There are lots of free tools out there for monitoring, measuring and analyzing your social media presence and marketing. I have compiled a list of 7 free tools. This list is far from exhaustive, but is a snapshot of what I think are some useful tools to help you get started on monitoring and measuring your social media campaigns.

Social Media Dashboards

Hootsuite DashBoard

A simple way to keep track of your brand or other topics of interest is through applications such as TweetDeck, Seesmic or HootSuite. This can be achieved by simply creating a new column that displays any tweets mentioning your brand or topic of interest. The nice thing about this method is that you can reply and respond to people mentioning your brand.

I started off using TweetDeck but have recently given Hootsuite a try. It seems to do that little bit more than TweetDeck. HootSuite enables you to update to multiple accounts at once, and supports Twitter, Facebook profiles and pages, LinkedIn, Wordpress, MySpace and Four Square. Similar to TweetDeck, these features make the application useful for maintaining your overall social presence. However, the major differences that stand out for me are that you can allow other users to jointly update an account, review success in realtime with integrated click through statistics, integrate google analytics and it requires no downloads.

Twitter Search

There are some fantastic advanced search commands you can use with Twitter’s search engine. From simple brand related searches to location and attitudes, Twitter Search can do it all. Whats more Twitter Search enables you to set an RSS feed up on the search term of your choice in your outlook, this will make it easier to keep track of chatter revolving around your brand.

Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights provides you with metrics around your brand page. These insights allow you to see and analyze trends within fan growth and demographics, interacrtion with your customers and creation of content.

Google Analytics

You may not think of Google Analytics when you think of social media, but you should. With Google Analytics, you can track social networks as a stand alone traffic medium. You can use this to compare your social networks traffic against other traffic sources by average basket size, conversion rate and much more. This great tip from Econsultancy shows you how to set this up in your anayltics.

Source: Econsultancy

bit.ly

bit.ly

There are many services avaialble now that will shortern, share and track your links. I use bit.ly, this has a nice feature that allows you to see how many clicks your links are getting in realtime and look at refferer and location information. It is also possible to to chose bit.ly as the service you use to shorten URLs in Tweetdeck, this allows you to track your tweets from TweekDeck in your bit.ly account.

To do this simplly create a bit.ly account. Then log on to your TweetDeck, go to settings, then click on services and chose bit.ly in the secon box down, enter your bit.ly username and API Key. Then save settings.

Delicious Search

This useful tool allows you to see how many times pages from your site have been bookmarked by others.

Digg Search

Digg Search Much like Delicious, you can see how many times pages have been Dugg by others.

Social Mention

Social Mention is a brilliant social media search engine that pulls together user generated content from across a range of social media into a single stream of information. What I particulary like about this tool is that as well as displaying the latest results it gives a sentiment score of positive, negative, and, neutral and shows related keywords, reach and many other useful metrics. You can also set up to recieve alerts like Google Alerts but for social media.

Example Python Websocket Server

The latest draft of the of the WebSocket API has been released by W3 on the 15 June 2010. In the API documentation it details a new technology that exposes the ability for two way communication between web pages and remote hosts. This has been long awaited in the development community and provides exciting new possibilities in terms of real time applications.

Currently, the only way for a client to receive updates from a server is through any given method of polling. The main feature of Websockets is the capability of listening for incoming connections. Full duplex sockets of these kind will reduce bandwidth and server resource overheads and give rise to the possibility of applications such as MMO and first person shooters using soley browser technology. The technology goes hand in hand with the roll out of HTML5 and especially the canvas object and will play a major role in the immenent relandscaping of the Web.

Example Javascript Websocket Client

<script type="text/javascript">
 var ws = new WebSocket("ws://127.0.0.1:1234");
 ws.onopen = function() {
 ws.send("CONNECTED");
 };
 ws.onmessage = function (evt) {
 alert(evt.data);
 };
 ws.onclose = function() {  };
</script>

<button onclick='ws.send("POKE")'>POKE!</button>

The  code above gives a simple example of how to begin communication with your Websocket server. We’re assuming the server is on localhost and listening on port 1234. A new Websocket object is created and a send command is called when the channel is opened. The command “CONNECTED” will be eventually parsed by our server and a response will be sent back that will be caught by and processed by the onmessege function.

