Ade Rowbotham

Please update your links

2008-02-18T22:17:00.006Z

There will be no more posts to this blog. This is the new address:

http://blog.aderowbotham.com

New feed address:
feed://blog.aderowbotham.com/?feed=rss2

THIS BLOG HAS MOVED

2008-02-14T11:09:00.004Z

I've been scribbling away at this blog since September 2003. I chose Blogger back then basically because I typed the word 'blog' into Google and Blogger.com was the first thing that came up. And it's done the job fairly well ever since – simple to use and effective.

However, it's increasingly come to my attention that WordPress is actually more powerful, flexible, and other such desirable adjectives.

So gridrunner.blogspot.com ends here, and contines at blog.aderowbotham.com.

If you use an RSS reader then please add the new feed: feed://blog.aderowbotham.com/?feed=rss2

Thanks for reading.

Slamming Techno from the 90s

2008-02-03T11:37:00.000Z

If you hate this sort of thing then go somewhere else instead.

This mix, which I made back in 1999 while at university in Leeds, has been lying around on successive hard drives ever since. Its previous moment of fame was when it was broadcast on Leeds Student Radio. At about 4am. On a Tuesday morning. So, to a listenership of, ooh, probably about one person.

I can’t recall the exact playlist, but it features tracks by Surgeon, G-Man, UR, Dave Clarke, Cristian Vogel, Adam Beyer, The Advent, Neil Landstrumm and an intro by yours truly.

Get it while it’s still hot

Photomoblogging in the rain.

2008-01-31T13:03:00.001Z

Photomoblogging in the rain., originally uploaded by *ade.

For its own sake

----  Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Catholic centre, HK

2008-01-27T22:56:00.001Z

catholic centre, originally uploaded by *ade.

Stationary

2008-01-23T19:14:00.001Z

Stationary, originally uploaded by *ade.

----  Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Liverpool St

2008-01-23T19:11:00.001Z

Liverpool St, originally uploaded by *ade.

----  Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

January

2008-01-22T13:44:00.000Z

It’s January and I’m at work, waiting for a design brief. I’m at a creative agency in Shoreditch. Oh look, there’s a photo of my desk.

This is week number two and I’ll be here for a further three weeks. It’s the first time I’ve worked in Shoreditch and, so far, it’s conforming pretty well to its stereotype. Right now there’s a couple of guys playing pool behind me, and over to my right there’s a football match on the big screen, courtesy of the company Playstation. And it’s not even lunchtime.

Not that I’m complaining – it’s a nice place, if a little bit self-consciously “cool”. But hey, that’s Shoreditch for you. A land where Macs outnumber PCs. Maybe.

The work itself is reasonably interesting, though I took the job largely out of fear of an otherwise quiet month. Might as well earn some money while the coldness of January swirls around outside. I had other offers of work but they were all through hard-selling recruitment consultants, and I’m always suspicious of how “exciting” an “opportunity” the work they try to pimp is really going to be. “Oh right, so it’s actually a mindless production job? That nobody else wants? Somewhere out in zone 6?”

I don’t want to disrespect my recruitment friends out there of course, as one day I might need you. But so far the only time that I said “Alright then” to a recruiter’s request I ended up at an embarrassing meeting where the client had been expecting someone with a completely different skill-set and, equally, I’d been expecting a completely different job. Not the best use of half a day and a zone 1-3 travel card.

January’s never been a great month. Nothing much goes on, it’s cold, it goes dark early and public transport seems more crowded and steamed-up than usual.

So bring on February. The work I’m doing now will fund a full four weeks of photography portfolio work. And I’ll also be allowed to have a beer again. Today is Day 18 of a month without alcohol. I did this before, back in 2006 though last time it had a much greater positive impact on my health – because then I was in full-time employment. And that tended to involve at least three four-pint sessions after work each week, so the contrast was greater. Still, I’m enjoying the sobriety, getting more stuff done.

It’s now gone lunchtime and I’ve got my brief so it’s time to post this post and get on with the work. More photos and creative stuff from me next month.

Corridor

2008-01-22T13:08:00.001Z

Corridor, originally uploaded by *ade.

----  Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

People In Order

2008-01-20T11:53:00.000Z

Hello. Not blogged for a while. Not going to now, either. Here’s a nice video though:

Drummers Aged 1 to 100 (via Ed Wilde).

Stuffe of Olde

2008-01-03T14:08:00.000Z

While having a digital tidy-up in my webspace just now, I stumbled across these relics from the days when I was a budding Flash 4 programmer. These are from between 1999 and 2001, and are making me feel all nostalgic...

Inertia
AJR web design
Z-Domain.com
Pong

Website re-skin / archive

2008-01-03T13:18:00.001Z

website re-skin, originally uploaded by *ade.

I'm in the middle of a website re-shuffle, with the aim of bringing my photography and design websites under one 'roof', and each sporting the same visual identity.

If you're the sort of person who bookmarks or links to my websites then you might want to update your bookmarks or links as follows:
www.ajrdesign.net is now: http://design.aderowbotham.com
And photography sits here: http://photos.aderowbotham.com

I thought I'd also take this opportunity to archive the previous two AJR Design websites:

2003-2007

2000-2003

Head tracking for desktop VR displays using the WiiRemote

2008-01-03T12:41:00.000Z

This is pretty impressive. Thanks to Robin for the link.

