Meet Bryce Blog

A Video - Whoever You Are, WATCH IT!

2012-03-07T19:44:00.001+11:00

If you know me as a person and value my opinion in any way. I implore you to watch this video, from start to finish. #kony2012 http://bit.ly/yYcShW

Posted via Posterous

Overcoming obstacles (warning: contains nerdy content)

2011-11-20T22:19:00.001+11:00

There is always a sense of satisfaction that can be drawn from circumventing rules and finding a way against the odds. For the last few months we've been battling with a payment form layout that was very restrictive and didn't have a very good default layout. After consulting with our suppliers' normally very helpful staff, we were told there was no work around for a core issue (being forced to take billing address details upon payment). The friction created was hampering the quality of the pages and didn't look particularly credible. The reason it was forced is that the supplied is calfornia based and in the USA it's compulsory to collect a postal address with any credit card. Perfectly justified, but a real pain in the backside here in oz. After a discussion throwing around ideas with Peter Moriarty from IT Genius we found a work around, auto fill the field with a value of null so the form parses then set all the fields to display:none and it's all sorted. So the reason I'm posting this is that there's a certain level of satisfaction and pride in putting that together. I guess I just wanted I share my nerdy victory.--

Posted via Posterous

Is your startup idea a jumping pony?

2011-02-23T09:00:00.001+11:00

Have you ever seen a business pitch that was brilliant? Have you ever seen a business pitch that was incredibly interesting, creative and clever yet lacked something and left you wondering "... but why?"

All to often early stage entrepreneurs (I've definitely been guilty of this) make a crucial mistake. Entrepreneurs of all levels of experience forget once in a while, and forget to ask the market a simple set of questions.

Is there a reason to create your product?
Do people want your product?
Is there a problem your product solves?

Don't go to market with a product without defining the problem you solve.

Think of it this way; why would you teach your pony to jump if nobody wants a jumping pony?

Posted via Posterous

Bryce Summerell According To Jung

2010-12-23T13:05:00.001+11:00

As an ISFJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you takes things in via your five senses in a literal, concrete fashion. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit into your personal value system.

ISFJs live in a world that is concrete and kind. They are truly warm and kind-hearted, and want to believe the best of people. They value harmony and cooperation, and are likely to be very sensitive to other people's feelings. People value the ISFJ for their consideration and awareness, and their ability to bring out the best in others by their firm desire to believe the best.

ISFJs have a rich inner world that is not usually obvious to observers. They constantly take in information about people and situations that is personally important to them, and store it away. This tremendous store of information is usually startlingly accurate, because the ISFJ has an exceptional memory about things that are important to their value systems. It would not be uncommon for the ISFJ to remember a particular facial expression or conversation in precise detail years after the event occured, if the situation made an impression on the ISFJ.

ISFJs have a very clear idea of the way things should be, which they strive to attain. They value security and kindness, and respect traditions and laws. They tend to believe that existing systems are there because they work. Therefore, they're not likely to buy into doing things in a new way, unless they're shown in a concrete way why its better than the established method.

ISFJs learn best by doing, rather than by reading about something in a book, or applying theory. For this reason, they are not likely to be found in fields which require a lot of conceptual analysis or theory. They value practical application. Traditional methods of higher education, which require a lot of theorizing and abstraction, are likely to be a chore for the ISFJ. The ISFJ learns a task best by being shown its practical application. Once the task is learned, and its practical importance is understood, the ISFJ will faithfully and tirelessly carry through the task to completion. The ISFJ is extremely dependable.

The ISFJ has an extremely well-developed sense of space, function, and aesthetic appeal. For that reason, they're likely to have beautifully furnished, functional homes. They make extremely good interior decorators. This special ability, combined with their sensitivity to other's feelings and desires, makes them very likely to be great gift-givers - finding the right gift which will be truly appreciated by the recipient.

More so than other types, ISFJs are extremely aware of their own internal feelings, as well as other people's feelings. They do not usually express their own feelings, keeping things inside. If they are negative feelings, they may build up inside the ISFJ until they turn into firm judgments against individuals which are difficult to unseed, once set. Many ISFJs learn to express themselves, and find outlets for their powerful emotions.

