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

My Broken Diabolo

Dead diabolo

This is what happened after I attempted to pull off the next generation of tricks in the world of Diabolism. They take diabolos from Vertical to Horizontal and are usually called Vertax or Excalibur. If performing a suicide and genocide was bad enough, don't even attempt one of these Vertax's. I kind of got it going then it went flying, hit the ground and bounced straight into a brick wall. But to be honest, I think dropping the Diabolo at six stories a few times maybe wasn't that good for it either. So much for diabolism while in Dublin… Can someone tell me how on earth you perform a Genocide Vertax without turning the diabolo into its original purpose of killing people?

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The Sexy little HTC Touch Diamond

HTC Touch Diamond

Via Engadget, iI'm not the biggest fan of the touch range of HTC phones, but this one looks great. I would get one if I was upgrading my phone. And you iphone owners have to admit this phone does look great and has a pretty impressive 3d accelerated interface. What makes it great is its spec, VGA screen, Bluetooth 2.0, Wifi, HSDPA/3g support, GPS (a-gps?), 4gig of storage, MicroSD card support for more storage, 3.2mpx camera, 3D graphics chip, FM radio and Accelerometer. It looks like a LG Viewty but runs Windows Mobile 6.1, how much better can you get? Well I guess we'll find out in a special HTC press launch today in London. Best thing about HTC phones, is there usually priced below Nokia's and always available on Orange first.

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Geek Stereotypes

Wireds Geek Stereotypes

I was reading wired on the plane to Dublin today and came across a rather amusing piece about different types of geeks. It had a range of geek stereotypes including the Fanboy (1), the gadget guy (4), the gamer (3) and the hacker (5). What was interesting was the other two, the music geek (2) and the otaku (6). These two are usually forgotten when it comes to geek types, and it was interesting to see Wired magazine made them women.

When I was Futuresonic over the weekend, I certainly met quite a few women who could be loosly termed as Otaku geeks. They even had the super coloured hair and well interesting clothing to go with it. But what I wonder is where is the Dj geek? Designer geek? Movie geek? Mobile phone geek? (which I would argue, isn't the same as gadget guy). Anyway, its all stereotypes and not real. We're all a combination and we all wear better clothes and don't look like we just left college. Embrace your geekness…

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revealed: My New Manchester Flat

Living room

Sorry to everyone for the long delay in blogging but you need to feel the pain of not having broadband at home. Some people have asked why I don't just blog from work, but to be honest I tend to have a endless list of things to do at work, so as I complete one task, I just move to the next one. This means theres no time for blogging. Also recently I've been out of the building so much that sitting down and blogging would be difficult. I had thought about drafting a load but I've been unpacking for days and am still not finished.

In the pictures you can now see on Flickr, you might notice a few boxes but up till yesterday was a lot more.

Before anyone asks, the computer next to the TV isn't there all the time, thats my test machine ubuntu box for xbmc in the future. There is no barrier between the kitchen and living room, its open plan. But I decided to put the bookshelf and sofas in the way. This means the living room area feels more cosy. The sofas are not my choosing, just like the glass table and coffee table but I'll live with them. The TV is watchable from the Kitchen and dinner table too. The second bed room still has the bed covers which came with the flat, because I would never pick such nasty bed covers. I put the servers and switch in the wardrobe alongside the extra furniture and boxes. I still need to get rid of the rest of the boxes and sort out the ethernet/telephone cables. If it was my flat, I would be drilling nice outlet holes between the rooms but its not.

To date, only 3 people have seen the new flat. The first person was Kate, while Dave's actual slept over, although Kate did get to sample some cooking. Generally I'm having a good time in Manchester and I did go out drinking the other day with Kate and Leanne, so things are going pretty well. The house in London exchanged last week too, which is good and now means I don't really have links to London except family and friends. Yes the ride up to Manchester last Sunday was pretty long (4.5hours), luckly it only rained between Oxford and Birmingham, so I was dry by the time I stopped for the 3rd time for fuel and a rest near Manchester.

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Sorry all, I’m mainly offline due to my move to Manchester

My desktop says i'll be offline for half a month

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.

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And winner of the poll was moi?

Final poll results

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.

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Social games with Moby from O2

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.

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Social Enginnering at any cost?

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.

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Dying to comment, but won’t…

The techcrunch uk poll for the next bbc fmt director

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.

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Xbox media centre on my laptop

xbox media centre on ubuntu 7.10

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.

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