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Who Trusts You With Their Name

This was originally written Wednesday 1st December.

I’m currently on my way to Heathrow Airport… I received a phone 4hrs ago, I had no idea at the time that it would result in my being in Lisbon this evening.

I won’t go into details, suffice to say, a colleague I’ve not seen in ages, has an unexpected problem, caused by the adverse weather conditions across Europe. He needs a solution, he needs it quickly and he doesn’t have the opportunity to deal with it himself… The pressure is on and he needs someone he knows he can trust… so he made the call.

I’m not saying I’m the A Team, or that he couldn’t have turned somewhere else, I myself have a select few friends and colleagues I know I can turn to, people I’ve worked with for years , people I trust 100%, with whom I don’t have a split second of hesitation putting forward or trusting my name or reputation… but it’s comforting to know that when his reputation is in the mix and he needs to reach out in a hurry, he knows there’s someone he can turn to.

A Bitter Pill

A week ago I purchased Malaria tablets online, unfortunately my GP got the amounts wrong on the prescription, he made it out for 24 tablets but I need 36, so he made an additional prescription today for 12 tablets, but I’m flying this evening, so there’s not enough time to order more online. So I dropped into a local pharmacy, 12 Malarone tablets £38! I bought twice as many online for only £52… how can a local pharmacy justify charging me 35% more!

I’m all for purchasing things from the little guy, keeping them in business when the large chain stores and brands come into town, but there’s a difference between bending backwards and bending over, if you take advantage of your customer base when they have no alternative, don’t expect them to be loyal to you, when they can choose a competitor.

Linked In or Locked Out?

I’m not a regular user of Linked in, but I decided to update my profile a couple of days ago and use the service to see if I could find some old contacts I’ve not been in touch with for ages by importing my various address books, 5 minutes later I had 300 plus recommendations, but a large chunk of these were people I’m never likely to interactive with again, so I opted to filter out the noise and only chose those I’m likely to contact in the future.

While trawling through the list and clicking on various contacts I was intrigued how some unlikely connections started to appear between friends, work colleagues and business associates that I would have never thought likely, crossing business sectors, industries and even continents. But when I clicked on some contacts I found their contacts were hidden from view… this is something I can’t fathom, why hide your contacts? the name of the service is a bit of a give away, doesn’t it tell you something, it’s all about being “linked in”… is there some sort of competitive advantage to hiding your contacts? unlikely, as personally I think it could work against you, as by not seeing your contacts I’m less likely to build a good picture of who you really are and who your business associates are… as they say, you can a tell a person by the company they keep. Is it a privacy thing? are you trying to stop me getting spam and requests from unwanted contacts? If so, why bother, I’m more than capable of ignoring requests and filtering linked in emails.

Actually I think it’s a more fundamental than that, I don’t wish to offend anyone by saying this, but I believe it’s something to do with age, (I’m no spring chicken myself I should add), let me explain.

First I’ll use Facebook and my own family as an example, choosing 4 of my relatives at random, ranging in age from 13-25, they have friend and tagged photo totals of
13yr 625 friends, 667 photos
22yr 490 friends, 287 photos
23yr  768 friends, 1,052 photos
25yr 825 friends, 3,61 photos

averaging 677 friends and 1,419 photos, but it’s not just the number of ‘friends’ and photos they have, they also display their dates of birth, their email addresses etc

If I take a look family and friends in the age range of 35-50, myself included, I get averages of 190 friends and 163 photos, quite a marked difference. And this isn’t just a Facebook phenomenon, it’s happens across all social networks, is it because the younger generation are more social, or that they’re using and relying on these systems more, partly yes, but it’s also a markedly different take on privacy, they’ve accepted and in some way embraced the fact that privacy isn’t something you have or something they should concern themselves with in this digital age, it’s not their problem. The more places they have their name, email, age, location, likes, dislikes plastered across the digital domain, the easier life become, choices and recommendations are made for them, friends and families have no problem finding them (they never lose touch in the first place), searching and finding things becomes easier, there’s so much on tap that they spend most of their time filtering what’s pushed at them rather than looking for new things, but again that filtering is done for them the more personal information they put out there, the better the filters work. Firefox announced a few days ago how it’s hoping websites will honour it’s users wishes who switch on their new “Don’t track me” feature in their preferences, hoping to avoid advertisers and online retailers from targeting them and building personalised demographics. This is unlikely to work as it requires the retailers to opt in to the users that opt out, most won’t.

To an older demographic this may sound horrific, they’re giving away too much freedom, we have to stop this happening, it’s as if 1984 is coming to fruition! but hang on a minute, these guys weren’t even born in 1984!