Example Python Websocket Server

import websocket

class server:

 conn=0
 users=[]
 socket=0
 uid=0

 def __init__(self,address,port,connections):
 # Point Of No Return!!!
 self.socket = websocket.WebSocket(address, port, connections, self)

if __name__ == "__main__":
 websocketServer = server("127.0.0.1", 1234, 1000)

Here we have the server class and main program. The program simply creates the server which in turn creates the websocket. All the models and preable of whatever application you create with this must be booted up before you enter into the websockets loop.

class user:
 user_id=0
 socket=0
 handshake=0

 def __init__(self, socket, user_id):
 self.user_id = user_id
 self.socket = socket

This class represents a user that would connect through the socket. It contains a reference to the socket channel it has connected on and has a unique id. This class would be extended to be a player, say, if you were developing a game.

import socket
import wsthread
import user
import random

class WebSocket():

 uid=0
 users=[]
 server=0

 def __init__(self, address, port, connections, server):
 self.server = server
 server = socket.socket ( socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM )
 server.bind ( ( address, port ) )
 server.listen ( connections )
 while True:
 channel, details = server.accept()
 self.uid = self.uid + 1
 self.users.append(user.user(channel, self.uid))
 wsthread.WebSocketThread (channel, details, self).start()

In order to get the most out of your Websockets and to allow them to be used for applications such as real time strategy games or MMOs your server must have threading capability. For example, if you were developing a game, this is neccessary for two players to be able move simultaneously. If you are a PHP developer I’m afraid you’re not in luck. There is no ‘real’ threading support for PHP and it is unlikey to be supported in the future. Go here to learn Python.

In this class we open a socket and listen for connections. On accepting an user on the socket we create a unique user id and add them to our array of users. We then start a new thread which will handle that user’s connection with a Websocket. In the following script we see how the Websocket is created through an upgrade handshake of a regular socket connection.

import threading
import hashlib
import socket
import time
import re

class WebSocketThread(threading.Thread):

 def __init__ ( self, channel, details, websocket ):
 self.channel = channel
 self.details = details
 self.websocket = websocket
 threading.Thread.__init__ ( self )

 def run ( self ):
 print ("Monty> Received connection ", self.details [ 0 ])
 self.handshake(self.channel)
 while True:
 self.interact(self.channel)

 def finduser(self, client):
 for user in self.websocket.users:
 if user.socket == client:
 return user
 return 0

 def send_data(self, client, str):
 str = b"\x00" + str.encode('utf-8') + b"\xff"
 try:
 return client.send(str)
 except (IOError, e):
 if e.errno == 32:
 user = self.finduser(client)
 print ("Monty> pipe error")

 def recv_data(self, client, count):
 data = client.recv(count)
 return data.decode('utf-8', 'ignore')

 def get_headers(self, data):
 resource = re.compile("GET (.*) HTTP").findall(data)
 host = re.compile("Host: (.*)\r\n").findall(data)
 origin = re.compile("Origin: (.*)\r\n").findall(data)
 return [resource[0],host[0],origin[0]]

 def handshake(self, client):
 shake = self.recv_data(client, 255)
 headers = self.get_headers(shake)
 our_handshake = "HTTP/1.1 101 Web Socket Protocol Handshake\r\n"+"Upgrade: WebSocket\r\n"+"Connection: Upgrade\r\n"+"WebSocket-Origin: "+headers[2]+"\r\n"+"WebSocket-Location: "+" ws://"+headers[1]+headers[0]+"\r\n\r\n"
 client.send(our_handshake.encode('latin-1'))

 def interact(self, client):
 users = self.websocket.users
 this_user = self.finduser(client)
 data = self.recv_data(client, 255)
 print (data)
 if(data[1:]=="CONNECTED"):
 self.send_data(this_user.socket, "Welcome")
 if(data[1:]=="POKE"):
 self.send_data(this_user.socket, "Quit poking me!")

This is the important bit and where the fun begins. When the connected client is handed off to the thread the first thing that happens is that the details of the connection are printed on the command line. If you are running your server from a command line you will see this when you run your javascript client.

Importantly, the server must now perform the upgrade handshake that will promote the socket to a Websocket. On connection the client sends data from which you must extract the resource, host and origin. The function get_headers performs this. This data is passed to our_handshake. This will allow for your server to work from any incoming address. I’ve seen a lot of early examples where people are hardcoding localhost into this part, so this is essential for getting this working online.

