Archive for the 'IRL' Category

No Riot Here

Published on August 10, 2011 in In the News and IRL. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Last night, I went for a cycle ride around the inner suburbs of Sheffield. On the way, I started tweeting about the everyday scenes I was seeing, and the fact that there were no riots, using the #noRiotsHere hashtag (I plucked the hashtag out of thin air: it turns out one of two people had used it earlier in the day, although not in Sheffield). You can see a collection of my evening’s cycling/noRiotHere tweets on Storify. Soon, other people started joining in, and by the time I got home #noRiotHere was trending in Sheffield.

A few people accused me of “trolling for riots” – most did it humorously, one or two seemed genuinely confused about what I was doing. So I’ll try to account for myself here…
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Trash

Published on June 10, 2011 in Computer stuff, IRL and Memories. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

In 1996, I was responsible for the “kiosk” in Diesel’s Covent Garden flagship store (a Mac running the Diesel website). I had to go into the store once a month to “fix” it.
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From Banners to Apps

Published on February 9, 2011 in Computer stuff, IRL, Useful and Work. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Last week I gave a presentation to the Midlands Flash Platform User Group. This was the result of some thoughts & conversations which started to fizzle around my brain during last year’s Flash on the Beach conference. The talk “From Banners to Apps” was a brief (ish) distillation of my 15 years’ in the Internet industry – what I have done and what I have learned. I was quite pleased with how it went (although it was far from perfect – if I were to do it again then I would try to encourage a bit more two-way communication with the audience).

Here is a PDF copy of my presentation, complete with vaguely-cryptic presenter notes.

Desert Island Disco

Published on July 22, 2009 in IRL and Music. 0 Comments Tags: .

A few weeks ago, Cherry Red Promotions very kindly asked me to play my Desert Island Discs at their monthly Desert Island Disco at The Shakespeare in Sheffield. Here are the tracks I picked, in the order in which I played ‘em. Lizzie also produced a little booklet, handed out on the night, and the following descriptions appeared in it:
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I’m Qyper of the week!

Published on January 22, 2009 in IRL and Words. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

A while ago, I signed up to review site Qype, but it was only last week that I really started using it. So it was a really nice surprise when today I got their weekly email newsletter (which, I have to admit, I normally kinda ignore) and saw that I’d been made Qyper of the week.

Here’s what they had to say about me:
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ITV gave me my BBC Micro

Published on January 21, 2009 in Computer stuff, IRL and Memories. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Last night, I was reminiscing with a BBC colleague about the UK micro-computer boom of the early 80s, and it struck me: like many programmers of my age, I cut my programming teeth on the BBC Micro (and also the ZX81). But unlike many, I got my BBC from the ITV.

bbc micro ITV gave me my BBC Micro

BBC Micro


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2008: Life

Published on January 19, 2009 in Family Life, IRL and Photography. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

In part one of my “2008 and thereabouts” retrospective, I talked about what I’d been up to work-wise. Now I’m going to focus on my personal and family life. I find this side of things a little harder to talk about, and recall, if only because for most of the year, I spent five days per week at work (usually in London, away from my family) and the other two days recuperating. But here goes…
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Friday nights at the Washington

Published on January 18, 2009 in IRL and Photos. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Since working full-time in London, I get precious little time to spend out-and-about in Sheffield. As you may know, for the last few years I’ve been a regular fixture on Sheffield’s social scene, out with my camera documenting the night-life. I really miss this, and I miss Sheffield’s wonderful people.

Thank goodness for Friday nights, and London-Sheffield trains which arrive at the perfect time, around 10.30pm. And thank goodness for The Washington, around halfway between the station and my house, and usually throbbing on a Friday night, especially when there’s a good DJ night like the Record Hop, Plan B, El Jackster or Banksy’s Fragrant Garden. Here’s a few photos from last Friday night at the Record Hop.

3203708614 6980e43e4a Friday nights at the Washington

2008: Work

Published on January 7, 2009 in Computer stuff, IRL and Work. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Like I said, I’ve been meaning to post a summary of my last 18 months. Perhaps easier if I split it into two: work, and personal. So, work: I started freelancing in the middle of 2007, and I’ve done a whole bunch of interesting jobs since then (see my CV for full details).
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New beard

Published on January 5, 2009 in IRL and Photos. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

As it’s a new year, I decided to go to town on my beard:
3167056148 ba0dec50ae New beard