Being a software developer, I am on my computer most of the day and anything that makes my job a little easier, catches my eye. There are three applications that I will be very briefly mentioning: Versions App, Omni Focus and Sparrow Mail. All of these products are beautifully developed and easily affordable.

Versions App 
Web: http://versionsapp.com/
Twitter: @versionsapp

Versions is a very easy to use OSX svn client. It does everything for you – you are able to view changes, view the timeline of past code commits, checkin, checkout, revert etc. For me, it gets the job done and it has an amazing interface that is user-friendly.

Well worth the €39.00.

Omni Focus
Web: http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/
Twitter: @omnifocus

I work at many different businesses, doing many different things. For this reason, I find it hard to keep track of all the tasks that I have to get done and when they are due. This application allows you to load tasks into projects and contexts which allows sorting and makes it easy to get a clear overview of all the work that you need to get done.

The product is sold for $79.00. A little pricy, however worth it.

Sparrow Mail
Web: http://www.sparrowmailapp.com/
Twitter: @sparrowmailapp

This again is another brilliantly designed application. It has a beautiful UI and also works so much better than the built in OSX mail client. It automatically links into Facebook and loads contacts images and details.

This application is priced at $9.99.

Not that I love my BlackBerry, but it is so much better than the other currently alternative I have – my Sony Ericsson C902 (or something along those lines). Stupidly, I tried to turn it on after only drying it with a towel – then decided after multiple failures to place the handset (with the battery removed) into rice. I also put the battery into the rice – just to ensure that all the moisture would be absorbed.

I then left the handset and tried not to think about the fact that I possibly would have to spend the next 10 months using a Sony Ericsson. About 1 hour later, I decided to try the handset again. This time, the screen turned on and the phone actually loaded the OS. The keyboard was not functional. I put it back into the rice and about 10 hours later removed it.

Everything is functioning perfectly again. Apparently one should leave the handset in for at least 24 – 36 hours – so if faced with this situation – if you have the patience (unlike me), try to give it that amount of time to ensure that all is perfectly dry.

I have had my MacBook Pro for just over a year and a half and have never been unhappy with the performance until I upgraded to Lion OSX earlier this year. The OS seemed to be slow and buggy in general and this frustrated the life out of me.

Apple has released an Internet Recovery system which basically allows you to wipe your main hard drive clean and do a fresh installation using only the OSX base to run the installation over the internet. I admit – I was very nervous. With the bad connectivity here and the slow and unreliable wireless signal I use – I was scared that I would be without my main laptop for a day or so.

Anyway – I did a time machine backup as well as my own backup to multiple locations – just incase things went badly. I then restarted my laptop and waited for the Apple icon to show. I then held down the command + R key together to get into the Apple Recovery mode.

Here I erased my main drive (which took less than a minute to do – scary!) and then returned to the main recovery screen. I then clicked on the link that said something along the lines of “Re-install Lion” and logged into my Apple account. Apple authorized that I had purchased Lion and the download began.

It started at something like 197 hours remaining which worried me, but within about 4 hours, the download was complete and the system had completed the installation to the point of creating user accounts.

From what I can tell, the fresh install is much more responsive and has dealt with most of the issues that I had with Lion when I just did a basic upgrade. I have always been really scared of doing a re-install – especially without a disk.

Apple made this one real easy!

Today marks 10 months for Pierre and I. I am constantly overjoyed that he and I are able to share so many happy memories together and that we are there for each other through thick and thin.

I look forward to another 10 months (and more) and to making a number more memories with you. I love you.

The services we offer are; graphic design, website design and development, hosting solutions, search engine optimisation, printing and corporate identity consulting.

Anyway, below is a screenshot of the design that I have been working on.

Enjoy!

One of the designs for the business website

In my seven years of working (yes, I started to work in high school – I’m being honest – seven years), I have come across a wide variety of people. I have worked with people of all ages – private and public organisations (software company) and with students and teachers (teach Information Technology at a few local high schools).

As just about anyone in IT would agree, IT professionals can be very arrogant and I am not exempt to this trait by any degree – it is something that I need to be very aware of all the time and admittedly - it is something I really work hard at avoiding.

Often you will come across people that you dislike – both in a working environment or in a social environment – the main difference being that you cannot always chose the people you work with.

If there is one thing that really raises my blood pressure and makes me burn up in rage – it is dealing with difficult people who have a bad attitude (in the form of being grumpy, unfriendly, unprofessional or just outright rude and arrogant).

Attitude: A settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person’s behavior

Something that I learnt in school was that attitude is a choice. It is a choice that only you can make for yourself. You chose how to perceive a situation and you choose how you react to it.

I recently was reading about how you can deal with people who have a negative attitude around you. I found the following  saying really insightful:

It’s our Attitude, and not necessarily our Aptitude, that determines our Altitude in life.

Your choice of an attitude is a life choice – it can determine the quality of life you live. Those who choose a bad one, often will be unhappy, unfriendly and generally an unpleasant person to be around as they breed negativity. Be cautious and aware of such people – avoid allowing them to bring you down.

Just today, I had to deal with an unpleasant co-worker. The tone of voice and body language both shouted arrogant and as I walked away to go to my next appointment, I was negatively affected – I thought “Oh, she really doesn’t respect me, or like me. I really try to be friendly to her, I really respect her”.

Tone of voice supposedly gives off around 40% of your message to another person. However this is not the main evil here – body language is. Out of the remaining 60% of the message – 55% is derived from your body language. That leaves only 5% to what you are actually verbally portraying.

