Kitchen Porn

How cool is this little fella? Look at that cool mustache, you know you want one. Never has a kitchen utensil looked so happy.

You can pick one up from here: http://www.domesticsluttery.com/2009/12/kitchen-porn-lego-head-kitchen-scales.html

And a big shout-out to MissCay http://twitter.com/MissCay for pointing me in the direction of the wife’s future Christmas gift (it’s for me really).

Posted via email from Content Ninja

Gaming Cloud is coming – rejoice

The future of computing is here and now the cloud that we hear so much about is providing its first sprinkle. And once again it’s the game industry that is pulling the rest of the world along.

Currently you can sample 2 trials of true online gaming in Europe and 3 if you’re in the US.

www.awomo.com is making all the right noises in my mind, allowing you to try a Lara Croft game in beta – free beta sign-up for the whole world. This works with the download of a browser (no chrome L ) plug-in – then the game starts to download.

6 mins later (might be slower for slower connections), you can start playing. The rest game continues to download in the background. One complaint you don’t get to say the file location. The website say’s it will offer top titles which you can buy out-right at a cheaper rate because there is no packaging, a hire service where you can hire games for a cost, after you have hired the game 5 times it is considered bought. My favourite a monthly subscription which allows you to play all the titles (why pay for World of warcraft, when I can play lots of new games), please let it be £9.99 or less.

Another example of Gaming cloud is www.quakelive.com, Quake has always been a front runner in technology terms and here it doesn’t fail either. Beta is free again sign-up and plug-in your browser. Not sure on the future of this but as a free half-hour blast, it ran smoothly and quickly. After a quick training session you get to choose if you want to play against / with bots or people and let the frag feast begin. I opted for a game with bots as am rusty in all my FPS and 40mins later I realised just how rusty I was J  I recommend giving it a quick blast.

Finally (for now) www.onlive.com is defiantly a USA company with lots of marketing behind it, “developed stealthily for 3 years” WTF? Anyway this seems to offer the most advanced out there currently; I can’t say if it lives up to all the noise it’s making as it is only in Beta in the USA (big mistake I think). Offering what is basically a virtue console on your PC and a mini console which you can connect to your TV. Am sure it will involve a plug-in to your browser for computer owners, but apart from that I can’t tell if there is or isn’t any downloading. It claims on the website for instant playing but who knows (not people in Europe). 

 

That’s what’s out there at the moment, am sure the big boys (come on Virgin) will swoop once the smaller companies have done the hard work. Personally I think onlive.com might be leaving the door wide open for Awomo.com to take the European market with there current strategy, but again that might just be the fact I want to try the thing and can’t J

 

Happy Hunting

Work Zombie…

 

Age of Stupid

Age of Stupid?

So a new film is out about what we are doing now to destroy the planet and about how we have a chance to fix it before we go beyond the event horizon of no return. 

Age of stupid (http://www.ageofstupid.net/) is set in the year 2055 and is narrative by an archaeologist looking at footage from the year 2008 when we had a chance to make a change. I haven’t seen the film so I can’t judge it. I hope it gets its message across as it is an important message, but this blog today isn’t about the film. Why use the film as a title then? You could ask, well I think it’s wrong for this film, it’s not the Age of Stupid we live in, it’s the Century of Greed. Greed is the main reason we are at a point in time where time is running out for all living creatures and it will remain the reason we end up at the very least leave the planet and at the worst make the human race extinct, making way for the next species to become the dominant force.

The Government is spending billions saving the banks; these are the same banks that charge you £25 pounds for going £3 over credit. The same banks that the CEO gets paid more then a top 4 premier league team (that’s team not player). And the government is paying billions to help major energy companies build nuclear bombs, sorry power stations in my / your back yard and then claim that it is a clean energy source. 

Now am not a scientist and would never claim to know the output / efficiency / clean energy ratio of a nuclear power station, but I also know duck and cover isn’t going to protect you from a nuclear blast.

Where are the billions of pounds being spent on a clean power plant? Am not even going to embarrasses people and ask for a billion pounds to be spent on a solution because there are plenty of solutions out there already, but they are always talked about separately, they are all talked about on a small scale and they are always talked about as if it is something to consider in the future. Why can’t we have a geo-thermal off shore platform power station, built using a wind farm as its legs, connected by a wave farm and the whole structure covered in solar Panels? What would the cost be, how big would it need to be to run a city? Imagine if it cost 1 billion pounds and it provided enough energy to run 1/12 of the country. The government wouldn’t build it, couldn’t build it, the reason is because the energy companies would put to much pressure on the government. The big boy’s with all the money wouldn’t like it because you could provide almost free energy. Suddenly the big boys making more money then I / we could imagine wouldn’t be making money. It’s the same with a car, if you had free energy that a car can run on for nothing, more people in "power" start losing that "power" and they won’t like it. This crap about hybrid cars is all about making Joe public still go to the pumps and spend their money. Why do you think the main people pumping research into electric car’s are the oil people, so they can limit how much is given out to the public, so they can copyright anything and everything. 

