The Wolf's Howl

Sorry

2008-03-24T14:15:00.000Z

It has been a while since I properly updated The Wolfs Howl here at BlogSpot. Sorry about that; I've been concentrating on stuff over at The New Wolfs Howl.

If you haven't already done it, I'd suggest updating your feed readers and bookmarks so that you get all the Wolfie goodness direct from The New Wolfs Howl; it gets published there first and is updated more often. I'd highly recommend it.

David Cameron breaks the rules

2008-03-24T14:13:00.005Z

It is truly shocking. A politician has flouted the laws of the land. This could lead to a major breakdown in the fabric of our society; life as we know it could come to an end.

Except it won't, because all David Cameron did was to flout some road laws whilst riding his pushbike. Yet, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was something a lot more serious, given all the media coverage that it's getting. OK, so he ran a red light and went the wrong way up a one-way street while he was riding through London. Not exactly on a par with Watergate, is it?

It does, though, bring to the forefront an interesting discussion. Do the rules of the road apply to cyclists? You'd think they would, wouldn't you, but there seem to be a large number of cyclists who don't agree. Their reasoning is that, as the drivers don't give them any respect, they need to flout the laws (like jumping red lights) to give themselves an advantage. It's a safety thing, apparently.

I've driven cars, and I ride a motorcycle. I also ride a pushbike on occasion. I've seen the argument from all sides. Yes, some drivers are inconsiderate to cyclists. Yes, some cyclists ride like twats. But I remember back to my schooldays, when I did my Cycling Proficiency Certificate (not sure that exists anymore). During our training, we learnt how to be safe on the road, how to be aware of what was going on around us, but we also learnt that the rules of the road apply to all vehicles on the road - and a pushbike is a vehicle.

It's as simple as that.

Still doing it for charidee, mate

2008-03-24T14:13:00.003Z

Back in November I wrote a post about David Head's efforts to raise money for Mencap. Since then, David's fund-raising efforts have continued and he's now getting closer to his target. But, 1,001 Generous People still needs support so if you haven't already donated (and even if you have), why not drop David £5 and get yourself a bit of blog promotion into the bargain?

From my November post:

I got an email today from David Head, asking me to take part in his latest charity fund-raising venture. After checking out his blog - Mencap : 1,001 Generous People - I thought it was such a good idea that I followed the Donation Page link and signed up straightaway.

If you want to get involved, it'll only cost you £5 (about $10) - although if you can afford it, I'm sure that David and Mencap will be very grateful if you give more - and you'll be helping one of the UK's longest established charities in the invaluable work that they do. If you're a UK resident, remember to click the option that allows your donation to qualify for Gift Aid - that way, the Chancellor adds 28% to the amount you give; get something back for all that tax you pay! So I say "Good Luck" to David and hope that he has to re-name his blog to Mencap : 10,001 Generous People.

Go on, it's Easter - do something good!

Another Safari issue solved

2008-03-24T14:13:00.001Z

If, like me, you get annoyed that Safari opens links in a new window rather than a new tab (regardless of what you've got in your preference settings), then help is at hand. Dennis Stevense has this post which tells you how - with a simple Terminal command - you can enable single-window mode.

All you need to do is close Safari, open Terminal, enter Dennis' code, hit enter. When you re-start Safari, all links that would normally open in a new window (target="_blank", for example) will instead open in a new tab. All other links will behave as they would normally.

I've tried this one out and it works without any issues at all.

It was 363 days ago...

2008-03-24T14:12:00.009Z

...that The Wolfs Howl - then hosted at Wordpress.com - was born. I can't believe I've been blogging for a whole year (I know, the year isn't up 'til Saturday, but I have time to write now and I won't have on Saturday).

Over the course of that year, I've gone from Wordpress.com to BlogSpot.com to self-hosted here at The New Wolfs Howl and along the way have learned valuable lessons about writing, about the technical side of blogging, about hosting your own website and about the pitfalls that await the unwary blogger. I've written light and frivolous stuff, I've written serious stuff, I've written bad stuff and I've (hopefully) written good stuff; least-ways, I've written stuff that I'm pleased with and happy for others to read, about a wide variety of subjects from software to suicide, religion to racing, music to.. well, more music. I've experimented with paid blogging, various types of advertising and all sorts of traffic-building type things, yet have failed to become a millionaire. (Really can't understand what's gone wrong there). I've been conscientious with my posts, and I've been lax; some days I've written several entries, some weeks I haven't written anything at all.

Throughout the year, I've read a lot of blogs, too, and much as I've learned by doing, I've learned a lot more by watching. Looking at the greater blogging world and seeing what others are doing. That's not to say they're doing it right, but there are lessons to be learnt from seeing what not to do, how badly someone can muck it up, as well as from watching a master at work.

