Somewhere Ovi the Rainbow

By 6000 | 6000 | June 10, 2011

Nokia have been in touch and they sent me a cactus and some post-it notes. Did I, they also asked, realise how easy it would be to make an Ovi app for my blog? And was I, they continued, aware that if I made an Ovi app for my blog, I could win a trip to next year’s SXSW Tech conference in Texas, Texas?

I was hugely confused by their quickfire questioning.
Things weren’t looking good – like a particularly poor ice hockey team - I was 0/2 in the seven game series.

But I turned things around after a rousing and inspiring team talk in the changing room and, having viewed this video which explained all, I headed to the Ovi App Wizard site and followed the overly simple, step-by-step instructions to create a little 6000 miles… presence in the Ovi App Store. And, what’s more, because you can include up to 5 RSS feeds to your Ovi app, I included my flickr RSS as well, so Nokia users can get some pictorial goodness as well.

It’s all ever so straightforward and took no longer than 10 minutes, including coffee breaks.

Then all I had to do was click a button and submit it to their Ovi Store Approvals Board. 24 hours later, I got an email telling me that my app was all approved and ready to go.

If you are on a Nokia or if you know of people who are on a Nokia (there are an incredible 825,000,000 compatible handset out there), please tell them to visit the Ovi Store and download my app – it’s right here (you can have a look at it on a PC too). The more downloads, the more chance I have of jetting out to Texas, Texas next year.

This competition also proved to be the catalyst for me to finally “do” a 6000 miles… Facebook page (which you should sign up to) and I’m already making plans for other apps on other mobile platforms.
However, I’m guessing that none of them will be as simple or as user-friendly as this one was to create.

3 Comments | Tagged , , , | Posted in 6000 recommends, learning curve, this is south africa

One hundred

By 6000 | 6000 | June 9, 2011

Amazing.

Please say hello to my Auntie Hazel, all the way from the Isle of Man.

She’s just got off that trike behind her. And here’s the scoop from local radio station 3FM:

A local woman has been sharing her birthday with the Mountain course.
TT 2011 is the centenary of the Mountain Course. Hazel Dean yesterday reached a milestone of her own celebrating her 100th birthday.
As a special treat for the lifelong TT fan, her family arranged for her to go on a parade lap of the Mountain Course, on a trike.
3FM caught up her after a 37¾ mile trip, she said it was a wonderful birthday surprise.

Which was nice to read. What was even better was when I got to hear how she felt about it as well.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Sounds good for 100 years old, hey?

Thanks to Ben Sowrey and the guys at 3FM for the permission to use their stuffs.

1 Comment | Tagged , , , | Posted in in the news, positive thoughts

“Alice Bucket List” – How you can really help

By 6000 | 6000 | June 9, 2011

Lots of action on twitter regarding Alice Pyne, a 15 year old terminally ill cancer patient from the UK, and her apparent “bucket list” of things she wants to do before the inevitable sadly happens.

But if you bother to have a look, “I want to trend on twitter” isn’t there, despite what you may have read (repeatedly) on twitter.

What is there is:

To make everyone sign up to be a bone marrow donor

Which is suddenly not so appealing to help with, is it?

But rather than RT’ing nonsense, why not use this as an opportunity to actually do something positive? After all, you wanted to help Alice out when you thought she just wanted a few pixels on a social media site, didn’t you?
Registering as a bone marrow donor does take a bit more effort, but it’s actually not so hard.

You can find all the information you need on the Sunflower Fund website, but the basics are these:

To become a bone marrow donor you need to be:

  • Committed to help anyone (not just the person who motivates you to join)
  • Between 18 – 50 years of age
  • In general good health (with no history of hepatitis or sexually transmitted diseases)
  • Weigh over 50 kg

Do not register as a bone marrow stem cell donor if:

  • You think you might need a test for HIV, Hepatitis –B or C.
  • You have injected yourself (even once) with illegal or non-prescription drugs.
  • You have taken money or drugs for sex.

