Monday, March 31, 2008

Another erosion of civil liberty


No photos at Spitalfields
I'll come back to this post when I have more time but it's made me angry to say the least.

Idea for property search website


A property search option that allows the user to search along a transport route. One of the main considerations when searching for a place is the commute. The user would put in the location of their work and the website would show the roads/bus routes/railways that serve that location and properties available.

This would work better in London where you could search for properties that are on the Northern Line for example, or served by a particular bus route. For example, I go to college in London, but I can't afford to live in central London. Two bus routes serve my college - the 38 and 341. I would be able to search for the closest property to my college that I can afford on either of these two bus routes. Would be very handy.



Sharing ideas

Is it a good idea to share ideas online? On the one hand the sharing of ideas is generally good for society - we would get no where if people didn't share ideas with each other. On the other hand is that ideas can be used without the person with the idea/creativity getting a reward. As selfish as that sounds it's also unfair that someone should benefit from an idea while the person who created it doesn't. Myspace and music is a great example. So many bands, so much music, yet how many earn a living from their music?

Anyhow. I'm more a believer in the first. I generally have quite a few ideas. Some are crap it has to be said. Some are not bad. With most I do not have the capacity or the means to turn them into a reality. So why not share? Whatiftheydid is a great example of a blog that does just that.

I think I'll start sharing my ideas

Angel Art Market

I've been selling my canvas prints at the One Deko shop in Spitalfields for a couple of years now which has been great, but I never get to meet the people that buy my stuff. For some time I have wanted to have an exhibition and this weekend I will be taking part in the Angel Art Market. It'll be nice to have the opportunity to meet people who are interested in my work (and hopefully sell some.)

For those of you who live in London, the Market takes place behind Angel tube station. There's some more info here

Monkeycyle

I've worked in digital for a couple of years now and have seen quite a lot of stuff on the internet. When I came to work this rather cold Monday morning I did not expect to sit down at my desk and watch a monkey on a motorcycle:

Friday, March 28, 2008

Eyesore

I can't stand anything that makes the street environment look a mess - CCTVs, signage, parking metres, traffic lights, bollards....basically everything that clutters our pavements. A typical street in Britain is now a mess of this visual untidy clutter.

Added to this list are street works. Now I understand that occationally the pavement needs to be dug up but what drives me CRAZY is when they dig up the street, erect bright orange barriers around it and then disappear for weeks at a time, allowing the hole to be filled up with rubbish and generally look a mess. This has been the case outside of college for the past few weeks. It drove me so mad that I made a sign (click to enlarge)

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Irony

Yes I can see the irony in posting a video where people cover up advertising and calling street advertising 'legalised graffiti' and posting another video which is a viral for pot noodle - a form of advertising.

mmmmmmmm

I would argue that street advertising is annoying and intrusive because we have little or no choice in whether we see it and often it does not entertain but bombards.

While with viral advertising we do have a choice as to whether we watch it or not and effective virals should entertain (otherwise they would not be viral.)

I can relax again now...

Infadels 'Love Like Semtex'

Love it love it love it

LIGHT CRITICISM

Absolutely loving youtube's 'share it' button. Means I can post directly to the blog from youtube and share the stuff that I like.

This is good. Advertising is legalised graffiti and these guys know how to deal with it.

Tipping Pot (Guinness Spoof)

Very funny viral that I have been seeding this week. 300,000 views in it's first week which is great - it helps that it is a very good piece of content. Check it out: