Swiftly moving on, I though I’d give you a quick recap of what I’ve actually been up to. (And it’s not all TV, honest! I’ve only managed to catch a few hours of that this week – This makes for a sad Daniel)

These past few weeks have certainly been this “busiest”, of the few since. After months of doing bits here and there, I finally decided to finish off my personal site (minus the content re-work… – though it is responsive now, always a plus.) After that, a well earned break from computers in my spare time was certainly needed!

This gave me some lovely time to catchup with some films I’ve been meaning to do since around November time. (Jheesh, I’ve really no idea where all of my time goes!) That is, until I had an email about sites going offline due to server issues. Sadly, there was little coming back from this. Content was lost, it was time to move. But I’ll spare you the technical details. To summarise, these past few weeks have been very geek-related, and still not quite finished!

So once free time returns, the content should shortly follow… If not, I’m probably doing something wrong somewhere.

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You see, when I was growing up through my teen years, when we pick up our habits. “MySpace” was in, soon followed by Facebook… But me and Facebook, we never really got on. Don’t get me wrong, it was a brilliant way to communicate with family and friends at it’s time, but it also came with it’s part of drama. This is what put me off.

I was the never the popular kid at school, I never really liked school. A cliché, I know. But it wasn’t the whole “I don’t like learning”, I loved it, I just didn’t like the people. I could never find myself to really get on with people, like the others would.

Then came along the end of school and the discovery of Twitter, with just a selection of people on it – it seemed… brilliant! After growing up with social networks, it still felt as if I needed one. Yet this one, empty, new, it was like starting all over again. From here, my love for it just grew. I was meeting “new” people, almost daily.

There was always something new to discover, articles, websites, all sorts! In fact, it’s one of the things which pushed me into blogging. If people were to like short updates, what about longer, in-depth ones. Surely they’d love those too!

Then I discovered it could be so much more than a social network, perhaps more of a tool. You see, when starting college, my tutor used it for teaching us some online classes. So not only could I learn at my own pace, without being “judged” of being ahead, or behind, but I could still communicate with the others. Brilliant (Note: These were only a one-off thing, just to “break” us out of the summer, but it was still a nice chance to meet others, and the online “support” through Twitter, remained there).

Brining me back to my point, this is why I’m on Twitter… perhaps more often that I should. I’ve grown up with it, I’ve seen it grow (I still remember the drop-down navigation!), I’ve met new people on it, I’ve learnt with it. It just seems a brilliant tool, I wouldn’t want to leave.

Of course, as always. These thoughts are of my own opinion, I’m not saying one is better than the other. Just the experiences I have had with each.

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Like Christmas, Easter is a religious event. Sadly though, I feel the real meaning to this might be lost. I’m not religious myself¹ but from what I’ve understood Easter was about the death and resurrection of Jesus and we celebrate it with an egg to symbolise new life. I’m not too sure where the chocolate side of came things in, a treat of some kind though I’m sure.

But getting back to my point, has this meaning been lost? The talks about Easter are always about Easter Eggs and chocolate, the TV channels are full with family films (primarily because the kids are off and it’s difficult to keep them occupied). There’s even families who go on holiday across this time. I’m not saying that should change the way they do things at all, just trying to emphesise my point about the real meaning being lost.

Perhaps it’s a generation causing this, as mentioned previously religion (sadly) seems to becoming “less common” for the reasons that this generation is technology driven. But I won’t repeat what I’ve previously said. Instead just ask you. Do you think Easter has/is lost/losing it’s meaning?

¹I am not religious and this could be wrong. No offence was meant to any religion in this post.

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However, this brings me to my point, polls make for brilliant user feedback (thought my last poll wasn’t exactly a success with results…)! So I want to know, for those that do comment (or even those that don’t) would you like to see the return of the social login for the comments?

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The sudden urge for them seems to have grown. Yes, I suppose there’s always been a “competition” on who has the most (I was once part of this myself…), but recently it appears to have become a lot worse. I’m not sure how many others have you have noticed, but the amount of people post “RT for a follow” has increased, even from those who didn’t previously do it. It’s not even automated apps anymore.

