Simon Barker - Blogger, Editor, Website Developer & IT Consultant in North Yorkshire, UK.

9 November, 2010 By Simon Barker

Are You Simon Barker?

Well I know that I’m Simon Barker, but I’m guessing there’s lots of other Simon Barker’s out there too, so in a similar way to Dave Gorman’s “Are You Dave Gorman” book where he went around the world meeting up with other namesakes, I’m thinking that it would be good to ‘virtually’ meet other Simon Barker’s here on my blog.

I’m thought this would be best done in a guest blog post kind of way, perhaps someone searching the Internet for a Simon Barker and arriving here at SimonBarker.com doesn’t specifically find the one they were looking for right now, such as those looking for Simon Barker – @SimonBarker87.
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25 October, 2010 By Simon Barker

Location-Based Social Networks, Colossal Monuments, LaCie XtremKey Destructathon, Teleportation Suicide & How To Present F1

Here are some of the cool web pages and online stuff that I’ve found whilst roaming around the Internet recently and decided to add them to my online Delicious bookmarks between 30th September 2010 and 25th October 2010:

- Masters of Media » Your City, My City, Our Crowdsourced Social Cities – A well researched article on how the growth of the various location-based social networks is creating an increasing importance on your geographic location when using the Internet – it will be interesting to see how the web that was once very global orientated in terms of connections, is now also connecting people and services on a local level.

- 7 Colossal Monuments Around the World – How is that I’ve never heard of any of these amazing huge monuments/statues located around the world…well obviously I’d heard of the giant Gundam statue in Japan, but not any of the others – it would be great to visit any or preferably all of these don’t you think?

20 October, 2010 By Simon Barker

Carbonite Review – Online Computer Backup Done Right!

You might be asking yourself whether Carbonite would be of any use to you, but backing up your computer’s data is becoming increasingly important. As well as the work and personal computer data files being lost, when you consider that most people now use digital cameras to record their life, fun times with their friends and their family history, you cannot replace all those, you need to back these files up!

I used to be one of those people who tried to back up their computer files as often as they could…manually…onto a separate external hard disk, but as with anything that you need to remember and set time aside to do, it would take ages to do and quite often it would get put off in favour of other more fun activities like…well anything else!
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30 September, 2010 By Simon Barker

A Magic Wand, F1 Games, Robert Carlyle On Stargate Universe, BBC Internet Blog & The Best Time To Publish

Here are some of the cool web pages and online stuff that I’ve found whilst roaming around the Internet recently and decided to add them to my online Delicious bookmarks between 27th September 2010 and 30th September 2010:

- Win A Magic Wand Remote Control (Competition) – Ever since we first saw this appear just in time for last Christmas, this has definitely been a highly sought after way of controlling your TV, iPod or whatever other remote control you want to replace with a magic wand! It also has the Dragon seal of approval now that Duncan Bannatyne’s involved with the company, so no doubt we’ll see many more magical products like this in future. However, right now head on over to Zath for your chance to win a magic wand remote control for yourself courtesy of IWOOT.

- Formula 1 2010 And My Formula 1 Gaming History – The Average Gamer – A great blog post about a guy’s history of Formula 1 gaming! I also have great memories of playing Geoff Crammond‘s F1 Grand Prix games – I so wish would come back and make a modern version, perhaps Codemasters should bring him on board for the F1 2011! :)

23 September, 2010 By Simon Barker

Does The Cinema Industry Have A Future? Vue Bans Laptops, Are Mobile Phones Next?

A friend of mine recently went to the cinema to watch a movie and from the sounds of it, it was not an experience that went very well – just take a look at what The Hodge ended going through by having a quick read of his recent Vue Cinemas Have Banned Laptops blog post.

However, to very quickly summarise, Dom wanted to go to the cinema after work and therefore happened to have a laptop in his backpack, which he had to hand over before being able to go into the screen to watch the movie as he could record the screening on it! How dare he want to go to the cinema after work before first taking the trip to take his laptop home!

Anyway, here’s what I think…I really can’t believe that a business that is already struggling to survive in the face of advancing technology would want to further alienate remaining customers by treating them no better than a suspected or potential “criminal”.
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