In a saweet harmony

2007-12-20T11:50:00.000Z

Rave Generator

Nice.

alight

2007-12-04T12:54:00.001Z

alight, originally uploaded by *ade.

Taken from Commuting photoset

Indexhibit

2007-11-28T14:42:00.000Z

I've been playing around with Indexhibit for a few hours and have cobbled together the bare bones of a photography portfolio. It needs a lot more work but I'm pleased with the result so far, after such minimal effort.

I don't know why I didn't look into using Indexhibit sooner. Now maybe I'll never get round to making that new portfolio in Flash. Maybe there's no need?

Something That She Said

2007-11-26T11:03:00.000Z

A few weeks ago I did a photoshoot with the band Star Chamber (some photos here).

They were a very nice bunch of chaps to work with and, as such, I'm writing this post to support, in some small way, the release of their new EP Something That She Said. It's not the sort of stuff I'd typically listen to, but I really like both tracks.

You can buy the EP (and support their bid to get into the charts) here from TuneTribe.com or here from iTunes.

Night shots from Victoria Peak

2007-11-25T15:50:00.001Z

Hong Kong, originally uploaded by *ade.

Victoria Peak is a vantage point in the west of Hong Kong island. It's the most popular tourist destination in Hong Kong as the views of the city are spectacular.

Here are my efforts with the camera, taken on the evening of Monday 19th November: View slideshow » View set »

Also, I've posted one of the photographs at its original high resolution. Depending on your browser, you may need to click on the image to turn off image scaling.

Hong Kong

2007-11-23T13:44:00.000Z

I just got back from a wonderful holiday with Rachael in Hong Kong, where we got engaged! Apart from the obvious, we had a really good time. It's a great place – highly recommended if you've not been.

I've got 15.5 gigabytes of RAW files shot with the Canon 5D that I've not even looked at yet. This will probably take weeks.

But I also took some snaps with the trusty Canon Ixus, including the one shown above. As usual, they're on Flickr. View the best shots or all of them.

Ominous smoke cloud over London.

2007-11-12T12:46:00.001Z

Ominous smoke cloud over London., originally uploaded by *ade.

----  Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Ade's musings on reality

2007-11-05T15:03:00.000Z

Some thoughts I was having on the train earlier:

Ignoring uncertainties, it occurred to me that reality consists primarily of objects or, more simply, 'things that exist in some physical form'. And secondarily, reality contains events, or occurrences.

Logically, we can say that some objects exist and some objects do not exist. And, likewise, some events occur, and some events do not occur.*

So in this objects and events model, ignoring uncertainties, there are four logical combinations:

1. Events that occur involving objects that exist
2. Events that do not occur involving objects that exist
3. Events that do not occur involving objects that do not exist
4. Events that occur involving objects that do not exist

This can be represented by the following diagram:

Interestingly (perhaps) it would seem that events require objects, yet objects do not require events. Therefore three out of the four logical combinations are allowed. This, it occurred to me, was a strangely asymmetrical system. Or perhaps it only appears that way because of our blinkered three dimensional perception of time and causality.

That was about it really.

*Obviously, some objects are created by events and others are destroyed or modified by events.

Monument

2007-11-05T09:47:00.001Z

Monument, originally uploaded by *ade.

----  Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

River Thames

2007-11-05T09:28:00.001Z

River Thames, originally uploaded by *ade.

----  Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Shibboleth

2007-10-25T11:27:00.001+01:00

Shibboleth, originally uploaded by *ade.

----  Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

dark morning

2007-10-25T08:13:00.001+01:00

dark morning, originally uploaded by *ade.

----  Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

New Tune

2007-10-23T17:02:00.001+01:00

I've done a remix of the track that I made at the start of the year, and have also 'tweaked' the original a bit. Listen below, or download the mp3s here.

Remix
Firstperson – Day One (day 295 remix)

Re-edit
Firstperson – Day One (day 292 edit)

New old toy

2007-10-11T10:44:00.001+01:00

new old toy, originally uploaded by *ade.

Rachael bought this for me from a market in Brussels. It's a pretty basic camera from the 1950s, with a fixed shutter speed and a choice of two apertures. It also has a brown nice leather case.

I'm looking forward to getting some 120 film for it and having a play.

'Most interesting by'

2007-10-09T10:12:00.000+01:00

This PHP utility by Isaías González pulls out the most interesting photos by any given Flickr user.

I’ve set up that link with my username, though what it has highlighted is that people seem to like my old photos the best. There are only three photos in that list from 2007 (at the time of writing this).

Now, obviously Flickr’s ‘interestingness’ isn't necessarily a good measure of quality – put something racy, newsworthy or controversial (or indeed a cute kitten) up there and it’s likely that the image will appear in the Explore section before long. But it does tell you whether or not people are looking at and commenting on the photographs.

I’m going to put it down to the fact that I used to spend far more time actually interacting with Flickr than I do now. And a lot of the stuff I’ve been photographing this year has been for some less creative and more commercial purpose.

But my mission is to overthrow every one of the images in that current list. I'm bored of them now!

