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Fat Barry Bats A Fat One
2007-08-09 02:23:00
The fat baseball player Barry Bonds has now scored 756 home runs and holds the all-time record for the most home runs any one player has scored in their career, ever. So, nytimes.com has made a chart. They always make good charts. All the time. They must have, like, a chart making department. Anyway, well done Barry. You may look overweight and be struggling with accusations of steroid use, but it's a mighty achievement.
More About: Baseball , Bats

Rogue economist turns rogue terrorist?
2007-08-09 01:48:00
If you've read Freakonomics then you'll already know about Levitt & Dubner's groundbreaking economic approach to misunderstood real-world issues. If not, the method is simple - amass as much data as possible around a subject and apply in providing an economic answer to a seemingly obvious question. Their extremely objective, information-based exploration of the world allows them to see new ideas in age-old mysteries. Their idiosyncratic, super-analytical view cuts through preconception and emotionally clouded judgement. Although their results can often seem simplistic and overly mathematical, the book is a fascinatingly different look at the world we live in. Now they've finally crossed the rubicon. In their blog, hosted at nytimes.com, they regularly pose questions to readers with an aim of shedding light on a particular subject. Yesterday they got around to asking the inevitable - If You Were a Terrorist , How Would You Attack? Sounding as nerdily analytical as ever, Le...
More About: Economist , Internet , Turn , Rogue

A bit of french - Keren Ann at the Arts Theatre
2007-08-03 00:10:00
The Arts Theatre is an unpromising venue for someone anticipating Keren Ann's sultry, smoky, after-hours vibe. Yes, it's tiny, but something about the low ceiling, the creaky seating, the unimaginative lighting means it lacks intimacy. Still, once Keren Ann starts into "Nolita" everything changes. Her voice is a thundering whisper. The music - bass, trumpet and drums - is spare and, yes, haunting. The trumpeter, wearing mirrored shades in the darkness, dances back and forth lke an extra from the Muppet Show as the runs his output through a wah-wah pedal.. His behaviour is jarring, but just goes to highlight the otherworldliness of that voice. It takes a couple of songs for the atmosphere to warm up. The audience is polite, and Keren Ann seems reticent. But soon shes cracks a joke about her accent going "all Madonna" since she's been in London., and things loosen up. The band start gossiping about each other behind each other's backs - "...he thinks he's the Jimi Hen...
More About: Music , French , The Arts

Strictly for nerds - Using Putty Private keys on Mac OS X
2007-08-01 13:41:00
Anyone who has worked with me will know about my lifelong avowed hatred of version control sytems. The problem isn't the concept of version control itself, just awful implementatons and usage of it. I've always found version control to be complicated, and necesarily so. I've tried reading books on the subject. They make sense. Then I try using someone's system. It doesn't work. It's not sensible and practical and straightforward. It's not like it says in the books. On top of this, the user interface for these systems is poor or non-existent. You can talk about Ubuntu until it comes out of your ears, but surely in te 21st century we could have invented something better than the command line to do stuff? It's totally unintuitive. I appreciate that front-end developers are increasingly nerdy these days, as the separation of design, presentation and data layers becomes ever more pronounced. But for someone who thinks predominantly with the left side of their brain (...
More About: Internet , Private , Keys , Mac os , Putty

Bye bye UpMyStreet
2007-07-20 17:10:00
Today is my last day at UpMyStreet. It's been an interesting year and a half, and I've learned a lot about how to run, and how not to run, a website. I've also met some really great people, and built up a network of developers, designers and mates that I hope I can call on if I ever need anything, and vice versa. I've also, inevitably, learned a lot about the politics of being wholly owned by another, larger company, in our case uSwitch, and how this affects every decision you make on a daily basis. I'll write some more about these lessons learned another time, but for now I'm going to work as a freelance web designer/developer, starting at The Guardian on Monday! I'm really excited about this new career move, and the first step couldn't have been arranged any better than this. Friends and family will know all about my admiration for The Guardian, both the newspaper and the website. I posted earlier this year here about their recent redesign, which so far has been rol...
More About: Myst

