You wait, time passes

Crikey, its been ages since I last did a quality blog post. Its the time, I just don't have it, you know, to really sit down in front of the old keyboard and find something new and interesting to write about. I can't just squirt out any old crap.

The other day, via Astrid off of Facebook, I discovered the joy at is Hyperbole and a Half. Its this blog where the author write memoirs, stories of things that happened to her, illustrated using MS Paint.

Its hilarious and almost had me weeing myself. Its her brutal honesty that wins through and also how she shamelessly wants to win at the internet.

I fear if I tried such a thing, friends and loved one's would advise me against it in a matter of seconds.

Anyhoo, There was an interview with the author elsewhere on the web where she says it can take 16 hours to do a blogpost. I understand, I wish I could do that, but I'm inevitably dragged away to do something else, washing up, work, get off the sodding internet, etc. She writes around two blogposts a month and cos its pure internet comedy gold, she has the 1240th most popular blog of the internet, with a technorati authority of 526, by way of comparison, my old Naked Chicks on Post-It Notes barely made the top 100,000 blogs and only had an authority of 126, back in the day when Technorati authority meant something.

Anyhoo, so right now I have a wee bit of time to myself, and instead of practising away at my guitar and videoing poor cover versions of The Just Joans and Moustache of Insanity songs, I'm going to revisit a subject I covered a few weeks back on this here blog, and that is the website All Our Ideas.

For those who haven't been paying attention, AllOurIdeas.org is

...a platform that enables groups to collect and prioritize ideas in a transparent, democratic, and bottom-up way. It’s a suggestion box for the digital age.

You can post a question, provide some possible answers for people to chose and then if people suggest other answers they become part of it too.

I set up a wee half-arsed thing about civil liberties here, its had fifty one votes so far, undoubtedly a large proportion of them came from the same person. See, whilst the site is a great idea, it doesn't quite provide a hosepipe of traffic, that's up to me, the user, putting links on twitter and facebook and here, and I can only muster 51 votes.

Or in the case of deciding whether to play guitar or learn java or some other life-enriching activity, I mustered 54 votes.

And here follows the wee quality bit of this blog post, wondering how popular AllOurIdeas is for other people, here's a wee table of polls that I've found and how many respondents they've had.

Link	Respondents	What
chrislifeenrich	54	Chris's life enriching project
ukcivlib	51	Most pressing civil liberties issue in the UK
nameksp	865	Craigslist Knowledge share project name
funniestword	437	What's the funniest word
sipprellepoll1	3722	What should be Scott's most important focus as your new Congressman?
drogasmexico	21	¿Cómo solucionar los problemas relacionados con el tráfico ilegal de drogas en México?
ilsp	18	What should be the topic of the International Legislator Survey Project in 2011?
studentgovernment	5564	Which do you want more from the student government?
improve_allourideas	494	Which do you want more from allourideas?
innovation	5246	What future innovation does society most need?

That's all I can find right now, there's probably loads more people using the site, but I can't find them, what I can find however its lots of people talking about the site, lots of social media news write-ups.

If more people are to use the site, which would be a neat thing, then surely some kind of easily accessible index would be good. Sure, some people will want their surveys kept quiet, if its just a wee local thing or a corporate employee only survey, you don't want folk for all over Asia voting, but if it something where you want as many people as possible to vote to get the broadest range of opinions, then maybe, instead of an index, some kind of hosepipe site would be neat where you just click through voting on lots of different polls and surveys.

I dunno.

Anyhoo, if you're reading this, having somehow found this page via google, and you know of any other allourideas pages that I don't have on my wee list, then let me know in the comments. Aye.

My next madcap scheme

For the past week or so, since I decided to put the Glasgow Indie Eyespy Movie on hold, I've been having a bit of a dilemma about what my next 'thing' is going to be. I need a focus, I need a thing to do.

I was undecided between picking up the Teach Yourself Java book I'd acquired a few weeks back, or picking up my guitar again.

A friend had urged me to set up a Facebook fan page without specifying why, so I did and found that I could use it for posting videos and stuff, so maybe I could do something like my old video webcasty thing from Glasgow, but bang in the new decade, with just me playing guitar. Could I record a song every night? Even if its just a cover or something I'd written years ago. How long could I keep it going for? Would it become a thing that would help get me a slot at next years Indietracks? Would other people want to get involved? Some cute stripey-topped keyboard player, or a very tall bass player. Would it work?

