Why do we Blog?

A two-fold post for you this time:

Part 1: More about the Blogging feature on BBC Click

Part 2: Why do we Blog?

Part 1.

This week was busy – the latest episode of Click Bits -the little 3 minute tech newscast – is now online… Click on the pic if you want to watch it.

(RSS Readers/can’t click on the pic to view? link here: Http://bit.ly/clickbits006 )

…and my blogging piece on BBC Click is on this week’s show.

Thank you very much Judith Lewis , Mike Robinson , Marko Saric, Clare English and Andy Bargery for their cameos.   They each gave me about 20 seconds’ worth of blog tips on video, which I integrated into the piece.

I took a few 3 second shots of some blogs at the beginning of the package

They are listed here:

• Going Underground eccentric blog all about things that happen on London’s transport system
• cat-fest I Can Haz Cheezburger and its sister site failblog
• unchained guide showing the best independent shops in cities,
• Black Phoebe, a beautiful photo blog

Below are a few more blogs I’ve enjoyed reading in recent times:

• Something to be said - breathtaking prose and inventive fiction – with teeth
• Dead Hub – raw music and rock blog
• Rocketboom – internet culture blog

You’ll be able to read the whole transcript of the blogging feature here.

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part 2.

Making the segment got me to thinking about when I first started blogging, so I went back and read my “Hello World” post i.e. the first post I ever wrote, which was about 90 posts ago.

(If you absolutely have to, you can read it here. <cringe>)

Then I wondered: What makes us blog? What drives us to leave a mark of our mundane existence on the internet? Who do we imagine writing to when we’re typing?

So, of course, I came up with a thoroughly empirical theory.

As a human, I normally spend a lot of time thinking, but my mouth blurts any given thought out after little (if any) moderation from my addled, overworked, overclocked brain.  I’m assuming that other humans experience this too.*

If that is the case (and if we have the desire to do so) then writing could give us the freedom and time to craft a sentence, play with the words, and get a sense of perspective we can rarely access “in the moment”. We can proof-read our thoughts in type, then adjust that thought until it “makes sense” – to us, the authors, as much as any reader. This crafting of ideas into concrete might even result in learning something about ourselves we didn’t know until we saw it on the page.  Or of course, it could be nothing of the sort. We could just want to post pictures of cats because we love cat pictures.

Incidentally, the above paragraph took 35 minutes to write, and included moving the sentences around, working out what I wanted to say – then making it sound nice to read in my head. I’m now doubting whether or not it’s a self-indulgent paragraph of pointlessness, and now I’m thinking it’s dinner time soon, and I should probably turn the computer off and deal with this later.

Indeed, none of the above musings touch on the obvious love of story that permeates our very existence – mythology, fairy tales and even documentaries – but that is most definitely another post all on its own.

So,  please leave your comments: Bloggers, Why do you blog? Readers, what do you read?  I’d be honoured if you left your thoughts below.

*to paraphrase the great Douglas Adams, and probably a few others, the worst assumptions are the ones you don’t know you’re making.

 

More ClickBits

They say work expands to fit the time available – and in this case, the 3 minute tech round up on the BBC’s website takes the better part of a day to make.

This post is really to chronicle the 3rd and 4th episodes so I can remember where I put them on the internet…  Click on the picture to get re-directed to the BBC’s site.

Clickbits Episode 4  – can’t see the link? click here: http://bit.ly/clickbits004

The really bonkers one to do was Episode 3 which I pushed down from Las Vegas during an evening where every other technology person there was also trying to send video.   Once the video was sent back to the UK,  Zoe and Gary put the pictures together on the other end.

It was very strange sending down raw material and seeing a put-together programme emerge at the end of it.

Clickbits Episode 3  – can’t see the link? click here: http://bit.ly/clickbits003

These links were filmed next to the Intel touch-wall, which was a giant interactive cube pulling pictures down from flickr. It was being run on what looked like a normal laptop – which surprised me – the graphics card in there must have been rather tasty.

If you want to see some pictures from CES 2010 , pop over to my flickr site here for a look round some of the weird and wonderful gadgets on display here.

 

Click Bits!

