That’s it. The year is done, 2013 is over, 364 and a half days have been experienced. So that means it’s time to look back on my ambitions for 2013 and see if I achieved them! The framework was Change, Connect and Challenge, a way of structuring my thoughts for the year. Practically, I split […]
2013 – Week 52
Christmas Week, that weird one (which carries on into next week) where life does not follow normal pattern! Reading Marketers fear the female geek. The cycle of why certain things are aimed at men only and some ideas of how to break the cycle. Putting right the wrong done to Alan Turing by David Allen […]
2013 – Week 51
The year is nearly done. Thoughts turn to plans for 2014, personal, professional, what ambitions will I set myself for the year? Reading Looking outside the Tech Bubble by Rob Underwood. Don’t agree with everything in here about giving back, but at its heart, it’s a call to action to take a look around you […]
2013 – Week 50
An interesting week, with potential for huge changes. But more on that as they crystalise! Reading Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregellis. An interesting Alt-history story, the first in a trilogy. What happens if the Germans had harnessed mental powers in WW2 and what would be the UK response. The Brilliant Hack that brought Foursquare back […]
2013 – Week 49
Reading Odon Childbirth device: Car mechanic uncorks a revolution. A feature about Jorge Odon, a car mechanic from Argentine, who has invented a new device to help with childbirth. What we can learn from fake tears on social media (The Kernal). Why people push their grief onto social media when a celebrity dies. (something you […]
Boots Blogger Event – Sensationail
Last week I attended a blogger event, pulled together under the auspices of Boots I believe. It was aimed at beauty bloggers, so not 100% sure why I was on the list, but it was a very good event, looking at 2 different devices that use light to help you in the quest for looking […]
2013 – Week 48
Reading 18 Ways to take Mobile seriously from Inma. It’s been the year of the mobile for years and years, but it’s permanently tipped that way now and this provides a list of the basics to make sure you’re meeting needs. I’m not Angry. After my meeting with Ben, this is where my searches took […]
I met Ben today
Sitting on the bus, a man is helped on. He says he can’t see, although he does not seem to have too much trouble moving around or slapping his Oyster card down. He says he’s disabled, cheerfully, as that’s the armour against the world. He sits down next to me and just starts to talk. […]
The Churches of Sir Christopher Wren
Yesterday, I used up one of my remaining holiday days to play tourist in London. Usually, holidays are used for holidays, somewhere else, but occasionally it’s nice to use one to explore my home town. The plan was made to tour the churches of Sir Christopher Wren. After the Great Fire of London in 1666, […]
2013 – Week 47
Winter is definitely here! it’s getting a bit cold out there. Not sure of it’s the cold but it was a very quiet week. Reading Not that musch this week. The NSA Files: Decoded from The Guardian. An assessment of the impact of the revelations about the NSA spying on everyone. Saints of the Shadow […]
My Media Consumption
I opened up iTunes this week, sometimes that does not happen too often. There was my full list of all the songs I had bought this year. A grand total of THREE. That’s it, just the 3 songs. When I mentioned this to colleagues, it seems that I’m not alone in my minimal of songs, […]
2013 – Week 46
Reading Charlotte Church – How women are routinely demoralized by the music industry. A look at her history in the industry and perspectives on sex, sex as art and sex as exploitation. Should also be read in conjuction with the series of Lily Allen interviews that are current. Catching a Blighty – Charles Stross. A […]
2013 – Week 45
Reading The Ofsted Report on Hogwarts. This is from earlier in the year and is a lot of fun. What would the regulatory bodies make of a school of Wizardry, especially one with such a high accident rate! Up in Arms (Tufts) A look back at the hstory of the US and how the different […]
2013 – Week 44
Week 44, the last week of October as the year slowly slips away Reading Thinking about 2014 social strategy, Paul Fabretti . Devices and audiences, key areas to understand. Ender’s Game, its controversial author, and a very personal history By Rany Jazayerli. Should you boycott the film given the book author’s personal views? Doing Friends […]
2013 – Week 43
The plan to do weekly blog posts lasted nearly 3 months, so it was a start. Let’s see if I can finish off the end of the year with weekly posts. Reading On holiday, I read a lot of books about Japan or by Japanese authors. When looking up what would be good to read, […]
Playful13 – Nature of Games
Pippin Barr – What are curious games Pippin is a game designer, artist and critic who has done many wonderful things that you’re probably already too busy cooing over to bother finish reading this. He’s just spent the past month working to create the Digital Marina Abramovich Institute, where visitors can experience exercises designed by […]
Playful13: Making Mishief
Dani Lurie. Making Mischief Graphic designer and a writer. Is really highly excitable. Especially about getting people to interact with the world in interesting ways. So that brings us to mischief. It has traditionally been bad. Associated with troublemakers. So why is it good, why worth talking about. When a toddler, her and her brothers […]
Playful13: Designing Controllers
George Buckenham – Things that go Squish George “makes games and things†– often silly (Punch The Custard, A Bastard), often hacking existing things (Proteus Frog mod; Sweareoke Guitar Hero mod) and sometimes just straight up, fiendish games (Hell Is Other People, CUBES). George is going to be talking about videogames and their relationship with […]
Playful 13: Designing with playfulness
Duncan Fitzimmons. Director at Vitamins A small and nimble design agency; they work across a wide range of industries and applications and everything is multi-disciplinary. Look to create a sense of magic and wonder in everything they do. The talk is about how they do that and how playfulness is involved. Samsung came along; about […]
Japan: The Last Days
After the touristing of the last 2 weeks, the last 2 days were basically travel. First of all we travelled from Hiroshima back to Tokyo via Shinkansen, the bullet train. We were staying in the Shinjiku area, so wandered along to the park Hyatt (as all the reviews say, made famous by the film Lost […]