Archive for the 'Thinking' Category

The CAO Points Race - Not Over Yet!

Published
by
Adam
on August 20, 2007
in School and Thinking
. 2 Comments

This year saw an awful lot of contradictory reporting on behalf of the Irish media who were reporting on the exams. At times it seemed as if they were merely out to scaremonger the already stressed out candidates. “CAO Points Race Not Over!” they would report and point to the fact that more candidates applied to the CAO this year than last year implying that points too would rise across the board. However as a candidate myself, I knew two things that the reporters didn’t take into account when writing their hastily put together insights into the mechanics of the college system - A) Colleges are ever-expanding - this means that while the number of applicants may have risen, the number of places to be allocated were also rising and B) It didn’t take a genius to realise that many people who were sitting the Leaving were people who had little or no intention of going to college and instead wished to take up a trade or pursue a PLC course!

I knew that these two things would result in points remaining relatively static with some courses obviously rising and some falling but todays headline in the Irish times “CAO Points continue to fall” offered false hope to a number of borderline candidates who grew ever more optimistic about the prospect of being offered their first preference course! It’s true, points fell in more courses than they rose in but competition was still fierce amongst candidates applying for business/administration courses and many courses are listed with a * following the first round offers indicating that not all candidates who had the minimum amount of points were offered a place for that course, instead finding that a random number assigned to them in February sealed their fate!

So contrary to what the media is reporting, the points race isn’t over yet! Many of the students who will not receive a college offer within the next few weeks will opt to pursue a PLC course and then apply to college next year and the trend seems to be that more and more mature students are finding their way into college meaning that next year will see what I predict to be record numbers of applicants to CAO. The third level colleges may be expanding and adding many new courses to their repertoire as each year passes, but there’s only so much expansion they can do in a year and I’m not hesitating in saying that next year could see the Points Race really get started!

Download Almost Any Song Off The Internet For Free! - Updated!

Published
by
Adam
on January 6, 2007
in Adam Investigates, Geekiness, Learn Something New, Music, Ramblings and Thinking
. 101 Comments
As of June 2007, RadioBlogClub have updated their web application which blocks this method from working. I’ll try find a workaround in the coming weeks

A few months a go, I published a quick how-to guide about downloading music for free from the RadioBlogClub website. After trying many sites and various methods of downloading songs, I decided on RadioBlogClub because of its ease of use and more importantly its vast selection of songs which far surpassed the offering of any other sites that I came across. If you are after more popular songs, you’ll probably have an easier time by going to BlogDigger.com who have a powerful media search tool which allows you to uncover songs embedded in blog posts from around the world! But as I said, it’s only really useful for very popular songs.

Times were good for music downloaders for a couple of months until RadioBlogClub caught on to this exploitation and, as already mentioned, started encrypting the URLs to their songs. For months I haven’t been near the internet, so haven’t had an opportunity to tackle this but now that I’ve managed to find a spare 10 minutes, why don’t you join me as I once again explain How To Download Almost Any Song off The Internet For Free!


1. Visit The Site


CLICK HERE (opens in a new window)


2. Search



In the search box type the name of the band (or song) that you are looking for. In this case I’m searching for “Snow Patrol”, a band that I recommend each and every one of you check out :).


3. Select the Song You Want



You are now presented with a list of songs available for that band. When you see the song that you like, click its blue play button to the left of it.

Look towards the right column and you’ll notice that something like the above has appeared.


4. Find The Song Code



In the grey box, there’s lots of “HTML” code. For those who are familiar with this guides previous outing, you’ll know that this is the part where you’re meant to select a particular bit of code. So select, like I have done in the picture, the bottom lines of the code beginning with “FlashVars”. Make sure that you select EVERYTHING after this and then continue.


5. Paste The Code Into AdamsRants Code Stripper


Check out My Code Stripper which will decrypt the music code. (opens in a new window)

Paste the code into the First box. Now you must butcher the code! Erase everything BEFORE the “http” and AFTER the “.rbs” and you’ll end up with something like this:
.
Now press the “DECRYPT” button which were convert the encrypted code into easily understood code like this:

6. Download

Now you can copy and paste the code into your address bar. Once you have done this, press enter and you will be asked to save it! You are almost there….