On the other hand, learning Java would be useful, I could put it on my CV, or use it for building neat web apps, like one that would generate a heatmap for KML feeds from Foursquare, or some fancy automated way of compiling the list of videos from Indietracks bands by scraping some kind of feed. It could get me a well lush job guffawing all day on the internet and shedloads of money with which to redistribute to London's Indiepop music scene and purveyors of Xbox 360 Elites.

I couldn't decide, so I used the marvel that is AllOurIdeas.org. Its a simple organic poll engine I fell in love with a week or so ago when I tried to find out what was the most pressing civil liberties issue facing the UK government.

Neglecting the use of the word 'madcap' I put up the question "what should my next time wasting/life enriching scheme be?", along with three options:-

• Java
• Video webcasty things of my playing guitar
• Abusing other people's photies of Indietracks by using them to reenact South Park

The last option being a wildcard, cos I'm just a crazy kind of guy. AllOurIdeas allows respondents to add additional suggestions into the mix.

So after three days I find a clear favourite has emerged, one suggested by someone else.

They want me to have kids.

Could be difficult, cos its not really the sort of thing I can do on my own in my bedroom, like the other options, but if that's what the internet has decided for me, then so be it.

On the other hand, another received suggestion was to "quit the internet for a few weeks, see how evolve without it".

That would be weird.

Anyhoo, kids it is!

Hot or Not for everything with All Our Ideas

I found a link to a really cool website, its called www.allourideas.org and its the greatest innovation on the entire internet ever, trust me.

Its like Hot or Not, but for opinions. Here, take a look at http://www.allourideas.org/ukcivlib while I explain...

I've asked the question "What is the most pressing civil liberties issue facing the British Government?" And I've suggested three answers, smoking band, photography, cctv. The website offers you two answers at random and you can chose one of the other.

Or you can suggest something new, then the next people who visit the site can chose from those I suggested and those suggested by other people.

On the results page you can then see which answers are most popular and which are least popular.

In the case of the other week's government crowd-sourcing exercise in suggesting which laws to repeal, it was bogged down in thousands of irrelevant and dumb suggestions in a matter of hours. With All Our Ideas the best ones float to the top and the least popular ones sink.

Apparently the folk who created the site got the idea from KittenWars but the Hot Or Not site has been around for years. I'm just glad that someone has put together this sort of thing now.

It took me about thirty seconds to set up my http://www.allourideas.org/ukcivlib this sort of thing is easy now. let me know if there's any other neat questions out there.

London Bloggers Meetup:- Talk Talk

Wha, where, when... A month passes, I emerge from London's underground network, into Oxford Circus and Soho, only a few moments ago I was in darkest Wembley, eating Chinese and looking for my phone charger. The evening of the London Blogger's meetup has come round again.

I emerge blinking into the sunlight, looking for familiar sounding street names, and before long find myself outside the Talk Talk Customer Experience place. Large glass front, neon lights, there are many people inside.

I step in, fail to think of something amusing to write on a name tag, then go looking for people I know.

I find some and we chat. The talk covers many topics but one that sticks in ma heid is the Old Spice advert.

There is a speaker, this evening a cycling Rob talking about podcasting. Its a very indepth talk, covering what hardware to use (the latest Zoom recordery thing), what software to use (audacity) and what services to use to host and cast your pod cast. More of the details are at this link here, but what sticks in my mind is RadioKate's interruption pointing out that Audioboo has new features that the cycling Rob didn't know about.

Crikey, that must be unsettling, having you talk corrected by an audience member. I keep wondering what I'd talk about if it was me up there, what would I say that would hold people's attention, could I even hold people's attention at all.

The short train of thought lead me to ponder, would Andy the LBM organiser consider hosting a special, where all the regular bloggery meetuppery people had to do a 60 second talk. Some deal with twenty slides in a minutes or something. Would that entertain?

Anyhoo, the evening was hosted by talktalk, they were generous with their nibbles and booze and net access, I feel a bit guilty for the blog posts what I wrote back in February its not their fault, its BT with their hellish slow line connections. I hope that it doesn't matter who I direct my frustration at, as long as I vent it.

Regular readers of my blog will know I'm currently trying to write a screenplay, in the vague hope that someone reads it and decides its the greatest and most imaginative thing ever and then goes on to shower me with money and makes it. This you already knew.