Chocoholic
2007-06-30 11:41:00
My taste for fine chocolate is well known, but it reached its apogee this week when I purchashed a one of Rococo Choco late's 'Artisan Bars'. These are handcrafted, organic bars of rich, dark chocolate, flavoured with botanical ingredients. I went for the cardamom flavoured bar. It was delicious. The product packaging was what, as it so often is, initially caught my eye. This is an age obsessed with the infantilization of marketing strategies - see Innocent smoothie's childlike whimsy, Orange's playschool style cardboard cutouts, E4's forced "tellybox" slang, and many more. But the wrapper of this bar is exquisite. Printed in monotone blue, it features etchings of chocolate bar moulds and motifs from a 19th century manufacturer's catalogue, complete with dimensions and weight measurements. The whole thing is then wrapped twice around the bar, completing a simple, understated yet luxurious feeling package. Top marks Rococo!
More About: Design

Cornershop...time to shut up shop?
2007-06-22 11:08:00
It was nice to see Cornershop picked by Jarvis Cocker to play as part of his Meltdown selection. It would also have been nice to hear from the man himself the reasoning behind his choice. This is a band who haven't released an album in over 5 years ( 2002's Handcream for a Generation). They suffered from some awful sound problems for the first few songs, rendering Tjinder Singh's already quiet voice virtually inaudible. Following that they belted out most of their well-known stuff - Brimful of Asha, Lessons Learned from Rocky I to Rocky III etc. The rhythm section pumped out fat, loose 70's funk riffs, and if they put their mind to it Cornershop could have been one of the great party bands. A small crowd of people did run down the aisles of the Queen Elizabeth Hall to boogie at the front, but Singh's notorious aversion to live gigs and audience interaction meant that this gig was disappointing. They debuted no new material. They don't seem to have progressed at all in ...
More About: Music , Time , Shop , Shut

The Damned
2007-06-18 15:11:00
A quick post to note how much I admire the jacket design of David Peace's remarkable novel "The Damn ed Utd". Successful jacket design is a mysterious alchemy of elements, somehow blending the essence of the book with eye-catching salesmanship, whiel at all times avoiding being overly literal where imagery and graphics are concerned. The jacket image, attributed to Peace himself, brialliantly conjures up the animosity and hatred felt towards the championship winning Leeds team. Black graffiti daubs across their eyes, and the eyes of their manager, Brian Clough, further expose the subject's final unknowableness. Did this man hate them, and himself, so much he was willing to destroy them?
More About: Design , The D

Yum!
2007-06-07 15:18:00
I've made a Google map of all the nice places to eat in London Victoria! Using Google's new MyMaps feature I've collated together the places I like to eat around here: Nice places to eat in London Victoria If you know any more places then contact me and I'll check them out...
More About: Food

I went to the Globe Theatre
2007-05-31 23:41:00
I finally managed to get to the Globe Thea tre on the South Bank last week. I went for the £5 "yard" tickets, for two reasons, Firstly, they're cheap. Damn cheap. Secondly I wanted to try and experience the mead-soaked, sweaty rumbustiousness of the braying crowd. It didn't quite turn out that way - the crowd was a polite mixture of cheap theatre-goers, backpack-toting school kids and excited tourists. No mead, no sweat. Someone loudly broke wind halfway through, which prompted hysterical giggles from the kids, but otherwise it was very well behaved. The play was Othello, Shakespeare's dark tragedy of evil, manipulation and xenophobia. The evening was gorgeous, dry and only a little cloudy. The acoustics of the Globe are remarkable, thanks also I guess to the diction of the players. Even when a plan goes over, admittedly somewhat breaking the Elizabethan atmosphere, we could still hear perfectly. The theatre itself looks fantastic. Upon entering you immediately feel t...
More About: The G , Went

Turfing Trafalgar
2007-05-27 12:37:00
They turfed Trafalgar Square! Ostensibly this was to promote London's "villagey enclaves" such as Marylebone and Wimbledon. I don't know if it achieved much towards that aim - I had a good walk around and didn't see any promotional material while I was there - but the tourists certaily seemed to be enjoying having somewhere to sit and eat their lunch.
More About: Environment , Turf

