As a long-time user of Dropbox, I find the sync between computers, cloud and mobile devices extremely useful. I use it daily, but there is one feature that I was hoping Google Drive will introduce – ability to edit documents while away from your computer/mobile device and save it back to the cloud. I was hoping that Google Drive, with its integration with Google Docs, will make my dreams come true. Alas…

Google Drive lets you sync any file with the cloud, but you can only edit the native Google Docs online. This is a step further than Dropbox. You can only view and comment on Word documents, which, truthfully, is just not good enough, Google.

Enter Microsoft Skydrive. On top of the whopping 25GB that they just gifted to me, I can have the same features as Dropbox/Google Drive (syncing of folders) and add the ability to edit MS documents in the cloud.

I have not used it much yet, just tested it out, but I think we have a winner! This is the service I will be recommending to my mother, which is highest accolades, in my books!

The picture above is the constant cause of slagging at work and just happens to be the Google image search result for the word “farmer”.

Alright folks,

it’s a fairly long mail here, so the key points are: register a team, and obey the rules!

There’s just over a week to go until the 12 pubs of Christmas pub crawl, and I don’t know about you lot, but I’m getting quite restless, and am itching to get going! We’ve put a wee bit of a slant on it this year, shaking up the scoring system a little, and controversially splitting the crawl between north and south side. The exact route is given further below, but first we must do some housekeeping and cover some of the more intricate yet vital rules that will be in effect this year.

The committee had decided on a raft of complex rules with ever increasing drama and confusion that would inevitably end in total carnage, but since the rules would have been totally impossible for even the committee to remember let alone enforce, we have decided on a subset.

1. It’s Christmas, so dress accordingly. Failure to do so will result in having to acquire a Christmas spirit in another way (a Christmas shot in the first pub)
2. The committee dictate the pace. If we feel that competitors are lagging, or are excessively late leaving/entering any establishment, a forfeit shot will have to be consumed.
3. Anyone that joins the crawl late will have to catch up. In order to do so, a shot will have to be consumed with every regular drink until the competitor has caught up.
4. “Dipping in and out” of the crawl will not be tolerated under any circumstance.
5. Shenanigans will in general be encouraged and may be rewarded with bonus points and or kudos. There is an exception to this rule; if the shenanigans results in the removal of one or more of the group from a pub, all those responsible will be required to have a shot in the next pub.
6. There will be 30 mins per pub, and after pub 6, a stroll through temple bar will provide kebabs and burgers en route. A 30 min total time allowance has been factored in but beware of the pub 7 rule. Nipping off for food at any other time is banned, however bacon bites will be tolerated.

Further additional rules will apply to each of the pubs on the crawl… generally it will be something nonsensical that’s easy to forget resulting in a forfeit of some sort or a shot.

Now for the route (Bonus drinks are in brackets)

17:30 Lannigan’s (Christmas shot)

18:00 The flowing tide

18:30 Grand central (Tequila)

19:00 The lotts bar

19:30 TP Smiths

20:00 Pravda (Jaegermeister)

21:00 Farrington’s

21:30 Mercantile (Mojito)

22:00 O’Neills

22:30 Stags Head

23:00 Market Bar (Sambuca)

23:30 Capitol (Tequila, as many as you can handle)

 
Scoring:
We’ll follow the competitive scoring system which is as follows (please note that the scoring system relates only to full drinks consumed and no other type of “scoring” as some participants may get  confused over):

• 2.5 points small bottle of wine
• 2 points pint of beer, cider or similar
• 1 point half-pint or bottle of beer, shot (with or without mixer), glass of wine, alcopops
• 0.75 Baileys
• 0.25 pint of mineral….FYI Anti-Craic J

All points within the first half-hour in Capitol will count double but only for those competitors who score at least one point in every other pub.

The bonus shots for certain pubs are indicated next to the pub in brackets above. These will earn you 2 extra points if imbibed with your regular drink.

As is traditional, the following rules are in place:

• The X rule of 3 points for the 8th and all successive pints of the same beer / cider/wine will apply.
• The re-revised Y rule where 1.5 points will be earned for the 8th and all successive shots of the same short will apply.
• The Z rule, where competitors simply get points for standing in each pub and whining, remains strictly out of force.
• The XYZ rule, where the individual will score an extra point for every can of Dutch Gold consumed in an alley on the route – the can cannot be opened before entering the alley and must be finished before leaving the alley

An additional rule will apply this time around
The Red-Eye Rule. Any competitor who has an early flight the morning after the crawl (8am or before), and scores 2 or more points in each of the 12 pubs will earn an extra 3 points for their dedication to the cause.

