del.icio.us hotlist not so hot?

I'm not sure if anyone else is having this trouble?  I subscribe to the del.icio.us hot list RSS feed in my bloglines browser.. There's generally 40-50 updates a day!  It's very nice and generally mirrors what's on Digg, but i like the fact that there's thumbnails there!

Tis nice!

Anywho, for the last week or 2, all i've seen is markup code!... what haaaassle!  So i've just been skipping the feed and marking it as read without even looking at it.

Is anyone else having this problem with bloglines & the del.icio.us hotlist?

Ironically, it work's fine in Google Reader.  Is this fate's way of getting me to lodge bloglines, and go with Google?!

Woah, Jon Hicks is proper talented...

... but you knew that already!... Right?

I've just been reading my feeds and a new item popped up from hicksdesign.  He's basically produced a new CSS file for use with the Firefox Stylish extension & Googles feed reader producing a much nicer looking feed reader.

I'm still using Jon's Bloglines style, which is proper nice too... but is this enough to push me over to using the big G's feed reader?  I already use their mail, calendar, docs, maps, search, Stats and of course, blogger. (Oh dear, im a Google whore...)

It's definatly worth a look! [link]

Getting Nomad Explorer on my Dock!

I've got a Creative Zen Touch Mp3 player. I've mentioned it plenty of times before on my blog, and it's a wicked little machine. I've had no real  problems with it and it's still going strong!

The Creative Zen Touch (and probably most other Creative DAP's) come with their own software called Nomad Explorer.  It enables the Mp3 player & PC to talk, i can add / remove tunes, playlists, ID tags etc.  It does an alright job, but I'd love to be able to get faaar more functionality out of it!  It does the basic functions, but it could do sooo much more!  I mean, there's a third party app called Notmad by Redchair software and that seems far more functional. However, that costs (and i dont like that!).  There's also Gnomad if i was using linux, but i'm not... So i'm stuck with Nomad Explorer.

I Also use a program called Rocketdock which provides me with a navigational dock which pops up and dissapears when i need it!  I can drag my most used shortcuts onto it and then choose them as and when i need them!  It's also unobtrusive, so it appears when i hover over it, and then dissapears when i dont need it!  It also hovers over my active windows so it's always on hand when i need it!  Saves me navigating back to my desktop to get to my shortcuts!

dock Hosted on Zooomr

Im babbling.  I Apologise.

So i wanted to get my shortcut to Nomad onto my Dock! Shouldn't be hard task, except for the fact that everytime i dragged the shortcut onto the dock, it didn't provide a target so it was just an icon that did nothing.  Rubbish!  After checking the original shortcut, that worked fine!  No target, but it still opend Nomad Explorer.. Strange!

So after a bit of goooglnig this morning, i found out that if i entered a path into the iconsettings, it worked perfectly!  Hoorah!  So if anyone's looking to do the same, here's the path i used.  I think this path depends on what MP3 player you have...

C:\Program Files\Creative\Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen Xtra\NOMAD Explorer\NOMAD Explorer.lnk

SunRunRally.com

Before anyone starts thinking that I've started putting ad's on this site for monetary gain, I've not. SunRunRally.com is a venture a friend of mine is embarking on with my help!...

Check it out, and if you fancy a bit of a road trip, visit SunRunRally.com for more information. Registration is now open so get in there as there are only limited spaces available!

Opera presents Speed Dial...

I'm a Firefox person. I have been for the last 3 years. It started when I was visiting several sites at once using IE6 and my taskbar had more browsers running that work apps! After some discussion with a few friends, Firefox was recommended. I gave it a go, and was amazed. Within a few weeks, my work PC, home PC, laptop & several other systems i had control of now used Firefox as it's default browser.

Then my girlfriends brother told me about Opera. A similar browser. He kept telling me how Opera was better, blah blah! I nearly beleived him, and for a month at the end of last year, Opera was my main browser! But it just didn't feel as good as Firefox. It was slightly quicker, but had less features!

Never-the-less, Opera have just released Opera 9.2 and it comes with a rather nifty feature which I'd love to see on Firefox.

When you open a new tab in Opera, instead of showing a blank page, it'll show 9 boxes which render 9 user-defined websites! Clicking on either of these thumbnails will load the site in the same tab!

I think it'd be perfect for web-developers who run several sites at once. For instance, if they crack open a new tab, and it shows the developer their own websites, which would tell the developer whether they're websites were online or not!

I'm sure it's got plenty more uses, but that's all i can think of at the moment. I will have a play around with Opera at a later date, but until then, Speed Dial is a nice addition to a nice browser.

Check out the screen cast here!

Whaa?!.. PS3 can read RSS feeds?

I recently checked my feedburner stats, and it showed that someone has subscribed to this very blog on their PS3... How cool is that!  I didn't even know the PS3 could read RSS feeds.

You learn something new everyday....

I've been 'Off the Grid'...

Over the last week, i've realised how much I really use the web and how it's a part of my life.  I posted several days ago regarding my 'rant at Virgin Media'  And how they're not helpful when it comes to network problems.

Well here's a quick update of what happened with Virgin Media.  Wednesday evening, i had trouble connecting to the net.  It was too late to do anything, so i left it.

Thursday, I tried my net again, and it failed miserably.  I Phoned Virgin, and had no luck what-so-ever.

Friday, I wrote a post about VM.  Friday evening though, H & I went to her mum's for the weekend.  Now obviously, I didn't get much 'net' time there.  I briefly check my emails but that's it.

So Sunday, i came home from Suffolk.  Tried my internet, and it still didn't work. So i got back on the phone.  Long-story short.  I shouted, they apologised and said that as far as they are concerned, there's no problem, even though i didn't have the internet.

So Monday morning, i go to work, looking forward to reading my RSS feeds and checking mail and having a whole web of info at my fingertips... but it wasn't to be.  My work computer had failed...  It wouldn't start, nor would it do anything!

We had this problem 2 weeks ago, so the computer went back to the shop.  Turns out the Power supply had gone bad, and somehow damaged the motherboard too!  Now, we told them to replace the parts.  But in order to do that, they needed to re-install windows.  "As long as you back-up the existing data" i said.   I got a lot of waffle in response.  Basically, i have filld 150GB of my HDD at work and apparantly it'd take half a day to back it up!.  In the end, i told them to install a second 80gb HDD and install windows on that.  So that's what they've done!

But it's not until this morning that i've finally got my PC back.  And i've over looked something!   None of my software is here... D'oh!

I had my work PC set up how i wanted it.  All my programs were here, everything i needed to do my job + my other internet-based activities.  My firefox was setup perfectly.  All my add-ons where there, all my bookmarks, all my greasemonkey scripts... tis all gone now :(

So now im back online at home and at work!  I just have to remember to keep some sort of "list" of programs / addons that i've installed because i cant remember for the life of me what i had previously!   bugger!