Umamiblog

Brilliant shot, extremely good at communicating a simple but vitally important idea.

(via)

More on the original photograph at Wikipedia.

A totally neat piece of design, a USB thumb drive with a tiny pump inside it that gradually blows itself up depending on the amount of data it holds. Studio: PlusMinus

Only this doesn’t take place in a movie.

If you’re like me, you’ll probably have quite a large and varied MP3 collection. One where you’re not really aware of everything that is actually in your library and where it would take weeks or even months to listen to every song back to back.

How do you ensure you get at least a chance to listen to everything and indeed rediscover old favourites? Try this idea I learned from Trey while we were travelling.

In iTunes, create a new Smart Playlist and set the play count to 0.

Voila! You now have an instantly updating Never Played list. As soon as something is played to the end, it’s play count will update to 1 and it will thus be removed from the list. It’s a great way to work your way through your songs – I have (only) 5 days of music to get through now…

The most popular entry written in August was the Inspiring travel video made by the “Where the hell is Matt?” guy. However the most popular entry visited in August were the notes I scribbled down about Rowan Simpson while I was at Webstock back in May. Maybe there was renewed interest in him after his recent presentation at TechEd.

The biggest referrer to my site was someone’s MySpace profile. I wish I knew who’s as it’s definitely not mine

The most popular search term used by visitors was by far was “vodka” which I suspect leads to the entry: Vodka, as far as the eye could see… Maybe I need to see if 42Below are interested in sponsoring that specific page

What (un)usual and (un)interesting stats came up in your blogs for August?

I want you to have a look at this site (Post Expression) for two reasons. Firstly, I like the design and I think you will too. It’s the first time I can remember the use of dark brown and light blue as a colour combo on a website and I think it works well.

Secondly, I want to know your thoughts on the idea behind the site. Leaving multi-media messages in trust for your loved ones seems to me like a really great and touching idea.

It makes me wonder how the site’s owners/operators will feel when their first actual message is released and delivered. Geekish joy at seeing the system working? Sorrow in the knowledge that someone has just lost a loved one? I’d imagine it could play with your mind quite significantly.

In saying that I think it’s a great idea and will be seen as an invaluable service by those who receive last messages of love. I’d say with the 385 messages that have already been created at 19 Euros each, they are well on their way to breaking even. Not bad for two months of operation.

The reason I want to travel more…

…and more.

One of the areas of economics that has interested me the most was the concept of Microfinance. Put very simply, they are very small loans (not gifts or grants) that are typically given to individuals who are unemployed and living in poverty in a third world economy who would otherwise not have access to any kind of credit. Wikipedia has more on it here.

Evidence suggests it is an extremely effective method of helping lift people out of poverty via self-employment and putting them in charge of their own destiny. Not only that, it is also suggested that from a financial risk point of view the idea works surprisingly well. Repayments are actually made and in some cases microcredit programmes have lower bad debt/failure rates than traditional banks and lending organisations in those countries. And usually those very same organisations refuse to lend to these people.

Those same repayments are then typically poured into more microloans and thus the process repeats itself.

I had often thought that this type of framework would be excellently served by the internet. A website has the ability to detail, categorise and organise the giving of loans and the receiving of payments. It was an idea that excited me a lot and here are the notes I scribbled down a long time ago on the subject:

* Sponsor real needs
* Categorised on site
* See exactly where it is going
* Actively engaged
* No passive monthly income giving
* Just project, need by need
* Micro-enterprise => micro-donations
* Not committing for any length of tme
* Updated on progress of project
* Has the need been met
* “I helped a 25 y.o. brother pay for his siblings primary school tuition because his parents aren’t alive. It cost me $80.”

I remember at the time thinking if I was ever going to get real about it and take it beyond the idea stage that you would need to partner to an existing organisation operating in these communities.

I am heartened to see that banner being taken up by Kiva. You can view individual cases and donate loan via services like Paypal from as little as USD$25. When that money is repaid, you can reinvest it or take it out. Beautiful, simple and effective.

Just in case you needed, Wikipedia has a list of songs featuring cowbells.

It’s important stuff y’know. More cowbell!

Web 2.0 t-shirts

Fashion label Insidious Fix have been busted – running what appears to be a rather sophisticated $1milllion cannibis growing operation at their Onehunga premisis.

I wonder if this will have an impact inasmuch at it will close the company. Better get to the old Krazy Lounge on Cuba St that they’ve been using as a temporary sales store before they close up. Although it has been reported that the Fidel’s empire will be invading this space shortly.

When I think of how our media, our government, our intellectuals and so on have treated China this decade, compared with the past, this generally sums it up. Bravo Western capitalism, bravo.