Innovate! And vote for me?
2007-05-16 21:48:00
I've submitted a poster design to the competition to find an artwork celebrating the theme of "Inno vation" for the Manchester International Festival, to be exhibited and distributed at the festival and around the UK. The Manchester International Festival is the world's first festival of new, original and innovative work. Hosted and inspired by a city synonymous with creativity and invention the festival is part of the PlayStation Season - where the brand works with globally renowned public entities to engage and excite not only their core audiences but also those that have traditionally sat away from the cultural mainstream. The winning poster will be selected by leading Mancunian innovator Peter Saville. So, click the poster image above, or the other image below, read all about the festival, and if you like my poster then please VOTE FOR IT!
More About: Design , Vote , Nova

Hello Mr. President
2007-05-15 15:24:00
Look! My mum. My dad. And BILL CLINTON!! With his arms around them! The story starts a long time ago, in 1998, when my cousin, Paul McElearney, proprietor and president of Wide Plank International Flooring, laid the president's floor in his and Hilary's home in the Hamptons. Since then, apparently, they've been good friends. Then last week my parents got a call form Paul saying he'd arranged for them to meet Bill Clinton while he was over in London, giving a speech for a private business conference at the Ritz Hotel, Picadilly. Mum and Dad went along, got schmoozed and boozed by the Ritz waiting staff, and met Bill. They report back that he is warm, friendly and still possesses the legendary charisma we have heard so much about. Then he went and gave a 45 minute speech, without notes, and quoting innumerable facts and figures, regarding big business's duties and responsibilities towards the planet. I saw them the next day and they were rather starstruck! Read more...
More About: President , Hell , Side , Hello , Resident

Guardian redesign
2007-05-10 16:19:00
The Guardian today debuted its long overdue redesign, albeit restricted mainly to the homepage prior to a network wide rollout. I wonder if they chose today specifically for the launch, with the widespread prediction of Tony Blair's resignation announcement certain to cause a peak in traffic. Good timing, whether it was intentional or not. Importantly, the redesign meets multiple goals: satisfying users, by updating and maintaining technology trends; keeping advertisers happy with more and varied ad formats; and for once the homepage at least is completely standards-based and accessible, making use of CSS and separation of content and data layers to produce a page that is viewable across multiple platforms and media. Well done the Guardian, at long last. The new look continues what the Travel channel started. The wide page layout takes full advantage of today's increased resolution and screen size. It also allows the introduction of larger and more varied ad formats, for ...
More About: Design , Sign , Dian , Redesign

A little more zing, a little less zing
2007-05-01 10:42:00
In my ongoing quest for moderation in all things, I've decided to give up caffeine for a couple of months. I have previously foregone the pleasures of alcohol (during January and February) and meat (during February and March). Next up is the nerve-shredding, twitch-inducing, buzz-giver caffenie. In all its forms. That means no coffee. No tea. No coke. No Dr. Pepper. For 2 months. I think it'll be my hardest challenge yet. So yesterday was my last day of caffeine stimulation for a while. I had one last cup of good, Fair Trade coffee, one mug of Fair Trade tea, and one can of Diet Coke. I also discovered a very tasty Indian twist on fizzy pop - the masala cola! I found it while reading "Maximum city: Bombay Lost and Found", Suketu Mehta's epic journalistic biography of the Indian metropolis. In a passage discussing the myriad places to eat he says: "...you can order a masala Coke. This is the same old Coca-Cola you know, the same fizzy black liquid, but with lemon...
More About: Food , Little , More , Less , Litt

