Author: Ianforrester

Senior firestarter at BBC R&D, emergent technology expert and serial social geek event organiser. Can be found at cubicgarden@mas.to, cubicgarden@twit.social and cubicgarden@blacktwitter.io

7 maybe 8 cheap date ideas in Manchester

Sunday Morning in Castlefield

Lauren’s blog always tends to catch my eye (specially the #ocadoandchill one) when reading through my RSS feeds. Unfortunately the feed doesn’t quite work as it should but her cheap date ideas got me thinking instantly…

How about 7 Cheap Manchester Date ideas? (got to be one better that London)

  1. Go for coffee or tea at one of the many coffee shops in Manchester
    3:1
    The Northern Quarter is a joy and its amazing the range of coffee shops where you can just sit and chat with a date for along time with no hassle. Be sure to buy regularly as you don’t want to be a leech on their business model. Its also worth mentioning Cholton is also worth visiting and now on the tram line.
  2. Visit HOME MCR, the royal exchange, the central library, etc
    Floating Points
    I love the royal exchange and its a great date location, as I have said previously. Home use to be the Cornerhouse but recently they moved to a new venue which is almost as unique as the old venue. In Home you can visit the exhibitions, have drinks, have a complete dinner and watch a film or theatre play,  Its a great space, relaxed, social  and ever so great for a whole day of activities if your date is up for it.
  3. Go for a wonder around Manchester city centre and look up
    42nd Street
    Manchester has such a variety of different areas and styles of buildings. You can wonder around the Northern Quarter, Spinningfields, Castlefield, Oxford Road,  Victoria, etc and get a very different sense of the buildings and styles. You just need to look up… All are walking distance from each other although there is plenty of public transport.
  4. Wonder the many canals of Manchester
    Manchester - Castlefield in Spring
    You can wonder for miles around the canals and frankly find yourself in some very interesting parts of the city centre and further. Yes there are some you might want to avoid (around Piccadilly’s redlight area)  but its all generally quite safe during the daytime and its quite romantic, wouldn’t you agree?
  5. Eat cheap at one of the many Indian restaurants
    The Curry Mile, Rusholme, Manchester
    Yes you could go down to curry mile, but there are these very cheap places such as this and that in the northern quarter. I wouldn’t recommend just going there alone, but it might make a good break from wondering Manchester. I mean you can’t beat £5 for 3 curries.
  6. Visit MOSI,  Peoples museum, Whitworth gallery or any of the many other museums and galleries
    Untitled
    Manchester has some great galleries and museums including MOSI (museum of science and industry). My favourite has to be the Whitworth gallery which simply wonderful and is always full of interesting exhibitions.  Even better if its a nice day, you can sit outside or have a picnic in Whitworth park, which is right alongside and closes very late during the summer months.
  7. Visit one of the many festivals
    Sharing Art
    Manchester loves its festivals! You only have to wait a month and you got the future everything, urban dance, food&drink, abandon normal devices, comedy, pride, etc, etc. And of course the grand daddy of them  the international festival every 2 years. Every single one has such a great number of events and for not a bad price at all. Still remember taking a date to see Marinia in the withworth gallary. That was so surreal but unforgettable.
  8. (OK one more extra) Play board games in Zifferblatt or any of the many other nerdy places
    Manchester Street Monopoly
    Not really my thing and I don’t like Ziffer for reasons already mentioned; but I will admit it could be a good place for some game playing with endless coffee and cakes. There are also many other places to play boardgames, etc which occupy Manchester city centre such as fanboy5. Also theres nerdy places like Fabcafe. holdfast and a bunch of game driven bars like 2022 (table tennis), Kosmonaught (table tennis), Marble (chess), etc… Great fun for a date along with drinking…

I didn’t mention parks, the pennies, bury market, weekend brunch, football, the underground tours, graffiti tours, shopping, cycle tours, etc… I’m sure many others have ideas, and all without mentioning netflix and chill.

Me and Kate’s holiday thoughts on BBC Radio Manchester

https://twitter.com/bethcorri/status/683920382789873664

I knew nothing  till Elizabeth tweeted me with a slightly cryptic message. I only guessed from the holiday reference, that it must be the listening project audio conversation me and Kate had.

