The Whole Story

Felow blogger Tyler Walicek has recently written a really great article on his blog entitied “The MySpace Saga” which takes a look at where the site all started out, how it took shape, and an interesting look at the popular social networking site’s more shady background.

“I’ve always been fascinated with MySpace. It’s a writhing, twisted cesspool of Internet slang and <FONT COLOR=#FF751A”>terrible code.<F/ONT> But it’s also an outlet for millions of people, mostly teens, who, someway, somehow, through all the malformed CSS and hideous pages, are creating an identity for themselves. They decorate their profiles with YouTube Clips, oversized text, and pictures of their favorite rappers. Their pages are 5000 pixels wide and impossible to read. And they love it.

But there’s more to MySpace than just users with questionable web design skills. The site itself has something of a shady history. With a little bit of research, I’ve managed to piece together a timeline for how the site actually came about.”

source: Tyler Walicek: The MySpace Saga

A look at who is behind the creation of the site, who exactly Tom Anderson is (myspace go-ers all know who “Tom” is right lol) and who is backing the site now.

More recently Rupert Murdoch and his company newscorp bought out myspace from its previous owners for something like $570 million dollars. Google was in the running for the buy out, but declined stating that they (google) weren’t interested in a buy-out of MySpace becuase they could create something better (paraphrase).

Rupert Murdoch is obviously fairly happy with himself these days after purchasing MySpace anyway. He know owns the most popular social networking site around, and perhaps the most popular website on the internet these days.

Definately be sure to check out Tyler’s article with the link above. Very interesting look.

It’s a celebration! 100 posts and still going strong.

I can’t believe it has been 100 articles I’ve written on The Whole Story already, bringing you the thoughts, ideas & stories…of all time (well, maybe). To some, 100 may not seem like a lot. If I wrote everyday (which I do now) it would only be 100 days, but the fact of the matter is that in the blog’s infancy, I would write maybe 3-4 posts a week so thinking if I’d ever get to 100 was really no more than fantasy.

For those who haven’t been with me since the beginning, let me give you a quick ‘Whole Story’ history lesson.

Where it all began:

The blog started early in 2005 as a technology news focused blog called Justin’s Tech Blog (oh how imaginative) which I typically discussed any recent technology news, new gadgets, new online services and things of that nature. Justin’s Tech Blog was merely a blip on the radar in the beginning attracting only a few unique visits each day while really only appealing to ‘geek’ audiences and the tech savvy.

Early ideas, big dreams:

The blog had its experiments of different ideas in this early time, but in September of 2005 a new concept called Monday Tech Questions (MTQ) took off and to my suprise, the most successful idea and (moderately) longest running idea. MTQ was a weekly series of questions visitors to the blog would either email in or comment on regarding technology advice, discussion and queries. I would research the topic discussion and give a short answer to help them out with their problem, or to entertain their curiosity. With the introduction of monday tech questions, traffic to the blog and its overall popularity steadily grew, becoming one of the most frequently visited blogs on tblog (which it was then hosted at the time).

Tortured times, Justin’s Tech Blog neared its end:

In December (2005) while the blog’s popularity was as strong as it had ever been, a lust for breaking into bigger domain had developed within myself and found myself wanting to push the blog into new territory and give it a new lease on life. News stories were hard to come by and the appeal to a larger audience was something the blog really needed. Throughout December, writing of articles was put on hold and the blog was taken down for redevelopment, in preparation for a new format, and indeed…a new home.

The end of the month was here, a final farewell post was written on the blog, bags were packed and its move was just around the corner.

A new home, and a new life…The Whole Story was born:

In February (2006), the blog was reborn, revampt and The Whole Story came about. The move from tblog to WordPress was no doubt the turning point in the blog’s life with the first ever post on The Whole Story ‘Justin’s TechBlog moved to wordpress’ taking shape and off the presses.

Growth is steady…the blog is here to stay:

In recent times I have experimented with all kinds of new concepts, ideas and layouts for the blog. While wanting to appeal to larger audiences, articles have been written on numerous topic areas such as health, sports, academics, current affairs, gossip and science & technology just to name a few.

