A former colleague Walter Hehl in switzerland has written a book on technology futures. I had a nice list in this post of books where I get a mention or had some hand in, this is now another one. The book has some pictures I had done of Wimbledon 06 and Walter, and many of the Zurich crew had dived headlong into Second Life and virtual worlds with us in eightbar.
The cool thing about this thanks page is the company I am sandwiched between. Grady Booch, Oliver Goh, Me and Ray Kurzweil.
It gave me a real kick seeing this today.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
More book thanks:- brushing print shoulder with fame
My CV as a Tag Cloud - CV 2.0 ?
A colleague at IBM found another colleague at IBM's side project website. A tag cloud generator, and decided to pop their CV through it. It gave some really great results so I gave it a go too on wordle.net
The results are very impressive, and quite an interesting way to represent who you are and what you do.
My full public CV is linked on the right of this post, it was the source for this.
If may be an interesting way to look at what people have written and decide if they fit in a role that you have or compare tag clouds of jobs versus people.
I suspect there are not that many tag cloud position descriptions that would match with this one though (he said modestly)
The results are very impressive, and quite an interesting way to represent who you are and what you do.
My full public CV is linked on the right of this post, it was the source for this.
If may be an interesting way to look at what people have written and decide if they fit in a role that you have or compare tag clouds of jobs versus people.
I suspect there are not that many tag cloud position descriptions that would match with this one though (he said modestly)
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Radio control car with motion tracking headset - Awesome
On the gadget show last night they had this awesome radio controlled car. An in car camera, but one that responds to your head movements and tracks what you want to look at. It projects the incar view to you on a visor headset. Fantastic stuff.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Glassdoor, public salaries and does that add up?
I have become intrigued by glassdoor.com and I am not the only one I should imagine. It aims to help demystify salaries and employee opinion by gathering mass contributions in a web2.0 ugc style.
Clearly this taps into the whole trend for sharing, and one that I am usually quite happy to go along with. Indeed I think that openess in organization atleast on salary when performance is said to be relative to your peers when rated, yet the results are secret seems a bit barmy to me.
However the openess on pay has to be across the board, a few of us volunteering publicly to share will simply be used as a weapon by those who choose not to share.
The anonymous nature of glassdoor tries a different approach. Many corporates benchmark themselves against the wages and benefits of others, but again its cloak and dagger stuff. I mean that information in the hands of a potentially disgruntled workforce leads to all sort of problems for those attempting to keep control of the purse strings. A prime example if the current petrol tanker drivers strike. Fuel companies have to publicly declare their earnings and massive profits, also maybe the bonuses of bosses to shareholders for accountability. Well, thats public information and sure enough those workers down the food chain will say "where is my share?"
However, getting back to glassdoor. There is another side effect that will happen. Clearly people who share what they earn will feel underpaid and be wanting to prove it in general. If the mass amount of data on the site is people who feel underpaid and undervalued then the averages will be low. Those averages will then not help those salaries increase? The opposite may be only the very well paid confess, as an anonymous blag "loadsamoney" style. That make the average insanely high and makes the actually average paid not to badly done by population annoyed along with the undervalued.
Of course the way around this is not individual action, but companies publishing all their salaries, but that is very unlikely to happen.
So we are left with something that really should work, should be done, but seems to be in a place that would take a politician from the West Wing tv programme to sort out.
Yes I have shared mine on there, mainly to feel what it feels like to give that information. Its never really gone well if I have discussed my salary with anyone. People with less experience are bound to think its too much, people with more experience laugh at it and remember back, people with the same or near experience...well they are in competition so who on earth believes anyone.
Lets see where this one goes.
Clearly this taps into the whole trend for sharing, and one that I am usually quite happy to go along with. Indeed I think that openess in organization atleast on salary when performance is said to be relative to your peers when rated, yet the results are secret seems a bit barmy to me.
However the openess on pay has to be across the board, a few of us volunteering publicly to share will simply be used as a weapon by those who choose not to share.
The anonymous nature of glassdoor tries a different approach. Many corporates benchmark themselves against the wages and benefits of others, but again its cloak and dagger stuff. I mean that information in the hands of a potentially disgruntled workforce leads to all sort of problems for those attempting to keep control of the purse strings. A prime example if the current petrol tanker drivers strike. Fuel companies have to publicly declare their earnings and massive profits, also maybe the bonuses of bosses to shareholders for accountability. Well, thats public information and sure enough those workers down the food chain will say "where is my share?"
However, getting back to glassdoor. There is another side effect that will happen. Clearly people who share what they earn will feel underpaid and be wanting to prove it in general. If the mass amount of data on the site is people who feel underpaid and undervalued then the averages will be low. Those averages will then not help those salaries increase? The opposite may be only the very well paid confess, as an anonymous blag "loadsamoney" style. That make the average insanely high and makes the actually average paid not to badly done by population annoyed along with the undervalued.
Of course the way around this is not individual action, but companies publishing all their salaries, but that is very unlikely to happen.
So we are left with something that really should work, should be done, but seems to be in a place that would take a politician from the West Wing tv programme to sort out.
Yes I have shared mine on there, mainly to feel what it feels like to give that information. Its never really gone well if I have discussed my salary with anyone. People with less experience are bound to think its too much, people with more experience laugh at it and remember back, people with the same or near experience...well they are in competition so who on earth believes anyone.
Lets see where this one goes.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Wow I am in a lot of books
I just did a quick count up of the number of books I have made it into in various ways the past 2 years. I have kept fairly up to date with references on delicious to epredator I keep a pile of press cuttings and pamphlets to show the grand predlet's one day, and also to remind me of what an amazing time this has been with virtual worlds, IBM and of course Second Life in particular as Ian Hughes/epredator/epredator potato. So, by way of personal ego massage and plug for some great books here goes:
Second Lives by Tim Guest - A major part of the chapter on the rise of corporate interest in virtual worlds and of course Wimbledon
The Making of Second Life by Wagner James Au - A very kind mention in the list of thanks, something I did not expect as much of the great stuff in this book is before my time as epredator potato.
Eating the IT elephant by Richard Hopkins and Keving Jenkins - A nice credit suggesting I was helping put the final nails in the coffin of powerpoint architectures.
Second Life the Official Guide (Second Edition) (by lots of folks) - Not seen a copy yet, but I appear to be in the index (*update my copy arrived today from Amazon and ther is a shiny new whole page on epredator potato, thanks to Wagner James Au again as I now remember the vignette I wrote for the page)
A brand new book on marketing 2.0 on its way to the publisher as I type.
It seems I should write my own book, or maybe I should save that for when its all business as usual :-)
Second Lives by Tim Guest - A major part of the chapter on the rise of corporate interest in virtual worlds and of course Wimbledon
The Making of Second Life by Wagner James Au - A very kind mention in the list of thanks, something I did not expect as much of the great stuff in this book is before my time as epredator potato.
Eating the IT elephant by Richard Hopkins and Keving Jenkins - A nice credit suggesting I was helping put the final nails in the coffin of powerpoint architectures.
Second Life the Official Guide (Second Edition) (by lots of folks) - Not seen a copy yet, but I appear to be in the index (*update my copy arrived today from Amazon and ther is a shiny new whole page on epredator potato, thanks to Wagner James Au again as I now remember the vignette I wrote for the page)
A brand new book on marketing 2.0 on its way to the publisher as I type.
It seems I should write my own book, or maybe I should save that for when its all business as usual :-)
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Yikes £1.19 a Litre
Enough said really. Very expensive to move around these days. If only we have some sort of way to communicate as humans, yet still feel the presence of others, we could call it a metaverse or something.
Monday, June 09, 2008
It's amusing when the sky schedule display combines in such ways
This happens a lot, either the names are truncated on the on screen viewer in amusing ways, or two programmes flow into one another as a concept.
One to look out for :-)
Saturday, June 07, 2008
NakedGun GTAIV skit from games radar
Thankyou to Michael Buckbee for tweeting this
The guys at gamesradar have the full article here, but as they allow embedds, the video is here. The intro sequence to Naked Gun/Police Squad in GTAIV. Sheer genius.
The guys at gamesradar have the full article here, but as they allow embedds, the video is here. The intro sequence to Naked Gun/Police Squad in GTAIV. Sheer genius.
I wish all my avatars had this attitude - Rockband
This is video of epredator on guitar. Green spikey hair (the consistent thread across worlds where possible) but its an awesome avatar. Nice work by Harmonix to allow this sort of customization. Check out Rockband.com
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Rockband epredator and elemming
Green spikey hair is the order of the day in Rockband for epredator. Some more work is needed on the eightbar tatoo (not seen here). elemming has discovered a talent for the drums.
Our band is called "say ta" as thats what we keep saying to predlet2.0 to get him to say thankyou :-)
We rock BTW :-)
Friday, May 30, 2008
Lets rock
I got back from the family holiday and the huge rock band instruments pack had arrived. I have only had a fleeting go on it as I managed to catch some bug on holiday, all these planes and travelling take their toll in the end.
First impressions. It does indeed rock. Mrs Epred a.k.a. elemming loved the drums.
I did a bit of custom avatar work to get my green spikey hair and an eightbar tatoo. More of that later on eightbar when I catch up on this being away backlog.
I also Downloaded the oasis songs, wonderwall and rock and roll star.
So I have not played gtaIv for 3 weeks or so and now have rockband and a slighlty over committed punishing work and life schedule looming.
Still thats what 2am is for.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Day 2 at CTRE in the desert, mummys, drums, rafts and country and western
The second full day at the Arizona Biltmore was even more packed than yesterday. Up at the crack of dawn, well 7:30am and off to breakfast.
The morning session was hosted by Nick Donofrio, who is retiring this year. This being his last CTRE was something of an emotional time as he has been quite an influence on many of the technical great and good in the company. So this was the start of a goodbye from Nick, though as he pointed out he is not really going anywhere.
We then had two guest speakers. The first was Dr Zahi Hawass. He is the "real life Indiana Jones" from Egypt. He has a fantastic passion and enthusiasm for archeaolgy and history. He presented a set of photos, but in fact it was his delivery and story telling that captivated the audience. I have seen him a good few times on TV including the live events in the valley of the kings. He explained some great pieces of detective work from both traditional methods and blending with CAT scanners and a DNA lab he now has.
