Things of the moment

Far from being a royalist (or really caring either way to be honest), sympathy is deserved on all sides while a grief-stricken father, clearly driven into the depths some mental despair in which the world is his enemy, especially in the country that could never really accept him, has his day in court and makes a fool of himself. The continuing tragedy of this whole months-long inquest into the death of Diana and co. is of course that it is completely obvious that nothing seedy or murky happened on that fateful night other than the accidental deaths of three people. I imagine that if you are one of the world's rich men, and used to having what feels like power, the raw reality of how powerless even you are in the face of death is a savage one. Especially for one's own child.

On a lighter note, job interviews of the 21st century will apparently all be done with virtuality in mind. I'm really unsure of the wisdom of putting yourself on Youtube trying to be serious. It sounds like ripe material for the day-bored to play with.

Apple finally get their OSX stacks in order. And about time too. The stacks were a nice idea in principle until you tried to use them again. Now they are in fact useful what with being able to have one consistent icon, lists and such. It's, like, the future or something close to it.

Apparently Bioware may be yet another barnyard developer. Shame if it is, as I know a number of people who want to work there. Then again I know a couple of people who worked there and left on account of Edmonton being cold and boring in equal measure.

Pimp out.

Picks of the moment

So I'm trying something fun with this blog, which is to say using it to pimp a bunch of fun links for reading and giggles, ranging on all sorts of topics. Hope you enjoy:

Watch two Macbooks Air out-boot each other here (or rather a formal HDD vs SDD test). I saw a Macbook Air at the weekend. It's nice, but I don't really like the size of the main mouse button.

Play Sudoku Blocks. (If you have Sky that is). It's a cross between Sudoku and Tetris-style falling mechanics which is a lot of fun and I'm proud to have had a small part in seeing it published.

You say potato, I say potaaaahto....

You should also all read ebooks. They're the future. Lots of ho-hum reasons, but for me it's all about the lack of weight and the ability to do funky things with text like linking. More on my grand plans for this soon. Mostly what ebooks need is to stop trying to behave like normal books and instead embrace their inner scrolling demon. Anywho...

If you don't know what an ARG is, then shame on you. Anyway, this digital equivalent of the whodunnit is interesting, all the more so for having attracted a wee bit o' money.

Pimp out.

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Is this thing on?

American Hate returns?

So I think I'm going to start using American Hate again, but likely change it a bit. This is mostly in response to the odd piece of commentary that people have given me from time to time that they really liked it but wanted to know where it was going etc. So I'm thinking a reboot is in order.

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When Branding goes bad

Online petition - Change The London 2012 Logo

As every sane person in the universe knows by now, the powers that be in the British Olympic effort have fucked up. Really epically badly fucked up. The logo that they have produced has been compared to, among other things, a swastika, a suggestive blow-job diagram, and others. Personally I think it looks horrendous, and the promotional videos being used to back it up look like the cheapo sort of graphics that adorn the likes of CBBC. Yes, they're that bad.

The chief counter-argument from the logo's creators and the committee types like Seb Coe has been all about brand. The brand is supposed to inspire and involve a young generation etc. Now, there are two things about this statement that make my skin itch. The first is that this is highly reminiscent of very heavy-handed branding of the sort that old media types still try to do, and the reaction in the days of open media and t'internet has been justifiably staggering.

The second, and much more important, reason is that the Olympics already has an inspirational brand. It's the Olympic Games for christs' sake, one of the most universal brands in the world. It's a symbol, a torch, a stadium, a glorious image. What people already find inspiring about the Olympics is its grandeur, its vaguely statesman-like quality and its association with history. What it does not need is to be redefined for the yoofs in such a tawdry and cheap manner. They may argue the brand if they like, but to do so shows that they really don't understand the brand that they have here in the first place.

The lesson from all this, aside from the fact that 400,000 pounds was spent on some pretty entry-level Photoshop work here, is that a dictatorial attitude does not work when you're trying to be inspirational. At the moment the Olympic committee is claiming that they will carry on regardless, an unfortunate attitude, but if they do then it is to the detriment of themselves and the games that they are hosting. It makes them look like community game organisers who want to barrel on with their egg and spoon race competition even though nobody else enjoys it. Is that really what they want?

Here's what they should do: They should run an open contest.

I have already seen a dozen or so alternative logo suggestions, each one superior to the official logo. There are doubtless many more out there. They should run a contest and let the people decide which one they prefer. Lord knows it would be infinitely cheaper, and would encourage a real conversation with the public for whom these games symbolically mean quite a lot. It would be very Web 2.0 of them.

In the mean time, sign the petition above if you agree that the logo is a shambles.

Uncle Tadhg's video treat

I just uploaded some home movies of my niece to Youtube (3 out of 4 of which are now live. Number 2's taking its time processing). Here they are:









These films were all shot with a camera phone (an SPV M3100) over the weekend. All I can say is awwwwwwww.