Techies learn to dodge bullets (kosso) http://ping.fm/8VJQr

New Blog Location : blog.kosso.co.uk

Hi all.

Firstly, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Secondly, I thought I should mention that I have finally got around to setting up my own server with all the required gubbins to host the latest WordPress on it.

So, you can now find my blog over at http://blog.kosso.co.uk !

Oh yes… it’s a new me! See you there!

test image to blogger

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posted by Koz Farina on Nooribeom using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Phreadz : Social Media, Networking and Conversations.

Every day, millions of people create content on the web; using their idea to inform, educate, entertain, connect and communicate. Through video, images, text, audio and links (”V.I.T.A.L”), people are using multimedia to form new relationships and networks around the world.

‘Social Media’ and ‘Social Networks’ are rapidly becoming crucial to our “digital lifestyles”, helping us discover new things and make informed choices based on personal recommendations and opinions from our friends and others in our extended global networks.

Companies, clubs, brands and creative artists from all genres are increasingly using social media to grow communities and networks around their offerings, building on the trust and relationships formed by the openness and transparency which it enables.

Phreadz embraces this evolving tidal wave in ’social-multimedia’; by making it easy for its members to create, publish and share content and opinions from a desktop or mobile device.
Phreadz is a ’social multimedia forum system’ where content is posted and replied to by community members, creating compelling and engaging ‘conversational threads’ using multimedia which can be shared and re-branded in many places at the click of a button.

Phreadz can provide public or private ‘channels’ dedicated to specific groups, topics, events or brands making it easier to engage the members in any particular area, away from the common ‘forum lobbies’. Each dedicated Phreadz channel can be fully branded and customised to fit the intended audience participating.

There are several ways to start or contribute to a conversation thread.

A post on Phreadz can be:

• Video recorded in the browser using a webcam

• Video, audio or photos uploaded from a desktop or mobile using an uploader or email.

• Video from other video sharing sites like YouTube, Blip.tv, Flickr, Vimeo, Viddler, Qik, Seesmic, 12Seconds, DailyMotion, BBC News, ABC News, Funny or Die, UStream (pre-recorded), TED Talks videos.. and many more.. or any Flash video url.

• Photos from desktops and mobiles or shared from Flickr or Second Life.

• Audio podcasts, performances or any mp3 url.

• PowerPoint and Keynote slideshows from SlideShare.net

A Phreadz post and its replies can be easily shared using:

• Blogs : WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, Tumblr or Drupal (and more to come)

• ‘Microblogging’ services : Twitter, Jaiku, Identi.ca, etc.

• Widgets and players for MySpace, Windows Live Spaces, iGoogle and NetVibes.

• Any website allowing HTML embed codes or links.

• A blip.tv account (videos)

• A Flickr account (photos)

• RSS feeds for very post, member and channel.

Phreadz is developing an API (Application Programmers Interface) making it easy for third parties and developers to create their own customised applications and interfaces to view and post content from any site or device which supports RSS, JSON or OPML data.

Phreadz currently has around 500 passionate and active testers trying the closed beta testing phase. Phreadz has obtained its first paying client for a bespoke white-label system at a university in the UK.

To see what a Phreadz ‘channel’ looks like without an account, please visit one of the current ‘public channels’ built around recent (and ongoing) special events:

• http://podcamp.phreadz.com
• http://newmediaexpo.phreadz.com
• http://geeknbury.phreadz.com

Phreadz was ‘bootstrapped’ and built in its entirety by myself (Kosso) on a single server and is actively seeking new customers. Phreadz will soon be looking to raise some seed funding from angel investors to provide the rapid growth in network, hardware and human resources it needs to kick start it and open up registrations to all.

©2008 Kosso : Phreadz Networks Limited.

Spore : Documenting the history of the Phreadzasaurs!

Over on the games channel on Phreadz, I have been uploading historical artifacts from the evolution of my creatures in Spore. Oh yeah. Phreadz has some fearsome creatures behind it! On the look out for the Raccoons! Hehe.

Click the green button in the top right of the player to see the story so far…

Sit back and watch how this amazing game develops. You start off as a hungry amoeba. Then you have to grow legs and take off to the land to evolve your new species, which you design entirely using the really fun tools. It’s incredible the amount of scope for creatures in this world.

The gameplay can sometimes be a bit tedious and frustrating, but the cutaways and characters are pretty rewarding and fun.

I had a pain installing it due to the DRM service not working when it should. But once I got over that, I was fine with it. EA Games are getting a LOT of stick for it though. It’s apparently now the most pirated game ever! Pirate Bay have had it on their top list for a week or so.

I bought my one months before it came out. Was it worth it? I think so, but they’re quite restrictive on how many times you can install it, which seems to have annoyed a lot of people, with Amazon customers showing it as the worst rated game.

Phreadz is “Social Meta Multimedia!”

It’s been a very busy few weeks!

I’m happy to announce that Phreadz has really gone ‘meta’!

Thanks to the guys at 12Seconds.tv releasing their API, members can now pull in a post from 12Seconds.tv! Great work guys!

Phreadz is a ‘Social Multimedia Conversation Network’ which lets members thread conversations together by recording or uploading a video/audio/photo in the browser and allows the sharing of posts from YouTube, Blip.tv, Qik, Seesmic, Vimeo, Viddler, Flickr (photos too!) even presentations from SlideShare! This can (and does) lead to incredibly rich and engaging (and entertaining!) conversations.

This is META-MULTI-MEDIA!

For more news about this announcement:

TechCrunch : 12Seconds.tv Releases Video Status API (500 Invites)
The Inquisitr : 12seconds releases an API, complete with launch partners
C-NET News : Video status site 12seconds launches API
Mashable: 12seconds API Launches with Blippr and TweetDeck as Partners
ReadWriteWeb : 12Seconds.tv Launches API, Partners With Tweetdeck, Phreadz, and Blippr
Venturebeat : 12seconds extends its 15 minutes of fame with an API

Here’s how easy it is!

PHREADZ » MacBook Pro Power Adaptor MagSafe FAILURE

Flabbergasted at how poorly there connectors are made and cost FIFTY NINE EARTH POUNDS to get a new one!! Just for a failed spring, which then started going black!

ATTACK OF THE KLONES!

Far too much to do on Phreadz to do too much of this. But it’s fun! ‘we’ shall return!

more about "ATTACK OF THE KLONES!", posted with vodpod

THE PHREADZ KLONES

more about "THE PHREADZ KLONES", posted with vodpod

PODCAMP : PHREADZ CHANNEL – public access!

We LOVE PODCAMP! But unfortunately, we couldn’t make it to Boston this year! So, as a tribute and an experiment, I have set up PODCAMP.PHREADZ.COM as a publicly accessible Phreadz channel. Non-members can only view posts for now.

This is also giving people at podcamp the chance to kind of ‘audition’ for a Phreadz tester account. See the page for instructions.

Check out the welcome post by me here :
http://podcamp.phreadz.com/v/H12OEG1O5080/

I plan to do alot more things like this in the future, so stay tuned! And HAVE PHUN!!

ps: ‘Phreadz’ rhymes with ‘threads’