Footbridge (night version)

2007-10-08T16:03:00.001+01:00

footbridge (night version), originally uploaded by *ade.

I was passing through so thought I'd take another one. It's not quite as good as the day version, but then that's my 5th most interesting photo, according to Flickr.

Electricity

2007-10-08T12:34:00.000+01:00

Electricity is a new novel by Myke Bartlett, which is now available at Lulu.com. It's also available as a podcast.

The reason why I mention it here is that the cover is based on one of my photographs and, unlike some, Myke had the decency to ask for my permission to use the image. Thanks Myke!

Happyfour Twenty

2007-10-07T12:23:00.000+01:00

Video by Brennan Stasiewicz for the track Happyfour Twenty by Christ.

Crofton Park

2007-10-06T18:42:00.001+01:00

----  Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Jasmine Tea...

2007-10-05T15:57:00.001+01:00

jasmine tea, originally uploaded by *ade.

...at the, apparently nameless, Thai restaurant at the bottom of Grove Lane in Camberwell. In a world where mediocre Thai food is available in every other pub, the food here definitely stands out.

2007-10-05T12:53:00.000+01:00

As southbites rightly pointed out, I seem to have a serious obsession with creating new blogs. There's no reason why my cameraphone photos shouldn't just come here. So from now on, they shall.

Freelancing

2007-10-05T12:41:00.000+01:00

So... lots has changed, really.

Firstly, I don't seem to be updating my blog any more (again). I think this is ultimately because the desire to share with the world 'what I'm doing' is now being satisfied by the rather lazier Twitter. Those micro-chunks of mundane information collectively form a sort-of-blog, though admittedly it's probably not going to appear in the shortlists for any literary awards any time soon. For those who have no desire to sift through what is effectively a massive collection of SMS messages, here's what else I've been doing.

I have departed from the mighty Dare (just in time to miss them winning an impressive five Campaign Digital Awards), and am now a freelancer once again. The last time I was a full time freelancer was back in 2002, when I had no portfolio, no client-list worth speaking of, and only a nifty little Flash game and a few mates' websites with which to prove my abilities. In fact, it was even before I started this blog (just).

This time round things seem to be completely different. The only real problem I seem to be facing at the moment (touch wood) is the risk of taking on too much work. I made that mistake recently and the result was more than a week of working 9-6 at an agency followed by, on average, an 8pm till 2am shift every evening. Still, it'll pay for some time off when the cheques turn up.

It's been good to work in a handful of different agencies, though I'm equally keen to escape the world of agency work wherever possible. This week and next I'm doing some photography and design work directly for a client. Cutting out the project manager, and account manager has its pros and cons but this client has been relatively well behaved so far, and it's nice having fewer cooks to spoil the broth.

In other news, I'm no longer living in Camberwell. I'll miss it in many ways, though there are clearly some aspects of SE5 that I'm glad to move on from – the immovable junkie collapsed in my doorway a few weeks ago, for example. The main reason for the move, though, is that fact that I've finally escaped the world of landlords and rent and have bought half of, and subsequently moved into, the house of my lovely girlfriend Rachael.

Fortunately, being in SE4, it's not too far away so I'll still be oft found slurping cold Heinekens in a Camberwell pub with superior blogger and old pal The Eyechild.

As for the blog: I'll try to post more often, though it's rather dependent on not having a hundred other things to do instead. I started writing this post over a week ago and have only managed to complete it today. Having a large to-do list keeps life interesting though, I find.

75

2007-10-05T10:21:00.000+01:00

----  Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Moblog

2007-09-28T09:45:00.000+01:00

My new mobile photoblog, because I didn't have enough blogs already, right?

'This Exists' on Flickr

2007-08-10T13:40:00.000+01:00

A This Exists Flickr Group now exists. Submit your own photos and they could receive a prestigious spot on the This Exists blog. How exciting!

Get joining »

Thirty Thousand Streets

2007-08-01T10:38:00.000+01:00

I highly recommend Thirty Thousand Streets – peculiar short stories based around the experiences of a young man living in London. They are written by Zeno Cosini and feature excellent illustrations by The Eyechild.

There are only two installments so far, though I'm led to believe that more are on the way. Just the thing for your next tea break.

thirtythousandstreets.blogspot.com

Fire!

2007-07-26T09:28:00.000+01:00

At about 6.45 this morning Rachael woke me up saying that something was burning. Something did smell a bit dodgy but I'd been ignoring it in my sleep.

As soon as I left the bedroom it was pretty obvious that something was on fire downstairs. I'd left the windows open in the living room and the air outside was thick with smoke, some of which was billowing into the flat. I shut the windows and Rachael called the fire brigade. Apparently they'd already had a few calls about it.

Anyway, the fire brigade shortly arrived. They took about 30 minutes to put it out. It was a garage two doors away. These photos were taken when it had pretty much been extinguished. Had I been able to take them earlier they would have looked like some grey smoke.

Anyway, thanks to Rachael for having such a keen nose. And nil points to the smoke alarm, which usually goes off at the faintest whiff of browning toast, yet failed to produce a single beep in the presence of a toxic fumes from a burning building.

My Twitter

2007-07-25T09:48:00.000+01:00

Recent, strangely compelling discovery. Seeking fellow Twitterers.

