The shop round the corner which has had the summer lawn sprinkler outside every day for about the last 18 months (through 2 winters) now has a new attraction. A 5ft singing, dancing Santa that chortles, sings and gyrates to music all day long. Almost everytime I pass it, there’s an adoring crowd.
Rachel has an invitation to a Christmas Carol concert next Wednesday in Parliament Square. Get together to sing a whole bunch of songs but be aware of one thing – you run the risk of arrest.
Please note that if you attend this carol service, it will classify as a spontaneous demonstration (of faith, hope, joy and/or religious tolerance) and there is a possibility that you will be cautioned or arrested under Section 132 of the Serious and Organised Crimes and Police Act 2005
Come along, it could be fun (as long as you’re not listening to my singing..I think I’ll be just humming given my ability to hit a note)
I’ve got all these open tabs that I need to close…posting them is the best way.
Scott Adams wants to adopt – an embryo. Does not need a lot of space (keep. it in the freezer), cheap (no toys or clothes) and no issue with a terror toddler or a truculent teen. It may just catch on.
Seth Godin puts some thought into why companies should be on the web – or why not
Q: Should every business use the internet to communicate? What are the basics of an internet communications strategy? A: You should only use the internet if you want your communications to be FAST and you want to reach LARGE NUMBERS with no intermediaries. If you can’t handle that, though, you shouldn’t try.
The decision to use the web as a communications tool can be seen as an obvious one – yourcompetitiors are doing it, so you should. But like all methods – it needs thought and resources behind it. It’s should not be done just becuase it’s perceived as quick and simple, but because it is the right thing to do.
In the same vein, Market Sherpa has 5 steps for corporates who want to blog. Although it misses out Robert Scoble’s first preferred step – read blogs – it’s a pretty accurate representation of what has been going on in a company I know, looking at doing a blog. It’s not always possible to just do things, however good the idea. A corporate has politics and lots of statekholders whose needs have to be addressed.
I see Typepad was down for a loooonnnng time. Niall Kennedy has a great podcast/interview transcript with Anil Dash about what happened. Jay Allen says what most of the operational guys were probably thinking “I’m looking forward to never having another day like that for the rest of the time I work at Six Apart.” Technology is not a panacea, it always goes wrong at the worst time. I’m convinced that some of the applications I work on know when I’m going to give a demonstration – because that is when they break.
Sad to see that John Spencer has died at the young age of 58. One of my favourite actors in the West Wing
Sir Tim Berners-Lee has a blog. After a week, it has one post and 258 comments.
Conferences: Mix06 looks like it would be an excuse to get to Vegas, a town that is on my list of places to visit at least once. I’m going to be in the US in March anyway, for SXSW. But it’s only going to happen if I get a very large windfall. The Future of Web Apps in London in Feb is far more in my price range.
I went to see the latest Harry Potter movie yesterday. This is the first of the series that I have actually seen end to end, although I’ve probably seen all of the first one in dribs and frabs, and I quite enjoyed it. I’ve read all the books, which was just as well as the fim makes the assumption that you know the characters and the world and makes no time for introductions. The higher age rating was deserved, as it is a dark film but I think I enjoyed most the portrayal of the teenagers, with all the stupid behaviour that is so typical (“so, are you going to ask me to dance” “no”). That kep me laughing for most of the film. I enjoyed it enough to consider going to see the next one.
A couple of articles caugh tmy eye in today’s Evening Standard. The first is about c2c who have just announced a new service (although not, apparently, in the news section of their website). They are going to provide cough-free carriages for the next few months, to allow their commuters to stay germ free. If a traveller starts coughing they are supposed to leave the carriages.
In another story, a man named Tufty could do with a few doses of Panexa to encourge Excessive Floppy Tail Syndrome in the squirrels in his garden, as he has set up deathtogreysquirrels.com, to encourage the culling of grey squirrels which are perceived as a nuisance and a threat to the native red squirrels. Whilst suggesting that you avoid the brains, there are a few recipes that could provide alternatives to your normal Christmas fare and there are updated reports from the battlefronts; or you could go and comment on the forum. A growing, slightly worrying, campaign.
Last night was another of the Christmas functions at work, this time with the IT function. After dressing up and loading onto a coach, we arrived at our venue for the night – the Hard Rock Cafe – to take part in plenty of food, drink and karaoke. Scattered around the venue were dressing up accessories, such as hats, funny glasses and wigs, plus lots of cameras.
The cameras were all going to be collected and processed, with the photos shared round the office. There were a fair number of personal cameras being used, including mine. However, unlike Saturday night’s geek dinner, very few of those photos will end up on Flickr. In the one’s that I’ve put up, the people in them know I blog, know I put photos online and were aware I would be doing that. Looking at the photos from Saturday, I’m in some from people I don’t know, who never asked permission – but nor would I epxect them to. You can see the same thing from the Les Blogs conference last week – plenty of photos, no disclaimers ever signed. So I’ve been thinking about the type of photos I publish and in what circumstances I put them on the web.
The first type is usually of complete strangers, from events around London or at festivals or get togethers. They’re never identified, but by being in a public place their pictures are open to be taken.
The second type is the semi-private/invitational event. And for me here it is down to expectations. The geekdinner was organised online and many/most of the participants appear to have blogs and Flickr accounts which are not necessarily anomynous. My expectation would be that the people attending understand that they may be photographed, or linked or, or mentioned in a post, even if I’ve never met them before. It is part of an unwritten contract that comes from attending such events. I perceive no such agreement at a work event – it’s far more a private function.
Saturday was a day of interesting conversations. In the afternoon, I met up with Tara and Suw and we talked about life , the universe and blogging. Some of the conversation got recorded…I’ll need to work out if I can afford the bribe for that not to be broadcast anytime soon ;o). After that, it was off to the Geek Dinner, for a lot more conversation and wine. Ian has a good roundup of the evening.