It is a shame because free energy is out there, are own government has tested geo-thermal power plants (http://www.businesssouthampton.com/content/default.asp?PageId=214&PrevPageId=220 ) but you hear nothing about the success or failures of it.

I think this would be the first step for mankind is to realise money isn’t the be all and end all, the paper and news programmes would have you believe. But am also convinced it would never happen in the UK / Europe or the USA, a political party in a small country that could do stuff under the radar would be the only way to start this revolution. If anyone needs help building this and can provide accommodation and food for me and my family am quite happy to help build it, to see if they will come.

Signed

Work Zombie – looking for life                

Marketing’s Favourite Weapon!!!

What is it with marketing that they think if they stick “!” at the end of things it’s going to make Jo public want it more?

Does marketing still work, has it ever worked. I know people buy known brands, but are they doing so because of marketing or is it the fact that it has a good product? Nike for example, I’ve bought trainers in the past which aren’t known and while a lot cheaper then a brand like Nike, they have been badly made, when I have bought Nike they have lasted a lot longer and been comfy for a lot longer. Am not buying Nike because one of the people in my favoured sport team is wearing them, no I buy it because I like the way they are made and dependent on the price of them at the time I require some new trainers.

Do you remember the adverts you saw on TV last night or did you nip the loo or make a drink? In fact can you remember one advert off the TV from Sunday or Saturday? If you can well done! But I can’t, they don’t record in my brain anymore. A lot of programmes I watch are recorded on my Teledrive (a virgin Sky+) so they don’t even get on my screen, well they do just at 36times its normal speed and I can safely say I’ve never stopped fast forwarding just to look at one.

And now the web developers are realising anything that looks like a banner or is flashing like a banner people don’t even scan it anymore, the only way around this that I can think of is sound. Sound isn’t used on websites apart from a couple of ad’s that drew me in (normally game ads). But even this will become old very, very fast. Am afraid the world is going to have to sit and take notice, we live in a consumer lead world (and I think we have the internet to thank for that). The marketers will always be around and take the credit for something which would have happened anyway, one way or another. “!!! R.I.P.“

Revolution or Revelation?

An old article, but i can't wait for the day.

"The middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx," says the report. The thesis is based on a growing gap between the middle classes and the super-rich on one hand and an urban under-class threatening social order: "The world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest". Marxism could also be revived, it says, because of global inequality. An increased trend towards moral relativism and pragmatic values will encourage people to seek the "sanctuary provided by more rigid belief systems, including religious orthodoxy and doctrinaire political ideologies, such as popularism and Marxism". 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/apr/09/frontpagenews.news full article -   

Congestion Charge Manchester

So it's the big vote on congestion charge is due - I've had plenty of time to ponder the Congestion charge and how it will effect Manchester and the people traveling in and out of the city (normally when stuck on a platform after my train has been canceled). 

First of all am going to say I would vote "NO" if i was allowed to vote but am not. I just use this Public Transport and the roads in the past. But i live in Liverpool so no vote for me.

Secondly i would say i think the government have made a mistake picking Manchester as the testing ground for this experiment. "Why" you may ask, the reason being like Liverpool, Manchester's people have never been scared to stick up when they see an injustice. Or miss an opportunity to "poke the Man in the eye". What does that have to do with the congestion charge? Well this is the biggest Class tax imposed in years. Basically if you can't afford to drive it will free up the roads for those that can? 

So anyway back to my reason why i would vote "NO", these are just my reasons. If you are lucky enough to get a vote, please read up on the subject and make your own choice.

Reason 1: I already mentions it but i will again. It's a class tax. Your too poor to afford to pay therefore your not allowed to drive on my roads? It's like some medieval tax for passing through the Lord's Lands and if you can't pay it, then you have to walk the long way around. I used to drive, but was forced out of my car and on to the train because of the price of petrol. When i did drive in/out of Manchester using the M62  i always found Junction 10 to be the worse part of my journey. Will the congestion charge ease this traffic "No". 

Reason 2: The lies - Why does the Government need to throw 3billion pounds at private companies to improve Manchester's travel networks. Are they admitting that they have fallen behind fixing every major city's travel network in the UK. "No", but they should do. When i did drive in the second busiest part of my journey was as the motorway ended and came on to Regent road and this was busy until you got past the beginning of the ring road. But i used to park here on the street and walk to work (20min). Why not just open huge free park and rides off the junction just before the end of the motorway. Put the 3billion pounds in the bank and run the park and ride off the interest? But then that doesn't make money does it, that doesn't make a profit after 30 years (more like ten). 