I read all the time bloggers bemoaning the loss of privacy, how we have information overload with too many choices, so we graze snippets of information, rather than sit down for a big meal, that transient use of social networks aren’t an adequate replacement for deeper more substantial real world interactions. I’ve been known to say that a measure of a real vs virtual friend is someone you know you can ask for £50 and they have no problem dipping into their pocket to help you out, try doing that with a 1,000 Facebook friends or Twitter followers, although not impossible.

But what about identity theft? The onus is shifting, it’s down to the banks to come up with more secure ways to protect our money and assets, as they’re liable, using a password, my date of birth or my mothers maiden name is no longer an adequate way to identify me, this information can be easily tapped online, often in the one place, take Facebook as a perfect example, your birthday is likely displayed, if not references and pictures of your birthday will be there… mothers maiden name? again you if you’re linked to your mother, she will likely use her married name, but your uncle (her brother) will be linked to her, plus if she divorced or wants old school friends to track her down, she likely has her maiden name displayed on her profile.

As the recent Wikileaks scandal has highlighted, privacy is dead, once you transpose something digitally, no matter how personal, off the record or secret you think it is, it’s public. Upload something to a website or a blog, then have second thoughts and delete it, you need to accept it’s not really gone, it’s still sitting on a server somewhere and Google is likely caching it too (and yes it will still appear in a search).

The next generation isn’t giving up it’s liberty, they’re not ignorant to it’s importance, they accept this flow of personal information isn’t something to worry about, or a hinderance, it’s quite the opposite, it has it’s advantages, being open and transparent works

Can’t Find the Right Word? No Excuse Anymore

I have to admit that I’m a bit of a word nerd… I love discovering the origination of words of the English language, so there’s an advantage of being a native speaker of the world’s largest vocabulary, there’s over 600,000 words in English, to put that in perspective, there’s just over 100,000 in French! Some words have strange and unusual beginnings, while others are obvious when you think about them, as an example “Freelancer”, a commonly used word nowadays, but it’s only when you break the word down to Free and Lancer, that you appreciate that an original freelancer was a hired swordsman, that’s right a Medieval Mercenary!

So it was a pleasure to learn this morning that the Oxford English Dictionary have announced a major overhaul of their website, updating the linking between the main Dictionary, their Thesaurus  and external reference websites. Unfortunately since the announcement the website has been offline as it’s been inundated with visitors this morning, so I’ve not had a chance to play with it yet

Oxford English Dictionary and Oxford Dictionaries

Dude Where’s My Bike… erm… Up There

As someone that loves to ride my bike around London, although a bit nippy at the mo… plus hesitant to leave my classic 18 year old Marin chained to a fence somewhere in case some little Tea Leaf takes a shine to it and wants to take it home, I just love this idea! THe video is in German, but you don’t need to understand German to appreciate the concept and delight in the video… it will make you smile I promise

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvc0A_cWUCU]

You gotta love those crazy Germanz yah http://www.conrad.de

Air BnB

I was in Boston for a Medical Conference last week, but I wanted to stay on for a few days as I’d not been in Boston for almost 15 years, but I’m not a great fan of faceless hotel chains, so jumped on Google to see what I could find, then I stumbled on AirBnB, if you’re looking for somewhere to stay, or have a place of your own you want to rent out, this site is great!

The concept is simple “We connect people who have space to spare with those who are looking for a place to stay. Guests can build real connections with their hosts, gain access to distinctive spaces, and immerse themselves in the culture of their destinations. Whether it’s an urban apartment or countryside castle, Airbnb makes it effortless to showcase your space to an audience of millions, and to find the right space at any price point, anywhere.”

The site is effortless to use, simply enter your dates and destination and it displays the results ranked on price / location / reviews etc. Make your selection, enter your payment details and that’s it. They even have a newly launched iPhone app, which is excellent.

I stayed at Terry Heinen’s place, aptly named Hotel Alternative, it was a great place and Terry was very welcoming, highly recommend it if you happen to be in Boston

AirBnB

The Boston Beer Party

I’m sorry America, I owe you an apology (but it’s one I’m happy to give)

I’ve been back and forth to the States for more years than I care to remember, but it wasn’t until 3 or 4 years ago when I was in Washington and I had the good fortune to knock back a Sam Adams Seasonal beer that I discovered that our buddies across the pond might actually know how to brew beer after all.

But one beer cannot make up for the atrocities that are Budweiser, Miller Lite, Coors plus numerous others of the (how can I say this delicately) ‘knat’s piss’ variety of beer so commonly exported from the US.

But tonight I take it back, as tonight I was introduced to Allagash and Blue Hill’s Dunkelweizen at Bukowski’s bar in Boston (I should add I also discovered Blue Moon at Cheers last night, yes that Cheers, well I am officially a tourist as worked finished 3 hours ago!)