Just as the ISFJ is not likely to express their feelings, they are also not likely to let on that they know how others are feeling. However, they will speak up when they feel another individual really needs help, and in such cases they can truly help others become aware of their feelings.

The ISFJ feels a strong sense of responsibility and duty. They take their responsibilities very seriously, and can be counted on to follow through. For this reason, people naturally tend to rely on them. The ISFJ has a difficult time saying "no" when asked to do something, and may become over-burdened. In such cases, the ISFJ does not usually express their difficulties to others, because they intensely dislike conflict, and because they tend to place other people's needs over their own. The ISFJ needs to learn to identify, value, and express their own needs, if they wish to avoid becoming over-worked and taken for granted.

ISFJs need positive feedback from others. In the absence of positive feedback, or in the face of criticism, the ISFJ gets discouraged, and may even become depressed. When down on themselves or under great stress, the ISFJ begins to imagine all of the things that might go critically wrong in their life. They have strong feelings of inadequacy, and become convinced that "everything is all wrong", or "I can't do anything right".

The ISFJ is warm, generous, and dependable. They have many special gifts to offer, in their sensitivity to others, and their strong ability to keep things running smoothly. They need to remember to not be overly critical of themselves, and to give themselves some of the warmth and love which they freely dispense to others.

Posted via Posterous

Mind The Step - A Physics Tip For The Startup Entrepreneur

2010-11-01T12:28:00.001+11:00

As physics says every action has an equal and opposite reaction. For entrepreneurs, this can be paraphrased into a business adage.

"Every extra step will have an increasing and negative reaction"

It's commonly said that simple products are often the best, this mainly refers to physical products.

In the world of the tech-entrepreneur our product must be simple to use!

In a literal sense, steps should be a tool to minimize the effort required to move upwards. Imagine a 1m (3ft) high step, it would be pretty hard to use, now imagine 100 steps in order to get to the same spot. If there are too many steps though, it becomes more a hinderance than a useful tool.

This translates to a web startup: If you can make it take one click to sign up instead of four. Do it!

I spent a meeting yesterday focused entirely on simplifying the sign up and usage steps of our product. It will mean completely restructuring our product but our customers will have to do less, to achieve more. An essential part of a great product in my eyes.

Meeting adjourned,

Bryce Summerell

Posted via Posterous

The Ultimate Catalyst - The 8 Steps For An Entrepreneur To Take Tonight

2010-10-25T21:40:00.001+11:00

The internet is the entrepreneurial catalyst that will make or break you. Thanks to the internet everything is made bigger, happens faster and is over quicker than ever before.

However, the rules haven't changed just the mastery required in order to win the game.

So here are 8 steps to winning the game.

Be First

Stop waiting for a sign and take action. Right now.

Have a motivation that isn't money.

The greatest successes were motivated by something bigger than money, even if it was just getting girls (Mark?)

Put it together don't grow it

Success is no longer about creating something from nothing, this is a time where the greatest entrepreneurs are those that can see the pieces scattered throughout today and unite them as one new product tomorrow*

Have a team

You will never be the master of everything. Be the master of finding those that are better than you and welcoming them to the breeding ground of your vision. The best hire people smarter than them.

Make people care

Give people a reason to give a damn about you and your idea.

Be cool**

People tell people about things that are cool and that is why you've never seen a TV advertisement about Facebook.

Forget where you're from

The fact I'm an entrepreneur from Sydney doesn't matter anymore, everything is globalised.

Remember everything is public

Stop hiding behind privacy settings, if you do it they'll know. Change the behaviour, not the settings.

*This is merely a figure of speech, success may happen over night but it is manifest of a much longer period.

**As a company, not as a person

Meeting Adjourned,

Bryce Summerell

Posted via Posterous

Personal Branding; how to brand, market and sell yourself as an entrepreneur

2010-10-20T15:27:00.001+11:00

Define yourself, in a 30 second soundbite, this needs to be so simple you can say it at gunpoint if you're woken at 3 AM.

For myself; "I am an entrepreneur who is passionate about teaching people and connecting them with myself and others"

Now you know who you are, does everyone else know and agree that this is your identity?

