Rooparture part 2

A crowd gathered to say goodbye. Roo felt the pace midway through, then it was done. (the final departure was slightly more drawn out than the 20 seconds of video :-) )

v8's in virtual worlds

v8_tauran, originally uploaded by epredator.

We have been chatting about needing a top gear style bbc version of the gadget show. Bascially with me doing a clarkson and strapping a V8 on everything. I am available to do the show should someone in the BBC be interested :-)

Ren, Dave and Ian

Ren, Dave and Ian, originally uploaded by Jim Purbrick.

Ren Reynolds, Dave Taylor and I enjoy the Brighton evening sun and the great hospitality of the Linden's Second Life gathering. Nice to be relaxing not pitching for a change.

Roo's Goodbye

Goodbye, originally uploaded by Roo Reynolds.

Roo created this montage to say goodbye to us all. He has also given us all our Legotar too. That's why we are so sad to lose him. Creative, funny and just does stuff.

Guitar Hero DS in action - well sort of....

I tried to get a bit of film of my new DS lite + guitar hero working. Bearing in mind I was using an n95 to film it and needed both hands to play the game, I think it gets the point across. It works, its great, I like it alot.

**Update I had not read the track lists online so it was an immense surprise and made me even happier to find my favourite song ever in here. W00t! for Stray Cat Strut

Cool.... Upgrades

Upgrades, originally uploaded by epredator.

I finally decided it was time to upgrade my old DS to a DS lite. In game there was a custom Guitar Hero bundle. Well it had to be done. The Guitar Hero on Tour is the most insane add on I have seen.
It is even more mad than the small rubber covers I bought to reduce the noise on the Rockband drum set. Turns out they slowed elemmings drumming down and ruined her mojo, so they have been removed again. Still the box had an amusing tag line on it

Hi dad, your are a blogger now no going back

This is very cool, my dad has dived into computing the last few weeks. (hi dad if you are reading this). The ability to get a 3g card and a laptop, in an affordable way has meant he is able to dive in and just get on with it.
Despite all the years of me and computers, whilst taking an interest there is nothing like being thrown in at the deep end and trying to figure these things out. He has already come to terms with the fact that Windoze just does weird thigns sometimes. He has understood what to ask Google. He has set up a gmail account.
I got an email telling me he now has a blog. Now we had a little chat about blogging on the phone and he has read all the stuff I have written in various places. I suggested that his memories of Great Yarmouth as its industry changed and as he grew up was worth writing down in bits and pieces on a blog somewhere.
So bearing in mind that when I was doing the initial phone support we had a misundersatnding on the difference between shift and space on the keyboard and that the mouse pointer over something means covering it up to us tech geeks, but can mean vertically above to the uninitiated (funny but all makes sense both ways I think), dad now has hit blogger.com and started with boyron-boyron
Bear in mind also that when I tell C level executives or key customers that they need to just try blogging themselves, just one article, just one submit button before embarking on suggesting blogging to their employees (web2 is web do), well my dad has put many of those who have not dared to shame. He has had a computer for about 4 weeks.
A brilliant first step and I am very proud :-)

Catch the handbag

A hilarious situation has just arisen. This week being school hols the grandparents have decided to take the predlets on holiday down to Cornwall. That's a good couple of hundred miles west of here. The plan was to leave at 9am this morning. So from about 8:30 to 9am we had a massive whirl of activity and car packing. Lots of "have we got x" and "yes we have y".
Anyway, off they went.

A great sign of relief, made some toast, wondered what we are going to do all week as the predlets not being around leaves a massive void.
About 15 minutes into the wind down elemming notices her mums handbag, sat on our dining room table. Containing money, mobile, address of campsite etc.
ZOMG! panic. We had to make a decision to hope they noticed and came back or chase after them or both.
We went for both. elemming jumped in the car with the handbag and headed south west. I stayed to man the phone. The basis being, if they noticed and cam back atleast the handbag was going the right direction. If the handbag caught up then good. Worse case being elemming ended up in cornwall. Though it also turns out elemming has left her handbag here though does atleast have her phone. More importantly my toast is getting cold as I had to write this before I collapse laughing.
Luckily whilst writing this the phone went. They had noticed about 10 miles down the road and elemming happened to see them coming back on a regular road (as opposed to the motorway) and flashed them down. The bag exchange has been made and the holiday is back on.
And relax.......

