the Oxyweb blog

Although it is has been written somewhere (probably in a urinal in some sleezy joint) that all memes from the Internet must come from the /b/ board of 4chan.org (NSFW) here is one that might just not be.

It’s the brain child of Dustin McLean who created what he’s dubbed a “literal video”. A literal video is a combination of the original music video with audio and lyrics that describe what’s happening in the video. A parody if you may - No metaphors or arty messing around.

A-Ha Take On Me (Literal Version)

Dustin’s first literal video which currently has 1.3million views on Youtube. Everything is in synch, makes (more) sense and is much more funnier than the original! Bringing back memories of the ’80’s :sob: Since the making of this video, Dustin has been featured in Rolling Stones magazines and Current TV (where he works).

See more literal videos after the break

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Social networks are a great service for the most of. They help us keep in touch with friends, long lost or otherwise, they help us network, they help us socialise and have fun with people who we might not normally get a chance to.

However, here we meet an elite selection of users, who really should have kept their Internet life separate from their everyday life.

1. Ashley Todd.

The photo you see is that of one Ashley Todd. Scary isn’t she? On Wednesday 22nd October 2008, the 20 year old McCain-Palin campaign volunteer was mugged and beaten. She even received a call from McCain who sympathised with her ordeal.

Bizarrely the mugger also scribed a reflected “B” across her left cheek - almost like someone did it using a mirror. Yes, someone - I’m not suggesting it was Ashley Todd herself - but here’s a fair few redditors who do - and now the police also don’t believe her big fat lie.

Redditors have even found a Google cache of Ashley Todd’s MySpace profile (backup image) professing her love for telling lies.

2. Kyle Doyle

Ah Kyle Doyle, Australian Internet superstar in the making. Kyle Doyle works for AAPT (Telco) as a “technical resolution expert” (sounds like helpdesk analyst to me).

On his return to work after a truly terrible 24 hour bout of illness, Kyle’s HR department requested he produce a medical note to process his sick leave. Kyle thought the request was simply unreasonable, after all no proof is needed for being off work for just one day. Right? - Right, unless the manager believes it was not for medical reasons.

As demand for the elusive medical note increased so did the number of emails bouncing between Kyle and HR. Kyle demanded proof of his “pulling a sickie”, HR relented and were more than happy to oblige with proof…

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When Microsoft retaliated to all the “I’m a Mac” ads with “I’m a PC, so what?” ads, it seemed 1-up for Microsoft.

Never one to be bitch slapped, Apple have come back with a new ad that demonstrates what could be Microsoft’s fundamental flaw with Vista. It looks likes Apple wants to be only one that creates the cool ads.

Here is this months map showing the most popular social networks around the world. Facebook continues to make noises around the World but it’s clear that Asia is a no go area for it so it looks as if it’s going for the Caribbean.

This month we also see a few neighbourly battles happening around the world and in the centre of them all are Facebook and Hi5.

A small skirmish in the Caribbean as Facebook gains both Bahamas and Cuba from Hi5. Could this be the start of the Facebook assault in Central America?

Across the waters, in the Mediterranean, Hi5 snatches Cyprus away from Facebook. Nearby, Syria and Iran is still the only country in the Middle East that hasn’t fallen for the charms of Facebook.

Facebook makes a dent in the French speaking part of Europe as it gains Belgium from the French social network Skyrock and for equal measure, Hi5 takes Belgium’s neighbour Luxembourg from Facebook.

Update: Thanks to “ps” I have changed Latvia’s most popular social network to draugiem.lv (from one.lv).

Update 2: I’ve added a little zoomed in image of Central and Eastern Europe as the predominant social networks do vary a lot - helped by the higher number of varying languages spoken in the areas. Maybe that’s why Facebook and Hi5 are so keen on localisation?

Update 3: Vancouver Island has been given back to Canada. Hurrah! Thanks Diggers

View world map of top social networks (48KB)

If you’re a fan of Pandora (the music recommendation radio) you were probably disappointed that the guys at Pandora had to block it outside of the US due to licensing issues. If you’ve never used Pandora give it a try as it well recommend music for you and it improves over time.

If you’re more a TV person, Hulu and ABC.com carry a vast range of TV shows, but once again due to licensing issues you can’t view the videos unless your in the US. Alas, there is help…

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See… we all joked about it but be wary about changing your relationship staus on Facebook!