Now we’ve responded with the upgrade handshake the thread falls into its own interaction loop. When receiving and sending data the server must wrap and remove the character codes ‘\x00′ and ‘\xff’ as well as utf-8 encoding the data. These prerequisites are outlined in the specification of the API. Now the rest is up to you. In this example the server will respond if sent ‘CONNECTED’ by sending ‘Welcome’ back and then complains when it is poked…

Playing around with this I have managed to get working a realtime ‘click-to-shoot’ 2D tank game with lobby. Opening the game on multiple screens, they updated instantly and smoothly. It was an amazing feeling and very exciting. I would be eager to hear any implemenations you come up with!

Happy Birthday Glasto!

Back in September 1970 a farmer by the name of Michael Eavis had a big idea to hold a festival on his land. The Pilton Pop, Blues & Folk Festival was born.

1,500 people paid £1 (with free milk on the gates!)  to see the very first act, Stackridge. Last minute act, Tyrannosaurus Rex (Later know as T-Rex) became the very first band to carry the “Headliner” mantel.

The years passed and the festival became an established annual fixture when Michael Eavis took full control and organised the event in conjunction with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The Pyramid became a permanent fixture, a children’s area was created and the festival made profit for the first time in 1981.

During the 90’s the festival saw acts such as Oasis, Pulp, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Robbie Williams, R.E.M, and Al Green amongst many many more! Channel Four took Glastonbury to the TV masses and 1996 brought the release of “Glastonbury The Movie”!

The year 2000 saw the festival explode with over 250,000 people attend but only 100, 000 tickets sold!  The following years saw a number of sold out festivals  with the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Muse, Paul McCartney and Coldplay all playing the festival! The site had flash floods, lighting strikes and continuing influence from Emily Eavis (Michaels Daughter).

2008 saw the controversial introduction of Jay-Z, a move that would lead to a very last minute ticket sell and to Michael Eavis admitting he lost nearly a stone and half during the whole rapper vs rock band debacle! Jay-Z later went on to be acclaimed as one of the best sets at Glastonbury, the festival of contemporary performing arts.

Onto 2009 and my first visit (NuBlue go to Glastonbury 2009)! I won’t say any more, you can read it for yourself if you want!

This year, 2010, saw the 40^th Birthday of the festival and what a way to celebrate! Whatever you think of the “changes” to Glastonbury, no one can deny the clear effort and money ploughed into making the festival a more enjoyable and rounded experience for everyone. The now 1,000 acre site is a joy to behold, sprawling fields full of tents, lights, flags and music!

Tie me kangaroo down...

This year the weather was a scorcher, barely dropping below 25 degrees on any one of the five days! Rolf Harris “opened” the festival with a comic set to rival any with the legendary Willie Nelson soothing the crispy crowd with his country lullabies.

Following in the slipstream of Jay-Z two years ago, gangster rapper Snoop Dogg proved he has an impressive catalogue of big tunes for a crowd the size of many headliners! Switching between profanities, comic rhymes, and love songs to all “the beautiful ladies” at Gls-ton-berry he went on to produce an awesome set in the sweltering heat!

snooooop

With U2 booked to play the headline Friday night slot, pre-festival hype was flowing with “I’m not a big fan but bet they are good live” and “Bono could save the world on his own”. Unfortunately Bono badly damaged his back in May causing the band to pull out of the festival, much to the dismay of all the inquisitive festival goers who were eager to have the U2 outdoor experience.

With Bono down, Damon Albarn stepped up, this time offering the services of the Gorrillaz after last year’s headline with Blur. The deal was done and met with universal acclaim, further heaping expectation on a band that previously acted mainly as a musical cartoon project and had done only a handful of gigs.

I can’t really comment on the headline performance as I had given up and left before the first song even finished! Noise, out of tune singing and blocked screens (which were required for the cartoons!) led to frustration and screams of “sod it, this is tosh, I’m off to watch the Flaming Lips”.

I have read reviews that tend to go as follows:

“Expectation quickly turned to disappointment. The ambition of Albarn’s project, involving animation, a sprawling band that included half the members of the Clash, strings, horns, a rotating line‑up of music legends and an underlying political agenda about the destruction of the environment, buckled under its own weight.

There was a lack of pace, a lack of tunes, and the surreal experience of watching a stream of veterans, from Bobby Womack to Lou Reed, trotting out on stage without introduction.

Albarn’s message about saving the planet was infinitely laudable to a crowd standing in a sea of their own plastic bottles, but depressing, too – a darker kind of Glastonbury moment. Snoop came on to lift spirits in the end, and Albarn hugged him with relief. “

Saturday saw a simpler festival and line-up appear. The dance tents shook to the beat of world class DJ’s and popular dance acts such as N-Dubz. The John Peel tent gave way to emerging artists, Marina & The Diamonds, The XX and Foals amongst other.