Now you need to communicate this to everyone. So what is the difference between branding marketing and sales? All too often, myself included, we talk about marketing our business when really we're selling, or talk about working on our branding but really it's just our marketing.

Selling - Say you're talking to a fellow Sydney Entrepreneur about yourself and your 30 seconds at 3 AM. You're selling them your identity

Marketing - Say you're able to communicate indirectly with a large number of Sydney Entrepreneurs about your identity through a mailing list or some other marketing challenge. You're marketing your identity to your target market.

Branding - Say you go and take a course or read a book that improves the parts of yourself that match your 30 seconds at midnight. Everyone notices the change and your identity shines through. You just improved your branding.

So what are you going to focus on?

Posted via Posterous

Date Better. Date Smarter. Daterate.com

2010-10-14T13:05:00.001+11:00

DateRate entrepreneurs Bryce Summerell, Carlo Del Fabbro, Gabe Hollombe & Helen Hung. Seems Australian entrepreneurship is finally getting the exposure it deserves.

DateRate

Posted via Posterous

Front page of SMH.com.au with our dating solution daterate.com.au

2010-10-11T14:29:00.002+11:00

In less than 72 hours we created have a startup to be proud of, here comes a dating revolution. Sydney, Australia has all the potential of Silicon Valley it seems.

Posted via Posterous

The 'Bring out Sir Richard Branson' Mexican Wave at The Ultimate Success Summit

2010-09-17T16:32:00.001+10:00

The energy was down, patience was running out and after nearly 24 hours of speakers (including the amazing Tony Robbins) over two days. Everyone wanted to see Sir Richard Branson.

This wave was started by just a handful of people, good friends of mine.

Filmed from the floor by Bryce Summerell (unedited) from MeetBryce and ACES UTS

Posted via Posterous

New Goals: Life Changes after my ESCEM Business School experience in France

2010-07-25T04:47:00.001+10:00

Everyone has heard of smart goals, how many of us know what it originally represented.

Specific

Measurable

Accountable

Realistic

Timely

People so often forget to make themselves accountable for their goals. As such I am showing mine to the world, that way they can hold me to them. So after three eye opening weeks in France, here are my goals to change my life for the better.

Focus on one business idea at a time
Be more social, meet more people outside of business networking
Go get bread first thing in the morning. Get out of the house, get breakfast and get a little exercise early in the day.
Work on improving conversational French
Experiment more with cooking at home. Chou Pastry + cheese for example
Seek more knowledge training opportunities
Get back into shape (put on 6-7kg of muscle and lose 2-3kg of fat)
Stop using the computer after midnight (give eyes a rest and show body it's time for sleep)
Stay in contact with Steph, Bee, Bec, Marie and Gaeton
Build up knowledge and presence of/in the fashion industry
Do Jack's entrepreneurship course
Work out and do what is necessary to mentor in South Africa
Do a presentation skills course
Do an NLP course to improve business negotiation & management skills
Get second job, in retail to improve sales and fashion skills.
Remember the rule, friends don't tit-for-tat

Posted via Posterous

Does Advertising Annoy You?

2010-05-31T13:59:00.001+10:00

Do you mute during television commercials (TVCs)?

Are you one of the roughly 60% of internet users who block ads?

There's three factors that contribute choosing where to seek information. They are:

Information
Emotion
Interactivity

The first, information is self explanatory and has been a factor for all of time.

Emotion on the other hand is a newer addition. When seeking information we now seek to be emotionally engaged, often through a heart felt and engaging association with our core values. In advertising today, this factor is best addressed in TVCs. Values such as compassion, safety and family are in my opinion the most prevalent.

Interactivity emerged out of the information age. Online advertising evolved from crude flashing banners to interactive flash ads with an element of fun involved (eg. shoot the targets to win). This has now evolved a little further to advertising that can offer more information with a little interaction.

Yet there is still very little integration between the three. The old adage "Fast, good cheap. Pick two" has been applied here for a long time.

I feel that this no longer going to be good enough. If advertisers want us to engage with their message they need to take all three, then add something new. The currency of this age is attention, they have to earn it.

