what’s in the mail?

Right now, here’s what’s on it’s way to me;

Samsung NC10

Sent out on Monday, should be here Thursday/Friday this week. Still selling for €399 here in Ireland. I paid a total of €330.36 with thehut.com. This netbook is king of the netbook jungle at the minute thanks to it’s 6 hour+ battery life. Nothing special apart from that, but it just has all the features a netbook should have. None missing and that’s rare. Combine that with it’s battery life and it’s a winner.

Sleeve for NC10

I bought this sleeve on ebay for the NC10 for €7 (not exactly the same as in the pic, but similar). It’ll hug the NC10 nicely when not in use and act as the last line of protection against bumps and drops. It’ll be going in side another bag most of the time, but has handles if i want to carry it about by itself.

Crumpler Boomer Bag

This will be the first line of protection for the NC10. It’s waterproof and can hold the NC10 and all it’s accessories (mouse & charger). It doesn’t look like a laptop bag either which is always good - side by side with a standard laptop bag/case, this bag would be left sitting as the would-be thief will go for the ‘guaranteed laptop inside’ bag… I couldn’t let the NC10 or logitech VX nano down either… these are premium products with street cred and an image to keep up So a crumpler bag will be the perfect match for both.

Crumpler bags are notoriously expensive and this was half price with mymemory.co.uk. £20 with free delivery which makes it a great bargain. Even ebay couldn’t top that

2gb Extreme 3 Sandisk Card

I bought this card to act as a usb key for my NC10 but also as a fast, reliable memory card for my camera. My 16gb survivor won’t be used with the NC10 as there’s more risk of it snapping or getting bent. We don’t want that happening, again. Not only is the extreme 3 much faster than a usb drive & more secure, it’s also much more durable and it fits in nicely with the whole ultraportable theme. I got this from mx2.co.uk for £13.

I’ve already gotten my VX nano and once all this lot arrives, it’ll complete my entire ultraportable PC set up. As with any major item, i’ll research it thoroughly before i buy - to the extent i can predict if there are any major changes or revolutionary technology on the horizon. No point in buying something today if a newer model is coming out next week. I had anticipated a new NC10, it did indeed come along but i wasn’t impressed, so i could then order the NC10, knowing it would not be bettered by a newer model for at least another few months.

It’s a project itself and i’ll be glad this one is over. Once the NC10 arrives, i’ll forget about the netbook world - if i were to keep up with the netbook world the way i have been the past month or so, i’d probably end up buying a new netbook every 3 months

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Burlington Hotel - Epic Fail

Apparently, the  Burlington Hotel is a 4 star hotel. Not in my books. I stayed there last night and it’s the worst 4 star hotel i’ve ever seen. I’ll let these pictures do the talking…

The alarm clock sums it up for me. Meant to be white, but it’s yellow because it’s been there so long. From the early 90’s i reckon, possibly late 80’s. Honestly, not a single inch of the room looks to have been touched since at least 1990. I actually looked through the guest guide expecting the prices to be in pounds rather than euros - that’s the sort of vibe you get from the place. Not a grand, classic, opulent vibe, but a run down, out of date, uncared for vibe.

I was shocked to find black and white photocopied pages in the guide too… no laminate, no colour, they were so poorly photocopied i couldn’t read some of the stuff!

I don’t blame the Burlington Hotel (well, that’s a lie), i blame the idiots who rated this hotel 4 stars. It’s a 2 star hotel at best surviving on it’s dying reputation.

• No air conditioning / heat control in rooms
• Wallpaper peeling off walls
• No LCD tv’s
• Pillows & Matresses made of rocks
• Photocopied guest guide which was barely readable due to the fact it was literally photocopied in black and white by a really poor quality photocopier (Not laminated either - just standard a4 paper)
• Furniture from the 70’s or 80’s that just looks tacky and cheap now
• No ‘in room dining menu’ despite saying so on our key cards
• Crooked lampshades and pictures on walls

You might think my room was a one off - no. There were plenty of doors open along the corridors all revealing the same nasty interior design work and out of date look that had already destroyed my experience.

On the plus side, the rooms were pretty big and we had no problems with service. The lobby & bar / restaurant were modern and colorful - very nice. It was almost like two different hotels. I know the Burlington have better standard rooms as i’ve seen them on their website, but i’d be embarrassed putting guests in the room we got. It’s not 4 star standard.