I had an idea, a wee cutaway flashforward scene, like what they drop in to Scrubs or Lost. The scene involves a familiar character mentioning someone they know, some significant person in their like that the film's main protagonist doesn't know, the the flash forward to four years in the future, the protagonist finds themselves at a party or blogger's meetup, completely unrelated to four years earlier, chatting with a person who gives away just enough information to identify them as the person their friend mentioned. Then suddenly back to the narative.

As is my usual 'thing' for these blogger meetups, here's a list of bloggery people I spoke to.

• Aref-Adib
• Nima
• Peter marshall - My London Diary
  
• Thomas debuzzy
• Tom - Flashboy
• RadioKate
• Pradeep - Blogger User
  
• James - Battle Theme London
• Angus
• Reyes
• Melissa - Miss Geeky
• As - BBC
• Anna - Completely Novel - cool book publishing site
• Phil - Red rocket
• Rob - Real cycling
  
• Anthony - Fresh Plastic
• Caroline - Caroline's Miscellany - London's historical curiousities
• Longhaired crazy seat slasher chap
  
• His less haired friend called Matt

And here's a list of folk I made vague eye contact with or possibly nodded at and they nodded recognition back

• Lolly - blog til you drop
• Tom - Tired of life
• Doreen owl elbows - Tasty Fever
  
• Andy Bargery - The Marketing Blagger
  
• Londoneer
• Tiki Chris
• Annie Mole
• Proactive paul
• Guitar churchy
  

And here's a graph showing how such lists compare with previous London Bloggers Meetups.

Well, I think I've set myself a new record, cheesy grins all round.

Titter, chortle, guffaw.

London Bloggers Meetup: Best Buy

Went to a London Bloggers Meetup for the first time in ages, this time at Doggett's Coat and Badge, near Blackfriars bridge, under blazing hot sunshine, with civilisation on the verge of collapse. MyBerry was playing up beforehand so I couldn't log on to FourSquare adequately, no one would have known where I was, my last checkin was hours ago on the other side of town.

On the second floor as usual, a warm and fuzzy cloud of recognition, some folk I knew, some I didn't, all friendly and chatting, all united in their enthusiasm for new media and free beer provided by the evening's sponsors BestBuy.

We chatted and introduced ourselves randomly, the phrase "Do you blog?" starting to sound like some 1970's swingers party fetish as we nibbled on canapés.

At some point I broached the subject of how there appears to be the cultural requirement for an artifact, a milestone, representing social networking, what Romeo&Juliet does for love, what Frankenstein does for science, what Heart of Darkness does for stuff, something that encapsulates online relationships, checking out on facebook people you used to know, without actually seeking them. Something like Billy Jones is Dead, but with added internet. How to deal with being unfriended, people who don't exist online, truly its a twenty-first century issue that needs to be resolved adequately.

Andy the organiser set forth on stage, thanked and introduced the evening's speakers:-
Tom Tired talked about political blogging, he works in politics, talked about political blogging, how we have no rules or conventions to abide, only bloggers can compare John Prescot's schlong to a cocktail sausage. The talk was about three minutes too long but rather entertaining.

Kind of reminded me that I need to register "DianeAbbottShouldHaveWon.com"

The second speaker was the CEO from BestBuy. There was a prize draw, where the prizes were Dr Dre headphones and Bon Jovi tickets, as I didn't win my coverage of his talk will revolve round how the chap is very nasel, but nice message. Gotta quote the word "Cushtomer".

I like the idea of Best Buy, an electronics store where they know what they're talking about. Against the backdrop of the shite service that Comet and PC World are reknown for, then some thing as inspirational as Best Buy can only be a good thing. And from talking to the BestBuy blueshirts at the meetup, they sure are an enthusiastic bunch.

I promised that I'd check out the Thurrock store at the weekend, and fire into the hi-fi demonstration room, but I fear, in the light of my self-actualisation and realisation of my nature, that although I like the idea, and I'm an open minded kind of chap, I'm going to come away with rattling off a list of everything they're doing wrong, and everything I'm sceptical about.

Like 3D cinema and 3D TVs, its just a gimmick, the next excuse to replace your existing media collection. As Lossless compression followed MP3 followed CD followed tape followed LP followed sheet music, as Bluray followed DVD followed VHS followed cinema followed theatre. Yes, but no.

During the CEO's talk the recycling message makes me weep blood, aw c'mon ceo, its bullshit compared to "drive slower" and "don't fly", the energy efficiency of your domestic modern conveniences is pish in the wind, do any customers really care about recycling when they buy the product? Doesn't that suggest that they're buying an inferior product which they're not going to enjoy using for many many years. Doesn't that suggest some kind of failure on the part of the designer and retailer? "You'll love our product, but not for very long"

And, oh ffs! Windfarms?

