nov0caine

There's been a lot of media hype lately about Kanye West's antics at the 2009 VMA's, and rightly so, because they guy is so up himself he seems to have lost all touch with reality. If you haven't already seen the viral video you can view it again here. What astounded me was Obama's reaction, seeing as president's never normally give a damn about escapades in the entertainment industry, let alone the music industry... So when Obama was caught calling Kanye a jackass, I couldn't stop laughing. It just makes Obama appear to be cooler in my eyes. I wish more world leaders had the freedom to comment on stuff like this.

By the way, should you ever need accommodation in Australia, you should check out Constellation hotels - they've got dozens of 4 star hotels located Australia-wide, all within a reasonable price range :-)

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I found this video on youtube in one of my morning web trawls... It's funny how people can find risk management so perplexing... But I think it has something to do with the fact that anything involving a whole lot of occupational, health & safety and mandatory statutes can be so hard to absorb... I think George Castanza from Seinfeld highlights the pain of studying the subject: 

If you work in the risk management field or you're looking to get involved with a risk management company you should check out Reliance Risk.com.au

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Don't have much of a background when it comes to the responsible service of alcohol? Here are some interesting facts you may not have known:

The notion of the Responsible Service of Alcohol has been a part of the State's liquor laws for nearly 100 years.

The Responsible Service of Alcohol is enforced under the Liquor Act 2007. RSA certification is mandatory under the specified criteria as specified by the act, more information on mandatory RSA requirements can be found here.

Did you know that the NSW Liquor Act 2007 (S5) defines intoxication by the characteristics of a person's speech, balance, co-ordination where it is reasonable to believe that these characteristics may have been induced from imbibing and alcoholic substance.

There are 2 key intoxication offences in NSW liquor laws: permitting intoxication and serving liquor to an intoxicated person.

The effect of alcohol on the entire community was estimated to have cost Australia $15.3 billion in 2004-05 when factors such as crime and violence, treatment costs, loss of productivity and premature death were taken into account.

Did you know? The guidelines to maintaining a 'low-risk' level of drinking include no more that 4 standard drink per day on average for males and no more than 2 standard drinks a day on average for females.

A standard drink is defined as containing approximately 10 grams of pure alcohol.

For more RSA course information check out the Hostec training academy website

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When it comes to generating a viable social media strategy for business to business targeted campaigns, in order to successfully draw traffic and generate online credibility you need to be offering incentives with a targeted appeal towards your niche market and client prospects. I just thought I'd point out a decent example of a good business to business incentive... etrainu.com specialize in industry tertiary qualifications and training, however part of their target market also consists of small business training. In order to promote this service, they've designed a "try before you buy" scheme by offering free short staff training courses and management tools to small business enterprises - what's good about this incentive is that normally such tools are only available to larger business enterprises.

With B2B marketing it's all about giving your client incentives and rewards for participating. Like any marketing strategy, this will assist in the generation of customer loyalty.

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For those of you who aren't entirely social media savvy, or if you're just a random web trawler and love stumbling across interesting thought-pieces, then you might not know much about a new video presentation that is sweeping the web by storm... Well, the web according to tech-literate people anyway. The video, entitled the “Social Media Revolution” forces you to laugh sardonically in the face of traditionalist communication mediums, as the video aims to shock you with awe at the power and outreach of social media and online communication. The short film portrays the technological shift forward in a reveling context, throwing astronomical figures at you whilst you retreat within the walls of the soundscape of Fatboy Slim’s “Right here, right now” – a perfect song choice if you ask me, because if you’ve ever seen the film clip that shows the evolution of humans from a monkey-fish-frog to man, your mind subconsciously associates the noise with the visual patterns of evolution.

