Sephy’s Platzish

I don’t think there’s anyone who hasn’t seen the antics of Jamie and Adam on Discovery’s extremely popular program Mythbusters (by the way, if you didn’t know, the show is actually made by Beyond Productions Pty. Ltd., an Australian company with branches around the world). Usually, they can be the definitive source on whether something is true or not. However, they’re not perfect, and they know it.

The episode that Discovery showed tonight at 8PM central - repeated at 11PM tonight and probably sometime soon - featured them trying to beat a speed camera. Now, they aren’t something that we have many of here, yet. They were featured on a story on ABC News just tonight as well with the installation of the first cameras on a freeway in Arizona.

While there are a lot of privacy issues behind these cameras, what they were testing was, whether you could beat the camera. They used a bit of straight road - the drag strip at Sears Point raceway, with a length of around 1/4 mile (0.4km or so). It was good distance for the cars they tested, but for all they tried, they couldn’t beat the camera. Well, Jamie did beat it - by having a flipping license plate, but that doesn’t count.

However, here’s where they’re wrong. The folks on BBC2’s Top Gear (a great show that sadly isn’t on in the States) tried to beat the camera in the first series of the revamped show. They had slightly different results. The BBC have put the videos up on YouTube, but have disallowed embedding, so I have to give you links to all three segments (don’t worry, though, they’re short).

Segment 1 - Honda Civic Type R; top speed, 146mph (235km/h)

Segment 2 - Mercedes CL55 AMG; top speed, 155mph (249km/h)

Segment 3 - TVR Tuscan S; top speed, 170+mph (274km/h)

Needless to say, with more than 2 miles of track to use (on a disused airfield), they were able to flex the cars to their top speeds, but only one car failed to be caught by the cameras. Which one? You’ll have to watch.

In the time that I’ve been looking for work, I’ve filled out a few applications along the line. Most of them ask the standard questions about educational and work history. Others - particularly those that you fill out online ask some more, well, unusual questions.

I guess you’d almost call it a pre-pre-interview. For example, I filled out an application for a major retailer in the area online yesterday and there was this whole section of scenarios and you were to tell them what you would most likely do and what you’d least likely do. The questions covered a wide range of topics, including relating to customers, relating to other employees and even situations where you overhear gossiping.

Personally, in the scenarios where it was an issue with a fellow employee (for example, you noticing that someone is working slower than you or that someone is doing something unsafely), and there was the option of dobbing them in to the supervisor, I’d say that it would be the least likely thing that I’d do. Maybe this is a change in me, or a bit of not wanting to make waves, but I would either keep it to myself or go over and explain that they’re doing it wrong, and then show them how to do it.

Actually, that came up in another question - the scenario was that I was putting some produce on display and a coworker would come over and say that I was doing it wrong. I said that the most likely thing I’d do is say “ok, then show me how I should do it”.

I’ve seen other applications where they give you these strange “agree or disagree” type questions, but this was the first time that I’d seen this particular scenario-based questioning happen.

Who knows, maybe I can get to work at this place, I’m not mentioning it for obvious reasons (for example, I get a job there), but from what I’ve heard, they’re a decent company to work for.

Some of the more popular threads on the Aussie Bloggers Forum are threads that deal with a recent phenomenon in the blogging world. It’s a new service called Entrecard, which bills itself as “Your Business Card 2.0″. It’s something that is geared towards bloggers, and is built for bloggers.

If you want to check out the threads for yourself, you can do so without registering. They are -

• Aussie Bloggers using Entrecard
• Entrecard - Aussie Bloggers Getting Noticed
• Entrecard - Tips to success

Signing Up

When you first visit the Entrecard page, you’ll see that there’s an introductory video there; I recommend you take the time to watch this video as it provides an excellent explanation of how the whole system works, and how simple it is to get started with their system.

After viewing the video, to sign up, all you have to do is click on the big Sign up FREE! button under the video (it’s what the arrow is conveniently pointing to on the site ). That will, naturally, bring you to the signup page -

The first thing that you will notice is that there are three main guidelines - first, the blog needs to be in English, you need to own the blog that’s being signed up to be linked to the account, and it has to be a blog that’s not pr0n or spam. The best part of the sign up process is that, you can get your card created right away, and not have to confirm your account, or wait before you create your card.

What I’m going to do is create my card (which, for now, will just be my standard avatar with my site’s address written on it) in Paint Shop Pro, and then upload it. You’ll note that the image has to be 125×125, as that is the size of all Entrecards. If you don’t have the skills necessary to make a card from scratch, you can always opt for a simple text card, either plain, black, silver (which has orange and black borders on the top and bottom), green (good for blogs with a short name) and orange.

This is what my entrecard looks like, just in case you come across it out there -

Just quietly, I have to say I’m pleased with my work.

When you’re done deciding what you want to have for your card, enter your blog’s information, along with a description of your site, fill out the reCaptcha and click sign up.

That’s all there is to signing up. Now, it’s time to put the code on your site (or if you want, have a look at your dashboard, but we’ll touch on that a little later). To do that, click on the Get your widget code link.

There is a choice of three different sizes - 127×148, 200×127 and 250×127. These are designed to fit all widths of sidebar, and really all tastes. Since my sidebar isn’t that wide, I’m going with the first option. I also happen to think that the simplicity of that particular widget is nice.

Putting it on your blog

This is a simple thing to do, because it’s no different to putting a widget for, say, MyBlogLog or BumpZee or even a tracker onto your website. Simply copy the code you want to use, and put it into a new element on your sidebar; WordPress users will want to use a Text element, and Blogger users will need to use a HTML/Javascript element. Of course, you can also put it into an existing piece as well; the choice is yours. I’ve decided to do a little reconfiguration of my sidebar to accomodate it.