I'm here: twitter.com/_ade.

If you have no idea what this is about then, well, don't worry about it.

Surrealist House

2007-07-13T08:16:00.001+01:00

_MG_2725, originally uploaded by *ade.

Back in May, I photographed this strange unfinished building. It lies on a piece of wasteland, by the roadside, in a resort otherwise comprised of wealthy British golf enthusiasts' villas.

Strangely, I can't find anything about it on the web. I was told that it was a project by "the daughter of Van Gogh" to build a surrealist house. But a quick search tells me that he didn't have a daughter and, anyway, this looks like it was built in the 1960s so the dates clearly don't add up. Unless she was born in 1890 and built it in her 70s, I guess.

Anyway, I guess either the money ran out or they realised it was never going to work because it's still an empty concrete shell. I bet it would have been fantastic inside had they ever finished the roof and interior, but as it stands it's extremely barren and unwelcoming.

It's roughly here on the map.

View the photographs

Tour de France

2007-06-27T11:53:00.000+01:00

I'm loving these posters – a clear reference to the sleeve design for Tour de France by Kraftwerk.

New Ventures

2007-06-25T18:16:00.000+01:00

After seven years spent in full-time employment in the digital media industry, I'm going freelance again. I actually did a short stint working for myself in 2002 when I first moved to London, though at the time I had very few contacts, and in those days people were, understandably, being rather cautious when it came to investing money online.

But things are different now, and everyone seems to be busy. I certainly have been. So I'm going it alone again. Only this time I'm taking on photography work in addition to the Flash, video and web work. Within a year I aim to have developed the photography side of things to a level that I can get by on that alone. But for the time being I'll be frequenting the digital agencies of London for short-to-medium term project work.

I've still got a few weeks to go at Dare, where I've been since September 2005. It's a company of extremely talented, dedicated and busy people, and so it's no surprise that it's grown as much as it has in the last 18 months. So a big thanks must go to everyone at Dare. The standard excessive after-work drinking session will be arranged soon.

There's much to do in the meantime, starting with updating my CV and portfolio.

If you want to get in touch, you can find me here on LinkedIn or at my website.

Antique French single bedframe for sale

2007-06-25T10:18:00.000+01:00

I'm selling this:

View on eBay »

New Minute

2007-06-16T10:33:00.000+01:00

It’s been a while since I worked on the Minutes project. This is largely due to the failure of my compact camera, and my subsequent failure to replace it. I had been intent on investing in an HD camera but right now the budget doesn’t allow for one. So I replaced the defunct Canon Ixus 50 with a shiny new Ixus 75. And I must say that it’s a great little camera.

It arrived yesterday and, as I’m now living in a new flat with a decent view, I thought I'd point it out the window and capture one minute of the mostly unremarkable goings on in the street below.

If you have a spare minute you can watch it here.

Information Overload

2007-06-11T11:34:00.000+01:00

No more Web 2.0 / social networking / community websites please. It's getting silly now. And besides, my toolbar is full.

Let's get back to monolithic, static Flash websites with long intros, pale grey pixel fonts made with GIFs, on a slightly paler grey background. And title bars [ :::::::::: that l00k l1ke th1s :::::::::: ]

Those were the days...

New London 2012 Brand

2007-06-04T13:38:00.000+01:00

Oh dear. This is absolutely awful. And this video just makes things worse.

According to their news site: “The new Olympic emblem is based on the number 2012 - the year the Games take place and includes the Olympic Rings and the word London.”.

Yeah, we got that much. Now what's the rationale behind the mess you made out of it all ?

some nice pictures

2007-06-04T09:25:00.000+01:00

I know, I've not written a blog post for ages. I've been really busy. I'm not going to write one now either. Here's a cool link though:

thecoolhunter.net/architecture/

News escalation on the web

2007-05-18T10:20:00.000+01:00

I’m not going to comment on the story itself because that has been done to death, and the issue appears to have been resolved (at least with Flickr). But the series of events surrounding the alleged theft (and subsequent sale) of photographs from Flickr photographer Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir is a classic example of how the plight of one individual can end up on an international news site such as the BBC.

It started when Rebekka discovered that a company in the UK had been selling prints of her images without her knowledge or consent. In protest, she posted an image on her popular Flickr photostream and outlined her situation in the description.

There was an outpouring of support from the Flickr community who posted comments beneath the image. However, some apparently went to far with their use of language and threats were made toward the company at the centre of the row. Flickr staff subsequently deleted the photo as a result of the threatening comments.

To keep a long story short, suffice to say Rebekka was outraged at Flickr’s response. She posted this photo in protest, and the story was also picked up by blogger Thomas Hawk. This article was also submitted to Digg.com, one of several news sites where the more a story is read and given a ‘thumbs up’ by the reader, the higher up the news listings it moves. Within an hour or so it was on their homepage.

In addition to this, a thread was started on Flickr’s main forum, which again received hundreds of responses, and eventually there was an official response from Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield: “...we screwed up -- and for that I take full responsibility...”.

A couple of days ago I casually mentioned to a friend that this was the sort of thing that would end up on BBC News. This morning it has appeared in their technology section and I’d imagine it will be mentioned at some point on BBC News 24. Quite a lot of exposure starting with one photo on Flickr.

