Jason Van Dyk » Fun

BP Looking for skilled photoshop editor

Jason — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:58:08 +0000

I was just scanning the latest twitter trends and I came across the ‘Oil Spill’ tag. Wondering how the oil spill was going, I had a quick glance of the trending topic and came across the following tweet from BPGlobalPR (click on the image to see the photo example):

Some other tweets posted by BPGlobalPR:

I used to have to kick a sandcastle to ruin a child’s day. Now I just throw a match at it. That’s progress. ^Tony about 5 hours ago via web
Man, we miss the days when an Easter weekend and Terry Schiavo distracted you from our deadly mistakes. http://ow.ly/1ZzL3 about 5 hours ago via web
We will not honor any claims or complaints unless they are submitted as delicate, yet robust haikus. Go ahead, try. #bphaiku about 9 hours ago via TweetDeck
In case you missed our latest magic show, we made a fire vortex on the water! Tada! http://ow.ly/1Zw6h #bpmagic about 10 hours ago via TweetDeck
We’ve sent a free $200 whores gift basket to our workers on the beach in lieu of respirators. http://ow.ly/1ZupI #bpcares about 11 hours ago via web

Obviously this is a stunt as someone has created the account earlier today. I’m sure the account will be deleted soon, but if it raises awareness and gets reports of Justin Bieper of the radio then I’m all for it. In amongst all the tweets there are some interesting links to read from credible sources (although you might find main stream media not so credible due to reports that there is a ‘Mass Media Blackout’, either way check it out. I got a laugh out of it and became more informed at the same time).

World Cup Fever – My Site, Vuvuzela Style

Jason — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:19:50 +0000

The world cup is on, and I have to say one of the most annoying things about watching it on the TV is listening to those Vuvuzelas go off. It is a massive droning sound that doesn’t let up…. ever!

So you can now visit my site and enjoy the theme yourself!

Enjoy my Vuvuzela Style Site Here!

Now if you have your own site or would like to visit other sites simply replace your site with mine – http://www.vuvuzela-time.co.uk/www.jason-v.com

Google – http://www.vuvuzela-time.co.uk/www.google.com

YouTube – http://www.vuvuzela-time.co.uk/www.youtube.com

PS3 – FIFA 2010 Highlights

Jason — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 12:45:25 +0000

I’ve recently got a Playstation 3 (Birthday present) with FIFA 2010. The game is great although I’m still not sure it lives up to my World Cup Soccer on the Playstation 1 but times have changed. I’m actually enjoying the Virtual Pro part of the game, where you have control of only one player for the entire match (Update: so you can switch to other players I’m told). One of the cool things is that you can upload a video/screenshot to the web from with in the game. Anyway I’ve done that so here are a few highlights from the game. Now for the videos (click to download/watch). FIFA 2010 and EA let you download the video in a .flv format, and rather than re-encoding it I’ve left it how it is. They are of the same event, just different angels.

FIFA 2010 – Team Work – Flash Video
FIFA 2010 – Team Work (different angle) – Flash Video

This site is not endorsed by or affiliated with Electronic Arts, or its licensors. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Game content and materials copyright Electronic Arts Inc. and its licensors. All Rights Reserved.

My Car Loan Calculator

Jason — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:22:04 +0000

At the moment I’m going through the process of getting a ‘new car’ with my girlfriend. Now even though that car isn’t going to be mine I still want to get a good deal (as you would). Apart from picking the car you want, finding the right model, picking the option and final trying to get a good price…. If you are going to get a car loan you then have to do it all over again, although it seems a bit more confusing.

So I put together a car loan calculator in excel, did some research on the net and input all the figures!

So to break it down. Everything in red is what can change, but you are really only interested in how much it will cost each month and how much it will actually ‘cost’.

Loan Amount = The total amount you wish to borrow
Establishment Fees = The total amount you are going to get charge to set it up, bank fees, REV’s, anything to get started.
Monthly Fees = The amount you have to pay each month to have the loan (crazy right, you are already paying interest and Establishment Fees)
Loan Term in Months = How long you plan to have the loan for in months….
Interest Rate = The interest rate you will have to pay – This can change daily, it could be fixed, variable, secured, unsecured, etc.

Monthly Repayments = How much money you will have to pay each month (roughly anyway).
Total Loan Cost = How much money you will have to pay in fees, interest, etc… on top of the full amount you borrowed (Bank Profit in my eyes)

Now I put this together a week or so ago and I know some interest rates and fees have changed, also if you get the loan through a car dealer each one will be different and I actually believe you have ‘some room to move’ in regards to the loan.

Oh also use this excel spreadsheet at your own risk, and check for official rates, fees and all of the terms & conditions as you normally would. Basically don’t trust what I’ve put together, but I found it a great tool to compare quick against the different banks (Suncorp, Bank West, Commonwealth, NAB, ANZ, etc). Oh one place you might not think to look at but would be worth checking out is the RACQ or similar as I think they have great deals.

Yes, yes – Did I mention an excel spreadsheet? I’m making this available for download because I couldn’t find anything that helped me on the internet so hopefully this will help someone else. Of course it was customer to my situation, but I’ve decided to leave some values in there to get you started. You can download the spreadsheet by clicking over there –> Jasons Loan Calculator <–.

Adobe Contribute Test

Jason — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:44:17 +0000

At the moment I’m using Adobe Contribute to write this blog post. It is a different way to write up a blog entry than using the wordpress backend.

I can see my blog entry how it would appear on my site, as I’m typing it. I can also go back an edit entries as well. The speed is fairly slow to be honest. It appears as if every character needs to get sent back to the server, so I can type a lot quicker than what the text appears on the screen. It hasn’t picked up on the categories features of wordpress correctly and it also appears as though I can’t add in tags easily.

It also doesn’t allows me to upload photos through iPhoto, and would need to export the photo from iPhoto first before I could use it. This isn’t any different in how I would have to do it through the web browser, but considering that this is an application installed on my computer I would of expected it to have some advantage.

Well so far, I would rank Adobe Contribute about 1/10 and I would have no reason to use it in the future to write up a blog post on my site. (I’ll have to log in later to fix up the categories and tags)

The worlds most elusive child

Jason — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:33:28 +0000

The world’s most elusive child.

-Unknown Source (Taken from http://imgur.com/gallery/rauKG)

I thought this comic was great, and I also came across it after reading an e-mail forward titled “Random Thoughts”. One of the random thoughts was the following.

If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

I can see how fitting it was for a title, however I didn’t want to give away what was going on in the comic. I couldn’t find a source or author for this but well done to the creator.