Happy Birthday WordPress!
May 27, 2008
WordPress is five years old today! ..and although i haven’t even been using it five months I feel it only right to say not only congratulations, but also Thank You.
I was always a ‘Blogger‘ user and before that i just made my own random pages and stuck them out into the ‘tubes’ not knowing if anyone actually read anything until i upset them.
I do believe though that I am now hooked and unless something pretty drastic and/or amazing happens.. I will be here for a good time to come.
So why do i like WordPress so much?
I guess mainly it’s because there are so many people I have met through social media that use and understand the importance of such a powerful tool and enabler. Seeing others using this blog software as effectively as they were (and still are) drew me into having at first a peek.. and then jumping headlong into this bandwagon. A bandwagon (assuming this once was a reference to a vehicle of some kind) that at the click of a button can be a small pizza delivery boy on a bike.. or the next moment, a thundering juggernaught.
It is this flexibility and customisation that has hid from me the fact that, without knowing it, I seem to have always been drawn to sites using WordPress. Far more than sites incorporating other blogging platforms.
I love the flexibility to have a site in almost any shape or form, compatible with no end of open source plugins, costing as little as nothing, up to a nominal fee for something a little more in depth. All of this is easily accessible to people not at all versed in code and programing.
I threw myself in at the deep end with this ‘Revolution‘ theme and decided to splash out £40 even though I had never even tried to play with the free themes. Before i knew it, WordPress was installed and with the help of some online friends showing me the ropes and pushing a few buttons.. I had a site up and running that I had never dreamed of having just a week before.
We tend to bang on and on about how important content is but let’s not forget that it’s delivery is equally important. Thanks a lot WordPress and Happy Birthday!
Many thanks to Derek Mantle, Annie Boccio, Steve Purkiss and Phil Sorrell for their superior WordPress and CSS knowledge.
A moment ago I threw out a question onto Twitter asking who was using WordPress and got these links back..
Click on every one.. Go on.. I dare ya..
http://www.ethosmarketing.co.uk
http://jestercreative.com/wordpress/
http://geekgrls.wordpress.com/
http://thegirlinthez.wordpress.com/
http://heavensgame.wordpress.com/
http://www.thebillblog.com/billblog/
http://amedievalhand.wordpress.com
http://www.kittenfluff.wordpress.com/
http://www.bigtalkproductions.com/blog/
http://www.thealbumchartshow.com
http://www.claritypartnership.co.uk
http://www.blog.edgarwrighthere.com
http://www.normanscoachsoho.com
I see a theme forming..
OK guys.. I have linked you.. now link me back! 
UFO Hotspot
May 16, 2008
When I did my film with Northampton chap Steve Munday I had no idea about the response I was going to get. Comments in particular are deleted weekly as abuse and ridicule come in a little more often by the people who are genuinely interested in his story.
I won’t play down my personal interest in UFO’s and the paranormal. Ever since watching Close Encounters as a child I have bought the magasines and I watched the cheesy TV programs right up until a few years ago.
The older I get and the more I embrace science the more skeptical and discerning I have become. I am still fascinated by all of this, but I guess now I want to stop listening to the already converted and delve into these mysteries myself.
A brief thrash around in the world of theoretical physics at university lead to an equally brief career in the world of Lasers. Driven more by my attraction to science fiction than anything else. I stopped working with YAG and Co2 Lasers when I realised I would need a power supply the size of a house to run the laser gun I had designed in my mind. It didn’t stop me from attaching a 24 volt HeNe Laser to the front of my motorbike so I could fight back on those drivers that refused to dip their headlights.
Science had a whole heap of answers but not all of them. Not yet.
So, I am still interested (as every inquisitive mind should be) in the unexplained and was more than a little drawn to this article in my local reagional papers, The Northants Evening Telegraph and The Chronicle And Echo.
On buying that fireplace off Steve back in May last year, one of the first things that Steve said when he saw my address was.. “Wow.. you are right in the center of a UFO hotspot.. did you know that?”
I didn’t know, no. And now as the national archives release stats to back up his claim should I be going out to the low light pollution areas of Northamptonshire with a deck chair and a pair of binoculars? Or should my inquisitive and part-scientific mind opt for a list of stats regarding the numbers of eccentrics and people living in the area but on the edge of sanity.
Thinking I had best not. In case I find myself on that list.
Dogwalking
May 16, 2008
I do it every day. Come rain or shine. It is at the moment my only form of exercise.
My dog is a Coltriever and needs three good walks a day. She has a wee and a pooh on all occasions and I sometimes wish my metabolism was that fast.
I am lucky where I live to have loads of intersecting paths through the Northamptonshire countryside crisscrossing all around so there is always a choice of direction and area. Not to mention a forest only a ball throw away.
Occasionally I tweet while I walk and throw the ball, sometimes I stream it live. Well almost live. Vodafone has not yet seen the benefit of equipping my part of the Northamptonshire sky with 3G.
Here is a Qik clip from today…
Social Media Picnic
May 15, 2008
Whilst on Twitter I mentioned in passing that I was thinking about holding a social media picnic at the site of George Orwell’s grave and the response was pretty good. Mostly people wanted to say that they were sorry they lived so far away and that it was a good idea.