Yes, I see, it’s a number, the higher number wins who thing. But looking at it from a different point of view, what’s the point in having 1,000+ followers if you’re only going to interact with a handful of them? Speaking from experience, I probably interact¹ with about 200 (of the ~900) of my following. As for followers, I have no idea how many of read my Tweets, or visit the links I visit. Though taking an educated guess from interactions² I would say 6% of followers.

Which brings me back to my point… If you have a load of followers and you make no impact to them followers, what’s the point? Of course, you can’t make them unfollow you (though there are apps for that), but at least stop asking and let them follow you by choice, eh?

Secondly, if you’re going to follow loads of people, just to do so (and perhaps gain followers in the process too), what’s the point in that? I think you should follow someone because you want to. I certainly don’t “judge” someone for the amount of followers they do/don’t have.

Note: The post was not intended to cause offence to anyone, nor was it targeted at anyone in particular. These are just my thoughts on the subject

¹In this instance, I’m defining interact as a RT, favourite, reading, visiting links of a Tweet etc.

²In this instance I’m referring to the interactions I can see.(I.E. a reply, retweet, favourite). I can’t tell if somebody has read a Tweet…

The post Just A Number appeared first on itsdaniel0.

The problem with this? Well of course, the obvious issue here trust. People trust what the label says, if it says beef, you expect beef. I understand that. But, however, we all know that not every bit of meat is 100% pure of that meat, especially when it comes to processed food. Nevertheless, I understand the problem.

But what I don’t understand, is the issue. People’s reactions. At first, people sounded disgusted at the thought of eating horsemeat. This completely astonished me! We have:

• Lamb, from a sheep (well, a lamb…)
• Pork, from a pig
• Beef, from a cow
• Chicken… from a chicken
• Turkey…

You get the point, we eat many types of animals. So why should there be shock over horse meat? It’s just another animal.

Now this, this is where to story becomes even more… silly, if you ask me. The “contaminated” products have been removed from the shelves. So just to clarify. We’re currently in a recession, the price of food is going up and they have removed perfectly good and what appears to be safe, edible food from the shelves. What I don’t understand is why not just sell it as a discounted price? Or, re-package it with “Horse” instead of “Beef”. It also seems… astonishing! Especially when people at home have been told to not throw away “beef” products (from my last hearing).

So when it comes to a summary of my views, I think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. Mean as it may sound. it’s just another animal at the end of the day. If it’s safe to eat, then why not do so?

The post Meat From A Horse appeared first on itsdaniel0.

So I opted to right a post… except, it wasn’t quite that easy. You see, inspiration is somewhat… lacking these days. It’s no surprise really, when it’s  been so long, you fall of out the… err… “zone”, as I’ve mentioned many times before. Then I remembered that Automattic had a service that was supposed to inspire you to write posts (They put somewhere on it “Inspiration four-oh-four” – I love it). So I headed over to their website, then headed over to Plinky, where the question to present me was “You’ve been asked to do a five-minute presentation to a group of schoolchildren on anything of your choice. What would you present?”

Let me begin first, I really dislike presentations and public speaking, though, it’s something almost all of us have to do at some point in our lives. So my first thought to this was “I wouldn’t”, the easy way out, I know. But to this day, regardless of how many presentations I’ve done, speeches, interviews, performances etc. anything where to attention is focuses primarily on me, I’ve “hated”. In fact, sometimes I don’t even write blog posts because I feel it’s more attention on me, and real people I know read these.

But let me reassure you, although my instant thought was “I wouldn’t”, it does get easier. Whether that’s with age, or experience, it’s never as daunting as it was the previous time.

One of the main things I find easier, is a “stranger-audience”, where you’re performing to people you don’t know, or probably won’t see again. Why? Because regardless of how much of a fool you’ve made of yourself, if you’re never going to see them again, what does it matter? They don’t know you! The benefit to this is it also gains you experience.

Another thing I think helps, is a familiar audience (of course, it may sound like all audiences at this point – but it’s not). By this, I mean people you know very well, you have know and will continue to know. This way, you’ve “broken the ice” from the first presentation, they understand you slightly more and there’s just the overall feedback afterwards, what was good, bad (but of course, there are never bad points, just tips for improvement).

