James Doc

Migrating to PNPM

2026-03-21T00:00:00Z

Advantages (as I see them).

It stores node_modules in a single place and references them, rather than having multiple copies of the same dependency across different files - this makes pnpm install and a lot quicker and reduces disk space.
You can prune dev dependencies ahead of deployment in CI, meaning you can run the test with your dev dependencies and then strip them out in one command before deploying.
Workspaces allow you to install/update etc all dependencies from a top level.

Quick start

rm -rf node_modules
pnpm import - generates a pnpm-lock.yaml from another package manager’s lockfile.
rm package-lock.json
pnpm install
Update any yarn or npm commands in the package.json scripts and documentation.

These are handy things…

pnpm update - updates all deps within their specified range (eg won’t do major version bumps)
- Key difference from yarn is that this also updates the package.json file to give clarity on which version you’re running.
- pnpm update "@11ty/*" - update specific packages that match @11ty/*
- pnpm update --latest --interactive - pick and choose which packages to bump to their latest (beyond specified range).
pnpm prune --prod - rips out all dev dependencies

Gotchas

Dependencies are (correctly) explicit

If you’ve used a dependency from another dep in your code it will error
You’ll need to pnpm add xxx for it to work

Using PNPM to manage Node versions

Note: PNPM does not allow different Node.js versions per project - it’s global only, so only handy if you’re consistent with your node version across all things. For the moment, sticking with nvm is probably preferred.

If you want to manage Node.js with PNPM, you need to remove any Node.js installed by other tools, then install PNPM using one of the standalone scripts that are provided on the installation page: https://pnpm.io/installation

Theming VSCode or Cursor per repo

2025-12-18T00:00:00Z

At work I’m in and out of many repos over the course of a day… and I’m bad at closing window. The result is that I often end up with at least five different Visual Studio Code or Cursor windows at one time. Finding the window that I want to write code in can be tricky when they all look the same.

As such I’ve recently started adding theme colours to each repo that I work on so I can quickly identify which window I want.

At the root of your repo you can add .vscode/settings.json which then overrides any global VSCode or Cursor config for the editor.

This is my config for this repo, which sets the outline for the window in this site’s theme green:

// .vscode/settings.json
{
  "workbench.colorCustomizations": {
    // Status Bar at the bottom of the window
    "statusBar.background" : "#a3de86",
    "statusBar.foreground" : "#1a1100",
    "statusBarItem.remoteBackground": "#a3de86",
    "statusBarItem.remoteForeground": "#1a1100",

    // Title bar at the top of the window (macos only I think)
    "titleBar.activeBackground": "#a3de86",
    "titleBar.activeForeground": "#1a1100",
    "titleBar.inactiveBackground": "#a3de86",
    "titleBar.inactiveForeground": "#1a1100",
    "titleBar.border": "#a3de86",

    // Window border around the entire window
    "window.activeBorder": "#a3de86",
    "window.inactiveBorder": "#a3de86",

    // Activity bar (left sidebar with the icons)
    // Might be a little bit overkill… I leave this commented out
    // "activityBar.background": "#a3de86",
    // "activityBar.dropBackground": "#a3de86",
    // "activityBar.foreground": "#1a1100",
    // "activityBarBadge.background": "#a3de86",
    // "activityBarBadge.foreground": "#1a1100",
  }
}

I cribbed this list from this gist: workbench.colorCustomizations.json. The repos that I work on at Beacon are in their brand colours, etc, etc.

Dedication

2025-08-04T00:00:00Z

On Sunday my wife and I had the joy, together with The Globe Church family, of dedicating our son. Since people come to our church from all sorts of different backgrounds and Christian traditions, I thought it would be helpful to share what child dedication means to us as a church and why we approach it this way.

You may have seen, or been part of churches that practice, infant baptism. We love baptism, however at Globe we baptise adults who can say for themselves that they believe in Jesus. Recently we had the joy of baptising Maria and Bethany after hearing their testimony of the work that God has done in their lives.

When a child is born into our church family, they aren’t old enough to speak words, let alone make a decision to follow Jesus, or a statement of faith. So we don’t baptise children, but we do believe that children matter to God. The way we mark a new child at Globe is through a dedication service.

Let me share three key things about why we do dedications.

First, it’s a reminder that children are a gift from God. When we have a dedication in our gatherings it’s a time to stop and thank God for the life of the child.

Secondly, as parents, and church family, it is a responsibility that we dedicate and commit ourselves to. Each child is a gift of God, but that gift comes with responsibilities – so this part of our time together comes with promises that the parents are going to be committing to, close friends are going to be committing to, and there is an invitation for our church family to commit to pointing the child to Christ through prayers and relationships with them.

Thirdly, we seek God’s blessing on this gift we’ve been given – we dedicate each child to God because we pray and invite God’s work within their life. We can’t do this alone – we’re dependent on God to help them grow, and we pray, one day for them to know Jesus themselves. This isn’t about forcing a particular path on the child, but rather creating an environment where they can discover God’s love for themselves when they’re ready. As God has entrusted children to us, so we entrust them to God.

We love the children that God has placed in our church family. A dedication service is part of our way of loving and caring for new children and their parents in our church. We get to celebrate new life together, acknowledging our shared responsibility, and trusting God with the future of the youngest members of our church family. It’s a joy to be part of.

Alternatives to MacOS Bartender

2024-06-05T00:00:00Z

This morning MacRumors posted a PSA that Bartender was under new ownership. The company behind Bartender, a very handy utility app allowing users to hide icons in the MacOS menu bar, had silently been sold. The price had been hiked, and it is not clear if the new owners plan to announce themselves… The article ends “The new owner’s intentions are not clear, but as Reddit users have pointed out, the situation raises some red flags.”

With that in mind, here are a couple of alternatives that might be worth exploring:

Vanilla

Before I switched to Bartender, I was using Vanilla. There is a free version and a pro version.

For free, you get the ability to bundle the menu bar icons you don’t want to see into a drawer in the menu bar, just like Bartender.

The pro version costs $10; it’s a one-time purchase that can be used on up to 10 devices. There are a couple of key features, such as the ability to completely hide icons and use keyboard shortcuts. Plus, you get the warm feeling of supporting the developer.

More details at matthewpalmer.net/vanilla.

Ice

I discovered Ice today. It is free and open-source. It has the basic functionality of hiding and completely removing menu bar options, as well as keyboard shortcuts.

My initial feeling was that there are areas that are slightly unpolished (getting the completely hidden apps working nicely wasn’t as easy as I expected). However, the latest commit on the codebase was a couple of days ago, so I’m going to assume that things are only going to get better.

More details at icemenubar.app.

Hidden Bar

Another option I discovered is Hidden Bar, which is free and open-source. However, based on the commits to the codebase, it hasn’t been updated in two years, so I’m not sure if it is still in active development.

More details at github.com/dwarvesf/hidden.

Changing a site's URL slug in Sharepoint

2024-04-02T00:00:00Z

I’ve recently needed to get my head around Sharepoint… as someone who has spent most of their time in Google Workspace this is a whole new world to me! What’s interesting about jumping into the Microsoft 365 is you’re never a few clicks away from uncovering a UI that looks like it was built in 2010. Today’s challenge was trying to change the URL of a Sharepoint site that had started life as ‘Test Group 2’ with the slug ‘testGroup2’… not pretty.

You’ll need to be a Sharepoint administrator to do this…

Go to the Sharepoint Admin Centre
Find the site name that you want to update
Under Site Address you’ll find an edit button and there you’ll be able to update the slug

Once you click apply Sharepoint will make the site readonly while it updates all the different URLs. It will then restore access when it has been completed… so if this is a large well used Sharepoint site, you may want to wait until out of office hours before making that change.

When you change the URL Sharepoint will automatically set up the redirect from the old to the new, so you don’t need to worry about that.

Handling Authy's desktop app deprication

2024-02-15T00:00:00Z

Earlier this week, Twilio publically announced that Authy would be ending their Windows, Linux, and MacOS apps.

Starting March 19, 2024, Twilio Desktop Authy apps will reach their end of life (EOL). Beyond this date, you can access most of the desktop features and functionality in the mobile Authy apps.

It is lovely that I can access ‘most’ of the functionality on via the mobile apps… but what if I need to access the 2fa codes on my Mac? Not helpful.

I’m considering switching away, however in the meanwhile what is the stop gap?

Authy’s iOS app will install on MacOS. Running iOS apps on MacOS is fine. Not great, but fine. You can download it from the App Store.

One thing that caught me out while getting it going was that getting it set up for the first time required me to authenticate via SMS rather than verifying via the app installed on another device. 🤷

It’s good enough for now.

Subscribe to calendar link

2024-01-07T00:00:00Z

Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar have functionality that allow you to subscribe to calendar feeds; add the URL of the feed, and then it will appear (and update) automatically in your calendar. There is a standardised format called ical ^[1], and it contains as you would expect – events on a calendar. This is useful to subscribing to public holiday calendar feeds, key dates within shared within your company, etc.

I’m currently using an iCal feed to power The Globe Church public calendar. Behind the scenes the events are stored in Microsoft365 which exposes an iCal feed, this is then imported to the website (via Eleventy, obviously… have a look at the code if you want), and then from there the feed is parsed, reformatted, and turned into a beautiful page.

This is all fine and wonderfully technical, but what happens when you want to allow a non-technical user to subscribe this calendar in their calendar software of choice (eg on their iPhone Apple Calendar, or the Android Google Calendar, or in their work’s Outlook calendar) so they don’t have to keep on coming back to the website… That sent me down a rabbit hole.

Webcal URIs

WebCal allows you to create and maintain an interactive events calendar or scheduling system on a Web site or app… The Webcal protocol prefix is used to trigger an external protocol handler which is passed the URL of the .ics file rather than being passed the downloaded contents of the file, in much the same way feed is sometimes used to trigger external RSS readers
Webcal on Wikipedia

So, this means that prefixing a link to an ics file with webcal:// should work for alot of things… (Apple Calendar, Outlook, etc)^[2].

If your file is hosted at https://example.com/calendarFeed.ics, this becomes webcal://example.com/calendarFeed.ics. Whack that in an anchor tag (<a href="webcal://…") and test it.

So that’s Outlook, Apple Calendar, etc sorted… what about calendars that are in the browser such as Google Calendar?

Google Calendar has an URL that you can use to add one-off events… and Simon pointed out that you can do something similar with a webcal link:

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/r?cid=webcal://example.com/calendar.ics

Finally, a bit of digging later there is a similar link for Microsoft365:

https://outlook.office.com/calendar/0/addfromweb?url=webcal://example.com/calendar.ics

Put that all together and you have a set a links that you can create to enable people to click and automatically subscribe to a calendar feed.

Something to copy and paste

This is what you’re here for…

<ul>
  <li>
    <a href="webcal://example.com/calendar.ics">Apple Calendar or Outlook</a>
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/r?cid=webcal://example.com/calendar.ics">Google Calendar</a>
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="https://outlook.office.com/calendar/0/addfromweb?url=webcal://example.com/calendar.ics">Microsoft365</a>
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="https://example.com/calendar.ics">iCal Feed</a>
  </li>
</ul>

The final implementation can be seen on the calendar page, and the code is in GitHub.

Thanks to Simon Willison’s blog post Providing a “subscribe in Google Calendar” link for an ics feed which got me a long way towards an answer for this.

Footnotes

Short for iCalendar… which is short for internet calendar. ↩︎
Simon says that “I believe this only works if you are serving your ICS feed over HTTPS”. Worth keeping in mind, but you’re hosting over HTTPS already… right? ↩︎

Discipleship Tech progress in 2023

2023-12-28T00:00:00Z

Over the last year I’ve been giving the Discipleship Tech team a little bit of help on the project management side of things. I’ve known Andy for many years now as we’ve worked together on Kingdom Code, and a couple of years ago we worked together on the Redeeming Time app^[1].

Each year Andy puts out an ‘in review’ blog post, and it’s been so encouraging to see the result of the work that he and Josh have been putting in over the last twelve months. You can read the full thing on the Discipleship Tech blog: 2023 in Review, however I wanted to pull out a couple of highlights, and make a couple of asks in the the process…

PrayerMate Sync

Syncing PrayerMate content between devices has always a little bit problematic^[2]. At BUILD 2022 the PrayerMate team explored doing a desktop/web version of an editor… however the way that everything had been built made the process very slow. So ahead of BUILD 2023 we put together a project to reimplement sync.

One hackathon later– the concept had been poked and tested, and now Josh has a very full backlog of work to fully implement the sync solution that was tested at the hackathon. I’ve been using a dev build for the last couple of weeks which is working nicely. PrayerMate is a big app. There is a lot more work to do before this is ready for primetime release, but it’s moving forwards!

The asks:

Would you be interested in being an early tester of PrayerMate Sync? Please get in touch.
- You don’t need to be a regular user of PrayerMate yet… in-fact if you are someone who struggles with prayer, and the idea of testing an app daily may seems like a good a motivation towards that goal you would be especially welcome.
We’ve got a couple of key usecases for PrayerMate Sync (eg syncing between your personal phone and your work phone, or syncing between your phone and your tablet)… I’m curious to know some of the other use cases that people may have (or want!)– what would PrayerMate Sync enable for you that you can’t do already?

The Serpent & The Seed

The big focus of the time with Discipleship Tech has been supporting The Serpent & The Seed team in building out each scene in the game play. Andy has wanted to build a game for as long as I’ve known him (and longer), this has been in the works properly now for a couple of years. Before getting involved with this project I had no idea how much work producing a game is.

Over 2023 we’ve had a couple of key conferences where the game has been put in people’s hands to play through and test. Acts 1–3 are now in a (more or less) playable state, the illustrated graphics are beautiful, and the team is going to be spending the first month of January racing to polish Act 1 ahead of demoing it at PocketGamer London.

The polishing work over the next year is huge, Act 4 still needed to be built, and the Trello board backlog is mammoth.

The asks:

We are looking for a technical artist to pick up some work to really elevate the lighting, animations, and fine details. Could that be you? Do you know anyone who it might be?
Towards the middle of 2024 we’re going to be looking for some beta testers who are 8–14 years old to put the game through it’s paces.

There is a load of other progress from the DT team– features in PrayerMate and Redeeming Time, new devotional content for PrayerMate, and more. Do read the post from Andy: 2023 in Review.

Footnotes

For Redeeming Time, I threatened to build the app in my non-existant sparetime unless Andy got there first… I gave Andy a bunch of designs, a backlog (that is still being worked through), and a few lines of design related code. ↩︎
A review from the PrayerMate on the Google Play Store: “…syncing is still hit and miss (mostly miss, sadly). I’m disappointed, because other than that, this app is the best of the apps that I’ve seen out there, and works full screen with iPad… If you don’t need to sync across devices, it’d be a good choice.” ↩︎

Adding a git based changelog in 11ty

2023-12-19T00:00:00Z

I had an idea yesterday to pull the last commit detail from the git repo for this site and put it as an HTML comment so I can identify deploy issues quickly. A little bit of googling later I had a couple of extra lines hidden away in the generated HTML. (Go on, right click, view source, and scroll to the bottom)…

<!--
  generator: Eleventy v3.0.0
  last build: production – Tue Dec 18 2023 15:55:02 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
  last commit: https://github.com/jamesdoc/jamesdoc.com/commit/68ae2d9 – Add commit info to debug lines
-->

The implementation was pretty simple:

Get the latest commit message with the git command: git rev-parse --short HEAD
Add the output to 11ty’s data cascade
Expose it in the base template

Which got me thinking… would it be possible to use something similar to get a changelog for each blog post on the site?

Yes it is, here’s the related commit. Or keep reading for a step-by-step explainer.

Get the changelog for a file in git

Git has a log method which shows the changes across the repo. Just type git log and you’ll get a full history of the changes made:

commit 8d5749faa98a16daf55b4eb0465ee67e7742c962 (HEAD -> master, origin/master, origin/HEAD)
Author: James Doc <***@jamesdoc.com>
Date:   Tue Dec 19 12:51:27 2023 +0000

    Add changelog for blog posts

commit 09779dabdc7c726e749ecf4f63de7c63c0b9ffaa
Author: James Doc <***@jamesdoc.com>
Date:   Mon Dec 18 16:13:02 2023 +0000

    Preload tinylytics

It’s much more powerful than that though– by putting a specific filepath after that command you can narrow it down to just display the commits made on that file. Handy.

However, as you can see from the output above, there is a lot of fluff in there that we don’t need. This is where the pretty format modifier comes in. For the changelog I want to display the date of the commit and the subject line, behind the scenes I also want the commit hash so I can link to it. This can be achieved with:

git log --pretty=tformat:"%h | %cs | %s" ./eleventy.js
# tformat - appends a new line after each commit
# %h  - Abbreviated commit hash
# %cs - Date formatted as YYYYMMDD
# %s  - Subject
# Replace ./eleventy.js with a file in your repo

This outputs something like

68ae2d9 | 2023-12-18 | Add commit info to debug lines
0813ab2 | 2023-01-22 | Add albums to now
a153a4c | 2022-11-05 | Social previews
aae3fa2 | 2022-09-12 | Update now
909bef2 | 2022-09-12 | Misc performance tweaks

The pipes (|) are going to be important in a second.

Running the git log command in Eleventy

Now that we have a git command that will get the history of a file, we now need to run that for each page that we’re building^[1]. To do this we’re going to create a filter in 11ty which accepts a file path.

// .eleventy.js (or wherever you store your filters)
const childProcess = require('child_process');

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // The start of your 11ty config…

  eleventyConfig.addFilter("changelog", function(filePath) {
    // Run the git log command
    let fileHistory = childProcess
      .execSync(`git log --pretty=tformat:"%h | %cs | %s" ${filePath}`)
      .toString()
      .trim();

    // If the file isn't committed to git then ignore
    if (fileHistory == "") { return false }

    const fileLog = [];

    // Split the response on a new line (for each commit)
    fileHistory.split(/\r?\n/).forEach((change) => {
      // Split out the string at the pipe
      const commitInfo = change.split(' | ');
      // Destructure the array into named vars
      const [hash, date, subject] = commitInfo;
      // Create a new object with the commit history and push it to the log
      fileLog.push({hash, date, subject});
    });

    return fileLog;
  });

  // The rest of your 11ty config…
}

If you were to log this out to the console, for each file that is fed into the filter you would get an array formatted like this:

// Input ./src/blog/2023/defaults-in-2023.md
[
  { hash: '62657ed', date: '2023-11-25', subject: 'Fix link' },
  { hash: '0ee9b8d', date: '2023-11-24', subject: 'Pocketcasts -> Pocket Casts' },
  { hash: 'd841313', date: '2023-11-24', subject: 'Add links' },
  { hash: 'cbd8031', date: '2023-11-24', subject: 'Default apps' }
]

With this as an array, we can now format it as we want on the frontend.

Handing on the frontend

Because I only want to display this changelog on blog posts, I am updating the post layout file (read about layout in 11ty. 11ty provides a bunch of data at build time about the current page from which we can pull page.inputPath. This enables sending it through the filter that we have just created with page.inputPath | changelog. And from there we can format this as you want.

{% set changeLog = page.inputPath | changelog %}
{% if changeLog %}
<ul role="list">
{% for change in changeLog %}
  <li>{{ change.date }} – <a href="{{ metadata.gitRepo }}commit/{{ change.hash }}" target="_blank" rel="noopener">{{ change.subject }}</a></li>
{% endfor %}
</ul>
{% endif %}

Add some CSS to make it all pretty, and job is a good 'un.

Caveat

There are times where you may not want to display that you updated a post– e.g. you may not want to admit how many typos you corrected in a post, etc… for that rewriting your git history is an amend or a rebase away.

Footnotes

The health warning here is that for each page you run this on you’re going to be extending your build time. If you are doing this over a lot of pages you may only want to run this on production builds only, cache the result, or something else. ↩︎

Running Age of Empires 2 on Apple Silicon

2023-12-16T00:00:00Z

My setup for running Age of Empires 2 is on M1 MacBook Pro running MacOS Sonoma (14.2), the following steps worked for me. Your milage may vary.

Step One: Buy Age of Empires

If you don’t own Age of Empires II Definitive Edition, buying it is a good place to start.

Step Two: Download Porting Kit

To get AoE 2 running nicely on your Apple Silicon Mac you need to have a wrapper around the game that makes the game think that it is running on Windows. Porting Kit does that.

Download Porting Kit

You can read more about what Porting Kits does… if you are so inclined.

Step Three: Make Your Steam Profile Public

By making your Steam profile public Porting Kit can pull a list of the games that you own into a list quickly.

Edit Profile
Privacy Settings
Game details: Public

Step Four: Open up Porting Kit and Install the wrapper for AoE2:DE

You’ll be asked for your Steam username, put that in, and then under Games > Steam Account you’ll find Age of Empires 2, alongside other Windows games that you own.

Click the install button, and then step your way through the installer. It’s all very normal. You’ll even be asked for your password.

Step Five: Install it again

Now that the wrapper has been installed you now need to actually install the game. In Porting Kit, go to Games > Installed and you’ll see AoE in the list. You’ll be able to click a Play button, which will open up Steam.

Sign into Steam, find Ages of Empires 2 Definitive Edition, and install it.

Once that is complete, you’ll be able to play Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition on your Apple Silicon Mac.

Point to note:

Running this is very processor hungry– meaning that if you’re running this on a laptop the battery is going to be drained very quickly.

This blog post replaces the AoE2 on Big Sur post, that for some reason still gets a lot of traffic!

Experimenting with analytics via Tinylytics

2023-12-15T00:00:00Z

The Christmas holidays have begun, which means that I have a bit of time to tinker… I can’t remember when I stopped using Google Analytics, but it was probably when I moved across to using Eleventy. However I recently came across Tinylytics and figured I’d give it a try.

There are a number of GA alternatives out there such as Fathom or Plausible which by all accounts are good, however I’ve always been put off from poking with them because of a lack of basic free tier. This site is a playground, not something that I want to put any $$$ investment into. Tinylytics has a free tier, so let the experimenting begin!

Set up

Sign up and set up for an account is trivially simple; once the account is created you get an ID, a couple of lines of JavaScript to add. Deploy it and then you’re done. Now you’re getting analytic data.

What data?

Tinylytics is tiny– it simply tracks page views. No more, no less. Behind the scenes the domain and path is being POSTed to the Tinylytics server. Nothing else. This enabled a simple dashboard of a list of pages and a hit counter next to them.

What you get out on the Tinylytics page is a list of pages with a number next to them. Helpful for working out which pages are popular, and which ones are not. Or in my case, which posts from many years ago still have good SEO juice even though they are probably very out of date technically!

Helpful things to know

It’ll only track from the domain it is registered to– meaning that local development won’t trigger hits. That’s nice.
You can also ensure that it doesn’t track your hits when running on production. That’s handy too.

What next?

I’m planning to leave this running for the foreseeable future. I highly doubt that I’ll max the 1000 page view limit of the free plan, and see what people are interested on reading here! Turns out that yesterday my post about moving mail from Yahoo Mail to Google Workspace was popular… a whole four hits!

Thanks Vincent.

Default Apps at the End of 2023

2023-11-24T00:00:00Z

There’s been a trend floating around the blogosphere this month looking at the default apps people are using… I like that. This is my list:

📨 Mail Client

I’ve got far too many email addresses… and I’m checking each of them via webmail on the desktop. Mostly Google Workspace / Gmail. I don’t like this solution. I really should get back into a proper mail client in 2024!

📮 Mail Server

For my personal account it’s Google Workspace behind the scenes. I want set and forget. This does that for me.

📝 Notes

I had a time with Notion over the last few years, however I’ve mostly reverted back to markdown files for serious notes, or a one-liner in a WhatsApp chat with myself!

✅ To-Do

At work… Asana. Out of work it’s the wild-west of what I remember next!

📆 Calendar

Cron has been a game changer this year.

📁 Cloud File Storage

I’ve been with Dropbox for forever. I don’t see that changing any time soon.

📖 RSS

Reeder has been in my life for a long time. I recently cleared out all the subscriptions and started again with it.

🌐 Browser

This year I’ve been experimenting with Arc. I can’t get it to stick for web dev work (which I’m still using Chrome for), but for every-day browsing, Arc is working well for me.

💬 Chat

I switching into Beeper half way through the year… having WhatsApp, SMS, Signal, and Telegram all in one makes me very happy.

📑 Read It Later

On a good day Pocket is the tool for the job. My experience with this is that I go in waves with it– I add a lot of things into it, and then forget to go and read the articles, and then looking at the list is overwhelming… So I forget about it and come back to it, wipe it, start again, and then have the same issue all over again.

📜 Word Processing

Google Docs and iA Writer.

📈 Spreadsheets

Rarely. Almost never.

📊 Presentations

Keynote. It’s solid and reliable. I experimented with Presenter from iA last year. I loved it, but I put presentations together so infrequently that I couldn’t justify the sticker price.

🎵 Music

Spotify. Not sure if I should feel bad about this one at the moment.

🦣 Mastodon

Elk as a PWA, across all devices.

🎤 Podcasts

Pocket Casts has been solid for years. It also has a simple Amazon Alexa skill which works well.

🔐 Password Management

I’ve been running off KeePass for years, running MacPass on MacOS, and Keepass2Android on my phone.

Embedding your blog

2023-06-12T00:00:00Z

In some research and development time I’ve been exploring some of the technology behind ChatGPT, and pulling on different contexts for uses of it. One of the more interesting areas where I’ve seen this applied is using a conversational interface. An interface where a user can search a knowledge base, blog posts, set of articles, etc and return not just a set of links (eg as a traditional search engine would), but a couple of paragraphs which answer the question that has been asked.

Behind the scenes, the process of making this possible can be boiled down to a couple of steps:

Convert the user’s search query into a numerical representation.
Find the closest (or nearest) blog post that matches the numerical version of the search term.
Put the original question and the returned blog post through a Large Language Model (LLM) to answer the question.

Numerical representations?

Even though we’ve had search engines for a while, search is not a solved problem. And embeddings are a new tool to help go from a question; to a set of search results.

Consider the following sentences:

The motor in the car is broken
The giraffe has a long neck
The engine in the automotive is defective

As a human reading those items we know that item one and three are pretty much identical, and number two is very different. If we were to plot the sentences by the levels of similarity on a line it would look something like one and three about broken cars being grouped together, and then a long way away the line about the giraffe.

|--1-3----------------------------2--|

Now, if we were to introduce a new sentence about a camel with a long neck we would group it closer to the second sentence. They are both animals with long necks.

This is what is happening with embeddings^[1]. Embeddings are a tool which take a phrase, or a whole blog post, and converts their meaning into a numerical representation. What’s interesting about these embeddings is that you can then start to compare them, or find embeddings that are numerically close.

This is how a new form of search can work– a search term is converted into a numerical format, and then a database of blog posts with their related embeddings can be queried for the closest numerical match or matches. With this list of results we can then give the user a list of blog posts where they might find a good answer.

We can go better than just a list of blog posts…

Now that we’ve got a set of results that are similar to the question, and therefore probably answer the question, we can return the blog posts as a list… as every other search engine does. But Large Language Models enable us to give a little bit extra.

LLMs are really good at summarising content, and you can also give them direction regarding how to summarise that content. So what we can do here is send the content from the closest matched article and the question into the model and then give the LLM a task of taking that content and summarising it with a view on the question.

Now, while you could remove the traditional search listing here, there are plenty of good reasons to keep it in such as the LLM may completely miss the mark on the question, or the user might want to read more information directly from where the answer came from.

Implementing the technology behind this…

Embeddings

To do the embedding matching you need to have a database that is able to store and do the comparisons of the embeddings; there are specific products that you can get for this such as Pinecone. However if, like me, you’d rather not pump your data into another hosted SaaS platform there is an extension for pSQL databases called pgVector which does the job nicely. If you’re using AWS, RDS has pgVector installed by default in all 15.2+ databases, you just need to enable the extension.

There are a number of different services that you can use to generate the embeddings, but OpenAI’s API is wonderfully simple to use, so it’s a good place to start. You take a string an send it across:

const { Configuration, OpenAIApi } = require("openai");

// Generate embeddings for given content
const getEmbeddings = async (content) => {
 const configuration = new Configuration({ apiKey: process.env.OPEN_AI })
 const openAI = new OpenAIApi(configuration)

 const embeddings = await openAI.createEmbedding({
 model: 'text-embedding-ada-002',
 input: content,
  });

 return embeddings;
}

Completions

Completions is the technology that you see behind ChatGPT where the LLM completes based on a prompt text. In our example you have to feed a prompt which contains the blog post returned as the closest match from the embedding search, and the question that is being asked of it.

Obviously here’s where you need to be careful about what you’re feeding in; you’ll want to be careful that you’re not sending across a load of user data as part of that prompt.

const { Configuration, OpenAIApi } = require("openai");
const configuration = new Configuration({ apiKey: process.env.OPEN_AI });
const openAI = new OpenAIApi(configuration);

// Answer a question based on a given blog post
const answerQuestion = async (question, contextText) => {
 const prompt = `
    You are an assistant who provides answers to questions.

    Given the following context, answer the question using only
    that information. If you are unsure, or the answer is not
    explicitly written in the context, say "Sorry, I don't know
    how to help with that."

    Context: """
 ${contextText}
    """

    Question: """
 ${question}
    """
  `;

 const completionResponse = await openAI.createCompletion({
 model: 'text-davinci-003',
 prompt,
  });

 return completionResponse;
}

Wrapping up

By combining embedding generation and completions, you can then make an interface which provides answers based on your company’s knowledge base on blog posts. It’s neat, and not overly complicated to do. With all things that rely on external APIs though; you’ve got to be careful of the price, and what happens if that API goes away (see also Twitter and Reddit APIs).

Footnotes

Yes, embeddings are slightly more complicated than that… but I didn’t take maths beyond my GCSEs, so I’m going to keep it simple here. ↩︎

Implementing View Transitions in Two Minutes

2023-05-29T00:00:00Z

At the moment view transitions are still being implemented, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t get ahead of the curve and experiment with them. However they’re not enabled by default; so in Chrome Canary you’ll need to toggle the following settings first:

chrome://flags#view-transition
chrome://flags#view-transition-on-navigation

Cross fade

The default behaviour for view transitions is a simple cross fade between two pages and to get that working all you need to do is add this meta tag to the <head> of your page:

<meta name="view-transition" content="same-origin">

Deploy that, and you’re done. This will give you a cross fade between every page. Nice and neat.

Going further

There’s a lot more power in view transitions, but that will take you more than two minutes to implement. However, not by much; 28 lines of CSS, and 3 tweaks to the HTML later and there is a nice tween between the blog listing page and the blog post itself. You can see the related commit on Github.

More words

Many more words have been shared about view transitions… I have particularly enjoyed and benefited from these ones:

Conversational Actions Sunset– How to carry on the conversation

2023-05-29T00:00:00Z

If you have a Conversational Action

Continue the conversation

Now is the time to let your customer base know what is happening. Google has included a message when users invoke the action, but you can proactively communicate to your customers so they know they can continue the conversation via your other channels.

If you have an Alexa Skill, a chatbot on your website, or more traditional customer support, direct them there. Proactive communication on your social media or email list will go a long way to help customers navigate the transition. And don’t neglect the messaging on your marketing and support pages; make sure these are updated so customers are not left confused.

Explore what people are asking Google

Just because users won’t be able to ask your Conversational Action, it doesn’t mean that they’re not asking Google Assistant about your brand. Do you know if the answers are accurate?

The latest Voice Consumer Index indicated that 25% have Google Assistant devices in their homes or hands, and 43% are asking Google Assistant for answers to questions.

Now is the time to focus on optimising your website. Get a comprehensive VSEO (Voice SEO) audit to improve your website copy, and use structured data to optimise a step further. While you are undergoing platform change, doing this work matters more than ever.

Prepare to turn off your servers

On June 13, 2023, Google will stop directing traffic from Conversational Actions, which means that you’ll have server resources behind the scenes that are suddenly no longer required. Now is a good time to review your infrastructure to ensure that you are not spending money on cloud resources that are not being used.

Similarly, ensure you have a backup of your codebase (you may want to review it in the future), and we’d encourage reviewing the user data that you may be storing to ensure that you still require it.

What does this mean for Alexa?

In our last post on this subject, we asked, does this impact Alexa? The answer was no back then, and the answer today is still no! Amazon continues to develop and grow the Alexa platform, and independent reports are saying that Amazon is actively working on integrating similar technology as the ones behind ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. It’s certainly not too late to explore migrating your Conversational Action to an Alexa Skill. And if you need ideas on how, get in touch.

Do I need to think about ChatGPT?

Yes! Large Language Models (LLMs) are creating huge opportunities for you to design personalised conversations with your customers, whether that’s via a chatbot, voice, in your app, or beyond. There are plenty of areas to explore how LLMs can carry on the conversation that Conversational Actions are dropping.

Need some help?

Whether it is for support crafting a communication plan, improving your Voice SEO, implementing a migration to Amazon Alexa, or exploring the opportunities that Large Language Models bring for your business, we’re here to help. Book a free 30-minute call with the team to see how we might support you and your business.

Rebuilding 11ty on a schedule

2023-02-10T00:00:00Z

On a recent Eleventy project I needed a calendar of upcoming events. One of the challenges that a static site generator brings is that when the site is built, it is fixed… some may even go as far to say it is static. The implication of this, is that there’s no dynamic pulling from a database when a user loads the page. So, if you have a section saying ‘events happening today’ that will very quickly, within 24 hours, start displaying out of date information.

TL;DR:

Set up a Build Hook in Netlify.
Create a GitHub Action to run on a schedule, code example below.
Don’t commit your build hook URL or ID to your repo, that would be silly.

Normally with 11ty, you just need to update a website when the content is changing. Netlify makes this very simple, hooking into a push to the main branch. To do the deploys a set times, requires something slightly different via GitHub Actions.

GitHub Actions has a huge number of triggers from pushing to a branch, opening an issue, or merging a pull request. The trigger needed here is running on a schedule. Schedule follows standard cron syntax. The documentation provides some heavy caveats in it such as delays during high loads, so I wouldn’t recommend this for specific time sensitive work… but it’s good enough for a daily build task.

Alongside an Action, you’re also going to need a Netlify Build Hook. When the Build Hook received a POST request, Netlify kicks of a new build. The URL looks like this: api.netlify.com/build_hooks/########, but with those hashes as a unique ID. You’ll want to keep that secret, so bring that ID into GitHub as an encrypted secret in your repository with the name NETLIFY_BUILD_HOOK_ID. Actions will read it, but not expose it publically.

To get Actions working you’ll need to create a new yml file at the root .github/workflows/auto-deploy.yml with the following ^[1]:

name: "Auto-Deploy"

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '30 1 * * *' # At 1:30am every day

jobs:
  deploy:
    name: 'Auto Deploy'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Deploy to Netlify
        env:
          TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NETLIFY_BUILD_HOOK_ID }}
        run: curl -X POST -d {} https://api.netlify.com/build_hooks/${TOKEN}

Now, when you push this change to GitHub the new Action will be live, ready to run daily at 1.30am every day.

The schedule task doesn’t just have to be used for doing a deploy via Netlify. You could self host this somewhere, and use GitHub Actions to SSH into your server and trigger npx @11ty/eleventy (or however you build your 11ty site).

Footnotes

The original version of this used fjogeleit/http-request-action@v1, until Michelle Barker pointed out that Actions can run cURL directly. ↩︎

Leaving the Birdsite

2023-01-21T00:00:00Z

I’m keeping my account open… I’ll even log in every now and again to keep the account appearing active because I don’t want my username to vanish. But I think that my activity on Twitter is now at and end.

Many words (more eloquent that what I’ll write) have been written talking about what’s been happening in the Twitterland over the last months, and realistically the last few years. At best it’s been expressed as ‘not a nice place to be’, through to it’s a pretty dangerous place to be. I resonate with them all.

I’ve been on the edge of stepping away for a while, gone are the days of regular posting on Twitter, or even scrolling through it. The thing that has been the final nail has been the blocking of third party apps to Twitter over the last week^[1]. Third party apps were the way that I have always engaged with Twitter, from the early days of downloading something that ran on Adobe Air, through players that have been with us for the long term such as Tweetbot or Twitterfic. All of these tools are now dead without notice or warning.

It was a nice run of things, but now it’s time to move on. I’m over on Mastodon these days. Remembering the early days of Twitter, where I learnt a lot from really interesting people who were sharing blog posts with clever tricks, made new friends, and posted pictures of cats. All the third party clients are there, and they are growing nicely.

I’ve also used this as an opportunity to prune out the Twitter Card code that I’ve been putting onto various websites for years now. I don’t think we need that any more.

Footnotes

The Verge: Twitter officially bans third-party clients with new developer rules ↩︎

Install a custom font into a Netlify Docker Container

2022-11-05T00:00:00Z

This weekend I’ve been implementing automatically generated opengraph images for blog posts as a quick experiment for a side project I’ve been planning. There are number of methods to achieve this, Bernard Nijenhuis’ Eleventy only solution is really neat^[1]. I’ve followed that implementation (related commit) and it’s working really nicely^[2].

The issue is that my modifications (and design for the social graphic) relies on having a custom font install at build time. That’s not something that Netlify has in place.

So… how do you get around this minor issue? You install the font.

Netlify spins up a Docker container to run your build, this means that you can run a bash script in the container:

#!/bin/sh

# Make a local font folder
mkdir ~/.local/share/fonts

# Copy the font from the repo to the right place
cp src/_assets/fonts/space400.ttf ~/.local/share/fonts/space400.ttf

# Reload the font cache
fc-cache -f -v

Then, in package.json file for the script that Netlify runs we can trigger that bash script to be run before anything else (such as the 11ty build) kicks off.

  "scripts": {
    "dev": "ELEVENTY_ENV=development eleventy --serve --incremental & mix watch",
    "netlify": "bash utils/fontInstall.sh && ELEVENTY_ENV=production eleventy && mix --production"
  },

Magically the custom font is installed and is now available for any requirements you have later on, like generating a whole bunch of social media graphics.

The tweaks to make this work are all in a commit for reference. Many thanks to Bernard for open sourcing his 11ty site.

Footnotes

The basic summary is that 11ty can be used to generate more than html files. Eg, it can generate svg files, and then the 11ty Image plugin can convert an svg to a jpg… Pull this together and you can get a unique svg for each blog post or page, and then that svg can be turned into an image ready to be served up as an open graph graphic. ↩︎
When I say really nicely… all the images are generated, however it turns out that I’m generating a lot of images which has slightly slowed down a fresh build (thank you 11ty caching for saving the day there). ↩︎

Reflecting on BUILD 2022

2022-11-03T00:00:00Z

BUILD 2022 was our seventh year coming together for a weekend of work, merging our tech skills with our Christian faith. This year saw the return of many people who have been with us since the beginning, and a number of new faces and ministries coming together for a weekend of cross-church of productivity, focus, community building, and worship.

How good and pleasant…

One of the joys of an event like BUILD is the time and space to join with Christian believers from all different churches across the UK and beyond. Alasdair Munday, software developer now training to lead a church, led us in a time of worship throughout our time together, digging deep into Psalm 133, “How good and pleasant it is, when God’s people live together in unity!” Alasdair led us in thinking deeply about what it looks like for us to fulfill the intentions that God has for us as the church, and one of those designs is to be united as we live and work together.

One of the ways that this works out in practice at BUILD is through all the participants joining together in teams to work on specific projects, however, avoiding the element of competition. Instead we encourage people to jump between projects as the need arises, to make sure each one was a success.

Nia, one of the designers in the room, came to BUILD for the first time this year and described the hackathon as:

…really encouraging to be surrounded and work alongside fellow Christians who want to create technology for God’s Kingdom!

It’s not a competition but…

Unity, collaboration, working and worshiping together are some of the key tenants of the hackathon, so BUILD is never a competition. However, it is right to highlight some of the exciting and impactful work that has been completed during the time together.

Each year we ask those attending to vote for particular favourites, this year’s two categories were ‘the project with the biggest potential for Kingdom impact’, and ‘the other project I’d have liked to work on’.

The project with the biggest potential for Kingdom impact was Bible Trainer, focusing on verse memorisation. The project was initially kicked on at BUILD 2018 as an android app, this year John Redeemed brought it back to explore building in voice recognition- allowing a user to speak the memorized scripture and then be corrected as they go. Another angle which they explored was using Amazon Alexa to help users listen and repeat the passage back. Both elements of the project are still being worked on and we’ll let you know when they go live.

The other project that gained attention as being the one people would have liked to work on besides their team was Upsio, a warehouse tool designed specifically for the needs of foodbanks. During the course the weekend they devised a way of categorising containers of food within a foodbank and a quick and easy method of seeing and checking the best-before dates to ensure that the food is distributed before it goes out of date on the shelf. Initially this project will be trialed in Shrewsbury, but the hope is that it will be able to be shared across many foodbanks going forwards.

We were also encouraged to be joined by ministries such as Stewardship, ChurchSuite, and Compassion who all came with different projects which are going to go on to serve the ministries in different ways. You can read more about ChurchSuite’s project and their experience on their blog post ‘Coding for the Kingdom’.

2023…

This was year seven, and we’re looking forward to year eight in 2023! Mark your calendars for BUILD 2023 on 13–14th October! Think you’d like to participate in a hackathon? We welcome all sorts of skillsets including project managers, designers, innovators, developers…. We would love to have you join us next year.

Find out more at kingdomcode.org.uk/build

Goodbye Conversational Actions… what next?

2022-08-01T00:00:00Z

We’ve been building for the Google Assistant platform, creating experiences that users can access from devices such as phones and home hubs.

Last month, however, the Google Assistant team announced that they will ‘sunset’ Conversational Actions next year. This decision takes away the routes for brands to have standalone custom experiences on Google Assistant.

An announcement on their developer blog states:

“…we’ve decided to focus our efforts on making app actions with android the best way for developers to create deeper, more meaningful voice-forward experiences. as a result, we will turn down Conversational Actions one year from now, in June 2023.”

Google has affirmed their commitment to voice interfaces – just not through Conversational Actions. Instead, they want to focus on App Actions (exposing functionality of Android Apps through voice) and Content Actions (exposing website content through voice).

If you’ve got a Conversational Action in play

Today your live Conversational Action is unaffected – there will be no change of service just yet. But as of June 2023, Google Assistant will stop routing requests to these custom Conversational Actions, and they will stop functioning.

This means that you have eleven months to review your voice strategy and implement a transition over to App and Content Actions to continue benefiting from Google Assistant.

App Actions provide an interface directly into the features of your app – allowing users to access features and data within it frictionlessly, via voice. Strava have implemented this to allow their users to say ‘Start my run on Strava’ and be taken straight to recording their run in the app. Amazon have implemented this in their Android app: users saying ‘Buy headphones on Amazon’ will be taken directly into the app, searching for headphones.

Content Actions brings optimised content from your website directly into Google Assistant. Use cases for this range from troubleshooting and answering important user questions, to providing recipes and news updates.

At Vixen Labs, we are partnering with our clients to support them as they develop and grow their voice strategy, and prepare to transition their work with Google Assistant to App Actions and Content Actions.

Does this have any impact on Amazon Alexa?

Not at all! Amazon is doubling down on functionality for Alexa, and custom Alexa Skills continue to grow, including going to the moon. In fact, at the annual Alexa Live conference in July, they announced how they are making it easier for brands to leverage the functionalities of Alexa, and bring custom Alexa Skills into the daily routines of users’ lives.

What do to next?

If you want to explore voice interactions with your app via App Actions, talk about optimising your site for Content Actions and voice search, or want to discuss voice strategy more broadly, book a free 30-minute call with the Vixen Labs team to see how we might support you and your business.

Preventing Google Chrome from Hijacking Your Media Keys

2022-03-31T00:00:00Z

Chrome likes to steal your media keys - the play/pause buttons on your keyboard and then map them through to YouTube, or similar media. This is regardless of if Chrome has focus, or if the tab has focus - you can have a paused YouTube window in the background, want to pause your music via Spotify, hit the pause button on your keyboard… and suddenly you have Spotify still playing, and the YouTube video.

Nightmare.

To stop that from happening Chrome has a setting that you can toggle to disable this:

chrome://flags/#hardware-media-key-handling

Copy that URL into the address bar, switch the setting from default, to disabled, and then reopen Chrome.

I’m documenting this here because every nine months (or so) I forget this, and need to look it up.

Using Airtable as a CMS for Eleventy

2022-01-17T00:00:00Z

On a recent project I’ve been experimenting with adding Airtable as a content management system for Eleventy (11ty). Below I document the notes around how I’ve got a simple set up running…

Because tech posts tend to date, I’m using the following npm packages… there may be modifications needed for newer (or older) releases!

@11ty/eleventy: v0.12.1
@11ty/eleventy-cache-assets: 2.3.0
airtable: 0.11.1

I’m going to make some assumptions- firstly that you know how to use Airtable, and you have a basic table set up already. And secondly you know the basics of 11ty.

To summerise what we’re aiming for… when 11ty generated the site it will pull data in from a table view within Airtable, and then use that to populate a page or create a set of pages, and we’re going to make sure that it is cached for a day for local development.

An early commit of this work can be found in Github, and the resulting Airtable powered page is the Kingdom Code Jobs board.

.gitignore

Because we’re setting a cache, and we’re going to need an environment file to store the Airtable API key we want to make sure that we’re never going to commit these things to the git repo. In your .gitignore file add the following:

.cache
.env

Install your packages

The three packages we’re using here are:

Eleventy Cache Assets- to locally cache what we get from Airtable so we don’t need to go back to Airtable every time we make a change during development.
Airtable JS Library - to do the heavy lifting of talking to Airtable and handling the response
dotenv - so we don’t have to hard code any API keys into our code.

npm install @11ty/eleventy-cache-assets airtable dotenv

Get the details from Airtable

From Airtable you’re going to need the following things:

An API key. You get this from the account page within Airtable, and find the API section.
The table or base ID - this is the first ID string in the URL when you open a new table
The base view name - this is the name that you’ve given your filtered data in the sidebar on the left in Airtable.

The API key should get placed into a new .env file in the root folder. We don’t want that in our git repo though- so make sure it is in your .gitignore:

AIRTABLE_API = "API KEY FROM AIRTABLE"

Create a JavaScript data file

You can export data from a JavaScript file to add data, too. This allows you to execute arbitrary code to fetch data at build time. ^[1]

This means that we can do an API call to Airtable as the site builds - and the data that is returned is automagically exposed to our templates.

Example code is in the gist below, but in summary what we’re doing here is:

Setting up a new item within the 11ty cache with new AssetCache(assetCacheId);
Checking if the cached item exists or is valid, if it is, then returning it rather than calling the Airtable API with if (asset.isCacheValid("1d"))
Using the Airtable JS library we pull the data from a specific view in our table: base(airtableTable).select({…. We could do a lot of filtering of the data in JavaScript, but I prefer to keep this in Airtable so it is possible for a non-technical editor to see what is going to be published.
With the data returned we add it to the 11ty cache: asset.save(allDatasets, "json"); before resolving the JS promise with the data.

View the gist on github

Build a page with your data

At this stage you can make a test with your new data. With 11ty anything within the data folder is exposed in the global data structure with the file name as the key in the data object. So if you’ve named your data file airtableData.js, you’re able to access in your views with {{ airtableData }}.

This means that in a new view you’ll be able to have the following to test your view:

{% if airtableData.length %}
  {% for item in airtableData %}
    {{ item | dump }}
  {% endfor %}
{% else %}
  <p>No data pulled from Airtable</p>
{% endif %}

When you trigger an 11ty build the first time round 11ty will pull the data from Airtable, store the returned JSON in the .cache folder, and then deliver it to the template for you to use as any other data in 11ty.

Bonus task - deploy 11ty from Airtable (via Netlify)

I’m hosting most of my 11ty projects with Netlify which has the deploys triggered by commit. By pulling the data out of the deploy push to deploy doesn’t work… so it would be nice to be able to trigger the deploy from Airtable.

Helpfully, Netlify gives you a ‘Build Hook’ URL, even on the free plan. You can read all about build hooks on the Netlify Documentation, however the summary is that you submit a POST to the unique URL, and a deploy is triggered.

Airtable allows you build custom ‘apps’ in each table, which can be hooked up to run some JavaScript… so three lines of JS later and you have a very simple deploy button within Airtable:

const deployHook = "https://api.netlify.com/build_hooks/[[ YOUR HOOK ID ]]";
output.markdown(`Deploying to **Netlify**.`);
const request = await fetch(deployHook, {method: 'POST'});

Very simple… there’s lots of areas where this can be improved on, but it’s simple enough to do the job.

Footnotes

Reference from 11ty Documentation: JavaScript Data Files ↩︎

Taking off the Bowtie; Hello Sleeve

2022-01-08T00:00:00Z

Bowtie is an app that I’ve been using pretty much since I switched to running a Mac. A simple utility application; it hooks into iTunes, Spotify, etc and displays the currently playing track on the desktop. It’s simple, elegant, customisable, and regrettably abandoned.

Despite not receiving an update since 2012(!) it runs perfectly well, but I’ve always tried to keep half an eye out for replacements; and I’ve recently found that replacement – Sleeve from Replay Software.

Where it matches Bowtie…

Like Bowtie, Sleeve hooks into your media player and displays the track name you’re listening to, the artist, album, and album art work. It can be configured to sit on your desktop, or float above your open windows to keep the information always visible.

A recent update to Sleeve added Last.fm support, so you can automatically scrobble your listening to that service. I’ve been pushing my listening to Last.fm since 2016, and I’m not planning on stopping any time soon!

You can optionally enable media buttons through it to play/pause, go forwards / back… but with media keys on your keyboard, I’m not completely sure why you would want to enable this.

Where it differs Bowtie…

Bowtie has a remarkable number of different themes which you could (and still can) download from the ‘Bowcase’. The optionally within Sleeve is impressive - and the design of the preference window is excellent, if you’re coming from Bowtie you may miss the array of themes.

Looking ahead, Sleeve ships with Apple Silicon for the new M1 processors support out of the box which will guarantee longevity for when Apple inevitably drop Intel support in a MacOS update down the road.

While it’s not free (like Bowtie is), it is only £3.71 ($5 with current exchange rates), I’m going to use it every day which means it’ll work out a little over a penny per day! I’d say it is worth it. I don’t see myself returning to Bowtie.

Sleeve can be purchased from replay.software/sleeve.

Clearing a Slack Channel History

2021-07-19T00:00:00Z

Today I had the challenge of wiping a Slack workspace/team of all the chat history. There isn’t a handy one click button to do this. The slow way around this is to go through each channel one by one, deleting the channel and then recreating it. This works with everything until you get to the #general channel (or whatever it was set up to be).

There are a couple of Chrome extensions which promise to go through a given channel and delete each message one by one. They either don’t work, or would have charged me money to (probably) not work. They might have worked a while ago, however Slack has changed, updated APIs, etc, and now they are dead.

Further reading of the internet led me a solution which involved a very small amount of code (Python) and toying with the Slack API.

⚠️ Being a tech post relying on a third party API and code tinkering, give it a couple of ~~years~~ weeks and it’ll be out of date like those Chrome extensions. The year of writing is 2021^[1].

Slack Cleaner 2 or slack_cleaner2 is the library of choice for this exercise. As with most things in the Python world you can install it via pip (pip3 install slack_cleaner2), or pull it straight into a Docker container if that’s your thing.

Slack Cleaner 2 is a wrapper around the Slack API, so you’ll need an API key. In Slack API tools you’ll need to:

Create a new app, and pick which workspace/team you want it to work in. I called mine Slack Wiper…
Go to the OAuth & Permissions section from the sidebar and give your new app User Token Scopes (note: this is different from bot scopes). The scopes you need will vary depending on what you need to delete (public channel history, private channel history, 1-1 direct messages, etc). For deleting messages from a channel you need: users:read, channels:read, channels:history, chat:write ^[2].
With the permissions set, you can then scroll to the top of the OAuth & Permissions page, and click the ‘Install to Workspace’ button. This will ask you to double check the permissions and will then give you a User OAuth Token.

The API access is all setup, and the permissions are granted. In a text editor you can copy-and-pasta the following python code into a new file called cleaner.py, replacing the OAuth token, and channel name as appropriate:

from slack_cleaner2 import SlackCleaner
s = SlackCleaner("PUT-YOUR-USER-OAUTH-TOKEN-HERE", sleep_for=1)

for msg in s.c['replace-with-channel-name'].msgs(with_replies=True):
  msg.delete()

👆 For each message in the channel name (including message threads)… delete it.

Save that file somewhere sensible… like your desktop… (why not!) And then run it with:

python3 ~/Desktop/cleaner.py

That’s assuming that you saved it to the desktop… But you’re smart right?

It’ll take it’s time, just deleting a message each second. If you have a particularly large channel history it may timeout, but you can run the same command again and it’ll start again where it left off.

Footnotes

If you tried this and this didn’t work, please don’t come crying to me. Go cry over here, and then let me know where this post goes wrong. ↩︎
There is a list of the other standard use cases in the Slack Cleaner 2 readme. ↩︎

Review - Anker Webcam PowerConf C300

2021-05-08T00:00:00Z

As the whole ‘working-from-home’ thing became a thing the built in camera on my laptop decided that it was a good time to die. And because everyone else had a need to buy a webcam there was a bit of a shortage, that meant that I ended up with a perfectly functional stop gap. Recently Anker entered the webcam and conferencing gear, were offering a decent discount, so I decided that now was the time to upgrade to their new PowerConf C300.

The camera has been marketed as a webcam that will work as well in the conference room, as it will in the home office set up. And it does that by having a really wide angled lens built in, which then uses clever internal image processing to optimise the output putting your face in the centre of the frame. Another feature that it talks up is the the auto-focus which will automatically swap focus on objects held up to the camera in “just 0.35 seconds”.

That’s the talk… in my step-up the camera excels in mixed lighting conditions. My basement flat is almost always dark, and camera returns a really clear shot without extra help. Previously I’ve needed to have extra lights on around me so that I wouldn’t just come out grainy. The light balance on the camera is great, and it’s nice not to have to have the extra lights in my face.

The auto tracking feature works - it keeps me in frame when I move about. It’s a bit laggy at point, but I’ll get over that. I don’t move around that much! Where it does get confused is when there is activity in the background - I’ll be talking on the camera, my wife walks through the background and suddenly the camera automagically zooms out and tries to put us both in shot. That’s just trying to be a little bit too clever and not quite making it.

Where the lagginess really comes to the forefront when trying the close up object autofocus. I don’t doubt that when the camera internals realise that there is an object in front, it will swap the focus quickly… it just takes a long time to clock that there is something there! However, in all reality I’ve never had to use this functionality. I tend to sit in front of the camera and talk, rather than wave objects.

A small win that I am really thankful for is that the cable between the webcam and the computer is detachable, and therefore replaceable. With the home office set up being picked up and move around, the cables are getting a lot of wear at the moment, and knowing that the weakest part of the camera can be replaced quickly and cheaply is reassuring.

My reflections are that the webcam is good, but a couple of rough edges away from making it excellent. I think it is expensive (especially without the early discount). It’s certainly a massive upgrade from the previous camera which ‘did the job’, the video quality is good, head tracking in handy, but has room for more polish.

Preparing to Move to Hybrid Church

2021-05-05T00:00:00Z

“I’m already sick of the term hybrid” one of my friends told me over the weekend; “I’m hearing it so much at the moment”. Everything is trying to work out how to become hybrid - for example the restaurants and pubs doing bookings and food orders over your phone, or the choirs who are meeting in smaller groups and then stitching their recordings together. And when it comes to thinking about hybrid church – balancing traditional in-person gatherings with the digital expressions of church we have been using for the last 12 months – perhaps you come to it with some level of fear.

For many the prevailing view is that, yet again, this is new ground, and we wish that everything would hurry up and get back ‘to normal’. Some church leaders (and tech teams) are just counting down the days until the live stream can be turned off!

However, I’m convinced that the church has always been hybrid - it’s always had its foot on both sides of the technological gathering. You can see that in the early church, and you can see that in the church ever since.

The Church has Always Been Hybrid

If you think of technology as something manmade which extends human capacity this begins to rethink how we see technology. The wheel was cutting edge technology once, I still think it’s pretty cool, but we’ve stopped thinking about how it extends our capacity and our reach because it is so normal.

If you pull out your Bible and come with me to 2 John 1v12. John is writing a letter to encourage someone, to keep them walking with Jesus and he rounds off his letter with this:

I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

We could say that John just doesn’t want to write a long letter, but there is something very insightful about how technology (the pen and quill) and humans come together. He knows the strengths and limitations of the tech. He knows that he can use it to encourage and warn, but it is limited. Tech and tech alone will never ‘complete joy’ So John (and all the letter writers in the Bible) run a hybrid ministry where they write, and the plan and long to visit the churches.

I could draw your attention to many churches and ministries over the last 2000 years that have done this kind of hybrid work… ministries that used planes after the World Wars, radio ministries that broadcasted into closed countries and then linked people up with local believers, or even Spurgeon who had a hybrid ministry so that his sermons were available in New York just a few days after preaching. The Reverend Chad Varah in the 1950’s, as he founded The Samaritans, realised that with tech he could save the lives of people in his parish by making it possible for desperate people to call his vicarage phone so they could just talk. That hybrid work saw many people’s first interaction with the church happening at the point of greatest need, mediated by technology, but also drew them one step closer to seeing Christ as they spoke.

Your Church has Always Been Hybrid

Your church might have transitioned from the tech of a song book to an overhead projectors in the '80s and 90’s, probably a data projector or a screen to enable your congregation to sing. Once upon a time you might have operated a tape or CD ministry for those who couldn’t make it into the church… perhaps you run a parish magazine to speak to your wider community.

The question is not how do we do hybrid church. We’ve been doing hybrid church for years. The question is how do we do hybrid church better?!

Okay… so if your church has always been hybrid, let’s think about something that it has never been! Your church has always been hybrid, but it has never been a spectator sport.

Your Church has Never been a Spectator Sport

For the last year it has been far too easy to be a passive consumer of church; someone who sits on the sofa, turns on the livestream, ‘does church’, and that’s them done for the week. And, on top of that your church has had to compete for a set of distracted eyes scrolling through InstaTok, Disflix Prime, and all the rest…

But church isn’t something that we passively spectate in. Perhaps you’ve experienced the sadness and frustration of joining a pre-record or a livestream, perhaps even weeping that it doesn’t match what we long for it to be. We’ve realised that broadcasting a service like BBC’s Songs of Praise is a long way off the ‘complete joy’ that John longs for. John isn’t satisfied by that, we’ve not been satisfied by that, and we shouldn’t let ourselves become satisfied by that.

Something I learnt as a teenager - no matter how good your sound system is (or your friend’s sound system) there is nothing that compares to listening your favourite band (or chamber choir if that’s your thing) playing live. The musician’s performance is part of it, but so is the anticipation of going, and so are the people you go with, and the crowd that you join.

This week I read a statistic that said that over 40% of dating couples over the last few years had met online. I’m not sure of the validity of that number, but I can believe it. But while they meet online, they don’t purely stay online. A number of friends who have started dating during the last 12 months have immediately prioritised meeting and spending time together. It’s not that technology has gone out of the window - they’re still using video calls, text messages, and all the rest to communicate, but that’s not where the relationship stops. Our relationships are hybrid, but online should lead to spending time in person. This is the same for your church.

People will meet your church for the first time online, but don’t be satisfied with just viewers on a livestream. Work to build up that connection, strive to deepen the relationship. We’re made for human connection - Genesis 2v18 makes that clear; the first thing that isn’t good in all of creation is the loneliness of Adam, and in Jesus, God took on flesh – he didn’t settle for text messages on tablets, he came and walked among us.

We’ve seen that serving your church family and local community through online services has enabled people who wouldn’t previously have been able to come into your building on Sundays be connected with Sunday worship - those who work shift patterns, who are elderly, those who are disabled, or ill that week. There are plenty of reasons why people can’t come to your service this Sunday - but we mustn’t suggest that we’ve solved that problem with the livestream which is available for catch up later.

Doing ‘hybrid church’ isn’t leaning on digital tools like it’s a crutch- but carefully considering how these tools might encourage, extend, and improve your church’s ability to proclaim Christ. For the first time you’ve been able to include those who would have been excluded. Please note that I’m not saying that you need to go straight from watching a service to being a signed up Sunday attender singing in the choir, that would be like going from online dating to marriage, and switching off that provision might be tragic… But so would settling for leaving them at the digital fringe of your family. So how might you start to think beyond the broadcast, and make provisions for that person who just joins your livestream to be part of a community that encourages and spurs them on, that meets their needs, in person?

Remember - your church has always been hybrid. This isn’t about starting something new, instead thinking about how you might improve and bring together the new tools that you’ve learnt to use recently. Some bits are going to stay online, some bits are going to return in person, some physical gatherings will have digital elements, some digital gatherings will have physical elements.

These connections with your church that have started online, they will continue to be facilitated online, some of the practices that we’ve introduced have really blessed the church family - my church runs Tuesday Morning Prayer on Zoom before work, over breakfast, it’s been transformational for a number of us - but hybrid church is going to be able working out how to serve our church family best both online and in digital spaces.

A Couple of Starting Questions…

Do you know who is coming online?
Have you thought about running a survey to find that out?
Do you know why they are coming?
Do you know what their needs are?
How might you work to draw them closer into your church family so that you can show them more of the gospel?

That might be posting a gift or a card, it might be linking them up with one or two people in their neighbourhood, it might be linking them up with a different church family that are geographically closer to them, it might be arranging to do some shopping so you can have a chat on the doorstep, it might be picking up the phone and individually inviting them to come to church with you on Sunday.

We’re not going to “get it right” first time. We didn’t get the livestream right first time, or the Zoom prayer meetings, or the Minecraft youth group… but we learnt, we improved, and we innovated over the last 12 months. We’re going to have a lot of opportunities to do that in the months ahead.

This was originally given as a talk for Premier Digital as part of their Technology for the Hybrid Church seminar.

Glorifying God and Writing Code

2021-04-29T00:00:00Z

Ahead of the launch of Stewardship launching their new CauseFinder tool I spoke with Joel Leakey about how Jesus is a technologist.

So, you have Kingdom Code, LiveWires, and OneSheep – could you give us a brief summary of those?

The heart behind Kingdom Code is to work with Christians who are in the tech world. Helping them see that it’s not that they’re a Christian on Sunday and a technologist in their 9–5; the person God makes you gets expressed in lots of different spaces. So it’s not about whether you work for a corporate organisation or if you work for a church. Kingdom Code is about helping people think about how God has given them an innovative influence in the world of tech, and how technology knowledge gives you an innovative influence in church. What does it look like to shape the world of tech for Christ? What does it look like to bring God’s kingdom there?

LiveWires is working with young teenagers who are interested in tech, and we want to show them Christ. It is an evangelistic and discipleship summer camp for children. We get 30-40 kids a year, and we get them for a week, teaching them how to write Python code, solder electronics boards, and do video post-production. At the same time we teach them and introduce them to Christ.

OneSheep again sits at the intersection of Christianity and technology, saying, ‘We want to help Christian organisations use technology to further their ministry.’

If Jesus was a coder instead of a carpenter, how do you think he would spend his day-to-day life?

Jesus as the carpenter is the technician of his day. We think the Bible says nothing about technology yet it is a written document full of the technology of its day. Paul didn’t have a mobile phone, he used technology to serve and equip the church – while also using technology to build tents. So what does it look like when Jesus builds a chair or Paul builds a tent? I think, to do it to the best of their ability. To think, God has given me these gifts, so how do I not cut corners, how do I enjoy that skillset, revel in it, delight in it, do the best I can in it?

You’re not just thinking about what is technically the best bit of code to write or the best thing to design, but who will use this, what does it mean for me to build a chair that serves the person who’ll sit on it the best? What does that look like for me when I’m thinking about designing an app? Do I want someone to open it and think, ‘This is difficult to use, it gets the job done, but I just don’t think the person who built this cares!’ Jesus says to love our neighbour and who’s my neighbour? Well, anyone.

That’s just one fragment of what it looks like to be a Christian developer. Another would be working at a secular workplace and recognising: I might be the only representative of Christ here. What would it look like for me to love and serve people around me? That’s looking to glorify God by loving colleagues, caring and serving them, as well as doing a technically excellent job.

There’s another too – being aware that technology has an influence on you. I’m seeing this a lot at the moment – one friend described it to me as ‘I’m being discipled by my phone, my Twitter feed is my catechisms for the day.’

As someone who is responsible for building some of this stuff, it’s thinking, ‘I have a responsibility to understand and really push and think and teach.’ I spend a lot of my time now reading books about ethics. I never thought that would be the case, but the tools I’m building bake this into it.

How has partnering with Stewardship served what you do?

I met Daniel Jones (Stewardship’s Chief Generosity Officer) before a conference, frying bacon for a group of people about to attend. He was just serving people but turns out he was the head banana! That attitude sums up what I see in Stewardship: they serve the church and give at whatever level.

Stewardship sponsored one of the Hackathons we did through Kingdom Code, and they wanted to pay the sponsorship fee and give it to the people we worked with to get teams on board and help our partners use technology. That attitude, realising ‘this isn’t about us, but how we serve you and help you grow,’ is leading by doing!

Giving is part of their culture. It’s what they do, who they are. It’s beautiful – it’s that value I’d love to see in whoever comes to Kingdom Code and wherever they serve.

Checking Which SSL Cert is Being Served

2021-03-18T00:00:00Z

Over the last week I’ve been dealing with a number of issues relating to SSL certs; one discovery where the SSL cert expired yesterday, another standard update of a SSL cert, and then the fun of swapping from one server to another with different certs. In each of these cases it’s important to know that the right certificate is in place.

You can check these things in the browser - the padlock icon next to the web address works… however jumping in and out of terminal, making sure that the browser hasn’t cached anything, can get a bit annoying… So how do you do this in the terminal?

echo | openssl s_client -showcerts -connect jamesdoc.com:443 2>/dev/null | openssl x509 -inform pem -noout -text

This will output a whole load of things… but normally the most important things to look out for - where the cert was issued, and how long is it valid for?

Signature Algorithm: sha256WithRSAEncryption
Issuer: C=US, O=Let's Encrypt, CN=R3
Validity
    Not Before: Feb 10 09:00:30 2021 GMT
    Not After : May 11 09:00:30 2021 GMT

Going through the command…

openssl s_client -showcerts -connect jamesdoc.com:443

first we’re using OpenSSL’s s_client ^[1] which can be used as a debugging tool for connecting to a server using SSL, passing in a couple of options:

showcerts: We want to see the SSL certificate
connect: What server and port are we going to talk to? 443 is the typical port for SSL connections

There are many more options you can pass in. But we don’t need them here.

This command outputs a lot more than we need to know so we discard any errors ( 2>/dev/null) and pipe (|) the response into another part of OpenSSL - x509. It is described as a “certificate display and signing utility” ^[2]. We’re using it here to review the output of s_client and the display the cert information.

openssl x509 -inform pem -noout -text

inform pem: What format is the data that is being fed into the command - s_client gives is PEM (apparently).
noout: Don’t display the encoded version of the request
text: Output the cert in text form

Footnotes

Book Review: Reimagining the Spiritual Disciplines for a Digital Age

2021-01-31T00:00:00Z

In just under 25 pages, Sara Schumacher, Director of Education at St. Mellitus College, packs in more clarity, focus, and personal encouragement than books 10 times the length on the subject of spiritual disciplines.^[1] This might be a bold claim, but let me talk you through why I think this book(let) is really important, especially as we learn to adapt to so much of our life happening online.

Reimagining the Spiritual Disciples for a Digital Age starts with the observation that a lot of conversations have been happening across sociology, psychology, even in technology, on the impact of technology is having on humanity. Within these conversations, phrases like ‘digital minimalism’ get thrown around, and practices like a ‘30-day digital declutter’ are suggested. When you stand back a bit it becomes apparent that a lot of these concepts map to what Christians have called spiritual disciplines or habits of grace. Schumacher takes authors such as Cal Newport (Digital Minimalism) and Sherry Turkle (Alone Together, Reclaiming the Conversation), and uses their writing as “conversation partners” as “a different lens through which to recover and reimagine our own spiritual practice in a digital age.” But, Sara notes, their writing can never fully explain why humans respond so well to these practices because:

“…Christian theology offers something back to these writers, specifically an explanation for why these disciplines lead to human flourishing. They are not simple giving or evolutionary; instead, they evidence a God-given order in creation.” ^[2]

Now, whenever I hear about spiritual disciplines my mind is taken straight into an expectation of a guilt trip, where I leave the book, talk, or seminar with the stress of not having read my Bible enough that week, or prayed enough as a result of some distraction or other. This book isn’t a guilt trip. Sara isn’t going to berate you. Instead, this book help you put in place scaffolding, scaffolding not just to help you want to practice these disciplines, but so that you can flourish them, and also in many other areas too.

The three foundations that Reimagining the Spiritual Disciplines for a Digital Age focuses on are that of Solitude, Simplicity, and Sabbath. Each section has three parts, first, conversations drawn from the writing of authors such as Newport and Turkle, secondly moving into a Biblical anchoring for each habit/discipline showing how it is played out in God’s word, and finally Sara’s own reflections on how this habit has challenged and changed her. It is these personal reflections which take each section from what I have previously seen as ‘good ideas that I might get around to at some point’, to being relatable and desirable. They have pushed me to think and explore how I need to rewire my daily patterns in a time where I just crave distraction.

For example in the chapter focusing on solitude, referencing Turkle, Sara writes “without a secure sense of self that is generated by being alone ‘we turn to other people to support our sense of self’” - we attempt to counter our loneliness by seeking external validation - and as a result lose any chance of individual identity. Then turning to the gospels we’re shown how Jesus points not just to saying it’s a good thing, but actively modelling it:

“Jesus sought time alone with the Father, often in the midst of busyness, and we are invited to do the same… As we are alone with God, solitude helps us to cultivate an inward attentiveness to the activity of God… Solitude puts us in a place to be transformed by the Spirit into our true identity as a child of God.” ^[3]

Finally on reflecting on deciding to choose solitude in her commute rather than the distraction of a podcast, Sara talks honestly and openly about this practice taking her through boredom, into churning thoughts, which in turn “drove me to prayer”.

This book is worth reading, not just because it is short (and that is it’s favour), but because I think we all know that distraction isn’t the answer. Change isn’t something that happens overnight, habits and disciplines take time and work to form. Reading this booked help me (re)discover that perhaps I have been trying to start mine from a place of distraction rather than a place of quiet and calm.

This booklet is short and easy to approach, but is packed with things to make you think long after the hour-or-so it will take you to read. Priced at £3.95 you should buy a copy.

Reimagining the Spiritual Disciplines for a Digital Age is published by Grove Books. You can purchase a copy from their website, alongside a number of other booklets exploring different intersections of Christianity and technology.

Footnotes

There are also books that are 10 times the length that do this well too, and are very much worth reading, such as Habits of Grace by David Mathis, or 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke. In fact, after reading this book, and want to read more add them to your reading list would be no bad thing. ↩︎
Reimagining the Spiritual Disciplines for a Digital Age, Sara Schumacher, Chapter 2 (Pg 7) ↩︎
Reimagining the Spiritual Disciplines for a Digital Age, Sara Schumacher, Chapter 4 (Pg 11) ↩︎

Grouping blog posts by year in Eleventy

2021-01-26T00:00:00Z

It’s been on my list to get a good archive page of blog posts for a while, ^[1] more than just simple pagination where you have to click though posts in groups of six at a time… Instead grouped by the year they were published. I had a hunch that that 11ty’s pagination tool would help me out, I just hadn’t worked it out until this weekend…

Skip the rest of the intro and take me to the code

More preamble

The pagination tool is really clever because you can paginate pretty much any data format that Eleventy can consume. ^[2] For example, if you have a JSON file containing a list of people, you can paginate that file and turn out a page for each author. And with that you can also paginate over a collection. A collection is 11ty’s way of grouping data together - all the blog posts on this site exist in markdown, but are grouped together in the collection posts (see the code). The pagination can loop through this and chunk them into groups. However, while you can manipulate the data as the pagination is being performed, it doesn’t do the grouping by year which is what we need.

To get the grouping by year we first need to create a new collection of data that structured by year, and then pass that to pagination. What we’re aiming for is something like:

[
  [2021]: [{post-one}, {post-two}],
  [2020]: [{post-one}, {post-two}, {post-three}]
  [2019]: [{post-one}]
]

Warning - there are horrible things ahead with array keys…

The implementation

First we’re going to need to create a new collection grouped by year. To keep my .eleventy.js clean I’ve extracted this into a new file called collections.js:

const dayjs = require("dayjs");

// This is a little bit over engineered, but I _may_ want to filter by more than just year later down the line…
function getByDate(collection, dateFormat) {
  let postsByDate = {};
  // Update this to point to where you want to get your posts from:
  let posts = collection.getFilteredByGlob(["./src/blog/**/*.md"]);
  posts.forEach(function (post) {
    // Get the year from the date
    let d = dayjs(post.data.date).format(dateFormat);
    // Create a new array key with the year
    if (!postsByDate[d]) {
      postsByDate[d] = new Array();
    }
    // Add the post to the year array key
    postsByDate[d].push(post);
  });
  return postsByDate;
}

// Create the new collection
exports.postsByYear = (collection) => {
  return getByDate(collection, "YYYY");
};

In your .eleventy.js file you can then loop through the collections exported from the collections.js file and addCollection:

const collections = require("./collections.js");
module.exports = function (eleventyConfig) {
  //…
  Object.keys(collections).forEach((collectionName) => {
    eleventyConfig.addCollection(collectionName, collections[collectionName]);
  });
  //…
};

The result will be that Eleventy now has the collection collection.postsByYear.

With this done, you can jump into the frontmatter in one of your template files and add the following keys:

---
title: Blog
permalink: "blog/{% if pagination.pageNumber > 0 %}{{ posts }}/{% endif %}index.html"
pagination:
  data: collections.postsByYear
  size: 1
  alias: posts
  reverse: true
---

The important thing to notice here is that the size of the pagination is set to 1 - or in English - one page for each year. We’re also re-writing the permalink to create a url of /blog/####/index.html.

Now, in the body of the template we can loop through postsByYear collection, based on the year set by the pagination:

<ul>
  {% for post in collections.postsByYear[posts] | reverse %}
  <li>
    <a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.data.title }}</a>
  </li>
  {% endfor %}
</ul>

Add some pagination navigation to the bottom of your template. And you’ve got an archive-by-year page from a collection in Eleventy.

You can see it in action at the bottom of the Thoughts listing and the related commit on Github.

Footnotes

This item has been on my todo list for this site since I moved this site across to Eleventy in August 2018… It’s good to have another one ticked off the list! ↩︎
There is so much you can do with data and pagination, it’s really clever. ↩︎

Book Review: The Age of AI

2021-01-24T00:00:00Z

Even before national lockdowns, and our interactions with the world being mediated through screens, we have been interacting with artificial intelligence every day. Be that a social media feed, YouTube or Netflix recommendations, smart home devices, online translation services, etc, it all has AI behind it. Last year Jason Thacker wrote The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity to help navigate some of the challenging questions living in a world of AI brings up. Over the last week I’ve been reading through it… ^[1]

Jason Thacker, works as the Chair of Research in Technology Ethics for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission which seeks “to assist the churches by helping them understand the moral demands of the gospel, apply Christian principles to moral and social problems…” ^[2]. So, with that perspective The Age of AI is written for Christians, regardless of level of technical engagement, as they begin to engage with some of the questions that are being asked as artificial intelligence begins to come into the foreground.

It’s not a book that makes speculative guesses on what might happen in the future of tech, instead the book is a helpful primer focusing on where AI currently is. Jason takes the key areas where we encounter AI in our daily lives; in the home, with the family, at work, in the hospital, etc, and then explores them from a Christian perspective.

The take is refreshingly biblical. Jason points out that the Bible doesn’t really address AI head on, so he writes:

“…the Bible doesn’t have to address an issue specifically for us to seek wisdom, because if that were the case, we would have no direction on artificial intelligence or even hour to use our iPhones. We must see the Bible not as our answer book but as a guide that helps inform us of the best way to live in accordance with God’s design and in his grace.” ^[3]

And that is what follows; in each chapter Jason gives a Biblical approach to each area that he is reflecting on, carefully looking at the pattern laid out in the Bible, and then reflects on how technology with AI behind it can both help and hinder this pattern.

One of the other thing that sets this book apart for me is that it refuses to get drawn into vilifying or exalting the tech. There are too many articles that fall off one of these sides of the horse - either writing that AI will save our planet or, that Skynet and the singularity ^[4] is around the corner. The Age of AI does not do this.

Each chapter is watchfully optimistic. So when talking about the impact of technology in the family and friendships Jason doesn’t shy way from saying that “technology is creating pressure on families, and that trend is just the beginning” .^[5] But his response isn’t to throw it out the machines, instead to challenge the reader to think about what those pressures are, and to explore how you, and your family can learn, grow, and use the technology well without being shaped by them. That’s not a trivial job, but the fruit of the work put in will be shown, or the reverse he warns; “if you abdicate your responsibility on the front end, you will reap your harvest in due time.” ^[6]

There have been a lot of changes in our world over the last year, AI has been central to a significant number of them. What this book does (and so much more) is remind me that in the midst of a changing world, there is a God who has set the pattern and ‘best practice’ for how to live in it. The Age of AI acts as a handbook to start thinking how to think, navigate, and explore this new world well.

Footnotes

By way of admission; Jason very kindly posted me an early release copy of this book which arrived just as the UK went into lockdown for the first time round. In the midst of trying to get married, moving house, and that pandemic thing going on, reading wasn’t something I could quite face at the time. Things have calmed down a bit now. Jason; I’m so very sorry this review is late in coming. ↩︎
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission Mission Statement ↩︎
The Age of AI, Jason Thacker, Chapter 7: Data and Privacy (Pg 157) ↩︎
The Singularity is the idea that in the (not to distant) future AI with out strip human intelligence and ability. It’s much loved by end-of-the-world sci-fi films such as The Matrix and Terminator. Jason does touch on this subject, but only in passing in the last few pages of the book (pages 175-180) ↩︎
The Age of AI, Jason Thacker, Chapter 4: Family (Pg 94) ↩︎
The Age of AI, Jason Thacker, Chapter 4: Family (Pg 98) ↩︎

Lessons from Netlify CMS

2021-01-19T00:00:00Z

Over at OneSheep we’ve just launched the new website for Carnelian Search. Carnelian is company who works with charities or social impact organisations to help them fill leadership position such as executive, director or trustee roles. Behind the scenes of their new site is a fresh Eleventy build, with Tailwind CSS, and a small sprinkling of AlpineJS, all deployed on top of Netlify. We think it’s come together well.

This is the first Eleventy site that we’ve handed over to partner - up until this project I’ve been nervous about such things - Eleventy requires asking non technical users to edit markdown files, commit them to a git repo, deploy the changes. Yuck. And I know you can pull the content from an API served up by another tool, but by the time you’ve done that we might as well have built this site in that CMS like CraftCMS, SquareSpace, or WordPress.

The gamechanger - Netlify CMS.

Netlify CMS drops into your Eleventy static site and makes every data controlled element of your site content editable. For free. Like magic. And then commits it to your git repo. More magic.

There are tutorials both written and video all over the internet, this isn’t a start from scratch post, instead some notes for you, and future James, for some lessons learnt along the way.

The config.yml file is the best and worst of Netlify CMS

All the setup for Netlify CMS happens in the config.yml file. In this file you define all your configuration, from the branch that it will commit changes to through to the data types (widgets) of content editable fields.

Having everything in one place is great - you can quickly skim through it to check and look things up, make changes, etc. However, one mistake, one piece of malformed yaml, missing indent, etc, and your CMS is gone.

The best thing I’ve found is get into object notation in the yaml as quickly as possible. The introduction to the config file in the documentation says this:

Note that YAML syntax allows lists and objects to be written in block or inline style, and the code samples below include a mix of both.

While object notation is just as unforgiving, it is a lot easier to eyeball and spot an error in a complex config file.

Maybe I just wish it was a JSON file?

An example of the config.yml file being used on the Carnelian Site is on Github.

Make sure you process your images at the build stage

Editors can upload images through Netlify CMS. This is really powerful and such an important feature for this tool.

It also means that your editors can upload 100mb jpeg images if they want to, and your static site will just spit them out. Always always always process your uploaded images before outputting them to protect your front-end file size.

There are many ways of processing your images depending on your build process, for Carnelian Search I’ve reached for the image plugin for Eleventy. It’s simple to use, outputs useful image formats (include webp and avif), and lets you have control of your HTML too.

Set some sort orders

Netlify CMS will automagically sort your content by title, author, date (sometimes) and description. Sometimes this automagicalness is helpful. Overriding that, and being explicit about the the sort order is helpful too.

Blog posts should be sorted by date. It’s okay to be opinionated.

You can override sort order in the config.yml file with the sortable_fields key. Details in the documentation.

Test with Netlify CMS locally

As a developer you don’t need to use the CMS - you have access to the markdown files, to the JSON data sources, you can go in an edit that stuff manually. It’s quicker, simpler, etc. However running Netlify CMS locally and using it regularly helps you understand what your editors are going to be doing. There are elements of it that are not obvious in the CMS, and getting to know it well as an editor helps you to be able to hand over well.

You can run Netlify CMS locally with the command:

npx netlify-cms-proxy-server

Or, because I forget that, add it to your scripts in package.json so you can instead run

npm run cms

Final words

There will be more lessons to learn with Netlify CMS. But I’m convinced that it is a gamechanger for building small and simple static sites. It’s going to become a primary tool in my toolbox when a ‘big’ CMS such Craft CMS is just too much and we don’t want a server to manage. I’ll even get over my dislike of yaml for it.

K3 Keyboard

2021-01-12T00:00:00Z

While there are many good things about owning a MacBook, the keyboards in the 2017 model are not one of them! Low travel, sticky keys, falling off keys… the keyboard is just not the dream. While later models fixed these issues, I’m stuck with the 2017 model…

I’ve had my eye the offerings from Keychron for a while, however had been put off by the sizes - either the slightly bulky frames, or the full 104 keyboard layout. I want a keyboard that will replace the laptop keyboard - which means that portability is a priority.