These are beers that not only taste great, you also feel them slowly working away at you, they’re 7% and above… they even have the delightfully named Harpoon Chocolate Stout which is 10% (but I’ll leave that for another day!) So I’m glad to report that things at the bars in the states are looking up at long last… Now Mr bartender let’s see what else you can recommend…

Another day another great beer… I sampled a Smutty Nose and I was happy to have some more, but the barmaid suggested BBC (Berkshire Brewing Company), and once my taste buds took a swig of that, there was no turning back! What’s next? Who knows, still half a pint of BBC in front of me, but not for long! I eventually sampled the Harpoon Chocolate Stout, which was nice, but I guess it’s an acquired taste, I couldn’t drink a pint of it, it was like drinking a combination of Baileys and lager, very strange! In the end I settled for that Smuttynose Star Island Single.

I liked the sound of Lagunitas Little Sumpin Wild Ale, but I thought better of it for now, as today I hired a bike to explore Boston, it’s getting late and I have to ride back to my hotel, too many strong beers might make that a little tricky, especially as I don’t have any lights!!!!

Oh well the lack of lights didn’t stop me, decided to visit “The Field” on prospect street, well I was passing… It’s Irish and so am I, so I thought it rude to simply pass on by… didn’t fancy a Guinness (unlike the Irish, Guinness doesn’t travel that well), it’s never as good in foreign lands no matter what you’ve heard. So another Blue Moon it was, although having a beer with a slice of orange dropped in it takes a bit of getting used to… but I guess I’m a quick learner!

8Bit Halloween Costume

I know Halloween has been and gone, but what a brilliant DIY costume!

more info

Facebook Mobile Event

So what will MZ of Facebook be announcing in less than an hour?  Hopefully an iPhone app that’s worth using!

David Hockney iPad Sketches Exhibition

David Hockney has been a fan of the iPhone and iPad for sometime, having replaced his paper sketch pad with them. Over the past year Hockney has produced over 300 sketches, some of which will be on display at his Flesh Flowers exhibition in Paris.

“The great thing about it, is the distribution of the image, that is profoundly new… the fact that I could make a drawing of the sunrise at 6am and at 7am send it out to 20 people… and remember, If I just had a pencil and paper beside my bed, the sunrise wouldn’t be that interesting” David Hockney

BBC article ironically the embedded video is in Flash so doesn’t play on an iPhone or iPad! (well done BBC)

That’s Brevity With An i

Today, the publisher of the national newspaper The Independent launched a newspaper named “i”, retailing for a mere 20p (The Independent costs £1). This is the first national newspaper to launch in the UK in 24 years (the last being The Independent in 1986).

What’s interesting is how the marketing and PR reiterates that the i is a “concise, quality daily paper”, it’s also aimed squarely at lapsed readers, and readers in their 20’s. Readership of The Independent, and all newspapers for that matter have been in decline for years, with the % age of readers increasing. On paper (sorry couldn’t resist that) this is a good idea, as I don’t know anyone that could serious read everything that’s in a quality daily newspaper, they’re too big, they’re aimed at too broad a demographic, they’re expensive, and no one has time to read them from cover to cover. So the customer feels they’re not getting value for money, they’re paying too much for a bloated oversized daily of which they only read a small percentage.

The answer is to be more niche, but newspaper have a problem, they’re in the physical world, they’re made out of paper, so they’ll never be able to compete with niche blogs, websites or newsfeeds. It’s no longer a case of quality either, online material can be very high quality, it’s very current and up to date plus you can share it with others and expand the network to colleagues and friends at the touch of a button… another drawback of printed papers is that you can’t archive them (not in a practical way), online stories are always available, if you’ve missed a story develop you can quickly be brought up to spread by reading related articles and links. That would be a great thing for printed papers to emulate, start archiving their own back catalogues and offer them online, what a wealth of information they must be sitting on!

So will the i work? depends where and how, in London, with the Evening Standard (from the same publisher) becoming a free daily a year ago, it virtually wiped out the competition of free dailies, with the Metro being the only one that still has a large readership. So the i will be competing with it’s own free newspaper! Not to mention it’s big brother The Independent, which at £1 a pop, that 5 i readers!?!

Do those in their 20’s read newspapers anyway, ones they have to pay for that is… why would they, when they already get all the latest information they need online in an instant? I’m not so sure about this, I’m in my 40’s and I’ve never bought a newspaper in my life! I admit I’m a rarity in my demographic, but within the 20 something demographic, there’s a greater number that would go online before they’d purchase anything in print, especially as it suffers the same problem every printed newspaper has, it’s yesterday’s news!

I know I’m a little biased, I’m not that enamoured seeing another newspaper in print, but one possible saving grace, is if for every additional i reader there is one less Independent reader that will be a good thing, as the i is half the size of the Independent, so uses far less paper!