In time, the huge amounts of information being collected by Google and Facebook will hopefully result in advertising that I actually want to see. I occasionally see Facebook advertising about areas of interest to me (stand up comedy in Sydney, for example). Yet the vast majority of advertising is horribly targeted.

I long for the day when advertising is interesting and worth my time.

Posted via Posterous

My First Posterous Post

2010-05-28T16:15:00.001+10:00

After reading this article about Posterous vs. Tumblr, I decided to finally create an account to boost my blogging presence.

Basically, Posterous won because it can post to Tumblr, making Tumblr redundant. I can also post out to my Blogger and auto-update my social media profiles to automatically tell everyone what I'm blogging about.

No this isn't an ad for posterous! The next best thing about Posterous is that I can post directly via email and everything else is done automatically. No matter where I am, as long as I have internet (or 3G) access I can blog when I feel inspired.

So now I will be updating my blog much more regularly than before.

Posted via Posterous

Written/Spoken Minimalism

2010-05-08T11:04:00.000+10:00

Boring heartless lawyers. Ignorant smokers. These are just some of the more acceptable stereotypes people create in order to categorise people. In this incredibly complicated world, people have to simplify things in order to understand and remember them.

Today I'd like to dig a little deeper into the simplification of the spoken and written word. In the process of proving my point, my entire speech will be structured so that your average 12 year old could understand.

I have a lot to say. I don't have much time or space. I don't want to talk quickly. I refuse to use numbers to represent words. I am a twitter user.

I must choose my words carefully. I can't stack words to build meaning. One adjective is all I get.

We live in an information overload. Why do many academics explode the simple into a complex network of details? Why am I told about things that aren't relevant? Why must people make things complicated to sound intelligent?

To paraphrase Gladwell, having too much information will often impair the accuracy of a judgement.

I propose to you a system focused on the simple. A thin-slice of facts and concepts (thanks Malcolm). I propose the twitter world.

NB: This was written as an application for a 3 minute TED talk.

Entrepreneurial Meet Up

2010-05-06T16:49:00.002+10:00

Last night I spent 3 hours watching TED* talks, the time flew by and it was soon 3am.

I also knew I had to get up at 0730. Two things got me out of bed.

Knowing that I had a great opportunity/event to attend
Knowing I can survive on that little sleep (thanks to Christian's ebook)

Sean and I went to the event and met 4 out of about 15 entrepreneurs, we were there for 3.5 hours. Two of which will probably end up talking at future ACES events.

I got so much out of this few hours talking to such driven and successful people. I look forward to meeting more people and learning more about the people I met today. I made contacts that will help me propel a business idea I came up with at 3am last Saturday night.

It was a meetup.com organised networking opportunity at a coffee club just on the other side of town hall. For more info look here.

*For those of you who don't know what TED is, click here! To put it simply TED takes the best ideas of the world and gets the thought leader to explain it in 20 minutes. It's recorded and the best are uploaded to be watched for free.

One Second At A Time

2010-02-09T12:54:00.003+11:00

"This is your life, and it's ending one second at a time."

There's no rainchecks in life, you only live once and there's no respawns. So now is the time to take action. Take your life and look at it, without excuses and evaluate it.

Ask yourself, 'Am I happy?'.

Look at what you want out of life, think about who you want to be, what you want to achieve and where you want to end up in five years. Work out how you're going to get there. If you're still young and don't have a family, don't be afraid to make radical decisions. Even if they're bad choices, you'll bounce back, learn and have sa great story on the other side. So if your job isn't getting you closer to where you want to be or you hate your job or even hate yourself. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Now is the moment to do it. So stop waking up, sitting on the couch all day cruising facebook and eating food that's worse for your health than eating the packaging.

so stand up and make something of your life, because nobody else is going to do that for you.

Looking Good Pt 1

2010-01-25T08:31:00.001+11:00

Alright everyone, so we all know the basics of personal grooming and what not but I figure I'll throw a few interesting rules and tips I've come across that would be useful or entertaining.

Chapped lips? Grab your tooth brush and run it under hot water and lightly brush over your lips and the dead skin will flake off no worries. Then just put a lip gloss or chap stick over the top and you're ready to roll.

