July 18, 2007
So long
Not 'so long' as in 'goodbye', but 'so long' as in 'it's been so long since I last blogged that I almost forgot my MT login.'
And all I've got to say after three months of inactivity is: why the hell doesn't Flickr monetise its camera data with e-commerce links?
Ah, that's better. I can feel the blood circulating through my fingertips again.
February 15, 2007
Best of '06
It's a bit late in the day to be compiling 2006 best-of lists, but I've been meaning to do it for ages, so now that I have a free moment I will. In no particular order, the best things about 2006 for me were:
1. Living with Bron
2. Getting a cat
3. Getting a car
4. Leaving Orange
5. Going on vacation to San Francisco
6. Going to two weddings in Hampshire and Devon
7. Actually going to the doctor and dentist - well worth the stress
8. Live music (but not enough) - Motorhead, Julian Cope, Opeth etc.
9. Getting Sleevenotez off the ground
10. Setting up a business - Zythe.com
11. Getting a new job the same week the last one expired
12. LARPing
13. Taking up W40K again with the lads
14. Finally sorting out some new garden gates
15. Finally geting some new replacement windows
16. Hooking up with my old Bury St Edmunds school mates
17. Finishing, designing and printing my novel (twice!)
18. Discovering the Yorkshire Wolds
19. Discovering the green lanes of Suffolk
20. Nights out in York
January 09, 2007
Post-Christmas Tabs
A bit slow off the mark for this one, but Sleevenotez has been Vecosys'd. It would've been nice to say the we'd been Techcrunch'd, but in the wake of what happened between Arrington and Sethi it meant we missed our window of opportunity. Still, any coverage is better than no coverage, and I'd like to thank Mike Butcher for writing such a cogent, well-informed article.
We also got mentioned by Stephen Johnson, corporate business dev chappie at Nokia, who describes Sleevenotez as "...the shape of things to come. Not CRM, but metadata-powered M(edia) Relationship Management." Coolio! Thanks Stephen.
December 20, 2006
Pre-Christmas Tabs
Just wanted to close a couple of tabs: Paul Lamere at Sun Labs gave Sleevenotez a great write-up, saying nice things such as: 'sleevenotez will be one of the best ways to learn more about the artists that perform our favorite music'.
I've tweaked the promotional website for my novella. Now, not only is the entire text available as a free PDF, but you can subscribe to a serialised RSS feed, courtesy of the excellent FeedCycle. I've started writing a 'festive' short story set in the same world, but it's unlikely whether it'll get finished before Christmas. Too much other stuff going on - like leaving Orange tomorrow after seven years behind the bell. And not a moment too soon.
May 30, 2006
Stuff
Here's a cool HTML DOM visualisation of monoman.com.
I thought I'd made up the word 'bleggish', but it appears to also be a colour - attributed to the Hindu deity Lord Krishna:
"the only difference between Lord Balaram and Lord Krsna is Lord Balaram is white and Lord Krsna is bleggish. They are both original Supreme personalities of the Godhead."
If you haven't seen it already, this blog post has hammered a few more nails in the coffin of Web 2.0. The comments are extremely apposite, especially the one beginning "Sara Winge: I regret to inform you that me and my legal team have applied for a service mark..." And this comment echoes my feelings:
"This whole farce has demonstrated very clearly that the Web2.0(sm) phenomenon, far from being a real movement with any business value to the community at large, is being operated exclusively for the benefit of its creators and would-be owners."
As usual, Marc Canter sums up the whole affair nicely: "The term Web 2.0 belongs to all of us... [it] is built on the backs of 1,000’s of entreprenuers who are creating it."
February 15, 2006
Life update
We’ve got a cat – a lovely 7-month old female. Her coat is tortoiseshell / ginger on top with a white undercarriage. We’ve named her Piper, and she’s the cutest thing – bags of personality and confidence. She also outputs the largest turds I've ever seen - probably about half her bodyweight. Amazing. On an unrelated note, I've also bought a car, although the manufacturer and model will have to remain a mystery...
February 02, 2006
Cat-tastic
We had a home assessment by the RSPCA last night, as part of our cat acquisition programme. So after hiding the stuffed cats, mounted cats heads, cat torture chamber and cat gimp masks, the cat-obssessed RSPCA volunteer (she even brought photos of her own moggies to show us) hinted that we had probably fulfilled all their criteria. And this was confirmed today when she called to say we'd been successful. Great news. At the weekend we're going to the cat home, and hopefully we'll find one that fits *our* criteria - nice and plump, fits in the oven etc. Only joking. But it will probably have to be male, less than two years old, black or ginger, and very affectionate. Can't wait...
October 06, 2005
Web 2.0
I'm at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco this week. Web 2.0 is an internet 'meme' that emerged a year or so ago. It describes the way that the web is gradually moving away from its current passive, application-led, client-server, one-size-fits-all model, and towards one that is characterized by open standards, participation, creativity, services and personalisation. I'm blogging from the conference, in between schmoozing and queueing up for coffee. Lot's of interesting stuff happening here, and a general feeling of optimism - lots of talk of about a second Internet boom.
August 18, 2005
New Shoes Sir
I take size 11 shoes (so not exactly Captain Caveman-sized feet), but it's still hard to find decent footwear, especially older lines. So imagine my surprise when I found these in my local trainer emporium, available in size 11 only. IMO Air Max 90 Escapes are some of the fuckest-uppest Nikes on the trainer tree, so I was well chuffed.
August 16, 2005
Old Phone Graveyard
The company I work for is updating its telephone handsets. This is the consequent old phone graveyard, and here's the discarded cabling.
November 16, 2004
Longhorn Banners
Been meaning to post these photos for ages: two banners I saw while at Redmond - internal advertising for Longhorn.
July 13, 2004
Deep North
This month's masthead is entitled 'Deep North (after Layo and Bushwacka!)' You can compare and contrast it with the original cover to Low LIfe (below.) The floating bubbles were provided courtesy of Luis and Vassilios from Lessrain.
February 12, 2004
Humphrey Yogart
This is a photo that Imran took with his T610 while shopping in San Diego for iPods. It's signage for a frozen yoghurt vendor, and a real contender for worst pun known to humanity.
February 09, 2004
Meat Vienetta
Check out this 'meat Vienetta' I saw in a San Diego magazine. I preferred the mint version myself.