Anyway, this video represents the PERFECT marketing ploy – and it obviously hasn’t taken the creator much leveraging because in essence the video has leveraged itself. Whether or not the statistics quoted in the short film are entirely accurate is debatable, but seemingly enough the video has captivated thousands of online viewers, and has itself been featured in news articles and press releases the world over. Search marketing companies will use this tool as a means of up selling and promoting their own social media services… And rightly enough, people will buy into it – as is the nature of the common man who succumbs to statistical bombardment. Marketing is shifting towards this new online trend away from the traditional paradigms of print communication, which will continue to be lambasted by the power of online communication until it yields to be obsolete.

Social media is still in its BETA stage… Not everyone has embraced it. There are still millions and millions of people world-wide who are oblivious to what’s taking place inside of the virtual realm, but this video is a definite eye-opener, but at the same time completely bogus – I mean, Kutcher and DeGeneres having more Twitter followers than the entire COMBINED population of Ireland, Norway and Panama…? …Whatever.

What were your thoughts on this latest social media flavor of the month?

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Don't have much of a background when it comes to the responsible service of alcohol? Here are some interesting facts you may not have known:

The notion of the Responsible Service of Alcohol has been a part of the State's liquor laws for nearly 100 years.

The Responsible Service of Alcohol is enforced under the Liquor Act 2007. RSA certification is mandatory under the specified criteria as specified by the act, more information on mandatory RSA requirements can be found here.

Did you know that the NSW Liquor Act 2007 (S5) defines intoxication by the characteristics of a person's speech, balance, co-ordination where it is reasonable to believe that these characteristics may have been induced from imbibing and alcoholic substance.

There are 2 key intoxication offences in NSW liquor laws: permitting intoxication and serving liquor to an intoxicated person.

The effect of alcohol on the entire community was estimated to have cost Australia $15.3 billion in 2004-05 when factors such as crime and violence, treatment costs, loss of productivity and premature death were taken into account.

Did you know? The guidelines to maintaining a 'low-risk' level of drinking include no more that 4 standard drink per day on average for males and no more than 2 standard drinks a day on average for females.

A standard drink is defined as containing approximately 10 grams of pure alcohol.

For more information on the NSW state liquor laws, RSA course information and alcohol related facts check out the Hostec site.

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Launched in July 2009, the Nokia N97 is Nokia’s response to the ever popular Apple iPhone 3GS and RIM Blackberry Storm 9500.

The features and design are similar to the first touchscreen model from Nokia, the 5800 XpressMusic. The size and dimensions are similar between both handsets but it weighs in at 150g, which is quite heavy for a handset these days. One of the most distinct features is the flip out screen which reveals a full QWERTY keyboard underneath.

The keyboard, from a usability standpoint it can be a blessing or a burden. Once you get used to it, it can be quite easy to type out a quick txt or email message. But just try entering a sequence of numbers or symbols and you will find that it’s not so easy. You have to hold down the blue arrow key at the bottom right corner, while awkwardly entering the required digits. Also entering symbols requires you to press the Sym key and selecting the required symbol on screen. Otherwise the keyboard is quite easy to use and the keys quite responsive and spaced far enough apart.

The screen measures 3.5″. It is a resistive type touchscreen, which means it requires a bit of pressure to respond to clicks etc. It is bright and easy to read in direct sunlight. You can use it with or without the stylus.

The built-in camera is 5MP. It features a dual LED flash. The maximum image resolution is 2592×1944 pixels. The picture quality is reasonable and typical of a 5MP camera phone. There are plenty of options available onscreen allowing you to get the best quality images. You can choose the ISO level, Colour tone, White balance, Exposure, Contrast, and Sharpness. There is even a self timer up to 20 seconds. You can choose different scene modes, including Automatic, Close-up, Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night and Night portrait.

As for connectivity, it offers 2G/GPRS/EDGE and 3G/HSDPA. It also has Bluetooth 2.0 and WiFi. There is also integrated GPS with Nokia Maps.

