Conor’s Little Dangly Bits

You can now connect your Amazon account to your Facebook account. The idea being that stuff your friends like might also appeal to you.

I'm not so sure when it comes to purchasing.

I don't have the same taste in movies as my wife, I'm not a vegan like my old college buddy Bernard, I don't read the same books as my nephew Tadhg and I'm not a big fan of pets like my sisters.

But hey, I'm a click-junkie so I set it up and this is what it gave me:

I'll take "people who bought the product you just added to your basket also bought......" any day over this. 

I'll now bang on about my favourite topic "filters" for a moment. I was taking the mickey out of Facebook last night due to their Page recommendations in the sidebar, they are hilarious. Here are some of them:

• Many who like House also like Bones
• Many who like Music also like Movies
• Many who like Comedy also like Drama
• Many who like Tea also like Breffmania
• Many who like Shopping Malls also like Comtemporary R&B

The problem is lack of filtering. I actually like the Breffmania one because it is non-obvious and adds a little discoverability. Amazon telling me that my friends like Monty Python is about as interesting as saying they like TV.

Purchasing is not the same as Liking YouTube clips or sharing jokes. Something far more powerful like Hunch is required.

And as I said on Facebook earlier, I'm be stunned if FB doesn't buy them this year.

You be the judge.

My Sky+ Remote:

The new Bugatti Veyron SS from Top Gear:

We've had a big-assed 50L Brabantia bin for the past 6 years or so. In their wisdom, Brabantia realise that the crappy catches they put on their bins break regularly and not only provide a spare but make it very easy to order another:

Unfortunately, what they didn't suss was basic mechanical engineering and the fracture mechanics of 5 children whacking the bin-lid hard every time they opened and closed it. So in no time at all the bit which held the catch broke.

Solution 1: Superglue. Rubbish. Lasted precisely one whack from a 4year old.

Solution 2: Epoxy Resin. Used this multiple times over several years. Worked reasonably well. But a pain in the ass to apply since it oozes in everywhere and actually seized up one of the catches. Also goes brittle eventually and breaks away.

Solution 3: Double-sided mounting tape. Tried this recently with surprisingly good results. As it is flexible, it can handle the whackage. Lasted about 2 months until the oozage of the sticky bits made it fall off.

Solution 4: Sugru. I think it may be the perfect solution. Sticky but not oozy to apply. Hard but flexible to handle impact. Has bulk so the load can be spread across a wider area. Two days in and all is well. I'll report back if it ever breaks.

UPDATE 1: Title changed from "Bloody Brabantia Bin" to "Lovely Brabantia Bin" because they reached out to me on Twitter and pointed out that I could get an entire replacement lid for free on their web-site under the 10 year guarantee. Fantastic customer service. But a bit of Googling reveals the problem above is rampant which surely must be costing them a fortune? I hereby offer my Sugru "distributed load" design to Brabantia's engineers for free :-)

This is CyanogenMod 6.0RC2. Working brilliantly on old hardware. 

One of my 5 darling children (identity unknown) decided to peel off a strip of the rubber backing on the Sky+ remote. This bugged me every time I held it. So I decided to have some fun with a Sugru repair. 

Before:

I had a vision in my head for what I wanted to do. Unfortunately I have zero artistic ability. 

The plan was something like a Spiderman web but this is what I gouged out:

I love it and admire my handiwork (crude tho it is) every time I hold it. The kids are less impressed. Oisín aged 8 said "Dad, the last thing that looks like is Spiderman".

Hack number 3 (ultra simple) to follow.

I have never used Digg much. It's perfect for when I have spare time and I want to bounce around different stories. The problem is that first bit, spare time. So like most people, I just used it to pimp the shit out of my own shit. But even that gets boring after a while.

You buy this:

But to use it, it has to look like this:

No more HTC Sense bling. Dunno if I'll miss it or not.