It was interesting to hear a person with a passion for something for so long speak about it. It was also interesting the semi relunctant fame, but loving it really, that he alluded to. Clearly he is a public figure with some mad internet true stories about secret tunnels leading from his office bathroom to the great pyramids where they say he hides finds for later.
Our second speaker and performer was Angelique Kidjo. As a multiple grammy award winning musical perfomer of "world music" she and her band did a fantastic set with a mixture of songs and of monologue from Kidjo about her life and her wish to make good thigns happen for her native country of Benin and for the african continent. She even got a room full of IBMers singing along with her. She is very hard to ignore and as a UN ambassador she is clearly having the influence she wants. Her foundation Batonga is the focus of much of this passion, mainly to improve Africa through the education of women.
After that rousing start to the morning we all headed out for lunch and then to the afternoon activites.
We headed out on a inflatable raft drifting down the salt river
It was pretty relaxing really, we say all sorts of wildlife (as we were the first raft down in raft number 13). Horses, Bald Eagles and some locals having a swim.
On coming back from the trip we sat and drink beer in the sun with Andy, Kath and Daz hearing tales of their trip.
Then it was off to put on the suit and tie for the gala evening. In the massive ballroom we all had allocated tables and an allocated exec. The warm up act was a guy doing some brilliant musical impressions, singing all the parts of we are the world. He was very very good. I really like impressionist acts, but I think everyone enjoyed it.
Then was the slighlty more official bye bye to Nick. He was presented with a poster of him running, but done as a photo mosaic of all the attendee photos. We were on the table next doo to Nick's right at the front and you could tell he really was moved by it all. It also meant I got atleast to chake his hand and thank him for his influence on me and us all. Its cool we are all going to be hanging on his wall somewhere watching on.
The evening then kicked off big time (after a fantastic meal of scallops, beef and baked alaska + wine) when the guest act turned up. Lean Rimes came on stage and did a fantastic set. I am not a massive country and western fan, though I have heard a lot of it. she is atleast a bit more contempary. Though any live music of this sort if bound to be good. I know we really enjoyed this gig.
A good night was had by all, we returned to the room to find we had a pewter photo frame in the style of Frank Lloyd-Wrights work at the Bilmore hotel.
The next day was departure day, but before the 10 hour overnight flight back we went out and about with Andy and Kath to Scottsdale's old town. On the way we saw a very unusual ornament on the back of a truck
We got home ok, though jet lag coming back is never pleasant. I did get a chance to both write this, uplaid some photos to flickr the full set is here if you are interested
I also put a load of video together of the Hummer tour from the previous post. It includes at around 1 min 44 the snake wrangling.
The morning session was hosted by Nick Donofrio, who is retiring this year. This being his last CTRE was something of an emotional time as he has been quite an influence on many of the technical great and good in the company. So this was the start of a goodbye from Nick, though as he pointed out he is not really going anywhere.
We then had two guest speakers. The first was Dr Zahi Hawass. He is the "real life Indiana Jones" from Egypt. He has a fantastic passion and enthusiasm for archeaolgy and history. He presented a set of photos, but in fact it was his delivery and story telling that captivated the audience. I have seen him a good few times on TV including the live events in the valley of the kings. He explained some great pieces of detective work from both traditional methods and blending with CAT scanners and a DNA lab he now has.
It was interesting to hear a person with a passion for something for so long speak about it. It was also interesting the semi relunctant fame, but loving it really, that he alluded to. Clearly he is a public figure with some mad internet true stories about secret tunnels leading from his office bathroom to the great pyramids where they say he hides finds for later.
Our second speaker and performer was Angelique Kidjo. As a multiple grammy award winning musical perfomer of "world music" she and her band did a fantastic set with a mixture of songs and of monologue from Kidjo about her life and her wish to make good thigns happen for her native country of Benin and for the african continent. She even got a room full of IBMers singing along with her. She is very hard to ignore and as a UN ambassador she is clearly having the influence she wants. Her foundation Batonga is the focus of much of this passion, mainly to improve Africa through the education of women.
After that rousing start to the morning we all headed out for lunch and then to the afternoon activites.
We headed out on a inflatable raft drifting down the salt river
It was pretty relaxing really, we say all sorts of wildlife (as we were the first raft down in raft number 13). Horses, Bald Eagles and some locals having a swim.
On coming back from the trip we sat and drink beer in the sun with Andy, Kath and Daz hearing tales of their trip.
Then it was off to put on the suit and tie for the gala evening. In the massive ballroom we all had allocated tables and an allocated exec. The warm up act was a guy doing some brilliant musical impressions, singing all the parts of we are the world. He was very very good. I really like impressionist acts, but I think everyone enjoyed it.
Then was the slighlty more official bye bye to Nick. He was presented with a poster of him running, but done as a photo mosaic of all the attendee photos. We were on the table next doo to Nick's right at the front and you could tell he really was moved by it all. It also meant I got atleast to chake his hand and thank him for his influence on me and us all. Its cool we are all going to be hanging on his wall somewhere watching on.
The evening then kicked off big time (after a fantastic meal of scallops, beef and baked alaska + wine) when the guest act turned up. Lean Rimes came on stage and did a fantastic set. I am not a massive country and western fan, though I have heard a lot of it. she is atleast a bit more contempary. Though any live music of this sort if bound to be good. I know we really enjoyed this gig.
A good night was had by all, we returned to the room to find we had a pewter photo frame in the style of Frank Lloyd-Wrights work at the Bilmore hotel.
The next day was departure day, but before the 10 hour overnight flight back we went out and about with Andy and Kath to Scottsdale's old town. On the way we saw a very unusual ornament on the back of a truck
We got home ok, though jet lag coming back is never pleasant. I did get a chance to both write this, uplaid some photos to flickr the full set is here if you are interested
I also put a load of video together of the Hummer tour from the previous post. It includes at around 1 min 44 the snake wrangling.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Full Day at the cool award trip in Arizona - Defying Limits
This first full day of CTRE after a night of relaxed reception last night started with an early breakfast, seemingly too early but what can you do!
We then had a 4 hour morning session. The main speaker was Frans Johansson author of the medici effect. A great presenter, I was sort of taking notes mentally in the delivery. His main point is that real ideas and innovation comes from diverse and apparently unrelated teams. Much of what he said was preaching to the converted. The theme being defying limits.
I already had by defacing my badge with my moo sticker.
Then we had SJP (the IBM chairman/CEO) pop along and give a more financial related pitch. It was a good one, he was as per usual relaxed and natural on stage. Threw in a good few jokes as well.
Next was all the new fellows, then some extra awards of 20-30k awards to people for cool things and patents.
It was a good sport to guess what them music they played for each award. e.g. telecoms people they played "hanging on the telephone" and automative "Cars" by Gary Newman.
Then it was the afternoon activities after a very very quick lunch.
For us a hummer ride in the Arizona desert.
We were on with a few other people, Daz, Andy Bravery and fellow metaverser Paul Moody.
This was very cool, mainly because our driver was from a race car driving family aswell as having some good tales to tell and being a very in control driver off road.
Tonight is off for a quiet meal, its our 13th wedding anniversary on this 13th of may. Seems to have been pretty lucky so far.
What has been cool has seeing so many faces and names I have heard of or interacted with in some way. IBM Fellows and VP's all over the place.
As with all these things there are people who really should be here too, but there are about 500 IBMers from the technical community here. Whilst this clearly is a jolly I hope that its something other people will see as a good thing, we get to swap ideas and put faces to names, spread the word and get more people aspiring to stuff like this.
The main message was to just do what we all do already, ignore the rubbish, the pointless processes etc. Just try things and it will pay off in the end. So I feel I am here with a load of slightly rogue operators, kindred spirits. Which is a good thing.
Of course the one thing that really annoyed me was that in the relaxing room they have some sweets and soda's etc.
However I was disappointed at this.
Now on my rock and roll rider I specifically asked for the blue m&m's to be removed! dont they know who I am !
We then had a 4 hour morning session. The main speaker was Frans Johansson author of the medici effect. A great presenter, I was sort of taking notes mentally in the delivery. His main point is that real ideas and innovation comes from diverse and apparently unrelated teams. Much of what he said was preaching to the converted. The theme being defying limits.
I already had by defacing my badge with my moo sticker.
Then we had SJP (the IBM chairman/CEO) pop along and give a more financial related pitch. It was a good one, he was as per usual relaxed and natural on stage. Threw in a good few jokes as well.
Next was all the new fellows, then some extra awards of 20-30k awards to people for cool things and patents.
It was a good sport to guess what them music they played for each award. e.g. telecoms people they played "hanging on the telephone" and automative "Cars" by Gary Newman.
Then it was the afternoon activities after a very very quick lunch.
For us a hummer ride in the Arizona desert.
We were on with a few other people, Daz, Andy Bravery and fellow metaverser Paul Moody.
This was very cool, mainly because our driver was from a race car driving family aswell as having some good tales to tell and being a very in control driver off road.
Tonight is off for a quiet meal, its our 13th wedding anniversary on this 13th of may. Seems to have been pretty lucky so far.
What has been cool has seeing so many faces and names I have heard of or interacted with in some way. IBM Fellows and VP's all over the place.
As with all these things there are people who really should be here too, but there are about 500 IBMers from the technical community here. Whilst this clearly is a jolly I hope that its something other people will see as a good thing, we get to swap ideas and put faces to names, spread the word and get more people aspiring to stuff like this.
The main message was to just do what we all do already, ignore the rubbish, the pointless processes etc. Just try things and it will pay off in the end. So I feel I am here with a load of slightly rogue operators, kindred spirits. Which is a good thing.
Of course the one thing that really annoyed me was that in the relaxing room they have some sweets and soda's etc.
However I was disappointed at this.
Now on my rock and roll rider I specifically asked for the blue m&m's to be removed! dont they know who I am !