It’s that holiday season again and the parties are lined up. One of the occupational hazards of such festivity is falling asleep on the way home and missing your stop. But worry no longer, pop over to wakemeupat.com and get yourself some stickers, requesting your fellow commuters to wake you up at your stop. Thanks Richard.
Since Wednesday I’ve seen at least 3 copies of an’ urgent security notice’ via different communications routes, noting that a critical vulnerability to internet explorer had not yet been fixed and warning us all to exercise common sense when browsing web pages. So far I’ve managed not to send my automatic reply back – use Firefox!
As George Best appears to be facing the end, the Metro newspaper put him on the front page today – with some very careful (and clever) writing. Last night, doctors were predicting that he only had a few hours left. He was alive as the papers went to press but the odds were that he would not be when the papers were read. So the Metro reporters have written in the past tense – just in case…
He was famous for his drinking, his womanising, his love of the good life. But George Beat was clear what his legacy should be: I hope they remember the football.
It implies he’s gone, but does not state it. Surprisingly, he’s still clinging on to life this morning.
As we move into year end the prevalence of US media and commercial interests not to use the salutation ‘Happy Christmas’ but instead to use the more niutral ‘Happy Holidays’ always makes be chuckle. And wonder what they call all the other festivals such as Eid, Divali, Hannukkah or Kwanzaa. We can’t call all of them just Holidays – how can we then know the difference? Let’s just stick to Christmas.
The new BBC TV advertising, for digital services, is rather disturbing. A crowd of disembodied heads floating around the countryside getting together in the shape of verious personalities. What were the creatives on when they came up with that?
My mother was visting today (she was down in London for a conference) so I took the day off to do some touristy stuff. No real plans were made, but we ended up doing a spin round the V&A and then visiting Harrods. As responsible adults you’d have thought we would have gone for some serious shopping. But no; after a wander round the Food Hall and then lunch, we headed straight for the top floors and spent and hour or so playing with all the toys! A really good day ;o)
Harriet is thought to be 175 years old today, or at least that is what is being celebrated.
Yesterday, I took a trip to Twickenham to watch England beat Australia at rugby. Beforehand, I’d been at a lunch where Jeff Probyn had given a speech – un-reformed, targeting the many males in the audience ;o) – in which he had predicted a win by 10 points, with the front row playing the key part. His prediction was uncannily accurate as we won by 26-16. A good day out, crisp, sunny, perfect for watching rugby.
Amongst all the sponsorship, I was surprised to see that Microsoft had got involved, sponsoring a big screen which regularly displayed the latest Microsoft slogan.
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, The Great War, the war to end all wars, officially came to an end. Since then, the time has been used to remember the fallen, those who gave their lives for their country, with no though of politics. Every year, the Royal British Legion run the Poppy appeal to raise funds to support soldiers and their dependents who have been affected by war.
Take a moment and remember them
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
For the Fallen, Laurence Binyon
Occasionally, it becomes necessary to go outside of work and get coffee from one of the many local coffee shops, forgoing the inhouse brand whose only real attraction is that is free and ocntains caffeine. The choice is usually Starbucks. Yesterday, we tried something different and ran a taste test between Starbucks and Cafe Nero. So 2 pruchasers went out and returned with samples of standard skinny latte which was poured out into plain cups, ready for hte blind tasting.
The results were mixed; 2 out of the 5 preferred the Starbucks, which for the rest of us was too milky. The Cafe Nero one had a more coffee taste, although the criticism was that as a latte it should have a more milky taste. However, we all agreed that the best tase was from when we mixed the two samples together to finish them – so we’re calling for a new drink. Bring on the Nerobucks..
Tom at TrueTalk Blog writes about explaining what he does, how it is not a simple as delivering mail, but is
about helping leaders create an environment that make people happy, in which they have fun, in which there is a deep sense of mutual respect and regard (love). Oh, and are wildly productive because of that environment.
That’s the summary of a long description, as he tries to explain his job. It struck home because of recent conversation with my family about some career changes I’m planning. When there’s no common experience, coming to a common understanding is pure hard work. Despite the fact that my current role is one of the few where I can point to something that I’ve been involved in (like uriplanet.com) the description of what I need to do to get there is long and involved. So sometimes, it’s like being back at school when talking to the family on the phone – ‘What did you do at work this week?’…’Stuff’ But maybe that’s because the usual call is on a Saturday morning before I have woken up!
But I’m going to follow Tom’s actions and jsut get something written up – and then practice heavily on the family. So that when I’m asked by people in a business setting what it is I do, it’s all there – the clear, simple, descriptive version.
On Friday I got an opportunity to go to Covent Garden to see the ballet Manon with Ricahrd who had some free tickets. An unexpected cultural treat, made better with tickets right near the front. Which meant I was close enough to come to the conclusion that the tights of the male dancers must have built in suspension, because that amount of lift and separate of the glutimous maximus cannot be natural 😉
No less cultural was dinner with Adriana last night, where we spent a few hours discussing lots of things as well as trying out Stormhoek‘s Shiraz, which turned out to be very drinkable.
And there’s a photo for Ian
Following the scifi channel’s survey, they have taken out a 4 page ‘advertising feature’ in this morning’s Metro. Their focus is on being a TV geek, clothes geek or travel geek in 1985, 2005 and 2025 (with Lost finally ending and a new TV reality show ‘Lost in Space’ where 10 contestants are set adrift in a space probe with limited oxygen!). Tech geeks, who called be called the more traditional definition, are given a scant 3 lines.
They offer words of wisdom for all who want to climb the ‘golden staircase to geekdon’:
So, what are you waiting for?