6. BUT WAIT!


After downloading the song, you may notice that Windows doesn’t know what to open it in, this is because the file ends in “.rbs” which isn’t recognised by Windows. However, this is only a basic ploy to stop people downloading the song because it’s actually a “.mp3″ which has been renamed to fool people! What you need to do is raname the file! Note: It’s been reported that unix based operating systems will automagically realise that it’s an mp3.


A “.rbs” file.


Right click the file and select “Rename”.


Change the file extension to “.mp3″.


VOILA!

Double click the file and it will now open in your preferred Media Player. It might seem a bit daunting to have to do this for every song, but you’ll soon get the hang of it!

A lot of people previously commented that this is a very longwinded system, but I’d have to disagree. After the first few songs, you’ll be able to download songs in no time at all once you get used to it which makes it perfect for situations where you’re asked to listen to a certain song by a friend but don’t fancy having to wade through the unreliable LimeWire or download the full album from BitTorrent.

Some people also commented on the sound quality which usually weighs in at 92kbps. The good news is that this means it takes seconds to download. The bad news is that audiophiles will be disappointed. This isn’t Dolby Surround Enhanced Audio that we’re downloading here. It’s slightly less than CD quality which, in my opinion, is perfect for phones or small MP3 Players with little space!

In the past, people tried to make some further addons to this hack such as an automated downloader. Once again people are welcome to make an any further additions to this exploit, but remember, if you’re leaving a comment, please leave some form of contact!

If you like what I’ve done, as a token of your appreciation, I’d be very grateful if you could find it within your hearts to feed me for a day by donating a euro or two :)


The Bebo Killer? The Future Of Social Networking

Published
by
Adam
on July 13, 2006
in Bebo, Current Affairs, Geekiness and Thinking
. 13 Comments

Yesterday I wrote about how Bebo had unleashed its greatest feature yet, Bebo Bands, which is enabling the infamous social networking phenomenon tackle the MySpace giant head on. But as it stands Bebo is currently on the verge of looking cluttered because its interface wasn’t designed to accomodate a full scale social networking site and instead was set up purely as a contact sharing site. This means that there are only so many features that Bebo can add to keep its userbase immersed and eventually users will bore of Bebo in search of the latest social networking site to arrive in town. What will this killer site be though? Well over the past while I’ve been tracking the progress of several up and coming sites which show a lot of promise as well as keeping an eye on the older social networking sites who are looking to reinvent themselves!

Now as you can imagine, it’s difficult to predict what the masses will want 6 months down the line but I reckon there will be an attempt to move away from the current trend of semi-static profiles whereby users enter in information manually and select a video manually. In essence, the future of social networking relies on a degree of automation. Picture this, you download an app which interacts with Winamp alá LastFM which then fetches your most played songs and fills in your favourite bands section and recommends other bands to listen to as well as suggesting other members profiles based on musical taste. I know that LastFM does this and does it very well, but a truly successful social-networking site would have to be much broader than this and not rely on nichés therefore appealing to the largest possible audience. Of course finding users with a similar taste in music to you would grow tiresome after a while and would also result in many false-positive matches being made. You need more diverse fields that can be compared with other users.

This is where I come onto the popular StumbleUpon plugin. Stumble Upon is a very, very promising plugin which is steadily growing in terms of popularity. Like LastFM, StumbleUpon also matches users based on tastes all integrated into a social networking frontend. In this case, the plugin comes in the form of a simple toolbar with several key buttons; “Stumble”, “Like” and “Dislike”. When setting up the plugin, you select what type of websites you like, ’sport’ and ‘movies’ for example. Whenever you click on ‘Stumble’ you will be directed to a site, based on your preferred categories, that someone else liked. After a while of ’stumbling’, the site builds up a profile of sites that you like and dislike and as stated earlier, matches you with other likeminded surfers. If something like this is implemented it opens almost endless possibilities with the ability to check out what sites your friends like being the first idea to spring to mind! Logging data of what sites people like and dislike would also be very useful for potential advertisers.