The other stage rocked to the sounds of the The National, Reef, Editors and finally a closing set from the Legendary Pet Shop Boys.

For my friends and I it was the Pyramid stage all the way on Saturday night. Some may mock me for sitting it out here,

Kylie!

but the acts catered for everyone in our small group. Shakira reminded us just how much the hips do not lie before the Scissor Sisters popped Kylie onto the stage to give her a taste of playing the Pyramid stage after her sad withdrawal in 2005 to cancer.

Then it was time for Muse, best live band of the year over many years I’m told. Now I see why.

The trio lashed out hits mainly from their current album “The Resistance” but threw a few oldies such as “Nishe” and their cover of “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone.

With a lightshow to draw in passing planes and UFOs, the band lit the thousand acre farm with energy and sound like nothing I had seen before. Finally they finished the set with “Stockholm Syndrome” the band left the stage for a lengthy break with chants of “more!” from the now frenzied crowd.

They returned with what sounded to me like the intro to the U2 track “Where The Streets Have No Name” and it turned out I was right! Then as the song began, lead singer Matt Bellamy said simply “This is our Friend…The Edge”. The crowd went mad as U2’s guitar hero added his trademark sound to the track.

Finishing with “Knights Of Cydonia” Muse left the crowd exhausted but extremely happy with, in my opinion, an epic Glastonbury moment.

A relaxed Sunday

Sunday started with a very relaxed atmosphere for us with a wonder round the sights and sounds of the festivals less “mainstream” areas. Then it came time to head to the football field. Something I will spend very little time talking about. 50,000 people, sweltering heat, 4-1 to Germany. Enough said.

The afternoon and evening once again saw us populate the Pyramid stage for a chilled out cider with Jack Johnson before bouncing around with a still energetic (albeit slightly disappointing) Faithless!

Then it was finally time for the big man, Stevie Wonder. I have used legend a couple of times in this blog but on this occasion there is no better word.

Walking on with a keytar (guitar come keyboard) Wonder is a

Happy Birthday Mr Eavis

pro, a true musical genius. Throwing out hits like For Once In My Life, Uptight, Superstition, I Just Called to Say I Love You, Signed, Sealed, Delivered and Living for the City the superstar included a harmonica cover of Michael Jackson’s Human Nature and an in credibly strange helium esc version of his first ever hit, Fingertips!

Finally bringing the headline slot to a close with an epic performance of Happy Birthday sung with no one better but Mr Glastonbury,  Michael Eavis.

Because on the 6^th June 2010 the NuBlue Dragons by Cruise Connections (aka: Rob Ellis, David Duke, Paul Grant, Jane Dodson, Adam Bardsley, Matt Hutchinson, Alisdair Denholm, Lenny St Clair Matt Canty, Joe Bourne, Tom Ashworth, Tom O’Beirne) were crowned Champions of the Lunesdale Rotary, Charity Dragon Boat Race 2010!

It was tough, it was epic and my word was it surprising but we did it and we did it good. After coming fourth last year, the team (plus a few new faces, mine included) rocked up to the Halton Training Camp with a hearty dose of determination to tame those dragons once and for all. We also had another investment in the race as we had just finished redesigning the Lunesdale Rotary website, which you can see here http://lunesdalerotary.org.uk/ .

For any readers who do not know what dragon boat racing is, well, it’s pretty much what it says it says on the tin. Long boats shaped like dragons + the River Lune in Lancaster + about 17 teams of 8-10 people (one oar each and one drummer to keep the pace) + two teams racing at a time (best timed results go through to the next round) +one dragon shaped trophy. And because we are a generous bunch here at NuBlue, I have devised a simple 5 step plan of how you too can be a champion dragon boat tamer. Not because I want you to claim our crown, but just because I’m nice like that (no really, I am, I like cats and stuff).

HOW TO TAME A DRAGON IN 5 EASY STEPS

1. TIMING!

OOOOONE – TWWWWWOOOOOOOO – THHHHREEEEEEE – ONE – TWO – ONE –TWO etc

ONE! TWO! ONE! TWO!

This is the timing of a dragon boat champion team. Three massive thrusts of your oar leaning fully forwards so that the oar practically scratches the river bed and then sharp, strong strokes powered from the back and shoulders that cut through the water like an ipad flying out of Currys.

