First things first, I just want to say congratulations to Rage Against The Machine for getting their top spot. Regardless of anything else, it’s probably quite a nice feeling for them and I for one revelled in the moment having a good dance round my room as th4e single was played on Radio 1. Also, well done to Jon and Tracy Morter - it couldn’t have happened without you. Perhaps most importantly, thumbs up to all the people that donated to the charities involved. A significant amount of money was raised and that’s certainly something that Joe McElderry, or more importantly, Simon Cowell and the X-Factor empire can’t say!

My reasons for posting this, though, are not just to congratulate the various people involved but also to point out one particular flaw in the nay sayer’s arguments against this campaign…

It means entirely nothing that RATM and Joe/Cowell are on the same record label. Simon Cowell’s label is a subset of SonyBMG as is Epic, the label to which RATM are signed, as such there isn’t any direct crossover and even if there were there’s nothing to suggest Simon Cowell makes any money from Epic’s sales. The only way that could happen would be if he was also in charge of that division of the label or if he were a share holder. Whether he’s the latter or not is irrelevant as the share price of such a large corporation has very little to do with the sales of one single. As for the former, well I’m certainly not aware of him having any direct involvement in Epic.

Think about it like this, if you’re head of the software division of Microsoft (Simon Cowell) and the hardware division (Epic) makes a load of money, you don’t see any direct benefit.

Also, to all the people saying it’s just as sheepish to have followed this campaign, you also seem to be missing the point. Just because a large number of people followed a suggestion, it doesn’t mean we’re all highly suggestable halfwits. If the suggestion had been to put Rick Astley at number one I’d have told them to go stick it. It was my decision to buy the single and I’m very happy that I did. Of course, I’d rather they picked something even more extreme and less cliched - ‘they swear a lot, that’ll be funny’ - but I’m, willing to forgive that becuase people needed a song they were familiar with and could latch onto for this campaign to work. Suggesting You Suffer by Napalm Death would have been more extreme - a 2 second grindcore songwould certainly have got people thinking - but somehow I don’t think it would’ve worked.

So there we go. All I need now is to get hold of a ticket for that free gig next year…

Nothing particularly original here but fun nonetheless.

http://www.wegame.com/watch/Counter_Struck_CS_in_Real_Life/?ref=rv

..but I’ve found the most awesome site ever.

No, it’s  not TheStarWarsLolCatsBrittanySpearsSocialNetwork2.0InHadranColliderDisco. It is in fact http://www.videojug.com/ and it’s so good I was seriously tempted to keep it all to myself (and the all the other people that knew about it before me).

Essentially it’s a collection of humorous yet informative, concise, and professionally produced videos on how to do stuff. How to play guitar (not just in a generic sense but different techniques and stuff), how to iron a shirt, or take the perfect golf swing (Joe…). It even has advice on relationships - I particularly like the ‘How To Be The Perfect Girlfriend’ and ‘How To Be The Perfect Boyfriend’.

So yeah, go check it out!

Also, Squeezebox is cool but not.

Just found this awesomeness.

From DVS website:

“Back in April, TransWorld SKATEboarding held its first annual Skate & Create contest. In a nutshell, the contest consists of four teams of four pros, one am, a photographer, a videographer, and an art director. Each team is locked in a warehouse for nine days with a smorgasbord of ramps, rails, banks, and boxes. The team that can come up with the most creative set concept, skate obstacles, photography, skateboarding, and video wins. All teams involved produced amazing videos and brilliant photos, but after the judging was said and done it was DVS that emerged as the winner.”

Awesome Idea. Awesome Execution. Just generally awesome!

Here’s the rest of the videos:

http://skateboarding.transworld.net/tag/skate-create/

We (TrustedReviews) today launched a new video review section. So, if you’re not content with just reading my words you can now hear my voice and see my ugly mug from anywhere around the world. Oh joy!

If you fancy checking it out go here.

While the debate rages on as to whether most social networking is truly a positive way of staying in touch with friends or if it’s just a way for people with more interesting lives, or just more time on their hands, to show off, it would seem that at least one website has come up with a truly innovative and potentially useful spin on the idea.

Called skimbit, it’s sole purpose is to aid in the social decision making process. That is, those instances where, for instance, one of your friends suggests going on a holiday but none of you can decide where to go, or, where you’re trying to organise buying a big present for your parents silver anniversary. Rather than the usual situation where it takes hundreds of emails and phone calls between you all to even get things started, skimbit simplifies the whole process by bringing all the information together in a central repository. You and your co-conspirators can add suggestions and then vote on them until you hone down your choices. You can then add notes and checklists, and there are even link-ins to apps like googlemaps so the thickies in your group will actually know where it is you’re going.

All in all it seems like a brilliant idea. It completely cuts out the hassle of, let’s face it, things that shouldn’t be stressful but somehow always end up being. Certainly I can see many a situation I’d use it for.

There’s  just one problem, it’s yet another site to convince all my friends to signup to. For the, what, half dozen, at most, times you’ll end up using it every year, I just can’t see everyone bothering to keep on top of it. If someone could make a Facebook widget that did the same thing then they would be onto a real winner, though!