RBTP Font

Great looking font by George Strouzas

DVD Zero, Downloads One

Apple today showed off their latest bit of techno-lust, the MacBook Air and I must say it’s rather gorgeous. It’s lighter, slimmer and more powerful than ever, and it even costs less! Also worth noting is that they no longer give you the option replacing the harddrive with a flash drive, as flash drives now come as standard! So all in all a fantastic piece of kit… but it doesn’t end there, as with previous models the MacBook Air doesn’t come with an optical drive built in, but it did come with an installer DVDROM should you need to re-install the OS (which you did by sticking the DVDROM in another Mac on your network). But that was never an elegant solution, not up to scratch with Apple’s usual ease of use. So this time Apple have replaced the DVDROM with a USB flash stick! Which I might add, happens to be one of the best looking USB sticks I’ve ever seen!

But it doesn’t end there either… Apple also updated their iLife suite but they didn’t include iDVD in their updates, it’s not even on the DVD, although you can still get the old version off their website as a download.

but of course this is Apple, so there’s one more thing!

Apple gave a sneak peak of Lion, it’s next OSX 10.7, but what they also previewed was their new Mac App Store, not to be confused with their App Store (which sells apps for iOS devices, like the iPhone, iPod and iPad)… oh no, this new store sells software for your Macintosh.

So how long before Apple no longer supplies, or start limiting supplies of it’s software on physical media such as DVD’s? This is many advantages, for both Apple and the consumers, limits piracy, and allows the user easier updates and installation. It won’t be long before you can purchase all of your Mac software this way. Note Apple are about to complete building their $1bn data centre, just outside silicon valley.

When Apple released the iMac without a floppy drive the press went crazy, saying Apple was mad, but of course they were bang on the money, (Shift Happens are you ready for it?) then they went after the audio CD with iTunes and the iPod, they’re after the movie industry and DVDs with downloaded movies, direct to your iOS devices and iTunes, plus their hobby the Apple TV (plus it’s worth mentioning they’ve never included any sort of BluRay drive or playback on the Mac)… and now they’re after the software industry and DVDROM. They may not have given the DVDROM a good kicking just yet, but they’ve got their sights on it, and going by past experience, they’re probably succeed.

Tiny Ant People Build City

Jay’s done it again, he just sent me another amazing looking video. The way this has been achieved is by using high vantage points with a shif-tilt lens, which gives the impression of the whole thing being a model with the people ant sized… but it’s all life size!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb5GpV_LUuU]

more info at Coachella

here’s some other examples

Behavioural Dynamics Methodology Explained

Here’s a great video explanation of Behavioural Dynamics given by Nigel Oakes

“The BDI Methodology was originally developed in response to the need for an empirically-founded and demonstrably effective model of communication. The resulting Methodology takes a behavioural approach which focuses on influencing groups.”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB28IJbvbe0]

Behavioural Dynamics Institute

Animation by Cognitive Media

New Blog Icon Website

OK I admit it’s nothing groundbreaking, but I just threw up a new Blog Icon website using Rapidweaver, took about 3hrs to knock up, most of which time was compiling the emails and comments I’d had from users that are using the blog icon.

in case you have no idea what I’m on about, there doesn’t appear to be a universally accepted icon for blogs, so I designed one and uploaded it for anyone to use, you can download it at http://www.theblogicon.com plus show your support by liking the Facebook page or follow @theblogicon on Twitter

you should follow me on twitter here

Sour

Jay sent me the link to this music video at the weekend assuming I’d like it, he was right, it’s wonderful, and 3 million other You Tube users think the same. Plus it would appear Pepsi were inspired by the idea for their Pepsi Refresh Project (One People) commercial

“This music video was shot for Sour’s ‘Hibi no Neiro’ (Tone of everyday) from their first mini album ‘Water Flavor EP’. The cast were selected from the actual Sour fan base, from many countries around the world. Each person and scene was filmed purely via webcam.
Director: Masashi Kawamura + Hal Kirkland + Magico Nakamura + Masayoshi Nakamura”

official website http://sour-web.com (in Japanese)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfBlUQguvyw]

another of their videos takes finger shadows to another level

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPpR0ptfzgw]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fS39FitsoQ]

Pepsi Refresh Project refresheverything.com

101010

I slept in a little this morning, I got up just after 10, well it is Sunday… while shuffling into my living room pre-coffee I noticed sitting in my bay window a bowl of petunias, I don’t recall seeing them before, but as I said, this was pre-coffee, so I could have been mistaken, so I headed for the kitchen but when I looked out the window I noticed a sperm whale had crashed landed in my garden, coffee or not, that’s unusual even for me, so I fumbled around to find my iPhone to take a picture, but to my surprise when I eventually found it, for some strange reason it was sitting atop a neatly rolled up towel, upon turning it on it looked a little different than normal… whatever is going on?