If you want a 4 star hotel in Dublin try The Morrisson or Hilton Kilmainham - both worthy of their 4 stars. A 3 star hotel which is, in my opinion, far superior to the Burlington, is the Maldron Hotel, Smithfield.

Back to work next week

I’m heading to Dublin tomorrow & staying overnight (as a Christmas present). I’ve lost count of the amount of Dublin hotels i’ve stayed in, but now the Burlington will be added to that list. It’ll be the first time i’ve gotten away since August when i stayed in The Morrisson Hotel, also in Dublin

I’ll be home on Monday and starting Tuesday, i’ll be back in work mode, hungrier and more determined than ever before to get BeerChief launched. January 27th is D-Day and i want to get out of the traps flying.

From January 27th onwards, BeerChief becomes a site i can promote freely and work on daily. Even if it’s just adding new friends and connecting with people on other social networks, that’s work. It’s all building up BeerChief’s image and community which in turn builds real value.

Over the past few weeks i’ve done a lot of behind the scenes stuff trying to get BeerChief moving in the right direction. Once the site is actually live, i’ll no longer require self motivation to get things done… the BeerChief community will motivate me.

Seeing people using the site and talking about it is enough fuel to go on. There’s no bigger motivator than seeing people using and loving something you have created. What i have to do now is to make sure BeerChief is as useable and loveable as i can possibly make it

The growth and development of ANY social network is dependant upon how tight knit the community is and whether or not they feel the community is worthy of being recommended to peers. If people are close, they’re usually active as they get along with each other and are willing to openly exchange information. They can only exchange information with friends though, not strangers (that would just be stupid), so there in lies the problem for BeerChief - friends.

We not only need to get indivudals joining, we need entire groups and circle of friends joining if the social network is going to become a true social network.

January 2009 Preview

New year, new style. From now on every month, i’ll be making a list of goals and things i have to accomplish by the end of the month.

Here’s what’s going to be happening in January 2009;

Netbook

photo credit: ibarakaldo

I’ve already ordered a Samsung NC10 and had to prove my address this week, so i should get it late next week. Once i get the NC10, i’ll have to strip it clean of all the inevitable crap that will come installed on it. I’ll be adding;

• firefox
• chrome
• utorrent
• ms office 2007
• dropbox
• audacity
• flickr uploadr
• google earth
• notepad++
• faststone capture
• filezilla
• vlc player
• ccleaner
• truecrypt
• msn
• itunes
• 7-zip

That should be all i’ll need for now. I’ll also do a full review of the netbook once i get my hands on it & upload plenty of pictures.

Themes

Both smemon.com and the BeerChief Blog will be getting new wordpress themes this month. Expect a new theme on the BeerChief blog within the next 2 weeks and a new smemon.com theme late in the month.

BeerChief

BeerChief will be getting more attention than ever before this month from me. It’s undergoing a complete revamp and it’s still on course for a January 27th launch day. Brace yourselves

Exam Results

I’ve already told you what i should get for my Christmas Exams and all shall be revealed on January 21st. I fully expect to pass all and with a pretty good average so although on paper these results are a pretty big deal, i’ve relegated them to worthless in my mind as i’ve bigger fish to fry this month.

from 2008 to 2009

Last year i said 2007 was the biggest year of my life for a number of reasons and that’s still the case. But online, 2008 has definitely been my biggest year so far. I vowed to complete BeerChief AT ALL COSTS in 2008 and i suppose it’s debatable whether or not it was completed. What i did mean by that though was that i wanted the site fully functional and online in 2008. So that was achieved mid way through 2008. ‘At all costs’ has now turned out to be $12k+

BeerChief

To date, over $12k has been pumped in to it which is an achievement in itself. It will succeed or fail in 2009 and we’ll see if the gamble has paid off. Even though i would say it anyway, i’m 100% confident that BeerChief can grow quickly and steadily. The way i see it, my neck is on the line and if it doesn’t succeed, i’ll have blown a massive budget, wasted hundreds of man hours in the process, failed to deliver on promises and ultimately failed to return a profit.

So there’s a lot riding on BeerChief and i’ve deliberately put all that pressure on my shoulders and convinced myself it must work. Why? Because when the stakes are raised and i’m under pressure, that’s when i work my best / hardest.

