Blazing Minds

OK there I was about to boot up iTunes when my Apple software updater informed me of iTunes 10 and something called Ping.

So as I usually I installed the latest version of iTunes that usually also includes a few bug updates etc and I was interested in what this “Ping” actually was.

The first thing I’ve noticed with the installation is the shiny new icon on my desktop for the latest version, after clicking and waiting for iTunes 10 to boot up I also noticed the option for “Ping” in then left hand of the screen.

I clicked it and was confronted with the option to turn Ping on, then update my profile etc.

Now supposedly this new addition to iTunes is meant to be a cross between Twitter and Facebook, it’s been described as “Social network for music” it allows us to follow artists and friends via iTunes and post recommendations and status updates!

If you are a fan of a certain band you’ll now get updates from them via “Ping”.

Now I’m not personally sure that I will be utilising this new option on iTunes 10 it seems a good idea, but I suppose its early days, so for now I’ve got Ping turned on just to see how it runs and if it’s of any use to help build my ever-growing list of downloaded albums.

Something else I noticed is that now the list view of your music includes the album artwork, but this is only available for albums where you have five or more tracks from the album.

This version of iTunes also seems to have a slight update when you sync your iPod, instead of the screen just telling you that it is syncing your iPod it now shows you a progress bar and which tracks and how many it is actually syncing, a nice touch as at least you know now how long it will take to sync your iPod after you have connected it and strangely it does seem faster syncing my iPod than the earlier version of iTunes.

I dare say there are some other updates and changes that I haven’t noticed yet and will do in time, but for now a question to those that have downloaded the latest version of Apples flagship.

If you’ve not got the new version yet then you can download it direct from Apple..

Are you using Ping and if you are what do you think of it?

If like me you have watched the BBC2 show Top Gear for some years you will know about “The Stig” and the mysticism that surrounded who he was, it was even mentioned at one point that he was Michael Schumacher!

But recently a book which the BBC have tried to ban has shown who The Stig actually is and his name is Ben Collins and in a cruel hand of fate, it now seems that the BBC in their strange wisdom is thinking of axing him from Top Gear.

But who is Ben Collins?

He has been the stunt double for Daniel Craig in the James Bond film, Quantum of Solace as well Nicola Cage in National Treasure: Book of Secrets. He was born in Bristol on 13th February 1975 and has two daughters, Izzy, three and Scarlet 18 months.

The Stig, whoops sorry, Ben Collins Started motor racing back in 1994 and later went on to get praise from Jackie Stewart during his time in formula 3.

In  2003 he took over from the original ”black” Stig aka Perry Mcarthy and has driven some awesome powered cars, as well as some others in the show.

But what next, with the gossip that the BBC will be giving him the boot from the Top Gear, will there be a replacement for him, maybe another driver with another coloured suit, only time will tell I suppose. Too be honest I personally think he’s done well this long keeping it all hush, hush

So did you have any idea that The Stig was Ben Collins, do you even care?

Do you think that the Top Gear should get a new driver with a different coloured jumpsuit now that the helmet has been removed.

Well we’ve come to the beginning of yet another month and after a post I made recently about giving some love to the  Top Commentators here on my blog, I’m proud to announce the winner of a months free advertising here on Blazing Minds …. Drum roll please …..

The Blazing Minds commentator with the most comments in August was … John massing 31 comments.

So John will now have some Free Advertising in the form of 125×125 banner here on Blazing Minds, cheers for all the comments John, much appreciated

Don’t worry if you have commented here on Blazing Minds. I’m now going to give you a list of the Top 10 Commentators that have taken the time to post comments here on my blog, so without any further ado, let’s get on with the Top 10 list..

