https://alpha.steepshot.io/@kiwibloke

It looks like this is working again, time to snap of some images and upload here.

Steemit Censorship: You're Not Allowed to Have an Opinion!

Totally disappointing ... it appears this platform not only stops people from expressing an opinion, but they also remove any rewards for those that speak out.

No reason given, do not even ask why!

Threatening is not a way to make people to go there, I most certainly won't encourage  any of my contacts to go to this platform. I looked at this guys comment and saw nothing wrong with it at all.

https://steemit.com/@abusereports/comments

Extremely interesting reading, downvoting also seems attract the attention of this abusereports , so why have the option. Seriously!

I can't see myself staying on this platform much longer!

Steemit: 2 Weeks On and my Thoughts

I'm really starting to enjoy using this platform, even though I have so much more to learn. Buzz words like cryptocurrency, blockchain, steem, steem power, steem dollars are totally exciting and I liken it to the game Monopoly. I've posted some content, earned some Steem, Steem Power and Steem Dollars.

Is this real money ??? it can be but from what I've seen I'm just not interested at this point in time. but this is where the fun starts for me ......

STEEM POWER, I gots the power !!!

With this I can control post payouts, ie the more Steem Power (SP) I have, my upvotes will count more and will award different content creators SP and Steem dollars as well. How cool is that!!

For me, this platform is about content and creating content, which I'm not very good at and seldom create. In fact I make videos so that I can look back on snippets of my life, and if other people watch then that is all well and good too.

You can view the upvotes as seen on above image, who upvoted and how much influence each voter has based on their (SP). Currently my SP is so low, my upvotes are valued at $0.0000 LoL but hey, we all start somewhere. Let's peek at my Steemit Wallet ..

5 minutes ago my Steem Power was 1.033, so here's what I did to increase it. I transferred the Steem Dollars ($0.80approx) I earned from my posts to Steem ($2.00approx via Internal Market), which I then Powered Up increasing my Steem Power.

So my short term goal unfolds, when I upvote, I want it to have real meaning.

It is all about content, and not earnings

For Vidme .... I will always remember you guys.
- Amberthest
- Ravenmor Fox
- Dazzlinglatte
- Flying Purple Pizzas
- Calibri Funtimes
- Stefan Jenkins
- Kirsty J
- Jonna

Exhaust: Log Fitness Activities with Steem.

Another part of the Steem phenomena , just joined now and will use tomorrows USO ride to find out how this works.

you can also add in your GPS files in the form of GPX or TCX formats instead of needing to add the time, distance details manually.

Perfect, I can test this:- 
camera1 (Sony FDR-X3000: video & GPS)
camera2 (Sony HDR-CX450: video)
- partial recording (for D.tube)
mobile phone (Huawei P8lite with Endomondo App: GPS).
- full ride (for Exhaust)

Steem Ranking and Badges

http://steemitboard.com/ranking/?p=5608&s=reputation&hl=kiwibloke

As I slowly get into using the Steem system, it will be interesting to see how this ranking and badge system works for me. In 6months time I am going to revisit and see much difference I make.

Having a ranking and badge system really encourages me to participate more, even leaving comments makes a difference.

Definitely time to become more active.

d.tube: What is this ?

D.Tube is the first crypto-decentralized video platform, built on top of the STEEM Blockchain and the IPFS peer-to-peer network.

Basically another video platform like Youtube, Bitchute.

If you want more detailed information visit this link https://about.d.tube/

I've been part of the Steem Blockchain for a while now, I still have no idea how this works but it is about time I use it's video platform.

All STEEMs applications seemed to be inter-linked, which is a good thing.
Upload video onto d.tube, it automatically appears on my steemit blog.

My thoughts on all 3 platforms - Youtube, Bitchute, d.tube:-

Youtube
massive user base, well supported
searching works well
over censored
video quality is downgraded to improve the stream

Bitchute
small user base
best place to find CCL music to use in your videos
video quality is downgraded to improve the stream

d.tube
small user base:- vlogs here are more personal and engaging
searching sucks
video quality is downgraded to improve the stream BUT will stream source
- eg upload a 1080p5fps mp4, you have the option to watch it at this speed
- default view of 480p is really good.
huge problem - cannot play the videos from the site on my Android phone!

Here's my 1st upload to d.tube https://d.tube/v/kiwibloke/3qlm8m3c
The same "My Wainui Training Cycle Loop" as found on Youtube

So I'm going to use this exclusively for the next few months, then see how I feel about it.

Dissenter, The Comment Section of the Internet.

