freshbytes

The main reason there haven’t been many updates lately is because I just haven’t had the time. Freshbytes seems to work all the time, so it’s not because we’ve had huge amounts of downtime or anything, it’s just cos I’ve been super busy on a Sunday night.

Unsurprisingly, it’s all my fault. I’ve volunteered to do verious tasks that mean my Sunday nights aren’t as free as I would like them to be – combine this with other blogging commitments, and you’ve got one hell of a mess…

So, what have I been up to lately?

Well, the Radi8 Youth website idea fell over. It’s gone. No more. In what I would call a smart move, they decided that social media was the way to go – hence why they chose to make a Facebook Group and Myspace page (which I haven’t yet found), instead of a dedicated website. I can totally understand why they would choose to do so – it means far less work for me, but also means I get less say in what/how things get run. Which isn’t altogether a bad thing, I’ll let you know – sometimes, it’s nice to just let things “flow”. If you’re interested, you can hit up the Facebook group.

I’ve got to ask the question – what about those Radi8er’s who don’t (or simply aren’t allowed) to use social media? It’s not uncommon for kids to be banned from “unnecessary” internet usage, let alone social media sites, considering the amount of bad press sites such as Facebook and Myspace get… Will those kids “miss out” on updates because of it?

It’s late, so I’ll leave you to ponder that in your own time, but think about it – social media. Good or bad?

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: bad, do, good, media, radi8, social, things, time, youth

Here’s a short vid I made when the awesome Radi8 team went to the Hobart event of the Relay For Life 2009 event up the Domain.

If you’re asking, the backing music is “Break Me Down” by Christian City Church. I can’t seem to find it on iTunes at the moment, though. Apologies.

Enjoy!

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: 2009, awesome, for, hobart, life, radi8, relay, team

It’s about time we had a post about the internet.

After all, the internet is serious business (eneyclopedia dramatica, and therefore Not Safe For Work).

To further illustrate how serious the internet actually is, I found this lolcat for you to enjoy:

Your parents aren’t kidding when they tell you to be careful on the internet – don’t chat to people you don’t know, don’t give out any personal details to sites you don’t trust, etc etc. I’m sure you’ve all heard it before.

Unfortunately, sites like Omegle are too funny to give up. Omegle is a site for you to chat to random strangers about anything from your day to the last game you played, with no real obligations to them other than to chat. It’s completely anonymous, but there’s nothing stopping you from giving out personal details (don’t. It’s not recommended).

Please note that I use Omegle purely for the lulz – for the “laffs”, if you will. It’s more than hilarious trying to convince people that “you’re from the internet”, playing the numbers game (getting people to count with you – either with prime numbers, or if you’re really daring, mersenne primes), or just seeing how fast you can get the other party to disconnect. I’ve also found that convinving people you wrote the lyrics to Rick Astley’s  “Never Gonna Give You Up” smash hit is pretty funny, as well as TYPING IN ALL CAPS.

Also, asking (reasonably) complicated maths questions like “What part of ƒ’(x)=kƒ(x) do you not understand?!” as an opening statement also confuses people to no end, usually resulting in hilarity (for me, not for them).

Overall, Omegle can be hilarious. So hilarious, in fact, that I’ve started a Tumblr blog that will contain all the hilarious Omegle conversations I’ve had. You can check out the site here – if you want to contribute, hit me up on my email address: bennylingbling at gmail dawt com. This site is made in conjunction with i3network and it’s creator, Adam D.

That’s about it for now. Later on today, I’ll post up a vid of Relay For Life 2009, and all the lulz that ensued there. It’s uploading as we speak – and my internet is being really slow as a result.

Be safe on the internet, peoeple. I’m being serious about this – there’s nothing funny about it. Do NOT, whatever you do, give out personal details like where you live, your real name, or your phone number – anything that can be associated to you. Even your real email address – make one up.

I’m serious. It’s not worth it. DON’T DO IT!