A drummer to keep you in time is a must here. Our drummer, Tom O’Beirne, did a cracking job of ensuring that we maintained the power and force throughout each race. See the video of our final race for proof – we look like actual beasts!!! And a word for any women out there, be warned that you may find yourself shouting and grimacing like a man throughout each race. I think I may have scared poor David Duke sat next to me (and anyone within a 5 mile radius) by shouting ‘ONE! TWO! ONE! TWO!’ in a gravely Vin Diesel style voice. I’m not sure whether this was due to the fact that I was the only girl on the team and therefore absorbed a lot of the testosterone that was flying about, or whether it was a secret hulk-like alter ego that has been lying dormant within me all these years! Either way, it worked and the whole team ploughed through the water in each race in beautiful, perfect synchrony.

2. MIX IT UP!

We were called the NuBlue Dragons but were actually a mix of NuBlue employees and friends from Lancaster University Volunteering Unit. Some of the team hadn’t even met before the day. However, rather than being a hindrance, I believe this mix up added surprise and a spark to the team as we had no chance but to bond and bond fast! Furthermore, we used substitute Matt Canty to mix it up again and keep this spark burning from the semi finals onwards. David Duke gallantly offered his space in the boat to Matt who was straining like a dog at the leash to get in the water and for this, we salute you Dave Motto here: keep ‘em fresh, keep ‘em clean.

3. LUCKY CHARMS

Oars up if you still believe!

We may have got funny looks from the opposing teams and we may have felt a bit daft, but I genuinely believethat the funny little things that we did before each race, bonded us a team and gave us a unique lucky boost.

There was a lucky penny that we all kissed, the cry of ‘OARS UP, IF YOU STILL BELIEVE!’, the chant of ‘Feel the Rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on down, it’s Dragon Boat time’ (pinched from ‘Cool Runnings’ of course) and my favourite, the ritual tapping and chanting….seriously!

Team member Lenny St. Clair had a lovely friend who got all the team together and lead us in an exercise of tapping various pressure points around our bodies, whilst saying inspirational and determined assertions of how we were going to win. We tapped our foreheads, our armpits, are chins and our chests. Sounds a bit kooky, looked a bit odd, but heck, it worked!!

4. CALL FOR SUPPORT!

Extreme support from Gemma and team member Paul

Get yourself some great supporters. This is a must. We were very lucky to have a lovely team of supporters who braved the persistent drizzle to cheer us on throughout each race. We also had a lot of support from people who sponsored us, raising £595 for Cancer Care! This undoubtedly fuelled the team onto victory and is the cherry on our crown shaped cake.  So thank you for everyone that sponsored us, money well spent indeed.

5. FOCUS!

The final race was a test of absolute concentration, determination and focus. I could see the opposing team to the right of me out of the corner of my  eye, but focused forwards on the finishing line (well on the back of the person in front’s life jacket) for the duration of the 64 second race.

The Final Race – NuBlue @ Dragon Boat Charity Racing 2010

If you watch the video above, you will see Tom Ashworth on the back right in a trance of pure determination – head down and arms ploughing like a man possessed!

As we crossed the finish line it was too close to call who had won. Supporters from both teams were celebrating, so all

Tom’s epic face of victory

we could do was maintain this focus and team spirit as we eagerly awaited the results……and when we were announced as winners we exploded with pride and excitement! Arms flinging everywhere, boys screaming like girls, girl screaming like boys, one team member even ran and jumped into the river! It was a truly epic moment. After claiming our trophies (plural!) and medals we gladly accepted the offer of beers from our opponents before heading home as CHAMPIONS! Albeit rather soggy and tired ones in need of a cup of tea.

So there you go! How to be a Dragon Boat Champion in 5 easy steps.  Fancy having a go? We’ll meet you on the starting line next year – not letting this trophy go without a fight! And with two victories under our belt already in 2010, is Nublue on for a hat trick? My money is on the XFactor. Christmas Number One. Watch this space. *starts tapping forehead*

Pharma online communities have existed since the dawn of the internet and, in many respects, they formed the internet’s first social networking media. Employing forums, chat rooms and bulletin boards, pharma online communities provided a high level of user interaction at a time when other parts of the internet were still awash with brightly coloured static pages adorned by ‘hello world’ test messages. Back in the early days of the internet, pharma online community websites were neither branded nor non-branded; in fact, they were a little of both, as many sites conveyed a branded message that was substantially diluted by the content on the related health condition, which meant that the commercial aspect barely pervaded such communities. Eventually, most pharma communities could be distinguished as either branded or non-branded without much difficulty.