I've gained and lost readers through the year, but overall the readership figures are going up; if you've been in from the beginning then thank you. If you've only just joined, well thank you too (but what took you so long?). Whichever, tell more people - and get them to tell their friends.

Blog entries have been written in so many different ways that I've lost count. I started on a 15" Windows laptop, using the Wordpress editor. Then I moved to BlogDesk and finally Windows Live Writer. Just as I got that all set up, I abandoned Windows for Mac, and that's when the blogging really took off. I've used all sorts of Mac editors too and am now happy and secure with ecto.

Overall, this year of blogging has been an enjoyable journey and - given that I was never able to keep a diary past the second week of January when I was a kid - surprising that it shows no sign of coming to an end.

Blimey

2008-03-24T14:12:00.007Z

What a scorching start to the season, in more ways than one. Fifty degree track temperatures undoubtedly played their part in some of the drama at the opening race of the F1 season in Albert Park, Melbourne (it can't have been a nice environment for the drivers, bundled up in layers of flame-proof clothing and sitting just in front of one of the world's most expensive hot-air producers) but I think it's safe to say that the banning of electronic driver aids (like engine braking and traction control) had the biggest effect.

Anyone who was expecting the same old, same old (like me) would have been pleasantly surprised; the excessive temperature and the lack of traction control making the start especially exciting, as no-one, except perhaps for Lewis, was in the position you'd expect them to be in. Having put his McLaren convincingly on pole on Saturday, Lewis Hamilton proceeded to lead the race from start to finish, but behind him it was a very different story.

I would imagine that Max Moseley won't be too happy with the race, as there wasn't all that much overtaking, but with drivers still trying to come to terms with their cars there was certainly plenty of action; five drivers out by the end of the first lap were followed by most of the rest of the field across the 58 laps, to the point where only six cars managed to finish the race out of the original 22. Both Ferraris failed to finish, but because of the way the points system works Raikkonen collects a single point. Massa, in the other Ferrari, collected David Coulthard in spectacular fashion and then a few laps later was out himself. Timo Glock had the biggest crash of the afternoon - actually becoming airbourne at one point - but thankfully walked away relatively unscathed.

Sebastian Bourdais, making his debut for Torro Rosso, was on for fourth before his Ferrari engine gave way, but still manages to score points, whilst Alonso - back in the Renault after his unhappy season at McLaren - was able to capitalise on the misfortune of others to finish fourth.

The first race of the season is always a little different from the rest, as it's the first time the cars have been run together on a level playing field, but hopefully Australia will show the way for the rest of the races; Lewis taking the wins and the rest of the field squabbling over the remaining points. Roll on Malaysia in a week's time.

Serious Stuff

2008-03-24T14:12:00.005Z

A couple of days ago, I wrote Suicide is Painless?, when I was particularly down in the dumps. It was one of those posts that I was in two minds about posting, but clicked the "Publish" button before I could think about it too much. I'm glad I did, because it seems to have struck a chord with some people and I'm grateful that I've made that level of connection.

But at the same time, it's a little disturbing. This is serious stuff; attempted suicide is very prevalent amongst young people, and for that reason, I wanted to do a follow-up post to respond to a couple of comments that I've had and to perhaps give a better view of my perspective on the subject.

First, my perspective. I've never seriously considered ending my life, although I've known people that have tried and one person that succeeded. Every now and then my mind will toy with various ways that it might be done, but I've never actually set out to do it. I've never seen it as a sin, as those religious types do; to me, it's a statement. What that statement might be, though, very much depends on the person involved. For some it might be a statement of resignation: "That's it, I quit". For others, it might be a message aimed at one particular person: "Look what you made me do". For still others, it might be something as simple as "OK. Bored now. What's next?".

We can argue back and forwards for ever as to whether suicide is the coward's way out or a very brave thing to do and either view could be correct. I think it takes a lot of bravery to actually go through with it, but what brings a person to that point may be their wish to run away from what the world is throwing at them.

In the comments to Suicide is Painless?, Anonymous said:

I'm only 17 and I feel pretty much exactly like you do in every way... I've come inches and seconds away from committing suicide 3 times now. And I was going to do it again tonight, believe it or not. It's just good to know that others feel exactly the way you do

which I found quite disturbing. Here's a person who - at only 17 - has already tried to kill themselves three times. 17 is no age at all; at 17 you should be full of the joys of life, eager to get out there and sock it to the world. It should be a time of discovery, learning and happiness. It shouldn't be a time when you're looking around for a high building to throw yourself off.