Advertising is one of the major obstacles that needs to be overcome when operating a social networking site. Advertisers are known to be hesitant to be associated with social networking sites where questionable content often arises which may harm a companies reputation. This means that it’s difficult to monetize these sites. If a feature akin to that provided by StumbleUpon was introduced to a social networking site, webmasters would no longer have to bombard users with ads and instead could simply deliver one ad which is chosen based on that particular members surfing history i.e if I like Sports sites then it could show me one ad relating to a sport which I’m known to like. This would be much more effective than the current systems in place on sites like Bebo which display ads based on popular keywords on the particular page you are viewing. This means that if I view someones profile on Bebo, I’m being delivered ads based on their profile whereas really I should be delivered ads based on my profile! It would result in a much higher CTR (Click Through Rate) and less intrusive ads for the members who are responsible for generating revenue for the website!

New social networking sites spring up almost everyday, some with new and totally out of this world ideas (eg: Zebo) while others just aim at improving on an already tried and tested formula (eg: hi5.com). I feel that the next successful social networking site will be one which strikes a balance between the two. People don’t want to see more MySpace clones but at the same time they don’t quite fancy the idea of having to familiarise themselves with something completely different to what they are used to and given the fierce competition in this sector of the internet, if a site fails to strike that all important balance, then it will almost certainly die off and be forgotten about.

Lets not forget about security though. The issue of security has been well highlighted throughout all forms of media and Bebo and MySpace are often the subject of sensational newspaper headlines or the topic of chat shows. The Bebo phenomenon even warranted an investigation by Primetime! Thanks to this media coverage, most sites have tightened up their security and now employ a dedicated team of moderators to monitor flagged content. Unfortunately, the internet is synonomous with anonymity which means that administrators will always be fighting an uphill battle especially when the intelligence of some members is questionable. Bebo has done an excellent job in making it’s members aware of the dangers of accepting people you do not know and any other large social networking site should aim to follow Bebo as an example. If a site should suceed in surpassing the standards set by Bebo then it will be well on it’s way to large scale domination!

The type of site that I have suggested above would be massive. It would undoubtedly be a massive drain on server resources having to maintain a massive database of popular music and websites - in realtime! One option would be to attempt to integrate the existing services into one site like Bebo has been doing with its Bebo TV option which is integrated with VideoEgg. It may be the quick solution and for now it seems to be working, but it’s main disadvantage is that it’s a closed format with little room for in-house development in the future which would hurt the site in the long-run!

So are there any existing sites which fit the bill? Well one site of particular interest is Orkut.com which is a Google-backed social networking site. It’s current policy is one that promotes organic growth. This means that you can’t sign up yourself, instead you must be invited by someone that is already a member. Given the infamous resources of Google, if they were to prioritize the development of the site, the sky would be the limit to what they could achieve! Until they open it to the general public though, Bebo and Myspace have nothing to worry about!

Lets not forget about Microsofts offering, MSN Spaces which is integrated into MSN Messenger and looks set to be integrated into the delectable looking Live.com. Given it’s current popularity with bloggers, MSN Spaces is not to be ruled out especially with the imminent official launch of Live.com - a Web2.0 portal.

TagWorld is a site that I actually feel sorry for. It’s features far surpass those offered by MySpace.com and lots of money has been spent on advertising its superior customization potential yet it fails to win over the audience of its competitors. I don’t think a reinvention is on the cards with its current owner owing to the fact that everything they’ve tried thusfar has been fruitless!

There are two new players to the social networking scene though and I’m happy to say that they do have the potential to be the future of social networking. GoingOn and PeopleAggregator both started out as one, however in December of 2005, the two creators split having come to two different conclusions as to how the site should operate. The basic ideas of the two sites are very similar. The sites in themselves are social networks where you can write blog posts, create groups, upload media and add friends, but they allow you to create your own social network within the site which offers users the chance to create their own Bebo like site. From what I can gather, the same username and password can be used throughout all of the created social networks. Cross-site compatibility is something which has astronomical potential. GoingOn.com is not open source, but is far more slicker than “PeepAgg”. Whether or not these two sites will indeed surpass Bebo.com and MySpace.com in the future is a tough one to call. PeepAgg and GoingOn have an interesting business model and plenty of new features as well as improving on existing social networking features which could just be what the people need.

Monopoly - My Latest Obsession

Published
by
Adam
on May 18, 2006
in Adam Investigates, Geekiness, Life and Thinking
. 7 Comments

If you know me well, then you’ll probably know that I go through sporadic phases where I’ll be absolutely obsessed with something before eventually growing tired of it and seek something new to try out. Recently, my latest obsession has been that famous board game “Monopoly” which, until 2 weeks a go, was something I rarely played! But then Laura reintroduced me to the game which now threatens to be the subject of all my attention for the coming weeks!