This sort of thing is happening all the time. Web 2.0 (I’m sick of that hearing name, but that’s the umbrella term) empowers the individual like never before. I think this means that companies and corporations need to be more careful with their dodgy dealings. Rather than just one disgruntled individual who is unable to afford a lawyer to deal with, the accused company, Only Dreemin, has been named on an international news website. That’s a whole lot of bad press.

This is a small company, and – I don’t know – they could be ruined by this. The question is, when it comes to larger corporations, do they really care about public opinion?

Red Bull Air Race 07

2007-05-15T14:15:00.000+01:00

I’ve just bought tickets for the Red Bull Air Race 2007. I won’t repeat here the tale of woe that was my visit to the cancelled event last year, but the fact that it’s going to be in London this year (over the river between the dome and Canary Wharf) is definitely a massive bonus. Even if the British weather does its worst again, at least this time there won't be a wasted 12 hour round trip into the countryside.

And it is nice of the organisers to be offering a priority purchasing period to those of us who were disappointed by last year’s last minute cancellation.

I'll be taking a camera, of course, with the hope of getting some better shots than I did last year (we didn't see a single plane, even on the ground, and it was so wet that I feared the rain would ruin the camera if I took it out of the case).

I'll be overjoyed if I can take anything even nearly as good as these shots taken by Jim Skea at the event in Rio last month. These are awesome:

Red Bull Air Race Rio (3), originally uploaded by Jim Skea.

Red Bull Air Race Rio (6), originally uploaded by Jim Skea.

Red Bull Air Race (4), originally uploaded by Jim Skea.

MySpace cocks up my final, simple request

2007-05-14T10:00:00.000+01:00

So, as you may know, I hate MySpace. This is about 60% to do with it being a kind of sad popularity contest, and 40% to do with it being (in my, considerably educated, opinion) utterly broken beyond hope. So when I came to delete my account earlier this morning it was both ironic and inevitable that it wouldn’t go so smoothly. It told me I would receive a confirmation email containing a link that I needed to kill the account. Two hours later the email has still not appeared.

It reminds me of past frustrations with Microsoft Windows when it wouldn't shut down. “All I want you to do is go away, and you can’t even manage that for me.”

And I’ve not come across the word berestored before. Maybe they should get someone to proof-read their copy before putting it live on a website used by millions of people? Just a thought.

QR Code

2007-05-08T11:01:00.001+01:00

Thanks to Eduardo for the blog post about this.

This is the QR code of my photoblog's URL. It's essentially a 2D barcode for encoding information. You can read QR codes using your cameraphone with The Kaywa Reader.

QR Codes on Wikipedia

Cyprus Slideshow (large slides)

2007-04-27T09:57:00.000+01:00

Khirokitia, originally uploaded by gridrunner.

View the slideshow »
Browse manually »

iAsda

2007-04-24T12:25:00.000+01:00

My friend Dave made this short film:

Google Gadgets

2007-04-23T22:30:00.000+01:00

I visited Google’s London headquarters today for some training relating to Google Gadgets. I signed a non-disclosure agreement so can’t go into details but, suffice to say, those Google people are rather jolly clever.

Anyhow, here’s a Google Gadget that I’ve just made. It’s based on the Flashteroids widget I made a few months ago to drive clicks to my game (I make a bit of beer money as a result). The Flash game itself is really old now but it seemed a good test.

The gadget itself was fairly quick and easy to create. If, like me, you still secretly remember a bit of HTML and such jiggery pokery, you shouldn't find it too taxing.

Agios Sozomenos

2007-04-23T11:17:00.000+01:00

Deserted village in Cyprus. More photos »

Cyprus Snaps

2007-04-19T11:43:00.000+01:00

Rachael and I went to Cyprus recently. We stayed with a friend of mine. As usual it's taking me forever to sort through the images (I fuss with them) but here's the holiday photos I've sorted out so far, if you're interested:

Condensed Set »
All photos so far »

There are no pissed-up-Brits-in-Ayia-Napa-style cameraphone arse shots, some will be sorry to hear.

This Exists

2007-04-18T15:18:00.000+01:00

Taken from This Exists, which still exists.

Webby Awards (shameless commercial plug)

2007-04-18T10:16:00.000+01:00

I work for digital marketing agency Dare. We have three nominations for the Webby Awards in the Website section:

Lynx Blow - Beauty and Cosmetics category
Mobile Office Solutions - ‘Desk Crusher’ - IT Hardware/Software category
Walkman Worlds - Telecommunications category

If you care about the success of my employer and, by association, my increased wealth, fame and general patted-on-the-backness then vote for us here.

New Google Maps feature

2007-04-15T11:29:00.000+01:00

Google Maps have just added a 'my maps' feature. This is pretty cool - it means you can define your own routes (rather than using its automatic route finder). You can also add points of interest and photos to the route.

I tested it out by plotting the route I walk from Victoria Station to work.

Tescopoly

2007-04-10T14:59:00.000+01:00

Andrew Simms has written a book about the semi-monopoly Tesco seems to have over retail here in the UK. Someone at work discovered, rather amusingly, that it's even available from Tesco.

Alternatively you could buy it from Amazon. Or even better, Get it from your local bookshop.