You can always find bad in the world - you don't even need to look too hard these days - and you can always feel like things are never going to get better, if you let yourself. But you can also always find good in the world - although you might have to look a bit harder - and the troubles of the world are not yours to worry about (unless you are George W. Bush, in which case yes, it is all your fault). No matter how down you might feel, no matter how desperate your situation is, you can find something to be thankful for. Hold onto it and keep the thought of it with you at all times, and remind yourself of it when times get bad. Ignore the troubles of the wider world and concentrate on making your own world better.

If you don't feel you can do it by yourself, ask for help. And keep asking until you get it. The first person you ask may not want to know, or may not be able to help. Move on to the next. And so on. If you can' find someone in the real world, well one of the great advantages of the Net is that it puts you in instant contact with millions of people.

This hasn't, perhaps, been the most cheerful series of posts and not necessarily what The New Wolfs Howl would normally provide. My apologies for that, but I think (hope) that it has been worthwhile for at least some of you. I don't think that I have still really got a handle on my thoughts about it but I feel that I've at least started to show you where I'm coming from.

Fifth level drinking

2008-03-24T14:12:00.003Z

I'm not sure what level I was at last night when I wrote my cheery post about the mechanics of suicide, but this morning I'm definitely at level five. And reading back what I wrote is not helping the headache.

I don't really know where that post came from - some deep, dark part of my psyche that gets released when I have too much beer on a school night, it would seem - and I don't know what to feel about it. I know what some of my friends will feel about: "Stop being such a miserable drama queen and cheer the fuck up".

By the way, if you've never heard it before you should listen to Larry Miller's Five Levels of Drinking routine (You Tube has a clip); wonderful observational humour.

Suicide is painless?

2008-03-24T14:12:00.001Z

I've got a bit of a reputation as not being the most cheerful or tolerant of people, and that's probably well deserved. But I can be quite happy and out-going on occasion. It has been known, honest.

But I'm not the the cheeriest of people and sometimes I get really down in the dumps. I hesitate to call it depression, because that word - to me - is associated with people who just can't function when it has them in its grip. Depression is an illness; what I get is more a mood. Not a good one, but a mood none the less, and I can continue to go about my daily routine.

I can go for months and feel fine, then (usually without warning) I'll get that feeling where everything is too much trouble and I really can't see the point of doing anything. Around these times, which can last a few hours or a few days, I'll drink too much, I won't eat properly, I'll not bother about showers or any of that sort of thing and I'll become pre-occupied with death.

Not necessarily my death, but just death in general. I'll read all the news stories that deal with people being killed, I'll re-read books that have lots of death in them, I'll think about people that I have known and the ways in which they died. And, sometimes, I'll think about my own death.

I've always harboured a desire to die at a great age, surrounded by a large and loving family. At the same time, I've always wanted to die in some heroic manner - rescuing the damsel in distress, or taking the bullet meant for someone else. The third side of the triangle is that I've long thought about the best way of killing yourself.

It's not that I actively think about killing myself, but sometimes I do think about what would be the best way. Should it be the knife? But then, what about the pain? I'm not sure I'd have the fortitude to keep going through the pain of the initial cuts, to the point where it would be effective. Pills then. But pills are so unsure; what if you take just enough that you end up having your stomach pumped, or get gastro-intestinal bleeding? Yuck. Gun? That's out; this is the UK - guns are hard to come by. That only leaves the high jump and guess what? I'm afraid of heights, even though the most popular high jump suicide spot in the country is just up the road.

Some people see suicide as the cowards way out, and I can see that point of view. Face up to your problems, don't run away from them. Other people see suicide as very brave, and I can see that point of view as well. Go through the final, greatest pain knowing that you'll be free of it when you break through to the other side. Religious types see it as a sin, but I never was religious. Is it a weakness, a failure? Maybe, or is it your life's greatest achievement? The final and incontrovertible assertion of your own will, not kow-towing to what anyone else demands of you.

When I was a teenager, I made a vow to myself; I would never see my 60th birthday. I'm 40 this year, so that means I've only got 20 years to go.

[---]

I get these posts, sometimes; I start with a particular thing in mind that I want to say, and then I get side-tracked. When I re-read what I've written, I realise I've only got a small part of what I wanted to say across. By then, of course, it's published and I leave it up for the world to see. This post is one of those - I haven't really put down in writing what's in my head, but that's probably because I can't really make sense of what's in my head at the moment. I'll think on it some more and may update this post later.

You can't be serious

2008-03-10T18:30:00.003Z

TV Show The Bill (that one about the coppers that used to be good years ago, but which went pants when it became just another soap opera) got into hot water last week. They featured a story about a MS sufferer and in the course of the programme mentioned a drug called Plavitron.