Even if you do know me well, you’d be forgiven for wondering what one could possible obsess about with Monopoly, after all, it’s just a basic boardgame where you win by being lucky, right? Well yes, admittedly luck does play a vital role in the outcome of a game, however so does discovering the right property to buy based on probability. In fact, in the past week or so that I have been addicted to the game, I reckon I’ve spent more time theorising and playing out scenerios in my head about which properties one should own. I’ve also been using the internet to discover some exciting House Rules which make Monopoly more exciting to play!

As for the right property to own though, I can safely say that the orange group of properties (Bow Street, Marlbrough St and Vine St) are the most lucrative! I’ve come to this conclusion because the Jail square is the most visited square on the board thanks to the “Go To Jail” square and the Chance and Community Chest cards which send players there. When coming out of jail, a player is more likely to roll 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 than he is to roll a 2, 3, 4, 10, 11 or 12 which means that there is a very high chance that the player will land on an orange property. In other words, you don’t have to rely as much on luck for people to land on them. And land on them they will! Just you watch!

As for other properties to buy, I’d be inclined to buy the reds as they offer a greater return than the oranges at only a marginal increase in price. If someone rolls low when coming out of jail then there’s a high chance of them landing on a red property, although this will require more luck than the orange properties command.

If you want a real safe bet though, you can’t go far wrong with the railway stations. There are 4 stations which means that a player is more likely to land on a station on a round trip than they are to land a single group of properties. If you own all 4, then you will receive £200 everytime someone lands on one. Over time the money you earn from them will far surpass the amount you initially paid for them all and they become a nice and constant supply of cash to feed the development of your properties later on in the game. The green group, with its Go To Jail square just before it, and the blue group, which only have 2 properties, are generally unattractive to form a monopoly over because they are far too expensive! Although by all means buy the property when you land on it, as you could find yourself making a nice tidy profit on them later which can be used to develop your orange and red properties - properties that you know people will land on as opposed to properties you hope people will land on!

I think I’m going to leave my analysis there. If you just remember that then I can guarentee that you will have a better chance of winning than someone who relies on luck. Although sometimes you can be a victim of wicked bad luck such as rolling a double to land on a fully developed Mayfair and then landing on a chance card which asks you to advance to Mayfair. It’s improbable, but can and has happened in the past! Just remember that winning isn’t everything! Wait, it is! Sorry.

“It’s Ireland’s Biggest Free Paper!”

Published
by
Adam
on May 4, 2006
in Current Affairs, Rant and Thinking
. 4 Comments

At 16 pages and measuring the same as a normal tabloid I’d hardly call it the biggest free paper. Unless they are talking about circulation which at 332,000 copies per month is actually quite impressive. What newspaper could I possibly be talking about? Well I can tell you that it offers “news, features and comment from a Catholic perspective.” and was formed at the request of Pope John Paul II who wanted “an evangelisation that is new in its fervour, new in its methods and new in its expression”. I am, of course, talking about Alive!

Ever since the beginning of Transition Year, without fail, this newspaper has been handed out to an eager Religion class once a month for us to browse through and read it’s intellectual and thought provoking articles which just happen to be riddled with ridiculous amounts of Catholic propaganda which appears to make no attempt to attract new people to Catholism but rather act as a tool to retain existing followers during these troublesome times!

Last month’s edition contained, among other things, a large article on how we should all boycott the box office hit Brokeback Mountain on account of it promoting homosexuality. Calling for a widespread boycott like this doesn’t really promote independent thinking now does it? In this month’s edition, in the ‘Media Watch’ section of the newspaper, they talk about a headline that appeared in the Sunday Times. In the original article the journalist clearly gave their opinion on it, however, in this article Alive tell us what the journalist actually meant to say and what they actually mean by it. Once again, the Catholic Church are telling us how we should interpret everything. Some may call it guidance, but I’d be inclined to call it dictation. It’s a pity that the devoted followers don’t know the difference between the two.