Why do we not have more social media meet ups outdoors? Especially in places of relevance to a theme? For this very reason I have been thinking also about a social media music festival (If i say social media one more time in this post i think i may shoot myself) and/or getting some geeks out ‘Bushcrafting‘ too.
Granted, at the moment as I write this it is raining outside, but on the whole the Summer is a time to be outdoors, even in the UK.
We tend to be much more chilled and relaxed when outside (i.e. no suits) and I feel the unconventional nature of an open air meet may draw out a flavour of thought we would not normally see with ties constricting blood flow to the brain.
I wish Google’s Campfire One and the Picnic Network were more like a hippy geek meet up round an actual camp fire deep in the woods. Once everyone’s arms were tired from waving their phones above their heads for a signal, who knows what the suits could spawn.
I still have Geek Retreat to organise but what with my Dad’s farm always being in demand for people willing to pay for it finding the perfect venue is not that easy to come by..
So why not just do away with most of the facilities and arrange to meet a select few people in a field somewhere..? We organise who brings the potato salad and who brings the wine and that’s all we need really.
I am up for it and I think Orwell’s Grave is a good start. It has a pub nearby, so in an emergency the toilet can be used and I am sure when picnic supplies run low, a steady flow of good local ale would safely ensure the ideas also kept flowing.
I have bought the domain SocialMediaPicnic.com and would be happy link it to a site listing other open air events going on in the world.. Anyone want to build a wiki/blog or hub site?
Let me know in a comment below if you are up for the first picnic at Orwell’s grave, I have preempted the local Vicar and she is happy to have people sat around on the grass on the afternoon of the 25th of June (Orwell’s birthday), providing no one needs burying that day.
Never-the-less.. Me and Eric will be there with bread wine and cheese, no doubt tweeting, possibly streaming, certainly drinking and eating. Well maybe not Eric. But i’ll bring enough for him too.. just in case..
Here is the postcode: OX14 4AE
People Interested in attending the Social Media Picnic
Me - Documentally
Dr John Perivolaris - JohnPerivolaris
Phil Campbell - PhilCampbell
Derek Mantle - DelBoyDare
Steve Lawson - SoloBassSteve
Ben Read - BookPirate
Richard Galbraith - Ricgalbraith
NOTE: Although the event is burial dependent.. There is always the pub, which I have already tested.
Melanie Safka
May 13, 2008
I’m so glad my parents were hippies. Without that fact, my musical upbringing would not have been a diet of the likes of Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Melanie.
One of the first sounds I heard was needle on vinyl and my first memory was gazing out of the window of a Welsh farmhouse to see silhouettes dancing around a bonfire playing acoustic guitars and singing.
The day I was born Melanie was also celebrating her birthday and had already performed at the Isle of Wight Festival and at Glastonbury Fayre, before it was even called a festival.
I think it may have been the constant comparison to the singer Melanie that may have made my mother pick up the acoustic guitar. She was a big fan and although she didn’t have the greatest singing voice, it didn’t stop her joining in on all of Melanie’s songs word for word.
Last night my Brother and I took a trip into Leicester to a little venue called the Y Theatre to watch Melanie play. If my Mother, Liala was alive today, she would have been there too.
It’s a small intimate venue perfect for one woman with a guitar. As it happened she was also accompanied by her son, Beau Jarred Schekeryk, an incredibly competent guitarist himself.
Her Son opened with some fantastic gypsy style flamenco guitar. He certainly added something to the style and listening to him you would think he’d grown an extra two fingers on each hand.
He apologised for arriving jet lagged as they had just flown in from Korea. I didn’t notice. His delivery was laid back and chatty, great guitar music.
After a little while Melanie herself came on in a flowing dress, a different lady to the album covers that decorated my childhood but the same incredible voice, uniquely hers with the power to reduce me to tears in a single song. A song that I love but that thankfully She left out of her set.
Two hours passed too quickly as old favorites once heard at classic moments in time like Woodstock were punctuated with new material that could have been written at the same time.
Too many artists grow out of the magic they encapsulated and evolve into tired crooners. This is one thing that amazed me more than anything else with Melanie. How could this rare surviver of the Summer Of Love still be writing truly great songs after 40 years in the music industry. These weren’t tired, rushed or trite. Her new material seemed written by the same passionate young girl of the 60’s, it’s just that now you believed she knew what she was singing about.
Two days ago I had been at the ‘Radio 1’s Big Weekend‘ and although a great day in the sun, I felt the music certainly lacked something. I felt the artists were delivering me a product. That none of them believed what they were saying. It was without soul. Some person, singing some song, about some thing.
Melanie’s music filled in all the gaps for me. She believed in these songs.. That she has written.. That she now was singing.. And i believed her.
I admit, this kind of heartfelt folk isn’t for everyone. Once it’s produced with accompaniment on an album you need to know the singer and their words to get the best out of it.