Reduced To This

2007-04-09T18:09:00.000+01:00

I created this track back in 1995 on a Roland keyboard in the music department at School. It is one of three I did at the time. They had originally been recorded onto audio cassettes, then – a few years later while at university – I recorded them off the tapes and archived them onto a recordable CD.

I recently found the CD but unfortunately it seems to have decayed so most of the data is unreadable. I managed to get half of this track to load anyway, and have converted it to MP3. Here it is. A little bit naive, but nice...

If you can't get the player above to work then try this link:
Reduced To This on Last.fm

Obligatory Photobooth Image

2007-03-28T11:02:00.000+01:00

So I got myself one of those shiny new MacBook Pro laptops. Here's the obligatory first Photobooth image, that one must post to one’s blog. It was taken early this morning after I got up early to play-with-new-gadget – hence the dressing gown and stubble.

London Things

2007-03-22T11:35:00.000Z

Having moved house, I have a new route to work that includes a 25 minute walk. I have the option of taking a tube for two stops instead but much prefer to walk. Here are a some of the things I passed on my way in today:

Buckingham Palace
The Ritz Hotel
A Rolls Royce showroom
A man sleeping in the doorway of New Bond Street jewelers
A man dressed as a pirate

Along with the bobby on the beat, the black taxis, the red telephone box, the pigeons and the icy drizzle it couldn't really be any more stereotypically London.

Back in SE5

2007-03-17T00:17:00.000Z

I love it how, when you move house, and it's going to take a few weeks to get a net connection set up, you usually find a handy wireless network nicely within range, and with an equally handy lack of security on it. Bonus...

I've finally got somewhere to live, and I moved in tonight. My very own (OK, rented) batchelor pad, back in Camberwell. Hurrah!

Now there's just the small matter of buying some furniture, getting some more things from my old place and setting it all up to deal with. That's my mission for the weekend.

But right now it's time to collapse.

Lost

2007-03-15T14:08:00.000Z

Someone at work just sent this around - it's one of those annoyingly simple ideas: a game where you score points by getting other people to join via your unique invite.

This Guardian article is worth a read.

If you're interested, I urge you to join *cough* using this invite:

www.lost.eu/2f9a2

New Flickr Features

2007-03-14T14:33:00.000Z

At long last, Flickr have added the much-requested sets of sets feature. And they've called it Collections. They've also added the ability for members to customise their homepage - you get the choice of showing small or medium photos, and also sets, collections or neither.

I've quickly thrown together some collections to try it out. I'll swap a lot of it around once I've given it more thought.

I like this update especially because I use Flickr for casual cameraphone / pub / night out / holiday photos as well as for more serious photography, and this allows me to further separate and organise the two.

Good stuff!

Moving Out

2007-03-04T20:14:00.000Z

Moving out my flat in Clapham. Moving to... limbo. Following this week’s frustratingly bad news regarding the flat I had been trying to buy, I am now homeless. So a big THANKS must go to the vendor who messed the whole thing up after six whole months, by having it reposessed on the day we were due to complete. Fantastic. Really great. God, that’s annoying.

So now I’m staying at my girlfriend’s place, my belongings in randomly packed boxes and bin liners. And I’m writing this on my laptop using someone else’s unsecured wireless network. What I should really be doing is searching the web for a place to rent, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do right now.

I’m in ‘Le Cool’

2007-03-01T10:24:00.000Z

Online magazine Le Cool stumbled across my photography work online and have featured me in their current issue. The cover image is one of mine and there’s a short interview which is linked to from the thumbnail at the bottom of the first page.

See the issue here or read the interview.

RE: my previous post

2007-02-26T18:05:00.000Z

This is helping: The KLF – Chill Out

I would write another post...

2007-02-26T17:54:00.000Z

...about my ill-fated attempts to buy the flat. And how they've been scuppered yet again, this time in the 59th second of the 59th minute of the 11th hour. But it would just be another rant like the others, only much more irate, and packed with expletives. And they're not very nice. Not very interesting either, I suppose.

So I won't. I'll just bang my head against this wall instead. No, not the plaster board one, the brick one. Ooooh yeah - there we go - nice sparkly flashes in front of my eyes - loooovely.

Platform AM

2007-02-24T10:43:00.001Z

platform am, originally uploaded by gridrunner.

Work

2007-02-23T18:13:00.000Z

My job, these last two weeks, has looked a bit like this:

Photographers’ Rights

2007-02-22T10:14:00.000Z

Apparently there are plans to impose restrictions on photography in public places. Simon Taylor has created an E-Petition on the Government's petitions website. To quote:

“There are a number of moves promoting the requirement of 'ID' cards to allow photographers to operate in a public place.

It is a fundamental right of a UK citizen to use a camera in a public place, indeed there is no right to privacy when in a public place.

These moves have developed from paranoia and only promote suspicion towards genuine people following their hobby or profession.”

I couldn't agree more. I'm often approached by ill-informed security people telling me I “can't take photographs here”. No thanks to the government there's a worsening climate of paranoia and, as is usually the case, our freedom is the first victim. Here is the petition:

petitions.pm.gov.uk/Photography

*Edit*
Here is a clarification on Simon Taylor's website. Having read further, there is no proposed bill to petition against, though several bodies have proposed an ID card system.