• John (Top Commentator) – 31 Comments
• Chris – 21 Comments
• Dennis Eddell – 19 Comments
• Ashok – 15 Comments
• Colleen 15 Comments
• Wayne Howard – 15 Comments
• Kissie – 12 Comments
• Cindy 11 – Comments
• Dawn – 11 Comments
• Gera – 11 Comments

So there you have it, many thanks to everyone that have read the posts over the last month, it’s much appreciated and a big thanks to everyone who has commented, ReTweeting, Digging, Stumbling and so on and so forth. Every little helps to get the word out about the blog and you are all helping

Now don’t worry if you haven’t made the list, you will now have another chance through September, but please remember to follow my comment policy as spamming is taken seriously and your comment may be edited. Also by commenting on Blazing Minds you’re in with a chance of getting a Months Free Advertising for your blog or website.

So happy commenting everyone and keep it real

Hello everyone, just a short post today and a bit of a question really to everyone that reads Blazing Minds in its many forms, either direct here on the blog or via email or RSS readers.

As some of you may know, Blazing Minds is going to be two on September the 4th, so I thought it would be great to shout out to other fellow bloggers and ask:

How Old Is Your Blog?

Suffice to say that on the 4th of September I will be writing a special post to celebrate Blazing Minds second year in the world of blogging.

I do have some plans on what I will put in the post, but for now, it’s a closely guarded secret

So for the time being, let me know the answer to the question above and lets see how many comments we can get on this subject, the more the merrier

Those of you who visit my blog on frequent occasions will have seen some updates I’ve made to the Toolbar at the bottom of the blog, if you haven’t then check it out now while you’re reading this post

I added the New Twitter Button to see how it would work on the blog and so far it has been used several times, it’s not a replacement for favourite Topsy Button, but it look good

I’ve also added a translation option for those visitors whose first language isn’t English, the translation option is also in the Wibiya Toolbar that is at the bottom of the screen on my blog along with Twitter that I mentioned above. It sits along with some other grouped buttons to keep the bar tidy.

From left to right: Donate, Blog Links, Translate and RSS Feed.

When you click on the Translate button you will get a selection of languages that you can translate the current page into, there are now eleven languages listed and hopefully these will cover most of the readers that visit Blazing Minds.

So there you have just some of the new options that you can now find on Blazing Minds to use Twitter and translate the posts in to other languages, so check them out and also check out some of the other buttons on the Toolbar

LATEST UPDATE: It seems that Facebook has made some updates to the way that you can select friends and now the original bookmarklet doesn’t seem to work 100%. But thanks to a comment from Rakib and pointing me on the direction of another method which you can find here.

But my favourite method is by using a handy Facebook Invite All Chrome extension that is also mentioned on the post, which is the perfect way of having the option to “toggle all” your FaceBook friends

—Original Post—

This post is an updated version of the original, I’ve updated it to now include a FaceBook Friend Select Bookmarklet to make it easier for you to use..

There comes a time when we all want to select all our friends on Facebook for some reason or another either to invite then to a page, group or something else and if you have loads of friends, it can take forever to click each one to select them, so, if you do want to select all your friends in FaceBook in one go then follow these simple instructions to set you on your way.

1. Drag this to your browser toolbar to get you started. FaceBook Friend Select
2. When you are on your Event, Group or page and click “Invite People”.
3. When the desired page has loaded you will see a list of your friends, but there is no way of selecting all your friends to get invites.
4. Simply click on the FaceBook Friend Select Bookmarklet and after a few seconds, depending on how many friends you have, they will all be selected..
5. Now you should see that all your friends have been selected, if they haven’t and only a few have, then this usually means that you can only add x amount of friends at a time.

Yet again it’s time for this weeks Saturday Six and this week topic was chosen by myself and there is only one question with six answers..

1. Name 6 of your favourite social network sites and why?
   

There we go, one question with six answers for you to have fun with…

Ok, that’s it, thanks for taking part and I’m looking forward to everyone’s answers. Don’t forget to hit the “Tweet” button to ReTweet this weeks Saturday Six.

Anyone using Twitter can be part of the process by tweeting me a topic, I will then pick one randomly and the chosen topic will be used and the tweeter will have a DoFollow link to their website or blog as a thank you.

If you would like to nominate a topic then simply tweet me @BalzingMinds with your nominated topic and the hash tag #Sat6