Pilot show Click Bits - Episode 2!

(RSS/Can’t see the link? here you go: http://bit.ly/clickbits002 )

This is what I’ve been up to the last month, as well as doing quite a bit for bbc click recently… including working with the marvellous Maggie Philbin on our futurology piece. She’s done such a brilliant post here about our visit to Kingswood Warren that I don’t need to add anything…

OK, I will add that we both turned up on the ShiftRunStop podcast last week.

Here are some behind-the-scenes pics of the birthing of ClickBits.

My bag with script in - and an impressive amount of useless stuff

- yes I did eat that twirl. And I didn’t bother taking pics of the usual tv stuff including filming pieces to camera, script wrangling and finding pictures to fit. Unless you want me to next time?

Also the madness of only having a finite amount of time to do an infinite amount of work is the sort of thing is familiar to techies everywhere. Editors, I’m thinking of YOU when I type this.

tape of episode 1 ! yes, tape! Click on this if you want to see episode 1, but episode 2 is better Click on the top pic for that.

The grown-up edit suite was double booked for our first episode, but it didn’t stop us – we squeezed into a small office and crowded around a desk and computer meant for 1 person.  Final Cut Pro, in case you were wondering. And yes, we ate a LOT of choccy in  a room so cramped all our knees were touching.

on its way into the BBC system?

This was our 2nd attempt to ingest 3 mins of video into the BBC, we were thwarted by technology many times! It’s always worse when a BIG machine borks – I always (illogically, irrationally and incorrectly) expect computers with 4 screens to be, I don’t know, cleverer.

Humans 3, Machines 2

Finally, the wondrous Zoe (who is producing this with me and is the illustrious @zsk on twitter) came across this hidden terminal and executed some kind of Harry Potter spell that meant the machines had to obey her – and they did.

As I’m off to CES Las Vegas 2010 next week, Zoe and I will be attempting to make the 3rd Click bits episode a few thousand miles apart… we’ll be using yousendit and psychic powers to make that work, but if anyone can do it, it will be the 2 most stubborn people at the Beeb – us!

 

How to Move to the Cloud

Well, it happened.

My life reached critical mass, I had lots of things to do in many places, all of which require a variety of internet access, and an infinite amount of patience.

If only I could defrag my brain this easily- Time to get organised

Time to move to the cloud …but how to do it without going bonkers?  The subject of my latest post,  I regret to admit, is the reason for a lot of non-blogging.

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The mission was to move everything away from a specific platform (i.e. one laptop) and move it somewhere I can access EVERYWHERE, that would be on the mobile, both laptops, both desktops and at internet locations all over the known universe. Bleh.

Does that sound like a nightmare? It was.  I’m nearly there, though.

So here goes.

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1. I have 37,000 emails I need to have access to on my outlook email – how can I access them somewhere else?

First of all, I needed to find a way to see my old emails on the internet. As I own a domain, I opened a free google apps account – then took advantage of the free google email uploader.

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I faffed about with pointing CNAMEs in the right direction etc and used the help pages quite a bit. Now your domain hosting service should be able to help out  if you’re thinking of doing this too, and they will be the people to talk to if you’re having a spot of bother.  It all worked fine after I’d sorted out the settings, but took AGES to run as there was so much email to upload.  Happily, after leaving it to do its business, I now have a fully searchable online email database.

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2. Can I get GMail on the move?

I use a Nokia N95  (although its days are numbered, poor thing takes a lifetime to go to “image gallery” now bless it) – and visited the Gmail mobile apps page to download gmail for my phone.  The mobile application for Nokia is now playing nicely with google apps users (if you’re on the mobile reading this, then go here m.google.com) So now I access my Gmail from my phone and any computer with an internet connection.

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Only problem is that it’s still pull, but I’m not too bothered about that at the moment.

3. I add appointments on my mobile phone and while I’m at the computer.  How can I see everything without it all going wrong?

Goosync

Now, it so happens that there is a little programme called GooSync which will happily sync your calendar with your google calendar for free. If you want to do other things as well, you’ll have to pay.