If you have watched the video's about Rotten Tomatoes, The Captain Marvel Movie with Brie Larson, you'll eventually come across people talking about this browser extension. If a video has it's comments disabled, this browser app creates a "discussion" comment section for that URL, where anyone who has installed, signed up with this app, can write/read comments.

I have actually seen something similar to this before (a long time ago) but cannot remember where.

Dissenter by GAB

I must say, I joined GAB when it was is first launched live, and only a few people was accepted during it's startup. Today I logged in and yep, there's that prompt ... send your first post LoL. Eventually I'll become active there once I work out what GAB is again.

The reason I brought this up, when I tried to sign up for Dissenter, at the prompt where your asked to put in your email, it said mine was already taken. A light bulb moment, lets use my GAB login, I'm in .. hehe.

Back to Dissenter

Let's find out how this dissenter works, time to go find a YouTube video that has had it's comments disabled, this may take me a while, 90.99% of YouTubers I follow are nice people.

 Ok let's do a simple YouTube search --> comments disabled

wow there's heaps ... OK maybe YouTube is not a good example, therefore I'm going to Add a dissenter discussion on this My Blogs homepage ..

As you can see I have left unticked both Share to Gab & NSFW, this is just me playing around. But if another active Dissenter comes to my homepage, they will see that comment and can interact if they wish.... published!

Let's go to a URL where there is an actual Dissenter discussion happening ...

Nice, 940 Dissenter comments on YouTubes homepage ..

Are Photo Prints Still Relevant

It's been well over 6 years since I have actually got a photo printed, and that was at Noel Lemmings in Lower Hutt. It was about that time I joined an online photo printing service call Snapfish (www.snapfish.co.nz).

This is a recent screenshot of their website to give you a fair idea what service they provide.

After a recent cycling event (The Taupo Cycle Challenge which I still haven't decided whether or not to create a video of my experience). I bought the downloadable images (of me on the course) to use for my own personal use by the events official photographers (they remain the copyright holders) at $48.00NZ for 20 images.

This was the perfect opportunity to finally try snapfish, so quickly selecting 10 of those images, I put in an order. To be fair I wasn't really excited about it, knowing once the prints arrived I have no idea what to do with them. As I'm writing up this blog post, I realize I don't have a single photo album in this house.

Here's 2 of these images I selected:-

The prints finally arrived a few days ago, I had completely forgotten about them but I'm happy to once again show them of to the family, who have already seen most of the images via whatsapp.

Thoughts:
I would most likely purchase one of those frames that allow multiple pictures and hang it up on the wall, maybe in the hallway.

What I am excited about, is from the prints I came up with a design for a unique mousemat, which I am definitely going to buy.

I'm curious, do other people still get photo images printed ?

LED COB Chip 220V 20W Review

After spotting this on EBay I just had to have a play with it. LED driven directly from my 240Vac 50Hz Power Supply (standard 1Ph distribution voltage supplied to NZ homes). So I went ahead and bought 3 of the 20W variety!

Wiring seemed pretty straight forward, just solder the appropriate rated cable to these welding points as shown in the above image, apply voltage and lets see what happens.

Well actually no, I had a some concerns:-

- that's 240V mains voltage on exposed terminals
- 20W on something so thin ? I need find some way to dissipate heat.

Solve the Problem No2 First: Heat Dissipation.

Working with computers I get access to a lot of bits and pieces and I knew 1 day I'll find a use for all those Pentium 4 heatsinks. Drill 2 holes, screw the COB to the heatsink, and I didn't even use thermal paste. Solder on some wires from a discarded appliance cable, plug it in a wall socket and let it run for about an hour.

Result: After removing the mains, did the "carefully feel the heatsink" method, happy to say the heatsink felt only slightly warm. At this point I should mention Do Not Look Directly at the COB when it is powered on.

Solving Problem No1: Exposed 240V Terminals.

Last year I have been replacing all the light fittings as shown above with LED fittings.

I now have a container to mount these 20W COBS safely.

Note the 3 screws (near the centre) screwed directly into the fins of the heatsink, this worked out quite well.

All 3 mounted onto the rafters out in the old shed.

Conclusion:
I'm really pleased how this small project worked out, especially re-purposing old light fittings I would normally have thrown away. I am in the process of buying more of these 20W COBs even though I cannot think of where they are to be used. As always the trick to doing this type of project comes down to appropriate case/fitting that adequately mounts for both COB and heatsink, with safe termination while still looking good.

Note, the heatsink was significantly warmer after a time when mounted inside the light fitting.

