Published on Thursday, 23rd October, 2008 .
I noticed MisssyM runs a ‘comment of the week’ in her sidebar (in fact I made it on to it once!) so in a similar idea I’m starting the Aberdeen Blogs Quote Of The Week (for evermore to be referred to as the ABZ-QoTW)
I’ll make a post with my particular favourite each week and invite ratings on your opinion of the choice. Also leave suggestions for the next quote of the week in the comments - in case I miss a cracker.
So here is my first nomination…
Liam Byrnes on the ‘Vatican’ Board Game came away with this peach…
(somewhat dramatic I know, but such is my swooning teenage girl nature when faced with board games which include adopting the role of an aspirational cardinal)
ABZ-QoTW - 1 - Rate this quote.
- 5 - Fantastic (50%, 1 Votes)
- 3 (50%, 1 Votes)
- 4 (0%, 0 Votes)
- 2 (0%, 0 Votes)
- 1 - Sucks (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 2
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Published on Saturday, 18th October, 2008 .
I want to take this opportunity to wish two of my favourite Aberdeen Bloggers congratulations on tying the knot today.
So Matt and Jayne may I wish you the very best of health and happiness in your new lives together.
Sorry I can’t be there in person tonight to help you celebrate but thanks for the invitation, I’m there in spirit!
There are very few bloggers I’ve actually met in person from ABZblogs but these two are the nicest people you could ever hope to have the pleasure of spending time with and thoroughly deserve nothing but the very best wishes.
Congrats guys
[edit] Jyll’s put up a pic on her LJ[/edit]
Published on Saturday, 18th October, 2008 .
Always one for shameless self-promotion I stumbled across this today.
http://www.wikio.co.uk/blogs/top/technology
and in case it’s already scrolled into obscurity by the time you get there here’s a snapshot:
that’s position 99 in the whole UK baby! Yes, obviously posting on lighting fires and the incompetence of Aberdeen City Council are what does it for geeks in the UK these days! In fact on the front page of this blog as I write this the only tech posts I can see are the paypal debit card(which is more finance?) and the one about my friend’s VPN!
Still, where’s your blog? 
Published on Friday, 17th October, 2008 .
I’d forgotten all about the technique but after lighting a successful fire last night with nothing more than a bit of paper and a match I can confirm that a newspaper held across the front of the fire so that most of the fireplace is covered is a brilliant way to draw the flame!
After going to Mary Leigh’s the other day and watching her do it, it tingled a deep memory somewhere of my mum doing likewise when we were very young, before the central heating was installed.
There’s something extremely satisfying about lighting a fire, perhaps it’s a man-thing, something primitive. It’s great to do it chemical/fire-lighter free even more!
So yeah, I haz firez - hear me roar!!!! 
Published on Thursday, 16th October, 2008 .
Don’t get too excited! Today I spent a while trying to register for the Paypal Debit Card. Unfortunately and after some searching I found that they don’t offer it to UK Paypal customers, in fact any non-US Paypal user is exempted from the benefits of the Paypal Debit Card.
The closest thing they have for UK users is the Paypal “Top-Up Card” - a poor comparison. In order to use this card you need to first apply a balance through the Paypal website(or for a fee from a PayPoint) then it CHARGES you to use it!!!
Come on Paypal! I soooooooooooooooooo want a Paypal Debit Card to the point that if I did have one I would give up on UK banks completely, favouring the instant access of my Paypal account entirely. I’d be able to seemlessly integrate real life and online life in a monetary sense much better than now.
Please don’t forget your UK userbase with things like this.
Published on Thursday, 16th October, 2008 .
Normally I’d have put this in my computery blog but I figured it’d be better to put it where someone might actually read it! So…
A friend of mine was talking to me last night on IRC about his new project. I checked it out and was interested in it, however after following some links I found his other project a free VPN!!!
This is exactly what the doctor ordered. I’m all for privacy on the internet. It’s not about having nothing to hide, it’s about the fact that they shouldn’t be looking in the first place. All the data we send and receive is channelled through massive computers searching for ’suspicious behaviour’. This could be unencrypted IRC chats, MSN messages, email, websites you name it. ALL the data you send and receive from the internet is readable(and readily provided to whoever asks by your ISP)
A VPN sorts this out for you. For the non-technical amongst us, and I include me in that, it pretty much means that all data to and from your computer is unreadable tosh and in fact you look like just one of the millions of business VPNs out there already. This is different from a proxy because a proxy always leaves the trace to you, and your ISP still knows you connected to x site via y proxy.
So as soon as this is up[ and running I’ll be taking full advantage. I’m not sure my friends employers(the UK government) would back this but hey, that’s what freedom is all about!
btk
Published on Friday, 3rd October, 2008 .
There have been calls today for a vote of no confidence in Aberdeen City Council. Well I’d back that.
They’ve ruined the city so far and are now announcing even more cuts next year! I appreciate the books need to balance but this should not happen at all costs. The entire council needs restructured, there’s a triplication happening with the area division that is not workable for this city, however much it works elsewhere. Elsewhere does not have the financial issues facing them that are present in Aberdeen.
I’m not saying our elected officials need to go, I am saying the management of the council needs to go. The non-elected officials who hold the head of service positions and their teams. There is no way the man on the street should be having this level of effect on their lives when the people implementing them have a job security and no provisions taken from them. It’s entirely immoral that Aberdeen City Council are taking from the very people who need the services provided, the most needy in our society, the young, the elderly, the frail and the disabled are all hit before the massive cost and ineffective burden of the 3 tier system at ACC is addressed.
I’m not interested in how Edinburgh manage things Aberdeen City Council, stop comparing yourselves to them, I am interested in how Aberdeen can move forward and that is not happening. We are not Edinburgh in miniature, we’re Aberdeen.
