October 2004 Archives
October 29, 2004
Search Engine Optimisation event in Kensington, Day Two
Yesterday was the second day of the Search Engine Optimisation event I attended in Central London. Some of the things that stood out were the excellent presentation from Ken McGaffin about his Linking Matters Report. The key quote I pulled out was: "The web is a web. It's made out of the links between people. You can't live in isolation on the web." He also explained the "bow-tie theory" of the internet, which states that for any community of interest,...
October 27, 2004
Search Engine Optimisation Event in Kensington, Day One
I spent much of today at an Ark Group event on "Search Engine Optimisation", where I am speaking tomorrow about "Designing Your Website To Be Search Engine Friendly". It is a debut for this particular presentation, which I intend to publish in article format on currybetdotnet in the near future. In today's proceedings there were certainly some quotes, facts and figures that made me sit up and take notice. Peter Sargent from Ordnance Survey included in his presentation the claim...
October 26, 2004
John Peel
So farewell to John Peel, who died today of a sudden heart attack whilst on holiday in Peru. He was without a doubt the single most influential person on the way that my music taste developed (although my dad should get an honourary mention for letting me play his old Rolling Stones, Eddie Cochran, Elvis and Hollies 45s when I wanted to play at being a DJ when I was a very small youngster). I met him once years ago,...
October 25, 2004
Newsnight Email on the BBC homepage
My plan to take over the BBC continues apace as one of the services I have a hand in managing (the homepage) today cross-promoted one of the other services I have a hand in the delivery of - the Newsnight Email Newsletter - which often comes complete with a trademark Paxman sneer and a slightly saucy joke. And all whilst I'm on holiday ;-)...
October 22, 2004
"Boots plans new range of sex toys". Glass houses. Stones. Make up your own Evening Standard Punchline.
My eye was caught by an article in tonight's Evening Standard Londoner's Diary: "Odd that the Today programme trailled so heavily the news that Boots is considering sex toys in some of its shops. Given that the 155-year old chemist is merely "in talks" with condom manufacturer Durex to market sex aids, both companies must be delighted by the oodles of free publicity they have been given." "This was a significant story which broke overnight, was covered in other media...
October 13, 2004
OpenMG Pre-Ripped for PC
I do, of course, see the irony that just slightly shy of two years after posting this, I ended up working for Sony NetServices in Austria on digital music projects. Needless to say the views reflected in this archive post from October 2004 do not reflect the views of Sony, nor do they reflect my views whilst working on Sony's products and services. Yesterday I foolishly purchased the newly-reformed Duran Duran CD. I know, I know, but I am...
October 12, 2004
The myth of the indestructible CD
There was a letter from Vince Laws in yesterday's Guardian that cause me a wry smile: "When CDs were launched we were told how indestructible they were. Now that half my CD collection needs replacing because of everyday wear and tear, should I download replacements free of charge, or sue the music industry?" I'm currently on the look-out for a replacement for my copy of Claudia Brücken's "Love: and a million other things" CD. I haven't missed the irony that...
October 11, 2004
Can we play you every week? England v Wales at Old Trafford
This weekend I went to see England's World Cup Qualification match against Wales at Old Trafford. Being a Leeds United fan I was fearful that stepping into Old Trafford would cause me to spontaneously combust, but as ever by far the worst thing about going to see England in the flesh is other England fans. Once again it was the tedious barrage of songs about the Second World War and not surrendering to the IRA, as if these were the...
October 7, 2004
Greg Dyke at the Royal Festival Hall
I nearly didn't post this in the end, as it seems so long ago - but I noted that Greg was appearing on Question Time tonight, which reminded me I had this draft lurking around. A couple of weeks back, like many people who work at the BBC, I went to see Greg Dyke talking at the Royal Festival Hall. Although it wasn't sold out I'm fairly certain that it was fuller than it usually is for their programme of...
October 6, 2004
Never over-estimate the understanding of your audience
This made me laugh today. In covering the story of the EU map which missed out Wales, the Daily Mail decided it didn't trust readers to recognise the correct outline of the British Isles, and helpfully pointed out where Wales should have been....
October 3, 2004
Microsoft Research Paper on software re-design
Microsoft Research published a very interesting paper this week - Contextual Method for the Re-design of Existing Software Products. It laid out a framework for user-testing and user centred design methodologies being applied to incremental enhancements to applications. The work they use to illustrate their point was a study of the use of Internet Explorer at Cambridgeshire County Council, with a view to introducing new features that would improve the efficiency of the workflow in the department. Two things stood...