Apparently, they've now been called "grossly irresponsible" because they made this drug up and gave "misled" a number of people with the disease about available treatments.

I'm sorry but The Bill is not a factual programme; it is not reporting truth. It's a drama - you know, made up - and as such has no responsibility to be at all accurate in what it portrays. While I don't wish to mock the afflicted, some people obviously need a reality check.

42

2008-03-10T18:30:00.001Z

If that number doesn't mean anything special to you, you should probably stop reading now. For the rest of you... did you know it was 30 years since Hitch-Hikers first appeared on BBC Radio Four?

I came to the party late and didn't get into HHGTTG until the second book (Restaurant At The End Of The Universe) had been published, but I was immediately hooked. I devoured every little thing that Douglas Adams produced - re-read them a gazillion times, until I could quote verbatim from the books. At school, we'd greet each other with a line from one of the books - and the correct response was to quote the next line.

I remember how picky we got when the TV series was produced, and none of the cast looked as we thought they should (except for Arthur - Simon Jones was always perfect casting for that role. Martin Freeman can't hold a candle to him). Sandra Dickinson for Trillian? Puh-lease!! And why couldn't they get Zaphod's other head to work properly?

What I loved about the whole HHGTTG phenomena was the flexibility in the narrative, which made it different in each media. There's stuff in the radio series that has never been in anything else, the books are different from the TV which is different from the albums which are different from the film. Essentially, Douglas Adams had one idea (whilst lying drunk in a field) and was able to re-sell it to everyone.

Check out this BBC story for a discussion on what 42 really means.

Far out in the unchartered backwaters of the Western Spiral Arm of the galaxy lies a small, unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly 92 million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet who's ape-descended life forms still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

That data thing again

2008-03-10T18:29:00.001Z

This story from the BBC highlights the latest arguments that are raging over online information. Apparently, the Press Complaints Commission are to undertake consultation about whether newspapers should be able to re-print information that individuals have made available on sites like Facebook and MySpace.

The impetus for this seems to be that individuals who have seen their information re-used in newspaper stories about them are objecting; they say that this information is private and not for public consumption.

Which is crap. This isn't (or shouldn't be) a privacy issue - it's a question of copyright. You've already made the information public by publishing it on a website; if it gets re-used by a newspaper then the best you can hope for is to sue them for infringement of your copyright - so if they re-publish your holiday snaps without your permission, you've got a case.

As far as privacy goes, if you don't want people to know about something then don't put it on a website. As I've said before (here and here), you're just opening yourself up for trouble.

In a related story, you may have heard of the issues that are surrounding the "whistle-blowing" site, Wikileaks. Everyone seems to be up in arms because they've been closed down for making public some confidential documents owned by companies; this is being seen as stifling of freedom of speech. Um, no. What it is is stopping the illegal use of documents that are not owned (and may have been obtained illegally) by those people who are making them public. Freedom of speech is a great thing and if it's being stifled then I'm ready to protest as loud as the next person - but that's not what is happening here.

Song for whoever

2008-03-05T21:59:00.000Z

Dawn. Debbie. Michelle. Samantha. Susan. Melissa. Nicky. Tracy. Sue. Lisa. Jo. Sam.

One of my favourite songs is Song for Whoever by Beautiful South - you know, the one where he lists all the girls names and thanks them for their inspiration. Whenever I hear it (it just popped up on Party Shuffle) I mentally make my own list. Sadly, it's not a very long list, and truth be told most of the names on it are just wishful thinking. (Which puts me in mind of the scene from Four Weddings where Charles has to admit that he's only slept with nine people - oh, that it had got as high as nine!)

I never have been any good in social situations. I'm basically shy and if put into a room full of people that I don't know, I'll sit in the corner and only speak when spoken to. I've always been that way and I'm not sure why. Perhaps because when I was very small - before I started school - when I went with my Mum to her various jobs I had to sit and be quiet, or perhaps because as I grew up and became taller than all my friends, I figured that by being quiet I wouldn't stand out so much. Or perhaps some other reason.

Whatever the explanation, I'm no good at talking to people I don't know. I don't do small talk; I've tried and it doesn't come out right (I can tell by their faces). I've sort of come to accept that this is just the way I am, but sometimes it still rankles. I'm knocking on the door of 40 and yet, confronted with a woman I don't know the best I can do is a mumbled "Hello". Why is that? By now I should have been able to put the shyness behind me and just be myself - because I don't think that shy is really who I am. As those whom I am lucky enough to call friends can probably attest, I can be large and loud and completely inappropriate without any provocation - usually, I'm sure, to the consternation of all those present.

