Friday, October 29, 2010

Have a great Halloween

Right well I'm offski to get whipped at Torture Garden in London.

Now doubt I'll have plenty of terrible photos appearing on Facebook from Sunday onwards and my mother will probably end up disowning me.


Anyway, have a great halloween weekend everybody.



Return to Pandora

Yes I am excited to hear that James Cameron will be directing Avatar 2 and 3.

Lady Gaga beats Justin Bieber to YouTube record

So erm yeah, Lady Gaga beats Justin Bieber to Youtube record... newsworthy? I think it is not.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/11626592

green art

Just took a look at a very nice gallery of inspirational green posters

http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2010/10/artists-poster-campaign-sends-powerful-green-messages.php?page=1

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Windows XP

Why do people still use Windows XP on old rubbish laptops to save money? I have a laptop that I think, possibly, may pre-date the type-writer. It looks like crap (I miss my MacBook pro!) and is so slow it needs a full time nurse to make sure it doesn't choke on it's own inadaquecy. I'm trying to write a proposal right now and word has slowed down so much that I have to stop touch typing just to wait for the bloody thing to catch up.

If there were windows on this floor at eye level I would chuck this pile of crap out of it.

Note: This is not my laptop, this one is in better condition.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Requirements

Well I'm currently stuck in a specification for a new web project. Why is it clients always prioritise everything as "Must have"? And for that matter, why is it they expect that these "Must have's" should cost very little because they are quite clearly tiny and easy to implement. For instance "Yes, make it work exactly like Facebook" is clearly very simple and very cheap, or "Yes we must get 10,000 users every month for our website www.chickenwire.co.uk"... no body cares about chickenwire!


Pam Ann - Berlin Layover 18.03.2009

Monday, October 18, 2010

Test Data

When testing a site what's the best dummy content to use? Is it Lorem Ipsum? I think it should always be real content. Lorem Ipsum is a great filler when you don't have anything real to put in but actual content, in whatever draft form is soooooooo much better.

I'm testing a site now with real content and it's flushing out loads of issues. Like a short paragraph causes the design to break, or the fact that we don't have H2's specified in the CMS.

And who makes the best testers? Site-testers are efficient and organised. They are definately the ideal folk to use all along the testing cycle; but if you can slip real users in there as well you'll discover things you never thought of. In fact, it's an idea to test with real users at every stage if budget allows. Real users might not be "digital" experts but they are experts, because at the end of the day it's the real uesrs who will be using your site. So get your wireframes, designs, copy, and build tested by real users with real content.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Organisation tips for developers

Ever felt like your life was in dissaray? I'm a Project Manager and I'm horribly disorganised. This doesn't make me crap at my job, I just don't always take the most normal path to get where I want to go.


Still bringing order to chaos is always good and this article about organisation tips for developers has given me a few ideas.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Convergence - when internet met the TV

It was going to happen. The PC is dead. Mobile phones, all in one home cinema / tv / games console / blah blah, all working together in glorious harmony. Stream movies or videos of ninja cats from your living room, social network while playing video games from tetris to Call of Duty - it's all around the corner and it'll all be in one ultra thin, 3D, flat panel in your living room. Who will lead this, quite possibly Google or Apple...

Friday, October 08, 2010

Iwantthaturl tee hee

ExpertsExchange.com –> ExpertSexchange.com
WhoRepresents.com –> WhorePresents.com
TherapistFinder.com –> TheRapistFinder.com
PenIsland.net –> PenisLand.net
ChooseSpain.com –> ChoosesPain.com
GoTahoe.com –> GotAHoe.com
PenIsMightier.com –> PenisMightier.com
PowergenItalia.com –> PowerGenitalia.com
MoleStationNursery.com –> MolestationNursery.com
KeywordsExtractor.com –> KeywordSexTractor.com
BigAlsOnline.com –> BiGalsOnline.com
PotsOfArt.com –> PotsoFart.com
AlterScrap.com –> AltersCrap.com
ViaGrafix.com –> ViagraFix.com

Virtual Village

Only The Brave are a charity running a village aid project in Africa. To engage with young people they have created a virtual version of the village they operate in to help engage young people with their work. The village is essentially a game, you can help local villagers by completing tasks while discovering more about the project as you go.

The village has been created in Facebook, so to play the game you have to login. In doing so you're promoting the village, the charity and giving enough info for Only The Brave to open a channel with you. Clever!

See the village here

http://www.otbfoundation.org/launch

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Trapped miners

Ok, for the miners it's most likely a horrible story. Yet for the rest of the world it's a drama that excites us all. Why? Because (at least for the guys), it involves digging, big machines, caves and NASA.... COOL!!!!

And the BBC knows this, so they've created a cool little flash animation that shows how cool it is!!!

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

What is User Experience?

A brilliant article here that is a great introduction to user experience (etc) and why it's the most brilliant thing since sliced bread.

Monday, October 04, 2010

Are mobiles warping your fragile little brain

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/10/multitasking-studies/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Model New York

Glorious video of New York here - everything is made to look like it's a model


The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

Bios is dead

Time for a techy post. I was pleased to hear this morning that Bios could soon be replaced with a new system, UEFI, which will lead to PC's booting in seconds. Hoorah!

I had never thought about the Bios as being something that would be replaced or what having it actually means. This article is quite interesting for understanding the history of Bios, like it has been used since 1979 and was not intended to last as long as it has.

 
PS: I've discovered there are NO sexy images for "Bios"

Friday, October 01, 2010

End of an era

I was very sad to hear the news yesterday that my old agency, Enable Interactive, is no more. I find myself thinking about the great projects I worked in the 4 years I was there and I count myself very lucky! More importantly I'm going to miss meeting up with the old crew on a regular basis; but as I count many of them as my friends I have no doubt I will be seeing them socially anyway.

Anyway I will miss Enable heaps and I wish everyone who was there the best of luck in their next roles!