Think your grooming is good? Would you lick your finger after rubbing it behind your ear? Two questions, one answer.

If you're a guy and you can never get your facial hair to grow evenly, find yourself either an artist (soft) pencil or a make up pencil (mum/sister's) and mark a line that way. Use the old 'chippie' (carpenter) trick of setting the length of the gap from tip to grip and follow your jawline. Works like a dream.

When trying to shave a line, leave the part you want left long until after you've clean shaven everything else. Reduces your chance of messing up.

Guys and girls who use disposable razors, they'll last up to twice as long if you dry them with a hair dryer after you use them and keep them somewhere dry.* (This prevents micro rusting which dulls the blade)

Guys, some girls like facial hair, some don't. No girl likes a neck beard.

Part two will probably not follow for a while, more research is in order. Feel free to add your own tips for others in the comments.

Be Attractive

2010-01-20T13:46:00.004+11:00

What is the best way to get the guy/girl? The answer is really quite simple, it's a matter of lifestyle. I'm not talking you need 100k in the bank and a self managing business pulling in the cash and a penthouse on the habour. What I'm talking about is hobbies, interests, friends, skills, goals and aspirations.

If you want people to be attracted to you, your lifestyle needs to be one they want to be a part of. It's not complicated, if you show that being close to you will make them happier and or better off, they'll want to be around you. This works with friends as well as intimate relationships.

So think about what you want out of life in the long run, write down some goals for the future (when you grow up, so to speak). And work out what you need to do now and tomorrow to move towards them. There's goals and aspirations covered.

Friends, will come when you sort out the other elements. Best quick hint to meeting people I can give, smile.

Hobbies and interests, what do you spend your free time doing? Make it something more interesting than chilling on facebook. Then find a way to make sure it sounds interesting, it's all about the frame you put it in. Example, 'I play video games' isn't very interesting but if you reword it to 'I play online video games, I love the competition. It's kind of built into a guy's brain that working on something that has levels of achievement is fun.'

Skills, that's pretty simple. Find something and get good at it. My skillset of choice is massage as an example.

So get out there and make your lifestyle bigger than ben hur. Then people will gravitate towards you. Funny how well physics applies even metaphorically.

New Start

2010-01-15T00:59:00.001+11:00

A new age is dawning for meetbryce. I have now purchased a domain. So welcome, to meetbryce.com.

In the coming weeks meetbryce.com will transform from not just a blog to a personal website with links to social networking, favourite sites and my resume for those whom this is relevant.

Also, my blog will be taking a new direction with a new stronger focus on self improvement. I have been doing a lot of reading and have found a lot of self value in the process. Hopefully I can help you to do the same with my growing conglomerate of information. All this, free.

So stay tuned as my website grows to something more grandeur than ever before.

Rock Bottom

2009-12-09T09:26:00.003+11:00

Hitting rock bottom, everybody has done it at some stage, everyone has been at a point so low they realized no matter how much they screw up now they can’t get any worse off. My friend Moxie did, in one day he lost his business (the warehouse, uninsured, burnt down), his girlfriend was pregnant (with another guy’s baby) and he lost $8000US in cash, the only money he had saved outside his business. Take your suffering and use it as rocket fuel, put it in your engine and go to the fucking moon. Go out there and screw up, making a fool of yourself, so many times it’s funny, take an attitude of; you can’t get more wet once you’re in the water. Take what you’ve learnt from your suffering and move forward.

Super Mario

2009-12-06T11:33:00.000+11:00

Approach life’s social interactions as if it was a game of Super Mario, or Counter Strike, imagine it’s not real. It’s all just a game, when you crash and burn humiliating yourself infront of a a potential employer, a random guy in a club who’s shoulders are a foot wider than yours, wait a few seconds and walk away and he’ll already have forgotten who you were. People don’t remember people who make mistakes, most people make mistakes so you’re only going to be remembered if you get it right, so take a shot and be ready to start again with the improved skills taken from your previous mess ups. Just find another opportunity and start over.....