[---]

I walked away from this post for about an hour, while I watched something mindless on TV and coming back to it, I'm not really sure where I was going with it. I'm tempted to delete it, but I'm going to put it up there for now and think about it.

Missing the point?

2008-02-25T22:00:00.001Z

The BBC are today reporting on a the latest experiment with biofuels - this time on a Virgin flight from Heathrow to Amsterdam. As you're probably aware, biofuels are quite the thing at the moment, especially amongst those seeking to protect the environment from the harmful emissions of traditional, fossil-based fuels.

You'd have thought that the Green lobby would be in favour of airlines using biofuels, as they are often cited as being the biggest polluters on the planet. But you'd be wrong - the Green lobby are actually opposed to this move, saying that biofuels do not reduce emissions and that growing crops for fuel is wrong when there is not currently enough land given over to growing food.

I'm no scientist, so I can't give you an argument about whether or not biofuels produce less emissions. I can give you an argument about not enough land given over to growing food, though. Yes, there are too many starving people in the world - but we produce more than enough food to feed the world already; it's just that we don't like to share. Even when large parts of the "civilised" world are dying of obesity-related illnesses, we'd still rather throw away food than give it to those that need it.

And the argument about emissions also misses the point, I think. We currently rely on fossil-based fuels for pretty much everything. Fossil-based fuels that are a finite resource which is fast running out. We either to need to change our fuel-burning ways, or we need to find alternatives. As no-one seems to want to give up their cars or their airplane trips, then we're left looking for new sources and at the moment bio-fuels are it.

PageRank slapdown

2008-02-17T10:57:00.004Z

Well, its taken a little while but today The Wolf's Howl at BlogSpot was officially slapped down by Google. From the heady heights of a 3 PR, we're now languishing in the depths of a 0 PR. Presumably this is a continuation of Google's policy of taking PR away from anyone that is using advertising services not offered by them.

As regular readers will know, I've been a PPP Postie for a few months. Back in October / November 2007 Google decided that PPP was among the greater ills of the world and decreed that they would remove PageRank from blogs that used the service. Of course, what also happened was that they removed PageRank from blogs that even mentioned PPP - so even TechCrunch (one of the most anti-PPP locations out there) were reduced to 0.

Much has been said about Google's high-handed approach to what qualifies as legitimate search results, but basically it seems to boil down to "It's our teddy and we'll throw it in the corner if we want!"

All opinions in this blog are either my own or else they're made up just to get a rise out of you and make you angry. Either way, they're probably not very well thought out or expressed so do yourself a favour and don't take the world so seriously.
Please be aware of the Copyright Policy that applies to The Wolf's Howl. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior permission.
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Shopping carts - the saga grows ever longer

2008-02-15T18:50:00.002Z

The trials and tribulations we're having at work with shopping cart software continues to be a pain in the arse. Every time you think you've found a solution and that yes, this is the one we're going to use, something comes along and blows a hole right through your plans.

As I've written in previous posts, we'd been looking mainly at Zen Cart which seemed to have all the functionality but had a back-end so horrible that it almost made your eyes bleed. Coupled with this is the fact that a lot of what should be simple settings (like changing the date format) require major hacking around in PHP files. This is not the best solution for an application that is to be used in a commercial environment; time should be spent in more productive areas. But this is what was available to us and so we were (painfully) slowly beginning to get a handle on it and get it set up.

Then whilst browsing a tech support forum a colleague came across a reference to CS Cart; not one we'd heard of before, but they had an online demo that you could check out. Still open source (although not free) CS Cart is so much more user-friendly than Zen Cart. Changing the date format is the click of one option button, the layout is good, everything is sensibly arranged. Downloaded a trial version, loaded it up and within about three hours had got further than we did with Zen Cart in about 24. But then, just as we were thinking that we'd got it all sorted (and were starting to chat up the big boss for the $195 asking price) we discovered that it couldn't manage VAT in the way that we needed it to.

VAT (sales tax) is a painful subject for shopping cart software, and a lot of them don't seem able to get a handle on it. Based in the UK, we have to include VAT (which runs at 17.5%) in all of our prices for UK and EC deliveries, but not for deliveries outside the EC. Further, at the checkout we need to be able to show the VAT element of the total price. But while browsing the cart, UK consumers expect to see the full price, not the price without VAT and this is the bit that CS Cart can't seem to get a handle on. If you set it to display prices with VAT then VAT gets charged for ALL deliveries, no matter where they are going. If you set it so that it shows the correct prices for deliveries outside the EC, then UK and EC consumers will see the pre-VAT price in big letters and the post-VAT price much smaller - until they actually checkout. No combination of settings seemed to rectify the situation.