(UPDATE – Goosync has now started charging as at 19-10-09 - £5.99 per year for this service. Oh well, there goes the “free”…)

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Once set up  (and GooSync will send you a text message to sort all your settings out) you just go to the Sync menu of your phone, and synchronize your calendar.  Like Gmail on the phone, you have to remember to do it reasonably often - (do let me know if there’s a way to schedule it to sync regularly)  – but it means I can sync my phone calendar without needing a computer USB cable.

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4. What about stuff  like Documents, spreadsheets – that kind of thing…?

Dropbox File Holder

Enter dropbox, a brilliantly simple and automatic way of keeping your stuff in one virtual place.

The way this works is you have a “dropbox” folder in, say, “my documents” and anything you store there gets Sync’ed up to your dropbox folder in the cloud, and back down to any other dropbox folders on, say, your other computers when they next connect to the internet.  The whole thing is done quickly and without any drama.

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I have a dropbox app on my (mobile) laptop, and one on my (stationary) monster Mac Pro.  I access my docs on other computers by logging into the service online and accessing my files from there – downloading and uploading as I wish.

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How clever – and great if you are on a work or shared computer and you don’t want to download your dropbox there.

Yes, of course I use Google docs but find that sometimes docs uploaded from Excel/Word don’t really like it up there, and go a bit squiffy.  I love Google docs for the sharing,  but not for the sort of anorak-style colour-coding obsessed spreadsheet madness that I’m afflicted with.

Dropbox is completely free for the 2GB version, however if you’re storing video or music, you might feel the need to upgrade to one of their paid-for options with more storage.

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5. My infinite things to do list… er, a little help?

nozbe project manager

I’ve been using Nozbe for a while, which has a “free 5 project plan” that you have to hunt for on the home page.

Nozbe Project Managment

If you’re a fan of “getting things done” by David Allen (and I am) , you’ll be familiar with the ideas behind this project management site - Although there’s a “nearly there”  ipod touch/ iphone app which accompanies this website where you  sync your “to-do’s” online with your nozbe account, I use Nozbe exclusively on a browser at whichever computer I’m plonked in front of.

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This online project management tool will give you your “next actions” across projects.  This means that once you’ve entered your various (and copious) things to do in different areas – say “music composing”, “home admin” and “holiday planning” - you can see what needs to be done on each project THAT DAY. Really good if you are working on a few different things at once

6. What about my contacts?

Everything needs to be sync-able with everything else, so any changes made on one platform have to be reflected in the other.

Zyb contact sync

I’m so close to getting my contacts sorted.  Using zyb to synchronise my contacts from my phone to their internet site is pretty cool, but I’m still working out how to merge the ridiculous contact list on my phone with the laughably giant contact list on google apps.  I also have a gmail account that could do with a bit of a tidy.

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This is the only area where I’m not quite sorted yet - and yes, I bet there are lots of paid-for ways to get my contacts in order and in sync, but I want to do it for free. And not with an iPhone

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So there we have it – a move to the cloud which I’ve nearly managed… please comment if you’ve found something awesome that I’ve missed.

Now for some chocolate.

 

Qype: Akasiro in London

London – Eating & Drinking – Restaurants

I am DEFINITELY coming back to this small but perfectly formed japanese paradise.

Nestled in the small road behind the big Vue, Akasiro exudes a quiet informal charm, countered by exuberant flavours. Friendly staff make this even more of a find – but it’s too tasty to keep it a secret.

It’s one of those places where you wish you were more hungry so you could fit more in.

I had tuna rolls (tasty) agedashi tofu (delicious) and a generous salmon skewer dipped in luxurious silky teriyaki sauce (sublime).

My companion had the udon noodles in soup. topped with tempura – and this, along with my feast and some green tea, came to £25 for both of us.

See you in there…

Check out my review of Akasiro – I am ljrich – on Qype

 

My Three Keyboard Cat Moon T Shirt

The first item of clothing I ever bought on the internet came in the post yesterday…

Three Keyboard Cat Moon T shirt from Threadless

Here’s me in it…

Rock 'n' Roll!

yb

I wore it to work and got comments ranging from “That is Excellent” to
“I can’t believe you buy your clothes off the internet”.