On the usability side of things, if you’ve used an S60 based Nokia device in the past then you will be right at home with the Nokia N97, Most items in the menus are where you would expect to find them. The speed of the UI is quite responsive. One handy feature of the Nokia N97 is the onscreen widgets. They are shortcuts on the main home screen to the most commonly used features and apps. You can customize which widgets you want to display and choose the order of them. If you don’t want any of them to be displayed, you can hide them by simply wiping your finger horizontally across the screen.

On a similar note, you also answer calls but doing a similar action. When a call comes in it will display two bars across the screen. To answer a call, simply slide you finger horizontally across the green answer bar. To end a call, you can press the red button at the bottom of the phone. Another handy feature while in a call is the proximity sensor. It will turn off and lock the screen while it is up to your ear to prevent accidental pressing of any buttons.

The battery is the Nokia BP-4L. It is a Lithium Polymer type battery rated at 1500mAh. It’s said to provide up to 432 hours of stand-by and 9 and a half hours of talk-time in a 2G network or 408 hours of stand-by and 6 hours of talk time on UMTS/3G. For normal use with some calls and moderate data use, you can expect around 2 days between recharges. For heavy use, you can expect around 1.5 days between charges.

In conclusion, i would highly recommend the Nokia N97. It is currently the top handset available from Nokia. It offers every imaginable feature you could expect for a reasonable price.

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I've been thinking a lot lately whilst trawling through the myriad number of blogs I subscribe to, and my thoughts became diverted down a path of increased awareness and actualisation, and that path flirted with the idea of the world wide web functioning as an intangible scrap-yard for profiteers masking their desire for personal glory and riches behind a veil of blogs with no clear point other than to reciprocate the objectivity of what has already has been said. There's a lot of intellectual litter out there...Maybe it's because my view of the internet is tainted by my involvement in the world of Web 2.0 and my personal obligation to stay up to date with social media and tech-developements in order to keep my own head above the rising waters, and yeah, they really are rising - take a week off, and miss everything on Twitter, miss important news and events, miss possible client leads through slow response times... The internet realm is one that never sleeps. Social media in itself is a web 2.0 waste land... So it's rare to find resources of value. Say for example, Mashable.com - Indisputably an excellent resource for tech and social media developments, but not all the content is of significant value if of any value at all, some of it can be utter tripe - and this is what I'm getting at. Instead of websites taking their time to sit back and write something of considerable value to users, they would rather persist in pumping out article after article for the sole purpose of drawing attention to themselves and profiteering from slight abuse of site traffic. But the users aren't any more educated on the issue, however... They also use such social media dumping grounds as a means of promoting their own social networks.

I guess the bottom line is that everyone contributing to the world of social media and web 2.0 has an ulterior motive, and it presents itself as one giant masquerade of fake interest. For those who actually give a damn and contribute, I commend you - and I'm not going to shy away from pointing out the sheer hypocrisy of this post, as it comes naturally to me given that it's my job to keep feeding and polluting this medium. I assure you though, when work ends at the end of the day there is no ulterior motive, and I dedicate my efforts to contributing genuinely.

This post is simply an observation, and by no means am I directly attacking the social media medium that I love working with! In hindsight, the world wide web is a metaphor for reality in the sense that you need to siphon through the dregs of popular culture and trends in order to unearth anything of considerable value. It's all relative!

I hope this post provoked some thought nonetheless and opened your eyes a little. Happy browsing :-)

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If you're thinking about getting a business mobile phone then you should consider Arrow Voice & Data... They specialize in mobile, networking and business grade VoIP.

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What Is Project Management?

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to a broad range of activities in order to meet the requirements of the particular project. A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to achieve a particular aim.

The Latin word projectum means, "to throw something forward." Project Management is all about making things happen and moving forward and has existed for thousands of years. For example, the Great Pyramid of Giza 2,550 B.C, the Great Wall of China 221 B.C. - 206 B.C or the Roman Coliseum 80 A.D. all used project management techniques.

Project Management is as much a way of thinking as it is an approach that can be applied to any initiative large or small that must deliver within a certain timeframe and cost, in order to meet specific objectives.

