Posted: Mon 21 June, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Education, Geeky, Introspective, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Work-related |
Over the weekend, we went to see Bon Jovi at the O2. It’s their greatest hits tour for the “Circle” album, and they’re at the O2 for 12 nights all told. Now I have to say, I’m not a massive fan of Bon Jovi. Herself is, Brother-in-Law is, so we all went.
The gig itself was really impressive. Bon Jovi’s performance was pretty storming, deifnitely one of the better big gigs I’ve seen – even for someone who’s not a massive fan. I only recognised or knew about a third of the tracks performed, but still, that’s fine.
What was more impressive (for me, anyway) was the stage set, which really was impressive. Right from the start it let you know it meant business, with a massive high-res screen coming down to obscure the view while Bon Jovi came onstage, and which then split into individual columns to travel round the stage.
There were a number of other really stunning technical bits, including some epic lighting, and that same matrix screen also showing that the columns could also split out into individual screens.
But the piece de resistance is the five mobile 6′ x 9′ screens at the back of the stage. They’re made (yes, I researched!) by ABB robots, who say the following :
ABB robots, accompanying Bon Jovi’s “The Circle” tour will be the first set of industrial robots to be a part of a concert tour. The visual intrigue of the show will be enhanced by the five ABB robots positioned toward the back of the stage, each with a 6’ x 9’ LED video panel attached to their articulated arm. The robots and screens will move to the rhythm and beat of the music while displaying real time video footage of the show and digital animations. At various intervals the five robot arms move into a formation where the LED panels become one continuous, five panel screen. The robots will accompany
the nearly two-year long tour, which features over 60 concerts in North America and Europe.
These screens/robots are simply amazing – they’re all articulated in all three axes, and move individually, in time with the music, as well as at one point becoming a staircase. It’s an exceptional demonstration of what can be done now with stage sets if you’ve enough money and creativity.
Stage sets, lighting and effects have always been one of my real geek-out subjects, and that geek in me was totally appeased by the Bon Jovi stageset.
Seeing things like this gig is one of the things that makes me think about What Might Have Been. If I’d stayed in school (and gone on to college, university, whatever) then I’d have gone on to do one of two things : Stage Lighting/Sound/Sets, or working with the Great Apes.
Stage stuff would’ve fulfilled my geeky needs bigtime, and I’d hae loved to do it. Working with Great Apes would’ve fulfilled other parts of me, and I’d have been equally happy doing either. In fact if I were to win a lottery or something, I’d go back to do one of those things. (Most likely the work with Apes, in honesty)
I don’t regret the path I’ve taken, not for one minute. But every so often I do think of the different paths available, the roads not taken. Last night was one of those times.
Posted: Wed 16 June, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: @Media 2010, Geeky, Introspective, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related |
The @Media conference has always had two sides – the conference itself, and the sociable side of things, getting to meet one’s peers, make connections and all that.
Unsurprisingly, it’s not the side that interests me the most. In fact if I’m honest it doesn’t interest me at all.
I don’t really know why, but conferences like @Media bring out more of the autistic anti-social in me than they should. I find I don’t particularly want/need to make connections with other developers in general and I’m not overly interested in being put together in social situations with a butt-load of people I don’t know. I’m OK with people I know (whether in person or on-line) and on that score I’m OK – which is why I did meet up with friends while in London, but didn’t bother with the social @Media guff at all.
So for me I could happily live without the social side of the conference. Maybe I should do more on that side, but well, I really can’t be chuffed.
Posted: Sun 13 June, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: @Media 2010, Geeky, Own Business, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Work-related | Tags: wdx. #wdx |
So last Thursday and Friday I was in London for the Webdirections @Media Conference. It was the first time I’d been in a couple of years (I last attended the 2007, I think – holiday for the ’08 one, and tubularity stopped me from attending the ’09 one) so it was interesting to see what had changed – and of course what had stayed the same.
Of course the big difference was that @Media is now run/organised/owner by WebDirections, rather than through Vivabit as it has been in previous years. I’d not heard of WebDirections before, but apparently they’ve done a number of similar conferences in Australia etc.
To me, it seemed that the focus of the conference had changed quite a bit this year (or maybe over the last couple of years, I don’t know – can’t really comment on the ones I didn’t/couldn’t attend) to be more about design and programming, rather than the accessibility and user experience themes of previous @Medias I’ve attended. And that’s a disappointment.
