Newsletter # 2 04-11-12

The question is –

are you a Scrooge or a Santa?

We had a wee difference of opinion this week.  The Santa lovers on the team wanted to start posting ‘festive season’ projects now.  Scrooge said ‘too early’, ‘bah humbug’ and a few other things.  So we decided to ask you via our Facebook survey.  So far, 62% of you want us to start posting ideas immediately.  If you have an opinion – and who doesn’t – why not voice it by clicking the Surveys tab just under our Timeline photo.

The blogging is thriving!

A week in and our blogs are going strong. Our bloggers are ready and willing to answer any questions you may have about their areas of expertise, so don’t hesitate to leave a comment on one of their posts or to ask them a question. Without your feedback they have no way of knowing if they are sharing information that can help you achieve your dreams!

This week has seen lots of new posts. Here’s a quick overview:

There has been a kink in the saga of the LIFX bulb. After a hugely successful kickstarter campaign and a lot of public interest, Philips have stolen the LIFX teams thunder by releasing their own Wi-Fi enabled LED light bulb. You can read about it here:http://bit.ly/SyjmJY

We’ve talked about the lighting revolution that is the LED bulb a couple of times over the last week but we really haven’t hit on the true benefits of the super energy efficient lighting system – that’s why we’ve posted a handy chart showing the key differences between LED, Incandescent and CFT (Compact Fluorescent Tubes). You can find the chart here:http://bit.ly/U5X7wY

If you’ve ever had to deal with concrete cancer, or have had to spend long hours patching and repatching cracked or deteriorating concrete you know how expensive and frustrating it can become. Two scientists may have found a solution to your problems. “Bio-concrete” is a mixture of concrete, bacteria and bacteria food that can literally repair itself. You can find out more about this amazing new material here: http://bit.ly/TrfGoR

Most people probably think that design starts on a blank piece of paper, but our resident architect, Andrew Webb definitely doesn’t agree. To him, great design starts with knowing your building site – knowing the heat and shade, views, micro-climates and all the other factors that could effect the finished building. You can read Andrew’s tips for starting a design here: http://bit.ly/TqW5Fj

Over at The Cob Croft, Adrienne Winbush continues her story of moving from a farm to the suburbs, and how the change of scenery whet her appetite for gardening and permaculture. You can read her new post, Out With The Old, here: http://bit.ly/TrgA4N

And, last but not least, a new post was also added to the Easy Build Decks and Veranda blog at http://bit.ly/TtlHpm

What’s the difference – Facebook Albums and OBN Galleries

You probably know that we have a heck of a lot of inspirational images tucked away in our Facebook albums.  In fact, as of right now, there are 2,203 of them.  You can access them by clicking on the ‘Photos’ tab underneath our Timeline image.

But do you realize that there are 5,107 images on our web site!  On our site they’re in galleries vs Facebook ‘albums’ but they do the same job.

Why not just post on Facebook?

As much as we want to love Facebook, we have no control over our page or Facebook policies.  They can remove our site without notice and all our work would be lost forever.  ‘Nuf said?

OK – we’re embarrassed!

You may have noticed there are some images missing at Inspiration@OBN.  We  – actually ‘he’ (as in head programmer) -stuffed up big time!  Without going in to the gory details, the images cannot be recovered from our side.  If you have posted images at Inspiration@OBNprior to October, 17th please check as you may need to upload them again.

Pinterest

We keep being asked if we’re on Pinterest.  We are and you can pin directly from both our Facebook page and every page of our web site.  From Facebook, just click on the Pinvolve tab.

Our Pinterest albums are at http://pinterest.com/ausobn/ .  We’re also on Twitter and Google+ if you’d like to follow us there.

Got something to share?

We really like the way so many of you share on our Facebook page. But, if you know Facebook, you know those special posts of yours disappear within hours 🙁  Why not give a permanent home to your favourite ideas, projects and even videos by posting them atInspiration@OBN?  It’s easy, it’s yours and it will even earn you extra CubePoints!  And we’ve put in lots of safeguards to make sure images never disappear again!

Thanks! We’ll see you again next week.

Team OBN