Recognised as an essential capability for organisations to maximise value and reduce costs, Project Management has developed considerably in the past 20 years. Today Project Management is a professional discipline with a body of knowledge, a set of skills and competencies and professional certification bodies (listed at the end of this article).
The Basic Principles

There are a number of significant principles which determine success in any project. These are simple and well known principles, however they are difficult to apply and are quite frequently ignored in practice.
1. Precise Business Needs

Successful projects are business driven. This represents the 'why' of the project, and it is important because it provides the basis for all decision making.
2. Defined Benefits

Projects are about translating the business need into the business benefit. In addition to the business need, the 'bottom line' benefits must also be well defined in terms of source, timing and quantity.
3. Explicit Plans

Effective planning, allows people to work together in a co-ordinated way in order to achieve the project objectives. Effective planning is dependent on being at an appropriate level of detail and being presented in an appropriate way.
4. Agreed Deliverables

Quite simply a 'deliverable' is an unambiguous way of defining responsibilities in terms of outputs rather than inputs. Each phase, area and task within the project plan should have a tangible deliverable associated with it, ie. something that one can see, touch, or otherwise validate.
5. Pro-Active Decision Making

Project work has little momentum of its own, unlike routine work. All parties involved are therefore required to take the initiative and actively look for ways of driving and improving the project outcome.
6. Single Point Responsibility

In business tasks are only completed successfully when people have unambiguous accountabilities. 'Single point responsibility' for results is of the very essence. The Project Manager is ultimately responsible for making the project happen.
7. Active Follow-Up

Plans have practical value only when they are used to help people do their daily work. They are similarly used as a means of identifying problems while there is still time to overcome them. Plans must therefore be used throughout the entire project in order to allocate tasks and monitor achievement.
8. Open Communications

Time must be invested in communication as it is the key to a successful project. By effectively communicating the project and issues everyone involved has the opportunity to take the initiative and contribute fully with ideas and decisions.
9. Good Teamwork

Teamwork in projects is absolutely critical but does not happen automatically. Project work involves people from different parts of the organisation, often with competing priorities and different perspectives, which can make teamwork all the more difficult to achieve. Teams must therefore be actively developed by the Project Manager.
10. Strong Leadership

Successful projects are usually led by an individual who is committed to the project objectives, and who has a completely clear view of where the project is going and how they intend to get there. The leadership qualities of the Project Manager are as important as their technical management skills.
Benefits of Project Management

In order to apply project management principles it takes time and effort, disciplines and techniques. The results are there for the taking if you are prepared to make the effort.

Applying a project management approach is not easy. At the start of a project the project management approach may not necessarily show immediate results. But the investment always pays off in the long run.

Project management adds value in quite a number of ways, some of which are detailed below:

   1. maximises the benefits of the project by focusing the efforts, of everyone involved, on the business need while working to improve the value of the result.
   2. advances the benefits by minimising the time taken for the project and wherever possible, achieving a phased delivery of business results.
   3. optimises resources by ensuring that everyone knows what they have to do.
   4. minimises costs by ensuring that only essential work is completed, and that work does not have to be redone.
   5. avoids wasted time simply by communicating extensively, and running effective meetings which result in agreed actions, which are completed.

By using project management principles and practices millions of dollars can be saved on projects. It can dramatically accelerate the introduction of beneficial change, and greatly increase the satisfaction of everyone involved, alleviating enormous frustration usually involved in projects.

When applied with sensitivity and adjustment the benefits of project management far outweigh the time and energy invested.

