Year: 2008

General

Radios and Fire Engines

I’ve been digging into some history, of the house and into some of the things hanging around. First up we have an old EKCO radio, with the various choices of Gram, Long, Medium and VHF for wavelength choices. Then we have an old Corgi Simon Snorkel Fire Engine, model 1127. You’ll see quite a few […]

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conference

Day 1 Le Web

The first day at Le Web ’08 was a mixed day. The venue is great, as a space, but problems came out of this conference being the first to use the building, from heating that was not working correct, incorrectly positioned wifi that performed poorly and a badly chosen caterer that did not understand the […]

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conference

Leadership at the end of the age of information

I’m at LeWeb in Paris, taking notes on some of the talks. Dave Weinberger gave one of his trademark inspirational speeches, all about leadership in a a changing world. I’ve taken live notes, not a strict verbatim copy, but got most of what he says. I fully recommend watching this one when it’s available Are […]

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books

Books Oct and Nov 2008

Here’s the summary of the last 2 months or reading Crowd Surfing, Martin Thomas, David Brain. Good book on how brand should approach “surviving in the age of consumer empowerment” Nation Terry Pratchett. He’s one of my favourite authors and this is one of his best. Not a Discworld novel, just a wonderful example of […]

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books, events

Little Brother

I popped along to Forbidden Planet today to a book signing by Cory Doctorow, his first in the UK according to the announcer in the shop. It was to buy a copy of Little Brother, a book I’d already read via the free pdf download he provided on the release of hte book in the […]

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entertainment, events

Mobile Geeks, Amplified08 and team building

As well as the Pinkerton Lecture, I made my way to a few other events this week. Mobile Geeks of London. Run by Whatleydude, this event is a drinking and connecting event, run every few months or there about. I got there later in the evening, after my trip to the IET, to find the […]

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events, marketing, socialmedia

London 2012 and Social Media

On the one hand, the Olympics are the most wonderful celebration of humanity, of striving to be the best, faster, higher, stronger as the motto says. On the other hand, I find them – the organisation behind the games – to be one of the most cynical and grasping of organisations, historically prone to corruption, […]

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General, life

Survivors – What would you do

Survivors, a re-imaging of the 70’s series devised by Terry Nation, started last night on the BBC and there was a minor Twitter flurry of discussion about it. There’s been mixed reaction to the episode, including these from Jason, and from Savage Popcorn. One common question that popped up is what would you do in […]

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books

Books September 08

More Library, more scifi. Cosmonaut Keep Ken Macleod. another story of humans out there creating new worlds. Great story, approached from different angles until you put the whole tale together at the end about using alien tech to build new ships and bestow immortality. Revelation Space Alastair Reynolds. Took me a couple of goes to […]

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General

Omnivore’s 100

I like lists and here’s a list of 100 foods that Andrew from very good taste thinks every one should try once. As usual with these lists, bold are those food I’d try, strike through are those I don’t really want to try. I’ve annotated the list to give a little background. (via CC) The […]

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General

Les MisBarack

Les Mis is one of my favourite musicals (I’ve seen it about 3 times), so I love the song here. But it works on more levels than that. It would be great if UK politics was as creative

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General

LHC makes headlines

And isn’t that gorgeous. This is a science project, a hard physics project and it’s got the world twittering and blogging and just generally talking about it. How often does that happen? It’s mainstream as well, it’s not just the geeks, with the Google logo changing and BBC pushing it as the number 1 headline […]

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General

Bre Pettis and History Hacked

My friend Bre from New York has just made a pilot TV show for the (US) History Channel. In it, he hacks historical inventions today, using items out of his closet. I sublet his room in NY for a few months and have seen his closet, so can believe it 😉 So congratulations are due […]

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books

August Books

I finally joined the library this month, so getting through a lot of new authors I would not have usually read. Battlestar Galactica, Jeffrey Carver. Another free pdf from Tor, this was good as I’ve never seen the mini-series/pilot for the re-imaged series. That said, the book was a little too much like a transcription […]

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General

Scarborough

Last week, I was up in Scarborough with an old school friend. As I’d not seen her for about 10 years, there was a little concern, but it all went great and lots of fun was had. She usually lives in Moscow, but has a holiday home up in Yorkshire, to get back to the […]

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events, life, marketing

A Girl’s Guide to the Great British Beer Festival

It’s the Great British Beer Festival this week at Earl’s Court, a huge cavern of a place that is full of beer and beer drinkers. As part of their ongoing campaign to widen the appeal of beer CAMRA are running some free tours, a Girl’s Guide to the Great British Beer Festival. They’re curated by […]

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General

Blogging, Touristing and Fetes

Got up to some interesting things this week. On Tuesday, I went to the London Bloggers’ Meetup; it was sponsored by Stella, who did a grand job. They bought the drinks and offered some free trips on their new airship for the most entertaining description of your local pub. (I didn’t win). This is all […]

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books

July Books

I got a whole load of books from a fete, so I’ve been working my way through these. They reflect my favourite easy reading – thrillers. Deja Dead, Kathy Reichs. I’ve rea a few of her books and always like them. The protagonist is Dr Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist. This is one of the […]

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