A 34 year old man killed his wife days after he moved out and she changed her Facebook profile to “Single”.

The man was high on drugs and he was a trucker - never a good combination.

Read more at The Telegraph

Firefox is impressive but how can you make it more useable? Try some of these addons that help improve the browsers ability to handle the most demanding users.

1. Text Link

This addon does a real simple job. It makes any non-HTML formatted URI like say “oxyweb.co.uk” into a clickable link so that anything that looks like a link can be double-clicked to open it up on the same page, new tab  or new window. It’s clever, it does it across many lines and when an accidental space has been put into the link. I used to use Linkification but this alternative covers more bases.

2. ScreenGrab! (& ScreenGrab! with Online Upload)

A saviour for bloggers, web designers and anyone who needs to prove a point. ScreenGrab! screenshots whole pages aswell as selections and the visible portion. It also has a “Copy” only option so rather than save a screenshot, it copies to the clipboard which makes it great for pasting into other apps like Photoshop (for doing mock ups).

The even more useful ScreenGrab! with Online Upload, an experimental addon created by imagebam.com which will take your screenshot and upload it to it’s free image hosting website. Cool enhancement.

3. Add Bookmark Here ²

Although I love the idea of pressing a little star on the Awesome bar to bookmark a URL, but i’m not a huge fan of Firefoxs bookmarks implementation. I tend to stay more organised with the use of this addon which puts a “Add Bookmark Here” option in every folder so you can bookmark quickly and stay organised.

4. Stealther

We won’t go into reasons but sometimes you do wish that there was no history of you visiting to certain websites. We’ll just say you have to. Press the Stealthier button and from then on anything you do will not be logged so no URLs in the address bar, no cache, no cookies, nothing. I

This is the best implementation of a privacy browsing mode - better than Google Chromes implementation because it’s just a button click away as opposed to a new window appearing. Alternatively try Distrust.

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Here’s an update to last months map of which social networks are dominating the World. It’s only been a month but there is already significant change.

Here are the changes from last month:

Facebook gains Albania from Hi-5
Facebook gains Austria from MySpace
Facebook gains Bahamas from Hi-5
Facebook gains Italy from MySpace
Facebook gains Libya from MySpace*
Facebook gains Madagascar from Skyrock
Facebook gains New Zealand from Bebo
Facebook gains Qatar from Orkut
Facebook gains Uruguay from Orkut
Hi5 gains Syria from MySpace*

* In these circumstances, MySpace does not appear in the Top 100 sites for the listed country. This is very hard to believe so I’ve emailed Alexa who may be able to provide an explanation.

Visit the October blog update or continue to

View world map of top social networks (36KB)

Erik Frick and Adam Meisel have just created a cool site called Dear Adobe to let Adobe know the Worlds frustrations at all the funny quirks, silly design ideas and humongous botches that they’ve slapped and smacked into their products.

The great thing is that people at Adobe are paying attention which is very cool of them. Well done Adobe.

My biggest annoyance has to be the long long load times of Acrobat - I shouldn’t have to disable things or download another PDF reader, Adobe Acrobat should work! Leave a comment if you want to share your annoyance with any apps.

Dear Adobe website

The great thing about learning is there are so many different ways, it’s just a matter of finding which one you’re most suited to. I’m not a huge fan of reading streams of words in a book, I much better learning by example by watching others. With that said, here are some of the best video tutorial podcasts that everyone into web design or graphics or wanting to learn about web design and graphics should definitely watch.

8. Photoshop for Digital Photographers

A video podcast for digital photographers but its audience is far greater than that. This is great for web designers and graphic artists too as it provides practical advice on using Photoshop and provides some handy tips for using the tools.

Homepage | RSS Feed

7. jQuery for Designers Video Podcast

A relatively new podcast running with nine episodes this year, jQuery for Designers provides a practical guide into the workings of the awesome jQuery framework. I’ve only seen a couple of episodes but I’m looking forward to going through them all and learning about jQuery.Be warned, this isn’t for novices.

Homepage | RSS Feed

6. Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast

Another series of video podcasts for Adobe applications. Don’t be alarmed by the most recent episode as that was done by a guest who ran with the “What’s a pirates favourite letter” joke way, way too far. There’s plenty of variety and advice especially for users of Adobe Acrobat.

Homepage | RSS Feed

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