Marc: My Words : Life

New Family

maholmes — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:29:36 GMT

I'm actually out on leave now for Christmas, but have managed to grab a few minutes for a few updates before 2009 is over.

Firstly, my son - Orson George - was born on December 15th weighing in at 7lb 14oz. The picture of him is as we wrapped him up for the trip home from hospital. It reminds me of a film, but I can't remember which.

As usual, my invincible wife - Lady H - was amazing and fortunately Orson is playing ball with the family routine (at this very moment although admittedly it's early days).

Thanks for all of the support and best wishes - it's much appreciated and I'm very proud of my entire family.

(We don't know whether to stick at two children or go for three so we've got one of each. We'll see.)

Possible End of the World

maholmes — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:52:37 GMT

It can surely be no coincidence that on the day that the BBC reports that the Large Hadron Collider has had beams of particles injected into it that I came across this worrying statement from Prof. Brian Cox (the Madchester Britpop icon of Particle Physics):

I'm sure it'll all be fine.

Do The Green Thing: Simplifying Green Stuff So Even I Can Understand It

maholmes — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:51:51 GMT

I've spent a bit of time recently with James and the gang from DoTheGreenThing which has been a lot of fun.

Apart from the generally very positive message around, well, doing the green thing, I think they've done a great job of simplifying the - sometimes obscure, or abstract, or contrary - messages into 7 simple steps:

You get from A to B without any C when you Walk The Walk
It's delicious but it causes more CO2 than cars so go Easy On The Meat
Resist the urge to buy the latest and Stick With What You Got
Turn down the central heating and turn up the Human Heat
The art of wasting nothing and using up everything: All-Consuming
Instead of jetting your way around the world, Stay Grounded
Don't leave it on or even put it on, Plug Out

And then the story telling. Much as I loved the latest Glove Love stuff, I'm a sucker for the terrible puns of Ninjin - The Way Of The Vegetable Assassin:

MSDN Beginner Developer Center

maholmes — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:46:37 GMT

There are times when I feel like a beginner developer these days, but I suppose I'm not really: more of a lapsed pro (I use the term 'pro' fairly loosely: they used to pay me for it if that counts). Maybe I'm just 'lapsed'. Anyway, if you are a beginner, or you've got friends who want to know how to get started, then pointing them at MSDN might be a little intimidating.

Then I saw this 'Beginning Developer' center which has a bunch of guidance for beginners starting with web or client development. I'll certainly be using, er, passing it to friends for them to use.

That's Not My Dream Job...

maholmes — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:16:46 GMT

Last week I gave a presentation on social media to a our latest set of MSPs (Microsoft Student Partners) . Most of what I talk about in this regard is borne from experience, or stuff from Malcolm Gladwell and Seth Godin ("Be Remarkable" is from Seth) and their many variety of books.

I sometimes struggle to explain "Remarkable" although it should be obvious from the word: the creation of content that is remarked upon.

Anyway, wandering around the local craft fair at the weekend, I happened upon this piece of remarkable work from Usborne. (As an aside, a definite sign of age is waking up on a Sunday morning and finding that remains of ink stamp on the back of your hand wasn't from clubbing, but a re-entry pass for the craft fair).

Evan really loves the Usborne range of books that begin "That's not my...". So, it could be dinosaur, tractor, puppy, santa, princess etc. etc. Here's some examples:

If you're interested, then the general form is that there's some issue with the object in question: like a dinosaur "That's not my dinosaur, it's spines are too rough" that eventually ends up with some kind of pay-off along the lines of "THAT'S my dinosaur, it's claws are so soft" - or some such - I'm making it up as I'm too far from the books to check. Another aside: each book has words credited to Fiona Watt and illustrations to Rachel Wells. I can't help feeling that Fiona got the better deal.

OK, so, on to the remarkable. The campaign from Usborne to entice folk into becoming an Usborne Organiser (like a local reseller for the books) is in the form of the same book entitled: "That's Not My Dream Job" with lines such as "It's not what I want", and "My family miss me" accompanied by cute illustrations depicting the hollow life of the commuter and cubicle worker.

Superb! I didn't sign up as an organiser, but I did insist on buying the book from them.

25 Years of Elite

maholmes — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:47:21 GMT

Man, I'm getting old - is it really 25 years since Elite was released? I feel like a member of a vintage car club. You can grab all manner of goodies for your PC here.

A salute to Elite this is: I managed to play it on the BBC Micro, C64 and Atari ST and it was always engrossing. I seem to remember that:

I spent a lot of time trading Food and Furs between Leesti and Diso.
You had to buy a docking computer because otherwise it was really hard to land. Then it was easy.
Fuel scoops were a waste of time. Beam lasers overheated to fast and it was only worth having the Military ones.
I've no idea how you ended up in Witch Space, or how you got out of it.
I did a galactic hyperjump and couldn't figure out why.
I never completed a single special mission (IIRC).
There wasn't actually that much to do.

Happy days. We need another Elite.

Bad day? It could be worse…

maholmes — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:57:04 GMT

...(read more)

Bruce Lee – with Crayon Mode

maholmes — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:09:41 GMT

Every game should have a crayon mode . I promise to do more technology stuff next week. I’ve been busy with dull stuff that you wouldn’t care to hear about (not that that has stopped me before…) This really was one of my all time favourite C64 games and...(read more)

Deadlines!

maholmes — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:52:05 GMT

Loved this at Indexed this morning ....(read more)

Flutter, Twitter (and Blither)

maholmes — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:50:40 GMT

Liked this spoof of “nano-blogging” using Flutter for those who don’t have time to Twitter. Nano-blogging (in case you’re not hyper-connected enough) is blogging in 26 characters. Much as I like the idea of Flutter, I’d definitely sign up for a service...(read more)

Are you anonymous at work?

maholmes — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:14:11 GMT

Loved this guest post on Chris Brogan’s blog. Although this post is accentuated to social media, I think it distils the basic essence of a solid “personal brand”. I always find that the best advice appears to be straightforward common sense, but is in...(read more)

Peek and Poke

maholmes — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:26:00 GMT

Ah, the Commodore 64. You can keep your super-flexible PCs, your graphics and physics processors and your industrial design – I’ll take the C64 anyday. Thanks to Brighty, our desk area in the office is the proud owner of a C64. I hadn’t actually laid...(read more)

Everything Eats Itself

maholmes — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:08:35 GMT

I’m trying to clarify some bits and pieces in my mind from the Seth Godin session yesterday – I’ll write about that later. Meantime, I spotted this in the TV Guide of the Evening Standard last night: OK, lousy photo, but it says: 8:00 Freaky eaters (S)....(read more)

Matterbox

maholmes — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:50:13 GMT

Only a couple of posts into my Monday blog catch-up and this caught my eye from The Long Tail blog: Matterbox . This plays well to Chris’ themes around Free : in this case free stuff in return for direct marketing. I thought I’d take a look at the website....(read more)

TV Ad Music

maholmes — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:49:29 GMT

Yet another site that passed me by, but if you’ve ever wondered what the music on a TV Ad was and don’t have handy access to Shazam then this site might help: TVAdMusic.co.uk I can now pretend to be cool by buying up CDs for all the music they put into...(read more)