This kind of live performance though, should be seen by everyone. Just the bare bones of a singer/songwriter who has been there and done the work. An honest exposure of the soul through nothing but guitar and voice. With her Son by her side it had the intimacy of a family moment. Many of the people in the audience have known Melanie and her music since before I was born. I guess if you count my time in the womb, so have I.
I am sad that my Mother never lived long enough to see this gig, to see that it was still ok to be a ’sincere hippy’.
As Melanie sang the song ‘I Tried To Die Young‘.. I was so glad she didn’t.
Melanie’s Homepage Melanie in the Times Melanie in the Independent
A petition to induct Melanie into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame
MTM BlackHawk Special Ops Watch
May 8, 2008
Today, only 18 hours after ordering on the phone I took delivery of an MTM BlackHawk Special Ops watch in titanium.
I imagine there has never been a complaint of any MTM watch arriving damaged as the case it arrived in was an incredibly sturdy, watertight ballistic ’seahorse’ case. With the watch already being water resistant to 330Ft and it’s case made from solid titanium, I imagine the post office could well drive off a cliff into a quarry and you would still get to receive a shiny new timepiece.. albeit a day or so late.
As soon as you take the ballistic case out of the cardboard box you feel you have purchased from a company that take great pride in it’s products.
I have only worn it for the last 14 hours so this is more like my first impressions rather than a review. Here is a video of the un-boxing..
I ordered the optional nylon strap as i have never really got on with metal ones. I want a watch that is substantial and solid but not one so heavy as i’m always aware it’s there. Nylon softens with time and really trims the weight of a watch down. Combined with the lightness of the titanium and this timepiece is not too weighty at all. I imagine the steel option is heavy enough to throw through a double glazed window though.
One of the main reasons for me wanting this watch apart from it’s apparent durability and use of hi-tech materials was the innovative addition of four LED’s embedded in the carbon fiber watch face. According to MTM’s website the Special Ops lighting technology was requested by the Special Forces in their original design specification.
Everyday I carry a torch (flashlight) with me as living in rural British countryside I often find myself in unlit spaces. I may not ever need to signal other members of an elite squad of Special Forces or scour a map in pitch darkness as I calculate the coordinates of an air strike, but just today I found the more than adequate illumination offered by the watch assisted me in plugging an additional HDMI cable in a tricky spot and remove a thorn from my dogs foot on a late walk. This is more than enough for me to be impressed and tomorrow I shall leave the little ARC-P flashlight I wear round my neck in my bedside draw.
There are two types of light settings, an internal lighting mode uses the three bulbs with a blue diffused light for illuminating the watch face and the external lighting mode uses another set of three extremely powerful led’s emitting a bright orange light.
You may be wondering where all the energy comes from to power these lighting options as the watch is normal size and does not seem to be packed with an oversized battery.
Very cleverly the MTM BlackHawk also employs a unique recharging system. With no need to ever replace the batteries, you just place the watch on the specially designed recharging stand for a few hours every month. You are notified well in advance of the battery running flat by a second hand notification system that discreetly lets you know when power is running low. This is the first electromagnetically charged device I think I have owned but I imagine there will be many more to come.
I was a little concerned by the need to recharge a watch even this infrequently but am never away from home that long so it should not really be a problem and the charging stand isn’t ridiculously oversized so at a push it could be taken with me.
So.. It’s early days as far as my opinion goes and although my first impressions of this watch are good, I do have a habit of destroying watches that do not live up to their reputation and will report anything that may be amiss.
As I write this though I have just let the dog out for a wee in the back garden and was almost as amazed as she was as the watch illuminated the area of the garden she had snuck off to. Not really a life saving use of this great looking piece of hi tech engineering but one of the reasons for it being my choice over the many other hard wearing watches out there.
Already, this watch has liberated me from carrying a separate piece of kit (flashlight) in my everyday list of gadgets and paraphernalia I feel I must carry incase they’re needed.
All I need now is a watch that also incorporates a phone, a Leatherman, a wallet, my keys, a USB drive… …and so on.
Here are a few reactions to my video post:
In the UK this particular model retails at £399 (€499) and the steel version can be bought for £329 (€412). Prices in the US about a third lower.
The watch can be purchased from SpecialOpsWatch.co.uk
..and in the US SpecialOpsWatch.com
Jeffrey Descovic at Podcamp NYC 2.0
May 6, 2008
Of all the memorable moments of Podcamp NYC 2.0 an impromptu meeting with Jeffrey Descovic touched me the most.
Jeffrey has an amazing story well documented HERE on his website and here on InnocenceProject.org In addition Jeffrey’s myspace page is HERE.
I was introduced to he by Rox from BeachWalks.tv and a few minutes later i was doing an interview using Seesmic.
At the same time as we Seesmic’ed and Qik’ed.. Phil Campbell recorded on HD.
The Innocence of Jeffrey Deskovic from Phil Campbell - England on Vimeo.
View the full interview on Seesmic with the thread here.. http://seesmic.com/v/OGHBz3SDbT
..and just as a footnote.. here is a photo of me and Phil on Chris Brogan’s blog and some more podcamp action from the podcast Push My Follow..
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