Steelso V6.0

How do we include everyone, those that think in picture, those that think in words, those that are shy and those that are loud? How do we allow people how have an opinion to express it in their way rather than the Internet’s way? This to me is one of the big challenges of the Internet.

I have an issue on debate in blogs. These guys are so, so much better at writing than I am. My learning style is reflection and discussion. It’s not the best blog style. So, for example, here’s a guy that I totally respect that I read and understand. He’s an inspiration in a lot of ways. But. He’s mentioning a a thing that I get and don’t fully understand. I like it, I kind of get it but I have questions. Sure, I could post a comment on his blog, I could twitter him but it is just not my style. I want to sit down over a thing (for ‘thing’ read ‘pint’) and talk to him about it. Not because I want to prove him wrong but to get into a debate to better understand his point of view.

To be totally 100% clear I actually think he’s right I just want to know more but I need to see the colour of his eyes when we chat rather than allowing the entire bloggienet look upon my learnings and snigger, sneer and disparage? I get that this is mostly in my head, I know that his blog his full of good people, I’m sure that any unlikeliness of bad behavior would not be tolerated. It is easier though not to involve yourself rather than deal with the possible aftermath. I am totally aware that this is really my problem rather than anyone else’s.

How do we get more people involved in the conversation? Thoughts?

Steelso :: Jan.04.2008 :: Thoughts :: 4 Comments »

This time of year you can see a whole lot of tech bloggers go all misty eyed and reflected on what the big thing was in 2007. The iPhone got some love from Time, and the BBC team passed on their thoughts. One thing that I thought was a huge game changer and that I’ve not seen any mention of is inclusion of a flat rate data plan for the iPhone.

Sounds pretty dull doesn’t it?

Mobile data and the way that it’s charged is a bit like the situation that the wired Internet went through 10 years ago. You had to pay a monthly charge (I was with Demon, £15 per month) as well as paying per minute for your phone bill. You could do all sorts of cheeky measures to reduce your cost per minute but it was still a costly affair. One eye on your screen, the other on the clock.

Then came Freeserve. Freeserve was a game changer. No monthly charge, you just paid through your phone bill. If you were on for 5 minutes you were charged for 5 minutes at a very, very low rate. It meant that a whole new audience could go on line, those people who wanted to dabble on-line rather than commit. Internet growth during that time climbed. Then unmetered access through dial up came about but never really took off.

Then came unmetered broadband. And that took Internet usage in the home through the roof. Why? Well the experience was better (freed up your phone line, speed) and as you paid a monthly amount it meant that you could plan what you could spend. Internet connectivity had become a utility service.

Mobile data is still in the early stages. Previously I was on a monthly contract that gave me 5Mb of data free on my phone then charged me about 85p every additional Mb. That could get pretty expensive for me. Though on my Nokia N80 it was hardly the best experience. And getting a wifi connection was painful and then even connecting to it was a nightmare.

Since the introduction of free wifi with The Cloud and connecting my home Internet connection to BT Fon means that I can get pretty good wifi access quickly when needed too. Since moving on to the iPhone data package I’ve saved around £75 of data in a month. This totally changes the way that I’m using data on the move. I’m looking at the screen and not with one eye on the costs. I’m using the mobuile Internet all the time now for updating things, maps, all sorts. It’s pretty liberating.

I’m not sure if O2 are planning to roll this package out to all their calling plans regardless of which phone you’re on. For me it has been a big step for casual computing and the most important step forward in making mobile Internet a real, everyday occurrence, it’s as big as the way that broadband revolutionised Internet use in the home.

Steelso :: Dec.28.2007 :: Thoughts, iPhone :: No Comments »

Recently I’ve been reading a lot from Hugh MacLeod and a really interesting project in trying to make people thing a little differently about Microsoft.

It’s called the Blue Monster project.It’s got me thinking on the why it has got to this stage, why has Microsoft been seen as the bad guy for so long when they have actually changed the world.

That’s right, I reckon that Microsoft has changed the world for the better.

To be totally clear: I think the world is better for having Microsoft in it.

Have they been naughty? Yes. Very. Has this helped in making MSFT seem a company that you can relate to? Hell no. Which is a shame.