Most Blogs Ever Written Guinness Book of Records

Darren Murph from Engadget awarded the Guinness Book of Records title of Most Prolific Professional Blogger, having written 17,212 individual posts (since surpassed). He’s probably written more posts in the past two weeks, than I have in the past two years!

more info here

Size Matters

Here’s a great presentation by Nigel Marsh given at TEDx Sydney in May, I recommend watching it, it’s only 10mins long, here’s a snippet

“the small things matter… being more balanced doesn’t mean dramatic upheaval in your life… with the smallest investment in the right places, you can radically transform the quality of your life and relations… I believe it can transform society, as if enough people do it we can change society’s definition of success… away from the notion that the ‘Guy with the most money when he dies wins’… to a more thoughtful and balanced definition of what a life well lived looks like”

It dove tails perfectly with one aspect of the “Your Small Change” non-profit concept I had a while back, which I’m rolling out in the coming weeks, so I’d love it if you drop by the Facebook page in the meantime and clicked the LIKE button to show your interest and support

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXM7MpoVAD0]

Are You Managing to Lead?

Today I received an email from a friend saying how they are fed up with the continual way their line manager treats them, with little or no respect. I hear this time and time again from friends and colleagues… when will managers realise, if they change their attitude, show genuine leadership and stop being administrators, they’ll get the results they desire.

Managers often say, “why doesn’t my staff do what they’re supposed to do?” the simple answer (and one they don’t like to hear), is because they either haven’t explained it properly, or they’re not showing genuine leadership, because if they had, their staff would do as they ask. Managers have Power & Authority, but that’s not enough, an uninspiring manager is someone that manages and administrates, a good manager shows leadership and does so by gaining respect and influence.

‘Power’ is derived from position, ‘Authority’ is derived from title, ‘Leadership’ is derived from behavior James R. Davis

We all remember teachers from our school years, and the really good ones stand out, because they were leaders. If you’re a manager, how do you want to be remembered by your past staff, the insignificant manager that administered, or the person that gained respect and made a real difference to those working with you?

Dwight Eisenhower defined leadership as “Convincing someone, to do what you want, because they want to do it.”

I’ve written about this before in my post Follow the Leader in essence it comes down to this Anyone can lead, it isn’t about having authority, it’s about gaining trust & respect through the correct behaviour.

Serendipity

ooops, I meant to post this a month ago, just found it sitting on my iPhone.

Tonight I met an old friend / business partner I’ve not seen in over 14 years! I know crazy eh… but he still lives 7,000 miles away in Singapore, where we had our business. Anyway it got me thinking… As when I met him this evening it was like I’d met him only last week! And when I said good night at Leicester Square just now it was like I was going to see him again next week (unfortunately I probably won’t see him again for years). Possibly it’s just me, but maybe (and I’m hoping I’m right here) but when you catch up with a really good friend it makes no difference how long it’s been since you last met them, they’re still a best friend, no matter how long it’s been… They’re on your wave length, they get you, you get them, you click.

It was refreshing to catch up with him after all this time, he is still the same guy I knew all those years ago, hopefully I’m still the same guy he remembers (apart from one or two extra grey hairs!)… He’s been through a lot of the same experiences as me in the last couple of years, he’d lost someone very close to him after a long term terminal illness, yet he’d come through it pretty much the same as me. Although we shared a lot, our lives have taken us in different directions, both of us have regrets of what could have been, but both of us are pretty glad of what we have and upon reflection I don’t think either one of us would change much about our lives (except maybe the way we played the stockmarkets!)

Funny, as I write this, “The Riverboat Song” by Ocean Colour Scene is playing on my iPhone, a tune that always reminds me of riding home in a cab on a hot and sticky night in Singapore many many years ago!

The Mobile Office

The sun has made an appearance again, so I’ve shifted the office to my garden today… you gotta love WiFi

Aha Moment

No I’m not talking about the 80’s Norwegian boy band

I just stumbled across Aha Moment a website full of short videos of people decribing their Aha Moment. One that struck a cord with me was Siobhan Neilland’s Aha Moment…

“My aha moment happened two and a half years ago, when I lost a baby through a miscarriage. I got really depressed, so I decided to stop everything and go to Africa to try to see if I could help other people. I ended up volunteering with this organization that did malaria prevention in Uganda.