The additional novelty rules (recommended by a pub crawl veteran) are as follows. with punishments in brackets

Pub 1: The first drink must be imbibed in absolute silence, from the moment you first handle the glass until it is empty. (Christmas shot)
Pub 2: No talking about the recession/economy/trade sales or anything of the sort. (cheapest whiskey)
Pub 3: No bathroom break here. (shot of vodka)
Pub 4: No talking about sport of any kind except women’s olympic badminton. (10 press ups)
Pub 5: No talk of study/exams. (forfeit will be democratically decided by a mob)
Pub 6: Moose. Drink with your left hand. (Canadian club)
Pub 7: Last person to arrive sings a Christmas song chosen by the committee. (We’re leaning towards Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” at the moment). Other competitors are forbidden from joining in.
Pub 8: Nobody’s allowed to hold their own drink. (tequila)
Pub 9: You must speak in an annoying American accent… this place is full of them. (bourbon, and not the biscuit)
Pub 10: Group singsong outside the pub… after drinks have been bought. Non participants shall be punished via sambuca. (Repertoire tbc)
Pub 11: You can’t call anybody by their name, or nickname. You can only refer to them using anecdotes, either real or made up. Also, pointing is rude and will also be punished. (Cosmo, because they’re hard to hold and you’ll look like an eejit!)
Pub 12: Well done on making it this far. 5 minutes of dancing are required before any drink is bought… and for god’s sake, put some energy into it (Jaeger-bomb)

And two additional if rather foolhardy ways to earn bonus points:

Since it’s a north-sider/south-sider crawl, anyone who manages to have a pint of cider in every pub will gain an additional 3 points on top of the X rule.
Anyone who has 12 different pints over the 12 pubs can also qualify under the X rule for the bonus points

Teams:
Teams have traditionally comprised of members of the same department with a minimum of 3 members per team.
A team member must score at least 10 points to count towards the team score otherwise points for that individual will be zero.
The winning team is that which has the highest average points tally.
This will be a competitive year, so as was mentioned above in Rule 4 under no circumstances shall tag-team techniques be allowed for the purposes of scoring. Spectators are however welcome.

I have attached a score card which teams will be expected to fill out completely in a strictly truthful and honourable fashion.
A 3 month pub crawl ban will be imposed on anybody who cheats or considers cheating on the evening.

Could everybody please send on their teams to me before 5 on Tuesday please? Unlike the previous committee from the summer crawl, we will endeavour to ensure that everyone is treated equally, and we will register all teams without prejudice (depending on who you are).

Hall of Fame:
The newest inductee into the Hall of Fame will be announced on the night. Lobbying and bribing the committee is allowed only in the week of the pub crawl.

Please forward this onto anyone who I may have forgotten.

Hope to see you there,

NOW THAT’S A PUB CRAWL!!!

