You know those promotions where you buy a product and there's some code you have to enter by SMS or on a web site? I've always thought that they were a bit of a crock. This afternoon my wife picked up a copy of the Casino Royale DVD for me and there was a special promotion being run by Sony.

Seeing as the promotion required entry of a code onto a website figured that it cost me nothing so I went through the motions and - I won a prize. It's a Sony HTSF2000 Home Theatre System.

I've never won a competition so I'm pretty stoked. It'll go nicely with the TV we recently purchased.

 Home Theatre • Sony • Winners

I was just browsing the iTunes Store and caught this little gem.

Apparently the name "Dick" is a rude word in the Appleverse.

 iTunes • Political Correctness

OK - so I've been a little slack with the blog and haven't posted in way too long. After studying and doing my recent exam on the early New Testament Church at Ridley, I had a massive backlog of stories to write for APC, Australian Macworld, PC Update and The Age. I;m nearly caught up so I have a moment or two for some blogging and social networking.

Over at Hydrapinion, I've just published a story on some free iPhone apps.

 freebies • iPhone apps

I picked up my iPhone 3G about a week after the Australian release and have, for the large part, been really happy with the phone. The one nagging software hassle has been with Safari that seems to be very unstable for me. I seem to be able to crash it at least a couple of times per day. In particular, it doesn't seem to like me trying to scroll and zoom a page until it's completely finished loading the page.

My main beef has been with my carrier. Optus is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singtel, which is owned by the government of Singapore. Optus' cellular network, it seems to me, is oversubscribed and there seems to be little likelihood that the network will be augmented to the required degree.

So, in order to test my theory I've contacted Optus and had my iPhone carrier unlocked. The support tech on the phone, john, was very helpful and after i'd supplied my phone number and IMEI he informed me that my phone would be unlocked within 10 working days and that i'd receive an SMS telling me when the process was complete. Given that I anticipate an overseas trip next year this will make life easier as I'll be able to use a local SIM card and save on international roaming costs.

It also means that I can do some testing with different Optus SIM cards to see if the iphone is being speed-limited to "protect" the Optus network.

 iPhone unlocking • Optus

A couple of the writers at PC Authority have put together their Top 10 technology flaws in films.

It's an interesting list but omits what is perhaps the worst movie ever made - an Australian flick called Crosstalk. It's tagline - "Only the computer saw the murder...and it liked what it saw..."

 Movies • technology

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I'm growing a Mo. That's right I'm bringing the Mo back because I'm passionate about tackling men's health issues and being proactive in the fight against men's depression and prostate cancer.

To donate to my Mo you can either:

Click here to donate online using your credit card or PayPal account, or

Write a cheque payable to ‘Movember Foundation', referencing my Registration Number 1477071 and mailing it to:

Movember Foundation
PO Box 292
Prahran VIC 3181

All donations over $2 are tax deductible.

The money raised by Movember is used to raise awareness of men's health issues and donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative. The PCFA and beyondblue will use the funds to fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer and depression.

Did you know:

Depression affects 1 in 6 men....most don't seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.
Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer - equivalent to the number of women who will die from breast cancer annually.

Thanks for your support

I've picked up a semi regular gig writing for one of the most esteemed newspapers in the land - The Age. I've written a couple of roadtests recently that look at online storage services and RSS readers.

Compare: RSS readers: The near exponential growth of the internet has had a serious side-effect - information overload. How do you keep track of the ever-expanding list of websites you like to visit and find out when something new that's of interest appears?

Roadtest: online storage: The people most vigilant about backing up data are those who have lost data. Large corporate IT strategies can afford to store their backups away from the office so if the office is destroyed the data can be recovered. But most of us can't afford to have someone collect our daily or weekly backups from home and store them securely.

 Backup • RSS Readers

Yesterday, I penned a story for my weekly column on Hydrapinion on eBooks.

Why eBooks suddenly matter (to me): I've never really understood the whole eBook thing. I've tried - really, I have. I've also given audio books a go and quite like the idea of the convenience they offer. Studying requires that I read a wide variety of different references in addition to my lecture notes. This has lead me, for the first time, to establishing an electronic reference library so that I can carry my reference books with me.

By sheer coincidence, Drew Turney, who's standing in for Stephen Withers on the Mac column, also wrote a story on eBooks that's worth a look.

 eBooks

I've been a busy little bee preparing for exams and writing up a storm. Hence the lack of blogging action in recent weeks. I promise that I'll do better and be a little more disciplined after next week. I've not even been catching up with my RSS feeds as i just don't have the time at the moment.

in any case, a few more reviews of mine have popped up on APC Magazine's web site.

ASUS VW223B LCD display: dual screen without dual video cards: Although the "U" in USB stands for universal it's remained mainly focussed on storage and communications peripherals. However, ASUS turns that stereotype on its head with the VW223.

AOC Widescreen LCD Monitor 2219P2: an impressive display of wideness: AOC might be a new player in the local market, but they’re showing that they have plenty of talent when it comes to making great screens that don’t break the bank.

D-Link DNS-343 Four Bay NAS: ticks all the boxes: D-Link’s experience with network gear shows with the DNS-343.

Netgear RangeMax Wireless-N Gigabit Router (WNR3500): the router to paradise?: Netgear delivers a high-end router that gets close to networking nirvana.

Synology DS508 Disk Station: expand your storage beyond: If you’re running out of storage space with your present system, the DS508 is a ripping NAS for the home or office.

Netgear Wireless-N + Gigabit Router (WNR854T): not just a pretty face: While beauty is only skin deep, Netgear’s WNR854T ticks most of the boxes when it comes to specs and performance as well.

 AOC • DLink • Monitors • Netgear • Routers

For the most part, Google's ads do a reasonable job of matching ads to content. Put simply, Google looks at a web page, works out what the page is about by looking at the placement and recurrence of words and then delivers ads that are in context. However, while researching the theological issues of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 I got the following.

You can get a full-sized (280kb) version of the image by clicking.

Google has taken the main subject, Christianity, and I think the word "seminal" on the right side next to the book's cover-page and come up with a link to an ad for Christian Masturbation (under the main text on the page.

 Google ads