Catastrophe Canyon from Lights, Motors, Action, originally uploaded by insidethemagic.

I know i said the blog was closed, but this is a fantastic view!

It is unlikely I’ll be adding a new entry anytime soon & I have now changed the domain.

www.leestone.co.uk will now show my personal portfolio. Please give it a look. There is a chance I may set-up another blog with more personal posts on it in the near future.

You will still be able to find old posts at www.leestone.co.uk/blog and any old links you have should still work (I have written a small php script on my portfolio page to re-direct you).

Thank you all for visiting.

It’s claimed that a client has already been designed, is in testing, and runs (not surprisingly) on Google Gears. Google has previously offered an offline version of Google Reader using the Gears browser plugin. Other companies embracing the Gears platform include Zoho.

Although the story is unconfirmed by Google at this stage, it would be fair to presume that an offline version of Gmail happening is a given, the only question is when it will be available. Google continues to put together its jigsaw puzzle of office functionality as it builds a serious Microsoft Office competitor.

read more | digg story

Technorati Tags: Google, gmail, google gears, email

For example, maybe you want to play a practical joke on someone. Or report problems in a workplace without it being able to be tracked back to you. Even if you use a non work email, this may be able to tracked back to you.

A site you may want to look at using is TheAnonymousEmail.com

They offer Anonymous Email, text and chat. On their site they suggest it could be used for:

* anonymously report sensitive information to the media
* send crime tips to law enforcement agencies anonymously
* report wrongdoing or theft at the workplace
* voice concerns to school principals anonymously
* report child or any other abuse
* initiate an anonymous chat discussion
* share suspicions regarding a friend or loved one
* catch a cheating spouse, wife or husband
* express whatever you’ve been longing to say…

Please Note:
This post is sponsored by TheAnonymousEmail.com

Technorati Tags: email, text, chat, anonymous

Tomorrow’s legal fight may be over Web browser add-ons that let people avoid advertisements. These add-ons are growing in functionality and popularity, which has led legal experts surveyed this week by CNET News.com to speculate about when the first lawsuit will be filed.

If ad-blockers become so common that they slice away at publishers’ revenues, “I absolutely would expect to see litigation in this area,” said John Palfrey, executive director of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

read more | digg story

Technorati Tags: advertising, adverts, adblock

Workers who spend time on sites such as Facebook could be costing firms over £130m a day, a study has calculated.

According to employment law firm Peninsula, 233 million hours are lost every month as a result of employees “wasting time” on social networking.

The study – based on a survey of 3,500 UK companies – concluded that businesses need to take firm action on the use of social networks at work.

Some firms have already banned employees from accessing Facebook.

Mike Huss, director of employment law at Peninsula called on all firms to block access to sites such as Facebook.

He asked: “Why should employers allow their workers to waste two hours a day on Facebook when they are being paid to do a job?”

He said that loss of productivity was proving a “major headache” for firms.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Facebook ‘costs businesses dear’

It does not surprise me that Facebook takes away a lot of employees work hours, however, if it wasn’t myspace, it would be something else. Even without technology, you have chatting within the office. Then you could have employees text messaging, updating sites on wikipedia etc. There are a lot of things that can distract them.

I can relate to how distracting facebook can be though. There has been many a time when i’ve been working at home & received an email saying someone’s left me a comment, next thing I know I’m on facebook and lost half an hour.

Is blocking facebook completely the answer though? It probably depends on your workplace’s AUP. If you’re allowed to use the internet for personal reasons (even if only during a lunch break), then it’s probably a bit drastic & staff just need to be monitored. If you’re not supposed to be using the computer’s for personal reasons then perhaps it should be blocked. There’s very few businesses where facebook or any other social networks would be used.

Employers themselves though could look at how they could use facebook to their advantage. For example, they may be able to find out more information about job applicants then they give on the application form, allowing them to form more of an educated discussion.

technorati tags:business, workers, facebook

Australia’s only unusualist, Raymond Crowe offers a captivating combination of visual comedy, ventriloquism, shadow puppetry and magic.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Technorati Tags: shadow pupetry, raymond crowe

Has anyone shed a tear for its loss? I don’t think so.

read more | digg story

Technorati Tags: apple, ipod hi-fi, ipod, ipod accessories

Although I can sometimes use friends to help me to come up with ideas, a site the can suggest gift ideas would be fantastic and a site the does this is giftchooser.co.uk & even better, it’s UK based!

The site has different categories of gifts it has reviewed, from Christmas ideas, to those for boys or unusual gifts. Plus my favourite category – cheap gifts. When you have a lot of gifts to buy & you’re on a student budget you need them to be cheap!

Also as the site is in blog style, you can subscribe to their RSS feed to receive more gift ideas as they add them.

Giftchooser.co.uk doesn’t sell the gifts direct, instead they link to various sites around the web where they’ve found these gifts, often allowing you to find ideas at sites which you may have shopped at before & have had a pleasant experience with, but not seen the item which giftchooser have highlighted.

Please Note:
This post is sponsored by giftchooser.co.uk