I jumped on the Kickstarter for the Keychron K3 as soon as it went up, and have been so impressed with what has been delivered.

The keyboard feels solid and well built, simple design- the orange escape key is lovely, and the keys feel sturdy. I read far too much ahead of purchasing the keyboard, and ended up picking the Gateron mechanical brown switches which seem to be a happy midway between clicky/tappy and too quiet. I figured that they can’t be any louder than my current keyboard!

I love the size of this thing. It has everything I need from it, and a little more. I was surprised to find a screenshot button hiding on it. It’s designed for customisation - so the keycaps can be changed and replaced. You can switch them round if QWERTY isn’t your thing, lockdown v3.0 in the UK might be a good time to learn to touch-type in Dvorak?

Two gripes of the keyboard - the first one is more of a user learning thing that you get each time you move keyboards. For the K3, Keychron have squeezed an extra row of keys on the right-hand side of the keyboard to include keys like Page Up and Down, Home and End. It’s a nice touch, however I spent the first week of using it cursing the Home key which is where my fourth finger has learnt to expect to find the backspace key. It’s not a a deal breaker, it’s a thing to relearn.

I have been impressed with the battery life, it promised 34 hours of solid use, which maps to my experience. The issue is that you get no warning before the battery dies. No flashing light, nothing. One minute it was connected, the next it was gone. It charges over USB-C, it’s fine, I would have just liked some warning before the disconnect!

Overall, it’s a strong keyboard, perfect for day-to-day use, and while I haven’t been able to travel with it yet, I’m convinced that it’ll go into my remote office bag happily!

If you’re interested, my referral link will get you 10% off.

What Comes Next?

2021-01-07T00:00:00Z

Books about leadership have a bad tendency to be dense; dry and hard work to read, and that’s before you get to the unobtainable objectives such as like read a book before you’ve lifted your head from the pillow in the morning. Maybe I’ve been reading the wrong books… but I’ve tended to stay away from this section of the library.

So, when your friends, Nick and Ali, write a book called What Comes Next?, kindly have their publishers ship it to you over the Christmas holiday, then tell you it’s a leadership book I have to confess that I approached reading it with a little bit of trepidation.

First off, this book feels approachable - it’s not a weighty tome, it comes in under 200 pages, had a pleasing shade of green running throughout the headings of the text, and while there are no pictures, it has really well designed set of graphics and Venn diagrams to help the visual learner get their head around core concepts of the text.

With a sub-200 page count, this book obviously isn’t going to cover everything there is to know about leadership. Instead Ali and Nick set their their focus on what is looks like to lead well when the context of your work changes on a regular basis the central question of the book - how can leaders prepare for an uncertain future?

This is where their main concept of futures thinking comes in. “The future is plural” they write:

"…the future rarely emerges predictably… it’s tempting to try and anticipate one ‘correct’ future, thinking about the future isn’t about being able to define what’s going to happen precisely. There isn’t just one possible future. Therefore, when contemplating what’s next, it’s appropriate to think in terms of ‘futures’.

The framework that What Comes Next? presents takes you through eight different areas that happen at the the intersection of purpose, people, place, and technology. These different areas are all areas that change, and end up influencing the decisions that we have to make. And in each area, a set a questions is posed to help you think through the topic both personally and with a team.

The thing in this book that most stands out to me is how approachable and relatable it is. While Nick and Ali ask you to face into some tough questions (and make notes on it!), the focus of on relationship throughout this book is unmissable, whether that is as the explore purpose and how we identify ourselves, and with that our duties and obligations to people, through to the chapter specifically about how we relate to one another, relationship is core:

“…Without knowing who you are and recognising your need to live in relationship, your work is futile. You are a ship aimlessly sailing in a vast ocean.”

When so many books in this space paint the picture of the visionary leader who either goes it alone, or walks over or through people to get there, this comes as a refreshing read.

While the book’s subtitle ‘A Guide for Christian Leaders’ implies that it is aimed at church leaders, a better take of it would be ‘A Guide for Christians in Leadership’ - this book helps frame how Christian faith helps leaders to set a direction and lead well towards it, in the church yes, but also in secular work, and in volunteer or side projects. Even those who do not have Christian faith will find many of the ideas outlined in the book helpful to think through.

While the book is short and easy to read, it’s not one to rush. There is a lot to consider and think through. Over the next few months I’m looking forward to working through the framework both at a personal level, and also exploring how I can outwork it within church and Kingdom Code.

You can find out more about the book, and buy a copy, from their website futuresframework.com, and there is also a podcast series that is accompanying the launch of the book.

Running Age of Empires 2 on Big Sur

2020-12-28T00:00:00Z

2023 update
This tutorial works nicely playing Age of Empires 2: HD Edition on an Intel based Mac… You’ll have no luck with Definitive Edition, or running on Apple Silicon macs using this guide.

Have a look at Running AoE 2 on Apple Silicon instead. 👀

As with all technical blog posts as the technology gets updated things will break - this post will probably become out of date very quickly.

My setup is a 2017 Macbook Pro running Big Sur, playing Age of Empires 2 HD (not the newer definitive edition)… This will almost certainly not work with the new Apple hardware on Apple Silicon.

These steps are modified from this gist which went out of date with Catalina.

Step One - Get Age of Empires

I already had AoE HD edition purchased, if you already purchased AoE2, jump straight to step 2.

Create a Steam account, and install Steam on MacOS. From there you’ll be able to purchase AoE, but not install it.

Step Two - Install PlayOnMac

If you have homebrew installed that’s as simple as brew install playonmac

Otherwise, head over to playonmac.com and download the dmg and copy it across to your applications folder.

Open up PlayOnMac and jump through it’s set up process.

Step Three - Install Steam through PlayOnMac

You need to install the windows variant of Steam to enable you to download the Windows version of Age of Empires.

In PlayOnMac click the install button and search for Steam.

Step Four - Tweak Steam start up settings

There is something interesting in steam so that while it’ll boot out of the box, nothing appears in it’s webviews, you just get a black void where there should be content.

Select Steam in PlayOnMac, and then click configure.

Under Arguments, set:

wine steam.exe -no-browser +open steam://open/minigameslist

In Wine configuration, set the Windows Version to be Windows 7

In display, set the Video memory size to be 1024

This should get Steam going, double click on Steam to start it up.

Step Five - Install Age of Empires 2

As you purchased AoE in step 1, AoE will be in your game list. You can download it through the miniview.

This took a long time to download for me… might just be me?

Step Six - Adjust AoE’s launcher.exe

Find where Age of Empires has installed on your hard drive. It should be something like:

~/Library/PlayOnMac/wineprefix/Steam/drive_c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Steam/steamapps/common/Age2HD

In Finder you can press Cmd+Shift+G and paste that line in.

You’ll find two .exe files there, one called launcher.exe and the other called AoK HD.exe

Delete Launcher.exe
Rename AoK HD.exe to Launcher.exe

Maybe? Step Seven - Solve the Texture Problem.

Luis Reid noted that there may be texture problems, while I didn’t have this issue, he did, and solved it by:

In the Launcher.exe directory you will find D3D9_DLLBACKUP directory. Copy from that directory the DLL -> d3dx9_43.dll to the directory where Launcher.exe is. This solves the texture problem. Ref.

Step Eight - Profit?

That was enough for me to be able to get AoE2 up and running. Your milage may vary. As I said, this pathway was modified from this gist, there are further helpful comments there which might help if you’re on a different set up.

Importing Yahoo Mail into Google Workspace

2020-10-31T00:00:00Z

I’ve recently had the interesting time of setting up a new Google Workspace (formerly GSuite) install. Migrating emails between previous service providers is handled by Google’s Data Migration Service. This work well (if a little slowly), however when setting up to import from a personal Yahoo Mail account several users report getting an error like this:

Error communicating with the source mail server

Tl;Dr - In the Account Security settings for Yahoo account you are importing you need to create an App Password and use that to log in.

⚠️ Health warning: Technology changes… so this is relevant until Google and/or Yahoo update their interfaces. This means that this will probably be out of date tomorrow.

Behind the scenes Google is using a technology called IMAP to pull emails from one mailbox into the other. Many email providers regard IMAP as a less secure option so are disabling it. This means that when putting in a valid yahoo email address and password into Google’s Data Migration Service it is failing - Yahoo hasn’t enabled IMAP for that user.

Steps:

In the Yahoo Account Information (not the email settings) navigate to Account Security and find the button to Manage App Passwords.
From the drop down labeled Select Your App click Other App and type in ‘Google Data Migration’ then click Generate.
Copy this new password to your clipboard, and head into Google Data Migration Studio.
Set up the new Data Migration as before, however, make sure that rather than using your normal Yahoo account password you use the App Password that is sitting in your clipboard which Yahoo gave you. This should get you past the initial set up step.
On the next screen you’ll be asked which email accounts you want to import. Again put in your Yahoo email address, the generated App Password, and finally the Google Account you want to import the emails into.
The next step takes foorrrreeevvvveerrrrrr while the emails are pulled from Yahoo to Google.

Good luck!

Data Influenced Church

2020-08-05T00:00:00Z

I was recently invited to give a 15 minute talk to a group of church worker about how data can equip and resource a church to be a church that is more productive, more pastoral, and more prayerful. Below are the slides and the transcript for that talk.

I find this a hard subject to talk about, because there is a tension to keep. Let’s ground this right from the start Jesus drives his church, it’s his car, for his glory. And the tension comes when we start introducing spreadsheets and pivot tables into the mix…

You know Jesus taught a parable about his gospel which is freely sown, scattered widely, like chocolate cake at a kid’s party… and when we start talking about data in this mix we get the idea that each slice of the chocolate cake needs to be accounted for… as does each raw ingredient.

We have got to hold this truth, that the gospel is like a seed that the farmer scattered, with the truth that we are limited. You are finite. You and your church cannot do everything, and you have responsibility to steward what you have well, and it may surprise you to see that the Bible isn’t not anti-analytics, data, and metrics… and you probably already do some of what I’m going to talk about already.

Acts 2…

Let’s look at a couple of cases within the early church. Grab your Bible and come with me to Acts 2v41:

The early church knew how many were in the church, those who accepted this message were baptised, and about 3000 were added their number. Luke as the historian, goes back through the records and finds 3000 people were baptised as a result of Peter’s sermon. The early church knew who was in their number, when they came to faith and when they were baptised. A couple of verses later, in verse 47, there is a similar indication that the preaching is effective as more people are added to the log.

Later on in Acts 4v32–37 you see that the early church has data around the church finances, and those on the member list who are in needs to make sure that no one is falling through the gaps, and then as the ministry grows so large they use and improve the data to provide additional staff and ministry resources to a growing ministry (that’s Act’s 6).

There is plenty more I could say here, I mean I haven’t even touched the entire book of the Bible called Numbers, but I want to move on and start illustrating with examples three reasons why I think letting data influence how you lead your church is important.

To help you remember them there are three of them, and they all begin with the letter ‘P’.

Firstly you’ll be a more productive church

Productive

When I was working at a church one of the questions I found myself asking was 'are we putting our resources, our time, our energy, our finances, our late nights, our early mornings into the right things? Is what we are doing working?

Or to put it another way… it’s easy to see when a plant has died, but it would be better to get read the warning signs to withering leaves earlier and water the plant or repot it before it dies.

I want you to get a bit of paper (or the notes app in your phone) and write down three different ministries in your church - next to them write down what the measurable aims of those ministries are…

Too often we put on events or courses and, to be honest, just hope for the best. We put them on again and again, but we’re not really sure if they are effective. This season is a perfect time to take stock as a church of what we do, and think about the way we do them…

Let me take you to my imaginary church called St. Thomas’. St. Tom’s have hosted a Welcome Café every Saturday giving out free cups of tea and coffee. It’s a good thing to do, but they’ve never really thought about any goals and targets for it. They’ve just had the hope that if they open the doors on a Saturday, people will come in on a Sunday.

In talking to Joseph who leads the kitchen, he tells me that the cafe serves 50–60 cups of tea each session, at least that’s how many tea bags they go through! So over the course of the month they are probably seeing somewhere been 150–175 unique people.

What happens if we start giving it some goals and targets? How about setting the target that when the café reopens, of the 150 individuals how come, 30 of them come to a ‘Ask your Questions’ course.

Suddenly that goal changes how the welcome café is planned, and how the volunteers / staff run it. Everyone who comes in for a cup of tea is given an invitation, maybe invited to sign up to a mailing list… they receive invites to come, the staff who build relationships with the guests invite them along through a message later on… and when the course runs and people are asked ‘how did you hear about this course’ you can track it back to that first contact at the Welcome Café.

How effective is the ministry bases on simple metrics that are trackable. The metrics do not need to be the same for each ministry - Welcome Café has welcome metrics (attend the ask your questions course), The ask your question course might have commitment and baptism metrics, your small groups my might have metrics of regular attendance throughout the year, joining a serving team, or training to lead a small group.

If your ministries are taking resource, but not creating fruit then you have clear data to review that is not subjective. You can test and change things to see if modifications are effective or not, in some cases you can cut off those outputs as not bearing fruit at all - and that is a good thing because you now have the people and resource to invest in other flourishing ministries.

Attaching goals to your ministries and measuring them regularly allows you to be more productive in what you do. It stops you from misplacing your resource, and instead investing them where they will produce a good crop.

That’s your first ‘P’, now let’s have a look at the second one, letting data influence your decision making with enable your church to be more…

Pastoral

If there was ever a time for people to fall through the gap’s of your pastoral care it is now. You used to be able to eyeball the room each week and see who is missing, or who hasn’t been in a while, or who isn’t looking okay and arrange to catch up with them.

But with the livestreams, and your church service going out over the Facebooks and the YouTubes you’ve got no idea if Susan is there or not… or if you’re doing the Zoom style church you might be seeing the people, but you’re never going to get into the depth of conversation on a whole-church zoom to work out how Susan really is.

Some of might find it a bit cold to have lists of the church members and to use that for our pastoral checkups - don’t that turn people into names on a spreadsheet… and there is certainly a risk of that, and one that I’d encourage you to pray against, but if you head back to Acts… who was grateful for that list? The widows and those in need in Acts 4 and 6. Those lists meant that their needs were met.

Let me show you how this could work out in your church… let’s imagine a church of 64 adults… and you’re the pastor. If you met with four people each week, you would take 16 weeks to meet one-to-one with each member of the church. It is at best an inefficient system, people fall through the gaps, needs go unmet, there is no room for growth, at with that number of pastoral meetings, and all the other responsibilities you have, you burn out. That’s not good.

We need to listen to a father-in-law! Come with me to Exodus 18 and see how Jethro councils his son-in-law to use data to be pastoral to the Israelites in the desert.

What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out… select capable men from all the people- men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonesty game and appoint them as officals over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens…

Do you have small groups / home groups that kind of thing in your church? You’re already half way there! Our small group leaders can often see their responsibility as delivering a Bible study midweek, but that’s where the responsibility stops. What if you start encouraging your small groups leaders to be actively pastoral to the members of their group, to meet regularly and often together to pastor them.

For some of you, you’re probably thinking we’ve been doing this for years, for others of you this will take a lot of work to get going. Take small steps. Step by step by step.

If you have two leaders in a group of eight then you as a church leader of 64 can go from trying to meet and care for 64 people, to focusing on building up and equipping 16 people who can each pastor and care for 3 people each.

As you meet with your group leaders, they can let you know how their groups are doing, you can shepherd and care for the whole church by teaching and training your leaders, and occasionally stopping in a crisis.

As you start to grow you can start to allow the data to inform and shape other ministries. For example if your church runs a door-knocking ministry and one in the church meets someone at the door who is a single parent, the response that is given is going to be significantly different if over the course of three weeks 10 of your door knockers have met people in the same situation and bringing this data back. Previously you knew that one or two of your door knockers had met a single parent, but now looking at the data that is coming back you actually can see that there is a need in your community that the church can meet…

There is also the idea of flows, allowing people to work different levels of engagement. I first came across this within a church with an administrator who used this system to make sure that no-one forgot to fill in their DBS form - but the idea converts across to many different ministries… take for example this evangelism and discipleship flow…

With this system you can see where people are bunching up, or falling off. Everyone gets to the Ask your Questions course, but no baptisms yet… something is not right there…

I could spent ages and ages here, but time is short so let’s keep on moving. You can ask more questions in the Q&A!

We’ve seen that letting data influence your church decision making can help you be more productive, and it can increase your ability as a whole church family to be more pastoral. The final ‘P’ I think is the most significant. Letting data influence your church can help your church family by more prayerful.

Prayerful

I get that this is a bold statement, but stick with more on this one because what I’m going to say is nothing new. In fact it is a practice that the church has been doing for centuries.

How many of you keep a list of people to pray for? Why? Because it helps you to remember who to prayer, the list helps you to reflect back and see God at work, to see God’s faithfulness.

The data that we collect, the ministries with their targets and goals can drive our prayers, the records we keep from door knocking fuel our prayers for our neighbourhood.

I don’t know about you, but when I read Act 2, as a Christian 2000 years latter I see this amazing movement of God and want to praise him for how he at work in the early church, even though I have never met them.

How much more then can the prayer life of your church family be fueled with the knowledge that a goal has been set for Welcome Café.

How much more can you praise God with the knowledge that 20 people came to the Alpha or Christianity Explored course directly as an impact of the café?

How much more with your church pray for the needs of the community if those needs are known and shared with your family?

This idea is nothing new! But it is no less vital today. Previously we has resources like Filofaxes, or little prayer notebooks, those are still great tools today! We’ve also got amazing things like PrayerMate and the multitude of other digital tools to help us pray. Our churches have digital tools at our fingers, like ChurchSuite, a simple spreadsheet, or a printed and mailed paper directory, there are all data tools that equip you to pray! Use them!

As I wrap up… I want to land one word of caution that I started with at the beginning. I want to use the word influence, not driven. Let data influence your decision making, but remember that it is Christ who leads His church. Let the data inform your thinking, your planning, your reviewing, but let Christ lead as you prayerfully consider how to move forward.

Reviewing the data is powerful, and I am convinced that used well it will equip you to be a more productive church, a more pastoral church, and a more prayerful church.

Animate on scroll with Tailwind CSS

2020-07-31T00:00:00Z

One of the requirements of a classic brochureware website these days is animated elements that fade into view as the visitor scrolls to the website. There are a number of Javascript libraries to help you do this, like Michał Sajnoóg’s AOS - Animate on Scroll Library… but how do you do this kind of thing with Tailwind CSS and as little JavaScript as you can get away with?!

Tailwind 1.6

Tailwind 1.6 introduced animation as a core plugin which is an excellent start, so the first step is to make sure that you’re running the latest and greatest version of Tailwind. In your package.json file make sure your dependancies are up to date:

  "dependencies": {
    "tailwindcss": "^1.6.0"
  }

Remember to run npm install

Configuring Tailwind

We’re going to keep things simple, and apply a fade in on scroll on an element. To do this we need to jump into the tailwind.config.js file and extend our theme with the new animations. This is all wonderfully documented on the Tailwind CSS site. Read the animation documentation.

extend: {
  animation: {
    fadeIn: "fadeIn 2s ease-in forwards"
  },
  keyframes: {
    fadeIn: {
      "0%": { opacity: 0 },
      "100%": { opacity: 1 }
    }
  }

If you’ve written CSS animations before, you’ll recognise this syntax from CSS animations. As always the MDN documentation for CSS animations is a great place to start for a primer on this.

Here we’re defining the animation name, fadeIn, setting it to take 2 seconds, slowly easing in, and then run only once so the element doesn’t vanish straight away. The keyframes reference sets the start and end state, going from an opacity: 0 to opacity: 1.

Before we leave the tailwind.config.js one extra tweak to make is to add the motion-safe to the animation variants:

variants: {
  animation: ["motion-safe"];
}

You can read a little bit more about it on the pull request in the Tailwind repo, but the summary is that for accessiblity users can opt-out of animations, and that is exposed by a the prefers-reduced-motion media query.

If you jump into your HTML you can add your new class behind the variant and get your new animation:

<div class="h-8 w-8 bg-blue motion-safe:animate-fadeIn">
  FadeIn
</div>

Magic! Your element will fade in… but not on scroll. Not quite the dream. Into the Javascript!

Entering on scroll

There are a couple of ways to add or remove a class on an element as the user scrolls… adding an eventListener to the scroll event, running a loop over requestAnimationFrame, but my preference is to use the Intersection Observer API which to quote MDN:

The Intersection Observer API provides a way to asynchronously observe changes in the intersection of a target element with an ancestor element or with a top-level document’s viewport.

Or… simply put - check if the element in the viewport.

// Get all the elements you want to show on scroll
const targets = document.querySelectorAll(".js-show-on-scroll");

// Set up a new observer
const observer = new IntersectionObserver(callback);

// Loop through each of the target
targets.forEach(function (target) {
  // Hide the element
  target.classList.add("opacity-0");

  // Add the element to the watcher
  observer.observe(target);
});

// Callback for IntersectionObserver
const callback = function (entries) {
  entries.forEach((entry) => {
    // Is the element in the viewport?
    if (entry.isIntersecting) {
      // Add the fadeIn class:
      entry.target.classList.add("motion-safe:animate-fadeIn");
    } else {
      // Otherwise remove the fadein class
      entry.target.classList.remove("motion-safe:animate-fadeIn");
    }
  });
};

Those comments should explain what is happening through the code, as the element enters or leaves the viewport the callback will be fired, and then the Tailwind class will be toggled accordingly.

Note: Older browsers will need a polyfill in place for the Intersection Observer, happily Polyfill.io has one built in for you to use. Thanks FT.

With that bit of Javascript in place, all that remains is for you to update your HTML:

<div class="h-8 w-8 bg-blue js-show-on-scroll">
  FadeIn
</div>

See a demo on Codepen

Extending this…

There is a lot more you could do, from more complicated animations, through to customising which animations are used by using a data-attribute on the HTML.

With this method, it becomes customised which animation you are using in the JS (just make sure you whitelist the PurgeCSS because you have enabled PurgeCSS right… right?!)

<div … data-animate-type="motion-safe:animate-fadeIn">…</div>

const animationType = entry.target.dataset.animateType;

if (entry.isIntersecting) {
  entry.target.classList.add(animationType);
}

Side Project - Trello Overview

2020-07-12T00:00:00Z

I think that Trello is up there in my favourite online tools. It’s a simple project management tool; I’ve used in each job I’ve had since leaving uni, and it has been a staple for me keeping track of other things such as my reading list.

Previously I’ve tinkered around with the API, but it has only been recently that I used it for a live project; pulling in the reading list board onto my reading list page here on this site. Oh, the Trello API is easy to work with and well documented! All this kicked off an idea of scratching and itch I’ve had for a while…

The itch has been that when you have a team working on many different projects, each project will have different boards… that makes it difficult to have a top level overview of what is happening across the team. To check the status of everything that is being worked on right now you need to jump in and out of each board. It’s fine, but a little bit annoying if the team has a lot going on.

Trello has a neat feature that lets you see what cards have been assigned to you across multiple boards, but you there isn’t that top level picture for the whole team. This is where Trello Overview comes in.

Trello Overview

Trello Overview pulls in cards from specific lists in specific Trello boards and displays them in one unified board. Think of it like a top-level meta overview of several boards.

If you work in sprints it’s likely that your boards will have many lists on them ranging from a simple Backlog list through to lists of cards to go into future sprints, but for the top level all that you really care about is the To Do, Doing, and Done lists. Trello Overview will filter out only the lists that you care about.

It also gives you the ability to filter to display only the cards on a certain board, and also the cards assigned to a specific member of the team. It’s simple, clear, and has a familiar UI to Trello.

Look at the demo hosted on Netlify.

This demo pulls in cards from three different boards (imaginatively titled Test Board A, B, and C) with two different members on it. The cards with the key emoji (🔑) are being pulled from private boards.

Behind the scenes

The technology in the background is:

Eleventy - The simple static site generator that I’ve been for a whole host of things recently.
Trello API - Obviously.
TailwindCSS and AlpineJS because I wanted to get better at using them (still waiting to be 100% convinced by either… but that’s a different story).

As part of the Trello build process an API call is made for each of the Trello boards provided in the config, this is then locally cached as 11ty builds a very simple index page.

At the moment it isn’t very clever; specifically it doesn’t respond to changes made in Trello, instead it waits until someone re-runs the build script. A less than clever way of automating this would be to deploy it to a server and then have a cronjob rebuild at set times in the day… or if you deploy to Netlify you can set up a Zapier or IFTTT trigger to hit the build hook URL.

Have a play

You can have a look at the demo site, or fork the repo and build your own.

There’s plenty on the backlog, if when you spot a bug, or want to add a feature please put in a pull request.

Not the Second of May… but the Fourth of July

2020-06-26T00:00:00Z

Our last message to you was to let you know we were in a time of waiting. Many will know how difficult the last couple of months have been for us, being forced to postpone making promises to one another and starting our married life.

However, now two months on, we are so pleased to say we are finally able to get married! The new regulations will come into effect on the Fourth of July, and so obviously we chosen to get married on that very day! We will be making our vows to one another at 2pm next Saturday at our new local Parish Church- just a stone’s throw from our new flat. We can’t wait (and Nat can’t stop crying).

Whilst we are so pleased that the new government rules allow 30 people in attendance (which is a significant increase from the 5 that we had prepared for), we are saddened that this means we cannot have the number of guests we had planned for. We are so very sorry to miss you. The day will be filled with joy but also a sadness of losing the celebration we had planned with you. We have deeply valued your prayers, support, kindness and gifts during this time, and will continue to do so going forward.

We are aware some couples will be opting to ‘livestream’ their weddings in order to enable all of their guests to watch from home. We have considered this carefully, but chosen to not pursue this as an option. We are sorry that this means you won’t be able to watch. We would have loved to have had you join us in person.

Finally, many of your have been incredibly generous through our gift list, which we are pleased to say is back up-and-running. We will be placing the order shortly and they are expected to arrive in 4–8 weeks(!). We can’t wait to move them into our flat and to enjoy using matching plate sets, cooking with shiny new kitchenware, and tools for our new little garden!

Thank you so much for your kindness and please be praying and celebrating with us on the Fourth of July.

Best wishes,
Nat & James

Craft CMS, Code Snippets and PrismJS

2020-06-10T00:00:00Z

In the coming weeks and months ahead in this Insights section we’re going to be posting a few tips and tricks that we’ve discovered as we have been building sites for our partners. One of the key things we’ve needed on this site to make that possible is the ability to display code snippets in these blog posts…

<h1>Like this HTML block</h1>

This syntax highlighting is handled by PrismJS, which touts itself as:

Prism is a lightweight, extensible syntax highlighter, built with modern web standards in mind. It’s used in thousands of websites, including some of those you visit daily.

Behind the scenes here we’re running a standard version of Craft CMS 3, with Laravel Mix looking after webpack (because a wrapper around Webpack is better for everyone). Craft has a wonderful plugin community that has built many wonderful things, including Josh Smith’s Prism Syntax Highlight plugin, however support for Redactor, Craft’s WYSIWYG, hasn’t been built yet… so we need to build something custom.

At time of writing we’re using:

Craft CMS v3.4
Craft Redactor Plugin v2.6
Prism JS v1.3

Pull in Prism

There are a couple of ways of doing this (such as injecting a <script> tag) but it is packaged on NPM, and there is a handy babel plugin to do some set up for us:

npm install prismjs babel-plugin-prismjs

One of the benefits of Prism, is the additional plugins that it comes with, installing from NPM will pull them all into your node_module folder, but they won’t get pulled in straight away; you need to add them to your .babelrc file (if you don’t have one and are using Laravel Mix, just create one, it’ll know what to do with it):

{
  "plugins": [
    [
      "prismjs",
      {
        "languages": ["javascript", "css", "markup", "php"],
        "plugins": ["show-language"],
        "css": false
      }
    ]
  ]
}

We’re adding Prism JS, telling it what languages to look out for, pulling in a plugin, and telling it not to pull in the CSS (that’s up to you, we’re going to handle the CSS differently later)…

Jumping over to your main Javascript file you can import Prism:

import Prism from "prismjs";
Prism.highlightAll();

Adding in the styles

Prism comes with a number of different themes you can use, and modify to match your site. If you’re going via the babelrc file, you can configure it there. We’ve got a slightly different method of CSS here, with Tailwind + SCSS coming together. Laravel Mix handles that nicely. On the Prism download page you can pull down the relevant CSS file, or you can fish it out of node_modules/prismjs/themes and import / bundle it with Mix (or your preferred bundler. Or if you would prefer to use a tag, or just copy and paste the CSS straight into your CSS file, you can do that too…

In Redactor…

Over in Craft CMS and Redactor you need to make sure that the code that you want to be highlighted is wrapped as Prism wants it… In a <pre><code class="language-"></code></pre> or just a <code class="language-">…</code> tag. Eg:

<pre>
  <code class="language-css">…</code>
</pre>

If you haven’t enable the HTML view in Redactor json config you’re going to want to do that so you can tell Prism which language to look at. In Craft, the Redactor config file(s) are found in <code class="language-">config/redactor/{settingsFile}.json</code>.

And that’s it. Write your blog post, add your code, and hit publish.

The gotcha (whitespace)

You may find that Redactor / Craft CMS rips out   and replaces them with normal spaces - that means that your code formats really badly! In Craft admin, in the field you have put Redactor on, under Advanced untick ‘Replace non-breaking spaces with regular spaces’.

There’s more you can do…

Inspired by Mike Street’s blog post about his integration of Prism and Craft our Javascript has the following lines to mean that need to wrap code with a <pre class="language-javascript">…</pre>:

var elements = document.querySelectorAll("pre");
if (elements !== null) {
  Array.prototype.forEach.call(elements, function (el, i) {
    el.innerHTML =
      '<code class="' + el.className + '">' + el.innerHTML + "</code>";
  });
}

Also, to simplify the process further, we’re running the Redactor Custom Styles plugin. This allows additional buttons and dropdowns to be added to Redactor that create elements with classes added automagically.

Our article.json Redactor config has the following (and a little bit more) in:

{
 "buttons": [...],
 "plugins": ["customstyles"],
 "customStyles": {
  "style": {
   "dropdown": {
    "codeBlock": {
     "args": {
      "tag": "pre",
      "class": "language-",
      "type": "toggle"
     }
    },
   }
  }
 }
}

All we have to do now is remember to go back and finish off that class to indicate the language for Prism.

Degulpification

2020-05-17T00:00:00Z

Back in 2018 when I migrated the site from Codeigniter to Eleventy Gulp was very firmly in my toolbox. It’s been a while since I started a new project with Gulp, tending to favour Laravel Mix, however Mix doesn’t feel right for Eleventy.

About a month ago Max Böck shared his Eleventy starter kit Eleventastic, it contained a whole host of clever things that I didn’t know you could do… of note, the *.11ty.js template files (docs) which Max used to sort his CSS, JS and SVG.

Having dug into his code, pulled some across directly (the JS), modified others (CSS and SVG), and used to write my own (responsive images), the build steps of this site are now 100% degulpified.

As with so much of my work with Eleventy it has been a result of standing on the shoulders of people who have open sourced their code, which has let me poke around and understand how it all works. Likewise, the code for this site is on Github.

Not tomorrow… but soon.

2020-05-01T00:00:00Z

The Second of May was due to have been our wedding day. As a result of what’s happening globally, our plans have had to be postponed; church buildings are closed and paperwork isn’t being issued. The implication is that it is not possible to get married in the morning. Even though we desperately want to make these commitments to each other, legally we are restricted.

For everyone, this season has been a period of real uncertainty; changing plans and further restrictions are desperately hard to navigate. But, in the midst of this time we are ever more certain that being married is something we want to commit to, and will do so as soon as it is permitted. Whether that be with two witnesses or two hundred witnesses, marriage is important and we want to honour it in our lives.

As with so much in this time, we don’t know when that will be, or how it will work. We are waiting.

In many wedding ceremonies there is a reading taken from the Bible from the book of 1 Corinthians. Paul, the author, teaches the definition of love. He starts with ‘Love is patient’. Patient love is directed at one another, but it is also patience towards God. We are to have patience with God as He is at work. As many of you know, we are both Christians- we trust that God is in control at this time, and as we love Him, so we patiently wait, trusting in Him to bring us, and this world, through this.

The Second of May will be a sad day for us. But in the midst of the sadness we have hope; as Paul writes to the church in Rome, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

When we set our wedding date, we also created a gift list, which many of you have generously given on, thank you. If gift giving brings you joy, we’ve left this open. Sadly, the gift ordering service is currently closed until businesses re-open, meaning we may not receive your lovely gifts for a significant period of time. However, they are greatly appreciated! Alternatively, the good news is, we have a new postal address. If you prefer to put something in the mail, please let us know and we’ll give you our address.

The Next Few Months for Kingdom Code

2020-04-20T00:00:00Z

A month into lockdown and we’re beginning to stablise - there is more of an understanding of how our lives work now. We don’t need to worry about panic buying toilet paper, our churches are beginning to get their heads around that live-streaming thing, and this is good!

As I’ve been catching up with people it has become apparent that there are two tribes of people at the moment – those with more time, and those with less time. I think that for the Kingdom Code community we’re mostly in the ‘less-time’ camp. Even if you haven’t suddenly had to start up a home-school, your skillset has just become a very valuable commodity!

Our work, our relationships, our churches have all moved to tech in the last three weeks. It was suggested that the church is now involved in its biggest experiment with technology ever! And, as a community we’re getting stuck in supporting the local church to do this.

A couple of weeks ago many Christian technologists around the world gave up more of their evenings and weekends to participate in the Covid-19 Global Church Hackathon, and some amazing projects were kicked off to serve our church and our world. Some of the things that came out of this week are amazing, and I really want to encourage this. I want to encourage you as part of the Kingdom Code community to use your skills to serve the church well, to help it to flourish in this time.

But with this encouragement to get stuck in, I also want to care for our community too. There are a lot of demands on our time at the moment, and there is a time to go all-hands-on-deck, to make time and energy sacrifices to get things working. But that is not a long term thing! God’s people need to be looked after, protected, and encouraged to rest well in this time.

If your days are anything like mine, you start the work day looking at a screen, talking through a camera, and we are ending our day in a similar way as we share time with friends and family. A lot of meetup groups are going online at the moment, I see the value in this, but I don’t think that Kingdom Code doesn’t need to add to this. Actually - I want to lead us in doing the reverse, let’s not add to the demands to spend more time in front of the screen, but instead use this time to encourage rest, sabbath, offline time. In our Leeds community we had the pattern of gathering on the last Monday of the month, in London we gathered on the first Monday. I’ve put those dates in my diary now as an evening of digital quiet.

We’re not going to go completely quiet, the Kingdom Code blog will still remain active. Over the next few months we’ll be working on some book recommendations, stories of encouragement, etc. If you are wanting to meet together, on Thursday 30th April, Faithtech, are hosting a big call, to meet Christian in the tech from all over the world, to talk, and to pray together. As things begin to change, we’ll review and change what we’re doing to match.

At the top of this post I suggested that there were two tribes of people. If you’re in the camp that has more time than normal, let me encourage you to invest in your relationship with God, maybe buy a copy of From the Garden to the City and read it, talk to your church leader to see how you can serve in this time, log into the Kingdom Builders Slack and ask around for projects, there is lots to do at the moment.

But… if you’re in the tribe that has less time than you would like, let me encourage you to rest. Make time at the end of the day. Go for a walk, listen to a bible reading (I’ve been enjoying the Psalms of Ascent), take time to pray. Don’t feel guilty about not working on that side project right now!

Psalm 130

2020-04-10T00:00:00Z

Over the last two weeks at The Globe Church we’ve been in the Psalms of Ascent, the songs that the Isralites sing as they ascent to the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. The songs teach us and point us to see God more clearly - they are climbing the hill to go to a holy place - a place set aside for God to dwell. These songs show us how holy God, and his dwelling place, is.

In contrast these songs also teach us a lot about the people singing them, and in turn us. They show just how far away we are from the holiness of God. And as we get to Psalm 130 today that’s how the author is feeling - there is despair at their state, the unholiness of the Psalmist, and the Israelites hangs around them; but as they sing their eyes are drawn to see the hope and the confidence they can find in God.

Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

Over the last few weeks I have felt myself fraying - all the uncertainty, the unknowns; it has felt like my ends are coming undone. Outwardly that has been stress, anger, worry, sadness, unrest… Over-working to distract myself from what is happening outside these four walls.

I think that the Psalmist can identify with this as they start their song – Out of the depth I cry to you Lord.

The Psalmist knows what fraying feels like, the implications of weariness, exhaustion, being run down, and sorrowful. That’s the depths from which they start their song. But for the Psalmist, their ‘out of the depths’ is not as a result looking back - being trapped inside for days on end - but looking ahead, up to the temple. Our Psalmist is aware of just how serious the thing they are doing is – look at verse three - If you kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? Looking up at the dwelling place of God, they see just how unprepared they are. How can they continue this journey to a place that they are so unworthy to enter?

Imagine suddenly the live stream breaks, instead of this video- a show reel of your every selfish action, harsh word, angry thought published live to the world. How could we look at one another? These are the thoughts of the Psalmist, but not that the people might see the sin, but knowing that their holy God has seen the sin.

I wonder if you’ve had that experience seeing just how significant your sin is next to the purity of God… Perhaps it was just before you became a Christian… Perhaps it was as the Holy Spirit convicted you of something in your life… When we see just how pure God is, and just how contaminated our sin makes us we can begin to understand the depths from where the Psalmist writes from. So heavy, so oppressive. It’s the kind of sorrow that causes you to cry out. And that’s the first thing to see from this Psalm - in our sorrow we can cry out to God.

The Cry of Sorrow

Lord, hear my voice, let your ear be attentive to my cry for mercy. The Psalmist cries out to God for mercy. We looked at that when we were in Psalm 123- it’s an acknowledgment of just how powerless we are, and so there is a cry to the one who is powerful. They don’t cry out to any earthly ruler. The Psalmist leads the people to cry out to the Lord - the great I am - their God who is in covenantal relationship with his people. They cry out because they know that God is the only one who can help. In the sorrow we can cry out.
There is sorrow. And there is comfort in forgiveness.

The Comfort in Forgiveness

Who would be able to stand before God who sees all things? Who is able to ascend the hill? Where is the comfort here? Look back at verse 3 and 4. The first word of verse 3 - ‘if’, the first word of verse 4 - ‘but’. If God kept a record of sin… but there is forgiveness.

The Psalmist sings of the comfort there is with our God who forgives. The Psalmist can keep ascending the hill, because there is forgiveness for them. At the temple there are the sacrifices, the lamb being offered for the sins of the people.

Look at the implications in verse four; there is forgiveness so that we can, we reverence, serve you. God’s mercy brings about a forgiven people who are able to do what they were created for - to worship! They ascend the hill and they are not blocked by their sin, instead God in his mercy makes a way for them to worship.

The same is true for us today - we look up to God, and how can we approach him knowing how far away we are from his holiness. But like the Psalmist we can hold to the comfort of forgiveness. We don’t climb the hill to make the sacrifices, instead today we entrust ourselves to Jesus who is able to ascend the hill, to Jesus who is the lamb offered for our sins. We can cry out to the Lord, and we are comforted in the promise of forgiveness and the ability to live the life we were made for.

The Waiting in Hope

Even with the comfort they know that they are not there yet. Read with me verses five and six - I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.

These verses say that we’re not there yet. While there is comfort in the sorrow, there is a time of waiting, yearning, longing. Waiting more than watchmen wait for the morning. The watchmen stand guard at night - protecting the camp, always ready, always alert for attack - the morning brings relief, their watch has been completed.

But right now the people wait, wait to be in the presence of the Lord, on the edge, urgently desiring for their journey to be over.

The waiting might feel intense, painful at points, but the waiting time is never the end. As the watchmen know that morning will come, so the Psalmist knows that their journey will find completion. Psalm 130 speaks of a hope in which they can entrust themselves to, in the sorrow there is comfort, during the waiting - the Psalmist shares their confidence - I will wait for the Lord… in his word I put my hope. The waiting and the longing isn’t empty - it is rooted in the Lord and in his word. How is the comfort of forgiveness held during the waiting time? They know the character of the Lord and of his word - the promises are true and God is faithful.

The Confidence of Redemption

There is a cry of sorrow, there is comfort in forgiveness, there is waiting in hope, and in the waiting there is complete confidence in redemption.

With this confidence the Psalmist can call all the Israelite people - verse 7 and 8: put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love, with him is full redemption. He will redeem Israel from their sins. There is no one else who you can put your hope in like this. No one else who will reach into your depths like the Lord, no one else who will hear your cry of sorrow, bring you comfort in forgiveness and so so much more. There is hope and that hope is found in God.

Read back through this Psalm as you will see so many promises-

God hears our cry
God gives us forgiveness
God enables us to worship him
God has unfailing love
He gives full redemption
He will redeem his people

Today you may be feeling in the depths. You may be feeling sorrowful. Today will you cry out to God who hears us in our depths? Let me point you to see Jesus afresh today who displays and makes all these promises possible. Our hope and confidence is found in Him, in his word, in Jesus as we look and see what he has done. His promises are trustworthy - he has shown unfailing love, he has redeemed his people, he did this with his life on the cross.

We wait now for his return, more than watchmen wait for the morning, or the world waits for coronavirus to be gone. But we don’t wait in the depths, we wait comforted with our confidence in Christ.

Lessons learnt from live streaming church

2020-03-24T00:00:00Z

As we face further into lockdown of the UK, our churches have embraced livestreaming as a way of keeping in touch with our church families. I’m not going to write a how-to guide, there are plenty of those on the internet, instead this is a note of the lessons that we learnt this week at The Globe Church.

✅ Plan it!

You wouldn’t go into a service unplanned. Make sure you have a clear service plan in place for the live stream. What video clips are going to be used when, who is speaking to camera, what backing music, etc.

✅ You don’t need to map your normal service to this medium

Our church services run with a certain order to make use of the time and the space. Half way through the service the kids might go out to their seperate groups… this doesn’t happen through a livestream… (admittedly in Zoom, kids can have their own breakout rooms in Zoom). Think carefully about what might need to change, or what you could change.

✅ Make sure you’ve got the right music license

I’ve written a summary of this but make sure that you’ve got the correct licence in play to cover your copyright, having a band cover songs is fine, but you’ll need the CCLI streaming license if you want to display lyrics for people to sing along with, otherwise limit yourselves to songs in the public domain.

✅ Go wired

Wi-Fi is everywhere, which means that with lots of devices floating around, everything can be slow with interference. If you can, plug a cable from the router into the computer that is running the livestream. If you can’t, kick every device off the network.

✅ Test everything. Everything.

Not run a livestream before? Run a test.

Not spoken to camera before? Run a test.

Not done a tech setup like this before? Run a test!

Check the audio levels through the camera, not just what they sound like in the room.

Check what you’re pointing the camera at… take the time to make it look good; don’t cut of the tops of people’s head in the frame. You don’t need to be fancy moving the camera all over the place - a fixed camera on a tripod is more than enough.

Also… test your upload speed.

✅ Tell people where it is

At The Globe Church we’re running everything from www.globe.church/live.

We have shared that link in whole church emails, through social media, in WhatsApp chats, in banners across the church website.

We’re running it through the /live page for a couple of reasons:

Each live stream URL from YouTube and Facebook is different, we’re just embedding that URL into our /live page - this gives us one place to keep upto date. Every email we send out will always have the right link in it.
We control the page - /live is on our website, not Facebook and YouTube’s page with 101 other distractions on it competing for attention. /live has on it what we want people to see, and we’re adding content and improving it day by day.

✅ Expect guests

On Sundays you preach for people who have been Christians for decades, as well as people who are just beginning to explore Christianity. It’s the same here. You’re not talking to Sunday regulars anymore! My parents near Brighton are tuning in (👋 Mum and Dad), people are sharing the link with their housemates, and their neighbours. It’s on the internet, so it’s public. Expect guests.

As a preacher, you’re getting no feedback from the room - explain the Gospel clearly, as if it is the first time someone is hearing it.

✅ People are mobile

On The Globe Church website 61% of visitors we visiting from a mobile device (70% if you include tablets). Laptops can be carried anywhere in the house or flat too. Don’t think that people are going to be all gathering around a TV set. How does that change how you put your time together?

✅ What happens next?

Think about after the service… there’s no tea and biscuits any more. What do you want people to do? Think about individuals sitting on their own in their bedrooms, think about families gathered in their front-rooms around a TV, think about flatmates who have spent too much time with each other this week. What do you want them to do next?

A couple of suggestions:

If someone is just discovering Jesus for the first time, what resource do you want to point them to?
If someone is on their own… prompt them to make some notes, to think, to pray, to reflect, then maybe to call someone and talk about what they’ve been listening too.
If people are in a group, they are in an instant small group - have some discussion questions ready.

✅ Be okay with not being polished

You’re not a big US megachurch with a slick setup, that’s okay - that’s not what it is about. Be you, make mistakes (we broadcast Jonty upside down this morning), learn from them. This isn’t about being the insta-perfect image, don’t get trapped in that millenial/influencer dream. Just show people Jesus.

⚠️ Beware: the novelty will wear off

This week was fun, this is a new way of doing church, it feels novel right!? Next week, when we have all spent our lives having conversations mediated by a webcam, sitting in-front a computer, tablet or mobile device on Sunday for church won’t be as appealing. Let’s think carefully about how we engage our church families outside the live stream.

These are lessons from week one. We’re going to learn more next week. Keep going friends!

Technologists Serving the Church During Coronavirus

2020-03-16T00:00:00Z

As the government encourages us to reduce the amount of social interaction, now is the perfect time for the Kingdom Code community to serve the local church.

We’re a community of technologists, people who build and implement tools to solve real world problems, and this week our churches have some big problems. How do we hold in tension the Christian priority of meeting together to worship with the advice of the government to avoid all unnecessary travel and contact?

If you want to get some ideas of how you could help, there is a growing Google Doc put together by a few people who are involved with technology and church ministy. Read it, share it, start using it: Digital Tools During the Coronavirus

Now is a great time to get in touch with your church leaders to see how you might be able to serve them, maybe it is setting up a livestream for them, perhaps it is introducing them to a tool like Mailchimp, or Churchsuite so they can communicate quickly with the church. For those of you who work remotely, perhaps it is setting up small groups to happen via Skype or Zoom…

At BUILD 2019, Andy Geers reminded us that Christian technologists have a role to play being members of the body of Christ. Let’s get with that this week. Let’s use the skills that God has given us to equip His church to praise and worship this week.

A note about livestreaming and song licensing in churches

2020-03-16T00:00:00Z

In light of Covid-19 and lots of churches moving their services online I had a chat with CCLI and PRS for music around the legalities of live streaming the sung worship in your church. What follows is my understanding of the situation… please note that I am not a copyright lawyer.

Too long… didn’t read:

Music in the public domain is fair game. Do what you want with it.
Your church worship leader is treated like a covers band by YouTube and Facebook. They have the license in place for you to livestream them.
Streaming publically over other platforms is unclear, but you will probably need a Limited Online Music Licence from PRS.
Livestreaming recordings (eg from the latest Hillsong album) is not okay.
Displaying lyrics is not clear at the moment… however you probably need CCLI’s streaming license, unless you limit your worship to music in the public domain or those who have given permission.

The short summary of my call - If you are using streaming services like YouTube or Facebook live you’re fine because they have paid the license for user generated content. This means that your church’s band, organist, solo pianist, etc is treated like a covers band on these platforms. Playing ‘covers’ of the latest worship songs is permitted.

What you can’t do is use commercially recorded music and sing over the top of it - don’t livestream your church karaoke - that recording is copyrighted. If you want to stream recordings of songs (eg: a track from the latest Hillsong album) you’ll need to jump through some hoops with PRS (unless the artist has given permission - but even that is problematic because of automatic checking by YouTube and Facebook).

If you are using something other than Facebook or YouTube I would encourage you to double check the service provider’s policy for such things. I know of a number of churches that are using services like Skype and Zoom, I doubt that they have that kind of license in place. Read on…

If you are using something like Zoom or Skype, or if (for some reason) a technically competent member of your church built from scratch their own live streaming platform… PRS for Music has the Limited Online Music Licence, band A costs ~£150 year and should cover you, however have a chat with PRS first.

Frustrating the same does not apply to displaying song lyrics. This is a bit unclear, I think that you need to either:

Limit yourself to songs in the public domain
Get permission from directly from the licence holder. (See a list of groups that I know have given permission).
Get the CCLI streaming license. It’s not actually clear what this covers, but their website does have the friendly heading ‘Relax, You’re Covered’. So that’s good right?

For all other questions related to the church and Coronavirus there is a growing resource site that is being put together by a number of excellent and trusted friends: covid.churcheshandbook.co.uk.

*Nb: Strong disclaimer here: I’m not a lawyer, I’m just someone who had a couple of phone calls over lunch. I’ll update this post if my understanding of the situation changes.

Updates and changes

19th March with details about displaying song lyrics.
20th March with details about the new CCLI streaming license.
21st March with TlDr section and revisions to how lyrics are handled.
27th July correcting a couple of broken links.

Tracing a JPG to SVG

2020-02-26T00:00:00Z

Every so often I find myself with a JPG logo that I really want an SVG for… It’s a pain because the JPG just won’t scale for web or print work.

There are a number of tracers out there, however until recently I’ve always found that they create more problems than they solve. A recent project put me back looking for one of those tools, and figuring that it is 2020, things must have improved by now… I was pleased to find svg-tracer.glitch.me which seems to do a decent job.

A couple of lessons I learnt in the process:

Black logos on white backgrounds work the best. It’s obvious, but worth stating.
Multicoloured logos might require a little more work. If you have seperate blocks of colour in the logo (cleared with a gap between them) everything is happy, however if you have overlapping colours, things get interesting. I ended up selecting the colours in the logo and then creating different graphics which I then sent through the tracer seperately. I then pulled the different layers in Sketch (Inkscape would be fine) and lined everything up.
Logos with overlapping transparency… Forget it unless you are more patient than me!

I would recommend sending the final SVG through a SVG optimiser like ImageOptim (make sure to disable lossy minification otherwise the ViewBox attribute gets ripped out) or Jake Archibald’s OMGSVG.

Yes, I know that Adobe Illustrator has this kind of thing built in… But I’m not investing in Adobe products.

Sleepless AI

2020-02-21T00:00:00Z

Earlier this week I was asked to give some thoughts to what keeps me awake at night thinking about the church and AI. This is my starter for ten…

This is complicated. AI is complicated. I’m not talking about the moral and ethical considerations (which are boggling), I’m talking about technology. I mean, there are those who are working with it right now, they get - for sure, they are off, racing ahead making things, building tools that all kinds of incredible things. The 2016 update to Google Translate was just the tip of the iceberg of amazing things that showed that Machine Learning and AI powered things were not just a passing thing. But there is this legitimate feeling that AI is just too complicated for the mere mortal to understand.

But then there is “AI”… Everything in 2019 was powered by “AI”. My smartphone’s camera, email search, toothbrush… At what point is AI just a gimmick to sell products? At the stores over Christmas Oral-B was selling their all new, bluetooth connected, smart AI powered, batteries included, toothbrush. AI smoke and mirrors. What does the AI inside a toothbrush do? I don’t know?! But I must spend £169.99 (RRP) to get one!

On the other side we live in a sci-fi dystopian loving society that in 1984 pictured Sarah Connor shooting the AI powered skelton dead. It is burning in the fire, and you think that she is safe, right until that metal hand rises from the flames and comes at her. That wasn’t the first sci-fi glimpse of AI, and we have loved it all the more. Dreams of the end of the world at the hands of AI.

What keeps me awake at night isn’t if a robot will make my job, or my fiancé’s job, or my neighbours job as we humans become obsolete. I’m not worried about my pastor skilling up to support thousands of Uber and Deliveroo drivers in this city should they need to find a new profession (if the need arises he will be great at it). What worries me is that we will fall off one of these three sides of the horse because our church leaders and our technologists don’t know how to communicate. The three sides to avoid:

The complexity overwhelms us and we don’t try to understand.
The hype cycle that AI is just a marketing term means that we don’t bother.
Any potential to look into AI is lost to doomsday singularity scenarios.

Technology has been one of the many tools that disciples of Christ has reached to proclaim God’s word and to live out the great commission. The codex and the printing press are worn examples that I’ll not dwell on now, but we forget that the Roman road network were huge innovations of their day that sped the gospel message far. Or what about the trained light aircraft pilots at the end of the second world war who turn their trade to set up Mission Aviation Fellowship, or those who looked at the radio and thought that it would be a smart idea to set up a broadcast antenna at the borders of countries closed to the gospel send in Christian broadcasting, or the vicar who realised that installing a phone line into a central London vicarage might help those at their most desperate moment’s in his parish…

What keeps me awake at night is not that we don’t see the needs in our local church communities, and in our world. One of the things that keeps me awake is that those who see the need look at all this tech as unapproachable, incomprensible, unrealistic, and a lot of other words starting with the letters ‘u’ and ‘n’… even if they look at it in the first place. And as for our church leaders, let’s be honest they have a lot of other things on their plates right?!
Meanwhile, and part as a result, in our church congregations, the technologists are being told that if they want to serve at church using the skills that they have, the best way they can do this is to maybe run the lyric powerpoint, perhaps the PA desk (which, for the record, most have no idea about), or, if they are very lucky, they can look after the website - a massive poisoned chalice with endless PCC meetings.

How will we enable both the church leaders, and the technologist in the pew, to learn from passages like Exodus 31? We see God fill Bezalel son of Uri and Oholiab son of Ahisamak with His Spirit, to use their skillsets to bring glory to God’s name through the construction of the temple. Those technologists, sitting in the pews, enjoying union with Christ, being sealed by His Spirit, being equipped to use their skillsets for His purposes… could those purposes be more than advancing a tech startup?

These two groups in the local church have a chasm of communication and understanding to break through and it is tragic because as a church we’ll be so late to the party of what this technology could do for us…

I mean, one idea: imagine as the data from the 2021 census comes out, and we have in place AI and machine learning (ML) systems looking and chewing over the data comparing it with 2011’s data set, and all the other datasets that we have in the public domain and as a church. Data analysts within the church could do an amazing job working with church leaders and networks to indicate the gospel needs in every community in the UK, where to focus on church planting, how to support community groups, schools, youth services or foodbanks.

That’s doable. It’s just if we encourage people to talk. As a Church community if we set people aside to do the work.

At the moment it is the big players in the mission world who get this. SIL and CV are just two ministries that have people working full time in this field - SIL (Wycliffe) works to translate the Bible, and they are reaching for tools that will speed up that process. But they are the outliers. From what I’ve seen, we’re not thinking this way, we’re not looking to the potential, we’re not encouraging the investment; there are so many other needs beyond tech, and let’s be honest tech investments are expensive. How can a small mission agency fund even one person to turn down their £60–80k salary working at some cool and trendy Silicon Valley job to work for them? But before that, I worry that they won’t even think to try because they can’t see the impact that they might have, and the church doesn’t invest in training up her technologists to use the skills that they have to their full for Christ.

Going back to our three sided horse… I’m not denying that these things aren’t something we need to think about. We must. AI is complicated, but we must embrace that as a church, we must face into it, we must work to understand the things that worry us and mitigate against them… But we must also explore the potential. How could technology be used in the same way that the early church used the network of roads built by the Romans to preach the gospel to all nations, tribes, and tongues? How could AI help us complete the charge of the Great Commission?

Multiple BitBucket Accounts, Multiple SSH keys

2019-11-03T00:00:00Z

Recently I found myself with the problem after set up a second account on BitBucket; I had a personal account, and now required a separate work account.

This led to a whole manner of problems - each account requires a different SSH key for authentication. That in itself is fine, however each time I went to git clone I was getting back a fatal: Could not read from remote repository error.

What’s happening?

When doing the initial handshake with the BitBucket server my local computer offers up one SSH key after another, until it finds a key that BitBucket recognises. It’s like working your way around different keys on your keychain until you find the right key for your door. However in my case the first key that BitBucket recognised is my personal SSH key, it knows that key, so authenticates as my personal account. My personal account did not have access to the repo, as a result I get back the error.

I need to make sure that the right SSH key is offered up each time I access a work or person repo.

The solution

To fix this you need to make some additions to your .ssh_config file. If you’re not familiar with .ssh_config files they make accessing remote machines quick and easy, Joël Perras has written a great post 'Simplify Your Life With an SSH Config File. It’s worth a quick read through…

Open up your .ssh_config file and add the following:

# Personal BitBucket
Host p-bitbucket.org
 HostName bitbucket.org
 User git
 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/[personal ssh key]
 IdentitiesOnly yes

# Work BitBucket
Host w-bitbucket.org
 HostName bitbucket.org
 User git
 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/[work ssh key]
 IdentitiesOnly yes

What this does is create two different alias for accessing your personal and work accounts, and offering up the right SSH keys with them.

Testing it

You can verify if this work by testing with ssh w-bitbucket.org which should return:

logged in as your [work bitbucket username]

Working with it…

This will mean that you need to make changes to how you clone a repo. Perviously you have have done something like git clone git@bitbucket.org:user/repo. Instead your clone command will need to reference the correct alias in your .ssh_file.

git clone w-bitbucket.org:user/repo

Note rather than git@bitbucket.org, I’m using the the custom Host that is set in the .ssh_config file.

I’ve written this for BitBucket because that is what I was using at the time, but the same should work for GitHub, GitLabs, etc.

Hear back from BUILD 2019

2019-11-01T00:00:00Z

Throughout the hackathon last month Bill Shaw spent the 24 hours interviewing and following some of the participants as they worked on the different hackathon challenges and projects. Bill has a BBC local radio background, and has a podcast about the work of organisations such as Street Pastors and Foodbanks. He has put together a 30 minute episode snapshot of what happened at Kingdom Code BUILD.

We loved hearing people like Jubi, who represented Christianity Explored Ministries, talk about his experiences of being at the hackathon for the first time…

I love what [Kingdom Code] do. It’s about the whole of life being submitted to Christ, and that obviously includes the gifts that we offer the world. Coders, designers, people who work in project development… these people offer their talents and gifts to Christian organisations that are expanding God’s Kingdom somehow. I love this surrendering of gifts to the Kingdom.

This is my first time at [BUILD] and my impressions so far is of worship. These people worship Christ first, and they loving coding and design second… I feel an energy in the room right now, ideas are just bursting everywhere, I’m just excited to be here!

Have a listen, and come and join us in 2020!

Plugged In

2019-10-24T00:00:00Z

Of course there is the obligatory chapter facing the question ‘is it okay for Christians to watch Game of Thrones, or insert any other controversial topic?’, but Daniel Strange takes four chapters to get there, because Plugged In is about a lot more than that. If you were to look at that title heading on its own you would expect a set of regulations to follow, which is nothing to do with what this book is about!

It is the subtitle of this book which got me interested; “Plugged In: Connecting your faith with what you watch, read and play”. In the opening few pages Daniel says that we have no-choice but to engage with culture -

‘Whether we like it or not, engaging with culture is inevitable because created humans are cultural beings… you also belong to a culture - and that’s an undeniable part of who you are.’

Plugged In isn’t a book about sticking your head in the sand, or running away to a monastery to disconnect and disengage from popular culture, but instead to engage well, and in a thought-through way, all the time thinking how we point to Jesus in it.

The 200 page paperback takes you through a framework to put on “the x-ray vision goggles of the Bible” to look at the culture we’re in to help us connect with it, and to confront it with the gospel. Dan Strange takes us to Acts 17, where Paul is pulled up in Athens to explain his ‘new’ philosophies, and then breaks down Paul’s speech into four steps that we can use as we seek to show Christ.

First by entering into their world, and listening to the story that is being presented.
Then to explore the worldview that is being put across, spotting what is replacing God in there.
Thirdly exposing the idols that hide behind the ideas.
Finally, pointing people to Jesus in evangelism, showing how the gospel fulfills in a way that an idol never could.

Daniel Strange is an academic, so you might expect this book to have lots of long words, heavy footnoting, and sitting in the abstract. But it isn’t! Having laid down the theory, we’re then taken through worked examples from the 2018 World Cup through to zombie films and bird watching. Each example taking us through these steps how to apply them, and in them we’re still shown how we can enjoy them not just step back from culture.

It is work though! Dan doesn’t hold off that engaging with culture well will take time to think through, to explore the background of where it comes from, to think and work out how to connect and confront. But the payoff in seeing the beauty of the gospel in comparison as we hold it out to the world that we live in is worth it!

Buy Plugged In from:

RSS + Eleventy

2019-10-24T00:00:00Z

When I switched this site across to Eleventy I left myself with a to-do list which I’ve slowly been working through- one of them was to re-implement the RSS feed. Good news, I did that this evening. Turns out it was really simple 🎉

The steps are trivial:

Install the Eleventy RSS plugin and follow the two step instructions and the sample.

The other two things that are useful to do:

One: Add the RSS feed to the head with a link tag:

<link
  rel="alternate"
  type="application/rss+xml"
  title="Blog RSS"
  href="/blog/feed.xml"
/>

Two: Exclude files that shouldn’t be there from collections (like the blog listing page).

eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true

I realise that I might be too late to the party on this and everyone has gone home…

The Gospel Comes with a House Key

2019-10-22T00:00:00Z

In The Gospel Comes with a House Key, Rosaria Butterfield shows through part autobiography, part Bible teaching why hospitality isn’t an optional extra in the Christian life, but an essential part, and what living it looks like in her family life.

I don’t think that the theory behind hospitality is hard to get your head around in a church context. It’s very easy open to your Bible to verses like Titus 1v8 when Paul teaches that elders “must be hospitable”, or to Hebrews 13v2 where the instruction is “do not forget to show hospitality to strangers…” The commands are clear. But what does this look like? How does that work out in practice for me living in London?

When I picked the book up I was expecting to have to work my way through some fairly dense theology of hospitality. I was completely off-base. One of the joys of this book is that most of it feels like an autobiography; you’re invited into Rosaria’s life, the book is her showing you what her life looks like as she seeks to practice ‘radically ordinary hospitality’.

At no point is this sugar coated. Her story-telling opens up the hard things that hospitality means facing into; from the mistrust of neighbours, caring for people at the end of their life, through to working out how to respond when one of the people you have been showing hospitality to is arrested for setting up a meth-lab in their basement. She talks about the practicalities of feeding lots of people regularly (lots of dhal), and how she manages all the people coming in and out of her home as an introvert (INTJ). This book is immensely practical.

While completely practical, The Gospel Comes with a House Key is always grounded in scripture. In explaining the title of the book Butterfield takes us to Mark 10 where Jesus says ‘[there is] no one who has left home or [family] or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age… and in the age to come.’ Her take on this passage is striking with the lens of hospitality. When someone comes to Jesus they may lose partners, family, or homes in the process;

“God’s people need to wake up to something, if you want to share the gospel with the LGBTQ community or anyone who will lose family and homes, the gospel must come with a house key. This hundredfold blessing promised here in these verses is not going to fall out of the sky. It is going to come from the people of God acting like the family of God”.

The Bible is allowed to speak for itself, while Rosaria pulls in examples of what this looks like in her life and in her neighbourhood. This book is challenging!

At points it can be hard to work out the direct links from what sounds like suburby America to the estate that I live on in London, where I rent a room in a tiny flat. But the last few pages leave a challenge even for that excuse:

This is a false fear that no-one should heed. Hospitality shares what there is; that’s all. It’s not entertainment. It’s not supposed to be."

I’m leaving this book with not just a lot to think and pray about, but a lot of practical suggestions to test and explore. I’d recommend it for anyone who is just thinking about what Christian hospitality looks like or someone who has been practicing it for a long time.

Buy from:

Reviewing BUILD 2019

2019-10-16T00:00:00Z

In Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belonging to all the others. We have different gifts, according the grace given to each of us… (Romans 12v5-6). At Kingdom Code BUILD this year we spent the weekend dwelling on these rich words from Paul to the church in Rome as we put hands to keyboards for a weekend of designing, ideating, and coding.

We are all a part of Christ’s body the church. Each designer, developer, project manager, entrepreneur, administrator, tester… whatever your skillset, it is given by God as a gift as part of His body. The Kingdom Code community is one part of the church, never an end-in-itself.

So at BUILD 2019 we spent the weekend together exploring what that looks like in practice. Over 100 technologists, united not in their love of technology but their faith in Jesus, travelled from across the UK and wider Europe to spend the weekend together developing ideas and prototypes which work to serve the local and global church.

Christianity Explored Ministries and Christians Against Poverty (CAP) joined us for the weekend in October to help focus our time together, both ministries have a heart to serve the local church - they work to provide resources which equip the local church to proclaim God’s word and to relieve people from poverty and debt. Both organisations set challenges for the hackathon teams to work on.

Three teams stood out and left with a Kingdom Code mixtape as we gathered at the end of our time together to celebrate the work that had been done…

Value Navigator, which won the Christianity Explored Ministries challenge, was led by Claire Angus. Over the course of the weekend the team of eight explored how they might help people uncover what people value in life, in line with the Life Explored course. The team developed a BuzzFeed style quiz which ended helping the quiz-taker understand these themes in terms of how God created them in light of relevant passages from the Bible.

Christians Against Poverty awarded their challenge prize to a prototype project called Find the Need. Pitched on the Friday night by Alasdair Munday, this team built on top on the national census data to reveal some of the areas of deprivation around your local church, and to suggest specific ministries that you might be able to support in those contexts.

At the end of the hackathon we invited those in the room to vote on the “people’s choice” award. Robin Ferris joined the Kingdom Code community in London back in January to help him explore his idea to help Foodbanks get the donations that they need. He recently launched the first version of Bankuet, and the people’s choice award to their team as they worked towards building an API driven Foodbank stock inventory system.

A point of note should be given to Dan and Mike’s team; Go Chatter Custom Videos. We interviewed Dan last month about his project. At BUILD 2019 they came with the ambition of rebuilding their homepage and making some small tweaks. During the final presentations Mike pressed the big deploy button during the final presentations to put the work they had completed during the weekend live!

Please keep on praying for these teams, the projects that were worked on during BUILD 2019, and the ministries setting the challenges. We would love to see many of these projects go beyond the hackathon to serve local churches.

Part of something bigger…

2019-10-08T00:00:00Z

Kingdom Code BUILD is part of a global set of hackathons hosted by Indigitous. During two weekend in October over 30 different cities of technologists come together to apply their skillsets. We’re halfway through this year’s set of hackathons. Some happened last weekend, some will happen this weekend coming. Can I ask you to take a few minutes now to be praying for the impact of them?

These hackathon are taking place in cities around the world, from Auckland - New Zealand through to Abidjan – Côte d’Ivoire. Some hackathons, like the one happening this weekend in London, will have over a hundred people coming, others are small gatherings of three or four developers and designers. Regardless of the number of people in each room, over the course of these events, thousands of Christians working in the world of technology are coming together, giving up a weekend to offer their skills to serve the local and global church.

In these hackathons, ministry challenges which span many different areas of church ministry will be discussed, post-it notes will be scribbled on, solutions formed, laptops opened, and ideas will be transformed into designs and code that aim to carry on this great call that Jesus gives the church: ‘go and make disciples of all nations’ (Matthew 28v19).

Some of these ideas will look like tools to help people encounter Jesus for the first time, others will be projects to help people get to know their local community better, or give stock control systems for Foodbanks, or manage personal finances, or improve family relationships. There are so many different directions that these projects will go in. Will you pray that God would work within the teams this week to create projects that serve His church?

As much as these events are about building tools that resource churches and ministries, these events are also unique times when technologists can meet with other Christians who work in the world of technology to explore together and see how the skillset that God has given can be used for His glory. In these weekends friendships form that serve to mentor, encourage and point each other to Christ. Please pray that through these events strong Christ-centred friendships form that continue well beyond the hackathon?

Kingdom Code is just one small part of a global movement of Christ-minded technologists seeking to use the skills that we have been given for God’s glory. Please pray that we will all continue to see our technology through the lens of our faith in Jesus.

One of the BUILD projects in the wild…

2019-10-01T00:00:00Z

Last year Dan Rackham came to BUILD with an idea that had been mulling in the back of his mind for a while, and now a year on GoChatter Custom Videos is up and running, working with a number of ministries and churches including Thy Kingdom Come and Christian Publishing and Outreach (CPO). James Doc sat down with him and talked to him about GoChatter, coming to BUILD and getting a team together around an idea…

James Doc (JD): You joined us at the first Kingdom Code hackathon back in 2015… What motivated you to come along?

Dan Rackham (DR): I’m not a coder, but I’m just fascinated by the ideas that go round the room. The idea of so many people together in one room for the hackathon is massively invigorating!

At university I’d been involved with a small tech start-up. I enjoyed the experience of working with coders and of building something that then people could use. And when I got the invite to the Kingdom Code hackathon, the idea of it was substantially different to any other conference that I’d ever heard of. When I think about it, at that stage I was making quite a lot of videos and I thought, ‘maybe people could use the video skills in some of their projects.’

JD: What were things that stood out for you from what you saw in that room?

DR: It was fun how people were so dedicated to working on their projects that they slept on the couches overnight! The idea of giving a very intense burst to a project, that excites me. I remember thinking to myself, ‘wow, this is quite ambitious, I mean, is anything going to be made?’ People who had just met got into smaller groups, working collaboratively with each other. That’s the sort of collaboration I’ve only seen in a start-up, it’s exciting.

But we weren’t just spending the weekend head-down on a computer. We opened the Bible together, we prayed, we sang. It was really good in the sense of refocusing us to why we were working that weekend. And the groups were taking time out throughout the build together, to pray about their ideas and their concepts.

JD: You came last year with an idea… What was the idea?

DR: The concept was that churches want to interact on social media with video and would love to not just post a generic video but have their own customised video, for example inviting people to their Carol Service. The concept was creating a tool that very easily allowed somebody with no video skills to fill out a form which then generates a video which looks professional and easy to download. They can then share with their congregation in church or they can put it up on social media.

It was a simple idea, but I remember saying to you; ‘look, is this possible? What do I ask people?’ Remember, I’m not a coder, so I just came along and you said, well you need to ask for somebody who is keen to look at how you manipulate text in video. And so that’s what I asked for, and sort of spelled the idea out!

JD: And what did you get at the end of BUILD?

DR: It was great; there were six people who said ‘ok that sounds like something that I could help with, I’ve got a bit of skill in this area’. We worked together really well- I mocked up an idea of what it might look like in terms of UI and an example video. Then the team just worked on it to make it happen. At the end of the hack we had it working, it was almost good to go!

The hackathon did two things for me; firstly it proved to me that it was worth investing some more time and effort in this idea. Because here’s six people who had decided to give up a day of their life and you know I’m very grateful for that. Secondly, the fact that they were able to do what I had envisioned showed that actually this was completely possible, it was just that no one had done it before. So it spurred me on in that, and just an encouragement that other people are keen to sort of get involved with your crazy idea.

JD: We’re a year after that hack, the video generator has had a significant amount of work… What’s happened since the hackathon?

DR: GoChatterCustomVideos.com has launched! It is up and live. It’s still very much MVP; there’s about fifteen templates now, various things, some for prayer events, some for harvest, and some for Christmas. These are all templates that your church could go on, fill out the form and then render a video that you could use. It only happened because of God’s providence, he put me in touch with someone called Mike, and I’ve been working with Mike since December, he’s done a wonderful job of building, reworking, spending a lot of time on the backend and we’ve now got a tool which has generated just over 1200 videos for churches across the UK.

We’re now exploring how to make it financially sustainable; the Christmas videos that we’re working on will be £4 each and that just goes a little bit of the way to trying to cover the costs of both keeping the lights on the server, and covering development time from Mike.

JD: Final question, if there’s someone who is sitting on the fence, thinking about coming along to BUILD, why should they come?

DR: Oh, they definitely should! I’m not a coder; there’s a place for all types of people. I found I could offer ideas, I can offer some other experience that I’ve got. I needed the coders, I needed the designers, it would be great to have a whole variety of skills there. But I’d say come along because you’ll be an encouragement to whatever team you’re part of, you’ll help them sharpen their ideas.

Come along because it’s a genuine group of people who are trying to work on something together. And at the end you just won’t find anything quite like it. You know, at a conference you go and you just sit on a chair all day, or if you go to you know like a sort of a digital meet up with other photographers all you do is talk about cameras… But at Kingdom Code BUILD you get a chance to bring your faith into something and work on a project together. You don’t need to come with a project; you’ll be a massive blessing to somebody for whom this could be a really crucial, massive boost to their project. So yeah, come along!

Kingdom Code BUILD 2019 challenges

2019-08-08T00:00:00Z

At Kingdom Code we want to explore how the technical skillsets that God has given us can be used for His glory and serve His church. BUILD, our annual hackathon, is one method to practically explore this as a community. Each October we gather for 24 hours, setting up shop, exploring a couple of different challenges. Today we’re announcing the two challenges for the 2019 hackathon!

Challenge #1:
How can we equip Christians to use the Bible more in evangelism?

The words of Jesus to his disciples at the end of Matthew’s gospel is a clear commission: Go! Make more disciples! As a gathering of Christians, this is something that we can all unite around; part of our calling is to share the gospel message; “repent, for the Kingdom of God is near” (Matt 4v17).

God’s word is vital for this task; we’re given everything that we need in the Bible to share our faith, who God is, what he has done, and our response. But, so often, we can feel scared to share it, not confident what to say or even which passage to go to when speaking about Jesus. This challenge is about putting God’s word front and centre in our evangelism toolbox. How might we train, resource and equip individuals and groups to reach to God’s word first when talking about their faith?

Challenge #2:
How might we resource your local church to serve and include the poor?

In Acts 6 we see the early church work hard to serve the poor and those in need in their local community. They appointed leaders who were full of faith and God’s Spirit so that no one was missed. Today, churches host debt centres, food banks, and work with local homeless shelters, but 2000 years since the early church set up, there are still significant challenges for serving and including the poor through our local churches.

We want to explore more of how technology can be leveraged to help the local church better meet these needs. How can we assist the church to meet the practical and spiritual needs? How can we resource the church to welcome those in need into our church communities?

In September we’ll be hosting two Design Sprints to help us think more about these challenges. We’ll be taking Google Ventures Design Sprint methodology and condensing five days into two hours as we dig into the challenges together and explore potential solutions. We’ll be hosting on in London on 9th September and one in Leeds on 26th September.

Kingdom Code BUILD is taking place on 11-12 October 2019. Join designers, developers, product managers and more as we practically explore how our faith in Jesus Christs meets the skillset that he has given us.

Beeline

2019-02-28T00:00:00Z

I am a magpie for technology, old or new I just seem to hoard it. I am routinely reminded by my parents of the old computers that I just can’t seem to part with that are in their loft. And my flat in London is no different. Every so often I dig through a box of this stuff that has accumulated to see what I’ve forgotten, at the beginning of this year I rediscovered my Beeline.

This small little puck on my handlebars has completely transformed how I cycle around London.

Beeline isn’t new. It is a product that I kickstarted in October 2015. And like so many projects on Kickstarter it promised a lot, and when I got my hands on it, it just didn’t live up to the hope. The concept was pretty simple; it provides ‘fuzzy direction’ for your ride; think of it like a compass for you bike, but rather than pointing north, it points towards the destination you’re cycling too. The idea was great, however my experience was that it just wasn’t that helpful in built up London. So I wrote it off, forgot about it in my box of tech.

Three and a bit years on and everything has changed. Just before Christmas Beeline pushed an update with added Route Mode. It pulls directions from Google Maps, specifically the cycling routes (so you get all the shortcuts, the quieter roads, cyclepaths and backstreets) which I was using already and then gives you turn-by-turn directions on your handlebars. It is great.

In the last couple of months I’ve cycled over 300km to a whole load of places that previously I would have been stopping regularly on the ride to double check the map. Beeline has made cycling to new places fun and easy.

It has a handy backlight which makes the screen readable and night. The battery life is solid. It uses Bluetooth Low Energy so it’s easy on my phone battery too. And the icing on the cake? It uploads your rides to Strava (because unless a ride is uploaded to Strava, did it really happen?).

Anyway… that’s my love-letter to Beeline. If you’re a regular cyclist who wants a turn-by-turn tool for your bike, it’s a worthy investment.

BibleTrainer

2019-02-24T00:00:00Z

Every Sunday, seven year-old James came home from church with a new memory verse. Each week it would be a different passage from the Bible lesson that I had to go home and for the next week get into my head word perfect for the next Sunday.

I can’t remember the last time someone asked or told me to commit a passage of scripture to memory.

But, even now, over 20 years later many of those passages are still bouncing around my head. Verses like the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, “For God so loved…” (John 3v16), or verses like “man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16v7). These passages and many more come to mind in so many different situations; in prayer, in evangelism, as I better to see people more in the way that Christ sees them.

Over the last few months I’ve been working with John Raftery on a project that he brought to Kingdom Code BUILD called BibleTrainer. The idea behind it is simple - BibleTrainer wants to train you to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. It’s a mobile app (iOS and Android) and with daily use BibleTrainer can help you commit passages of scripture, even whole chapters and books, to memory. You can either look up the passages you want to commit, or go through the suggests passages library and pull in Bible verses on topics like grace, trust, evangelism, purity, salvation and many more.

A few years ago John Piper wrote a really helpful article on why memorising scripture is valuable. His sixth point continues to jump out at me; by committing God’s word to our hearts we experience greater communion with God and a deeper enjoyment with Him. In the Bible we see more of who God is and more of his character, as we memorise more on the way He acts. As we see, and put more of these truths in our hearts, so our hearts will warm to his character. You should read the full article!

BibleTrainer exists to help you to plant God’s word deep in your heart. We have a lot more ideas for it, there are many additions planned over the coming months. It’s free, download it, give it ago. Work on putting a passage in your heart. Try Psalm One for a week (it’s great with emoji mode too).

It’s free for both iOS and Android.

Responsive images in Eleventy

2018-12-26T00:00:00Z

⚠️ This post is not how I do things any more
The official Images plugin from Eleventy is great, and solves all my responsive image needs.

There’s nothing quite like a little bit of Christmas eve coding… Adding responsive images to my Eleventy (11ty) build has been on my to-do list for a while… I’ve finally got it working 🎉. And on the basis that I couldn’t find a write up of how other people have done it… this is how I’ve got mine set up.

Generate all the images

May 2020 Update: I changed this step when I migrated away from Gulp. Read about the degulpification

When I switched my site across to 11ty I used Gulp as my build tool. There is a handy image generator which you can point at a folder and it will generate different sized images based on a set of configuration. Imaginatively it is called Gulp Responsive.

You can see the (basic) configuration I’m using over in this Github commit. The summary version is that I generate two smaller versions of the input image which have their image width added into the file name (exampleimage-550.jpg) and all the metadata is stripped out for a small file size. The newly generated images are then exported into the build folder.

From the front matter

My blog posts are all written in Markdown, they have a little bit of custom meta-data stored in Front Matter. One specific bit is the lead image which is output at the top of this blog post.

The front matter stores the original image path, which is fine, however the new image tag requires the modified filename which includes the image width. To get this working I’ve added a universal filter in my 11ty config file which takes in an image path and an image size and returns the correct URL for the image:

Into the Markdown

The images that are included by referencing them in the Markdown is different - you can’t fix that with a filter from 11ty.

11ty (in it’s default) setup uses markdown-it for Markdown parsing. This is good because markdown-it is remarkably extensible, and people have. So, enter markdown-it-responsive which “…overloads original image renderer of markdown-it”.

Having got that installed in the 11ty config file, you can feed in a couple of options and enjoy new image tags in your HTML:

The output can be seen here:

The commits I made over the course of doing this show the progress of this. I also used the time to do a little bit of tidying up around the place:

Globe GetAway- Moving Forward

2018-10-05T00:00:00Z

At this time of year it can feel that The Globe Church changes a lot. The university term is starting back, new jobs are beginning, people are coming and leaving from London, and so our church family changes with the ebb and flow of city life. We’re not looking to resist the rhythm of where we live, but we are focused on being relational in it. It’s one of our church values- Relational; overcoming city life to be family.

This term as many people, often new to London, join our church family we want to live this out, growing in relationship with one another, helping one another live for Christ. One of the the ways we do this at this time of year is Globe GetAway.

On Saturday 27th October 2018 we’re taking a day out to have a day away as a church family. It’s become one of the highlights of our church calendar together. We’re going to do what lots of families do when they go away together – we’ll share meals, some will go on walks, play sports (or board games), drink tea. But most importantly we’re going to read God’s word together to grow deep in it as a family, praying, discussing and applying it to our lives.

This year’s theme is Moving Forwards. When you read almost any letter written by the apostle Paul he is really keen to encourage the church, and himself, that they need to be growing, they need be maturing, they need to be moving forwards in their faith. In Philippians he writes to the church:

“[I’ve not] arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. … One thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3v12-14)

Paul isn’t content with being a static Christian, he he trains and pushes himself forward. He teaches and writes to other churches, encouraging them to do the same. Hearing this encouragement, we’re going to explore this topic together. In the morning, we’re going to be thinking about what is means to move forwards in Jesus’ path, learning to emulate the example that he taught and set. The afternoon slow will have the theme of ‘momentum’. We’ll be digging into Ephesians together, and exploring how we can grow to become the mature body of Christ together.

Globe GetAway is taking place on Saturday 27 October 2018 at The King’s Centre in Chessington. It’s not too late to sign up to join us; either speak to Alice on Sunday, or email the church office.

Getting to know Jonny Miller and the role of the eldership

2018-09-20T00:00:00Z

Last Sunday, our church family commissioned Jonny Miller as a new elder. Jonny joins Jonty Allcock, Phil Tinker, Stephen Fletcher and Trev Archer in prayerfully leading our church, setting the vision, and ensuring that we hold fast to the Bible. We asked Jonny a few questions about himself and the role of eldership within Globe.

Jonny, who are you!?

I’m married to Lili and we live in Archway, North London. We’ve actually just moved there, so together we’ve had a set of busy weekend lugging furniture across London!

I work in Westminster as a technical consultant. The company I work for builds technology solutions to help make decision making more efficient. It’s interesting stuff!