In recent years, branded online pharma communities have tended to focus more heavily on the corporate or branded message; this, it is argued, has not been a good move for anyone. When branded pharma communities evolved on the internet, their message was more or less balanced by a desire to provide support, information and guidance to sufferers. As the corporate message began to dominate content, however, many branded pharma communities are thought to have lost out to non-branded sites. On this point, it is worth noting that non-branded online pharma communities can be established by various groups, including research teams, universities, health practitioners, patients, government agencies, charitable organisations and – perhaps more often than people might expect – pharmaceutical companies; indeed, sometimes it pays not to sing the corporate tune.

Statistical comparisons between branded and non-branded online pharma communities are notoriously unhelpful if not entirely misleading – the reasons for which will be discussed in just a moment. First, it is useful to provide a few examples of branded and non-branded pharma communities. Branded pharma sites include: cfvoice.com (Novartis); hearingjourney.com (Advanced Bionics); and ihateneedles.co.uk (AstraZeneca). Non-branded online pharma communities include: breastcancer.org; cancertv.net; and epilepsy.com. The differences between such websites are obvious, if only distinguishable by the fact that some advertise products while others provide information and support.

Branded Pharma Community

Non-Branded Pharma Community

As mentioned above, comparing branded and non-branded online pharma communities is not always helpful – this is mainly because digital marketing companies in pharma realised long ago that the branded message, especially in respect to sensitive or particularly virulent health conditions, was not always well-received by sufferers, support groups and physicians. As such, the branded message is once again heading underground and users may find it increasingly difficult to distinguish between branded and non-branded pharma sites.

Social networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are likely to be further exploited by pharma marketers in their quest to convey the covert branded message – a tactic that has already been implemented to good effect on sites such as Sermo and The Doctor’s Channel, which target the professional medical audience. Furthermore, Manhattan Research, a leading pharma research company, released a report earlier this year to discuss various ways in which non-branded sites could extend the branded reach throughout the patient life-cycle – the report highlighted a number of initiatives that could further blur the distinction between branded and non-branded sites.

Therefore, choosing between branded and non-branded pharma sites is fast becoming a redundant exercise; the most relevant question that must now be asked is whether users can identify what they are being sold: information on diseases or pharmaceutical products?

Ok so lets get started. This article is written for the Iphone3G but will probably work very well for the Iphone 3GS if that also has performance issues after a straight upgrade from Iphone iOS3 to iOS 4.  By following this guide you’re going to do the following.

1) Backup your existing settings and files in Itunes

2) Restore your Iphone 3G to a factory default installation (i.e 100% clean/brand new) of iphone iOS 4

2) Restore ‘just’ your settings and files to your new clean iphone iOS 4 installation

Obviously with any procedure like this there is a small chance something bad might happen and if it does I take no responsibility. I followed this procedure with my Iphone 3G and it worked fine for me so should work fine for you

Step 1 – Backing up your existing settings and files in Itunes

Backup Iphone Settings & Files

The first step is very easy and will be quite quick provided you’ve recently synced with Itunes (which you probably have if you’ve installed Iphone iOS4 of your phone). This backs up all your settings (which we will then restore later). One thing to mention here as well; as you’re backing up your phone settings you will also want to transfer purchases (if you haven’t already done so) as you will want to move these to your new install most probably. This is done by clicking ‘Transfer Purchases’ in the same menu as backup, although I was automatically prompted to do this when backing up.

Step 2 – Restoring your Iphone 3G to a factory default iOS4 installation

Restore Iphone 3G to factory default OS4

Ok, once Step 1 has been completed the next step is to wipe the phone and put a clean install of iOS4 onto it. Doing this is once again very straightforward. Simply click the ‘Restore’  button and follow the onscreen instructions. This part took around 5 minutes for me if that. You’ll know its worked if your Capcity bar at the bottom of the Itunes Window is much lower than previously once completed (assuming you’ve actually uploaded some stuff onto your iphone in the past). Once done you’ve got a Iphone 3G with a ‘brand new’ installation of iOS4 (just like you bought it new from the store). At this stage clicking around you should notice its definetely faster than before (although still not as fast as iOS3 was).

Step 3 – Putting back your settings and files

Restore Iphone Settings and Files

The final step is to put back the settings we backed up in Step1 into your clean install from Step 2. To do this simply select ‘Restore from Backup’ by right clicking your phone in itunes (the same way we did the backup) . Select the backup you made in Step1 and then sit back. As I had quite alot of files on my phone before starting this it took a while (at least 30mins). Once its finished you’re done!