Being a geeky fuckwit I get to see a side of Microsoft that those outside the digital industry rarely see. The enthusiasm for the work that each employee has for the work they are doing.If you have some time I would totally recommend watching this video from the developer community site, Channel 9. And if you liked that then have a look at Bill’s next video. in fact have a treat to yourself by listening to Bill Hill. He’s trying to make your world better. And he does in small, almost insignificant ways but yet also in ways that you and I take for granted all the time. Right now even.

Now Bill for me is the tip of the iceberg of really interesting, passionate and intelligent people that work at Microsoft trying to make the world better. Channel 9 has hundreds of videos of these people. I understand that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, kind of geeky techie interviews. But this is the human face of MSFT that most people don’t see.

So much has been written on this subject and I’m not contributing that much more of an insight. But if I were Microsoft…

I’d dump every fancy pants ad that they’ve done. The People Ready Business stuff that is right but yet sounds so wrong when wrapped in a glossy, shrink wrapped sheen. The irony to me is that MSFT seems to be a people ready business and I’d like to see the excitement and passion be shown to general public. Allow people to identify a little with them rather than the products.

As I’ve said, I’m not saying that I’ve added anything to the debate but I love the idea of trying to help MSFT from the outside. I don’t know how really but it is a company that does inspire me and the proof on how good the people are and what they are doing seems to be there if you know where to look. It’d be nice to see MSFT shout out about how good and passionate their people are and letting us know about that story than only hearing about MSFT when its in relation to various, frankly boring, lawsuits.

What are your thoughts on Microsoft? Bad wolf or misunderstood child?

Hugh is also involved in another splendid project. One that I’m about to hit my second bottle of. Loving that work…

steelso :: Oct.08.2007 :: Thoughts :: 3 Comments »

Every so often something happens that you can’t quite believe. Something that the more you know about it the less it makes sense. This story is one of those things.

Even rarer though is when it does happen you realise that it changes everything. This, to me, seems like the 00’s Bulger moment where we, as a nation, reflect on a terrible, terrible event and ask, “How could this happen?”. It seems to be the pinnacle of a spate of gun violence that the UK has seen recently. That fact that the gunman was allegedly under 16 only adds to the disbelief.

The interview with the parents is the one of the most crushing things I have ever seen. My thoughts and love go to them. I wish, I wish, I wish I could do anything to help you. I am so sorry for your loss.

Danny, my seven year old son, is crazy about news. He can tell you anything, he loves BBC news, he loves knowing things and being curious about the news. “Why” is a word he knows and uses to learn more. I love him so much for that.

Knowing that he’ll be talking about this, I was wondering what Newsround, the BBC news programme for young people, are saying about this terrible event. Danny and I often watch Newsround. He likes it because I used to watch it when I was a kid. I like it because, as a kid, he loves it as much I did. Do. It’s a shared experience.

As always, their coverage was spot on. They tell the facts and then reassure you. They also tell you that it’s ok to be upset at the news. I know this will be comfort to my son. I can’t tell you how much of a comfort it was to me. Thank you.

I’m crying for the family of Rhys Jones. My thoughts and love are with you.

steelso :: Aug.23.2007 :: Thoughts :: 2 Comments »

While getting ready for work I saw the above on the back of a Rough Guide. Made me think about AOL and what the hell happened. I was never a member, I never connected to them. But it really does represent the whole INTERNET to a whole lot of people. Discs for AOL signup where everywhere, every Sunday newspaper, every magazine, every shop. I have no idea how many they produced but they must have filled a couple of landfills.

And the Ads! The commercials on UK tv with Connie, the rather school ma’am-esque guide to AOL. I can’t find any of the old ads but I did find a story of her getting her phone nicked! A very informative story about her being 5ft 11″. Her name’s Rachel Willis and she’s been pretty quiet lately. And I can’t find the ads anywhere.

Seeing the keyword made me realise just how far AOL has declined, at least in my perception of them. They were massive, they were the Internet for a great many people. The phrase “You’ve Got Mail” was made their own and was the basis of a film. The AOL/Time Warner merger was seen as the most influential pairing of old and new media evah! I remeber the feeling of acceptance I had when I saw the AOL/Time Warner logo at the end of “Friends”. It seemed like the Internet and all that carry on was legit and part of media as opposed to being a bit of a fad.

And now? All seems so long ago. What the hell went wrong? Where did Connie go? If anyone knows of any good books or articles on this I’d be most grateful.

