Marty Feldman, Chewbacca and the Desert Island Geek

Posted on May 10, 2008
Filed Under Links to my Articles, Personal Posts, Podcasting | Leave a Comment

Desert Island Geek Banner

Looking for something light and fluffy for your Saturday listening? Then may I present the latest episode of Neil Dixon’s Desert Island Geek show. Described on the site as… “we invite one self confessed geek to spend a little time on the Island. But there’s a catch: they may only bring along a limited selection of geek items!,” the format should be familiar, with TV and Radio shows base around similar principles of getting people talking about things they like to find out more.


Desert Island Geek - Show Notes - MP3 File

Note, this was recorded back in late Feb 2008, so various topical nudges are now historical cock-ups.

What If Twitter Wants More Money?

Posted on May 9, 2008
Filed Under Web 2.0 (Observations) | 2 Comments

It’s late, it’s Friday, so let’s participate in Web 2.0’s favourite parlour game - let’s think up a revenue stream for Twitter!

It surprises me that everyone says that Twitter doesn’t have one. Because it does - a little slice of the pie from every SMS sent and received in the US (and those sent in the UK, given that we’re sensible and don’t have to pay to receive SMS on our handsets). And no, I don’t have the numbers to hand that would let me work out if it’s profitable or not, but my gut feel is that it covers a significant portion, but not all, of the costs.

So if Twitter was to open a stream, I’d think they would be best to look at the ‘Freemium’ service, similar to the Pro membership available on Flickr. I think fighting for more advertising dollars, in a mobile, portable, short format is not going to work. After all how easy would it be to strip out links to ads in clients such as Twhirl (unless of course, the third party client gets a 5% kickback… just a thought). Advertising on mobile browsers is still proving incredibly tricky to achieve, so I doubt that the tight confines of the microblogging service would provide a reasonable click through.

The numbers from Twitter Japan on the ads on a boxout on the Twitter.jp website may well have a bearing here, but if the main service needs to earn cash, I think that asking the users who like the service to cough up $20 a year should be more than enough.

The question is what would you want to have for being a premium member? You either have to limit some of the services already existing (perhaps user uploaded wallpaper?) or add in something new that’s only for the payees… you could joke about stability but some sort of priority on message delivery could be an option?

What else can we come up with?

Mowser Lives! Again! Bigger Future for the Smaller Renderer

Posted on May 9, 2008
Filed Under Web 2.0 (News) | Leave a Comment

Congrats to Mike and Russ for finding a silver lining to the Mowser experience - namely the purchase of the technology by the dotMobi folk.

The implications of the technology are discussed by Charlie far better than I could even summarise, so head over there to get the tech details, but I just want to say that there’s very few companies actually get to the point of a decent exit, as opposed to shutting up shop, which appeared to be the case with Mowser last month in the face of rising bills. So to have any exit puts Mike and Russ ahead of the curve.

And of course with a wheelbarrow full of experience for the next idea they have to navigate the web! For the moment guys, put the gear away and have a cup of tea…

Friday Rock Show Back on Track

Posted on May 9, 2008
Filed Under Digital Music, Links to my Articles, Podcasting | Leave a Comment

Assuming all goes well, and the servers stay healthy, TPN Rock’s Friday Rock Show should be winging it’s way down the RSS feeds into your MP3 players, iPods, PSP’s, smartphones and internet connected fridges at this very moment (or you can hit refresh).


TPN Rock - Show Notes - RSS Feed

This Week’s Music from…
Seance for the Living, by The Plugs (www.theplugs.com)
Now That You’re Gone, by The Graverobbers (The Graverobbers on MySpace)
Bad Ju Ju, by The Volume Brothers (The Volume Brothers on MySpace)
Feel the Pressure, by Comrade Down (Comrade Down on MySpace)
Council House Baby, by Nino Tyres (Nino Tyres on MySpace)
The Mayor’s Daughter, by The Sods (www.thekeygrip.com)

Boris Johnson Facts, the Website

Posted on May 8, 2008
Filed Under Daily Links | 1 Comment

I really, truly wish this had been my idea, but still, I’m sure Boris Johnson Facts will make it’s way around the Uk and the rest of the world in the next few hours

Just a few of my favourites, the full list is over at http://www.borisjohnsonfacts.com/

UPnP, the Nokia N95 and Windows Media Player

Posted on May 7, 2008
Filed Under Digital Music, Links to my Articles, Mobile Computing | Leave a Comment

Over on All About Symbian, I’ve posted a tutorial on linking the Nokia N95 (and other Nseries devices) to your Windows Media Player collection on your PC, using the Universal Plug and PLay (UPnP) protocols and Nokia’s Home Media client on the handset.

Yes you can still hook up the phone over USB, or a bluetooth connection, but there’s something satisfying about browsing the full collection (about 20GB) on the handset, clicking copy, and it’s there, all without getting up from the sofa.