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VoIP, more formally known as voice over internet protocol, is a system widely used by larger companies that involves the transmissions of voice communications over IP networks that comprise of either the internet or other packet-switching mediums. VoIP systems are highly favorable to businesses because the transmission of voice data over bandwidth-efficient networks can drastically reduce company phone costs as opposed to the traditional copper-wire telephone systems. Some of the technological advantages of VoIP is that it can amalgamate various types of communications services - treating otherwise external communication channels, such as fasacimile, telephone, cell phone, e-mail etc. as separate but identical units giving them the capability to be transferred to any handset, including mobile phones - these benefits can be attributed to the internet's inherent packet-switching ability. As for the advantages of packet switching, these aptly justify the cost cutting claims of those who promote the use of VoIP because it allows for several telephone calls to occupy the amount of space occupied normally by one single data entity on a circuit-switched network.

So you now understand the basic concept of VoIP technology, but you want to understand just how exactly packet switching works, right? Easy. Packet-switched phone networks are said to be the new replacements for conventional circuit switching systems. Normal telephone calls involve a continuous stream of data flow, most of it being wasted data as there are often intervals of silence in your average phone conversation. Packet-switching involves the compression of voice data into packets, and these packets are subsequently transmitted in extremely fast intervals. Your voice within a singular data packet is called a payload, and the receiving module reassembles the packet data to unlock the contained payloads. This skillful data compression technique unique to VoIP technology means that from a fiscal point of view, you are only effectively being charged for the data contained in the payloads. Don't worry too much about the efficiency of packet-switching either - most companies use broadband networks with an extremely powertful bandwidth, so in comparison to your standard copper-wire (PTSN) phone call, you can guarantee that the cost of your VoIP call will be halved, possibly even one-third of the original cost of a conventional phone line.

VoIP is a technology that has still not been perfected, however many companies are starting to integrate this new technology as more and more companies initiate their businesses around online telecommunications. For example, Skype has established itself as the premier free to use VoIP network for businesses. International calls can be made via programs such as Skype for minimal cost. It is only a matter for time before the vast majority of developing businesses begin to discover the cutting edge technology that is voice over internet protocol.

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This is a regular topic of interest for me, not only because I'm your run of the mill average mobile phone user who knows nothing about sim card technology, but also because so many people discuss this issue all over the internet. The whole concept of mobile roaming is actually more complex than it sounds on the surface, and one trend that I've picked up from my short time on this planet is that people love to buy into things because they appear to be easy on the surface. Now, if you're not wary of the costs of international mobile roaming, this is just a heads up that you should probably do some research before you get crucified by the ridiculous costs of international mobile calls - especially if you're intending to use iPhones or any other tech savvy internet-compatible phones for data roaming overseas.

Oh yeah, the subject line of this post... FML? Highly appropriate when I just got hit with a $500 mobile phone bill because I failed to look into this issue before my travels to America. For god's sake man, take it from me, buy a travel sim if you need to keep in touch with the motherland!!

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I thought I'd express my views on Twitter's new home page - I'm not feeling overly opinionated today, but maybe that has something to do with the amount of copywriting I've been doing lately! Twitter seems to be changing directions, and I personally think that their new perception towards the purpose of their micro-blogging platform will be long-term dividends for the folks there at Twitter Incorporated. Summed up exceptionally well in the article posted by Mashable's Ben Parr, there are a lot of hints that Twitter seemed to have dropped within the new home page template. The largest clue being:

"Share and discover what's happening right now, anywhere in the world"

To me this suggests Twitter is shifting itself away from the conventions of the social media paradigm, with the intentions of re-inventing itself as a real-time news source and informational database. The social element is still there, of course, but the site now carries a lot more marketing prowess - and subsequently more people are beginning to take it a lot more seriously.Since it's inception in 2006 into the world of web 2.0, the genuine social element has dwindled with the rising number of businesses and entrepreneurs surpassing the general mass of people using the website to communicate. News websites, celebrities, self-aggrandizing bloggers, fashion aficianado's, mainstream corporate brands - they've all adopted the function of Twitter into their promtional strategies. Although Facebook still supersedes Twitter in popularity, Twitter has well and truly established itself as the number one marketing medium on the internet. It will definintely be interesting to see what path the site choose to take in future.