Comments below.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: 2009, for, internet, laffs, life, lol, lulz, omegle, radi8, relay, thanks, thanksforthelulz, the, tumblr

Another week, another blog post…

I guess we’ll do some news first, eh?

First up for the news this week is the addition of FeedBurner feeds. FeedBurner is basically a service that provides RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication, like news delivered to your door) for your blog or podcast.

The difference with FeedBurner is that is provides statistics tracking for your RSS feed – something that isn’t included as a part of Google Analytics (at least as far as I can see).
Stats tracking is super important to any blog, and with the addition of FeedBurner, I’ll know how many people subscribe to my blog (not that many, I can assure you).

So, what do you have to do? Well, you’ve got two choices – either subscribe to freshbytes via RSS, or just keep reading the blog like you have been doing – whenever you get time. Either way, I don’t really mind.

Right, so the second piece of news has something to do with youth, Radi8. Continuing the naming scheme of Dean (we’ll miss you!!), it’s going to stay Radi8, but under the leadership of Dave and Rach. That’s all well and good, but what about the website? You see, dear reader, that’s where I come in.

Apparently people really liked how the website would update to reflect the week’s Radi8 events, and I totally agree – if nothing else, websites are there to provide information to people, free of charge. They’ve got a couple of people handy with computers at the church, but it’d be awesome if I could manage the Radi8 website… I’m already thinking “WordPress-as-CMS”, ‘cos the Pages and blog-syle updates would be perfect for updating events, as well as archiving events, and posting up pics, etc… Sorta like how this site is managed now. You like? :p Now all I need to do is find a good theme…

As part of the revamped Radi8, I’ve also volunteered myself to do some of the media-related stuff. You know, like the movies, pics, and so on. Should be easy enough, cos I’ve got a Mac! :p

On that note, I volunteered to put together a clip from Relay For Life 2009, and how the Radi8 team helped out. Unfortunately, the camera seems to have had it (will not play back videos, only get the dreaded blue-screen of death, quick google reveals heads have ), and I’ve still got one tape to go to get into the computer! ARGH! Currently working on a solution to this problem, I’ll be sure to put up the full vid on the new-look Radi8 website when it’s done.

I’ll also announce the new-look Radi8 website (if) I get to do it. Stay tuned!

Thanks about it. Comments below.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: analytics, feedburner, radi8, relay for life, rss, subscribe, youth

So, I’m done.

No more school, ever.

We’re going to be continuing with the “I don’t want to leave school” theme, ‘cos after reading some comments on previous “I don’t want to leave” posts, I found I have some more things to say…(a rare occurence, indeed).

So if you’re too lazy to click the links, Jawapro said:

What’s really odd is coming back to your old school after a few years have passed. There’s a few faces you remember (who were much younger when you were at school) but it’s just not the same.

5 or 6 years later – and so much has changed that it’s hard to imagine. Teachers have moved on – classes have changed buildings (so has one of my old schools) – and only the very youngest people you knew are still around as students. It’s quite moving – and slightly depressing. That place you remember as being the best part of your life (if it was) no longer exists, and never will again.

I’m not sure if this is true, but really. I’d hate to see Calvin turn into some unrecognisable place, just another blot on the kingston landscape.

Now that school’s over (for college students, as well as year 10s), I have a lot of time to do a couple of things that need to be done.

I have made a facebook account. You can search for me, I’m Benny Ling, obviously. Add me as a friend, invite me to join a cool group, whatever.

I’ve heard that Social Networking is the best thing since sliced bread… I’ve also heard that it’s highly overrated.

I won’t make my decision until I’ve experienced more of facebook, though. It’s currently very cool, and a HUGE step in terms of interacting with friends. All sorts of friends.

I’m yet to figure out any sort of “facebook code of conduct”, which contain rules on who you can become friends with, what sorts of groups you can join, etc. Actually – I just saw this on Digg: Facebook Etiquette: Five Dos and Don’ts. Nice! Perfect timing. After looking over the list, I realise that it’s more or less common sense anyway – the only things I didn’t know where about business friends… Pfft.