MyScore: 9/10

Small Demo fo Burgulus Streamed on Twitch

The fourth day into streaming my Aardwolf game play via Twitch, it really is pretty easy to setup and so far, I've been enjoying myself. Notice how this isn't a YouTube video but a direct upload into blogger.

I am extremely impressed with blogger.com playback quality, I'm surprised I never tried uploading here before. Sharing this on Twitter using the Icon below only displays the URL and not a thumbnail of the Video, Pity.

Steepshot & Steemit

As you can see I have become active on:-
- Steepshot, this is an alternative to Instagram.
- Steemit is a Blogging platform that I have already been with but never used.

These 2 work together, ie in order to use steepshot you must already be signed up to steemit.

If you upload an image file to SteepShot, on Steemit adds this image and any comments you make onto the Steemit Blog. Which is super handy.

Does hot linking from SteepShot work ?
- if I put the steepshot link into another app/program with it display image

WhatsApp: NO
- just displays the URL

Twitter: YES

Discord: NO

Blogger.com: NO

- shame

Thoughts:

The big question that now comes to mind, do I need another Blogging Platform ? Should I stay with blogger.com and move completely over to Steemit. My future plans is to use neither, I'm in the process on running a Wordpress blog on a paid webhost server.

As for SteepShot, I'll keep using it for a while. I have no idea what CryptoCurrency is and that really doesn't bother me at all.

Discord & Twitch, What Are These & Can I Use Them ?

Twitch:
So yesterday I installed Twitch, why ? well not really sure but my grandson said he streams on Twitch. And now that it's installed he won't give me his Stream name, which is probably a good thing, I'd hate to see him play because I don't want to see my angelic wonderful grandson turn into a demon right on my monitor.

In the mean time I get to learn what Twitch is, how to buy BITS (not sure what this does but I can cheer streamers with it) example - cheer10 hello. For the curious it costs $2.50NZ for 100 bits.

Thoughts:
I think I can use this platform, not to stream games but to stream me constructing various stages of electronic projects. It may be possible to complete a whole project, I've seen some streamers go well over 5 hours in 1 session. To make this work it would have to be done on a strict schedule; ie 1 stream a week.

Discord:
This one I am really excited about. Long before the WWW era, I lived my life online in the age of IRC, and this Discord claims to be similar. I was extremely pleased this works with Linux Mint and if you've ever had a IRC server with a Channel BOT, you can see how similar discord is.

This image shows the main program running on Linux Mint, briefly create your own channels, user roles etc etc. I've even added a free BOT from

https://www.dynobot.net/

I'm still fine tuning this and fast track learning how to use the setup and so far, I'm impressed. As you can see I've added the Discord widget onto my blog, which displays who's currently online on my Discord Server.

Just in case you haven't noticed, my handle on these platforms is JustABlokeNZ

Thoughts:
Really excited about this!

Obtaining a Domain Name

There are many obvious reasons to have your own domain name when running a business, on-line presence with a good domain name will determine the success of your site. If you're not yet ready to take the plunge at least consider securing  a domain name before it's taken by someone else.

$21.50NZ +gst /year

Thats like a family pack of fish and chips for the night, peanuts really.

Would this suit an individual and is it worth it ? This can only be answered by the individual and here I will discuss my reasons for finally getting a domain name.

www.taramai.nz

Having my own domain name just looks good, and I'm so proud I went through the process from searching to purchasing. Choosing https://1stdomains.nz/ to manage the domain was an obvious choice for me, it had to be a kiwi outfit. Is it the cheapest ? maybe but keeping it in the country is important to me.

So now that I have a domain name, what could I do with it ? Well I've been using Googles Blogger for many years now, and that is where my new domain points to (for now, I have plans to run a wordpress site hosted from https://1stdomains.nz/).

On top of this I added 1 mailbox to the account, another $21.00NZ +gst per year. Not only having a cool website name, but having a email address attached to it is even better. philip@taramai.nz gets a few raised eyebrows, loving it.

Thoughts

There was mention of securing more extensions like .com .org etc I could understand why businesses would do this, company brands have to be protected. For me, I don't really care if someone else takes taramai.co.nz or taramai.com etc.

Chord Namer

I know this is kind of random but one of my favorite pastimes is playing the guitar. On many occasions I'm asked to name that chord, and I'm pretty confident at recognizing the major/minor chords.

This website jguitar.com is perfect for filling in those chords I cannot name. So that's what that chord is .. Dsus2

Just got to remember when using the site, the top line represents the bottom string. Clicking on those sound icons at the right strum/progressive strum is a really nice touch and you can hear exactly how it is supposed to sound.