Thinking a bit more I did have a 90 day trial of AOL back in the day. It was just so I could hear the Lumley welcome me and tell me I had mail. Bless you Lumley.

steelso :: Aug.23.2007 :: Thoughts :: No Comments »

Been off work last week but didn’t get away due to Sam having a rather troubling bout of tonsillitis. So I’ve been reading and stuff. Which has been quite relaxing and I’m glad to have just had the chance to chill. And while I’d have loved to have gone away for a few days it would have been a nightmare to be in a tent, in the rain with Sam all ill and stuff.

So I’ve been doing some geeky projects. Like installing XP on my MacBook. Which was easy and a little weird going back to XP after six months. The only reason I did it was to see how good/bad the BBC’s iPlayer system is. At the moment it’s only available on XP with media player 10 which is why I had to install XP et al.

So far it’s seems like a fancy pants bit torrent client. The range of programmes isn’t great, a lot of day time tosh, but I’m currently downloading “Indian Food Made Easy” which isn’t the quickest download I’ve seen but I don’t know of any other way I could get to see it again so that’s probably the best reason for getting it. I have no idea what I’m talking about.

So. The quality is good enough, I watched it and I enjoyed it. What I’d love to see is the content of the BBC and the community aspects of Joost combined. I like Joost’s principles (creating community around the programmes) but the content is rubbish. The iPlayer is still in beta, I’m looking forward to the MacOS version and seeing what they have plan for the future. And if they don’t put The Good Life on it I’ll go bonkers. I love The Good Life. The episode when Tom and Margo nearly got it on….. brilliant.

steelso :: Aug.08.2007 :: TV, Thoughts :: 1 Comment »

I’m at waiting Langs for a meeting so while I’m waiting and slurping on a nice coffee I’ll fire out an ill-conceived and badly thought out post. Bless.

So. Social networking. I am a member of at least 10. At least. I find it tricky to keep up with all of them so I’ve looked at how I’m interacting with them and seeing what’s got to go and what’s to stay.

• MySpace. Meh Still pop on from time to time but mostly for music. It’s still number one for that. I love the ugliness, I like the wild frontier of it all. It was my second network I indulged in after MySpace and it blew my mind with the design anarchy. “You can’t put green next to pink”, I said. “Can’t we old man?” answered 1 million high school kids around the world. Good on them.
• Bebo: This is my fun time. My friends that I see each day are on here. I like the style, I like the individuality and it’s not as eye wrenching as MySpace. Though I do enjoy the ugliness of MySpace.
• Friendster. I never go there anymore though I do get emails from them every so often reminding me that it’s a friend’s birthday. The friend in question died two years ago. I do find it a comfort that he’s still reminding me of himself. It’s odd. A dead person is the only reason I interact with a social network. That’s not a strap line they’re going to use.
• Facebook. I’m enjoying it more. I think that’s more about the applications that you can add and that it feels a little more grown up than Bebo. Which isn’t a bad thing. I think that’s due to the fact that the design is uniform throughout. I like Bebo’s profile individuality. I also enjoy Facebooks uniformity and range of applications that seem to be built because they could rather than they should. It’s nice to be involved.
• Twitter. Pointless. Great, but pointless. The service is a bit up and down. But I like reading snippets of people’s life. Twittervision blows me away. I twitter, i like it.
• Pownce. Hrmmmm. If it’s Twitter vs Pownce then Twitter wins. At the moment it reminds me of the cool new bar. It looks great but no-one I know is in buying a drink.
• Linkedin. S’ok, useful sometimes. Pop in around once a month. I know people that use it very, very well. Sometimes offers connections that scare the shit out me.

More, more, more. These have all fallen by the wayside. It’s not that they offer anything bad it’s just a matter of mass. If I want to be involved in a social network it has to have a network that I want to be social with. So many just don’t at the moment. In saying that though I’ve not been to many (any?) where I’ve met new friends. You can be social in your ghetto but it’s tough to break out and meet and interact with new people on a network. However that may be saying more about me rather than the websites.

So I have a lot that I’m involved with. I use them and I find the ones that I’ve mentioned useful. I don’t feel any pressure in any of them to keep up with them. They are like pubs. Some I’ll visit as it’s cool, unusual, my friends go there. Then maybe I’ll get bored or another twinkly place will pop up and we’ll go there.

Yes.

steelso :: Aug.07.2007 :: Social Networks, Thoughts :: No Comments »

Ok. I just don’t where to start. Blame my new glasses, I’ve walked by this nonsense for months.