But I don’t care. I want to wear it FOREVER*.  I shall hand wash it.  I might
even buy another one in case I lose this one or get nutella on it.

The only problem with this Tshirt is that while I’m wearing this fabulous
garment,  I can’t look at it at the same time.

Of course, this design is a combination of Amazon’s Three Wolf Moon
T shirt (below)

Three Wolf Moon - top selling shirt

…and Keyboard Cat, the friendly feline that plays people off the stage when
they do something catastrophic:

So, what have we learned from this exercise?  Sometimes the Internet can
surprise us with creativity – this mashing of memes gave us something greater
than the sum of its parts. The Tshirt was scored by 3,791 people, and rated
4.48 out of 5.

Perhaps broad appeal is the new niche.  I’m not worried about following the
crowd on this one.

Sorry about the photoshop rush job,  I was overcome by an uncontrollable
compulsion to upload this picture and couldn’t wait.  The office chairs and
other debris detracted from the WONDER and MAJESTY of said t-shirt.
It had to go.

*Or, at least, for a while.

 

Music Recognition on the BBC!

My piece on Music Recognition for the Beeb went out this week – it’s available in the UK on the iPlayer, type Click in there (it’s the 18th July episode) or you can click on this click link by clicking this word: Click.

I am attempting to track down the link for the world version as we speak.

Tinkling the iVories on the iPlayer!

Here’s a pic of me at a big white grand piano – kindly provided by the players bar in Charing Cross  at about half a day’s notice.  Cue me turning up at 0900 with too much kit and not enough coffee.  They were nice to me, even in my kraken-like pre-caffeinated state.

The piano looked lovely, apart from 4 of the notes which weren’t quite there. 2 went plunk, one went baow and one went pffff, so I transposed some of the music. You shouldn’t hear any plunks, baows or pffffs .

There’s also an instrumental arrangement of Europe’s “The Final Countdown” in the piece which I played especially :-)

More piccies below

plinky plunky

 

Blah blah blah plinky blah blah - my piece to camera

 

 Thanks to music recognition people Shazam, Midomi (from Melodis) and mHashup for letting me  interview them.

 

Qype: lucky voice in London

London – Nightlife – Karaoke

Save your voice. You’re best off whispering all day…

…because if you end up visiting Lucky Voice karaoke, then you are guaranteed to be yowling deep into the night.

I left what little pride and street-cred I had at the door and gazed upon the shocked faces of my friends as I foghorned my way through Whitney Houston and Chicago, via the Prodigy.

Happily, they wailed along to even more embarrassing tunes in return, so at least what happened in that private room will stay there – an uneasy truce between Karaoke sinners, if you will. Oh, and the sound system rocked.

Lucky Voice is the closest I’ve come to the KTV experiences I’ve had in Shanghai, except the keyboard wasn’t all in Mandarin Chinese, it was a touch screen where you could search by artist or song.

Although not the cheapest karaoke around, the friendly staff and ample drink choices make it a great night out for a special treat.

Just don’t expect to be able to answer the phone with anything more than a croaky grunt the next morning.

Check out my review of lucky voice – I am ljrich – on Qype

 

Nom Nom Nom 2009

…is only 10 hours away, and I’m ready.

No, of course I’m not ready, but I did source a particularly effective chef’s hat…

The last month has been brilliant, manic and, alas, almost completely sleep-free.

Excitingly I’m going to be on the BBC again next week as my piece on Music Recognition should be cooked by then – first I have to get 2 or 3 internet shots at some ridiculously unsociable hour on Monday morning, before crawling into the Edit with both Callie the Editor and the sort of coffee that causes spontaneous leg-shaking and hallucinations.

But before that in 10 hours’ time I shall be entering NomNomNom 2009, a charity cook-off where the fabulous Jemimahknight and I are charged with making a 3-course meal and serving it to 2-michelin-starred chef Tom Aikens – so no pressure there, then…

Our team is called Bork Bork Bork – will report back with pix and video assuming I survive.

 

Sanyo Xacti CG10 Dual Camcorder

Hello, If you want to view some video footage of  the Sanyo Xacti CG10 Dual Camcorder, here it is…

Must dash, I’m back on in about 9 mins!