Grasp the truth
2007-04-27 11:30:00
Philip Glass's "Satyagraha" is an astonishing musical meditation on the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi. I saw it at the English National Opera at the Coliseum, and it is the best thing I've seen there so far. Glass's music is mesmerising and hypnotic, though by this I do not mean it is dreamy - it never strays into becoming a soporific. It is dense with seemingly a thousand different melodies, movements and instruments, waves of which glide over and under and into each other. In the latter acts, sudden changes in time signature or key realign the music's direction at crucial points. Tiny moments, which became huge aspects, of Gandhi's life, such as the moment he is thrown off a train for daring to sit in first class, are stretched and magnified and performed in exquisite slow motion. Every piece of emotion in these episodes is expressed and felt as the actors chant and sing their way through them, their voices interweaving, at one with the reedy clarinets and flutes. The st...
More About: Truth , Theatre , Ruth , The Truth

John Bolton - with agressive former UN ambassadors like these, who needs en
2007-04-25 02:26:00
Is former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton one of the most arrogant, contemptuous, condescending politicians of the modern age? I've just watched his interview on Newsnight, and he comes across as someone as ill-suited to a job in international relations as it is possible to be! Combine barely-disguised ridicule of Gavin Essler's probing questions, a hardline pro-war stance and a cryptic pseudo-threat that we (presumably the British, but encompassing all anti-Iraq war Europeans) should beware America's withdrawal from Iraq and other places "closer to home", and you don't have to wonder to hard why America has such a disastrous international reputation. I previously saw Bolton on BBC Question Time on March 22nd, flushed once again with seetinhg self-importance, and refusing to even respond to Tony Benn's repeated enquiries relating to Iraw and WMD on the grounds that it wasn't worth the effort. Indeed, with hawkish, agressive former UN ambassadors like thes...
More About: Politics , Bass , Need , Form

Is Google Maps killing web design?
2007-04-22 23:05:00
I'm currently working on several new websites which share a common theme - the data therein is predominantly displayed on a map. The development process has raised major design and interaction issues - is the map a navigation tool? should it interact with the existing site navigaton? does the site work equally as well without the map, or should it? All these questions will be discussed many times over the coming months. But by far the greatest and most immediate challenge one of graphical design - namely, where to put the map? And how big? Can we still use a fluid layout? How will it affect our carefully calculated grid system? For a map to be of any use to anyone it needs to be be fairly large, thus consuming plenty of screen real estate. But having such a large area given over to one element really seems to stifle the design of any particular page, immediately reducing flexibility and flow. It also introduces challenges of its own with regards to content and, especiall...
More About: Google , Web Design , Design , Google Maps , Maps

F*ck Live Earth
2007-04-16 01:05:00
So, the lineup has been announced and the countdown has begun to that date which hums with so much resonance, 7th July 2007, and the Live Earth concerts. It is very hard to criticise the intentions of the organisers of this massive global event, but the sheer numbing weight of stodgy rock piled upon bland pop balanced on, crikey, "the funk" in this lineup is enough to give anyone cause for complaint. Take a look at the list of "talent" for the Wembley concert. Events like this surely need a rich mix of light and shade, melody and bombast, even, dare I say it, leather and lace. The flatness and uniformity of this list would please the most conservative of NASA engineers. It is dull to the point of absurdity. If this concert is to be televised then they better have a Rock & Pop Consultant on the staff lest they fatally confuse David Gray and Damien Rice - one a droning balladeer of heartbroken bedsit dirges, the other a droning balladeer....etc. Following on immediatelyafterwar...
More About: Music , Live Earth

Hogarth at Tate Britain
2007-04-11 13:42:00
First rule, as ever, is don't go to this exhibition on a Saturday. Small, detailed prints and engravings and large, bustling crowds do not mix. The prints themselves, though, and when you get up close enough, are outstanding. The original two-dimensional work shown in this image is free content because its copyright has expired. More than anyone else of the era, Hogarth was an ilustrator, an artist and an incredibly canny businessman. He seems to have invented the comic strip, or at least the art of creating sequences of related pictures telling a story. He was truly a product of his times, and his skills as an artist combined with his strong moral convictions appears to be unique. The exhibition takes us through the various areas of his work, including the famous "Rake's Progress" and "Harlot's Progress", "Gin Lane" and "Beer Lane" illustrations. We also get the society portaiture and historical scenes, some of which he donated to the Foundling Hospital, an organisation...
More About: Britain

