Aidan Beanland's Blog

Picture the scene... Me, frantically charging between meetings - barely having time to grab a snack between engagements. I approach the vending machine with $2 in my sweaty palm, insert the coin and reach for 'A' and then '2', a habit that's ingrained in my muscle-memory so firmly I could do the manoeuvre blindfolded. But then it happens: where the fu(k are the Honey Baked Ham Kettle chips?! PANIC! The very snack that tipped the balance into invsting in my citizenship no less! The tasy, crispy slices of fried root crop (unbelievably MSG-free) that has sustained me through 10 years of life here had been replaced by some INFERIOR impostor!

I'm sure by now you are beginning to understand the depths of my grief. The psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross introduced the 5 stages of grief back in the late 60s - I believe you'd be familiar with the concept even if you'd never faced them in such a confronting manner. At first I was in Denial ("surely a packet's been placed in the wrong slot?"). Then Anger ("grrrrr"), Bargaining ("I'll buy ALL the snacks that might be in the way of my rightful purchase") and now Depression ("sob" etc). Some day I hope to move on to acceptance, but I fear I may have to look for gainful employment elsewhere before that blissful day arrives.

Therefore, I beseech you, in respect of the world's natural order, to campaign to whoever decides which products grace the "snack altar" (as it is known in certain circles in the company) in favour of Honey Baked Ham Kettle Chips. Sure, they may even double the price, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Yours hopefully,

Aidan

Here's my LinkedIn profile:

I found this at http://www.flickranywhere.com/. Looks pretty cool huh?

It's well overdue, but Yahoo!7 has re-designed the TV Guide. It features television listings for all free-to-air and paid programmes for all regions of Australia with a nifty, slick interface that subtly uses JavaScript to hide and reveal programme information. So check it out and post comments on what you think!

Another pandora/Yahoo! Music-like recommendation and playlist engine with a fairly broad selection of tunes.



I'm very impressed with it so far, though I can't help wondering how long that web 2.0 style glossy reflective look will last before it gets passe (though I'm into it this week). Definitely a good way to have your fave music playing wherever there's an internet connection, and very easy to share your collection and tastes. However, there's no rating system and you still have to listen to most of the songs - repeated skipping is not allowed. Sound quality seems good, not sure of the actual bitrate, but is doesn't have too much of that 'sparkly' effect that compression can introduce to complex high frequencies (try compressing an mp3 to 56kbps to see what I mean).

EDIT: I just discovered there's a Wii page. I'm actually going to be using this

What do you think? Write a comment and let me know.