NetBloke.com - Ambitious Aussie
Publication Date: 26/02/2002
ISSN 1445-1360
Publication Date: 26/02/2002
ISSN 1445-1360
Well it has been almost a month since I have had time to get out
an issue of NetBloke. Time just isn't something that I have had a
lot of lately. Let me fill you in on what I have done in the past
month.
I have started writing the Sausage Sizzler newsletter on a weekly
basis, and in a week or so will be doing a cobranded version with
Lockergnome called the Webmaster Week. This has taken up a lot of
time!
Next we have the daily triumphs and tragedies of Sausage. Yes we
are moving forward and getting to where we want to be but it is
taking more time and effort than I could have ever imagined.
Last Friday we picked up our new car. We ended up with the Suzuki
Grand Vitara XL-7 Touring. No we are not rich just in more debt
than a week ago. We decided on this car as the price was right
and the features and seating capacity should make long drives
with visiting relatives and friends more comfortable. You can
check it out at Suzuki's Web site.
Thanks go to Bob who put me on to eLeasereturns.com
however they ended up specializing more in luxury import cars
than what I wanted. When I want that BMW Z3 or MGF I am sure to
use them!
My friend Jennifer also clued me in to a couple of useful sites
for those of you looking for a new car:
Edmunds is an incredible site for anyone
looking for new or used cars. They have all the details on
almost every single car out there and the give pros and cons on
many of the cars. They also teach you about MSRP and dealer
holdbacks, thus showing you what a fair price for any car would
be. They offer specific buyer's guides too, for a small fee.
Otherwise everything on the site is free.
Another site is Consumer Reports
which, although most of their info requires a paying membership,
you can sign up on a month-by-month basic (cancel anytime) and
the fees are like $4 or $5 a month. Not bad for all the info on
their site -- cars and everything else.
Anyway you can all see I have been quite ambitious in the amount
of tasks I have undertaken all at once. This is just a quick
issue to let everyone know I am still around. You may have
noticed that my Web site was up and down a little as my host
moved it to a faster and more stable server. So NetBloke.com
should be available and around for a long, long time!
Next issue I am going to share with you my process on getting the
cheapest flights possible using a combination of different Web
sites. This will be a real test as I am hopefully going to
Australia next month. I say hopefully as I am still dealing with
INS approval to leave here! Yet another hurdle for me!
Now I have to run off and work out the complexities of my tax
situation. Just another headache to resolve!
Seeya later alligator!
Nathan Allan
Get fobbed off
I certainly haven't been fobbing you guys and gals off. I have
been thinking and meaning to write an issue for the past 3 weeks.
To fob someone off means to put them off in a rude or offhanded
manner. You know I couldn't do that to my mum (who reads
NetBloke) so how could I do it to the rest of you?
I covered the CRTL + W key combination for closing windows as
they pop up in IE. However since then I have been using a program
that runs in the background called Pop-up Stopper.
This kills all of those annoying pop-up windows without you
having to do a thing. Plus it is free.
If you do want the windows to pop-up all you do is hold down the
CTRL key.
This is an effective way to stop all of those unwanted windows
suck as the famous X10 Camera ads.
You will find Pop-up Stopper at:
http://www.panicware.com
Yes this is a piece of shameless self promotion however I also
believe it will help the majority of you who run or want to run
their own Web site.
Last week I relaunched the Sizzler Forums at Sausage which are a
resource for not only HotDog users but for people who need help
with their Web development questions.
For those of you who are in the know already you will find forums
on; HTML, PHP and MySQL, CSS, Web Hosting, Domain Names and of
course the HotDog Editors just to name a few!
It is a great online community and I would love to see some of my
NetBloke readers join (it is free).
Take a look at:
http://www.sizzlerforums.com
An old Sausage colleague, Peter Renshaw tracked me down and has
sent in this interesting and sometimes funny site run by
Australia's ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company).
Here is how the site describes itself:
Word Map is an interactive web site mapping Australian
regionalisms - words, phrases or expressions used by particular
language groups. Add your regionalism or search to see what
others have contributed.
Check out this interesting view of Australia at:
http://www.abc.net.au/wordmap/
