Thoughts and ideas of a dyslexic designer/developer
If there wasn't so much unpacking to do, I'd be climbing the walls of the flat. I hope to be back online and blogging as usual by May. Also if you've sent me a email in the last few weeks, please be aware that I currently have 237 emails which are not spam or mailing lists type stuff. 1519 which are mailing lists and project updates. I will try and through them all, but its going to take some time – please bear with me.
Ok bear in mind I've been offline for a while, but serious thanks to everyone who voted for me on the Techcrunch Poll. Jemima Kiss, wrote a quick write up about the poll results, and shes right. I'm pretty bad when it comes to politics. I tend to change my mind quite a bit and always say the wrong thing to get a reaction rather that say nothing. I'm aware I'm doing it but can't help it. One thing Jemima got wrong was me being a sound techie. People forget I have a design background.
Top of the bill is Ian Forrester. He's an extremely sound techie and very well connected, but a politician he is not. If the description of Highfield's job as 85% politics, 15% action is accurate, anyone that feels the need to do rather than to talk won't be very happy in that role at all. And anyway, Ian can make far more difference on the ground.
I like the idea of 02's new competition/big summer party but why did they make it so damm complex? Wouldn't it be simpler to just have the winner and all his/her friends up to a maximum of 1000 or something? Anyway judge for yourself, rachel has the low down on the whole thing.
The prize is a little complicated. Despite claiming in the introductory copy that the party is for you and 1500 friends, you actually only win a party for 100 people in the VIP section, where you get fed and watered and get a chance to meet Moby. The winner has to choose those 100 people they want to invite. The runner up gets to invite 4 people. But everyone else on the winning guest list gets a chance to get a ticket. – everyone gets an ‘invite’ and the first 1500 who reply get in. (for those keeping count, we’re up to 1605 now). Although on a different page it says only 1400 – the copy is not consistent through out, so no idea exactly how many.
I was waiting for my train for Manchester today at London Euston. A old woman comes up to me and asks me, if I'm from Kenya, I say no and she thinks for a second and then asks me if I'm from Africa. I say no once again and she then asks where I am from? I say the UK and she gives me a funny look and asks wheres my parents from? I say the Caribbean and in return she takes a second and says can I give her 4 pounds. I look at her and wait for her to say more about why she needed the money but it doesn't come. So I say, I only do cards, I don't have any cash at all (which if you know me well, is very true actually). Anyway, she turns away and just walks away.
The whole thing lasted less that a minute, I was thinking afterwards while running for the train so I can get a seat with a table (I got one, facing backwards). She didn't even ask for spare change or a low amount of money, I mean would you give someone you don't know a fiver for no reason? Anyway, also the repour thing was quite laughable and i'm never the kind of person who goes for that whole thing. Yo yo, were from the same city, now give me a fiver.
I've kept super tight lipped about what I think of this whole thing. I mean don't get me wrong I know the poll is full of something but actually if you look beyond a certain level things get quite interesting. Add all the comments and before you know it, you got something very interesting. However I've decided it would be un-professional of me to comment in detail.
Whoever gets the position next really needs to be ready to take the BBC into the next 10 years. They need to be thinking about a lot of things but I would like to see that person also do the small things which Ashley started doing. Things like the podcast, internet blog, net netutrality support and even installing ubuntu. A commitment to more transparency is a must and one of those things why I think (only guessing) Me and James scored so highly. We blog a lot and its pretty clear who we are and our thoughts, we're not a faceless entity. I think this is critical if the BBC wants support from the British people. From the cluetrain – Companies that don't realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing their best opportunity.. Ok enough said for now, back to downloading tons of email over a EDGE connection.
Quick post to inform everyone that Xbox media centre can now be complied and run on a machine which has Compiz-Fusion turned on. When I last compiled it from source, it failed to display anything on my laptop unless I turned off Compiz-Fusion. Now its working perfectly and much faster that the Xbox. So when I do finally get settled in Manchester, I'm going to setup a dedicated box for running xbmc. HDMI is a option but I think it will be best if I just get a DVI > HDMI switcher and find a motherboard which supports optical out. The Xbmc on linux forum recommend Nvidia cards only and so does this guide. Accroding to the previous link I should be able to build a machine for less that 250 pounds. I still like the idea of using a laptop but I'm unlikely to find one with Optical out, HDMI/DVI out and a Nvidea card for less that 250 pounds.
Ok I've not said anything about Ashley Highfield leaving his position to lead on Kangaroo from director of Future Media and Technology. You know I always get into trouble for saying stuff about work on my blog, and yes I know the press could use my words as BBC employee says, but I can't help myself now I see James Cridland is winning the current vote on TechcrunchUK. I mean theres nothing wrong with some healthy non-serious competition and James will see the funny side of the whole thing.
I also didn't add any comments to the debate on techcrunch but its always good to see what different people think. It was also good to see Ashley chime in about joining the startup world and maybe going to Mobile Monday one day soon. Maybe I should send Ashley an invite to the joint geekdinner? I do have to take Mike to task about the last comment in his post.
So, here’s the deal:
Dear BBC,What we want is your data, a lot more APIs, developer tools and your traffic.
We’ve paid for it already in the license fee.
Now get on with it.
Yours Sincerely,
The UK’s Startups
If only it was that simple…
You have till Friday to vote for the new Data Portability logo. Go vote…
Talking about things which are simlar. Can anyone tell me why I should sign up to Friendfeed when I'm already using jaiku as a sort of life stream and I'm already using Plaxo's Pulse? Don't get me wrong I do see some advantages to friendfeed but not enough to make me want to sign up.
I do find this area of aggregation really interesting but having already signed up to lifestreams (which I never use), Jaiku (which I read on my phone whenever I got 5mins spare) and Plaxo Pulse (which I like but am worried about the closed nature of it). I'm just not seeing anything new and interesting in Friendfeed or any of the other simlar services. Now if one of them was to create APML, I would switch in a snap.
Ok I know there not exactly a like but I just don't understand why you would want to install something like alert thingy when you can use something a lot more intergrated like Specto. I can just about understand why to use Twitterfic and something like Pownce (although please stop asking to be my friend, I don't use pownce). But alertthingy… nope. Actually with Specto and Gnome-Do you can do everything twitterrific does with equal ease. Just my thoughts, obviously most of you will disagree.