This month they are also talking about the Da Vinci Code, the New York Time Bestseller by Dan Brown. In their report they claim that Dan Brown is painting an inaccurate picture of what actually happened and in a multiple part feature will tell us how we are to interpret the novel. The keyword there being ‘novel’. I find it slightly entertaining that they even feel the need to tell us what Dan Brown means in what’s only a work of fiction! It’s like saying that in the Nursery Rhyme where Jack and Jill go up to fetch some water, Jack and Jill actually find Jesus on their way up and are eternally happy for ever and ever!

Alive doesn’t make for insightful reading, instead, it relies on the shock-factor much like other brands of smut do, such as the Sun, Star, Mirror and so on. It’s content merely serves the purpose of instilling fear into the minds of it’s readers, who after years and years of having to put up with this drivel, know of nothing else. They have been moulded into the shape of a brain-washed drone who will actually believe what being written in this monstrosity of a newspaper! Those of us whom who are strong enough to not get caught up in their sensation gay-bashing stories can only look on in amazement at how some people can be so desperate to retain followers that they would resort to writing such stories. The same level of astonishment can be directed at those who are desperate enough to read and actually believe what this newspaper says!

Being asked to do things I’m about to do!

Published
by
Adam
on April 26, 2006
in Life, Ramblings, Rant and Thinking
. 4 Comments

I’m in work and it’s just your normal wedding afters. There I am looking over at my table to make sure the guests have everything they need and I spot a nearly empty water jug. I immediately hop into action and make my way over to the table to pick up the water jug and refill it. “Sorry there”, I say as I try to make some room for myself to reach in to the middle of the rather crowded table. Then just as I’m about to reach in, a woman taps me and asks me would I be able to fill up the water jug. My teeth to begin to grind in pure frustration and understandably so. It is quite frustrating because I had already noticed that the water jug was nearly empty and was taking the required steps to restore the supply of water to the dehydrated table!

By asking me to fill the water jug it portrays me in a very bad light altogether because immediately this woman will feel that the service was bad because she had to ask someone to fill the water up for her but I wasn’t going to walk up to the table and announce “Hi, I’ve noticed you’ve run out of water. Let me fetch you some more”. Not only would I sound gay but I’d also be like a human version of the infamous Microsoft Paperclip and that couldn’t be good. It also doesn’t get across the fact that I had actually noticed the water needed filling and I’d feel very cheeky if I said “Yes, I noticed. I was just about to fill it” because I know myself as a customer that I’d consider that to be cheeky. I go and fill up the water jug and bring it back to the table and I don’t get one “Thanks”, because they all feel that they shouldn’t have had to ask for me to fill the water in the first place. BUT I WAS GOING TO FILL IT ANYWAY!

It happens at home all the time as well. Say I’m the kitchen for example and then I hear my TV on upstairs. I leave the kitchen and on my way up the stairs to turn it off my mother shouts out to me that I should turn off my TV while I’m up there. IT’S THE ONLY REASON I WAS GOING UP THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Maybe there must be some sort of telepathy going on here or maybe people are puzzled by my presence and want to know what I’m doing there so all of a sudden their mind goes into overdrive and my mother starts to faintly hear the television and the fat woman at the table notices that there’s a water jug on the table that needs to be refilled. Then they think they’re great for noticing and deem it necessary to bring the matter to my attention - a matter that I had already managed to bring to my attention by myself.

It is frustrating though!

What if?

Published
by
Adam
on March 26, 2006
in Ramblings and Thinking
. 3 Comments

The other day (while drunk) I had a fairly deep conversation with my mother about “What If?”. In this conversation I was talking about several things such as all my potential as a soccer player having played with Hibs for 3 years and being tipped as a “player of the future” (to quote Waterford Soccer Monthly”). If I was indeed a player of the future and I had stuck with the soccer then maybe I’d be in England today under contract with a top tier team as a goalkeeper or as a midfielder and therefore wouldn’t have met anyone who I know today!

Once I grew bored of soccer I went through a senile period where I did absolutely nothing. If I hadn’t become so obsessed with the computer during this time then I would have never been forced into a new pastime - rowing! I must admit that I took the rowing very seriously and as a result I was extremely fit and was able to run for miles and lift anything that was given to me. Which brings me onto the tower. It was the sole reason that I quit rowing, because at the the end of the day I was getting paid to serve and clear a few plates and I wasn’t being paid a penny to dedicate 6 days a week to try and remain competitive as a rower.

