Archive

Idea: alternatives.to

Published
by
Callum
1 month, 2 weeks ago
in Ideas
. 11 Comments

I’m always looking for alternatives to sites, for one reason or another. An alternative to Google because of their politics. An alternative to CouchSurfing.com because of it’s unreliability. An alternative to RentaCoder.com because it’s good to spread the reptuation.

This morning, I thought it would be great to launch a simple site that lists alternatives to popular sites. While walking to the shops, the perfect url hit me, alternatives.to of course! Unfortunately, it’s taken. As is alt.to. However, alts.to is available.

So, questions for you, my faithful readers:

  1. Do you think it’s a good idea? Could it be useful?
  2. Is alts.to clutching at straws? Should I try to find a url that really works instead of a second best option?

Answers on a postcard, or a comment below for expendiancy! :)

Update: Both alternates.to and alternate.to are available. Are they better?

Media Template - outrageous bandwidth charges

Published
by
Callum
1 month, 2 weeks ago
in Rants and Techy
. 8 Comments

Cog clock - taken by balakov on flickrI’m pissed.

Happy Cogs recently did some work on the admin upgrade for WordPress 2.5. Through them, I found the hosting company Media Template. The pitch was appealing. They seemed professional, personal, all the things you’d want from a hosting company. That is, until I started digging.

One of their virtual server products costs $150 per month, and includes 2Tb of bandwidth. Excess bandwidth is charged, per Gb, at $2.56. Or, if you pre-purchase 1Tb, at half that price, $1.28 per Gb. That means that your first 2Tb cost $150, while your next 1Tb would cost $1′310.72, or 17.5 times more than your first 2Tb (1′748% to be precise).

Astounded by this absurdity I contacted their sales team. I was expecting the response to be in line with their website. Intelligent, considered, rational. I was sadly disappointed. It felt like the typical, corporate, monkey follow order, response you’d expect from Hewlett Packard or some other Indian outsourced outfit.

Not content to let matters lie, I have started a campaign. I have described my outrage at GetSatisfaction. Then I posted it to digg. Now I’m posting it here. Then I’m going to email all the links to the CEO and see what happens. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll get an intelligent response. Otherwise, I’ll publicise the fact that their ticket system allows you to view the email addresses of people who contact them.

Degree spam - fight back

Published
by
Callum
1 month, 3 weeks ago
in Travels
. 0 Comments

Whack-a-Spam by jwol3I just received an email offering me “Bacheelor, MasteerMBA, and Doctoraate diplomas”. Somewhat ironic that there’s spelling errors. They’re probably to try and fool the spam checkers.

I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of buying qualifications. I opened the email expecting to find a web link, but no, instead there’s a phone number. +1-801-504-2132

They ask you to call and leave a message with your name and phone number. It costs 1.2p per minute to call from Skype. Does anyone have any premium rate numbers? Preferrably the really, really expensive ones? I’ll happily waste some time and money leaving a few messages for them. :)

Holographic video conferencing

Published
by
Callum
1 month, 3 weeks ago
in Fun and Techy
. 0 Comments

Spotted this on Guy’s blog. Cisco made a presentation in India. There were 3 people on stage. One in India. Two in San Jose, onstage via live, holographic, 3d, video conferencing. Awesome! Check out the explanation and video.

First round of Sydney photos

Published
by
Callum
1 month, 3 weeks ago
in Fun, Photos and Travels
. 1 Comment

An assortment of photos from Sydney follows.

Surfers stroll through the streets of Sydney

It’s quite common to see surfers strolling through the streets of Sydney. In fairness, this was just across the road from the beach though! :)

Bondi Beach

The first picture was just across the road from this, Bondi Beach.

Ross, master of the ocean

Ross, master of the ocean. :)

White ladies of Primo Italiano

The white ladies. This was taken at the Primo Italiano Italian Festival.

Otis on Ricketty Street

While leaving Agata’s place I couldn’t help but laugh at this sign. Otis, the lift company, are located at 5-9 Ricketty Street. Oh dear, that was an unfortunate choice!

Tunnocks Caramel Wafers in Sydney

I spotted Tunnocks Caramel Wafers in a speciality sweet shop in Pitt St Mall. I just couldn’t resist.

Breakfast Raw

Published
by
Callum
1 month, 3 weeks ago
in Fun, Personal and Photos
. 1 Comment

I’m starting to get a tiny bit ill. It’s the same sort of sore throat / slight cough that I’ve had a few times recently. So in a bid to beat it down once and for all, I’m going to overdose on raw food for the next few days! I whipped up to the shops this morning and bought a couple of bagfulls of goodness. Here’s my first raw breakfast:

Raw Breakfast

Two WPMU plugins published

Published
by
Callum
1 month, 3 weeks ago
in Techy and WordPress
. 0 Comments

I published the Real Global Terms and the SH Global Posts plugins today. It’s code I’ve had running for ages and have been promising to publish but never quite gotten round to it. Now it’s out, let the madness ensue… :)