Saturday, December 30, 2006

New year predictions.....

As we draw to the end of 2006, I'm going to make a few predictions for 2007.

In technology:

1) Several bugs and vulnerabilities will emerge in Windows Vista

2) Firefox and Linux market share will still rise, but by far less this year

3) Apple will released yet another Ipod variant

4) There will be new "unexpected" problems with the Identity Card scheme/database

In business:

5) Oil prices will rise

6) The house market bubble will continue to grow

7) More businesses will declare themselves eco-friendly and ethical in 2007

In politics:

8) The Olympics will run over budget

9) "Global warming" will get worse

10) The Labour party will learn a valuable lesson about integrity


Caesar - December 2006

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Saturday, December 09, 2006

Christmas is getting closer....

and yet you will not see everybody happy about this. I often feel sympathy when there are lots of happy people everywhere and a few sad people also scattered around.

Here are some of the people who might be sad at Christmas:

1) People who are lonely
2) People who have suffered a recent sad incident
3) People who are poor and can't afford gifts or have to work or are homeless or starving
4) People in third world countries who get no Christmas break
5) People who do not celebrate Christmas but have to endure it

The list is not complete, but I think its enough to show that at Christmas time in our frenzy of buying and celebrations we should reach out to some of the people who are sad and try and make a difference, however small.

All I've done so far is fill up one of those third world shoe boxes.

But to truly help someone doesn't even require you spend any money. Just listening to people and supporting them out can make a difference too.

So go and be there for people. Help them out, be generous (if you can) when giving to charity and ultimately remember that we are all human and all on earth together. Life is hard and we need to look after each other, and if not at Christmas, then when?

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Saturday, December 02, 2006

A complaint to webmasters who have "exit" buttons.

I am what you could describe as an internet veteran. I've gone through the various fads (anyone remember freeipods.com?) and can usually tell a good website from a bad one pretty rapidly. I am assuming, as you were able to find this page, you also are fairly experienced with the web.

OK. So every now and then I will come across a page with an "exit" button. (Note I'm not talking about the "close" button on some popup windows).

An exit button is completely meaningless for the following reasons:

1) I could easily navigate away from the page or close my browser
2) The button gives no idea of the action that will be taken. Will the browser close, will I go back to the home page or will I be directed to another page.
3) If the browser window is going to close, I could do that myself already. If the button is going to take me back to the homepage, it should be called "home" or some other suitable name. If the button is going to take me to another site it should be called the name of the site it is going to take me to.
4) Also when an exit button is going to move you to another site, it often spawns adverts or the page being linked to is filled with adverts and is usually completely irrelevant and unhelpful.

Don't use them. They make sites look unproffessional and they slow down the browsing process, which will reduce the number of people who return to the page.

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