·:[ Leefe rates the world… ]:·
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Yes, you read that correctly. I downloaded the Xcode 3.0 disk image at an average of 3000 KB per second. So the 1.1 GB file took less than 6 minutes.

Ah the joys of having an optical link.

Now if only most sites could deal with the speed.

Been taking geotagged photos with a camera phone here is Japan. I though this would make it easier to add photos to Maps in flickr.

Well it doesn’t!

I spent a long time trying to workout where the ‘use geotag data in jpeg’s EXIF‘ command was when adding images to the map. It doesn’t exist. No where to be found.

It appears though, there is a setting hidden in flicker that tells flickr to use the geotag data in photos as you upload them. In flickr go to Your Account, click on the Privacy & Permissions tab, and you can find the Import EXIF location data setting.

But it only works for new or reloaded images, not existing ones.

Bit of a oversight don’t you think?

You would think that, if your jpg has EXIF geotag data, when you went to add it to a map flickr would think “hmm, this this photo has geotag data. I’ll ask the user ‘Would you like to use the geotag data to place your image on the map?’“. But no, it doesn’t work that way.

So you are stuck in an all or nothing situation. Either all your images with geotags are marked on maps, or you have to add them all manually. Come on flickr/Yahoo, it shouldn’t be that hard to implement it for individual images.

(I’d like to say thanks to Jannis Hermann for having a post about geotags in flickr. Everything else I found was about how to use flickr to geotag photos.)

Finally got my own Internet connection here in Japan.

Have been suffering for a month using the apartment complex’s shared wireless connection. About 10 minutes usage an hour randomly in 1-2 minute increments. Not to mention the slow connection speed.

So what sort of connection did I get?

Optical, but not optical. The modem plugs into a phone socket on the wall and it says VDSL on the manual.

But I thought I was having Optical installed?

Well it turns out that in Japan, NTT often connects to an apartment complex with a FTTH service, then wires the apartments with VDSL.

Though I still get my 100 Mbps connection, so I’m not worried

Now I can get round to posting some of the photos I have been taking over the last month.

Seeing as Necronomicon is not running this year another group decided to run their con at Easter, Eyecon. From their FAQ they intend to run it each year. Will it be the new Easter convention in Sydney?

I went and signed up to see how their registration process works, and to see if there was anything worth registering to play.

It was interesting to note that their site tracked how many places in games were available each session, and displayed them to people registering. And that while a couple of game were full, many were very empty.

Hopefully they will get more people turning up tomorrow morning to fill out some of the games. But is begs the question…

Has the Sydney RPG convention scene died and some people just don’t want to accept it? With what seems to be a change from all the Sydney cons being run by one set of past BNGs to another, are they just moving the deck chairs on the Titanic?

(See below for game spaces available at the time I checked tonight, the night before the con.)
(more…)

The latest Iron Web Master specs are up. The round 5 theme is fitness. And the sites are due up Thursday 20 March at 3pm PST (-800 GMT?).

But what can I use as a parody theme this time?

I had thought of doing Exercise, but that is too close to the last one. Maybe ‘Get on your bike’? Thought I can’t think of any other bike jokes.

So, I’m suffering from a little writer’s block. Anybody got any good ideas that I can borrow?

My latest offering for the Iron Web Master competition if Go To Hell.

The theme for round 4 of the competition is Travel, where should you go, how to get there and what to take. So I though why not advocate travel to a destination most people wouldn’t necessarily want to go. And the double meaning is fun

You can rate my entry here. There are a couple of more hours to do that.

The humour in this site is a little more blatant as people voting for the previous sites didn’t seem to get the joke.

In the world of the eco friendly do you find that it isn’t easy being green?
Are there too many rules to remember?

The theme of round 2 of he Iron Webmaster competition is ‘Go Green‘. With a push for environmentally friendliness, organics and global warming.

For my entry I entry I have produced a site promoting reduction of carbon emissions, and how you can contribute to this.

Go visit the It’s not easy being green site, and find the Eco Message.

Then go vote ‘Best’ for it on the Rate page. Remember to leave a comment before selecting the rating.

Edit:
And the thing I forgot to include is a link to the Cafepress shop. So here it is: Eco Message #03

As a promotional device WebRing has decided to run a Iron Webmaster competition. Intended to be like the Iron Chef TV show, contestants are given a series of specifications and asked to whip up a website in a number of days.

Though the actual Iron Webmaster site could do with some work. As a note left on their scrolling text thing put it, if this site were entered into the Iron Webmaster competition it would loose.

Go find my round 2 (parody) Valentines site here. And for those people feeling generous, go vote ‘best’ for my site here.

(Originally posted about on my WebRing blog here)

Just moved my blog to a new domain, Leefe.RatesTheWorld.com.au. I think this will work better in the long run, but is a pain in the short run.

All the things you have to do when moving sites.

You have to tell Google and Yahoo about your new site, and add sitemaps again. Then wait the month or more while their indexes update.

Not to mention that Technorati has no means for moving your blog from one domain to another. You have to add the moved blog to your Technorati Profile as a new blog, loosing your previous links and ranking.

So make sure the old url forwards to the new one for the foreseeable future, or you will loose a lot of traffic as nobody will be able to find you.

I should probably also update my Google Analytics profile for this blog.

Plus the new URL needs a new look and feel. Though I think that can wait. The old theme still looks ok, and will do till a new one can be found or produced.

Ah, the joys of moving sites. Not something you want to do everyday.

Looking up information about Australian passports the other day I noticed the following sponsored link.

The URL listed looked wrong to me. Australia doesn’t allow domains straight on the ‘.au’, only as second level domains. There is no www.AustralianPassportAdvice.au. But I wonder how many people realise this?

So, is is ethical to advertise a URL that is not the same as the one that the viewer is directed to? And is it also the responsibility of the group serving the advertisement (Google in this case) to check this?

The actual site is a ‘.com’ domain. It promises to help Australian citizens with all things related to passport registration. Just call the 1902 number and be charged $5.50 a minute. I think I’ll give it a miss.

If you make it to the bottom of the page, small print in a colour very close to the background colour, says:

“This service is not connected with, or endorsed by, The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. APA has no professional qualifications or experience related to the subject matter and we recommend that you contact DFAT for any information relating to passports.“

The official Australian Passport site can be found at: www.passports.gov.au

(Which doesn’t work if you leave off the ‘www’ or if you use the singular ‘passport’)