tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:53:54 +0000The trick- is to differentiate yourself.http://www.thecolony.co.uk/noreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)Blogger174125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-2118673923452734679Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:50:00 +00002008-01-14T14:56:24.222ZGrantSidwell.com This post was originally posted on my new blog - GrantSidwell.com. Please visit this page to stay up to date with me and this blog will only be active for a limited time.----------------------------------------------------Since I decided that my old blog just wasn't cutting the mustard anymore I've invested a fair amount of time into learning new things. 1. Drupal I first time heard of Drupalhttp://www.thecolony.co.uk/2008/01/dual-post-new-toys-future-toys-and-gi.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-3190028228641355541Wed, 09 Jan 2008 23:23:00 +00002008-01-09T23:34:03.317Zweb 2.0As I mentioned recently, I bought GrantSidwell.com for the purpose of moving over to using it as my new blog and all round online presence. Well I've finally got a something together which I'm vaguely happy with as a starting point and it's up.I will be dual posting for a short while, but eventually this site (thecolony) will change to serve a different purpose for my online activity.So please gohttp://www.thecolony.co.uk/2008/01/grantsidwellcom-goes-live.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-4302369775005698241Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:47:00 +00002008-01-03T23:37:20.256ZLifeHumourYou can imagine my surprise when I took a look at my logs to find out why there was a sudden spike in traffic (turns out I'm on the first page of google images for the term- london snow) and I find Encyclopedia Dramatica in my referrer logs.Encyclopedia Dramatica is a spoof on wikipedia and the South African entry is beyond description... let's just say it wouldn't exactly feature on SA Rocks!So http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2008/01/wtf-encyclopedia-dramatica.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-4531974938394394632Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:20:00 +00002008-01-03T22:38:04.603ZBig BrotherHumourThe tears are literally pouring down my face! I'm an seconds away from wetting my pants!I'm currently watching the latest incarnation of Big Brother. This time they have celebrities controlling the housemates. The housemates are all crazy over achievers; racing drivers,dancers, circus performers, entrepreneurs, etc aged 18+.Matt Lucas (Little Britain) is currently controlling some poor scottish http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2008/01/big-brother-celebrity-hijack.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-6672971756945206050Sat, 29 Dec 2007 19:23:00 +00002007-12-29T19:40:12.063ZAs a christmas gift to myself I have finally purchased grantsidwell.comIn the next couple weeks I'll be moving everything across to my new online home. It's going to be running on wordpress and I'm currently shopping around for a cool design.I'm hoping this will get me posting more often, and with the developments on the own business front I should have more to write about.http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/12/im-getting-face-lift.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-311778020265221250Tue, 25 Dec 2007 22:18:00 +00002007-12-28T13:54:04.888ZA quick note to say that I hope everyone has a wonderful festive season and a great new year.I'm sitting in my house on a cold wet and rainy London evening alone with my remote control. I had a great Christmas lunch with mates at a restaurant, and I'm not far from my bed. I'm looking forward to a great bowing day breakfast and then the boxing day sport.A bit of a note to self here... I've come uphttp://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/12/merry-merry.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-3417935421788847077Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:15:00 +00002007-11-30T10:15:53.841ZOkay, so I have been seriously neglecting my blog.Some of this neglect may stem from the fact that I'm hating my blog at the moment. I just hate how it looks. When I interact with peeps online I feel like the kid who got their grannies hand-me-down car while everyone is driving shiny citi golfs. (Not sure if this analogy works but sounds great in my head.) Giving serious consideration to treatinghttp://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/11/crazy-times.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-6815207393947351165Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:49:00 +00002007-11-13T19:55:16.280ZLifeTASSI just got back from a seriously productive meeting with my business partners to discuss some amendments to our site. There is an awesome buzz amongst the group s we can see everything coming together. As you can imagine there is more than a fair amount of work ahead of us, but none of us seem too worried by that... it's part of the process.Read today that online retail in SA has increased a http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/11/feeling-pretty-pumped.