Initial impressions of facebook include: hard to get used to. Complex interface makes simple tasks more complicated than they have to be. Far too many configurable options. A hell of a lot of Ajax and Javascript powers those pages. After a full day of facebooking, still unsure about certain features. Still unsure about the chat system. Ram usage high, or that could just be me. Facebook app on iPhone is awesome. Don’t understand how people would use both Twitter + facebook at the same time – seems like an overkill of social networking, if you ask me…

Oh well. The night is still young.

A quick shout out to Joe W – congrats on your 18th. Hope you didn’t get too smashed.

Radi8 news: apparently, my non-attendance has been marked. Apologies – I was working.

Our Year 12 Leavers Dinner is tomorrow night. Should be good. Afterparty? Meh. Pics to come (either on facebook or here, haven’t quite decided yet). Also need a camera.

I think that’s it. Comments below.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: Blog, digg, facebook, formal, iphone, iphone 3g, myspace, radi8, School

Heheh – two exams today, so this post is brought to you by the freshbytes lackeys who seem to have nothing else to do but study… Apologies for not putting it up sooner, I wanted to get some sleep.

You hear the horror stories about how calculators can die suddenly due to a loss of power during end-of-year exams, and you worry.

You hear how harsh the TQA are on spontaneous calculator battery death (as we’ll call it), and how they don’t tolerate any excuses for spontaneous calculator battery death.

You hear how someone was sitting on an EA before they went into the exam, but are now only going to get an SA because they suffered spontaneous calculator battery death.

Well, okay – so I made that last one up, but I’m sure it has happened to someone, somewhere at sometime in the past!

Right – so I wasn’t going to let that happen for me. No way. I needed as many points as I could get, and spontaneous calculator battery death would just lead to a whole world of pain – namely, year 13 at Calvin (that, in and of itself wouldn’t be so bad, but having to do year 13 in the first place would be)….

Anyway, as you shop for batteries, there are a lot of questions to be pondered, such as:

• What brand of batteries should I get?
  This question is quite important as if you’re paying for the brand, then you’re doing it wrong, especially when it comes to mundane things like batteries. I managed to pick some nice red evereadys as they have worked well for me in the past – and if good performance is for this particular brand, that’ll bring me back to that brand, time and time again.

• How many should I buy?
  This is also an important question – if you have other devices in your house that use a large number of specialised batteries, you should probably buy them in bulk so that you always have some of those batteries on hand when you need them. Running out of batteries sucks at the best of times, and well, you can never have too many batteries! Of course, there is a limit, so don’t rush out and buy cartons of batteries – after all, you need to be realistic.
  I ended up going for an 8-pack of AAA’s as they were on special.

• Should I buy rechargeable batteries?
  If you’re asking yourself this question, you probably should – provided you’re prepared to lay out the extra initial cost of the rechargeables, as well as a charger if you don’t already have one… Supposedly rechageables are more cost effective, but in reality, you’re paying for the power that you use to charge them, too!
  I didn’t buy rechargeables as the batteries were for a caluclator – and I’ll probably use it once every couple of months after exams are over.

Anyways, that’s about the end of my battery-buying advice. If you’ve got any more tips that you feel I’ve missed, then shout out in comments!

As for school, well, I’m smack bang in the middle of exams. Chemistry was last Friday, and I’ve got Maths Applied and Computer Science tomorrow (Monday). Thursday sees the Physics exam, and after that – the Magazine needs to be done, I’ll work a heap, and work on a couple of projects I’ve got planned… Yeah, my holidays are fairly jam-packed as is.

On the Radi8 front, we should have a couple of good events to finish up the year with, which should be good.

The song for this week is Michael Buble’s Everything – from his album Call Me Irresponsible. If you’ve got iTunes, hit the links – they’ll take you to the correct iTunes Music Store page.

Other that that, I’ve got nothing.

Comments below.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: batteries, Blog, calculator, calvin, chemistry, exams, physics, radi8, School, shopping, study, TQA