Movember - day 1

I'm doing Movember this year. On the 1st day you have to clean shave so here we go...


-- Post From My iPhone

Lazy days

I have 11 days off work and I couldn't be more excited! Gonna DIY my ass off :)

CTRL-ALT-DEL teacups

Oh God, I want these. They might be the geekiest things in the world!

Buy them!

Thanks Neatorama!

Great video - Work it out by RJD2

Thanks Neatorama

Nice ads for Carphonewarehouse

A breif History of communication from ljudbilden on Vimeo.

Iphone apps the new crack

For me at least. I can't stop installing the damn things. It taps into the same thing that makes firefox my browser of choice. User-developed bolt-ons that means the phone itself is an extensible platform, ready to become a multitude of tools. It's comparable to XML. Or, for you non-geeks, the humble AA battery. A battery doesn't care if it's used in a torch, a radio, a clock or a vibrator. It just does its thing and lets the tool playing host to it do the decision-making. I guess a hammer could be considered comparable in this way too.

Real life... meta-tagged

Interesting article this. Because of my computer programming background, I often think of things in 'the real world' in terms of meta-data (e.g. all cars are the same object, with different colour 'names' etc). Read Making the visible invisible

Russell Davies: Design engaged the second

Great post by Russell today about rethinking the way marketing, communication and design work together, especially given the rapidly approaching media shift occurring directly in view of the public (been on the London Underground lately?). Go and read it. russell davies: design engaged the second

iPhone opens up a whole new era of connectivity

This is where the iPhone was always destined to excel in my opinion: giving hand-held, genuinely portable connectivity and a (fairly) open-source dev platform, along with a WiFi enabled device.

Even I have shelled out wonga close to £10 a pop because some brilliant person developed a way for me to control my Sonons system straight from my iPhone (see my previous post: iPhone app - Sonos controller). I'm now waiting for a decent sky+ app to come along and I'll be set.

But it's influence and abilities are growing at a quickening pace now developers are getting their heads around the code language and iPhone's limitations and abilities. Another new example is DVR pics, allowing you to beam pics taken on your iPhone, via your home WiFi network, straight to your TiVo.

I already also use AirSharing to transfer files from work to home, effectively making my recently bought 4Gb USB stick redundant (any takers?).

It's gonna be interesting to see what comes up next…

Django reinhardt - latest purchase

Just arrived. Very excited :)

Oh, what to do

What to do, what to do. I know project management is not for me - it's too by the numbers 'take this, do this'. So, what's the answer? Digital strategy? Executive producer? I want to be involved from a high level - steering, advising, proposing. But I don't want to then be tied up for months on end implementing. Does this market even have a role for this yet? I think it badly needs it - but which agency/company in London truly understands and realises that? God knows I can't sit back much longer and watch clients piss away money on digital ideas they have come up with themselves and stuck in a brief. Hey clients? It's very simple: stop trying to solve the problem before briefing us. Come to us with a business objective. Then bugger off while we work out the best solution with your budget. Stick to what you know and do it better than the others.

Fractal structure

Could it be possible that we'll never fully understand the structure of everything around us? The more we look; the deeper we delve, we just turn up smaller pieces of the puzzle. But what if - like fractals - we'll just keep on going? Smaller and smaller, deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. I think this is wholly possible. And the question on my mind is why hide it? And who hid it?

Lanterns

I love these guys. Picked them up in the Market at the old mill down the road. Cheap as chips :)

Test blog post from my iphone

Did it get here? -- Post From My iPhone

Iphone app - Sonos controller

I made a little money on the sale of my flat earlier this year, and agreed with myself that I'd spend £1,000 on a music system for myself. I settled on the Sonos wireless music system, hooked up to a hidden 500Gb NAS external drive with all 100Gb of my music on. I love it to bits.

And now, with Zones on my iPhone, I've finally hooked it all up :) I can control the music in my kitchen and lounge separately, and all with the touch of my iPhone.

Serious geek heaven :)

Check out the Zones page by the developers themselves.

Hotel 626 - Flash game

OK - honestly, I haven't actually played this yet coz I'm too damn busy on a project. I'm essentially using my blog as a bookmarking service for myself :)

Vut, I have it on good authority that this game's a corker. I quote:"if you like 7guests/11 hours/silent hill/creepy shxt you will love this, Flash can do what Psone can do now"

Play it. Then let me know if it's any good.

Play Hotel626 now

Why The Flow Of Innovation Has Reversed

Interesting article about how innovation, which previously started with the likes of NASA, and later trickled down to enterprise level, then company, then consumer level, has changed. What is now happening is that consumer-level services are proving themselves and then flowing upstream. Services are being built for the consumer first and these web services, when successful, benefit from the effects of group/social acceptance and spreading.

Read the full article

Hair? Boobs. Hair? Boobs. Hair? Boobs.

Client: Pantene

Campaign: Boobs?

Medium: Print

Agency: MastosGrey

This is so devoid of creative thought I don't even know where to start. Apparently, there's a hair product in there somewhere.

Not that you'd notice anything other than the boobs.

Pap.

Via Adrants

First piece of art for my house

Bought this a couple of weeks ago and just received it. I love it. Reminds me of a rooftop party I went to in New York a few years ago.

It's by John Duffin – go check out his other work

Guinness Spoken Word TV ad

Client: Guinness

Campaign: Spoken Word

Medium: TV

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

I'm a huge fan of Guinness, in many ways. 1 – it's almost the only thing I drink. 2 – I love the work they sign off. They refuse to follow the standards of booze advertising (pretty girls, matey blokes, yadda-yadda). Instead they elevate their brand's status by engaging with higher-brow customers by using beautiful words and dialogue (I can still remember most of the lines from the "Tick followed tock, followed tick, followed tock, followed tock" ad.

Along they come now with advertising backed up by spoken words artistry by Ainsley Burrows.

Beautifully executed. Top drawer stuff.

And here's that classic Guinness ad again, just for kicks :)

Via MADVERTISING

Client: Royal Mail

Campaign: Growth

Medium: TV

Agency: AMV BBDO

Caught this on TV earlier - it's a cracking ad, and I was very surprised it's for the Royal Mail.

Stop-motion animation, and for some reason it reminds me of Honda's seminal Cogs ad.

I can't believe how stingy crisp companies are getting. I don't know what's worse: the crushing disappointment when you open the bag; or the packaging their wasting. Fuckers.