I'm dreadful at setting goals. Personally and professionally, I drift to whatever takes my fancy. Planning what I want to have for dinner in the evening is an unfathomable prospect. I can't comprehend how friends can have calendars showing every meal for the week in advance. To me, that's a crazy, OCD-esque level of organisation. I am simultaneously bemused and full of admiration for people like SpaceKate - she has goal to get to space in the next 10 years. Comedian - and blogger for 9…
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For years I've been mildly obsessed with the Voynich Manuscript. An ancient book, written in a language no one can decipher, showing plants which don't exist, and measuring astronomical configurations which make no sense. The book is an enigma. Many think it to be an elaborate hoax - others have more.... esoteric explanations. Regardless of what the book means, it is a beautiful and mysterious work of art. And I want to read it on my Kindle! Archive.org has an ebook version of the Voynich …
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Spotted all over the London Underground in the last few days, these QR enabled adverts from Eastpak for their I Am The Bag campaign. Close Up of the QR Code YouTube Video The code immediately directs the user to YouTube to watch a video. Two Ways To Make The Campaign Better Use a smaller URL to create an easier to scan QR Code. Eastpak currently use http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1fBMmR103Q - they could drop the www to make it slightly smaller, or use "m." so people know they're…
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I am incredibly gratified to be in the running for Geek of the Year 2010. Thanks to The 405 for picking me as one of their favourites. You can check out the other entrants on Facebook - don't worry, you don't have to vote for me! You can also find GeekOfTheYearUK on Twitter. …
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Nick Burcher has done a great job detailing Lacoste's new QR code campaign. Being the curmudgeon that I am, I want to point out a couple of rather glaring flaws in its execution. Contrast See if you can scan in the code on this image. The image links to Nick's site if you want the full resolution version. I tried several different phones and scanners and wasn't able to get the code to scan. This is because QR codes are designed to be black and white. As I've explained before, most QR…
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I caught an interesting snippet over the weekend. With the latest Top 500 Super Computer list published, there has been lots of talk about whether Linpack is the best way to measure how powerful computers really are. This prompted Steve Wallach to say... "we could get 100,000 [Android phones], hooked up together, and we would have the world's fastest Linpack that no one could exceed for a long time." What a thought! Would it be possible to organise a flashmob - albeit a humongous one - to…
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I love being vegetarian. Don't get me wrong, there are some annoying aspects of having a restricted diet - but mostly it's plain sailing. I also love visiting food fairs - but recently it has felt like I've seen every vegetarian product under the sun. There doesn't seem to be much more innovation in veggie friendly food. This year, I went to the Good Food Show (well, MasterChef Live - but hardly anyone is there for the TV tie in) to see what was on offer. The usual range of meat…
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It looks like I've missed an anniversary! I've been blogging continuously for three years. I've also recently turned thirty-one - and it's got me thinking about the digital trail that I leave across the Internet. I started blogging nine years ago - but they were private blogs. Love letters to the woman who would eventually become my wife. I'm sure I hope I have them backed up somewhere. I know that all my emails from university and before are etched into CD-ROMs somewhere. But my trail…
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(eBuzzing have sponsored this post. Please let me know what you think about sponsored articles on this blog.) Android phones are now big business - even Woz seems to think they'll take over the world. Into the crowded arena steps the HTC Wildfire. I'm a huge fan of the HTC hardware - but I often feel that they ignore the customer service side of things. For too long they were silent on when their firmware releases were coming out - leaving VillainROM and Cyanogen to pick up the slack. …
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Like many people, my sole experience of floatation tanks is from the Simpsons episode "Make Room for Lisa". I was looking for something unusual to do on my birthday when I received an offer from Groupon for a £14 session at Floatworks - a short walk from my office. How bad could it be? Almost exactly what I looked like.... I am slightly suspicious of any "New Age" claims - but the Floatworks site is remarkably clear of dubious claims and mostly sticks to the facts. And I seriously doubt …
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There seems to be a lot of talk at the moment about how marketing can make use of QR codes. I wanted to highlight a few ways in which 2D codes can be used for slightly more practical usage. There's nothing wrong with selling more cheese - but I think that only scratches the surface of these little squares of brilliance. You may have seen these Ringo.co.uk ticket machines. They are meant to be a convenient way to pay for parking tickets - but could QR codes make them more useful? The…
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Designer Ming Ling has created the most wonderful QR code constructed out of Tetris pieces. The full size version is a work of beauty. As I've explained before, this works because the QR scanner sees the image in black and white - so light colours disappear. Anything else is covered by the fairly generous error correction. I'm nowhere nearly as talented as the above artist, but she has inspired me to continue with my Space Invaders QR Code. It could do with a more game like layout -…
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