about this potential merger. Questions that are arising are: What will the name be? Will Steve Jobs become CEO? Will Miley Cyrus be the face of the company?

With all these speculations, Alejandro Reyes over at Yicrosoft Director Blog is keeping you informed and updated with what’s going on with the Microsoft/Yahoo merger as well as the 30 Day Challenge.

If you’re interested in the challenge and learning SEO, definitely follow what Alejandro is doing and if you want to help him win the competetion, you can LINK to Yicrosoft Directory using the anchor text: “Yicrosoft Directory”

Good luck Alejandro with Yicrosoft Directory

Founded by the same three geniuses who invented the ever-so-handy PriceRunner back in ‘99, TestFreaks is still very much in it’s early stages. As the title suggests, TestFreaks (which shall from now on be reffered to as ‘TF’) is the product review/price comparisson aggregation engine for geeks. Tech buffs. Audiophiles. Gamers. Gadgeteers. Camera nerds. Textaholics. People with a passion for electronics… Bringing together many of my favorite things in life (Digital Cameras, MP3 Players, Mobile Phones, Video Games and really expensive Home Cinema Systems), TF reviews everything and anything electrical.

Or rather TestFreaks doesn’t review all that much itself as far as I’m aware, but it pulls data from reviews on other sites and cleverly generates a “Freak Score” based on the information collected. They also clearly display what the “user opinion” is on the product and then compare it to the “expert view”, calculating Freak Grades to help you in your buying decisions. Performance, Features, Value For Money and Ease Of Use rankings are also shown.

The site also rather ingeniously pulls different product shots for each item on the site so you can view the geekery in all it’s full color glory. Manufacturers description is shown on the individual item pages along with prices, related products and all the above stats mentioned. That’s not to mention all the “coming soon” additions promised by Kristofer, Magnus and Martin. No dates on when we can expect these new features, but I for one am eagerly anticipating them…

* Product Specification
* WikiFreak Description
* Add your own review
* Share Videos
* Share Photos

Sprinkle with the already-in-place ajaxy live search and you’ve got one hip-hop Web 2.0 review engine, I’m telling ya’! Design is also pretty darn incredible. Lovin’ the color scheming - nice break from the industry’s traditional black on white. TestFreaks - You’ve got my vote for President!

“Home of the whopper.” Oh cow - just look at the stunned looks on their faces.

http://www.whopperfreakout.com/

This is TV at it’s best.

I tried embedding the video but things didn’t quite work out. As usual - apologies for the lack of posts. Product launches take it out of ya’. O_O