I’m personally revamping the BeerChief blog and will put a lot of time in to writing quality content for it. I’ll also be keeping BeerChief active on other social networking sites just to make sure we’re getting ourselves out there. Assuming we launch in January, it gives us 11 months to grow as fast as possible. Realistically, we should be looking at about 10,000 registered members by the end of 2009… an average of about 30 sign ups per day.

New Office

In may of this year i went all out and bought a new desk, PC, dual monitors and various other bits and pieces like an illuminated glass mousepad, gaming headphones etc… All in all, probably cost over €2000. Up until May, i had just been using my old Ferrari laptop. I could never go back to just using a laptop now. Dual monitors have me spoilt and they’re the best kept secret in IT. My XPS 420 isn’t too shabby either… so far it’s handled anything that i’ve thrown at it and i do have the option of upgrading to 64 bit and throwing more RAM in to it if need be.

Earnings

2008 was my best year online in terms of revenue. JPEGr was sold for $1k, i made another $3k by writing ebooks…. i sold various sites, worked on joint projects and did some paid reviews on this blog. All in all, i earned about $7,000 online in 2008 which is equal to about $583/month or $145/week. That’s surprising as i didn’t think i’d made that much.

When i look in to it more though, i did spend over $6,000 on BeerChief, about $2,500 on a new office plus i had to pay for domains and hosting and what not so all these online earnings are definitely not just money in my back pocket

I’m not sure what 2009 will have in store. The first couple of months will be quiet as i focus on BeerChief. Around March/ April i’ll probably be looking to create more sites and flip them. I really don’t care about cash though so long as BeerChief is doing well. I’d happily earn $0 if i knew BeerChief would finish 2009 with 10k+ members and an active community.

College

I passed all my 1st year exams in 2008, meaning i could progress to 2nd year and not have to worry about repeating. I did need a second crack at maths but it’s probably made be more determined to pass all exams first time around from now on. In 2008 i also sat my 2nd year Christmas exams (in December) which i should have passed too. Results will come out on January 21st 2009.

2009 will be a big year for me in college. A big transition. I plan on converting my ‘wasted’ time in to productive time with my new Samsung NC10. It’ll allow me quick internet access and the ability to jot down thoughts or do assignments in any free time i get. It means i should effectively gain an extra hour or two of work every day. We hear of the expression ‘water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink’ when out at sea and it’s a bit like that for me at college. I’m surrounded by computers, but i can’t really do anything on them as it’s just too much hassle to login to the network, plug in my usb stick, wait half an hour for portable firefox to open…. at which stage i’ll be informed the room is now in use by a lecturer and i have to log out and unplug my usb…

It’s a problem and a waste of time, so at least with a netbook i can just carry it in to the room next door, leaving it switched on, meaning i’ll only lose maybe 60 seconds of my time.

Upgrades

For the first time in a long, long time, i’m reasonably content with the technology i have. My PC is up to scratch along with my dual monitors, my phone is still fairly up to date, i’ll have a brand new netbook soon… So i shouldn’t need to upgrade anything in 2009. Laptop isn’t necessary. I could do with a wii and a ps3 along with a nice big LCD, but that stuff is what i’d call luxury and honestly, i wouldn’t have the time for them or make full use of them. If i did, there’d be something wrong as it would mean my online work or college work is suffering - neither of which can afford to.

I look at a PC or netbook and i think ‘productivity’. I look at a TV or games console and think ‘fun’, ‘entertainment’. In recent years, i’ve gone completely off TV… i’ll only watch TV now if i’m with someone, watching football or a movie. That’s it. Unless i’m sick or something you’ll never find me watching TV on a sofa or in bed. The internet has ‘replaced’ TV for me.

Blogging

Both this blog & the BeerChief blog will be getting a makeover in 2009. I also intend upping the quality & quantity of posts on both and will try to gain more RSS subscribers and traffic as a result. On BeerChief, i’ll be writing ‘made for traffic’ posts and i’ve toyed with that in the past on this blog, with some great success. It’s really difficult to create consistent, quality, made for traffic posts, but i’ll give it my best shot.

On smemon.com, i’ll be keeping things personal and trying to add more pictures and video. You know the drill anyway by now… i won’t be going missing in 2009 and this blog will be updated like clock work