 

Conclusion

As mentioned at the end of Step 2 the phone is probably still not as fast as iOS3 but is significantly faster than it was when it was just upgraded from iOS3 to iOS4. Hope this helps anyone using a Iphone 3G with iOS4!

Blogging’s very own Cambrian Period was in no small part aided by the introduction of various do-it-yourself tools such as Pitas, Edit This Page and the hugely successful Blogger. Nowadays, blogs are virtually everywhere and technology has improved vastly on early creations, with bloggers using advanced off-the-shelf software packages or made-to-measure applications.

Amid rapidly developing technology, the focus of blogging has shifted somewhat from the views of bloggers to the opinions of readers (except in my case, as I’m sure you’ll all agree!); in this respect, the latest evolutions in blogging technology have incorporated greater emphasis on reader comments. Tools such as DISQUS Comments, IntenseDebate and Echo are leading the way in next generation commenting, setting the scene for another blogging revolution. Perhaps even a bloody one.

DISQUS Comments should not to be confused with DISQUS Profile, which is an administrative tool designed to enable blogmasters (mind the spelling) to track, manage and reply to comments posted on various sites all in one place. DISQUS Comments, by contrast, is a blogging tool that combines next generation community management with advanced moderation facilities. In a nutshell, DISQUS Comments differs from most other commenting tools in that it is able to feed in to conversations that arise on other sites such as Twitter, Digg, YouTube and FriendFeed. Using a feature called Reactions, DISQUS Comments hooks into results from BackType to display external conversations on the user’s own site or blog.

Other notable features of DISQUS Comments include an advanced log-in system that recognises reader identities via Facebook Connect, OpenID or Twitter Sign-in, easy comment sharing and real-time discussions. It is this latter feature, however, that underpins almost all next generation commenting systems. IntenseDebate, for example, is arguably no different to any other blogging tool without its superb real-time commenting facility. Although IntenseDebate comprises various features such as hardcore moderation options, advanced voting systems, in-depth commenter profiles, OpenID (used in a similar way to DISQUS Comments) and simultaneous tweets, real-time discussions provide its next generation edge.

The same can also be said of Echo, which is arguably DISQUS Comments’ chief rival. As with DISQUS Comments and IntenseDebate, Echo features cross-site ‘hyper-distributed’ conversations, advanced login options, strong moderation and other such features. At its backbone, a real-time commenting system works in more or less the same way as on the aforementioned sites. Developed by JS-Kit, Echo is notable for the seamless manner in which it is able to gather comments from Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, etc., and organise them into a real-time stream of conversations that updates automatically – as in without the reader having to manually refresh the page.

On the face of it, real-time next generation commenting is a positive step forward – I think most people would agree that watching discussions unfold in real-time adds substantial layers of interactivity, simplicity and user-friendliness. On certain sites, real-time commenting could also have a positive effect on bandwidth usage; although, in this decidedly multimedia age, it is debatable whether fewer static page views would offer meaningful savings in most cases.

Real-time commenting does, however, threaten established advertising models that are based on page views. Revenue streams that are driven by frequent page views would almost certainly falter where sites implement real-time commenting; however, alternative advertising models do exist, so options are certainly available to blogmasters (again, watch for the typo!). Nevertheless, real-time commenting tools are likely to meet continued resistance by those who are dependent on certain forms of advertising, which could stymie the revolution.

DISQUS Comments, IntenseDebate and Echo are among the leading next generation commenting tools available today – we want to know what you think of them. Do you use any of these tools on your site? If yes, why? If not, why not? Would you recommend other commenting systems? (P.S. No need to refresh this page to follow the conversation!)

The Entries

Since this is the must have gadget of the summer, we really wanted the winner to have to impress us with their creativity. We were stunned to receive so many great entries from every side of the globe.  NuBlue made it to Hollywood, Dubai, Australia, China and Cheltenham!  Entries also got pretty inventive too with fire poi’s and sky dives!

Congrats to our Winner!

Hollywood Star

After 4 weeks of voting we were left with our top 3 entries to be sent to our judging panel to pick a worthy winner.

We are very excited to announce that our first prize winner is…

Abel Delgado for their entry ‘NuBlue gets its own star on the walk of fame’.

Abel Delgado said: “Thanks so much to the Nublue team for holding this contest. This competition was a wonderful experience and I am glad I was a part of it. NuBlue is a great example of a company that gives and for that, I’m grateful.”

Shout out to our Runners Up

We also want to give a shout out to our two runners up who have won a NuBlue S5 Shared Hosting Account with a .com Domain name of their choice for 1 year;

Stop, drop and roll!