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Etrainu.com offers construction industry white card courses and Queensland RSA courses - If you need nationally accredited qualifications enquire today to receive help in locating the right tertiary career course for you!

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You've got to check out this Coke ad on Yahoo! Korea... It takes internet advertising banners to a whole new level. Turn on your sound because the page will come alive and there will be a party on your screen!

By the way, check out the new etrainu White Card Course while you're at it - They've just launched this brand new course!

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Like all social networks that boast an impressive following, there are expectations and demands that certain means of censorship should be put in place to protect it's users. We've seen it done all before, with sites such as Facebook and MySpace sporting 'report' functions and censorship crawlers. But in the case of Twitter, the site doesn't facilitate any 'report' functions. It relies solely on the number of times an account has been 'blocked' by its users, and only then will it consider a ban.

There has been a growing number of protests and concerns voiced by the Twitter population as to the measures of censorship that should be put in place to stop spammers and abusive morons using the site wrongly. Celebrities themselves have been backing the demand for better protection measures, such as Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, who has previously advocated the support of campaigns such as @blocksunday, a community collective of anti-trollers.

Today, Twitter announced that it was crawling through it's database and eradicating potential spammers and offenders. And the end result? Totally horrible. Thousands of innocent Twitter users were 'accidentally' blocked, with Mashable once again all over the news.

Twitter has since made an announcement, in an attempt to recitfy the major blunder:

"Earlier today, we accidentally suspended a number of accounts.

We regret the human error that led to these mistaken suspensions and we are working to restore the affected accounts—we expect this to be completed in the next several hours.

One additional note: some the accounts suspended were using the third-party site Tweetlater. However, Tweetlater is not to blame for these suspensions nor is it in violation of our Terms."

What's that you say, human error...? Are you sure? In my opinion, I think the developers got lazy - but on the plus side, at least they are taking measures to censor out spam and offensice content... I for one, am sick of being followed by myriads of sex ads.

I didn't get suspended accidentally, so... I'm happy ^_^

What were your experiences?

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If you're looking for the perfect beach-side vacation in Australia, you should check out Visit Noosa, the official website for Noosa Accommodation and holiday package deals.

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There are a lot of Twitter promotions happening around us, some on a macro scale and some on a micro scale, but in the past few days a web design and marketing company in London known as Moonfruit has launched a massive promotional campaign in celebration of it's 10th birthday that in essence epitomizes how companies should endeavour to market themselves on the web. Using #hashtags, Moonfruit have set up a campaign that will give 10 random Twitter users 10 free MacBook Pro Notebooks - announcing one winner each day for ten days. What's the catch? It's easy, users just simply include the #moonfruit hashtag in their posts to heighten their chances of winning. It's an excellent marketing strategy that will inevitably pay dividends for the company.

In looking at the effect of this monstrous campaign, hashtags.org gives the following stats on the tag #moonfruit from it's launch on June 29, in less than two days the trending figures for the moonfruit tag soared from a mere 449 to 11,607... Not bad at all, eh? Mashable was also all over this story like a flannel, undoubtedly giving the site another unprecedented traffic boost. See it for yoruself, click here for the Mashable Story.

As for me? Well, I'm going to be tweeting moonfuit until wear through my good 'ol Dell QWERTY keyboard. To my keyboard I say, RIP mate, it's been a good few months!

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If you haven't yet heard of etrainu, they're a hospitality training company in Queensland, Australia specialising in QLD RSA courses and other nationally accredited certificates. They're launching a new white card course, and they want you to know about it, so check them out!

