Thoughts and ideas of a dyslexic designer/developer
Dan's usually wearing a pretty cool hat, so I posed for a shot with his hat. What do you all think? I admit its not the best picture and it was taken at BarCampBrighton2 after 3 hours of sleep and a ton of Redbull. I think when I'm wearing a shirt instead of tshirt it will work better.
Wow what a difference…. I only just found out Dopplr now supports Carbon Footprint estimations via the AMEE. Very cool feature and good to see people doing worth while parnerships.
Technorati Tags: carbonfoorprint, carbon, backnetwork
So as some people might have guessed I'm moving from London to Manchester. This might be quite a shock for some but after the messy divorice and the sale of the house, I thought again about the BBC's offer to help staff move to Manchester early. Clean break from the expensive city which I started to think of as home.
I went up to Manchester about 2 weeks ago to see what it was like and except for a little abuse about being from the south it wasn't bad at all. What struck me about Manchester was the buildings. There are tons of modern flats covering most of the central area of Manchester city centre and there really reasonable in price because there are so many of them. I went for a viewing of a range of flats just off oxford road/street and was shocked to find high ceilings, lots of space and a great view. Not only that, but I would have been 1min walk from both BBC Manchester and Oxford road train station. This type accommendation in London would set you back a least one grand and a bit every month. But in Manchester its less that 600 pounds a month.
I was also suprised at how modern everything was. Like the picture, everythings clean stone and glass in the centre.
There are some serious business reasons to go up to Manchester too. A lot of people feel the BBC is too London centric. And Backstage also gets a lot of flack for running most of the events in London including Over the Air. Well not any more, now the centre of Backstage will be Manchester and London 2nd. I'm hoping to unite a North and South a little better through the work at backstage. Yes there is a divide but I don't think its about trying to out do London, its about playing to your strenghts. As Adrian McEwen wrote there is a fear that running events in the north will not generate much interest. Well there are events planned which will change this. The success of BarCampManchester and the upcoming Think Digital conference alongside BarCampNewcastle, should be a true idicator that the North is important and new interesting events can be successful. (Oh did I mention Backstage is sponsoring and supporting the last two?)
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Anyway back to moving. So I don't know the exact date yet, it depends on when I find a flat I like in Manchester I guess. But the house I'm living in right now has sold and so at some point soon, there will be a complition date which means I will have to move before that date. Everything squared off at work, so I can move reasonably quickly without too much distruption.
Obviously I will be back and forth between London and Manchester but I do want to throw a large scale party in London at some point to say bye to friends. This may co-inside with a large london geekdinner I've been planning on Saturday 26th April. So please try and keep that date clear if possible. Hey I may even drink that night…
Technorati Tags: manchester, london, north, south, barcamp
Sad news, Whitefield Fishponds Community school is being torn down and rebuilt as a community college. Theres a reunion this Saturday, but I can't make it due to other commitments at the opposite side of the country. Its a shame because I would have made a special trip to see it one last time.
Technorati Tags: whitefield, school
So I've had my Kangol hat for something like I believe 11-13 years and its actually getting to the point where I should really replace it but I don't know what with.
So the obvious choice would be the exact same hat but actually they don't do my hat any more and have not done so for the last ten years, which kind of sucks. So what about another Kangol? Well to be honest the styles are not very appealing. Its either a grandad hat (also known as a flat cap?), normal hat or some variation on a skull cap. My current hat is a cross between a normal hat, baseball cap and skull cap. It kind of sits on the very top of my head so you can clearly see my forehead. This feels more comfitable that the skull cap style stuff you see most people wearing. The Grandad hats do look pretty good on someone like Samuel L Jackson but look wrong on someone a little more rounded like myself. Normal baseball caps are very wrong on myself too although the visor versions of the baseball caps are not so bad, but its rare you see them around now plus I'm going to look like a dick wearing a visor in the rain or snow (who knows I could be in Manchester)
So come on people, what should I be wearing?
Technorati Tags: hat, kangol, cap, head, ianforrester
Watched Derren Brown live in Epson yesterday night. This is about the 4th time I've seen him live and he seems to get better each time. The playhouse was packed solid and some people had paid almost 100 pounds for tickets, due partly because this was his only London performance.
Unlike before, I did get on stage but was too slow getting to the correct side of the stage. If I had, Derren would have asked me to phone a friend and got my friends to guest some numbers. Those numbers would have been the same numbers as a serial number on a ten pound note he had in his pocket. The trick was much more involved than just that, but I won't spoil it for you. Andy also got on stage but this time during the trick where derren guess a object your thinking about. Trying to be tricky he picked Radio (which if you know him wasn't very clever at all). Derren actually guessed Andys object without asking any questions at all.
At the end of the night, we did go around to the stage door, where Derren did appear for a short while. It was his birthday, so he wanted to shoot off quickly. But he did bring a lovely chocolate cake for the waiting crowd and pose for a few shots while signing peoples books. Andy and Noor joked about selling the cake on ebay and actually derren said it was a good idea, so I'm wondering if Andy actually did put it up or not?
Technorati Tags: derrenbrown, epson, socialenginering, tricks, mind, performance
…Not a good idea. I blame Jo Twist for calling me towards the front and Suw for throwing the bouquet straight at my head. I swear I only catched it to avoid being hit in the face with it. Thanks Kevin and Suw for a great wedding and thanks to Jo and Stephine for the advice with what to do with the bouquet.
The Security Van Scam is well known but people still fall for it and simlar scams. Its got all the hallmarks of social engineering, including social complience, convincing and timing. From Schneier's great blog
on Thursday, about 9:30 a.m., a man dressed as an employee of the security company Brink's walked into a Wachovia branch in downtown Washington and walked out with more than $350,000.
The man had a badge and a gun holster on his belt, said Debbie Weierman, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office. He told officials at the bank, at 801 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, that he was filling in for the regular courier.
About 4 p.m., when the real guard showed up, a bank official told him that someone had picked up the cash, D.C. police said. The guard returned to his office and told a supervisor that he did not make the pickup at the bank. The supervisor called a Wachovia manager, who in turn notified authorities. Police were called nearly 11 hours after the heist.
Technorati Tags: internet, scam, socialenginnering, money, con, securityguardscam
James Cridland tagged me in the blogging meme by the same name. Yes its been a while but I've been pretty busy with lots of other stuff. Unlike James I know what a meme is and I like the idea of memetics, which I first heard via Susan Blackmore. Anyway I'm sure James actually does know what a meme is and its on with the rules.
Here are the rules:
I'm nominating…. (without checking to see if they have done this already)
Technorati Tags: webmeme, blogmeme, meme, 8things, blog, ianforrester, myself
I admit it, I go to work very late. Most people think its because I go to bed very late or I just don't sleep enough. Not so. I for ages tried sleeping 9 hours a night starting at 10pm and 11pm. But I always felt tired or not with it between the hours of 9am-1pm. So since I shifted my schedule to sleep at about 2am and go to work about 11am I've felt a lot better. This is why I can clearly understand the New York Times story about Teenagers getting better grades when they go to school/college later rather that earlier.
Research shows that teenagers’ body clocks are set to a schedule that is different from that of younger children or adults. This prevents adolescents from dropping off until around 11 p.m., when they produce the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, and waking up much before 8 a.m. when their bodies stop producing melatonin. The result is that the first class of the morning is often a waste, with as many as 28 percent of students falling asleep, according to a National Sleep Foundation poll. Some are so sleepy they don’t even show up, contributing to failure and dropout rates.
Technorati Tags: sleep, sleeping, productivity, time