Outside of work, I spend a lot of time playing sport. I play squash with colleagues from work, I’m in a five-a-side team and I watch sports often.

Where did your faith come from?

Growing up in a Christian family meant I was always around church. Sunday school and Christian summer camps were always a part of my life. The thing that kept me in church were the friends, I was just living life to please them.

That changed when I was about 15; at summer camp one of the talks clearly explained the result of sin. It took sin from a hypothetical thing to a reality. I needed help, and Jesus came to do that. That was the moment the penny dropped - when I became a Christian.

When I became a Christian, the people pleasing and all that didn’t stop straight away, I still struggle with that. But now, it all depends on God. Other people’s opinions aren’t all that matters; living right before God is what counts.

You’ve been at The Globe Church for three years now, what drew you to Globe?

I particularly love the sense family. If you miss a week, you will be missed. People will notice and care, and I think that is a very precious thing. When people have gone through really hard times, the church has gathered to pray for and support them. When people have had moments to celebrate - we’ve done that with them as a church! We don’t always get this right and as the church grows it becomes harder and harder to maintain that family sense. But pursuing that depth of relationship is one of the core values of our church family.

Another thing that drew me is that as a church, we’re committed to looking to the Bible to see how Jesus did things - we’re a church that is centred around him. We’re going to do things based upon what the Bible says, rather than previous structures, or past experiences.

On Sunday we commissioned you as an elder of the church. What is the role of the eldership in the church?

The eldership is the pastoral group of the church. We are there to pray and care for the church family.

We also help set the direction for the church. For example, we announced the theme for our church day away, ‘Moving Forward: in maturity and discipleship with Christ’. That has been something that we as an eldership team have been praying and thinking about, as we look to at the direction for the church in the year ahead.

The elders also hold each other accountable. Jonty and Phil have a huge responsibility in teaching the church, and we look after them in that.

In the coming few months what will we see the eldership doing?

We’ll be part of the church family! Some of the elders have a very public role like teaching and preaching from the front, and then rest of us will be there every Sunday. We will be praying with and for the church family, and doing our best to get know and love people.

How can the church family be praying for the elders?

As the church grows and changes, we need God’s help to lead wisely lovingly. A massive prayer request is that we can get to know, love and care for all the people who are arriving in this autumn term.

We also we believe that we have a responsibility to look after people as they leave. Over summer many people have graduated or moved jobs. Please pray for us as we support and help them to find a new church.

Pray for the Spirit to lead us in the decisions that need to be made, both financial and administrative, which will set the direction of the church in the year a head.

Moving your ideas forwards

2018-09-19T00:00:00Z

Years ago a friend told me “ideas are cheap. What sets people apart is the implementation“. It was a provokation… they had heard me share another wild idea, but were (understandably) frustrated from hearing yet another scheme that probably wouldn’t be followed through.

At the last Kingdom Code meetup we spent the evening coming up with ideas… we heard from both Bible Society and Stewardship, about their mission, about how their Christian ethos has challenged them to make a difference, how they’ve been working over many years to see it realised, and where they see their challenges now. Then over the course of the rest of our evening we came up with many ideas riffing off the challenge statements, exploring how digital skillsets could help resource these organisations further. Now what? Do we just sit on our ideas until the hackathon in October?

Of course not… Now is the time to invest in those ideas…

1. Validate the concept with other people

In the coming weeks who could you talk to about your idea? Who could you ask to give you feedback about it? Who could be helpful in helping you to refine the concept or challenging your assumptions?

Or could you explore the ideas behind Stewardship’s challenge about creating and enabling generosity in the Christian community? What things have helped get your friends excited about giving to a particular cause in the past? What challenges have they experienced in acting on those good intentions?

2. Mature the idea

Now that you’ve got some feedback on your idea it’s highly likely that you’re going to want to make some changes! Refine that idea down, tweak it, adjust it, get pen and paper out, work it out.

You might want to map out all the functionality that you need to include, or do some sketches of how an interface might need to come together. Don’t forget the content for your product either… what content will you need to write or develop?

3. Find other people to help you realise it

A hackathon is a team sport, not a single player event. On Friday night you’ll get 1 minute to share your idea and project with the rest of the room to form a team… but there’s no rules against having a team already onboard. Do you know someone with the skillsets to help make your idea fly? Maybe a designer? A content writer or database engineer? Sell your idea to them and get them to sign up with you.

Maybe you don’t know anyone yet… that’s fine. You can sign up to Kingdom Builders, the Slack team where we hang out. Join the #hack-in-ldn channel and share your idea there, get others thinking about it early!

4. Plan out what you’re going to make

Regardless of how big or small your idea is, there is only so much that you’re going to be able to make during a 24 hour hack event. So make a plan of what you want to build.

Remember that a good project isn’t a crazy level of functionality – you’ll never be able to build all of that in the short time that we’re going to have together. Instead, think about what a slice of product will look like from functionality through to a great user experience… That way at the end of the hackathon you’ll be a lot more likely to have something that is ready to ship…

It’s okay to arrive having done groundwork already, be that sketching out some design concepts, setting up your development environment, installing all of the software libraries you’re going to need. Do everything you can so that you and your team can hit the ground running.

There you go, that is four things you can do between now and Friday 19 October to help get your idea ready for the hackathon. And… if you haven’t already, you can sign up at https://kingdomcode.org.uk/build

Book your place now

Moving your ideas forward

2018-09-19T00:00:00Z

Years ago a friend told me “ideas are cheap. What sets people apart is the implementation”. It was a provokation… they had heard me share another wild idea, but were (understandably) frustrated from hearing yet another scheme that probably wouldn’t be followed through.

Of course not… Now is the time to invest in those ideas…

1. Validate the concept with other people

In the coming weeks who could you talk to about your idea? Who could you ask to give you feedback about it? Who could be helpful in helping you to refine the concept or challenging your assumptions?

Bible Society’s challenge is around helping people build an appetite for reading the Bible. Could you speak to a few people in your church on Sunday and ask them about where they struggle with reading the Bible and ask them their thoughts on your ideas concept…?
Or could you explore the ideas behind Stewardship’s challenge about creating and enabling generosity in the Christian community? What things have helped get your friends excited about giving to a particular cause in the past? What challenges have they experienced in acting on those good intentions?

2. Mature the idea

Now that you’ve got some feedback on your idea it’s highly likely that you’re going to want to make some changes! Refine that idea down, tweak it, adjust it, get pen and paper out, work it out.

3. Find other people to help you realise it

4. Plan out what you’re going to make

Regardless of how big or small your idea is, there is only so much that you’re going to be able to make during a 24 hour hack event. So make a plan of what you want to build.

Remember that a good project isn’t a crazy level of functionality - you’ll never be able to build all of that in the short time that we’re going to have together. Instead, think about what a slice of product will look like from functionality through to a great user experience… That way at the end of the hackathon you’ll be a lot more likely to have something that is ready to ship…

There you go, that is four things you can do between now and Friday 19 October to help get your idea ready for the hackathon. And… if you haven’t already, you can sign up at kingdomcode.org.uk/build

Holding out hope in Southeast Asia

2018-09-17T00:00:00Z

The gospel isn’t something that we want to hoard for ourselves. The gospel is for everyone. That’s why one of our four values as a church is to be missional; confidently living to make Christ known to all people. We’re convinced that as the message of Jesus Christ was told to us, we’re to go and tell this good news not just here in London, or in the UK, but globally.

One of the ways we do that is to partner with Sarah who has gone from the UK to Southeast Asia. She has a massive heart to share Jesus with the people in cities, towns and remote villages. While in the UK, Sarah worked as a GP. As she got to know more of the needs of the country she is now in she saw a real need for appropriate care for those who are dying.

There is a prominent belief in the spirit world in Southeast Asia. The implications of those beliefs is that there is a big cultural fear of death. As Christians, we believe that faith in the resurrecting of power of Jesus transforms those fears. So one of the things that Sarah and team do is to train and equip the local church in palliative (end-of-life) care. As they support patients and families they share the hope in Jesus Christ.

Recently Sarah wrote for the OMF blog sharing more about her work and the future hopes that she has for the work there:

Khun pastors a small house church on the outskirts of a city in Southeast Asia. One day, Khun went to the city’s main hospital and asked for permission to visit cancer patients and offer spiritual support. She rejoiced when the hospital officials agreed as until recently, open evangelism in this area would have resulted in a few days in prison. Khun and her church members used this opportunity to visit patients and share the hope of Jesus. They also got to know their families and provide practical support, as patients are usually sent home to die. As the love of Jesus has been seen and heard through this church’s ministry, many have come to put their hope in the living God.

Read the full post

Let’s be praying for Sarah and the work that she and her team are doing as they hold out the gospel to all people and train up many more workers to do so. Also be praying for Phil and Vicki and their family as they are exploring the potential to go themselves to do gospel work in Southeast Asia.

Voice Assistants and the Church

2018-09-05T00:00:00Z

In the 1960’s voice assistants were the thing of science fiction. James T. Kirk was talking to the computer onboard the USS Enterprise, or the world of A Space Odyssey with HAL 9000.

But now the things of ‘science fiction’ are now a thing of ‘science fact’. It is just assumed that your new phone will come with something like Siri and Google Assistant built in. Asking Alexa if you need to pack an umbrella as you leave, or asking Siri to play your new favourite tune, for some people, has become second nature.

But what place can voice assistants have as we walk as Christians in a digital world?

Early Doors – Some of the first Christian Voice Assistant Apps

Unsurprisingly, Life.Church, the church behind the Bible App, were one of the first groups to enter the market. Their Google Assistant app and Amazon Echo skill enable you to look up a passage and have your device read you specific passages from the Bible translation of your choice. This results in a great way to help you engage with scripture as you listen as it is read to you.

Two years ago at Kingdom Code BUILD, a weekend event for Christians who are involved in making and shaping technology, a team of developers and designers started to explore the, then new, capabilities of the Amazon Echo. Over the course of the weekend they built BibleChat – a skill for the Amazon Echo which works to answer the top questions that Non-Christians and Christians alike have about the Jesus, the Bible and Christianity.

Once installed, the skill works like this: you simply ask Alexa questions like ‘Can you tell me who Jesus is?’ or more broadly, ‘Tell me about the meaning of life’. BibleChat then responds with a short answer, and gives the option for more details to be sent to your phone, giving Bible references and places to dig deeper.

‘Find me a church!’

Or take for example the latest project to come out of the Church of England’s digital media team. It pairs up two things that they are well known for, A Church Near You and Prayer of the Day.

Download their skill onto your Amazon Echo and you’re suddenly able to find the C of E church closest to your location, just by asking Alexa where the nearest church is and when it meets. Or, if you’re struggling to pray, Alexa can read the prayer for the day so you can pray along.

Upskilling – some helpful applications

Those are three examples of specific applications made for the voice assistants, but let’s not forget the built in features of our smart devices.

There are tools already built in which can help us work out our faith.

Things like the reminder feature; ‘Ok Google, remind me this evening to pray for…’

Or other simple things like when you’re driving like getting Siri to call the friend who God has put on your heart to encourage them. Perhaps you like to listen to music while you read your Bible? How about creating a quiet time playlist and each morning getting Alexa to play it for you as you read. Or if you’re working your way through a recent Christian paperback, Alexa can read the e-book version out loud to you.

To infinity… and beyond!

That’s a small sample of where things are at right now… but what place do they have in the future of the church?

Well, for that you’ll have to come along to Premier Digital Conference in November where I’ll be speaking alongside Amaris Cole from the Church of England and James Poulter from Lego about voice assistants within the church.

Alternatively, if you are a developer, a designer, or have an idea for a voice assistant tool to equip the church join Kingdom Code BUILD in London, on 19–20 October where we’ll be spending the weekend exploring and building new tools to equip the global church.

Importing old posts

2018-09-01T00:00:00Z

I’ve been writing blog posts (of varying quality) since 2006. One of the things that I always dread about moving blog platforms is the export and import process. This morning I managed to get all the blog posts across surprisingly quickly.

The last system I was using that the posts existed in was a simple MySQL database (simple because I built it quickly in 2010). I still haven’t turned off my old hosting which provides a PHP MySQL interface so I able to export all that history to a JSON file in one click.

A few lines of Python later and there is a simple method of opening up the JSON file and outputting a new MarkDown file for each blog post complete with Front Matter. The Gist is on Github.

The other thing I dread about moving platforms is the words in those old posts… Each time I flick back through the older posts, I remember that I really don’t recommend reading the blog posts pre 2010… I mean, teenage me had far too much time on his hands, and decided to use that to write mostly drivel…

Currently reading through blog posts I wrote when I was 16… Blegh. Trying to work out if I want to put them back online for the history of it all…
— James Doc (@jamesdoc) 1 September 2018

But, it feels wrong to just delete them. So they are there. For the histories. It made sense to include a health warning at the top of those posts so I’ve added a new filter my 11ty config to warn people if they stumble upon them:

eleventyConfig.addFilter("dateComparison", (dateObj, compareWith)=> {
  return DateTime.fromJSDate(dateObj) < DateTime.fromISO(compareWith)
})

You can see it being used in my post template file.

Play/Pause keys not working

2018-08-30T00:00:00Z

Have you ever had that issue on your Apple Mac where the play/pause keys seem to be temperamental. Most of the time they work perfectly playing and pausing the music on Spotify, iTunes or your preferred media player. But then, sometimes not at all. Obviously a restart resolves it… but it always comes back.

Yeah. Me to.

Turns out my issue has been down to Chrome. Well not specifically Chrome, instead the Google Play Music extension for Chrome. To upload music to the service you need to download the extension. But, what it appears to do is hijack the media keys whenever Chrome is open so that you can control the music playing through it.

I get what they’re trying to do, I just wish they only hijacked the keys when the browser tab was open rather than all the time.

Anyway, the fix is simple: disable (or remove completely) the extension when you’re not needing to upload music to Google Play Music.

Eleventy

2018-08-27T00:00:00Z

It’s been a while since I wrote a blog post… it’s been on my mind to get back into writing words in order for a a few months now. But about a year ago I took down my old site (The old site was PHP, Codeigniter + MySQL) and replaced it with a simple one pager.

When I did that, I had in the back of my mind to update everything to be built off of a static site generator, but I never really made the time to do that (I had toyed with a couple between then and now, Metalsmith and Gatsby, but didn’t really get far). Today I replaced everything with Eleventy. It bills itself as “a simpler static site generator”. So far my experience has been pretty positive.

I’ve been reading through the documentation and over the shoulders of some great people on the internet to get my head around how it all works.

My setup at the moment is Eleventy + Markdown + Nunjucks + Gulp. Keeping it simple. The code is all on it’s Github repo so you can look over my shoulder if you so desire.

There’s a lot more that I want to do with this:

✅ ~~backfill the old blog posts from the old blog~~.
Done: September '18
✅ ~~add in canonical links for content that I originally posted elsewhere~~.
Done: August '18
✅ ~~add in links to blog posts I’ve written elsewhere on the internet~~.
Done: August '18
✅ ~~being able to handle responsive images well…~~.
Done: December '18
✅ ~~actually images at all in blog posts would be nice~~.
Done: September '18 (example)
✅ ~~Implement RSS. Because RSS is not dead.~~ Done: October '19
✅ ~~Paginate the blog listing page~~.
Done: Jan '21 (Blog post)
I’ve also got some design work for a simple side navigation too.

But one step at a time.

Redesigning your church website – where to start?!

2018-01-24T00:00:00Z

Getting to know you

As a church team, you’ve been talking about it for a while… that old, dated website that you’ve had so for so long has got to the stage of embarrassment. You’ve even stopped telling people that it exists. When you load it up, well, it just looks like something from the '90s – yet here we are in 2018 and everyone else has their fancy new websites. It’s time for you to update, to bring your church up to date.

Now, the immediate impulse is to just just update that WordPress template, or move all the content that’s currently there into a new SquareSpace account. Everything will look new, pretty and modern; the job will be done.

Stop!

Don’t do it! At least not as the first step…

Putting your old content in to a new layout may feel as if you’ve made something happen really quickly, but you’ve jumped the gun. You haven’t asked yourself if it will meet the needs of the people who use the website? Or will it serve the purpose that the website exists for in the first place? Actually, do you know the purpose the church website exists to serve?

Ask Questions

I want to encourage before you start building something… start talking about it. Not just to the rest of your team, you probably do that enough already, but to the people who are in and around the church, and the people that you would like to see coming into your church. The church website isn’t for you; it’s for them. So you have to find out what they need from it.

When we undertook our own church website redesign project, there were a whole group of people that I started to talking to. This encompassed a range of people who come to the church already, not just one demographic within the church. I started to ask them questions like ‘How did you first hear about this church?’ and ‘How would you describe it to a friend?’.

I asked other questions, too, like ‘If you were moving away from this city and were looking for a new church, how would you find one?’, and ‘What is the information that you would need to make an informed decision?’

Even more importantly, I asked these kinds of questions to people who had nothing to do with the church, who were just walking by.

‘Have you ever been into this church?’, ‘Do you know anything about it?’. All of these questions trying to work out people’s perception of the church; what they knew, what they didn’t know, or what they would want to know before coming along.

The audiences

As we sat down and read back through the interview responses, we saw an emerging set of three main audiences, who all had a different set of needs.

These audiences might be similar to your church; but you need to do the research for yourself (example questions are at the bottom of this post) so that you can build up a list like this:

The invited friend

An invited friend is probably not a Christian: they don’t know much about Christianity at all, but they have been invited in by someone who goes along. Now, before they come, they want to see what to expect, to double-check details like how to get there, what time the service starts, etc.

Church seeker

These are people who are looking for a church in the area, but are likely Christians already.

On one hand, they just need the basic information of when and where your church is, and what to expect when they come along on a Sunday, just like the invited friend.

On the other hand, they may want to know further information, such as what the church believes, what’s going on midweek, and which denomination or network the church is a part of.

These people tend not to have come just from a random search on the web, instead they will have been recommended by word of mouth from a friend or someone else they trust.

Church attender

The church member usually knows everything that the church seeker needs to know, in fact they rarely, if ever, visit the church website.

Some exceptions to this: your attendees may visit the website to listen back to the sermon they missed last week, or to check the location for the prayer meeting this week. You may also have a ‘news’ section with some updates about church life. In any case, your churchgoers can usually find this information in a number of places in church or online, so it’s not of primary importance to the website design.

Building for the need

With these audiences firmly in our mind we can start looking at what the church website redesign needs to contain. This goes for content as much as for aesthetics.

Critically, we can use these audiences to consider what information needs to be given the highest visibility.

Looking at the audiences in our example, it is already obvious that first and foremost people need to know when and where the church meets. If that is the highest priority for our audiences we need to put that as one of the first things that they see on the website.

Starting to think about your audience, and what they need, will help to make your website effective, easy to use, and will encourage people to come in to your church.

Summary of the questions we asked:

For people who were already part of the church

How and where did you first hear about the church?
How would you describe the church to a friend?
What do you think makes the church different from the other churches that you have been to?
How would you describe it to someone who wasn’t a Christian?
If you were moving to another town or city, how would you go about finding a new church?
How do you find out what is going on in the life of the church?
How do you think that the church could communicate with you better?

For people who were not a part of the church

Have you heard of this church?
How/where did you hear about it?
How might you describe it to a friend from what you know about it?
If you were thinking about coming along how would you find out more about it?
Have you visited the church website? What did you use it for?

One21 Launch

2018-01-22T00:00:00Z

Can you remember a time when you were listening to a sermon and it really hit exactly in the situation that you were facing? Sometimes that link been Sunday and Monday morning is really straightforward… But, if you are anything like me, it’s not every Sunday that I come away knowing exactly how the sermon fits into my life.

A couple of weeks ago, as part of Co-Mission Sunday, Matt Fuller from Christ Church Mayfair was with us as we celebrated the importance of the Bible in our lives. The full sermon is on the website, but there was one bit that really hit me:

Do you think about the sermons that you hear? I’ve always been struck an old Puritan bloke, Thomas Watson: “If we don’t meditate about a sermon it is like eating a great meal, but never digesting it. We eat food, but it does us no good” I’ve always found that a telling little quote… Mmmhmmm good sermon but out it goes and does me no good, unless you dwell upon it, reflect on the word of God. So are we going to help each other to do just this? To ask one another ‘what has God been speaking about recently?’ - Matt Fuller

Two questions and challenges:

How do you dwell and reflect on the sermons that you hear?
How do we encourage each other do do this as a church?

For the last few months we’ve been working on a tool to help us do just this. A tool to help us reflect and meditate on sermons as a church family together and apply what we’re hearing to our lives.

It’s called One21

The name is a bit of a play on words… firstly as a growing church, how can we grow deeper in God’s word together? What about the one-to-one conversations we have? What would it look like for us to meet up regularly as pairs of friends, to talk intentionally together about what we’re hearing on Sunday and how it applies to our lives?

One21 provides the conversation starters; when you meet together, you open one21 and there will be questions to take you deeper into the sermon, helping you to think though how it applies to your life.

Okay, so what about the ‘twenty one’ bit? Did you know that each week you eat 21 times? Three meals a day, seven days in a week. Could you take one of those meal times and meet up to intentionally have this discussion? That meal could be a breakfast, it could be lunch near work, it could be dinner… you might even want to start adding extra meals into the day… second breakfast, elevenses, afternoon tea, if that doesn’t work there is supper or you could just meet up for a drink together…

Go to One21

Ready for breakfast on Monday morning

On Monday morning, before your breakfast, we’ll load in the sermon and the questions and you can start having your conversations.

Who do you think it would be most obvious for you to do this with?- Who are the people in the church you see most often?- Are you married? Could you do it with your spouse?- Do your house mates go to Globe? Could you you have a house meal together and do One21?- Perhaps there is someone who works near your office?- Or lives a bus stop away?
This is version one of one21, we’re still working on it; and I would love your feedback on it.

We’re praying that it’s going to be a blessing to you.

Ask someone to do it.
Have a meal together.
Open up one21.
Reflect on the sermons together.

What to expect from Kingdom Code BUILD

2017-08-03T00:00:00Z

Kingdom Code: Build is about gathering a people together who love to think about technology, design and build. Over the course of the weekend we’ll form teams and work together on projects that bring technology to bear on the great commission.

Perhaps you’ve heard of a hackathon, but have never quite known what to expect, or even if you should even go along… This blog post is for you, and will also tell you what is different about coming along to Kingdom Code: BUILD.

Friday night

Come in, make yourself at home! Grab your name badge, pick up some dinner and start meeting people in the room.

At 19.00 we’ll kick off the opening celebration– it’s a time for several things, most importantly to worship and pray together as we commit the weekend to God. Afterwards, each of the event sponsors are going to have a couple of minutes to introduce their challenge.

Pitches are one of the key things in the welcome celebration; some people will have come with plenty project ideas to work on, other people will just come along with a laptop and an enthusiasm to work on a team. During the pitches anyone who wants will get 60 seconds (no more!) to share:

What the idea is
Who it is for
What skill sets are needed

Once everyone has shared their pitch, then it’s going to be over to you to pick a team to join and get stuck in with the project.

Build time

The venue is open all weekend, and you’ve got until 12.00 on Sunday to get your project built and submitted. To help make that happen we’ve got meals sorted for you all weekend, and coffee (or your preferred drinks) on tap.
Some people will work all night through, but that’s certainly not expected. We’ve got an area of the space where you can inflate an airbed or something similar and get some sleep. Alternatively, clock out, find a hostel or AirBnB and come back in the morning refreshed! Breakfast will be out from 08.30.
If you get stuck on a bug or a design challenge don’t keep it to yourself; there’s a whole room full of people who will have ideas of how to dig you out of a hole. Shout it out to the group, or share a message in the Slack team!
We’ll also be taking a break midway through Saturday to check in with teams working in cities all over the world and to pray together. This is one of the great privileges of the weekend.

Should everything get too much, then you can take a break with Princess, the Innovation Warehouse cat. She lives on site and will be around all weekend for cat therapy if you need it. (If you have a cat allergy, please bring antihistamines).

Sunday afternoon

At lunchtime on Sunday, building stops and projects are submitted, but that’s not the end of our weekend together. We rest over lunch together and then we come together for our afternoon celebration. Over the course of the weekend we’ll have times to pray together, on Sunday afternoon we’ll have an extended period of worship, praying and hearing from God’s word.

We’ll also be celebrating the work that has been done over the course of the weekend. As per Friday night, each team will have an opportunity to present their final project. The format is simple: two minutes to remind everyone in the room what they were working on and to do a demo. Be prepared to be asked questions from our judging panel and from the rest of the crowd!

The judging panel will break away for a discussion over which project best meets the spirit of each challenge. Meanwhile you get a chance to vote for your favourite project of the weekend.

We’ll award prizes, divide out the remaining gummy bears and pack down after another hackathon.

In the months before…

Sign up!

Seriously! Get yourself registered. Think about other people who might want to join you as well, bring them along too.

Think about the project

At the beginning of September the challenges will appear on the website (and if you’re on the mailing list, in your inbox). Start thinking about projects and ideas. Check out other people’s ideas that will start appearing on Trello (link will be published mid-September), see how your skillset could help one of the teams or add your own idea.

On Monday 11th September we’re hosting a meeting all about ideation – how you go from a challenge or a problem to an idea. Come and hear from each of the sponsors, find out about their challenges, and then start the ideation process…

If you’ve not done a hackathon before check out this great article on dev.to: So, you’re new to hackathons. It’s where we got the idea for this post from!

Where's all the paper gone?

2017-07-17T00:00:00Z

I’ve got a confession to make… I don’t think I actually read any of the books on my university reading list. At least not in ‘physical book’ form anyway. A required citation was just a PDF or eBook away. Paper hand-ins all but vanished, except from the printed dissertation) and my end of year results didn’t come by post but came via email or SMS.

University is Changing

University is changing because the world is changing. Data is easy to come-by and trivial to share and pass around. The reduced reliance on paper isn’t just a university thing; we get our news via an app, wedding invitations by email.

And of course the church hasn’t escaped either, hymn books have become projectors, news-sheets are now emails or Facebook posts.

But is that where it has to stop in the Christian world? We simply replace paper for a screen and call it quits? We put our leather-back bible in app-form, and our prayer list is replaced with a database. These things are useful, but hasn’t technology proven to be more than that?

Coding for the Kingdom

Last October, one of the winning teams at Kingdom Code: BUILD, a weekend challenge for developers, designers and entrepreneurs made BibleChat. It’s a skill for Amazon Echo, rather than asking Alexa to read a verse, you ask what the Bible says about euthanasia or the meaning of life or being angry or love… It will speak a short answer with a relevant bible-verse.

You don’t need to know anything about the paper bible to use it, to find an answer, to find hope, to find gospel truth.

How can you be a digital missionary?

This year the Fusion Student Mission Awards have a category for digital mission. How can you live for Jesus in the online space? How can you be a digital missionary?

There are tools to help, but what if there is a tool in your head waiting to be made? A digital idea that could transform campus or share the gospel with someone who wouldn’t have access another way? What could you and a team build in 48 hours?

Kingdom Code: BUILD is happening on the 20th to 22nd October in London. It’s a weekend to learn, experiment and test digital ideas which can have a Kingdom impact. If you’re a developer or digital designer this is a great opportunity to grow your skill-set, meet others working in that world and use your skill-set to push forward the great commission in the digital space.

Find out more at www.kingdomcode.org.uk/build.

Oh and for you lovers of a good bargain, get in touch for a cheeky student discount.

Digital Doorposts

2017-04-27T00:00:00Z

On Wednesday at Globe Focus we started out on a new series of small group studies in the book of Psalms. The title for this term is Like a Tree Planted. It’s from Psalm One where the Psalmist is reflecting the law of the Lord. It’s a reminder that blessing is in meditating and delighting in God’s word. Those who do, says the Psalmist, will be like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in season and it’s leaves not withering.

One of the big themes that we’re going to be looking at this term is mediating on scripture. Phil started the studies in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. One of the points was around God commanded his people to do with his word:

These words should be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently… bind them on your hands… write them on your doorposts and gates.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9

While I have doorposts, I know that my landlord wouldn’t be too happy if I was to carve scripture into them. So I started thinking about some of the other doorposts and gates that I have…

A couple of years ago Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist, decided that he wanted to read more books. His phone was a distraction from reading. The solution he found was to change the lock screen image on his phone. Rather that a landscape photo which drew him in, instead he made graphic which said “read a book instead”. Every time he picked up the phone, the phone pointed him to a book.

I love this idea. The digital gateway of your phone becomes a reminder - it points you to something more fulfilling. Liberally stealing Austin’s idea, I’ve turned the series graphic for this term into an image for your phone and computer. The tree image takes it’s text from Psalm One. As you pick up your phone you can see God’s word on a digital doorpost.

Download them now

A wonderful customer experience

2016-11-10T21:44:55Z

Bad customer experience is awful. Have you ever tried to make amendments to train tickets if you've accidentally selected the wrong day? It's painful. It's at these points when you make decisions whether you will purchase from that company again. It's easy to provide a great experience when you are trying to sell a thing. There is a clear incentive for the company to make the path smooth or interactions with a sales rep lovely. But when cash has changed hands... well then everything changes.

Here's to Orblieb, a company that has just done well by me. If you've been around me in London this year, you'll have noticed that I am normally accompanied by a big red bag or two that clip to my bike. I bought these about 14 months ago and they have been my companions through the worst of trips across London and joys of UK weather.

So think of my distress when one of the clips which is used to attach the bag to the bike sheers off as I clip it on last week. Gutted.

Turns out that Ortlieb have a great warranty and quick response. All that I needed to do was to snap a photo of the broken part on my bag, uploaded it to their website and the process was started. I was quickly contacted by Sabine in Germany who informed that she had passed my information on to George in the UK who would handling my issue. George looked at the photo and mailed me a replacement part. Job done. Five working days turn around. Amazing. Thank you both.

If you are ever looking for pannier bags for your bike I'm keen to recommend Ortlieb. They're not the cheapest on the market, but they are really good, and their after sales support is excellent.

I Choose Hope

2016-11-10T00:42:35Z

I woke up on the day of the Brexit result on an air bed on the floor of a friend's apartment in Boston, MA. It felt like a punch in the gut. It was also my last day in the US and was returning to a country who had just voted based on fear and lies to reject the foreigner and to focus on it's own perceived needs. I was not proud to be showing my UK passport to the airport checkin desk. I was not proud as hate related crimes rose and spiked in the following days.

Those thoughts have been fresh in my mind as I have gone through today. There have been so many comparisons with the Brexit campaign and the US presidential campaign. I can image that that there are those who share similar feelings to me on Brexit day.

This morning I chose to go forward with hope. I continue to chose hope. Everything within me wants to fall into despair. But I refuse to be torn down. There were times of real sadness today, but I will not let that quench me. I believe in a God who convicts people where they are not living in line with him, a God who transforms lives and turns them around. I believe that we have a part to play in that, from people like the man in Mark 5 who encounters Jesus and shares his testimony around the surrounding cities through to Jonah sent to Nineveh resulting in the King and the city being returned to God.

I choose hope because God is in control. It doesn't look like it right now. I don’t know where this is going. I don't know how it is going to work out. I don't know what plan or purpose he has in it. But I am certain that it looked the same when when Jesus was handed over to be humiliated, and flogged, and tortured and ultimately crucified. There was despair there because they thought that hope was lost. But Jesus was entrusting himself in the midst of this to God. The one who is bigger that all of this.

This morning I was reading 1 Kings 3. Solomon asks God for wisdom. That is what I prayed for the leaders and authorises in this world. I prayed, and will continue to pray for them have hearts that are wise and discerning, hearts that long after God. Meanwhile I will continue to pray and choose hope, to act in faith and the stand for and to show love.

Twitterbots; Is This the Start of a Revolution?

2016-05-04T00:00:00Z

Perhaps you saw in the tech news a month ago Microsoft’s PR mishap — “Tay, Microsoft’s AI chatbot, gets a crash course in racism from Twitter”. It started out as an attempt at building an artificial intelligence (AI). ‘She’ would interact with various users on Twitter, learning how they speak with the goal of becoming more like them. The first tweet started out mostly harmless:

“hellooooooo w(square)rld!!!”

Tay spent the next twenty four hours interacting with the world, until it was jumped on by pretty nasty crowd. What started as an innocent twitterbot was quickly corrupted and turned into a racist, facist monster. Microsoft swiftly pulled the plug on Tay. Lots of other companies are building bots though. Some of these bots are designed to talk with us, while others are designed to automate away some of the monotonous tasks in our lives. Apple has got Siri- a bot on your phone that allows you to schedule appointments, take notes, check film reviews, etc. Amazon has Echo, a black cylinder that is in your room listening. It listens for spoken keywords to trigger things like turning on or off the lights or order replacement batteries.

Is there room in the church?

It got me wondering- what is the church doing in this field? A few years ago The Catholic church supported the Confession App which allows Catholic’s to confess their sins on their iPhone. The app would then respond with specific Act of Contrition prayers based on the confession. A bit of searching online also found a few twitterbots that would automatically tweet out a bible reading for the day. I started thinking around this concept a little more- could I build something? One of things I wish I was better at is finding the right Bible verse for a situation in my life or a friend’s life. Perhaps I could build a bot to automate that… So that’s what I did. The Pastor Bot (@thepastorbot) is a twitterbot, it receives tweets about life situations, and responds with a relevant Bible verses. For example if I tweet:

“Hi @thepastorbot, I’m feeling worried about how people will react to this blog post I’m writing”

The Pastor Bot will answer with something like:

“@jamesdoc Hi James, have you read Matthew 6? It’s got a lot to say about worry: http://www.esvbible.org/Matthew%206%3A25-34”

It looks for the words indicating emotion within a tweet and responds with a matching verse. (Developers, you can [see the code on GitHub](code on GitHub), don’t judge me on it, I wrote it in an hour). It’s not perfect. For example if you put two emotions into your tweet it will get confused and pick the first one. Or, if you put an emotion that isn’t in it’s list and it will just ignore you. More importantly there are signifiant dangers of building something like this. Responding with templated responses from a list to potentially deep pastoral needs just won’t cut it. As such I’m not really encouraging serious use of it.

Should the church community be fearful the AI/twitterbot revolution or should we embrace it?

Do you think that there are elements of the Christian faith that could have some form of bot or AI applied to them?

Let me know by tweeting at me @jamesdoc.

Good Friday...

2016-03-25T16:59:00Z

Today is Good Friday. It is a day set in the Christian calendar to make time to reflect the day of Jesus’ death. It’s a day when we remember the events leading up to it… the person asking the price for Jesus’ life… the person who had travelled with Jesus for three years saying three times saying ”I don’t know this man”… the person who asked the crowd “what shall I do with this man?” and the crowd responding “Crucify him”.

We remember the man who looked on all of this and responded with “Father, forgive them” as he was nailed to a wooden cross by these people.

This was part of the reflection that we started our Good Friday service with today. It’s not just a reflection of what these people did, but a reflection on what I do to Jesus. We were taken to Romans 7.7–8:

…rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This hit in a new way today. Last night I watched People, Places & Things. The play is a portrayal of a young woman called Emma going from having the time of her life, to being in a rehab clinic. There is so much to say about this about this, but one of the things that clearly stood out was the depiction of drug addiction. Emma talks about how the drugs made her life vivid, that she found love and solace in them– one of her line is “they love you back…“ It’s really hard watch.

Why is this relevant? Because through out today I have not been able to shift the pictures of this play and the pictures of Good Friday from my head. Sitting down in the service this morning, all I could think about was myself in Emma’s world- sometimes so oblivious to the problem, other times seeing her situation crystal clear.

I’m a sinner in rehab
and it is going to take a while.

There’s a support group around me and I meet them each week
It’s called the church.

We’re all here together;
some of the community have just got here,
others have been her for years.

There are days that are easier than others,
Some people, some places and some things trigger it more than others

But it is okay, I can get through…
…just not on my own.

That’s not how it works.
I cannot bear it’s seduction or burden on my own.

There’s a man who stands with me.
He takes it’s weight.
My saviour changes me and points me to a better way.

I don’t deserve it. I come to the cross of Christ as a mess. As someone who hurled the insults at him, as someone who hammered the nails into his hands. But that’s not what Jesus based his death on the cross on to save me. My status is, and always will be, sinner– saved by grace and grace alone.

Banner image: The Crucifixion (William Richardson), V&A - E.706-1968

Podcasts...

2016-02-28T22:41:52Z

Back in 2006 when I owned my first (and last) iPod* I started to listen to a couple of podcasts, I listened for a few weeks and then got bored of them, so stopped listening to podcasts. To be honest, until recently I thought that podcasts were a dead thing, that no one really used any more.

But after a conversation at work towards the end of last year I discovered that podcasts were still a thing, they were still being produced and actually being more popular than ever. Thank you Serial.

At the beginning of January I decided to give the podcast thing a go again, and low and behold I’ve come to the conclusion that they might be the best new habit I’ve picked up this year…

I eased myself in slowly by starting with the podcast that everyone was talking about, the afore mentioned Serial podcast, and have been adding new podcasts in each week.

One of the big things that has changed in my life that has made space to listen to these podcasts is a 40 minute cycle to and from work each day (on canal towpath, not busy London roads) which gives me a lot of time and space to listen to them. I’m actually finding I’ve got time to listen to a news report in the morning, getting to grips with some of the world news, or now can have a vaguely informed conversation around film rather than what I’m picking up off Twitter.

It turns out that there are a lot of apps for Android that do podcasts, a few that are free, and even less that are free and good. When I started out on this podcast journey I wasn’t sure if I wanted to invest in anything. So right now I am using Podcast & Radio Addict which ticks the free and usable box, a little bit of a clunky interface, but I’ll forgive a lot for free. That said, now I have validated that this is more than just a whim, I am considering paying a whole £2.49 for the Pocket Casts app.

On the list at the moment (in alphabetial order):

Some of these podcasts I am convinced will stay there for a long time (ESV, Kermode and Mayo, Serial & The World Tonight), others I am just trying out at the moment.

My 5.5G iPod still works great, and I have no need to replace it.

Code for the Kingdom

2015-10-06T19:33:56Z

This happened. 120 people showed up. 16 projects were hacked on. God showed up. It was amazing. Onwards to C4tK 2016!

A list of all the projects is on Indigitous.

Getting Ideas Out of the Notebook

2015-09-17T00:00:00Z

This post was originally written for Christians in the Media (Formerly the MediaNet). Their website has since gone. The original post is below.

I love that bit at the beginning of projects when as a team we’re just throwing ideas around. There are post-it notes, sharpies, a big clear bit of wall and each member of the team is just putting their thoughts out there. The harder bit is taking those thoughts and ideas, condensing them down into a plan and then getting on and making that plan happen.

A while ago, a friend of mine told me “Ideas are cheap, it is the execution that is expensive”. It’s not a new or original quote, but it was the first time that I’d heard it and the words stuck with me. It resonated with me because I carry a notebook around that is just full of ideas, but so few of them have gone any further. Why? Because of time, because of fear and because it will be a sacrifice of something else. Because there are just a lot of other things to do.

Genesis 1:27 says: “…God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (NIV 2011). The great creator made us in his image, the creative God made us with creativity. We’re not made to sit on ideas, locked up in notebooks.

That is one of the reasons that I’m involved with a group called Kingdom Code. We’re a group of developers, designers and entrepreneurs who, in some way, want to use our ideas, gifts and skills for God’s glory. We want to catalyse serendipity, bringing together a community where ideas are sparked, relationships are formed and technology is made that glorifies God.

Right now we’re planning an event called Code for the Kingdom in the first weekend of October. We’re joining with 12 cities around the world, bringing ideas people together with coders, designers, product managers, and others in the technology world to set aside time and space to turn these thoughts into products that glorify God.

We’re setting challenges, encouraging people to think around themes and ideas. How can we use technology to encourage people to be generous with what God has given them? What can we do to enable Christians to build relationships with their Muslim neighbours and bring the gospel to the Islamic world? Can we make something for our children that is more fulfilling than Minecraft, Angry Birds or Temple Run? Then from these challenges we encourage teams to form around the ideas that are triggered, giving up a weekend to put them into motion, not letting the idea get lost or trapped in a notebook.

Code for the Kingdom is taking place on the 2nd-4th October in the Impact Hub, Westminster. You can find out more about joining in with the weekend and about Kingdom Code on our website: www.kingdomcode.org.uk.

Inlining SVG in CSS as a background image

2015-09-11T11:50:19Z

In a recent project, in an effort to reduce HTTP requests, I have been inlining various icons into my CSS via base64 encoding. It is really handy if you have a couple of icons that you need everywhere, e.g. a search or menu icon.

.menu { background-image: url(‘data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABAAAAANCAYAAACgu+4kAAAAMElEQVQoz2MQZGDgJxczMDCwM4jxc/4nF4vwcdQziPJzfqAAlzMMPBgNxNFABAYiABBtcJ/dF5gEAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC’);
}

This is great, however using SVG is so much better than PNG, with the various screen sizes and pixel densities using PNGs basically means that you are going to end up with blurry icons. The technique that I had been using was similar however linked out to the SVG file:

.menu { background-image: url(‘menu icon.svg’);
}

This works, however for each icon a new HTTP request, something to avoid.

The recent discovery is that you can put in SVGs directly into the url attribute of the CSS background-image property:

.menu { background-image: url(‘data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg xmlns=“http://www.w3.org/2000/svg” height=“13px” width=“16px” version=“1.1” xmlns:xlink=“http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink” viewBox=“0 0 16 13”><g stroke=“#160F09” stroke-linecap=“square” stroke-width=“2”><path d=“m0.5 1h13.5”/><path d=“m0.5 11h13.5”/><path d=“m0.5 6h13.5”/></g></svg>’);
}

The thing that got me stumped for far too long was that this was working perfectly in WebKit browsers (Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc) but in Firefox you got no icons. Turns out that you need to URL encode certain things for this to work. Specifically with hex colours turning the # to %23 made this a whole lot better.

I’ve yet to work out how to solve this issue in Internet Explorer though

Thanks to Rab Nawaz answer to the Inline SVG in CSS question on StackOverflow for helping me solve my FireFox quandary.

KeePass OS X

2015-07-20T22:36:39Z

After the LastPass security breach in June I've been meaning to change my method of securing my passwords. I had been put off KeePass because of the clunky mac client, however yesterday I discovered MacPass which turned that around for me.

It is still under a lot of development, however it has enabled me to get everything moved out of LastPass into a password vault that I own, rather than host on LastPass' servers somewhere.

On Android I'm using KeePassMob which works nicely too, plus has a lovely Material UI design.

Building the DeepZoom- Concept to Creation

2015-04-28T00:00:00Z

The V&A has a wealth of creative talent within its walls, one of these areas is within the artists in residency program. Last month we said goodbye to Liam O’Connor, who spent the last year as our drawing artist in resident, specifically working on the Exhibition Road Building Project.

Towards the end of Liam’s residency the Digital Media team were invited to his studio to have a look at the work he had produced with the aim of building an online retrospective of his year with us. Richard, Luca, Simon and I were looking at umbrellas hung from walls, magnifying glasses dangling from the ceiling and many many models of hands made out of concrete. Despite all of this, the thing that drew the eye was a 12 metre scroll covered in pencil marks. At the time it had been fully unrolled and was taped around the walls of the studio.

While we were with Liam, he was explained to us that the scroll captured everything that he was looking at while on the building site over the last year. It captured people and process over time, and these drawings were then used as a launchpad for different ideas when he was back in the studio. The scroll was not just documentation of the building site over the last year, but of Liam’s time in the V&A. Liam had used the scroll to capture ideas, we want to use the scroll as a tool for showing and explaining these ideas, and showing the progression over the year.

The pitch and content capturing

The idea that we pitched was to create an interactive version of Liam’s scroll, that allowed visitors to zoom right into the details of the drawing, but then to allow Liam to talk about the key areas of the scroll and the ideas that were sparked from it. One of the features from The Museum of Savage Beauty that we had really liked was the zooming into the details of the McQueen objects, so we started thinking around the ideas of fusing the deep zoom images with annotations on Liam’s scroll. (Richard also thought about a side-scrolling Lemmings game… but copyright).

While we were thinking through how best to capture Liam’s annotations, we realised that writing about the different key areas and projects wasn’t going to be enough. The best way to capture these ideas was the record Liam talking about the different sections. Simon, equipped with an audio recorder and a 20 page print out of the scroll, spent an afternoon with Liam, talking about the different areas and then marking where the Mp3s fitted on the scroll. The second task for Simon was to digitally stitch all the photos of the scroll together into one giant (69664x3514px) image file, no small task!

Technical build

Meanwhile I was looking through various JavaScript libraries that would allow the functionality that we needed. Open SeaDragon was the one we landed on, it had one of the smoothest zooms of all the libraries, had support for the annotations that we needed, and their GitHub account has been very active and the core developers being very quick at responding to questions and quandaries.

To fit the image into Open SeaDragon it first needed to be cut up into image tiles. This ensures that the browser only downloads the image tiles for the current zoom level rather than downloading the very large image. Over the top of the tiles sits the different markers at specific x,y positions. Each of these markers have content allocated to them and on click trigger a different part of Liam’s explanation.

All of the code that we have used is available on our GitHub account: DeepZoom-Images.

Making it Reusable

A key thing for the developers in the team is to try and ensure that what we are building is reusable; we don’t want to have to rebuild existing things for new projects in the future. As such the Annotated Deep Zoom Image Tool (ADZIT for short, and yes; it does need a better name) needed to be integrated with our CMS. Luca and Andrew took the lead on this, creating asset templates for the annotations and working out how to import the tiles into the CMS correctly.

With the CMS set up, it was back to Simon to work through adding each point to the scroll and uploading the content. The result can be seen on Exhibition Road drawing scroll page.

Because this is a reusable tool, we are beginning to think about how else we can use deep zooming images across the site. Candidates so far include the Ardabil Carpet, items in our tapestry gallery, the Raphael Cartoons and we are also looking at items in the upcoming Fabric of India exhibition.

HTML5 audio fade in and out

2015-04-22T11:04:19Z

I’ve just discovered that the animate function within jQuery can provide more than just visual animation. One such ‘animation’ is adjusting the volume in the audio tag, thus creating a good method for creating fade in or fade out:


$(‘.btn-fadeout’).on(‘click’, function(e) {
	e.preventDefault();
	audio_player = $(‘audio.audio_player`);
	audio_player.animate(
		{ volume: 0 }, // Target volume
		500, // How long should the fadeout take
		function() {
			audio_player[0].pause(); // Pause the audio
			audio_player[0].currentTime = 0; // Be kind, rewind.
			audio_player[0].volume = 1; // Reset volume
		}
	);
}

Easter. Kenya.

2015-04-05T15:32:58Z

As a Christian, Easter is a time of celebration for myself and my family. Today, however, I am in shock from the news of the attacks in Kenyan university directed at the Christian students. While I don’t know any of the individuals who lost their lives on Thursday, my work with IFES put me in touch with staff and students in universities all over the world, including within Kenya. Today I read this message from the IFES movement in Kenya:

We can confirm that the Christian Union members in a prayer meeting in Garissa University College were among the first targets of the terrorist attack. It appears most of whom died. They have gone to be with the master whom they loved and served. We pray for strength for the relatives as they seek to identify bodies, and rest them in peace. Shalom. - FOCUS Kenya

I am grieved by the murders of these students, and the many others who died proclaiming Christ in Garissa University. I pray for the families, friends and the groups like FOCUS Kenya struggling in the aftermath. But I praise God for the life of these students, who through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, are with ‘the master whom they loved and served’.

Firewall blocking git-// URLs

2015-03-06T13:26:08Z

I've just discovered that git:// urls are blocked by internal policy. Frustrating. Fortunately http:// and https://github.com/etc still work for git commands.

Frontend tools such as Bower they assume that git:// urls will be fine, which if they are not creates lots of error messages.

However you can set your git config to rewrite the default protocol with the following command in the terminal:

git config --global url.https://github.com/.insteadOf git://github.com/

Many thanks to Tobu on StackOverflow for pointing this one out.

The Story Conference 2015

2015-02-24T21:45:25Z

Last week I went along to The Story Conference.

I wrote up some of my thoughts from the day on the V&A blog: The Story Conference 2015 – Reflections from a Web Developer

While my raw notes (which get worse and worse throughout the day) can be found on Dropbox: 20150220.The Story 2015.md

Share and enjoy.

The Story Conference 2015 – Reflections from a Web Developer

2015-02-23T00:00:00Z

It may seem odd for a web developer to attend The Story Conference 2015, a conference about story telling, and as was mentioned at the beginning of the day, it is certainly a difficult event to summarise in one blog post, however for me there were many things to take away from it. Here are just a few:

1. Many stories have been enabled by digital tools

Throughout the day 12 different stories were shared. While the focus of most of these stories were not about the technology, many of the stories were enabled as a result of digital tools. In Gary Carter’s talk about the launch of Big Brother we heard how the idea was a big change in TV production, not just the idea of watching people 24 hours a day, but the idea of capturing this information so it could be edited later. Prior to digital tools the idea was to film as little as possible, now it was to capture as much as possible.

As a group of developers in a museum we are responsible for creating digital tools that enable people to do things that haven’t been done before. These digital tools allow catalogues to be shared or new art work to be created. This is a tremendous privilege and responsibility. In his story Gary shared a lot about how he thought reality TV had shaped the narrative of series, similarly as we build digital tools we are in turn shaping the future of the digital museum.

2. Start thinking of data in terms of personalities, relationships and emotions

This is something that Kati London put front and centre as one of her goals: ‘think of data in terms of personalities, relationships and emotions’. It is a difficult jump to think of a JSON object or a spreadsheet as something that has personality, but Kati was sharing stories around making this kind of data accessible to people and enabling them to act on it by doing just that.

Kati shared several stories to illustrate this point; one story was of sensors attached to dying office plants. These sensors, knowing when the plant needed to be watered, would then call telephones around the office asking to be watered and thanking the staff when they did. Each plant had a different need and a different personality and acted as such.

Another example shared was of maps where different areas of the city swelled or shrank based on crime data. An area with a high level of crime would shrink in embarrassment, while areas of low crime would swell with pride.

That got me thinking in the terms of the V&A’s collection data. Currently we have ways of visualising it through tools like Search the Collections, however in terms of emotional engagement it can be pretty dry. We have experimented with methods of searching by colour, but Kati’s talk got me thinking: what if we took the idea of the swelling and shrinking map and swelled our own explorer map on the most popular objects in the collections enabling first-time visitors to see what data says are the most popular things in the museum.

3. The digital world has imperfections, use it to create something new

The world of 3D models is certainly something that the Digital Media Team have been thinking about for a while, and as a museum we have been engaging with both 3D scanning and 3D printing. Matthew Plummer-Fernandez spoke about his work as an artist, using the imperfections created during the scanning of a physical objects into digital models. His art uses what is lost in the translation process in turning an ordinary everyday item into something fresh and new.

This wonderful quote from Chiara Ciociola about Matthew’s work really stood out for me:

‘…in this case the chipped edges are not caused by use or decay, but by the loss of data occurring during the process of digitisation.’

These new tools are becoming increasingly well used, but are still in their infancy. They allow us to do a lot, but at the same time there is limitation and imperfection in them. It is in this limitation we can create something new. While we are building and using digital tools, we can be frustrated by what their limitations are. I can certainly relate to this experience. What I took away from this was that in these cracks there is room to explore and to create something new.

There are many other different ideas that I could have pulled out from this conference. I left with these ones and a lot more to think about. Keep an eye out for Keith Hale’s post later in the week with his perspective as a Content Editor for the V&A.

Backing up AWS S3 bucket to a local machine

2015-02-05T15:08:24Z

There are lots of solutions that talk about making a copy of a local folder and sending it to an S3 bucket. The solution I’ve needed is the reverse of this; creating a local backup of an bucket.

TlDr;

Download s3tools onto your server and configure it… Details on configuring are below.

1. Create an AWS IAM User

In the Security Credentials of the AWS console create a new IAM user. The user policy only needs read-only access to S3.

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Action": [
        "s3:Get*",
        "s3:List*"
      ],
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Make sure you note down the access keys, we’ll need them later.

2. Download Amazon S3 Tools

Amazon S3 Tools is a simple command line script that allows read / write access to S3 buckets.

You can download it via their website, or via your flavour of Linux repository. For Ubuntu that is just sudo apt-get install s3cmd

3. Configure

Once installed you need to tell S3 Tools the access keys to Amazon, and a couple of other configuration settings. This is started by running s3cmd —configure. You will be asked for:

the access key,
secret,
a password (to encrypt the local config, make one up and note it down),
a path for GPG (just press return for default),
use HTTPS (a good idea),

Once the settings are entered you can then test the connection, and if everything works the settings can be saved.

4. Download your bucket

S3 Tools has a lot of options to go back and forth between S3. A couple to note:

s3cmd ls - Lists your buckets
s3cmd get s3://[bucket-name]/* - Download your bucket

In my case I want to pull a directory within a bucket down, and if the files have changed over write them. The command I am using is:

s3cmd sync --check-md5 --force -r s3://[bucket-name]/[directory-name]/ /home/[backup-location]/

A quick explanation:

sync - Synchronises the directory
check-md5 - look at the md5 hash of a file to see if it has changed
force - force overwrite the changed files rather than asking for permission
-r - do it recursively

It is worth noting that if you want to do a test run before writing data you can add in the dry-run option which will output what it would be doing, but not actually run it.

5. Optional extra…

To create a historical record you can then use a solution like Bacula to keep various versions of the folder. However, that is the topic of another blog.

Reducing Wordpress database size

2015-01-09T09:30:14Z

After having a Wordpress blog running for the last year with 320 users posting to it, and over 1500 posts on it I’ve noticed that the database size has been rapidly approaching the 1Gb size. This struck me as much larger than expected- it only contains text, so why is it so large and how can I reduce it?

Safety warning: Make sure you have a database backup before doing any of these…

Turn off or reduce saved revisions

By default Wordpress helpfully makes copies of each revision you make to a post, so if you accidentally delete something mid-edit it is possible to go back and retrieve it. This is a really useful feature, however I don’t need an infinite number of revisions saved.

In the wp_config.php file you can set the number of revisions, or disable them entirely with the following. Here I keep the last 3, but you can set it to 0 or to any number that you want.

define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', 3);

This limits it going forward, however the database is still full of revisions so you need to go into the database and clear out the existing revisions with the following query:

DELETE posts, relationships, meta
FROM [your_table_prefix]_posts posts
LEFT JOIN [your_table_prefix]_term_relationships relationships ON (posts.ID = relationships.object_id)
LEFT JOIN [your_table_prefix]_postmeta meta ON (posts.ID = meta.post_id)
WHERE posts.post_type = 'revision'

Clear out the commentmeta table

Being a Wordpress blog the site is constantly hit by spammers so I have installed Akismet. While this plugin automatically deletes spam comments after 15 days, it does leave a lot of data in the commentmeta table. I’ve set up a little function that automatically purges this table of Akismet data every month running this query:

DELETE FROM [your_table_prefix]_commentmeta WHERE meta_key LIKE "%akismet%"

Facebook API- Getting counts for likes, comments and shares for pages feed

2015-01-08T17:12:37Z

By default when you request a page’s feed from the Facebook API via /v2.2/[pageid]/feed a lot a JSON is sent back, including very specific data about likes and comment such as who, what, when, etc. However the actual number of likes or comments for that status is not included. There are API endpoints to hit to get this data on a status by status basis (/v2.2/[status_id]/likes?summary=true and /v2.2/[status_id]/comments?summary=true), however that means making two additional calls for each status. Not ideal.

To get this data into the feed endpoint request you need to specify the fields you want to return and then state that you want summary to be returned as well

https://graph.facebook.com/v2.2/[page_id]/feed?fields=id,message,picture,link,shares,created_time,comments.limit(1).summary(true),likes.limit(1).summary(true)&access_token=[YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN]

You’ll notice that I’ve included limit(1), for both comments and likes. For the project I am working on I am not interested in the actual content of the comments for the moment, I just need to the raw number. Ideally it would be set to 0, however then the API won’t return the summary.

Content Drilldown with the Google Analytics Core Reporting API

2014-12-17T15:30:39Z

Today I’ve been trying to replicate the content drilldown function from Google Analytics through their Core Reporting API. The solution I came to requests pagePathLevel# in the dimension, and then filters on various pagePathLevel#:

For example if you wanted to the page views for the content drilldown at /level1/level2/level3 you could run this:

id=ga:#######
metrics=PageView, Sessions, etc
sort=-ga:page views
start-date=2014-11-16
end-date=2014-12-16
filters=ga:pagePathLevel1==/level1/;ga:pagePathLevel2==/level2/dimensions=ga:pagePathLevel3

A handy tool to test these queries is the Google Analytics Query Explorer.

In my case I wanted to get a list of the most popular exhibitions at the V&A. The URL structure is: content/exhibitions/[expo-slug], so the query I am running is:

id=ga:#######
dimensions=ga:pagePathLevel3
metrics=ga:pageviews
filters=ga:pagePathLevel1==/content/;ga:pagePathLevel2==/exhibitions/
sort=-ga:pageviews
start-date=2014-11-1
end-date=2014-12-16
max-results=50

Right now, Constable and Horst are top of the list!

Hopefully this will help someone else.

Where is all my email space going?

2014-11-16T18:18:35Z

It has been a long while since I have had to worry about how much space I have for emails thanks to Gmail giving me a lot of free space. However that isn’t the same for everyone; many people will still have restrictions on how much space on the email server they can take up. When setting up email accounts for clients using my web server I normally set the cap at about 1Gb.

I’ve had a couple of emails recently telling me that a few of these people are rapidly approaching their limit, which was then followed up by a couple of emails from the client saying “help, I don’t know where all these emails are”.

A little bit of research told me that Apple Mail could quite easily solve this quandary for me:

Set up the email account in Apple Mail
Right click ‘Inbox’ and select ‘Account Info’
Read the graph!

In my case all the space is been eaten by sent emails. Useful to know!

Radcliffe Camera

2014-11-05T23:33:11Z

I was in Oxford last night and snapped this photo of the Radcliffe Camera. This one has gone through a little bit of post-production, but still impressed at how well the Nexus 5 handles low light.

I've put the full version on my Tumblr:
thejamesdoc.tumblr.com

Wi-Fi Splash Screen

2014-10-20T18:20:20Z

One of the projects I've been involved in at work has been turning the embarrassing Wi-Fi splash screen into something beautiful. I'm quite happy with how this one has turned out.

I've written up the process on the main V&A blog which if you are interested you can read...

Designing a new Wi-Fi splash screen

2014-10-20T00:00:00Z

Earlier in the year Andrew Lewis wrote a post going through some of the research he had done looking into the user experience of connecting to public Wi-Fi. He pulled out many examples from other museums and beyond to see what worked well and what needed to be improved upon. This was not just an academic exercise, we have known for a while that accessing our own public Wi-Fi left a lot to be desired, and one of the things that has been on my mind for a while is ensuring that our digital welcome is as beautiful and inspiring as our physical welcome here at the V&A.

The two important things we wanted to achieve with a refreshed splash screen design were:

Make it clear, quick and simple to connect to the Wi-Fi. This meant reducing/removing the number of hoops our visitors are forced to make in order to access the internet
Display some of the V&A’s collection to show off some more of what is within our walls

Ground work

While there isn’t a great deal of content on the original splash screen, it was important to make sure that we were including the right things, drawing attention to the important things, and removing the things that didn’t need to be there. A quick glance showed we had several elements:

Welcome message heading
V&A logo
Welcome subheading
Connect button
Terms and conditions
Vendor logo

When put into a visual order the V&A logo stood out very clearly, perhaps because it was giant… and pink, closely followed by the terms and conditions. But the most important thing, the blue ‘connect’ button, blends into the blue background. Instead, the order should reflect what the user needs: As a visitor trying to access the public Wi-Fi, I need to get past the splash screen as quickly as possible so I can… [upload this incredible selfie with Bashaw].

Visual hierarchy

V&A logo: Assure our visitors they have connected to the correct Wi-Fi
Connect button: People just want to get through this screen to the internet
‘It is free’: The our visitors we are not expecting them to pay for the Wi-Fi access – set the expectation.
Image from the collections: Show off something beautiful from within the museum
Terms and conditions: We need to make sure these are available to read and to set the expectation that use of the Wi-Fi is lawful, responsible and reasonable.

Sketching

The first place the visual design starts to come together always seems to be on the back on a scrap bit of paper or quickly jotted down in a notebook.

From the two sketches above we decided to take the first one forward. While the concept around the second drawing matched the visual identity of the main V&A website, we felt that it raised the T&Cs too highly in the visual identity – the focus was on the legal text rather than on what the user actually wanted to do: connect to the Wi-Fi. Similarly the V&A logo and the ‘free Wi-Fi’ text were competing with each other for space. Meanwhile, the first design led the visitor’s eye clearly down the steps in the hierarchy.

With a rough design sketched out in a notebook I took the design into a more visually complete design using the Mac app Sketch. It allows me to very quickly turn a rough ‘back of paper’ idea into a full idea that can be tweaked and moved around. It also makes it very easy to get feedback from people who might be confused by the simple paper drawing.

Four variation were created from the original paper sketch with changes to the welcome text, positioning of the terms and conditions and how the overlay on top of the background image works. While I was keen to keep the T&Cs link at the bottom of the page, outside of the overlay it meant that we had to limit the choice of background images as the text vanished on lighter backgrounds.

Building it

The hardware we use to control access to the public Wi-Fi uses a template language called Smarty to separate the programmatic logic from the front end design. The result of this is that as I was adjusting the existing template I did not need to worry about breaking any of the backend operations of the connecting process because all of that logic is separate.

In my opinion the most striking thing about the new splash screen is the changing background images, and I wanted to ensure that that they still looked beautiful and inspiring, regardless of the size of screen they appeared on. In the past I have been content to just let the CSS looking after the responsive backing image, which has often meant that the image would be automatically cropped at its centre. For some of these objects this worked very well, but for others it left the main focus of the image off the screen. This is where the wonderful piece of JavaScript by Jono Menz called Focus Point comes in handy. Labeled as “intelligent cropping for flexible image containers”, it is a perfect fit for background images for devices where we have no idea of the size of the screen and ensures that the focal point of the image is always on screen.

While I was going through a lot of the code Lizzy Bullock and Keith Hale were working their way through our image library to pick out a set of images that showed the beauty and diversity of the collections. This included images from our Theatre and Performance galleries through to the Raphael Cartoons.

Testing and open device labs

Internally we did a lot of testing, making sure that everything through to IE7 played ball with the new splash screen, but we were very aware that the majority of users would not be accessing the Wi-Fi through their laptops. Instead, mobile phones and tablets would be sending the most traffic to the Wi-Fi. Pooling together all the devices in the Digital Media Team’s pockets we had several iPhones of various generations, an iPad and a few Android devices we were able to test. It was a good start but nowhere near the diversity of devices that connect on a daily basis to the V&A public Wi-Fi.

Testing on many devices has long been an issue, however, Open Device Labs (ODLs) recently have been popping up all over the world allowing product testers to go in and access many more mobile devices. Thanks to the ODL hosted by Fool Proof I was able to test the splash screen on many more devices and to catch several bugs, including a massive oversight in not testing at a Blackberry screen resolution. I was able to take these evaluations back to the office and create fixes for them before launch.

We’re not finished yet

The new Wi-Fi splash screen was launched to the museum on 15th October and so far we have received a lot of positive feedback. We have many other plans for improving the screens including giving visitors the option of signing up for the V&A newsletter or highlighting some of the digital offers around the building.

So, when you are next passing by the V&A, do come in and check out the updated splash screen, and if you have any feedback or suggestions please feel free to tweet them at me.

Candela at the V&A

2014-09-19T20:08:16Z

This week the V&A has been taken over by the London Design Festival. Across the building are some wonderful installations across the building, including Candela this entrancing, rotating wheel in the tapestry gallery. I’ve spent a fair amount of time this week just enjoying the new patterns being created on phosphorescent disc.

Emotional and intellectual assent

2014-08-01T14:52:10Z

An extract from today's lunch time read.

It would seem that Christianity requires both emotional and intellectual assent. If there is only emotion, the mind asks troubling questions that, if not answered, might lead to a falling away, for love cannot be sustained without understanding. On the other hand, there is a gap which must be bridged by emotion. If one is suspicious of the upsurge of feeling that may be incipient faith, how is one to cross the gap?
- Sheldon Vanauken: A Severe Mercy (1977)

New Start

2014-01-01T10:44:05Z

Another year ends and a new one begins. This change happens so often, but this year for me brings more than just a change in final digit.

The emotions around this are conflicted. The new year is both exciting… and scary. A lot of 2013 must remain where it is- locked in 2013.

2014 brings a new job. The new job provokes a move to London. In turn, moving to London means finding a new church and building a new set of relationships.

So much change in such a short space in time. If you are the praying type I would appreciate it. Either way, give me a call some time, or drop in to see me; check that my head is still above water.

Work out where all your Dropbox space is going

2013-12-26T18:05:38Z

I received all horrible message the other day indicating that my Dropbox is approaching it’s maximum size. I’ve managed to pick up a lot of free space over the years, however I’ve now reached 95% of my 6.3Gb of free space. Soon I will have to start paying for the service, however before I do this I wanted to work out if there were any specific files that were consuming all of my allocation.

The quickest solution I found was to download an application called Disk Inventory X*. It is designed to analyse your entire hard drive and show what is using all the space. One of the nice features is that you can set it up to only look in specific folders. Using this you can then analyse the contents of your Dropbox and produce a detailed report showing the folders that have the most data within, and which files are the biggest.

Currently the 2.4Gb of photos that are automagically uploaded from my mobile take up a lot of my space. However there are some other significant folders, such as archives of all the website I’ve built, which take up a fair amount of room too.

Using this has enabled me to delete or move certain files to get back down to 75% use. More work will need to be done later I think, however it has put off the need to upgrade for a few more months.

*If you are using Windows there are a couple of alternatives which seem to work in a similar way including WinDirStat and Space Sniffer.

Locking the screen in OS X

2013-12-23T14:11:12Z

Control + Shift + Eject.

For some reason this shortcut never managed to commit itself to my memory. As a result I always have to trawl Google searching for ’OS X keyboard shortcut to lock screen’.

It is also advised in System Preferences > Security & Privacy you set Require password to be immediate.

In Windows you can [Windows Key + L] and in many flavours of Linux you can [Ctrl + Alt + L] or type something into the terminal.

Improve productivity. Block websites.

2013-12-21T16:00:37Z

Recently I’ve taken the sweeping step of preventing my computer from accessing specific websites. These site I have determined to be time-suckers, ones that I can simply live without. I don’t need to habitually check in on Facebook or on Instagram from my laptop, especially when I really should be working!

To do this I’ve done a quick hack to the hosts file. It is kind of like an internet address book for computers - it matching a web address with an IP address. Obviously it doesn’t contain a list of every web address, that’s where your Internet Service Provider (ISP) comes in, however the hosts file is where your computer looks first. If the address is found, then it doesn’t need to consult the ISP. So to block websites from my computer I’ve given the hosts file the wrong address!

For example, one time-sucking website is Facebook. I don’t need access to it from my laptop so I’ve told my host file that the IP address is 127.0.0.1, the address of my own computer, and magically the computer cannot find site.

Every operating system has a hosts file, and Wikipedia has a list of where it is on your hard drive. Open up the file in your preferred text editor (Notepad or TextEdit will work) and you’ll see a file like this:

127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost

At the end of this file add:

127.0.0.1 facebook.com
127.0.0.1 [anyOtherDomainToBlock.com]

Save the file, reboot your machine and try to access the website.

Hello productivity.

That gingerbread house…

2013-12-19T16:18:12Z

I’m in the process of moving to London. I’m thinking about boring things like packing boxes, and telling my bank I’ve changed address.

In a bit of downtime yesterday, I had this brilliant idea: an Ikea branded gingerbread house. It would be great - it fits so well with their brand. They are well known for their flat pack furniture with helpful assembly manuals. And for some reason their food seems to be very popular at the moment - who hasn’t heard of their meatballs?

So why not combine the two together? Flat pack food.

Imagine kids constructing it with parents! It is kind of like a food construction toy. It would totally sell out, especially over Christmas.

Maybe that is why they beat me to it. It’s called Pepparkaka Hus and you can pick it up for £2.20.

I might be visiting Ikea for some shelves soon, I think I’ll be picking this up too.

Ideas are still cheap. I’ll get back to moving house. And learning Python.

I met a spaceman today

2013-12-16T15:15:04Z

Sometimes there are occasions that life throws up that you just cannot miss.

Today was Commander Chris Hadfield was in town.

I am a very happy person right now.

Undelete a Google Analytics Account

2013-12-09T19:00:30Z

Over the weekend I managed to delete a lot of Google Analytics data. This was unfortunate in many ways. Most unfortunate was the lack of 'undelete my Google Analytics data' button. So after a lot of trawling the internet I found a solution. Should this ever happen again the process is documented below. You will have to phone Google and talk to a human being.

Register for a Google Adwords account
Get the tracking code ID number to hand (UA-########) and the admin email address
Look up the Worldwide Phone Support number for your region. In the UK this is: 0800 169 0409
At the top of the Worldwide Phone Support page there is a 10 digit code. Make a note of it. If it is not there log out and log in again.
Phone Google (you will need the 10 digit code to get past the switchboard) and explain to them that you have deleted your analytics account and ask if they would kindly restore it.
They will then ask for the UA code and your email address.
To verify your ownership of the account they will send you an email asking permission to restore the Google Analytics account.
Respond to this email with an affirmative and they will put your Analytics data back where it is supposed to be.

Things to note:

If you have deleted your data you are very very silly.
You have a 14 day period in which to do this. After 14 days you cannot get your data back.
During the period that you have deleted the profile and it being restored no data from your site is collected.

Sources:

http://www.joelcarlo.net/how-to-restore-a-deleted-google-analytics-account/

http://www.tandysean.com/how-restore-deleted-google-analytics-account/

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1385067

The Adobe password breach

2013-11-30T18:13:18Z

One of the more impressive security breaches in the technology world this year has been the millions of user account details that was stolen from Adobe in the last couple of months.

It turns out that my Adobe account details were part of those that were distributed online.

However, this wasn't announced to me by Adobe, instead I received notifications of this from two unrelated services- Eventbright and Evernote. Both companies had cross referenced the leaked data with their own user list, and then sent me an email notifying me that my email address was part of this breach and suggested that I never use the same password again.

It is these small things that make me appreciate these services and trust them a little bit more.

There is a wonderful service run by the guys at Last Pass that allows you to cross reference your email address with the leaked data. It also tells you how many people had the same password as you, and displays their password hints. Apparently I share the same Adobe password as 725 other people.

I have now requested that my Adobe account has now been deleted. It is fortunate that I hadn't used that password anywhere else!

Affordance

2013-10-26T17:56:14Z

Parallax scrolling is one of the big design trends online at the moment, there are some really great examples of it online. Now building on this idea, more and more one-page websites are doing this cool effect where by the page stays fixed, and while you scroll animation happens to advertise a project or similar (see the new site for the Mac Pro as an example). Nine times out of ten it looks really good, however I just find them frustrating because it changes a standard behaviour into something new and unexpected.

I am glad I am not alone in this feeling: Trent Walton posted a wonderful short piece about 'scroll hijacking' a couple of days ago, where he also moans about how 'experiences shouldn't dramatically change how basic input devices operate.'

While experimenting and introducing new this is good, it is also vital that things work as people expect them to. The best bits of design should not need to be explained, affordance is important.

Newsboys- Restart Review

2013-10-05T19:04:08Z

Newsboys have just released their 16th album. They have been making music since 1985, and you would think that when you've been doing something for so long it can be difficult to keep producing something original… However Restart manages not be a rehash of all their previous work, but instead a push into new territory.

One defining feature of the band is their pop and radio friendly sound, and that certainly isn't lost in Restart, yet there is so much. Tracks such as Restart, Go Glow and Disaster all have this modern pop sound that we know and love, but as with tracks like That's How You Change the World and Fishers of Men the Newsboys venture towards electronic dubstep sounds. Do not fret though, it's not full on for the whole album, we are given places to breathe with some more mellow ballad-like tracks with a simple piano accompaniment as That Home and We Believe

Lyrically there is one main theme running through the album - it's all about love. How do you change the world? The Newboys say 'It's the kind words / A simple smile / More than showin' up / Going the extra mile / It's giving everything.' In Track three, Love Like I Mean It the lyrics are about of doing more than just talking about love, but displaying it. That Home, track six, illustrates displaying that love in a deeply personal way the as Michael Tait sings to a simple piano accompaniment of a home where '…we knew we were safe, to be young enough to dream, found the faith to believe… love had no end'.

Newsboys are approaching their 30th year, but they show no sign of slowing down, their back-catalog is incredible, and for me Restart continues in this groove. A good edition to any music rack.

Purchase from Amazon

Amazon MatchBook

2013-09-05T21:08:11Z

A couple of months ago I wrote a post about Amazon's announcement about a new feature they were adding to music sales: 'AutoRip'. The summary it is that when you purchase music, via Amazon, on CD they throw in digital copies for free. Now one of my first questions was when will they do this for books and films? They have one of the biggest libraries of both now.

Well it turns out that books are happening today. Following on from AutoRip comes MatchBook. MatchBook allowed you to purchase physical books, and get a copy for your Kindle from participating publishers. Unlike AutoRip the Kindle edition isn't free, however it is at heavily discounted price.

One of the major draws of this new feature is that it is being applied retroactively - MatchBook looks at your purchase history, all the way back to 1995, to give you access to the Kindle editions. For some people that is going to be a lot of books.

For some people this announcement isn't going to be big news; most people will want either or. However I am going to find a lot of use for this - I love reading, I enjoy looking along my bookshelf to decided which book I want to re-read, but I also love having access to this on the go - going on holiday with a couple of the Game of Thrones books uses up all your luggage space very quickly! I've never quite been able to justify paying for both a physical and digital copy, if they are going to charge an extra £1/2 to create a bundle I'm quite willing to pay it.

Currently the list of participating publishers isn't huge, and they are currently only launching in the US, however I expect by the time they make it across the pond their library will have grown considerably.

A period of email grace

2013-08-16T20:15:48Z

This morning I made a potentially huge mistake - sending an email way before I intended to. In my pre-coffee haze, rather than hitting the return key for a new line, my little finger decided to find it's way to the Ctrl key. Bam. Shortcut. Email sent.

Fortunately the email was pretty much finished, just needing a sign off and a quick grammar check, that didn't stop me from dispatching a fairly hasty follow-up email though! But what if it had been a really important email, that really hadn't been finished off? Nightmare!

Gmail has been saving me from these kind of mistakes for ages wit the handy 'undo-send' setting. there just doesn't seem to be that obvious method to delay emails from sending in Outlook… But with a little bit of poking you can create a little hack to make it work.

Normally Outlook rules are used to analyse incoming emails and folder them, flag them, etc. Today's discovery was that you can also use rules on outgoing emails too:

Open the 'Rules and Alerts' settings and create a new rule
Select 'Apply rule on messages' under start a blank rule
Ignore the conditions and just hit 'next'
Select the 'defer delivery by (x) minutes' and set (x) to the number of minutes you want the email to wait for. I went for just one minute.
Ignore the exceptions
Give it a name and then click finish

Now whenever emails are sent they cool off in the outbox for a minute before Outlook sends them. Handy!

Waiting room congestion

2013-08-13T20:39:34Z

Having had an appointment in the diary for six weeks, with a precise time given for arrival, I was entirely unsurprised to find that the hospital were stating that there were 103 patients in the queue and that the waiting time would be between one to two hours. I think an improved system would involve logging a time of appointment and then telling the patient a time between 45 minutes and one hour after the recorded time. That way they only waste 15-30 minutes in the hospital waiting room rather than one to two hours

Perhaps this is a radical idea? It might solve waiting room congestion, and reduce the demand for out of date magazines. I took my own out of date magazine so I was spared the fight over a two year old copy of Hello...

In other news I have been discharged from the Trauma Clinic after breaking my collar bone. I'll try not to do it again.

Interesting... as a person

2013-08-12T14:09:24Z

It was remarked over the weekend that my high volume of blogging has dipped back to infrequent. During my week in Edinburgh I had a lower access to blog writing tools, so I pretty much stopped. Having broken the habit of putting some words on a page during lunch I didn't think to pick it back up when I came back. However, I am hopeful that I will be able to start to replace this in the coming weeks.

Today I am enjoying my recent purchase of a small green teapot, that is now residing on my office desk. I managed to find it in a charity shop for a couple of quid and it is producing much improved tea. So much better than brewing in the cup. It joins a fine collection on my desk which includes a plastic Jesus (star of a UCCF Uncover video), the penguin of death, a meerkat and Freddie the Mailchimp mascot. It is a good collection!

Today a colleague told me "you are so interesting, as a person". I think this is long hand for "you are odd". I cannot think why they would say that.

Searching for a new RSS reader. Again

2013-07-30T19:54:53Z

The king is dead.

This morning I woke up to the news from The Old Reader blog announcing that it will probably be closing down for entirely reasonable reasons. After the closure of Google Reader a while ago they had a massive surge of new users, more than they were prepared for and more than their systems could cope with. After much up and down time, and far too much personal time being eaten the pair of developers have had to pull it back:

'The truth is, during last 5 months we have had no work life balance at all… it tears us to bits if something is not working right, and we are doing everything we can to fix that. We can’t ignore an error message, a broken RAID array, or unanswered email. I personally spent my own first wedding anniversary fixing the migration last Sunday.'

Desperate times call for desperate measures - The Old Reader Blog

It is sad, but it is a fair call.

So back to the search for a new RSS reader. After the announcement from Google Reader I tried out a couple before discovering The Old Reader; Feedly and Digg Reader were possibles, I couldn't really be dealing with the hassle of hosting my own… Helpfully though some of the nicer comments on The Old Reader post highlighted a couple of other new readers.

While I am cautious about trying out another new beta product after my experiences here, I think I have landed of using Silver Reader. From the short amount of playing around with it, it isn't perfect, but it is good. There is a nice quick OPML import, a variety of view options, standard keyboard shortcuts, and all the rest. So this is where i going to be staying for the immediate future.

Long live the king.

Update:

At this point we are confident that public The Old Reader will be available in the future, now with a proper team running it. Stay tuned!
— The Old Reader (@TheOldReader) July 31, 2013

Running

2013-07-15T12:50:02Z

I have just gone for a run. Not the 'argh, I am going to miss the train/bus' kind of run, but instead the 'run in the park' kind of run. This is odd.

I'm in Edinburgh, taking a week holiday, the original plan had been to spend the week cycling, however a bust collar bone has push that back for a while. So instead of getting to see Edinburgh by saddle I figured I would spend some of my early morning going for a run.

The major discovery of this morning is that I actually can run. Not fast, but I did manage to get around Arthur's Seat (six km) in 35 minutes. Not only did I make it round, I was expecting to end up walking the final three quarters, I was managing to overtake some people once I had found a pace.

This raises a new problem now, if I keep this running up and the cycling, I am two thirds of the way into triathlon territory. Several people have been trying to encourage me to do this... I'm going to ignore them for a little longer though.

I am a 'x'

2013-07-10T19:27:22Z

I've been making my way through my new reading list and a fair pace. Since putting it together 22 days ago I have finished off three books and and now half way through the second book in the Song of Ice and Fire series. Putting this list together was a good plan.

One of the three books that has just been finished is a book that was recommended to me; Quitter by Jon Acuff. You would probably find it under the 'self-help' genre in the bookshop, I wouldn't normally go for those sorts of books, and I'm in no hurry to quit my job at the moment (yes there are tough weeks, but that is the same as any job). Instead I was curious about what he had to say about the process of working on side projects while staying at a full time job, and having read his blog for a while I found his writing very easy to read and funny.

What is said in the book is all very logical and sound, and helped to answer some of my questions. Lots about discipline, commitment, getting into good habits, really wanting to do the thing, etc. You can read the book for a full answers!

One of the things that caught my attention was the suggestion that most people can say "I am a x but I want to be a y", e.g. "I am a teacher but I want to be a musician". It caught my attention because it didn't really ring true for me. The illustrations given were of wanting to go down a completely different career path, and it didn't really resonate too much with me.

Maybe that is because I still 'fresh' in my field, but I have no idea what kind of jump I would want to make. Currently the best I've got is "I am a web developer but I want to be a better one". I think that is probably a good place to be.

To Edinburgh

2013-07-08T21:45:09Z

In less than a week I will be in Edinburgh. For a holiday. A time of rest. That I've actually planned and stuff (rather than having time off surprisingly thrown on me).

The original plan was to go cycling, however that was thrown off by the afore-mentioned time off. Currently I have plans to catch up with friends, meet a couple of people from the internet, and then to generally be a tourist and then to rest and read.

So I have a question for you internet: what are the things that I must must must do while in Edinburgh? I've got a trip to Glasgow on the cards, I foresee some walking near lochs, anyone want to offer suggestions? Places to see? Things to do? Great coffee shops?

Discipline and grace

2013-07-02T23:00:35Z

There are occasions where 'nothing new' creeps up on me and catches me off guard. Sometimes it is a result of spotting a new thing in something old. Other times it happens when you look at something from a different angle. At Trinity on Friday night it was a new angle that showed me something new in something that was not new.

The Bible talks a lot about work, it is part of how this planet works and how it was designed. I've recently just finished reading a commentary of the Biblical view of work, there is a lot to be said. Similarly, the Bible talks about about grace - we don't deserve God to love us, but he does, it is not something we can earn of work towards. Even longer books have been written about grace.

But it is so difficult to balance the two against each other: in one hand you have grace which says Jesus has done everything, you do not need to work hard to earn his favour. In the other hand you have sections of the Bible that say that unless you show your faith through work it is dead.

We were looking at 2 Timothy, seeing how Paul trains Timothy to train others who can then train more still. This is one of the core parts of the vision for Trinity. Paul goes onto talk about soldiers, athletes and farmers, and it was the final illustration of the farmer that struck a chord with me, bringing together grace and discipline.

