kerimsatirli.com

While just about everyone is writing about Google Reader’s new Trend feature, I’d much rather talk about another statistics page that has been available for quite some time now but hasn’t generated the same buzz:

Last.fm, a site that lets you track what you’re listening too (and has done so for close to three years for me now) has an interesting array of statistical reportings available to users.

While I did talk about my favourite music of 2006, and listed various artists, it would appear that I totally forgot the one group I’ve listened to most throughout 2006: The Oddities.

I was first introduced to The Oddities in May 2006, while reading up on some of the characters of Stargate: Atlantis. Turns out that one of the main actors from Season 1, Rainbow Sun Francks also produces a hip hop group and being the true fan that I am, I set out to discover their music.

Long story short, according to Last.fm’s rolling year charts, I’ve listened to their track “Oddities” a staggering 306 times on my PC, probably another 50 times on my iPod.

Second in line was Bløf’s “De mooiste verliezers”, a beautiful, Dutch, track about (personal) change(s). Acid Food, from a band called Mogwai, concludes this top 3. Their track was featured on MadV’s Video “Goodbye” (in other news, MadV’s video “The Message” is simply amazing.)

Looking at my other charts, it’s quite interesting to see that I don’t have a particular preference for any one genre; I’ve listened to hip hop, rock, electric music, alternative, post-rock, instrumental and most of all indie stuff during the last years and I’m guessing that that will not change in the foreseeable future.

Normally, I don’t blog this late (or early, depends on how you look at it) but I had to get some work done for a client of mine and as such, I kept checking my email every now and then for new stuff. I was just about to close down when the one email I’ve been waiting for for quite some time finally arrived.

Cerulean Studios just opened up the Trillian Astra Alpha to a bigger group of testers, me included. Now, if you know me, you know that if there’s one thing I try to evangelize, it’s most definitely the software that, more or less, controls my online life. While this piece of software might be a simple replacement for MSN Messenger, AIM, Y! Messenger or Google Talk, Trillian, to me, is truly the hub of everything online.

Back in May 2006, the lead developer of Trillian offered people a chance to be included in the beta testing, I signed up and now, more than half a year later, I’m looking at the goodness that is Astra. I can’t write much about it, yet, since I haven’t anything, but rest assured, over the following days I will certainly blog about my favorite software some more.

For now, you’ll have to make do with this here.

Note: the title refers to a weapon system of the same name as the fourth version of Trillian is called. See here for more information.

While checking my email today, I was a bit annoyed by my, seemingly, defunct spam filter. It seems that more and more mail is left untagged lately and more and more spam is ending up in my mailbox.

So while looking through the latest messages from people I never heard off and offers about mortgages and medicine I don’t need, I came across one of these messages from amazon.com - considering that I never buy there, cause they discriminate against people who don’t have access to a credit card, I was about to delete the message, when my fast-scanning eyes spotted a name I recognized: Iliumsoft.

Now, if you ever used a Pocket PC or Smartphone (or a Palm Handheld device, for that matter), you have probably heard of their premier application called eWallet. This application provides the perfect solution for people who do a lot of stuff online as well as off line. Me, I use it to store anything that I don’t want to see flying around, including personal details, important addresses as well as license keys for applications I bought.

After 18 months of development, Marc, Iliumsoft’s product manager, put out a call for help on their blog. The company was nearing the RTM stage of product development and needed some people to look at the product and put it through some stress testing to ensure that the application lived up to the expectations of the developers.

Thanks to a business kind-of relationship Marc and I established back when I was a reviewer for a tech site, I was included in the beta and was given a chance to look at eWallet 5.0 before the general public could.

I’ve been beta-testing software for about four years now, sometimes developers say “thank you”, sometimes you even get a license key and sometimes you end up with nothing but a timebombed application that will stop working a couple of weeks after the final product is released.

Iliumsoft however, values their testers. At the beginning of this week, Marc sent me an email with license keys for the whole eWallet range. The total of this “gig” alone comes down to a hefty $70 and to be honest, I wouldn’t have expected that. One key, of my own choosing, say Desktop or Smartphone, yes - but all four? Nope, I didn’t see that one coming.

However, as if that wasn’t generous enough, Iliumsoft also gifted me with this here:

this $20 gift certificate from amazon.com is Iliumsoft’s way of saying “thank you” and it’s awesome. Iliumsoft really wouldn’t have to do this, after all, they have enough momentum going for them as their reports show, yet they did. It seems that not everyone forgets where they “come from” once their sales go up. Keep it that way guys.

Marc and everyone else from Iliumsoft, it was most definitely my pleasure. Your responsiveness, be it in regards of support issues or feature suggestions is truly amazing. My Smartphone would be a useless piece of technology, if it weren’t for the data I collected within eWallet. You guys help me remember the things I am used to forgetting and I’m sincerely thankful for that.

Some time ago, I invited a few people to start a new blog. To ensure that their first experience would be one of bliss and not of technical terms that scare them away, I offered to host their blog, acquire a domain and even set up the whole magic.

Now, some four months later, it’s time for a short recap:

I started out with the following statistics:

• 66% male
• 66% Dutch
• 66% of the content will be written in English

Of the three people I talked to, only one really took me up on my idea and started a blog. Since the beginning of September, Ben has written ten posts. It’s less than I expected, but I’m still glad he takes the time to write. After all, both his and my life has been so hectic that we rarely got the time to talk to each other and his blog provided me with the opportunity to follow his life every now and then.

The other two people decided not to go through with the blog because they believe their (possible) content to be boring and uninteresting. Which is, at least if you ask me, the one thing that keeps more people from blogging. It’s a pity, because one way or another, all our lives have those certain events that are interesting, both to one self as well as the world.

That said, I’m glad that Jack started to blog more often and after some coercing, Josef and Kevin started blogs too.

So, do I consider the “get more people to blog” - project, a failed project? No. It didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to turn out but all in all, more people, some due to my influence, are blogging now and that’s all that counts.