I then read somewhere that CS Cart was based on X Cart, so I went to see if they had a demo version. Not only do they, but it comes ready set up for UK VAT and does everything absolutely as we'd want it to. But, it's more expensive and there's quite a bit of functionality, standard in CS Cart, that is an add-on extra - at quite a bit more money. Considering there's no budget for this project and we were trying to do it with only free software, we're now left in a bit of tricky situation - go for the cheaper option which has more functionality but can't do the VAT 100% properly, or lose some of the functionality in return for being able to do the VAT the way it should be done?

If there's anyone out there who has any experience using CS Cart or X Cart, I'd appreciate knowing what your opinion is. Is one better than the other, and if so, why? Is X Cart worth the extra money, or do you know a way to get CS Cart to do the VAT?

Going to back to Safari

2008-02-12T21:07:00.001Z

For several months now I've been using Flock as my browser of choice. Built on the Mozilla engine, it is a very good browser - lots of new things (in built Facebook integration, for example) and quite fast. The in-built blog editor has also been a major plus point for it.

But I've found that it does like to lock up quite a lot which I don't like. Every now and again, it just vapour locks itself and I'm left with no option but to Force Quit. Only takes a few moments, but it is annoying.

In addition to this, I've not been 100% satisfied with the way it deals with tags when posting blog entries to a Wordpress blog; this may be a limitation of Wordpress rather than Flock, but Ecto has no problems dealing with them properly. And that's what I'm using for my blog entries at the moment. I overcame my reservations with it and am actually really happy with Ecto as a blogging client.

The final nail in the coffin for Flock (at least at the moment, I may go back to it in the future) is the WebKit version of Safari. Whilst this is development software, it is very fast (by far the fastest browser I've used on this machine) and it somehow feels right to be using Safari on an iMac. Even though it's development software, I'm not having the lock-ups that I've been getting with Flock, and I prefer the way it presents drop-down lists and buttons (a small thing, I know, but it's the small things that you live with on a day-to-day basis and they are important).

If you're on a Windows system and aren't already using a Mozilla-based browser (and even if you are), I'd recommend giving Flock a go; it's the best of the Mozilla browsers and waaayy better than whichever flavour of IE you might be using. If you're on OS X and you haven't tried it, give it a go and see if you have the same lock-up issues I did. I'd also recommend you give the WebKit version of Safari a go - so far it does not seem to have any extra features, but it does absolutely fly!

Marketing improvements

2008-02-08T21:15:00.001Z

We've been talking at work about how to buck the current trend in retail sales and bring in more business; it's a tricky subject because the one thing that we're not good at (being a small firm with limited resources) is marketing. Yet without not just marketing but the correct marketing for your brand, you might as well shut up shop.

There's lots of consultants out there who tell you that they'll come in and do it all for you, which is great but those limited resources come into play all the time. Yes, we'd like to do this, that and the other, Mr Consultant, but having paid your fees we don't have any budget left!

So I'm pleased to have found a great site called Marketing Minefield. Aptly named, because that's what marketing is, this site is full of information, hints and tips on everything from internet marketing advice, through billboard advertising, direct mail and even telemarketing. Whichever area interests you, they've got background info, tips and tricks to help you make the most of whatever marketing budget you do have.

They also offer a monthly newsletter, which will send tips direct to your inbox every month. Sign up and use of the site is completely free - can you afford not to?

This post is sponsored by Marketing Minefield.

Doing away with those January blues

2008-01-30T19:27:00.001Z

January is one of those strange times of year; it should be good, because we're over the Christmas hump and moving forward into a new year with all of the promise that brings; we're past the shortest day, so nights and mornings are gradually getting lighter; everything is being re-born for a fresh assault on life.

But so often January is a time of depression, bad temper and violence. Rather than being in optimistic mood people seem to be in a slump; they see January as being "back to the grindstone" after the Christmas festivities (even though they'll have moaned incessantly about Christmas - how much it cost them, how much they hate spending time with their family, how crap the television was, and so on) and the postman is the harbinger of doom when he brings the credit card statement.

I'm not always the most cheerful of people (downright bad-tempered and moody I think would be a kind description from many that know me) and I can be very intolerant, but I do at least try to be happy. It doesn't always work because I get pissed off very easily if things aren't working the way they should, but today has been a good day. Yet I encounter people on a daily basis for whom everything is too much trouble, and it's depressing.

I can't get a handle on why you would want to spend your whole life being unhappy (I'm not talking about people who are clinically depressed; I'm talking about people who seem to choose to be miserable sods); sure there are many things out there to bring you down, but why let them? If you can do something about it, do. If you can't, then ignore it. That way you'll be much happier.

