MatBennett.com

I’ve never really felt the need too continually swap my mobile phone for the latest and greatest model, but when the navigation buttons on my old D500 finally packed up, I realised that it was time for an upgrade. Checking my Orange account online I was pretty surprised to see that they were offering me a decent spec smart-phone as a free upgrade, and I couldn’t really resist.

I’ve now been using the SPV e650 for a few weeks, and seem to be getting on with it pretty well.  There is still a lot that I haven’t had a chance to play around with, but it seems like a good time to post my early impressions of this capable little smart-phone.

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I’ve been trying to find some good T-shirts lately to replace my tired and fading summer wardrobe, but have been pretty disappointed in what is out there in the way of t-shirts with a slightly geeky edge.

Thinkgeek are probably the undisputed kings of the geeky T and I’ve had a few from them in the past, but having to pay for shipping from the US bites unless you are buying a lot in one go. I’ve also bought a few from Primitive State in the past, which I really like. They do though have a tendency to put their own logo all over the T-shirts in a rather too prominent way.

In true web-designer fashion, the solution was of course to put together our own store, which makes an interesting Friday afternoon project for everyone in the office. The result is Shirthead. Read more »

I recently posted that I had picked up a new Dell Inspiron laptop and hinted at a problem with a reflective screen.

I was really disappointed in this. The TrueLife display (which I paid extra for) is supposed to increase colour brightness and contrast, which it does. Unfortunately the trade-off for this is a screen that is reflective enough to shave in.

Reading around the web other sites seem to suggest that this is not really a problem, something that I feel that I have to put right.

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The new Dell laptop arrived today (very good, but bit too shiny for my liking - more of that another time). Once I had cleared off a few gig of useless crap that Dell had kindly installed, including 5 different AOL programs, I thought I’d load up some essential software before the holiday weekend.

Whilst I am sure that my list of essential software wouldn’t suit everyone, I found making the choices quite interesting. Here’s what I came up with and why:

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Well, I got the new camera that I have been hoping for, the Panasonic FZ30 Lumix.

I basically wanted a big zoom lens and image stabilisation for under £400, and the Panasonic FZ30 was one of the few digital cameras to offer those features. I had already had a play with David’s FZ30, so decided to take the plunge and order one.

Pretty impressed so far. There is definite issue with noise in low light, but this doesn’t really have a great impact on most of the photography that I do. The Lumix is very intuitive to use (something I think is important for trying to capture the action) and the performance is pretty impressive.

It’s too early to say much more about the FZ30 at the moment, but I’ll try to add some more info about how I am getting on with it soon.

Interesting article listing 93 factors that may (or may not!) have an effect on SERPs. Must have a good read of this at some point.

http://www.seomoz.org/articles/search-ranking-factors.php