Minutes

2007-02-11T22:00:00.000Z

This is an idea I had a few weeks ago. I don't know how interesting it'll turn out to be but it costs nothing to have a go so what the heck.

Basically the idea is one minute photographs – shot as video with sound, but set up and framed as still photos. Sound is there to capture some of the ambiance along with each photo – the rain pattering on the window, distant police sirens, the muffled sound of the TV in the next room, whatever. And although the camera is fixed there will also be some movement in the image.

I'm not claiming this is an entirely original idea – directors and cinematographers have been doing this for decades – but I wanted to have a go myself. And to make each clip a standalone unit.

Technically, it's a bit lo-fi: just an off-the-shelf compact digital camera switched to video mode. And the video has been web-compressed. If it proves interesting I'd love to shoot some in a HD video format, and use a proper stereo microphone. But for now, see it as proof of concept.

I've made a blog to post them on: photominutes.blogspot.com. There are three on there at the moment, and I'll post new ones to that blog as they get completed.

Tube Journey Planner

2007-02-08T10:09:00.000Z

This is pretty cool: http://tubejp.co.uk/. It's a London tube map overlaid over Google Maps. With some extra features.

“Snow Chaos”

2007-02-08T09:27:00.000Z

The word chaos is being used far too liberally. It should be reserved for actual chaos. Numerous large explosions, planes falling out of the sky (more than one), masked men riding round the city on motorbikes letting rip with machine guns – those situations might qualify. Chaos, for me, implies a lack of control coupled with mass confusion and perhaps even fear. Not “some snow”. In early February.

I know I’m usually the first to complain about particularly bad mornings on the tube network, and I accept that there may have been some delays today, but it certainly wasn’t chaos from where I was standing. Actually I got a lift to work and we drove from Clapham Common to Regent Street almost completely traffic-free in just under 30 minutes. In the rush hour. Some snowflakes fell onto the windscreen. Lord save us.

Yes, I accept that the situation will have been worse for others, especially those living outside of the cities. Maybe you even got stranded at home. But that's not chaos. OK, unless you live in the fantasy world of The Daily Mail. If we're not careful the word will lose its impact when we need it most.

Image taken from a BBC report showing the (complete lack of) travel chaos in London.

Zeno’s London

2007-02-06T13:18:00.000Z

Read this.

poster archaeology

2007-02-04T17:30:00.001Z

poster archaeology, originally uploaded by gridrunner.

As part of the renovation work at Oxford Circus many adverts have been taken down, revealing some really old ads underneath.

It has been like this for some time and was blogged about by Nick more than a week ago, but I didn't get round to taking an accompanying photo till Friday.

I like this ad. And the torn edges actually work quite well.

Just Testing

2007-02-02T14:07:00.001Z

Margaret Street, originally uploaded by gridrunner.

Somebody has pointed out that photos blogged to this blog via Flickr don't come through properly in the Atom or RSS feeds.

I've simplified the blogging template from within Flickr so hopefully this one will work.

If not, I'm stumped.

Itsu Piccadilly

2007-02-02T10:06:00.001Z

Itsu Piccadilly, originally uploaded by gridrunner.

Amusing James Bond reference. Slightly in bad taste though, seeing as someone actually died.

I guess they had to handle it somehow though, and having a sense of humour isn't such a bad thing for a brand.

Buying a property (or trying to)...

2007-01-29T13:58:00.000Z

...is without doubt the most stressful and tedious process I've ever been involved with. By a very very long way. It's now over 5 months since my offer was accepted on the empty property and I've still not moved in.

(Yes, it's rant time again.)

The reason? Well had it been just one reason I would have pulled out ages ago. But it's lots and lots of sequential reasons. It's been a bit like running the 200 metres hurdles having been told there aren't any hurdles there. Blindfolded.

The next time I hear the words "I'll chase it up" rather than "it's all been sorted", I am going to kill someone.

All of the following parties have at some stage either cocked something up or apparently sat around done nothing for weeks on end despite there being a considerable degree of urgency:

My solicitor
My mortgage lender
The vendor
All three of the vendor's solicitors (two were fired, we're now on the third)
The company managing the sale for the vendor
The surveyor
The environmental search provider
The estate agent
The local council
The freeholder

I want to slap you all. Really hard. Repeatedly.

They whole process has been an eye opener as to how deeply useless people can be. And how badly afflicted by red tape we are in this country. It's pathetic.

*And relax..*

Oh by they way, you actually don't have to read these rants. The act of writing them alone is therapeutic. I feel better already.

Inspiring photos on Flickr

2007-01-19T15:34:00.000Z

Photos by rebekka

Note: If you're a Flickr user you probably already know all of this. Though you might still want to check out the links at the bottom.

If you're interested in photography but haven't spent much time browsing Flickr I urge you to do so. Among all the fuzzy shots of people's nights at the pub are some really great photographs.

A good place to start is the Explore page. Each time you refresh that page you'll get a different selection of the most 'interesting' shots from the last seven days. If you find a photo you really like click on the user's name and explore their photo sets. Then see who they have as a contact and check out their photos too. Before long you're bound to find some fantastic photographers.