Book Name	Status
1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien	Read
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams	Read
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card	Not Yet
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert	Not Yet
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin	Not Yet
6. 1984, by George Orwell	Read
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury	Read
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov	Not Yet
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley	Read
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman	Not Yet
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan	Not Yet
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell	Not Yet
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson	Read
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore	Read
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov	Read
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein	Not Yet
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss	Not Yet
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut	Not Yet
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley	Not Yet
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick	Read
22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood	Not Yet
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King	Not Yet
25. The Stand, by Stephen King	Not Yet
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson	Not Yet
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury	Not Yet
28. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut	Read
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman	Not Yet
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess	Not Yet
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams	Not Yet
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey	Not Yet
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein	Not Yet
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller	Not Yet
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells	Read
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne	Read
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys	Not Yet
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells	Not Yet
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny	Read
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings	Not Yet
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley	Not Yet
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson	Not Yet
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven	Not Yet
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin	Not Yet
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien	Not Yet
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White	Not Yet
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman	Not Yet
49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke	Not Yet
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons	Not Yet
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman	Not Yet
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson	Read
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks	Not Yet
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle	Not Yet
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman	Not Yet
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett	Not Yet
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson	Not Yet
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold	Not Yet
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett	Not Yet
61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle	Not Yet
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind	Not Yet
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy	Not Yet
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke	Not Yet
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist	Not Yet
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks	Not Yet
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard	Not Yet
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb	Not Yet
70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger	Read
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson	Not Yet
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne	Read
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore	Not Yet
74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi	Not Yet
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson	Not Yet
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke	Not Yet
77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey	Not Yet
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin	Not Yet
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury	Read
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire	Not Yet
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson	Not Yet
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde	Not Yet
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks	Not Yet
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart	Not Yet
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson	Not Yet
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher	Not Yet
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe	Not Yet
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn	Not Yet
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan	Not Yet
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock	Not Yet
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury	Not Yet
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley	Not Yet
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge	Not Yet
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov	Read
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson	Not Yet
96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle	Read
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis	Not Yet
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville	Not Yet
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony	Not Yet
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis	Not Yet

Here is my use case and I am pretty content with it:

I have about 25 friends who share or comments on Google Buzz. The primary source is their Google Readers with an occasional direct post in Buzz. We get a modest amount of discussion on each post before it disappears into oblivion. The posts that I find interesting and potentially worth revisiting in the future are starred.

Here is the use case of most of the tech journalist/pundit crowd, that was so quick to proclaim it a failure:

Tech journalists add each other to their Buzz friends and in turn everyone invites Robert Scoble (the Scobleizer). This results in the Scoble effect with comment and sharing overload at which time everyone calls it too noisy and polluted and leaves with only those who really appreciate the tool remain behind.

So what I would love to see now is the integration of Google Buzz with Google+ so that I can have seamless reading experience in one source.

Thank you,

Anton

1. Ice cream sales from a bike* – first job in Canada!
2. Grocery store clerk – first job that consistently paid.
3. Gas station in Newmarket – just for fun, had to drive an hour outside of the city to work for 5 hours and make $50.
4. Packing polyurethane foam into bundles* – it is pretty much rock bottom when you have to wear a respirator at work.
5. Intercon Security* – first decently paying job AND I got to wear a clip-on tie!
6. Condominium concierge* – a real tie this time!
7. Research analyst at Pollara – first office job where I got to use some of my brains rather than solely relying on my good looks.

* – jobs that really make me appreciate where I currently am in my career/life.

P.S. Forgot to include #5.5 – assembling polystyrene insulation panels for pouring concrete.

These funds are not limited to banks and can be anything from a refund from GAP to unclaimed matured insurance policies. Different countries have different regulations when it comes to handling this leftover forgotten funds.

I have been dealing with this recently.  Italy has regulation that mandates the Italian insurance companies to pay these forgotten funds to the Government Social Fund (read charity) if the funds have not been claimed for two years after product maturity. These are known as “sleeping policies”. The United States have a similar process, called The Escheatment Process.

There are sites that help you identify whether you are owed money by any institution in your country. Have a look at these links:

http://www.missingmoney.com/ in the States or http://www.cuar.ca/ in Canada. I am sure there are similar organisations for the rest of the world.

Bottom line – don’t complain that you are broke if you left breadcrumbs of your cash all over the place!

As a result of this, the Gardai (local police) have sealed all the manhole covers around Dublin with silicone and some paint in order to prevent rogue assassins from emerging from the underground. These measures are also serving the dual purpose of keeping the sewer alligators at bay:

Now, if you are reading this post and think that this is sooo pretentious and self-centred, do check out the homepage antonkobelev.com! What do you think now!

Anyway, enough smart-assedness. The real reason why I renamed the site is because I want people to find me here if they Google me for some reason. I want the homepage to be my virtual resume on the web. Think what you may!

I am also finally giving up with the self-hosted photo album search and will host all my pictures on PicasaWeb. 20GB is only $5/year now!!! I plan to eventually upload all my photo albums from 2001 on to there!

Do you think I finally lost the plot? Do you think I need to go to false-celebrity rehab? Do you have any tips? Do you? Let me know!!!

Thanks for putting up with me!

Anton