Obama talks to the camera

March 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Barack Obama speaks to the camera, not the people in the room

I watched Obama’s short press conference speech outlining his plans for US economic recovery and one thing struck me: he never looked anywhere else except at the camera.

Its clear that this President is talking to a screen audience, an online world.

Since I was also watching this online (here on the BBC website), the fact that he was looking directly at me (at the dark eye of the camera) seemed ‘normal’.

Having thought about this, what then seemed really odd was to see the long shot of the hall that Obama was speaking from.

What I saw was a man speaking over his audiences’ heads to a camera at the back of the hall.

How unnatural, how strange.  How…disconnected.

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SiliconGranny: watch out young techno twerps

February 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Here comes The Silicon Granny

Take one talented 65 year-old woman (my mum) and point her in a different direction where her skills can make a difference.  Result? The Silicon Granny.  She’s web-savvy, digitally-equipped and mad as hell that older people don’t get to enjoy all that technology has to offer.  Yet.

We’re going to have some fun with this site. We might as well.  Life’s too short.  Given her age – and I don’t mean to be insensitive about this – SiliconGranny is something of a time-limited proposition :-)

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Satellite crash: oh, no the sky’s full of shotguns

February 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

News just in of a crash of two satellites in orbit above the earth.

But just what were those satellites carrying? Hmm?

“This is an event that really makes us realize that things are not so straightforward as we originally thought,” said Francisco Diego, a senior research fellow in physics and astronomy at University College London.

“The problem with collisions like this is that they don’t destroy satellites, they just create smaller ones, like fast moving shotguns, that are potentially much more damaging,” said Diego.

A sky full of fast moving shotguns.  Surreal.

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Do I need a TV licence to watch TV on my laptop?

February 11, 2009 By 34 Comments

According to the BBC, you need a licence to watch ‘live’ TV on your computer

If you go the BBC website, you can watch a fair selection of past programmes via the ‘iPlayer’.  Great idea.  It caters for just about as much TV as I can be bothered to watch.

But this morning, I clicked on the ‘watch live’ button on the BBC website.  Actually, no I didn’t (and this has a bearing).  I clicked on a link labeled ‘Live BBC News channel’.

I went through to page playing BBC Breakfast news in a player, just like iPlayer.  Only at the bottom, it told me that I needed a licence to watch ‘tv as it’s being broadcast’.

Interesting.  So, assuming I didn’t have a TV licence already, that would mean I’m already breaking the law by following that link?  How long do I have to watch it to be guilty?

And does it also mean if I have one of those Tivo-style things and I watch everything with a 10 second delay I’m not actually watching it ‘as its being broadcast’?

Plenty to think about, while I listened to the BBC Breakfast presenters and posted on my blog. Has the  law changed regarding ‘TV receiving equipment’?  Is my MacBook really a piece of equipment capable of receiving TV pictures?  And of course, the fun part – how could anyone ever enforce this?

Try to imagine the grey men arriving at the door: “Good afternoon, Sir.  Our records show that someone watched 15 minutes of live BBC TV from the IP address associated with your ISP account registered to this address”?

And the reply: “Probably.  This is Starbucks…” .

And here’s an additional thought: given that the warning isn’t located at the point where you click the ‘Live BBC news channel’ link but on the page with the ‘live TV’ picture, isn’t this some form of entrapment?  By the time you’ve read the message, you’ve broken the law (according to the BBC).  I can’t see this standing up in court, can you?

Oh, and finally.  It seems its ‘licence’. With a damned ‘c’ ok?  A ‘c’.  Remember.  I had to go through and change it.  Which will knacker up the Google indexing of this post (not to mention miss out half the people searching this key phrase with the other spelling). But at least I’ll get it right the next time it comes up in one of those infuriating ‘how thick is everyone?’ spelling tests. :-)

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M11 KAU plate day – a very good day

January 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

For all kinds of reasons!

Today (in fact just now in the dark) we put our ‘M11 KAU’ plates on the faithful old Honda (and I mean ‘old’!). They’ve been sitting around now for almost 2 years waiting to be put on a new car. They’re still going to have to wait for a new car, but they’re going on anyway – as a kind of celebration.

What are we celebrating? Getting this far. This time last year we didn’t think we’d still be in business. Things were very hard indeed. But we refused to give up.

And the result is that we’ve come through it smiling and done some good work that we’re proud of. And that the last quarter of 2008 was the best for us so far. We feel lucky that since the first 3 years of our business were so hard and that we learned so much we’re well placed for whatever the recession will throw our way in 2009.

We’re also celebrating that today was the first time in 27 months that Clare was able to spend time with her beloved 10 year old son.

And I’ve just accepted a 3 day a week contract in London with Delta7, the company that uses big pictures to drive change in large, complex organisations.