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-4186389334603299462Sun, 11 Nov 2007 14:51:00 +00002007-11-11T14:51:46.621ZLifeHave spent most of today continuing to test things out with the site and watch episodes of Smallville. Series seven is the shiz niz!An added bonus to the insanely gorgeous women on the show is the soundtrack, and here's a semi-suicidal song which I'm enjoying: Blogged with Flockhttp://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/11/sunday-grey-but-chilled.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-956430808955686344Sat, 10 Nov 2007 20:59:00 +00002007-11-10T20:59:00.168ZLifeVery exciting times for Tass Online Ltd. We've started internal testing of our comparison site. At first look... we're chuffed. Of course there are a couple bugs here and there but honestly I would've been very suspicious if there hadn't been things to pick up on.I've now tested it on most browser versions except Safari... but I'm not concerned as from the little I know Safari is less likely to http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/11/woohoo-we-begun-testing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-1586540696600261921Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:04:00 +00002007-11-06T22:06:59.089ZHumourI know I haven't posted in a while, but blah blah blah (busy).Anyway... found something worth sharing.. enjoy:http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/11/still-around-but-no-time-to-chat.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-3153133894428816785Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:02:00 +00002007-10-24T14:07:18.429+01:00HumourRugbyI found this over at Mark's Digital Farm.WhackHead from 94.7 (a South African radio station) calls Heathrow and asks them to make an announcement for 2 very important passengers.Click here to listenhttp://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/10/whackheads-heathrow-announcement.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-5840782172055858641Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:29:00 +00002007-10-18T16:53:09.379+01:00TechnologyRugbyLast year (or was it this year? It's all a blurr) Threshers, a UK liquor retailer ran a voucher promotion which ran amock on the internet and forced Threshers to pull the campaign. I don't have the time or inclination to put my own spin on that story but I'd like to contribute to their latest endevour. Go mad people, download the voucher, get pissed. BOKKE!http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/10/threshers-do-it-again.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-4594548922042961003Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:20:00 +00002007-10-18T14:32:06.420+01:00TechnologyLifeWhen I think back to the what must've been close to a couple hundred Rand which I fed into the arcade machine down at the local cafe, watching this teaser trailer really gets me excited. Now I am not exactly a hardcore gamer in any sense and I enjoy computer games as much as any guy with a healthy drinking habit... but the memory of countless hours shouting HADOUKEN! and SONIC BOOM! (Ken, Ryu, http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/10/street-fighter-4.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-3500839641851878035Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:53:00 +00002007-10-17T21:14:17.436+01:00Technologyweb 2.0topof.co.ukA little while ago I gave an update on my company TASS Online and mentioned that our first site TopOf.co.uk, a popularity contest similar to HotorNot although instead of rating people it was purely based on the number of views a particular photo received.Then when I got home this evening I glanced at TechCrunch to find the following post.So NextorNot may not be exactly the same, and it is far http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/10/those-idea-thieving-bastards-at-mtv.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-6890453885845442448Sat, 13 Oct 2007 13:43:00 +00002007-10-13T14:57:02.671+01:00TechnologyLifeHumourFaceBookFor a while now I've been considering facebook and their ads. For a site which collects far too much information about people... why on earth isn't any of the information used to at least target me with relevent ads? Here's the latest, a gay dating site using the facebook flyer, (which to be fair is super cheap and you wouldn't expect it to be targeted.) But come-on... interested in...women!!!(http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/10/why-does-facebook-think-im-gay.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-5842743577440010992Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:58:00 +00002007-10-11T20:32:56.734+01:00web 2.0LifeOver the past couple weeks I've been observing how the SA blogosphere is obsessed with traffic and quite frankly I'm baffled.Now before you slate me in the comments section please understand that I spend all day every day dealing in traffic. I work with every online revenue metric, and web traffic in essence puts a roof over my head.Now the SA blogosphere is riddled with people trying to get morehttp://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/10/why-obsession-with-traffic.