More recently, experimentation with audio posts proved popular amongst visitors, but in the end was too time consuming for me to sustain for any length of time, however surviving for 7 Episodes between the months of April and June. The episodes are still avaliable for download via the audio section of the blog to the right.

Yep, its been one hell of a ride since I started, and nowadays The Whole Story continues to enjoy steady growth and many search engines (including Google, Yahoo, msn etc) keeping up with each new post, helping more and more visitors find their way.

I’m glad the things that interest me and topics I write about also appeal to many others and without a passion for writing, there would have been no way I would have made it to the 100th one. To all my regular visitors, and to those who stop by on occasions, thank you so much. Your interest means alot, and so long I have people like you stopping by and reading what I have to say, The Whole Story will still be around.

Just wait, soon enough, you’ll be back here reading the 200th anniversary article. Thanks guys!

Hangovers! Most of us have experienced the call of satan the next morning, relentlessly pounding on our heads with no end in sight. While you were having too much fun the night before you weren’t really worried about the aftermath that follows, but now its hit, how can you deal with a hangover?

The obvious solution to hangover prevention is to simply avoid drinking any alcohol all together, but if you decided to pop the keg last night, you might be interested to know a little something about dealing with the mess the next morning.

Hangovers…what the hell?

A Hangover is your body’s sick way of telling you that you drank too much alcohol last night and the culprit with probably cause…dehydration. When you drink, your body looses valuable vitimins and minerals and dehydration definately plays a part in that splitting headache we often see. I’ve heard many friends of mine swear by a berocca before and after drinking to ease the pain the next morning. Berocca contains many of these vitimins and minerals that are lost and thereby reducing the obvious effects of a hangover.

Hangover myths & stories:
Different people will tell you all different stories as to how to reduce the chances / effects of a hangover and one I hear often is eating before drinking. Drinking on an empty stomache means that the alcohol that is being thrown into your body will be absorbed much quicker than if you had eaten previously.

Another one is not to mix your drinks. I’ll also agree with this one too. I heard a good analogy to this myth and it went something like this:

“You wouldn’t mix different kinds of non-alcoholic beverages all night long without expecting to get sick to your stomach, right? Think about it!…You wouldn’t drink a glass of orange juice then guzzle a carton of chocolate milk and top it off with some cherry soda and a strawberry shake!!! The sick feeling you can imagine getting from mixing those unlikely drinks is similar to what happens the morning after you spend a whole night guzzling bear, wine, vodka, and a zillion other concoctions!”

source: http://keg-party.net

Recovery:
One thing about hangover’s that I hear very often is that becuase your body dehydrates very quickly when drinking alcohol, the fastest way to the road to recovery is to rehydrate yourself by drinking plenty of water. This will flush any remaining alcohol out of your system. Also drinking fruit juice, sports drinks, and even soft drinks can help make you feel a bit better. The sugars found in those drinks will give you a quick source of energy needed to feel a tad bit better at least, plenty of rest is helpful and if you can eat something, that should get your body back on track.

Yep, damn hangovers! We all hate them. It would be great if there was some magical pill we could take that would cure them, but I don’t really think there is a ‘hangover cure’ at all, you just need to try different things and see what works for you.

More than just a notebook, the XPS M2010 is a revolutionary concept in mobile high-performance entertainment. Dual-core processing, a one-of-kind briefcase design and an impressive 20.1-inch mobile display put this system in a class of its own. The full-sized keyboard detaches from the system to give you added flexibility and comfort.

This new Dell laptop totally changes my view of what a desktop PC should look like in today’s age of; is smaller and more compact always better?

Sure desktop PC’s these days are fairly slimline with their LCD displays and thinner than ever keyboards, but with the XPS line of notebook computers you could have a powerful desktop PC when your at home, then just slip the detachable keyboard back onto the notebook and take it with you when your out.

Visit the dell website for all the product specs and details. A bit pricey, but a monster of a computer.