The farmer works hard, ploughing the field, sowing the seed, watering the crop and finally reaping the harvest. But it is not the farmer who makes the seed grow, that is out of their hands. Similarly as a church (or business, or just as an individual), there is a lot of work to get on with, but there is a lot of grace involved with the growth of it.

Discipline meets grace.

Alice

2013-06-29T19:29:26Z

One of my favourite set of books is Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass. They are completely off the wall and funny, but have a point at the same time.

I also love the way that many other authors have taken the books, written by Lewis Carroll, and then adapted them into their own take on the story. Several years ago I read a book by Frank Beddor called The Looking Glass Wars which painted a war-torn Wonderland where the main character, Alyss, was trapped in our world, SyFy put their spin on the books in a mini-series which put a science fiction spin on the books. Recently in the cinema we had Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland which simply was very Tim Burton.

Today I spotted another version that is coming curtesy of ABC called Once Upon a Time in Wonderland which puts Alice into a Victorian setting, however in a hospital as doctors try to cure her delusional memories of Wonderland.

It looks like a really interesting concept, I hoping that it will be repeated at some point in the UK.

Autoripping from Amazon

2013-06-27T13:54:48Z

BBC news has an interesting article on it today about a new feature from Amazon: AutoRip. The long and short of it is that when you buy a CD or vinyl Amazon will throw in the mp3 files free of charge. It is a really interesting idea. The best part of this is that it is retroactive - all the CDs that you have ever bought through Amazon are available via Amazon Cloud Player to stream or to download.

The feature could be really handy is you have ever bought a CD, loaned it to a friend and then never seen the CD again. On the flip side, as Rory Cellan-Jones points out, "this could be rather scary - Amazon started selling CDs in the UK back in 1999, and you may find the evidence of your past musical tastes rather distressing".

It does pose some interesting questions regarding ownership though; when I log into my account I see the 9 CDs that I have purchased through Amazon, 3 of these I bought as gifts. Obviously Amazon has no way of knowing that I bought them to give away, but it seems a little bit odd that they should assume that I still own all the CDs.

I also wonder how far this will go. I would love to see the same rolled across to book purchases; buy a physical book and get the Kindle edition thrown in for free, or get a video file for each BluRay, DVD or maybe even VHS that you have bought. I really hope this is just the beginning.

Design language

2013-06-26T22:21:56Z

Below are my scribbling* from tonight's UXOxford talk. Tom Fletcher from BBC World Service was talking about design, responsive web design and typography.

Share and enjoy.

* scribblings = unedited raw text.

One service, many products, many devices. Each of the products do different things, but they are one service with one look and feel.

Anything you can interact with and share really works for the BBC audience.

Producing graphics for breaking news has to be done in 20 minutes. There is no time to do a bespoke design - it is simply a case of following a normal pattern. The pace of online does not allow custom builds.

Modules, and associated behaviours are vital to enable developers and designer to keep pace.

Designing for the audience

The BBC has a huge audience. The grid needs to be flexible, and that is found in BBC GEL. It is the backbone to all of the BBC online presence. It is always referred back to, but it is always an evolving document, it is not static. It is interpreted into new ways of thinking, rather than being picked up and dumped into a design.

There is no set age or demographic for the entirety of the BBC, almost all demographics are engaging with the BBC.

On the BBC news site there are diggers who trawl through the site and dig deep into the website and skimmers who just want the headlines.

Audio is really interesting based on location. It may appear that only 100 people are downloading a certain broadcast in Chad, however what is happening is one person is downloading, and the whole village is gathering around to listen.

Location also affects the style of writing; Russians want a harder form or news with raw headlines and news, while BBC Brazil want the news in a softer form with a higher concentration of images.

RWD

Currently the BBC are looking after 30 location based sites, and 30 mobile sites. The BBC are pushing RWD out as an effort to reduce this down to one codebase. RWD + native apps.

More and more of the traffic on the BBC is from mobile and desktop. Mobile optimised sites just are not working, because optimising for a width of 230px is no longer the norm.

Pushing towards RWD means one dev team, rather than many.

Agile is the way forward, one big launch will cause complaints. It is iterative and incremental, new features can be launched every two weeks.

What is on the most basic mobile optimised website can be transitioned simple across, building up and up from that. The RWD versions are gradually growing. It is a slow and gradual development meaning that features can be tested in the public eye and feedback can quickly be acted upon.

Testing testing testing. Bizarre devices can and will come up. In the UK smartphones are the norm, on the other side of the world feature phones are the norm and they need to be tested on.

User testing happens on internal teams, in cafes, and also in labs. Test, iterate then test again. Assumptions will be challenged!

6 of the RWD sites are live and the moment. 21 still to go.

Typography

Headlines always balance against another script, so font weights always look the same. Legibility is vital.

GEL isn't just about working well, it is how it feels. The font face for BBC Arabic needs to feel fresh, but when there is only 5 common system fonts that is problem. The BBC started to commission the fonts to get this. BBC Urdu is the only news site that uses HTML to render fonts, all other sites use images.

Email testing

2013-06-25T20:26:54Z

I have spent a fair amount of time this week working on creating an email template. It is like creating a webpage, however without any form of standards. Somethings will work perfectly in one email client, say Gmail, and entirely fail in another, say Outlook. And then when you fix that weird quirk in Outlook, something else completely odd will break in Gmail.

It's been a bit of a headache.

I have however discovered a pair of tools that have made everything slightly better, and I'm sharing them for two reasons:

They made today easier, hopefully they will help someone out later.
I will forget them next time I have to do them. It's good to have it all documented.

MailChimp CSS Inliner

beaker.mailchimp.com/inline-css

HTML emails require all the CSS to be inline, otherwise pain and hurt occurs. The handy MailChimp CSS Inliner takes <style> s and turns them into style="". Handy.

Puts Mail

putsmail.com

The majority of my email templates end up going though MailChimp, however it is not great for that final round of testing where you are testing one small bit, correcting something, sending the email again, tweaking, and loop. Puts Mail allows you to quickly update a template, fire off and test and then go again.

Anyone else have a handy tools for email testing?

Tough week

2013-06-21T17:39:45Z

Work has been tough this week. A friend of mine describes these times as 'Genesis 3 periods', periods in your work when it is hard, and all you feel you have to show for it are brambles and weeds. The negative vibes that result colours everything, and it is just difficult to see past them.

The challenge this week has been to remember that is is only a season, a short period, that there is light approaching and that I really really don't need to entertain the idea of getting a new job... because the grass is always greener, right?

As I think back through some of the frustrations of this week it is interesting where I naturally try and put the blame, I try and deflect a lot of it onto other people, because they have done something, or made a decision I didn't agree with, or whatever. However if really push past a lot of it, a fair amount of my frustrations have been self inflicted castle building because I think that I've got the perfect answer. Pride simply isn't helpful to my life, it makes work unpleasant and that in turn makes me unpleasant.

Onwards to next week.

The reading list

2013-06-19T18:45:09Z

My reading list was something that stayed in my head. It tended to be more of a wish list, rather than an actual plan to get through books. I would hold onto about five or six books in my head, however would be fairly happy to change and reorder it as memories of books that had been on the list longer than was helpful faded or as a new book was exuberantly recommended to me.

However after reading an interesting Lifehacker article entitled 'My secret to reading a lot of books' I've written down a list. I've started simply by just creating a list of the books that are on my shelf that have sat there unread. They have been bought with good intentions, given as a present, or some I have borrowed and I just haven't quite gotten around to reading yet.

I figured that placing those kind of limitations would produce a short manageable list. 19 books later it turns out that I have a long list of books to get through!

On the go at the moment is Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman which has been sitting on my shelf since the BBC did a fantastic dramatisation of it a couple of month ago. The Game of Thrones books obviously make a big appearance after I bought a box set last week and there final two thirds of the Comic Trilogy by C. S. Lewis which I borrowed of a friend back in July last year which I really need to give back soon.

I'll let you know how I get on!

Block

2013-06-18T19:51:17Z

I suppose this is what they call writer block then… I've been outputting almost a post a day for the last couple of months, however as soon as I offer to write something for something else… zap. All gone.

There are words but they just don't seem to fit, and sentences which don't really work well together. It is just plain frustrating. I can understand how it would drive some authors mad.

I'm writing this as a distraction now. I really should get on with what I'm supposed to be writing. Ahh hello procrastination my old friend. How did we get thought university essays together?

Solar powered bins?

2013-06-13T14:03:48Z

Over the last few months there have been a lot of new bins appearing over Oxford. Normally this isn't newsworthy at all, however these bins have solar panels on their roofs. The big question is 'what on earth do these bins needs power for?' and after a little bit of investigation they are actually very clever.

From what I can tell they are Wall-e's Great-Great-Granddad - the solar panels power a rubbish compactor. While they don't have eyes, caterpillar tracks and can go and clean up the city on their own, the principle seems very similar. Every so often the device whirs and beeps and compacts the rubbish stored within it.

It actually makes a lot of sense to use them in busy areas; the bins are able to store a lot more rubbish when it is compacted down, and because they are able to store more the council doesn't have to empty them as often. It's a win-win for them. Also because the rubbish is in a contained box it prevents rodents and other small animals setting up shop there, or distributing the rubbish back around the street or park.

Further Googling revealed some more of it's features - they have a gauge inside of them so they know how full they are. At 85% capacity they automatically notify the local council to tell them they need to be emptied. They are really smart.

I love that a company has been inspired by Wall-e, and I love that Oxford Council is investing in smart technology like this.

We need more

2013-06-11T21:47:58Z

My friend Adam just posted a list of 27 things we need more of. It ranges from slightly silly (but fantastic) things such as paddleboats and tree houses to more serious things like needing more listening and needing more hope. The first thing on the list was eye contact. This stood out to me because it's not the first time I've heard that being said this week.

One of the things that Mohammed said in his TEDxBrum talk was that "...we're loosing the ability to engage with each other, we're too busy flicking at screens in our own little bubble" (read all the notes). It sounds familiar. We've lost the ability to look at strangers on the train and have a conversation. Instead, we prefer the comfort of a screen flicking through Facebook and Twitter, or just zoning out listening to whatever is on our mp3 player.

We need more eye contact because that is the start of a conversation. It is the start of hearing things from a fresh perspective. It is the start of building a new relationship. It is the start of new thoughts and ideas. It's not something to miss out on.

A Song of Ice and Fire boxed

2013-06-10T13:57:40Z

Over the last two weeks I've been signed off work to give some time and space for my collar boon to start healing. This has given me two weeks worth of free time where I was forbidden from working, and two weeks were I couldn't really use my right arm, and I certainly wasn't allowed on my bike. A significant part of that time was given over to push on with my reading list. In the time I got through the auto-biog of Anna Smith, read the Great Gatsby, Cloud Atlas and made very good progress with the first of the Song of Ice and Fire books - A Game of Thrones.

Today I've extended the reading list after picking up a large box sets with the rest of the books that have been written so far in the series. Seven in total, each around 750 pages long. I think that I'm going to be reading them for quite a long time to come! I just need to work out how they fit into the reading list, and my limited shelf space!

Changing direction

2013-06-09T15:07:22Z

One of the sections at TEDxBrum yesterday was entitled 'Changing directions'. There were talks about changing direction in the wake of mental health, looking forward in hope and inspiring others, and a talk looking at the paradox of change. They all got me thinking.

Change is something that unites all of us. There are many points in our life when we have to change direction. Sometimes it is a choice, sometimes it is a change that is forced upon us by a series of events. They always tend to be something that is entered into with a little bit of fear because it is a venture into the unknown and untested. It could be the change from one school to another, the change as you move out of your parents home, the change that comes as a relationship comes to an end, or as you switch careers. A change to try something new means looking into an uncertain future and walking towards it.

My map is marked with lots of directional shifts, some big some small. These directional shifts are what has brought me to Oxford, as a kid I certainly wasn't planning to living and working here, yet here I am.

I'm in the process of trying to work out some plans for the future. I'm looking at the things I am doing at the moment and working out what I want to do with them, how I want to grow them, I'm looking at things I want to do, places I want to go, something to aim towards. One of the things I am not doing is writing down in permanent ink though. I'm leaving room for the plan to shift, for my direction to change, leaving room for the unexpected. I'm not going to be disappointed if I don't hit all of the goals, and I'm open to change and exploring the unknown future.

TEDxBrum

2013-06-08T22:00:37Z

I'm sitting on the train traveling home from TEDxBrum. I've spent the day listening to some fantastic ideas about transforming the city, about inspiring and encouraging people, about making a difference where we live. I've spoken to people who are passionate about what they do, who bubble with enthusiasm talking about their job and their university courses, who have equally been inspired about what they have heard today.

Inspiring change is on the ideas behind TED, it seems idealistic, too good to be true but listening to some of the speakers today you can see how they hold that idea up and are trying to make a change where they are with the skill set they have.

One of the most interesting talks today was from a guy called Mohammed, he grew up in Birmingham living in the concrete landscape and like many of the kid in his area he grafitied the area. I was brought up thinking that this was vandalism, however I had my ideas challenged:

Graffiti is a youth expression to try and find a voice. Do we scream out to the city to say we exist? Do we express ourselves in our city? It's colour in an urban grey space, it gives something back to the city. (paraphrased in my notes)

He now works as an artist, transforming urban spaces with urban murals, but that is just an artsy way of saying grown up graffiti. He uses art to transform these urban grey areas into places of dialogue and story, something that is so often missing in our cities.

I've scribbled notes down from each of the sessions, you can have a read below:

Reflections on the city
1. Anita Bhalla: The big C.
2. Mohammed Ali: Taking over the streets
3. Justice Williams - Aspiring to inspire
4. Barbara Nice

Using the map
1. Max Little: How is science changing in the era of big data and computation?
2. Lucy Bastin: Here comes the science… but how will we know?
3. The Mistakings
4. George Cave: Soviet Cartography and the Modern Mountaineer.

From here to there
1. Polarbear
2. Alison Smith: Digital by default
3. Stuart Walker: Radical design for sustainability
4. Jamie Smith: Is there a future for teachers?

Changing directions
1. Seasick Soul
2. Wanjiku Nyachae: The change paradox
3. Jodi Ann Bickley: A letter to remind you how amazing you are

WiFi Gestures

2013-06-05T11:55:03Z

I haven't written a post about cool new technology in what seems like ages, so it is time to change that! The Verge have just posted a really interesting article about capturing gestures for input using only WiFi as the detector.

This is really important because it doesn't require any additional hardware, or the invasion of privacy through a camera. For example the XBox Kinect requires its users to be standing in front of a set of cameras to gather the gestures, the Wii requires users to be holding a pair of remotes, the iPhone needs it's capacitive touch screen and gyroscopes, but the WiSee just uses the WiFi in the air.

The demo video shows a user gesturing to control the heating and lighting in a room, however this could be taken much further. The way we move, such as walking, is almost like a finger print, if this can be tuned enough you could use it to unlock your door as you are walking down the path, or find people in a crowded room.

The article points out that the technology is very news, and it is still being tested on very basic gestures, but the concept is fantastic. Plus the Star Trek geek in me thinks that it is a step towards interacting with holograms too!

Becoming a lefty

2013-06-01T16:36:48Z

My writing process for blog posts always starts on paper. It is a draft, which I write quickly as I can, and then edit as I type it up. I find it really helpful having these two stages; it helps me catch silly mistakes and it also helps me to get the point quickly without repeating myself too much.

Not having access to my right hand though this week has certainly had an impact on my blogging! Typing with just left hand is slow and my left-handed handwriting needs some work.

I was doing some research into how people train themselves to become ambidextrous. Unsurprisingly it is quite hard work! From a young age your brain essentially hardwires itself to work with either the right for the left-hand. When it comes to trying to break this pattern the brain need to create a new connections.

The advice I read suggested that I start off by simply doing simple tasks which do not require a great deal of precision such as brushing teeth, then working up to tracing objects and finally writing.

Unfortunately I have been thrown in at the deep end, I am trying to write and type, I think I’m getting somewhere but it is definitely a slow process! For getting text into a computer, voice dictation has improved alot over the last few years, I still have to correct a couple of silly mistakes however that just isn’t going to fly for writing code!

One of the best bits of advice I was given for writing was simply to get a pen that doesn’t smudge. There is wisdom there!

Put on hold

2013-05-29T16:44:53Z

One of the more frustrating things in this modern world is being put on hold. That lovely music, of varying quality, being played to you for 20 minutes while whoever you are phoning tries to find someone else who might want to talk to you. What tends to be worse is when you are put straight into the queue without any form of human interaction, no menu system, just straight to glorious hold music.

I have, however, found a new appreciation for these horrible things after encountering a system which doesn't; my local doctor's surgery. At 8:30 each morning they experience a massive rush of calls from people who have managed to break themselves over the previous evening, but they just don't have the people to answer the phone, or the phone lines. My experience at 8:30 on Tuesday morning was a lovely line busy tone. That was also my experience at 8:32, 8:35, 8:37 and all the way through to 9:03 when I managed to get through to someone who told me to call back at 14:00.

A benefits of the queue system is, while the computer doesn't care about you, it is at least fair - first in the queue, first out of the queue talking to a human. Your place is saved, you don't have to try and phone at the precise moment the other person hangs up.

So it is okay, I'll put up with being put in a queue, but can we please sort out the quality of music that is played? Perhaps a higher bit-rate, maybe some choice of music too? I really don't want to go through the rest of the day with lyrics by Kylie Minogue stuck in my head.

Enjoying autobiographies

2013-05-26T20:07:16Z

Yesterday I over-did myself, I think I found where my 'freshly broken collar bone limit' is. I had the foresight not to stay right to the end of The Big Church Day Out, but even still 20:45 was more than late enough for me! It was hard enough work walking back to the car after the set had finished.

So today I decided to take it a lot quieter; step one was not to go to day two. It was a shame to miss it, however I think my body is probably grateful for the rest. Instead I took the chance of a lazy Sunday to drink a lot tea and to ge on with that ever growing reading list.

First on the list was finishing off the Great Gatsby, in time to watch it on Thursday. While I wasn't blown away by the story I think it will make for interesting viewing, especially with Baz Luhrmann at the wheel (so far I have managed to avoid reading reviews).

The other book I managed to get through was the auto-biography of Anna Smith, a book I've had on my reading list since I finished her husband's a month ago. I've discovered that I really do enjoy reading autobiographies, there is a real honesty and passion conveyed when people open their lives up and share their thought process through different periods. There is also a raw edge to the writing you read because it isn't just fiction, it is genuine, real and gritty.

Anna and Martin's books are all these things, and a challenge to. How do you manage to have a touring lifestyle with six kids still keeping fixed on Jesus?

I broke myself

2013-05-24T19:56:43Z

I broke myself today. Well, specifically I have broken my collar bone. It wasn't smart or clever, but it happened. Personally I am impressed that after 22 years this is the first bone I have broken, it is apparently one of the worst ones to break.

You cannot just stick a cast on it. So instead I'm in a TARDIS coloured sling attempting to type with one hand... it is not great!

This has also scuppered several bigger plans... I have been told that I will be in the sling for another six weeks, and the healing process will take up to six months. This also means that I'm going to be off my bike for an extended period, so I have missed my 500km goal for May by 15km, and the big plan to cycle in Edinburgh is going to have to be put on ice for the immediate future.

I looked back at my recording of the ride and discovered that I came off at about 55km/h, and judging my the dent in my helmet it could have been a lot worse... Lesson of today, take bends on hills a bit slower.

Travelling distances

2013-05-23T23:34:00Z

My current location is a carriage of a First Capital Connect train, heading towards Brighton. It is the third train I have been on this evening and won't be the last.

One of the major issues with not having a driving license is, if you wish to travel long distances you cannot go at your own time scales, or even your own route, instead you must adapt yourself to the time and route of public transport. Sometimes these routes do actually work really well, such as the Oxford to London coach service or the number 4 bus route. However there are times when it is just annoying... getting between Oxford and Worthing is one of them!

The best route goes via Southampton, takes just two trains (sometimes three), however has a 45 minute wait at Southampton. The 45 minutes isn't really enough time to do anything hugely productive with. There is a handy Costa just opposite the station where I often stop by to avoid the absurdly expensive prices of train station food and drink.

The outcome of this is seeing value in holding a driving license, however at the moment I don't travel this far often, so the motivation to learn still isn't there! I'll just have to put up with the long travel time to see my parents!

The trouble with church meetings

2013-05-22T14:24:37Z

Church meetings have an incredible ability to turn your brain to squish. 45 minutes into last night's meeting did that to mine as I looked down at my watch, then to the meeting agenda, and then realised that we had only reached the second point.

That aside, the meeting was an encouraging evening where the whole church family was able to gather and formally hear back on the year and look forward to the plans and dreams for the year ahead.

The meeting was a reminder for me of the breadth and diversity of my church. James was reporting back from some of the homegroups, saying that in his 6 nationalities were represented, and almost all the age groups! It was a reminder for me of the age and wisdom held within the church membership as The Over Fifty Fives (TOFFs) reported back on the encouragement and the trials that came with the last year. It was also a time of celebration as we were reminder for the weddings and births within the church family.

There was also lots of looking to the future as the church moves on further with plans to share the gospel further in Oxford, the blessings and challenges that come with two church plants, and the changes that will come alongside with that. It is an exciting time at Magdalen Road Church and I'm excited to see where Gods is leading the church family in the next 12 months.

Conferences

2013-05-21T14:12:38Z

I booked myself into dConstruct 2013 today. This beings my EventBrite account up to 3 upcoming events; UX Oxford (Thursday), TEDxBrum (June), dConstruct (September).

Laura Kalbag on her site describes herself as a conference addict, saying:

"I attend as many as I can, I think they’re a great way to stay up-to-date with the latest on the web, meet other enthusiastic web folk and it gets me out of the house."

I do like my conferences, and I agree with what Laura says. But it's not just specific to web conferences. Regardless of the topic you get to interact with a group of people are are engaged with the topic, are striving to learn, but are also willing to teach. These kind of environments really challenge me, they remind me that there is still so much to learn.

In Oxford there is a really great set of local events, such as UX Oxford and Oxford Geek Night. Both are super cheap (free) and really high quality. Over the last year UX Oxford has had some stellar speakers talking about some really relevant topics. Through it I've been able to interact with other people in my field, doing the same kind of job that I'm doing and we've been able to learn from each other.

In short: conferences and similar events = very worthwhile.

Dumb mistakes cost time and sanity

2013-05-20T14:06:34Z

This morning I managed to empty my database. One command and everything went. At the time it was intentional, I had just created a copy of the database, however when I went back to restore it I discovered that all I had done was copy the structure of the database, not the actually data. It was one of those moments when you just kick yourself for making such a stupid mistake.

Fortunately there were backups, just not as recent as I would have liked. As a result my Monday morning has been spent trying to restore data, recreate data and poking a bit of code. Most likely my afternoon will spent trying to fix my mistake.

I've already scribbled some thoughts on making mistakes. That mistake was all about a lack of planning. Today's mistake was a lack of concentration on a Monday morning. I could blame a lack of caffeine in my system, but that would probably be a cop-out.

Speculation after The Name of the Doctor

2013-05-19T01:10:31Z

The following post is going to be two things. Firstly it will be a spoiler filled post - I will spoil the ending to the final episode of series seven of Doctor Who (The Name of the Doctor). The second thing it will be is a post full of fan-boy speculation about what comes next. If neither of these appeal to you I suggest you head on to Facebook, or do something slightly more productive with you life... Failing that you can read my thoughts!

To cut a long story short, by the end of the episode Clara has seen out the Doctor's entire time stream, past and future, this includes all his eleven faces. But right at the end we are introduced to another face - another Doctor's face. It is a face the Matt Smith's Doctor does not want to see, he tries to pull Clara away from him, but it is revealed that this Doctor is the Doctor who did not live up to his name. As the episode ends, this Doctor turns to reveal John Hurt.

He is facing the camera for less than 10 seconds, barely says anything, but you can see his is an angry and broken man. His eyes captivate the screen communicating that he has seen a lot with them, made a really difficult decision, and is hardened to what he has done. Matt Smith's Doctor runs from Hurt, almost ashamed of this man, knowing who he is, knowing what he has done. John Hurt's Doctor is a Doctor from Matt Smith's Doctor's past.

My fan-boy theory is that we have been numbering our Doctor's incorrectly. We assumed that when we met Christopher Eccleston's Doctor that he had regenerated straight from Paul McGann, but what would happen if John Hurt's Doctor came between them?

When we first meet Eccleston's Doctor he is fresh from a regeneration, that much is clear. He doesn't recognise his own face, he is looking at himself in the mirror. We later discover that he is an angry Doctor, fresh from the fight of the Last Great Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks, one which he has just sacrificed both races to end the war. That must have come at a cost to himself too though. What would happen the Doctor who fought in the Time War was John Hurt and he was forced to regenerate at the end of it?

That's my theory, and John Hurt is also wearing a very leathery Ecclestonesque jacket at the end. I think it fits. What I expect the 50th anniversary episode to be is a story about the Last Great Time War, where we see John Hurt's Doctor have to make an impossible decision to destroy his own people.

I'm sure that there will be a lot more to come, many more theories posted online by other fan-boys and girls. And when the show is released I'm sure that Moffatt will throw in plenty of dead ends, plot twists, and other such goodness to keep the viewers on their toes. But right now... I am excited!

Built to last

2013-05-18T22:33:24Z

Today I built a castle. Or a rocket. Or a train. Or a cave. Or whatever the imagination of a child makes it. In reality I partook in the construction of a climbing frame. Not mine, instead for the children of a couple of friends at church. But this climbing frame is amazing, not just your standard Early Learning Centre climbing frame, this has monkey bars, a swing, a slide, a climbing rope, a climbing wall, the works! I was I was one of their kids right now!

I loved constructing this frame, it was tough works in parts, but the satisfaction of looking back at in at the end was great, even better though was seeing the excitement in the four children as they watch it go up, impatient for the work to be finished.

Hopefully, if we have done our job well the frame will last years. That frame will become so much more than the wood and screws it is made of, and knowing the children's imagination more than a castle, train and cave.

It got me thinking about what I do for a living; I build websites. They don't last. I take the attitude that, if I am lucky, what I build will last at maximum 5 years. Technology changes so fast that it will be replaced with something better, slicker, faster, newer. And that's fine. It's is one of the things you get used to when working in a fast moving industry.

I loved my work today because it was built to last. I wonder what would happen if I rook that attitude with my sites. What would happen if I built them to last longer than five years? What would happen if I extended that attitude beyond my work, if everything I worked at, I built it to last?

Created or creator

2013-05-16T23:31:29Z

I did another longish cycle ride today on my way into work. The weather has been pretty poor for the majority of the week, so I was taking every opportunity I could find, and making the most of the sunny morning. As I was passing through Sunningwell I caught myself saying (to myself) 'Oxfordshire, you really are beautiful…'

It was an acknowledgement that the area I was passing though looked stunning, especially in the early morning as the sun was hitting the yellow fields. But as I was doing so I was reminded that I was actually giving praise to a created thing rather than the creator.

When someone performs on stage we don't give applause to the play or the set, instead we applaud the actors and the set creators. Similarly when someone creates an awesome dessert we don't say thank you to the pudding for being so incredibly choclolatey, instead we compliment the chef. Today I caught myself praising the pudding.

It was a reminder to me to think about who or what I give my praise and glory to. It seems to be a bit of a theme for this week…

"…they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself…'
Rom 1:25 (NLT)

Online authenticity

2013-05-14T20:48:40Z

Swearing, it’s not big, it’s not clever, but it is authentic.

That is a quote from Terence Eden who has just managed to find is way into the geek tech news theatre after his Tumblr page I don’t want you f***ing app gained a fair amount of viral attention over the last few weeks.

In his blog post, talking about the hype around the page, he comments on the title saying that the dramatic swearing is entirely an over-reaction, with the aim to denote the humour intended by the site, but also the emotion behind it. He argues that over the last few years the internet has become as “emotionally neutral as possible” in case our boss see that blog post or tweet. We have become scared to express our feelings online, in Terence’s case this was annoyance about certain sites ‘doorslamming’ users in an attempt to make them download their apps.

It is interesting because it is something that I have been noticing more of recently. Yes the doorslam, but more importantly that online there is a trend towards blog posts and social media posts without personality and authenticity I agree that there needs to be wisdom employed when pushing stuff online, and no body really likes that person who over shares, but I am getting more disengaged with people who push up content that appears to have gone through a PR machine.

In some respects what I have been doing with this blog over the last month or so is a reaction against that; by posting something each day I am trying to display a bit of my life, the things that I am doing, the things I care about. The majority of these things are not spectacularly exciting, but it is my life.

I think what I want to see a real human at the end of my Twitter or Facebook feed. That these people care about things, that they are emotive, that that find stuff fun, but also that they find stuff sad. Honesty online is a rare commodity at the moment.

Perhaps one of the reasons that we are not honest online is because the people on our Facebook friend list are not actually our friends, but instead people we know… and therefore we don’t really want trust them. Alternatively, perhaps we just want to present the best looking version of ourselves, those times where we’re instagramming cycling past beautiful scenes rather than the days when the cycle home is just miserable and wet… On a similar topic there was an interesting post on the Relevant Magazine a couple of months ago saying some very interesting things which is worth a read - Instagram’s Envy Effect.

I’m still thinking this one though. There is a lot to think about, and a lot for me to apply to what I post online. If anyone has any thoughts on this topic, or links to useful articles to read please do share them in the comments.

Typically just as I am about to post this I’ve just noticed that the Jeskes’ have just had a fantastic blog post on this topic published on Relevant Magazine. I recommend reading that one too - How Social Media Made Me a Better Person.

Clinging to the Post

2013-05-14T14:02:36Z

Each fortnight I meet up with a few of the guys from Magdalen Road Church to discuss a couple of chapters from a book we are reading, I've mentioned it before. We're still working our way through Tim Keller's book - Every Good Endeavour which looks at how God cares about our work, and how that should effect how we work.

One of the questions that came up today was about how we should do everything for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). Specifically is this a conscious thing that we do at the beginning of a task, perhaps God's glory be constantly our our mind each second as we work through a project?

It is an interesting quandary. Keller has already pointed out in his chapter on selfishness that so often we turn work inwards to glorify us, our team, or our organisation. It is also tough because you can easily reduce the idea of glorifying God down to what can seem the absurd- as you read that last sentence was it for God's glory? Or as you sat down at your chair was that for God's glory? It seems hard to find the correct line.

Attached to my screen at work I have stuck the words "cling to the post to which the net is attached". It is a reminded to me, each time I turn the screen on, that I need to cling to the strong post otherwise I, and all my work, will was away with the ebb and flow of the tide. I cannot glorify God in my work on my own without the Spirit's help.

AoE II HD

2013-05-13T21:26:59Z

This evening was spent doing something that I spend a fair amount of my teenage years doing - play Age of Empires II. It was re-released lat month with updated HD graphics and plugged into Steam, so it seemed only logical to pick it up!

There is only so much fun you can have playing against the AI, so it was good this evening to pick a fight with a couple of colleagues tonight. Or as Ollie put it:

Age of Empires HD. Nerd time with @jamesdoc and @davidgholland.
— Ollie Brown (@olvrbrown) May 13, 2013

Yes, it's a little bit nerdy to spend an evening playing computer games, but sociable and fun, so I'll take that! I have a feeling that it may become a semi-regular thing, so if anyone wants to join in please let me know!

Catching up with old friends

2013-05-12T21:37:42Z

Catching up with old friends is always a great joy. Over the last two weekends I've done a lot of it, and it is so good! One of the things pointed out two me was that a sign of a good friendship is regardless of the time spent apart, the ability o pick up where you left off is defining.

I've been able to talk, laugh, and generally share life with some really great people. Catch up on what has been happening, reminisce on the time we spent together, relive old jokes, talk about the future, get some really helpful advice.

One of the things I always say after catching up with many people all in one go is that 'we must not leave it as long next time'. We invariably do though. It is tough finding the space in the middle of busy lives, separated by many miles and responsibilities. But often it only takes an occasion, an event, or one person's crazy plan, and it is always worth it.

The post-deadline calm

2013-05-10T18:03:50Z

That time after passing a deadline is always an odd one; on one hand there is that wonderful rest having worked crazy-hard to hit the targets, to get the work done on time. On the other hand it does seem to make everything else after feel really slow...

Yesterday was deadline day. Today is the post deadline calm. I've done a fair amount of work today, I would even go as far as to say it was productive. Just not even close to being a productive as the last 10 days. As a result today has just felt slow.

I think there is an interesting balance to be found in the pace of work. I am certain that I would hit burnout very quickly if I kept on at the pace of the last two weeks, but I also think I would end up going mad if my pace was as slow as it has felt today!

Cycling plans in motion

2013-05-09T21:56:03Z

Ages ago I remember being told that 'ideas are cheap'. Ideas come and go quickly. To often for me that is where they stay, as ideas. Rarely do I actually kick those ideas into the real world. Yesterday I put into action something that I had been thinking about for a couple of weeks - taking a week in July and go cycling around bits of Scotland.

One of the things I realise is that it is a bad idea just to jump into this without preparation. Independently of the Scotland idea I had set myself the goal of doing 500km in the month of May. Strava tells me that in the last 9 days I've reached 196km, so I am thinking that I may have to push the target a bit, and at the same time do more longer rides.

During my time in Scotland I will be based in Edinburgh. I know that one of the rides will be out to visit the Falkirk Wheel, however the other rides have yet to be determined. Ideas, suggestions and recommendations are welcome!

Re: Yesterday's post.

It would appear that my initial fear of the print work coming back today was unfounded. A large box full of flyers arrived today all looking good. You can see them on my Dunked Portfolio.

On print design

2013-05-08T22:44:11Z

If you have been following my twitter updates over the last couple of weeks you may have noticed a variety of design related posted. I think most of these updates were either moaning about doing design work and not really feeling skilled for the job, or moaning that I was doing print design and really not feeling up for the job!

Tomorrow the designs come back from the printers, just in time for the IFES Senior Leadership Team meetings. I've been told that the proofs all look fine, however that doesn't remove a certain amount of nervousness about seeing the designs on paper.

One of the things I love about the web is that if/when you see a mistake you can quickly correct it there and then. It really doesn't work that way with print; once it is printed it is forever immortalised on the page.

Tomorrow is the day of judgement! Maybe I'll be able to add print design to my jack-of-all-skills digital communication role… or maybe I'll be able to run away from print and back to the internet!

Bank holidays

2013-05-07T13:55:56Z

This weekend managed to have the perfect weather for a bank holiday weekend; hot (but not too hot), dry and cloudless. Room for an afternoon BBQ, catching up with friends, an evening cycle and just generally enjoying that extra day of not really having to do any work.

I'm not back at my desk, trying to cram far too much into too little time, but that seems like a return to normality. I think the lesson is to make good use of the quiet times, rest well, enjoy it, and then hit the ground running on Tuesday.

I kind of want another bank holiday though, how about one at the end of May...

Coloured memory

2013-05-04T22:56:55Z

One of the notes I scribbled down earlier for this post went something along time lines of 'I could have done without this week'. This week has been full of frustration, late nights, bad rest, lots that I really didn't enjoy. It is easy to look back on it and wish that it didn't happen.

However, as I was reflecting on this, and the week that had past, I realised that there was so much in this week gone that was really great; catching up with friends per haggis, getting into Oxford centre stupidly early in the morning for the May Morning celebrations, some really great weather. Those things really are not skippable.

It is sad how I find that negative things colour, and often out-weigh the good things from my mind. I think in-part it is an attitude thing - if I let my mind dwell on the negative, or if I leave the negative unresolved then they are going to come to the forefront of my memory.

I think that is one of the reasons why Paul finishes his letter to the Philippian church by saying 'whatever is good, true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, has excellence, is worthy of praise, think about these things' (4:8 roughly).

Onwards?

Preventing widows and orphans within InDesign

2013-05-02T20:10:46Z

Before you think I am writing about women who have lost their husbands, or children without parents I want to stop you there. Widows and orphans is a term used within design used to describe text that overflows into different pages or columns badly.

The Chicago Manual of style defines them as this:

Widow: A paragraph-ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page/column, thus separated from the rest of the text.

Orphan: A paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page/column or a word, part of a word, or very short line that appears by itself at the end of a paragraph. Orphans result in too much white space between paragraphs or at the bottom of a page.

Basically they look bad and should be avoided.

After doing a bit of hunting around I discovered that Adobe InDesign has a very handy method of avoiding them. In the text box you want to adjust press Ctrl + Alt + K (Cmd + Opt + K on a Mac) and you get a very handy dialogue box. From there you can adjust the minimum number of lines of text per page. InDesign handles the rest.

Two lock cycle

2013-05-02T13:58:55Z

A comment that is often made about the British is our love of talking about the weather. This is because, unlike so many other places around the world, our weather is so changeable. It goes from hot to not so hot, sunny to rainy in the blink of an eye. So far, May has been very consistent with it's weather, and that is pleasing.

Making the most of the warm morning I extended my route into work this morning, jumping from an 8km ride to a 13.5km ride. This route now takes me further out of Oxford, allowing me more time to cycle along the river.

The previous route took me through Temple Cowley and I joined the river at the Iffley Lock, now I cross it at Sandford Lock, follow a short cycle path before rejoining the river before the ring road. The slight drawback is that there is more cycling around the ring road than I would really like. Hopefully I'll be able to adjust that tomorrow though!

Abe

2013-05-01T20:06:47Z

Giving robots emotions is a bad idea.

This video isn't for those who are squimish.

A 5am vantage point

2013-05-01T14:07:07Z

The weather in Oxford today is incredible, right from the very start at 5am we've had an amazing blue sky (yes I did see 5am). It's really not the kind of day where you want to be stuck in an office, but that is where I am right now...

Today I released that I've got used to Oxford, I overlook it's architecture, it's history, it's look and feel. It is now very easy to cycle down the high street and just take for granted what I'm cycling past, how beautiful the city and surrounding area is. Recently I've rediscovered the countryside around Oxford as I have been cycling further out. Today I rediscovered the beauty from the inside.

This morning, May 1st, I took part in the May Morning celebrations that are traditional within Oxford. Rising early (that's the 5am part) and joining many of the residents in the city centre, I spent a lot of the morning just enjoying watching the sun rise up about the buildings. Over lunch today I escaped the office for a short while, climbed out of a window on the roof, and just sat looking out across some of the Oxford skyscape while working my way though a sandwich.

Sometimes it just takes a new perspective, seeing things from a different vantage point, to remind you of the things you so easily miss.

Castle building

2013-04-30T18:13:18Z

Last night I put up a C.S. Lewis quote on the blog, it was pulled out of the book I am reading with a couple of blokes from church; Every Good Endeavour by Tim Keller. The book is about about the ethics of works, it has the tag line - 'Connecting your work to God's plan for the world'. No small challenge.

The two chapters we were looking today were about the selfishness that can creep into our work; our desire to make a name for ourselves and then to find security, worth and value in that, rather than looking to find that in God. It is there that the C.S. Lewis quote fits in - if I build my identity on my skills, the projects I am working on, etc then I am always going to be proud of my own tower. Then when someone criticises it, or builds a bigger, better tower then I get knocked down. It is a dangerous game to play, because the pleasure is only short lived.

I believe that the things I am good at, the things I enjoy, the job I have are gifts that God has given to me. While I have worked at them, I have used the talents that I cannot take credit from. I must therefore believe that I have been given them for a reason.

Right now I am wondering if I am using what I have been given well, or if I am just castle building...

C.S. Lewis on Pride

2013-04-29T22:01:35Z

I've been reading through Tim Keller's book Every Good Endevour and he has just thrown in this challenging quote about pride:

"Now what you want to get clear it that Pride is essentially competitive – is competitive by its very nature – while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others"

C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity

Tangible thoughts

2013-04-29T14:09:01Z

I've been trying to maintain a regular set of posts appearing on this blog for almost the whole of April. I set aside 10 minutes each day to get some of my thoughts out of my head and onto paper. Then another 5 minutes to type them up and give a tiny bit of editing. I didn't intend for it to become 'a thing' but I'm surprised that I've managed to keep it going!

Sometimes I know fairly early in the day what I am going to scribble down, other times I have to really work at it. Today I had no ideas regarding what was going to come out.

At the beginning one of the hopes I had for this was to improve my writing, to help me focus what I write concisely, giving that I only had 10 minutes to get it on paper. Hopefully that is happening. One of the things I have noticed from it is that it has helped me to think things through a little bit more as I transfer the madness in my head to slightly more tangible and logical notes.

Writing things down seems to make them more real, more set, less wild and less likely to change.

Letting go of the design

2013-04-28T16:42:26Z

This weekend I picked up a project that I haven't exactly been avoiding, but one I haven't been rushing to pick back up! The project is for website, but one that I have been able to see all the way through, not just the designing and building it, but working out the audience, the structure, the copy writing, the works. Aside from my own personal site I can't think of a project where I've had that much freedom, and that comes with a certain amount of pressure, and it is a little bit intimidating look at the blank sheet of paper!

The structure and copy writing was completed a couple of weeks ago, and this weekend I did a lot of work on the design and feel of the site.

One of the things I'm beginning to notice about more work is that straight after I complete a design, or a bit of code, or some writing, or whatever I think that it is the best work I've ever done. Right now I'm at this point with the Oxford Training Partnership design. However after some time has past and I come back to it, I start to notice issues or problems, things that need tweaking, adjusting, sometimes just starting again. But rarely I give the time to go back and polish the design.

In a effort to get past that I am giving a healthy break between working on the design and committing it to code. I sent off the first round of design work to a couple of friends for feedback so with their help I can tighten up the design. Hopefully this time apart from working on it will help me to let go some of the design and my own opinion and coming back to it later and look at it critically.

If you want to throw your feedback into the mix the design work is on my portfolio site. Comments below are welcome!

Harry Potter films

2013-04-27T16:46:44Z

For about 10 minutes today it started hailing in Oxford. Being April, and being in the UK, I expect rain, but not hail! At the time of this hail I was about to leave from enjoying a very tasty brunch, however rather than face getting hailed to death as I cycled home I was invited to watch the final Harry Potter film; The Deathly Hallows part II.

My experience with the Harry Potter films has been very mixed, I haven't seen them all, the first couple were so poor I didn't really want to watch any others after them! I watched The Deathly Hallows part I while I was at university, and I wasn't entirely offended by it.

Generally speaking, Part I and II work well together, they do a good job of adapting the book to film, I think it is one of the benefits of being giving two films to tell a massive story. Yes there are certain bits missing, odd embellishments to the plot, however in the grand scheme of things it works well.

But my issue comes when you step back - regardless of how good or otherwise The Deathly Hallows was as a film adaption it cannot be watched in isolation. The seventh (and eighth) film has six other films preceding it, many people have only ever watched the films and not the books, and they were built on really bad foundations.

Ben Jiggins has blogged about his thoughts about why the films were 'doomed from the start' (his words, not mine), however I agree with most of what he says.

I love the Harry Potter books, and I love when a book is adapted well to film (or stage), however it didn't happen with the Harry Potter films, and that makes me sad. They have so much potential for the screen.

I think I'll just have to re-read the books again!

Dunked?

2013-04-26T13:52:48Z

Quite often I will sign myself up for early testing of new applications or website. I love playing with new things and looking at fresh ideas. More regularly that I would like, six months after signing up for something I will finally get the invitation through, and normally after all that time I will have no idea what it was I signed up for, why I did it, or what the app does in the first place.

Today was one of those days. One new email from Orman Clark… why an invitation to beta test Dunked.com… What have I signed up to now?

Basically Dunked is a portfolio site which is designed to make it as easy as possible for designings to showcase their work online. A very slick and simple user interface to upload and display different projects, but with the power to heavily modify the template if you want to get your hands dirty with the CSS.

I haven't messed around with the basic template yet, but I have uploaded three projects from the last year or so to my account. I really like it!

Currently there isn't a feedback method for commenting on projects, but I'm sure that will come. Either that or someone with give a quick guide to adding Disqus to it. Until that happens I would love to hear your feedback on the three projects I have put online so far. Comments, suggestions, recommendations, improvements, etc all welcome below!

Thinking about subtitles

2013-04-25T14:24:00Z

Last night I visited the Oxford Playhouse to watch the Spanish play La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream). It is a philosophical play that brings out the ideas of destiny and fate with the concept that reality could just be a dream world. I wouldn't be too much of a stretch to call it Spanish The Matrix of its day.

One of the challenges of the play was that it was all spoken in Spanish and my Spanish is non-existent. Fortunately, alongside the handy Wikipedia summary I had read, the play was surtitled. This is like subtitling a film, the narrative is projected above the stage enabling the non-Spanish speaking section of the audience to read along with the actors.

I've watched a couple of films with subtitles, notably Pan's Labyrinth and Spirited Away, however I noticed something new by doing it in a mixed-lingual setting; as the narrative progressed the audience were reacting at different times to what was being said. For example the Spanish speaking all the jokes (not that there were many) at the same times, whereas I, and all the other English readers, were getting the joke at different times depending on how fast we read. In certain cases where I had read ahead of the actors delivering the lines it was the reactions from the rest of the audience that aided in the interpretation of the line - was it supposed be shocking? funny? etc.

It made me ponder about subtitles more generally. Subtitles have the potential to ruin a major build up, as a bit of the narrative is read before it is acted out of screen, or a sound effect indicates a major change, before the audience has had a chance to catch up reading.

I don't have any solutions, just questions at the moment, I'll have to think about it a little bit more. I am certain though that subtitling is much better than dubbing.

Mismash day

2013-04-24T18:30:57Z

In an unlikely turn of event I am making my daily scribbling after work, rather than during my lunch break. Over lunch I enjoyed the company of a good friend and consequently had to run back to be at work in time for a meeting. Good fun!

Today has been one of those days with a mis-mash of different jobs to get done, which ranged from bug fixing an issue within the CMS, designing an email template and having a meeting with Oxford Cartographers. The cartography and mapping element of my work at the moment was something I really didn't see coming when I started working here!

This evening is going to be spent being cultured; watching a Spanish play called La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream). Fortunately it will be surtitled - my Spanish is as good as my French. I'm sure it will be an interesting event...

Comfort Zones

2013-04-24T12:47:12Z

This just appeared on my Twitter feed shared by Harry Roberts:

Comfort zones are plush lined coffins. When you stay in your plush lined coffins, you die.

Stan Dale

Time to get living…

Jazz cooking

2013-04-23T13:35:45Z

Cooking is fun, I am regularly reminded of this by a couple of people within my church homegroup. Last night I was cooking for several friends, a simple veggie lasagne. One of the questions that came up as I was chopping the veg was 'when it comes to cooking are you more of a scientist or an artist?' My normal response to this kind of question is to say 'cooking is like jazz - you make it up as you go along'.

I wouldn't call myself a scientist, artist, chef or musician but as I was making this joke I got thinking that behind most things is some form of science. If you look at musical intervals there is science behind why different tones harmonise with each other, similarly in design there are concepts, patterns and ratios that work well together (the golden ratio, the rule of thirds, etc).

There same applies to cooking, brining in the correct ingredients, mixing of flavours and textures all have some form of science behind them. But there should always been room for some jazz!

Planning

2013-04-22T14:08:50Z

Yesterday I suffered a mistake I had made a while ago. On Sunday I was supposed to be in Sherbourne for the dedication of my second cousin, however due to lack of trains leaving Oxford in the time scale I needed I wasn't able to attend. If I had the forethought to actually look at train times in advances I would have been able to make arrangements around it… but I didn't.

These kind of mistakes really get at me, firstly because I missed an important family event, and secondly because it could so easily have been avoided.

I've just done through my diary for the next couple of weeks noting several of the big things coming up, all of which I have yet to sort out travel for. I need to fix this.

But this applies to so much more than just planning travel for events, there is a lot that I tend to run into without doing much ground work, and as a result often they fail to take off in the way I hope for. I need to fix that too.

Death by Strava?

2013-04-21T15:51:46Z

Spring has finally happened and, as I noted last week, I've got back into cycling. My route to work has grown from the most direct route I could find to a pretty cycle along the River Thames. The detour is worth it.

I have also been encourages to download Strava onto my phone. It hooks into the GPS on the phone and records the routes I take, speed, elevation, etc. It's really handy to look back after the ride and see the route overlaid on a Google Map and to see other potential routes to try out.

However, the real killer feature of Strava is the social aspect. All I have just described about has been available in Google Tracks for ages. Being able to see the other routes that your friends are taking is certainly a prompt to try out new rides, adjust your current routes to go over some of their stretches and just generally to go faster.

Another good element of this social network functionality is the segmentation of routes. As I cycle into work I go through 5 different segments that other cyclists using Strava all take, all the times are tracked and a leader board is created out of the times.

These time-trials are really playing to my competitive side, so much so that I have added a small detour into some of my routes so I can go up the 300m stretch on Barracks Lane… I think Strava may kill me.

Wicked

2013-04-20T23:18:14Z

Yesterday was my sister's birthday, so a surprise for her I took her to see Wicked today. I had asked Mum and Dad to ensure she kept today clear, and told no more. I think the surprise was kept right up until we reached the doors of the Apollo Theatre.

I really enjoy the theatre, specifically musicals and fortunately we share similar tastes over certain things, so I was pretty confident with this surprise.

It has been one of my favourite musicals for quite some time, I was trying to pin down why Wicked is so good…

Good adaption form the book, impressive to do considering the massive constraints.
Incredibles songs that have both good lyrical content, music and musicians to perform them.
Massive set and costume design that is regularly changing.

I'm beginning to sound a little too much like a fanboy for this blog so I'm going to stop. I may have to do a proper review of the musical at some point.

The arrival of a Pebble

2013-04-19T14:01:27Z

My Pebble finally arrived at work today. Having backed the project via KickStarter in May last year I was almost beginning to believe I would never see the thing!

I'll write a proper review of the watch next week, once I've had more time to play with it, but the initial impressions are positive! There is already an impressive set of watch faces available from the development community, including an LCARS (Star Trek) face and a Polar Clock face, the latter probably being one of my favourites.

One of the side effects of having it on my wrists is that I have found myself absent-mindedly checking the time more often than I used to! The time is so pretty.

A succinct job description?

2013-04-18T18:11:07Z

I attend a local event in Oxford called UXOxford (User Experience), it is run by local folk, for local folk. I get a lot out of being in an environment full of other people who are doing the same kind of things as me, who are asking big questions and are looking to learn more about UX.

One of the regular conversation starters, during the networking after the talk, is something along the lines of 'so… what do you do?'. I find it really fought to explain my job within IFES because each day is very different, normally I mumble something about digital communication and web development and jealously listen as the other person succinctly tells me their specialty.

As I listen to these job titles, and the description of the role, often I get caught up with the desire to specialise, to focus what I do and more from 'jack of all trades' to becoming an expert in something. However, as was was talking this through last night, I was able to reflect on the diversity that my job brings - every day really is different, and each day has a new set of tasks.

Today I was trying (and failing) to create Microsoft Word templates, this afternoon was spent poking MailChimp, earlier in the week I was designing letterhead, looking at payments gateways, polishing a style guide, fixing some bugs in my PHP code, planning a new comms product…

I really can't think of many other roles with this kind of diversity. I love it.

Activist culture

2013-04-17T14:31:03Z

In the life of my church in Oxford there is a lot going on. We had a meeting last night to hear some thoughts about one of the project and it was really exciting to hear and see it is moving forward. Drawing to the end of the meeting one of the church members, Tom, stood up to say something that really struck a chord with me:

In our activist culture how do we make time for prayer?

He said a lot more, but I think this bit jumped out at me because I am someone who likes to be active, to be doing things. More often I spend my time doing, rather than sitting down and taking the time to plan things out. I prefer to see the result of what I am doing straight away. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I find prayer and personal devotion really tough to do.

Tom's reminder at the end of the meeting is really important, both for church and for me personally. There is a lot going on and we need to be running with God to achieve all that He is calling us to do.

Unless the Lord builds the house the builder labour in vain...
Psalm 127:1a

Enjoying spring time

2013-04-16T14:21:05Z

Today I adjusted my cycle into work in light of the improving weather. Rather that taking the quickest route into town I detoured to allow myself to cycle alongside the river. The photo above was taken at Iffley Lock as I stopped to enjoy the signs of Spring.

It reminded me of how much I miss cycling for the sake of going on a ride. I used to spend afternoons or whole days cycling along the coast or other the South Downs, but since going to uni and now moving to Oxford I haven't really done anything like it.

There are lots of cycle routes all over Oxfordshire, I think one of the priorities for this summer will be to find some of them and just to get out to enjoy the ride.

On Facebook Home

2013-04-15T22:17:54Z

Last Friday Facebook released their most recent project; Home. Home is a launcher of home screen for Android phones that is designed to change how users interact with their devices. Rather that being presented with a set of icons to launch apps (iPhone) or a set of widgets (Android stock launcher), Facebook's offering brings first to the recent updates from your friends.

Currently Home is only available for certain recent devices, however with a little bit of help from the internet I was able to get it running on my Samsung Galaxy SII. I've now been running it for a couple of days.

The thing that struck me most about this was, that despite running an up unsupported handset, it felt really snappy. The animations are smooth and it loads information really quickly. It is really fast and responsive. I like that!

I also love the presentation. Full screen photos from people, or cover phones backing status updates just look good. It is really refreshing to turn on my phone and be reminded that this is a device primarily about staying in touch with people.

Another reminder of this comes through the new notifications system for text messages and Facebook Messenger called Chat Heads. When someone sends a message or starts a conversation a little small circle with their profile picture appears on top of the app you are using, allowing you to quickly jump back and forth as you engage in the message and the app being used.

The really big surprise for me was that I didn't notice a huge drain on the battery life on my phone. I have no idea how the Facebook engineers have managed it, but it is impressive considering that it is very graphic and animation heavy.

There are several noticeable gaps with the launcher though, despite the design being focused on people the default menu doesn't make it quick to access the phone! The first three options are for messaging, applications and most recently used application. To get to a dialler you need to go into applications and then, if you have set it up to be on the first draw, you can get to the phone. Perhaps Facebook think that less people use their phone to make phone calls these days…

The other feature I would love to see is more content from different sources being pulled into the home screen, and perhaps content from certain people filtered out. Facebook has lists of friends on it; I would love for it to prioritise stories from some of these groups over others. It is less likely to happen, but I would also love to see data being pulled in from other apps on my phone, such as Twitter or BBC News via some nice API. I think that this may be wishful thinking, but I can hope right?

To me Facebook Home looks like someone sat down in front of the Windows 8 UI (Metro) and thought that it was a neat idea. What Live Tiles do really well is bring important information right to the front screen of your phone, and this is what Facebook does with Home, it brings updates from your friends right to the front of your screen. It is an interesting idea for a phone launcher. I have no plans to uninstall it any time soon, so I think it may catch on, as long as people don't minding giving more information (and their souls) to Facebook.

Delight

2013-04-15T14:03:26Z

Delight. It is a word that is appearing a lot at the moment. It is an emotive word that brings together the ideas of joy, happiness, surprise. Lots of positive vibes.

When I was younger my mum used to buy, and then make, Butterscotch Angel Delight. It brought delight to a younger me with its buttery sweet taste. It would probably delight me still!

In the web design and user experience communities Arron Walters and the Mailchimp team have been waving the banner for delighting users. If users find delight in the product that you offer they will enjoy using it, and therefore keep coming back to use it.

Last night I was at the evening service of St. Andrews, Oxford and delight was one of the key words that I picked out there too. One of the illustrations used was of the small things that we do that can bring delight to people, such as the unexpected gift of a cup of tea for a spouse or friend (this is assuming they enjoy tea). The motivation behind the gift, not to curry favour, but instead to bring the other person enjoyment.

The Bible says that God delights in his people (Psalm 147:11), in the same way we can delight in God (Psalm 37:4). John Piper writes: 'At root, what God delights in about us is that we delight in him.' It's a fantastic picture.

Headphones

2013-04-14T17:11:58Z

I find myself replacing pairs of headphones much more often then I would like. Either I misplace them or I break them. As a result I will never invest in an expense pair. Currently I own a very cheap set that I use during my cycle to and from work, however I rarely use them while I am sat on a train or bus.

Today I had a three hour bus journey back from Cambridge with the plan to continue reading Cloud Atlas. However this plan was never completed as I spent the three hours chatting with one of the other passengers also making the journey back to Oxford.

I really enjoy these random conversations and the friendships that can be built up in these brief times. Conversations can flow from current live, to history or plans for future, hobbies, skills, current news. It is refreshing to see things from new perspectives.

The realisation that I had today was that we live in a small world; we both had gone to the same sixth form in Brighton (just a year apart), we now live relatively near each other and both find enjoyment in the sport Ultimate Frisbee. Lots of conversation fodder there.

These conversations never happen when I plug my headphones in. People get on and off the bus and I have no idea about who I am missing.

A weekend of travelling

2013-04-14T00:04:37Z

At the moment most of my weekends seemed to be filled with travel. Today I spent about 4 hours on a coach travelling to Cambridge. Last weekend I spent a similar amount of time heading to Leeds. Next week I will be in Sherbourne, and coming up are trips to Milton Keynes, London and Edinburgh. I love travelling, seeing new places and doing new things. But going for the new experiences is rarely the reason I go.

These new things are great, however they are made special by the people who are there with me. these people are friends and family, some who I have known for years, and others I am only just getting to know. Building any relationship comes as a result of going out of our way to make time for each other and sharing experiences together. It is something that I really value.

On Monday I asked the question of what are the things that are important to me. Spending quality time with friends is certainly up near the top.

Thoughts from Tearfund...

2013-04-12T13:24:45Z

Yesterday I was wiring a little bit about sharing skills on a small scale, today I have found myself doing it on a much larger scale. Alongside a group of about 20 others I am in the Tearfund offices in Teddington to think through ideas that would help the international publishing team reach more people, more effectively in a more sustainable manner. No small ask!

Currently we are working in three teams, thinking about the questions from different angles - one team from a publishing and marketing view, another from a technological view and a third coming at it from a commercial view point.

We are just coming up to the first feedback session, so this is still early days, but it has been really helpful to think about some of these issues with fresh eyes and with people from many different backgrounds, experiences and point of views.

One of thing things we have been asked to do is to come back with one or two big ideas and two or three quick wins. Through our discussions as a tech groups it seems that the best method has been to break our bigger goals down into smaller quick wins. Each of these smaller goals building forward towards the building goal. It seems very obvious in hindsight, but the best solutions normally are!

It's going to be interesting to look back at the end of the day and see how what we talk about can apply to IFES and the other things that are in my life.

Lack of Spanish and French

2013-04-11T14:26:30Z

I find myself attempting to squeeze long quotes down into bite-size, tweetable, snippets more often than I care to think about. It's part of my job. This is fine until I have to do the squeezing and cutting in Spanish and French.

Over the last couple of years working for IFES my language skills have improved; now I can spot the difference between Spanish and French (yes I made that mistake), but they are still not at a level that is really useful for forming sentences.

However I am really blessed to be able to copy my attempted message to a colleague who's Spanish and French far out weighs mine. A colleague who can read through, correct my mistakes or squeeze more characters out of the French.

This is something that I am noticing more and more, and the more I am noticing it the more I am grateful for it.

Last week Grete posted on her blog a quote from someone she worked with, expressing gratitude for her skills:

"Its just a dilemma to be 15-20 years into a career and still feel inadequate--because I have to know about so many things. So, thank you for knowing about photos, newsletters, design, and all that you do."

- Grete Bauder: The reason I do this job.

We all have different skills and talents that can be used to serve each other. Grete uses her fantastic design skills to equip InterVarsity staff workers. Penny used her skills to dig me out of a translation hole earlier today.

Paul, in 1 Corinthans, says that this is an example of the church working together for God's glory. I feel very blessed to be able to see this practically working out each day.

Miscommunication

2013-04-10T15:53:33Z

Over lunch I've was thinking about miscommunication. In my life most miscommunication is rarely as a result of what is said, but instead how it is said...

I've noticed that Twitter is full of miscommunication because often it is too short - the communication is direct and brief, rarely giving opportunity to flesh out response. Sometimes it is the lack of communicated emotion - something is said in jest which is missed. Other times this is reversed and it actually the presence of strong emotion that colours the entire communication.

In these events what matters is what happens next. How is the miscommunication resolved? And how do we prevent it from happening again? This solves a lot of future problems. It takes time, it involves building relationships and it involves learning to say sorry.

Thatcher

2013-04-09T14:02:41Z

One of the big news items from last few days have been the death of Margaret Thatcher. In certain parts of the UK, and generally online, there have been upsetting reactions to Thatcher's death; celebration. It triggers memories from Bin Laden's death where many people took to the streets in celebration.

I was only alive for a couple of months during Thatcher's time as prime minister. I don't have any right to comment on her time as leader having not lived through it, but regardless of your political views I do not see how it is right to celebrate someone's death.

Andy Shudall shared some helpful thoughts of Facebook earlier:

I rejoiced when Margaret Thatcher lost her leadership of the UK Conservative party and was ousted from being Prime Minister as a result of her own harsh ethos. I will not, however, rejoice in her death - human life, all human life, is too precious to be turned into a circus of love and hate as someone passes into eternity. Love her or hate her - you too will pass into eternity. Don't fear what people might say on your passing, fear more the judgement that awaits you once you have passed through death into eternity.

Write now...

2013-04-08T11:10:29Z

Current status: In IFES Monday morning prayer. We've been challenged to spend 7 minutes writing. Like an Englishman my first thoughts are towards the weather - grey sky, but warmer than it has been.

We've just been going through what is going on this week as a team. It seems that there is a lot going on this week. Will be busy. Plenty to pull my attention.

Yesterday on the train back from Leeds I was thinking about my desire to improve my skill set, specifically to learning more about design and the principles behind it. Today I am wondering how I can fit it all into a busy schedule.

Making good use of my time is an easy thing to say, but it is harder to put into practice...

I think the first step is to work out what is important in my life. What are things that really matter to me? If I can work them out maybe I can run towards them with focus.

These last few minutes showed one specific thing - make space.

Responsive Day Out

2013-03-01T23:19:20Z

I'm just back from the Responsive Day Out organsied by the wonderful folk at Clearleft. I'm feeling inspired, energised and at the same time very tired! There was a lot crammed into the day.

There will be videos and audio recordings avalible at some point in the near future, so look out for them. However in the time in between my notes are avalible on my Dropbox. Please be aware that at the time of writing they are entirely unchecked, unedited, etc.

My notes for Cutting the Mustard are pretty slim, that is probably because it was one of the best talk - going through the RWD process for the BBC News site. When the video goes up, check that out!

I've got a lot of work to do as a result of this day, however first step will be getting a good night sleep!

---

On a small tangental note - Dropbox has support for reading Markdown script. This is brilliant.

Am I living life?

2013-02-13T21:55:06Z

Yesterday I posted briefly about my topic of blogging over lent - Life Life. It is an exploration of what Jesus meant when he said "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

The running joke at work currently is 'life is already full.' There is a lot of work, a lot of things to do and therefore a lot to keep my desk full! But I'm convinced that Jesus meant something different to a practically full working day.

One of the ideas behind lent is to give something up for the next 6 weeks. My plan is an attempt at slowing down and making space. I am very good at filling my life, making myself busy, but I'm pretty poor at stopping resting, but also stepping back and taking time to think things through.

It wasn't my initial plan to slow down this lent, however an unexpected empty evening reminded me of the importance of taking some time out. ReLENTless showed me some of the importance of making sacrifices for more important things in my life. I am hoping that Live Life will help me to think through what I am prioritising as important!

I am expecting to publish about a post a week. Each post with a different theme - Fast, Pray, Thank, Give, Serve, Reflect. We'll see what happens!

A couple of other blogs to follow this Lent:

Andy Shudall
Andy is a staff worker in New Zealand who will be blogging his way through Live Life.
Jim LePage
Jim is an incredible graphic designer and is publishing a different cross illustration to his blog each day.

Heading into Lent- Live Life

2013-02-12T17:42:08Z

Today we prepared for Lent in the IFES office by eating lots of pancakes for lunch, it was tasty!

You may remember this time last year I took part in reLENTless, a set of six challenges over the lent period to explore more about the idea of sacrifice. This year I'm doing it again.

World Vision Acts and IFES are exploring John 10:10:

“… I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

What does Jesus mean when he says life and to the full? And how does that practically look like in my life?

If you are interested in doing Live Life with me, or just curious, head over to the World Vision site to find out more and sign up.

Why do I apologise for not smoking when someone asks me for a light?

2012-12-20T10:43:30Z

I'm not sure if you have seen it or not, but recently there has been a list that has gone vital over Twitter and Facebook. 21 Brilliant British People Problems was posted on Buzz Feed on the 18th Dec and has attracted a fair amount of attention because it hits the mark so well with some brilliant British stereotypes.

Number 8 is entirely true - "My girlfriend claims to be 'neither here not there' on Marmite. Now I can't trust anything she says or does", there is no on the fence with this, Marmite reactions can only be love or hate, there is no mid ground on this issue. Or "Having my haircut, the barber said 'is that alright?' I nodded. It wasn't" is a another fairly standard part of being British. However number 18 on the list just doesn't quite sit right with me…

"I apologise for not smoking when someone asks me for a light."

When a person who smokes asks me for a lighter, I admit that I do turn to them and say something along the lines of "Sorry mate; I don't smoke." But it is not the lack of smoking I am apologising for. I am saying sorry for not being able to help the person out, the "I don't smoke" part is simply giving a reason for not being able to help.

I hope that clears that issue up.

Writing in iA Writer

2012-11-05T23:41:37Z

I consume a fairly large amount of text online, news articles, blog posts, reviews, tear downs, guides, pictures of kittens, etc. Recently, thanks to tools such as Evernote Clearly, I've becoming a bit of a online-reading-snob. If the design is distracting me from the main content I'm trying to read, I just flick Clearly on.

I've been getting used to it.

The trouble starts when I begin writing documents at work, or for this blog, or just simply because I feel like writing. All the programs I use just seem cluttered. Typically, I write these posts in Evernote, however even in Full Screen mode there is a lot of additional controls to distract me from actually writing…

Enter iA Writer.

iA Writer takes away any of the onscreen distractions and allows focus on the text that is being written. Designed to be minimalist, the program features nothing other than a canvas to type on. There is no distraction by setting the font, the colour, the size or the line height. Instead a comforting blue cursor blinks to indicate that you should start typing something.

I think my favourite feature of this app is the toggle called 'focus mode'. When turned on this focus mode brings to focus only the sentence which is being worked on at the moment, all the other text just fades away. You aren't distracted by the mistakes of the previous sentence, instead you can focus on getting the words on the page - you can go back and edit them later.

There are, of course, very basic ways of formatting text, you can indicate headings by prefixing lines with hashes or give emphasis to specific words or phrases by wrapping text with asterisks. But still the design of the app is to keep the focus on the writing, so your hands don't have to leave the keyboard to write lists, place emphasis or indent a block quote.

I'm just getting started with iA Writer, however I'm feeling pretty keen on it. And for the moment there is a nice discount on it in the App Store, which is one of the big reasons I chose to buy it today (yes I had been holding out for a while). Currently it is available for OS X, iPad and iPhone, and I can tell it you it is worth the pennies.

There is no love for Android or Windows at the moment, and I don't expect there to be any time soon. A couple of similar programs that might be worth looking into are Darkroom (Windows) and Qute (Android).

Caveman

2012-10-27T20:41:56Z

"You look like a caveman" - Grandma

Always great to see my grandparents…

The West Pier

2012-10-23T08:50:23Z

I had big plans to post something today about the Christian New Media Conference which I attended over the weekend, however as Evernote totally failed to sync the blog that I was drafting I finished off this manipulation that I was working on.

The photo credit goes to Martin Robson who took this stunning photo of Brighton's West Pier and was kind enough to put it under the Creative Commons license.

The finished piece is free for download under the same Creative Commons license.

Icons in the navigation

2012-10-07T20:52:30Z

Today I finally got around to making a small, but really important tweak to the design of this site! The navigation for the desktop design now actually looks like navigation! One of the more helpful bits of feedback I received about this new design was that the menu strip across the top of each page looked more like a design element than an actual method of navigating around this site. Basically it looked good, but didn't look as if you could do anything with it.

With a spare thirty minutes I found this fantastic set of icons; Icons 8 released under a Creative Commons license by Visual Pharm. Currently there are 850 different icons all available for download, and the number of icons increases each day!

As a cunning means of encouraging new client to hire them, Visual Pharm release three new icons each day as requested by users. This means that this pack keeps on growing and more and more people see the kind of work that they do!

Normally these icon packs come as basic JPG or PNG files which means that the resolution you can use them at is limited, however to make this icon set even better these icons are not just JPG or PNG files, but vector graphics as too!

If you are looking for an icon pack I would recommend checking these guys out!

Logging in with Social Media Credentials...

2012-10-02T18:18:23Z

Currently on the large white board at work is a big brain storm with the title 'the next update to the IFES website should include...' And until today on that list was the options to log in with Facebook and Twitter. The thought process behind this was something like 'people only have to remember their Facebook or Twitter password, they don't have to set up a new account, everything will become quick and simple and shiny'.

And they were some of the thoughts that went through the heads of the team at MailChimp when they implemented Social Media login. However recently they pulled this option from their website.

Aarron Walters, head of user experience at MailChimp, has written a really interesting blog post about the reasonings behind this decision, which I encourage you to read, but I'll just pull out a couple of the points from it:

"...in May of this year, we added “Log In With Twitter” and “Log In With Facebook” buttons to the login form. Failure rates plummeted. From June 12-July 12 we saw 114,239 login failures—that’s a 66% decrease..."

"So that big drop in login failures? It was all caused by better error handling and copywriting. That’s it. It wasn’t the social login buttons..."

"As you add login buttons to a page, you also add decision points for users, while creating visual complexity in your design. The marginal gains in login rate are chipped away by the additional cognitive load you’re adding for your users."

"...Facebook and Twitter are good at security, but nobody, NOBODY, is perfect. Social login buttons delegate control of your users’ credentials to another service, rather than ensuring security yourself."

It's really interesting to see that, while adding the social media buttons did have some impact, login failure was reduced more by being a bit more helpful with your error messages and making it easy to get at the relevant important information.

Another point that Aarron makes is that you are tying yourself to these social media sites, and they have positive and negative press associated with them. One of the points he doesn't make is that you are also tying a user's account to that social media service, and occasionally social media sites die. Do you expect to see a login with Bebo or MySpace button on different sites? Should Facebook and Twitter die out then there is the potential for users to be stranded without their accounts.

I've got a lot to think through, the sign up and sign in process on the IFES website is one of them.

How I read the internet…

2012-09-30T09:22:09Z

My favourite tool I've added to Chrome has got to be the Evernote Clearly plugin. It has completely transformed how I consume blog posts and online articles. It allows you to remove the clutter from any page design, be that adverts, navigation, tag clouds, etc and leaves you just to focus on the text on the page.

It comes with several presets allowing you to customise the font, background colour and generally tweak to give you to optimum reading experience. Plus, with a little bit of CSS magic you can completely customise the design.

Further to this if are an Evernote user, you don't have to be to use the plugin, there is a handy setting to save the article or snippets from the article straight into your Evernote account. I've yet to use this feature, however it is nice to know it is there should I want to!

Currently it's avalible in Firefox and Chrome. You can find out more information, and download it from the Evernote website, or by watching the video below.

It was this plugin that gave me a lot of the inspiration for the current design on this blog, trying to remove alot of uneeded clutter. Currently I think I went a bit far with the menu, but we live and learn, and will fix in a revision at some point. Currently on that list is making the menu more clear, switching to a serif font and adding a background colour or pattern.

How do you read articles on websites? Have you got any suggestions to improve the reading experience?

My top five Android apps

2012-08-13T21:34:35Z

I've been an Android user for a while, lots of apps have come an gone off my phone over that time. So I thought it was about time I composed a list of the apps that I consider to be some of the best available… And because I'm cheap, they are also my top five free Android apps!

One: Google Chrome

There is very little wrong with the built in browser with Android. However when I can have my bookmarks nicely synced and send pages directly from my desktop to my mobile it just seems a no-brainer! The original beta for Android was a little bit buggy, however they have worked most of the issues out and Chrome for Android is a really nice bit of kit

Google Chrome on Google Play

Two: Everyday notes // Do it tomorrow

Okay, I'm sneakily bundling two apps into one entry, but they are are very similar! Made by Adylitica these apps are like having Moleskine notebooks on your phone. Do it tomorrow is a 'getting things done' app with a simple idea; things can either be done today or tomorrow. Anything that you put off till tomorrow moves to today as the clock strikes midnight. Very clever.

Everyday notes has been on iOS for a while and has just made the jump across to Android. It is designed as a notebook with entries for each day. You can use it as a to do, as a diary, as notebook, as a whatever. It lacks some of the features of the iOS app such as calendar sync, however I'm sure they will appear soon enough.

Normally I don't buy into skeuomorphic designs within apps, I think that Apple's address book and calendar looks awful, however these apps by Adylitica both look great and I'm enjoying using them daily.

Everyday notes on Google Play | Do it tomorrow on Google Play

Three: ESV Bible

There are hundreds of Bible apps on the Play store, the majority are a little bit bloated with hundreds of features. The ESV does the Bible simply and clearly, with great navigation and no bloat. As long as you don't want to be able to jump from translation to translation (check out the YouVersion app for that) the ESV app does a great job.

ESV Bible on Google Play

Four: National rail enquiries

I don't have much to say about this app, it is one of my most used apps simply because I use the great British rail service so often. It has nice features such as geolocating the nearest train station to you and a big 'get me home' button. Handy.

National rail enquiries on Google Play

Five: Tweet lanes

I have to confess that I've only been using Tweet lanes for an afternoon… however I'm pretty convinced that I'll be ditching the official Twitter app for it. It has a nice Holo user interface which just gives a great consistent experience and a really clever conversation view. I really like this app.

Tweet lanes on Google Play

Some honourable mentions:

Instagram - I'm sure I don't have to explain this one…

SMS Backup+ - Great method of backing up all text messages to GMail

Trello - Wonderful app enabling access to the project management tool Trello

Dropbox - Quick access to the files held in your Dropbox

Do you think I've missed any? Share them in the comments…

A week off…

2012-08-12T16:48:52Z

I've just spent the last week doing very little work, very little checking email and generally avoiding social media. It is to be recommended. As a replacement I've caught up with a couple of friends, spent time outside in the country, watched some Olympics at Eton Dorney (Canoe Sprint) seen a musical (Singin' in the Rain), seen a Dodo and generally had a restful time. Wonderful.

I've now got another week of work before heading to The Track for a week that doesn't resemble work or rest… something in the middle perhaps?

August is a funny month. Perhaps September will be more normal?

Updated design

2012-07-24T19:50:01Z

Some of you may have noticed that in the last couple of weeks I've pushed a fairly major update to my website, version 6 by my reckoning. I've ditched the dark red and black instead favouring a white background, and now have several shades of tea for highlighting different content types. I've also used this opportunity to start playing around a bit with CSS transforms, part of the CSS3 specification.

One of the major goals for v6 were to simplify the design and to make it more readable. I took inspiration from the blogs of Maykel Loomans and the Information Architects who both have stunningly simple and readable websites. One of the major things that stuck me by their designs was the narrow width of the site, meaning that they don't try and squeeze too many words into each line of text.

I've got several minor updates mulling around in my mind that I want to sit down and work up at some point in the near future including good Open Graph support, searching in the blog, a better archive design, some improvements to the menu, etc. However I would really value your feedback; what do you like or dislike? How can I make improvements to the site? What should I be writing about? Let me know in the comments below!

On a blog or in a blog?

2012-07-18T18:59:59Z

One of the things that I have started doing at work is putting together a style guide so we can communicate in a consistant way. I fear it's going to be a really boring document to read, but I'm loving adding to it every now and again. It's got important things in it like how to format dates and times and how to correctly link to pages in news articles. Facinating I'm sure you'll agree.

Of course much of this is highly debated, should links include 'www.' or not (they shouldn't)? Should a person's job title be seperated from their name with a comma, a colon and dash?

The big question that seems to be dividing opinion this evening is; as I write this post am I writing on a blog, or am I writing in a blog?

It seems the internet is divided as well. A search on Google for "on the blog" yields 617,000,000 results, while "in the blog" gives 606,000,000 results, interestingly when I searched by "on a blog" I received 308,000,000 results, in comparison "in a blog" returned 401,000,000 results.

And opinions were mixed when I posed the question on Twitter:

@jamesdoc on
@willpower232

@jamesdoc 'in a blog', for no reason other than that it sounds better. But surely that's the definition of grammar, right?
@_DPeterK_

@jamesdoc how about "jamesdoc has written his blog"/"updated his blog" these both avoid the in/on issue.
@the_lanky1

What do you think? Does it matter? Or am I getting wrapped up over small details?

Who are you?

2012-07-14T20:17:53Z

This fantastic quote appeared on my twitter stream earlier today:

You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life. You are the sum of your influences. The German writer Goethe said, 'We are shaped and fashioned by what we love'.
Austin Kleon - Steal Like an Artist

What do you think?

Reading list- Turn off your phone at dinner

2012-06-25T20:55:10Z

I've just read a fantastic article on the Relevant Magazine website about being too plugged in to technology. I'm just going to pull out three quotes below and then you should go and read the full article.

“Quality time is something that’s important to me, so when [my friends are] always on their devices, it’s like that quality time isn’t quality anymore,” [Chelsea] says. “It’s just time.”

"When technology is turned off and put away, face-to-face conversations cultivate intimacy and add depth to relationships. Cultivating an attitude of mindfulness is one way to fight against the need of simultaneously managing multiple conversations. More than a technique, mindfulness is an attitude of, 'I’m going to be fully present with you… It’s the hard work of being attentive. We’re losing that.”

“Be still and know that I am God," [Timothy] Muehlhoff quotes from the Psalms. "Have we lost the ability to be still? That would concern me if we have."

This whole article resonates with some of the things that I have been thinking through recently, I encourage you to give it a read on the Relevant Magazine website.

Grabbing a favicon from any website

2012-05-05T16:31:05Z

One of the great discoveries I made this week relates to grabbing a favicon from any website as required; Google has put together a handy API which takes in a URL, and outputs a PNG 16x16 image of the site’s favicon. This has the potential to be very handy for something. I’m not 100% sure what I’m going to use it for, but I’m going to use it for something!

An example of this is:

<img src="https://www.google.com/s2/u/0/favicons?domain_url=http://google.com">

Which outputs:

For a full demo of this head over the snippet page

Update: I’ve thrown together a JS Fiddle demoing a possible use for this. If anyone can work out a method of getting url() and attr() to concatinate nicely I will be a very happy person! I’ve got a demo of what I’m after using JavaScript, but I’m quite keen to have a CSS only method of achieving this!

Enhancing YouTube Comments

2012-04-11T20:54:42Z

Just a quick post today to share a something I have been using for the last few months which has completely improved my experience of YouTube; Comment Snob by Chris Finke.

Comment Snob is a Google Chrome extension which simply filters user's comments against a set of rules to deem if a comment is probably spam, trolling or just simply written by a 13 year old with their finger on the SHIFT BUTTON. With these comments out of the way you are left in peace to enjoy comments left on a video.

There are plenty of rules built into it, and if you are handy with jQuery you can easily build your own.

You can grab the extension from the Google Chrome Store.

Share and enjoy!

The Media I Consume... Kony 2012?

2012-03-11T00:08:36Z

This week World Vision Acts have been challenging me to think about sacrificing what feeds me with the aim of broadening my worldview. There were several examples given but the one that has really stood out this week is how we are feed by the media.

The media is one of the things in this culture that is really difficult to escape from; sure I can turn the television or computer off, but as I walk to work I pass hundreds of adverts which try to ‘feed me’ with their worldview, trying to influence me into buying their product or to support their cause. Simply put, where I am at the moment means that I cannot escape from the media.

One of the big things that has happened this week has been social media campaign by a relatively unheard of charity called Invisible Children. They produced a 30 minute video which emotively shared their cause about protecting children in Uganda from becoming child soldiers in an army lead by Joseph Kony. Despite being half an hour long, the video has been watched, shared, liked, retweeted, commented on, and it's still going!

Then a day later several blogs appeared from people who had done some digging posted their response which showed the other side of Invisible Children asking big questions about how the money is spent, points were raised about how linked with the Ugandan people this group really is, querying if military options are the right way to react, etc.

Invisible Children produced a response to these points, and I'm sure that others will produce a response to the response, and this will go on for a while. But it has seriously made me consider the media that I consume. I watched the 30 minute video, I clicked the 'like' button, and then thought about this challenge and realised that I was just allowing myself to be 'fed' a worldview by an emotive video that said the things that would provoke me into acting without really thinking about it or looking into it for myself.

I don't think the answer is to simply stop consuming media, I don't think that is being realistic. But perhaps a diet of what we consume would be a good place to start - critically thinking about what we are being fed through the media, in many cases being willing to sacrifice time in order to investigate further what is being said or sold.

Krish Kandiah, on his blog about this video, has made a set of really valuable points about how we can react to this. One of them is this:

"Make a difference - we need to find effective ways to help the poor and needy and to end moral horrors such as the use of child soldiers, people trafficking etc. But it may take more work that a [retweet]."

I think that what Invisible Children stand for is a good thing, their video highlighted something that hasn't been in the public eye. My response isn't going to be buying a make Kony famous pack from them, or painting Oxford with 'make Kony famous' banners but it has achieved one of their goals in raising awareness of the issue and prompting me to look into further into the situation and work out what I can do. One thing I do know is that it will take more that liking, linking and writing a short blog post on it.

Blindness / Injustice

2012-03-01T22:52:04Z

Last week I wrote about sacrifice; the giving up of something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. I've been prompted to think about this as a result of getting involved with World Vision Activism Network who, throughout lent, are encouraging people to really explore what sacrifice is, and what it means for a 21st century world.

I was watching the video from World Vision with the challenge this week, and there was this one phrase that really caught me off guard: "Often we lose sight of the people, places and issues that are really important to us…"

It's interesting how a couple of unrelated events can tie together; last Sunday morning at church John Bell was speaking to us from John 12; the raising of Lazarus, and he kept repeating the concept that the world we live is not the way it is supposed to be… so how do we respond to it?