All you have to do to start this process is call 0800 12 10 82 weekdays 9am-1pm or 2-4pm or email donorqueries@sunflowerfund.org.za

You will need to give 10ml of blood for tissue typing.
And should you be a match and have the opportunity to save a life, contrary to what you may have heard, the actual donation process is minor, with very little discomfort.

I have no idea if Alice Pyne really does exist*, but why not use this as an opportunity to make a difference anyway?

The shortlink for this post is http://u3.co.za/y4 – or you can just click the ReTweet or FB like links below to share.

* UPDATE: BBC and David Cameron think she exists. Good enough for me.

5 Comments | Tagged , , , | Posted in 6000 recommends, in the news, this is south africa, uk

6000.co.za is now on Facebook

By 6000 | 6000 | June 8, 2011

With Facebook rapidly becoming the all conquering behemoth as far as the internet is concerned, it seemed wise to finally take the plunge and make one of their ridiculously named “fan pages” for the blog. Now it should be noted that for the amateur [waves], Facebook doesn’t make it easy for you to do this – the interface is horrible and not at all intuitive, the language is confusing and everything is that nasty Facebook blue.
It’s probably for those reasons that I haven’t done it before.

But anyway, all in all, it’s been a steep learning curve and I have a horrible feeling that it will continue to be a steep learning curve. But click that LIKE button in the side bar there ~>, (or alternatively, click here) and bear with me and once things are up and running smoothly, I’ll sort out some Facebook-only competitions to make it seem that the 0.5 seconds it took you to click your mouse button was completely worth your while.

Now let’s see if the dlvr.it app does its thing and plonks this post where it needs to go.

6 Comments | Tagged , , | Posted in admin, learning curve, recommended site

Brolly issue

By 6000 | 6000 | June 8, 2011

Amazing. Here I am wondering what to blog about today and then it drops into my lap onto my screen, courtesy of News24 commenter Krolie, who took full advantage of an article on the wintery weather (which missed Cape Town almost completely) to vent his or her spleen over a long-standing issue which has clearly caused a lot of pent up frustration:

For the past 20 years I each year bought an umbrella in the hope that THIS time it will do what it is supposed to, but alas, if you exit the door and there is something just stronger than a breeze, your umbrella takes another shape whipping the other way round and well, your next best hope is for a bit of water to use this useless object as a boat of sorts.
Anybody else find an umbrella pretty useless in the WC in the middle of winter? CT is well known for people hugging lampposts, even grabbing towards the closest human zipping past you as if hell bent to win a marthon.
Yip, even your rainjacket ends up not being so protective as it is renowned to do – whipping up and down and all over the place, including the clothes you’re wearing underneath. You might as well put your clothes in a packet, tie it to your body and streak down Adderley Steet, because wet you will be to the skin, no matter what you do. At least you’t hopefully have some dry clothes at the end of your “flight”.

Just wondering what the use is of a umbrella/brolly really is in this kind of weather…

Is Krolie mad? Einstein thinks so:

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

When May comes around, and Krolie heads for the local umbrella shop, is there not some small hint, some glimmer of a memory that when s/he is doing is utterly pointless and has been proven so on many separate occasions over the previous two decades?

I have to say too, that it appears some degree of artistic licence has been employed here. I have never hugged a lamppost in Cape Town – there are always too many posters on them for one’s arms to get a firm grip – nor have I ever grabbed the closest human to me. The latter is an extremely dangerous means of protecting one’s self from the rain anyway. South Africans know how to fight off muggers and you’re more than likely to find yourself lying in a pool of blood, not water, with your brolly stuck somewhere where the sun don’t shine (that’s PE this week).

So people, do not buy an umbrella in the misguided hope it will keep you dry in Cape Town’s wind. And do not streak down Adderley Street. It’s not clever, and in these sort of meteorological conditions, it certainly won’t be big either.

4 Comments | Tagged , , , , , , | Posted in in the news, that's a bit mad, this is south africa
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