Reason 3: The Trains (and trams) - Now as I've said already i now get the train,  it's not a long train ride 45 Min's, but i am implored at the thought of such a bad service getting more millions of pounds to waste. For the last month I've taken the journey from Broad green Station at 7.56am about 25 times and only once has the train arrived on time. Today was another sample of how badly run the trains are, we arrived at Victoria the normal 7Min's late and the train stopped 800 yards from the station. We then sat there another 7 minutes while a platform was made available? My office is ten minutes away from the station and i was late before i even got off the train. My home journey is no better, i leave from Piccadilly and change at Newton-le-willows. The amount of trains that have been canceled when I've been at this station is stupid. I would say at least 3 trains a month, that's not late that's full stop canceled. The latest one, last week, the reason given lack of staff? Oh there is another train 20 Min's after a canceled on it just doesn't stop at my stop. No that one is another 20 Min's on top of that, so my 1 hour and 20 min (long getting home then coming in) journey now became 2 hours (a car on a good day at peak can do that in 50min). Now think about it, the trains have had plenty of time and money to get a service running that has been running for years. This is a line not even pushed to capacity. Imagine the chaos of an extra 1000 people trying to use the trains and trams. Wow we would get extra carriages, am more concerned with the train running on time or at all. Most of these trains are coming in from outside the Greater Manchester region, how do they intend to monitor and improve these? Name me one company that claims it couldn't do better with lots more cash. Also this thing about the tickets being kept at the same price, for how long. Who's to say in ten years time we aren't paying extra for our public transport, because the congestion charge is still paying the loan off...

Reason 4: The Biast: All this vote yes being thrown down our thoughts, i do take a perverse pleasure saying sorry i can't vote, but it would be a "NO" anyway. 

Reason 5: Local economic: Am interested at the impact this will have on the shops of the area and the car parks of Manchester. But it doesn't happen over the weekend i hear you say. "No" that's right it doesn't, but Northern Rock wasn't in real financial trouble until the papers said they where. So picture this, a family of four wants to go the cinema. Would normally travel into Manchester to see a film on a Saturday morning, then shop a bit in the afternoon. The husband turns to the wife and Say's "Don't they charge to drive in to Manchester now". Wife replies, "no, they charge during the week, don't they". Husband says, "am not sure lets go to Cheshire Oaks instead, just to be safe". And this is what will stop people coming into the city at none charged times. Car parks, shops, cinemas, bars and restaurants will suffer.

Oh well I've had my rant - so it will be interesting to see how the public vote, i have a feeling that while most of the Manchester population is a "NO" voter, most of the "YES people are the sort to love this sort of thing and more likely to vote. 

Cya Later (if by train MUCH LATER)

Andy

Why do it?

Warning this is a RANT! So we finally finish building our new corporate website for VisitManchester corporate division. Now we need a URL. Let's see, VisitManchester.Org would be nice. VisitManchester.com for the tourism site, www.visitmanchester.org for the corporate site, let's do a search. Nope it's not free. Cyber swatters again no doubt. No it's not it's access advertising? The same Access Advertising that bought www.visitmanchester.co.uk (before my time because it wouldn't have happened). Why do Access Advertising require these domains, surly anybody searching for Visit Manchester or Visiting Manchester aren't going suddenly think, you know what i need some "advertising" - Lucky i typed in .org or .co.uk instead of .com? 

Not this is what made me laugh more then anything else - www.accessadvertising.org is still available? WTF? www.accessadvertising.mobi and .tv is still there as well. Well maybe am wrong and people who are trying to find out about Manchester do need some advertising. As this company has spent more time picking up visitmanchester domain names then their own brand name? It's a very strange tactic because if you do a google search for advertising Manchester (or various arrangements of that search term) they are no where to be seen. Maybe they should concentrate on their own brand instead or getting useless enquires to the website, just so it make the website look like it's performing. 

For a so called advertising company to do this, makes you wonder how in touch access advertising are with the use of the web and understanding about it being more quality then quantity that will reap the rewards in the end. While they might catch many people out once and even a couple twice, the number of people will soon drop. www.visitmanchester.com = information about Manchester from the official Tourist Board, www.visitmanchester.org and www.visitmanchester.co.uk = advertising by access (but i wouldn't look at them doing any web/seo work for you). At least i under stand cyber squatters trying to make a quick buck, maybe this is access advertising plan? Maybe they can't make any money by doing advertising and they want to sell the domain? Or maybe we will take the money you want for the URL's and buy all the free access advertising domains and point them to Mando!!! 

The above is a personal view and not the view of my employer or any of my work colleagues unless stated by them personally.