ztoa.co.uk

You know you are a geek...

Allan — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:21:00 +0000

...when on reading:

"I see this as the great-grandparent of futuristic robots like R2-D2 and C-3PO," enthuses Dan Rey, from the Canadian Space Agency."

Your first thought is, hold on that's not right, Starwars is set in the past.

Star Wars opening crawl details from wikipedia.

It should be compulsary!

Allan — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:23:00 +0000

For train operators to put free Wi-Fi in, especially for us season ticket holders. ;-)

I am posting this from a C2C train as part of thier Wi-Fi trial.

Reputation Reputation Reputation - a vanity post.

Allan — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:00:00 +0000

I was forwarded a link to a post on LeverWealth: Reputation Reputation Reputation last night and by posting this am succumbing to vanity as I am mentioned in the article.

It raised two thoughts, one to remember that your pitches can always appear in print, two that I really need to make this a real blog, with decent regular posts if I am hanging this bit of my online life out in public.

BBC mash ups

Allan — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:30:00 +0000

Interesting to see so much activity by the BBC on Flicker

http://www.bbc.co.uk/thamesgateway/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/bbc_gateway/

Mindmiester - online mindmaps

Allan — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 02:03:00 +0000

Thanks to a beta invite via Anne Zelenka at Webworker Daily at who recently reviewed mind mapping tools, I have been trying MindMeister an online MindMapping tool.

Its great! I am finding it really useful to be able to jump online on any PC and add to a stored map, rather than send yet another email to my home inbox with idea: in the subject or slap another sticky PostIt on the desk.

I am yet to try the Google docs style collaboration functions but this is a tool I can see my self stickiing with.

I have a few beta invites if anyone is interested, just leave a comment asking for one.

chamtech: The geek shall inherit the earth

Allan — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 17:05:00 +0000

Interesting post from Daniel of chamtech : chamtech: The geek shall inherit the earth. Commenting on a Silicon.com survey into CIOs who aspire to be CEOs Daniel says:

If you look around, the most successful companies of the moment are technology-driven and have CEOs who have a deep understanding of technology and the competitive advantage it offers now and for the future.

Very true. I would add that these CEOs, especailly the former CIOs, are also the ones who can communicate, or at least understand the need to communicate, the business benefits of the technology to their investors, customers and co-workers.

Silicon or Silicone? An Elementary mistake by the AA and BBC? (Daily Telegraph et al.)

Allan — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:14:00 +0000

Reporting here on the claims of fuel contamination being made by consumers the BBC says,

"... an AA source told the BBC traces of silicon have been found in petrol taken from the cars."

Silicon? Would that dissolve in petrol? A Silicone dissolved in petrol I could understand and the result of burning a silicone is likely to result in Silicon Dioxide (glass / sand / quartz), in any quantity that could be bad for engine performance.

So is it silicon, or have the AA and the BBC got things elementally wrong?

Update:

Daily Telegraph has just caught up with some of the science but not the spelling.

telegraph-1
Originally uploaded by Allan Edwards.

Silicon

Then Siliconee. Nearly there! Now just stop calling it an element.

telegraph-2
Originally uploaded by Allan Edwards.

telegraph-3
Originally uploaded by Allan Edwards.

Third attempt, back to silicon.

Guardian with silicon
Originally uploaded by Allan Edwards.

Starts with silicon, corrects to silicone in stories for Friday.

What is this? The latest thing in big brother street furniture?

Allan — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 22:53:00 +0000

A couple of these appeared near our office recently. They obviously communicate by radio, but what are they communicating?

They do not appear to have a lens, unless it is behind dark glass so CCTV seems unlikely. The antenna looks too big to be mobile phone related.

New Gmail client for the p990i

Allan — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 22:44:00 +0000

I have just downloaded the gmail java applet for my p990i. How new it
is I don't know but in spite of saying "(us & canada)" it is working
well enough to email post this message.

Point your phone at www.gmail.com/app to get it.

eBay and Skype - a $2.6 billion deal and they are still not talking

Allan — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 17:59:00 +0000

I stumbled across eBay's IM auction alerts service today. Clicking through to set up an alert I was amazed to find that after spending $2.6 billion on Skype over a year ago that they have not yet integrated Skype's IM.

Obviously I'm not the first to spot this, Kevin Delaney on Skype Journal offers this possible explanation:

What do other IM networks have that Skype doesn't? I have an answer. Reliability. Skype's P2P architecture makes having a reliable server-side client next to impossible.

I would have thought that it would be possible for eBay to be set up as a special type of super node to gain more direct access. A work in progress?

eBay's IM alert service is at : http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SubscribeIMItem&ItemId= type a valid eBay item ID after the = sign.

"Permit-and-Proceed" Common sense and sense of humor bring PR benefits.

Allan — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 09:44:00 +0000

Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life have made a great response to the parody site http://www.getafirstlife.com/ by posting a "permit-and-proceed" notice on the blog of getafirstlife.com creator Darren Barefoot.

This well judged response shows that Linden and their lawyers "get it" as far as online communities go. They are already garnering the PR benefits with both Slashdot, Techdirt and, via AP, ABC affiliates covering the story.

If only more companies had the perspective, sense of humor and marketing nouse to approach parody sites like this.