Bye Bye Roo, Hello again.

As has been swarming around the interweb today Roo has given his notice and is ready to take up his new role as a porfolio executive at the BBC. I said pretty much what I needed to say on eightbar
Many people assumed it was going to be your truly leaving the fold, especially after my very public outing of criticism of the lack of balance reward wise for all our efforts. However, Roo has got a fantastic role in a place that suits his media savvy self.
We are very similar and very different at the same time and working together has taight me a great deal about social media, working contacts and being a generally gregarious person. All that I learned from Roo.
A comparison that works I think is that I am Jeremy Clarkson and Roo is Richard Hammond (but taller).
Anyway thankyou Roo for a great couple of years at the bleeding edge, I am proud of what we have acheived, and really happy at your new gig.
My 18 years in IBM has seen a fair few people come and go, but this one is the hardest, but the most deserved.
See you in LA :-)

100% livin' on the edge

100% livin' on the edge, originally uploaded by epredator.

I managed to get a 100% in Aerosmith guitar hero on Livin' on the edge. It felt very good, if not a little ironic at the moment. Yes OK its only medium but in all the games so far of GH iii and Rockband I dont think I have ever just maxed it, especially not on a 1st go.
I do really really like this song though.
Having been off ill for a few days, not eating, not being able to think and being on my own as elemming was away and the predlets went to their grandparents, I have a theory that on gaining a sense or normality, my normal flowing threads of ideas, problems, solutions and ideas that never stop, had done. I was for once, playing, and completely lost in it.
The odd thing is the times this normaly happens is when I am on stage or enthusing to customers about the usual virtual world subject. Then I am lost in the moment, fully focused, delivering what happens as it happens pulling various threads together.
Maybe, just maybe I should dig out the real guitar and approach it with this state of mind, rather than worry about the technical elements?

My record is clean again on Youtube

After a slight delay of nearly 2 weeks my youtube video of the terracota warriors and court 2 at wimbledon is back. Thanks to everyone for helping and putting up with my stand on this. So I have come back from Wimbledon, I am recovering from what is digital equivalent of an endurance rally raid, and my name is cleared once more. Happy days (and saw Henry Winkler the fonz in the canteen the other day)

Dear Ian,IMG Media has retracted its copyright claim with respect to the following video:http://www.youtube.com/v/a_ROI-4VqDY Title:Terracotta Warriors at Wimbledon 2008
This content has been restored and your account will not be penalised. For technical reasons, it may take a day for the video to be availableagain.

Wimbledon Team Photo (nearly)

We were summoned along with the club writers to court number 1 at Wimbledon. There was a confusing conversation with a police officer despite being there with a club employee. Then before you knew it they were trying to line us all up. Just as they did, in a rather jaunty gathering, it started to rain.

film with comedy commentary

film with comedy commentary, originally uploaded by epredator.

Patchouli Woollahra invited me over last night to a screening of the 50's house on haunted hill with additional funny sarcastic comments added. On top of that we have a set of us sitting there joining in with the heckling.
It was just what I needed having been in the same Sim for 2 weeks.
It was here (sorry that not a SLURL) the landmark was being a bit odd SyFy ComPlexus, Isles of Intrigue2 (160, 158, 25)
I keep talking like vincent price now

There is a chopper gag in here somewhere

Saturday and Sunday here at Wimbledon is a strange experience. The times we work and hours we do sometimes we just have to spend a few moments decompressing. Andy brought in his helicopter control kit. Sat and had a few goes, uttering as we do "we are here on a weekend and we are not getting paid" and then got back on with all the things we do all day.
This app is really cool though, its a trainer for RC helicopters. The model and simulation is brilliant and it uses the same controller as the real RC helicopter.
So for me watching this and seeing how it works was actually part of my work research. Mixing real and virtual as this does for training is an important thing.