One of the women I met with was Jamira, who’s a midwife. Something happened when I met her. I was staring at the bed where thousands of women have had their babies with the same black, blood-soaked pad. They were just deplorable conditions. I said, ‘I can help change this…”

Check out her One Mama website

iPhone 4 35mm Lens Adapter

In an update to the post I made a couple of weeks ago about attaching 35mm lenses to the iPhone 4, the guys at Vid Atlantic have adapted their EnCinema 35mm Adapter to fit to Owle Bubo

Video shot with a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 DSLR lens on the EnCinema 35mm Adapter attached to the OWLE Bubo
[vimeo 13402704]
[vimeo 3507164]

It’s an Illusion – Meet Your Strawman

I can’t remember how I stumbled across a presentation entitled It’s an Illusion by John Harris a couple of months ago, but I’m very glad I did, as it was a real eye opener. It’s 50mins long in total, but it’s time well invested I assure you.

It’s an Illusion on BBC5.tv or YouTube

“John Harris gives us his perspective on what’s going on. He describes how we are economic slaves to a debt dependant system, notably achieved through the deception of the birth certificate and the creation of a legal fiction known as your ‘PERSON’. It is this PERSON that the government then wields it’s control upon. Although John points out that this arrangement only works when we consent.

Unfortunately inaction is taken as consent, hence we have unwittingly surrendered our inalienable rights through identifying with the PERSON. Remember you are a human being with god given rights, all you have to do is claim them.

Filmed at the The British Constitution Group Lawful Rebellion Conference in Stoke-on-Trent on the 24th January 2009.”

More info on The People’s United Community

For a quick summary, you can watch Meet Your Strawman below by Infomatic Films (I stumbled across this on Lster921’s blog just now)

Another good site that explains this is Freedom Rebels, I recommend reading What’s a Freeman?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME7K6P7hlko]

There’s Music in the Air

I’ve been using Airfoil by Rogue Amoeba for years to pump audio from my Mac to my Airport Express… but I hadn’t realised they’d created a FREE app named Airfoil Speakers, that turns your iPhone/iPod/iPad or any Mac or PC on your WIFI network into a wireless audio receiver.

That’s saved me buying another airport express for my BBQ’s during the sumer, just plug my old iPod touch into the amp in my garden, switch on Wifi and I have streaming audio in sync throughout the house and garden!

So I won’t retire my old iPod Touch to a video wall just yet

Speed Cameras Are Good!

Last Year I posted about the Volkswagon campaign named The Fun Theory, I just read on Digital Buzz that the campaign has since gone on to win the Cannes Cyber Grand Prix for a digitally led integrated campaign, which it won along side Nike’s “Chalk Bot” who took the award for the other digital solutions / digital channels category in the Cyber section.

The Fun Theory was all about generating interest in Volkswagen’s Blue Motion technologies that deliver the same great car performance with reduced environmental impact, and to do this, they found an insight around how “fun” could change human behavior for the better, and this formed The Fun Theory, a campaign that spawned over 700 user generated Fun Theory initiatives along with a number of big viral hits that generated over 20 million YouTube views, with one rushing past 12 million views alone!

Below is the 2009-2010 winner

[youtube= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcaKocRXCB4]

Jobs Worth

I enjoy Seth’s blog, it’s predominately insightful and often inspirational… I receive it via email every morning, although I’ve still got over 200 of them that I’ve not read! but regardless of that I’d still recommend you read his blog.

Anyway I stumbled across one of his recent entries this morning and it reminded me of something I wrote last year about meetings, are they worthwhile, are you investing your time properly, but Seth takes it a step further and asks “Are you doing work worth doing, or are you just doing your job?”

Now that’s a good question

Down at the Crossroads

18 months ago I posted a blog about a small red plant that miraculously came back from the dead after I’d given up on it and thrown it away. Since then it’s gone from strength to strength, I’ve even split it into 5 plant pots, as it was growing so fast!

I’m at a cross roads again in my life, nothing too serious… but when I looked at that plant this morning sitting on my shelf,  I know it’s something I can overcome and sort out, I just need to focus… as the saying goes, “If you can’t change your fate, change your attitude”

Oh and if anyone knows what this plant is called, please let me know as it’s a complete mystery to me…

UPDATE: thanks to Jose pointing me in the right direction I have now tracked it down as oxalis triangularis there’s even a timelapse video showing how the leaves open and close everyday

1-Bit Symphony

OK I have to admit that I’m unlikely to listen to the entire album without going insane, but the idea is wonderful… the CD maybe dead, but long live the CD case!

[vimeo 12244413]

more info Tristan Perich to purchase click here

Breathtaking Free Fall

Here’s a video of World champion freediver Guillaume Nery special dive at Dean’s Blue Hole, the deepest blue hole in the world filmed entirely on breath hold by the french champion Julie Gautier. This video is a FICTION and an ARTISTIC PROJECT. Edited by BLUENERY (c). Music: ARCHIVE – you make me feel

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQITWbAaDx0]

My iPad at My Pad

I got a nice surprise an hour ago… my shiny new iPad arrived, woohoo!