Monday, May 12, 2008
Arizona, yes I am here in Real Life
I am on a work award trip at the moment. Its the fabulous Arizona Biltmore Spa and resort in Phoenix. This morning we went and had breakfast sat in the warm sun and took a walk around taking lots of photos I was just using my mini pentax camera, but wish I had brought a bigger camera to get those magical shots that I know are lurking.
The next few days are a mix of work gatherings, and some recreational activities. Sounds quite packed.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Two bands I realy rate ATM :- pendulum and the ting tings
Yes ok, I am getting on a bit but I am still down with the kidz. Being part of generation V means that I dont care if I am the right demographic.
Two things that have got into my head, in particular for prepping for the next few weeks travelling. In no particular order
1. Pendulum. Their new album In silico is on its way the next few days. The song Propane Nightmares is awesome. A mix of electronic and pure rock (probably has some trendy name). I did get a bit confused in that it really has the same hook as smoke on the water as this mini mashup illustrates but dont let that detract from the power of this bands work. The itunes pre-order has a preview track of the entire album. Its catchy, grnungy, a bit punk and resonates with me.
2. The Ting Tings. I was so convinced this was a completely different sort of band when I heard the first Great DJ song. I liked it, it had a hook, but now I have seen them perform, a 2 part band drummer and lead they are amazing. I had no idea they were from Manchester either. Not that that makes a difference.
I was watching The Ting Tings on the red button replays of the BBC radio 1 Big weekend. Two years ago (hear comes some linkage flow) I was at the Second Life BBC radio 1 gig for the same event. It was a formative time. Now on the same day I am sitting watching some bands and about to hit the airport for an award trip to Phoenix as a result of me bringin my company to Second Life and virtual worlds and looking for new music for my ipod.
Of extra interest was that the Ting Tings website says that they are playing habbo hotel on monday! They also have bebo, myspace and facebook presences. It seems its not just their music that I am dran to but their choice of how to reach their audience. Maybe I will get to see them live, though its unlikely as its hard with kids to go to gigs.
Anyway, I am looking forward to both albums immensely!
The power and passion that the two of them put in to deliver some awesome sounds it brilliant. Driving live drum and a haunting and passionate lead singer.
Two things that have got into my head, in particular for prepping for the next few weeks travelling. In no particular order
1. Pendulum. Their new album In silico is on its way the next few days. The song Propane Nightmares is awesome. A mix of electronic and pure rock (probably has some trendy name). I did get a bit confused in that it really has the same hook as smoke on the water as this mini mashup illustrates but dont let that detract from the power of this bands work. The itunes pre-order has a preview track of the entire album. Its catchy, grnungy, a bit punk and resonates with me.
2. The Ting Tings. I was so convinced this was a completely different sort of band when I heard the first Great DJ song. I liked it, it had a hook, but now I have seen them perform, a 2 part band drummer and lead they are amazing. I had no idea they were from Manchester either. Not that that makes a difference.
I was watching The Ting Tings on the red button replays of the BBC radio 1 Big weekend. Two years ago (hear comes some linkage flow) I was at the Second Life BBC radio 1 gig for the same event. It was a formative time. Now on the same day I am sitting watching some bands and about to hit the airport for an award trip to Phoenix as a result of me bringin my company to Second Life and virtual worlds and looking for new music for my ipod.
Of extra interest was that the Ting Tings website says that they are playing habbo hotel on monday! They also have bebo, myspace and facebook presences. It seems its not just their music that I am dran to but their choice of how to reach their audience. Maybe I will get to see them live, though its unlikely as its hard with kids to go to gigs.
Anyway, I am looking forward to both albums immensely!
The power and passion that the two of them put in to deliver some awesome sounds it brilliant. Driving live drum and a haunting and passionate lead singer.
Bronze for public transport !
Odd that I rarely use public transport (cue a jeremy clarkson style rant) however in liberty city in GTA IV my socialclub.rockstargames.com profile is showing I have achieved a mini goal in the meta game of marathon.
(Drive 4,000 miles, walk 400 etc)
Attention to detail GTA IV splat
Admist all the bullet holes, dented fenders and blown tyres in GTA IV there are still some details that I think are pretty cool. Even after getting about 50% through and loads of hours/days of play I noticed last night a lttle splat on the side of my car. As it slid around a corner I had caught a stander by, but I though they just bounced off. No it turns out they left a slight mark on my side panel.
Brilliant, if not a little gory.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Saucepan head GTA IV
The title says it all really. There are some people in liberty city who have an interesting choice in headgear. In this case a saucepan.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Mod for rocket day
Here is my rocket mod for rocket day. A radio controlled disk propeller, no steering, but with the cardboard rocket bolted on top.
It flew ok in the field :-) Though home testing afterward broke it.
Without the weight it flys much better :-)
Rocket - Check those production values
We are having the second (not quite so annual as it was about 4 years ago) rocket launching work event with the Hursley Emerging Tech crew.
I am going for the most unusual category, not the most technically accomplished.
I had to do a last minute bit of changing the way I was approaching this bit of fun. The rocket I bought and was going to custom up turned out to be one that needed solid fuel motors. It was a cheap rocket, but clearly not in the rules of this particular event.
So it was poster paint, stickers and a toilet roll insert to the ready.
This is a component of the top secret approach that will be revealed this afternoon.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
GTAIV Special Edition
Its here, its good. can't type need to explore.
Yes alright its just a game, but having been a game player since the late 70's they have to be very special events to get this excited about.
This one is an event, it is a very very impressive piece of work, but it is also a very expressive environment to explore.
The early parts are really training missions, you have to do those to get the thing to open up even more.
For all the swearing and violence its the carry on style innendo that gets me laughing. The adverts and the tv stations in the apartment. Priceless, well written and completely tongue in cheek.
Not one for the predlets though not too shocking for regular adults I would say :-)
Monday, April 28, 2008
We7 regional lockout
I was happy to see that we7.com seems to have started to break some of the insane restrictive practice of many of the record companies. Having a mix of buy the track or get the track for free plus an advert, in non DRM mp3 format makes sense to me. Downloading tracks is a bit like radio but with choice. Even the non somercial radios spend a while advertizing their gigs and shows.
The minor problem (that they do admit) is the stupid things of "this song is not avaulable in you region). The restrictive practice plagues the games industry. Trying to force some element of zoning on the world to maximize a fake revenue stream at the expense of the customer. When product was physical and had to be manufactured and shipped it made sense that there was a limit to how many units of x, y or z you could deliver. In the long tail of digital content it makes no difference. All it does is annoy customers (in a bad way not a generation of demand way).
If I was an artists I woudl be saying, hell no just let anyone buy my stuff wherever they are.
Still I am sure the powers that be have a much better handle on this than me.
I hope we7 are succesful as they (backed by peter garbriel) seem to be on the side of the conten creators, the artists. They are the ones I want to pay, and I am happy to pay for good stuff.
The minor problem (that they do admit) is the stupid things of "this song is not avaulable in you region). The restrictive practice plagues the games industry. Trying to force some element of zoning on the world to maximize a fake revenue stream at the expense of the customer. When product was physical and had to be manufactured and shipped it made sense that there was a limit to how many units of x, y or z you could deliver. In the long tail of digital content it makes no difference. All it does is annoy customers (in a bad way not a generation of demand way).
If I was an artists I woudl be saying, hell no just let anyone buy my stuff wherever they are.
Still I am sure the powers that be have a much better handle on this than me.
I hope we7 are succesful as they (backed by peter garbriel) seem to be on the side of the conten creators, the artists. They are the ones I want to pay, and I am happy to pay for good stuff.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Champagne on a weekday?
I recently twittered that we had cracked open a bottle of champagne here at the chez epred. Now there was a legitimate reason, but not one that is mine explain, but it was worth celebrating a little.
However another reason was the installation that day of my CurrentCost meter.
This handy device is sweeping through the people at Hursley. Its a very simply principle. It tells you how much electricity you use and how much it costs, but in a way that makes tech geeks happy.
The device has a transmitting element with an inductance loop around (but not cutting) the main line into the house. It then uses RF to communicate to a base station as in the picture.
That station tracks and displays the usage. As you turn stuff on the meter shows the house wattage usage and relates that to a cost.
Hey what about the champagne? I hear you type in comments.
Well.... I noticed a little spike in the energy now, yet nothing where I was was kicking in, out fridge, boiler etc were silent at the time. Then I remembered our christmas spare fridge/freezer in the garage. We tend yo need this for overflow at holiday times, for beer and icecream and the odd turkey. That fridge was still on and had decided to kick in and make itself known.
There were a few things in the fridge, most notably a bottle of Lanson champers. So, to reduce the cost, save the planet and so as not to waste all the cooling that had occured I decided to crack the bottle open.
Whilst the device uses power, and we are also all hooking it up to a nano broker to send the information on a pub sub system to help Andy SC and co test things, it does actually make you pay more attention. Hence reducing the electricity usage, or atleast becoming aware of what does what.
Its a pity there was only 1 bottle in the fridge :-)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Countdown to Grand Theft Auto IV
One of the most exciting gaming events I can remember is due to happen on 29th April with the worldwide and multi-platform release of Grand Theft Auto IV
I have had this thing on pre-order since the first day it appeared on Amazon, though strangely I selected the PS3 version back then. The reason.... well I assumed that by the time it came out the PS3 would be the most rocking platform. However a year down the line and its still the Xbox where my gaming collegues are. I had a minor panic in that realizing I wanted the 360 version this close in was going to mean not getting one. However ordering the insane special edition (something I dont normally do) seems to secure an order. I may yet be proved wrong. Being a bigger package it may take longer to get to me. Still its just a game right?
I have enjoyed GTA since its top down days. It was an old school massive 4 way scrolling car game. I particularly loved these games like super sprint, GTA had a great handbrake action. Already back then it was quite free roaming and seemed far larger a map than most other games.
By the time it had graduated across the first next gen consoles it had turned into a very intersting mix of sandbox and missons and actually a great way to consume music.
Even on the PSP Vice City Stories I find it great to tune into a radio station and raz around listening to tunes from my yoof :-) Yay for the 80's.
