Steelso V6.0

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 »

Mr T is getting the ultimate accolade: his own reality TV show. I can’t wait.

May has arrived and it’s one of my favourite times of year. Happy memories of Mayfest in Glasgow, working at the Tron Theatre, doing great shows and taking full advantage of late night drinking and the Mayfest club. All good memories.

Work is crazy, will talk more. Did have a great night on Friday with folk, hilarious. ” I have no thumbs, see?” still makes me laugh.

Roll on May!

steelso :: May.02.2006 :: Social, TV, Thoughts :: 1 Comment »

TV is dead! Well, it’s not too well. This Internet usage report details that people in the UK are usig the Internet more than they watch TV. It doesn’t say if this is just a leisure activity or if it includes time at work which, for me, would explain the increase in time spent on-line. Still it’s an interesting stat.

steelso :: Mar.08.2006 :: TV, Thoughts :: No Comments »

It’s soooo cool, I’m loving the new French Connection ad. It is obssessing me. It’s very cool that they’ve dropped the whole FCUK branding and come up with some really nice work. Good stuff, good stuff.

steelso :: Feb.16.2006 :: People, TV, Video :: No Comments »

Four websites in one week? No wonder we’re off to the pub tonight! Well it’s because of Jamie’s birthday but it doesn’t harm us to celebrate the four websites last week either. You can find out more about the websites, including the muse website, in our web news section.

We’re also in the final stages of going through the first revision of our own website. Since the launch three months ago we’ve had a fantastic amount of positive feedback. Even the crtical feedback has been constructive. As a company that likes to practice what we preach we’re taking those comments and making the website a wee bit more friendly and adding additional content in some current sections. It’s still a couple of days away and we’re still wondering if the phrase “View Our Past Hot Action” is acceptable. Find out first if we put it in by signing on to our mailing list that you can access via the news page.

Lots of cool stuff. Macromedia Labs was launched yesterday and I downloded the new framework for Flex, the technology that I discussed for creating rich internet applications. So far I’m impressed and we’re looking forward to getting right in about it to see just what we can do to make our client’s customer’s that wee bitty richer. That’ll give something for Stuart to get his teeth into when he starts tomorrow.

A shout out to those people who were on my residential course last weekend at a nice hotel with terrible, terrible service. It was a great weekend, hilarious even. It was good to meet 12 or so lovely people, each one made me laugh very, very hard. Top notch. I didn’t get to my bed until at least 4am which made learning the next day some what of a challenge. Still if it wasn’t for everyone’s good humour, insight and interest I wouldn’t have learned a thing. Thanks guys and see you all next week.

What else? Well I’m hoping to announce four new clients by the end of the month, stay tuned for that, and I have been invited to Dolph’s birthday celebrations in Glasgow. It’s the glamour, the only reason I do this job, the glamour. Networking event Friday morning, the Angel’s Ambulance on Friday night as well as Sean’s birthday, grandparent’s 60th Wedding Anniversary on Sunday, Mr Murray on Monday and all other sorts of stuff next week.

And I’m waning on Lost. Has Lost jumped the shark?

Take it easy,
S

steelso :: Oct.18.2005 :: Rich Internet Applications, Social, TV, Video, biscuitmedia web design, new clients :: 2 Comments »

we’ve launched a few websites recently, more on that later. i’m up for putting my neck on the line so i say this: apple will launch a video Ipod and push BBC content as a driver for the product. This isn’t original but it does make sense from a content driving demand sense. In 24 hours we’ll see……..

steelso :: Oct.12.2005 :: TV, Thoughts, Video, biscuitmedia web design :: No Comments »

Just some of the topics that I’ve covered with various people in the last week.

It’s two months since we pushed this website onto the world and we’re going through our review process. If you’d like to see anything in the website that we’ve missed or that isn’t clear please either drop us a line or respond here. We’re all up for the feedback.

The search is over, we found the impossible. We found Allan’s replacement. More news to follow as we plan the grand unveiling in true footballing stylee.

I’d like to share a poem that was read to me last night by, of all people, a polis. He’s was saying a lot of good stuff last night while speaking at the Govanhill Housing Association’s AGM. It stayed with me all night and today.

Scotland
It was a day peculiar to this piece of the planet,
when larks rose on long thin strings of singing
and the air shifted with the shimmer of actual angels.
Greenness entered the body. The grasses
shivered with presences, and sunlight
stayed like a halo on hair and heather and hills.
Walking into town, I saw, in a radiant raincoat,
the woman from the fish-shop. ‘What a day it is!’
cried I, like a sunstruck madman.
And what did she have to say for it?
Her brow grew bleak, her ancestors raged in their graves
as she spoke with their ancient misery:
‘We’ll pay for it, we’ll pay for it, we’ll pay for it.’

by Alastair Reid.

I know that woman, met her husband too.

The polis was very interesting and had some great points. It wasn’t anything new to me, I had heard a great deal on my Common Purpose course last year, but he was a very intelligent speaker, clearly passionate about his job and determined to make a difference. Go on.

He asked everyone, before they go to bed, to write down three things during that day that made them happy. Three things, no matter how small, as lang as they made you happy. He said that if you did that in a week you’d be a happier person. I am already happy but I might just try it anyway.

Tonight I have new ‘Lost’ and new ‘House’. I’m as giddy as a fat kid round cake!

steelso :: Sep.22.2005 :: People, Social, TV, Thoughts, biscuitmedia web design :: 1 Comment »

It’s all been quiet at biscuitmedia, our heads are collectively down working away doing our do. So much so that there isn’t really that much to report. We’re lucky enough to do a wee microsite for a groovy theatre company by the name of Visible Fictions. The main website wasn’t designed by us (but with a bit of luck that will change) but we did do the micro site for the production last year, Into The Dark and this year we’re doing Big Baby’s micro.

