Filed under: London, Photos, Random
Budding taggers learn how it is done..
These young whipper snappers were watching keenly as an older kid scrawled his tag on a wall along London’s South Bank. It didn’t take long. Let’s hope the pupils of this nursery school of graffiti move on to a higher level of street art sooner rather than later. Am I getting old? These pesky kids. Grumble grumble… I’ll be complaining about uneven pavements next.
Anyway – while I am on the subject, when a particular piece turned up at the bottom of Bristol’s Park Street a few months ago (on the side of a sexual health clinic, I should add for the benefit of the picture), I heard Bristol City Council were debating whether it was public art and should be left. Funny that they start to see the potential tourism benefits of leaving this stuff after years spent cleaning it up. They certainly wouldn’t have even considered the fact a few years ago. Well – they eventually decided to let it stay and it promptly made the Visit Bristol tourist guide.
Filed under: London
hole in the wall.
The Serpentine Gallery are putting on an exhibition of Chinese art inside Battersea Power Station this month and we went along this afternoon to have a look. I’ll pass giving any judgement on the art for now – we (and, at a guess, the majority of the other few hundred visitors) were there for the chance to see this great building up close. I see the power station daily yet it remains distant and enigmatic, flanked by hordings on three sides and moated on the fourth by the Thames. We were guided through the dark, damp and derelict floors of the old turbine hall, looking beyond the bizarre art installations, and tried to understand the building’s past (and future). It’s an interesting place – with old signs warning of high voltage jostling for attention alongside newer signs warning of falling masonry.
Unfortunately photos inside the building were not allowed; the cynic in me wondered whether the developers were worried that people’s photos could affect the forthcoming coffee table book.
EDIT: A quick peruse through Flickr reveals some excellent covert shots of the sort that might well make it to said glossy coffee table book. And it looks like some discreet snapping was occuring during the art tours.
Filed under: Friends
bigging up the hastings massive – check this out from little miss hangover. nuff respect miss (or should that be ellie?)
Filed under: London, Random, Science
Some research from Bath University suggests that wearing a helmet might be more dangerous than not. And that drivers gave women cyclists a wider berth when passing. Personally I’m not taking any chances cycling around London without a helmet but I am considering growing my hair and wearing a skirt, just to be on the safe side when cycling to work.
Filed under: Media, Technology
I’ve just spotted Adobe as a “user” on del.icio.us. It’s interesting to see that organisations like this are using del.icio.us as an online marketing channel to increase brand awareness, page rank and general online visibility.
I’m sure we’ll see many other organisations doing the same thing in the near future as people turn to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us as their first port of call for search – where “page rank” is effectively determined by the users themselves and you can be guaranteed better results. I can even see a niche emerging for optimisation services for these sites, just like SEO became a niche industry around Google page ranks.
Filed under: Media, Technology
I feel the need to air some thoughts after recent goings on in the “convergence” realm. It’s a term that has been bashed about for years now – with every new development being heralded as the harbinger of a new dawn of convergence in digital media and the like. And this last year has been no different. We have the other weekend’s Homechoice (aka Video Networks) and Tiscali merger. There’s that BSkyB and Easynet deal last October. There’s a peer to peer IPTV service about to surface. And finally, there’s something a sales guy said to me this afternoon. In fact, something that got me thinking about all this in the first place. Something about “convergence”, “entertainment hubs” and how we’ll all “obviously be browsing the internet on our TVs in the next couple of years”. Well, sorry, but I beg to differ. Will digital media delivery really converge on a single device as many people seem to think? Surely, as more electronic media devices become IP enabled, media delivery will start to diverge not converge? Okay – so I’m getting bogged down with semantics – I guess that the term “convergence” really refers to overlapping realms of different media with new technologies. But I’m not sure that this single device view is the right direction for IPTV. Particularly whe you consider the most successful interactive TV programmes I have worked on have been those that encourage interaction using a completely different device and media – such as mobile and SMS – rather than relying on a remote control or a keyboard.
The advent of broadband has made delivery of video and other digital media possible via the internet but viewing via your desktop or laptop computer screen is not always practical. Equally, browsing and searching the web from your sofa via the TV is not exactly an easy or sociable thing to do. Surely the best solution is one where you would search on your PC then sit back and view on your TV? I know this is exactly what many people are already doing but it often means situating the PC near the TV so that you can run a cable from the PC’s AV output into the TV. What I want to do, and I’m sure a solution must exist (please tell me if it does – otherwise I hereby patent this idea!), is utilise my Wi-Fi network to stream content to the TV. Maybe via a SCART device that doubles as a Wi-Fi antennae, receiving data streams via the local network? Surely such a simple single device must exist? It’s all I need – not some “media hub” or “home entertainment centre”. It seems to completely bridge that gap between the different tasks of searching/ interacting (i.e. “lean forward” tasks) and watching (i.e. “sit back” tasks). Please – somebody help!