If I'm honest with myself I look at the world with selective sight. I see the things I want to see, and my eyes slips past the things I don't want to see. It is this that brought me to my initial response to this challenge - "How quickly do we become blind to a broken world; we may see the injustice, but does it break us?" I'm coming to realise how often I become accepting and unthinking to many of the situations I see everyday.

John was challenging to us to see the world as Jesus sees the world, looking at Jesus' response to the death of Lazarus. He sees the death of a brother and a friend ripping apart a family and the effect that it has on the community around them. But more than that, Jesus sees the world that He has created falling apart and he is outraged by it. But despite this anger, there is a deep sorrow for a world that is not the way it is supposed to be. The way these two emotions work together is really powerful: "outrage makes us bold, sorrow keeps us gentle". Outrage without sorrow makes us arrogant, while sorrow without outrage makes us sentimental but ineffective. Here I think Jesus demonstrates what it means to be truly heart broken by a situation; outraged and sorrowful working together.

Are we broken by the injustice in the world we see? Do we allow ourselves to be interrupted by it? Or do we just harden and close ourselves off to it in the busyness of our lives? One of my prayers this week is that Jesus would open my eyes to see the world as he sees it; to rejoice in all that is good, but to be broken by what cause him to be broken.

I've been listening to Brandon Heath's song titled 'Give Me Your Eyes', the lyrics reflect my prayers this week, I want to encourage you to watch the video below and listen to the lyrics.

Play Video: Brandon Heath – Give me Your Eyes

Footnotes:

The sermon from John Bell can be downloaded from the MRC website.
A full wallpaper of the banner image can be downloaded from my profile on the World Vision Activism site.

Six Great Tips Before Using QR Codes

2012-02-26T00:00:00Z

If we do not really know what QR codes are or what they do, we are starting to see them in many places. Guest blogger, James Doc, says that his first draft for this subject quickly became a very long rant that even he didn’t want to read! So he shelved it for a bit and later condensed his thoughts into a ‘how to use QR codes well‘ post.

He is still irritated about ways that QR codes are being (mis)used, but offers some helpful suggestions,

Remember my memory; I can’t remember a QR code

QR codes are designed to be read by machines, and the machines read them very well. However I can’t read a QR code.

Lets imagine a hypothetical situation where I don’t have my smart phone on me, or my smart phone doesn’t have QR reading software, or maybe I don’t own a smart phone; if I see a QR code, there is nothing I can do with it.

If you display a QR code, please provide a fall back for me; a nice short web address is all I need; I can write that down, maybe even remember it! When there is just a QR code without any human readable text you lose a large part of your audience.

Remember my location; can I scan it?

Mobile phone cameras have come a long way in the last 5 years, and phones being released at the moment have 8 megapixel cameras, pretty fantastic zoom, etc… but they are still not as good as my eyes. So while I may be able to see your QR code, that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to scan it.

Perhaps it has been placed too high on a billboard, perhaps it is too low to the ground, perhaps it has been placed at eye level but the code is too small because I am too far away… Wherever I am, the code has got to be scannable.

Oh, and putting QR codes on the (London) underground… it is just silly – of course I can scan it, but I don’t have the network coverage to do anything with the web address you give me!

This leads me nicely into the next point…

Remember my context; the destination matters

When I scan a QR code, I am going to be using a mobile device, there is almost no doubt about this. I could be using a phone, I may be on a tablet… either way I won’t be using a desktop computer. So when I scan a QR code I really don’t want to be taken through to a page that doesn’t work well on mobile device.

The code should either point to a mobile version of a website or the website has some great responsive web design going on. An additional thing; don’t make the page in Flash; remember I’m on a mobile phone!

Remember my investment; I like to be rewarded

Scanning a QR code can be a hassle, getting the phone out of the pocket, finding the correct app, maybe even downloading the correct app for the first time, scanning and then going to the website.

Remember that I am investing time in your code; so make it worth while for me, give me something special! Perhaps it is a video (bearing in mind I’m on a mobile – low res will do), perhaps it is a discount for your store, perhaps it is just more information, either way make it rewarding.

Remember my knowledge; QR codes are still new

Yes, QR codes are shiny and new, yes everyone seems to be using them, yes lots of people seem to understand what they are… however don’t make the assumption that says ‘it’s shiny and new, everyone seems to be using them therefore everyone knows what they are and how to use them’. This is wrong, many people do know how to use QR code, but many don’t.

Please tell your users how to use a QR code, they will thank you for it.

Remember your strategy; how does it fit it?

Based on the ‘shiny and new’ principle you can easily fall into another false assumption; ‘it’s shiny and new, everyone seems to be using them therefore I must use a QR code’. You really don’t! Just because everyone else is using them, that doesn’t mean you must do it to keep up with everyone else.

Seriously think about why you are using them. Ask questions like ‘will this bring value to my advert?’ or ‘will my audience know how to scan a code and will they want to scan the code?’. Another important thing to ask is ‘why should I use a QR code rather than a simple web address?’.

One final thing; if you are in any doubt about using a QR code please head on over to ‘shouldiuseaqrcode.com‘. It provides some helpful advice.

Your comments welcome.

ReLENTless Acts of Sacrifice

2012-02-21T23:54:03Z

Sacrifice.

“the act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy ”

Sacrifice is an action. It isn’t something we should sit around talking about, it is something that needs to be acted upon. It is an action of giving; taking something that you have, and either passing it on or putting it down. And this thing that you pass on or put down cannot be a thing that is easy to give over; that is not a sacrifice. Sacrifice is giving up something that you care about, something that is important to you, it giving up something that is close to you.

Therefore to do this, to give up, or to give on, is going to be hard. It is going to be something that is costly to you. This is because the things that we value can come to be a definition of you…

And a sacrifice means to giving these things up for the advantage of something else. We sacrifice something that we highly value in exchange for something is regarded as more important, more worthy in our life. It’s giving up the things we regard as ‘good’ in exchange for the things we regard as ‘best’. Sacrifice is about taking a risk, it’s about letting something hurt, so in exchange for the pain we can see something flourish.

When there is an act of true sacrifice, it cannot be something that is done out of guilt, or a sense of moral obligation. While there may be a sacrifice for it, is it being done for pure aims? Or are you just doing begrudgingly? A true personal sacrifice has to come our of a genuine regard for the other thing.

There are so many questions that come from the concept of sacrifice, there are so many different responses that you can have. The biggest ones for me, right now, are what do I regard as important or worthy? What are the things either in my life, or around my life, that are worthing sacrificing for? And then following on from that is the question of what will it take? For the sake of something else what do I need to do to get there?

I love the example of Mary, sister of Martha, in John’s gospel (John 12:1-7) who sacrifices perfume of great value to honour Jesus before he dies. But she sacrifices more than just this expensive perfume; Mary gets down on her knees and with her hair wipes Jesus’ feet clean. It is in this sacrifice of more than just financial worth, it is a sacrifice of comfort, of dignity, and in this she shows not just devotion to Jesus by the perfume, but willingness to be humbly serve before him.

Mary knew that Jesus wasn’t always going to be with them, and she knew the privilege that she had to be with him. She saw what she had; not just in terms of financial worth, but it terms of what she could do and gave it up for Jesus.

Jesus has made the ultimate sacrifice, giving all he had because he saw me as important and worthy, how does that impact how I live? How do I follow Mary’s example in my life? In the letter to the Romans, Paul writes that in the light of Jesus’ sacrifice and as a result of the mercy shown to us we should become ‘living sacrifices’ because this is how we can truly worship and honour him.

In giving riches and dignity Mary’s shows us sacrifice. We have so much, more than just the financial or the things we own, we treasure our time, we store up our talents, we have our dreams and aspirations, and these are not wrong things to have… but are we willing to sacrifice them for something more important?

This year for lent I'm participating in something called 'Relentless Acts of Sacrifice' which is all about thinking about what sacrifice means now. One of the things that I've been thinking about, something that I don't do enough, is spending time praying for people or situations. It's not that I haven't tried to do more of it before, but it is something that I find very hard to bring in to my daily routine. I walk to work every day now, and I'm accompanied by music in my well loved ear phones to while away the 30/40 minute walk to work. So this lent that is what I'm going to sacrifice; I'm giving up my earphones so that I can spend the time in prayer.

I want to leave you with a couple of questions:

What do you think is important or worthy?
What are you willing to sacrifice for it?

QR Codes - Doing it Right…

2012-02-20T18:30:53Z

I initially drafted this post last month, but it quickly became a very long rant that I didn't want to read! So I shelved it for a bit and have come back to it today; I've condensed my thoughts into a 'how to use QR codes well' post. Below are a couple of solutions for what has irritated me about how I've seen QR codes used…

Remember my memory; I can't remember a QR code.

QR codes are designed to be read by machines, and the machines read them very well. However I can't read a QR code. Lets imagine a hypothetical situation where I don't have my smart phone on me, or my smart phone doesn't have QR reading software, or maybe I don't own a smart phone; if I see a QR code, there is nothing I can do with it. If you display a QR code, please provide a fall back for me; a nice short web address is all I need; I can write that down, maybe even remember it! When there is just a QR code without any human readable text you lose a large part of your audience.

Remember my location; can I scan it?

Mobile phone cameras have come a long way in the last 5 years, phones being released at the moment have 8 megapixel cameras, pretty fantastic zoom, etc… but they are still not as good as my eyes. So while I may be able to see your QR code, that doesn't mean I'll be able to scan it. Perhaps it has been placed too high on a billboard, perhaps it is too low to the ground, perhaps it has been placed at eye level but the code is too small because I am too far away… Wherever I am, the code has got to be scannable. Oh, and putting QR codes on the underground… it is just silly - of course I can scan it, but I don't have the network coverage to do anything with the web address you give me! This leads me nicely into the next point…

Remember my context; the destination matters.

When I scan a QR code, I am going to be using a mobile device, there is almost no doubt about this. I could be using a phone, I may be on a tablet… either way I won't be using a desktop computer. So when I scan a QR code I really don't want to be taken through to a page that doesn't work well on mobile device. The code should either point to a mobile version of a website or the website has some great responsive web design going on. An additional thing; don't make the page in Flash; remember I'm on a mobile phone!

Remember my investment; I like to be rewarded.

Scanning a QR code can be a hassle, getting the phone out of the pocket, finding the correct app, maybe even downloading the correct app for the first time, scanning and then going to the website. Remember that I am investing time in your code; so make it worth while for me, give me something special! Perhaps it is a video (bearing in mind I'm on a mobile - low res will do), perhaps it is a discount for your store, perhaps it is just more information, either way make it rewarding.

Remember my knowledge; QR codes are still new

Yes, QR codes are shiny and new, yes everyone seems to be using them, yes lots of people seem to understand what they are… however don't make the assumption that says 'it's shiny and new, everyone seems to be using them therefore everyone knows what they are and how to use them'. This is wrong, many people do know how to use QR code, but many people don't. Please tell your users how to use a QR code, they will thank you for it.

Remember your strategy; how does it fit?

Based on the 'shiny and new' principle you can easily fall into another false assumption; 'it's shiny and new, everyone seems to be using them therefore I must use a QR code'. You really don't! Just because everyone else is using them, that doesn't mean you must do it to keep up with everyone else. Seriously think about why you are using them. Ask questions like 'will this bring value to my advert?' or 'will my audience know how to scan a code and will they want to scan the code?'. Another important thing to ask is 'why should I use a QR code rather than a simple web address?'.

One final thing; if you are in any doubt about using a QR code please head on over to 'shouldiuseaqrcode.com'. It provides some helpful advice.

Mobile Web- CSS position- fixed;

2012-01-14T15:17:24Z

Thanks to Aarron Walter's talk at FOWD last year I've started a side project. And it's great because I get to test and experiment with new techniques, I get to learn new skills and I get to do a bit of independent thinking. I'm loving it because I'm seeing an idea from start to finish! Right now I'm designing and prototyping; there is paper everywhere; it's fantastic!

I'm sure that I'll expand more regarding this project in a later blog, however right now all that you need to know is that I'm working on a small web application (*surprise*).

At the moment I'm thinking a lot about the user interface and the user experience while a user is engaging with the site. One of the things I'm trying to do is create an interface that is familiar and recognisable, following Nielson's heuristic guideline of 'recognition rather than recall' (see useit.com for more info). One of the design elements that is used heavily featured mobile interfaces is a banner going across the top and bottom of the screen. Normally the top banner is used for a logo perhaps with a search icon and the footer is used for action buttons, enabling the user to navigate through the app.

So my initial thought was 'great; that will be really easy to reproduce with CSS'. There is a fantastic property within CSS called 'position'. By giving an element the property position: fixed; top: 0; the element is always visible, staying fixed to the top of the screen even when you scroll up and down the page. So, by applying this to a banner on the page the application's title and search link will always stay visible to the user through out the app.

However it appears that in almost all mobile browsers position: fixed; behaves bizarrely, it gives an awful user experience and rarely fixes the element to the top of the screen. I've found this video by Brad Frost which demonstrates just how bad mobile support for position: fixed really is.

After a lot of hunting around on the internet for a solution to this problem I came across several potential solutions involving JavaScript such as iScroll or the jQuery Mobile UI. I just can't help but feel this is over-complicating the solution a little bit… also I don't want to compromise the speed of my site by downloading another framework.

So, I'm throwing the question out there… does anyone know how to make this work without falling back to JavaScript? Currently I've got the to stage of frustration that I've remodelled without these banners.

Let your eyes look straight ahead…

2012-01-01T17:39:32Z

I've got several plans and aims for this year… one of them is to do more things with this site; that means that there will be tweaks and adjustments to the design of the site, but more importantly more blog posts ranging from opinions and reviews to simple quotes that I've found inspiring or thought provoking. Today I'm going for a quote from the book of Proverbs.

Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.
Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.

Proverbs 4:25-26

Another year has past, 2011 was a very mixed year for me; with mistakes and success - many lessons to learn. Now as I head into 2012 it's time to learn from last year, it's time to carefully think about where I want to go and to move forward on that path.

Matthew Henry concludes his commentary on this section in Proverbs with the words: "…looking straight forward, and walking by the rule of God's word, treading in the steps of our Lord and Master. Lord, forgive the past, and enable us to follow thee more closely for the time to come." I think that would be my prayer for 2012.

The full image from the banner can be downloaded at a nice wallpaper resolution via this link. Many thanks to the Flickr user extrabox for putting their photo up under the creative commons license.

Keep Calm; it's the Queen's Speech

2011-12-26T11:16:20Z

If there is one thing that is family tradition in the Docherty household it is the Queen's speech... This is normally something that is inflicted upon us, rather than something we enjoy watching, however Grandpa and Grandma want to watch it, so at 3pm on Christmas Day we all take a seat and watch together.

While the BBC went with the headline 'Queen's Message Focuses on Family' focusing on weddings and the 90th birthday of the Duke of Edinburgh, they completely missed the Queen giving a fantastic gospel message in the last quarter of her address. She said that Christmas can be a time of loneliness and fear for many, yet finding hope in times of fear and desperation is one of the key themes of the Christmas story.

The Queen also spoke about how, while we can be capable of great love and kindness, we can also be reckless and greedy which often causes more hurt than we can rectify. This is why "God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general (important though they are) – but a Saviour, with the power to forgive."

"Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It can heal broken families, it can restore friendships and it can reconcile divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God’s love."

A full transcript of the speech is avalible on The British Monarchy Website, or if you prefer the whole YouTube thing Her Majesty does that too.

I promised myself that I would never create a poster in the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' series, however after listening to that speech, it felt only right to! You can download a higher res version here.

Battersea Power Station

2011-11-20T22:22:28Z

I've spent the evening playing around with Pixelmator and thought I would share some of what came out of it. The final version of this image is up on my Google+ account*.

Many thanks to Sebastian Crump for putting his image up as Creative Commons on Flickr.

* Yeah I'm still using Google+, I quite like it!

Here's to the Crazy Ones

2011-10-06T07:57:53Z

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do

Thank you Steve.

Jane Eyre

2011-10-04T13:30:00Z

Have you ever watched the C4 comedy Spaced? If not you should; firstly it is a fantastic comedy and secondly it has so many references to other television programs and films that just enhance it every time I watch it. Okay I know what you’re thinking - the title of this blog post is ‘Jane Eyre’ and so far this has been about a comedy series that was written over a decade ago*... Don’t worry, hopefully it will all make sense soon.

The link is references, I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately, one of the books I’ve just finished is Jasper Fforde’s ‘The Eyre Affair’. It is a book that is so full of references - everything from books through to the Monopoly board, which just enhance the book at every page turn, much like Spaced.

Which leads me into Jane Eyre... I haven’t read it. Well that’s not quite the truth, I’ve just started reading it. I felt that I was missing out of quite a lot of references whilst reading The Eyre Affair in which the main character chases a criminal through the story of Jane Eyre, so decided to give Jane Eyre a read to get a couple more jokes in Fforde’s book.

To be honest I didn’t really think I would enjoy it, period drama has rarely been something that appealed to me and that pretty much put me off the idea of reading anything like Jane Eyre! However, I am really really enjoying reading it, I’ve reached the 10th chapter pretty quickly, and am really looking forward to picking it up again!

It’s written from the point of view of Jane Eyre as she recalls her life. It opens with her upbringing in the house of her Aunt who provides a house for her out of duty rather than any form of love and her cousins who treat her cruelly. Then the story moves on into the excitement as Jane manages to get out into a boarding school which doesn’t live up to idea she has in her mind.

The book is a real emotional ride; Brontë really lets you get into the Jane’s emotions as she shares what happens in the narrative and makes you really get behind Jane’s character. You really feel for her as she it abused by her Aunt and cousins, in the excitement she leaves to study at the Lowood Institution, as she is shamed in-front of the whole school by the man who runs the school and in the joy as she is cleared of the accusations, (I could go on, however spoilers!). The emotions have really gone all over the place.

Another thing I love about it is the huge number of topics and themes it has touched on already in the first ten chapters. We’ve had everything from social class through to religion or morality through to finding belonging and family. It is a really exciting and challenging book.

I started reading this book in an effort to try and get more of the jokes within The Eyre Affair, while doing that I’ve found a book that I am really enjoying reading and would encourage you to give it a read too.

* Yes that made me feel very old. I hope it made you feel old too.

Amazon Links:

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
Spaced

I am resolute...

2011-10-01T00:06:00Z

Listen! You have two options:

Option one - recant your faith and you can walk away now.
Option two - stick with this faith that you hold so dear and see how it helps you when you are hanging from the gallows.

While this is a choice that you are probably are not going to have to make in the UK, this is the choice that has been given to Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani (pictured), a leader of a house church movement in Iran. Having been raised in a Muslim family, where he did not shared the faith of his parents, he became a Christian at the age of 19. Arrested in October 2009, Pastor Nadarkhani has been convicted of apostasy (abandoning one’s religion), and has been given the option to denounce Christianity and return to Islam or be sentenced to death.

Pastor Nadarkhani’s response to this choice has been an incredibly bold one, stepping out on his faith and standing up to the Iranian government:

I am resolute in my faith and Christianity and have no wish to recant.

- Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani

To me this is an incredible example and a huge challenge of just what it means to be a Christian. The apostle Paul, facing a similar situation to Pastor Nadarkhani, writes to the church at Philippi:

...I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honour to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better...

- Apostle Paul - Philippians 1:20-21 (NLT)

Paul is writing from prison in Rome while he is waiting to be tried at the hands of people who had the power to set him free or to take his life as a result of his preaching. Here, in this letter, Paul makes clear his prayer; that he would stand firm in his faith Christ, not being ashamed of Jesus and not recanting his faith, instead that he would be bold to live a life that honours God.

<>Paul had a clear eye on life after death too, he knew his future was secure in Christ and he knew that after his death he would be united with Jesus in heaven (see verse 23). So when he writes ‘dying is even better’ he is looking forward to that eternity with Christ, and while he is alive - ‘living means living for Christ’.

Ultimately, Paul knew that God was in control; whether he lived or whether he died he wanted to do it for the glory of God. He wasn’t going to give in to the pressures put on him pushing him to turn from God, instead he knew to stand firm for Christ.

I think that this is a passage that Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani really understands and is living out - living means living for Christ and dying means to be with Christ.

This post started by saying that in the UK the options that have been given to Pastor Nadarkhani are options that you are unlikely to be given. However are we not given the same question without the life threat? Options such as compromise your faith (or personal morals) or be rejected by friends or people at work. Cut corners and go with the crowd to get the job done and win the approval of your boss or tutor at the expense of your faith...

The IVP New Testament Commentary puts it pretty bluntly when commenting on Matthew 16:24 where Jesus calls his disciples to follow Him; ‘Only a cause worth dying for is truly worth living for...’

I’ll leave this post there with a couple of questions:

What are you living for?
Are you willing to die for it?
Why are you / why are you not willing to die for it?

The 24/7 Prayer blog has got a really good post about how you can be praying for Pastor Nadarkhani and other Iranian Christians. I encourage you to read and pray and act on it.
- http://www.24-7prayer.com/blog/1602

Vision - Part 1

2011-09-10T17:16:45Z

The following is the product of a 3 hour train journey and a blank piece of paper... I thought I would experiment with the idea of 'what does vision look like?' and this narative came as a result. I feel the need to add the disclaimer you find in the front of any book: This is a work of pure fiction. Any resemblance to anyone, living or dead is purely coincidental. The characters are fictional and of my own creation. The place, time and incidents are purely fictional!

Where does vision meet reality? How vision make it from my head into the real world. Perhaps an even deeper question - what is the vision any way?

Vision is a very personal thing, it reflects who we are, what we have been through. Your vision is not my vision, my vision is not your vision... My vision is shaped by my experience, it is a result of who I am and where I long to go. This vision comes from my passions, it doesn’t matter what that passion is for, but it the passion which leads to vision.

While this vision can communicated, it is always seen through rose tinted glass. It can never truly grasped by another person, at least not in the way that you grasp it.

As I begin to share this vision, to lay this vision bare and to open myself up... It is now that the vision can be quenched and the passion extinguished. People don’t understand the vision, individuals cannot see it the way I do... and why would they? Is it their vision? No it is still my vision.

But now, as the vision is shared it changes. As it changes it grows. Others respond to my vision and comment on my passions. This vision expands as more individuals share their passions, the things that excite them, and ultimately share their vision.

And then it is no longer my vision or your vision, but our vision. This new vision is the sum total of many other visions that have come together into a beautiful harmony.

This new vision leads to a new fresh passion and excitement. This new vision inspires and encourages, it is no longer just one person working towards fulfilling their vision, instead it is many people being sparked off each other into a fire by this grand new vision.

Rather than competing visions trying to fight for air, individuals are unified by this one sole vision and together they work towards it, looking forward to the fulfillment of their collective vision.

As one individual in this group becomes discouraged by the lack of progress or lack of results, there is another individual energised by the potential they see. So much energy that you can’t help but get caught up in their passion and their enthusiasm. The result? Our vision is renewed and our passion refreshed.

So together we run putting all our energy into this vision, we do the research and all the planning, we improve our strategy and we work. We work hard.

But it is more than just work - into this vision we pour ourselves. Yes it starts with our time and our energy, but also our hopes and dreams getting poured in too. Together we are passionate and excited for what this vision will become.

And then it happens.

The vision is complete. What we’ve worked on for days, for months or for years comes to fulfillment. The tears and stress that came before now vanish in the sight of what has been achieved together. Not by just one person, not by one leader, not by one person’s vision. No this magnificent finish is the work of more than just one...

No one can claim it was their success, or their own prize; instead it was our success and our prize. This big finish was achieved together, we worked together, we shared together, we cried together and we pushed together. We poured everything we had into this; we made ourselves vulnerable as we shared what was most close to us; our vision.

Through that act of trust and sharing we created something that was bigger, bigger than just my vision and bigger than just your vision.

Our vision has become something wondrous.

I've got a part two written, so I may post up here at some point. The banner image was adapted from the photo by Chris McClanahan. As always comments are welcome!

Thoughts on 'Still Got Legs'

2011-08-31T22:21:45Z

Chameleon Circuit are a band that I have been excited about for quite a while, they combine two of my favourite things - proper decent music * and Doctor Who. Their first self-titled album was great, it had some really good tracks on it including Blink, based on the David Tennant episode of the same name, and Count the Shadows taking it's roots in the episodes where we first meet River Song - Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead.

A while back Chameleon Circuit released their second album - Still Got Legs, and I have finally got round to writing my thoughts about it down! The first thing to say is that the both the record and album production quality has raised ten fold from the first album, this isn't to discredit the self-titled album, rather to show just how much the bar has been raised in Still Got Legs.

While the album is made of 15 tracks, I would say that only 12 of them are full tracks, the others being intro / outro and filler tracks. The album opens with 'The Subwave Signal' which is made up on electronic synthy goodness, also known as a short intro track which fades nicely into 'Regenerate Me'. The song is obviously written during the David Tennant era with the lyrics 'ten personas I've walked the earth...' and has the 10th Doctor's dark feel to it. The song gives a brief introduction to the idea of who the Doctor is and what he does which creates a good introduction to the album and a solid opening.

The album then heads into 'Nightmares' which continues the dark tone, the distorted guitar backing Liam Dryden's vocals, the production here works perfectly. It is a really beautiful sounding track. This again transitions into the much lighter song 'Travelling Man'. There are so many references across the Doctor Who universe, including a meander into Sarah Jane Adventures! As the track goes on the music gets simpler and simpler until the last 30 seconds where you are just left with a vocal harmony which is great link into the Everything is Ending.

Everything is Ending, track 5, is absolutely stunning duet between the characters of Amy and the Doctor. In parts it reminds me of some of the duets from Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog which is high praise! After hearing from Amy and the Doctor the next track on the album, Mr. Pond, tells the story from Rory's perspective, again stunning lyrics written as a love song about Amy, but also as a warning to Doctor heavily quoting from the series "why can't you see what you're doing to Amy."

Kiss the Girl, based upon the episode in series 5 - The Lodger, summarises the episode in 3 minutes. Generally speaking I wasn't blown away by this track, so I'll move on to talk about the beautiful piano driven filler track 'Knock Four Times' which despite only lasting 36 seconds sounds great!

'Teenage Rebel' really breaks out of the dark moody sound, into a well needed pop-rock sounding track. It also picks up the tempo of the album which gives the album a new burst of energy as the album heads into 'Big Bang Two'. The track picks up the tempo even further as Charlie McDonald matches the pace of the concluding episode of series 5 storyline. One of the things that I love especially about this track, and a couple of other tracks such as 'Eleven' is the homage to the music on the show, with rifts and snippets from Murray Gold dropped into the album's music in a way that doesn't sound tacky and awful!

After 'Big Bang Two' and 'Eleven' the album drops the pace again into the 6 minute epic 'The Sound of Drums'. Jumping back into David Tennant era we hear the song of the Master. The music moves the album back to a darker tone, as we hear some of the backstory to the Master and into where we first re-meet the Doctor in the episode 'The Sound of Drums'.

'Silence and the End of All Things' is the farewell of Matt Smith to Amelia Pond, again what makes this track work so well is the link between the track and the music and dialogue from the original episode, there are hat-tips through out to tracks such as 'Little Amy' which is played as the Doctor is going back in time at the end of 'The Pandorica Opens'

The final full track on the album, 'The Doctor is Dying' is a tribute to the final episode with David Tennant acting at the Doctor. As through out the album there is a lot of digital effects, especially adjusting the vocals, which in almost all cases work really well.

Throughout the track the pace is built and built to a perfect level and 'The Doctor is Dying' would make a perfect closing track to the album, however unfortunately the ending is spoilt by the totally skippable acoustic outro track - 'Still Not Ginger'. While it adds a little bit of humour to the album referencing a lot of what the Doctor says post regeneration, including the album title 'legs… still got legs' and lamenting the fact the he is 'still not ginger' the track just doesn't fit with the rest of the album. It is a really disappointing end to an otherwise impressive album.

So in summary Still Got Legs is a great album with some fantastic standout tracks (especially Travelling Man, Mr. Pond and Big Bang Two), I love the way that each track flows into the next creating an album as a whole, rather than just a collection of tracks which was one of the weak points of their previous album. I love how they reference both the script and the music from Doctor Who, not in a tacky fanboyish way, but in a way were thought and care has been put into it. My advice - go and buy it!

* Yes, that was a quote by David Tennant referring to Chameleon Circuit. Don't judge me.

Lyrical Wallpapers...

2011-08-16T20:54:52Z

The banner image is just a thumbnail from some work posted on Josh Hailes' blog. He posted three images he put together in Photoshop over the last couple of months as high resolution wallpapers - worth a download! While the images in themselves are very impressive it is the simple addition of the lyrics that got me thinking.

The caption 'You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name' is a snippet from Laura Story's song 'Indescribable' * which is all about God being revealed through creation (Psalm 19:1). I really love how the image that Josh has produced captures the element of creation in the stars, revealing something of the mystery of God. Josh writes:

"...I was just amaaazed at the universe and how big and complex it is, and how insignificant I am in comparison! This was the result..." - 3 New Lyrical Wallpapers - Josh Hailes

This picture begins to visualise just some of that song to me, and it prompted me go through some of the lyrics that I really like for one reason or another and think what kind of picture I would attach to them... I love it when lyrics jump out of songs at you, sometimes it is an entire song or just a chorus or verse, maybe even a line or two that really catches you off guard. One of those lines hit me yesterday as I was working:

"The only thing worth holding onto is holding onto me." - Tonight - Jeremy Camp

I'm still in the process of settling into Oxford, if I'm honest I'm finding it difficult; it is very different from going to university where everyone else is in the same boat - everyone else is new. Starting out in a new city is harder, everyone else has been here for a while, they are in the routine of their Oxford life, while I am still trying to find mine. This line caught me and nudged me to remember that even in the tough times like moving to a new city that God is holding onto me, that as everything changes in my life God is constant and that He's not going anywhere.

I'm still trying to work out what image I would use to visualise this line, the closest I have got to is of two people clasping each other's wrists with the words interwoven around their arms. I'll try and recreate it in Pixelmator at some point

I'll leave you with these questions: What song, or lyrics in a song, really jump out at you when you listen to it, what is the story behind it for you? And what image do you associate with the words?

* Chris Tomlin could cover 'Mary had a Little Lamb' and everyone would think he wrote it.

Getting Closer to a Blog...

2011-08-14T17:56:39Z

So you will have noticed that of late this blog has been fairly quiet... it is not because I have been short of ideas, it is because I have been short of two things:

Time - Having just started a new job where I spend most of my time in front of a computer screen I get home from work and don't really want to spend more time infront of a computer. Crazy I know
The blog wasn't really complete... I spent a lot of time before moving to Oxford trying to get this blog up and running before starting work. As it happened I got a lot done, just not the part that allowed me to write new entries... Not clever.

However I can announce that as of today I actually have a cool form that allows me to type in blog posts. There is still a lot of work to be done (I have a very long list of web development ideas for this site), and I have a nice long list of things that I want to write about on this blog, so I may start on those lists at some point in the near future, but for now I am going to log off and read a book!

Have a good Sunday afternoon.

.htaccess + OS X

2011-07-24T19:25:00Z

Words cannot contain the frustration I have configuring a Apache with .htaccess files on OS X. Having followed various online instructions I have many times open up the http.conf file (/etc/apache2/httpd.conf) and edited the line AllowOverride None to AllowOverride All. However it was helpfully not obvious that I needed to edit the section straight afterwards where there is another AllowOverride statement...

I hope this post saves you some bother. I can get back to work now!

Hat Tip: http://chibimagic.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/apache-htaccess-mac-os-x/

Future of Web Design Talk Notes

2011-05-28T13:27:37Z

I'm going to be adding links to all my notes from the Future of Web Design conference to this page. Feel free to bookmark and steal notes if you can't wait for the videos to go online.

Tuesday:

Transforming Ideas into Interfaces
Aarron Walters
Design for Humans
Mike Kus
10 Development Concepts a Designer Should Know
Rachel Andrew
Accessibility and Inclusive Design
Robin Christopherson
Web Fonts
Dan Rhatigan
Slide to Unlock
Sarah Parmenter
The New Language of Web Design
Dan Rubin
Darwin Development
Matt Gifford
Making the New Everyday Things
Aral Balkan

Wednesday

The Responsive Web Designer
Ethan Marcotte
Enhancing your Creativity
Femi Adesina
Making the Complex Simple: Designing for Mobile
Steve Fisher
The Story of IE
Martin Beeby
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
Elliot Jay Stocks
Bullet Proof Communication Techniques
Sarah Nelson

Download all as a zipped folder

None of these notes live up to the actual talks presented at Future of Web Design, however they should give a rough indication of what was said. You can of course download the talks (for a fee) from the Future of Web Design website.

Nb: This site was put together very quickly, there will be a lot of changes being made over the next couple of days as I get time! If I'm lucky I may even get a chance to browser test it... might not have got round to that yet! Tweet at me (@jamesdoc) if there are major errors!

Sneak Peak of the Redesign...

2011-05-18T06:27:00Z

I’ve started the great process of redesigning and coding my website while being inspired by the talks at Future of Web Design. There will be a lot of changes to everything online over the next few weeks so keep an eye out!

Dropbox Top Tip- Syncing Any Additional Folders [OS X]

2011-05-13T18:36:00Z

As regular followers of this blog may know - I have a lot of love for the piece of Software Dropbox; it is a nice quick and simple method of data backup online, and als facilitates syncing of data between many computers… very handy for me when I want to keep the files on my iMac and MacBook the same.

One of the frustations with the software is that, at the moment, you can only sync the files that are stored within the Dropbox, while you can set up the folder to be your Documents folder, any file stored outside this folder is ignored. However will a little bit of tech geekery you can set up any folder you want to appear within Dropbox.

The folder I wish to add to the Dropbox sync is my Sites folder, this is where I store all my web development tools, so it is pretty important for me to have everything in sync.

Exit Dropbox.
Open Terminal (don’t freak out if you are not used to it).
Type the following command: ln -s ~/Sites ~/Dropbox/
Exit Terminal
Open Dropbox

What this does is tricks Dropbox into thinking that the Sites folder is stored inside by creating a symbolic link. You can of course set up any folder you want to appear within Dropbox, just replace ~/Sites with the path of the folder you wish to add. You’ll need to do this for each computer you have Dropbox installed on.

If you haven’t installed Dropbox yet you can get a free account from the Dropbox Website.

AV explained with cats...

2011-04-29T21:18:00Z

A nice simple explanation for the Alternative Voting system... with cats.

Source: YouTube via @claireperson.

The Evolution of the Address Bar

2011-04-18T00:00:00Z

In the early browsers the address bar was simply a box where users typed the address of the webpage they needed to get to and then clicked a large ‘go’ button. As browsers developed so did the functionality of the address bar, one of the basic updates came with browsers remembering the viewing history of the user. When a user wanted to go back to a site they had visited in the past the browser began to recognise the URL as it was typed from the history and returned suggestions.

Recently web development has been shifting with the new technologies that are being developed; new standards such as HTML5 and CSS3 mixed with the increased use AJAX techniques all meant that browsers had to shift and change to keep up with them. On of the major changes that came into the browser around the shift of web 2.0 was a major update to how users use the address bar.

The update of the address bar between FireFox 2 and FireFox 3 wasn’t just in the change of name (unofficially known as the ‘Awesome Bar’) or change in design. The address bar became more of a global search of your browser based upon the user’s bookmarks and page history, matching words and phrases to text within URLs, page titles and tags on the page, not just from the beginning of the URL, but text that appears throughout the URL. The results returned were then ranked in the address bar drop-down based upon ‘frecency’ – a mixture between the most frequency viewed pages and the recency of visiting the suggested page.

This feature has been adapted and brought across to the other main browsers, Google implements a similar technique in Chrome’s ‘Onmibox’ however also expanding this functionality across to the user’s search history, as well as opening up the Omnibox API, allowing developers to write their own plugins to expand the address bar function further.

Furthermore the address bar is not just about remembering the history of the user, Chrome started to implement the ability to search the internet straight from the address bar, bypassing the Google homepage. This combined with several existing features allowed Chrome to firsly suggest popular searches through Google Suggest (http://lncn.eu/fgq) and suggest previous searches from the user’s history (http://lncn.eu/em8). This provision means that some users have privacy concerns as companies such as Google log the search queries, as a result Chrome has implemented incognito browser, in FireFox known as Private Browsing, which prevents these logs and many other things from being created.

During the production of FireFox 3 Mozilla’s Mike Beltzner said:

“I confidently predict that the Awesome Bar is going to change the way people navigate the web…”

Within comments on a blog post by a developer at Mozilla relating to the the beta release of FireFox 3 specifically about the Awesome Bar, users were stating just how much it had changed how they use their browsers:

“Yes, I’ve found the biggest advantage is that you don’t have to redo web searches that you did before. And if you do want to redo a web search, you can just type in one or two of the keywords and firefox will find the search page in your history. Wonderful!” – David Nelson

“I have been using Firefox 3 since the first beta and after I type two or three letters in the URL bar, the page I want is usually in the top three results.” – Neelark

“AwesomeBar really made my life easier, no need to open bookmark, no need to search for history. Just simply type and enter.” – Karbonfootprint

The practical consequences of these developments in the address bar is that users no longer need to remember full URLs, instead users can simply remember keywords within the URL, page title, or similar and then use the address bar to get to the page they had been on.

The implications of this for those building sitemaps is that URL design and query strings need to contain useful and meaningful information that relates to the page content. For example acronyms that may mean something to internal staff, outside to the average user the acronyms are rarely memorable to external users.

Running through the list of URLs that Alex Bilbie posted (http://lncn.eu/i49) there are many URLs that make little sense to external users such as http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/cjmh/. The sections in this domain that are most likely to be picked up for searching is ‘lincoln’ and ‘cjmh’, while almost certain the ‘lincoln’ element will be remembered, the ‘cjmh’ will not. Additionally the page heading – Criminal Justice and Mental Health, isn’t included in the page title, meaning that all the advantages of the Awesome Bar remembering keywords in the URL, title, etc are lost. The URL and the page title, held within the HTML <title> tag, has to reflect the page content, allowing the user to benefit from the new features of the evolved address bar.

I Love RSS Feeds but...

2011-04-05T14:06:00Z

I love RSS feeds, I think that a site feed is one of the greatest things a website owner can put on their websites. RSS takes the content from a web site and then places it into a handy piece of XML that various applications, such as Google Reader, can then download and into one handy place. The practical benefit of this for me is that I don’t have to go all over the internet or back to the same pages again and again to check for new updates. I get all the blog updates, news content, or silly comic from XKCD without having to go back to the website.

This saves a lot of time for me, as I don’t have to go to the 61 websites that I have RSS feeds for, and it also means that I don’t have to have my eyes abused by the new update to the Gawker sites such as Lifehacker or Gizmodo. However it does mean that I miss the web sites that do have great designs, especially on blogs

A blog is a space where the design says almost as much about the person as the content does*. I discovered this recently through a friend of mine where the RSS feed on her blog simply delivers the first two paragraphs of content, if you want to continue reading the blog post you are given a link so you can continue reading on their site.

I love this method for using RSS feeds, it means that if I am short of time I can just get a summary from the first two paragraphs, but if I am interested in the topic of the post, and have the time, I can continue on into the website to finish off reading. This then takes me onto their site, where I get to see not just more of the content but also the design and interests of the person, be that in terms of other blog posts, links to other blogs, photos, twitter feed, etc.

This is something that I plan to implement with the next version of this site. Plus the design here is moment is just boring and needs more than just a new lick of paint!

* An updated design is coming to my blog as I know that my is slightly lacking in the design front at the moment. I have big plans to implement once my dissertation has been handed in. One of the big improvements will be a working comment section as I am pretty sure that the current one is pretty broken!

University of Lincoln Printer Upgrade

2011-04-01T08:01:00Z

The University of Lincoln’s printers are currently featuring a fantastic sign stating that ‘Linguistic Module 4.01 has been installed’ which will enable printer users to use voice commands to print and copy work.

Give it a go!

Provoking Thought...

2011-03-28T16:28:00Z

One of the people I follow on Twitter, @benhollebon posted a link to this video earlier with the simple title ‘Thought Provoking’. It’s not a short YouTube clip, but it does match the title. It’s a really simple video asking some really big questions about life, one of my favourite ‘What motivates you - love or fear?’

I’m still thinking about how I would answer all of them, perhaps I’ll run a blog series on them after my dissertation has been handed in. In the mean time have a think yourself… what motivates you in life? Love or Fear?

FYI The English Language is Changing.

2011-03-26T13:11:00Z

Perhaps this is what the evolution of language is all about, and perhaps it is a reflection of just how much the internet has changed how we communicate, however as of March 2011 initialisms such as 'LOL' and 'FYI' are going to be included in the Oxford English Dictionary.

A section from the press release is quoted below, however the full information can be found from the Oxford English Dictionary Website.

For the March 2011 release of OED Online, we have selected for publication a number of noteworthy initialisms abbreviations consisting of the initial letters of a name or expression. Some of these such as OMG [OMG int. (and n.) and adj.]: 'Oh my God' (or sometimes 'gosh', 'goodness', etc.) and LOL [LOL int. and n./2]: 'laughing out loud' are strongly associated with the language of electronic communications (email, texting, social networks, blogs, and so on). They join other entries of this sort: IMHO ('in my humble opinion') [IMHO at I n./1], TMI ('too much information') [TMI at T n.], and BFF ('best friends forever') [BFF at B n.], among others.

Of course in such a context initialisms are quicker to type than the full forms, and (in the case of text messages, or Twitter, for example) they help to say more in media where there is a limit to a number of characters one may use in a single message. OMG and LOL are found outside of electronic contexts, however; in print, and even in spoken use (see, for example, the 2003 quotation for LOL int.), where there often seems to be a bit more than simple abbreviation going on. The intention is usually to signal an informal, gossipy mode of expression, and perhaps parody the level of unreflective enthusiasm or overstatement that can sometimes appear in online discourse, while at the same time marking oneself as an 'insider' au fait with the forms of expression associated with the latest technology.

As such usage indicates, many people would consider these recent coinages, from the last 10 or 20 years, and associate them with a younger generation conversant with all forms of digital communications. As is often the case, OED's research has revealed some unexpected historical perspectives: our first quotation for OMG is from a personal letter from 1917; the letters LOL had a previous life, starting in 1960, denoting an elderly woman (or 'little old lady'; see LOL n./1); and the entry for FYI [FYI phr., adj., and n.], for example, shows it originated in the language of memoranda in 1941.

Apple's Minimise, Maximise and Close Window Buttons...

2011-02-05T17:11:00Z

Did you read my small rant about Spotify back in October last year? If you didn’t like it I wouldn’t read this one, it is in a similar vein?

With the new release of iTunes 10, with it’s new icon, and iTunes Ping (remember that?) came a small, but huge, change to the application; the repositioning of the minimise, maximise and close window buttons (Windows users don’t have to worry about this one). These buttons have always sat in a horizontal line on the top left of the window, however for some unexplained reason the buttons in iTunes 10 decided that being horizontal was boring and became vertical?

Moving these buttons is a trend that is seeming to catch on too… the fantastic piece of software Reeder and Apple’s App Store have also slightly repositioned these buttons, nudging them to be vertically centred in the window bar, see the picture at the top.

Neither of these modifications are bad, however it completely breaks the uniformity of operating system’s interface. For advanced users this change at the worst is a little annoying, however for users who struggle to find their way to the power button computer this change can be really confusing.

The only justification I can see for these changes is that Apple is doing a bit of testing to see the feedback on the button change for their next release of OSX: Lion; if people like the change then it will head across to all applications, if users don’t like it then it simply won’t! Either way, I’m looking forward to some form of consistency restored to interface!

Sandbox and Dev Blog

2010-12-20T14:37:00Z

I think I may have found a satisfactory use for the university blogging platform… rather than place updates about some of the more geeky work that I’m doing at uni I’m going to send them off to my all new university blog. From there you will be able to get information and links to the things that I am working on. I’ll occasionally post some of the more exciting stuff here, however I figure that the core audience of this blog won’t really have much use for some of the more technical stuff that I’m looking to post.

Today I’ve been playing around with posters.lincoln.ac.uk and I’ve placed a link to a basic API that I’ve put together for my Situated Display project on the blog.

Get all the info from jamesdoc.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/.

lncn.eu bookmarklet

2010-12-19T00:36:00Z

Update: Please note this has been retired and due to an official release: lncn.eu/tools.

I think one on the most handy services that the Online Services Team at the University of Lincoln have put together is their simple URL shortener called Linking You, lncn.eu for short. The basic idea; you put in a stupidly long URL and get out a nice short one that automagically redirects you to that webpage with the silly address. It's nothing new, however lncn.eu is wonderfully free of bloat and features the shiny new Common Web Design (CWD).

Having come from Nick Jackson and Alex Bilbie the thing comes with a value added API, allowing other developers to integrate their applications with the service. So that's what I've done!

I had a spare afternoon and evening, and mixed with a vague intention to play with javascript I set down to create a little bookmarklet to create a direct shortcut to the service, allowing users to shorten URLs without having to visit lncn.eu directly. I also took the opportunity to mess around further with the CWD.

One of the nice things about it is the design is really simple to modify with a little bit of CSS know how. Nick recently put up a post on the CWD blog about the flexibility of the banner height. I followed his example with my [Next Lecture](/blog/2010/university-work-update/) web app where there was lots of space to play with. With the bookmarklet space I decided that I wanted to take up as little space as possible, so rather than enlarging the banner, I shrank it and reduced the text size in the banner.

Feedback is always handy, so if you spot any bugs, or have any feature requests please leave me a comment/email/tweet.

To install this onto your own browser head over to http://lncn.eu/ptx and drag the bookmark to your bookmark bar.

University Work Update...

2010-12-04T13:35:00Z

One of the modules I am doing this year is called Mobile and Social Computing. This semester we’ve been making little Java applications to fulfil the mobile part. What my app does it give you information about your next lecture based on your University ID. For example, I’m told my next lecture is:

Lecture: Mobile And Social Computing
Date: Monday 6th Dec - 11:00 am
Location: MHT: CompLab B 3204
Staff: Derek Foster

Potentially pretty handy.

However I decided it was a little bit silly just to keep the app stuck in a Java application, so I’ve pulled it across into a web app as well. The design is taken from the University of Lincoln Common Web Design (CWD), which I can’t claim credit for at all! The web app does the same thing as the Java app, just looking a lot more slick… and it has a big picture of a train on it. (I did this at about 3:00am on Saturday. The logic was trains have timetables… don’t judge me)

I’ll be giving out a URL once the project gets handed in, there may even be a mobile web app version if you are really lucky, but for now if anyone wants to be part of the beta testing please get in touch!

Stick Figure Demo

2010-11-05T14:43:00Z

Oli Taylor and I have been working on a bit of test footage for our Digital Special Effects course at the University of Lincoln.

The final idea will involve shooting people against a green screen and placing them on top of the cards, rather than the cool stick men. This is the basic idea, working out how to motion track and mask correctly in Adobe’s After Effects. There is a lot of work still to go, but I’m loving it so far!

ULCU Houseparty Video

2010-11-03T12:09:00Z

I’ll be posting the photos from Houseparty later in the week… when I have this rare thing called free time!

For those interested all the talks from Brad Franklin are now online from the Lincoln CU Website.

Is Christian Faith Just a Psychological Crutch for the Weak?

2010-10-27T08:00:00Z

I had the privilege of speaking at the Christian Union meeting looking at the topic of faith being perceived as just a psychological crutch. Below is a copy of my notes, as always comments, thoughts and general feedback always apprecated!

Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine - John Lennon

People tend to take these lyrics in one of two ways; the first group listen to this song and love it. It describes a world of the here and now, what you see is what you get, a world that is explore-able and explainable. In this world there is no issue with religion getting in the way of science. To many this is very appealing.

The seconds group look at this song negativity; 'this is all we get from life?' To this second group of people the idea of death; nothing after us is a frightening concept; they get around 70 years, and then thats it! Surely life must have more value than that? Other people in this group find the lack of justice in the world a real problem; there is so much bad stuff going on, so much war and anger, pain and hurt caused by other people, and they get away with it! This idea just doesn 't make sense, it isn 't fair. Either way this group cannot bear to think that there nothing after death.

We 've got two view points; the first group looks at the world and says we can create this perfect world if we just work together, and the second groups looks John Lennon 's song and think; this just isn 't achievable. Lennon invites us to call him a dreamer, and I do, because that 's what this is. The world that is described is a nice idea, but that is all it is, it 's a pipe dream. We can imagine what a wonderful place that would be; but that is all we can do.

Tonight 's talk is titled 'Faith - it 's a Psychological Crutch... ' John Lennon 's song looks at faith, but faith in humanity, in ourselves. What I hope to unpack is that as Christian 's our faith should be founded in something that isn't a dream but a reality. This faith is available for those who admit that they can 't do it for themselves?

What tends to happen is this statement '€˜faith is a psychological crutch' is thrown at us by the kind of people who generally think they are sorted; they are strong and don 't need faith, and therefore the people with faith are weak are the ones that need help. Someone I know had this statement followed up with '€˜Well, I 'm just saying it for your own good. Someone like you doesn 't need religion!' Jesus came up across this view point constantly! In Matthew chapter 9 Jesus has dinner with Levi (aka Matthew) and the Pharisees turn up, these are the guys who teach in the synagogues, and look down on Jesus, and rather than confronting Jesus, the Pharisees said to His disciples '€"why does your teacher eat with such scum?" To which Jesus responds, "healthy people don 't need a doctor; sick people do." What tends to happen is that people who think their own spiritual life (or there lack of) is sorted will reject Jesus. But if we take a step back, look at our own lives, look at the lives of the people around us, look at the state that the world is in and then come to the conclusion that everything is well is in denial. Jesus follows up the rebuke to the Pharisees with the words "€œI have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners".

Look at what Jesus is doing here, the Pharisees think they have it sorted, they think they are strong - Jesus says that he is here for those who can see that they need help. Jesus makes it really clear here in these verses; Christianity is for those who need something to cling on to, Jesus is for those who are weak, those who are spiritually needy. The thing is, that all of us are spiritually needy, whether we acknowledge it or not. Within Ecclesiastes 3:11 it says "...he has put eternity into man 's heart...", God has put a desire in our lives for God to fill, C. S. Lewis wrote it like this:

Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists... If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

We all have things we need, or things that we desire, be that food, drink, sex, knowledge, and these things have real ways of satisfying them. However people satisfy them in different ways. When I am hungry I have a choice; I can choose to eat a biscuit to satisfy my hunger or I can choose a cooked meal. The thing is the biscuit can keep me going for a couple of minutes, then I'm back in the kitchen nibbling on something else, a meal can keep me going for a whole lot longer. Our need in life is kind of like that, we can try to find satisfaction in the things in this world, but that is like the biscuit and will only last a short time, or we can find satisfaction in Jesus who will support us for all eternity, definitely more like a long lasting meal! One place this is really demonstrated is in John 's gospel; Jesus is sitting with a Samaritan woman at a well and he says to her â€œanyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life."

So, if faith is for those who acknowledge they are weak, does that mean that when we become a Christian everything will be perfect, and we won 't go through hard times? Definitely not... For so many Christian 's throughout history following God has not been easy, faith in Jesus is not a simple way out. Jesus ' words to his followers made this very clear to them when he said in Luke 9:23-24 â€œ... if any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will loose it. But if you give your life for my sake, you will save it." The words here say that following Jesus is not going to be easy, Christianity is for those who acknowledge that they are weak, and Jesus really drives home that you need to be following him, relying on him all the way. Jesus can 't really make it much clearer when he says â€˜take up your cross and follow me '; Christianity involves sacrifice, it means turning over to God the things which we rely upon. Even the strong people have crutches that they rely upon, things that satisfy them for a short time. For the Pharisees mentioned earlier their crutch was their â€˜holiness ', they relied upon that to gain self worth. In university here in Lincoln we all have things which are used as crutches to gain satisfaction; qualifications and merit, drink and sex, etc. As sinners in this room we all have issues, are there things here that we rely upon rather than relying on Christ. One thing I struggle continually with mirrors the Pharisees exactly; relying on the things I do - going to church meetings, quiet times, Synergy and Converge attendance, etc. I am so inclined to focus on the things that I do to get my satisfaction that I so often miss what has already been done; everything that I need for self worth is found in Jesus, I so often have to reassess myself and remind myself that my reliance needs to be upon Christ.

Another thing that isn 't hidden by the Bible is that following Christ has another kind of sacrifice, if you think back to the early church, people like Stephen and Paul suffered and died for their faith. If it was just a psychological crutch designed to support them surely they would 've turned from it pretty quickly, and then suggested to others that they should do the same... Instead Paul says that for his faith he endured â€œforty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked." (2 Cor 11:24-27) And why does he say these things? â€œIf I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying." (2 Cor 11:30-31). Paul acknowledged his weakness, not make him look big and holy, instead to show how much he needed God.

But suffering for Christ isn 't just something that happened back in the early church. All across today 's world persecution is happening, from people who are taken from their homes, beaten and thrown into prison, the families who thrown out their sons or daughters for becoming a Christian, or even the snide remarks people at work or uni make every day. The point is whatever your situation, wherever you have come from Christianity is not going to be the one fix, simple solution to your problems, in fact one of the visitors to my church said that before he was a Christian life was fine, it was when he became a Christian all his problems started!

So if Bible sells Christianity as something that could quite possibly end up leading to lashings, beatings, stoning, being ship wrecked, and many of it 's leaders ending up in the grave prematurely, what on earth would make anyone want to believe it?

Well Paul would answer with the response - you should believe it, because it 's true, and because Heaven is a reality. Remember back to Lennon 's song, the picture that is painted is an image of peace, with people working together. Paul hung on to his faith because he was convinced of the truth of it, he was also convinced of the reality of heaven. In Philippians chapter 1 Paul says â€œFor to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. I 'm torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live." This dream that Lennon describes cannot happen here on earth, but in heaven it will be fulfilled to a so much greater extent.

Paul was sure of his faith, Luke the author of Luke 's gospel wanted to assure other believers so that they could have the same kind of faith that both Luke and Paul had, the first four verses of Luke 's gospel show why he wrote it â€œMany people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you, most honorable Theo, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught." Luke goes back to the eye witnesses to show Theo what he believes is true and trustworthy. The point I 'm trying to make is that is that Christianity is true, it isn 't a made up, blind faith which relies upon weak minded people needing a psychological crutch, instead Christianity is a rational belief that sane, not crazy, people can believe.

Christianity is a faith based upon facts, there are many eye witness accounts both inside and outside the Bible to back this up. Christian 's shouldn 't just believe that there is a God simply because it feels comfortable, and likewise, as we 'll discover next week, we cannot discount the existence of God because of science, everybody needs to look at the evidence for God. I don 't have time to go into this evidence today, but there are plenty of people who have done the research, looked into more of the big evidence questions and come down on the side that it is true. One of these investigators, Lee Strobel, wrote the book â€˜The Case for Christ ' looking into various claims of Christianity and the conclusion he came to was Christianity could only be true.

The author, and atheist, Carl Sagan, in his book The Demon Haunted World writes "€œit is better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusions, however satisfying and reassuring." Remember back to Imagine by John Lennon; the world just isn 't like the song that is described. It sounds good and satisfying... But it 's a delusion. The universe is broken, the world is a mess. The strong people join Lennon with this delusion, they find their satisfaction in it for a short time, they lean on their crutches that the world provides. But in reality that doesn 't work, it doesn 't fulfill, it 's the rich tea biscuit next to the five course meal.

We need to realise we are weak people who need a strong saviour to hold us up. We need to be weak people who are fully reliant on Christ. Then we will enter into something so much bigger, so much better than the world imagined by Lennon. I want to conclude with some of the words closing the book of Revelation, it paints a much brighter picture that Imagine, of a world we can genuinely look towards:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "€œLook, God 's home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever."

And the one sitting on the throne said, "€œLook, I am making everything new!" And then he said to me, "€œWrite this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true." And he also said, â€œIt is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega - the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.

Responding to 'Back to the Mac'

2010-10-21T10:16:00Z

I’m just going to jump straight into a response here to each announcement, if you haven’t seen anything from Apple yesterday you can rewatch the keynote on Apple’s website, or Chris has put a great summary of the Back to the Mac on Geek-Speak today.

So here are my thoughts, lets start with the first big annoyance which I didn’t really explain well yesterday; The App Store. Don’t get me wrong this is going to be great for developers; they get a centralised market to sell their applications and updates happen automagically (thank you Apple). For Apple the 30/70 split means extra revenue for them which they are not going to turn away. For the user base this is mixed bag; quick way of finding programs and automagic updates are all great. However I’m pretty convinced there will be an approval process, which means that some apps won’t make the cut for one reason or another. Secondly, look to the future, not to 10.7 but to 10.8 or maybe to OS 11… Apple create a completely closed operating system where the only way to get applications is through their app store. Currently Apple make fantastic hardware (just look at the new MBA), they make fantastic operating systems however once that is in my hands why do they have the right to police what I as the user put on it… It is why I am not an iPhone owner.

Facetime, well I did say it was coming! It just makes sense doesn’t it! I have to say that I am surprised that they didn’t integrate it with iChat and create a nice Skype competitor, but I’m sure there must be a reason somewhere for that! Another thing I’m surprised about is the lack of Windows version, Apple have shown that they can make software that will run on Windows, and a high number of iPhone/iPod Touch users are Windows users… I guess we will have to wait and see.

I don’t think anyone was unimpressed with iLife, especially iMovie with it’s facial recognition software is worth the £45 price tag (I’ll make a comment about Apple’s exchange rate another day, right now I’ll leave you with $45 != £45). iMovie looks amazing! For those who use GarageBand regularly there was a huge update to the software there, it now teaches you to play the piano and guitar… this thing just gets better!

The new MacBook Air does simply look impressive, I find it amusing how the ‘eye-sight camera’ has been rebranded to the ‘face time camera’, Apple obviously think this is a new big thing! The 7 hour wi-fi on battery life is very impressive, I would love to get that out of my 13" MacBook! I don’t need a new laptop at the moment, however it is good to see that they have made the base range model the same price as the base range MacBook. If they had done this when I bought my MacBook I would of been very torn; for me my MacBook is all about portability and not processing power.

The final announcement; 10.7. I’ll be honest this is the thing that I was least impressed with, I know it is an early beta, however the features they were showing off were not revolutionary; Mission Control (poor name) looks interesting and I’m looking forward to playing with that, LaunchPad seems to be just an extension of the dock which I don’t really need. Full screen apps look fantastic, I can’t wait for a proper full screen experience in things like iPhoto or KeyNote and I’ve already mentioned above my dislike of the App Store. The thing is I’m just not itching to get my hands on the thing, is the distorsion field wearing off on me? The one thing I am surprised not to have seen is iWorks 11… Steve has been using a new version of KeyNote on stage for a while now… there are lots of rumours flying around about it… but we just haven’t seen it yet! Where is it?

Official- He's is Back [Pleo]

2010-10-18T18:36:00Z

Regular readers of this blog will have seen this little dinosaur before. For those who haven't this is Pleo, he is a little animatronic toy, produced by some crazy company! A couple of years ago the original company who made them when bust, which was very sad, however there were strong rumours that another company had bought the machinery and were planning to rebuild a new, updated model.

Pleo v2 is called Pleo Reborn (or Pleo RB for short) and is looking to come in a couple of flavours, specifically a green one, and then a blue 'boy' version, and a pink 'girly' version. There will also be a couple of cool accessories such as a couple of 'learning stones' which enable Pleo to get smarter! On the inside will be updated motors, additional touch sensors, temperature sensors, a clock and somehow they've managed to make Pleo recognise your voice!

Yet again the price is completely out of my league, however Pleo is still on the Christmas list if anyone is feeling generous! For more information, plus a couple of videos check out the post on Engadget.

10.7- A Wish List

2010-10-17T16:11:00Z

For those of you who are not slightly addicted to the likes of Engadget, Gizmodo or TechCrunch, this news might of slipt you by; on Wednesday Apple are holding a press conference to announce the first set of public details about the latest incarnation of their computer operating system; OS 10.7. Recently all we have really heard from Apple is iPhone this, iPad that, Multitouch, etc, however this event has been labeled ‘Back to the Mac’. Alex Bilbie, a friend working for the University of Lincoln, posted on his blog a simple list of things that he really wanted from 10.7 to fix:

Finder
System and Software Notifications (aka Growl)
Software Installation
Software Removal
Hardware Accelerated Apps

I’m not going retype his blog post here (just summarise quickly), you can go and read that on his blog, it is well worth a read I agree with all of it; Finder needs to be improved, Growl is a fantastic app that all software should use, Sparkle is in many apps and should become a standard and finally uninstalling software properly is a pain without third party apps such as AppZapper. In addition to these there are a couple of other things that I really want to see improved with in 10.7.

Multitouch:

In case you haven’t noticed Apple have put a big push towards multitouch, first with the iPhone and iPad, but also with the Magic Mouse and Trackpad. I’ve invested in a Magic Trackpad, it just feels like a toy that has been shoe horned into the operating system, sure it is nice to go into expose with a four fingered swipe, etc, however I can’t help but feel there is a lot more to come from multitouch. We’re also going to be seeing a new release of iWorks and iLife so building multitouch properly into those programs would be something I would really value. The one thing that I really want to be able to get out of multitouch is customisation of it; for example pinch to zoom in and zoom out is irrelevant for me most of the time, I really really want to reconfigure this to go in and out of spaces.

Standardised User Interface

The new release of iTunes 10 really annoying; they have moved where the maximise, minimise and close buttons are, I fear that Apple are going to send this across some applications and not all. Apple need to decide where these buttons are going to go, perhaps iTunes 10 was a test to see how people reacted to the change, I’m not sure, but it has to be either or - not a mix of both.

Facetime

Apple have been getting pretty excited about Face Time within the iPhone and iPod Touch. iChat is really in need of an update, and Face Time seems like the perfect route to improve it; call any other Mac user (maybe even iChat for Windows?) from your iPhone and vice versa. It just makes sense.

What will be interesting to see is Apple’s take on Flash is within 10.7, they have been pretty clear on their stance towards it in iOS, I’m wondering if it will be taken across to the desktop OS. That’s enough from me. What about you? Anything you really want to see being put into 10.7? Or anything that you really don’t want to see there? I saw a particularly vicious rumour about an AppStore… Please no!

A Spotify Usability Failing

2010-10-15T10:00:00Z

Nicholas Pierce, a friend of mine from Worthing, will be one of the first people I know to point out a flaw in a user interface. One of his biggest bug bears is Spotify, he gave me a nice long list a while a go of how bad the UI is, there is a brief blog post on one of these failing on his blog. Today I noticed something within Spotify that will bug me until it gets sorted. It's one of those things that hit me, and the instant thought was 'how did I not notice that before?'

In almost every program that has some form of search, be this searching your computer or the internet the search box is in the same place; the top right hand corner of the application window, this is true of everything from Windows Explorer to Apple's Finder, iTunes to Windows Media Player, FireFox to even Internet Explorer. All of these programs put the search box in that same place. Why? So that even people like my Mum instantly know where the search box is. The user learns it in one program and the skills are transferable across to every other program. This is really basic human computer interaction principles.

So where does Spotify put this box? In the not quite top left hand side. You may think this is a really simple small problem, however it can really slow down how you use a piece of software. There is a guy called Jakob Nielsen who wrote down 10 principles of creating a user interface, by not placing the search box on the top right Spotify have broken at least two:

Principle 4 - Consistency and Standards; A user interface should follow platform standards. In other words - go with the flow, if everyone else is putting the search bar there, people will know where it is. Don't move it to be different!
Principle 6 - Recognition rather than Recall; This is really linked to the consistency principle - people should recognise what part of the user interface does, not have to hunt around to find the search box, it's all about giving less work for the user.

You can have a further read of these principles on useit.com (don't worry, it is short and readable).

There are a couple of other issues with Spotify, however this one was bugging me today. I felt a little rant was needed! Have a good rest of you day.

IE9; Just as Much Fun as IE6?

2010-10-14T16:37:00Z

I’ve just had the pleasure of reading an article on the site CSS3 Wizardry talking about the subject of the latest incarnation of Internet Explorer; IE9. It is pretty quoteable, so much so that I’m going to try and drop a couple of them into my dissertation this year:

“Firefox, Chrome and Safari can render graphically rich interfaces using the sophisticated features of CSS3. IE9 does, well, rounded corners.”

"As always, IE is years behind the other browsers. While the rest of the Web development community is going to the moon, Microsoft is inventing a bicycle… Enjoy your bicycle, Microsoft. I 'm going to keep exploring the universe in my Starship.

“With IE9 you can keep making Websites like you did, um, back in 1995: lots of pieces of images chopped up and stuck all over the place like a jigsaw puzzle.”

“IE9 is the ugly, disfigured step-sister of the beauty queen browsers.”

“Now you know why Internet Explorer’s E is blue: it represents how IE suffocates and strangles Web innovation.”

You can read the whole article at CSS3Wizardry.com. Well worth checking out!

UPDATE: The original post seems to have vanished, however your can still read it on archive.org.

Happy Forty Two Day

2010-10-10T10:10:00Z

Happy 42 Day

Don’t Panic

A Touch Quiet on the Farm...

2010-10-09T22:51:00Z

Those who are regular followers on this blog will have noticed a massive drop in the posting. While I am looking to address this issue I will leave you with a pointer to a a blog of a friend of mine who is constantly impressing me with her stunningly beautiful photos.

A Moment In Time:
http://amomentintime-anna.blogspot.com/

That is all.

The Track Video

2010-08-30T23:21:00Z

Last week I spent the week with twenty four young people messing around with karts, cars and bikes, whilst teaching about Jesus Christ. All in all a great week. The video above is just a little bit of what happened!

In the Time it Takes to Install Windows...

2010-08-16T16:10:00Z

In a shocking turn of events I managed to solve a Rubix cube in a lot less time than it took my computer to install Windows XP. I didn’t even have to take it apart or peal the stickers off!

I’m now waiting for updates to finish before I can get back to work…

Mute Math Armistice Live CD/DVD Pre-order

2010-08-11T08:18:00Z

Back in 2008 Paul Meany, lead singer of the New Orleans band MuteMath, commented on the upcoming release of their new studio album, Armistice, “Our goal is to embarrass the first record, that’s what we’re trying to do here, and I think we’re on point to pull it off.” A huge task to go towards as their first self titled album was quite simply brilliant! However 2009 came and it’s first week, in its first week Armistice sold over 18,000 copies!

However listening to a MuteMath studio album is only a small part of experiencing MuteMath, who are probably best known for their energetic live stage performance. MuteMath announced a while back that the tour of Armistice would be recorded for CD/DVD, and today they have announced the full track list and pre-order information.

The release will come with as CD/DVD combo, with tracks off both studio albums. This includes popular songs such as The Nerve, Control, Spotlight and Reset, as well as recordings made during their tour of Japan, music videos (including an unreleased video of Control) and vlogs made during the recording in the studio.

The album will be released 21st September 2010 from MuteMath.com for $19.99 (£12.50). Those who signup for the pre-order will also receive two additional MuteMath tracks, an exclusive lithograph from the 2009 Armistice Tour and access to download the CD on release day.

CD Track List:

The Nerve
Backfire
Clipping
Control
Armistice
You Are Mine
Odds
Typical
Burden
Pins And Needles
Spotlight
Reset
Break The Same

DVD Track List:

Armistice Concert
In The Studio (Making Armistice)
Live In Japan
Official Music Videos
Spotlight
Backfire
Typical
Control
Making Control and Spotlight
Studio Vlogs

How to Install Google Quick Search Box for Windows

2010-07-28T07:43:00Z

A while back I wrote top five list of light weight Mac apps that everyone should be using. Right at the top of that list was a program called QuickSilver. Recently the developer of this program has been hired by Google and they released an app called Google Quick Search Box, a program to launch applications through the keyboard rather than navigating the start menu with the mouse; you trigger it with a pre-defined shortcut and then type the first couple of letters of the program you want and the program appear. Very handy if you are faster at typing that you are at using a mouse!

Originally the Google Quick Search Box was only available for OS X computers, then Google bundled it with their Google Toolbar for Windows, which was nice because PC users could also have the launcher. However back in March it was removed from the Toolbar. At work I have been using Windows a lot recently, and having been missing it’s features, so after a bit of searching and hunting, here is a five step guide to get Quick Search Box running in Windows again.

Download it! (Click Me)
Open up Command Prompt (Win+R and type 'cmd')
Navigate in Command Prompt to where the file is saved. eg: type 'CD C:/Users/JamesDoc/Downloads'
Type 'googlequicksearchboxsetup.exe /install /bundle=tbie /global /brand=GGLL /hl=en'
No step five!

Quick Search will be installed and you will then be able to configure it from the little button that appeared on your start menu.

Should you want to uninstall it, just follow the same steps, just replace step four with ‘googlequicksearchboxsetup.exe /uninstall /bundle=tbie /global’

Update - Jaime has pointed out that the command prompt must be running with administrator privileges first.

Newsboys Born Again - Review

2010-07-24T21:05:00Z

So firstly, and something that you have heard before on this blog; sorry for the absence in posting recently, life has got rather busy, I’ve come back from uni, found myself a job, and no spare time! However in the many days since my last post about Dropbox, the new Newsboy’s album has been released, and if you don’t want to read the rest of this blog; it is amazing, go and buy it!

For those who don’t know the backstory, Newsboys have been around for quite awhile, and Born Again is their 15th studio album. They have had several line up changes over the years, and recently lead singer Pete Furler left the band and was replaced by Michael Tait, formerly of DC Talk. So coming in this album the main question was ‘how would Tait fit into the Newboys’ sound?’

Thankfully the answer that question is quite simply ‘fantastically!’ The overall feeling of Born Again is the radio friendly, sing along, pop rock sound that we have grown to know, love and expect from the Newsboys. However the focus of this album is unashamed aimed at the church with a cover of Hillsong’s Mighty to Save as the penultimate track but also tracks like the title track ‘Born Again’ giving the challenge:

I've met the One with two scarred hands
Giving Him the best of everything that 's left of the life inside this man
I 've been born again

The lyrics to track two ‘One Shot’ also continue in this challenge to stand out from the crowd and to ‘sing about… God’, the main focus being to use the one shot that we have to live and speak for Jesus where we are, together.

One of the things you can say is that each track has a different sound, while still being unmistakably Newsboys, there is a difference in each track. A comparison that has been made about ‘Miracles’ is that it sounds a lot like Muse, which for some people will be a good thing, for others not so much. Other tracks, such as ‘Way Beyond Myself’ hails back to some of the early Pete Furler tracks with the synth sounds.

The album ends with a second cover, this time of the DC Talk track ‘Jesus Freak’, my personal opinion is that while it isn’t a bad cover, I question why it was needed… Simply because Tait is the new front man, does not mean that you have to bring out the go to DC Talk track.

To conclude, the album is good, very good. It is even in running for my album of the year, however there is a lot of time between then and now including a new Anberlin album… so we shall have to wait and see.

Rating: 4.5 out 5 stars

Spotify Link
Buy It (£12.99)

You Don't Backup? Foolish! A Simple (Cheap) Solution

2010-06-15T18:48:00Z

One of the worst things that can happen to you in this technical era is after doing a whole load of work on a report for work, university or school to loose it after a hard drive decides to die, gets water poured on it, or stolen. All the parts are replaceable, for a little expense, however the work that has just been done - gone, the photos, the music, et al gone. It’s not fun! So there are a couple of methods of backup to prevent this problem.

External Hard Drives - Local Backup
Getting an external hard drive is one of the best form of backup for either a personal computer or a laptop. Simply plug the external drive into the computer, copy across the files to the drive and then store in a safe place. Both Windows Seven and Apple’s OS X have backup software built in, so all you need to do is to tell it where the hard drive is!

Getting an external drive doesn’t have to be expensive either, Freecom sell a fantastic little 250Gb hard drive which you can pick up from Amazon for just £39.99. Having this drive means that you can carry your important files wherever you need them; to and from the office, etc, and have a brilliant back up just incase something goes wrong.

Cloud Based Backup - Off Site Backup
The external backup system is great, and protects you against hard drive failure. However if you get burgled, and the thief takes both the computer and the external hard drive, then you are no better off. This is why off site back up is so important. One method is to buy a second external hard drive and ask someone you know to look after it, this is a good enough method, however a little bit of a pain to swap drives over, etc. A better method is to store your data online. There are various internet services such as Apple’s Mobile Me, Amazon’s S3, etc that will allow you to backup your data online.

The best service I’ve found so far is a service called Dropbox. Dropbox is a service that gives you 2Gb of file space on the internet. It is a small little program that you install on one or more computers, it creates a folder, which you can place any folder or file into, as soon as you do it automatically copies it to their servers, all backed up. This also means that if you need access to the files saved in the Dropbox on your other computer, your friend’s computer or even your iPhone or Android Phone you can simply log in to Dropbox and get access to these files. It is very very handy. I use it every day and highly recommend it. Go get it!

Trains + iPods = Disgruntled Doc

2010-06-14T22:16:00Z

Those who follow my Twitter (@jamesdoc) will know that a fair amount of my time is spent on trains. I don’t drive, so the majority of my travelling between university in Lincoln and home in Worthing is done on trains, as is generally all journeys that I cannot do by bike. Today was one of those occasions! I had the pleasure of visiting Vicky and Will in London, my mode of transport the train. Now a journey on a train is something that I often enjoy by reading a book, chatting to a stranger, catching up on late work, or listening to music. It is the latter of method of train entertainment that I wish to talk about in this blog entry.

I have no problem with people listening to music, it’s a little bit anti-social, however I’ll get over that it, sometimes people just want to zone out for a bit to music. Now a couple of years ago, when mobile phones were given really awful speakers, there was a massive phase where no matter where you were you could be sure to find someone listening to their rap music through this tiny speaker. Thankfully most people have twigged that this is annoying and have stopped, you get the occasional few, but they can be avoided. However what was really grating on me today were the people with headphones playing music so loudly that the whole train was also listening to the music also. Aside from the obvious point that these people are absolutely destroying their hearing with the loud volume and directed sound, it is damaging my enjoyment of the train journey home; if I wanted to listen to music I would be doing it through my own headphones at a sensible volume as not to irritate everyone around me… argh.

Am I getting too worked up about this? What do you think an acceptable penalty is? I’m not sure chopping off the ears of offenders is an acceptable, but I am tempted to carry around a pair of scissors on trainsto cut certain wires…

yFriday - The Final Farewell

2010-06-07T09:23:00Z

Back in January yFriday announced through their website that towards the end of this year they would be disbanding. In the press statement they said:

“As people we’ve grown, our lives enriched by new family and friends, and we feel now is the time for us to move to the next stage, through the doors that God has opened and to a future laced with anticipation. There will be a few dates before the finale, some festivals and some friends to revisit, then we’ll say our last goodbyes in the autumn with what should be our best ever dates. We’ll keep you posted of when and where.”

The final two dates of yFriday are the 29th October in Leicester at Transfusion and 31st October in Newcastle at IXth Hour. IXth Hour is the the event that yFriday initially started playing as the house band for the monthly whyFriday? Youth for Christ event. Tickets are available through the yFriday website for £10/person with discount rates for groups.

If you are unable to get to either of these events yFriday still have a couple of dates still left to play at over the coming months.

19th June - Belfast
20th June - Dublin
27th June - Newcastle
18th-22nd August - Harvest Festival
29th October - Leicester
31st October - Newcastl

More details on all these dates, and booking for tickets for the final dates are available through the yFriday website: www.yfriday.co.uk.

DC Talk Reunion Next Year?

2010-06-03T19:33:00Z

Now, I’m not one to jump at rumours the float around the Twitter Mill… however this one is looking pretty big at the moment, coming right out of the Twitter account of Kevin Max:

Trying to get a DCT tour happening, perhaps next year, any of you down?

It sounds pretty serious! Back in 2000 DC Talk took an intermission to pursue solo careers; TobyMac joined up with the Diverse City band, Michael Tait started his own band called Tait and is now a signed up member of the Newsboys, and Kevin Max has released four albums, with another due this summer. 2011 would be the tenth year since the beginning of the hiatus.

During their 12 year span before going on a break in 2001 DC Talk released five albums, three of which went platinum, including Jesus Freak which in it’s first month sold over 500,000 copies. As well as being very out spoken in their Christian message, the band also had a very strong anti-racism message which was made very clear in their song Coloured People.

It is probably to early to tell if anything will come of this, there have been no comments so far from either TobyMac or Tait. That said, I really want it to happen, DC Talk released some fantastic music while they were around, the individual solo careers from each member shows that they are still producing great music, it would be great to put them back together!

Alice in Wonderland; A Small Rant

2010-05-29T17:56:00Z

It’s been a little while since I used this blog as a platform for a good old rant, the last time was in fact February, so I felt a new rant was well overdue! Today’s rant is on the topic of Alice in Wonderland not on the film itself, I’ve already reviewed it on this blog, rather the publicity of the film and various merchandise.

Today I’ve been listening to the soundtrack to Alice in Wonderland, written by Danny Elfman on Spotify. I have no complaints about Danny Elfman, he is a stunning composer, just go and listen to the score from Spiderman 2 if you don’t believe me! There is a reason Tim Burton has a list of ‘go to people’ when making films; they are normally great.

[Begin Rant]

What I just don’t understand is this; if the film is called Alice in Wonderland, and the main character is Alice… why in all of the main publicity and products is the Mad Hatter the feature character and Alice only appears sometimes? The main trailer gives more screen time to the Mad Hatter and credits Johnny Depp, while not even mentioning Mia Wasikowska who plays Alice, let alone the rest of the all star cast. Then moving on to the DVD/BluRay cases and the CD artwork, they both feature the Mad Hatter and no Alice… Seriously? What is this about?

Craziness. Fact.

[/End Rant]

Dvorak Keyboard

2010-05-27T15:39:00Z

As you can see my keyboard has undergone a bit of modification with the new addition of little bits of cut post-it notes. The keyboard layout was designed to be more efficient than the traditional QUERTY keyboard and also more ergonomic to prevent RSI related injuries. The rules put in place were:

Letters should be typed by alternating between hands (which makes typing more rhythmic, increases speed, reduces error, and reduces fatigue).
For maximum speed and efficiency, the most common letters and digraphs should be the easiest to type. This means that they should be on the home row, which is where the fingers rest, and under the strongest fingers (Thus, about 70% of keyboard strokes on the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard are done on the home row).
The least common letters should be on the bottom row, which is the hardest row to reach.
The right hand should do more of the typing, because most people are right-handed.
Digraphs should not be typed with adjacent fingers.

Now at the moment I am not really enjoying the benefits of this system; I’m teaching myself to type again which is a painfully slow process, but I am looking forward to enjoying, hopefully, faster words per minutes! If anyone can point me towards a good online tutorial for this it would be gratefully received!

For anyone who has a deep longing to learn more about the history of the keyboard layout Wikipedia has a pretty dull article on the topic!

Beta BBC iPlayer

2010-05-26T11:52:00Z

It is pretty much expected that in this modern day and age people are too busy to actually watch TV live, and will therefore need to catchup later online. If you live in the US the go to TV streaming site is Hulu, in the UK there is a bit of choice… All of the major TV channels here have their own web streaming service for online catchup, BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, Four on Demand and even Five have their Demand Five service.

iPlayer has always been on the front line of improving and updating the design and features since in went live on Christmas Day 2007. Now in summer 2010, the third release of iPlayer is due out soon, with the beta test site available now.

Alongside a slick new design, making navigation around TV channels, visual and audio content a lot simpler, the site is also branching into the realms of social networking. This includes support for the BBC iD system, which gives one sign in for all BBC related pages, to allow commenting on news articles, blogs and message boards. Also included is integration for existing networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, allowing users to share their favourite programs through these sites. These upgrades will allow iPlayer to more accurately recommend programs to users based upon what they are watching, and what friends are watching and recommending.

You can view this new update out for yourself at beta.bbc.co.uk/iplayer.

First Cycle of the Summer

2010-05-24T17:44:00Z

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=http:%2F%2Fwww.lincolncu.co.uk%2FWistonHall.kml&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=38.502405,55.810547&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=50.85841,-0.346756&spn=0.173375,0.54863&z=11&output=embed

Today I had the pleasure of going on a nice cycle ride to Wiston Hall so I could find a route to get to The Big Church Day Out this weekend. I also took the opportunity to test out how my phone’s GPS would handle the Sussex countryside. A nice two hour round cycle later, which considering I haven’t had my bike since September I’m impressed with, the GPS had managed to put together a very nice red line on a map!

Finished Angel

2010-05-20T11:20:00Z

So firstly, yet again, I would like to say sorry for the lack of regular posting, I can assure you that over the next couple of weeks service will be resumed as normal. However while you wait here is finished project of the 3D angel that I put together for my coursework.

Polling Station Issues

2010-05-06T23:52:00Z

I'm staying up until at least the Lincoln result comes in at 2:30, and maybe if I'm feeling particularly keen to see the Worthing result at 5:00. This gives me some time to kill! As such I just wanted to take some time to comment on the debate about people being turned away from polling stations tonight.

For those who haven't been following, or just simply don't care; why are you reading this blog? But I'm going to tell you anyway. Basically a whole load of people turned up at various polling stations late and then when the station closed at 22:00 were refused entry. This caused uproar as people were being refused a vote in a significant election

My response to this is much the same as Simon Mayo, who said on his Twitter earlier:

7am - 10pm. How much longer do people need?

The polling stations have been open all day, it was clearly advertised how long they would be open, people simply should of been more organised, and got it sorted. On the other hand, what is unacceptable is certain polling stations running out of ballot papers before the close. I cannot understand how this can even happen, everyone who has registered surely should have a ballot paper printed?

The Electoral Commission has said that there will be an investigation into both issue, but it does mean that whatever the result at the end of the night a party or two will contest the result. As we stand at the moment Labour have 5 constituencies, the Lib Dems have 1, Conservatives have 0 and there are 3 other seats, with the exit polls looking towards a hung Conservative and Labour parliament.

Angel Video

2010-04-25T23:20:00Z

Sorry for the lack of updating recently, with any luck service will resume to normal soon, it’s safe to say that I have been quite busy with various bit of uni work, and things that can’t really be called uni work!