The BBC Radio 4 Listening project

I was starting to wondering if they were going to use the audio ever (I even eluded to it), but just like that, it pops up in the middle of nowhere. Early morning breakfast, can’t even imagine what the listeners must have thought…

So you may want to hear the audio? Well you can listen on BBC radio iplayer, its about 1hour 55mins in to the programme (only on iplayer for another 28days). Or you can catch my clipped version on archive.org with additional comments from Alison and Phil (BBC Radio Manchester presenters)

I won’t spoil it but if you enjoyed that small clip, wait till you hear the rest. There’s some classic stuff in there, can’t even imagine what generations to come will think of it.

Kate strikes a pose

Massive thanks Kate for being such a great audio partner in crime for the listening project. Now I just need to find somewhere to scare the living daylights out of her… Any ideas send them to me.

Do you have humility, a sense of craft and can you hustle?

http://radar.oreilly.com/2015/12/katie-dill-on-heading-up-experience-design-at-airbnb.html

I was listening to the Oreilly Radar podcast with Katie Dill from Airbnb. Half way through the interview she talks about what she looks for in people joining their user experience team.

Humility, Craft and Hustle

Humility is certainly hot on my radar, so no real need to go back over that, except to say the user experiences we craft/create/enable need a human/ethical dimension.

Craft goes without saying really. But I would say a level of attention, care and slight obsession fits in here. Dare I say a level of geekiness?

Hustle, is essential and without the hustle, the opportunities go missing or never happen. From dictionary.com

An enterprising person determined to succeed; go-getter.

A hustler can make opportunities happen by working hard but never forgetting their goal. They are entrepreneurial in nature.

People have asked me, how on earth Visual Perceptive Media and Perceptive Media generally got the pick up it did? Well thats the hustler side of me. It sounds slightly seedy but in actual fact its the ability to create opportunities and capitalise on them; to the best of your ability. Its hard work but super rewarding when things work out.

Katie Dill has some good points and talking to others, these are characteristics which make up most of the User Experience team in BBC R&D.

Ian’s home cinema starts here…?

Ian's home projector test
Testing using Inception of course…

I have always been a fan of home cinema and had a pro-logic cinema setup way way back. Heck I even remember when I bought my first DVD player (Creative Encore 5X) and use to buy Region 1 DVDs for upwards of £30. It was great when I finally got a Dolby Digital cinema receiver. Must have warn out my first DVD from Amazon, Twister.

Anyway I just bought a second hand projector so I can finally have cinema nights at mine. I did consider getting a bigger TV but honestly I don’t see the point. Its not like I’m bothered about 4k and I already have a 3D smart TV and never used the 3D or Smart feature ever. I mean why bother when I got KODI (new name for XBMC) and a Chromecast just incase. I’m also not keen on getting a much bigger TV as it blocks the great view I have of Manchester. So a projector and screen made a lot of sense.

The projector I bought is a small Panasonic PT-AE100E and can support 720p and 1080i resolutions over VGA and Component connections (no digital connections at all). Its not bad, little noisy but compact.  I tested it on my black blinds but I’ve already got plans to get the IKEA Tupplur at 180cm wide. Looking at IKEA hackers I’m certainly not the only one.

  • Films – check
  • Kodi box – check
  • Home Cinema receiver – check
  • Projector – check
  • Pull down projector screen – need to order
  • New corner sofa – need to order
  • Popcorn maker – check
  • Friends to enjoy everything. – TBC 🙂

Look out for Ian’s home cinema nights soon… not quite a dinner party but its close enough.

Block, delete and forget the past?

Black mirror does Block in real life

Had a really interesting conversation at a party about block and delete. It reminded me of previous friends who I had dated who would deal with the end of a relationship by blocking the other person. Luckily I haven’t been on the end of a block and delete too many times (only a couple to mind).

I do understand why people block and delete but I think its used too easily and quickly instead of dealing with conflict or be honest with your feelings with the other person.  I feel like its almost in the same category/area/orbit as another blog post I wrote about simple answers to difficult questions. Rather than even try and work things out, just block them and delete their details. Its so easy (like swipe left and right?) This makes ghosting look positively fair as a result.

Forget it happened, ignore the past and ultimately not learn from it? In the 7 stages of a relationship breakup, there is something important about facing your partner and being honest in the healing process. Something about block and delete directly cuts across. I compare it to the way prisoners sometimes are forced to face their victims – Restorative Justice.

Face-to-face meetings between victim and perpetrator bring relief to both parties….

Restorative justice gives victims that chance to reframe the story and heal in the process

I get it, if you are shouting at me about someone whos taken it too far, they have become a  pest, stalker or worst. It so much easier to just block them and forget them. But I say that ease comes at a high cost over all. I imagine long term use of block could lead to changes in the blocker or growing resentment from those blocked (wish there was research on this)

I tried to use the example of last years Black Mirror White Christmas to start to illustrate the problem with blocking.

