Two Great Ads

I love that the Internet is forcing ad makers to get more creative.

Two great examples of the art:

from Sony...




and this bizarre but highly amusing one from Wilkinson-Sword...

Monday night is study night

Pippa just started a post grad course on International Development with the Open University. As you can imagine that's going to mean a fair but of homework over the coming months.

So, Monday night is study night in our house and I've decided to join in and use that time to develop some of my patchy knowledge of web development into something a bit more polished. I've dabbled in html, php, mysql, javascript and css before now, but feel like the time is ripe for me to take it to the next level. I'll Blog about my progress and undoubted frustrations right here after each Monday night session.

Last night as I was waiting for all my new lovely books to arrive from Amazon I decided to brush up my php with a quick 'login and stay logged in' script. It's working now, cookies and all and was pretty fun. I'm trying to make sure that everything I build is a flexible and reusable as possible and that always makes tasks a lot more interesting. As soon as I have something concrete to share I'll drop a link on the sidebar so that you can follow the action in real time.

And more importantly - Good Luck Pippa

Great South Run - Hurrah

Wow. Pippa and I completed The Great South Run earlier today. It's a 10 mile race around the streets of Southsea (coincidentally where we both went to school).

It was a great experience and we raised £2,000 for Cancer Research UK from our very generous friends, family and colleagues.

For the record, our times were:

Pippa - 1:42
Alex - 1:27

Link to some photos of us at the end with our medals (in a nice Picasa Slideshow Gadget) to follow.

[UPDATED - SLIDE SHOW BELOW!]

The Cinematic Orchestra

A friend of mine lent me a copy of A Snapshot from Domino Records 2007 recently. The sampler is a oft overlooked way to discover new music and this is no exception. It's a collection of music that you might describe as 'quiet avant-garde'. Too edgy to be considered for the umpteen Chilled Ibiza compilations but too pleasant on the ear to satisfy the Bauhaus purists.

I loved it and in particular this track from The Cinematic Orchestra (which turns out to be the most poppy thing on there - I must be getting old).

The Cinematic Orchestra - To Build a Home

I've been on emusic and it looks like these guys have an extensive back catalogue (including a collaboration with the always brilliant Roots Manuva). I love it when that happens.

An obsession begins? I'll let you know.

Geek humor

The folks at xkcd always have something funny to say. I like this one a lot....

Blackmailing your customers

Our fridge broke two weeks ago. So we ordered a new one from Sainsbury's and waited for it to be delivered.

After a whole heap of inconvenience we got a slot for it to be delivered on Monday morning last week. When it arrived there was a big old dent in the door so back it went.

Of course we were straight on the phone to arrange another delivery. Being without a fridge is no fun.

More hassle ensued. One delivery date was cancelled at the last minute and then finally this morning another fridge arrived. This time with an even bigger dent!

By this time we had agreed to cut our losses and so I called up and cancelled the order. And here is the punchline...

I mentioned that waiting in for two deliveries of damaged goods and spending what felt like hours on the phone to the call centre had been quite an inconvenience for us. I wondered how Sainsbury's planned to compensate is for that. Quickly I was told that compensation could not be discussed for cancelled orders. If I wanted to be paid for my wasted time I had to risk wasting some more! To be honest they would have been better off telling me they didn't do compensation out flat. That way at least I wouldn't feel like my inconvenience was being held ransom.

Companies do this sort of crazy stuff all the time. I know the logic that leads there. I've been in meetings when it comes out. 'Well if we're going to give compensation we should at least make the sale' Next time you hear that kind of thinking stand up and be counted. If you screw up, fix it. If it can't be fixed do what you can to save that customer relationship. Sainsbury's lost a customer forever today and judging by the way it happened I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

Rugby vs football

I have to admit that as a game I prefer football. There is something drilled into me that gets my heart racing that little bit faster for the beautiful game.

That said, watching England's national team in both sports over the past weeks has been an eye opener.

Of course, the last few weeks have been all about the rugby world cup. Early on I figured that with England's poor form and disastrous results this would be another bitterly disappointing tournament. Just another notch on the bedpost of sporting memories that goes back (for me) to the injustice meted out to England by Diego Maradona in the 86 football world cup.

But you see, that's where the story changes. The England rugby team scraped through to the quarters and then they woke up. What was astonishing about their subsequent two victories and their subsequent gutsy defence of their title in the final was that it was built out of a team effort and heroic camaraderie that I feel privileged to have watched. This was not the turnaround of a talismanic performance (though there were talismans everywhere). This was not one moment of gifted skill saving a team. Each of those victories came from 15 men giving their all for 80 minutes at a time. Their opponents sometimes showed greater skill or flair, but England were never bested for passion or courage. It is amazing how far these two attributes can take a team.

So for a life long football fan it was amazing to see a team that didn't drop their heads as soon as they went behind, that didn't rely on their one star to dig them out of a hole, whose first reaction upon defeat is not to cry out over the refereeing injustice they may (or may not) have suffered. It was the way the team played the game and handled themselves that left me feeling full of pride even though the final was lost.

When I contrast this to the inevitable, sorry capitulation of the football team against Russia on Wednesday (and in almost every tournament I have followed) I think perhaps a switch of codes may be in order.

Wow - 1.2m copies; $8 average price

You'll remember that Radiohead are allowing fans to choose there own price for their latest release In Rainbows (and that it is rather wonderful).

Well Mashable report that in their first week they sold 1.2 million albums at an average price of $8. This is an amazing stat. First off this is twice as many copies as any other Radiohead release in its first week. Secondly $8 average price (with no retailers or labels to take their cut) is a huge payday for the band.

How many music execs do you think sat and scratched their head when Radiohead did this. How many said that people will just take it for free...