One of Flickr's best known photographers is Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir from Iceland. The four photos at the top of this post are from her portfolio.

Here are a few more of my favourite Flickr photographers:

wiseacre photo
helveticaneue
cymagen
sam.d
p@ranoid
razorbern

And here's a link to my favourite shots from various Flickr users.

Five Things

2007-01-18T12:26:00.000Z

If you don't know what this is all about then you've obviously been spending too much time in World of Warcraft instead of in 'The Blogosphere'. Well that's just fine, you need to save up for that new armour. I understand.

Anyway, I was tagged by Nick so I need to write five (less than obvious) facts about myself on my blog and then tag five more people and tell them to do the same. Uh-oh, this is where I get worried that I'm not interesting enough. Anyway, here goes.

My five things

1. I was taught History by Mike Atherton. He went to cricket-mad Manchester Grammar School, as did I, and he returned out of season to do some teaching.

2. I had a cup of tea with Paul Hartnoll from Orbital in 1996.

3. I can beat-mix records with impressive accuracy, but now only DJ sporadically with other peoples' records when drunk at parties (and therefore mix them less accurately).

4. I believe that the Commodore 64 is one of the coolest things ever. I still own mine but some of the keys don't work, thanks largely to Daley Thompson's Decathlon.

5. I once performed Walk This Way by Run DMC / Aerosmith, karaoke style, solo, in a packed bar at a French ski resort. When I stepped onto the stage I thought the five people who were going to accompany me were still behind me. I don't think I did the best Steve Tyler.

My five nominees

Zeno
Eyechild
Peter
Dave
Eamon

new toy

2007-01-17T23:11:00.001Z

new toy, originally uploaded by gridrunner.

I'm taking some press shots for a dance music producer on Saturday, which seemed the perfect excuse to get something I'd been thinking of buying for a while: a proper flash gun.

I've just spent a couple of hours going through the manual and trying a few things out. The conclusion: it's absolutely fantastic.

Canon make some very clever stuff.

468x60

2007-01-17T11:28:00.000Z

Having one of those Groundhog Day moments at work...

SW4

2007-01-14T13:58:00.001Z

SW4, originally uploaded by gridrunner.

The road I live on borders (like much of London) on a slightly run-down estate. And over the past two years the disrepair has started to creep closer and closer to my home. Large household items get dumped on the pavement where they just rot for months on end. Just a few doors away there's an overspilling heap including a broken bed frame and a washing machine. And increasingly the pavement is decorated in the morning with shattered chunks of safety glass.

Now, people shouldn't dump stuff on the streets anyway, but it would be nice if Lambeth Council cleared it up once in a while.

If I owned the flat I would probably care a lot more, but as it is I'm leaving the area pretty soon anyway. Me and Clapham are like "over".

Skansen

2007-01-14T10:26:00.001Z

Skansen, originally uploaded by gridrunner.

wooden toys

2007-01-13T17:40:00.001Z

toys, originally uploaded by gridrunner.

Pigeon Power

2007-01-09T13:35:00.001Z

pigeon power, originally uploaded by gridrunner.

Painted on the pavement just off Brick Lane.

Night Bus

2007-01-08T22:52:00.001Z

another night bus photo, originally uploaded by gridrunner.

Robot

2007-01-08T13:13:00.001Z

Kinder, originally uploaded by gridrunner.

From my Christmas Kinder Egg. Thanks Mum!

Bank

2007-01-08T00:47:00.001Z

Bank, originally uploaded by gridrunner.

I was taking pictures like some kind of crazed fool that evening, after being reunited with my trusty old Ixus 50. I threw away 90% of the photos. This one survived.

SE5 at 3:46

2007-01-07T07:47:00.001Z

SE5 at 3:46, originally uploaded by gridrunner.

Bizarre English lesson for Japanese tourists

2007-01-04T10:21:00.000Z

Very strange. What is that guy wearing?

Watch video

Err... template

2007-01-02T16:45:00.000Z

Blogger has been updated by Google and it was hassling me about upgrading my template, so I thought I'd have a look. It said it would save my previous template somewhere but I'm not sure where that's gone.

So turquoise it is - with slightly silly "futuristic" arrows (hey, it is 2007), until I get round to designing my own template or editing one of their ones.

Day One

2007-01-02T16:02:00.000Z

New tune. So called because it was the only constructive thing to come out of my hangover on Jan 1st.

Oh, you probably won't like it unless you enjoy minimal techno, by the way...

Listen on Last FM »
Listen on MySpace »

Back to London tomorrow. Work on Thursday. My new year's resolution is to set aside some time each week to keep up the music production.

Soul » Devil

2006-12-29T23:58:00.000Z

OK, so I've slated MySpace countless times in the past, because it is pretty ugly, clunky, buggy and so on. Blah blah...

But: There's no denying that it's pretty good for promoting music, and there's the small matter of it having rather a lot of members. So I've created a profile page on which to air my bleepy computer music. And it's here:

myspace.com/firstpersonmusic

And no, I've not 'Pimped' my page, sorry.

My Last FM profile will remain for the more sophisticated web users.

Stay Forever

2006-12-29T12:50:00.000Z

Stay Forever is the B side of Another Visitor.

Listen or download at Last FM.