the newts.net

Moblog is a blend of the words mobile and weblog. A mobile weblog, or moblog, consists of content posted to the Internet from a mobile phone. Moblogs generally involve technology which allows publishing from a mobile device, and by their mobile nature, mean a website or blog can be updated ‘live, from the field’, or the bed, or the car, or the train, or the office, or the pub etc etc, basically anywhere you’ve got your mobile phone, you can update your website. You get the idea, and so did I. And what with the arrival of my noveau 3.15megapixel NOKIA N80 Camera Phone, Moblogging is a feature I wanted at my disposal!

The theory’s simple, implementing it in practice however proved to be a little more difficult. Even though the php code to allow posting by email is written into the wordpress software, there’s more to it than meets the eye. Firstly you need to set up a specialist email account that your blog can check for new emails. Obviously this has to be an obscure address that someone isn’t going to send an email to by accident as their email will appear as a post on the website.

Next you have to consider how an image attached to the mail is going to appear in the post. The inbuilt wordpress ‘writing by email’ doesnt account for this, but I was saved a huge amount of work here by installing the very handy wordpress plugin ‘Postie’, which is configurable and handles where images and files emailed to the special email account are stored and displayed in the post.

Next once you’ve got Postie configured with your secret email account settings, all configured up for displaying images and comunicating with wordpress, you can send a test email to check all’s well. But that’s not quite the job done. As it stands the site will look for a new email and post it along with any pictures ONLY when you log into a browser and tell it to do so. While this would still be a quality feature to have, it somewhat defeats the object of MOBILE blogging. So to get round this and fully automate the moblog process you need to set up a CRON job. In layman’s terms it’s a way of scheduling your website to carry out a command periodically. In this case an instruction that tells your website to go look for any new emails every few minutes.

FINALLY, once the cron was up and running, the moblog feature was up, running and working a treat. I added a new category to the website called ‘Moblog’, and by default all posts that I make from my mobile phone will be filed under it.

So I’m looking forward to capturing a few more ‘off the cuff’ and informal, as-it-happens pictures, and writing a few posts the minute inspiration or the urge dictates. Just another angle to the newts.net, and another reason to finger my mobile ;0)

It’s the time of year that the mobile phone contract is up and it’s time to go hunting for a new handset. After much research, (primarily thanks to the fantastic GSM Arena website) and obviously armed with more information that the sales reps in the shop, I opted for the new NOKIA N80. And so far, I’m extremely pleased with my decision.

Previously I was running the Sony Ericsson K750i. It was my 2nd Sony-Ericsson phone, plus I’ve owned a pre-amalgamation Ericsson phone, and to be totally honest, I’m far from convinced with the quality of SE. Within a month or so mine decided it was going to power down as and when it liked, plus start up only when it felt like it. It was in repair for 2 weeks. But probably the biggest hassle was the joystick. It’s crap. It just gives up going in one direction, usually down. Oli had the same problem with his too.

I had a Nokia 3330 for years. Really basic by todays standards, but ultra reliable with it. I can change my phone for free every 12 months but I kept the Nokia for well over 2 years because there was nothing out there I preffered. This, in my mind at least, set Nokia leagues ahead of Sony Ericsson in terms of build quality and robustness. that’s one reason why I was steering towards a Nokia and away from SE.

My new phone criteria were:

1. 3MP+ Camera.
2. 256K colour, big, high res screen.
3. Expandable memory (card slot).
4. Ability to send email.
5. Bluetooth.
6. MP3 player.
7. Not physically huge or heavy.
8. Vibrating alert.
9. Flip up form.
10. Net access.

The NOKIA N80 provided nearly all of this and much MUCH more. It was only missing the flip up form. I like flip phones, they stay in really good condition as the buttons and screen are permanently protected. My 3 year old SHARP GX30i was a gem, I preferred it to the newer K750i, and it’s still in great condition. The N80 is a slide phone, so the screen’s not protected but the number pad is.