All I have to do now, is work out why I bought it 🙂

We ? Adobe

As Adobe & Apple slug it out over the Flash plug, arguing who is more “Open” I stumbled across something today that made me smile. A week ago Adobe placed Ad’s in the broadsheets in the US saying they Love Apple, and that they love choice… but I really smiled when someone, somewhere out there on the web had created a fake response from Apple, … genius!

More info here and  here

It’s Hip to be Square

On Friday I downloaded a wonderful app for my iPhone named Hipstamatic… in essence you now have a Lomographic camera on your iPhone. The array of films, effects and lenses you can add are excellent. The whole interface and user experience has been beautifully thought through and is a joy to use. The app is initially set to low res, so you only get 600×600 pixel images, which allows it operate very quickly, so is fine while you’re experimenting with the app. But once you get used to the effects, it’s worth switching over to the higher res mode, this is a little slower in operation, but you end up with 1024×1024 images, so it’s worth the few seconds wait. I’ve had plenty of fun with this app over the weekend and I’ve been amazed at how it can turn an ordinary subject into something wonderful to look at!

I’ve even entered the shot below, entitled “Hot Hot Hot” into a Hipstamatic Competition named “Solstice The Rebirth of Summer”

Please vote for it (but hurry as there’s only 3 days left!)

Portraits of Power

Last September, when nearly all the world’s leaders were in New York for a meeting of the United Nations, Avedon Platon, a staff photographer for The New Yorker set up a tiny studio off the floor of the General Assembly, and tried to hustle as many of them in front of his lens as possible. For months, members of the magazine’s staff had been writing letters to various governments and embassies, but the project was a five-day-long improvisation, with Platon doing his best to lure the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chávez, and Muammar Qaddafi to his camera.

Check out the interactive portfolio of portraits by Platon of world leaders, with commentary by the photographer

Less Is More

Sometimes too much choice is a bad thing… Facebook’s privacy settings have more options than ordering a coffee in Starbucks! To see what I mean follow this link to the NY Times

I’m Big in Sweden

I’ve seen a few of these types of things in my time, but this is the best I’ve ever seen!

Honda – The Cog

Having posted the OK Go video a couple of days ago, I thought I’d share this one with you too

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ve4M4UsJQo&NR=1]

It’s Time For Change

Before I go any further I should inform you, that I’m entirely apolitical, I honestly couldn’t care less about politics, or which political party is in power, but I do believe in democracy, and care about equal rights and fairness

As the Conservatives campaign slogan states “It’s Time For Change”

And they’re not wrong, but it’s not necessarily the government that needed changing, but the way they were elected! Look at the figures below, Conservatives get 36% of votes, but that equates to 47% of the House of Commons seats, Labour’s 29% of votes equates to 40%, the Liberals 23% only equals 9%, while the remaining 12% of votes only equals 4% of seats.

1 Conservative vote = 1.3
1 Labour vote = 1.37
1 Liberal vote = 0.39
1 Others vote = 0.33

That means every Conservative vote was 3.33 times that of a Liberal vote!
It may be democratic, but it’s hardly fair!

OK Go: This Too Shall Pass

Building upon the success of their previous video OK Go decided to get a little more adventurous! Again all done in one take, just like the brilliant  yet effortless looking Brylcreem advert

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w]

B Effortless: It Only Took 300 Takes!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOYTQKoJ1N8]

Didn’t make me rush out and buy Brylcreem, but this advert was superb!
And yes it was done in one take, it’s all real, no computers, no CGI… see the making video here

You Can’t Traverse A Chasm In Two Jumps

Smart has plans… Stupid has stories
One way to get more stories and less regrets into your life is to take a leap of faith from time to time. I promised I was going to say “Yes” from now on once before… but I’ve become a hypocrite, as lately I’ve ignored my own advice. I’ve not let go or said yes to opportunities handed to me, amazing opportunities I hasten to add. I have to face up to the fact, accept my error and dig deep to meet the challenge ahead… by doing so, I’ve everything to gain… by not doing it, I’ve everything to lose!

Black and White

I guess life isn’t so black and white after all. I’ve always lived my life and given my opinion based on ruthless truth and openness, and to hell with the consequences.

But, not everyone is like me, in fact most people aren’t, that’s a good thing, not everyone wants or can take hearing the cold facts or the whole truth 100% of the time. Most prefer to live in a world wrapped under a safety blanket with many shades of grey.

I’ve always perceived that as open to misinterpretation, misunderstanding and mistrust, plus I find it very difficult to hold back from being straight with someone… so more often than not I’d rather not say anything than not be completely truthful. But having realised I’ve been on the receiving end of white lies and not having felt betrayed by them, in fact benefited enormously, I wish I had done the same when it mattered the most.

