After a long long wait my computer whiz kid next door neighbour finally upgraded my pc yaaaaay! Instead of 128mb ram I now have 512mb ram.....Heaven.. no more freezing or frustration Trying to visit my online friends to leave comments was an absolute nightmare and I was only able to do what I could between freezings.
Between now and 3rd September I will be saving madly coz this globe trotter is up up and away again this time....Thailand here I come..again! This will be my 3rd or 4th trip to this amazing and beautiful country. It will be interesting to see what changes have been wrought by the tsunami. I had a friend, Gin, she lived in Phuket Town, I havent heard from her since the tsunami.... Gin visited my friends Gail and Charlie and myself here in Newcastle and I showed her around our beautiful city. A friend was head keeper of the koala enclosure at a nature reserve here and he took Gin into the enclosure after hours and allowed her to cuddle the koalas.....she was ecstatic!! With my help Gin had a crash course in acrylic and gel nails.....1 week...you would have thought she had been doing in for years. Gin took that knowledge and product home with her to set up her own business. The last I heard from her, she got married and sent me some little Bride and Groom statues from the wedding. Then the Tsunami came and went and........nothing! I will look for my beautiful friend Gin in September and hopefully a happy reunion will be had....I hope. Gin my lovely friend, I dedicate this blog to you...with love.

Update on 360 Transition and Timing Hi Everyone, Here’s the latest news on the transition from your 360 page to your new profile on Yahoo!: It will be taking place sometime in the second half of 2008. We don’t have specifics on the date to share just yet, but you’ll be among the first to know. For now just keep this in mind: 2nd half ’08. I know you get a lot out of 360, and that there’s a good chance you’ve used it to deepen friendships and extend connections near and far. So, I completely understand that you might not exactly be “chomping at the bit” for the shift to the new system (i.e., that you might be dreading it on some level). Well let me first say that it’s truly Yahoo!’s honor to offer a service you rely on to fulfill those requirements—keeping your friendships vibrant and even building new connections. Yahoo!’s promise to you is we absolutely won’t let that drop! In fact, our upcoming (currently occurring) shift is based on these same core principles, but expands them across the entire Yahoo! network—so you can share your interests and activity with your community, and discover new content and experiences from your trusted friends. The approach gets a good description in the following articles and blog posts: Yahoo Open Strategy – Web 2.0 Presentation Yahoo rewiring itself from the inside out For example, your Profile will be integrated into the new Yahoo! Mail welcome page which will surface messages from the people who matter to you most. Additionally, you will see Updates from your important connections helping you to discover new content and activities in real-time. As part of Yahoo!’s initiative to open-up, users will be able to add applications from Yahoo and third parties on their Profile page and various Yahoo sites and pages, including the home page of Yahoo. Finally, let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of what this means to you and your 360 account. We’ll migrate your profile photo, your nickname, your friends lists, blog posts and blog comments. We will continue to provide updates on the transition as we have more information. Matt Warburton Yahoo! Community Manager Thursday May 8, 2008 - 06:25pm (PDT) Permanent Link | 891 Comments Introducing 360plus - a New Vietnamese Blogging Application Hi Everyone, I want to share with you some news from Vietnam. Yahoo! unveiled several Vietnam-centric initiatives as part of our Southeast Asia business strategy. One of these initiatives is called 360plus - A new Vietnamese blogging application. This offering provides Yahoo! users in Vietnam with more ways to customize their blogs, connect to friends and share their experiences with their social connections. Just to be clear, the 360plus product is specific to the Vietnamese market and it is not the new universal profile that we have mentioned previously in this blog. So, while 360 is transitioning to the new profile for users worldwide, the 360 name will live on in a different product in Vietnam. On a related note, many of you have asked for an update on the new profile. We are working on an update and will post it to this blog this week. So, goodbye for now -- or as they say in Vietnam, tạm biệt! Matt Warburton Yahoo! Community Manager Tuesday May 6, 2008 - 08:48am (PDT) Permanent Link | 659 Comments Update on exporting blog posts and comments Hi Everyone, It’s been a few months since you heard from me. We thought it was time to let you in on recent developments. As I mentioned in my last post, the team is working hard to develop the new universal profile system, with full blogging capabilities. You will be hearing more from me on the new profile in future posts. Many of you have expressed concerns about the future of your blog content – both your posts and your comments. As I mentioned in my last post, we will migrate all of your blog posts and comments into the new profile. We’re committed to providing a rich blogging experience and hope that you keep your blog on your new profile. But we understand that you may want the flexibility of using an alternative blogging platform. Yahoo! will offer the ability to export your blog posts and comments in a format that can be imported into other blogging tools. As long as the blogging tool has an import function, you should be able to transfer your posts and comments to it. We will provide more details on the export process as we get closer to the launch of the universal profile. Thank you for all the comments. Keep ‘em coming. Matt Warburton Yahoo! Community Manager Tuesday February 12, 2008 - 03:54pm (PST) Perm

You have all probably read this but for me it is new news and I thought maybe someone out there is like me lol

Update on 360 Transition and Timing

Hi Everyone,

Here’s the latest news on the transition from your 360 page to your new profile on Yahoo!: It will be taking place sometime in the second half of 2008. We don’t have specifics on the date to share just yet, but you’ll be among the first to know. For now just keep this in mind: 2^nd half ’08.

