Archive for January, 2007

Pain

Monday, January 29th, 2007

The last two weeks have been dominated by pain. First, the sharp stabbing kind; second, the persistent all-conquering kind. My well-behaved body rebels in unpleasant ways. So I’ve felt elderly. I’ve felt exhausted. Not just the wincing and the grimacing, but also the mental effort required. To be constantly aware of one’s posture, being forced to calculate the effort-reward payoff of reaching for your cup of tea; it takes energy that is all too easily sapped.

I do try to be philosophical about pain: it’s not contagious and, although whining about it helps, I can usually stick through it. Sadly even co-codamol (the asthmatic’s only decent analgesic friend) is outclassed right now.

How frustrating. So much to do, so little I can do. At least I can blog and complain.

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The Joy of Geek

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007

Decided to put my name down for BarCamp London (or, at least, to sign up for the pre-sign up helper list). It’s a chance to get out of the flat, and spend a weekend discussing geek stuff in a sweaty office. Perfect.

1st Rule: You do talk about Bar Camp.
2nd Rule: You do blog about Bar Camp.
3rd Rule: If you want to present, you must write your topic and name in a presentation slot.
4th Rule: Only three word intros.
5th Rule: As many presentations at a time as facilities allow for.
6th Rule: No pre-scheduled presentations, no tourists.
7th Rule: Presentations will go on as long as they have to or until they run into another presentation slot.
8th Rule: If this is your first time at BarCamp, you HAVE to present. (Ok, you don’t really HAVE to, but try to find someone to present with, or at least ask questions and be an interactive participant.)

Rule 1 and 2 – done. I’m very keen to get properly involved so I’ll have to give some thought to Rule 8. Maybe something about MMOs, or maybe just a session on explaining the Joy of Geek to non-believers. I seem to spend a lot of time on that these days.

Update: It sold out! Wait, no it didn’t! The suspense… To be continued.

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January bookmarks

Tuesday, January 16th, 2007

Very busy recently: travel and long hours. Enjoying it. Some recent links of interest:

Secure passwords keep you safer (Wired) – less trivial than the title suggests. It’s inspired me to kickstart the depressingly large task of updating all mine.
So you want to be an Interaction Designer 2006? – Dan Saffer updates an important 2001 article.
Thinking Machine – fascinating real-time visualisation of how a chess program looks ahead. Weak player, but great idea.
Catfishing – a Wikipedia guessing game. I had a similar idea myself recently, but it turns out someone beat me to it. Maybe next time!

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A novel way to escape the City ban

Friday, January 12th, 2007

Cardiff City fans have been banned from attending the Wolves game next week, a move which has been roundly condemned by the FSF and supporters’ groups throughout the country. So, in a lovely gimmick, 30 City fans have decided to hire an airship to hover over the ground, so that they can watch using binoculars. Genius.

Obviously the idiots who cause trouble should be dealt with, but when I’ve been on away games I’ve found West Midlands Police to be clueless and, worse, indiscriminate. Diverting attention away from their own poor policing by issuing a blanket punishment for proper football fans is ludicrous. I really hope this protest gets the publicity it deserves.

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Web productivity tip

Thursday, January 11th, 2007

This did the rounds a couple of weeks back, but I’m passing it on since it’s been invaluable.

Set your homepage to about:blank.

That’s it. I don’t fire up a browser unless I have a task in mind – per day it’s saved me probably 15 mins of aimless surfing, and freed 15 mins of productive time to write songs / cook / read.

(This is all part of a drive to make better use of my online time. I’ve trimmed my RSS feeds, deduped my del.icio.us tags, shifted my mailing lists. Now I just need to spend less time on time-saving chores…)

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iPhone: lovely, but get over it

Wednesday, January 10th, 2007

Delegates “screamed”. Twitter ground to a halt. The shockwaves of a simultaneous nerdgasm shook the very core of the internet.

Yes, it is a lovely phone.

My first thoughts are that it looks extremely promising, although like Dan Saffer at Adaptive Path I will reserve judgement until I see exactly how they’ve implemented the OS and touch-screen functionality. I’ve not watched the keynote yet (it’ll still be there tomorrow) – I’m sure that will give me a little more detail. But, damn, the UI looks comfortable and intuitive, the aesthetics are of course very special, and hopefully it’ll give handset design the kick up the arse it needs.

But, with that said: Everyone! Relax! The fanboy outpourings have been just a little too desperate. It won’t be available over here for several months and, more than likely, won’t be entirely pedestal-worthy from the outset.

First, it’s tied in to a single US carrier (on a huge 2-year contract) with no word yet on UK availability. It may take a while to become the mass market hit it should be.

Second, while Apple know how to do lots of things very very well, a phone is a new thing for them. Great design is iterative: so while I have little doubt that the 2nd gen iPhone will be a real market-killer (much like the iPod), I’m sure version 1 will have its imperfections. And no, that’s not just sour grapes because I just upgraded to a Nokia N73 :)

So, yes, it is a lovely phone. But let’s put it in perspective: it’s just a phone, not a cure for cancer. I’m excited, but not as much as I am about seeing Joanna Newsom on Monday.

Posted in mobile, user experience | 3 Comments »

One person, one vote

Monday, January 8th, 2007

Just made my choices for the ATP vs The Fans weekend.

Shipping News
The Knife
Rachel’s
Sightings
Stereolab
Tapes ‘n Tapes
Battles
Part Chimp
Wolf Parade
Band Of Horses

Likelihood of any of them being chosen: approximately nil.

At least I’m being a bit different though: the leaderboard is currently topped by some utterly predictable bands: Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky (ugh), Sigur Ros, Flaming Lips. Think outside the box, kids! Interestingly, an offer is out to Bjork. That would pretty much make my year. Can’t imagine she’d take it, and the queues would be horrendous, but a man can dream.

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357 and counting

Monday, January 8th, 2007

It may be one week after the event, but I think I can just about get away with the resolutions post. And yes, I am eating more healthily / getting more exercise and so on, but I don’t consider that a resolution. It’s just something I want to do.

So here, instead, are my goals for 2007. They’re not SMART, they’re not grounded in anything measurable. Call them aspirations, then.

- Develop. Professionally (more on this later), personally, culturally.
- Create. Continuously, consciously, unconsciously.
- Eschew negativity.
- Carry on seeing and learning new things.

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