On the uni work front I’ve had my head stuck in 3DS Max building a 3D model angel which is coming on quite well. The linked video isn’t the finished product, there is a fair amount of work still to be done, reducing the number of polygons in the model being the primary one, and then adding a texture to it, but at the moment I’m pleased with how the angel is coming on! There will probably be various updates on this through my Twitter or Facebook status!

Have a good week!

Doctor Who Adventure Games

2010-04-20T13:25:00Z

I think we can all agree that at one point or another we’ve said; ‘wouldn’t it be great if…’ whilst watching a TV show. And this is something that the lead writer of Doctor Who, Steven Moffat, agrees with - “Children don’t just watch Doctor Who - they join in. They make up games, invent their monsters, create their own stories.”

Soon we’ll be able to do just that, through the Doctor Who website in June, the BBC will be releasing four interactive computer games to allow the viewers to control how the Doctor Who story unfolds. Piers Wenger, the Executive Producer for Doctor Who, while talking about these new computer games said “There aren’t 13 episodes of Doctor Who this year, there are 17 - four of which are interactive. Everything you see and experience within the game is part of the Doctor Who universe: we’ll be taking you to places you’ve only ever dreamed about seeing - including locations impossible to create on television.”

These four new stories will be an extension to the existing series, following the Doctor and Amy as they travel through time and space, moving from a desolate burning London to an ice world or a dark space ship. In these episodes the Doctor and Amy will meet the Daleks and Cybermen, alongside a several completely new aliens. The question is; will they be friend or foe?

The Doctor and Amy Pond have been recreated in 3d digital form, and Matt Smith and Karen Gillan have been in the recording studio to provide a voice over for their characters, alongside a full cast to provide voices for both the new and old characters. Murray Gold, who has written the music for the Eccleston, Tennant and Smith eras of Doctor Who has been commissioned to add a sound track and sound effects for the games.

At the moment the plot and titles of these new interactive stories are being kept secret, but with the pen of Steven Moffat (Blink, The Empty Child), Phil Ford (The Waters of Mars) and James Moran (Fires of Pompeii) you can guarantee a gripping and scary ride!

More screenshots from the games are currently on the Doctor Who website (bbc.co.uk/doctorwho). All four of the interactive episodes will be completely free for both Mac and PC, with the first episode being made available from the Doctor Who website in June 2010.

PS. While I would love to write a review of each Doctor Who episode, I just don’t have time at the moment. The site Blogtor Who are writing reviews of each episode, and fair ones too. Do check them out at www.blogtorwho.blogspot.com.

Doctor Who is Back! Review

2010-04-05T11:23:00Z

Those who either follow my Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook will have seen an out pouring of Doctor Who quotes, or general fandom in response to Saturday’s episode! Before going any further, this is a review, therefore there will be spoilers below. If you don’t want to see spoilers… why are you reading a review? Secondly, while I do think that the episode was great, there were faults with it too… this isn’t just going to be a one-sided blog.

That out the way! The story follows straight on from the ending of The End of Time which aired over Christmas. The newly regenerated Doctor, crash landing in a garden in the village of Leadworth, pulls himself out of the TARDIS to find Amelia Pond believing that Santa has answered her prayers; someone has appeared to do something about the scary crack in her wall. Using the sonic screwdriver the Doctor opens the crack to reveal a giant eyeball, an Atraxi, giving the Doctor the message ‘Prisoner Zero has escaped’. Before they can go any further a klaxon sounds from the TARDIS, the Doctor runs off telling Amelia that he will return in five minutes… only to reappear 12 years later.

The Doctor thinking it has only been a couple of minutes runs back into the house proceeds to get knocked out by a cricket bat. Amelia Pond, now Amy Pond, has grown up and refuses to believe that the Doctor is who he claims to be, it is only until he prompts her to see the door, hidden by a perception filter, and the alien inside that she begins to believe him. The following 45 minutes follow the Doctor and Amy as they run around the village trying to prevent the destruction of the world by revealing Prisoner Zero to the Atraxi, without the TARDIS or the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor remarks “I 've got 20 minutes to save the world, and I 've got a post office… and it 's shut”.

The first thing to critique has to be the performance by Matt Smith, and I was convinced! The script constantly refers to the line “I’m not done yet”, the Doctor is still mid-regeneration, so there are times when you feel a bit of David Tennant’s Doctor flowing through, several mannerisms and quotes, there is even a bit of Eccleston’s Doctor such as the catch phrase “Fantastic” being said. However there is a very new Doctor coming through all of this, a new quirky, more crazy and eccentric Doctor, but also a focused Doctor set on saving the day. Matt Smith just creates this role for himself and lives in it!

Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillan, is again very believable. Gillan, plays a very “fiesty girl with a wicked sense of humour and a sharp temper” (Doctor Who Wiki). The character has been brought up being told that the Doctor was just an imaginary friend, been through several shrinks, and then 12 years later the Doctor reappears in front of her. Karen Gillan gives a great performance, and throughout the episode you see her character grow as she believes more and more in the Doctor.

One thing I will be very interested to see is how many complaints the episode gets. Amy is revealed to be a kissogram; “I go to parties, and I kiss people… It’s fun”, and another of the sub characters is indirectly seen to be watching porn; “Jake! Get a girlfriend”. While the latter reference was fairly subtle, I wonder how many questions were had by small children - ‘Mummy, what is a kissogram?’. Where are the BBC drawing the line for ‘family entertainment’, personally I thought that the episode would of coped as family entertainment without those references. You can keep an eye on the BBC responding to complaints at bbc.co.uk.

One of the many things that Stephen Moffat did get right was the comedic element within the script, as mentioned above there were a couple of times where I thought the line was toed a little to tightly, however generally it was hilarious, references to children’s books (fish custard), quoting previous Doctor’s (wibbly wobbly timey wimey) and coming up with several original quotes (I’ve got a post office, and it’s shut). One of the things that makes a great television series, in my humble opinion, is that it needs to be quotable, if the rest of this series follows in the way of The Eleventh Hour, then it will certainly fit the bill there.

I think, however, the place where most people will agree on, is the title and credit sequence. I’m sure some people will like it, and artistically it does look good… but seriously? What is that supposed to be? The TARDIS going through a tunnel of thundering clouds… No. It didn’t work! Bring back the old one please! I do love the new logo and typography, that can stay, but the clouds trying to be the time vortex just looks silly. I’m still to make up my mind about the music for the whole thing, the remix of the theme tune has yet to grow on me… we shall see though! Despite that, I think that Murray Gold did a fantastic with the rest of the episodes sound track, perfectly fitted to the episode.

In conclusion, I liked it, yeah it had a couple of faults, I’m not convinced the kissogram will be forgiven quite yet, but the title sequence will be. The series has got itself set up with story arc - the cracks in the universe and “the silence will fall”, which seems to be interesting, and from what I’ve heard ‘The Smilers’ are one of the most scary enemies since the beginning of the 2005 series, which can’t be a bad thing! Exciting times!

The next episode, The Beast Below, will air next Saturday, where the Doctor takes Amy far into the future to find that the United Kingdom has been relocated… in space!

Lord of the Rings on BluRay

2010-03-29T14:18:00Z

I’ve been pretty vocal in my opinion on BluRay, words such as ‘optical formats dying’ and ‘beating dead horses’ might of been mentioned, alongside talk of the only people buying BluRay were those who had PlayStations… However today I would like to retract that statement because Lord of the Rings is coming out on BluRay next month!

The BluRay boxed set comes with a whole host of extra features, including interviews, behind the scenes features, trailers, music videos and more. That doesn’t mean I’m rushing out to buy it for two very good reasons; firstly I don’t have a BluRay player, and secondly it isn’t the extended editions (they are hopefully coming soon)! That said, the appeal of BluRay has gone up ten fold!

For those wishing to pre-order Lord of the Rings can do so from Play.com for £39.99 for the entire boxed trilogy.

Doctor Who Returns

2010-03-27T10:30:00Z

In a weeks time Doctor Who is going to be returning to BBC 1. While the series is still going to be very Doctor Who, a lot has changed since Christmas; a new Doctor*, played by Matt Smith, and companion Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillan, also a new lead writer.

That's right, Russell T. Davies has gone! Those who read this blog regularly will know that while I am very grateful for his input in bringing Doctor Who back to the BBC, I find his scripts less than brilliant... Steven Moffat, who penned scripts such as Blink and The Empty Child, will be taking the helm and leading the writing off the new series.

The new series will be opened with the first episode "Eleventh Hour" which sees the Doctor dealing with his new body, a wrecked TARDIS and ultimately finding a new companion!

I'm really excited about the new beginning, sure David Tennant left some huge shoes to fill, however I'm already pretty convinced that Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are more than enough to fill it with writing of Steven Moffat. Also it is going to be a lot more scary!

If you want to read some spoilers Blogtor Who has a whole host of interviews, reviews and links to check out, Lizo Mzimba for the BBC has done a review of the first episode, and the video below has a couple of interesting revelations! Otherwise for those not wanting to ruin the suprise Doctor Who returns on Saturday April 3rd at 6.20pm.

* Technically Matt Smith is the new new new new new new new new new new Doctor?

Alice in Wonderland; A Film Review

2010-03-25T10:12:00Z

Alice in Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton, is very loosely based upon the book by the same name written by Lewis Carroll. Set several years after the book Alice, portrayed by Mia Wasikowska, running away from the real world, finds herself following the White Rabbit and falling back into Wonderland. In the years between Alice’s first visit the Red Queen has overthrown the White Queen and Wonderland has descended into tyranny and ‘Underland’ is in ruin. The Rabbit, Tweedledum & Tweedledee, The Mad Hatter & March Hare and the Dormouse have been search for Alice to restore the White Queen to her throne.

One of the many guaranteed things about Tim Burton is his casting of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, and Alice in Wonderland is no exception, despite the film following Alice through her journey in Wonderland, Johnny Depp is titled for some reason as the lead actor. Joining the cast is Stephen Fry (Cheshire Cat), Christopher Lee (Jabberwocky), Matt Lucas (Tweedledum & Tweedledee), Alan Rickman (Caterpillar), Michael Sheen (White Rabbit), and Barbara Windsor (Dormouse). Together is it a very impressive cast that does just work. The acting from Mia Wasikowska seemed very uncomfortable at first, however as the film went on she did seem to grow into her role as Alice.

A lot of emphasis was put on the film being in 3d, rather than being shot using the 3d cameras, as Avatar was, the 3d effects were added later on in post production. Personally I really wasn’t convinced it needed it, at many points it just didn’t feel like it was in 3d, I don’t think I would of missed much if I had seen it in just 2d! That said one of the ideas that was used was as Alice went further and further into Wonderland and began to believe it more and more so the 3d increased, it was a nice addition.

My main gripe with the film was the actual plot, rather than taking the story written by Lewis Carroll, Linda Woolverton who did the screenplay, has just lifted the characters out of the books, taken their physical attributes and some of their personality and written a completely new story. The film isn’t ‘Alice in Wonderland’, it is more ‘Alice returns to Wonderland’.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t going in with to high expectations, however I was pleasantly surprised by it, while I would of loved Tim Burton to take the actual story of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, this sequel wasn’t bad! On my star rating system it is a solid 4 star film, it’s not perfect, but it was enjoyable!

Finding Space...

2010-03-10T20:47:00Z

Over the last few weeks the blog has been pretty much quiet; looking back over my calendar I’ve been keeping busy, doing stuff at church or within the Christian Union, sometimes actually doing this weird thing called university work. Either way life has been fairly busy of late.

In one of the blogs I’ve been reading Martin Smith writes:

"A strange thing is happening to me. I’m discovering an amazing commodity. It’s called space. It’s revealing a world to me that I seldom knew existed. Time to walk, read, fall in love again and spend minutes not just seconds gazing upon my childrens faces as they sleep…

The image that I started this blog entry with is 5 minutes walk away from my door step, but so rarely do I take the time to go there. I am very good at filling my day with things which I deem to be important, but hardly ever will I take the time to find this vital thing called space. A space to enjoy the things around me, to spend time with friends, to read a book, listen music, or just to view the world on my door step…

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper … Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
1 Kings 19:11-13

It’s when we take the time out to experience God, when we un-peal the layers which we build up in our life, that’s when God speaks. We need to take the time to step away from the busyness that we find ourselves in, just to stop, find some space and to listen to the sounds of God’s voice.

It is a lesson I still have to learn, and one that I have got to work on daily.

ULCU Events Week; What is it all about?

2010-02-23T19:37:00Z

The Christian Union are hosting a set of events this week on and around campus. The purpose of these events is to share something about Jesus, to talk to people and build relationships and give people an opportunity ask questions about what we, as Christians, believe.

If you are around for any of the following events it would be really great to see you there!

Wednesday:

2pm: Lunch Bar - Heaven & Hell

Is there more to life than this? Free lunch and discussion in the Library Bar

7pm: Back to School Quiz (Room MB1008)

Subjects range from Science to PE! Including a very short talk about what Christianity is all about.

Thursday:

2pm: Lunch Bar - Question Time

Got a question about Christianity? Life? Us? That wants to be answered? Bring it along and we'll have a go at answering it for you! Free lunch and discussion in the Library Bar

7pm: Film Night

We're meeting at 17 Westbourne Grove to sit down and watch a film together then discuss some of the main themes from it.

Friday:

2pm: Lunch Bar - Jesus vrs Religion...

How does Jesus link in with religion? Do all roads lead to God? Free lunch and discussion in the Library Bar

7pm: Pudding Party with Live Music (Room MB1008)

Louie will be talking on the topic 'Gay Ok? Homosexuality, God and Jesus.'

Saturday:

Picnic on the Lawns

An chance just to wind down with a picnic up near the castle.

Become a fan...

2010-02-15T14:43:00Z

Please excuse the following rant:

Through Facebook I have been asked to test Dell laptops, win a free t-shirt or just have a lego man made to look me. The latest one; test the new Apple iPad and then keep it. The thing that links all of these fan pages: they are all a complete load of rubbish. It really really amuses me how many people sign up to these things in the hope that they will be one of the ‘lucky few’ who will receive one of these products.

A quick tear down of this one, just to prove that this has no link at all with Apple and therefore a complete waste of time:

The title: They attempt to use an Apple font and fail. Also Apple never underline anything.
‘100% free’: Apple never do anything for free without motive
‘No hiden cost’: Apple wouldn’t put out an ad with such a stupid spelling mistake
The screenshot: Isn’t even of an iPad, rather a photoshop mockup done by Gizmodo…

The ‘Terms and Conditions’ page on this particular fan page links to a site called myrewardsvault.com which is known for its love of sending out spam, on the bright side Norton have said that they don’t give out viruses!

So, just to sum up; if the fan page says that it is giving out something completely free, and all you have to do is to become a fan, please just click ignore; you never will receive the product.

Rant over.

3DS Max Day One; Not Quite a Fail!

2010-02-02T15:14:00Z

This semester I’ve opted in for taking 3D modelling. I’m not sure what use I am going to have for this subject in later life, however it sounded fun on the options so I chose it! However one of the issues with the course is that it does mean actually using 3D modelling software, if you’ve seen some of the professional software you will understand that this prospect is fairly daunting; buttons and links and sliders and more buttons all over the place!

As a result of this, and that I really have no idea what I am doing, I’ve dived head first into this and have started playing around with 3DS Max for two reasons, firstly they have a very nice student six month demo, and the tutors on my course say we need to be using it! There are no prizes for working out what I have spent the day working on (see above image). After watching several tutorials, drawing boxes, modifying boxes, deleting boxes and starting over again, and doing this loop several times I finally decided to call it a day with a box that looks vaguely like a TARDIS.

I tried to render and export a video of the model, however I really haven’t worked that one out, it’s included after the break. If you know how to help me with getting videos out of 3DS Max it would be appreciated! While there is a long way to go with this one, I’m happy with where I’ve got too… just need to figure out the rest of the program!

Flash & Apple

2010-01-30T15:14:00Z

I know what you are thinking, another iPad blog, this is the forth one. Firstly, it is the last one for a while, and secondly I won’t be writing another iPad entry for a while, so let me get this one out of my system! One of the things that has constantly frustrated me since I made the big jump to the Apple boat, is the poor flash plugins, when watching a YouTube video on my MacBook the CPU just goes crazy, causing the fan to spin up which obviously makes the sound a little hard to hear and enjoy.

What I’m trying to say is that Flash on OS X is messed up. Ars Technica, a tech blog, tested a Mac Pro Quad 2.66 GHz running OS X and then running Windows and saw that the OS X plugin put a 40% load on the CPU, while the Vista plugin just took 6%, and Linux was apparently worse. There is some serious issues there. So is it really any surprise that Apple have said no to Flash being on the iPhone and iPad when the plugins that Adobe are creating are so messed up?

The Adobe blog does make a very valid comment though “…without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web.” (Apple’s iPad - A Broken Link, 27th Jan 2010). I’m not going to comment on whether the statistics are correct or not, but lacking Flash support is going to kill the real web experience, which is a shame.

Despite all of this, 9 to 5 Mac have pointed out that in some of the promotional images have shown websites with Flash in them… Is this just photoshop trickery or a sign of things to come?

But, if you are a flash developer it is not the end of the world if Apple decide not to support the Flash on the iPad. The next release of the Adobe Creative Suite (CS5) is going to contain a cunning program called Packager for iPhone which allows users to export their Flash files (games) in an iPhone format, and with the iPhone app support on the iPad, everything should run swimmingly.

The question is, as users of the iPad, will we be put off buying the tablet because of the lack of Flash? I personally see it as a two sided coin, the downside being the lack of things such as iPlayer or YouTube which would be great on the tablet. On the other hand, not having to watching annoying flash adverts on the side of the screen could be heavenly!

That’s just my opinion though, what do you think?

iPad and iBooks...

2010-01-29T15:14:00Z

In my previous post about the iPad, I wrote a lot about the pros and cons about this new Apple device, however I didn’t actually touch upon one of the key selling points; the iPad is also an eBook reader.

Recently eBooks have been taking off in a fairly big way. Amazon really cracked it first with the Kindle, creating a good solid device mixed with a huge database of books that wa accessible anywhere through 3G connectivity. The thing just worked. I have a big love of eInk, I think they look beautiful, they are fantastic to read off of, and because it is eInk the screen requires very little battery to operate. Of course there are several other devices on the market at the moment, the Sony eReader, Barnes and Noble Nook, etc, however the one to have, in my humble opinion is still the Kindle.

One of the big things with the iPad is that it is going to rival eBook readers with its built in application called iBooks. The program gives you a nice little visual bookshelf, tap to read a book and then when you are done you can go and buy yourself a new book from the iBookstore being stocked from publishers such as Harper Collins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette Book Group.

The app looks nice, and I really can’t pass a huge amount of judgement on the thing until I hold it in my hands and have a real play with the thing. However, with that disclaimer out of the way, I’ve read several books off the screen of my HTC Hero and, aside from the really small screen, I really really dislike having a backlight to read by as I am in bed, it feels really really un-natural to read by, maybe it is something with the light in my eyes while trying to read. This for me is where eInk really fits the purpose; it does (kind of) look like paper.

My second small issue with the thing is the implementation of the the iBookstore. I really wish that the iTunes Store, the App Store, the iBookstore and perhaps even the online Apple store came under one banner rather than breaking them up to 3 or 4 different stores, the online login details work the same, however for a company that is so concerned about convergence and bringing things together I don’t understand how or why they have separated these is to very distinct entities. I believe that the only way to access the iBookstore is through the iBooks App on the iPad, but that isn’t the way I want to do things, I would like to download the book on to my iMac through an iStore flick through a couple of pages and then sync it to my iPad (or iPhone, or just any i device).

In my previous post I said I would be waiting until version two of the iPad, the thing is that this doesn’t really pull me either way, call me traditional but I do like a real paper book. However, if you are after an eBook reader, TUAW do make a very good point, if you compare the iPad next to Amazon’s Kindle, the Kindle DX is just $10 cheaper.

A Response to the iPad

2010-01-28T22:57:00Z

Last night we saw the announcement of the long rumoured tablet computer made by Apple. Steve Jobs took to the stage and after announcing the sale of the 250 millionth iPod put up a quote from the Wall Street Journal “last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on” (Apple’s Hard to Swallow Tablet, 30th Dec 2009). Jobs took the device, named the iPad, and showed off his latest creation, something that he says will fit in the gap between laptops and smart phones.

The technical details of this device are:

9.7" multi touch display
1024 x 768 screen resolution
16, 32 and 64Gb flash drive
1Ghz processor
10 hour battery
WiFi & bluetooth (with 3G extra)
Digital compass and GPS
Weight: 680g

What is right about the iPad:

First off the design… it is an iPod touch with a larger screen and body. The design is a very nice cross between all of the products that Apple have made so far, and it is something that they are good at, it could of done without the big thick black rim around the screen, however it will fix perfectly next to an iMac or MacBook Pro.

Using existing iPhone apps is really the only thing to do for it. The iPad runs a glorified version of the iPhone OS so having the existing apps run on the thing just makes sense, I would go as far as to say that it would be foolishness not to! I remain to be convinced that scaling up the application to run full screen is the right way to do things, however I will hold my judgement there.

What is great is that Apple have written some really great applications of their own for it, having a native media player that looks great, and their photo library just looks stunning. That really will be worth using. Also creating a version of iWorks for the machine just means that it is going to appeal even more to a business market, I’m not going to lie; when I saw that Pages and Keynote were available for it my use for the iPad went up tenfold!

The price is spectacularly low in America, $499 for the base range model. Now assuming Apple did a proper conversion that would make the iPad £325, Apple being Apple the price will probably be nearer £450, but keeping the device at an affordable price is brilliant. One of the things that Jobs said is that they was wanted this device to be affordable, and it is.

What is wrong about the iPad

The price… yes I know I just said the price was one of the things that Apple got right, however they also got it horrifically wrong. One of the nice additions was a 3G model, enabling access to the internet where WiFi is notavailable, if you are going to do this for you laptop it will cost you about £30 to pick up a little USB dongle to plug into your computer… Apple are charging $130 (£80) for this.

No multitasking is a painful thing. One of the restrictions of both the iPhone and now the iPad is that only one app can run at a time. While I get that each program will run very well on that 1Ghz chip, what if I want to run the Spotify app while mashing out some text in pages. Sad sad thing.

The iPad is supposed to be the natural way to view the internet. However one of the main things about the internet is that it has Flash on it, YouTube, iPlayer, pretty much every game worth playing, etc run off flash and the iPad (nor the iPhone) support flash. This just doesn’t make sense if Apple want this to be the device you use to view the internet.

As I mentioned above, this device is going to appeal to business folk. I am really curious why they didn’t put a camera in the thing. Creating a version of iChat for the iPad would of been a logical thing to do, you can have business meetings on your pad through iChat with the addition of the camera. The microphone and speakers are already there.

Tethering would of been nice for the iPad, however I’m not going to get too cut up about that, what I am going to get a little bit annoyed about is the fact that it is being branded the new way to watch films. The screen resolution is 1024x768, which puts the aspect ratio at 4:3 which is pretty much what your old CRT monitor was (this isn’t much of a complaint, just a statement of fact). A typical film is filmed in widescreen, which will have an aspect ratio of either 16:9 or 2.35:1. What this means is that when watching a film you will get black tram lines on the top and bottom of your film, roughly half of the screen will be given over to these black bars when watching films.

Concluding

What am I concluding? Firstly I think that the iPad is a great first step, in the same way that the first iMac was a first great step, the first iPod was a first great step, the first iPhone was a great first step, however all these first steps have all been revised and improved, to products that are just getting better and better. I think that the iMac is there, the iPod was there (they started adding cameras, seriously why?) and the iPhone is so close.

The iPad has jumped straight to where the iPhone is, it is so close to being right, of the list of things that need improvement it is only the 3G price, lack of multitasking and lack of flash that really put me off the device. If Apple gets those sorted in iPad 2G then I think I will be sold on it.

That is enough of my thoughts, what do you think of it? You can watch the unveiling of the iPad at the Apple Keynote event, or just read the details at apple.com/ipad, also Funny or Die’s take on the iPad is worth a watch too! Please leave your comments and thoughts below.

Rumours- Apple Special Event

2010-01-27T17:35:00Z

At 6pm (GMT) today, Apple are expected to announce several things:

A Tablet, possibly named iTablet
iPhone OS 4.0
Updated MacBooks or new iLife & iWorks suite

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple has been reported saying that what has been worked on is possibly the most important thing that he has done so far… There have been reports flying around relating to the tablet having eBook reading built in giving it great potential for class room application. With the existing iTunes Store and the App Store it makes sense to see this new device accessing both, but also expanding it to allow downloads of eBooks for education…

The update to the iPhone software is expected to bring, alongside speed increases, some form of multitasking to allow two (or more) programs to run simultaneously, such as Spotify and Safari. One thing that has also been speculated is the removal of some of the Google services, personally I’m not convinced this is true, however we will wait and see!

With Snow Leopard moving completely to 64 bit, it is highly likely that the iLife & iWorks suites are going to be updated with 64 bit goodness, if the tablet is announced there will certainly be a new version of iTunes to allow support it.

But we will just have to wait and see what Steve gives us! If you are interesting in following the announcements live head over to Engadget.com for news and photos as they are announced!

Redesign

2010-01-27T00:37:00Z

I’m in the process of redesigning my website and blog, an early theme went online last week, and after some major rethinking the currently layout is the design that is going to stay in some form for the next year. There is a little more work to do with it, I am debating to allow colours, and the font design is still under review.

As ever if you have thoughts or comments please leave them below!

Retro Screen Savers

2010-01-19T18:07:00Z

Don’t get me wrong, the built in screen savers to OS X are nice, flurry is pretty and the mosaic screen saver coming from iPhoto or Aperture is just fantastic. However it’s quite nice to personalise your desktop experience beyond the basic.

One of the nice things about Linux operating systems is it’s range of screen savers, admittedly some of these are a touch on the dull side, but some them are just fantastic; flying toasters or bouncing cows being a good example!

Now thanks to Dan @ UneasySilence these screen savers have been compiled for OS X 10.6 “with 64 bit goodness.” Now you too can download the screen savers that play nicely from uneasysilence.com. Personally I think that the screen saver Substrate is worth a look at.

yFriday Calling it a Day...

2010-01-15T11:58:00Z

With five studio albums, a live album/dvd, a six track EP and single to their 17 year career yFriday today announced that the journey as a band would be ending at the end of this year. The Newcastle based band announced today through a press release on Gav’s Facebook page that autumn would be the start of a new journey for the band.

There will be a few more dates before we see the end of yFriday, the press release mentioned “…some festivals, and friends to revisit…” however the last goodbyes will be said in autumn with “…what should be our best ever dates.”

The band signed off saying:

“And for now… thank you! You’ve worshipped with us, shared our journey and inspired us to climb beyond what we dared believe. We pray you keep the torch burning and the revolution alive!”

Camera Challenge...

2010-01-14T15:21:00Z

I’ve just picked a Canon 20d off eBay. It is all very exciting! However due to a whole load of uni assignments play time with my new toy is minimal at best, but I have had it out a bit…

Here’s the challenge:

The three photos below were taken by three different cameras:

Canon 20d
Canon IXUS 80
HTC Hero

Which camera took which photo? Answers in the comments below!

Pleo Returns!

2010-01-08T11:23:00Z

Back in July I posted that a very nice company called Jetta had saved our friendly animatronic dinosaur, Pleo, from extinction. Well the company have had a stand at CES, not a huge one but a stand none the less. They have been working on the G2 Pleo and Engadget are rumouring a giant Pleo as well?

The full article can be found over on Engadget.

The Five Become Six- Bridge to Terabithia

2010-01-08T01:06:00Z

Those who know me, or are regular readers of this blog, will know that I have a top five list of films, commonly referred to as the elite five which was posted back in June. Today I would like to announce that Bridge to Terabithia has joined the elite five making the list the elite six!

The Elite Six:

Bridge to Terabithia
Donnie Darko
Lord of the Rings
The Shawshank Redemption
Stardust
V for Vendetta

Yesterday morning Ben Jiggins posted a list of five bullet points about this film; gripping story, outstanding acting, clever balance between real and imaginary worlds, clear moral, moving film. All I can say is that Ben is nothing less than spot on!

The film is based upon the book of the same name, which I have yet to read, by Katherine Paterson. The story is based around the character of Jesse Aarons, a 12 year old who is bullied at school and finds life at home a struggle being brought up in a poor family with three other siblings. His life takes a dramatic change when he gets a new neighbour; Leslie Burke who encourages him to open his mind and to imagine. Together they create this imaginary world on the other side of a river which they call Terabithia…

To go on any further would mean revealing spoilers, however what I will say is that the film is superb! One risk that you play when creating a film with children in it is getting rubbish acting, Harry Potter being a good example here, however the cast just work! The acting is “nothing short of outstanding” from the whole cast. Plus it does have Robert Patrick who rarely puts on a bad show!

One of the risks that imaginary world films have is to splash out on constant CGI through out, however here the computer graphics are used so sparingly that you as the viewer are imagining with the children what is happening. Where there was animation it wasn’t over done, or under budgeted, instead as the story went on more and more was revealed bringing you further into Terabithia.

In regards to the story; it is an emotional film, while part of it is a fairy tale in Terabithia the other part is real life; you have peaks and troughs of emotion through out. It is a story filled with gripping real life. Highly recommended.

Dreaming Androids vrs the Nexus One

2010-01-07T09:33:00Z

As mentioned in the blog yesterday Google have finally put out some hardware with their name on it; the Nexus One is currently the flagship Android device which is being used as the development handset within Google HQ.

Within Philip K. Dick’s book ‘Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep?’, which was turned into the film ‘Blade Runner’ the main character is hunting a set of escaped cyborgs with the model number Nexus 6… Spotting any similarities? Dick’s dauguter, Isa Dick Hackett, has made the claim that Google have pretty much lifted the name Nexus right out of the book saying:

â€œGoogle takes first and then deals with the fallout later… In my mind, there is a very obvious connection to my father 's novel. People don 't get it. It 's the principle of it. It would be nice to have a dialogue. We are open to it. That 's a way to start."

This isn’t the first time that Google have used names from works that they respect; Google Wave is named, and several error messages are taken, from Jos Whedon’s FireFly television series, however Google are claiming nothing of the sort. Instead Google have responded simply saying that the word Nexus is taken straight from the dictionary - “a place where things converge”, rather than a cyborg that wants to kill you!

Personally I don’t see this one being lost by Google, however what do you think? Should Google pay up?

The Nexus One

2010-01-06T18:45:00Z

Of late there have been several big phone announcements, the obvious iPhone announcements each year, Nokia released their N97, Palm put out the Pre and both Motorola and HTC have recently started selling their Android devices. Android has been a operating system created by Google open for any manufacturer to put onto their devices, so far it has been picked up by companies like HTC, Motorola, Samsung for phones, and has been taken on by Dell and Acer to produce notebooks.

So with the history lesson behind us yesterday Google, with the aid of HTC, announced the release of the Nexus One. While being built by HTC the design and the branding come straight from Google despite saying that they would be building hardware, and technically they haven’t! The phone features a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, 512Mb of RAM and will support up to 32Gb of microSD memory. Also in the machine is a 3.7" AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, a 5 megapixel camera and a battery that will supply unto 10 hours of 2g talk time.

One thing that is special to the Nexus One is the new idea of voice keyboard. It takes speech recognition and then for every text field in the phone allows you to say what you want typed, and every report that I have read has been singing it’s praises, which is impressive as most voice recognition software that has been demoed by other companies normally fails!

While at the moment the Nexus One is only available in the US on a T-Mobile contract, but it should be heading over the waves to hit the UK with Vodaphone by Spring time.

For more information you can check out more about the phone from Google.com/phone.

Technolgies that Defined the Decade

2010-01-04T01:04:00Z

Engadget earlier in the week posted an entry under the title ‘Ten Gadgets that Defined the Decade’, you can read it here. So I was curious to see what I thought were the gadgets and technologies that I thought were game changing devices.

So in alphabetical order:

iPod

Like most on the list there were mp3 players around before the iPod, however it was the iPod that really cracked the market. The iPod really taught the manufacturers what actually needed to be done to make the mp3 player successful and work well. It is debatable whether this device is the best mp3 player around at the moment, however it certainly created lots of competition!

iPhone

The iPhone taught the lesson of conversion; putting several devices in to one and doing it well behind a touch screen. Without the iPhone we wouldn’t devices such as the Palm Pre or the firmware of Google’s Android. In addition we have seen a huge increase of touch screen devices, which have been a mixed blessing! The iPhone is the reason we have the perfect pairing of Android and HTC!

iPlayer

Those who are observational will point out that 4oD came first, however it was BBC’s iPlayer that really got it sussed! Originally out for just Windows Xp, however now expanded beyond just the landscape of basic computers on to various mobile devices and even onto games consoles. What iPlayer did was made the Beeb’s content freely available in a online format, 4oD, ITV Player, Hulu and other online services have based their services on iPlayer. However that aside looking into the future Internet Protocol TV with the delivery of live broadcasts and on demand TV iPlayer and such like have a big future.

iTunes Store

Love it or hate it the iTunes music store really has made a difference both to users and to the music industry. Before the store music downloads were typically illegally done through programs such as Napster, Kazaa or LimeWire. Now with a legal method users have even been given control over music charts with downloads playing a huge part in the weekly top 40 charts.

Kindle

While Amazon’s Kindle hasn’t taken off hugely in the UK it has been a huge success in the US creating a new medium of eBooks. With Amazon’s huge database of eBooks online, Whispernet and their expansion to other devices such as the iPhone it has created a service to aim for by the competition. Sony’s eBook reader has been latched onto by Waterstones and has been forced to step up the mark with the release of the Kindle in the UK.

Linux (The Popularisation of…)

Linux is not a new idea, not be a long shot, and certainly it isn’t a creation of this decade, however it is the popularisation of Linux in consumer devises, et al that has transformed the technology of this decade. Almost everything from modern TVs and mobile phones to media players and GPS devices run a basic cut down form of Linux to run many of the key features. This makes Linux the dominant operating system.

Multicore Processing

Multicore processors have changed the way that users can use their computers, with just a single core processing several tasks at a time, or processing one huge task such as video rendering, took ages. With the expansion to multiple cores within a processor computers are now able to process multiple tasks such as video and photo editing simultaneously.

MySpace

Normally I would laugh at anyone who said that MySpace deserved anything when you have much more exciting things such as Facebook or Twitter, however it was MySpace that really took off and created real social networking that people used. In turn the idea of social networking is a key part of what we now know as web 2.0 which has radically transformed the web.

USB Memory Stick

ny thing that killed the floppy disc deserves an award, so it gets a place on my list of tech of the decade! I found my first memory stick a couple of weeks ago; 8Mb, now you can get 128Gb at the same physical size, I have hard drives smaller than that! I’ll actually broaden out the place to flash memory which has allowed technologies to memory cards, solid state drives and all the application that comes with it; cameras, laptops, phones, etc

Wii

Nintendo created something special when the Wii was released, no it wasn’t the hard core gamer console that we expected from Sony or Microsoft, however what they did was create a console that allowed people who are not gamers to enjoy it, in addition to that they created a console with a radically new way of controlling the game

Many thanks to Nick and Gareth for their input into this list.

Why 'The End of Time' was the Second Worst Episode of Doctor Who

2010-01-01T22:24:00Z

Firstly, I would like to make it very clear: David Tennant as the Doctor has been absolutely fantastic. Seriously brilliant. He has done an amazing job of the Doctor, and this rant has nothing to do with his ability to play the character… Also I would like to make it clear that this is just my humble opinion, I don’t expect you to take it as fact, if you liked it please feel free to write in the comments below what you liked about it and how wrong I am!

This was not the worst episode of Doctor Who, not by a long shot, hat tip to Huw for reminding me of this fact and redeeming ‘The End of Time’ a lot. The worst episode by far goes to the episode Love and Monsters written by Russell T. Davies (Season 2, Episode 10). If you have seen it you’ll know what I mean, if you haven’t seen it then don’t. Anyways on to ‘The End of Time’…

I have never been a real fan of Russell T. Davies (RTD) story lines, the first season worked more or less for him, however it all went down hill, there were a couple of good episodes that he wrote, however the majority have been poor. I am very grateful that he brought Doctor Who back, of that I am completely grateful, however his plot lines leave something to be desired…

Donna

Lets start with the reoccurrence of Donna Noble… can somebody explain to me why she was there? what exactly did Donna’s character add to the whole thing? I see no reason for her being there… RTD started to set it up for DoctorDonna to return and save the day, however all she did was take out a couple of the Master’s copies and then curl up and fall asleep… a touch on the pointless?

The Master

We all knew from the time that the ring was dropped at the end of ‘Last of the Time Lords’ that the Master was coming back, and I am glad that he came back for the finale of the David Tennant era. Despite not quite explaining how they brought the Master back, they did it with style! However why why why did they kill him off? Ok, I presume they have killed him off… but there is no sight of him after the Time Lords vanish back into the time lock. Grrg. There is implication, spoken by the Time Lords, that this is the final battle between the Doctor and the Master.

The Time Lords

Actually, no I liked the Time Lords… nothing bad to say about them. TimothyDalton played his part very well.

The Doctor’s Fall

There is no way that the Doctor could survive the fall through the glass, he is just as fragile as a human, in ‘Last of the Time Lords’ we see that a bullet can kill a Time Lord unless they regenerate. The Doctor cannot fall that far with out having to regenerate, it should of killed him. Fact.

The White Point Star

While I have little problem with the use of the White Point Star to pull the Time Lord’s out of the time lock, what I do take issue with is how the diamond managed to make it out of the time lock… How exactly did that work again, throwing a diamond into a hologram? Oh wait… that would be a plot hole.

Immortality Gate

Aside for the lame name, it was a good way to turn everyone into the Master, I think that did work, however killing the template reverts everyone back to normal? No, that doesn’t work, in part one it was explained that it was used for healing entire planets, if there is a connection with the original template then the whole world would become ill when they did, or revert back to the original condition when the original died of old age?

Star Wars

What? What is Star Wars doing here? The sequence in the space ship is a direct rip off of Star Wars where Luke and Han Solo are fighting off the tie fighters. Even the sets look the same. There is a reference to the galactic assembly in the way that the Time Lords assemble… there is even a cantina scene at the end of the episode! This is one of my main gripes with RTD, he likes to reference a lot of pop culture… I just don’t know why he does it.

There was a line that the Doctor said in response to Wilf saying “I’ve heard you talk about your people; they’re wonderful” and the Doctor response with “that’s how I choose to remember them”. I will choose to remember the David Tennant era by many of the brilliant episodes (Girl in the Fire Place, Human Nature, Silence in the Library and of course Blink to name a few), I have really enjoyed them. No, I didn’t enjoy this episode, however it isn’t going to colour my memory of David Tennant’s Doctor.

Looking into the future with Matt Smith, I am very excited, there is a lot going on there. The new beginning looks brilliant!

Discovered bands of 2009

2009-12-31T10:20:00Z

This time last year I wrote a post on the bands that I discovered in the previous year… and this year I think I’ll do it again!

Portland
I have raved about Portland since I first heard them at Spring Harvest this year, how can they not be on this list? The three piece from just outside Birmingham have a fantastic laid back style that I just love! They are both fantastic live and in the studio which is a very good mix!

Al Gordon
I found about this guy via Dave Stephenson at Hebron this year. He is what Survivor Records have branded as an ‘Emerging Worship Leader’ and his 8 track debut EP is stunning! Well worth a listen

One Sonic Society
Forming out of the dust that is now Delirious? One Sonic Society is made up of Stu G, Jon Thatcher, Jason Ingram and Paul Mabury. While they have yet to actually release an album or EP, the current tracks that they have released via their website (http://www.onesonicsociety.com) are sounding very promising!

Anchor and Braille
This is the acoustic solo project of Stephen Christian, lead singer of Anberlin, earlier this year Christian released the debut album Felt which went straight to #30 in one of the US charts

Canterbury
I have a Facebook status of Sam Hailes to thank for this one, Canterbury offered their debut album ‘Thank You’ online and after downloading and having a listen to it I really enjoyed it! They have been touring around the country for the last couple of months and have picked up quite a following (2000 downloads in the first day). Well worth a listen if you get the time!

A Year of Films... The Top Five

2009-12-27T16:06:00Z

The top five list of quality films from the last year… While none of them make it into the elite top five, they are all worth a watch! So as per tradition, in alphabetical order:

Fanboys
Star Trek
Watchmen
Where the Wild Things Are
Zombieland

FYI: I have yet to see Avatar!<

Spoilers below…

Fanboys (Kyle Newman - 2009 - 4 Stars)

Technically speaking this film was released late 2008… however due to various issues and problems and such like it actually came out early 2009. So with the disclaimer there out of the way; this is a film made by Star Wars fanboys! The basic idea is that a group of Star Wars fans need to break into Skywalker Ranch (George Lucas’ home) to steal a copy of The Phantom Menace to allow one of the characters to watch the film before he dies of cancer. On the way there are various, hilarious, sci-fi references a couple of fantastic guest appearances (none other than the William Shatner), and the immortal final line ‘hey guys, what if this movie sucks’.

Star Trek (J.J. Abrams - 2009 - 5 Stars)

Continuing on in the sci-fi geekery Star Trek is next in the top five list, how could it not be? J. J. Abrams, perhaps best known for his work on Lost and Alias, took the Star Trekfranchisewhich had almost completely died out and kick started it off again, returning right back to the original series and rebuilt the USS Enterprise. While staying true to old school Star Trek it brought it right forward to the 21st century with a clever story (you can’t go wrong with time travel), a really really good cast, and some pretty cool CGI moments. Well worth a watch, even if you don’t do Star Trek!

Watchmen (Zack Snyder - 2009 - 5 Stars)

From sci-fi in to the realm of fantasy, Watchmen is based upon the Alan Moore graphic novel published by DC way back in '86 and '87. Snyder’s adaption follows the comic almost frame by frame in parts, taking the story and simply converting it for the big screen, no additions or subtractions; perfectly done.

Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze - 2009 - 5 Stars)

Yes, I know, it’s a kids film… based upon a kids book… which has about 10 sentences, however it is fantastic! The story is of a young child, Max, runs away into his imaginary world where there are wild things are… Firstly what makes this film the fact that the child can actually do a decent job of acting, miles better than any of the Harry Potter actors managed in the Philosophers Stone. Secondly the voice acting of the wild things is brilliantly done,absolutelybrilliant interaction. Finally the mixture of costumes and CGI faces for the wild things is spot on, it did bring the characters to life. The story is a sad one, but brilliantly told.

Zombieland - (Ruben Fleischer - 2009 - 4.5 Stars)

Finally, ending on a comedy. Zombieland was advertised to me as the American version of Shaun of the Dead, and it is, and don’t let that put you off it… it is actually genuinely funny, at least I found it funny. The film follows the character Columbus in a post-apocalypticworld invested with zombies, Columbus lives by a set of rules to keep himself alive, these being CGI’ed on to the screen at relevant times just add to the comic element. No, it’s not intelectual, however it will make you chuckle.

So there you have it, my films of the year, how does your list compair?

Sound Track of a Decade (2000-2009)

2009-12-26T14:11:00Z

Back before Christmas I posed the question ‘What are your top ten tracks of the last ten years’. Having posed the question and read through many peoples lists, I thought it was only fair that I completed my own list! There were a couple of ways I could have of done this however I decided to pick a track from each year of the last decade:

2000 - My Glorious; Delirious?

Glo by Delirious, this is an album that will be ranking high in my albums of the decade, and My Glorious is just a fraction of the reasons that it is there. This was the song that really stood out the first time I saw Delirious? live, fantastic guitar with lyrics written for real people to actually sing along with! Have a listen

2001 - Everything; Lifehouse

This year had some spectacular releases, Lifehouse’s No Name Face was just one of them, Falling Down by a band called Steve, Tait’s Empty and Kevin Max’s released Stereotype Be. This song has gained it’s place this year as a combination of a stunning musical arrangement, solid lyrics, and this youtube video.

2002 - Mother; Sabio

Sabio is a band that has only one eight track album to their name, however the album is gold. Actually picking a specific song out of the selection was a hard enough challenge! Joe has summed up the track very well on his own blog, and I think to say any less here would be injustice!

2003 - In the Remote Part / Scottish Fiction; Idlewild

There are many tracks that could take this position; yFriday’s Revolution, Relient K’s Forward Motion, Comfort in Sound by Feeder or Delirious?'s Everything Little Thing however Idlewild hold the song of '03! The track is divided into two sections, and it is the second section that really stands out for me; the Scottish poet Edwin Morgan reading the poem entitled Scottish Fiction over the top of the music, it just sounds stunning!

2004 - Control; Mute Math

Seeing Mute Math live a couple of years ago was one of those things I won’t be forgetting in a hurry. Control opens the Reset EP with a fantastic electro-rock sound that continues through the disc; piano synth, raw drumming and the fantastic vocal work of Paul Meany just makes this a track to be reckoned with!

2005 - Word Play; Jason Mraz

Taken from the album Mr A-Z, Wordplay takes jazz, pop, rock and a side helping of hip-hop and beautiful combines them in this just generally feel good song!

2006 - Love and Radiation; All Star United

According to my Last.FM account this is my most listened to track of all time! Love and Radiation, taken from the album of the same name, just takes the energy of ASU’s early days and matures it to this radio friendly pop rock track.

2007 - Inevitable - Anberlin

‘Do you remember when we were just kids, and cardboard boxes took us miles from what we would miss?’ are the fantastic opening two lines of this classic track. The whole album is just a work of art, however this song works the music and the heart felt poetry of Stephen Christian perfectly.

2008 - Clarity; Shawn McDonald

Roots, the album Clarity is taken from, came out during the time I was working in Wesley Owen, I was assured that if I listened to the album enough while working there I would no longer want to buy the thing. Alas this didn’t happen. Clarity is just one of those laid back tracks that I can just put on to relax and enjoy the music.

2009 - Tonight; Portland

I discovered this band at Spring Harvest this year, and their debut album is nothing short of fantastic (you can read my review in a previous entry). Tonight is the single released from the same album. It sums up Portland’s style; chilled lounge music, simple guitar and piano with multilayered vocals. Pure brilliance!

Other bloggers lists:

Ben Jiggins - These Thoughts of Mine
Joe Williams - Amos & Paul
Elaine McKee - This n That
Sam Hailes - The Random Musings if “holymansam”

The Problem with Spotify

2009-12-18T20:28:00Z

For those who have yet to come across Spotify (where have you been?) it is a very handy piece of software that allows you to listen to almost any music while not actually having to go out and buy the track, this is done through sponsorship in the form of adverts. I find this really useful if I want to sample an album, get a feel for it, to decide if I want to actually go out and pay for it!

While these adverts are necessary to allow Spotify to stay in business there really really needs to be changes made. The way I see it there are two main issues for me. Firstly the adverts really are not varied enough, if I am going to listen to an advert every (roughly) six tracks, which I generally* don’t mind, I really don’t want to hear the same advert during each break… rather than promoting the product to me it actually puts me off it.

The second issue I have with the adverts is that 99% of the time they just have no relevance to me. Spotify should know quite a lot about me by my music taste, it can probably work out that giving me adverts about drug use or STDs just isn’t relevant to me… If you are going to store my play history, which they must do, they could at least use it to benefit me?

Other than that, I think it is a great service!

* I say generally don’t mind; if it is a live album, or and album that flows really well I do get a touch annoyed

What Are Your 10 Tracks of the Last 10 Years?

2009-12-15T10:18:00Z

This week some of the bloggers I follow have been looking back on the last year and also the last decade of music and picking out their favourites…

Within the next week I look to be doing the same, however before I do I was wondering what do you think? What would you put down as your favourite album of the last year? Or what 10 tracks sums up the last ten years?

Write your thoughts in the comments below!

Bluetree Working on Second Album!

2009-12-07T13:43:00Z

The Belfast based band, Bluetree, who since 2007 have gained a lot of support, have had their debut albumGreater Things/God of this Cityreleased and re-released no less that four times! Over the last two years the band have been back and forth all around the world touring on their own and touring with Chris Tomlin, Jon Foreman, yFriday, Vicky Beeching and Delirious?

Since October the band’s official website has stated that the band “will be making an announcement shortly” and today Bluetree confirmed, through Facebook and Twitter, that they have started work on their second album. No other details have been announced, however the pressure is already on with many voices looking for the band to take up the baton that Delirious? have left. In America Greater Things/God of this Citymade it to the number one slot in the Christian Retail Chart, the band were quick to comment that “This is for His Name and His Renown! This is for you Jesus!”

Special Edition vrs Normal Release

2009-11-24T09:12:00Z

Yesterday I wrote about a small piece of news about the latest release by Anberlin (you can read it here), a year or so after the release of their latest album, New Surrender, they are releasing a special edition album with extra unreleased tracks, a documentary DVD, etc. This really annoys me, not the fact that they are releasing this material, but that the fact that they are doing this now!

I really like it when bands decided to give the real fans something extra; the casual listener can buy the normal edition whereas the fans can buy special edition, for a little bit extra, to get a collectors edition. For example the greatest hits album that has just been released by Delirious? came in two flavours; the normal edition which contained the top 14 Delirious tracks, and the special edition which came as a double disc album of 31 tracks with a DVD of their music videos and a 52 page book. This gave the casual listener the ability to just buy just the standard edition, while at the same time the fans could buy the special edition with the extras.

What Anberlin, and many other bands, have done is released the standard edition, which the collectors and the casual fans alike can go out and buy, and then released the special edition of the same album a year down the line so the collectors go and buy the album twice just to get these new tracks… some how doesn’t seem fair. From a business point of the band in makes perfect sense to do it, especially coming up to Christmas, however from my view I want to get these new tracks, however I don’t want to pay for the whole album again…

What are people’s thoughts?

Anberlin Prepare Deluxe Edition of New Surrender

2009-11-23T11:12:00Z

Anberlin have just launched their pre-order form for a deluxe edition of their latest album New Surrender which was released back in September '08. This new edition, being released on the 11th December, contains all the original tracks taken from the album, alongside six extra tracks including their recent cover of True Faith by New Order and an acoustic version of Feel Good Drag. The release also contains a 26 minute documentary DVD following the band while they were touring in Australia and a music video for Feel Good Drag. The full track listing is after the break.

You can pre-order the album now from Anberlin’s website now for $14 (£8.50).

The Resistance
Breaking
Blame Me! Blame Me!
Retrace
Feel Good Drag
Disappear
Breathe
Burn Out Brighter
Younglife
Haight St
Soft Skeletons
Miserable Visu (Ex Malo Bonum)
Mother (B-Side)
Heavier Things Remain (B-Side)
True Faith (B-Side)
Said And Done (B-Side)
A Perfect Tourniquet (B-Side)
Feel Good Drag (Acoustic) (B-Side)

Hebron - End of an Era

2009-11-19T23:42:00Z

Some of you will know for the last many years I have attended a Scripture Union camp called Hebron and this year I returned as a leader. The Hebron week at the beginning of the summer holidays has been a week that I have always looked forward to and it has been a time that I have made some great friend and really grown in my Christian faith. Hebron is a place where I have many life changing memories. Today, I found that this years Hebron was to be the last Hebron holiday to happen and I really am quite gutted by the news.

I would like to thank Colin and Margy, Matt, Phil, Paul, Dave & Ruth, Dan, Amy, all of those from Nexus and all the other leaders that were there for my first years, thanks for everything that you put into making in happen. Verity; you will never be a real leader, but I love you anyway! Maz & Trev; your cooking is just amazing, kept me going! Also a special thanks to Simon, Ben and Jenny, to Jessie, Ellie, Tom, Giles, Dom & Owen for just being awesome… all of you wow! To everyone else who came as a camper and helped to make these weeks so special for me. And finally to Dave Panting; I owe you a lot, maybe see you again one day?

I’ve just been flicking back over some old photos… So many great memories.

Wow, Hebron, I will miss you.

A Horrible Turn... A Prequel

2009-11-13T08:23:00Z

Ok, so I got excited about Dr. Horrible, and about act 4 which is coming soon… However at the moment I am getting excited about the fan made prequel, the footnote reads:

"Any similarity to the characters created by Joss Whedon is, like, totally a coincidence, and by ‘coincidence’ we mean accidental, and by ‘accidental’ we mean fortunate, and by ‘fortunate’ we mean intentional, and by ‘intentional’ we mean unauthorised… please don’t sue us Joss.’

Which is in itself is hilarious, and the Horrible Turn is equally funny, learning from the model of Dr Horrible. It is a beautiful. Such a well made job! Good effort guys!

Have a watch on Viemo.

Dollhouse Axed

2009-11-11T21:52:00Z

The news is in, and it’s not good; Dollhouse is being axed after just two seasons. Fox has said that all the episodes that have been planned will be made allowing the show to wrap up loose ends, however I just want more! Dollhouse is great, I have really been enjoying it, it doesn’t deserve to be canceled so soon.

The final order of release is as follows:

Dec. 4 - 8:00PM-10:00PM ET/PT (Episodes 5 & 6)
Dec. 11 - 8:00PM-10:00PM ET/PT (Episodes 7 & 8)
Dec. 18 - 8:00PM-10:00PM ET/PT (Episodes 9 & 10)
Jan. 8 - 9:00PM-10:00PM ET/PT (Episode 11)
Jan. 15 - 9:00PM-10:00PM ET/PT (Episode 12)
Jan. 22 - 9:00PM-10:00PM ET/PT (Episode 13 / Series Finale)

Procrastination -- Surviving the World

2009-11-11T13:18:00Z

In a major period of procrastination this afternoon (HCI assignment!) I was introduced to a daily web comic entitled Surviving the World. One guy, one blackboard, one piece of chalk = genius! If you get time, or like me you are just looking to be distracted I suggest you take a wander over to http://survivingtheworld.net/

Much appreciation to Caitlin for the original link: thedaysarenotfullenough.tumblr.com

That would be Sir Christopher Lee to you

2009-11-05T13:08:00Z

With over 250 film and TV appearances in the bag Christopher Lee, most well known for his roles in Dracula, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, etc, was knighted by the Prince of Wales at the end of last month. Word is that he will also be showing up in Alice and Wonderland which I am still rather excited about!

That's My King

2009-11-04T16:28:00Z

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. When life calms down there may be something exciting… I have some thoughts I would like to share at some point, however for now please view this video; it was displayed at CU this week, very thought provoking speech about Jesus by a guy called S.M. Lockridge presented using footage from The Passion of the Christ:

Question Time

2009-10-23T13:25:00Z

If you get time this week I really recomend having a watch of BBC Question Time. It wasn’t a typical Question Time, rather than focusing on issues from this week, it looked very much at the British National Party with its leader, Nick Griffin, on the panel alongside Baroness Warsi, Chris Huhne, Bonnie Greer and Jack Straw. It is up on iPlayer for the next week.

If you don’t have time to watch the show, only 1 hour, you can read the Guardian’s summary of the show which they live blogged :: http://www.guardian.co.uk/

The political debate comes from London, with a panel including Justice Secretary Jack Straw; the Conservative spokeswoman for community cohesion, Baroness Warsi; Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman; the leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin; and playwright and author, Bonnie Greer. David Dimbleby chairs.

Tech Monday- Dyson, Finland, Acer, Nokia, Adobe Photoshop and Kelloggs!

2009-10-19T14:56:00Z

Our favourite over priced vacuum cleaner producer and recently hand driers have done it again, another revolutionary design that probably does a fantastic job and a ridiculous price; Dyson have just released a fanless fan… also known as the Dyson Air Multiplier. The fan does have blades within it, however not in the traditional place; the blades are located in the lower compartment and then the air is then pushed up into the ring. The fan will come in two models; a ten inch costing $300 and a twelve inch for $330… While is it expensive I really want one!

The laptop company Acer have just launched their latest netbook last Wednesday, normally this wouldn’t be notable news for my blog, I reserve that for important tech news… like desk fans, however this netbook will dual-boot (will have two operating systems) the first will be Windows 7, and the second will be Google’s Android. The machine isn’t touchscreen which will make using Android a little odd, however from what I have been reading as long as you don’t have massive thumbs the machine is easy enough to use!

Finland has proven that they are ahead of the game in the world of tech by today introducing laws that guarantee broadband access to all the population of Finland (roughly 5.5 million people). The law will come into effect in July next year and will ensure each household has access to at least a 1mb connection at which will be extended over time to a seriously impressive 100mb connection.

Nokia have had a really really bad last 3 months, having lost $834 million… this is despite the N97 being released recently. With Apple, HTC and Palm doing quite nicely at the moment someone had to take a fall, it is just a shame that it is Nokia.

I mentioned last week about the upcoming Adobe Flash update coming somewhen with iPhone app support, Adobe have put out more details about some of the technology going into the next release of photoshop; for those interested there is a brief 5 minute video showing off two of the new features on YouTube.

And to end in the fashion of many news broadcasts with the funny news story of the week; in an effect to prevent fake cereal being sold Kelloggs are looking to laser their logo on to every corn flake that they make… seems a little over kill to me, however very cool! You really can’t go wrong with lasers!

Which Hero is Going to Die?

2009-10-14T13:14:00Z

The latest Heroes rumour is that someone fairly significant, and not wearing a red top, is going to be killed off fairly soon… The quote from Michael Ausiello is this:

A male series regular on a one-hour drama - a onetime ratings powerhouse - learned that he was out of a job only after reading his character’s death scene in the script! According to my mole, the popular and well-respected leading man - who tapes his final scenes this week - was blindsided not just by his ouster, but by the tacky way in which it was handled. “He was hurt that the producers didn’t tell him first,” says the source. “He deserved better.”

So that narrows it down to the blatantly obvious… The males who have made it into the latest series are; Noah, Matt, Peter, Hiro, Ando and Sylar… and of all them who is dying? Hiro. So I think we can finally say goodbye to Hiro (and therefore Ando) very very soon!

That said, it wouldn’t exactly be a surprising death… and while I wouldn’t mind saying goodbye to Hiro and Ando, I would also quite like to kill off Matt too…

Photoshop, a Dove and the French

2009-10-13T09:12:00Z

A couple of weeks ago Photoshop Disasters picked up this quite frankly horrific photoshop job done for a Ralph Lauren advert… The comment “Dude, her head’s bigger than her pelvis!” from a Boing Boing user sums up how bad this really is. To even the novice, it is fairly obvious that, the model, Filippa Hamilton, has been photoshopped beyond repair, however this still was deemed acceptable by the media division at Ralph Lauren…

As soon as Ralph Lauren saw that Boing Boing had gone fairly crazy over this, their lawyers of all shapes and sizes descended on the blog and tried to shut it down using a DMCA infringement notice (aka copyright theft):

“…We have discovered that Boing Boing… has reproduced and displayed one of the advertisements without PRL’s authorisation… [boring waffle]… as such, we ask that you remove this infringing material.”

The full notice is here. This is one of the best methods for making sure that the picture spreads all over the internet and fast. And that is exactly what happened! So after a lot of back and forth Ralph Lauren finally released this:

“For over 42 years, we have built a brand based on quality and integrity. After further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman’s body. We have addressed the problem and going forward will take every precaution to ensure that the caliber of our artwork represents our brand appropriately.”

I bring this up, however this isn’t a new thing, the blog; Photoshop Disasters has been around for a very long time bring the best failures from photoshopers around the world. But it’s not as if people haven’t stood up and tried to point out that the amount of photoshopping that is going on is ethically grey; it gives people the wrong impression. Take for example the fantastic example of what Dove did a couple of years ago with the Campaign for Real Beauty. Their evolution advert was one of the best advert I have ever seen (see below).

And this is where the French come in! At the moment, with the support of 50 politicians, going through the French legal system is a proposed law to mark on every photo of a person that has been photoshopped the notice “Photograph retouched to modify the physical appearance of a person” but in French! And the reason for following this law? A â‚¬37,000 ish (£34,000) fine that accompanies failure to comply! The law is being driven by the argument that images that have been digitally manipulated can"lead people to believe in a reality that does not actually exist, and have a detrimental effect on adolescents."

Now lots of people are sceptical about this; the guidelines are fairly blurry (what counts a retouching; removal of red eye, changing hair colour, etc), the enforcement of this would be a nightmare, etc. However, despite this, I think that this is a really good opening move by the French government to combat the unrealistic view that the media has decided portray “beauty”. It would be great to see people stand out from the crowd by not using digital manipulation to shine.

Tech Monday- Flashing Kindles... and T-Mobile

2009-10-12T18:40:00Z

A little intro to the start of this blog post… in the future, rather than blogging every exciting piece of tech news that comes my way as soon as I get it I am going to be collecting the news up into one blog post that I will put out each Monday. That way hopefully the blog won’t get too tech heavy. That said, if something really really exciting and interesting happens I will probably blog it straight away! So without further ado

Last Monday, a couple of hours after my previous blog post of Wave, Windows Seven and Amazon the company Adobe, responsible for programs like Photoshop, Dreamweaver and InDesign, to name a few, announced a very big feature for Flash Developers regarding the iPhone. Using their programming language; Action Script, current flash developers will be able to develop applications for the iPhone, and rather than run them as a plugin for the browser, the applications created will be able to run as native programs on the iPhone. In practice this means that iPhone development will be opened up to millions more developers so for iPhone and iPod Touch owners there will be more programs available in the App Store. For a (slightly) more in-depth intro, the Adobe website is very helpful!

As I mentioned last Monday, Amazon did indeed announce that they would be releasing an international version of the Kindle. At the moment, all this really means is that UK users will be able to import the device from the US for about £200. The ability to buy books over the air on the device, rather than having to use the amazon website will also be included in that price. More details are available fromAmazon.com

And also, one of the biggest fails of cloud computing happened this week. My experience with T-Mobile has been a little less that great, poor signal, firmware taking forever to be ‘validated’, etc. However this is nothing compared to what T-Mobile have done to Sidekick users. 99% of functionality of the phone is done through the net connection to the T-Mobile server, this includes things like contacts, address book, random files. Due to a massive massive fail by T-Mobile all the data of the server has been completely lost. That’s right, T-Mobile don’t have a backup and they lost all the data that is used by Sidekick users. Fail.

Review of Relient K- Forget and Not Slow Down

2009-10-10T12:43:00Z

Forget and Not Slow Down follows on the five album progression of the band Relient K. You would be forgiven for thinking that we have only just had an album from the band in the form of The Birds and the Beesides & The Nashville Tennis EP, however that was possibly one of the biggest EPs produced by any band ever! Their previous album, released two years ago, Five Score and Seven Years Ago received fantastic reviews across the board and sold 64,000 copies in it’s first week!

This new album, released on the 6th October '09, has been in the works since the beginning of the year, written primarily by front man Matt Thiessen, the album weighs in at 15 tracks and comes to a total length of 43 minutes.

The title track is the opener for the album which delivers a sound that can only be described as Relient K! It is upbeat, fast with a very typical mix of instruments. However also within it is a sound that we were treated to within The Nashville Tennis EP, it really shows progression from the band, while still keeping in touch with their punk pop roots.

The next two tracks, I Don’t Need A Soul and Candlelight, really do keep this happy, vibrant, sound going. One of the things really to mention here is the time and thought that has obviously gone into the track order, the cutting between Candlelight and Flare (tracks 3 & 4) as well as the progression between Therapy and Over It (tracks 7 & 8) just work so well together.

Savannah (track 11) moves into an almost indie-pop sound really do show that Relient K haven’t lost any of their catchy sound, while showing real development in their musical style. The final two tracks, which in practice is one track, This is the End and (If You Want It), perfectly round up the album, with a style like ‘Where Do I Go From Here’, from the previous EP, with a soft piano opening which opens up into a loud and lively track, only to return to a perfect close to the album.

This album doesn’t just contain really good music though, the track Therapy is an example of this, it isn’t just a good tune but also contains really meaningful lyrics, showing how it often only when people are feeling most alone they turn to God. The whole album lyrically really looks at the relationships, Thiessen said himself that this album was written in response to the break down of his engagement. The title track, Forget and Not Slow Down’s opening lyrics; “How many times can I push it aside? Is it time I befriended all the ghosts of all the things that haunt me most?” really does start as it means to go on, and the album’s lyrics reflect deep and personal emotion.

Even though the album delivers strong moving content, Relient K have not made any compromises to the high quality that fans have learnt to expect from the band. Relient K have really diversified into other styles of music keeping elements of their origins. It isn’t a perfect album, it could do without some of the filler tracks that last barely a minute, however these are a small price to pay for the maturing sound of the band in this album. It still holds onto the catchy, youthful sound while being a strong progression into a new direction. It is a testament that bands can still put out a strong disc even after 10 years playing together!

Want to preview the album? Have a listen on Spotify or through Amazon

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Standout Tracks:

Forget and Not Slow Down
Therapy
Sahara
Savannah

Saturn has an Extra Large Ring!

2009-10-08T14:10:00Z

Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space. And as a result scientists are always finding new and exciting things about it. One of the more interesting discoveries of late has come very close to home… The planet Saturn, the second largest in our solar system and placed sixth from the sun, known my many because of it’s rings has had another huge ring added to it.

This new ring is 200 times larger than any of the current rings and is made up of lots of tiny particles of dust that are invisible to the naked eye. These particles of dust are thought to come from impacts of tiny meteors that have hit one of Saturn’s orbiting moons called Phoebe which is in the centre of this giant new ring.

Scientists have always been curious as to why Iapetus, another of Saturn’s closer moons, has a light and dark patch around it. The theory of this ring was originally proposed back in the seventies by Joseph Burns, however it is only through the advances in telescope technology that has allowed NASA to see the invisible ring using the infra-red Spitzer Space Telescope.

It has also been theorised that the moon Rhea, which also orbits Saturn, has a set of rings, however these have only been inferred as a result of odd magnetic fields, nothing conclusive has been seen. If this was proved then it would be the first moon found to have a set of rings.

New Doctor... New Logo?

2009-10-06T14:40:00Z

The BBC have just released more excitement regarding Doctor Who 2010. Alongside a new Doctor and assistant, a slightly modified exterior of the TARDIS which will probably mean a new inside there is also going to be a new logo and therefore a new title sequence to welcome Matt Smith into his role as the 11th Doctor.

Matt Smith will come into the role as part of the Christmas specials this year which will be a two part extended mini-series. This will then lead into the fifth series starting in Spring.

Tech Monday- Seven Kindling Waves...

2009-10-04T22:04:00Z

There is a fair amount of tech news this week, and for a change a lot of it is rather interesting! The main bits of news are, in order of general interest, Windows Seven, Amazon Kindle and Google Wave.

So to start off with a nice and short piece of news; Windows Seven is now available for £30 to students from microsoft.com. Also because they are feeling fairly nice they are offering Office for £40 in the same deal. If you want to read a little more about this one please have a look at my previous blog post.

The next piece of exciting news is that The Times is reporting that the Amazon Kindle will be released in the UK within the next couple of weeks. The Kindle is an ebook reader which uses technology called e-ink rather than a standard display, the benefit of this is that it only draws power when the display is changed rather constantly to output the pages of the book. This means that the battery of the device lasts for almost a fortnight! The Kindle also comes with a free connection to the Kindle store so that you can download new books onto the device anywhere. You can find out more details for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Finally the big release of the week is Google Wave, which for the majority of people will go completely unnoticed! Basically Wave is a cross between email, instant messaging, social networking and collaborative editing. I’ve put the official introduction video below (warning it is long) however I will attempt to give a brief, simple, explanation of what Google Wave is and the purpose.

The idea of wave is to make it easier for people to work on projects together. Each email, document, or file are presented in the form of waves and can be shared between two or more people, there they can work on a plans, through around ideas, etc. One of the key features of Wave is that it is extendable, as with other Google products like iGoogle, you can add extra widgets, applications and enhancements created by other developers to extend to meet the purpose of of the project, for example you can add in a calendar application to create deadlines, etc. Wave is going to be used as a business tool, however I can see it being very very useful if it is successful. I am still waiting for my invite to come through for Wave so when it does I’ll give a more detailed walk through of the system.

The other smaller news is that there may (or may not) be new iMac’s, MacBooks and MacMini’s next week so don’t buy anything tomorrow!

A Unified Theory of Superman's Powers

2009-09-30T23:30:00Z

We’ve all seen Superman in one form or another, be it from film to comic or TV series to book. Rather than having one superpower, as seen in a show like Heroes or a films like DareDevil, Superman has many; flying, super strength, heat vision, etc. However I have come across a rather exciting theory that suggests that all of these super powers actually root from one power…

A guy called Ben Tippett has sat down and analysed what we see of Superman and has come to the conclusion that his power are the manifestation of being able to “manipulate… the inertia of his own and any matter with which he is in contact.” Does that make sense? I had to read it a couple of times!

It’s fine, Ben gives us some helpful examples! If you have seen anything of Superman you will have noticed that sooner or later a person will have found themselves trying to be a bird… and some what unsuccessfully; Lois Lane is falling through the sky and Superman flies along to rescue her… what a hero! Now what we would expect to see is Superman fly along and then dip to match her rate of falling and then pull her back up, if he did not Lois Lane might as well hit the ground, Superman is just as solid… However what we see is Superman flies straight, intersects the falling Miss Lane and keeps on going with a somewhat flustered Lois Lane.

So the theory states that as soon as Superman makes contact with the falling damsel in distress he reduces her momentum to cushion her fall, rather than adjust the air around him to support him…

If you are curious about reading the whole document (which I highly recommend) you should check it out here: A Unified Theory of Superman’s Powers. It is well worth a read.

Autumn Television

2009-09-26T10:46:00Z

Over the last year I have rarely got excited over what is showing on the box, especially after the cancellation of Stargate Atlantis and the conclusion of Battlestar Galactica. However this autumn is looking like it is going to be rather exciting. Firstly the return of The Big Bang Theory and Heroes on Monday. Last night saw the much anticipated airing of season two of Dollhouse in the US, which I personally am very excited about!

Then over the following few Fridays we will see the premier of Stargate Universe (which had better not disappoint) and the following week the second season of Sanctuary. I am personally surprised that Sanctuary got renewed… however I will not complain about it, I thought it had much potential!

I may be tempted to do a review of the start of each season… we will see how excited I am about each. However at the moment Big Bang Theory is still awesome and Heroes had a really good start, which if the previous seasons are anything to go by it will just end the season with a massive load of awesomeness thrown away, the season endings have just been poor… I am still waiting for Heroes to be as epic as it should be. Dollhouse and Stargate Universe will be fantastic, and I will wait and see about Sanctuary, but I am hopeful for it!

Dorian Gray

2009-09-25T22:27:00Z

Before I start I won’t lie, before watching the film I didn’t read the book… I’m a bad person, I am reading it now and really enjoying it… confession over! So a little history lesson; The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel written by Oscar Wilde in 1891, the story is based around Dorian Gray, a young man who has just moved to Victorian London. Here is taken under the arm of Lord Henry Wotton who has a negative influence over Gray, encouraging him to live a life of pleasure. After seeing a painting of himself, painted by a friend, Dorian Gray ‘nails his soul to the devil’s altar’, literally selling his soul to keep his good looks. The effect of this is that while Dorian goes out and lives the life that Henry encourages him to he does not age, rather the effect of his immoral life is seen within the painting.

The acting within this film is solid throughout, Ben Barnes and Colin Firth, Dorian Gray and Henry Wotton respectively, are perfectly suited to their roles really do flesh out the characters. The dark plot is shown throughout and you really do see the corruption of the innocence of Gray through the interaction between Barnes and Firth’s acting.

There has been a fair amount of license taken with the adaption from the book, from what I’ve read so far a lot has been taken out of the film which really builds into suspense, this is a shame, however forgivable, on the basis that what is cut doesn’t effect the moral of the story. I have been informed that the ending of the film has been artistically ‘enhanced’, however I haven’t read the end of the book yet so cannot comment there!

I will say that the ending does see some of the character’s remorse show, the line ‘pleasure isn’t happiness’ stands out to me as the moral of the film, as Dorian looks upon the distorted, rotting, painting you do see the pain and regret.

This isn’t just another novel that has been picked up and converted into a film which is good. Work actually went into the interpretation of the classic novel. While it wasn’t a film that I would of gone to see normally, I could see the art that was in the creation of it. The 15 certificate that it received was perhaps a little lax considering what has shown on screen, however on the basis that the BBFC are a joke these days I will overlook it! In conclusion, I would round this film off with 4 stars, a really good adaption of a good book!

Doctor Horrible… Act Four

2009-09-22T11:12:00Z

Right so, Dr Horrible was just one of the most fantastic online videos of this year, for those who haven’t seen it please please go and have a look at it on YouTube… all three acts come in at only 45 minutes, well worth it!

Now the word on the street is that there will be more Doctor Horrible on the way… it is pretty much confirmed with Joss Whedon, creator, saying the only question is to do it â€œon a shoe string again" or goes bigger budget and â€œinvites other people into the process." Either way, I’m excited!

Also, Doctor Horrible also won an Emmy, a couple of nights ago which was very exciting for them, they had a fantastic video for their nomination speech.

Authentic Christianity -- Through Weakness...

2009-09-21T00:23:00Z

The following is an extended form of the notes I made from one of the sermons preached this morning at TCM take on 2 Corinthians 2:12-24. I claim no originality for the content!

In this world you have to impress the world to be accepted within it, this could be anything like wearing the right clothes, saying the right things, have the latest gadget, maybe even if you look the right way you can make it into stardom… The trouble with this is that if we go down this route we can so often feel a failure, simply because we just can’t keep up with what the world wants of us… there is always just one more demand from us. As a result of this inability to keep up with what the world wants Paul, the author of the letter to the Corinthians, writes this letter not shouting on his abilities, but instead upon his weaknesses because it is through Paul’s weakness that God’s strength is shown.

When Jesus hit Paul, then known as Saul, on the road to Damascus (see Acts 9) God completely turned his life around, took him from someone who was torturing Christians to someone who lived completely for God. This was seen completely in his life, and this is how we can glorify God, by living an authentic life; living for Jesus, and glorifying Him through it.

The thing is that we are only able to do this through God’s grace, this is not something that we can do on our own, we are sinful creatures prone to depravity. We are weak, yet God takes our willing heart and lifts us up so that through our weaknesses and our failures God can be seen and praised.

We also need to be looking at this life from an eternal point of view… looking at the short term; i.e. our time on earth it becomes so easy to fall into the wisdom of the world. The wisdom of the world says live life for now because this is it, there is nothing after. Rather by looking at things from God’s view sees something so much more exciting after this life, something worth living for now.

If you are curious about living for something more have a look at this resource, it is called Two Ways to Live, six very simple, short, pages giving the background to Christianity. Well worth a look: matthiasmedia.com.au

Windows 7 for £30

2009-09-19T11:19:00Z

For a limited time Microsoft will be offering a full copy of Windows Home Premium for just £30 to all students around the world. All you need in the UK to get this deal is an email address from a university of a college of higher education. You can read the spiel that Microsoft wrote below.

Yes I know I am a Mac user, however I still think that I will be going for this deal, I am running XP on my media centre, so an upgrade to Windows 7 would be quite nice I think! They do have very nice media centre software included!

We are offering students the opportunity to buy Windows 7 for an amazing discounted price, £30 for either Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional.
You can take advantage of this offer from September 30th but you will need to be quick as it is for a limited time only and is only eligible to college and university students with a valid .EDU email address (an email address given by the college or university, for example: Suzanne@leeds.ac.uk ), a PC that is currently running a genuine copy of Windows Vista or Windows XP and can run Windows 7.
This offer will be available from 1st October so please check back then for details on how to take advantage of this great offer.

Admittedly they can’t quite work out if will be released on 30th Sept or 1st Oct… so to be safe check both days! For more details head over to: microsoft.com.

Solar Panelled Roads

2009-09-07T22:54:00Z

One of the problems with the 21st century is the need for power, and the further into this century we go the more power we are going to need. As such the US government has just invested in a small company called Solar Roadways. This new company is putting together a prototype stretch of road made from solar panelling. So while cars are rushing over the top the solar panels are just taking in the sun light… clever really!

One of the other neat things about these panels is that they will include LED lights so that traffic warnings could be displayed on the road. But the even cleverer thing is that they could be fitted with some form of heating element that would prevent snow and ice. So as well as generating power they would make the roads safer.

The panels won’t come cheap, however if they do go down with the amount of roads across the US it would go a long way to keeping up with the energy demands.

If you are interested to know more about these things you can read all about them at SolarRoadways.com.

Forget and Not Slow Down up for Pre Order

2009-08-31T19:39:00Z

Relient K’s new album, Forget and Not Slow Down, is now available for pre order from one of their partners; Skyroo. As has become fashionable of late the album is coming in three packages: the standard CD package, the deluxe package including the CD and a poster and the ‘super fan pack’ which comes with CD, poster, Relient K t-shirt and an autographed VIP pass from the band.

The album is due for release on October 6th through Mono vrs Stereo will feature the following tracks:

Forget And Not Slow Down
I Don’t Need A Soul
Candlelight
Flare (Outro)
Part Of It
(Outro)
Therapy
Over It
Sahara
Oasis (Intro)
Savannah
Baby (Outro)
If You Believe Me
This Is The End
(If You Want It)

Pre order from: http://www.skyroo.com/

HTC Hero Review

2009-08-30T15:28:00Z

I have finally said goodbye to my E70, it has been packed up in it’s box waiting to be loved, and instead moved on to the HTC Hero, also known as the G2. Android, the operating system, has been around running on several hand held devices for a while now, notably on the original HTC Dream, however what it lacked was polish. Android was a great system with much potential, yet it wasn’t quite realised with the Dream.

Firstly the design, it is a beautiful device, it looks stunning. It is also solidly built, it feels substantial; it won’t break if you drop it! It has a couple of buttons across the front which work with the design, as well as a volume control along the left hand side. It has a 3.2" touch screen with multi-touch enabled (I’ll get on to this later) and has a very nice 5 mega pixel camera stuck on for good measure. The other real beauty of this phone is that HTC have put a 3.5mm audio jack in it, meaning that any standard earphones play nicely with it.

My only really complaint about all of this is found in the buttons, they all work well, however they just feel somewhat flimsy, as if they will just stop working soon… I also never really liked trackballs on the top of objects, they all suffer from the same problem that trackballs in computer mice found; they get dust stuck in them!

Inside it has WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and HSPA (fast internet) cell chip. The memory is slightly lacking; 512mb of internal storage with 288mb of RAM which is all that the phone needs, however if you are planning to use the device to store anything else adding a memory card is necessary. The phone came with a 2Gb microSD card, however I upgraded straight to 8Gb. In other words, the internals of the phone are pretty much the same as the Dream.

One thing that always put me off buying a touch screen device is that they have almost always left something to be desired. HTC have really got the capacitive screen working well, putting it well above competition like the new Nokia N97, even rivalling phones like the iPhone or the Palm Pre.

The camera that has gone into the machine is really impressive, no it won’t replace my Canon IXUS, however it does a good job in most situations. It uses the track ball to both zoom and shoot (which I strongly dislike) however it works. The above photo at Seven Sisters near Eastbourne was taken on it’s first trip out of the box! The video effort is somewhat lacking, however it does a good enough job if all you want to do is to watch it on the screen.

For a smart phone the battery life isn’t bad, it will last out a day and a half on standard use. I have got into the habit of turning most things off when not needed to push that out to two days. Engadget have been saying that the battery life is similar to that of the new iPhone 3GS (I still think that is a stupid name).

The software is stunning, HTC have put a lot of time into really giving Android a make over with a really beautiful user interface, pretty much everything that could of been rebranded with the default Android interface has been! Having multiple home screen is also fantastic with the amount of extra widgets that HTC has put together for the device.

Much time and love has gone into the keyboard of the phone. Like the iPhone the device lacks a physical keyboard, however having copied the iPhone’s keyboard this isn’t really a problem for the machine. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the keyboard was, nothing on my e70 keyboard, however with the predictive and corrective text software enabled I can get a good speed on the thing now.

Bugs; there are a couple, that much is to be expected. The main thing that really irritates me is that when you receive a message you have to tick twenty (exaggeration) boxes to tell the machine that you have read the thing, and even then the little number on the icon doesn’t go away. The second one when making a phone call the screen turns off, which is fine, however a pain when you need to use the touch pad to navigate through menus (press one to do this, two to do that, etc).

Overall I am impressed with this phone, yes it could be speedier, however it works well. It does everything that I need it to and it does it well. The design is stunning, the touch screen works so well. I think it was a good purchase.

Youth of Today?

2009-08-29T20:55:00Z

Firstly I would like to open with an apology for my absence on this blog for the last two weeks, those who have been following my twitter will have seen that I have been stuck in a field! I’ve been helping on another Christian holiday camp called Rempstone. It was a really fun, but tiring, several days! Now onto the real topic:

One of the things I had been thinking about while I’ve been in Worthing is trying to find a different church while I am down south. The decision was made for me as Dad has just picked up a new job at a church in Hove, however I had got as far as writing out a list of qualities I was looking for in the church alongside a list of churches in the area, of course the qualities were completely impossible to fill, however I felt it was something I should do!

One of the things I thought I was looking for was a ‘young church’. I don’t mean a church that had newly been built, rather a church where there was lots of young people. This ideal was one that I now think is somewhat misguided…

As a culture of youth we are looking for the youth of today to rise up and take roles in society, we are constantly pushing young people to achieve high position jobs, employment where they are making big decisions with repercussions. I will say now that I don’t think this is totally wrong, more unwise to do this unguided.

Within this ‘young church’ one of the qualities I was imagining was younger people in positions of leadership, in my idea making it a lively church with room for change to happen quickly.

The issue is that we value the idea of keeping up to date with a youthful appearance, however the more and more I think about it the more of a disservice I felt I did with my initial list of things I wanted with the church I was looking for. By alienating the elder end of the congregations in my ‘ideal church’ I would automatically cut off many personal experience, knowledge and wisdom that had been gained and could be shared.

One of the things I have valued so much with in my church at Lincoln, is the huge variety of age range within the church, right from the young families with the small children all the way up to the older members. It is those elder people that have so much that we can learn from, they may not be in touch with the latest technological toy, or up to date with the latest blockbuster film, however their personal or spiritual insight isn’t dulled by this. In addition these people often see things that are completely oblivious to us, having been in the same situation before and recognise the route.