I got blocked once, by @Lord_Sugar as it happens. I’m not sure why, maybe he saw me as a threat, in business. It wasn’t actually too upsetting, but then I wasn’t in a relationship with him – hardly knew him at all, to be honest. And he only blocked me on Twitter, not in real life, as people can do here sometime in the future, in Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror: White Christmas (Channel 4). So they can’t see you or hear you, nor you them: you’re both just muffled silhouettes, digital ghosts. That’s what happens to poor Joe (Rafe Spall).

Unfortunately the person I was talking to at the party had not seen it before. But this really hits the point I think I’m circling.

Brooker’s drama urges caution here and elsewhere in White Christmas. ‘Block’ someone social media-style in real life and you end the conversation. Any potential for redemption or growth ends with it. These are real people we’re dealing with, they’re not disposable.

Human feelings and relationships are messy and using a binary system of block, feels like hitting a nail with a sledgehammer way to initially end a relationship. (I say initially, because if they are not reasonable or abusive, I totally get the block.)

I guess I’m calling for more of a human approach to the way we think and end relationships. Without that, we could end up in the middle of a black mirror episode for real.

White Christmas’ nightmarish tales of isolation might be dark, but they show sage concern about the kind of world we’re building for ourselves. They ask us to consider the humanity of how we treat people online and in the real world. An extreme reflection it might be, but underneath it all, Black Mirror may well have the most charitable heart of any of this year’s seasonal specials.

https://twitter.com/Sagittarius_ht/status/683407475794509824

Charlie Brooker had this to say when asked about White Christmas’  blocking plot point and would he block someone…

I think people do that, don’t they, when they’re commuting? If I sit on the tube I put headphones in and I stare at a book or anywhere but another human being. I think when you’re commuting you just do it psychologically to get through the day in a city.

In everyday life I think it would be really destructive, that’s kind of what happens. We can’t say too much about the story but [to Rafe] you’re involved in a blocking incident. I think there’s no way back. If you were to block someone, the conversation has ended, it’s not like you can build bridges. I don’t know that I would block anyone particularly in person. I’m on Twitter, but I don’t tend to block people unless they’re just unrelentingly unpleasant.

This ties in the alone together, ambient intimacy and human contact posts.. Hopefully this makes people think before they block and delete?

I applied to be on First dates…

First Dates s4ep12

I’m with Mr30NotSoFlirty... I’m down with confessions number 1 and 2 (except the man crush, I think the female wait staff is pretty lovely).

  • Confession no.1 – I do love a blind date

  • Confession no. 2 – over the last few years I’ve become addicted to First Dates on Channel 4 and I have a man crush on Maitre d’ Fred

  • Confession no.3 – I recently took the addiction a step further by being a background dater at the First Dates restaurant…. if you love reality TV, what could be better than stepping into the show you love

I’m not done step 3 but after reading the blog about Mr30NotSoFlirty’s experience. I registered my interest and signed up pretty much straight away on my phone in a Glastonbury cafe today.

This fits with my 2016 new years resolution… Make some bold moves with my love life.

Bold or silly?

Fred and that lovely waitress

Who knows? But I look forward to seeing Fred and that lovely waitress.

Pasties in the South vs the North

Cornish styled Pasty

I had enough of trying rubbish Cornish “styled” pasties (Cornish pasties are a protected recipe) up north. These want to be pasties are pies masquerading as pasties. They don’t get things right and here’s the big ones for me.

Here’s the recipe for a real Cornish pasty, and its worth noting a few things.

Hopefully some of my friends up north will finally understand what I mean.

 

The problem is simple answers to difficult questions?

Swipe left or swipe right… why not?

More and more the answers are getting more simplistic. There was something Douglas Ruskoff said recently in a chat while talking about present shock.

Its also something I’ve been thinking about, especially since installing Bumble and Plenty of Fish daring apps. Every dating app now includes the hot or not/swipe left or right mechanism; this for me is a bad thing…. I’m not the only one of course.

In the September issue of Vanity Fair, Nancy Jo Sales wrote an in -depth piece called, Tinder and the Dawn of “Dating Apocalypse.” It’s an eye-opener and validation of a woman’s worst fear. The guys are swiping right to hook up and it’s all just a game.