Like the saying “The one thing I can give yet still keep is my word”, but if you lose someone so precious and all you’re left with are your words, then what’s the point?

Video Jukebox Anyone?

Want to download a video from YouTube (or most websites?)
Install this plugin for Firefox http://www.downloadhelper.net/

Of course most files stored on YouTube are in Adobe’s Flash format (.flv), so you will require something to play them back. You can use VLC, but wouldn’t it be better if you could us QuickTime? Download and install Perian (you’ll need to restart your Mac afterwards). Now QuickTime can playback .flv files, plus numerous other formats it couldn’t before. If you have QuickTime Pro on your Mac, you can even export the .flv files to different file formats, if not then download Evom by The Little Factory it’s simply drag and drop from here, drop the .flv onto the Evom window and choose the file format you want, that’s it!

And all of that is free!

Still talking about video, need to Rip a DVD, or want to play them back on your iPod, iPhone or hard drive? Then download Ripit by The Little Factory it costs $20, but it’s child’s play to use, and the results are very impressive!

Now I know how I’ll be spending the next couple of months, transferring my DVD collection to the hard drive that’s hanging out the back of the Mac Mini I have connected to my flat screen! Now if only the Mac Mini could connect properly to my surround sound and I’d be sorted!

A Balancing Act

Too many ideas, too little time!

That may sound a little arrogant, but it’s actually a genuine problem, and I’m not the only one. Some may say it’s a good problem, but I’m not so sure.

It’s frustrating as hell to have an idea or a solution, that you know you have to let go or forget about, as you have 20 more waiting in the wings to be fulfilled. And if that’s not frustrating enough,  when I pass on and explain a really good idea to someone else, someone that I know could do great things with my concept, they unfortunately, are too short sighted to see the full potential to do anything with it! So at the end of the day, I simply have to do it myself.

As Friedrich Engels said, “An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory”

A few months ago I decided I’m going to change the world… well I never said my ideas were small, or easy… if they were, I guess anyone would take up the task and do it… but they’re not, so I might as well do them myself. I’ve set a time frame of ten years… that may seem like a long time, but it’s not really, as when you think about it, the world’s a pretty big place!

Going Down The Tubes

Need I say more?

iPad

After five years of speculation and 15 years after The Steve canned the Newton (still have my three in the attic!), Apple have announced the iPad.

I have mixed feelings on the iPad, from a business & user perspective, I think it’s great, it’s been well thought through and it looks gorgeous, sure the big black area that surrounds the touch screen area is a bit too much, but hey, I’m sure there’s a lot of electronics in that thing, you’ve got to put them somewhere!
but…
No multi-tasking! so no background apps like Skype or Facebook running while you do something else. This is a major gripe, it’s the one thing that will kill the iPhone if they don’t sort that out soon.

No camera! WTF (so no using it for Skype or video based instant messaging), talking of which, come on Apple, where the hell is iChat for your mobile devices!

No proper display output! (not even Apple’s own mini DVI?!) the iPad would be the most amazing presentation device for any road warrior, if it had a proper way to output the display! (although we all know these things can do it, as how else does The Steve demo these at these events, so who knows, maybe they’ll finally make a proper cable that connects to that 32 pin connector!)

No Near Field or RFID!? OK that may sound a bit strange, but that’s becoming more and more prevalent, why it hasn’t been incorporated into the iPhone yet I’m at a loss… sure you can add RFID to SIM cards (so fine for the iPhone), but that’s no good for the iPod Touch or iPad, so hardware integration is a must. I’m positive the next iPhone will have it built in, which will be great, no more Oyster cards to travel on London Underground, simply swipe your phone and the database picks up your ID, and if no account is recognised, an App on your iPhone engages and you pay there and then… or no more credit cards, place your iPhone near a terminal, an App launches, enter your pin et voila, all paid, you could even send your receipt to your no paper account!

These are all things that will come in version 2 no doubt, but they should be in version 1… although none of this will stop me ordering one straight away 🙂 which I shall of course put down to requiring for testing & development purposes for no paper

Damn you Mr Jobs, Damn you to hell 😉

What’s Your Most Valuable Asset?

It’s not your home, your car, your stocks, your shares or your money… it’s your time. It’s the one thing you can never get back, don’t waste it.

You can spend it, or you can invest it… it’s your choice, choose wisely

It’s The Way I Tell ’em

No matter what you’re trying to market or sell, people buy into stories. If you want your idea to spread make it easy for others to spread it, a story or something they can be passionate about is the best way… so make it memorable, better yet, make it unforgettable.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd3dIXXLcdE]

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Brendan Mitchell
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