I know you get a lot out of 360, and that there’s a good chance you’ve used it to deepen friendships and extend connections near and far. So, I completely understand that you might not exactly be “chomping at the bit” for the shift to the new system (i.e., that you might be dreading it on some level).

Well let me first say that it’s truly Yahoo!’s honor to offer a service you rely on to fulfill those requirements—keeping your friendships vibrant and even building new connections. Yahoo!’s promise to you is we absolutely won’t let that drop!

In fact, our upcoming (currently occurring) shift is based on these same core principles, but expands them across the entire Yahoo! network—so you can share your interests and activity with your community, and discover new content and experiences from your trusted friends. The approach gets a good description in the following articles and blog posts:

Yahoo Open Strategy – Web 2.0 Presentation

Yahoo rewiring itself from the inside out

For example, your Profile will be integrated into the new Yahoo! Mail welcome page which will surface messages from the people who matter to you most. Additionally, you will see Updates from your important connections helping you to discover new content and activities in real-time.

As part of Yahoo!’s initiative to open-up, users will be able to add applications from Yahoo and third parties on their Profile page and various Yahoo sites and pages, including the home page of Yahoo.

Finally, let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of what this means to you and your 360 account. We’ll migrate your profile photo, your nickname, your friends lists, blog posts and blog comments.

We will continue to provide updates on the transition as we have more information.

Matt Warburton
Yahoo! Community Manager

Thursday May 8, 2008 - 06:25pm (PDT) Permanent Link | 891 Comments

Introducing 360plus - a New Vietnamese Blogging Application

Hi Everyone,

I want to share with you some news from Vietnam. Yahoo! unveiled several Vietnam-centric initiatives as part of our Southeast Asia business strategy. One of these initiatives is called 360plus - A new Vietnamese blogging application.

This offering provides Yahoo! users in Vietnam with more ways to customize their blogs, connect to friends and share their experiences with their social connections.

Just to be clear, the 360plus product is specific to the Vietnamese market and it is not the new universal profile that we have mentioned previously in this blog. So, while 360 is transitioning to the new profile for users worldwide, the 360 name will live on in a different product in Vietnam.

On a related note, many of you have asked for an update on the new profile. We are working on an update and will post it to this blog this week.

So, goodbye for now -- or as they say in Vietnam, tạm biệt!

Matt Warburton
Yahoo! Community Manager

Tuesday May 6, 2008 - 08:48am (PDT) Permanent Link | 659 Comments

Update on exporting blog posts and comments

Hi Everyone,

It’s been a few months since you heard from me. We thought it was time to let you in on recent developments. As I mentioned in my last post, the team is working hard to develop the new universal profile system, with full blogging capabilities. You will be hearing more from me on the new profile in future posts.

Many of you have expressed concerns about the future of your blog content – both your posts and your comments. As I mentioned in my last post, we will migrate all of your blog posts and comments into the new profile. We’re committed to providing a rich blogging experience and hope that you keep your blog on your new profile. But we understand that you may want the flexibility of using an alternative blogging platform. Yahoo! will offer the ability to export your blog posts and comments in a format that can be imported into other blogging tools. As long as the blogging tool has an import function, you should be able to transfer your posts and comments to it.

We will provide more details on the export process as we get closer to the launch of the universal profile.

Thank you for all the comments. Keep ‘em coming.

Matt Warburton
Yahoo! Community Manager

Tuesday February 12, 2008 - 03:54pm (PST) Perm

Oh wow Borneo was great! What an interesting country and so beautiful. I took heaps of photos and videos of Borneo and put them on a cd from the memory card in the camera and......yes I lost the cd....now Borneo is only a memory in my mind and I cant share the photos with you. I have got the ones of Kuala Lumpur tho and will post them on my page soon. KL cools a little in the evenings but Borneo is hot,humid all day and night and I loved it. I visited an Orang Utan sanctuary, went jet skiing....so mad, went to the Lok Kawi Zoo and Monsopiad Head Hunters village. Shopped till I dropped....every day and night lol. The Pacific Sutera Harbour Hotel in Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, was magnificent! I was treated like a princess there and in the Istana Malaysia Hotel in KL. Much of Borneo is so rugged with mountains and jungles. My friends hired a car and we went exploring up north and saw how people live away from the tourist areas. Kota Kinabalu is the main city in Sabah, Borneo and is like a big country town. KL is quite the opposite, a big bustling city, I sat in one of the side-walk cafes and just people watched, it was so interesting. You see all types there but very little bad stuff going on coz they are pretty hard on criminals there so I have been told. My friends have been there about 10 times now,they make it their final 'port of call' on each overseas trip they go on. They go overseas about 3-4 times per year! I have already begun saving for the next trip lol