As is my norm for this sort of event, here's a list of the bloggery folk who I chatted to (18):-

• Cristiano Betta
• Caroline's Miscellany
• Bruce Bird
• James Melon London
• Andy Bargery
• Lucy MissCellaneous
• Baz
• Tom Tired of London Tired of Life
• Chris the Best Buy balloonist
• Pradeep meta-blogger
• The BestBuy website blogger chap
• Hayley from Witness to the Beard
• Kate of 'Fox on escalator' internet phenomenom fame
• Doreen owl elbows
• BestBuyGeekTeam David
• Tom Flashboy
• aw man, that other guy who was in the photo at the top of the post, he was kind of cool, although by that point I'd had quite a lot to drink and was rambling
  

Didn't speak to (8)

• Sianysianysiany
• Mark Wainwright
• Fernando Rizo
• Paul Antoniadis
• Neil Hallmark
• Rich Clark
• Dan Walker Smith
• Kirstie Allsopp
• Electric Spectre
  

I think I may have set myself a new record there
but if we consult the graph we can clearly show that apart from February's plumbing the depths of solace, my London Blogger Meetup socialising has kind of plateaued.

New blog design ahoy

Got bored of the old one, then I was listening to a thing on Radio4 about The FACE magazine, and thought I'd strip my blog design down to black and white, to give it a more stark look.

Hopefully I'll include more photies in the future, and make them all black and white halftone images, and it'll all look cool.

Blogging elsewhere

So I'm ensconced in a new house,with a huge garden, and I've been avoiding looking for a new job by gardening. Well, I say gardening, what I mean is hacking away at brambles, making fences and digging holes.

Its thrilling stuff, so much so that I've started a new blog to write about my gardening adventures.

Its called The Wumble of Wembley


Please add it to your feedreadery things if you like it.

Its got to be said though, it probably won't last long, I'm going to be evicted again in a few weeks, so I'm trying to make the most of it whilst I can.

Its damned inconvenient being made homeless. Being skint and unemployed isn't helping either.

Blog Stat Pron - March

Good evening and welcome to my irregular start of the month look at the previous month's blog traffic stats review. According to google analytics, for March, this blog got:-

1,503 Absolute Unique Visitors
2,413 Pageviews

Compared to February's

1,336 Absolute Unique Visitors
2,229 Pageviews

Well, Absolutes are up a massive 170, total Pageviews up by almost 200, I think I've set myself a new record for days when the blog's had more than 100 views in a day, sure it mostly due to one rather popular post I did in February which google seems to love, but its all fair game.


Statcounter reckons I had 2,305 Unique Visitors, and an average of 92 pageloads per day, down 6 from last month. Still not quite breaching the 100 ppd barrier, but getting better man. Maybe next month.

Here are the metrics of of my RSS feeds on various feed readers:

26 subscribers - GoogleReader (same as last month)
4 subscribers - Bloglines (same as last month)
8 followers - Blogger (same as last month)

Boring, same as last month, why do I even bother?

These are my top referrers for March (not including google wanderers)

1. Facebook - 138 visitors (216 friends)
2. Twitter - 52 visitors (174 followers)
3. UK Bubble - 42 visitors
4. Mark Wadsworth - 26 visitors
5. Wikio - 12 visitors
6. Hootsuit - 11 visitors
7. Another Form Of Relief - 6 visitors
8. Liberal-Vision - 6 visitors
9. Quick as Rainbows - 6 visitors
10. Club Baby Honey - 5 visitors

Lets take a brief moment to consider which were the most viewed posts during March.

1. The Holly Greig Story - 589 views
2. What Have I gotten myself into - the TFTA scam - 91 views
3. Origami flapping bird animation - 69 views
4. Death Disco - 64 views
5. Project Streetview Racing - 36 views
6. Bookcase Dreams - 30 views
7. Impending Doom of 6Music - 30 views
8. Brent Central PPCs - 26 views
9. Some Videos to Watch - 25 views
10. Does Shisha Kill - 24 views

The top five most popular posts that I wrote in March were:-

1. Death Disco - 64 views
2. Brent Central PPCs - 26 views
3. Some Videos to Watch - 25 views
4. Latest Dirt on Brent Central PPCs - 24 views
5. Dancing in the Street - 15 views

That's it belatedly for March's stat pron, until next time, take care space cadets.