Tumblr

I’ve had a Tumblr blog for quite a while now but never really used it. It was a case of trying something new without actually needed it (why would I when I have this blog). However over the past few weeks there have been times when I want to post something that is funny or stupid to my blog.

As I want to keep SizzlaBlog, strictly for Flash and web related stuff, I started adding things to Tumblr.

There is now even an iPhone app that allows me to post while on the go, so why not check out my Tumblr page by clicking on the icon below:

I’ve not written a full post on here for a while - party due to the fact that I have been on holiday and have moved house (still waiting for my internet equipment - come on BT!!).

There are a few Flash tutorials/apps that I will be adding over the next few weeks, such as a Facebook style pop up window to display messages in your Flash applications.

I will also the flCodr panel with some nice new features so check the site regularly for that!!

The early part of the 21st century brought many new buzzwords and phrases. IT professionals are no longer known simply as the ‘computer guy’ but instead have names such as Software Architect and eLearning Developer. Gone were the days of sticking an ‘e’ on the front of everything to make it sound futuristic. Even sticking the Apple ‘i’ in front of everything was starting to get a big weak.

The internet needed to evolve into something more that just a repository of information. It needed to grow almost by itself. It needed to be used for socialising as well as information.

Enter social networking a.k.a MySpace and facebook et al. These sites have made it possible to view what a friend was up to online. For the first time, it was cool to have virtual friends and the image of geeks locked away in their bedrooms on chat rooms was starting to fade. Having more virtual friends was more popular that having real friends. For the first time average people were friends with celebrities.

Enter 2008 and the shift is starting to move to having the internet in your pocket and being permanently connected to the web and the world. At the touch of a button it is now possible to update your Facebook status while waiting to be served at the bar. Twitter enables friends and family to share quick responses to the answer: What are you doing? This seems pointless if you have to log onto a desktop or even laptop computer as your status is not always current. Phones such as the iPhone allow users to get the internet pretty much anywhere this is a mobile signal. This sort of power has created a new type of internet: one where information and data about the user is submitted in the background.

The mobile scrobbler app for the iPhone will automatically update the user’s last.fm profile with the song that is currently playing on the iPhone. The user could take an image and this could be automatically uploaded to flickr with the user’s location.

This I believe is where the internet is going - to a state where the transfer of information from user to user is instant and silent. The effort has been removed almost to the point that there is no extra step to update a profile or Twitter status. With is abundance of data is also the issue of storing it safely.

My vision is to create a set of web services which could automatically create a profile of the user based on their daily activities. This blog aims to get as close to that as possible by displaying information from various web services and social networking sites all in one place.

Welcome the new geek. Spending time on the internet and sharing information and data is no longer solely for nerdy teenagers, it is for everyone.

The Locator Panel has now been updated to v1.2. The update improves the functionality of the Map, in terms of being controlled by the keyboard and mouse. It also improves feedback when a connection is lost or cannot be found.

You can download the panel from here.

I’ve found a new plugin that enables you to view the SizzlaBlog in a format optimized for your iPhone or iTouch. Simply head to the same address (www.blog.sizzla-media.co.uk) to view it.

If you would like the theme yourself check out the page over at ContentRobot.

There are a few things I need to tweak but everything seems to work ok!!

Now this may seem common sense to a lot of you but when restoring/updating/jailbreaking your iPhone, don’t be as stupid as me and pull out the cable.

Stupid thing to do, but I mistook it for my Mighty Mouse cable (they look identical). The phone went dead and all I could get out of it was the Apple logo. I tried all the restore methods but nothing worked.

Quick trip to the Apple store and the Genius plugged in a different cable with a strange looking device attached. Whatever it was, it did the trick and i’ve now got my iPhone back and working.

Seems that this is what happens to phones that have been jailbroken and then updated through iTune. As I only had the phone for a matter of days, and could prove that it was activated they took my word for it. A word of warning though, if your phone was jailbroken they won’t fix it, and will even charge you to remove the SIM card!! My advice is if you have a new iPhone to just wait until they release the SDK and third party app support. There should be some nice goodies available that won’t mess up your phone.

Funnily enough, the genius did the same thing and removed the wrong cable during the restore process!!

Oh and by the way, I wasn’t trying to jailbreak my iPhone - honest!!