And it's amazing how much easier your day can be if you approach it in a happy frame of mind. When you're miserable, the simplest task (like being pleasant to a customer) can become impossible. When you're happy, it's easy. And happiness is contagious. Pretty soon, you realise that there wasn't anything to be miserable about in the first place.

Under starters orders

2008-01-28T17:51:00.001Z

The tail-end of January is one of those times of year when you can feel the anticipation of a year's worth of sport just over the horizon; we've usually just had the Dakar Rally (although that was cancelled this year) and the first round of the WRC has just been settled (Loeb on his way to Championship number five), and we can start to look forward to the start of F1, MotoGP, the boat race and - my favourite, and the one that let's me know that winter is really on the way out - the Grand National. I don't know what it is about horse-racing that makes it so compelling at any time of the year, but come the Grand National meeting at Aintree and it gets multiplied by about a million. When I was a kid, I can remember that it seemed like the whole nation really was watching on National Saturday, as those brave horses and riders tried to negotiate the terrors of jumps like Beechers and the Chair to claim the greatest prize in English racing. As much as I can I try to make sure that I never miss the Grand National! This year, in my continued experiment with online gambling, I'm thinking that I'll try my hand at online betting with Betfair.com. The National is the one race that even your old granny will have a flutter on and Betfair is one of the biggest names in betting, so the two seem to go together well. Check out their current prices for the National by clicking here. Of course, it's not just the National that you can bet on at Betfair; they cover the whole of the horse-racing calendar - including races in the US!

Not so splendid isolation

2008-01-24T18:49:00.001Z

Did you see Horizon on Tuesday night? If you didn't catch it, check it out while you can on the BBC iPlayer; it's the most interesting (and disturbing) programme I've seen for quite some time.

Interesting because of the basic premise; six people volunteered to be shut away in solitary confinement and sensory deprivation for 48 hours just so that Horizon could monitor the effects. Disturbing because of what some of those effects were and what they might mean for the wider world.

All of the subjects were nervous but excited in the lead up to the 48 hours of the test, but as the time to be locked away grew closer, they all got less excited and more nervous. Most of them just wanted to get on with it and get it over. I expected that not all would make it through the two days.

The group of six was split into two; one group were put into small rooms with no light, no sound and nothing to do. The second group were not shut in the dark, but they did have to wear goggles that prevented them from seeing anything clearly, headphones that played them white noise all the time, and padding around their hands and arms to shut off their sense of touch. Both groups were otherwise unencumbered and could move about freely, sleep when they wanted and so on.

None of the subjects were locked in, all could leave at any time; they were also monitored constantly to make sure that they were not suffering extreme psychological effects and they were kept fed and watered.

Prior to entering their rooms, each subject was given a series of tests to benchmark their mental ability - with particular focus on recall and suggestibility. At the end of the two days, they were tested again. And it's the differences in the two sets of results that is most disturbing.

Yes, hallucinations and all the other mental strains that the six exhibited are disturbing but greater than that is the change in their ability to tell truth from lies; all of the men scored significantly worse on their suggestibility tests after the experiment than they did before. If you don't think this has any bearing in the real world, think about all those Guantanamo Bay prisoners held in solitary confinement, all those self-confessed murderers who only confessed after an extended stay in solitary. As one of the researchers said, this change in suggestibility came after only two days - during which they had not been ill-treated; what sort of change could you expect from someone who's been locked up for months and possibly been tortured, certainly been badly treated? Isn't it reasonable to think that you could convince them that white was black if that's what you wanted to do?

Web hosting - too much choice!

2008-01-23T06:59:00.001Z

Having recently gone self-hosted with my other blog, I'm well aware of the massive choice of hosting companies out there. All of them offer something slightly different, at slightly different costs; but which is better? And which ones should you avoid? Word-of-mouth-recommendation is always good in these circumstances, but what if you don't know anyone that's self-hosted? That's where sites like web hosting choice come in. The premise is straightforward - they've got a database of loads of hosting companies (and even more hosting plans) which you can then search by criteria that you determine (monthly cost, set-up cost, bandwith allowance etc), to narrow down the list. You can then read customer reviews of the short-listed ones to help you make your choice. They've also got a very helpful section about hosting scams and the pitfalls you should look out for, as well as a very helpful hosting FAQ. This post is sponsored by webhostingchoice.com.

