Month: January 2013

Try Being Me

Screen grab from try being me experiments

I didn’t watch Try Being Me but it sounds great…

It’s only the start of January, but I honestly believe that Try Being Me will be one of the most important pieces of interactive content we will launch on CBBC in 2013. It’s not a large investment of license fee payers’ money, nor is it a particularly significant or complex technological leap. Instead, Try Being Me uses video, quirky animations, and thoughtfully produced game mechanics to give the CBBC audience a deeper understanding of the frustrations and difficulties that dyslexia can sometimes bring, in an engaging, visceral and simple way. It’s an interactive approach to factual content we’ve never tried before. Our aim is to add a physical understanding of the subject to the mental and emotional impact of traditional Newsround journalism. It’s the kind of experimental content that only Newsround and CBBC would make for British children.

I must have mentioned my sister finally got the day to day problems with dyslexia when she watched Kerry Katona’s don’t call me stupid on BBC Three. I guess its a shame more of BBC Three wasn’t more informative like that?

Trance tunes of 2012 super mix

A mix of the lovely trance tunes I’ve been listening of all the best trance tunes from 2012… Fantastic journey through another great year of Trance if I don’t say so myself.

There was a ton of tunes I could have put into the mix including storm by eco and surrender by full tilt.

The playlist is…

  1. Just a sound – Divini Warning
  2. Terrace 5 am (Klauss Goulart Remix edit) – Markus Schulz presents Dakota
  3. UFO – Shogun
  4. Rosegarden 2.0 – JS16
  5. Rewind (mikkas remix) – Emma Hewitt
  6. Intruder – Armin vs MIKE
  7. Hole in the Sky (arctic moon remix) – Tonny Nesse
  8. Uncommon World – Bryan Kearney
  9. Ecstasy – Eddie Makabi feat Einat
  10. Arganda (Chris Schweizer rockin mix) – Heartbeat
  11. Nailed (James Dymond remix) – Paul Webster
  12. Lotus – Shogun
  13. Sand Theme (Chris Schweizer remix) – Aly & Fila vs Bjorn Akesson
  14. We are one (instrumental mix) – Dave 202
  15. Headliner – Jornvan Deynhoven
  16. Not coming down – Ferry Corsten featuring Betsie

HTC One X Jelly Bean update at last!

My thoughts about the HTC One X has changed slightly…

The One X is HTC’s flagship phone for the first half of 2012. It features a highly-acclaimed Super LCD2 720p screen, which many consider to be the best display on a mobile phone to date. The international version of the One X ships with a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 CPU processor that is backed by a full gigabyte of RAM and 32 gigs of flash memory. The device’s software is also notable. The One X comes pre-loaded with Android 4.0.3, featuring the HTC Sense 4 user interface, which marked the slimming of their previously heavy custom skin.

As noted above its an incredible phone but crippled with HTC software and a non-removable battery. I was planning to root it and put Jelly bean on but on the day of the rooting, I saw messages from Chris Hernon on Twitter.

Looked at my phone and there was an update. After that update was applied there was a big 63meg update for Android 4.1.3 aka Jelly Bean! Although I’m very happy about the update, I’m still shocked it took 8 months for the upgrade and its not even 4.2 which luckily doesn’t seem to have much changes. At this rate this means Android 4.3 Keylime pie won’t be sent over the air to my phone till next year! Don’t worry I will have rooted it by then, specially now I’ve almost unlocked the bootloader

The other difference is I’ve stopped using Locale. Its a fantastic app but I’ve found something which is does most of the things I want and doesn’t chew through the limited battery.I tried Llama and didn’t get on with it but Profile scheduler looks perfect for me. I do wish it had as many plugins as Locale but frankly I’ll take a battery which lasts a day over 4hours any day.

So I can happily say not only is the phone bloody fast (thats the butter), has a battery which lasts and now also has Google Now!

Where is spotify for dj mixes?

I see Spotify is  updating its linux users with new features first… But I still wonder where and if there is interest in a spotify for dj mixes?