Now, let’s go back and explore the Dashboard.

The Dashboard

Since I just signed up as I was writing this post (as I say, I do it and write up the how-to on it ), there’s nothing in my dahsboard right now, except for some basic information about my account.

However, it doesn’t take long for ads to start appearing in your inbox. This shot below was taken just a few minutes after the previous one, and I already have some folks who have dropped cards on me!

Really, this is a learning experience for me, and I might include an update on this on Mondays, with the other updates of my blog world.

Further Reading

• Blogging Networks: Entrecard - Ben’s explanation of how it works is excellent!
• Interview with Entrecard’s Graham Langdon on Problogger
• The Aussie Entrecard Conspiracy
• Aussie Bloggers on Entrecard

This should get you going on Entrecard; it’s not a hard thing to do, and if you have the time to do it, can be worthwhile to your blog’s traffic.

As always, if you have something you’d like me to explain how to do, you can contact me via my contact page. I’ll go through it and produce a guide like this one.

D’oh! I forgot to put a title onto this post!

Time to wrap up the week

Posts I Liked -

• Here’s a note to potential party makers wanting to make a quick buck: Don’t follow Corey Delaney’s example. Or maybe you should. However, he could use a new graphics department. The question that is put forward about a poster advertising his tour by Sam fits - WTF?
• Some awesome news for American race fans - Boris Said (who has almost cult status in some circles) is likely headed to Phillip Island and Bathurst to be a part of the V8 Supercar endurance races in September and October. Who knows, this might get Speed to show the races live!
• Australia Day was Saturday, and Sally, from Sydney Daily Photo spent the day at Carss Park on Kogarah Bay.
• A couple of podcast recommendations, both from The Mrbrown Show. First is about a sex tape made by a Malaysian official; the real reason it was made was that it was an educational DVD. Also, are you wanting a MacBook Air (I’d love to have one actually!), why not try this convenient alternative?
• Lastly, we head back down under for an interesting conversation that happened on Andrew G’s blog about the history of Australia and its peoples.

New Blogs in the BumpZEE US Blogs community -

The site is down at this time, so there will be a larger update next week.

Keywords -

• speed report speedtv 2008 host - Well, both Nicole and Drew are gone, and they’re returning to the “old” format of having one of their commentators being co-host with Krista Voda. I might actually watch more than on the rare occasion.
• dilana nude uncensored - Hasn’t anyone come up with those pix yet? There are at least a few thousand people who want to see this. Myself included
• make yourself known to him. - Known to who?
• which is better blogspot or your own domain - I can’t say this loudly enough, but definitely your own domain, and if you can do it, using WordPress!

Around the blog

This week, I had a couple of posts about ESPN - first, about them coming to their senses when it came to NASCAR, and then about how other sports broadcasters could learn from their tennis announce team. Also, if you are using All-in-one SEO, be sure to check out my post about keeping on top of recent updates. It might be breaking your blog.

Coming up over the week, I’m going to share a bit of food I ate over the weekend - it came out really well. If you’re a member of the Aussie Bloggers Forum, then you’ve seen it already, but not the whole process.

Til next week y’all!

Sunday, 20th January

Temperatures of -14°F with winds whipping don’t lead to going outside to walk.

Monday, 21st January

Obviously, I didn’t take this photo during my walk, but it kind of shows how much snow actually fell. As far as I could tell, the amount of snow that fell during the whole event was somewhere near or above 10 inches (25cm). I did go out to walk a little bit during the snow, but didn’t get terribly far.

Distance - 908 steps, 0.72km

Tuesday, 22nd January

Just another example of the fine job that our town does when it comes to clearing the roads after snow. The total distance included in the walk has some walking in a shop in it.

Total distance - 4293 steps, 3.43km

Wednesday, 23rd January

This is an interesting photo. There isn’t anything terribly special about the photo other than the fact that I caused this formation’s existence. This is what happens when you park your car in one part of the driveway, then have to take it out.

Distance - 1446 steps, 1.15km

Thursday, 24th January

This was just a walk down to the mailbox and back; I didn’t even wear the pedometer. The scene is of the sun setting in the afternoon.

Friday, 25th January

A bit of a game of hide-and-seek here. The picture is actually quite heavily cropped, so that there’s less identifying material seen. Not only that, I think that it’s a cool effect to have the tree branches obstructing the train - makes you wonder where it’s going, where it came from and the like.

Distance - 621 steps, 0.49km

Saturday, 26th January

There was some more snow overnight, so that means only one thing - more fresh tracks in the snow from the car. The interesting thing is that the brown tracks are the ones from going back into the driveway, and the ones going out are white - that’s because of the car having gone over a lot of clag on the roads that were not very clean at first. The distance includes, once again, store walking (quite a bit of it, in fact!)

Distance - 5942 steps, 4.75km

In other news, although I thought that the snow wouldn’t be able to stop me, I think I made the right decision to play it safe and not risk myself out there in the conditions. When I rang up my therapist, she understood the need to have safety in front of continuing care. Fortunately, we are scheduled through the middle of next month, so there is no issue in going back tomorrow.

I’m also working on the sleeping thing - on Friday, I was up at 6AM, but that was because of a phone call; I then went back to bed and slept for three more hours (after getting some stuff done before having a rest thought). Other than that, it’s sometimes hard to believe that we’re almost at the end of January already…