After spending 15+ years using various “executive” office chairs, I recently decided to try something different and bought myself an exercise ball (aka stability ball or yoga ball) to use as a computer chair. I know a few professional authors that use exercise balls as chairs, they spend as much time on their computers as I do, but they don’t complain about bad backs and computer fatigue as much as my programmer friends do. After using my friend’s exercise ball computer chair for a few hours, I was convinced it was worth trying – and eventually ended up buying my own. I’ve only had it for about 2 weeks, but so far, I’m 100% sold on the idea.

I can easily sit at my computer for three to four hours and not even notice that I’ve been gently bouncing around – which is good for my spine, circulation and brain. And when I stand up, I don’t have any back pain or leg fatigue. The unconscious bouncing (yes, it’s exercise!) gets even more pronounced when I’m listening to music – especially after a few beers. I’m now officially one of Leo Laporte’s bouncing ball converts. My expensive executive office chair is still in my office, but it’s slowly getting kicked towards the door.

I’ve just been trying out MeeGo (Intel/Nokia) on my EeePC 901. It runs very very fast, has a lovely snappy UI… but is just a little bit too cutesy for me. They should have called it Katamari OS. Other than being just a little too simple (which will probably be a plus for tablets and in-car computers), I had a lot of trouble keeping a connection to my home WiFi OR my wired LAN. And frankly, I’m still not having a lot of fun using Chrome.

MeeGo is an open source, Linux project which brings together the Moblin project, headed up by Intel, and Maemo, by Nokia, into a single open source activity. MeeGo currently targets platforms such as netbooks/entry-level desktops, handheld computing and communications devices, in-vehicle infotainment devices, connected TVs, and media phones.

Other than the overly cutesy factor, and my personal WiFi problems, MeeGo is probably worth trying. The MeeGo website has very simple instructions on doing a ‘byte-exact copy’ of the img file to an SD card – so you can easily try it out ‘live’ without screwing with your current OS.

Personally, I’m sticking with Mint.

If Facebook is going to recommend friends that I should add, the least they could do is not threaten to disable my account if I follow their suggestions.

Here’s a very cheap way to get 50 business cards for projects that you don’t want to do a big print run for. YouTube are running a promo with Moo – and are offering 50 free business cards (branded with the YouTube logo of course) if you pay the postage.

For just the price of shipping and handling (about $6/£3/€4/your local currency if you choose standard shipping), you can get 50 high-quality “Watch Me on YouTube” business cards that you can design yourself.

Considering that the minimum print run for business cards is usually around 250, $6 isn’t bad for 50 cards. Especially if you can use the YouTube brand factor to your advantage. More info here.

What’s going on at eBay? I just got an email offering me an extra 30% for April, if I can beat my eBay Partner Network earnings for March (which should be easy enough)…

This April we’d like to offer you a unique opportunity to earn a significant bonus on top of your regular earnings. If you can increase your eBay Australia April earnings over your March earnings, we’ll add a 30% bonus on top of whatever you earn in April. As an example, if you earn $500 in March, and $600 in April, you’ll be paid $780 for April instead of $600. We’re only offering this incentive to select publishers and it may not come around again for while.

Is this just for Australian affiliates, or is everyone getting it?

I just received a new batch of Moo MiniCards, but I like them so much that I’m having trouble handing them over to my clients. When it comes to making the customer feel special, Moo make Apple look like a bunch of amateurs.
Experience MOO magic here.