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Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T12:08:00.000+01:00

As many others have written the world woke up to the very sad news of the death of Steve Jobs.

Many more eloquent than I have crafted wonderful words that reflect the impact he has had on the lives of almost everybody, not just in making wonderful, beautifully designed devices but by making ones that have created, defined and led their categories.

My own first encounter was by using an early Mac with 8" monochrome screen, and then the early Mac X with the huge 1Gb of RAM and 20Mb hard disk for typesetting and page make up - a big step up from the Amstrad 1512 :) That was in the early days of full page typesetting; I was the only user making me not popular at all with the typesetters at the print company I was working at the time who saw it as either a toy or a threat. Within a year the whole studio was turned over to Macs and pre-press time for platemaking was reduced dramatically.

It is a rare thing when a company creates a brand that generates so much good feeling, admiration and even devotion amongst users and followers. Apple and the Mac have done that and engendered fierce loyalty among users that borders on love. How much of that love was also invested in Jobs as well is difficult to gauge; he was the face of Apple and it was his vision and intuition that drove everything. That was made crystal clear in the episode when he was sacked back in '85.

He leaves a huge legacy in one of the worlds most valuable companies and beautiful products. We can only hope that there will be someone to pick up that baton for the next generation.

The best way of ending is to let the man speak for himself in his brilliant and inspirational speech to students at Stanford in 2005:

Steve Jobs, rest in peace.

...and as he urged the students we should perhaps follow his advice:

stay hungry - stay foolish

ThinkVisibility 6 - what a great event!

2011-09-06T10:02:00.001+01:00

The irrepressible Dom Hodgson - with Nadeem

I just spent a couple of days recovering from the effects of Dom Hodgson's Yorkshire hospitality at ThinkVisibility6 in Leeds. What an event that was; a really great mix of many of the key movers in Search, Affiliate and Social Media.

What made it so different to other events, was that it was in an almost uniquely totally relaxed and non-corporate atmosphere. That didn't detract fro the content though, which covered a good spread of subjects with original thought (not always found from event speakers) and humour - also often original!

We at Linkdex were very pleased to be sponsoring the event to give some visibility for Linkdex in the wider Search market. Andy Betts, Tom and I got some great feedback from existing users of or platform, as well as a lot of interest from those who'd not seen it yet. I was really good to catch up with many of the nicest affiliate folk at the event, as well as some search folk I'd been speaking to recently.

Many more eloquent that I have already written some great reviews of the content from the event. For me, some of the hightlights for me were:

Tops has to be Dom in the Gold coat and hat with Search Family Fortunes - and the sight of Koozai's Anna with a box over her head whacking away at the Pinata with a stick to win sweets
Malcolm Coles exposition of what can be achieved by using Duplicate content; the Daily Mail seemed past masters of this technique and may well be on Google's radar by now then!
Neil Walker's great talk on some of the stats in the search industry and that 60% of search came from 3 word or longer phrases
Robot Wars
Guy Redwood's Neuro Insights and the clarity that his methods bring to site usability
Keiron's Lanyard's travels (see right)
Sunday breakfast after the night before - and going into recovery with the help of a full English

Lego & Pick n Mix

I also have to thank Jason for the travels of his Lego man. Keep up the good work.

So after all the fun, learning and hangovers and we're all back to desks, we need to apply some of the knowledge gained, and follow up on the promises made (often very late at night!).

So if I promised to give a demo of the Linkdex platform and not rung you by Friday - just give me a nudge :)

ThinkVisibility

2011-08-30T12:39:00.000+01:00

Having seen friends in the industry raving over ThinkVisibility for the last few years, I'm very pleased to be going to this September's event in Leeds. Kieron made the case for the conference as one of the best in the calendar in his blog about the March event on Here.org.

Looking at the lineup of speakers it seems we have a very varied menu to look forward to; starting in Thailand with Ben Wolfenden and playing Championship Manager with Kelvin Newman - through to dealing with lazy affiliates with Jane Copland. The day finishes off with an evening party sponsored by Manual Linkbuilding.

I shall be there with Tom from Linkdex.com as one of the sponsors and available at pretty much any point to give a demo of the amazing Linkdex SEO platform to anyone who wants!

Luckily we kick the day off with bacon butties and proper brew in true Yorkshire style so we should all be suitably fortified for the event. So if you're not signed up for it yet - get on the case! If you are one of the lucky ones going along, then I look forward to seeing you there :)

Seems like a lot of folk, I shall be staying at the Mint Hotel with what it says is a Mac in every room - very sensible!! I'll be around from Friday afternoon through to Sunday morning, so look forward to seeing you there.

Food for free

2011-08-15T19:49:00.000+01:00

From August onwards if you go walking a bit - or have a garden with those kinds of plants - you'll start seeing plenty of free food appearing. Some will not be obvious to most people but give the opportunity for some amazing flavours to use in the kitchen.

Membrillo - fantastic with Manchego cheese,
or our own Lancashire or White Stilton

It may be something as obvious as your apple or pear tree in the garden to a quince bush, usually just grown nowadays for its orange spring blossoms but prized by our forebears and still in Spain for the amazing intense fruit tang. If you've ever tasted membrillo with a slice of manchego cheese, then you'll know exactly what I mean!