The Home Media application reminds me a lot of Nokia’s first stab at a podcasting application – the functionality is all there, but it’s lacking a little bit of polish. The podcasting app is now both a separate standalone application and fully integrated into the music player. I think that’s where Home Media application aspires to reach in the next year. For the moment it’s a solid little utility that’s well worth setting up.

N95 UPnPUPnP N95

More over at All About Symbian.

Bone Marrow Registration and Matching, My Experience

Posted on May 6, 2008
Filed Under Daily Links | Leave a Comment

Boing Boing has a post on Bone Marrow Registration, which (a) surprised me as the US organisation invovled has a registration fee - the UK service via Anthony Nolan is free - but (b) reminded me I’ve already ben partially down that route, on this blog, in the past.

PLEASE consider registering…

On Receiving A Call: I am a potential match.
Just taken a call on my UK mobile here in Austin, and it’s managed to give me a little emotional nudge… The call to my mobile today was to let me know that this sample has been flagged up as a ‘coarse match’ for someone who needs bone marrow to help in their fight against leukemia.

Bloods Taken.
So the package of blood vials arrived last week, and following the instructions, I took them along to the local GP to have three vials of blood taken to go away and do a ‘deep match’ of my tissue type.

I am a match, but there is a much better one.
I’m still not sure what to think on this. Part of me is very much relieved that I won’t be going through the operation to extract the bone marrow - but the flipside is that the chance to be involved and help someone else was on my mind, and that’s been taken away. Right now I’m not sure which is the stronger feeling.

All About Symbian Insight Podcast #23

Posted on May 6, 2008
Filed Under Links to my Articles, Podcasting | Leave a Comment

Time for the weekly podcast from All About Symbian. This week, Steve, Stefan, Rafe and myself talk about the Z10, MOSH’s free games, the Adobe Open Screen Project, Nokia in the US and Nokia Design Studio Day.


AAS Podcast Page - Show Notes - RSS Feed

You Won’t Get Me, I’m Part of New Labour

Posted on May 5, 2008
Filed Under Politics | 1 Comment

‘You Won’t Get Me, I’m Part of New Labour,’ sung by Gordon Brown,
To the tune of ‘Part of the Union, by The Strawbs’ (Listen to the original via Muxtape)

And here’s the lyrics if you want to sing along…

Now I’m a New Labour man
Amazed at what I am
I say what I think, that the Tories stink
Yes I’m a New Labour man

When we meet in the Cabinet
They’ll vote because of my threats
With a hell of a shout, it’s “Never vote me out!”
Or you’ll be blamed when the party falls

Oh, you don’t get me, I’m part of New Labour
You don’t get me, I’m part of New Labour
You don’t get me, I’m part of New Labour
The Welsh Assembly lies
And Devolution will rise

New Labour has made me wise
To the lies of the YouGov spies
And I don’t get fooled by common sense rules
’cause I read between the lines

And I always get my way
Nobody asks for higher pay
When terror seems to call, thanks to Scotland Yard
This is what I will say:

Oh, you don’t get me, I’m part of New Labour
You don’t get me, I’m part of New Labour
You don’t get me, I’m part of New Labour
The Welsh Assembly lies
And Devolution will rise

Before New Labour did appear
My goal was never as clear
Now I’ve got the power while my vision turned sour
And it won’t last another year

So though I’m a New Labour man
I did ruin Tony’s little plan
And though I’m all guile, just once in a while
I think I might just survive

Oh, oh, oh, you don’t get me, I’m part of New Labour
You don’t get me, I’m part of New Labour
You don’t get me, I’m part of New Labour
The Welsh Assembly lies
And Devolution will rise

Oh You’ve still got me, I’m part of New Labour
You’ve still got me, I’m part of New Labour
You’ve still got me, I’m part of New Labour
The party that always lies
But truth will always survive

Top Ten: Why Mobile Phones Haven’t Changed The World.

Posted on May 2, 2008
Filed Under Links to my Articles | 1 Comment

Posted over on All About Symbian are my Top Ten Reasons Why Mobile Phones Haven’t Changed The World; the top three were…

  1. The first cameras required you to stand still while the picture was being taken. More than one hundred years later, you need to call ‘stop’ and have everyone freeze while your camera application opens up.
  2. The hip and cool thing to have in the 1950’s and 60’s was a transistor radio, with a tinny speaker, pushing out the hits of Dusty Springfield, Johnny Cash for all to hear. Now we’ve left the personal stereo era behind and are using our phones speakers to push out our achingly retro hip sounds… invariably of Dusty Springfield and Johnny Cash.
  3. The expense of the telegraph meant that messages were kept short. If you go over 160 characters today, you’ll still get charged double.
  4. At the start of any call, you’ll be shouting ‘can you hear me?’ and ‘yes, I can hear you’ while thinking isn’t it wonderful that we can use VoIP to call someone on a crackly line over the Atlantic ocean?

The rest of the list can found over at All About Symbian.

Next Page »