2nd Prize – Vikki Sherouse – with her entry ‘Fire Poi‘

Around the world

3rd Prize – Amber Stickney – with her entry ‘Around the World‘

A few of our favourites

In case you haven’t seen all the entries we thought we would share a few of our favourites with you…

Thank you very much to all our entrants.

If you didn’t get the chance to enter this competition, don’t fret…join us on Facebook to keep up to date with our latest competitions. More coming very soon!

In this role you will be responsible for providing advice to prospective customers to help them make the best hosting choices for their web project whilst also supporting existing customers with their current services.

Some skills to bring to the table

• A positive attitude, reliability, and a willingness to learn about a multitude of well documented platforms, systems and common hosting issues.
• At least 1 year’s related experience.
• Must work well with our small friendly team. You should be able to ask for help and willing to help others.
• Must work well alone, be a self-motivated learner and not afraid to ‘Google it’!
• Must be organised and able to work quickly under pressure.

So why would you want to work for us?

For us it is all about job satisfaction. We offer training, career progression and are always on the look out for people who share our love for all things web. It’s not just about work, we all have a life and help as much as possible to achieve a good work-life balance with a scheme that allows employees to have support for a sporting activity of their choice.

If you’re intelligent, talented and downright geeky about your work, if you’d like to work in an environment that’s full of like-minded people who are friendly and supportive — then get in touch, we would love to talk to you!

More information can be found on the job description page and we look forward to hearing from you!

(Above: Adobe's new catch phrase)

It has been hard to avoid the on-going battle of wits between Apple and Adobe, but just in case you have, here is Steve Jobs take on Flash: ‘Thoughts on Flash‘ and Adobe’s response to which can be read here: ‘Our thoughts on open markets‘.

As the standoff between the two companies seems set to last, the future of flash development appears to hang in a balance, if other companies begin to adopt the Apple way of thinking on the subject, support for Flash could be dropped from other browsers. With the new features of HTML 5.0 and the canvas tag there are new ways to develop rich content for the web, could this really be the end of Flash?…Maybe Not!

Smokescreen:

Flash…Without the Plugin

Smokescreen is the creation of a programmer named Chris Smoak. The software is an alternative to the flash plug-in built completely in Javascript, it works by decompiling the SWF file generated from flash and “translates” all the elements as web standards-compliant code as the animation plays. There are a number of demo pages available on the official site. You can see the software in action in this video:

From Smokescreen:

We’re putting Smokescreen out there as a preview right now. We look forward to adding support for more of Flash, fix bugs, and improve performance over time. This is just a start. Smokescreen currently supports a sizable subset of Flash 8 animation capabilities, streaming sound, sound effects, some input, and basic ActionScript.

What this does mean is the code that is currently available in the demo pages doesn’t fully support all the features of Flash, making the full flash plug-in the best choice for complicated applications and animations. However for a simple animation like an ad banner the code works very well with the basic motion tweens of flash.

Not all browsers currently support the Javascript used here, and while creating a workable example there were a few browser crashes involved. So the stability and availability of the software is far from perfect at this stage. Smokescreen also currently has some speed issues with the Safari browser on the I/Pod/Phone/Pad so it’s definitively an early stages project at the moment.

HTML 5.0 Canvas Element:

(Above: Google's playable Pacman logo)

Recently Google turned their logo into a playable version of PACMAN using HTML 5.0 plug-in free technology, this showed us a perfect example of the potential in these emerging technologies. If you haven’t seen it yet you can take a closer look here.

The canvas element is also starting to get some attention from the developers as well, Canvas Demos shows off some of the latest projects from developers and also provides some tutorial links to get started with the element.

Although the new technologies in HTML 5.0 are set to change the web, we are still in the early stages of development, not all the browsers currently support the HTML 5.0 features, nor are there any WYSIWYG applications that allow for direct authoring of animated canvas content, requiring Flash designers to jump into code.

At the moment none of these technologies is supported throughout all browsers, the flash plug-in isn’t available to Safari on the I/Pod/Phone/Pad. Smokescreen isn’t available to Internet Explorer or older versions of FireFox. HTML 5.0 again cuts out Internet Explorer (although is confirmed to be supported for IE9.0).

The choice on which development tool to take in hand and run with is a difficult one. Each of the options available has their advantages and disadvantages, it will be up to the developer to decide on their target market and choose the tool accordingly, but one thing is clear, it’s far from over for Flash as a development tool.