In the story, it’s reported that 100 million people are using mobile apps, with about 50 million on Tinder. The Tinder blog reports 25 million matches a day. The numbers are mind-boggling and enormous.

The VF story is really about sex and hookups. Mobile apps just happen to ramp up the numbers in a digital second, and singles in their 20s are buying into the hooking up program, I believe which ruins their chance at romance.

I of course wrote about the tinder breakdown here. But I find the pattern/ui decision/culture a little disturbing. I did look under dark patterns to see if it was included but couldn’t find it.  Maybe I should submit it?

Swipe Left

Whats wrong with the swipe? Don’t be a hater… I hear you say…

I boil it down to simplification of questions to a binary output/decision. Thinking like a computer...

Conrad Wolfram delivered a good talk at Thinking Digital around the exact same thing. I’ve said it a many times before but I’ll say it again, I do wonder/worry that the digital revolution seems to be driven by one group of people who may think alike and seem more comfortable with binary decisions that the fuzziness of reality.

In today’s touchscreen world, a “swipe right” is a quick, positive way to communicate interest. Alternately, a “swipe left” is the swiftest way reject something or someone. Whether it’s picking a date on Tinder or choosing a dress on Pinterest, technology brings immediate gratification to so many aspects of our lives.

This blog by nehrlich caught my eye which is somewhat related. The world is fuzzy and building up systems to block out the fuzz is in my opinion not great. We need to embrace the fuzz along side the binary.

I’ll say it again… diversity of people and thought just like nature.

Reducing a decision about something as fuzzy as a potential partner does irk me. Do I like the person in front of me or not?

Yes or No. In or Out, One or Zero.

No sense of maybe… Make a decision now….!

Plus you can’t move forward or go back. Its some seriously dark user interface voodoo. It seems so playful and fun but under the gamification there is something dark happening…. and its spreading like wildfire! This is certainly something which chimes against my new years resolution around thinking humanity…

After 3 hours of swiping right on Tinder

Which leads headlong into the “I want it now, instant gratification, etc culture…” but I’m feeling too happy for that right now.

My New years resolutions for 2016

The BBC Radio 4 Listening project

Following my review of last year… here’s my New Years Resolutions for 2016; which follows on from 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.2009, 2008 ones.

  1. Be taken out of my comfort zone by Kate and take her out of comfort zone
    Back in September me and Kate took part in the listening project. I had hoped the recording would be on the site by now but instead I’ll say somewhere in the recording, we agreed to take each other out of comfort zone for a weekend.
  2. Host film nights and more dinner parties at mine
    I bought a projector and about to fashion a projector screen out of ikea blinds. As the TV screen is lovely but not big enough for lots of people gathered around on my hopefully new corner sofa. I already have the cinema system for it but you can’t be a projector size screen. I also want to host more dinner parties for friends at mine.
  3. Head further a field with the scooter
    Where next is a question. I feel like a weekend in Ireland would be easy and good. Although further in to Scotland would be a good move too.
  4. Improve my circus skills
    More time is needed at Manchester Quirkus I think, but I do really need to practice the vertex in the garden or park more.
  5. Stay better in touch with old friends
    Jennifer emailed me after a long while of radio silence. She was interested in meeting up for a catch up. I thought it was a great idea… We met up and had a really good and productive catch up. I was a great idea and I’m going to follow by doing a similar thing in 2016.
  6. Redecorate the flat
    Same as last year, its about time and I might need to get some professionals in to help sort out things including network conduits and shifting radiators.
  7. Ride a roller coaster in another country
    I had a great time riding rollercoasters in Japan, and since the smiler crash been thinking about looking at the amazing array of coasters in Europe. Germany, Spain and many others have some great rides which I’ve never been on.
  8. Work on the book/serialised blog
    I have written about 26 chapters and shared a few chapters with close friends. I’m thinking about just realising it as a series of blog entries because I have had interest from others about sharing their stories too. I could even ask for contributions further a field.
  9. See the Aurora (northern lights)
    I have spoken to people and Brian Suda has done a great job sending me media about the northern lights. I’m thinking about going to Iceland to see it and of course him before summer. Iceland in April sounds like a great holiday for my birthday maybe?
  10. Make some bold moves with my love life
    I got to sort it out, its been a while since I did back to back dating and got really stuck in. It time consuming but in short bursts it can work. But it starts with refreshing my online dating profiles and trying out a few of the new dating services such as Bumble.
  11. Kick start the emerging technology event
    I pretty much said most of the details here and started the meetup group already. Now its a matter of keeping my ears to the ground and put together its first event. Thinking something with the Open rights group and iot would be a good start?
  12. Think humanity
    So many things I want to explore, which I summaries under the humanity title. Data ethics, going beyond systematic thinking, emotional angles, diversity, using our other senses and deeper conversations… etc etc…
    They all deserve attention and focus in 2016 and beyond. Expect to see more focus in the future.