I am looking forward to the masses of tiny details in this new incarnation. I am sure there will be much of the same, but that is not a bad thing as the same means "alot" in GTA.
Having signed up for the rockstar social club it is clear they have some interesting links with the real world planned. Namely a hint that if you hear a track inworld, you can text a mobile service in world and have the track identified and placed on your external web page for purchase and download on Amazon S3. A nice touch!
The potential multiplayer sounds good too, cops and robbers in particular.
Anyone releaseing a game in the next few weeks I think will have a tough time. Plus the variety of gameplay and immersion from previous experience, takes the time away from everything else.
The reviews have been great too already. Thats not always a good sign, but Edge loved it and the 360 magazine gave it one of those rare 10's. So I am fairly certain all the delays, hype etc are going to be worth it.
If not.... well they will make a lot of money, but it will be the last time :-)
I have had this thing on pre-order since the first day it appeared on Amazon, though strangely I selected the PS3 version back then. The reason.... well I assumed that by the time it came out the PS3 would be the most rocking platform. However a year down the line and its still the Xbox where my gaming collegues are. I had a minor panic in that realizing I wanted the 360 version this close in was going to mean not getting one. However ordering the insane special edition (something I dont normally do) seems to secure an order. I may yet be proved wrong. Being a bigger package it may take longer to get to me. Still its just a game right?
I have enjoyed GTA since its top down days. It was an old school massive 4 way scrolling car game. I particularly loved these games like super sprint, GTA had a great handbrake action. Already back then it was quite free roaming and seemed far larger a map than most other games.
By the time it had graduated across the first next gen consoles it had turned into a very intersting mix of sandbox and missons and actually a great way to consume music.
Even on the PSP Vice City Stories I find it great to tune into a radio station and raz around listening to tunes from my yoof :-) Yay for the 80's.
I am looking forward to the masses of tiny details in this new incarnation. I am sure there will be much of the same, but that is not a bad thing as the same means "alot" in GTA.
Having signed up for the rockstar social club it is clear they have some interesting links with the real world planned. Namely a hint that if you hear a track inworld, you can text a mobile service in world and have the track identified and placed on your external web page for purchase and download on Amazon S3. A nice touch!
The potential multiplayer sounds good too, cops and robbers in particular.
Anyone releaseing a game in the next few weeks I think will have a tough time. Plus the variety of gameplay and immersion from previous experience, takes the time away from everything else.
The reviews have been great too already. Thats not always a good sign, but Edge loved it and the 360 magazine gave it one of those rare 10's. So I am fairly certain all the delays, hype etc are going to be worth it.
If not.... well they will make a lot of money, but it will be the last time :-)
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Predator Mii
My version of a predator mii complete with sighting spot top left often left out in other mii's
Sunday, April 13, 2008
A new sofa, a bit of a departure
We just ordered a new Sofa. Oddly these things still take 12 weeks to make even in this day and age.
We have a more brown toned down colour than this vibrant red, but we have never had a leather sofa, nor one that is on legs, usually a more traditional boxed in couch.
The headrests are also more like a car one in that they are removable but on metal stalks.
We also have a chez long as part of the order, though they called it a day bed in the shop :-)
We are not getting all this, the house is not big enough, but some parts in this style to replace the very saggy 10 year old sofa we have now
Friday, April 11, 2008
I am loving this - music mashup and chain of discovery - The Anomalies
Whilst in the rock and roll metaverse meetup in the NY lower east side I got chatting with "Eric Reuters". We had not met in real life. As part of the old fashioned way we swapped cards and then emails.
Eric put me on to this awesome video on youtube. A brilliant mashup of rap over the top of a complete version of the predator movie in 6 minutes. It is both very clever and took a lot of time and effort to do.
I appreciate this on several levels. The first is a while back I ws trying to boil films down to the key scenes for a range of t-shirts called "under the influence" the closest I got to doing this was a montage that I use as a backdrop on twitter.
Secondly is the predator movie :-)
Thirdly, it was from a contact in Second Life and we were meeting in RL in the middle of a party scene of fellow metarati.
Fourth I was berated a little by DJ Astrud Sand for my last.fm music list as there was nothing new on it (partially because I had not been scrobbling much and the fact I had a mix up on accounts so I am vepredator on there. It turns out that this video was created by the members of a new band called The Anomalies.
I popped over to their myspace page and I must say I liked what I heard, so I will scrobble that when I get to my home machine and feedback into the loop of conversation from the lower east side party.
So in one fell swoop this has covered Second Life,real life New York, Last.fm, web2.0, web1.0, UK bands, Predator, mashups,youtube, myspace, itunes, rock and roll parties and serendipity.
That's exciting I think.
Anyway here is the video, listen how the lines rhyme from the rap to the parts of the film and the great line "so he set of a bomb, cos they don't like losing where the predator comes from"
They also have a website in an old fashioned way :-)
Eric put me on to this awesome video on youtube. A brilliant mashup of rap over the top of a complete version of the predator movie in 6 minutes. It is both very clever and took a lot of time and effort to do.
I appreciate this on several levels. The first is a while back I ws trying to boil films down to the key scenes for a range of t-shirts called "under the influence" the closest I got to doing this was a montage that I use as a backdrop on twitter.
Secondly is the predator movie :-)
Thirdly, it was from a contact in Second Life and we were meeting in RL in the middle of a party scene of fellow metarati.
Fourth I was berated a little by DJ Astrud Sand for my last.fm music list as there was nothing new on it (partially because I had not been scrobbling much and the fact I had a mix up on accounts so I am vepredator on there. It turns out that this video was created by the members of a new band called The Anomalies.
I popped over to their myspace page and I must say I liked what I heard, so I will scrobble that when I get to my home machine and feedback into the loop of conversation from the lower east side party.
So in one fell swoop this has covered Second Life,real life New York, Last.fm, web2.0, web1.0, UK bands, Predator, mashups,youtube, myspace, itunes, rock and roll parties and serendipity.
That's exciting I think.
Anyway here is the video, listen how the lines rhyme from the rap to the parts of the film and the great line "so he set of a bomb, cos they don't like losing where the predator comes from"
They also have a website in an old fashioned way :-)
Rock-Pig - Very funny this one
I have been mentioning how we have thought of ourselves as all rock and roll as metaverse people, and of course we are :-) and that the Nickelback rockstar song is a tongue in cheek anthem now.
Well Andy's son has gone and gone the guinea pig version. Always good for a laugh and I do like this.
Well Andy's son has gone and gone the guinea pig version. Always good for a laugh and I do like this.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Virtual Worlds 2008 - The after show parties
Ok so conferences are a subtle blend of business and social. The virtual world conferences tend to have quite a large element of social. The medium we are working in, namely metaverses is inherently about connecting people. It is also a growing. but young industry so there are many "movers and shakers" who care passionately about it all.
The first nights party saw many of us wander along to the Electric Sheep Company offices in Manhattan. There was some fantastic buffet food, a very generous bar (featuring Jack Daniels amongst other things) and out back was Rockband set up on the Xbox. I particularly enjoyed getting to play Rockband as we dont have it in the UK yet and I am a Guitar Hero fan. Of course the blend of timezones, late nights and the previously mentioned JD may have affected my musical skills and coordination, but I did really enjoy the gathering. Thanks muchly ESC.
The second evening was a very late one, Ids and I made our way down to the Lit bar in the lower east side to a metaverse meetup arranged by Annie Ok and Jerry Paffendorf. There were a stack of people there who are very active in creating and using Second Life and other metaverse tech. Annie has a particularly good set of pictures in her set here there is also a generic metaverse meetup group here
I did not get to take any video as it was very dark in the Lit bar. However Xantherus has made lots of videos of the Virtual Lower East vLes.com side that she worked on for MTV that was announced live at the conference.
Here is one video with Annie narrating :-)
I mused earlier on the difference between the almost grunge rock and roll chic atmosphere of the East coast metaverse scene versus the more techno cleanliness that seems to exists in the rich silicon valley west coast culture. I then merge that with out UK, Hursley countryside geekdom. It shows that there is somethine for everyone in the metaverse business.
Sifu pointed out at the conference he was expecting more cos-play apart from em that was as he pointed out I sort of do that all the time with my eightbar shirt and leather striped jacket.
Anyway it was good to see everyone, the 2am Macdonalds with Idz after the party really did show NY is the city that never sleeps. Though strangely the next day (Saturday) it was strange to find Macy's not open until 10 am.
The first nights party saw many of us wander along to the Electric Sheep Company offices in Manhattan. There was some fantastic buffet food, a very generous bar (featuring Jack Daniels amongst other things) and out back was Rockband set up on the Xbox. I particularly enjoyed getting to play Rockband as we dont have it in the UK yet and I am a Guitar Hero fan. Of course the blend of timezones, late nights and the previously mentioned JD may have affected my musical skills and coordination, but I did really enjoy the gathering. Thanks muchly ESC.
The second evening was a very late one, Ids and I made our way down to the Lit bar in the lower east side to a metaverse meetup arranged by Annie Ok and Jerry Paffendorf. There were a stack of people there who are very active in creating and using Second Life and other metaverse tech. Annie has a particularly good set of pictures in her set here there is also a generic metaverse meetup group here
I did not get to take any video as it was very dark in the Lit bar. However Xantherus has made lots of videos of the Virtual Lower East vLes.com side that she worked on for MTV that was announced live at the conference.
Here is one video with Annie narrating :-)
I mused earlier on the difference between the almost grunge rock and roll chic atmosphere of the East coast metaverse scene versus the more techno cleanliness that seems to exists in the rich silicon valley west coast culture. I then merge that with out UK, Hursley countryside geekdom. It shows that there is somethine for everyone in the metaverse business.
Sifu pointed out at the conference he was expecting more cos-play apart from em that was as he pointed out I sort of do that all the time with my eightbar shirt and leather striped jacket.
Anyway it was good to see everyone, the 2am Macdonalds with Idz after the party really did show NY is the city that never sleeps. Though strangely the next day (Saturday) it was strange to find Macy's not open until 10 am.