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-4370964142131634231Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:42:00 +00002007-10-11T17:45:41.771+01:00Technologyweb 2.0HumourA mate sent this youtube video to me. Only really funny if you have ever worked in or know someone who has worked in a creative dept.http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/10/few-good-creative-men.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-522054070719454290Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:03:00 +00002007-10-09T23:14:50.667+01:00HumourYou have got to check this site out...I'm still trying to decide whether it's for real or someone just having a laugh... either way it's helluva funny.http://tinylink.co.za/e920aaI'm thinking about starting a Bolton fanboy site... with some classic Boltisms... and maybe some t-shirts! All proceeds from sales would of course be 'donated'.http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/10/surely-not-really-um-lol.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-4169731624450242205Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:56:00 +00002007-10-05T18:09:34.025+01:00MusicLifeHumourGigsGym can be bad for you!I have apparently suffered a minor hernia... whateva! I'm calling it a dodgy stomach. Although it does feel like I've been kicked in the balls. oooh TMI!So it's going to be a quiet weekend for me, fortunately the rugby will keep me nicely occupied. I'm considering taking a drive somewhere out of London, but haven't decided where.Apart from that, I've been pretty boring http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/10/man-down.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-7487703836869773609Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:58:00 +00002007-09-18T21:36:40.185+01:00Technologyweb 2.0topof.co.ukOkay so...Some of you may now that I started a company late last year with some mates of mine. Essentially we're a group of like minded web entrepreneurs with absolutely no technical expertise (chuckle).Our first site is up, but not finished. TopOf.co.ukBuilt on the cheap by an Indian development company, it is our teething site where we have learnt the essentials of getting a site up and runninghttp://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/09/update-on-tass-online.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-6622825447236676993Sun, 09 Sep 2007 07:22:00 +00002007-09-09T09:12:19.675+01:00LifeOver the past couple days I've received visits from people who may not have read my blog before, and I've received a few requests for more information as to who I am. So here you go:My name is Grant and I am first and foremost- a South African.I grew up in Joburg, before going to Rhodes for a brief 'gap year' which was supposed to involve studying. The extra-curricular activities which http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/09/who-is-colony.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-6604130168244514772Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:39:00 +00002007-09-07T15:52:33.885+01:00Technologyweb 2.0mutiguy mclarenI also find the title rather unoriginal but hey- I'm pushed for time here.This post refers to the ongoing comedy show that is Trafficdepartment.co.zaGuy has managed to get his site back under control after it was defaced and has responded with some references to some of the points I have raised. The title to his post is:Have the script kiddies proven anything other than how infantile they are?...http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/09/mclarengate-is-hole-getter-deeper.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-4967787714022013764Thu, 06 Sep 2007 07:49:00 +00002007-09-06T09:29:43.772+01:00Technologyweb 2.0mutiguy mclarenHere's one for all the conspiracy theorists...Last night I wrote a post about Guy McLaren. Nic liked it and submitted it to Muti... wicked! Other people liked it and voted it up... wicked! It got up to the number two spot... wicked. Then all of a sudden it disappeared from the front page. Shock, horror!Within 4 minutes the post had received 4 'down' votes... ouch! Statistically speaking without http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/09/i-think-i-may-have-struck-chord.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33095286.post-6949811718785879305Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:05:00 +00002007-09-05T20:16:58.731+01:00Technologyweb 2.0mutiguy mclarenIt’s not often that I feel compelled to write about SA blogosphere topics on my personal blog, but recently I’ve seen something which is worth mentioning.There is this chap in Nelspruit called Guy McLaren. Guy owns and operates a business called Trafficdepartment.co.za, which sells people websites and the promise of wealth. This I don’t have a problem with and I wish the man all the best in his http://www.thecolony.co.uk/2007/09/congrats-guy-mclaren.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grant Sidwell)18