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Filed under: Technology

While not exactly something I’d advise for your critical web apps, I’m still intrigued to see this in action…

Filed under: Photos, London

Chelsea chimneys, originally uploaded by markrocky.

Looking west across London from Peter Jones in Chelsea, on a bright and Christmassy winter afternoon.

Filed under: Technology

Got a web app that relies on a 3rd party service? Well, I hope you selected that service well! A year or so ago I was evaluating Zimki and nearly selected it to provide a platform for some web app development at work. I’m rather glad I didn’t now…

Please note that this is your final notification of the withdrawal of the Zimki service, which will occur on the 24/12/2007.

All user applications and data remaining on the Zimki service will be deleted and the servers decommissioned shortly after this date.

It certainly highlights the importance of building your fancy-pants web 2.0 application on solid and reputable services.

Filed under: Friends, Technology

24 ways to impress your friends is back for the third year running. It’s like a web geeks advent calendar and I’m impressed.

Filed under: Media, Technology

The “social graph” is a global mapping of everybody and how they’re related. I had a play with a visualisation tool for Facebook relationships last night and it was great. Slightly scary but fun nonetheless. However, our weblives are not just about Facebook (although Facebook does provide a platform to bring them all together). Google’s OpenSocial is promising to provide another way to pull them together but, as Brad Fitzpatrick points out, a centralized “owner” of the social graph is a dangerous thing. Social networks need to be made open and portable. And they can be.

Tim Berners-Lee stated in a post yesterday that

…we have the technology — it is Semantic Web technology…

In other words, the connections and relationships made possible by the semantic web (or social graph - use interchangeably from hereon). He goes on:

Now, people are making another mental move. There is realization now, “It’s not the documents, it is the things they are about which are important”. Obvious, really.

and on opening up this data:

It is about getting excited about connections, rather than nervous.

So, yes - I am excited but how are we going to do this? Think data feeds, microformats and openID - things that would tend to be met with blank stares if I were to suggest them to clients. But show a client how you could remove barriers (such as log-in/ sign-up) to that all important “conversion” (with openID or microformats - here’s an excellent microformat implementation doing just that) and show how this person would be able to instantly tell all their friends about it (via their social graph) and then they’ll be interested.

Filed under: Technology

With all the feeds available from the various apps that make up my weblife these days, there’s a wealth of data that can be brought together into a single data stream - or “lifestream“, if you will. Using Yahoo! Pipes to mash up these feeds, I’ve hacked together something that displays all this fantastic data on one page - with the idea of this eventually being displayed on a timeline. I don’t expect the hordes will be rushing to view my aggregated weblife in a single life stream but there are some rather nice applications for this in a wider micro-blogging context.
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Filed under: Travel, Random

If you are sitting next to someone who irritates you follow these instructions:
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Filed under: Media, Random

Two complete strangers agreed to look at each other for an hour in complete silence. A lot can happen in an hour.
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Filed under: Technology

Rich Internet Applications (RIA) are gaining credibility as a buzzword in the interweb playground right now and there’s a new kid in class.
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Filed under: Photos

Our baby boy has arrived! And, if you want to see some pics, I’ve created a private photo set on Flickr for friends and family…

To gain access to these pictures, you need to be listed in my Flickr contacts. So if you’d like me to add you, let me know!

Filed under: London

Last night we stepped out of St Thomas’ Hospital into one of those perfectly beautiful summer evenings you sometimes get in London. The sort of evening where you have to slow down to an idle, almost continental, pace to soak it all up. This wasn’t particularly difficult given Claire’s current condition and so we slowly meandered alongside the River Thames towards the new Southbank Centre. We were there at the weekend to checkout Anthony Gormley’s “Blind Light” exhibition at the Hayward Gallery but didn’t stop to fully appreciate the amazing new developments to the Southbank Centre. At the time we were so taken by another of Gormley’s work - “Event Horizon” - that we took the locale for granted. Now, after last night’s stroll, I realise the surrounding buildings are integral to this work. The silhouetted figures, looking down on the Southbank scene, took on a serene and sentry-like quality as dusk descended - watching over the swarms below. The whole area has been opened up to encourage people to explore and enjoy the space. I love it.

Filed under: Media, Technology

Some of you will have already heard about Joost (formerly known as The Venice Project) - an IPTV thingy from the folks who brought us Kazaa and Skype. There has been much speculation about its implications for the media, advertising and marketing industries - bringing together the wonders of the internet and TV in one glorious multimedia dream (well - that’s what the hype will have us believe anyway). Find out more over at Wired and MIT.

Anyway - I’ve have been having a bit of a play and it looks rather nice indeed. Not that I’ll be watching TV all day - it’s all purely in the name of research, of course!

I’ve also got a bunch of beta invites for anyone who wants to check it out for themselves - just let me know your email that you want to use for your Joost account…

Filed under: London, Random

From the busy streets of Brixton, the blood red dot in the sky was beautiful but rather washed out by the orange glow of the street lights. That said - it’s not every Saturday night at 11 o’clock (when most people are more concerned about what club to go to) that you see all the people on Brixton high street looking skyward! Anyway - people in less urban settings got a fantastic show by the looks of it.

Filed under: Technology

MS Photosynth is an app or a Firefox plugin (and yes - this is a Microsoft product!) that connects to geo-coded photo sites like Flickr and enables you to browse through similar pictures in 3D. The tech preview is visually very impressive but I’ve not yet seen a real-life demo so the verdict is still open. The video of the demo does look good though.

In my mind, this represents an interesting step forward in the cross-overs between web 2.0 apps and 3d browsing. It also raises interesting questions about where Microsoft might be headed in the 3d browsing space (aka “3pointD”). Particularly considering the rumours around Google’s developments in this field - where Google Earth and SketchUp could be brought together to create a “Google Planet” - a virtual-real-world Second Life, if you will. As has been suggested - maybe, in the not-to-distant future, “every Google Account [will] include a plot of land on Google Planet?”

Filed under: London, Technology

Do I really need to blog my notes from the last two days at this year’s London FOWA event? No, I thought not.