Back from NYC
Yesterday was flight back from New York. It arrived about 10am UK time into a snowy LHR. We were stacked up for a while whilst the weather did its thing.
This trip has been a vary metaverse full one. Whilst only 7 days it seems like a few months (in a good way as so much has happened)
I think it is also, as evident in this picture, that the US bombards your senses with information, all the information is usually also augmented with stacks of text and warning signs.
So this trip.
1. Hawthorne - A day of meeting the IBM metarati from across many divisions, a real coming together of all the streams with such a stack of common insight not infighting.
2. Somers - CIO IQ team gathering. All the Innovate quick team in a room in Somers, again common understanding and purpose
3. NYC - Another cross IBM gathering (video in the next post) where we took to the streets of New York in a kind of virtual world treasure hunt time travel gig.
4. Virtual Worlds 2008 - 2 very busy days of conference. A massive trade floor to cover, conversations to be had, metarati to gather plus 2 evenings of party. The first at the electric sheep company offices (many thanks to them all) and then in the lower east side Lit bar (thanks Jerry and Annie) for a mateverse meetup.
5. A day dashing around new york city with Ids and Roo chatting and snapping pictures and eating food before heading to the airport.
I have not (except on the overnight plane) had much time to reflect but I know there are some new ideas forming in my head, and yet another perspective on where this all needs to go now.
I am even more convinced the industry is here to stay now.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Tripping America
Roo and I are on a rare "both metaverse evangelists in the same place" trip to the east coast.
Yesterday was a fairly straightforward flight and a very quick entry in the US. We usually dread the queues at immigration but this was very quick and very slick at JFK. I was asked what i do for a living and said "metaverse evangelist". That could have led to a longer conversation, but I boiled it down to virtual worlds.... web stuff.
We had a meeting today in Hawthorne (an IBM research building). It was a mass gathering of many colleagues and people with a lot of coverage in virtual worlds. It was icredible to have a large number of equally enthused evangelists and IBM movers and shakers from all parts of IBM. Our coming together was quite a momentous moment and we sent all day sharing with one another what we were up to, spotting where we crossed over, where we fitted in a strategic and tactical space. It was the most intense and productive meeting, and thats after having done this for 2 years (My SL rez day was a few days ago)
Tomorrow is a more local Innovate Quick team meeting. as we are a widely distributed team in the CIO it is good to put physical presence to metaverse ones.
All this leads up to the next stage of the trip which is back from danbury to NY and the virtual worlds conference.
In the mean time we get to go to Somers tomorrow. So it will be more driving, sat nav and human assisted navigation.
However with the sort of signs and mass of information it sometimes get confusing for us poor brits. I took this today on the way into Hawthorne. This was a small road junction.
Roo also took this whilst I was driving us from the airport up to CT.
I know it makes us seem like we never travel anywhere, but as we turned into this road we both commented on how much this looked like America. Its just a combination of styles and the lorry/truck on the road, the stop sign and the madness of taking what is in fact a wrong turn as neverlost tried to get us to left at the next junction not this one. With the giant arrow though it is not clear !
Yesterday was a fairly straightforward flight and a very quick entry in the US. We usually dread the queues at immigration but this was very quick and very slick at JFK. I was asked what i do for a living and said "metaverse evangelist". That could have led to a longer conversation, but I boiled it down to virtual worlds.... web stuff.
We had a meeting today in Hawthorne (an IBM research building). It was a mass gathering of many colleagues and people with a lot of coverage in virtual worlds. It was icredible to have a large number of equally enthused evangelists and IBM movers and shakers from all parts of IBM. Our coming together was quite a momentous moment and we sent all day sharing with one another what we were up to, spotting where we crossed over, where we fitted in a strategic and tactical space. It was the most intense and productive meeting, and thats after having done this for 2 years (My SL rez day was a few days ago)
Tomorrow is a more local Innovate Quick team meeting. as we are a widely distributed team in the CIO it is good to put physical presence to metaverse ones.
All this leads up to the next stage of the trip which is back from danbury to NY and the virtual worlds conference.
In the mean time we get to go to Somers tomorrow. So it will be more driving, sat nav and human assisted navigation.
However with the sort of signs and mass of information it sometimes get confusing for us poor brits. I took this today on the way into Hawthorne. This was a small road junction.
Roo also took this whilst I was driving us from the airport up to CT.
I know it makes us seem like we never travel anywhere, but as we turned into this road we both commented on how much this looked like America. Its just a combination of styles and the lorry/truck on the road, the stop sign and the madness of taking what is in fact a wrong turn as neverlost tried to get us to left at the next junction not this one. With the giant arrow though it is not clear !
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Internet Approval Form - Byron Report
Today has seen an explosion of reporting of the Byron report on kids access to games and the internet. Coverage ranging from the internet is evil to just say no to censorship.
From what I have read so far here aside from the headline grabbing it all seems straightforward.
Just as in this picture of the consent form I had to do fro predlet 1.0 for school use. Any parent getting this who is not e-nabled should think "hmmm why are they asking me this the kids use the computer all the time seems to keep them happy", and then they can take some action themselves to help guide their kids.
As usual this comes down to awareness and parental responsibility. It is true, without a doubt, that many parents have no idea what their kids can do online. That of course does not mean that they want to do anything online. "I just want to talk to my mates why would I talk to anyone else" as I heard the other day.
The report did make a good point though that children need to push boundaries and grow and develop. As more of them are kept indoors for "safety" in risk averse sociaty they will be more likely to say what the heck and do things online.
As with all the dangers, and good things in the world we have to help our kids understand them for themsleves, which of course means we have to understand them too, not just ban/restrict/deny which tends to be the knee jerk reaction.
The fact this also gets all mixed up with video game content just causes more polarization. As a gamer I know what the likely content of a game is. Though I too have boundaries for the kids. As Predlet 1.0 is getting into the DS she is enjoying driving games, and party games. Many of those are "Safe". Most of my games on the 360 I tend to not play around them, but leave it till nightime or maybe when they are elsewhere in the house. This works fine apart from audio. I was nearly caught out the other day in Rainbow Six vegas 2. The shooting and explosions were all fine, but at some point a radio chatter overlay shouted out a very loud Mother Farquar. I had not really expected that in the dialogue.
So having said I knew what to expect, I was caught out breaching my own social policy. The predlets were making way to much noise elsewhere to pick up on it, but it shows that there are boundaries to shield kids from.
I would hate to see any game featuring any violence get an 18 or 16 certificate when we enter the realm of cartoon, tom and jerry violence.
Equally with the rise of user generated content this gets harder to get the BBFC or any other body to police.
That brings me to the final point I just twittered "I wonder if the mass of internet Nimby's realize they could just access sites and flag content en masse rather than moaning about it?"
When complaining about youtube or any other site that has UGC and suggesting that site does its own policing it ignores the fact that we all can police this stuff. We all get to flag things as innappropriate. So it is our responsibility. Those people who stick to the internet is evil not in my back garden approach need to engage themselves, not wait for government or expect the responsibility to belong to others.
If this report raises awareness, but also tells people, go and look and if you dont like it then take action, rather than sit and wait the state will protect you, then we are in a good place.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
w00t I got a cool award
I recently found out that I have been nominated for the IBM CTRE (Corporate Technical Recogition Event). In our terms thats a big deal. For a long while there have been things like the Golden Circle for the sales folk. Outsied IBM I guess it just seems like a jolly. However if all the things i have managed to get done on virtual worlds are indeed recognized through this, then I know that I will be in good company with a few hundred like minded people.
I was looking up where the event is held. Its a bit of a long trek but its in Phoenix. At the Biltmore hotel. There's is quite a long list of celebs and every US president since 1929 that have stayed there.
I am not sure if epredator will appear on the list of celebs in wikipedia :-). However Mrs Epred and I will certainly make the most of the trip for a few days.
Its a little way away yet, and luckily does not clash with our holiday we booked with the predlets.
All in all though I am very stoked to be going to an event like this. Of course like all awards there are lots of other people that should be there too. So in Oscar styleee I will accept this for everyone who has been working to make our journey into virtual worlds successful and thankyou everyone who voted, supported and made this CTRE go through.
I was looking up where the event is held. Its a bit of a long trek but its in Phoenix. At the Biltmore hotel. There's is quite a long list of celebs and every US president since 1929 that have stayed there.
I am not sure if epredator will appear on the list of celebs in wikipedia :-). However Mrs Epred and I will certainly make the most of the trip for a few days.
Its a little way away yet, and luckily does not clash with our holiday we booked with the predlets.
All in all though I am very stoked to be going to an event like this. Of course like all awards there are lots of other people that should be there too. So in Oscar styleee I will accept this for everyone who has been working to make our journey into virtual worlds successful and thankyou everyone who voted, supported and made this CTRE go through.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
I asked for vinegar?
It must be my day for mad signs and labels. I popped to the local fish and chip shop and stocked up on vinegar as we had run out. When I got home I noticed it had this ridiculous almost made up for comedy show label. "Fish and chip shop style non brewed condiment."
I assume its some mad EU regulation. I will probably go insane if I analyze the words here. I am used to asking for Coke and having to claify in a restaurant that I am happy to accept Pepsi, but imagine "Can I have some vinegar please, yes sir but we only have fish and chip shop style non brewed condiment."
Its almost as bad as the phrase I heard in the US "Its a genuine replica" or in Georgia at the sone mountain "This is the biggest rock monolith in the world second only to Uluru(formerly Ayres Rock)"
Still its a laugh isnt it?
A very odd sign - Fareham council again
Whilst on a long walk around Warsash pushing a push chair to get some excercise on my day off I went past an old place I used to cycle through. Clearly now you are not allowed to. However I found it a little strange that somehow digging is related to cycling?
Or is this a web2.0 ban. no digg, del.ico.us or facebook? i am pretty sure i not allowed any prim hair in there either.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Shiatsu massage machine
After years of being hunched over a computer, trying to adopt an ergonomic pose, combined with the weird stuff that happened a few years ago I have ended up with a right pain in the neck :-)
Having adopted a much better stance now due to some great physio work last year I sometimes get caught by this annoying pressure in the back of the neck. Its very distracting and annoying to say the least.