All of which gives us some space to concentrate on steering ‘mu:kau and ‘mu:kaumedia towards what we do best: helping you to get your happy customers to sell your business for you – and turning unhappy customers back into happy ones.

And last – but not least – today is the day that my ex-wife Teri Ann and James got married. We wish them health and happiness – and I thank them for being good parents to my kids.

Normally, I’m not a great fan of personalised number plates. These, however, stand for a lot of things we’re proud of today – even the fact that they’re on our rusty old red Honda :-)

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“This is a brave new world” – Theo Paphitis on Newsnight

January 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

“The most exciting time in my life” says Theo on BBC’s Newsnight

Both Clare and I can’t help but agree with him.  Sure, everything is uncertain.  Sure, we could very well be on the brink of a major recession – depression possibly.

But there’s an excitement in the air – that some thing – things – are going to have to change.  Are changing. And maybe what will change will be more than just business. Maybe it’s time – as Barack Obama has been fond of saying – for change.

It’s clear that we can’t go doing things the way we always have.  The polar bears won’t have anywhere to walk soon and that’s pretty serious.  More serious than all that stuff with banks.

Good old Theo Paphitis.  I kind of hope that his excitement isn’t simply the flapping of a carrion crow waiting to fall apon the dying mule….

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The Spotify Magic Invite Fairy has been!

January 1, 2009 By

Overnight Spotify gave me 5 invites. Great marketing move.

Since their on-site blurb said that invites only came with paid membership, I’d like to think it’s because their clever online reputation monitoring picked up that I blogged positively about it.

Either way, I enjoyed inviting 5 friends. That’s a great piece of marketing.

I used Spotify last night (New Year’s Eve) to power our music at home, resulting in a really nice mix of stuff I’d never normally listen to plus a few deliberate forays down the cul-de-sacs of Memory Lane…

I got an ad every hour or so which was entirely bearable. It remains to be seen whether the premium proposition is irresistible but the battle is half won already with a product I feel good about.

Thanks, Spotify – and well done. A great online reputation / marketing example.

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Spotify – internet radio for the terminally lazy and nostalgic. I like it.

December 31, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Despite the name – ‘Spotify’ – this is internet Radio at its very best, but….

Right now, I’m listening to some old 1980s reggae just as the playlist swerves from Bob Marley into the Sex Pistols ‘C’mon Everybody’. This is what makes Spotify such instant fun.

It’s either a personalised radio station (click the mood you’re in and the decade you’re hankering after and let the software do the rest) or its a ‘search for artist / track’ player.

In the ‘oh, I’m feeling dark and punk circa. 1981′ mode, this is great for just creating a mood and putting tracks in front of you that you’ve probably never heard before. This is perfect for those of us who like the sound but can’t be bothered to get all worked up by the band names…

In the ‘search’ mode you’ll encounter the limitations soon enough – by failing to find the most well known tracks, tracks that are obviously still making someone else more money elsewhere. But as Spotify is supported by EMI, Universal, Warner, AMG and Orchard (among others) there’s plenty to choose from – particularly if, like me, most of it is still in the realm of ‘undiscovered treasure’.

With a few (relatively) unobtrusive audio and banner ads and options for premium accounts, this is the broadband jukebox for me.

So what’s the ‘…but’?

Well, Spotify is currently in ‘invitation-only Beta’ mode.  This means that you can only get a free (ad-based) account through being invited by someone.  Since (as far as I can see) a free account doesn’t give you any invitation tokens to throw around, I can only assume these come with paid membership.

A good marketing model?  We’ll see.  How much more likely am I to pay £9.99 for a monthly membership because it gives me free invites to give out? Time will tell.

Meantime, you can find out more (and register your interest) here.

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Woolworths clearance: is this going to be a familiar sight in 2009?

December 29, 2008 By Leave a Comment

How many high-street businesses will follow Woolworths into extinction in 2009?

Tavistock, Saturday December 27th 2008. Woolworths. Just about everything has been sold off – including paint-splattered plastic chairs, shelf units, brackets, pinboards, crap used tools, boxes of random screws – even the store’s christmas decorations.

We visited out of curiosity. It’s not often you experience the end of something like Woolworths. It has an air about it that’s hard to describe. It’s not just that the place is being stripped bare. The people are too. You notice how they look and ask how they’re feeling – and they tell you. To hell with the company and the boundaries of ‘professional behaviour’ and ‘customer service’, they’re all gone. What’s left is people.

And you can’t help notice the things that stubbornly refuse to sell – even now, right at the end; even marked down by 80% – the plastic fake security cameras and the naff wrestling action-figures.

Who will go next in the new year? What will happen to the people who were part of these businesses? And what will fill the gaps they leave behind?

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