Finally, the audience I don’t really like presenting to, the “don’t quite know you, yet” audience. People you’ve met for the first time, are going to meet, know for a few weeks. Those people, especially if you’re going to see them again. Of course, they may not remember it, for them it might just be “another presentation”, but for me, if it’s gone bad – I’ll often remember it for weeks to come!

So what about you guys, when it comes to presenting something, what tips can you give us? As always, let me know you’re thoughts in the comments. Perhaps a share to spread the word out too? (Cheesy, or what?)

The post Learn By Doing appeared first on itsdaniel0.

First up, I apologise for my lack of posting lately (or I suppose you could say this year), but more of that can be found here and in the post below.

You see, it’s not that I don’t want to post, it’s that I don’t know what to post and what’s a blog post without content? Either just random things thrown together, making nonsense. Or something surprisingly good! But my option is the first one. Now, I suppose there are loads of things I could write about (such as the change in comments and why, the stopping development of the Android app) but it’s not really things that interest readers of this blog. The last thing you want to do is draw away readers!

But the problem is, note taking. Previously, it wasn’t too bad. I’d used a “Stickies” extension in my browser, but that has since disappeared (and I lost quite a few notes). Then I started to use the Text Editor in “Dropbox”, but I didn’t like that so much, it didn’t really have a nice interface, but, it was only a text editor.

Whilst most of you may say “There are loads of note apps”. I want one that can sync with my mobile devices and web browser – not a desktop app. You see, whether it be at home, or in a public place, I try to use the same web browser, or I at least have my phone and it’s just a lot easier having all your notes in one place! Who wants to write notes on there phone, then have to use said notes to write out a blog post on their PC when they have the time? Certainly not me, I’d like to pick them up in my browser, tweak, write and post!

Perhaps I’m just asking too much. So tell me fellow readers (and bloggers), if/when taking notes, which apps do you use?

The post Just Note Doing It Right appeared first on itsdaniel0.

But, there is light upon the horizon and all should be fixed now! Whilst I still don’t know the issue (but I believe it was some kind of hack) everything is back up and a fresh install with some lovely interesting features.

Stuff You Might Care About

Shortcuts, loads of shortcuts!

• First up, there are now buttons at the bottom of each post saying “Previous” and “Next”, funnily, that go to the previous/next posts.
• Swipe shortcuts! Now, if you’re visiting on a touchscreen device, try swiping your finger left, you should be taken to the previous page. Now swiping it right, should take you back (or to the “next” post).
• Desktop swipe shortcuts! These weren’t actually intentional, but still, pretty cool. If you have a scroll button on your mouse, then press it and swiping left/right should take you to the previous/next post.
• Keyboard shortcuts. If you don’t have a scroll button on your mouse, then you have keyboard shortcuts! Pressing the left arrow key should take you to the previous post and right should take you to the next post!

I couldn’t get keyboard shortcuts or swipe shortcuts to work together, but I think most people use a mouse on webpage anyway, so it makes it easier. Still all fun, fun stuff!

Stuff You Might Not Care About

• I now have a child theme! About time too, no more editing of themes then reading changelogs to see what changed. Make a child theme, add your functions. Works pretty well
• Loading time is faster! As you may have noticed, the share buttons have gone (you can always use my extension if you want to share), but load time has increased by half! So always good!
• Finally, a new comments system that loads faster and should be a little bit more mobile friendly – hurrah!

Now, before I forget. I mentioned about about thinking I had been hacked, let me re-assure you, things should be safe now, especially on here, if you’re still unsure, there is a website called “Sucuri SiteCheck” which I have checked mine on, it comes back clean. So there’s some more good news! You can view the results here: http://sitecheck.sucuri.net/results/itsdaniel0.com

The post Better Than Fixed appeared first on itsdaniel0.

In response to that post, I’ve decided to run a poll, for your views on the sharing buttons. I’m running the poll on this site because it attracts more visitors (and this blog is set up for polls). In reply to the question “Why are there two “keep” options?” It just helps me gain an understanding of who does/doesn’t use them – don’t worry, it’s all anonymous!

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