A guy called Stephen Christian, who prompted me to write this, said:

“What happen to the word ‘mentor’? I feel that it is a lost art and life left to the past. I admit that besides my father I do not have one, it’s not that I am not open to it, I just feel that this current culture does not extend its hand to such. My challenge is to somehow come up with ideas on how to incorporate people 20 years older than you, or more, into your life.”

We have so much that we can learn from those who lived before us, and it makes no sense to simply push them aside because as young people we feel that we can do things better. We must figure out to live with everybody and to learn from them.

Broken by Lifehouse to Appear in The Time Travellers Wife

2009-08-13T11:44:00Z

Upcoming movie ‘The Time Travellers Wife’ staring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams will feature the track Broken from Lifehouse’s fourth album; Who We Are. The track has also been featured in Grey’s Anatomy and One Tree Hill amongst others.

The film is based upon the book of the same name written by Audrey Niffenegger. The story focuses on Henry DeTamble who has a genetic disorder which causes him to time travel, and his wife coping with him leaving and reappearing unpredictably. The film will be released on the 14th August.

www.thetimetravelerswifemovie.com/

Tumblr

2009-08-13T10:59:00Z

A couple of days I posted a tweet & facebook status asking the point of Tumblr… should I sign up to yet another social networking site! The responses were generally, don’t do it… ‘soul sapping’ was one phrase used (thanks Caitlin)!Another response was that there was nothing overly different from regular blogging (Rhys).

However curiousity got the better of me and I felt called to have a look. I have been playing around with it for the last couple of days and I think I have found a purpose for it in my social networking…

Often there are things that I spot on the interwebs that I think is one of the following: interesting, cool, slightly pointless but funny, etc and I want to post it somewhere for other people to see. This blog really isn’t the place for it, because most of the time it would either be just one picture or a link to another site. This is where Tumblr fits in. Tumblr is a site for those random posts that don’t really merit a blog post, so I can link to that cool blog post, or put up a pretty picture, etc!

There is a link to my Tumblr at the top of the page on this blog, and I’ll also stick a little feed along the left with my most recent Tumblrings! One thing that does slightly annoy me… where is the ‘e’ in Tumblr… it really should be spelt Tumbler… same goes for Flickr!

New TobyMac Project due for February

2009-08-07T20:07:00Z

A recent twitter update from TobyMac places Relient K’s front man, Matthew Thiessen, in the studio providing vocals for the new album being put together at the moment by TobyMac. This new album is the fourth studio album that TobyMac has put together since DC Talk parted ways in 2001.

Three of the track titles have already been announced:

City on our Knees
Get Back Up
Captured

While you will have to wait until February 2010 for the album to be released, the first single City on our Knees will be released on the 14th August.

Portland- These Broken Hands Lyrics

2009-08-07T13:50:00Z

I mentioned a while back that I would post lyrics from These Broken Hands by Portland, plus after a quick search of the interweb came up with nothing I thought I would finish off my task! If you are interested in a review of the album you can find it in a previous entry on this blog.

Portland: Carry You - Lyrics
Come in and take out,
All of your luggage and baggage
You carry around in your head
And I’ll carry you, carry you.

Hold on if you can,
The sun will be rising and
I’ll lead you out of this land
With these hands, I’ll carry you, carry you.

Would you say you love me,
Even though, I hardly know you?

Would you say you love me,
Even though, I hardly know you?

Move slow and take time,
Open your heart,
Tell me now what’s on your mind
And you’ll find I’ll carry you, carry you.

Stay strong, in your heart,
And I’ll try to give you more
Than what’s torn you apart from the start,
I’ll carry you, carry you.

Would you say you love me,
Even though, I hardly know you?

Would you say you love me,
Even though, I hardly know you?

Portland: Tonight - Lyrics
You can say what you want but I won’t back down,
You and your friends go talk about
The big issues you can’t work out
Your head’s so full it needs clearing out
You can work 'til you’re old have a pension plan
And die one day before your fun began
No traveling plans for you old man,
Your sorrow’s up as the sun goes down.

But tonight no you’re not alone,
No you’re not alone tonight
See our numbers grow like a river flows

When we’re young soon we’re old so the stories told,
Well a lifetime past, where did it go?
And beauty fades where no one knows
Then it comes to you in the final throw
It’s the meaning of and the reason for it’s a destiny to explore
And wisdom seems to gather pace,
The mirror shows your aging face

But tonight no you’re not alone,
No you’re not alone tonight
See our numbers grow like a river flows

Hold on, where are you going to?
Hold on, now what were you gonna do?
'Cause you won’t be shown and you can’t be told
'Cause there’s too much here for letting go
And the risk you take is the price you paid,
'Cause you sold it all anyway.

Portland: Burning Sky - Lyrics
Sail down the river flows,
The sun went down ‘bout an hour ago & you know
You’re a place too far for me to reach
But not far enough for you to leave
Would you go?

You’re a mystery to me; yeah yeah yeah
You’re a mystery to me, yeah

I slowly wake to a burning sky,
The air hung heavy so I questioned why did you go?
I’m slipping now into a nightmare dream
And the only truth is you’re not here with me
And you know, you know, you know.

You’re a mystery to me; yeah yeah yeah
You’re a mystery to me, yeah

Sail down where the rapids break,
Sunshine your light and let the morning wake in my heart, my heart
You’re a rock too high for me to reach
An abandoned boat on a lonely beach with the stars, the stars

You’re a mystery to me; yeah, yeah, yeah
You’re a mystery to me, yeah

I slowly wake to a burning sky,
The air hung heavy so I questioned why did you go?
I’m slipping now into a nightmare dream
And the only truth is you’re not here with me
And you know, you know, you know.

You’re a mystery to me; yeah, yeah, yeah
You’re a mystery to me, yeah

Well, yeah, you head strong but your heart weak
Yeah your emotion soul seeks this kind of confidence
Life breeds without effort or trying to
Unless this time without breakdown, you couldn’t hold back
You couldn’t hold out, like a freed bird from a caged town
Well you panicked but now you’re flying there.

So now you move back so you can make room,
Now let your blood sing it to the same tune that your heart beats
It was a symphony written. You said orchestral was the feeling
As you took flight from the ceiling,
That had you bound in those feelings for so long but now you’re strong.

Portland: Hold On - Lyrics
If I ever thought you were lonely
If I ever thought you cared
I would hold hold, those storms may come
I’d be strong

And if I ever thought you were worried
If you ever thought I was wrong
Darlin’ hold ion, 'cause storms may come
We can be strong

And don’t you know I love you
And don’t you know I care
Carry on my love, we’re nearly done again
You gonna just

Hold on, hold out
Have we got more to think about
So hold one, slow down
Have we got more than you cane live without?

If I ever thought you were sorry
If I ever thought You’d turn
Me and you, oh we’ve got strength to see it through
So come on, come on

Portland: These Broken Hands - Lyrics
These broken hands won’t mend themselves without you
My mind was lost, a line I cross to doubt you
This journey’s end is here my friend without you
But you know by now that I’m somehow without You

But I won’t lay down
But I won’t lay down

The sun may rise and clear these skies without you
And since my birth I roam the earth to find you
Now nothing’s what it seems to be
hen You’re not here with me
I’ll find my way on Lord I pray I do

Don’t lay down, don’t lay down
These broken hands won’t mend themselves
My mind was lost a line I crossed
This journey’s end is here my friend
This journey’s end is here my friend

Don’t lay down, Don’t lay down
'Cause this deep water you’ve been swimming in
Won’t let you drown.

Portland: The Letter - Lyrics
I hear there’s a letter,
That you wrote for me to read tonight.
It tells me you’re leaving,
But you wrote to say that it was alright.
They came and bound your hands;
And led you away from me,
I couldn’t help the tears,
They treated you so violently.

Remember you speaking,
You taught me of love, life and myself.
But I couldn’t help weeping,
I knew that your time was close at hand.
NoI couldn’t bear to see
All the pain they put your through.
It was too much for me,
The streams iof blood it flowed from You.

Don’t let them strike you again now my friend,
You have the power to make it all end.
Why do you silently take all the pain?
When deep in your heart you were bearing my shame.

They came and bound your hands,
And led you away from me.
But you gazed into my eyes,
And spoke again so lovingly.
'Cause this is for you,
The pain I’ll go through to make all things new.
Without me tonight,
You’ve no hope in sight, and for you I’ll die.

And the came and bound my hands
And led me away from you.
This is the only way I’ll have
Of saving you.

Portland: Believe In You
I saw you, I saw you drowning,
Well I could’ve lent a hand
But I was weak myself
But father where were you?
I’m just a child inside,
A child that I can’t hide

Well I believe in you, will I believe in you
And my faith’s not lose and my hope’s not gone
And I still put love in you,
And the words you speak well, they’re lifting me
To a place I never knew

I heard you, heard you calling,
Well your reasons hard to see,
When I thought you’d all you’d want from me
And slowly you’d console me,
Seems you’re living in the past;
Of a childhood gone that couldn’t last

Well I believe in you, will I believe in you
And my faith’s not lose and my hope’s not gone
And I still put love in you,
And the words you speak well, they’re lifting me
To a place I never knew

Portland: Betrayed You - Lyrics
I’ve betrayed you I know
I’ve betrayed you I know
If I fall I fear, I fear you’d let me go
Well I fell before
I’ve betrayed you I know

I won’t be where you want me to
I won’t put faith in things you do
I won’t be walking far behind
When you call out

I’ve betrayed you I know
I’ve betrayed you I know
If I fall I fear, I fear you’d let me go
Well I fell before
But still you love me so

I’m scared of making guarantees
They fail to hold the words I speak
But I know you need more from me
But sometimes I feel so weak

Portland: Well Alright - Lyrics
All you rules weigh in on me
You rule you roost gleefully

Is life made for working?
Does life work for me?
Time has the answers or so it seems
For you to read my book
Write my next line
You’ve ceased to speak
You think I’m doing fine
Well alright, alright

All my thoughts weight in on you
Well you leave and you find
You can’t find peace of mind and it’s true

Is life made for working?
Does life work for me?
Time has the answers or so it seems
For you to read my book
Write my next line
You’ve ceased to speak
You think I’m doing fine
Well alright, alright

Portland: Talk to Me - Lyrics
Four men marching to stop a war,
They were here before,
The year before,
'Cause their sons had died and yeah well,
their mother cried for the loss of life,
Took down the ribbons tied to the old front door

And do you feel like there’s no change you could’ve made,
Mother please, we could all do more!
And so she let them go, but what she didn’t know
The last time that they’d spoke was at her front door

A worthy cause you’d say,
A war to bring peace some day,
But when will that day come?
To slay a father’s son,
And just because He’s not one of us,
Oh well take up your guns

And do you feel like there’s no change you could’ve made,
Mother please, we could all do more!
But son how long until you’re forced to kill against your will,
She cries clinging to the kitchen floor

Bring your weapons to me;
I’ll break them on my knee
Talk talk talk to me,
Talk talk talk to me

So came the battlefield,
Yeah the war was real,
And the blood it sealed
The fear of a young man’s death
To take a life was hard
And this soldier’s mind was surely scarred,
but war was war.

And do you feel like there’s no change you could’ve made,
Mother please, we could all do more!
But son your days have gone, and your light that shone can shine no more
She cried clinging to the kitchen floor

Bring your weapons to me; I’ll break them on my knee
'Cause all can fight a war in futility,
but talking’s what we need, can’t you see
Talk talk talk to me,
Talk talk talk to me.

Portland: Eamonn’s Leviathan - Lyrics
In the deep blue circling waters of the oceans of the word
There’s a legend, many stories, many myths
From days gone by of old mans talks and dreams cast from the shore
That rolls home on the morning mist

Leviathan’s your brother and your sister to the stars,
Like a part of creation,
Like the beating of your heart
Well like time has no beginning, like a friendship has no end
Like the soul and the spirit of leviathan

To the sands that make the shore line, like the clouds that ride the sky
To the winds of time that shift and change
There’s a question I’m not sure of and an answer I never heard,
The reason lying somewhere unexplained

Why you spend most your days fleeing from the blowing sails,
Never tiring, never leaving you alone
Why they kill you for no reason, with their spears and their harpoons,
Get drunk on your death and then turn home

Leviathan’s your brother and your sister to the stars,
Like a part of creation,
Like the beating of your heart
Well like time has no beginning, like a friendship has no end
Like the soul and the spirit of leviathan

One day we’ll know hoe much it will take,
To stop all this killing before it’s too late
And the seas will return to wash the sands clean
But your soul and your spirit be forever set free

Eric Schmidt resigns from Apple Board

2009-08-04T15:39:00Z

Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, has resigned his seat on the board of directors at Apple. This news follows on from last weeks Apple/Google excitement where one of Google’s Apps was removed from the Apple App Store for the iPhone.

This could mean that Google and Apple are parting ways, over the last several years they have been very chummy with lots and lots of Google services being used on both OS X and the iPhone. However recently Google has been entering “more of Apple’s core business, with Android and now Chrome OS” (quote Steve Jobs, Apple CEO).

It seems a shame for the two to part company, it makes sense, but is a shame. Having Google and Apple working together has allowed much creativity to ensue… however with both companies working on different mobile phone software it has meant that they have been under a lot of scrutiny from the US government.

Release Dates of Note- August 2009

2009-08-03T11:49:00Z

The month of August is looking very good for Christian music, there are new albums from Aaron Shust, Britt Nicole and Amy Grant to name but a few, however below are the five release dates that you really should be looking out for.

August 4th: The Good Album - All Star United (US Release)
August 4th: Faith + Hope + Love - Hillsong
August 11th: Cotes d’Armor - Kevin Max
August 25th: Love is on the Move - Leeland
August 25th: Awake - Skillet

Tait recording with Newsboys

2009-08-03T11:19:00Z

Back in March of this year it was announced that Peter Furler would be stepping back from the Newsboys to be replaced by DC Talk’s Michael Tait. Since then Tait has been touring with the band, however the question has always remained; what would the studio recording sound like? Recently Tait has re-recorded the vocals to the track Glorious taken from their latest album In the Hands of God.

Have listen to the YouTube clip below for a preview of the new sound.

Hebron 2009

2009-08-01T19:12:00Z

The week has ended, Hebron 2009 is at an end, what a week it has been! For those you who I haven’t raved about Hebron to it is the camp that I have attended since I was twelve. Involved in the week is lots of fun, friendship and Bible teaching, seriously awesome week, so awesome that I keep going back!

This year I went back not as a camper but as a leader, a bit of a scary leap, however despite the early starts and the late finishes it was a fantastic week! The theme of the week was ‘The Real You, The Glorious You?’ This was based upon a slightly re-worked version of Colossians 3:1-4:

So if you’re serious about living for Jesus, act like it. Pursue the things over that Jesus loves. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Jesus; that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.
Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life, is with Jesus. That’s the real you, the glorious you

That in itself is a real challenge to me, it is going to mean a fair amount of changes in my life I know. All the talks were really good, and I just wanted to pull a couple of points that spoke to me out from them and mash them together quickly:

God everyone completely, he knows what you have done, what you are going to, everything that is beautiful and everything shameful yet he still loves you completely. Even though you mess up in life, you're still the one that Jesus wants.
You have to step up to the challenge of living for Jesus, God loves you, now you have to respond to it, if you are serious about it live for it.
Character isn't part of your personality; character development is in the heart, we can work towards creating a character that better reflects God's love for us.

I have collated a fair amount of photos from the week, and there is video floating around on my laptop that I intend to upload tomorrow so watch this space for that!

... is not a verb.

2009-08-01T18:42:00Z

Sorry, a small rant coming up... very very small I promise!

Google is not a verb

Photoshop is not a verb

iPhone really is not a verb

Facebook is not a verb

There we go, I'm done. Have a good evening

Fireflight Heading Back in the Studio

2009-07-22T21:51:00Z

Back in March of last year Fireflight released their fourth album called Unbreakable, suffice to say it was stunning, one of the tracks even got featured on the 2008 Olympic soundtrack! This summer they have a full festival schedule, however during this time they are putting pen to paper finalising the tracks for their new album to be recorded this autumn.

I don't want anyone to get too excited, but…

2009-07-21T12:17:00Z

Excited Voice: David Tennant might be playing Bilbo Baggins in screen adaption of The Hobbit…

The Telegraph has been reporting that David Tennant is top of the list to take the part of Bilbo Baggins in the new set of films being directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy, Blade 2). Unfortunately, also in the list of potential Bilbo Baggins’ are James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe… Hugo Weaving, Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis are rumoured to reprise their roles from Lord of the Rings as Elrond, Gandalf and Gollum respectively.

Now what I would really of loved is for Ian Holm to reprise his role and then have in doctored by the CGI team to make him look a lot younger… however I will not complain about David Tennant being given the role.

The Hobbit will be broken up into two films, telling one story, almost like a two part TV series, much like Kill Bill 1 & 2 were… however hopefully without the baggage of Kill Bill!

Peter Jackson who is co-producing the film said:

We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie, The essential brief was to do The Hobbit, and it allows us to make The Hobbit in a little more style, if you like, of the [LOTR] trilogy."

And I’ll also use this time to throw in a new shot from the filming of Doctor Who…

I’m curious to what kind of Doctor he will turn out to be… could be interesting! There is a nice BBC press page here for anyone interested.

Four stitches to the head = mega fail

2009-07-20T11:33:00Z

Ok… so the explanation to the facebook/twitter update… I had a minor incident with my bike that involved falling off into a parked car and then crawling to the side of the road and blacking out nicely… I honestly can’t remember exactly what happened, however I think that the chain of my bike came loose from the cogs which knocked me off.

I awoke at the side of the road as an ambulance turned up to take me into A&E which is where I stayed for a couple of hours. Four stitches later, plus a couple of oversized plasters, I was released at 22:00!

Yet, that is not where this story ends, 06:30 the following morning (Sunday) I was readmitted having thrown up the contents of my stomach at hourly intervals during the night. I stayed there until 10:00 Monday morning and have now been released into the world!

The bottom line - I am fine, stop panicking about me. Stitches come out on Friday.

Windows Seven Shipping with out a Browser

2009-07-19T14:23:00Z

Before I start this post I would like to prefix by saying this is not a rant against Microsoft, there will be no Apple Fanboyism coming through this, instead this is a rant in Microsoft’s favour against the EU.

In October the next release of Windows will be released, named Seven it will essentially fix all the problems of Vista as well as adding a whole load of new features which will make the thing very shiny. I won’t go into that now, however all the people that I know who are using the release candidate say that it is a solid release and works well. I tried the beta and got on with it.

Now for a while Microsoft and the European Union have been in discussion over Windows shipping with a browser built in. The simple argument is that because Internet Explorer ships with windows other browsers such as FireFox, Opera, Chrome and Safari don’t get a look in on Windows. So Microsoft has bowed to pressure and has removed Internet Explorer from the European releases of Seven.

So this means that by default Windows Seven will not be able to access the internet without first installing a browser… so where you get a browser from… why you download one from the internet… see the problem? Amazon’s handy suggestion says that you should:

On your current computer prior to installing Windows 7, or on another computer system, download the install file (usually a â€œ.exe" file) for your preferred Windows 7-compatible browser to your current system. Burn this file to a CD or DVD or transfer it to an external storage medium such as a flash memory drive or external hard drive.

That is fair enough, however what if you don’t currently own a computer, or you previous computer died… or even better what happens if you are my mother who doesn’t even know what a browser is? (I have long given up trying to teach her). By removing Internet Explorer from Seven a lot of people are going to be cut off from the internet simply because they don’t have a browser to use.

As web designer, and as much as I hate Internet Explorer, I would rather people being able to access the internet through IE rather than not viewing the internet at all… I think that it all seems a little bit silly! And then at the end of the day… the EU is unhappy about it all because Microsoft has offered less choice than more!

One of the possible solutions that was put forward was that Microsoft bundle a couple of other browsers into Seven. I think that would of been a ridiculous idea, after Microsoft is a software company primarily and to force them to bundle competitors products on the grounds of fair competition would be like telling Burger King to sell Big Macs… Also where would you stop, if you got Microsoft to ship with other browsers, why not other media players, other versions of Paint or Notepad!

While I’m on the subject of this… this ruling by the EU seems to be really unfair to Microsoft simply because, and again I hate to say this, they have been successful. It is punishing them simply because they have done well. Why is the EU not forcing Apple into this with their Snow Leopard release? That ships as default with Safari… and then why stop there? What about the iPhone, the only browser that Apple allow to be made for that device is a version of Safari, and you can’t say that the iPhone isn’t popular!

This decision just seems to me to be down right silly, with some idiot in the EU going a step a too far… and lets face it, at the end of the day people will only go and download Internet Explorer again!

All Star United - The Good Album; A Review

2009-07-18T10:49:00Z

So it’s been a while since I have done a CD review, and I’ve been meaning to write this one up for at least a week! So the eagerly awaited ‘Good Album’ has been released after a three year absence of new material for the American based band All Star United (ASU). I’ll start off by saying that Love and Radiation (2006), their previous album, is fantastic, it is an album that I still rate with five stars, and that it had set a very high bar for The Good Album.

The album weighs in at 11 tracks, coming to a disappointing 35 minutes, however that is fairly similar to Love and Radiation, so I won’t judge yet! The opening track, Surface of the Sun, opens with a sound that is distinct from their previous offerings, however at the same time very ASU! It is loud, catchy and very in your face. Suffice to say, that the album opens well.

This continues throughout the album, track two; Is This The Moment, is another ASU track, it has a very distinctive rocky beat with clear lyrics. The Blame drops the tempo into a thought provoking track three; “all the things you cover up, I’ll wear them like the wounds of love, and hold you till there’s nothing left to say…”

Crashing Cars is the most ASU keeps up the sound of loud and summery, which is seen a lot in previous album, and track seven; Dude… That’s Freakin’ Awesome came out of the same mould as ‘The Song of the Year’ off of Love and Radiation. It looks to be Ian Eskelin’s opinion on modern culture at the moment, one of the best lines being “you quit your job so you could play world of warcraft everyday.” The track has already made it onto the tubes and you can find a little montage on YouTube.

Okay, so my final opinion. The album is good, very good, however not as good as Love and Radiation. It still has ASU written all over it and that is great, however it just lacks something new to define it. Maybe it will grow on me more, however at the moment it will just have to deal with just missing the five stars and being awards four instead.

The tracks that standout for me are Surface of the Sun, The Blame, and I’m a Killer.

You can listen to more of the album on the band’s MySpace page, or you can purchase the album from Cross Rhythms for £9.97, or if you prefer download the album from Amazon.co.uk for £5.99.

Kutless Prepare New Album

2009-07-17T11:40:00Z

Jeff Gilbert, drummer of Kutless, announced through the band’s online journal that Kutless have been back in the studio preparing their new album, following on from Strong Tower. October 20th is the date that has been set down for the second worship album from the band Kutless. The album, titled It Is Well, will be produced by Dave Lubben.

Gilbert said this about the upcoming album:

“…we are finishing up the last stages of our new worship record, but I don’t even want to call it that. I would rather call it an exaltation record. To Exalt the Lord is to show a feeling or state of extreme happiness!”

Kutless are currently on their Welcome to the Family tour alongside Disciple, Stellar Kart, Esterlyn & Chasen which will go through until the end of August. Tour dates for the band can be found on their website.

Henry V - Rainbow Theatre

2009-07-17T09:23:00Z

I’ll start with a basic summary of the play; Henry the Fifth, aka Henry V, invades France. Now for an extended summary Henry V is persuaded that he has a legitimate claim to the French throne, and after receiving a ‘gift’ of tennis balls uses it as an excuse to invade. After catching three traitors Henry V and his army heads to France, while France prepare their armies.

After the battle at Harfleur the town surrenders, however the English army is low in morale, and is growing weak, yet Henry marches on Calais where is path is blocked by the rest of the French army. This leads to the battle of Agincourt, that takes place in deep rain, which is amazingly won by the English, making way for a peace treaty to be signed up and for Henry to win the French princess; Katherine.

Rainbow Theatre have been putting on open air Shakespeare since 1998, and have always done a fantastic job of them, this year was no exception! Simply put, despite the fairly epic rain, and I mean epic, the show went on and almost all the audience stayed sitting out side as testimony to the magic that these actors and actresses created on stage.

Next week they will be putting on Loves Labours Lost at Highdown, there are normally tickets on the doors which open at 18:00 for a 19:30 start. I shall be there on Thursday!

Paramore - New Album Up and Coming!

2009-07-17T00:07:00Z

On the 29th September the third studio album by Paramore will be released. Brand New Eyes, recorded in Nashville, will have two releases a standard 12 track album, and the deluxe 14 track release that comes with a 16 page full colour booklet, a 40 page journey by lead singer Hayley Williams, 5 post cards, and much more.

The album features the track Decode, written for the Twilight movie, which was released on the official soundtrack for the film. The first single from the album, Ignorance, was released as a digital download on 7th July.

The final track listing is as follows:

Carefue
Ignorance
Playing God
Brick by Boring Brick
Turn It Off
The Only Exception
Feeling Sorry
Looking Up
Where the Lines Overlap
Misguided Ghosts
All I Wanted
Decode (from Twilight Soundtrack)
Deluxe Only - Ignorance (Acoustic Version)
Deluxe Only - Where The Lines Overlap (Acoustic Version)

The album is available for pre-order from Paramore’s official website; Paramore.net

Stargate- Universe

2009-07-16T16:51:00Z

Right, so now SG1 and Atlantis have come to an end, MGM have felt the need to milk the franchise a bit more, so the third spin off of the original movie is just about to begin; Stargate Universe.

The basic plot is a group of scientists go through the Stargate on Earth and come out on the other end on a ship, not a planet. The ship, called Destiny, is created by the Ancients to places the Stargates in different galaxies.

MGM & SyFy released this little press statement about it:

After unlocking the mystery of the Stargate’s ninth chevron, a team of explorers travels to an unmanned starship called the Destiny, launched by the Ancients at the height of their civilization as a grand experiment set in motion, but never completed.

What starts as a simple reconnaissance turns into a never ending mission, as the Stargate Universe crew discovers the ship is unable to return to Earth, and they must now fend for themselves aboard the Destiny.

The crew will travel to the far reaches of the universe, connecting with each of the previously launched Stargates, thus fulfilling the Destiny’s original mission. Challenges will arise though as the ship comes into range of Stargates placed centuries ahead of the Destiny and the crew is unable to control the ship’s navigational schedule. If someone is left behind, there is no way to go back for them, adding to the drama of encountering new races, enemies and adventures.

The producers have promised a bigger budget, a young cast, and to keep the wit and humour of SG1 and Atlantis, which is all good! What I am worried about is that the whole series will be set in space… now that is fine, however all I am saying is that it had better not to turn into Star Trek Voyager…

We shall wait and see, I’m hopeful about the whole thing, SG1 was good, Atlantis was good, with any luck Universe will be good to.

Choosy

2009-07-15T09:13:00Z

A while back I posted a list of five free apps that I couldn’t live without. Choosy is one of those apps that I can’t live without, unfortunately it isn’t free… however I’ll get to that later!

I use lots of browsers on my computer, partly because I need to test some of my web designs in other browsers, partly because I have a browser commitment phobia! Basically what Choosy does is to give you an option as to which browser you want to use when you click a link from a program, this in itself is very useful, however it gets better!

The final release of Choosy also contains a way of setting up rules, so that you can tell the link facebook.com to always open in a certain browser, or any link from a certain program to open in another browser, stunningly useful, especially seeing as I can tell youtube.com never to open in Chrome!

As I said above Choosy isn’t free, you can try it for 45 days for free, however after that it costs $12 which, at the time of writing, is about £7ish! But, if you use my nice discount code “UGBXP” you can get 15% off!

You can find out more, see videos and actually download Choosy from choosyosx.com.

Mobile Phone Directory

2009-07-10T15:48:00Z

118 800 are going to be starting a database of mobile phone numbers allowing people to phone them up and request anyone in their databases mobile phone number. They claim to have over 15 million phone numbers that they have managed to acquire by buying numbers off market research companies, online businesses and through companies that buy and sell lists of phone numbers.

The directory service say that privacy is paramount and they will never actually pass on numbers to people, rather connect the calls. The service will cost £1 per number.

The thing is, to me this just sounds like a further invasion of privacy… I don’t hand out my mobile phone number to people for a reason; I don’t want people to call me! I’d rather and text or an email any day. So for this company to start handing out mobile numbers to people who want to find my mobile number because a little worrying!

However never fear, you should be able to get your number off their database through their website: www.118800.co.uk

Syncing your Mac with Google, without installing anything!

2009-07-09T13:47:00Z

So yesterday I was trying to get my Mac and Google to talk nicely to each other… It was suitably painful and unpleasant to do, not because there aren’t thousands of applications to do it for you, rather because I was doing it without the use of applications as Address Book, Mail and iCal can all talk to Google without installing anything extra.

Everything these days is going online, you no longer download your emails onto the computer and wipe them from the server, you use IMAP and have a copy on both, your calendar is stored on multiple devices such as your computer, your phone, your PDA, even your iPod and your address book is needed on these devices as well. Therefore you need a decent method of copying across the devices, preferably without installing any bloat onto your system.

Getting them all in sync is very simple to do, once you have got your head around it, some of the solutions are more elegant than others! So I am writing this one down so I don’t forget!

Apple Address Book to Google Contacts

When the iPhone and iPod Touch was released Apple updated Address Book to allow the sync between the two devices, however until you connect an iPhone/Touch to your Mac these settings are hidden. So if you own a iPhone/Touch you can ignore step one! One thing I would recommend is emptying one of the address books, I deleted all my records on Google, it saves removing duplicates later!

Step One

In Finder navigate to /Users/%UserName%/Library/Preferences/ and find the file called com.apple.iPod.plist. This is basically a record of the iPods that get connected to this computer. Now you can open it up in a suitable text editor, I like SubEthaEdit, however TextEdit will work fine.

You will get a nice load of code called XML, we are interested in lines 13 and 14 where it says ‘Family ID’ on line 14 change whatever the integer is to ‘10001’ as in the above image. Then save the file and close the text editor.

Step Two

Right, with the plist file edited you can now open up Address Book and go into the preferences (âŒ˜ + ,). You will notice at the bottom of the General tab you have the options to synchronise with various online tools (MobileMe, Exchange, Yahoo and Google), we want to choose Google so check the ‘Synchronize with Google’ check box. A message will appear asking for your Google Account details, once entered you are all setup.

Step Three

Head over to iSync and hit the sync button, Address Book and Google Contacts will the be synchronised. Each time you want to sync just head into iSync to do so.

Apple Mail to Gmail

This one is nice and simple, I’ve had it up and running for a while now. It is basically setting up IMAP in Gmail nicely, and then getting Apple Mail to look at it sensibly!

Step One

Load up Gmail in your preferre browser and head into the Settings, and then to ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’ the first thing we need to do is to enable IMAP access by clicking the ‘Enable IMAP’ radio button.

Step Two

Before heading away from Gmail we need to head into the Labels settings. IMAP treats labels like folders and to get it working well with Apple Mail we need to create a couple of custom labels. The label we need to create is ‘IMAP/Trash’, you can create one for drafts (‘IMAP/Drafts’) and spam (‘IMAP/Spam’) if you want to as well.

Step Three

That’s us done in Gmail, now we need to open up Apple Mail and set up our Gmail account. To add a new account go to File/Add Account, fill out your name, email address, password and make sure that you do not check the automatic set up check box, then click next

For the account type select IMAP, and then change the incoming mail server to be imap.gmail.com and hit next. Your SMTP server should be set at smtp.gmail.com. Once all these details are filled in finish off the setup.

Step Four

We now need to tweak a few settings here and there to get the folders sorted, head into Mail’s preferences and over into accounts. Under Mailbox Behaviors check everything except drafts. Finally head into Advanced and then in the text box called ‘IMAP Path Prefix’ type in ‘IMAP’.

Step Five

Finally once the folders (or labels) have appeared in the left hand side bar select the ‘Trash’ folder and then go up to the menu item ‘Mailbox/Use This Mailbox For/Trash’. You can then repeat for the labels that you created.

iCal to Google Calendar

This isn’t the nicest of methods, however it works… A couple of years back a protocol called CalDAV was dreamt up and has been implemented in both iCal in Leopard and Google Calendar. However rather than writing out the instructions for this one Google has a fairly simple method getting this one working here (link).

GMail out of beta???

2009-07-07T18:32:00Z

I don’t want to scare anyone… however GMail is finally out of beta… this could be the end of the internet as we know it!

GMail, or Google Mail, started back in April… 2004 offering users a scary amount of storage, a whole gigabyte, today, July 7th 2009, the beta period was lifted with the storage being just over 7Gb!

Its a bit sad really though. GMail coming out of beta is fantastic, however it is only going to get replaced with Google Wave shortly. Ahh well, we shall wait and see!

A busy week looms...

2009-06-22T23:27:00Z

I think that the following week is going to be one that is rather busy and full! My church in Worthing is just coming to the end of a phase of massive building work and is being shown to the community on Saturday coming, which is very exciting. However… it isn’t quite ready yet!

As such I think that I’ll be putting in a couple of late nights and early(ish) mornings to help get it ready for the grand opening. Thus you can expect a week of quiet on this blog which you may be glad of!

Have a good week all!

Sub note: if any Worthinger wants to join me to see Portland on Saturday evening in East Grinstead please let me know!

Bluetree; Greater Things & God of this City

2009-06-21T14:23:00Z

So here it is, back in 2007 the awesome band from Northern Ireland called Bluetree released an amazing debut album called Greater Things. Then the year later they got signed by Fierce who then remastered it for them and re-released it. Then this album got picked up by Chris Tomlin who covered their song God of this City, and as such Bluetree got big in America so it seemed only polite to release the album over there, however rebranding and renaming it for them. That in itself I don’t have an issue with?

Why why why oh why is it being re-re-released in the UK again? This time by Survivor, however why is it being put about again in the UK? Can’t the band release some new material or something?

Ah well, it doesn’t stop the album from being awesome! You can read my first thoughts of the band in a previous post.

Do You Know What a Browser Is?

2009-06-19T17:55:00Z

It is a fairly harmless question… do you know what a browser is? Google put this question to 50 people in Times Square, New York, and I’ll be honest I was surprised at the answers that were given.

Ok, so perhaps the research was a little off because the guy was from Google, however the results are still fairly shocking so I thought I would use a nice little video that I found to advertise Google Chrome that nicely explains what a browser is:

All sorted? Good! Yes, your browser is a cat, that fetches the little bird that are web pages.

Kevin Max in Lincoln

2009-06-18T09:28:00Z

Kevin Max, one third of the trio that was DC Talk, now running with a set of amazing solo albums will be playing in Lincoln next month. Kevin Max will be playing on the 5th July at New Life Church, supported by The Silver Lakes and DJ Anton Fowler.

Ticket price is £6.00, doors open at 19:00.

You can buy tickets here: MarshallandBell.com.

A review of These Broken Hands - Portland

2009-06-17T08:12:00Z

If you were to put into a blender the musical styles of Damien Rice, Ocean Colour Scene, Sara Groves, with a hint of Newton Faulkner you may begin to sample something that resembles the beautiful sound of These Broken Hands by Portland. This is the first of three albums that the Birmingham based band will put out while being signed to the record label The Stereo Tree, who have also recently put out the latest album by The Gentlemen; A Candid History Of Faith, Hope, Love.

The album opens with Carry You and Tonight. Both tracks have been on Portland’s MySpace page for quite some time and I have heard them live a couple of times. Carry You opens with a drum beat, something that you don’t get when the band play live, and then the sound of theacousticguitar, bass guitar and piano come in on top which is then followedby the stunning vocals of Rory Thompson. The backing vocals perfectly complement the song,emphasisingcertain words, phrases or lines. The sound is just comes together beautifully.

Some of the remaining tracks I had heard live, however the majority were new to me. One of the songs that I had heard before, The Letter (track six), really stood out not just musically but lyrically too. The lyrics focus on the events of the crucifixion, looking at the pain of the cross, but also the purpose: “Why do you silently take all the pain? When deep in your heart you were bearing my shame.”

I love the quietness of this album, it is an album you can put on and just relax to while listening. The production on it is solid, giving a really full, rich, sound. This really is a five star album, the only complaint I have about it is that I want it to keep on going! The tracks that really stand out for me are Tonight, Burning Sky and The Letter. A brilliant album, and a bargain for only £10!

For more information check out Portland on

MuteMath Tour Dates

2009-06-16T11:25:00Z

Mutemath have just released tour dates following on from the release of their second album Armistice. The album is due for release on the 18th of August with a release party in their home town; New Orleans at the House of Blues.

It’s a shame that there are not UK dates, maybe next year MuteMath? More details about the album can be found in my previous blog post.

Inspired Design…

2009-06-16T10:10:00Z

Can someone explain to me the difference between being inspired by a design, and just completely ripping it off? Where does taking one idea and using it in your design move into coping the design?

I’ll use an example of our favourite company known for their design: Apple! They are well known for their design, and have inspired many other designers to create slick and clean websites, however I thought I will just showcase a couple of the more inspired designs below

Ok, so these are are two extreme cases, however where does the line get drawn with using ideas in other people’s design? When does it become acceptable or unacceptable?

Has anyone really had an original thought?

The Letter - Portland

2009-06-15T13:52:00Z

I'm working on a full review of These Broken Hands by Portland, it is coming. However during my listening of the album, I got it yesterday and I'm listening to it currently for the 10th time, the song 'The Letter' stood out, and the lyrics really struck me. As a result I though I would share them with you here:

The Letter

I hear there's a letter,
That you wrote for me to read tonight.
It tells me you're leaving,
But you wrote to say that it was alright.
They came and bound your hands;
And led you away from me,
I couldn't help the tears,
They treated you so violently.

Remember you speaking,
You taught me of love, life and myself.
But I couldn't help weeping,
I knew that your time was close at hand.
NoI couldn't bear to see
All the pain they put your through.
It was too much for me,
The streams iof blood it flowed from You.

Don't let them strike you again now my friend,
You have the power to make it all end.
Why do you silently take all the pain?
When deep in your heart you were bearing my shame.

They came and bound your hands,
And led you away from me.
But you gazed into my eyes,
And spoke again so lovingly.
'Cause this is for you,
The pain I'll go through to make all things new.
Without me tonight,
You've no hope in sight, and for you I'll die.

And the came and bound my hands
And led me away from you.
This is the only way I'll have
Of saving you.

The album is just beautiful, you can hear some of their other tracks on their MySpace: myspace.com/portlandmusicuk. The full review is coming soon, and I may post some more lyrics up later as well!

Jesus is God... not just a promoted human!

2009-06-14T11:58:00Z

Jesus is eternal, He lasts forever, not like a created thing... This was one of the things that was said at the sermon I listened to today. It just stuck out, and I wanted to share it... In this changing world, Jesus remains steadfast, He is the same; yesterday, today and forever.

An athlete is constantly training to reach their peak level, however Jesus is always at His peak, He never left it, always at the full potential. There is no one better to aid us, because although He doesn't need to change, we do?

iPhone 3GS

2009-06-13T16:49:00Z

So as one of my previous blog entries mentioned, Apple are going to be realeasing a updated model to the iPhone called the iPhone 3GS. While the design of the device is unchanged from the iPhone 3G there has been a lot of changes under the hood improving hardware, making the gadget faster to allow for upgrades to the software.

There are two main hardware updates that will be really noticed by the user; firstly the camera has finally been updated to a 3 megapixel camera giving a higher resolution to the image. That said the lense that was in the iPhone and the iPhone 3G was fairly stunning, however this update should make it even better. In addition to this the camera now has auto-focus which is very nice and a new feature called touch-focus, which means that you tap the area that you want to be in focus and then the camera makes that area in focus! The update also allows the camera to record video, which is nice of Apple!

The second update is simply a bigger hard drive, which I have to say: 'finally!' 16Gb just wasn't enough for me, so they have whacked the capacity up to 32Gb. This, unfortuantly, makes the device very tempting for me now!

The updates that won't be as obvious to the user are a 600MHz processor, 256Mb RAM, and a much improved graphics chip. Coming together this means that everything about the iPhone is going to be faster and slicker. Apps will be able to be more complex, and it means that there will be more graphic intensive games for the iPhone, which isn't a bad thing!

Now the iPhone (and iPod Touch) have also had a massive software update, for the iPhone 3GS it will make use of the updated hardware, for the previous models it add in features such as cut, copy, paste, Spotlight search through all the data in the phone, MMS and a landscape keyboard throughout many apps… finally! However, these updates should of been in version one of the software.

So into the rant:

One and Two; iPhone 3GS… it is a lame name. The S stands for 'speed', which is fair enough, however I'm sure that they could of come up with something better. Two: I would of thought that a little modification into the design wouldn't of hurt… I mean those plastic backs look a little tacky to me? It's a great device, why not make it look beautiful all over, not just from the front, the original iPhone looked stunning!

Three: This is the big one, the price of the thing. I'll be honest; this is a great device, and the two little annoyances above are not going to put me off buying it, this is the update that I have been waiting for to make the leap. The reason that I am not buying the iPhone is O2. They are asking a stupid amount for the phone, I don't have an issue with paying the £35 per month contract fee to get the 32Gb iPhone 3GS with 600 minutes, 500 texts and obviously unlimited data. However I do have a small issue with paying on top of that £275 to get the handset with that contact. Seriously O2??? What are you playing at? To get the phone for free I would need to go into a 24 month contract and pay £75 per month, and even then I would only get 500 texts?

Sticking around under pay as you go is also painful, however could be worse; the 32Gb handset on it's own costs £540, I buy a Mac computer for cheaper than that!

Raghhh.

Pleo back from the Grave?

2009-06-12T10:11:00Z

So you may remember a couple of months ago I wrote on this blog about Pleo becoming extinct as a result of the company that makes the little toy robot dinosaurs going bust. If you didn’t you can read that here. I was quite upset by this; Pleo is an awesome creation!

However there may be a future for Pleo, narrowly missing the crashing meteor that is the economy! Ugobe, the company that owns Pleo, have died, they are no more, however Jetta Company Limited, who manufactured Pleo, are in the process of buying up all the intellectual property and assets of Ugobe, which obviously includes Pleo. Apparently all the machines used to create Pleo are still intact, so hopefully Pleo will be coming back from the grave soon!

Just for the record, I still want a Pleo, and anyone is more than welcome to buy me one for my birthday! You can still purchase them from Play.com.

New Desktop

2009-06-10T13:49:00Z

I’ve been playing with a new desktop layout recently, new icons, clock etc (click the image to get a large copy!). I quite like it and felt like sharing with you all, I may be doing a little tweaking here and there, we shall see!

I’ve got a new project coming which will be announced shortly, as a result the blog updates may be more spaced out in the coming days!

MuteMath - Armistice

2009-06-10T00:11:00Z

Over three years after their debut self titled album, MuteMath’s long awaited second album; Armisitice has been given a date of release; 18th August. It comes in at around 50 minutes in length which is made up of the following 12 tracks:

The Nerve
Backfire
Clipping
Spotlight
No Response
Pins and Needles
Goodbye
Odds
Electrify
Armistice
The Lost Year
Burden

Spotlight, track 4, was released as a vinyl and digital download EP alongside two other tracksl Clockwork and Earlylight. Spotlight also featured in the soundtrack for the 2008 adaption of the Stephenie Meyer Twilight film.

The first track on the new album, The Nerve, can be listened to directly from their website at www.mutemath.com

A Brief Summary of Apple WWDC 2009

2009-06-09T08:23:00Z

Because I am tired and lazy you can have a brief summary of what went on at the latest Apple event. If I get some time in the coming week I may do a full round up!

Macbook Pro range has been updated

13", 15" & 17" display
Better battery
SD Card (for your digital camera)
Lower Prices
Out Now

Snow Leopard

It's a faster update to Leopard
It will be a $29 update
There is a huge amount more, but not brief!
Out in September

iPhone

New operating system update
Get movies from the iTunes store 'on the go'
Share internet connection to other bluetooth connection
'Find My iPhone' to locate your iPhone around the world
Updated hardware; it's faster!
Video recording (and better camera)
Digital Compass
Better Battery
Out 19th June

Jellyfish Crop Circle

2009-06-08T11:35:00Z

This news item appeared on the BBC a couple of days ago. Some people have got together and created a 250m long jelly fish an Oxfordshire field. Obviosuly I do not condone the destruction of the crops, however I do have admire the precision in the creation of the the crop circle. Really quite stunning.

This crop circle comes close to beating, in my opinion, that of the Oregon State University Linux Society who got away from their terminal commands to create a 67 metre wide FireFox logo in a oat field. You can find details of that here.

A Few of my Favourite Quotations

2009-06-07T11:50:00Z

Just a quick post today! Here are a couple of my favourite quotes at the moment from a wide variety of sources!

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like 'What about lunch?”
- A. Milne

“What is the use of a book, without pictures or conversations?”
- Lewis Carroll

“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.”
- Douglas Adams

“Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.”
- Terry Pratchett

“A naked man fears no pick-pocket.”
- The Talking Moose

“Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe.”
- Galileo Galilei

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”
- Winston Churchill

“I believe in the sun even when it isn’t shining. I believe in love even when I am alone. I believe in God even when He is silent”
- Anonymous

“The beauty of grace, is that it makes life not fair”
- Matthew Thiesen

Frenzy 2009

2009-06-06T09:39:00Z

Frenzy is a music festival that takes place each year in Edinburgh that attracts some of the biggest Christian bands from both the UK and US. It has been running since 2005 when it started as it meant to continue with Delirious?, Third Day and the Newsboys all heading to Scotland for one day of amazing music.

Year one attracted over 5000 people, and this number has just gone up with more and more people heading to Scotland to hear bands such as Tree63, Hillsong United, Chris Tomlin, yFriday, etc.

This year’s festival is expecting to hit 10,000 people with even bigger bands including Starfield, Third Day, David Crowder Band, Jeremy Camp and Hillsong London taking up the main stage all day. On the other two stages are smaller bands such Portland, Blush UK, Superhero, [Dweeb] and thebandwithnoname.

It should be a great day for all who go, I just wish I could get up to Scotland for the weekend, I however am in Stafford all day!

My Top Five Films... and why

2009-06-05T07:00:00Z

I often quote my top five favourite films, however rarely do I justify my reasoning behind them, so I thought that I would here say a short bit about each (I could say a lot more I promise), what I like about each film and therefore why they are five star films, and why they are in the ‘top five’.

Just for the record this list is alphabetical, mainly because I can’t make my mind up on the order of the top three! Also there are many films that could be in this list and they do rate in my favourite films, however these listed below are the films that I really rate!

The List

Donnie Darko
Lord of the Rings
The Shawshank Redemption
Stardust
V for Vendetta

One brief warning, there will be spoilers below!

Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly - 2002)

First off; the plot! The film is centred around the character of Donnie Darko being told by Frank, a six foot bunny rabbit, that the world is going to end in 28 day, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds, whilst at the same time saving his life. Over the following 28 days the film follows him as he begins to learn about some of the things that govern his reality which ultimately lead to the destruction of the universe.

I always find placing things into genres, however if I was to with Donnie Darko I would say that it would fall into the fantasy genre, with a hint of science fiction with a smidgen of mystery. The thing with this film is that it took me a while to get my head around it, I really liked it the first time I watched it through, however it wasn’t until I had watched it through a couple of times did I begin to understand it. So, if you are the kind of person who doesn’t like to think in a film, this really isn’t for you!

With this film the is a complex story running through it which is enhanced by the acting, music, production, special effects, etc. This makes a change, as many of the films that have been made recently that have a really lame story line, however are made popular by either the actors chosen or the special effects that were used.

Donnie Darko is a film that mixes a really interesting, deep, story line, with expressive characters. A lot of time and effort went into creating the story, that mixed with the stunning film work, editing and post production comes together to create an amazing film that you can watch over and over again and find something new in it each time.

Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson 2001-2003)

If you have missed this film then I have to ask “have you been of this planet in the last years?” In summary the story follows the quest to destroy a ring in which is contained all of the evil in Middle-Earth. The main character is that of Frodo Baggins who accepts the task of going to Mount Doom to throw the ring into the lava from where it was forged. Meanwhile the rest of Middle-Earth is plunged into war around the rising dark forces.

I think the only way to describe these films is epic. Just the shear size and scale of what goes on within the film, how it is put together, et al is just impressive, and therefore to go through each film individually briefly would just be impossible. However I’ll include some of the highlights across the films.

Firstly to the musical score behind the film. The music, composed by Howard Shore, is up there in one of the most well known composition of late. The music conveys perfectly what is happening on screen and rather than distracting or going unnoticed in the story it complements the action happening on screen.

Secondly a small bit of trivia (shamelessly ripped from IMDB) the first film in the trilogy had 540 computer-generated images, Two Towers improved on that and had 799 while Return of the King almost doubled that with 1488. Seriously the effects in this film are really really well done. There is a whole combination of effects, spanning from very impressive CGI, right the way through to oversized models which look absolutely stunning

In regards to the adaption from the book Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh have managed turn an absolutely stunning book, packed with really detailed description and convert it into an amazingly visual film that sticks (more, rather than less) to the book, something that is to be commended. Even parts of Tolkien’s humour is taken across into the film and put into the dialogue between characters. Genius!

The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont - 1994)

This is quite possibly the best film ever… not to win an Oscar. The story focuses around Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins. Dufresne is wrongly accused of the murder of his wife and her lover. His punishment is to serve two life sentences within the Shawshank Prision. Through the film we see Dufresne adapting to the prison life, form friendships make enemies, build a library, make a chess set, and eventually make his escape from the place that stole 25 years of his life.

This is, again, a film that you cannot switch off for, actually four out of the five films need concentration for. Each element of the story is gone through in great detail, things that appear as subplots are all woven into the main plot. This film stands upon its plot, it has a really thought out story line running through it, all elements of this are masterfully created by the actors.

Both Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman give a superb performance in this film, they really flesh out the characters and make you really get emotionally caught up with the characters, something that is challenging in any role.

There are no special effects in this film, aside from some well placed lightning, but that is because it is simply not required. The story line, acting, voiceover (from the voice of Freeman’s character) and the setting give all the special effects required for it to be up in my top five films.

Stardust (Matthew Vaughn - 2007)

This is the turn your mind off film in the list. Based upon the book of the same name by Neil Gaiman it follows the general gist of the book, however deviating from it in many places. This in my humble opinion is a good thing on the basis that I found the book really dull after the first third, it was almost as if Gaiman got bored writing it, harsh comment, however I think it is fair!

I’ll be honest this film is a fairy story. I cannot say otherwise, but it is beautifully done. It follows Tristan Thorn as he follows in his father footsteps by crossing the gap in ‘The Wall’ from England into the magical kingdom of Stormhold. The quest leads him in search of a fallen star to give as a gift to his one true love (fairy story)! There he gets more than just a lump of celestial rock, rather the character played by Clare Danes; Yvaine - the star. With Yvaine in tow Tristan heads back to The Wall to present her, however following them are princes and witches all after Yvaine. Did I mention it is a fairy story?

Firstly, the plot… it just works and fits with the traditional fairy stories, the climax being; the wicked witch being killed by love… awww. No seriously, the progression from the start of the film all the way through to the end just flows perfectly. There was a suitable amount of action, the romance that every five year old boy hates is there… but not overdone, plus there is a suitable amount humour mixed with suspense built in, it just works!

The editing is the next thing that I want to make a point of. There is this really well done cut in the film that I through was shear brilliance. It starts with one of the princes, at the edge of a sea, throwing runes into the air at the camera. Then as they twist and turn in the air at the camera they cut to the witch doing a similar action, however the wooden runes change into her black, polished, runes as they fall back into her hands. I haven’t done justice in explaining this cut between scenes, however it is beautifully done.

Finally, I want draw attention to the CGI used in the film. There is one sequence involving miniature elephants that was really poorly done, however the rest of the film has just some unbelievably well done animation. The creation of the witch’s inn was absolutely stunning created from nothing with green fire, watching as an old inn is created is just awesome, and surprisingly believable! It is also just the touches that are created to make Yvaine glow are very subtly done, however really add to the content.

Don’t let the idea that you are too old for fairy tales put you off this film, it is a well designed and well crafted film that draws together an amazing plot, actors, special effects with a very good soundtrack!

V for Vendetta (James McTeigue - 2005)

This film is based off of the Alan Moore and David Lloyd graphic novel. The novel was written in the 80’s and painted a picture of the future looking at England run under a tyranny and the story of two vigilantes rising up to combat the leadership.

The film takes this story and updates it, the biggest change being moving from radio to television! The film tells the story of Evey Hammond who is rescued by a masked man who calls himself V. As Evey learns of his past and what the current government did to him, she ultimately causes the destruction of the Houses of Commons to send a message of the destruction of democracy into tyranny.

The character of V is played by Hugo Weaving, you will either recognise him as Elrond in Lord of the Rings or as his role as Agent Smith in The Matrix trilogy. Expressing the emotions of a character is a hard job, however it is even harder to do when your character has no face. Constantly covered in a Guy Fawkes mask, relying only on voice changes and movement, Weaving makes this role his own and proves himself even more as a diverse actor. This, accompanied by the acting of Natalie Portman, Stephen Fry, John Hurt and Stephen Rea, just made a set of solid actors who really made the roles their own.

The story line is deep and complex, much like the other films on this list. Also while the film is an action movie, it has a really well written script that brings out the story line, almost word for word taken from the novel. Both of these elements are perfectly recreated by the actors.

Despite being a fictional film, there are references to current events during 2005. The film is all about the lengths that V goes to in order to fulfil his vendetta against the government. Through this it casts a light on the lengths the government goes to cover up information, and to gain information. It is a warning to modern societies showing how the oppression started and where it went, a lesson to prevent it from happening now.

One of the things that is repeated (and also echoed in another comic and film) is that V not a person, rather a symbol of hope over the oppression, as a person he is weak and frail, however as V he becomes more like an icon, looking to the idea that he conveys, rather than the person behind the mask. The film is challenging to watch, and will probably be one of the first to be banned, should the government that is portrayed come into power.

The film is ones that will leave you thinking, whilst entertaining you with a well designed story, captivating actors and elegantly choreographed action scenes.

This list was expanded on the 8th January: The Five Become Six: Bridge to Terabithia.

As you will note there is a distinct lack of SciFi in that list, Donnie Darko vaguely fits into that category, however it isn’t true SciFi in the sense of Star Wars or Star Trek. As such there are a couple of films that need to be mentioned as being really good films, however don’t quite make it into my top five films.

Films that don’t quite make it (four stars… just)

The Dark Knight (I may justify this in a later blog)
Gladiator (sorry)
High Fidelity
Italian Job
Notting Hill
Phone Booth

Pentecost & The Holy Spirit

2009-06-04T20:23:00Z

Yesterday I started talking about Pentecost, and I didn’t really go into a huge amount of detail. I wanted to talk about it a little bit more about it today, not really going deep into the Bible, however touching on some of the topics.

The big point of the message of Pentecost is the gift of the Holy Spirit onto the newly created church (or the church being created as a result of the Holy Spirit). Before the Holy Spirit came God had placed reminders of Himself all around His people, the temple, the ark of the covenant, the tent of meeting (the tabernacle), people like Moses, a pillar of cloud and fire, etc, the list goes on… Yet even with the reminders that God had placed around the people they still managed to ignore Him quite regularly.

The Holy Spirit isn’t a pillar of fire version two, nor was it something that God created as a backup plan, the Spirit is part of the trinity of God, and as such has always been, it is first mentioned in Genesis chapter one, verse two:

“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

However, after Pentecost the Spirit plays a more active role, rather than being around God’s people as a reminder, the Holy Spirit enters the believers into their soul as a constant reminder of his presence. The Bible gives thousands of characteristics of the Holy Spirit, too many to go into here, however it is a power force against the devil and his schemes, but also a spirit of peace in the rough, fallen, world.

The Holy Spirit is the part of God to remind you of God, and to equip you, it is only through the Spirit that you see what is known as the Fruits of the Spirit that cause radical transformations in lives. The Spirit is with you, for you and in you.

Election Day

2009-06-04T08:00:00Z

Today is an election day; voting in many places on a local level, who makes the decisions about the town/city you live in, but also voting at an EU level. These people essentially decide on what happens to Britian in relationship to Europe, at a basic level this effects things down to the cost of food in the UK, right through to health and safety rules in the workplace or into products manufactured.

I’m going to keep this nice and simple, first provide you with a link to reasons why you should vote in the EU elections that is HERE. Secondly to give you a link to a friends blog who has kindly saved both you and I going through 10 popular parties and what they want out elections. This can be found in Joe Williams’ Blog.

Have a good day, please do vote.

Portland, Pentecost and London

2009-06-03T10:14:00Z

Apologies for the delay in this particular post, this should of been either Saturday or Sunday. I’ve had a lot to blog about recently… or too much time on my hands, take your pick!

So on Saturday I headed into London to go and see a band called Portland. I encountered them at Spring Harvest this year, thought quite highly of them and then stalked them down on twitter afterwards (twitter.com/PortlandUK) and I got word that they were playing in London and decided to take myself on a day trip to go and hear them again.

What I hadn’t realised is that they were playing as part of the Pentecost Festival organised by Share Jesus International (SJI). The Pentecost Festival a set of events held in central London, churches across London come together under this one banner to put on events in parks, coffee shops, pubs, churches, theatres, etc to celebrate the birth of the church.

The Pentecost is celebrated, by Christians, 50 days after Easter. It was when the Holy Spirit was given to Jesus’ followers after He had returned to Heaven. It is seen to be the birth of the church, as after hearing the message that the apostle Peter delivered, about 3,000 people joined Jesus’ followers and started a fellowship. You can read about it in Acts 2.

Pentecost Festival spanned from Tuesday 26th - 31st May with events throughout climaxing at the weekend with aplethoraof events happening across London; Leicester Square, Westminster, Tottenham Court Road, Covent Garden, Victoria Embankment Gardens, etc.

Portland played really, they did afortyfive minute set which comprised of several tracks off their new album, several off their previous album, a new track and three covers, which made for a widevarietyof tunes all with their relaxedacousticsound. They are so good! The full set list is at the end of the blog!

I spent the rest of the day wandering around London, however that is for the content of another blog. For those wanting to find out more about Portland and listen to samples of their music their MySpace page is very good, it has tracks from both albums. If you wish to buy their album they will have a website up and running shortly (I will put out a blog when it goes up) however it can be purchased for £7.99 from Eden.co.uk. Once I buy it I will be doing a review of it for LouderThanTheMusic.com.

Set List:

Your Eyes

Recorded on Pretend to Be Stronger

Burning Sky

Recorded on These Broken Hands

The Letter

Recorded on These Broken Hands

If You Want Me To

New unrecorded song

Coconut Skins

Damien Rice Cover

Carry You

Recorded on These Broken Hands

Tonight

Recorded on These Broken Hands

Wonderwall

Oasis Cover

Nothing Left To Show

Not the actual track name, however I missed what it was called!

I Remember It Well

Damien Rice Cover

Photo’s from the entire day are on my Picasa gallery.

Lincoln Christian Union Logo Video

2009-06-02T15:58:00Z

This is just a little demo I’ve been working on this holiday that I wanted to share with you all.

Feedback would be appreciated, however saying ‘I don’t like it’ without justification is not cool! Suggestions for improvement is cool! :)

Have a good day!

Cycle Paths

2009-06-01T10:23:00Z

As a cyclist, I am a big fan of cycle paths, they mean that I don’t have to worry about pesky cars trying to run me down, and generally keep pedestrians out of my way. This is of benefit as it means that I can get from A to B a lot quicker. The cycle path that runs between East Worthing and Shoreham, for example, is a very good piece of tarmac (with a minor exception at Lancing). In addition, it sticks to the beach, therefore providing a more scenic route, rather than going along the road between houses and shops.

However, there are a couple of things that I don’t understand… firstly the width of the things. They do not need to be as wide as they are when they are on the pavement. Often they will consume over half of the pavement, when there is always going to be more pedestrians than cyclists, and cyclists do not take up that much space.

Secondly, why does the council decide that the pavement is a good place to store things, and then force the pedestrians on to the cycle path? The above photo is a shot from Worthing beach taken on Friday 29th. Surely that is just a hazard more than anything?

Finally, there is the pointlessness of some of the paths that have been put in, that quite probably cost millions to put down! This photo shows one of many two/three metre cycle paths. I just fail to understand the point of this piece, why would I use it? Hmm, I’m sure that there is a reason somewhere here…

To conclude, cycle routes with paths equals good idea… Pointless short cycle paths equals bad bad idea!

Worthing Birdman

2009-05-31T15:23:00Z

For those who have not come across the Birdman festival, it is one of those stupid things that just kept on going because it was a laugh… Basically what happens is that people jump of the end of a pier with the assurance of being rescued by a boat! The aim of the contest is to “fly” as far as one can using only human power. Some people take this venture to be more serious than others…

Up until last year the event was hosted at Bognor pier, which is just a little way down the road, however due to safety reasons their pier was shortened and it was no longer safe to jump into the water. As such the event moved to the next pier along, and that happened to be Worthing’s.

Worthing pier was kited out with an extension made out of scaffolding and then over a weekend various people, in various outfits jumped from into the sea! Some of those who enter do it for the laugh, so do it to raise money for charity and some do it as a serious attempt to beat the previous record length (currently set at 85.9m by Ron Freeman).

If you fancy watching this ridiculous event it will be taking place on the 22nd and 23rd August, 13:00 on Worthing Beach. The more serious “flyers” will be launching on the Saturday, while the people who are slightly less serious and fancy just going for a swim are going to be sinking on the Sunday.

If you can’t quite wait until then, have a video of last years event. (The jump on the Sunday had to be cancelled because of poor weather).

Film Certificates

2009-05-30T17:00:00Z

In the last academic year I have seen the following films at the cinema:

City of Ember
The Dark Knight
Defiance
Saw V
Star Trek
Quantum of Solace
Watchmen
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I’ll be the first one to say that I regret going to see some of these films; City of Ember was on the whole a bad film with redeeming qualities and fits quite nicely in the two star category, admittedly the film was not aimed at me, however it will still be judged. I also didn’t really like watching Saw V, I appreciate the elegance of the way it all linked together, et al, however it really wasn’t my film, again a two star film. However this post isn’t about about me rating films it is about the BBFC, the British Board of Film Classification, and their ratings of films.

Some of the ratings that have been given have been spot on, City of Ember getting a PG completely fair enough, and at the other end of the scale Watchmen and Saw getting an 18 is valid, and spot on, there is no way that they could of got less. However can someone explain to me how films like The Dark Knight and Quantum of Solace got out on a 12a certificate?

A quick little piece of education: the 12a certificate replaced the 12 certificate in the cinema, while the 12 certificate still applies to DVD, any film that would have received a 12 certificate in the cinema would now get the 12a rating. It was officially came into use in 2002, and means that any person under the age of 12 can enter the film, as long as they are doing so with a person over the age of 18 accompanying them.

Films within the 12a certificate should fall within the following boundaries (excerpt from bbfc.co.uk):

Sexual activity may be implied. Sex references may reflect what is likely to be familiar to most adolescents but should not go beyond what is suitable for them.

Violence must not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated.

Dangerous techniques (eg combat, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on imitable detail or appear pain or harm free. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Is it me or is sexual activity a tad vague? You could get away with almost anything in films under a 12a certificate then… actually Quantum of Solace pretty much did. However note the fifth and seventh word; ‘implied’ and ‘references’. If I am reading this correctly, under this rating you can only imply sexual activity, not actually show it.

Now onto the following two categories, violence and imitation. How on earth did the Dark Knight pass these? You have this scene within the film where one of the lead characters, Harvey Dent, is missing half of his face, and this is dwelled on in graphic detail.

Also from all sides, Batman, the Joker, the police and Two Face violence is seen as the only way to get things done, the whole film is just one fight after another. Don’t get me wrong, there is a story line running though, however it is held together with knives and fists. That in itself seems to be glamorising easily accessible weapons?

Am I saying that the BBFC is a broken system? No I’m not, however it has been making mistakes, and an increasing number recently. The rules need to be tightened up, maybe even rewritten in some cases. The 12a certificate was a mistake, and one that needs to be rectified. Maybe I have an old-fashioned view of things; I’m not used to this modern world, however I don’t think it is a great idea that sex and violence should be thrown at that level to 12 year olds…

Karen Gillan cast as the Doctor's assistant

2009-05-29T17:03:00Z

News has hit the tubes today that Karen Gillan has been cast alongside Matt Smith in next years series of Doctor Who. As with Freema Agyeman she was given the role having being cast in a smaller role earlier in the previous series in Fires Of Pompeii as a soothsayer.

As with Matt Smith, she is relatively unknown having only had a couple of minor roles in TV before and leading up to the new series of Doctor Who, however it is a logical decision seeing as casting a well known actress for the role would probably of lessened the impact of Matt Smith as the Doctor.

As of yet Gillan’s character doesn’t have a name or a back story yet, however no doubt that will be revealed overtime!

Big Church Day Out Photos [Part Three]

2009-05-29T10:33:00Z

Despite the nightmare that was the car parking at the beginning and end of the day, The Big Church Day Out was a really great day, I thought I would share a couple of my photos from the day. 14,000 people + one beautiful day + several great bands = one great day!

The main stage

Not quite 14,000 people

The main stage behind 14,000 people!

Looking towards Wiston Hall

yFriday opens the event

Tom + Olly perform on the Miracle Street Stage

A fairly large crowd, with Israel and the New Breed

Michael W. Smith with his new keyboard

Delirious? take to the stage

Martin Smith, Michael W. Smith and Graham Kendrick playing So Great

Star Ratings?

2009-05-28T11:21:00Z

A five star rating has always made sense to me, it implies the best of something, however what does a four star rating really mean, and how do you distinguish the difference between a four star and a five star album/book/film?

I think Halliwell had it right. Leslie Halliwell was the creator of one of the most extensive guides to films, you can buy 2 inch thick books of film reviews each year that review and rate the film ‘that matter’ from the previous year. By default all films received no stars, and then depending on the quality of the film the star rating would increase. A film that had no starts wasn’t unwatchable, however it would just make the point that there was nothing really special about it.

Personally I want more control over saying if a film is unwatchable or not, a random example that I happened upon; the film The Notebook receives no stars in its rating, and I would agree that there isn’t anything really special about this film, it is a mediocre film, however to just glance upon the review you have no idea what the reviewer really thought about the film.

So I propose my own system of rating; as with Halliwell things that are getting reviewed start with no stars and then work their way up. A record, book or film that ultimately receives no stars is unwatchable, it is an honour I reserve for things like the ‘go-to bad film’, mine being Napoleon Dynamite (some people love it, I can’t stand the thing).

Awarding one star is more out of sympathy for the thing being reviewed, it is the pat on the head for a good effort, however ultimately failed. It doesn’t make the two star rating, however it doesn’t deserve to be deemed unwatchable/listenable/readable. I would place Drop Dead Fred into this sympathy vote, nice try, however it is just poor!

Two star gets given to something that see as a bad film, with redeeming qualities, the majority of James Bond films fit into this category; generally rubbish story lines and acting, however with the redeeming quality of well made action scenes and the odd comic one liner.

The three star award is the award for being mediocre, it is an average book/record/film. This category is reserved for things that I sat through, and wasn’t really pulled either way, I didn’t really like it, however nor did I dislike it either. Three stars would go to a film like The Notebook.

Distinguishing between a four stars and five stars is the hardest one to judge, what divides a good film from and exceptional film? A good film is one that you sit through, enjoy, and afterwards you talk about it and say I’m going to get that on DVD/BluRay/etc when it comes out. That kind of film gets four stars.

Getting a five star award is for films that you really enjoy, you quote it regularly, and rather than saying I’m going to get the DVD you consider going and watching it again at the cinema, your name is on the preorder list and as soon as you get it you clear your evening to watch it. In my opinion films such as The Shawshank Redemption, Watchmen and the new Star Trek all get five stars.

Listening to A Collision or (3+4=7)

2009-05-27T09:45:00Z

This review is of an older album that I’ve only just rediscovered, I used to listen to it, and then it got pushed to the back on the CD shelf and it’s only just made it’s way back. I think the issue I had with it was that I could only listen to parts of it at a time, however since then my music taste has broadened and I really quite like all of it now (more or less)!

The album was released in 2005, and since then DC*B have released a couple of other albums; B Collision, Remedy, Remedy Live and Church Music is getting released mid-September.

Firstly, it is a long album. It comprises of 21 tracks, coming in at 1 hour 12 minutes which is impressive to say the least! Secondly it is a varied album, there is a lot of different musical styles in it, and that is what originally put me off the thing, there were tracks that I quite liked and others that I really didn’t.

There is this interesting combination of rock and bluegrass, a fair amount of electronic sounds, a healthy amount of the thermion and a good quota of string instruments all combined under the vocals to create a distinctive, recognisable, sound. The title ‘A Collision’ is a reference to this fusing of musical styles, for example track 13 - Do Not Move is a fantastic collision of electro-with a raw rock sound.

Tracks like Here Is Our King and Wholly Yours (tracks 3 &4) are perfect examples of DC*B’s ability to put together great worship tracks, they are strong, loud tracks that really work well, however can be distracting when certain tracks go from this really big sounds then get broken down into bluegrass style of music. It works musically, sounds great, however I am rarely ready for it when it happens!

I hadn’t noticed until someone pointed it out to me, however there is a story running through the album. The story opens with the story of a man’s sin:

“I am stained with dirt, prone to depravity,
You are everything that is bright and clean…
You are holy, holy, holy
I wanna be holy like You are”

The song Wholly Yours looks at us next to God, we are sinful fallen creatures, next to God’s holiness. Then track 7; the title track A Beautiful Collision, is all about the collision between us and God; everything thrown bare before God:

“So afraid You 'll find me out,
Alone here with my doubt,
Here it comes, a beautiful collision…
There seems no end to where You begin and,
there I am now: You and I collide”

Christ’s redemption and grace are seen here and on into tracks like You Are My Joy, which shows the authors joy as a result:

“Love’s taken over me
And so I propose the letting myself go,
I am letting myself go,
You are my joy.”

Finally the album goes on to the end of times looking at our ultimate reward and rescue from this world in tracks like Our Happy Home:

Our better home where we our rest shall gain
There sin and sorrow cease and every conflict’s o’er
There we shall dwell in endless peace and never hunger more…
Jerusalem, our happy home

Highly recommend it, well worth a listen! The stand out tracks: Here Is Our King, Do Not Move and You Are My Joy.

You can pick it up from Amazon.co.uk for £7.99
You can listen through Spotify for free!

Thoughts and Feelings on Crash; Decyfer Down

2009-05-26T10:42:00Z

Decyfer Down are a band that have been around in some form since pre-2000, however it wasn’t until 2005-06 that they really began to get recognised as an important name in alternative metal, grunge music. In 2006 they released their first album End of Grey, and toured with Pillar and Day of Fire for the rest of year. In 2008 Decyfer Down released a preview of Crash in the form of a three track digital EP after pushing the album release back a year, however now in 2009 we have the full eleven tracks of Crash.

The album is a response to a series of events that shaped the band, including a massive road accident that made the band seriously consider if this was what they were supposed to be doing. Crash is written to express what the band has been through, a press release said it’s how you respond to situations, instead of letting them control you that shapes you, and it has shaped this record.

First off, I should mention that there is a new voice in the mix, TJ Harris took on the lead vocals for the group when Caleb Oliver decided to call it a day. Harris has a really strong voice that has been compared to that of Chris Cornell.

Crash is a disc that cannot be played quietly, it is full of enthusiasm, the band have really moved forward since End of Grey. There are two types of song on this disc, you have the songs that have this hard rock sound like Crash and Desperate (tracks 1 & 2), while there are more melodic sounds, almost ballads, that really come through in tracks like Moving On (track 8).

Track four, Best I Can, is up their in my favourite tracks from the album, not only is it musically stunning, fitting in to the melodic category, however the lyrics of the song reflect our lack of ability to live a perfect life, however God’s grace covering it.

This album is great continuation from End of Grey, and fits perfectly in a CD shelve that holds artists such as Pillar, Demon Hunter or Day of Fire. That is it’s only downside, it does sound a lot like these other artists, there is lack of individuality to make this album stand out from the crowd.

Louder Than the Music

2009-05-26T09:00:00Z

Those who have been following my blog will have noticed an increase in music related posts on the blog over the last couple of months. This is because I have started writing for LouderThanTheMusic.co.uk, a website devoted to Christian music news, reviews, et al.

I figured with yFriday.org.uk being taken down due to lack of hits I would have some time on my hands, so rather than waste it put it to good use throwing my two cents in with a review here and there and news items as and when I came across them.

Keep your eyes on the site, it is a very good resource, they also have a twitter account and a facebook profile which is kept upto date by the site.

Big Church Day Out [Part Two]

2009-05-25T14:38:00Z

One thing that was said over and over again at the Big Church Day Out yesterday was this; we cannot keep this to ourselves. It is great for the church to come together as one and celebrate, however we have to go out and share the passion for Jesus with the rest of the world.

I’m going to borrow an illustration for Steve Chalke, no matter of your opinion of the guy the illustration is good. If you go outside and get hit by a flake of snow your going to look up at the sky, however that single flake doesn’t settle. If the whole area gets covered with tens of thousands of flakes of snow it will snow so hard that the whole traffic in the streets has to stop to look up and can go no further.

As Christians we can come together and have a great time, however if we don’t take the Spirit back with us in to our communities, to our schools, to work places, to our friends what is the point? We are simply being hypocrites. We need to follow out the Great Commission that Jesus left in Matthew 28:

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”

If we are not doing this we are missing one of the fundamental teachings of Jesus.

Big Church Day Out [Part One]

2009-05-25T13:51:00Z

So yesterday was the Big Church Day Out held in Wiston Hall which is just outside of Steyning. The plan for the day was to get 14,000 church members, not just youth - the whole family, into one field to ‘celebrate all that is good’ within the community of the church. The event was co-ordinated by Tim Jupp, of Delirious?, and was hosted by Pete Greig & Carla Harding of 24-7 Prayer.

yFriday were up first and played the following set list:

Great & Glorious
Revolution
Come Let Us Worship
Holy Holy Holy
You Spoke
Everlasting God
My Saviour and My Friend
Alive

I was chatting to both Danny and Gav later in the afternoon about the new direction that the band were now on, moving more in a worship band. Gav was saying that it has allowed the band to still work with young people, while also reaching out to the whole church, equipping the whole church with songs that the whole church can sing. Revolution is a great song, however not so great for the elder section of the church congregation!

Coming up in the future for the guys are the regular summer activities, Chesterfest, Greenbelt and a couple of other festival events, and also a Great and Glorious tour through October and November…

I then spent the rest of the afternoon through to early evening jumping between stages, catching a lot of different artists from Graham Kendrick through to the Kings Chamber Orchestra. The one band that really did stand out for me was Tom + Olly, well worth a listen if you get a chance! Despite the name they are a four piece band from Brighton who have a weird mash of pop and rock with a side helping of hip-hop, it shouldn’t work but it does!

Delirious? were headlining as one of their last gigs in the UK and it is safe to say that they delivered a good set list:

God is Smiling
Rain Down
Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?
Dance in the River
Solid Rock
Love Will Find A Way
All God's Children
History Maker
Break the Silence (Chorus)
So Great with Graham Kendrick & Michael W. Smith
Our God Reigns (Chorus)
Majesty
Paint the Town Red
---
Stare the Monster Down
My Soul Sings

So I gave Delirious? a little bit of flack about their break up in a previous blog entry. However even though they will be breaking up as a band soon, they still have all of the passion and all of the energy that they have always had, it is shame that they will be going, yet exciting to see what will come out of the individuals, Stu G is already booked to do a solo set at Greenbelt this year!

Facebook- Like... Dislike and Frankly Don't Care

2009-05-18T00:39:00Z

I’ll be honest; I can’t remember when Facebook rolled out the ‘like’ button on everything from status updates, comments, wall posts, images, etc. I’ll continue with my honesty; I like what they have done… Did you see what I did there? It allows feedback to say “I’ve read this”, or “I agree with it”, or “I appreciated it”, or ultimately “I like it”. Feedback is good, it allows interaction between users, and that is what Facebook, and all social networking sites, should be about.

One of the nice things is that you don’t have to write the comment to say that you like it, the user just hits the like button, nice and handy. So then, the question is; where is the opposite feature? I want a ‘dislike’ button to say, actually I think you’re wrong, or the ‘apathetic’ button to say I’ve read it, but I don’t really care about it! I want to have a quick way of giving feedback on something that has been posted. It would also allow an expansion into a Digg like page for statuses; where status updates can be dugg up or buried on the news feed.

Facebook: Please steal this idea!

Doctor Who to Dark for Kids?

2009-05-15T15:02:00Z

Please read this article from the Daily Telegraph.

Right, now that you have read it… I cannot comment on the likes of Ben 10, Power Rangers and Primeval having not read it, so I’ll make Doctor Who the focus of this…

Sorry, but isn’t the point of Doctor Who that is scary? I mean part of the point of Doctor Who is that you watch from behind your sofa? It is a family show, and as such it is aimed at all age ranges, and to the most part fulfils its purpose in my books… however if kids are getting scared of it, or parents are considering it to dark for a seven year old, surely it is the responsibility of the parent to not allow their kids to watch it? That’s what my parents did…

We have a kids version of Doctor Who, it is called Sarah Jane Adventures, and we have an ‘adult’ version of Doctor Who called Torchwood (I have a rant about Torchwood, however now isn’t the time or the place). Pushing Doctor Who back past the watershed is just going to turn it into a tamed version of Torchwood.

In addition to this, I remember reading an article earlier in the year that with the ability to get programs such as Doctor Who, Sarah Jane and Torchwood online, combined with the increasing technical ability on the computer by children means that they managed to access these programs no matter when the BBC aired them…

Moving a program to a different time slot will not help.

Star Trek vrs Star Wars

2009-05-14T23:34:00Z

http://www.collegehumor.com/moogaloop/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1910892&fullscreen=1

Don’t worry there are no spoilers in the above clip! I came across this video today and found it a very accurate comparison with the new Star Trek film and A New Hope, plus providing the usual level of comedy that would be expected at College Humour! If you can’t see the clip click here

I plan to put together an entry reviewing the new Star Trek film, however you’ll just have to wait for that one!

Delirious? - The end... or is it?

2009-05-14T01:47:00Z

So if you are into Christian music, and haven't been living in a nice pretty bubble, you will of heard that Delirious? have decided to call it a day, and split up. Within the next few months they will be doing a small number of gigs in both the UK and the US, finally finishing off their career with a ~~five~~ six day tour of the UK (date are at the end of this blog entry).

I've followed Delirious for many years now, own all but a couple of the discs that they have put out (the albums put out in other countries), and have been to several live gigs. Through this I can't help but feel hard done by on the split, they announced that they were intending to split at the end of November '08, yet even in this time they can't put on a larger scale farewell tour in both the US and the UK? Five tour dates, all in the UK, none of which are really accessible for me... They have had plenty of time to get something organised?

News has come up that they plan to release a 'Greatest Hits' album sometime next year, however, I can't really help but think what will be the point of me buying this? I own all their music, several copies of tracks in some cases (I have 13 recording of the track Deeper...). Other than completeness why should I buy this?

In addition to this Martin Smith, lead vocalist, has been quoted in saying 'maybe a live album of our London Concert at the end of the year'. Surely we have live copies of all the songs... They have done five live albums after all!

Talk about a long goodbye! In the same interview Smith says the following: "Seventeen absolutely fantastic years, and we're still great friends. What a testimony it's been. The chance of us all getting together and playing again is very high. Now it's time to take a rest." Are they coming or are they going??? I have no idea at all what is going on with them! Why are they leaving us up in the air like this? I would expect this from a 90's pop boy band, but not from Delirious?

May many Delirious? fans get the joke in that last line... Audio Lessonover. For those interested the article can be found here.

25th HMV Picture House - Edinburgh, UK

26th O2 Academy - Bristol, UK

27th O2 Academy - Birmingham, UK

28th O2 Academy - Leeds, UK

29th HMV Hammersmith Apollo - London, UK

Relient K Finalising New Album

2009-05-14T01:21:00Z

American punk-pop band, Relient K, are almost finished in the studio for their sixth studio album. The album has been given the provisional title of ‘Forget and Not Slow Down’. The new album will be released under ~~Mono vrs Stereo, with whom Matthew Thiessen and Matt Hoopes are affiliated with~~ the Gotee record label.

In addition to the news of the Forget and Not Slow Down the band have also put out tour dates which will be the first chance to hear the new songs live. Dates can be found from their MySpace page.

Goodbye to an Old Friend

2009-05-12T17:46:00Z

It has come to the end of an era... the E70 has died a death... well half of it has, the main body still works however the flap has stopped working which is very upsetting, not least because at the moment I only have half of a QWERTY keyboard, and no number pad making it very difficult to phone or text. So until further notice I have no phone. I'll be honest, I'm not to cut up about not being able to make phone calls, et al; what I will miss is having my calendar to hand.

So far on the list of possible replacements is the E63 or the E75, however I'm fairly sure I'll cope without a phone, they are far too much of an invasion into my life!

I suppose I could always get an iPhone...

Five Very Simple OS X Applications that are Awesomely Useful

2009-05-12T01:08:00Z

This is by no means a definitive list of all the useful small applications, however these five are the ones that I use regularly and find just fantastic to use! Did I mention they are free?

Quicksilver (http://www.blacktree.com) - Free

For a basic user this is just an application launcher allowing you to leave the dock and use the keyboard driven interface to open applications. The more it is used the more useful it is as it ‘learns’ what shortcuts you, as an inpidual user, use for programs. It also can interface with other programs allowing you to create inpidual shortcuts for certain regular tasks.

Caffeine (http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/) - Free

This tiny OS X application sits in the menu bar and prevents your computer from going to sleep. On the face of it not amazingly useful, however it is great when watching BBC iPlayer.

Isolator (http://willmore.eu/software/isolator/) - Free

Another menu bar app that is great for removing distractions from the desktop around you. It blanks everything out, including the dock, apart from the active window allowing you to work in peace without the distractions of programs such as Adium, Mail or Skype.

