Using the right tools for the job

No this may sound blatantly obvious but what you have to ask yourself first is "Do I know what the right tools for the job are?".

I have found in the past that this second question has never been asked or answered and so people have ploughed ahead with tools, adding plug-in's and trying to make the tool to be the right tool. Certainly some of the tools I work with at the moment in my day job are in this category having plug-in on plug-in. That's not to say that this final resulting tool doesn't do the job, though in most cases it is missing one or two things it can't do; and a little research before probably would have pulled up a better solution (I know this for one as I have used other tools in other roles that did what they wanted - but I was too late to this role to alter).

But another example of this is when creating an online product. So, you want to create a tool that is a cloud based product. What do you use to code it? At this point you have the Java guys saying Java, ASP guys saying ASP.net, PHP people.... and so on. But which is right? I once went for a job interview where a product was written in ASP (old VB) and it worked well but the founder said to me "if I were to write it now I would do it in Java".

So, moral.. Before you undertake any work independent on what it is; identify all the tools and choose the best one for the job and not just choose your favorite.

Personally I am in this scenario now - just learning myself some PHP code and maybe Ruby to see what best fits. As a side note, anyone that wants to get involved in some joint business thinking please let me know. We could start a hangout :-)

If anyone wants to share their experiences of right or wrong tools then please leave a comment ..

Magix PhotoStory MX Review

We had Magix PhotoStory MX in for review over this past week and included is my video review of this product.

How popular do you need to be to get Google to reverse decisions? Lets try an experiment

This is something I have wondered about for some time... Little history; about 2 years ago I started a website and had adsense on it. Idea was for on website and to use on my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/netroman28 to get a little cash together for buying review items, give aways and all that stuff. Anyhow, someone decided to click bomb and that was the end of that; 2 months it was up.. O well.

So that the history; and tale is that Google around 99% of time won't reinstate from what I have heard (and my attempt to get reinstated). If fact it seems like that have a automated system that says nope..

So, this brings me to my thought. I wander how big your youtube or blogger channel would have to be to get them to reinstate your adsense. I mean, currently I have around 642 subscribers on youtube although not all seem active. I have some good videos and some not so good etc. But at 642 they won't listen. Would you need to have 6000 followers (I have seen mention of people loosing adsense at this level). What about 10000+? 60000? 100000? How many subscribers or blog followers would you need?

I know this won't happen but I would love to try an experiment. I would love to be in a position to test out how many subscribers or followers it would take? At which point would google listen?

So, if you want to help me carry out this experiment (and potentially get me in a position to do some more give aways to everyone in community) the go and sub and retweet, reblog, re-video blog, or whatever. Lets us see how many people it requires.. This could be your opportunity to be heard by google - saying; hey.. listen to us you big company you...

Of course I know this probably won't happen.. :-(  but I can live in hope of you few that will take this cause, feel like being part of this experiment and maybe get word out. It only takes a few to start...

PowerDVD 12 Review

You know what I love about Thursday's...

Not a lot really. Their kind of like a tease for Friday I always thin. A day when you wake up and think last day of work week and the realize its not... That said, if doing my own thing then that may not be the case - but it is at the moment.

Its not for not trying on doing own thing; there are so many things out there. But that is the problem, like with blogs and blogging - working for yourself you have to get seen.. And until then its rely on you good old 9-5.. Anyhow, enough of these negative thoughts, you can tell its been one of those days but only 2 more hours to go then its home time.. Away from the issues and problems of work and out to the home iss..  :) 
Now, home life is not an issue that was a joke. Although give me 12 more weeks till our 2nd child born (got girl and moment and this one is a boy) and I may change that through for a while. We were just lucky that my daughter potty trained herself more or less (we kind of put down and she used for a while and then went to toilet) and although only 3.5 years old she has done away with pull ups (even at night). So cost of nappies only multiplied by one..

Actually; seeing this is one of my more rare blogs talking about myself; our daughter shocked and surprised myself and my wife yesterday. She loves writing on her chalk board with her current favorite being to write her name and mum and dad. and she has no problem counting up to around 15 although on a dot to do knows 20's, 30's and 40's. And she has no problem with simple additions like 2+3, 1+2, etc.. So you will understand why this shocked us.

She wrote 100 on the board and said daddy thats one hundred. She then proceeded to write 200, 300 ... 900 and say them all.. We were saying well done, where did you learn that from as we never taught you, etc.. Then she wrote 1000 and that's one thousand.. erm, ok.. 2000, 3000.. etc..
To think about 2 weeks ago I was only explaining to here that 2 and 0 together made 20 (twenty) and same with 30, 40, etc..  didn't reach hundreds and thousands.. So, daughter of mine.. when your a millionaire don't forget daddy :)

So; tomorrow is Friday and we have nothing lined up this week (last week we were down on coast as it was my 42'nd birthday). But that's good as it may give me time to finish off my new website venture of http://www.technologist-hosting.co.uk . I am using TheHostingTool but have an error in the client section I can't figure - although has no problem setting up the accounts. O and I need to go find somewhere to place add for our http://www.tekheads-computing.co.uk and http://www.bracknellcomputerrepairs.co.uk which is another venture... Websites, repairs, hostings, etc.. surely something has got to pay off   ;-) 
Anyhow, enough random for today.. Probably be 6 months to the next random blog.. but who knows.

ACTA rejected by the EU

So, hands up how many of you are happy that Acta has be rejected by a vote in the European Parliament. This must now be that last nail in the coffin for this controversial anti-piracy agreement? For those of you that have never heard of it; I won't go into the details... but lets say that if it had passed it would have been a very bad thing - not just to those doing the piracy but for all of us that use the internet.

So tight would it have been that there was a worry that it would stifle freedom of expression on the internet.Many likened this to the other controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa).. As an example it has been mentioned in the past that if these acts did pass things like doing a gaming video (which can be argued as your own rights) would have to stop and be removed from sites such as YouTube.. How many of you have made one of those?

That's not to say that we shouldn't try to stop piracy.. Or at least maybe have cheap licensed sites where we can download and watch movies, tv shows, etc.. Maybe if film companies put money into this then they would limit piracy? Just my thought of the day???

One for the sm.. Well big guy

So, its been reported that HTC have won a case against Apple over the swipe to unlock feature. Now personally I think this is a good thing as if Apple had won then Android phones would have to rethink along with lots of other OS.

No I like Apple products, don't get me wrong; but I hate the way that they are so tied in to Apple only and they hold a hammer fist approach to most things which drives up the costs. That's one reason why I do have more software, hardware, etc in my PC - although I do love my little Mac Mini (ya). But more and more Apple seem to be trying to hold down everyone (like Samsung) which is quite funny as these little guys provide some of the vital parts for things like iPad screens - but there you go..?? Anyhow, ya to HTC.

That said, I then saw a story in the news about Android phones being used as botnet some researchers have found? Evidence has been uncovered, it reckons, that spam has / is being sent to Yahoo mail servers by Android devices. Now this is scary from my perspective as imagine the phone bill of all that potential data usage :)  that is unless these botnet softwares only do it when plugged into wifi.. Would that be a user friendly botnet? I would presume that people writing these botnet softwares wouldn't care about your bill??? So; if had an Android phone (like me) take note on what apps you download.

PowerDirector 10 Ultra Review