Complete the sentence "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to…"

Allan — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:13:00 +0000

I finally took a look at the 10 Downing Street petition the PM service. Since launching the petitions web site they have had to form a committee of civil servants filter the petitions before they go live on the site and obvious joke petitions are now not permitted. So any answers you have to "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to…" will have to be limited to being not obviously funny, even if they are ill informed, impractical, non-sensical or just barking mad.

Early enough or "serious" enough to pass vetting were

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to...

create a standard size of umbrella. "... the umbrella has become a monster with workers seemingly trying to compete one another for the largest and most unnecessary umbrella. To combat this phenomenon, which is certain to lead to people loosing eyes, the Government needs to take action to bring the unlicensed industry under control. We demand an end to the over-sized umbrella and a return to safe pavements for all!"

stop smiling so much. "Reviewing your achievements while in office, we don't believe you have a great deal to smile about."

to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream. "If he's not going to resign, the least he can do is provide us with some entertainment." The origins of which lie here, all the way back in November.

They have rejected some gems. I liked, we the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to nip round this weekend and give me a hand put me new windows in and paint the bog.

I did sign one, Scrap the Dartford crossing Toll. - paying for convenience is fine but I do mind paying extra tax, and as the cash does not go to local infrastructure, and the crossing and maintenance costs are paid, it is a tax, not a toll.

With the power of the press ever in mind I emailed our local paper to point out the petition, it got a mention in their report on the local MPs calling for residents to support their call a discount off the tolls. "Residents get call in toll fight".

I look forward to the PM's response, it might be a new PM by the time they get round to it.

Flaks get hooked on stats.

Allan — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 15:33:00 +0000

Today was the official launch of Browzar, a free web browser which lets you search and surf the web without leaving any visible trace on the computer you are using.

It's not often in PR that you have the opportunity to get real time, independent feedback on exactly what the work you are doing is achieving for you client but working this week on the Browzar launch our team got to see exactly how coverage was driving downloads through the site statistics from www.browzar.com, and boy it is addictive!

The the stats are updated every five minutes giving us enough resolution to literally see particular bits of coverage hit. Grabbing the latest set immediately after Ajaz's interview on Channel 4 news showed a large jump in downloads. A ripple of Scandinavian downloads spread from Sweden, where IDG covered the story, to Norway and Denmark. Slashdot picked up the story before the USA woke up and became the top referring site. We were then able to see the USA and Brazil light up in red as downloads climbed and coloured the map from the East coast across the continent as people woke up to the news.

Not only is it a real motivator to see such tangible and immediate results, but the data we were getting showed up a few good opportunities for follow up calls and angles we could amplify.

The feel good factor target for downloads was passed round lunch time, doubled by 3pm and was still climbing tonight.

Google hits for the word Browzar went from 36 on Tuesday (35 misspellings of Browser and one for the www.browzar.com site) to 159,000 as I write this.

Book marks for www.browzar.com on del.icio.us rose from my first lone entry less than 24 hours ago, to 251 today.

Who says you can't measure the effectiveness of PR?

Well a lot of people and they have a point, finding a single, meaningful, direct measure for the effectiveness of a campaign is rare but it is great when you have one.

UPDATE

Browzar is now the LifeHacker Download of the day. Good job S. !

Trains delayed because ...

Allan — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 08:36:00 +0000

...of delays caused earlier when bright sunlight stopped drivers seeing the monitors. There is no form of weather that cannot stop British trains!

First the camera lies, then the computer provides the alibi.

Allan — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 21:45:00 +0000

We all know that the camera lies, from the first days of photography images have been manipulated. Now digital photography has made it simple to make adjustments to images we have almost come to expect "shopped" images especially in advertising and celebrity photo shoots.

However it takes being shown the before and after shots from a pro to demonstrate the extent and sheer quality of what is now routine for the industry. Take a look at Brian Dilg's Photoshop work, move your mouse over the pictures for to reveal the before and after images. Dont' forget to scroll down for his comments on the job.

Beginning a blog

Allan — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 22:30:00 +0000

I had avoided jumping on the blogging band wagon, mainly as I really was not sure what topic I'd blog on that would be of interest to others. However here I am, with no other initial agenda than to get familiar with the technology by occasionally posting on topics which grab my attention.

So in the interest of figuring out the technology this post, has been submitted by email. It's a shame the mobile phone sms / mms blogging only works in the USA.

Dagenham wind turbines

Allan — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 22:18:00 +0000

Having a bit of a green themed surf this evening I stumbled across some details of the deal that provided the wind turbines at the Ford plant in Dagenham. I had been curious about them having seen them so often from a distance.

The two turbines were built and are operated by Ecotricity under a scheme called Merchant Wind Power (MWP) where Ecotricity builds, owns, operates and maintains wind turbines on a partner's site in exchange for an agreement form the partner to purchase the electricity generated for a fixed period, typically over 12 years. The benefit to the partner is boosted green credentials through dedicated supply of green energy, at what Ecotricity describe as a competitive price.

Great idea. If we had more micro generation we would have a more robust and efficient power system.

According to the case study all of Ford's diesel engines assembled at the plant will have been produced using wind power. Did Ford make much anything of this in the press?