Filed under: Random
On what is now officially the hottest July day since records began, here’s an interesting “subvertisement” that’s being passed about the office. It just shows how powerful word of mouth or “viral” campaigns can be these days. And not necessarily for the benefit of the brand supposedly behind the campaign. In this excellent game you get to play a McDonalds executive – in a Sim City style – complete with politician bribing, hormone enhanced beef patty production and employee motivation schemes. I can’t imagine this game being live for too long before the legal teams at McDonalds shut it down – by which time the damage will have already been done. Take a look now, while you still can.
Filed under: London, Random
As I cycled home, after a sweltering summer’s day in our Soho offices, there was a continental buzz in the air that is London after work – out on the pavements, enjoying one of England’s rare and blissfully perfect long evenings, cooled by a pleasant breeze and a beer. I turned into St James’ Park and who should drive past in a cavalcade? The Queen! I was genuinely monarch-struck – glowing with a patriotic pride I never knew I had. I’ve never understood all this flag waving, cheering and general whooping that our Queen seems to provoke but, I have to admit, she had a similar effect on me. As soon as I saw the outline of her familiar head I started to grin. I wonder, is it something to do with seeing that instantly recognisable hair-do? I am so accustomed to seeing her on casual everyday items like cash, stamps and so on that it is really quite amusing to see the real thing. A funny thing indeed.
Filed under: Photos, Random, Travel
green shoots.
Taken in Somerset at the weekend – near Nunney. Things are starting to happen in the woods right now. Signs of new life abound. Like these guys – standing by, ready to unfurl…
Filed under: Photos, Travel
seal turns placidly and stares.
What a life these fat fellows have! Lazying about all day, just soaking up the sun and going for the occasional dip, maybe catching a fish if they can be bothered…
There’s more photos of Skye here (needs password – just ask me).
Filed under: Photos, Travel
an essential cargo – the ubiquitous san miguel beer shares a ride with us on a banka
(see the rest of the Philippines photo set on Flickr » )
Wow – that felt longer than two weeks. We’ve just returned from a different world and a very beautiful one at that. A world full of idyllic islands straight out of James Bond, with incredible diving and friendly people. The Philippines has such a bad press here in the UK and I’m almost tempted not to dispell the myths so I can keep the place all for myself… but how could I do that? Island hopping around the remote islands to the north of Palawan by banka revealed some of the most breathtaking scenery I have ever seen. Thousands of deserted islands with sheer limestone cliffs, hidden lagoons, secret beaches and turquoise blue waters.
However, it seems tourism “eco-development” and land title disputes are endemic in this area and corruption, at all levels, is rife. It’s a fine balance between tourism alleviating poverty in a place perceived by Westerners as “paradise on earth” and maintaining a pristine environment for future generations. As tourism encroaches on these small islands in this fragile ecology, I really hope this balance can be met.
Some of the people we met along the way (like the folk at Kudugman) were trying to do things the right way- pushing forward low-scale, low-impact and sustainable developments of two or three huts on islands that draw minimal resources and offer a very basic yet completely serene break from it all. However, the terms “sustainable” and “eco-tourism” are used all too rashly and I hope that recent measures to develop these small islands do not lead to their destruction.
Anyway – here’s some more photos. Not that I need to convince you of the beauty of the place!
Filed under: Photos, Random
Taken in South Devon, last weekend. At last, the signs of Spring are starting to show. Whoop!
Filed under: Technology
When coding websites, there are some problems I come across time and time again – where I generally tend to crtl-c ctrl-v a previous solution into my work. The same goes for user interface tricks – like pagination, breadcrumbs, validation, event handling and DOM manipulation. Now the optimal solutions for all these woes have been bundled together into tested, robust and cross-browser UI libraries and design patterns by the clever people at Yahoo! I’ve spent some time playing with them and I’m impressed. A very shrewd move indeed – get the support of the people building the web and the rest will follow. Or something like that. Yahoo! have been making some rather interesting moves lately, with all their buy outs and what-not. I’d watch them closely, if I were you.
Filed under: Technology
brrreeeporting on searching blogs can be interesting. honest.
Filed under: Media, Technology
As BT prepares to step up onto the IPTV stage – to take on the likes of Homechoice, NTL and sky – it is starting to gather together content providers like Warner Music, Paramount, the Beeb and National Geographic. All the sort of content providers that are likely to produce decent TV that people will sign up to “BT TV” to watch but please tell me that there’ll be more than Big Brother re-runs coming from Endemol.