A while ago I wrote about the differences for soundcloud vs mixcloud then went on to write about mixcloud. I highlighted these as problems with mixcloud…

  • The ability to license content including creative commons
  • Allow people to download the mixes if the dj allows it, like soundcloud do…
  • Allow alternative versions of the same mix (this could be a nice pro feature, pro users get access to the transcoder)
  • Add the ability to comment on sections of the mix and the whole mix if they want to
  • Groups are a good idea (they work well on flickr and soundcloud)
  • Spend a little more time on the design of the site if possible

The download one was always a problem. Something which strikes at the heart of mixcloud’s licensing and something spotify seemed to have solved too.

So I wonder if mixcloud will ever release a desktop client or if anyone else will jump in and do it first?

Ubuntu as a mobile operating system

Ubuntu Mobile

The rumors were true… Ubuntu released a mobile operating system not just a way to hook up your Android phone to Ubuntu. I always thought the Unity interface could work on mobile as well as TV.

A full video can be found here. and OMG!Ubuntu have a nice look at the features including a hangout with lots more answers…

Love the fact its trying to take off where webOS may have failed with the Ubuntu Webapp.

New years resolutions 2013

Laura and Ian

Following my review of last year and the year before… here’s my New Years Resolutions for 2013

Worth pointing out its amazing I’m seeing in 2013 and with a lovely lady, who knows what might happen?

  1. Ask less for permission, beg more for forgiveness
    I tend not to do certain things because I’m unsure how it will be perceived but to be honest almost every-time I take some initiative and just do it, things work themselves out (in most cases). So I’m going to trust my gut more often and go with it.
  2. Think more from the heart and less from the head
    I can be very level headed in certain situations and I can be seen to hold back quite a lot (which is in conflict with my open style) But I’ve noticed there are moments and stages in life when you do need to just roll with them and not apply a level of analysis to them. I won’t say what things…
  3. Play more social games
    I’ve pretty much every year I say I’m going to play more and its not happened again… So this year I’m  going to play more social games like Werewolf. I’m setting up for once every month in the northern quarter with Larkin About starting Feb 6th.
  4. Drink only when they serve decent cocktails or wine I actually like
    Had it with crappy cocktails, so now I’ll switch to drinking Smirnoff ice or some simple mixer. Frankly I’m shelling out too much money on cocktails which are not worth the amount they are charging. Cocktails which pass my lips in 2013 will be decent ones worthy of my money. No more crap…
  5. Go to a new part of the world
    Got to I still want to go to Japan, Korea, China, etc but who knows if I’ll get there this year but in the meanwhile I’m going to go somewhere else in the world. Hopefully this might also fit with my long term aims to see the northern lights
  6. Do a budget
    Got my spending down but now’s a good time to do a budget and get stuff sorted. But at the same time I want to be able to spend less time organising and filing stuff. I’m actually angling to be clear of one of my credit cards by the end of the year.
  7. Bake a cake
    This is a follow on from last year. In 2013, I’ll bake a Banana loaf and maybe even a Victoria sponge. BBC R&D is in for a treat this year (or won’t know what hit them)
  8. Be fitter and heather
    Been consistently loosing weight at a slow pace but I do need to do more exercise. I’m hoping to find more of the things I like doing including volleyball in the next year. I’ve been consider a lot of what happens in the QS (quantified self) world and eying up the FitBit Ultra as it seems just open enough to do interesting things and work with my setup. My family got me enough Amazon credits to buy one which is great.
  9. Call out stereotyping, bullying and social engineering
    Last year I said “Don’t settle for mis-information and totally bogus arguments” which caused me to seem very argumentative which isn’t what I really wanted. I feel this is better focused on three aspects of communication. Stereotyping, bullying and social engineering. I found in the past, just indicating that you know what there trying to do is enough, so I’ll simply call it when I spot it.
  10. Wound up and trolled
    Its stupid and I do wish some people would grow up, but at the same time… I enjoy shuffling the trolls with some troll-baiting. However I’m going to do less to feed the the trolls (for what it helps). This doesn’t mean I won’t stop doing what I do and calling out stuff but expect less engagement with the trolls.
  11. Do a cocktail mixology course
    Its got to be done! Such great places near by and they all do mixology courses pretty cheaply if I get Laura and a few friends together.
  12. Roller Coasting
    I LOVE rollercoasters and although I do want to join a rollercoaster club again, I just don’t have the time. However I will go to Blackpool, Alton Towers and Thorpe Park this year… Maybe expect a Birthday weekend special?

I’m using Schemer to track most of my aspirations and new years resolutions, which I’m still liking and think is a great social network…