I remembered seeing one of these machines at work years ago that someone had. I popped to Argos as I was feeling particulalry grotty and bought one. This happens to be a Babyliss one so they have certainly gone mainstream.
It is basically two rotating mechanisms that push and apply pressure as they rotate. This one has an additional cool pad that you chill before laying on your back with your neck between the two mechanical pieces
I have to say that it seems to do the trick, or at least do something. I will check with the physio on Monday and see if he says "tut" to it.
It may be mind over matter, but its got to be better than taking tablets hasnt it?
So 5-10 minutes of this a few times a day plus sitting properly and everything should be fine and dandy :-)
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Apple store - Innovation behind bars
Having arrived somewhat early to Southampton on a Sunday all the shops in West Quay were still closed. I thought this made an interesting picture because of the mix of chic and old fashioned metal grill. I also noticed that innovation was written on the poster for the Air. I also wondered if the Air was so thin it could actually fit through the gaps in the grill.
I could say something about being locked down and proprietary but that always starts a flame war :-)
I am warming to apples, but cant justify getting one just yet.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Goodbye Grandad
Having just come back from the social media media conference where I indicated just how openly I live my life it was sad news that I came home to find my 94 yeard old grandfather had passed away. Family at times like these are obviously a great support, but I felt the need to share outwardly with my twitter colleagues and friends.
"Rest in peace grandad. You lived your live well, fought for freedom in wwii, lived with honour and love of for our family. I will miss you"
I got a huge number of responses from people who I have both frequent and infrequent exchanges with. Some private responses some public. For me personally having built these connections and having had people share both work and personal things I felt it quite deeply that I was able to share this with them.
Its not pointless, frivolous noise, but some of the pointless frivolous noise has been part of the bonding in this connected world. That allows us to feel support and help one another at times when we really need to get more serious.
This picture is one that grandad painted. He had done several oils and lots of water colours.
I suspect that part of my need to create things comes from those genes.
The striking image became part of family life.
Grandad had had a veyr long and varied life and always was calm and collected about everything.
I am in no doubt the experiences in the desert with the eighth army made things at home seem not so troublesome or complicated. On the rare occasions he talked about the war it was clear that it was a very moving and scary thing to have been doing. He was injured quite badly by a mine exploding near him, but being an old soldier he recovered and got on with it.
In later years he had what woudl not be called an industrial accident, in a shoe shop warehouse back of the shop he ran the slefs and ladders collapsed. This knocked him out flat and damaged his back. For year as young child I remember grandad being on 2 sticks and hobbling about. However as he got older he got stronger and whilst he always had a bad back he got back to walking again like you woudl never know.
He spent the last number of years looking after my Nan who is obviously going to be devastated after all these years of marriage,
I remember Grandad with great fondness, the christmas tray game, the frog game, showing him what we could do with computers and digital cameras, skateboards.
He made my a scooter when I was about 4. His shed was a work of art in its own right, it was like the ateam. He would dissapear in there, take all sorts of odds and ends and make things. Even tin foil from sweet wrappers he would keep, but then fashion into something a toy or a garden bird scarer.
Resourceful and creative, and I wish i could be half as relaxed about things.
So goodbye grandad and thankyou for everything. I know you have found an even better place as part of the force now.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Clever lyrics methinks by Kanye West
On the radio this morning Chris Moyles played Kanye West and Estelle. I did not catch all the lyrics but I really liked the line.
"Dressed smart like a London Bloke.Before he speak his suit bespoke."
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Toribash - What a game
Roo pointed me at toribash. a very innovative game taking ragdoll kungfoo a step further. It well worth a look. Clever use of physics, the ability to puppet and perform in realtime. Its got style and panache and stacks of blood if you get it right.
He has a round up of some other cool physics demos and games here
He has a round up of some other cool physics demos and games here
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Nokia Nanotechnology
This is a very nice video, both in style and in its message aronud how nanotech may change the way we interact with devices in the future.
Nanotech of this sort, like 3d printers is something that may help us blend the virtual worlds with the real world in more than on screen/glass integration as we do at the moment with augmented reality.
Nanotech of this sort, like 3d printers is something that may help us blend the virtual worlds with the real world in more than on screen/glass integration as we do at the moment with augmented reality.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Living life publicly - sharing a CV
I recently went through a bit of a CV review, my current CV was quite frankly too long, too detailed and extracted from an internal system. There is a balance between having full details and having a sales document.
I had decided to do the rewrite after a "free" evaluation of it, which pretty much told me all the thing I already felt about it. Professional CV writers are well worth it, but as someone who lives life online and publicly on stage it would be a little strange to outsource my CV.
However, having written something I did ask the world for help in reviewing it.
CV's are normally very personal and close to the chest documents, after all they are used for competitive bids for jobs. However I felt it a good idea to ask not only Mrs Epred but a whole array of other people over on Twitter. The people who I follow on Twitter and who follow me are part of my support network and not purely work contacts. Many of them are of course in the growing metaverse business, so I thought it important to share the creation of the CV with them.
A CV is never finished, never perfect, always too long/too short/wordy/sparse, but I must say that after all the good comments and feedback and taking many of them on board I am quite happy with my CV at the moment.
I also experimented with using the microsoft doc format but without Word. instead plumping for the free open version of lotus symphony. This is still in beta and it appears to differ across NT and Vista in formatting a little. However, it is possible to live without Office.
Of course people googling me or checking my del.icio.us showreel, looking at linkedin recommendations and reading my various blog posts would be the thing I would expect people to do, but it seems we still end up needing to create a point in time post about who we are to help people understand what they need to research further.
The new CV is here in PDF format, I have another with address/postcode etc but this has email address only. Though I am not hard to find :-)
I still have to take up some of the suggestions on machine readable versions.
Anyway, thankyou everyone for your comments and help. I will of course keep evolving it and have some comments that I want to take on board but need to adjust some balance a bit first.
I had decided to do the rewrite after a "free" evaluation of it, which pretty much told me all the thing I already felt about it. Professional CV writers are well worth it, but as someone who lives life online and publicly on stage it would be a little strange to outsource my CV.
However, having written something I did ask the world for help in reviewing it.
CV's are normally very personal and close to the chest documents, after all they are used for competitive bids for jobs. However I felt it a good idea to ask not only Mrs Epred but a whole array of other people over on Twitter. The people who I follow on Twitter and who follow me are part of my support network and not purely work contacts. Many of them are of course in the growing metaverse business, so I thought it important to share the creation of the CV with them.
A CV is never finished, never perfect, always too long/too short/wordy/sparse, but I must say that after all the good comments and feedback and taking many of them on board I am quite happy with my CV at the moment.
I also experimented with using the microsoft doc format but without Word. instead plumping for the free open version of lotus symphony. This is still in beta and it appears to differ across NT and Vista in formatting a little. However, it is possible to live without Office.
Of course people googling me or checking my del.icio.us showreel, looking at linkedin recommendations and reading my various blog posts would be the thing I would expect people to do, but it seems we still end up needing to create a point in time post about who we are to help people understand what they need to research further.
The new CV is here in PDF format, I have another with address/postcode etc but this has email address only. Though I am not hard to find :-)
I still have to take up some of the suggestions on machine readable versions.
Anyway, thankyou everyone for your comments and help. I will of course keep evolving it and have some comments that I want to take on board but need to adjust some balance a bit first.
Natural History Museum brochure barcode
We bought a guidebook on our half term trip to the natural history museum. I realy liked the attention to detail on the back for the barcode.
Friday, February 22, 2008
A top the tower, having collected a gemstone
Rita and Josh from Dancing Ink Productions are on a Global Quest to meet and talk all things metaverse and virtual world with people all over the place.
Rob and I, (Roo was away at a customer) met them on their way to the isle of wight, fresh from Dohar and Geneva, in Portsmouth.
Whilst we had a very long lunchtime meeting, talking some very deep subjects and futures we ended on a fun note by going up the portsmouth spinnaker tower.
Rita could not resist getting a 'gemstone' from a dispenser on the 2nd viewing platform, all part of gathering things on a global quest :-)
Over lunch Rita wrote loads of things down aswell as pushing some ideas around. Rob, Josh and I were also in full flow.
I doubt the people in the old customs house in gunwharf had much idea of the depth of future we were discussing.
Of course they may have just said "geeks!" and tutted :-)
It was also not wasted on us that as a set of metaverse evangelists we were discussing the future in a venue such as this
"The building constructed in 1790 is a scheduled monument and is believed to be one of first examples of a specifically designed office building. "
Also on the way out up the spinnaker tower as we existed the lift RL imitated Sl as a rather oddly dressed jester/clown was standing waiting for the lift back down. This photo turned out a bit freaky, the n95 was lagging a bit :-)
So good luck on the rest of your trip guys. Enjoy the isle of wight :-)
Monday, February 11, 2008
Awesome avatar effect
I recently got a new web cam, a creative one. It has this fantastic avatar replacement that it can do from a simple photo.
I the head tracking is from me moving around in front of the camera, but it is lip synching to the excellent rockstar song.
It can do this in a lot higher rez too :-)
I the head tracking is from me moving around in front of the camera, but it is lip synching to the excellent rockstar song.
It can do this in a lot higher rez too :-)
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Sounds like
Do you think predlets toy sounds like the chorus of "I love it when you call" by the feeling?
Friday, February 08, 2008
Rockstar - Nickelback
This song has been going through my head and coming out of my headphones all week.
Its ripe for a spoof too. Rockstar -> eightbar or Avatar etc.
I am not sure I will have the talent I need to build the song I want but I will see what happens. For now just imagine it says I want to be an eightbar
Its ripe for a spoof too. Rockstar -> eightbar or Avatar etc.
I am not sure I will have the talent I need to build the song I want but I will see what happens. For now just imagine it says I want to be an eightbar
misleading message or what?
I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade the 20gb drive to the 120gb drive on the xbox360. Stupidly expensive relatively speaking, but thats proprietary hardward for you!
The drive contans everything, all you paid for content, all you games saves all your profile and achievement information. If it goes wrong thats a few years lost and a few pounds worth of xbox live arcade titles downloaded and payed for.
