Little Fixa

Friday, September 23, 2011

Everyone's talking about the new update to Facebook

There have been a number of online news articles about the updates on the Facebook changes. One in particular has been by The Daily Mail “Facebook blog is inundated with thousands of protests as users start Facebookgroup 'We Hate the New News Feed’”. Most of these complaints are about the new News Feed section.

The first thing that happens when Facebook updates their website is the Facebook status updates are all the same, everyone is ranting about how bad it is and the second thing that happens is the dislike groups to get Facebook to change it back. These seems to be the same process every time they change something major on the site. The last time I remember they changed it everyone hated it and eventually we all did get used to it and start to love it. So what’s the point of all this ranting when we will just get used to it again. I must admit it did annoy me a bit but because it changed my privacy settings and I had to go back in and figure out how to make it the same as last time. Sometimes change is good, it helps us grow, learn new things and in technology become aware of what the internet is capable of.

The online news story is well written and included images such as a wireframe of Facebook new music playing feature and then a screenshot of what the current Facebook looks like with the Newsfeed. It also have some images just so you know who Mark Zuckerburg is I don’t know if this is needed as there is already a lot going on The Daily Mail website. There are a few other pictures of some other updates and a screenshot of Google + now the competition for Facebook. The Daily Mail website later down the page gets a bit distracting. In the second image that i have included you can see how over crowded the section is, I think that could work on that section to make it less distracting. There is a comment section at the bottom and the latest person who commented seems to think the same thing I though Leanne from Dorset says “I’m not gonna lie but everyone always moans when Facebook updates everyone moans for a bit then after a couple of weeks they get used to it...then when it up dates again its the same old story...”. So it makes me think next tiome facebook updates something are there going to be lots of news articles about the users complaining they don’t like it. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Screen Schot of the Daily mail website

Online News Article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2039726/Facebook-changes-Thousands-protests-We-hate-new-news-feed-group.html

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Steve Jobs view on "What He Loves"

The latest Apple announcement was sad Steve Jobs quits. We were all hoping the next Apple announcement would be news about the iPhone 5 not that the mastermind behind apple is retiring. The Wall Street Journal published an article “Find What You Love,” Steve Jobs’ at Stanford University a talk that he gave to students at Stanford inspiring them not to settle “You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach as never let me down and it has made all the difference in my life.” The heading is inspiring “Find what you Love” as Steve Jobs is admired its great insight to read about how he found what he loved and know that you can love what you do. It was a perfect heading for the article as it represents everything it is about.

The article is inspiring as it makes the reader think about the bigger picture, if they are not happy with what they are doing then do something about it. Rework your life to make it how you want it. Life is to short to just go along with things and hope it works out. I believe if you want to live a full life you need to make it your own and style it to the way you want it. Jobs has summed it up about life “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life”. He is also realistic about life and knows you should live it to the fullest while you can “Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true”.

The layout of The Wall Street Journal Article is simple. It has the heading up the top then a tab underneath the heading with Article and next to that Comments. At the time of viewing there are 68 comments with some inspiring comments such as from the reader Bill Dueease “Jobs is living proof that when you do what you love and love what you do everything works out….”. This is a great example showing how the readers are emotionally involved with the article. The article works well online as it is on the appropriate site, it would have been nice if there was a video of Jobs giving the talk to accompany the article. Overall I believe it to be a great online news article well worth the read.

Online news articles:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903596904576520690515394766.html?fb_ref=wsj_share_FB_bot&fb_source=home_oneline

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Cleaning up London: DIY

Just as quickly as the riots came and destroyed the streets of London, local volunteers were cleaning them up. It will be a total city/town/area renovation and clean up with the locals providing support and funding to ease the pressure off the individuals who have lost everything. The same way the riots were organised the clean up was organised through social media.

There are a few news articles focused on the clean up and how people are coming together and helping anyone they can. The Daily Mail has written an article about the volunteers in the UK. The article gets straight to the point and makes it about the volunteers "Where youths had roamed the streets with bricks and bats just hours earlier, a new army had appeared. Invoking London’s famous ‘Blitz spirit’, volunteers responded defiantly to the worst violence the city has witnessed in decades by rolling up their sleeves and helping in the clean-up" (The Daily Mail). The article focuses on the community spirit and everyone coming together to help the affected areas.