Easter chocolates
2007-04-09 13:11:00
We decided to combat the modern disease of consumerism this year and not buy East er eggs for anyone. So instead we made our own chocolate truffles and also some decorated boxes to put them in. We even made a special "Jesus Magic Trick" box for my religiously inclined dad... See the pics below for how we made the boxes:
More About: Chocolates , Chocolate , Cola

A Midsummer Night's Dream
2007-04-09 12:13:00
Why? Why is this production of A Midsummer Night 's Dream in several Indian dialects? It's showing at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, the first play to be staged there since its redevelopment. The Roundhouse website says "This production is performed primarily in English but also Tamil, Malayalam, Sinhalese, Hindi, Bengali and Sanskrit." I would dispute that. The play I saw was primarily performed in non-English languages. Unfortunately my ear for Indian accents and speech is not finely attuned enough to distinguish between the dialects they mention. I'm not even aware to what extent those dialects differ. My point, I think, is that the subtleties of Shakespeare's language have been lost in translation. An obvious point to make, sure. But not only that - in the process of translation any exoticism or mystique presumably intended by the staging has also been lost on me, merging into one opaque "otherness" which left me feeling alienated and emotionally uninvolved. Shake...
More About: Summer

Non tech staff in a web company are useless dead weight (thanks Matt)
2007-03-28 17:09:00
In response to Matt Beadle's blog post, I wrote the following comment. I thought it was interesting enough to post here too. Most internet companies are run, initially, by creative technologists. Unfortunately most start-ups and internet companies, unless properly managed, quickly become victims of their own success. Aggressive recruitment, rapid hardware expansion, reliance on advertising revenue and an inability to scale combine to produce businesses that are primarily concerned with supporting themselves and their growing or already bloated infrastructure. Segregation of resources into technical/editorial is a further problem, distancing the business from its original goal. In these cases it is easy for a company to lose focus, and their mission statement become diluted as they endeavour to cross-sell, upsell, provide business and professional services and generally spread themselves too thinly while neglecting their core values. The businesses you mention (Google, Yahoo,...
More About: Weight , Company , Tech , Comp , Dead

Hard Currency
2007-03-20 22:31:00
I found an interesting Photoshop feature when I was writing my previous entry on the new design for the twenty pound note. To illustrate the entry I found a PDF document discussing the new designs published by the Bank of England. I planned to take a screengrab of the new design and crop it appropriately. However when I pasted the screengrab into Photoshop I was presented with this dialogue: How did the application know what the contents of my clipboard were? I mean, obviously it knows the clipboard contains bitmapped pixel data, but how does it know those pixels represent a bank note? Is it using some image-recognition technology? Or does the clipboard contain some meta data about its contents or origin? I wonder if there are other instances or applications of this feature? For example it could be used to combat ticket fraud, child pornography or many other uses.
More About: Currency , Hard

new twenties
2007-03-20 18:10:00
The new £20 notes have been issued - I was surprised by one when I withdrew cash from an ATM on my return from Morroco. I always love seeing the new designs. I believe they reflect the values and standards of the central issuing bank, and also those of the nation whose currency they represent. The new 20's continue a fine tradition of evolutionary design - the size and shape remain the same, the purple colour is also still in place, though now a little brighter. What makes the difference with these issues are the subtler changes - the increased white space, the thick border, the more elegant denomination display. These notes looks so much more European, they have a classic, refined look which I look forward to using for years to come.
More About: Went

Speaking in tunngs
2007-03-20 14:51:00
If Tunng had any more bells and whistles they'd be able to open a bell-and-whistle shop. A big one. As such, though, they're one of the most percussively over-engineered yet deceptively and beautifully simple bands I've heard. They bury plaintive, repetitive vocal hooks inside chiming pastoral guitars. On top of this they start a Tourette's avalanche of electronic beeps, squeaks and hiccups. The whole thing is oddly heartwarming and touching. I saw them live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall (the Purcell Rooms - nice big comfy seats) and it it was even better to discover that they wren't a bunch of rural hobbits, or dungeons and dragons-playing Womad's. Not all of them anyway. One guitarist looked like he was partial to ale. And cheese. And mandolins. But the others looked quite....cool. And funny, too. About half way through the gig something in the hypnotic melodies reminded me that I'd already seen them before, at the Green Man festival last year. Memories of hazy,...
More About: King , Speak , Speaking , Peak