Facebook, another reason it sucks (or is it lawyers)

We were having some fun with Facebook and a Wimbledon events profile and page. We thought it had been deleted by one of the team of writers. Apologies to Mike, he did not delete the Wimbledon Facebook page. Oh no.... Facebook did. Web2.0 corporate madness. The seemed to have taken the page down as Wimbledon is a company. Yet, Wimbledon is a community of people interested in tennis and a bunch of tech geeks from IBM too.
I have not been a great fan of Facebook, but apparently an organization cannot have a page, but an individual can. I see the need to stop spam, stop adverts, stop a takeover. yet here they have taken down a joint community venture that is a real social network because... well must have been too popular.
I am sure the lawyers have got hold of it all, control seeping in (like the mistaken take down by IMG of my Wimbledon youtube video and need for Viacom to be given all the youtube users details)
I know like the rest of the internet Web2.0 will route around this. However, I am very very dissapointed at facebook, and its probably the nail in its coffin for me.

Hands of my data Viacom!

It is dissapointing, but not surprising that a company like Viacom cannot seem to engage with the public in a way that makes them want their content, and those that do they decide to beat up on by forcing google to hand over EVERY users set of details and viewing figures.
I am not sure if Viacom realize that this is such an anti-web libertarian move that the damage it will do to their properties by this action is far reaching.
Yes, protect copyright, but.... if something is good people will pay for it. If you make it hard to consume on the web people will find a way.
You cannot have my details. In fact I think that each youtube user should take some class action or individual legal action against these bullying tactics.
A judge in the US decided how millions of users in the worlds data should be handed over.
I choose what I share, I am obsessively public, but by choice, not by large media company legal action.

Boogie with Britney and Ricky at Wimbledon

Ricky tried to play Boogie on my DS. It was outside in the back garden here at Wimbledon, it was late, very late, so dont judge his skillz too harshly

Odd coincidences and Wimbledon

Slot Racing, originally uploaded by epredator.

During a break at the conference in Rockingham some other people popped into the green room. One was Dennis Payne who runs the brilliant slot racing company Fordpark Raceway

It turns out Dennis was once a ball boy for a few years at Wimbledon and worked on cengtre court during a very different era of tennis. It was incredible to hear the players he had seen and the difference in the game to todays hi tech approach.
I love coincidences, and it was great to meet him. Also to talk about the various clever things we could gadget up to the slot cars, assisted GPS, rfid tracking, onboard cameras etc...
The slot racing looked great too, though I never got out to have a go with it running as I was usually presenting or working.

Michaela Hyde and Michael Rod (and my laptop)

Michaela Hyde and Michael Rod (and my laptop), originally uploaded by epredator.

I was presenting at Rockingham raceway in the midlands to hordes of kids. The MC's are Michael Rod and Michaela Hyde.
Now as a tech geek and film fan Michael Rod is part of my youth. On Screentest I distinctly remember watching it to see clips of Star Wars and Battlestar galactica.
Then I watched Tommorrows World relgiously. A fantastic expo of all things tech and future in the 70's and 80's. It was initially live too. Live demo's of the future. Very much like the gadget show.
It is actually a great rush and honour to be able to share what I do with people. When they are people who infleunced me and my choices in career it is even better and an honour for me to be here.
Everyone on this tour is realy friendly and knowlegable, I could do this for a living... hey wait.... I do :-)

An odd perspective

An odd perspective, originally uploaded by epredator.

This did come out as an odd perspective, but really the oddness was that poor old judge went to the Wimbledon media canteen to get 2 tea bags for a drink.
They rang up a cost of 3 whole english pounds, and he was distraught to finf something more expensive than petrol.