I've started looking out for the fruits of the hedgerows now and windfalls are starting to drop; the first batch of spiced apple chutney has been made with more as they fall to be followed with batches stewed apple for the freezer to form the base for sauces, to add to curries, or just on yoghourt or rice puddings. Even better combine with the blackberries that are appearing in the hedgerows around now for the classic Blackberry and Apple crumble.

If you're more adventurous, then there are sloes, medlars, rose hips and plenty more - and if you know what you are doing then huge growths of fungi are also now appearing after the damp summer we have had in the UK. Some fruits will freeze fine til you are ready to so something with them while others will need to be pickled, bottled or made into jam as soon as they are gathered. Remember to leave on the bush whatever you are not likely to use, so that others - and our wild birds - can make good use of them.

If you want to know what to do with them, the BBC website has a huge store of recipes from its collected cookery programmes from the simple through to quite complicated concoctions.

As for me, I'll be scouring the hedges and woodlands to see what's around for free to freeze or bottle and last me through to next year. I'm looking forward to the first burst of wild garlic leaves in the woods around Jesmond Dene and along the Northumberland colliery track network.

Happy walking and cooking :)

Google+ vs Facebook vs Microsoft (maybe)

2011-07-21T11:29:00.001+01:00

There's been a lot of buzz (pun intended) about Google+ recently, mostly, given that its in Beta, in the online tech community. So yesterday, the G folk were quite rightly proud of the phenomenal speed of growth with millions of members already signed up in Beta, though it seems this is understandably slowing, as reported on Mashable.

True there are some cool tools that the tech community find wonderful - Circles is one of the best innovations, though the idea of being able to go back and edit posts is something that I've used a few times already. The idea that work colleagues can retain that title is also pretty good - you can rarely call your CEO your 'friend' which on Facebook you have to!

The trouble with it being in Beta, is that, as its all techies it feels like I'm still at work and there's a lot less pure social stuff going on there. G+ has to move beyond this to achieve anything like a critical mass that will give it the wings to grow further, and not end up like Wave, a cool tech tool that no-one actually uses.


Facebook steaming past 700 million users

Facebook meanwhile is steaming past 700 million members and already has that critical mass, and more to the point, has considerable momentum which we never saw in the earlier networks that came to market, such as Bebo and Myspace.

So, given the fleet of foot so far with Facebook developers launching innovation in the past at a pace, have they grown too large to continue high-speed development on what is becoming an ever larger piece of technology. Most people's money is on the idea that Zuckerberg's team will be adding similar functionality found in G+ to your Facebook profile on the fly in double quick time.

What then would that mean for Google? They are still a country mile behind Facebook in adoption by the vast bulk of online Social Network users in the US and Europe. There is still the huge number of mainstream users who also use Gmail, Adwords, Adsense, Google Analytics, Android, Chrome....

What also for the rumour of Microsoft's 'leaked' entry into this space with Tulalip to start a 3-way tussle for your online persona? Certainly they have a ready marketplace of users to go for all with existing hotmail, msn and XBox live accounts.

Unlike G+, they seem to have added login with Facebook or twitter buttons, which seems a bit of a strange move. Google obviously wants to distance themselves and thier offering from Facebook. It will be very interesting to see how this develops further...

Meanwhile - I look at Google+ a couple of times a day, but use Facebook. I can't help thinking that will be a similar scenario for the majority of non-techie users, particlarly the growing number who are concerned about the extent to which Google has infiltrated our lives.

this one will run and run...

News Corporation withdraws the bid

2011-07-13T15:22:00.000+01:00

So, Murdoch and the News Corporation has withdrawn its bid to takeover BskyB in the face of massive public outcry over the amoral working methods of his news gathering operation, and the fatal pressure of an all-party accord to force him to withdraw. It was "too difficult to progress in this climate" - understatement of the century!

It as hailed by Ed Milliband as a victory for the British public - so thanks to Avaaz.org and everyone who added their pressure in this.

The share price for both BskyB and News Corporation have taken a battering and written $5Bn off NI valuation. Undoubtedly the groups will bounce back once Murdoch has crawled back under his stone and licked his wounds. That may be made more difficult as several major advertisers are instructing their agencies to cancel advertising across the News International websites; the printed media is sure to follow suit.

Now we have further questions being asked as to whether James Murdoch is himself a "fit and proper" person to be allowed to hold a broadcasting license in the UK. the Government enquiry may well grind on for a couple of years before we know what shape the landscape becomes.

Whether NI will regroup and make another bid in 6 months or so remains to be seen. Certainly there are discussions afoot to look at far tighter regulation on ownership of broadcast and published media.

The news rolls on...

Murdoch Empire crumbling - maybe

2011-07-12T16:12:00.002+01:00

http://gawker.com/5820243/jon-stewart-tackles-the-news-of-the-world-scandalAfter managing a cunning manoeuvre to get the best possible outcome of this past week's corporate horrors and closure of NOTW, News International are now in the stronger position that regulators will review the deal solely on plurality, so wit hone less Newspaper title, that will make it an even more favourable position for them.