The production sounds great and after seeing the design today I am delighted at how Ricky’s taken the elements of the poster and made it beautifully web based. It’s really good and I’m looking forward to launching it next week sometime.

We’re also mentioned in a magazine called ‘The Drum’ which is Scotland’s media and marketing magazine. The GFO website is listed as one of the best websites in Scotland, which is nice. I’m not entirely sure what the deal is, we may get slagged off as we’ve not seen the finished articles but we’ll see next week.

Ricky and I may also be quoted in a do and don’t feature in the magazine. My original don’t was my old stand by of ‘Never Eat Anything Bigger That Your Own Head!!!” but Ricky wisely pointed out that really wasn’t relevant when creating a web development. Twenty minutes of hot debate and I was forced to concede the point. Swine!

If we don’t get our pearls of wisdom mentioned then I’ll post them up here as I’m not letting the 2 minutes I spent on it go to waste. It was a busy day. Even if it does get included I’ll post it up then those 2 minutes will have been really productive.

Sky are showing the last season of 24 on the tellybox and I enjoy watching it on a non-demand, not on DVD way. I got season 3 on DVD and I found it annoying. I think you need a break from each episode to properly appreciate the next one. I am enjoying the series a lot more as a result. When I grow up I’m going to Jack Bauer and torture people for a living. Cool.

Tomorrow is me doing my legendary impression of a blue bottomed fly, dashing about Glasgow, meeting and greeting. Mono in the morning, up to Langs, hopefully popping in to 999 to pick up some images, meeting Visible Fictions for design sign off then meeting Mr. B for a wee chat. Looking forward to Mr B, he gives exceedingly good chat.

Magic.

Take it easy,
Steelso

steelso :: Sep.07.2005 :: TV, biscuitmedia web design :: 2 Comments »

Well it’s been a great week, I got my hands dirty with the new Mono website and made myself Ricky’s bitch. A position a bot could only dream of. It’s looking good and I’m hoping that it’ll be all done, all dusted in the next fortnight or so.

We had a good meeting with Langs in Glasgow on their new web design and that went well too, working out content. This week is looking sweetly hectic with interviews being held on Thursday for our new member of the team. Not a developer, someone else. If you are looking at this blog candidates (and I sincerely hope you are….) then see you Thursday!

Dating website is getting passed to Allan to work his magic after Jamie sprayed his mojo over the pages. That should be up soon too.

I’m going back to Prince lyrics as the inspiration for the titles of my blogs. I have no imagination.

Been playing with a couple of wee things. First up is Google Talk which is ok, it’s another IM client. ooo. Next is a crazy wee app for visualising your web statistics from Visitor Ville. We had a right laugh on Friday watching people coming off teh Google bus and taking a taxi around our website.

Another way people are looking at visualising information is at Gvisit. You can see where people have come from in biscuitmedia’s website by going to here. It’s pretty cool but doesn’t seem to be wholly accurate. Fun though.

Can I also say that this software has made me so much more productive. I love this device, so simple, so clever, so needed……

Top notch weekend, finished Season 5 of The West Wing which I really enjoyed. It did start of a wee bitty wobbly with everyone fighting each other but that quickly passed to some really good stories. Continunity dodesn’t seem to be a big concern but the acting easily made up for it. Watching CJ vs The Muppets is worth the admission alone.

Also saw the last two episodes of House. I love House, it’s getting past the ‘illness of the week’setups nad really adding some emotion. I hate cliffhangers and was delighted that House didn’t go down that route. What it did do (whcih is so much better than a cliffhanger) is add some spice to make the next season well worth watching. Hugh Laurie, you’re a god in my eyes.

Talking of Gods, Jamie’s on holiday for two weeks. You’ll miss his blog. You know you will.

Glasgow’s leaves are falling off the trees. This is not good nor desirable. It means that summer’s over. I love autumn though and looking forward to O.D.ing on freshly juiced apples and pears. Chestnuts too.

Nearly six, must get back to the magic.

Watch the Roads!!!!!

S
x

steelso :: Aug.29.2005 :: TV, Thoughts, biscuitmedia :: 4 Comments »

Sunday was good, went to see On A Clear Day and enjoyed the whole evening. Met up with Tina, got soaked, went to GFT, bumped into Peter (who I hadn’t seen in ages), met with various peeps then went to see the movie.

I really enjoyed it, it’s funny, it’s brilliantly acted and I was glad I saw it. Billy was great in it and I did feel that the whole thing worked. I totally get what Peter said about it being ‘a nice Sunday afternoon’ movie as it’s not going to challenge anyone in anyway but it is a great bit of escapism for 100 minutes and I would throughly recommend it. I think that the best thing I can say for the movie is that at the end of the film I was still interested in the characters and wanted to know more about their return home. If you’re still interested 100 minutes in then it has to have something going for you.

Also it was nice to see Glasgow in film protrayed as a ‘nice’ city and not one that is dingy and grim. You can see a nice interview with the director of the movie at a wee website we did for the Glasgow Film Office. It was also great to see Peter again after so long. It’ll be good to catch up with him and hear his chat, we did some great work back in the old days.

After the film had a few more drinks, met some more people then went up the road. A very lovely night all in.

And the episode of House that was on when I got home was pretty good too.

steelso :: Aug.23.2005 :: People, TV, Video :: 3 Comments »