Sometimes I look at my body and ask myself what I’d be like if I kept on rowing. I think noone can doubt that I would be extremely fit with vein’s bulging out left, right and centre but I would have never worked in the Tower and met some of the soundest people imaginable and I can sure as hell guarentee that I wouldn’t be coming in at 3 in the morning totally pissed and with an urge to post to my blog which wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t got into webdesign back when I was in 5th class in Primary School!

It’s times like this which make me wonder if it’s worth thinking of things like this. There’s a Limp Bizkit song with a name that eludes me at the moment but it goes “What’s done is done, just leave it alone, and don’t regret it” and while I don’t usually respect anything that comes out of Fred Durst’s mouth, I’m afraid that I’m going to have to believe him in this case.

Life could very well have turned out a lot different to what it has done but I don’t think I should be wasting time thinking of the “shoulda, woulda, coulda’s” of life and instead spend my time thinking of how to deal with my present life, the life which has been dealt to me!

life, philosophy, drunk, job, rowing

To Sell Or Not To Sell?

Published
by
Adam
on March 11, 2006
in Life, News and Thinking
. 8 Comments

At 8:21 on Friday 8 March, a single Oxegen ticket was purchased by myself for the respectable price of €160. A mere 11 hours and 39 minutes later, that same ticket suddenly soared in value - Oxegen 2006 had sold out!

In the days prior to tickets going on sale, grand plans were being drawn up that would see me travelling up to Punchestown in mid-July inside a bus packed full of friends, drink and tents. Some may say (or maybe just me) that they were the finest plans ever made and that Oxegen’s record breaking sell out is a terrible crime against great plans because all of a sudden those great plans had to be scrapped and now I find myself with quite the dillema on my hands - To Sell Or Not To Sell?

The most obvious reason for me to sell the ticket would be to make some quick money and not have to worry about finding ways to get up to Punchestown until next year. eBay currently tells me that tickets are selling for around the €250 mark with “100% Feedback” sellers (sellers who have a track record of being reliable) being able to make up to €300 for one ticket! €90 is still a nice amount of profit to make on a ticket within a week however the obvious downside is that I wouldn’t have a ticket anymore for the most eagerly anticipated concert of 2006!

The most obvious reason for me to go is because I nearly paint the walls white whenever someone mentions the confirmed lineup to me! While some of the bands don’t appeal to me in the slightest (I call these the “tent bands”), I look at them as a chance to recouperate for the big guns such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Placebo and of course the EELS with more being destined to be announced in the coming months! The only real downside to all this is that I would have to spend a lot money on things such as food, drink, tent and bus which would probably be in the guts of around €200 which is €200 that could go towards my Oktoberfest fund!

I clearly have more thinking to do on the matter, at the moment I’m actually 50-50. Things that could sway me into going would be the release of another batch that would result in my friends gettings tickets and the announcement of more good bands which would result in me going no matter what with no matter who! Things that could make me sell my ticket would be a quiet month or two in work that would mean I’d be forced to sell up in order to continue living as I do (like a drunk!). I can’t really think of anything else that would make me sell though, maybe if I found it difficult to find a group willing to take me up to Dublin that I might sell. I just don’t know, only time will tell!

oxegen, oxegen ticket, ebay

Welcome back!

Published
by
Adam
on January 26, 2006
in Life, News, Ramblings, Reviews, Site Announcements and Thinking
. 7 Comments

About a month a go, I started upgrading Adams Rants in an attempt to make it bigger and better. However, I soon ran into some serious internal problems (you couldn’t see them) which resulted in the site not recognising me as the administrator. So one month down the line, I have mustered up the enthusiasm to work on the site and we are starting from scratch again! I have saved ALL the old posts however I think I’ll only bring back posts that people have specifically asked me to keep as because it’s a tedious process restoring the old posts!

In the month or so that I have spent contemplating whether or not to resurrect the site, a lot has happened to me! A few weeks a go, a discussion about relish (yes, relish) turned out to be a turning point for the worst in a long-term friendship which in retrospect could barely be defined as a friendship particularly due to the fact there isn’t one iota of my mind, body or soul that cares about it! It might seem to you that I don’t value friendship very highly but you couldn’t be more wrong!