That does not take into account the outrageous immorality of his company's practices. It seems from the ongoing wave after wave of disclosures from all the Murdoch stable or papers that there has been a gradual erosion of any morality, so that if an investigation involved an 'illegal' practice, that was just an inconvenience to be got round.

Do you trust this man to be a "fit and proper" broadcaster?

But British law says media owners must be "fit and proper" to be trusted with broadcast licenses. That is something that News International cannot hope to be considered - not in a month of Sundays (even without a NOTW ;) )

So as many as possible are being asked to support the Avaaz petition and let your MP and the Secretary of State know how you feel.

This US TV show with Jon Stewart sums the whole sorry fiasco of Murdoch and the sorry procession of police and politicians in his pocket...

Choir visit to Tewkesbury

2011-07-11T10:58:00.007+01:00

I'm very pleased to be joining St Mary's Cathedral choir from Glasgow in a weekend of singing the services in Tewkesbury Abbey on 23 - 24 July.

I've joined them on occasions during the past year while I've been working in Glasgow and now with the move back to Tyneside this will probably be the last time I'll sing with them, which is very sad.

There is one more occasion when you'll be able to catch me singing with them of course; on the CD which is published in the autumn. You can listen to some tracks here :)

Tewkesbury Abbey choir stalls

The Music for the Tewkesbury weekend if you're interested is:

Evensong: Saturday 23rd, 5pm

Introit: The Quiet Heart – June Collin

Responses: Rose

Canticles: Harwood in Aflat

Anthem: Blessed be the God and Father - Wesley

Sung Eucharist Sunday 24th, 11am

Setting: Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo (Kleine Orgelmesse) – Haydn

Anthem: Love Divine – Howard Goodall

Evensong: Sunday 24th, 5pm

Responses: Rose

Canticles: Dyson in D

Anthem: Hail Gladdening Light – Charles Wood

(find a hotel in or near Tewkesbury with GreatGetaways)
________________

More pics to follow...

2011-07-07T17:06:00.000+01:00

Well that is a real testament to the power of public outrage!

In a statement made to staff, Murdoch said the good things the News of the World does "have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong - indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company".
"The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself."

What he didn't say is that the staff only found out at the same time as the rest of us via BBC News! Perhaps that's the mark of the man.

One wonders whether the same outcome would have happened just 10 years ago, before the double effect internet; firstly to focus people's outrage via social media - and second in replacing the newspapers as the key news medium with advertising revenues following suit.

That leaves it open for News International to leave a period of grace and re-launch in about 4 months or so - perhaps as SUNday? Watch this space...

the News of the World meltdown

2011-07-06T11:39:00.001+01:00

This has been an interesting 24 hours with the Murdoch empire shaken slightly by the Millie Dowler phone hacking revelations.

Now it seems that this and the Celebs' hacking problems are compounded by the 7/7 victims phones also being hacked - this revelation coming out on the eve of the anniversary! So they are really living up to their Facebook advert page - the big stories really do start there!

It looks like NOTW were a whisker away from setting up its own inhouse hacking department; certainly all the key people at the paper were complicit in the illegal practice.

There is mounting pressure on the advertising community to boycott the News of the World - and some for the Murdoch empire in total. A Leftist blog Politicalscrapbook, shows who's in and who's out.

To add the pressure other web resources are springing up as well, such as Tony on Pint who helpfully lists all the current advertisers and their Twitter addresses.

One advertiser, Morrisons has stated “Our position is very clear, we’re continuing to advertise in the News of the World“, and pressure is mounting on them to reverse this decision, seeing that Sainsbury's has now stated they will be pulling their ads. I thyink I know where I'll be shopping :)

I would add that th e Times appears to have published a 'brave leader column' today; the only paper that didn't feature this story was the Sun - what a surprise - same bunch of scumbags I suppose.

biophilia

2011-07-04T09:53:00.000+01:00

http://www.bjork.com/Just read a bit about Bjork's new Biophilia project which sounds fascinating. As she says in the email "it is an album, an app album, a live show and a new website". There's not much out there and no link on the Bjork website so far.

The first single and her new app are both called crystalline, exploring crystal and musical structure and features a computer-controlled celeste remade with bronze bars.

I can't wait to find out more!

spring/summer in Glasgow!

2011-06-30T11:39:00.000+01:00

Enjoyed a stroll around the grounds here the other day. You wouldn't actually believe this is just outside Glasgow although it is the Science Park and set on the edge of woodland.

Interesting to note from something I read recently that Rhododendrons which look so nice this time of year have actually become a horticultural menace in many areas of Scotland. There is something in their roots that actually poisons the soil to prevent other indigenous plants from thriving. I guess at least its not as virulent as Japanese Knotweed!

Another change

2011-06-29T11:52:00.001+01:00

I know its a strange initial post on a blog - but no apologies for that!

After 9 years in affiliates at both network and client side, I'm making a change into the SEO field with Linkdex.com and its a very exciting change indeed, starting off in early August. Really looking forward to it, so watch this space...