Author: Alasdair

Links For Thursday 5th January 2006

Posted on by Alasdair

  • LivingInATubemap – London photography project

    Something to keep me occupied, perhaps: an interactive on-line photo project encouraging people to visit a tube stop they’ve never been to before, and take photos.

    (tags: photography)

  • 2006 Web Predictions

    A post from 37signals, linking to a couple of other posts with web design predictions for 2006. There’re a couple of interesting details in each, and I can’t help but pray that the one predicting the end of the fisher-price look comes true.

  • WordPress 1.5 Themes

    A few very lovely new wordpress themes in here. I need to spruce up my web presence in a few ways, and a modified version of at least one of these might be the way to do it.

This entry was originally published at my workblog.

Links For Wednesday 4th January 2006

Posted on by Alasdair

This entry was originally published at my workblog.

Links For Tuesday 3rd January 2006

Posted on by Alasdair

  • Stewart Butterfield on Flickr

    Missed this one at the time, but it’s a erally good overview of why flickr is fantastic, and a good insight into the next gen of web apps, and why they work.

  • pixyBlog : hosted photoblogging service coming in 2006

    Just a note to self, really. I don’t see it replacing flickr as my general photostream, but it might wind up getting used for a portfolio site if it’s better than what I’m currently using.

  • The London Review of Breakfasts

    Like The West Wing’s Leo McGarry, breakfast is my favourite meal to eat out. And London is my favourite city. It turns out that the internet is useful for something after all.

This entry was originally published at my workblog.

Connected

Posted on by Alasdair

Connected

By way of a change: a photo in my main journal. This is chiefly because it’s not a very good photo, so isn’t going to make my other journal, but it’s one that’s important to me. That’s my grandmother on the left, and the badly photoshopped baby that she’s talking to via webcam on the right is her first great grandchild, Orla, now slightly over a month old. (The baby has been photoshopped so that she stands out from the screen a bit.)

This, right here, is the magic of the internet. It’s this that makes me get fucked off with the people who mock it as for nerds, or worse, the nerds who’re blase about the whole thing, who laugh at people who talk with webcams, or who thing it makes them seem big and clever to dismiss this sort of thing as everyday.

This is an old woman, sharing in her great grandchild’s first christmas, when she didn’t think she’d be able to. Just because it’s not technically hard to do these days, does not make it any less special, especially when neither of the parties would be able to turn on a computer for themselves.

It was easily the best thing that happened to me this festive season, and all I was doing was watching. I hope you all had something this good in your christmas.

Away.

Posted on by Alasdair

Bags: packed. (OK, this means shoving a showerbag and something to sleep in in beside my camera gear and some books, but still, I’ve done it.)

Devices: charged. (Because I cannot go away without at least three things that go beep.)

House: locked up. (Barring the front door, obviously, because I have to wait until I’ve left to do that.)

Amazon: cunts. (They have shipped one of my items now, three days late. It should, in fact, arrive in time for christmas. Shame I’m not going to be be here.)

Happy holidays, everyone. See you on the 27th.

Bastard Amazon

Posted on by Alasdair

Some weeks ago, I order my mother’s christmas presents, and amazon assured me that I’d have them in time for christmas.

They lied, and I am faced with trying to buy my mother something at the airport tomorrow. This is the second time they have fucked me royally at the festive season.

I am not the only one they have done this to. They’ve shafted my colleague, too. And he’s provided a bit of help for anyone else that might be in the same boat. Do us both a favour, and pass the link around kids.

(And in all seriousness, if anyone knows anyone that works at Amazon, and would be willing to put this in front of them in a serious spirit of “we’d like to talk to someone about the standard of service you provide”, then please, do let me know…)