On a similar note, I wonder what BT will use to deliver their video streams? It would be quite fitting if they used BitTorrent (BT – geddit?) really. Although, it looks like NTL are one step ahead on that one.
Filed under: Media, Photos, Technology
The Future of Web Apps Summit.
why buck a trend at a geek fest?
everyone else is blogging here, so here’s my quick notes to self:
Filed under: Random
Thank you to all of you who made it on Saturday evening. It was great to see our new flat so full of people and it now feels well and truly warmed. All went rather smoothly – with no broken hips or slipped discs reported from the oldies. So that’s nice. There’s even some photos.
I feel like I spent the whole night having half finished conversations with everyone, being pulled this way and that, waving my stick at all the youngsters, supping on my beer… I quite enjoyed being an old man. A dangerous sign of things to come perhaps?
Filed under: London, Photos, Random
For those of you who wondered where our evangelist friend with the loud speaker at Oxford Circus station had got to recently during these cold winter weeks – this photo was taken in Sydney last week. He certainly gets about. It looks like he flies south for winter to find warmer preaching grounds.
Filed under: Random
I’ve just heard that Homechoice is considering putting itself up for sale. After last November’s rumours, I’m not sure whether it is true but there’s certainly plenty of vultures circling. I’m sure it won’t be long before we have to sit back and watch them fight over the spoils.
Filed under: Random
Chris McKinstry’s sad and rather public suicide note reveals “the mind is a maximum hypersurface and thought a trajectory on it and the amygdala and hippocampus are Hopf maps of it” – inspired genius, hoax or simply too much LSD? You decide.
Filed under: Media, Technology
Channel 4 have ditched their clunky red button interactive TV service that supports some broadcasts like Big Brother. Some might be shocked by this but, if the truth be told, it makes sense. It’s a bold move that apparently flies in the face of interactive TV “progress” but look at the underlying factors and you’ll see it’s actually a very wise decision. The red button service that Channel 4 offered was only ever delivered over the sky platform, where the initial data associated with the interactive TV service had to be transmitted as part of the broadcast stream via satellite. Over satellite, this broadcast stream bandwidth is very limited and, as you’ve probably seen, results in a very slow interactive experience. Once the base interactive TV application had been loaded, additional data could be retrieved via a sluggish 28k modem. All in all a rather painful user experience. And, believe me, unless you are following a “template” like the i-Ad format (the red button feature for interactive TV adverts, which C4 are keeping) developing for the platform was an even more tedious process! In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the driving force behind Channel 4’s decision were their programme producers. When I left Endemol they were struggling to develop interactive TV applications – it simply did not fit into the way TV is produced. These applications require defining and rigorous testing, whereas TV production is a much more fluid process – with concepts potentially changing completely at the 11th hour. Besides, SMS voting is much easier to shoe-horn into a TV concept as a viable revenue stream.
So, step aside clunky satellite interactive TV and make room for TV delivered via a fast broadband connection. The real interactive TV experience is when you don’t even notice you are “interacting” – where viewing is no longer passive but your involvement (like choosing what to watch, whether live or achived) is very much part of the TV experience. Whether you call it internet TV, broadband TV, IPTV or Video On Demand, the underlying concepts are essentially the same. And Homechoice is already there.
As mentioned before I’m keen to see how the areas of TV content, broadband and search technologies eventually come together. I’m sure it won’t be a clean race.
Filed under: Random
Just what I was looking for. Spotted in an office window round the corner on Poland Street. They aren’t kidding.
Filed under: Random
web2.0 is so last year – let’s welcome web3.0
milliondollarhomepageransom.com
albert’s still searching for answers as he reaches 100 years old
and an interesting radio 4 broadcast from monday evening – in confessions of a crap artist, we learn how Philip K. Dick was still searching too…
Filed under: Media, Technology
Now then, I don’t like it when blogs just re-hash speculation but this one is just too big not to comment on. I’ve just heard on the grapevine that BT *might* be considering making a bid for ITV. Buying such an established UK content provider would certainly realign BT against competition from Homechoice, BSkyB and ntl in this emerging market.
With last week’s news that Sky will be using Microsoft’s Windows Media Center to deliver its forthcoming Sky By Broadband service and Google announcing a new video store, some interesting areas in technology and media are finally starting to come together. It looks like the big players are jostling for starting positions in the race to realise the much heralded interplay of TV content, broadband and search technologies in the UK.
So – who’s next?
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