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And so it seems to be the way of the world, that when a huge talent dies, people only begin to pay attention to how great they really were. According to the latest figures around the world, since Michael Jackson's death last week there has been an exponential growth in the sales of music and memorabilia. In Australia alone, Sony music has reportedly sold in excess of 100,000 albums from MJ's back catalogue since his tragic death last Friday. According to an article on the Times Online, whenever there has been a tragic death of a music icon sales saw an instant spike immediately after they passed on - continuing to grow unstoppably as the years progress forward from the event. It's all relevant to the 'dead rockstar' effect, where the circumstances surronding the death of a star has a vacuous effect on fans. Look at Kurt Cobain, Johnny Cash, Elvis, Hendrix, Lennon... All of which have movies, documentaries and re-mastered editions of their musical back-catalogue. It's all part of the sick, sad capitalisation on the vulnerability of emotionally driven people. The record companies don't care about the music, because they're looking to make an absolute mint backing on to the tragic death of an icon. The commercial force of Jackson-inspired grief and nostalgia has already started to show, and expect it to do nothing but increase as we move further away from his death. Expect films, digital remasteries and t-shirts... It's all a part of the dead celebrity circus and most of us have already started buying our tickets to the show.

The Times article presents some fascinating figures, and you can read it here.

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Arrow Voice and Data are a Business Phone Company specializing in business phone networking, mobile and internet. They have some great deals going on PSDN, IDSL and VOIP so you should do yourself a favour and check them out! They also have a blog to talk you through different types of phone systems and how to achieve optimum use.

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And so it is on this historic day that we are shocked to here of the death of the beloved King of Pop, Michael Jackson, suffering from what sources say to be a heart attack at just 50 years of age. Like so many other people starting their day out, I came into my office this morning to learn of the tragic news. We're looking at a guy, whose untimely death is having a cosmic impact on everyone worldwide. He is a celebrity with such a high magnitude of respect from all cultures, despite the revelations surfacing in recent years. He was a man shrouded in mystery, and although we never understood him, we appreciated him for what he brang to popular culture and what he gave back to society. His campaigns against racism, his generous donations to children's charities and his love for all things innocent. He was in himself, a child who never grew up - through his younger years he was pushed into work as a juvenille actor and performer. The guy worked his whole life and never enjoyed his own childhood, which is something that a lot of us truly take for granted. But in saying that, he developed a huge insecurity and subsequently became a recluse - it was a sad life really, but I guess that makes it all the more tragic, when he was in fact vilified for his odd traits. Does anybody actually believe that he molested those children? Not me, and the whole debacle never swayed my musical appreciation of MJ. It is after all, in the nature of most Americans to sue for anything they can get - am I right?

There was an episode of South Park based on MJ, and if you haven't seen it I highly recommend it. Yes, the guys from South Park are out to offend but they raise a lot of critical points in their satire - that being what I have already asserted, it is an old stigma that Americans will sue the pants off anybody they see to be wealthy fodder.

In the mean-time I will miss Michael Jackson, and every time I hear an MJ song it will do nothing but strengthen my appreciation for him as an artist. Also, I never thought I'd actually care about what Ashton Kutcher has to say but he posted some very good points on his Twitter (@aplusk) - That is, the media should respect the anonymity of his children and shouldn't prey on them in such a fragile state. 

R.I.P Michael Jackson, you will be missed.

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That reminds me, the Constellation Hotel Group has just completed a MASSIVE re-launch of it's site network - all sites have been re-designed for heightened convenience and usability, and yes - I'm not going to be modest, the project was completed by us (Websalad). Anyway, take a look at some of our work!

www.constellationhotels.com.au

The funny thing that people fail to notice about the art of social media is that it is in fact completely and indisputably paradox. I've been thinking a lot about this lately, and being an advocate and practicioner of social media myself you get to see things from both sides of the internet marketing equation. When you generate content and promote through social media, you do your utmost to relate genuinely with other users with the prerogative of reaping landing page hits and heightening conversions - a contradiction in itself really, because how exactly can your interaction with people be 'genuine' when the nature of it is in reality highly sycophantic? It's an age old marketing paradigm that everyone agrees to acknowledge but can do nothing to change.

Now, throw in some social media to the marketing equation and you add to the overall paradox of the nature of marketing. For example, when I write this blog it is streaming straight from my own thoughts, but at the same time I have already calculated that social media is a popular topic, and from a marketing perspective this blog post is highly likely to get a large amount of hits. I expose a few keyword links at the bottom of the post and PRESTO! The link juice flows.