1. If you’re going to be “cutting edge” or “out there” the don’t use kiddy-on swearing in an ad. Don’t be an arse and use symbols to hide the swear words. We’re not stupid. I find it offensive not to say Fucking and use asterisks, etc to hide the word. Patronising fuckers.

2. Don’t, don’t, don’t dare tell me what’s cool. Let me experience what’s cool then let me tell people. I can’t believe that you expect people to believe that you’re selling flats that are cool just because you can plaster the notion on the side of a building. Just be cool, don’t shout cool. That’s, well, not cool.

3. But if you are going to go with points 1 and 2 at least then follow that message in your other posters and website. Have the courage of your convictions. I like your illustrations but by that big, stupid ad just totally diminishes the nice work that has been done.

At least the sky looks pretty. I’ll be ok, I have nicer posts.

steelso :: Aug.06.2007 :: Design, Idiot, Thoughts :: 11 Comments »

Today marks the 10th anniversary of me leaving the Tron after working there for 7 years. I remembered.

The Tron was a great time for me. I was technician on a part time basis then became permanent finally becoming Chief Tech and lighting designer for Tron productions. It was a great time. I worked with the best people in all fields, from production managers, my boss, the director I lit most shows for, admin staff and, thankfully, bar staff.

Recently I’ve been reading Rob’s (feels odd being so colloquial, I’ve never met the guy but he has a great blog) great mini series of posts on Enough is Enough. He raised some points that resonated with me on why I left theatre and why I loved it.

When Michael left and the new director came in there were “artistic differences” to say the least. I lit her first show, which was all right (though I have never seen so many people leave during a show, it has the highlight of our night to hear the sounds of seats being put upright and people storming out), but she was just so different from what I was used to and what I expected artistic directors to be like that after that show I had to leave. I was scared of being the guy at the end of the bar being bitter and looking back to the good old days. It was pretty obvious that either I left or would be fired. Both myself and my deputy, the hirsute Mr Shea, left at the same time. It was a great leaving party. But when I actually handed in my notice I went into the big shell of a theatre and cried my eyes out. I didn’t want to leave but knew I had to. Enough was enough.

I didn’t fare to well in the world of freelance lighting design. The Tron had given me a great comfort zone of creativity. For example a technical rehearsal in most theatres in about two days. For “The Trick is to Keep Breathing”, adapted from the Janice Galloway novel we had two weeks. It is unheard of in a production of that size. It felt like we were creating art rather than making it. Does that make sense? Anyway, after the Tron I found it really tricky to the tight deadlines of ‘real’ theatre and after about two years decided that, well, enough was enough.

I loved lighting. Loved it. I loved having wanky, arty chats with Michael about how a light should go up or down, what colour or what angle. I loved the collaborative approach to creation, bouncing ideas about and making them better. On the “The Trick….” we couldn’t turn off the theatre sometimes 30 minutes after the show ended because people were crying and not ready to leave the space that we created. I loved manually operating a lighting board to get the light to match the mood in timing and intensity rather than being just a cold, computer controlled affair. I could, and sometimes do, go on about how much I loved doing a plan then getting to see it come together and helping make something that can only live in the memory. Loved it.

But I was lucky to get involved with something that I love just as much, if not even more. I’m so lucky for that. I wrote about how similar I find my process of lighting and web development almost 2 years ago. hmmmm. Same old, same old…

Happy Tin Anniversary!

steelso :: Jul.25.2007 :: Thoughts :: 1 Comment »

Poor logo, it just can’t get a break. Ofcom gets the promotional film on the Internet removed after 22 people suffer epileptic fits after watching it, the design agency responsible for it blame the Olympic committee for not promoting it properly and London’s Lord Mayor says that the agency shouldn’t be paid for it.

It’s a nightmare. And while I support the agency for supporting the work I don’t think it’s the best idea in the world to start giving the client a public kicking for not displaying it properly. Surely the committee and the agency and any PR firm involved would’ve got togethe to manage this? It just adds more fuel to an already fierce fire if the sniping starts.

When I saw the video of the branding I could see it working a bit better than the static logo. The Olympic editor at the BBC gives a good analysis of the madness so far.

steelso :: Jun.07.2007 :: Design, Politics, Thoughts :: 1 Comment »