The Daily Mail had put together a well-written article that looks at the after mass of the London Riots. Not only have NICHOLAS MCDERMOTT and WILLIAM JAFFRAY the authors of the article written about what the locals have been doing and quoting them they have included some inspiring photographs and also devastating photographs. As devastating as it is to see how the streets of London have been destroyed its amazing at the same time to see the amount of people that have volunteered to help clean up and put the streets of London back together. They captured the moment when they mentioned the help Dave Cox owner of a TD Sports store had received "Something unexpected happened. As Mr Cox surveyed the carnage, a group of volunteers arrived and offered to help him clear it up. In less than 30 minutes the smashed glass was swept away and the shop restored to a semblance of normality. Then with cheery waves, the helpers were gone to help the next stricken business. ‘It was fantastic, I was very emotional actually,’ said Mr Cox. ‘It proves there are still some good people around.’" (The Daily Mail).

The article is well structured it has a catchy heading reinforcing the message I believe they are focusing on “even though you destroy us we have double the troops to clean it up, nothing can get us down”. The article has sourced photos that capture the scene of Londoners coming together and it has also included photographs of the carnage. Opening the reader’s eyes to see really how much has been destroyed and the reason there are so many amazing volunteers helping to clean up the streets and local stores. The Daily Mail website is easy to navigate, it has a navigation toolbar on the top of the article allowing the user to access other articles and sections the website provides. Something impressive is the Facebook like button – over 3000 people have liked this article, which is pretty impressive for one article. At the time of viewing the reader comments were currently unavailable, this is disappointing as I am always interested in what people think about certain articles and seeing as over 3k people have liked the article there are bound to be some interesting comments.

Online news articles:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2024035/UK-riots-2011-500-Londoners-offer-help-clean-rioters-mess.html

Monday, August 15, 2011

DIY Home Office: Made By Girl

I came across this blog Made By Girl a while ago, Jen Ramos blogs about interiors, art, architecture, fashion and bits and pieces that inhabit her life. My blog post is about her DIY Home Office. Jen's blog is really well structured; its main focus is the photos though she does have a small description of her satisfaction about completing her home office. She has five different blog entries dedicated to her home office renovation. In her final blog entry about the home office project she has referenced her before photos so the reader can see what it was like. When you click on the before link it takes you to a blog entry with a brief description and if the reader scrolls down to the bottom of the blog entry before the comments there is a section with suggestions of similar pages you might be interested in. This is great as the reader can see three other post related to her home office renovation. The suggestion pages are an ad on widget powered by LinkWithin.

LinkWithin Widget

Jen really engages the reader by adding little extras to her blog post and also commenting on the photos she has taken, little descriptions of what she has done, needs to done or a basic comments.

Before Jen started her DIY Office, she really thought about what she wanted and needed to do, here you can see her DIY LIST. A DIY list before you start doing something I think is very important as it can make the whole process easier.

I absolutely love how Jen's new office has turned out, its bright with lots of natural light, roomy, quirky, colourful add on’s, and also very organised with lots of storage that makes the office look neat and tidy. If only I could make my office look like this. If I ever do revamp it I will be sure to blog about it just like Jen has done with before shots, progress and after as well as adding my own creative touches.

DIY Home Office webpage

Inspiration before starting

Before revamping starts

Progress shot

Progress shot - loving the wallpaper

What an amazing transformation

Monday, July 25, 2011

The Block 2011

It seems like just about every reality TV show on right now is a renovation show. I must say I love The Block, I have not yet watched the renovators but I have seen Top Design - which I wasn't a huge fan of. I watch The Block mostly online, the website it great as it has all the episodes online, photos of the latest rooms and room wins, the latest news and also expert advice I like this little section.

Great I think for the Little Fixa: Advice, instructions, and information about different things.

I love The Block as I think renovating is great as you put your heart and sole into making something your own. I love seeing where people get their ideas from and how they go about taking on a particular task. Those of you who have not seen an episode or don't really know what its about here’s a little list of things I like about the show.

Each couple is given a lump sum of money at the beginning. They should stick to their budget for each room, but really they can't and pretty much every week each contestant goes over the budget and eats into the next week’s budget. This can cause a lot of drama - which I find entertaining
They strive to win each week so they can have a bit more money to play with when designing and renovating the next room
Each week there a few games they must play to win extra money, helpers, free things and even a night away from the block at a 5* hotel.
Each room takes a week to complete and during that week I find myself getting emotionally attached to the characters and what they are doing
I didn't find that with top design, the whole renovation took place in one episode and the one episode I watch one of the apartments was just unliveable and tacky.
There can be a lot of arguing with some couples - sometimes entertaining, sometimes annoying - mainly Josh and Jenna having a go at each other