Itchy Riga finger
2007-03-08 18:35:00
I went to see Turner?s ?Blue Rigi? at Tate Britain yesterday. I don?t know if it?s worth 5 million quid, but it is astonishingly good, all translucency and shimmer and early, yawning, quiet atmosphere rendered in washy paint. I?m proud of the great British public for getting off their normally lazy fat arses to save something of some worth for the good of our artless, godless and hopeless children. They?ve got a whole exhibition of Rigi paintings, sketches and other Turner stuff until 25th march. Recommended! 5 stars!! Etc etc. While you're there you can also see Mark Wallinger's recreation of Brian Haw's anti-war protest, before it was so callously and cynically dismanteld at 3am by the fuzz. And once you're done you can walk round the corner and see the empty plinth in Victoria Gardens where Rodin's "Burghers of Calais" normally sits. It's quite a plinth.
More About: Riga , Itchy , Finger

Carry On Agrippina
2007-03-02 09:24:00
I went to see the English National Opera's production of the Handel opera "Agri ppina" last night. Although ENO stage all their stuff in English, it was only due to an astute printout from Wikipedia that I had any idea what was going on. I won't recount the story here, but will say that it contains more innuendo, wife swapping, eavesdropping and gossiping than any Carr y On... film I can remember. It may be set in and around the political machinations of a corrupt 80's-era Italian bureaucracy but it's obvious that everyone here is acting on their basest instincts. I really enjoyed the evening, but all the while I was trying to put my finger on what exactly drives people in their thousands to the opera. Is it the music? Is it the singing? The words, the story, the set? One of the most enjoyable aspects for me is the atmosphere of the occasion - the buzzing chatter in the bar and foyer, the low murmur of the audience right up until the lights go down. We smuggled in some sa...
More About: Grip , Carry

N*E*R*D - Future of Web Apps conference
2007-02-22 23:11:00
Just a list of links I picked up from people at FOWA London 07: ixda.org - Interaction Design Association vodafonebetavine.net - Vodafone R&D teqlo.com - mashup platform ning.com - create your own social websites pipes.yahoo.com - interactive feed aggregator and manipulator aniboom.com - cartoons and animation amiest.com - independent music downloads with innovative business model adobe apollo - cross-OS framwork, use your web development skills to build desktop apps netvibes.com - personal news aggregator couchsurfing.com - find a couch to stay on, or let someone use yours! threadless.com - get t-shirts barcamp.org - get together and learn (techie) stuff soocial.com - synchronise your contacts btcontact.com - personal communication hub picnik.com - edit your photos online (built using flex builder) labs.digg.com - experimental digg stuff iscrybe.com - online organiser mozilla.org/projects/tamarin/ - the future of javascript blogs.msdn.com/cwilso/ - microsoft IE platform architect...
More About: Future , Ferenc , Conference

Citizens and Kings
2007-02-17 01:57:00
On many occasions I've walked into a gallery, taken a quick look at a selection of 18th and 19th century portraits, and dismissed them as an irrelevency or, perhaps even worse, uninteresting. But had I taken a step closer to the exhibition, taken a closer look at the paintings, and thought about why these pieces in particular had been chosen and hung together, I would have appreciated the whole on a much greater level. This is the thought I kept in my head throughout the new Royal Academy show Citi zens and King s. Here is a selection of portraits from Napoleon and George III to an unknown family painted by an unknown artist. The common theme could have been a fragile one - what links these pictures is the idea that behind each one is a purpose - the display of power; the revelation of personality; the artist's advertisment; the enigma. But carefully hung in thematic groups the paintings ask us to reassess what it means to paint people, and to be painted. Facing the entranc...
More About: Kings , Citizen