Money money money

2009-10-09T19:58:00.003+11:00

At least at some point in your life, more likely a large proportion of the time, you have wished you had more money. Or like most people growing up, your goal was to have lots of money. Yet throughout our lives we are reminded that money can't buy happiness which I will certainly agree with. However, I do believe that money can bring happiness. It is somewhat illogical to say I want to be rich, since nobody wants to be rich, what people want is the things that money brings them. In a few hours of solid research and brainstorming during my work experience I have come up with the following reasons people want money (or more money):

Freedom (to do what you want with your time, rather than working)
Material spending (the joy of buying things)
Travel
Family (spend more time with or buy things they want)
Peace of mind / stress reduction (the majority of divorces in USA and probably plenty here, are caused by fights over money)
Status (to stroke one's ego)
Giving / philanthropy
Knowledge (to have time to learn more about the world)
Dream home

So after this analysis, the question is; why do you want more money?

Exercise

2009-09-21T21:03:00.002+10:00

I think people underestimate the psychological benefits of exercise. Everybody talks about how good exercise is for your heart and body generally. Yet the neurological benefits of exercise are so rarely addressed. You know that feeling when you take your first drink? That slight rush. Strength training has the same effect. Exercising has been proven to decrease the level of cortisol in the brain, this is the stress hormone. So if you're stressed out, hit the bench. Exercising has also been proven to release endorphins, the same ones that come from chocolate but with the opposite effect on your waist line.

In my next blog on fitness I'll be explaining the myths of strength training.

Kingculture

2009-09-19T18:49:00.001+10:00

Here's a comment I left on a friend's blog. King culture, click here to read his unquestionably insightful view on pop culture! Read more to see what I think about Sean Micallef, Josh Thomas, LOTR, Matthew Reily, Twitter, David Stratton, Anchorman and Will Ferrell.

I personally don’t get how you could possibly find Micallef entertaining on TAYG. I swear he just talks shit the whole time while somehow attempting witless satire. Now his ‘on the couch’ interview on GNW, that was hilarious!

I really don’t get what everyone has against Josh Thomas. He’s not hilarious but he doesn’t pretend to be (unlike Mikey Robins, whose hilarity extends no further than ‘that’s what she said’ and ‘i get that a lot’).
I personally haven’t used Twitter but I can certainly see the appeal of it (woods got addressed by Russel Brand, no other way would that have been possible ((the fact RB is a egocentric mysogynist aside))) I personally don’t see much appeal in it as I lack any real celebrity interest.

The lotr movies bored the shit out of me so I won’t even consider the books. I respect the Matt Reily reference. WHY AREN’T HIS BOOKS MOVIES YET!

I was was waiting to see what you had to say about David Stratton with anxiety expecting you to rip him to shreds. But you didn’t thank goodness. He is by far the most deserving smirker of all time as you explained.
I’m glad I read this, in spite of the fact I hated anchorman and still hate will ferrell with a passion.

Fail-gate

2009-09-18T20:06:00.002+10:00

I am so sick and tired of hearing ever little political controversy having -gate tacked on the end of it. Ute-gate and iguana gate for example, how are either of these remotely comparable to watergate? An immoral government grant which was proven to be a scam anyway, or two politicians getting a bit messy and yelling at a couple of staff (who hasn't done that?). Why is it that the media seem to think any remotely scandalous political event is worth tacking -gate on? I vote that they do some research, go to wikipedia even. Anything! Just stop making these tiny issues out to be comparable to one of the biggest scandals on capitalist history (and in turn stop pissing me off).

Citibank

2009-09-17T18:16:00.004+10:00

Has anyone else seen the ads by citibank? I'm getting really sick of this guy raving on about how you can save all this money if you take up the citibank credit card. Now I'm not sure whether people realise this but this ultra low 2.69%pa interest rate is only going to be charged on transferred credit. This means that you only get charged that low amount on debt you already have. Sure, if you've got credit debt and you want to pay it off using more credit I guess it's a good way to consolidate your debts. Yet this isn't how the ad is constructed. Watching it, I feel like I'd be an idiot not to get this credit card since it's so much cheaper than others, yet at no point in the ad are we told what the interest rate is when you actually use the credit card.