The focus this year was very much on Javascript (which used to be a real no-no) and about telling designers to not worry so much about making designs work in all browsers and versions. There was virtually no mention at all of accessibility, except in one session through the two days. For a conference where accessibility and so on were paramount at the start, that’s a pretty sad state of affairs.
The other thing I really noticed this year was how corporate some of it seemed. In previous ones there’s been sponsorship from big companies and so on, but this time it was more going down the “stands in the public areas” type of promotion. Again that could be something that’s happened more in the last couple of years that I’ve missed, so it’s not such an eye-opener for other more regular attendees.
It was a good conference though, don’t get me wrong – I’ve got a lot of stuff to take out of it, bits that I’ve learned, bits that will make sites I work on better in anumber of ways. I’ve enjoyed it – it’s just been interesting to see what’s changed.
Posted: Fri 11 June, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Geeky, iPhone, Thoughts |
As regular readers know, I’ve now had my iPhone 3GS for a couple of months. I’ve been surprised by how well I do get on with it in a lot of ways (although it does have some epic frustrations as well, mainly based around the keyboard) and how much more I use it than I expected to.
But I’m still not an evangelist on the thing. I’m not addicted to it or obsessed with it, and if something better came along, I’d have no problem with moving away from the iPhone.
So – as someone asked yesterday – would I want the newly announced iPhone 4 ? Am I envious of the people who will have one? Do I feel the need to upgrade as soon as possible?
In short, no. There’s nothing really on the new iPhone that is a deal-breaker for me. In fact the only thing that I’d like from it is the more advanced/powerful battery. I don’t need/want any of the other little doohickeys. I don’t make video calls anyway – never have – and the rest of it was all a bit underwhelming, really.
So if this one breaks, I wouldn’t have an issue with replacing it with a v4 iPhone. But I’m not going to go out and upgrade for the hell of it, or to have the latest/greatest. It’ll be updated again in 6-12 months anyway.
Posted: Thu 10 June, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: @Media 2010, Driving, Parking, Travel |
I got up to London last night, driving direct from work. It took me an hour to get from Bury St Edmunds to the junction of the North Circular Road with the A12. It then took 80 minutes to get from there into the city (near Southwark station). Utterly ridiculous.
[UPDATE : I actually did the maths/mileage on this last night : It was 70 miles from work to the A12, which took an hour. 70mph on the dot. It was 10 miles from the A12 to the Travelodge, and that took 80 minutes. 7.7mph.]
I’d planned to park in a close-ish NCP car park for the two days I’m here, which would’ve cost £18 per day. Better than lots of places, but not great. However, I couldn’t find that NCP carpark – and I tried twice, once in the car, once by foot. Fortunately, I knew I had options – I’d done my research.
As it was, I found a place right next to the hotel that cost me sod-all for overnight parking, so long as I was gone by 8am. By that time I’d gone down to the first of my two alternative options, found it was available, and done the deed. £20 for two days – yes, £10 per day – in a locked secure place. Bizarrely, it’s making use of some of the car-parking spaces in the building where I was working last year before I got the current job.
So I’ve managed to get 2½ days parking in central London (right by Blackfriars and the OXO Tower, for those who know/care) for £20. Pretty good by anyone’s standards.
Posted: Thu 10 June, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: @Media 2010, Geeky, Web Development, Work-related |
Today and tomorrow I’m in That There London, attending the @Media conference again. I missed it last year through being a completely forgetful twat, so I made sure I was going to be at this one, stuffed spine and all.
I’ll write more about it as time goes on, but for now, well, that’s it, I’m away.
Enjoy.
Posted: Wed 9 June, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, Geeky, iPhone, Photography, Thoughts |
Since getting the iPhone a couple of months back, one development has surprised me more than any other. And that’s been the difference in how I use the phone and how D4D™ has changed since I got it.
Despite it’s comparatively crappy camera (bearing in mind that the previous phone had an 8Mp camera compared to this one’s 3Mp-ish) I’m using the camera part of the phone far more than on any other mobile I’ve had, and that has really surprised me. Some of it is, I suppose, the ease of taking photos off it – I primarily just email them to myself, and it’s a painless process, as opposed to that on the previous Sony-Ericsson phones. I don’t really know what the rest of the reasoning is, but whatever it is, it looks like D4D™ is becoming more photographic in nature.
That’s no bad thing of course. It’s just surprising (to me, anyway) that I’ve gone from pretty much all-written to having a noticeable portion of the posts having photos in them. Strange the way things work out, isn’t it? I don’t plan for D4D to turn into a full-on photoblog – I’ve got other plans on that score, thanks – but it’s just another change in the evolution of D4D™, I think.