Jon at EA sent me a copy of the Spore Creature Creator, a component of the new landmark title from Maxis (y’know, the SimCity guys) that’s due later this year. I haven’t installed it yet, but was amused by the consequences of Jon demo-ing it to Jonathan Ross and his family (and most especially his son Harvey).
I’m not at the level of fame yet that I get personal demos of new video games (Jon, when does that happen?***), but it’s nice to get sent stuff to play with too. I’ll be writing a bit on the C&C 3 expansion pack soon, which EA were good enough to send me last week.
We’re working on some gaming stuff at the office too. When I get those previews I’ll let you know.
*** Just spotted this. I can win the celebrity Spore experience by entering a competition with EA. Maybe I should try the Creature Creator first…
Apologies for another work-related post but, hell, we’re just doing a load of interesting stuff. Brands2Life, and its International network of partner agencies the Oriella PR Network, has just done a study into the changing requirements of journalists across Europe. The study was conducted across multiple countries covered by the Oriella PR network, and had 347 respondents. There were some interesting findings, including:
Half of the respondents (46%) revealed they are expected to produce more content for their respective publications.
Video is having a growing impact on journalism with over 40% confirming they are now responsible for producing online television or video clips, despite only 3% of respondents being employed by traditional broadcasters.
European journalists are increasingly required to deliver their content in differing formats – 44% of outlets offer journalist authored blogs; almost a fifth (18%) are now producing audio podcasts; and almost one in four (24%) offer video podcasts.
You’d probably have noticed much of this if you’ve visited a news website lately. The message out of this for us PROs, obviously, is that the game has changed. My boss won’t thank me for telling this story, but he remembers a time when press releases were sent by post or (at best) fax — email shifted expectations of what we had to deliver then, and social media and the multimedia delivery platform that is the web is beginning to have an analogous impact on the nature of reporting in Europe today. Of course, in many instances, you don’t need the latest whizzy Social Media News Release or funky viral — but in some cases there’s scope to provide much more compelling content to support journalists in their endeavours.
Of course, to all them PR bloggers out there this is a no brainer — you’ve been living, eating and breathing this stuff for a couple of years. However, judging by several of the conversations I’ve had with comms directors lately, the message is taking its time to sink through. I love this sort of research because the theory is one thing — but having journalists actually tell you that they’d like to see more multimedia content, would like more b-roll (web journalists as well as broadcast and national media), well, it warms the heart.
Mozilla is trying to get into the Guinness book of records with most downloads in a 24 hour period. It’s going on now - get Firefox, spread Firefox.
If you don’t know what that is, and you’re reading this in Internet Explorer — [doink]. That’s me hitting you in the head with a rubber mallet. It’s an awesome web browser, and is to surfing the web what spoons are to eating soup — a necessary tool, and a curvy, shiny piece of awesomeness to boot.
(I haven’t actually installed FF3 yet. Mozilla’s load-balancing is good, which is to say the website was still up for me to hit download, but not that good, in that I’m getting 5 k/b per second down a pipe that should give me 1.25 mb/s. I’m looking forward to it, though, in a geeky kind of way).
Update: FF3 installed on three machines now and I’m loving it on all of them. Most of my extensions/add-ons have been upgraded (not the Delicious one, oddly enough) and it seems to run smoother, faster and less resource intensively than before. Although it does seem to have a larger RAM footprint than FF2, where my systems would grind to a halt with this much memory in use in earlier incarnations, FF3 seems well stable. Happiness is a shiny new browser. Yes, yes, I’m a geek.
I won’t deny, I quite like to be meme-tagged. It’s a validation of my internet existence, and some small evidence that people are reading my blog (although the comments are a good way of doing that too, if you feel so inclined). Tom tagged me for this, and then Chris tagged me for it again, but I’m still only going to do seven songs so you can feel relieved. I won’t inflict my taste in music at you for too long. I’m also not going to write bags about each one as, honestly, I don’t want to. But thanks to the beauty of embedded video, you’ll get to listen to some of them if you feel so inclined. And then you can judge me, you bastards.
For those who don’t know what this is about:
“List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.“
My friend Ben’s band. Seven types of awesome. Been listening to Urusen’s new album pretty much on repeat since it came out last year. Can’t believe they haven’t been signed. Not only have I seen them live more often than any other band, I’ve also jammed with Ben a number of times, which was an awesome feeling, given how moving I find the music. Myspace here if you want more.
Sunsets - Powderfinger
This one is Tony’s fault. He introduced me to this Australian band in a move no-doubt designed to persuade me of his Nation’s superiority over everything else. Unfortunately, I love them and this song is not only wonderful but has a fantastic anime supporting video.
Waterloo Sunset - ??
Arvind has a band whose name I forget cover this song for the French Film soundtrack / closing credit, and, wonderful as the Kinks original is, the cover is something magical. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for well executed acoustic rock.
Falling Slowly - Once
This one is Arvind’s fault too. Deeply romantic, melodic, soulful in a way that I appreciate.