Sure, if it were a perfect world, we wouldn't need to sell and we wouldn't need to tart things up for the sake of making some dollars. The beauty of this paradox though is that we get to be creative, and it creates an avenue for harmless marketing manipulation. That's the way I see it anyway, it's rewarding when you see your techniques reaping the result that you desire.

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PM Partners are a Project Management consultancy specializing in education and training. If you need your PMBOK course,  or ITIL course you should hit these guys up online for a quote!

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When the controversy and tragedy surrounding the current election in Iran first started, like many other Westerners I was engrossed by sick, sad apathy towards the horrendous affairs happening in the Middle East. The way in which these events grabbed our attention makes me feel sick to the stomach when I think about it, and I'm sure you all felt the same after someone made a broadcast of the horrifying and graphic death of an innocent woman named Nada who lay bleeding in the streets of Tehran. Sure, we care about the elections now but it should never have taken an innocent young woman to bleed to death to grab our attention and concern. Unfortunately though, in an age of hedonism, ignorance and greed this level of ignorance is common practice and prevalent in many cultures around the world (not just Westerners).

But here's what really gets me... I came across an article published by some random American journalist (don't quote me on who, but it was really eye-opening and you can read it here) that really was a reality check and a stern slap in the face. We are popularizing the cruel nature of this election coverage to the point where it wouldn't suprise me if certain people were starting to make a profit out of it. I believe that the author made the comparison to that of a Miss America pagent, where the cute blonde graces the stage with her false empathy and melodrama and sings out something cliché like "people are dying every second around the world from hunger... We need to stop this!"; her speech captivates people, and their facial muscles tense up and their throats begin to swell. As for the people watching at home, they listen intently, but get up off the couch to go and eat a big fat greasy burger. In the mean-time, the Miss America candidate marvels dumb-founded at her brand new trophy and over-sized novelty cheque. Someone asks, "how are you going to spend your winnings?", to which she replies "I'm going to go and visit the starving children in Africa... and buy a new car."

Visiting them shows she cares, yes. However it's one thing to show that you care, but are you actually going to contribute anything that will help change the situation? Probably not. But most of us won't even get as far as making the gesture to show that we 'care' in the first place. We'll just go and eat a burger.

The elections in Iran pose a similar situation, people listen, turn their Twitter profiles green as an empathetic gesture, but don't actually contribute anything to the cause. Although it's a sad reality (and sorry people it might take a little effort), if you really want to make a difference you need to donate. Even a small dollar goes a long way when you combine the figures. It's the same old story, and as of tonight, I myself am going to make a donation because I'm sick of this type of thing happening to innocent people around the world and I want to fight it. Turning your pictures green is still lovely, yes, but please commit fully because these people need your help. There are a number of charities listed on the link I provided you earlier, and this blog outlines a list of the official aid sites.

That was my two cents on the whole thing anyway, and for those who are contributing my hat comes off to you all!

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Posted via web from nov0caine's posterous

Many of you may have seen lately the recent footage of US President Barack Obama staring affixed at a rogue fly that landed on his left hand in a live interview with a CNN correspondant. If you haven't already seen it, then maybe it's about time you YouTubed it. What astounds me about this story, is PETA's reaction to such a petty incident. Apparently, they've actually gone and sent a 'humane' fly catching device, because it cares for 'all creatures big and small'. Read the story here.

They're doing nothing but tarnishing their own repuation, really. I'm a huge advocate of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - but there really is a fine line separating the just from the completely absurd. But that line doesn't seem to matter to PETA. As of 2009, it is now unethical to kill a fly. Horses swat flies, cows swat flies, dogs and cats kill pesky little flies for fun... and they don't eat them as part of the food chain? I just don't get these guys anymore. 

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Posted via web from nov0caine's posterous