Freedom (http://macfreedom.com) - Free

Freedom gives you freedom from the internet by turning all networking on your Mac for a specified period of time, at the end of the time (set by the user) the network preferences are enabled allowing access to the internet. The only way to break the network break is to reboot the computer, which is a pain!

GimmeSomeTunes (http://www.eternalstorms.at) - Free

Marketed as the only iTunes controller you will ever need it almost fulfils its title! While it is capable of much more than I use it for its primary function is to automatically search for cover art and lyrics for your iTunes library. In addition it has Last.fm support built in, hot keys allowing user specified shortcuts for iTunes and a mini-controller that sits in the top menu.

Life is Good- The best of Stellar Kart

2009-05-11T13:30:00Z

Stellar Kart is a band that I have been meaning to listen to for a while now, and I’ll be honest, I’ve never really got round to it on the basis; do we really need another Christian American punk pop band? Little harsh? Maybe. However they have just released a ‘best of’ album combining their top tracks from their three CDs. So this seems like a perfect opportunity to tune in and have a listen to their best 17 tracks.

The album contains several of the bands singles, such as the title track Life is Good and Me and Jesus which was number 1 in the ‘Hot Christian Songs’ for seven weeks when it was released.

It has been put together in four sections; tracks 1 through 4 are taken from their first album, All Gas, No Brake (2004), tracks 5 through 9 are from We Can’t Stand Sitting Down, their second album (2006), 10 to 14 are taken from their most recent album Expect the Impossible (2008) and then the final three tracks are unreleased tracks, one original and two covers.

The first section is pretty much what I was expecting, a loud punk pop sound in the first three tracks which leads in to a more mellow thoughtful track four (Finish Last). The chorus to Finish Last really do stick in your head; ‘I want to finish last, last in the world’s eyes, no matter what I do, I will be first in your eyes’. The song talks about who we, as Christian, should be pleasing, the world or Jesus?

Me and Jesus (track 5) leads out of the first section and into the second album. It is great link from Finish Last; starting in the same quiet, cut back, sound however then really builds into the loud upbeat chorus. Again, as with the previous section there is this rise louder tracks, back down into the quiet tracks.

Into their latest album, and again there is this quiet lead into Angels in Chorus (track 10), which builds into Jesus Loves You (track 11). There is a subtle difference between the third section and the second, the sound is a lot brighter, more energetic if that is possible, it is almost impossible not to enjoy Innocent (track 12)!

The final section, made up of the rarity and covers provides a little extra for the fans who are buying this album to support the band. Lifeguard (track 15) is a big bouncy track that didn’t make it onto Expect the Impossible. Centerfield is a cover of the John Fogerty track from the same album, and Punk the Halls is a ‘punked-up’ recording of the Christmas tune Deck the Halls leading into Oh Come All Ye Faithful, slightly odd considering it is April, however we’ll get over it!

I think that there are three possible ways to take this album, either you are not really a fan of the punk pop sound and as a result this album isn’t really for you. If you like the punk pop genre, like Relient K or Hawk Nelson, then you can swing two ways; there is a very similar sound, there were times when I could of joined a Relient K track in a Stellar Kart track, and as such you could choose to write them off as being ‘just another punk pop band’. Alternately, Life is Good provides another great sound to fit well into a summery playlist, alongside other similar bands.

I personally think that the album has a really great sound and is well put together, I love the way the tracks fit into the same order as their album release, and you can hear the musical progression between the three albums. I’m going to be spending the rest of the day listening to their back catalogue, I’ll reserve judgement on the Livin’ on a Prayer cover on All Gas, No Brake though!

Rating - Four Stars

Top Tracks:

Life is Good
Me and Jesus
Innocent

You can listen to the album through Spotify: Here or buy through Amazon.co.uk Here

The Almost Back in the Studio

2009-05-05T09:47:00Z

American alternative band The Almost are following up their 2007 release, Southern Weather, and are currently in the studio recording their their new album expected to be released late summer this year. The album will be released, again, with Tooth & Nail Records and Virgin Records.

Their previous album sold over 29,000 copies in its first week, and their single from the same album 'Say This Sooner' reached made 7th in the US modern rock chart.

While the band are in the studio you can follow their progress in the studio with their webcam at http://www.stickam.com/thealmost or through their MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/thealmost)

May 4th

2009-05-04T10:12:00Z

May the force be with you today!

All Star United to Release New Album

2009-04-29T11:52:00Z

American band All Star United are releasing a new album in the UK sometime during May following on from their hit album Love and Radiation released in 2006. 'The Good Album' will feature 11 tracks and will be released by Fierce! Like Love and Radiation it won't make it across to the states until later in the year.

,p>Full Track List:

The Blame
Surface of the Sun
Is This the Moment?
Once Again, With Feeling
Lights Out
Crashing Cars
Dude, that's Freaking Awesome
Pretty Famous
I'm a Killer
Good Luck with the Girls
Good Times

You can preorder from Cross Rhythms or Wesley Owen.

Thoughts on Live Revelations - Third Day

2009-04-28T11:23:00Z

Third Day are a band that have been round since the early '90s, however really took off when they signed with Reunion Record in '97 and released their self titled album which has sold over 300,000 copies to date. From there the band has just grown, not only in America but internationally as well.

Live Revelations is the live recording of Third Day’s latest studio album Revelations which was released in July last year. The live CD is made up of nine tracks recorded from four different venues along the tour schedule; Atlanta, Houston, Nashville and Raleigh, and as a result the album just feels that it has been stuck together with applause and cheering put over the top to cover the breaks so that it flows.

Don’t misunderstand me, the quality of the recordings are solid, all nine tracks are recorded really well and on their own are fantastic. The highlights of the CD for me are Run to You (track one) and Revelation (track nine) which just sound awesome, Mac Powell’s voice is just stunningly captured. However out of the nine tracks that are included one third of the tracks could end the gig… Call My Name (track six) could end the album, until they pick it up again into Otherside (track seven) with something like an encore, which annoys me generally, encores are almost always pointless at gigs (onehundredhours had the right idea there) and on the CD it just sounds forced. Then the gig really does end on When Love Come To Town (track eight) which is a U2 cover, yet Revelation is just sticky taped on at the end, as I have said it is a great recording of a really good song, however why put it after the gig has ended?

My other main gripe about it, other than the track order is that the CD is just too short, nine tracks in total, which adds up to a total of 35 minutes. To cap it off one of these tracks is a U2 cover! Third Day didn’t produce a live version of Wherever You Are, their previous studio album, and only one track, Cry to Jesus (track 5) appears on the album, it would not of been difficult to add 5 or 6 minutes to this CD by including a couple of live recording from that CD, it wouldn’t of detracted from it.

As with Live Wire also included with the CD is a DVD which is presented as a documentary crossing between the onstage concert, and the backstage behind the scenes of the part of the tour which enables you to get to know more about the band and how they are almost as a family, yet this is something we have already seen on Live Wire…

So who should buy this CD? People who want to have live recordings of the tour, the production on the individual tracks is really well done and the live recording really does bring a new element that can never be captured in a studio recording. You also get a lot of Mac Powell introducing the songs, the introduction to Cry out to Jesus is really powerful as he describes what the message of the song is and what it means.

Third Day are a fantastic band, they have released some amazing material, Wire, Live Wire and Revelations all make it into my favourite CD list, this one, however, just doesn’t hit the mark with me.

Thoughts on Great and Glorious - yFriday

2009-04-26T00:31:00Z

In late 2008 yFriday released a news update about their Prelude Tour; their live CD/DVD had captured everything that they had been as a band upto this point, however they felt that God was leading them in a different direction into 2009. Great & Glorious, yFriday’s fifth studio album, is written focusing on this new direction; leading people into worship.

A couple of years ago yFriday released a 6 track EP called Songs of Heaven, which were the tracks that had been written, but didn’t really fit on any of the other albums released, in the same way that How Can We Dance fitted into their music set, however didn’t really fit on Universal. Songs of Heaven were tracks that were great to be used in church worship, however the music wasn’t really used outside of a yFriday.

For their previous album, Universal, Ken Riley, the front man and writer, co-wrote a song called Everlasting God with Brenton Brown which really took off in both the UK and the US as a real praise driven track based upon Isaiah 40:28-31. Great and Glorious continues on this with a mixture of tracks written by Ken Riley, but also co-written tracks with other Christian musicians such as Matt Redman and Tim Hughes.

The album as a whole is very different from their back catalogue, as a whole it is very reflective, and this may be a shock for many yFriday fans who joined during the fan base when Revolution and Universal were released, however the style of the some of the tracks echos back to Rainmaker and Open, as well as progressing on incorporating new styles.

Great and Glorious, the title track really starts off the album as if it came from Universal creating the join between the two albums, however as the second track comes in, Alive, co-written with Tim Hughes, you can see a different style of music beginning to come through, musically you can hear Hughes’ influence coming through, yet it still staying with the loud, upbeat yFriday’esque tracks that we have been used to.

However from track three the album really comes into this new direction that the band are going for, Come Let Us Worship is a lot quieter, yet still focusing on the great and glorious God. The chorus when I first heard it got it stuck in my head instantly, it is so simple yet so beautiful; “Come let us worship, come let us bow down, come let us sing of all the Lord has done”, and then the verses follow this up focusing on the awesomeness of God; “He made the heavens, and they shine His glory, He moves the sun across the sky, so incomparable the star of morning; Jesus Christ…” Completely ripped straight out of the Bible - fantastic!

The album keeps with this all the way through from start to finish, focusing on praise and worship to God. One thing that really struck me, and this is something that I noticed in Universal also, is the use of what I have called scientific imagery to reflect the creativeness of God. For example in Wonderful (track three on Universal) the tracks opens with ‘Cell by cell, come infect all of me, and overwhelm, my radiology’ and then in Gravity (track six on Universal) the opening verse is ‘You are the one, the star attraction, Brightest shining Son, The powerful, consuming passion, Fire burning at my core’ and this space theme continues through out that track. This is something that continues on a couple of tracks in Great and Glorious; Creation (track six on Great and Glorious) boils down to everything that we can look at through a telescope or down a microscope revealing the creation power of God, the intricacies that ‘sing of Your glory’.

The one track that stands out as an odd ball for me is You Will Not Steal Our Children, track eight, co-written by Martin Smith. The reason that it stands out as an odd ball is not the lyric more the style of the music which has been heavily influenced by where Martin Smith is musically. The verses felt fine, however the chorus, with the repeating of the lyrics ‘You will not steal our children’ would fit on the latest Delirious? album, Kingdom of Comfort, however it just didn’t feel like it fitted on Great and Glorious to me… I could just be being picky!

Admittedly the ending of You Will Not does pick up the volume of the album musically to lead well into the Joy of the Lord, which is the third really lively track on the album that echoes back to previous yFriday albums, there is a lot of awesome synth and guitar, not to mention the fantastic lyrics too!

The final two tracks revert back to the new quieter reflective yFriday and it works out well in the scheme of the album. I think that when I first listened to the album the stand out tracks were the ones that reminded me of the old yFriday; Joy of the Lord and Great and Glorious, however the more I listen to the album the more I appreciate the other tracks and the way that the band are going. Currently top ranking tracks are Great and Glorious (1), Come Let us Worship (3) and You are Great (4).

It is really hard, however, to rank the album next to the other yFriday albums as it has gone in a different direction musically. What has stayed the same through out though is passion behind why they are doing it and this has, again, come out again in a new way, yet still keeping Jesus at the centre of the music.

I really recommend giving the album a listen as well as their back catalogue too if you haven’t heard it already. The album can be purchased of the yFriday website or downloaded from the (almost useable) Kingsway website. Of course there are full tracks to listen to on the yFriday MySpace!

Harold... Can Walk!

2009-04-22T11:31:00Z

For those who have been following what I have been doing with Harold will know that I've been trying to get him to walk... well I have vaguely succeeded... there is still a lot of work do be done on the animation so I'm going to leave it like this unless I get time to do some touch up work on the animation to make it a tad smoother!

http://jamesdoc.awardspace.co.uk/extra/HaroldWalking.swf

Pleo to become extinct

2009-04-21T11:01:00Z

You may remember a previous couple of posts about Pleo…. Pleo is a little robot dinosaur who is just generally fantastic, anyone is welcome to buy me one for my birthday! However the company that produced them have come under the economy and have had to file for bankruptcy, which is shocking considering that last year Ugobe, Pleo’s creators, sold over 100,000 of the things (that’s worth $35000000)!

Sad times :(

Future Plans

2009-03-23T02:53:00Z

So I’ve just had a look through some of my older posts on this here blog, it is interesting to see how much I’ve changed in some respects, and in other ways stayed the same. I’m thinking about re-doing some of these blog posts to make them more current and so that I can compare them to see how my opinions have changed and what I value of interest has changed!

However, I would like to know what people think about what I write here, what they would like to see going up here and how I can make it more interesting, etc, little stories, more of what I’m doing at uni, more rants and or thoughts, music reviews? Let me know!

Train Fares

2009-03-17T14:54:00Z

Ok, sorry; incoming rant. But seriously how much are train fares??? And why does it cost me £52.55 to get home to Worthing from Lincoln… Oh and that is with a young person’s rail card… That is just too much generally. Plus I’ve booked this in advanced… going on the 9th April! I bet I won’t even get a seat on that one carriage that East Midlands Trains put on to London.

ARGH

This year!

2009-03-05T08:17:00Z

I really wanted to write to let you know what has been happening with me here in Lincoln since I came back after Christmas. It seems such a long time ago! Before anything, I would like to apologise for not personally writing to each of you. I would love to however, there are just not enough hours in the day and I have a lot to say at the moment!

Up until recently, I have been feeling spiritually very low. I have been through a time where I 've felt really challenged about what I believe and why I believe it. It is only until recently that I have felt a real closeness with God; I have had a real renewal of faith which has been a great encouragement for me. The people around me must have seen a dramatic change this week from someone who was seriously contemplating throwing in the towel on Christianity, to someone who is currently so fired up for God. I really praise God for the support that I 've been given over the past few weeks, both in Lincoln and Worthing. I am almost certain that if it wasn 't through the prayer support that I have received, I wouldn 't be writing this letter to you now, nor would I be going to church on Sunday.

I think that this time of trail has left me with the realisation and challenge that I really need to fully depend of God for everything as nothing else comes close to the release and satisfaction that I am feeling, particularly the freedom that I am finding in Christ. I ask that you will continue to pray for me that I will be constantly reminded of this need for God as He is the only way I am going to make it through university, in all that I do outside of my university work and throughout the rest of my life.

I think that this spiritual battle has been allowed to happen now for a reason. I was asked a while back to be involved with the Christian Union small groups and become a leader, to help and support others. My first real session as leading a group was on Thursday just past. Another member of the CU who was going to be leading had to drop out as she was feeling unwell, leaving me to lead this group through a study on Hebrews 3 alone. This experience of feeling cut off from God created by this spirit of downheartedness really showed me that self reliance would get me nowhere. I needed to know that I could not lead this group using purely my own strength. As a result of relaxing into God 's car, I honestly have never felt such a feeling of rest with God, so much so that I know it wasn 't any part of me leading the group, but God leading through me.

At the moment I am on such a spiritual high, I cannot express adequately how amazing and awesome God is.

I think that through this, not only have I drawn closer to God but have a much deeper understanding on His word too. Two verses that have really been opened up to me are James 1: 2-3 which says â€œconsider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of you faith develops perseverance." Truth be told, until now this verse has seemed totally crazy, how can trials be â€œpure joy"? However, in hind sight I completely understand that I had to go through this period of testing and trial to come out the other side feeling the way I do right now, even if it took a bit longer than usual.

he other verse that has really come alive to me is 1 Corinthians 10:13 which talks about God being faithful and not allowing us to be tempted beyond what we can bear and supporting us through it. God was supporting me through these trials through the people He put around me to guide and help me during this time.

This is especially relevant now to me as the Christian Union at Lincoln will be running a week of evangelistic events on campus. It has become so apparent through the atmosphere on campus that the devil does not want this event to happen. It was described to me as a ‘spirit of negativity’ that has settled on the campus, I know first hand what that is like now. As a Christian Union, we will be doing a daily brunch bars with talks about big questions that people often have about Christianity, such as how do we know that the Bible is a reliable source and that it hasn 't been changed over the years? Through these talks, we will be able to speak to so many people to truly communicate our message and attempt to rid the apathy that young people often have in relation to Christianity. (I 'm not sure about this sentence…you didn’t need the times and such like so don 't know if what I 've written is completely off the point…if so, just ditch it!)

Every evening this week, we have events that have been designed to be accessible to bring friends along to. On Monday night, the guys in the Christian Union are running a football and pub night just for the guys, meeting in a place where people are comfortable to come along to so that we can talk to them about God and invite them to the rest of the events in the week. The female equivalent is also being run at the same time.

The other main events we 're running each day are called â€˜First Contacts '. Within the university we are going to be going out into the main atrium on campus and asking people how they feel about God and answering their immediate questions, but also to invite them to the rest of the week 's events so that they can really meet with God, maybe for the first time. I believe that during this week we will see lives changed on the Lincoln campus.

I would really appreciate if you could commit this week to prayer; praising God that we have this opportunity to witness on campus and that the devil will have no part in it. Also that God would be moving powerfully through the university, be softening hearts and that people will want to come. For the CU members and for Lee McMunn, who is coming especially to speak at many of these events, and that we as a group will be united. Moreover, that the group will have the strength, courage and endurance to actively witness on campus. Most importantly though that we won 't forget why we are going this; for God 's glory and not our own, and that we will be totally relying on God for everything this week.

Personally, if you could be thanking God that I have been released from the spirit that was causing me such negativity and therefore praise that I am feeling so excited about the coming week. Please pray that I will fully depend on God constantly and that even after this events week, I will still have this passion and fire for God.

There are so many people that I want to bring along to these events and I really thank God for the opportunities that He has already given to me to invite people such as H and S, T and J and only a couple of hours ago to talk to one of my flat mates. Please pray that more opportunities will open up to invite people in my flat and on my course and that they will come with open hearts willing to listen to be transformed by God.

Avoiding an assignment

2009-02-18T13:32:00Z

There are two things that I normally do during essay time to avoid having to complete assignments, messing with websites and redoing my desktop set-up… During my latest essay on systems thinking (go and search for it in wikipedia ) I have done both!

So now my monitors looks like this:

I don’t have time for this, however it is more fun than re-writing my introduction …

I have also found the usefulness that is Visor mixed with iThief… I can now control iTunes through the Terminal… I feel very geeky! It’s going to take a while to get my head around the commands, however it feels good!

The bands I discovered/was introduced to in 2008

2009-01-01T18:57:00Z

Sabio… many thanks to Simon J for these guys! Seriously amazing band! They are no longer around however the one album that they did release, called Escape, although it didn’t strike me at first, after several plays through moved closer and closer to my top ten list! The opening track Meaning of My Life is such an awesomely produced track! Love it!
Live, also thanks to a Jiggins, a Ben this time. I now own three of their CD’s which I purchased for £12 from the local independent music store! They have 12 CD’s around (7 studio, 1 live, 2 compilations and 2 EPs). The album Distance to Here works so well as an album, it also compliments my track 1 & 4 theory; the best tracks will be the first and forth and this album does not let down, Dolphins Cry and Run to the Water are brilliant! I also recommend checking out the music video to Run to the Water!
Shawn McDonald is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. While working in Wesley Owen I played his latest album Roots fairly constantly! He was often compared to Jason Mraz!
Jason Mraz was introduced to me by Caitlin who has introduced me to many artists I would not of listened to before! Another American solo artist who has tracks that have bits of pop, rock, folk, jazz and hip hop… they are great!
Paramore, yet another American band, are a riot… ok sorry bad pun! I have Gareth to thank for these guys! Their 2nd studio album Riot! has gone platinum in the US and gold in the UK, my only complaint about the thing is that it was too short; 38 minutes!
Luna Halo, courtesy of Mr David Taylor, yet another US alternative band who have released just two full albums and several EPs. They did do an amazing cover of Hang on to You written by Martin Smith of Delirious?
Kindle came via Gareth. They are, like Sabio, a small Christian band, they are mostly known for their album Screaming Serenades which has a lot of influences of Muse in it!
Bluetree another band that I found at Wesley Owen however never got round to purchasing their CD, they came to Lincoln in November, I purchased their CD there and then and have been playing it ever since! They were also supporting Delirious? at their Christmas gig!

Top 10 albums at the moment

2008-11-30T09:08:00Z

I consider the following albums (in alphabetical order by artist) to be my favourite at the moment, they are the ones I find myself listening to the most… I have no doubt that this will of changed by the end of the year though!

Anberlin: Cities
Bluetree: Greater Things
Delirious?: Glo
Idlewild: The Remote Part
Lifehouse: No Name Face
Shawn Mcdonald: Roots
MuteMath: MuteMath
Relient K: Mmhmm

When pulling out a all the old hotlinked images many didn’t load… some of this list is lost to time, and bad practice

Bluetree; Greater Things

2008-11-25T11:57:00Z

So during Sunday evening I went to see a band called Bluetree. I genuinely cannot express how good I thought they were! For those who haven’t heard of them Bluetree are a Northern Ireland Christian band formed of six members. They formed in 2004 within their local church and have been doing various gigs across the United Kingdom and Ireland and have also played gigs in America, Canada and Thailand.

While I was working in Wesley Owen over the summer I played their album ‘Greater Things’ fairly regularly and was seriously impressed with the whole album, however foolishly did not purchase it… Well many moons later, 3 if you are picky, they played in Lincoln. Seriously the passion that they put into their set was just amazing, the energy within them was just fantastic.

Their set list was as follows:

Standing Out
God's Plan
You Go Before
God of the City
Your Love
When I Survey (Isaac Watts & Lowell Mason)
River
Each Day
Shine Jesus Shine (Graham Kendrick)
Lifes Noise
For You
Happy Day (Tim Hughes)

They did Shine Jesus Shine, and not only did they get away with it… they did an amazing version of it full of drums, guitars, keys and weird little beeps and whistles. I’m hoping to get an audio recording of this!

Next year (2009) they are going full time as a band, quitting the day job and I seriously believe that they will make it. They have such great potential and with the dwindling number of UK based Christian bands at the moment now is the right time to do it. I highly recpommend their album ‘Greater Things’ which can be purchased from Cross Rhythms at the the low price of £8.97. Or check out their MySpace which has 3 of the tracks from their album up on it: myspace.com/bluetreeonline.

This band is going somewhere, they have already been picked up in the US thanks to Chris Tomlin covering ‘God of the City’ on his latest CD ‘Hello Love’. Recently they have done a tour of USA, performed at The Stand and will be supporting Delirious? at their annual Christmas Show at the Shepherds Bush Empire.

Talent, Time and Treasure…

2008-10-16T09:30:00Z

Reflections from the feeding of the five thousand (Luke 9:10-17)

One of the key elements in Jesus ’ ministry was the forgiveness of sins, when Jesus came to him before anything happened He always said words along the lines of your sins are forgive. Before anything, Jesus addressed the root cause of the issue, the spiritual cancer within them; the sin. However after doing this Jesus address the physical injury as well, He didn 't leave the paralytic who was complete immobile stuck there, instead he continued to go on and heal them.

Despite Jesus coming to save people spiritually He still addressed their physical situation then and there. There is no point in this world being so â€˜spiritual ’ that you miss the needs of the world. The world just doesn 't need another â€˜religion of theory ’ where people read these books, talking about all these wonderful things that Jesus did if they don 't then go and put them into practice.

A prime example of this is when Jesus feeds the 5000… After preaching at the people for hours everyone is feeling hungry and tired. The disciples notice this and suggests to Jesus that He should send them away so that they can get back and have some food. Yet rather than their suggestion Jesus turns to the disciples and says â€˜You feed them ’ (Luke 9:13), Jesus tells the disciples to feed 5000 people there and then without any plan. Crazy!

The first thing that they think about is what that actually means, they would need to have to do this, in Mark 6 it says that the disciples were thinking about how much it would cost to feed all these people; â€˜that would take eight months wages to feed all theses people, you want us to do that? ’ Their immediate thoughts are what they have against what they need, and the know that they don 't have anywhere near enough, the disciples probably have a little bit of money on them, and they knew what Jesus was like, they knew he would talk for hours so they probably brought some food, but not enough to feed this number. Then this little boy turns up (John 6:9) and gives Jesus his packed lunch and then Jesus proceeds to feed all these people with 5 loaves and 2 fish…

The disciples saw what they didn 't have, they didn 't have enough food and money so they didn 't give anything for Jesus to use. In the same way it is so easy for us to think that what we don 't have will mean that Jesus won 't be able to us. Jesus asked the disciples to do something that they thought was impossible, however Jesus doesn 't ask you to do anything that you and Him cannot handle. A lack in resources doesn 't bind God 's power, all he asks is that you give what you have. Together with the help of the disciples and the little boy Jesus get the group to sit down and then provides for them.

One of the easiest things that Jesus could of done would of just to send the people away to go and look after themselves, but He didn 't. He showed that He cared about the peoples needs here and now. As with the healings the first thing he did was to cater for the spiritual needs through teaching, however he then went on to feed the physical needs. He cared about the physical needs of people and knew that you cannot minister to a person without addressing both the spiritual and the physical needs. It is so easy to talk about God providing for needs, however you need to make yourself available for God to use you to help others with those needs in their lives.

The disciples had too little resources to feed these people, but they did have something, even still they did not give it to Jesus to take and to uses. The little boy mentioned in John had even less than these 12 grown men who knew Jesus, yet despite having so little he still offered it up to Jesus, Jesus took this small offering and turned it into something amazing. He took the gift of a young child and performed one of the most miraculous miracles in the Bible. This says to me that it doesn 't matter who you are, age should be no barrier between you and Jesus. It doesn 't matter how young or old, or somewhere in the middle you are it is that we offer what we have to Jesus. If we offer nothing to God then He has nothing to use, yet He can take what we have and will use it for His glory.

The second thing about this little boy is what he had was really small, it was just enough to feed him. So often it can feel that what we have is not enough, it 's what the disciples thought. Yet this story says one thing about that; what you give to Jesus he takes and then multiplies it. God has given us so much in the forms of talent, time and treasure, God can take any of these things and multiply them for His purposes. But the little boy had to offer up his treasure for Jesus to use them, Jesus took this and multiplied in for His glory.

So often people go around talking about how spiritual they are, they have all this talk, all these big words, however it is pointless for them, everyone around them and ultimately to God is all they are doing is talking about it. They talk but do they allow God to use them? In the book of James later on in the New Testament the author talks about faith and deeds saying that it is great to have faith, however you need to put your faith in the practice, deeds are the outwards sign of the faith within you (James 2:14). While faith saves having Jesus within your life it flows from you effecting everyone around you, in an unbelieving world you must have the deeds to back up your faith. When Jesus saw the people hungry, when Jesus saw the injured and the ill the Bible says that â€˜His heart went out to them '. He could of just healed them spiritually, however he also acted physically and healed their physical condition as an outward sign that they had been changed. What is our outward sign that we have been changed? We cannot just preach at those in poverty, we need to get involved and help them.

Even from such as small gift that the boy gave Jesus came plenty for all the people there to be really well fed with left overs. What little that we give will be multiplied and it 's effectiveness will go beyond our imagination. The boy made himself available to the power of God, in return the food fed not only himself, but him and five thousand other people. Everyone there ate until they had their fill, the boy got a bigger lunch than what he would normally of had! What he gave was multiplied and then returned to him just with so much more.

Our call is to go and feed them,
It is a universal call for everyone,
Nothing that we can offer is too small for God,
We can use our talent, our time or our treasure,
God will take the small offering we have and multiply it,
We can 't do this in our own strength,
We need God alongside,
If you trust in Him, God will use you.

A way that the Christian Union in Lincoln has been working on this is through what we are calling the â€˜Water Stations '. What we have been doing is a really small thing, a few nights each term we are going and standing outside The Engine Shed on campus which is the main club venue for students and just handing them bottled water as they leave. This gives us the opportunity to just talk to people as they leave, to spread the gospel, but also to often fulfill their current physical need of actually drinking some water as they leave.

We rarely see the effect of what we are doing there straight away, however we know that we have given something for Jesus to take, to use and to multiply.

Face Palm Update and Blog Action Day

2008-10-13T16:27:00Z

I’ve retaken the two photos for this little toy, and then redid the effect spending a little more time on it, I think it looks a lot better now! Make your own mind up though!

General note, on the 15th (two days time) I will be taking part in Blog Action Day, the event is a nonprofit event that aims to unite the world 's bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same topic on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. That sounds as if it has just been copied and pasted from their site… (it was)! Basically on the 15th I will be writing a post about a form of poverty in the world, as will about 8000 other bloggers in the world, it is just something to make you think. I encourage as many of you who read this blog to check out blogactionday.org and write your own blog post or facebook note on Thursday.

Face Palm

2008-10-07T23:59:00Z

This is the result of my creative tech workshop… exciting eh? Should I get some spare time this week I will be redoing it, however Richard would be upset if I didn’t put this online!

Got a busy couple of days coming up so we shall see! Get to try out my new studded boots tomorrow at frisbee, see if they make a difference!

First week at uni...

2008-09-19T19:38:00Z

Right, it 's Friday! First week at uni really! Has been a good time! :D I am sharing a floor with 7 other people which is a great laugh, everyone is really good and really open so we are all getting on really well!

Have had the introduction lectures which have been suitably dull however won 't complain! Start the real work on Tuesday, so far I have Mondays off, however have yet to see my full timetable so that may all change, we will wait and see!

Had the joys of wrestling with the washing machine today which was totally dull, realised 15 minutes too late that the machine had finished! However it did give me the chance to write an attempt at a CV and re-start reading â€˜The Shack ’ so we will see how I get on with that!

I have also joined up on the Ultimate Frisbee club which looks to be a great amount of fun! Got the first practice tomorrow at 14:00 which should be good, don 't really know what to expect, Ben… what should I expect? I have also found traces of the Christian Union which is good, I was getting worried! They have a website and apparently I have already missed two events however they have a pudding event tomorrow at 18:00 so I will try and get along to that! Also get the joys of church shopping on Sunday, will see how that goes…

I have printed a whole load of photos off of people from home, however it doesn’t make up for you all, so just to let you know that I am missing you lot loads and am looking forward to seeing you all at Christmas!

Hope everyone is well and those who havn’t gone yet I hope you have a safe journey… don’t forget to bring bed sheets… that would just be stupid… (yes that is what I did!)

What to take to uni?

2008-09-09T11:27:00Z

Ok general question post… what do I really need to take to uni with me? And what are the things that I will forget that I need? Please comment with your responses, they will be appreciated!

Thanks!

James!

Road Cyclists!

2008-08-12T19:31:00Z

There is nothing worse than being over taken when you are cycling by another cyclist... what adds to this insult is when the cyclist who over takes you is a roadie .. you know the guys who dress up in skin tight and still insist in shaving their legs to give them the extra edge...

So here I am casually cycling over to Goring to pick up a monitor and I pass the gym along my road as the roadie comes out of there in his green skin tight... So I pick up the pace a bit refusing to be over taken and manage to keep in front of him through until Tarring Road where we part company... I had almost killed myself by this point, I was just totally out of breath, yet glad that I hadn't been over taken!

So I continue at a comfortable pace down to West Worthing station go through the lights, look behind me and see the same green guy come over the level crossing... so I push down a bit more and again almost killing myself by not getting enough oxygen in my system; it is so worth it mind you! I turn off and he keeps going; win to me! However I get into the main road into Goring... and he is there again!!! How is he doing this!?! So again having to bomb it down just so that he doesn't over take me! Garg the things that I do! I turn off the road we exchange a little wave and thus ends the over paced cycle race!

Pick up the computer monitor take it home and it doesn't work; typical! Good exercise though! Results in a couple of days... whoop! They are miles away!

Facebook & Last.FM Redesigns

2008-07-23T09:07:00Z

As a whole… I really like both of the new designs, both designs changed a lot and I think they make both pages look a lot cleaner, they removed a lot of clutter from the design. There are of course pros and cons for both of them!

Facebook

Pro: Applications work! Might seem silly, however none of the apps that I use are complaining that they aren't compatible!!!
Pro: Applications don't have to go on the front page! FINALLY! I can now just write on someone's wall without having to scroll past miles of applications. Instead applications can sit in their little AJAX tab and only load when I want them, beautiful!
Pro: Facebook chat; the bar at the bottom actually looks like it belongs there! Before it just stuck out and looked out of place, however the new design has pulled it into the design a lot more! I dislike the idea of facebook chat, instant messaging within a web page just isn't clever, when I load a new page my messages just vanish!
Con: Wall/Mini feed integration is just not clever, I can see how some people like it however by default the stuff that I have done on Facebook and people writing to me is all bundled together. Facebook have managed to seperate this with 'Wall Filters' which makes it vaguely useful, however not perfect by any streach of the imagination.
Con: Tabs cannot me moved around and some can't be renamed… I don't want my apps page to be named 'Boxes' I want to call it 'Apps' or something!
Con: The Boxes tab has an odd layout! Instead of two equal column there is a wide and a thin column, which I can cope with, my Picasa application sits fine in the thin column, that is what it was built for, however there is a massive gap on the right side between the thin column and the oh so beautiful adverts… oh well!

Last.FM

Pro: Instant charts, rather than having to wait a whole week for the charts to be updated for most played in the week, year, etc it is now instant when you play a track it gets added to the statistics for the last 7 days, beautiful
Pro: New menu structure, in the order of removing clutter some of the boxes on the main page, neighbours, groups, etc have been given their own page, I like that!
Pro: The library has been updated to include a very cool 'coda slider' showing all the artists you listen to, it looks amazing!
Con: Where has the 'Paint it in Black' gone?!? I loved that small feature to change the colour scheme black (nb: would hate to see this in facebook).
Con: The banner at the top, isn't stunning, however if this is the biggest thing to complain about…

I think Last.FM’s update is better than the Facebook, they didn’t have a mini feed to destory, however seeing as both updates are fairly recent I expect to see a lot of small modification coming soon to iron out any bugs. The Last.FM update put in the facility to add applications as well, it hasn’t been turned on, and I’m a little worried about it, Facebook went down hill with the applications, however we will see when that bit goeslive!

Website Progress + Dr. Horrible

2008-07-19T22:18:00Z

Greetings all!

I feel like a need a break for the coding… I have doors going everywhere! I have a dislike for Javascript at the moment… It would help a lot if I understood it, however at the moment I am just blindly adding bits of code here and there hoping something will work! Sometimes it does… most of the time it doesn’t.

The front end PHP code is almost all complete, just needs work on beautifying the site. The blog is all but finished, need to work out how to show the previous entries, however I can show the latest five entries and then jump onto the next/previous entry from there which is nice. I also have the site importing my Picasa photo gallery, the site pulls the information from their evil nasty horrible RSS feed which makes the whole thing very slow, however it is working now! There is a small bug if the gallery has 32 photos in it, however that will be fixed shortly!

My set of jobs for the site are as follows (not that you care):

Sort out the doors and prevent them from going CrAzY!
Create a contact page, because… why not!
Sort out the small Picasa 32 bug
Show previous 5 entries on blog summary page
The backend, this should actually be quite easy to do, no java to mess with!
There is a small IE6 bug that needs to be fixed… the site design just dies, stupid IE + CSS!
I would also like to learn Cocca so I can write a program that I can run from my Mac to update the site!

While my computer is on you can see where I have got to my going to jamesdoc.dyndns.org then navigating to James Doc (local).

That’s the plan, got a lot in the way at the moment though, Finally get rid of the Heyworth School website with a training session for the staff on Monday, I then pick up a new website for Tom Scott, who is in my church, on Wednesday. In addition I now have a real job at Wesley Owen (sorry Sam!) which will take up three days a week. Ah well! Keeps me out of loose end!

Completely unrelated point: seriously, Dr. Horrible. It’s amazing! Joss Weldon, creator of Buffy, Angel, Firefly, etc has released an internet musical called Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. It is both funny and sad. It’s online until tomorrow, I cannot describe how great it is and will be getting it on DVD as soon as it comes out in the UK. In the mean time check it out at www.drhorrible.com.

Anyway I will be off now, on the sound/projector at church tomorrow, and will hopefully be able to go with Laura to watch Vicky and Rach run the Race for Life in Angmering at lunch time. Tomorrow will be busy, however I have Pringles & bananas, so I’ll be fine!!!

Have a good evening all!

The End of an Era...

2008-07-07T09:55:00Z

Yesterday (Sunday) Delirious? announced that at the end of next year they would be going on extended leave from being a band to go on and continue their own thing going in their own ways. Martin said he would like to go on a spend more time with his family and also spend more time focusing on his latest Compassion Art project. It is likly that Stu G and Jon Thatcher will focus on solo projects, Tim Jupp taking more of a management role within Furious and Paul Evans going back to playing as a session musician.

Delirious have been playing for 15 years under the name Delirious? and before that as the Cutting Edge band. After 8 studio albums, 4 live albums and many singles down the road, they have decided to call it a day.

The band have several gigs that they are already tied down to play including their October Kingdom of Comfort tour across the UK, however they have said that they are not planning to add many more (I am still expecting a Christmas gig at the Shepherd Bush Empire though)!

Thank you to Delirious? for the last 15 years of music that they have created, may it go on in a new form!

2nd Generation iPhone... G3

2008-06-09T18:52:00Z

Ok so Steve Jobs has done it again; new iPhone + new iPhone software. Basic summary because I have better things to do at the moment than blog (aka revision). The new iPhone is:

Cheaper (8Gb - £125ish)
Lighter & thinner
3G finally
GPS finally
Released in 70 countries
24 hour audio time (5 hours using 3G)
It is just swish!

Plus with the new software you can install your own applications, view office & iWorks applications. It is looking good.

Mobile Me (ignore the tame name) is looking stunning, 20Gb of file sharing between devices, upload to the cloud and then back down, calendar, email, photos, et al. All can be done wirelessly over 3G, WiFi, Edge, et al!

We did not get a better camera, nor did we hear a large amount about the iPod touch. We did heard news about Snow Leopard… as in it exists… however nothing else, have to wait until tomorrow for that one, not expecting anything huge!

The Jing Project

2008-05-24T19:30:00Z

The amount of times I end up taking screenshots for people who want help with something on their computer is fairly high, because most of the time it is quicker to send them a couple of pictures showing a step by step guide of what is happening than spending hours on the phone getting them to click a mouse. So I have to take my hat off to the guys who created Jing… Basically what it does is it takes a photo of a specific area and then allows you to play with it, draw/type on it, then upload it to the world wide web… Generally very cunning! Click here for what it uploaded

It can also do video… clicky.

At the moment it is in a free stage so get it while it is around:
http://www.jingproject.com/

Also an additional note: it is towel day tomorrow :)

The effect of A Levels on my room...

2008-05-24T13:28:00Z

Revision has made my room change layout, yes all by itself, and the space on my walls is slowly disappearing as more and more notes appear on it… It is scary… We’ll see if it helps! Back to work!

What have they done to you Pleo?

2008-05-09T17:47:00Z

For those who don’t know Pleo is an amazing animatronic little robot dinosaur that aside from being totally cute is a stunning piece of engineering. So much so that you can program the thing to do what you want with it, such as a dances or just generally messing about with them.

However some sad, sick, strange person decided to stick it in against a robot from robot wars… WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO AN INNOCENT PLEO? I advice that you watch this only if you have a strong nervous disposition:

I am still shocked.

If anyone wants to get me a Pleo for my birthday you would be my friend for a very long time.

Is That a New Site Design?

2008-05-03T12:50:00Z

So rather than revising as I should be I’ve been working on my new website design to do after my exams are out of the way. I was round Gareth’s last night and we were playing with ideas and designs for a new template on the left is my desig and Gareth’s current design is here.

The basic idea is that the site replaces my current dying site which I haven’t had time to do anything with to work out why the blog doesn’t work or actually keep it up to date! I may even go and buy some real hosting and a proper domain name rather than using free hosting and a free domain!

If all goes to plan there will be a nice back end on the site so that I can log in and create posts or photo galleries that appear on the site as new posts. In addition to this there will be a couple of animated ideas, the navigation bar at the bottom slides in and out to give more screen space for the posts and the left and right arrows are used to flick between the blog entries.

My Twitter/Facebook status and Last.FM tracks are taken from the corrisponding RSS feed which should make the site feel more used. Then below are links to various websites that I use and interact with such as Facebook, Digg, Twitter, Wikipedia, etc.

If anyone has any comments on the design, etc please post them, would like to hear the comments and suggestions to improve it!

PicLens

2008-05-03T08:05:00Z

PicLens has just been updated for FireFox 3 which in itself is amazing, however they have added YouTube support. This add-on has become almost perfect!

For those who have not come across this application it is an add on for Safari and FireFox which allows you to search photos from your browser window, it describes itself as an ‘immersive, full-screen experience’ and it is not wrong, the design of it is amazing! You can simply type into the search box and search image sites like Google Images or from Flickr to see a wall of images. Also compatible with Facebook and Picasa photo galleries… I love it!

The update, allowing FireFox 3 support also allows videos to be played in this block from sites like YouTube or Google Videos which is far too cool… I think much time will be wasted through this!

If you are interested head across to http://www.piclens.com/ for a full preview and a video clip of the application in action!

Twitter

2008-04-15T12:08:00Z

I’ve just started using twitter… I signed up a while ago, however have only just started using it! I think that may have something to do with avoiding revision! Anyway! I have two friends on Twitter at the moment, if anyone else is using it and wants to be my friend please add me; twitter.com/jamesdoc!

Delirious live at the Indigo2

2008-03-30T02:00:00Z

We arrived at the Millennium Dome, now the O2 Arena, at about 18:30 to find a fully formed queue, so being the respectable British people we slotted ourself in at the end of it and watched as for another 30 minutes the queue grew behind us. We later learnt that some dedicated (should that be d:edicated?) fans started the queue at 14:00…

After the doors open at 19:00 and the queue snaked their way into the venue we were greeted by a surprisingly agreeable DJ… Normally I am not a fan of DJ’s however this one managed to mix the tracks very well, in a way that didn’t make me want to suck my brain out with a straw… a good start really!

his gig was all about Stew… and this shown as Stew entered the stage on the dot of 20:00 and started to give the drums a beating, around him Martin, Tim, Jon and Stu G entered the small stage with balaclavas over their heads for the first song… it wasn’t about Delirious? It was about Stew’s last gig with Delirious? Metamorphis opened this gig with a real burst of energy, the whole crowd were singing along as Martin sung from behind his mask.

As God is Smiling came up the band ripped of their masks and introduced the catchy song from their newest album, Kingdom of Comfort. This was the track that I came away from the gig singing! It’s just stuck in my head! Now is the Time followed this, another well known song that has almost become a classic within the Delirious set list.

Next another new song from their new album; Stare Down the Monster which went straight into Solid Rock. All was going swimmingly until Martin went to pick up the red megaphone and his mind went empty and the lyrics vanished. The band continued playing, Martin hummed into the megaphone and then after a hint from Stu G the lyrics came back and the event continued without a hitch!

After a small pause the band took us back to the Cutting Edge times when they were leading worship in a small school hall for just 75 people… they thought they had made it! Did You Feel the Mountain Tremble was sung out by all the people in the pit and up on the balconies. A fantastic feeling was in the air

Next the band fast forwarded (or is forward wound) us to 2008 playing the title track from Kingdom of Comfort, are we are own kings within our kingdom of comfort. Due to the various plays of the song at various gigs and over the internet many of the fans knew the lyrics and were singing along.

Continuing with the new album, and because it was one of Stew Smith’s favourite tracks at the moment Martin taught everyone the chorus to a new track; All God’s Children. After doing that he told us a little bit about who Stew Smith really was, describing him as the fittest man in music in reference to his triathlons and also a bit of a joker after stealing Chris Tomlin’s toothbrush during a two week tour with him, washing it in the toilet whilst videoing it and then returning it to the original place… the video to emerge two weeks later! Martin then told us about the experience that had brought about the writing of this song when they were in India and they had visited the slums where mothers had to work as protitutes to feed their children. They had invited the children to come up on stage to sing along and the children had brought their mothers… and the song is all about how no matter who we are we are all God’s children and we can praise Him because of that.

The third, and final, track in the Kingdom of Comfort miniset was How Sweet the Name which reminded me of an old hymn that should be sung agains’t an organ as Tim played the keys and Martin sung softly along to it… then as should happen to all good hymns (such as Be Thou My Vision, or How Great Thou Art) the whole band kicked in and brought the song to a new level.

The sound of rain played over the PA oviously making the way for the World Service track Rain Down which was known by nearly everyone in the crowd. This led into another track from the new album; Give What You’ve Got. Paint the Town Red came up next which was brilliantly led by Martin.

Just the previous night the band had been playing in Portugal and Martin said what an amazing experience it was to have the songs sung in a different language and proceeded to give us the chorus of Majesty sung in Spanish, he then turned and joked to us “don’t worry, we’ll be sticking to English tonight” and the song continued through the amazing verses and chorus leading into the final song My Soul Sings.

The lights dimmed and the band went off stage, but this was not the end of the gig, not by any means! A few guys came on in the darkness and the whole drum kit came to the centre of the stage, completely obsuring our view of Tim for the encore. Stew came back as the lights rose up and introduced Break the Silence which became History Maker as “it just has Stew written on it” said Martin!

As the Tim continued to play in the background Stew stood up with a microphone in his hand… oh dear… they gave the drummer a mic… never a good idea! He told us a story of at one gig he had been asked if he wanted a go at singing whilst playing and had the job of singing his heart out whilst trying to keep the band in time. After the gig he went to the sound guy at the back of the venue to ask how it sounded, a blank faced sound guy investigated the desk to find the end of Stews microphone cable just lying on top of the desk, never been plugged in! Stew has never sung again! He then went on to thank his family; his wife and two daughters and for the sacrifices that they made. He said that Delirious? were more than just five people, it was the families behind them that made them who they were and it was what made it so special. He then thanked the fans for taking the few words of the songs and making it real using History Maker as a prime example. It has been an exciting few years but now he felt that it was time to call it a day with the band.

Stew’s wife; Sarah and their children were invited up on stage for a final farewell from the band and as a gift to Stew they gave him something that he had wanted for at least two years - a blue Vesper scooter! History Maker is concluded and the band leaves the stage… its the end of an era.

Or not! Just as everyone is turning to go Martin comes back on stage and says… “I think we’ve got time for one more!” The familar chords from the fourth track on Glo are heard clearly and the audience starts buzzing as Martin sings “Investigate my life and make me clean…” argueably one of the best live tracks. Stu G does himself proud with the amazing guitar solo in the middle of the song and the audience sing word for word along with Martin. You can see Jon getting really into the song as one of his bass strings snaps, then another, another and finally all four of his strings are lying limp off the bottom of him bass. The song ends, the lights go down and everyone leaves knowning that they have just seen part of Delirious? history being made.

A fantastic gig and what better way to say good bye to their drummer who has been with the band for 16 years. A night not to be forgot in a hurry!

The Format War

2008-03-26T18:38:00Z

Now I know a vast majority won’t actually care about this following blog entry so I will say that you are free to leave and not bother reading this whenever… I won’t be too offended!

Right with that warning out of the way! For some time now the ‘format war’ has been raging regarding what is going to replace DVD’s either Toshiba’s HD DVD or Sony’s BluRay. Now last month Toshiba left the battle and everyone went out to buy a BluRay player and several high def BluRay discs.

However according to the head bossy boss at THX (George Lucas’ sound studio), Laurie Fincham, BluRay isn’t going to last! He said that anything that comes on a disc is going to be replaced with flash memory in the near future. So instead of buying an album or movie on disc you’ll get it on a nice little card. Exciting… not so much.

The real news here is that we won’t be getting Star Wars in high definition… sad times…

Perhaps it was a pipe dream

2008-03-26T16:56:00Z

Hum… so much for the regularly blogging… Ah well it’s as if it is a requirement to life!

Right today… scary nasty horrible coursework exam done so James is rather happy that it is over and done with! 20% of final grade on a stupid piece of ‘controlled coursework’ means we wrote the coursework up a few times condensed it down to notes and then wrote it up again under exam conditions from the notes… WHAT IS THE POINT?!? garg… my hand is now sore. However I’m glad its out of the way.

More exciting blog entry coming soon!!!

To Do List for later today!

2008-03-11T00:30:00Z

Get some sleep!
Subject reviews... YUCK
Sort Vicky out with a cable WiFi router
Write proper emails to the people who emailed me today...
Grab a coffee with Gareth some time
Sort out Tazie service music
Write a proper blog entry about the last few days... it's been exciting!
Sleep some more

It’s 00:35 now… lets see how much of this will get done today!!!

Time for number one: SLEEP.

First Proper Cycle of the Year!

2008-03-07T19:11:00Z

Yes it is now official! Today, myself and Matt got onto our bikes and headed for the Downs. It proved one major thing - we are SO out of practice! Hehe! It was a really good time though! Over Downs into Bramber and then up Mill Hill and back down into Shoreham!
Really good weather if not a bit cold! Got a chance to wear my cycling trousers for a change though! Normally I just stick to jeans! They were nice and warm! P)
Got a busy few days coming up now, the blog may vanish for a bit, however we will try and get a quick one here and there!

The blog is back?

2008-03-02T00:43:00Z

Well I'm not sure if back is the right way of putting it - this may just be a one off post, however it will be what it is! The time is 00:45 and I am very much awake so I need to kill some time before I feel tired and want to go to bed!

Currently I am listening to Audio Adrenaline... I wouldn't put them anywhere near my favourite bands... however they do have some good tracks - Ocean Floor being one of those amazing tracks! Despite this their albums just don't deliver.

Whilst we are on the music topic; new yFriday CD/DVD, The Universal Broadcast, should be coming through the mail within the next few days which is rather exciting! There is also noise of a worship CD being recorded later this year which will be rather cool, something to put alongside Songs of Heaven. I may ask the guys about this if I manage to catch up with them at Spring Harvest this year... w00t.

I have big plans to completely re-do my website in the summer before university if I get the time, however if my other plans actually work I won't get the time as I will be earning money... However that involves me getting a job... anyone want to hire me? No? ok... The plans for the website are as follows:

Redesign - obviously! The site is old and could look a lot nicer
Integrated Blog - create a blogging program that works! The design to be based on Facebook's notes! Not that I would steal/borrow ideas...
Editable Pages - Being able to update the site without having to go and edit code and upload files will be brilliant!
Whatever else comes mind be it photo gallery or forum... we will see!

Hum... I think that will do for now... I think I'll go read a chapter of a book now! I've almost finished Christopher Reeve's autobiography... I will never read an autobiography again. Ever.

Time Travel

2007-06-07T17:32:00Z

Ah, where would SciFi be without the idea of time travel. Pretty much all SciFi shows have messed with the idea of going back it time to change something, or just generally accidentally going back it time and having fun there! Cpt. Kirk saved the whales, Lister in Red Dwarf gets himself adopted by his future parents, and in such quality books as Harry Potter, Harry goes back and saves himself from a whole load of Dementors.

Despite the differences in opinion of actually being able to go back in time various people have come up with some great theories of what can and can't be done, such as the Grandfather Paradox. This is the theory that if you go back in time and kill your own Grandfather you will cease to exist then and there because your Grandfather won't be able to have your Father and your Father will therefore not be able to have you.

However, during an exciting episode of Doctor Who, I came across the idea that this theory is a load of dingo's kidneys. This idea cannot work on the principle if you did go back in time and prevent yourself from being born your own timeline would of already been affected before you made the jump. In other words you would of already wiped yourself from existence and therefore would not of been able to go back and prevent your birth any way.

Anyway, that is today's exciting thoughts and rambles... nothing too special really. I'm now going to do something useful!

SpaceTime - Browsing in 3D?

2007-06-06T18:22:00Z

I think everyone has seen the nice features in Vista now with the open windows dropping nicely behind each other and then flicking between windows like Alt-Tabbing! Well now there is a browser that does it too! To be fair it was only a matter of time! SpaceTime 3D claims to eliminate the need for tabbed browsing by stacking the pages up behind each other.

In addition to this rather cool, if not slightly graphics hungry, toy SpaceTime allows you to search Google, Yahoo and eBay from the nice window and watch all your results stack up behind one another. Just flicking through them with your mouse. Rather cool... but still a toy.

One major down side to this is that it only uses the Internet Explorer engine instead of giving a choice of your preferred rendering engine, which is a tad disappointing! Oh well it is still a Beta... still room to improve.

Overall looks nice as long as you have a fairly good graphics card and has some nice features, however not really practical for everyday usage... Maybe it will grow on me in time, I'm going to keep it for a week or so, see what happens!

Facebook Polls... Don't mention the war...

2007-06-02T12:30:00Z

Yes, I know this is not sounds like an exciting post I know, however last night Facebook released Facebook Polls which is as it sounds; it enables users to create polls to put on their profile for a slight fee. Shocking I know, however that isn't the reason for this blog.

Facebook limits what you can put on these polls which is rather useless, my first poll contains a restricted word: 'Is Facebook better than Myspace?' Now what part of that is restricted? I don't see in any part of the terms and conditions DON'T MENTION THE COMPETITION! However for some reason when you insult Facebook, 'Does Facebook limit freedom of speech?', it has no problem with it! Weird! And it doesn't have a problem with 'Is Facebook better than Communist China?'

My next blog won't be on various social networking... honest... 8 days until WWDC :-)

A tech blog? Not really...

2007-05-30T23:08:00Z

It has been a while since I had a bit of a tech blog so this is going to be one of them! Long over due I belive! And there has been quite a lot of interesting stuff happening in the world of tech. There was a time when I used to love MySpace... I have since seen the light there and realised what a nasty site that is and was planning to completely abandon the whole social networking website stuff however Facebook has kind of sucked me back to it! Facebook has the same idea of MySpace however instead of allowing the users to design the layout of the page it is predesigned with a nice MySpace blue... But the real news regarding Facebook is that they have allowed third party applications onto it. What this means is that you get some new toys in Facebook! You can add your Last.fm recent play list or an RSS, or one of the best ones you can add a YouTube video. Yes, I know you have been able to do this in MySpace for donkeys years, however there is no messing about with HTML or other forms of code, very nice!

So what about MySpace? Well Apple Computers have taken a stand against MySpace now which is brilliant! At the Apple stores across the world there is free internet access so people can come in, play on the internet and walk out, or as Apple have been finding walking in, playing on PhotoBooth (taking photos of themselves) and then spending the next few hours on MySpace. So in response Apple have blocked MySpace! This is probably something to do with the fact that the people who come in and mess around on MySpace are probably never actually going to by an Apple computer, instead they are going to go online and buy themselves a cheap Dell which won't hold up to the armies of spyware that hides below the adverts on MySpace.

Other news is that YouTube is about to go on a serious upgrade. The video player that is currently being used is going under a massive overhaul adding more features to give it the functionality of the Google Video Player meaning you can start loading the video from anywhere in the file, not just the beginning. Also you will be able to see 10 other related videos by hovering your mouse at the bottom of the video to bring up an OSX style dock of videos. It does look rather swish!

And on the slightly less serious side of things LG have just put in a patent for an iPod dock that is built into a washing machine... I'm not convinced... mixing more water and electricity... its just wrong! Also the ModBook is going to be available very soon - its a tablet Mac...

Towel Day

2007-05-25T16:29:00Z

It's towel day!!! And I'm ill so this post will be brief! Photos of the day with my M&S towel can be found here:

www.picasaweb.google.com/jamesdoc/TowelDay

Sorry, there are a few MySpace style photos there! Have a good day all!

Computing exam done!

2007-05-22T17:00:00Z

Second set of exams today... that was fun! Spent three hours on computing exam, wahey. I did not enjoy it! It became a case of 45 minutes work followed by 45 minutes rest (the test was an hour and a half) and then the second paper doing the same! Ah well, I am glad that is out of the way! Three more subjects to go and seven exams! Classical Civ tomorrow afternoon... I really should be revising for that. Hum, I'll start after tea!

I feel that I should write another paragraph! However as it stands I have nothing futher to add... so I'll go and do something that isn't revision... time to go forum checking!

Whats happening?

2007-05-21T20:56:00Z

You know it feels a long time since I last blogged. And now really isnt the time for a blog, I've got an exam tommorow! But I'm going to do one anyway, I've been revising all day, I'm now bored of it!

So whats happening? Well a nice bit of info that won't affect anyone is that I've changed hosts for my personal website due to the fact that Tiscali think that I've breached my terms and condidtions and won't let me log in! Just because I have breached them is no reason to stop me using their webspace! So I am now with an exciting webhost called AwardSpace who are nice and free and I have no idea how reliable so we shall wait and see!

Also I have now created a nice long list of things to do after my exams... its scary that in about 10 minutes I had come up with 10 things that I need/want to do after my exams are done!

Re-arrange room
Format Laptop
Various websites:
- Downsbrook
- Puppets Now
- Jessie's
- Chris Goodall's
Contact Whytemead school about a website
Organise a cycle ride for 2K+
Finish Reading LotR
By an iMac

I'm going to bed now... good night!

James has tagged you! -)

2007-04-30T16:45:00Z

James is getting very annoyed with the social networking group who set up tagging. A sample of one of my friends inbox showed just how bad this whole tagging thing has got. There were three pages of people who had tagged her. And what was more people had tagged her more that once, Becca had tagged her over 10 times! WHY??? Can't this company sort themselves out? One nice feature of GMail is that you can set up filters to search for the phrase "has Tagged you! :)" and automagically delete it, which is brilliant, but I feel sorry for all the sorry people who have to sift through all this spam regularly.

This is why I like Facebook, and, although being another social networking site it has the capabability to work out who wants it and who doesn't. If you are invited to it they will send one email. If the same person invites you again it won't send anything! Brilliant! Then if you tell it you no longer wish to recieve these emails it will veto your email from the system. Ahh, I think some companies could learn from Facebook, *cough* MySpace, Bebo, etc.

Another way in which Facebook trumps these sites is that you cannot change the design. Brilliant! This means that the people who cannot design pages do not get the opertunity to do so, the ammount of MySpace's that I have seen that just look shocking, the internet community learn't that animated GIF's should not be used as backgrounds! This site: http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/anim/ab.html just isn't cool. However hats off to this website: http://blueballfixed.ytmnd.com/ hours of entertainment there!

</rant>

Google "PowerPoint" Presentations

2007-04-18T17:59:00Z

Okay, those who read my blog know what's coming... have a go at Google! These guys just have no imagination anymore, Google Search was great, Gmail was great, News was a good idea, nothing special, Earth was a toy but now they are ripping everyone else off!

At Web 2.0 Expo Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced that a presentation application would be appearing as the final round of the basic Google Office Suite. He described the idea as "it's casual and sharing" also known as, 'there wasn't anyone already so we couldn't buy them out so we saw that M$ were making money so we'll copy it'!

So far in the Google Office Suite is Google Doc's and Google Spreadsheet, also know as clones of Word & Excel, just Internet based. Google Doc's was brought as a web based program called Writely, however the Spreadsheet was pretty much home built. Google Presentations looks to be a mixture of the two with Google announcing today that they had brought out a company called Tonic Systems who provide Java presentation automation products.

The question still remains why any of this Google Office Suite is useful. So far there has been very little integration between GMail and the current Google Office Suite and why you would want Google to hold even more of this information is confusing enough; Doc's to hold your confidential letters, Spreadsheets to hold your finance and now Presentations to hold your office prep talks?

In addition, assuming your too cheap/don't want to spend money on either M$ Office '07 or Apple Works you still have the good alternative of getting OpenOffice which is a very good basic office suite, much better so far than what Google are offering.

Well we wait and look to see Google Presentations Beta at the end of summer, anyone want to take a guess as to when it will come out of beta? Another question to ask is: how many people actually use these products often? Here is a list of current Google Products:

Alerts - Used by people who want to be alarmed?
Blog Search - Specific blog search... who would want that?
Book Search - Can't even find Harry Potter...
Catalogs - Searching mail-order catalogues??? Well someone must be that sad
Checkout - Because PayPal just isn't goo enough
Desktop - First "useful" one, I know a few people who use this...
Directory - Tag the internet
Earth - For Geography teachers to enjoy
Finance - *yawn*
Froogle - Useful for compairing product prices, saves time
Images - I don't need to say anything more
Local - Google maps...
Maps - A big map... useful
News - Top news articales from major (and minor) news sites
Notebook - Useless ; for making notes, get some paper
Patent Search - Ultimate enjoyment from Google
Scholar - Google books for exam papers
Specialized Searches - Find out about linux
Toolbar - Can cause major errors in Windows - see previous blog
Video - Couldn't buy YouTube, made their own, and then brought out YouTube...
Web Search - BRILLIANT
Blogger - Brought out from someone else...
Calendar - Good, but no intergration with GMail
Docs & Spreadsheets - See above
Gmail - Good email client
Groups - Stolen idea from Yahoo!
Picasa - Brought out from someone else, good program though
SketchUp - A toy... nothing more
Talk - Good, but limited take up in the real world
Translate - Whats wrong with the BabelFish???

You could get me started in the uselessness of Google Labs... however I decided when I started writing this entry not to get annoyed with the USELESSNESS of half of Google Labs, such as Google Sets...

Should I be worried?

2007-04-14T20:15:00Z

Just done a little bit of internet browsing as you do and was scared to come across a picture of myself on an American’s site!!! They had been to a Delirious? gig and managed to snap a picture of me on the big screen… Its a small world, but a cool photo! (If anyone is really that interested it’s from the History Maker visual)

Google TiSP, Gran Paradiso and a Eskimo Disco?

2007-04-01T12:40:00Z

Google's Aprils Fool's day joke has reached a new level this year with the release of ANOTHER beta product: Google TiSP [Toilet Internet Service Provider]. The joke was based on a quote by Ted Stevens a US Senator who said 'The interent is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes..." Taking this literally the guys at Google have 'created' a router that works though the toilet system. The system provides in-home wirless access by connecting your TiSP to thousands of access nodes via fibre optic cables in the sewage system.

On the serious side though Google have released and update for GMail that enables users without a printer to get paper copies of emails quickly and easily. GMail Paper is a small little add on to the GMail interface a few simple clicks and the email is printed out at the nearest Google offices and posted to you. And for those concerned about the enviroment Google will print them onto 96% recycled paper. They even claim that 'for every GMail Paper we produce, the enviroment gets incrementally healthier'.

On a different note I have just downloaded Gran Paradiso Alpha 1 on to my laptop. What does that mean? It's FireFox 3, the new code name for it anyway! And so far it is running fairly well, a few annoying bugs to fix, however it has definatly improved. The code and images are rendered in a different fashion improving the quality and the speed of the browser. Also it can now view APNG files (animated PNG's) which is always nice. SVG elements have been fixed so that they are spec compliance, the real question that needs to be asked is... 'Will it pass the ACID 2 test?' The result is below:

Well done Mozilla!

Finally... an Eskimo Disco? A while back Matt introduced me to a small video on YouTube called 7-11, a 4 minute long dance track set to a Pingu style video, it was, and still is rather good. Well after a bit of digging I found that the band who wrote the song had another video on YouTube called Picture Perfect, which is another very good video. I eventually found their website after a short wait it finally loaded (smegging flash, I'll rant about that later!) Full track samples are up there and I have to say that I am very impressed with them. I have no more to say. I'll rant later on flash!

Google Personalised Home - Upgrade!

2007-03-23T14:27:00Z

Google products; everyone has used them, from the very simple Google search, to their Hotmail equivalent; Gmail and the more useful ones like Google Earth & Google Sets... A product that has been around for a quite a while, and a product that has proved so popular that M$ has copied them on, is the Google Personalised Homepage. This is a page that allows you to customise how your Google search page looks, so as well as having the search feature you can check up on the news, read your email, check your schedual and even play a game using your Google Account.

However this is fairly old news. Soon they realised that just the one page wouldn't be enough so they added tabs to this page meaning that you could have upto 6 different views of Google, mine are; Home, News, Blogs, Calendar, Games and Other Stuff.

Now Google have decided that this isn't enough! They want more and the upgrade for Personalised Homepage is rather swish! Firstly you can now have a Google Talk Widget built into the page, having given up instant messengering for Lent I havn't been able to have a play, however I am told it is rather good.

In addition to Google Talk you can now customise your homepage in more ways using themes. There are 6 different themes, as well as the normal 'classic' view, each one has its own dynamic feature to it. These features allow it to automatically update in different fashions, so for the bus-stop theme it will update depending on your weather conditions simply by putting in a post code, so when it is sunny the sun is shining in the background, yet when it is wet the cartoons all get their umbrellas out!

That is more or less all on the Google front, however there are some very nice widgets to add to the Personalised Desktop out now, from the offical Google ones like the calendar add-on to some unoffical ones like Mini-Google which hides the header and footer of the page giving you more room for adding widgets, whilst keeping the search facility.

Cycling on the Downs

2007-03-16T18:30:00Z

Wow! The last two weeks have been so nice with the weather all nice and sunny. Last Thursday & Friday we (Matt, Dan, Ben, Caitlin, Rose & myself) sat on the beach for much of the days and on Monday we sat in a park for a few hours, it has been so nice! So with my collage timetable being so nice and giving me Wednesday and Friday afternoon's off I've been getting out on my bike a fair ammount. Wednesday I was just getting back into the swing of things taking the bike up to Lancing and then up over Sompting, pictures are around!

However today I really killed myself! Myself and Matt took the bikes from Shoreham, up to Bramber & Steyning then across into the downs, then back over Cissbury ring and down into Worthing. What can I say but woah! The views when we got up on the Downs were spectaular!!! I have never seen anything like it. Everything felt so fresh, and what made it even better was there was not a sound of traffic. Truely amazing.

On a slightly different [techy] note... I've managed to get my computer to run duel-monitors so if anyone wants to sell me a matching ProLite E380S I won't say no! In addition does anyone know if the Mac Mini suports duel screen? All very interesting questions!

Hats of to the iTunes update!

2007-03-06T11:00:00Z

Those who know me fairly well know that I used to be a real Apple hater and have since 'seen the light' (or the shiny white appleness) and now own an iPod and have been forced (though now rather like it) iTunes.

Well today I downloaded the update to iTunes, iTunes 7.1 and what does the .1 include? Well! Ovio usly they would have to update iTunes to cope with AppleTV so there is now a nice feature that allows AppleTV to connect with iTunes and vice-versa. And oviously there will be the iPhone added into that as well.

However the nicest part can be found within the coverflow section of iTunes. Normally you would be able to browse through your album art using coverflow, however now Apple have added a little button below the cover flow to put cover flow full screen making the the screen more presentable and a whole lot cooler! This feature is over all of iTunes now, including Party Shuffle, meaning that you can have iTunes running quietly in the background and on screen the nice album art, including ablum name, artist and track details. Also playing/pause, skipping track & volume can be control from this screen! Very cool Apple! Well done!

Webcam...

2007-02-24T12:39:00Z

I've finally got round to installing proper webcam software on my computer, this is a result of the Creative software that the camera came with not doing the job it is supposed to do! So now an image of my room and who ever happens to be sitting at my computer can be found at www.jamesdoc.co.nr. It is all very exciting!

Update: This is hugely outdated and no longer exists. K thx bai.

You are who you are for a reason

2007-02-23T16:10:00Z

I was doing my purpose driven life reading last night and came across this poem, I quite like it:

You are who you are for a reason,
You're part of an intricate plan.
You're a precious and perfect unique design,
Called God's special woman or man.

You look like you for a reason.
Our God made no mistake.
He knit you together within the womb,
You're just what he wanted to make.

The parents you had were the ones he chose,
And no matter how you may feel,
They were custom-designed with God's plan in mind,
And they bear the Master's seal.

No, that trauma you faced was not easy.
And God wept that it hurt you so;
But it was allowed to shape your heart,
So that into his likeness you'd grow.

You are who you are for a reason
You've been former by the Master's rod.
You are who you are, beloved,
Because there is a God!
© Russell Kelfer

Prayer, Fasting, Lent and one more thing...

2007-02-19T22:40:00Z

Having just come back from an amazing weekend at Jessie's, thanks to her and all the Hebron guys and gal (minus Ellie who couldn't make it) I've got back home and realised that 1) it's pancake day on Tuesday, aka Shrove Tuesday and Lent starts on Wednesday. Normally I wouldn't do a thing for Lent, however this week I've been particularly fired up about God, life and stuff, I have been on a spiritual high, and I really needed it to be honest!

This whole thing started at the service at Jessie's church on Sunday when the guy speaking, I can't remember his name at all, was talking about Mathew 6:5-18 which is all about prayer and fasting. He started by taking the subjects starting at fasting, joking that fasting was the lack of eating pancakes! What he said afterwards was very good though, the passage about fasting starts with Jesus saying "When you fast..." not 'If you fast.' Fasting was expected of people in Jesus' time, it wasn't something that the odd Pharisee (religious teacher) did, no everybody did it!

The guy preaching said that by fasting it brings us closer to God, it doesn't do anything for us, such as make us more popular or to show others how amazing we are, instead Jesus tells us we should fast in private, out of the public view. The true purpose of fasting should be to come closer to God by denying the physical state and focusing of the spiritual side of us and on God.

Then he went on to talk about the prayer side of things, the first and main point he made was that we can pray to God anywhere and anytime, we don't have to wait in a line or pray at a specific time, God is there 24/7 and that in itself it very cool. Prayer is when we get on the same wavelength as God, we talk to God and He talks back and guides us. Through the power of prayer we have direct access to all of God, not just the customer information desk.

Jesus knew that there would be some people who wouldn't know how to pray so He even gave us a guideline to follow within what we now call the Lord's Prayer. First we look to God being amazing! Next we look to others, and pray for their needs. Finally we pray for our needs.

We must pray regularly, as through prayer God changes us and moves us away from our point of view to his point of view and equips us with the fruits of the spirit, these fruits are found in Galatians: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The action of fasting and prayer are linked and cannot be unlinked, prayer can happen without fasting, however it cannot happen the other way around; fasting without fasting is pointless and both must go together in the life of a Christian.

So what has this got to do with lent? Well! The idea of lent originates from Jesus' time of 40 days being tempted by the devil in the wilderness. There He spent 40 days without food or water, and as a result many Christian's have used the same period of 40 days to fast and pray. Some people go without certain types of food, etc. My plan is to spend 40 days without going on any instant messaging clients such as MSN or Google Talk as that is where much of my time goes into in the evenings. Instead I want to try to use this time that I will gain to develop my relationship with God through pray and reading the Bible.

Mathew 6:5-18

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.This, then, is how you should pray:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

On a completely unrelated note... I've just watched Donnie Darko and I have to say that it is an incredible film and has made it in to my top films alongside Lord of the Rings and the Shawshank Redemption!

Why not to Install the Google Toolbar...

2007-01-20T20:10:00Z

There it is, the Google Toolbar, one of the more installed toolbars for a web browser. Incuding a search box, spell checked, auto forms, and various other useful features! However I highly recommend NOT installing it.

On Windows XP after a random amount of time, when you switch user accounts and run explorer you receive an error that looks similar to this:

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library
Runtime Error!

Program: C:WINDOWSEXPLORER.EXE
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate in an unusual way.

Please contact the application's support team for more information.

The easiest way to either sort or prevent this error is to uninstall the Google Toolbar straight away and restart your computer, problem solved! I'm not completely sure why this happens, I think it is something to do with the Microsoft updates conflicting with the the toolbar...

More USB...

2007-01-06T12:35:00Z

Some may remember a few blogs ago I wrote about pointless USB devices. Well while I was in Argos today on the shelf I found a USB Aroma Diffuser:

"The scent and therapeutic properties of essential oils are delivered conveniently and effectively with this USB Aroma Diffuser. The device plugs into your USB port for power and operates at a steady temperature to heat oils and scented wax, providing a relaxing stream of your preferred fragrance. (oils not included)"

<rant>

WHY do you need your USB port to do this??? The USB port is not made for powering small little toys, USB ports should be used for things like flash drives or plugging printers and scanners into, they are useful for that kind of thing. Why do you need your USB port to fire small little bits of foam at you or plug in little fairy lights into? This aroma diffuser, whats wrong with putting a little candle under the scent and burning it that way LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE???

</rant>

2006 Roundup looking to 2007

2007-01-01T20:03:00Z

Well! 2006 has been pretty exciting! Loads of stuff has happened to me this year, and I've changed quite a bit over the last year! This year started with my mock exams for GCSE's and now 2007 will also be starting with my Politics exam for A Level on the 11th! The exams have only just begun! I've had my GCSE's this year and I did fairly well; 1 A*, 5 B's & 3 C's, which got me successfully into my new collage which has probably the biggest change for me! Moving out of St. Andrews into collage at BHASVIC, it was quite a shock to the system, but nevertheless a great experience and I'm still really enjoying it (apart from Politics!)

Whilst I was at St. Andrew's I had the chance to participate within Young Enterprise; Print Your Mind which was a great laugh, and defiantly an experience I will not be forgetting in a hurry! My work in PYM actually helped me to get a job working within my old school; Downsbrook Middle School, designing and maintaining their website which has been hard work and looks like it will go on for a while.

This year I brought my saxophone which has been great playing with the youth group and over Christmas with my church band. My plan for '07 is to get it to BHASVIC to start playing with the collage groups. Also my music collection has grown on epic proportions meaning that I am in the process of looking for a new place to store my CD's! Top CD's of 2006 are: Universal, Love & Radiation, Cut & Move, Now is the Time and Back holes & Revelations.

I don't think I could round up 2006 without mentioning my friends, friends from school, collage, church, Hebron, and various other friends that I have made along the way! I won't list everyone, but this year wouldn't of been the same without them! They have helped me through this year and made it great!

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all have had a great 2006 and will have a brilliant 2007!

Moving (only temp)

2006-08-24T19:43:00Z

Due to the fact that Blogger has become blogger beta and is therefore rubbish… Live Writer can’t publish to it… So if you want to read the latest blog check it out at http://jamesdoc.spaces.live.com which Live Writer can publish to! Oh and if someone can tell me how to create a heading in blogger it would be appreciated! [Don’t worry, found it!]

Update: currently blogging at jamesdoc.com.

The problems with Computers

2006-08-23T14:21:00Z

There is only one main problem with mine at the moment... IT DOESN'T WORK. Both my CD/DVD trays have vanished from explorer... They are in the device manager just it appears that the drivers for them have become corrupted for no apparent reason at all... How annoying is that?

So according to Nick all we need to do to fix the problem is to repair Windows. Okay so what we do here is put the XP disc into the tray and reset it. It boots up copys some files across, resets itself and then the stupid machine can't find a file called 'ASMS' whatever that is.

To get arround this problem we go over to the MS support pages do what they tell me to do to correct the error and then spend the next hour or so trying to do it AND IT STILL DOESN'T WORK... WHAT'S THAT ALL ABOUT???

Well Nick is coming over this evening to see if he can get it to work properly, I won't be happy if I have to re-install; I don't have a proper backup of my files!

Internet Help Desk

2006-08-21T16:32:00Z

Found this clip on Google Videos today, the funny thing is that it is so true. My work experience was in the same kind of thing…

USB Toys

2006-08-21T13:19:00Z

I have just found something great... Room Defender. Admittedly the original incarnation of this toy was a bit weak, it shot foam disks at the target thanks to a motion sensor and a turntable. This device plugs into your main supply, so no wasting bateries

However the newer version comes out of a small company Japan. This has the same idea as the room defender however it plugs into USB port on your laptop or computer and it is called NailGunner. This toy fires household nails!

You can also add to it a 1GB memory card that stores MP3 files to play back when it's firing and a 1 megapixel camera to take photos of the target. The screensaver incuded with the toy displays a legal warning that the Japanesse company is not responsibe for any injury caused. The product is currently selling in Japan only for 11,499 Yen which comes to about £80. Included in the package is legal insurance!

How to mess up - a story by Dell

2006-08-20T15:52:00Z

The problems with Dell computers:

Support
Spam
Pre-installed software
Price Strategy
Exploding Batteries
Personal vrs. Business
Adverts
Deals

Support

They had it coming. They think they could cut their support cost by 4X without any consequence??? If you phone up Dell you get a very charming Indian who cannot speak English... clever! You are treated as a techo-dummy and sometimes you would of think that you are speaking to one of these automated machines as the nice Indian repeats everything you say and he says three or four times...

Spam

If you buy a Dell don't sign up for the newsletter! You used to get 1 email a month, now they will often send out 2 or 3 emails a day some of them may be on the subject of computers

Pre-Installed Software

The first thing you should do with your new Dell is format it. It is the only way to get rid of the freeware Dell puts on it. Some of this software includes the 'Dell Toolbar', the 'Dell Internet Search Feature' and various other Dell rubbishware...

Price Strategy

Dell makes its money by sell stupidly cheap hardware... No I don't think so! It makes money by sell the basic hardware cheaply and then charging and arm and a leg for those small upgrades that it recommends you buy!

Exploding Batteries

There is no point in denying it Mr. Dell... Many other companies have done it too, letting their batteries explode. So look back into history and learn from it. Also using the Sony batteries isn't a grand idea.

Personal vrs. Business

The Dell Dimension and the Dell OptiPlex are pretty much the same thing, however the Dimension is meant for a home desktop whereas the OptiPlex is branded for businesses. If anyone is buying the OptiPlex for a business they are getting seriously ripped off, they are the same thing!

Adverts

When the slogan "Don't buy a PC, buy a Dell" was introduced the adverts were good and business went up for Dell, they sold many a computer and life was good for them. Now, hands up, how many people can remember the last Dell advert they saw on the TV?

Deals

If you buy a Dell now you can't help but get the feeling your going to be duped. Will they drop the price of this next week? Will they double my RAM? etc! Its annoying

Nigel's Eco Friendly Store

2006-08-19T15:39:00Z

Reading through the paper magazine today I came across the advert section and this photo caught my eye. It is a bamboo computer screen, key board and mouse. Why you would want that I have no idea, however I found it amusing and decided to see what else they had to offer. All three of these were sold seperatly at a cost of:

-£220 for a 15" Monitor

- £25 for the keyboard

- £18 for the mouse

Now I know it looks good and all the rest but what is wrong with buying a £3 mouse from Argos???

I contiuned to look on this site for a little bit longed and found some ultimatly silly things such as Solar Power Headphones (£25) a solar mobile phone charger (£40) etc. However a few things did strike me as being 'quite cool!' The water powered calculator (£7) looked very good, no more bateries and then there were the kids toys which were great! You can get a solar powered helicoptor (it doesn't fly, the rotors just go round.) That is brilliant, and it comes in different colours! Maybe I just get excited to quickly?

More infomation can be found from www.nigelsecostore.com.

Windows Live Writer

2006-08-14T14:33:00Z

Having just been away at Soul Survivor for a week, which was great, I’ve come back home to find that this program called Windows Live Writer has been made, and I have to say that it is very good! You can input your details and it will publish a blog to any number of blog services such as Live Spaces and Blogger.

With it you can put in links, which looks at your IE history. You can put in images which look very good and you can put effects on them and stuff! And finally using the power of Windows Live Local, the mapping system you can put maps in if you want to!

So that is Windows Live Writer and I highly recommend it!

Other interesting news:

New Relient K album in Novemember
yFriday will have 3 live tracks on the up coming Emerging Cultures album in October
onehundredhours will release an album by this time next year
Tim Hughes has an album coming out in October
Delirious? will be releasing their live DVD, CD and book in October
In SG:A Doctor McKay may well be dupilcated so there are two of them
Season 9 of SG1 will be on the shelves on October 3rd

Where I Live

2006-08-02T12:47:00Z

I live in a small place called Worthing that's population includes lots of old people and various chavs. Along with the chavs and the old people are several multi-storey car parks, 1 cinema that's falling down, another one that was put up in the dark age and lots of concrete building in the town.

For those wishing to get to Worthing I recommend the train. Although not technically a stop, the main Worthing train regularly breaks down in Lancing giving the visitor the chance to be attacked in a place fuller of chavs than Worthing. You can also come by car, just be aware that your car has to be up to spec in order to survive the large amount of pot-holes in the road. This rules out most of the Worthing buses. In addition the main road into Worthing is fairly rubbish, as much of it is pot-holed and often closed due to various incidents such as chemical spills. Before deciding to go along this road you are advised to get in contact with the local police station giving them details of when you are planning to depart, arrive and whether you'd like your remains to be buried or cremated.

Also on the travel front I feel that it would be a good idea to point out that when you hire a car from some certain places in Worthing they are normally cheaper than normal for a good reason, this is because they are missing some of the extras you would expect from other cars such as power steering or brakes.

At the top end of the hotels is Hotel Palfvi a Spanish style hotel that has been tastefully restored to a very Spanish style. You get all you would expect from this five star hotel, such as air con, cable tv and spa. However watch out when in the bath for the wiring is visibly faulty, in fact a small sign above the pumping mechanism warns that it must not be operated without a uniformed member of the local fire brigade.

If you do get in to trouble in Worthing and require assistance you can call 999. Please state clearly your problem and say who you want to respond; the police, hospital or the arson squad. You won't actually be talking to a real person, a tape will record your message, it is checked once or twice a week so be careful.

The entire region is closed on Wednesdays, and often takes an extended lunch breaks on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays... The rest of the week is spent like most other places as long as you don't mind opening your windows in the morning as listening the mating cry of a seagull or 2.

A further note to visitors: behind the great town of Worthing lies what are know as 'The Downs' a great oxymoron, such as Microsoft Works (that is another story). Worthing prides 'The Downs' as the highest mountain range in Sussex, however they are not even close to being a mountain, just a pain to walk up. Those who are interested in outdoor sports can enjoy various sports on the downs such as being pushed down in a large plastic ball or cycling down the hill at break neck speeds, only to be caught by the brick wall that was created to stop cyclists cycling down the hill...

Just outside of town lies the interesting Worthing countryside which attracts many scientists who have come to study the rare variety of insects. The most popular for lab testing is the evolved species of tick. These ticks have a very large bite which can leave the inflicted person suffering from headache, dizziness, fever, neck stiffness and itchiness; which are by extreme coincidence the same symptoms you get after listening to the Worthing Symphony Orchestra.