So after 1hour of transferring this is result.
It says Successful, but the next line says apart from the bits that were not!
The drive seems ok, the games seem to be there, content etc, but if something has gone I wont know until I hit it an miss.
Not a great feeling.
The transfer is 1 way and apparently deletes all the stuff due to DRM on the smaller drive.
A bit lacking in customer service I think?
Though not as bad as poor Aidy who moved to ireland and the xbox live will not transfer his country becuase of all these region lockout insanity.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Aliens Vs Predator Requiem - hmmmmm
I finally got to see AVP-R. Now clearly representing myself online wherever possible as epredator and with predator avatars I feel I have some sort of vested interest in the mainstream use of what has become part of me.
I should add I used the predator handle way before the original predator movie. It was a coding thing, killing bugs etc. When the film came along whilst an Arnie vehicle it was the predator and the hint at a hunting race that seemed to resonate.
In both predator and predator 2 the Yautja (as us geeks refer to them) are honourble hunters. Seeking to challenge themselves against worth opponents and not praying on the weak. e.g unarmed or pregnant women. It is about the challenge of the hunt and done with some degree of meaning. Strength and compassion. A few of the traits that I took to.
The comics tend to have this too, the hunter race and their respect for others with courage.
When we get to Aliens Vs Predator the back story has always been that the Aliens (effectively a vicious virus that seeks to take over and replicate) were used as a right of passage by the Predator race. A great tie in to the franchises.
So in the first AVP we had a Yautja dealing with a nest of Aliens and an Alien Queen. During the fight he comes to see a hunter's attitude and honour in the one remaining human caught in the alien frenzy. It was not a great film, but had something of interest and extra insights into the tech and lifes of the Yautja.
The new AVP-R sees a predator alien cross occur. A mini queen alien with the strength and power of both a predator and alien, born of the hero from the previous AVP impregnated by a face hugger and exploding into life on the ship.
This part was interesting, the predator ship crashing and landing on earth with its face huggers farmed and in a jar.
The crash landing leds to Aliens on earth, and descends quickly into a massive destruction of all human life in a small town. The vicious and unforgiving nature of the aliens is actully quite shocking.
This is where I actually felt a bit challenged and saying to myself there was not need for that. A youg kid at the start getting facehugged and chest burst was really not what I wanted to see. Let alone the scenes later in the maternit ward of the hospital. Yuk!
Some of this may be being a parent now and having a different set of sensitivities, but I am usually open to movies causing some shock.
Now we get to the Yautja. In this film he/she is a clean up predator. The aim is to both remove the infection and also remove all trace. They are like Harvey Kietel in Pulp Fiction, a fine upstanding member of society, but will do anything to get things sorted. *** Update having just looked at the wikipedia entries it seems the predator in the movie is called "Wolf" the same as Winston Wolf in pulp fiction :-)
I found lots of the predator tracking and new weapons pretty good, some nice cool ideas and just like James Bond, gadgets. He was fully aware of the PredAlien. He also seemed to be pretty flawed in targetting some of the Aliens. This seemed odd, so maybe he was not a cleanup agent but an opportunist who was sitting on his sofa and decided to give the hunt a go, but that did not really seem the case.
I was not too happy he killed the first human to see him, he was not a threat as such and it seemed to lack honour. However after that he used the humans a bit as bait, needs must. An generally fought a massive battle against the spawning aliens.
In general though, if this was the only predator film we woudl not have any inkling of this strong honour bond.
The film ends with some sort of here comes some more questions though and also shows that humans can be as calculating as Aliens and can work without individual honour but following orders for the greater good.
So all in all, aside from the permanent darkness in the movie which means many of the effects are lost or cheap and hidden, it was not too bad.
I hope my inspirational Yautja do not descend into hack and slashers, though clearly it takes all sorts.
This epred will continue to work out there with honour and strength, but with a hint of malice and the ability to just cut to the fight when needed :-)
I should add I used the predator handle way before the original predator movie. It was a coding thing, killing bugs etc. When the film came along whilst an Arnie vehicle it was the predator and the hint at a hunting race that seemed to resonate.
In both predator and predator 2 the Yautja (as us geeks refer to them) are honourble hunters. Seeking to challenge themselves against worth opponents and not praying on the weak. e.g unarmed or pregnant women. It is about the challenge of the hunt and done with some degree of meaning. Strength and compassion. A few of the traits that I took to.
The comics tend to have this too, the hunter race and their respect for others with courage.
When we get to Aliens Vs Predator the back story has always been that the Aliens (effectively a vicious virus that seeks to take over and replicate) were used as a right of passage by the Predator race. A great tie in to the franchises.
So in the first AVP we had a Yautja dealing with a nest of Aliens and an Alien Queen. During the fight he comes to see a hunter's attitude and honour in the one remaining human caught in the alien frenzy. It was not a great film, but had something of interest and extra insights into the tech and lifes of the Yautja.
The new AVP-R sees a predator alien cross occur. A mini queen alien with the strength and power of both a predator and alien, born of the hero from the previous AVP impregnated by a face hugger and exploding into life on the ship.
This part was interesting, the predator ship crashing and landing on earth with its face huggers farmed and in a jar.
The crash landing leds to Aliens on earth, and descends quickly into a massive destruction of all human life in a small town. The vicious and unforgiving nature of the aliens is actully quite shocking.
This is where I actually felt a bit challenged and saying to myself there was not need for that. A youg kid at the start getting facehugged and chest burst was really not what I wanted to see. Let alone the scenes later in the maternit ward of the hospital. Yuk!
Some of this may be being a parent now and having a different set of sensitivities, but I am usually open to movies causing some shock.
Now we get to the Yautja. In this film he/she is a clean up predator. The aim is to both remove the infection and also remove all trace. They are like Harvey Kietel in Pulp Fiction, a fine upstanding member of society, but will do anything to get things sorted. *** Update having just looked at the wikipedia entries it seems the predator in the movie is called "Wolf" the same as Winston Wolf in pulp fiction :-)
I found lots of the predator tracking and new weapons pretty good, some nice cool ideas and just like James Bond, gadgets. He was fully aware of the PredAlien. He also seemed to be pretty flawed in targetting some of the Aliens. This seemed odd, so maybe he was not a cleanup agent but an opportunist who was sitting on his sofa and decided to give the hunt a go, but that did not really seem the case.
I was not too happy he killed the first human to see him, he was not a threat as such and it seemed to lack honour. However after that he used the humans a bit as bait, needs must. An generally fought a massive battle against the spawning aliens.
In general though, if this was the only predator film we woudl not have any inkling of this strong honour bond.
The film ends with some sort of here comes some more questions though and also shows that humans can be as calculating as Aliens and can work without individual honour but following orders for the greater good.
So all in all, aside from the permanent darkness in the movie which means many of the effects are lost or cheap and hidden, it was not too bad.
I hope my inspirational Yautja do not descend into hack and slashers, though clearly it takes all sorts.
This epred will continue to work out there with honour and strength, but with a hint of malice and the ability to just cut to the fight when needed :-)
Yay for pancakes
It was shrove tuesday. Mrs Epred-in-Law came and did her thing in our kitchen. The predlets loved it. Proper flipping and everything
Monday, February 04, 2008
PSP and PS3 remote play and Skype or not
Here is some more of the PSP remote play at work. The basic premise is that the PSP can, whenever attached to any network reach and turn on a paired PS3 anywhere in the world. This is also useful in the home when your predlets are watching kids tv but you want to get at some of the content.
Here though is a film I created on the PS3 on boxing day. Using the eye toy camera and eye create (a video editing/capture application) it has a load of effects in this case it was the time lapse of some present unwrapping.
So the movie is created on the PS3 and then streaming to the PSP.
Even better now though some of the playstation network titles are PSP compatible. i.e. You download a version of an old classic like PS wipeout, the game that started the next gen revolution way back. You can play this in full on your PS3 screen, or you can have the play streamed to the PSP. At least I think it is streamed. In some respects you cant tell if its an emulator on the PSP that loads the data from the PS3 or the PS3 rendering and sending. Given the main desktop and videos are streamed as images I think we can guess :-)
It is also a pity that everything does not work like this, after all if its just streaming images then why not have a go at anything, like PS3 Home
Come on Sony!
Also I am rather dissapointed that having got the latest PSP firmware to get ready for Skype on the PSP it turns out the Skype function will only work on the new thin and light PSP's not the original (and identical) regular fat PSP's. There is some basic messaging but not skype. Seems a bit odd really.
All we need now is wireless hotspots that are economic to use eveywhere.
Here though is a film I created on the PS3 on boxing day. Using the eye toy camera and eye create (a video editing/capture application) it has a load of effects in this case it was the time lapse of some present unwrapping.
So the movie is created on the PS3 and then streaming to the PSP.
Even better now though some of the playstation network titles are PSP compatible. i.e. You download a version of an old classic like PS wipeout, the game that started the next gen revolution way back. You can play this in full on your PS3 screen, or you can have the play streamed to the PSP. At least I think it is streamed. In some respects you cant tell if its an emulator on the PSP that loads the data from the PS3 or the PS3 rendering and sending. Given the main desktop and videos are streamed as images I think we can guess :-)
It is also a pity that everything does not work like this, after all if its just streaming images then why not have a go at anything, like PS3 Home
Come on Sony!
Also I am rather dissapointed that having got the latest PSP firmware to get ready for Skype on the PSP it turns out the Skype function will only work on the new thin and light PSP's not the original (and identical) regular fat PSP's. There is some basic messaging but not skype. Seems a bit odd really.
All we need now is wireless hotspots that are economic to use eveywhere.
Superbowl, Football? No this is football
Predlet 2.0 decided that now he is 1 and can walk he really should start practicing his football (known as soccer in some other parts of the world) skills.
So whilst the Superbowl was going to be kicking off follwed by lots of carrying of the ball in about 7 hours time he decided to have a kick about.
(I do like American Football and I am just sore I did not stay up and watch it this year :-(
So whilst the Superbowl was going to be kicking off follwed by lots of carrying of the ball in about 7 hours time he decided to have a kick about.