With students, this is just about always true. If you have ever asked a question to an ‘energetic excited to learn group’ of students – you will see hands flying up to answer a question and see a sense of satisfaction as they get the correct answer. However on the flip side, a class that is uninterested and has a lack of motivation, often will not give you eye contact and you will be forced to select the student to answer the question – which generally comes with a shrug of a shoulder and a grunt or two.

The above mentioned is not really a question of intelligence, rather an attitude issue. You choose your attitude toward everything you do.

So what do you do? On my way in the car, I thought about what I could do about the situation which arouse and initially though “Do I bring it up with an authority?”, “Is that a childish way to deal with the issue?”, “Should I just continue to show respect and friendliness in the attempt to be the bigger person?”.

After some time and reading up, I came to the conclusion that not everybody is going to like me – not because I am a bad person or an unbearable person (which is possible), but because they have chosen an attitude which forbids them from giving others respect – or even the ability to be civil. I have decided that I will try with every part of my being to not change the way I deal with people like that – to continue to show them respect and friendliness – despite how they ‘talk’ (tone, body language) to me.

I refuse to step down to their level. I will not, and I hope those around me will hold me accountable to this – as I would do to them.

In closing, choose your attitude. Make the difference. Do not allow negative people to bring you down to their level – lead the way in hopes to bring them up to your level and beyond.

Enjoy!

Take a look at the post from 2009 (Review of noelharrison[dot]net) if you would like to compare results. When reading this post, do note that the data collected by the statistics package is not 100% accurate. It is near impossible to give exact figures when it comes to tracking visitors.

From the beginning of January 2010 until the end of December 2010, noelharrison[dot]net has seen over 5950 new visitors and over 165000 page hits. The blog has used over 1,6GB of bandwidth.

From the statistics generated, it is clear that the more I write, the more visitors I get (this is obvious). The monthly unique hits have grown from early January at 384 to 731 in December 2010.

When looking into the day and time that people view the website the most, the following was discovered; People view the website most on a Sunday and a Monday between 11am and 1pm.

The following I found most interesting. I am able to track great amounts of geographical information. Certain packages are able to break it down to suburb level, however for this blog post, I will keep it nation based. As it normally is, the United States of America ranks in first place. The interesting second runner is the Russian Federation. South Africa is third and Great Britain is fourth. Other nations in order – after fourth are;

• The Netherlands
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Romania
• Ukraine
• Brazil
• Latvia
• Australia
• Japan
• Italy
• Indonesia
• South Korea
• Czech Republic
• Malaysia
• India
• Finland
• Saudi Arabia
• Poland
• Austria

The next bit of interesting information is the content that viewers have found most interesting – based on the number of views. Ranking very high up is the first blog post on noelharrison[dot]net, Government Intervention; Destroyer of the Free Market and the Hot Top: Gaza / Israel.

Again, on a more technical note, 67.9% of all viewers on the site were Windows users and 18,8% are Macintosh users. I have looked at the hits to date this year, I am very proud to say that Macintosh is on top in 2011 (I do wonder how long this will be the case).

Browser wise, in 2010, 47,2% of viewers were using Internet Explorer, 17,1% were using Firefox and a small 14,5% were using Google Chrome. In 2011, I have seen that Google Chrome is sitting at 49,1%, Internet Explorer at 26,2% and Firefox at a dismal 6,9%.

I have found that posting on Facebook is a huge traffic driver to the site, along with Twitter and actually interacting with other blogs – ie. commenting.  Some of the top keywords used to find noelharrison[dot]net are:

• Economy
• Free Market
• Intervention
• Forces (economic)
• Production (economic)
• Interference
• Government
• Africa
• Life

In conclusion, there has been dramatic growth of traffic on the site, which is exciting. The site has made it onto the first page of Google, in 2 or 3rd position over the singer – Noel Harrison. Silly, but it is a rather large challenge to compete.

Im looking forward to huge growth in 2011. Thank you for reading. Comments are always appreciated and generally (if need be) responded to.

Noel Harrison

Enjoy.

Complete and total adoration,
My gift to you, my heart was yours.
In ten weeks you shaped it,
In one night you murdered it.
Torn from my chest and laid at your feet,
That first step you took was the worst.
Since then you’ve walked a thousand miles in silence and short remark,
I still have these memories,
But we’ll never see what we could have been.
Remember when we talked about where we’d be a year from now?
Remember when you held my hand like you’d never let it go?
Remember, cause that’s all you can do.
We’ll never make another memory,
We’ll never make another memory.
I wish I’d have died in your arms the last time we were together,
So I wouldn’t have to wake without you today.
This time I thought things were real.
You said they were, what happened?
You were a priority, was I an option?
I let you see a side of me that I don’t share with anyone.
Promises are just words unless they are fulfilled.
you knew from the beginning all I had to offer you was my heart,
I’m sorry that wasn’t enough.
So, we’ll go our own ways,
And hopefully you’ll remember the things I’ve told you,
Hopefully you’ll understand that everything I said was in sincerity.
A broken heart is not what I wanted from this,
But I guess I’ve learned from it.
But aren’t you supposed to learn from your mistakes?
I don’t consider this a mistake,
I just wish the story didn’t end this way,
Cause I’m still in love with the person who helped me write it.

Remember when you held my hand like you’d never let it go?
Remember when we talked about where we’d be a year from now?