The screen is absolutely wonderful. It’s big at 35mm - 41mm, but the huge resolution of 352 x 416 pixels makes it crystal clear. Small pictures, icons and text appear pin sharp. Compare that to the all new Sony Ericsson K800i which has a screen size of 30mm x 40mm and a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels and the NOKIA’s superior screen is clear to see. (There’s a joke there somewhere!)

Another couple of features that are very neat include the voice dialing. You don’t have to record voice tags for contacts, you just type the name in as usual and the phone generates a digital voice tag for the contact automatically. It’s very clever and works an absolute treat. You say the name and Stephen Hawking says it back to you then dials the number.
The phone is also equipped with ‘Lifeblog’. Basically every time you connect the phone to the pc it downloads all your pictures, videos, sound recordings and even text messages and stores them in a timeline within the NOKIA Lifeblog software on your pc. All your media is stored in a day by day timeline where you can add notes, email straight to friends and publish items to a blog at the click of a button. Even if you don’t want to upkeep the lifeblog and use it to it’s full potential, it’s at least a backup or storage device for your phone pictures etc.

You know what it’s like with a new phone, especially one as feature rich as the NOKIA N80, you’re discovering new stuff for weeks and weeks. I still haven’t had chance to explore the 3G features and mobile TV yet, but so far I can say I’m VERY impressed with this handsome little phone.

So what the hell’s all this about?

Ass implants?? Surely not?

A man was constipated, so he decided to go to the doctor. The doctor examined him and explained, “I’m going to give you some suppositories. I’ll insert one now, and then I’ll give you another one for later this evening.” Later that evening, the man asks has his wife to insert the suppository. She agrees reluctantly, then puts one hand on his shoulder and inserts the suppository. Suddenly, her husband shrieks, “Aahhhhh!” “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?” she asks. “No… I just realized that the doctor had both his hands on my shoulders!”

Wow, ‘Baby’ Jenna hits the BIG 2.  A small gathering of the rich, famous and privileged made the guest list @ Chez Ornz to celebrate Jenna’s  entry in to the ‘terrible twos’.

WANKER.

It’s not sour grapes, I just can’t stomach the pathetic, cheating bastard. You know, diving and rolling around on the deck faking injury when you haven’t been touched is pretty fucking low, but winding up your own club team mate and then beckoning the ref to issue him with a red card and send him off is just unbelieveable. What on earth was Ronaldo thinking? I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he bumps into Rooney at Man U for the start of the new season. There’s got to be fireworks there.

I can forsee:

A) Ronaldo finding himself on a swift transfer to Madrid OR,

B) Rooney [accidentally] stepping on Ronaldo’s bollocks with some considerable force on the training pitch.

Or better still, option (B) followed by option (A).

UPDATE: Chrisiano Ronaldo wants to leave Man Utd, suprise, suprise!

So we’re out and I’m gutted. The best collection of players we’ve had for a long time. We had the talent to walk this world cup, we just didn’t have the team or the tactics. The reason / blame for that can only stop with Sven-Goran Eriksson. But he’s gone now so there’s no point in bitching on about him, but what worries me is Steve McClaren was sat next to him! Did he have any influence whatsoever over Sven’s decisions? Was he in agreement with them? I Just don’t know. I do know that he doesn’t fill me with confidence though.

My England manager of choice would have been Scolari. If the F.A. would have approached him in the correct manner he would have snapped up the England job. Scolari’s admitted that himself. I think he’s a man of princial though, and the F.A. screwed up by pushing him for a decision while he was still comitted to Portugal. Our loss.

Next for the job I’d have liked Guus Hiddink, followed by Big Sam Allardyce, with McClaren in fourth. I hope I’m wrong and SM can turn a great bunch of players into a great team (who can score penalties just in case). We’ll soon find out though, Euro 2008 qualifiers will be on us before we know it.

COME ON ENGLAND!

Finally, who do we support for this World Cup now then? The French are an ignorant bunch of Anglophobes, The Portuguese are a bunch of cheating bastards, the Germans, well don’t mention the war, which leaves the Italians.

COME ON ITALY!