Bring it on.

Cool Vid

Proving I'm not completely biassed

Micrsoft Virtual Earth recently launched an amazing new Birds Eye feature using their equally brilliant Photosynth technology. Head on over to Live Maps, select 3D, Hybrid View and then click on Birds Eye. Now you can navigate around New York as though you are flying over on a light aircraft. If you can't be bothered with that, watch the video below.

I love that Microsoft seem to finally have someone to spark off (Google?) and are getting back to innovation. Roll on the map wars!

Firefox Google Calculator

Saw this courtesy of Matt Cutts.

If you type in a mathematical formula to the Google search box in the Firefox chrome then it gives you the answer in the 'Suggestions'. It's little things like this that make me love big G.

I wonder if it works in the Google Toolbar or even IE7?

England are rugby world cup finalists

Incredible game. I feel 10 years older. Jonny does it again


Bring on the final.

[Picture courtesy thetelegraph.co.uk]

Blinkx doing contextual video ads...

...for pretty much any video you can find online. It's very easy to set up - you just need a PayPal account and some embed code for a video. You can find out how here.

Here's a classic clip from The Day Today. I wonder if the ad is any good (comments please).

MapMyRun

I love online mapping and am particularly fond (if slightly biased) of the Google Maps API. It has created such a fabulous set of new web apps that make my life a whole lot simpler and better.

One such app is mapmyrun.com. And below is a run I just mapped out near my Grandad's house. We might be going away but the training must continue - it's two weeks until the big day!

Pot of gold...

InRainbows (or at least the link to it) arrived in my inbox today.

It's a fantastic album. All the Radiohead hallmarks are there. Beautifully crafted songs with ambitious, stuttering arrangements and Thom's ethereal vocals.

The opener 15 Steps is a magnificent. Wistful Hawaiin guitar and whispered falsetto vocals over a driving two step rhythm and a funky b-line. Elsewhere things are more rocky (Bodysnatchers) or more chilled (Reckoner - see below) but always masterful.

I have listened 4 times today and will listen again later. Soon Pippa will tell me what all the songs are about and I will love them even more.

This is music at it's most exciting. Buy it now (RRP at least a fiver!)

On the other hand, just sue your fans

After blogging about Radiohead I came across this ... Getting a $200k fine for a single mum that shared a few songs on the internet (probably to people that would never have bought them anyway).

I guess this is an alternative strategy. I particularly like that the acme cos asked for an especially high fine to 'act as a deterrent'. Arseholes.

The future of the music business...now

So the big music news this week is that Radiohead are letting fans choose how much to pay for their new album, inrainbows. From free.

I'm really excited about this. Firstly because I think Radiohead rock and if Thom Yorke's last solo effort is anything to go by, then this will be an amazing, innovative, beautiful record. Secondly there's the whole business model thing.

I've blogged before about how stupid the record industry is and so it's great to see a band freeing itself from the corporate shackles and messing with the model. In case you haven't seen the coverage the deal is as follows: there are two formats, MP3 download at a price that you choose (from nothing); super-duper deluxe box set with two CDs two vinyl records and the usual trimmings at 40 quid. I understand there will be a full release (hmv, itunes etc.) later in the year too.

There are so many things I love about this model.

First, and foremost, there is no greedy acme co getting between the band and their fans. Radiohead have recognised the power of the new (essentially free) distribution and jumped on it.

Second is that by letting fans choose how much to pay they are acknowledging the highly subjective nature of the valuation of art. A Radiohead album is worth a lot more to me than it is to you, while a Picasso is obviously worth a lot more to an modern art collector than it is to me. The counter-argument here is that there is no incentive for me to bid high because I get the thing I want however I bid. But I'd argue that the incentive here is not about receiving this Radiohead album, it's about making sure they (want to and are able to) make another one. It's a donation with a fee gift. Like buying an annuity with the first payoff being this album. When you look at it like this then the smart money will flow to bands that prove they can deliver the goods over and over again. I think that deep down it is this that the (short-sighted, hit-focussed, x-factor-obsessed) record companies are most worried about.

Anyway, I'd love to see the data. I bet there are three groups in the distribution.

• Close to zero - probably not huge fans. Might have bought the album, but most likely when it was at a big discount in a few months. they're losing money here (opportunit cost), but not very much and for it they're buying a big fan base.
  
• A few quid - these hits would by the album as early as they had a chance; my guess is that radiohead are probably a little better off from this group due to the removal of acme co.
  
• More than a tenner - die hard fans, would get the album on day one and can't live without radiohead.
  

One thing I would have liked to see at inrainbows.com would be the current average (or median) price. Right there in bold next to the submit button so that every participant could make their own judgement about how they wanted to bid relative to that.

As it happens, I gave them a fiver. And I think I've just convinced myself I will pay more for their next one!

Round up

It's been a busy week. Lots of news and exciting things:

Friendfeed - nice new web service by some ex-Googlers that aggregates all those social update sites into one handy feed. Like Facebook-to-go. It just launched on Monday, and so they're in full-on big fixing, feature upgrading mode and if their very active Google Group is anything to go by then their user focus will win out. I think this will be big.

New music - had some head-down excel-monkey analysis to do at work this week for which I always prefer to listen to pandora. I think their algorithm continues to improve and they are massively outpacing last.fm for me right now. Anyway, it came up trumps and I am now the happy owner of albums by b fleischmann, Laika and Alec Empire. All from emusic and all very enjoyable. Also picked up the new Jose Gonzales and found myself coming round to the new Editors (it's still not as good as The Back Room, but I think it's a grower)

Looking forward to this film about Ian Curtis too. Editors have reignited my love affair with Joy Division, so this feels like perfect timing.