Open source software

2008-01-23T06:51:00.001Z

Since buying my iMac, I've become a big fan of open source software - mainly because all of the software I'd want to buy is too damn expensive, so if there's a cheaper alternative out there I'm in. I changed from MS Office to NeoOffice (an development of OpenOffice) and all the little bits and pieces that I use on a daily basis either came as part of the operating system (Mail) or I found on the Net (NetNewsWire, TextWrangler, Adium and the most useful of all - QuickSilver). So when I'm looking for software solutions for a project at work, I'll look for an open source solution first. At the moment, we're looking for shopping cart / database software for one of our websites. We're starting from scratch on this one (this particular brand has never had a website before) and it seemed sensible to make it a database-driven site, to make it easier to change products, add new offers, etc. The hosting service we're using comes with Fantastico, which includes three shopping cart packages - ZenCart, OSCommerce and CubeCart. Today, I've been taking a look at them, trying to evaluate their suitability for our needs and I'm sorry to report that my faith in open source is starting to flag a bit. ZenCart was the first one I tried, as we'd seen that in operation on other sites and it looked OK. But, man, the backend is horrible. Really poorly designed, the functionality is all over the place and it's just not intuitive to use at all. It seems to have all the functionality we need, but it's going to be a pig to get everyone up to speed with it. CubeCart seems better; certainly the backend is better designed and with the various bits of functionality well grouped. Unfortunately, it's got a couple of rather major problems (the way it calculates tax, for example) that have pretty much ruled it out. OSCommerce has been an absolute nightmare; it doesn't seem to like being installed via Fantastico, but I finally managed to get a newer version loaded manually (and had to get a MySql problem fixed along the way) and what a disappointment. Almost exactly the look as ZenCart (they have tried to fix it up a bit, but it hasn't really worked) but with less functionality, and if you want to do something that should be simple (like change a template) you have to hack about with files at an FTP level. I'm disappointed, to say the least, because I would have thought that in three options I'd have been able to find one that was good for our needs. So, this is a plea for help: I'm looking for a piece of shopping cart / database software that has at least as much functionality as ZenCart, is easier to administer and is preferably open source (ie free). Anyone have any suggestions?

All opinions in this blog are either my own or else they're made up just to get a rise out of you and make you angry. Either way, they're probably not very well thought out or expressed so do yourself a favour and don't take the world so seriously. Please be aware of the Copyright Policy that applies to The Wolf's Howl. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior permission. Using Firefox or IE? Grab the Alexa Toolbar and help The Wolf's Howl move up in the ratings.

The state of your health

2008-01-22T22:47:00.001Z

Without wanting to get too political about it, now is not a good time to get sick in the UK. Wards have been closed in hospitals across the country because of norovirus, and MRSA and other 'superbugs' are still not under control; plus if you pick the wrong hospital to go to, you may well end up being treated by a porter masquerading as a doctor. The NHS is basically on its knees because it's been neglected and poorly managed for too many years. Which is where private medicine comes in, with companies like BUPA offering better facilities, better care and a more professional attitude towards healthcare. More and more of us are taking out private medical insurance to cover us for those things we hope will never happen. But many of us are also leaving the UK for sunnier climes; what happens then? Well, now you can take your BUPA cover with you - with Expat Health Insurance. One of the best-known names in the field of private health care, BUPA can cover you wherever you are in the world, not just here in the UK. Check out their website, where you can get information about their products, an informative collection of health articles and a get a free medical insurance quote. This post is sponsored by BUPA.

Blue Monday and Feelgood Tuesday

2008-01-21T18:34:00.001Z

No, not the New Order classic. What I'm talking about here is Monday 21 January, which is apparently the most depressing day of the year. A Cardiff University psychologist has developed a formula that "takes into account... weather, debt, time since Christmas, time since failing our New Year's resolutions, low motivational levels and the feeling of a need to take action". Luckily, though, us Brits have been found to be optimists and more than 85% of us "expect the future to be happier than it is now". I'm not normally a Monday person* (there's another study that says that Sunday night is the one night of the week when you'll get a bad night's sleep, so maybe that's why) but I was relatively cheerful this morning - until I heard about Blue Monday. The very concept is depressing and demotivational; and its such an abstract concept too, masquerading as proper science. So I've decided that tomorrow will be Feelgood Tuesday. The most depressing day of the year is out of the way already (and we're only three weeks in), so everything's getting better from now on. Don't wait for the future to be happy; be happy now!
[*there are those that would say I'm not an any day of the week person, and they may be right!]

All opinions in this blog are either my own or else they're made up just to get a rise out of you and make you angry. Either way, they're probably not very well thought out or expressed so do yourself a favour and don't take the world so seriously. Please be aware of the Copyright Policy that applies to The Wolf's Howl. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior permission. Using Firefox or IE? Grab the Alexa Toolbar and help The Wolf's Howl move up in the ratings.