Crossed lines and the continuing mystery of 07490170731

https://twitter.com/cubicgarden/status/680196715803054080

I wrote the following post last night and I know it was posted because its on my FB wall (friends have commented too) and posted to twitter correctly. I even found a Google Cached version of it here. But looking at my WordPress install there is no sign of it at all!

googlecache-version of 07490170731

Since yesterday I tried to call O2 to say there was a problem but line went quiet for 10mins and I got more text messages.

Merry xmas to you and family..****** and david 1:30 PM
We might be doing a surprise visi .make sure in 1:37 PM
Eh!!!??? Wtf!!!???
So I replied, expecting my number to be blocked but I explained they got the wrong number. I wouldn’t care so much but theres a number of weird things happening including the deletion of my blog post!
Anyway here’s the blog I originally wrote…

Every once in a while you feel like the something is emerging, like skynet is reaching centennial status or something. Or more likely GCHQ and others have made some kind of mistake. Its almost like those number counting stations.

A friend who I haven’t heard from in almost 2 years suddenly got in touch. It was so weird and the caller ID was unknown to my work mobile phone, which was forwarded to my personal mobile phone. I briefly spoke to my friend but the line was terrible (but I was in starbucks to be fair so thought little about it) she called me back from another number – This time 07490170731 (which I added to her contact). I could hear her but it was weird like there was a crossline or something. Like somebody was listening and I could hear their breathing. On both times I could hear her but she couldn’t hear me much. I said about the heavy breathing and coughing which was male. She said she could hear it and would give me a call back another time. She also said I had called her…?

I got a text from that number at 6:38pm (23rd dec) saying it was her and at 6:48pm the same day. “Sorted had a cross line..”

I replied saying something like… Ummm I dont think you can crosslines on a digital siginal?

Which prompted this tweet, after some searching…

It was so weird but things got weirder…. after calling the friend on the mobile number again and texting. Going to a voice mail machine of as it sounded like a vehicle recovery centre or something. I then got another call with her and the rough man coughing. She could kind of hear me and I said about the man and that somebody was listening in before hanging up. It was her and she responded like she would, so no recording or someone putting her up to it as such.

I got more texts asking if I’m ok, and what was I doing tomorrow? This is when I decided to not text back and contact her via Facebook and Twitter DM. With every message that came through, I replied saying look at your twitter dm and fb.

In the morning I got messages from the same number this time saying it was ******* from **** shop. I said wtf? I’m sorry ****** has been using this number to contact me. This was about 10:10am.

Then while sitting in the Arnolfini cafe, I got messages saying…

Did you just tex a lady called ****** .and who areYOU

WHO ARE YOU?

****** is my wife..and who is **** ..and where is the shop..please

I then got a call from David ******** telling me to take him off speaker phone and stop messing about. I obviously didn’t have him on speaker but he was distant like the calls previously with my friend (no man coughing though). After putting down the phone I got…

Who are you and why playing about.you just tex my wife.and who is **** again.

After a while I got this…

Ive reported to my service provider.my name is david ****** and an gonna block your number

Nothing since, but I’ve not called or texted that number since. Also nothing from my friend but I did text her old numbers just in-case.

Finally I spent some time researching online 07490170731. Out of the stuff I found, this was the most interesting and confirmed the apps which forward my sms’s, the phone provider and my friends wasn’t having a laugh.

In the last 3 days…

Jessica 3 daysI’m looking for the name of the owner of the number 07490170731?

Alfie 3 dayswho is the owner of this number 07490170731 ?

Chloé 3 daysCan you help me to find out who owns this number 07490170731 ?

I still don’t know whats really going on behind the number but I’ll be recording the next call if I get one. I have a log of all my text messages anyway and use a app to log calls times to my google calendar anyway. The audit trail is all there at least. I removed identifiable names, just incase its one massive prank or some kind.

Why blog this, especially in the early hours of Christmas day? No idea, I find it slightly bizarre like I scratched up against the side of the matrix or something. Too weird to explain to the people I have including my parents and friends.

Happy Christmas!