(I do like American Football and I am just sore I did not stay up and watch it this year :-(
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Unusual Marketing - I dont like this one
Now I am all for clever uses of ideas, but tonight I was not really with it when I opened this envelope from Southern Electric. Despite the back of the envelope having SE on it I did not realize.
On opening it you get a rather unusual "hey this is a ransom/hate mail" look from cuttings about your boiler needing fixing or else.
It made my heart skip a beat, I am not a frail old person, not do I usually miss things like this, but this was horrible.
It has an anti effect on me in that I no longer want anything from Southern Electric, and I am not sure many people would?
Given some of the odd things that have been going on around blogs and a public life this was not on in my book.
Maybe I am just over-reacting, what do you think?
Friday, January 25, 2008
Understanding art for geeks #44
Akelatal on twitter started to use a new icon of the Scream picture but with a :-o pasted on it. It turns out is part of a whole set by paulthewineguy
This is his latest, simple but brilliant.
A whole flickr set can be found here its fantastic
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Fancy toy 2
Predlet 2.0 also got this french market toy from his aunty. It is a clever toy in that it uses a set of small buttons that get pressed when you place the produce in the counter. It then remembers what you have bought and when you checkout reads it out to you. Fo use it is also slightly more interesting as its speaking french. It seems to be a very well recorded and expressive voice rather than some of the more american toys we have had.
Predlet2.0's cool 1st birthday toy, like an iphone?
Today was predlet 2.0's 1st birthday and we got him this early learning centre rocket toy. Its got a load of pieces, people, aliens, buggy etc that all fit in but a really good single button action.
If the rocket is up vertically it does things differently to if it is hotizontal. A nice touch and pretty much what that iphone things does when you tilt it ;-)
If the rocket is up vertically it does things differently to if it is hotizontal. A nice touch and pretty much what that iphone things does when you tilt it ;-)
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Carry On
I grew up watching carry on films. There are a few things which if they are on TV I end up having to watch them. Tonight was Carry On Camping. I was 2 when this was released but it was on YV when I was gowing up. It is pure brit humour and I think stands the test of time. A mix of double entendre and pure farce make most of the films just hilarious. As a kid I am sure I did not understand the slightly fruity nature of things, but it is harmless fun. It forms the roots of many other pieces of comedy as the comics of today have experienced this too.
Take this "gone for a pee" and abbot and costello/marx brothers style fleecing
A whole host of carry on films out there to enjoy.
Take this "gone for a pee" and abbot and costello/marx brothers style fleecing
A whole host of carry on films out there to enjoy.
Comedy highs and lows this week on radio 1
This week on radio 1 the Chris Moyles show, which I always listen too despite being over 30, hit a high and a low.
The low, and one they are still joking about, was poor old Chris Rock. Now Moyles is clearly a fan and seemed a bit embarrased that Chris Rock was clearly asleep. Chris Rock is funny on stage and probably does so cool interviews, but this one just plummetted and bombed.
For some reason I pay more attention to how people work crowds, audiences and guests now. If the thing is not working you have to change tack, change gear, try a few new things until you find something that clicks. Moyles did his best as did comedy Dave but it just plain died death. Thats the beauty of live radio though.
However at the end of the week the bristol accent of Justin Lee Collins really really worked. It was some of teh funniest radio I think I have heard but it was also spiced up by JLC doing his Tom Jones impression. He had worke don this on one of his shows. as Moyles pointed out all his shows tend to be "I dont know if I can pull this off but I will have a go".
They popped a bit of the performance on Youtube. It was really really good. I will make sure I grab teh podcast as I cant help but think this will be the main part of it.
Strangely Moyles also appeared on the live cooking show that Gordon Ramsay was doing on Friday. A show that did have me laughing but I am not always sure why :-) The mickey take that Moyles did of the hard hitting Ramsay was great. Odd that some could make a joke up about melting chocolate on a bain marie ---- Done.
Also the show seemed to have an awful lot of wobbly cameras for a live show, about 6-10 camera angles it seemed, this was a bit hectic if people were supoosed to be following along in the kitchen. The Web cam hookups to other people cooking were funny, especially the naturist which gave Ramsay a stack of swearing jokes to throw in. This show is a good idea to get people cooking. I cook all the time so I did not need convincing, equally I did not follow along.
Anyway, it was good to see/hear both ends of the spectrum on the same show in the same week and appreciate how to make live events work better.
The low, and one they are still joking about, was poor old Chris Rock. Now Moyles is clearly a fan and seemed a bit embarrased that Chris Rock was clearly asleep. Chris Rock is funny on stage and probably does so cool interviews, but this one just plummetted and bombed.
For some reason I pay more attention to how people work crowds, audiences and guests now. If the thing is not working you have to change tack, change gear, try a few new things until you find something that clicks. Moyles did his best as did comedy Dave but it just plain died death. Thats the beauty of live radio though.
However at the end of the week the bristol accent of Justin Lee Collins really really worked. It was some of teh funniest radio I think I have heard but it was also spiced up by JLC doing his Tom Jones impression. He had worke don this on one of his shows. as Moyles pointed out all his shows tend to be "I dont know if I can pull this off but I will have a go".
They popped a bit of the performance on Youtube. It was really really good. I will make sure I grab teh podcast as I cant help but think this will be the main part of it.
Strangely Moyles also appeared on the live cooking show that Gordon Ramsay was doing on Friday. A show that did have me laughing but I am not always sure why :-) The mickey take that Moyles did of the hard hitting Ramsay was great. Odd that some could make a joke up about melting chocolate on a bain marie ---- Done.
Also the show seemed to have an awful lot of wobbly cameras for a live show, about 6-10 camera angles it seemed, this was a bit hectic if people were supoosed to be following along in the kitchen. The Web cam hookups to other people cooking were funny, especially the naturist which gave Ramsay a stack of swearing jokes to throw in. This show is a good idea to get people cooking. I cook all the time so I did not need convincing, equally I did not follow along.
Anyway, it was good to see/hear both ends of the spectrum on the same show in the same week and appreciate how to make live events work better.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Is it any different out there?
I have had several conversations with people today about just how long I have been with the same company. Some people admire it, other people view it as lucky many others see me as institutionalized. Linkedin hassle me everytime I logon saying my profile is only 85% complete becuase I only have 2 positions on it (partly becuase I have only been using it a for a few years and did not do a full history)
I have been with the same corp for 17 1/2 years, plus an industrial trainee year from university. That is quite a rare thing these days.
I am genuinely interested in how other people view this sort of loyalty, or if they view it as lazy and safe.
In many ways being in a large corp is the same as being in an open market, there are a pool of things going on, people have to hustle for jobs and funding. There are huge opportunities and clearly some rights as an employee.
At the same time it is a restricted domain. Whilst you might manage to carve something unusual as I tend to have it often does not blend well with the status quo.
So is it a good thing, a bad thing or just a thing of no great description?
I have had some great conversationns over teh years with people who have left corporate life, equally many of them come back again. I have also met people that consider this sort of longevity lucky. In a way it is, but equally it is of my own making, by constantly finding new things and understanding them.
I know some people get to this sort of place and decide to just plod along playing the game until retirement (which still is a very long way off) but that is certainly not my style. Equally there must come a point when being all rock and roll and pushing things and experimenting you start to age and stop being quite such a punk rebel and turn out a bit more rolling stones. Of course the Stones still have a great credibility and an awesome history :-) That though would be the case in any sort of career I think, getting older and wiser?
I am not sure where I sit on this. When the predlets get a bit older will they see me as a plodding corporate wage slave or someone with vision and drive doing cool things. I guess that is up to me to make sure I dont let them down on that front :-)
I have been with the same corp for 17 1/2 years, plus an industrial trainee year from university. That is quite a rare thing these days.
I am genuinely interested in how other people view this sort of loyalty, or if they view it as lazy and safe.
In many ways being in a large corp is the same as being in an open market, there are a pool of things going on, people have to hustle for jobs and funding. There are huge opportunities and clearly some rights as an employee.
At the same time it is a restricted domain. Whilst you might manage to carve something unusual as I tend to have it often does not blend well with the status quo.
So is it a good thing, a bad thing or just a thing of no great description?
I have had some great conversationns over teh years with people who have left corporate life, equally many of them come back again. I have also met people that consider this sort of longevity lucky. In a way it is, but equally it is of my own making, by constantly finding new things and understanding them.
I know some people get to this sort of place and decide to just plod along playing the game until retirement (which still is a very long way off) but that is certainly not my style. Equally there must come a point when being all rock and roll and pushing things and experimenting you start to age and stop being quite such a punk rebel and turn out a bit more rolling stones. Of course the Stones still have a great credibility and an awesome history :-) That though would be the case in any sort of career I think, getting older and wiser?
I am not sure where I sit on this. When the predlets get a bit older will they see me as a plodding corporate wage slave or someone with vision and drive doing cool things. I guess that is up to me to make sure I dont let them down on that front :-)
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
QRcodes and street art
Over on twitter xantherus just posted this excellent video and link to the voice of the street
In short using QR codes to connect street artists and viewers anonymously.
A very nice use of a clever piece of tech accessible via camera phones
In short using QR codes to connect street artists and viewers anonymously.
A very nice use of a clever piece of tech accessible via camera phones
Monday, January 14, 2008
Games have come a long way, but its all back to where we started
I often find it funny people's attitude to games and consoles. The recent batch of social and "casual" games has helped widen the benefit and appeal. Just take this typical family gathering.
Years ago people would have gathered around the piano for a sing song. Now... well after years of 1st person shooters, fighting and driving the PS3 has this Singstar.
People often worry about whether they can sing, but it just does not matter if its fun.
Not all games are the same, not all games are violent, though singing final countdown can do some damage on this :-)
Years ago people would have gathered around the piano for a sing song. Now... well after years of 1st person shooters, fighting and driving the PS3 has this Singstar.
People often worry about whether they can sing, but it just does not matter if its fun.
Not all games are the same, not all games are violent, though singing final countdown can do some damage on this :-)
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