Mind you, my opinion on credit cards is rather skeptical anyway. If you don't know you can pay off your credit card with your salary at the end of the month you shouldn't be using it (unless you are happy to pay the high interest rates). People should spend within their means. If society did this as a whole there wouldn't be the huge amount of unmanageable personal credit card debt and personal bankruptcy we all hear about on current affair programs which pretend to be news (an opinion I'll save for another day). On a similar topic; I will be posting in the future, a foolproof guide to interest free periods so you can maximise your money's worth while not risking huge amounts of risk. So sign up to the RSS feed.

The Liker

2009-09-14T18:36:00.002+10:00

As the world is consumed by facebook, a new breed of internet anomaly has evolved. As we all know facebook has introduced the 'like' option. So any post to a wall can be liked. Essentially allowing people to make known that they took an interest in the post while still remaining non-committed enough to avoid engaging in actual conversation.

'The Liker' is the person that is increasingly more common , the person who likes your status no mater what. The question, why do they do it?

Please comment if you think you know the answer.

The EGP

2009-09-13T23:04:00.005+10:00

Everybody has something in their life, which they'd rather wasn't. Everybody has a vice they wish they didn't. It's intrinsic within our very nature to hate what we most desire, perhaps this is in part an evolution from religion and the desire of the powerful to oppress. How many people feel guilty for desiring money, thanks to the social programming inherent in our lives?

A more rational example perhaps, is that of fast-food-guilt. Before going to the fast food restaurant, we've already spent the car trip nutting out a sufficient excuse to convince ourselves that this is a treat or a one off binge. We walk through the door and get in line, we feel fine about it till the moment we hand of the money. As the cash parts our grasp a flood of guilt consumes us. Once we get the food we take a seat feeling disgusting, wondering why of all the things we could have eaten we chose to come here.

Now, why is it called the EGP? Plenty of men go back to the same girl, and plenty of girls who have been dumped go back to the same guy. This is rarely a one off, it becomes a cycle. Just like fast food, there's plenty of healthier options.

This is the EGP the Ex-Girlfriend Paradox.

Now the call to arms. Today take a habit that is enforced by the EGP and take steps to combat it. For me, the EGP is alcohol (Stay tuned for a step by step outline of my escape from the EGP).

Windows 7 RC

2009-09-13T17:40:00.011+10:00

I've recently installed the Windows 7 Release Candidate. So I figure I better give you all a brief overview of what I have found so far.

Overall, I think Windows 7 RC is a great alternative to Vista or XP. I'm not looking forward to March though when I'll have to buy the release version, or endure my computer restarting every two hours.

New features

Desktop slideshow - This cute little toy allows us to choose a folder of pictures to switch between as the desktop. No doubt this would chew through battery power on a laptop (thankfully it can be auto-disabled on battery) but on a desktop or when charged in it's a nice little feature.

New MSPaint - finally the old paint has been revamped to match the aesthetics of Office 13 as well as some serious functionality upgrades. Although I use photoshop, like most, so it's update will unlikely be appreciated.

Improved connection wizards - connecting to networks is now a much simpler process with most of the hard work being done for you by the wizard.

Greater efficiency - form the moment I installed it, Windows 7 has been SUBSTANTIALLY faster than Vista.

Aero - The aero theme/feature has been tampered with a little and looks just as good as it did in vista while supposedly being more power friendly

Taskbar - The taskbar looks vastly different with some minor functionality changes, personally I didn't like it to begin with but it has grown on my visually.

Downsides

There is a lower level of incompatibility, but this will no doubt disappear by release date and is a burden worth bearing in my opinion
Increased instability - if you install a program with a known compatibility issue you're going to regret it. I found this out the hard way, even the uninstall caused the system to crash and restart before being repaired by the system wizard (much better than having to insert the installation disc as was necessary with vista & XP)

Non-Violent Boxing

2009-09-12T23:52:00.003+10:00

There is an inexplicable satisfaction to be gained from filling a cardboard box with items of your choosing and labelling that box with a thick, black texta. There is always a tendency to write in upper case, like you're screaming at the person curious as to the contents held inside, hoping they won't bother to enquire any further. In essence the contents of that box are transformed into what you wrote on the side. It's modern day alchemy, and it's not just for aristocrats.