Newton Faulkner: Tear drop
I know, I know, Massive Attack fans will probably lynch me. But I do think the cover is impressive, and love the guitar as a drum thing he does. This one is Ashvina and Sheila’s fault.
Out of our head - Sheryl Crow
I’ve loved Sheryl Crow since I was 14, despite the fact that I loathe most things that have any connection with country music. Love the cadence of this one.
Now and Forever - LoTR Musical
This is principally a recency thing. Saw this musical a few weeks ago and can’t get the song out of my head. Not sure why they’re chuckling so much in this clip.
…and that’s it. Not being one for doing exactly what I’m told, I’m not going to tag seven people. I will tag a few, though: Arvind, if only because he’s managed to get two songs in my current seven, and because he’ll probably give me more music I want to listen to. Noel, because I want to know what the man who got me into Metallica is listening to. Richard, because it’s something fun to do whilst waiting for your passport, and Craig if he gets a second on his travels. Tim, because he’ll probably have fun with it and Jack, because, well, you have to Ask Jack. And Chris, who strikes me as a chap who will have a decent soundtrack.
Damn. I did do what I was told. Seven tags for seven songs.
(no, this isn’t the seven songs memeI owe on. That’ll come. Be patient my child.).
I’ve spent most of the last week in bed, in pain cause by a bunch of malignant viruses (and I believe this is the technical term for what they were doing) running up and down the length of my body setting off miniature shotguns with precise aim and intent. These nefarious negligible entities kept my eating very, very modest — my most attentive readers will remember that I have been attempting in some way to reduce my weight and improve my fitness — but, I’ve discovered, despite not really eating for a week Wii Fit tells me I’ve only lost about one pound. One pound!
This is going to take approximately forever, even once my activity consists of more than lying around, groaning melodramatically occasionally to impress the empty room, feeling sorry for myself and making occasional trips to Boots and The Doctor to obtain more magical pharmaceuticals*.
Ah well. Onwards and upwards. Hopefully be well enough for squash next week, and am back to work on Monday too so calorific burn rates will doubtless shoot through the roof.
In defiance of the fact that I know very, very little about football I’ve set up a mini-league and promoted it via Twitter. I currently have two fellow leaguers — Mr Tom Phillips and Mr Nick Leonard. Anyone else fancy it? Mosey on over to Metro’s site, go to “mini league” and find “Twitter League.” The password is twitter1234.
Join the fray. And don’t mind that I picked my team more or less at random, without the usual discernment I put into fantasy football (I look for Spurs players). I’ll buy the winner a Mars bar.
I’ve been pitched! As someone who’s always treated this blog as a self-indulgent dumping ground for any random thought that occurred to me, it’s flattering that someone thinks I have an audience and coherent enough content to feel it’s worth targeting me.
In any case, (and I’m not paid to promote these guys), if you want last minute father’s day gifts, you should…
Feckless Shoppers Warned Against Smash-and-Grab Gift Buying Kiss goodbye to panic gift buying: new website LateLateGifts.co.uk is helping thousands of last minute shoppers cope with Father’s Day. The idea behind the site is simple. Users can browse 60+ shops that offer immediate, same day or next day delivery gifts to take the stress out of last minute shopping. Time is of the essence for the feckless gift giver, so the easy to navigate website offers simple search options to help users find the presents they need pronto. Shoppers who are really racing the clock can search same day delivery gifts. For those with a day or two’s grace, Late Late Gifts lists retailers offering delivery by the following morning. The range of shops means there’s an ideal gift for everyone. From electricals, gadgets and computers to jewellery, chocolates and experience days, it’s all on offer – and delivered fast. Late Late Gifts creator, Richard Kershaw, was inspired to build the site by his own shoddy gift-giving habits: “I know all too well the stress of last minute smash-and-grab gift buying. But I was certain I wasn’t the only person who was, well, just a bit rubbish at buying presents. “I couldn’t find anything out there to take the pressure off buying gifts for your nearest and dearest. I hope that Late Late Gifts will make Father’s Day and those other big occasions a little less daunting.”
Silicon.com (part of CNet Networks UK, a Brands2Life client - my employers, for those who haven’t been keeping up) has published a study into tech hotspots and London figures at no3 globally. Which is nice — and the rationale makes sense — lots of tech companies are based/invested in or near the big smoke.
But I couldn’t suppress a wry grin given the fact that the Circle Line and District Line continue to play havoc with my commute on a daily basis and we have a Boris Johnson as our mayor — who, despite his entertaining appearances on HIGNFY, probably couldn’t find the front side of an iPhone. And we all know what happened with Terminal 5…
Surely those things should have an impact on our standing?
Still, it is a good place for me to be working in tech. Wouldn’t trade it for any other techno-paradise (though I am hoping to visit San Francisco in the not-too-distant future, and who knows what impact that will have on me? Silicon Valley is no 1 on Silicon.com’s list).
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