Rob's Blog - September 2007

Links for 2007-09-27

• Emap is confident | Comment Archive | News | Hemscott Media group Emap has issued a generally bullish trading update despite challenging trading conditions for its consumer magazines.
• Google Introduces Social Linking with Shared Stuff : The Blog Herald Google gets into the social bookmarking/linking game with Google Shared Stuff.
• Break-up guidance to overshadow Emap update | Reuters Trading news from media group Emap on Thursday is expected to be overshadowed by its potential sale or break-up amid a strategic review that has attracted dozens of approaches.
• Private equity bids for Emap on track despite credit markets | | Guardian Unlimited Business Emap, the publisher of Heat magazine and owner of Magic radio station, is still a buyout target for private equity firm Apax despite tricky financing conditions
• Emap half-year underlying revenue down UPDATE | Latest News | News | Hemscott UK media group Emap said underlying revenue fell one pct for the half year, with strong growth in its business-to-business division and improvement in radio, but weak consumer magazines.

Links for 2007-09-25

• TechCrunch UK ? Blog Archive ? Virgin Digital downloads for the last time Virgin cuts it's losses and gets out of the DRM music game

Heat Radio Launches

We've just launched the new Heat Radio Player on Whatson.com, and a supporting Heat Radio website.

Disclaimer: I built the Heat Whatson.com radio player.

It's quite an interesting proposition for a commercial radio station, dump traditional advertising breaks and just run sponsored shows. The station kicked off at 2pm today with the Diet Coke break, with other shows sponsored by Ford, Sky and Boots.

Heat have also built a studio in their office that will be used for live celebrity news every 15 minutes and to catch all the celebs as they come in for magazine interviews.

If you don't want to listen to Heat Radio online, it's also on Freeview 714, Sky 0179 and DAB Radio. More news about the Heat Radio launch can be found on HeatWorld.com.

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Links for 2007-09-24

• 7 reasons I switched back to PHP after 2 years on Rails - O'Reilly Ruby "I spent two years trying to make Rails do something it wasn’t meant to do, then realized my old abandoned language (PHP, in my case) would do just fine if approached with my new Rails-gained wisdom."
• Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART A brilliant animation of happens when flash fights back.
• Who will buy the jewels in Emap's crown? | Media | MediaGuardian.co.uk Ten years ago it would have been unthinkable, but now Emap is struggling to find a buyer for its consumer division

Links for 2007-09-21

• TechCrunch UK ? Blog Archive ? Vodafone in mobile web storm Mike Butcher picks up the vodafone rewriting proxy saga and gives a good overview of the problem.
• Vodafone UK is abusing its position, by Luca Passani Luca Passani on the problems caused by Vodafone's mobile reformatting proxy

ECM Awards 2007

I've just attended the Emap Consumer Magazine Awards 2007. The main act for the night was Al Murray in his guise as The Pub Landlord. A very good choice, and as long as you weren't a victim of his wit, a very funny man.

After the awards, we had a great dance act. Two very talented male dancers brake dancing on the main dance floor with two leather clad girls dancing on podiums nearby. A very good floor show by 4 talented dancers.

Links for 2007-09-20

• textually.org: Crime prevention tips via bluetooth More police bluetooth spamming, this time in Durham
• Looney Tunes .WAV Files - Foghorn Leghorn A nice selection of Foghorn Leghorn samples
• Drink with chill factor - Top Stories - News - Mirror.co.uk Drinks giant Coca-Cola has invented a bottle that chills on the inside when the top is twisted off.
• Man urinates on dying woman, declaring it 'YouTube material' Shouting, "This is YouTube material!" a 27-year-old British man urinated on a dying woman who had collapsed on the street, the BBC and local Hartepool Mail and Northern Echo tell us.

Links for 2007-09-19

• Dean's Copper Multi Tool Open a door using copper wire. Great videos included as well showing the technique in action

Links for 2007-09-17

• Nokia - ditch .NET and get your Suite together PC Suite was a svelte-ish 25MB, but the inclusion of a 'pretty' front end along with the Microsoft bloat-monster, has meant a download size of 350MB and the performance of a constipated slug.
• Using Nokia's LifeBlog With Movable Type 4 Some notes on using Nokia Lifeblog on MT4. It looks like it supports it out of the box, rather than with hacks on previous versions

Links for 2007-09-13

• A Soviet Poster A Day A great collection of old Soviet posters, and an explanation of their meanings.
• Six Apart announces TypePad for iPhone/iPod : The Blog Herald Typepad gets an optimised client for the iPhone.
• Nokia Lifeblog is Giving Me Grief!!!!: Darla Mack - Nokia S60 News and Reviews Darla is having problems with Nokia Lifeblog after a recent upgrade.
• iain tait | crackunit.com ? Blog Archive ? Police Bluecasting Another use for Bluecasting / Bluejacking

Links for 2007-09-12

• MilkandCookies - John Cleese: What Have the BBC Ever Given Us? If only they'd make a modern day version of this.
• UPDATE 1-Emap sells Australian magazine business for $79 mln?|?Mergers & Acquisitions?|?Reuters.co.uk Emap have sold their Australian division for 34 million quid.

Giant HMV Mobile Barcode

There is currently a giant mobile barcode in the window of HMV in Oxford Street, London.

The poster encourages users to use their phone's barcode reader to discover content.

Is this the first time this has been used on such a large scale for poster advertising in the UK?

Links for 2007-09-11

• Miller's interest in Emap heats up - Telegraph And although Emap doesn’t publish ABCe certificates for Kerrang.com, the company claims that the site has 157,000 unique users each month.
• Press Gazette - Magazines crowd into new media And although Emap doesn’t publish ABCe certificates for Kerrang.com, the company claims that the site has 157,000 unique users each month.

Some Views Of Meersburg

A few views of the historic town of Meersburg in Germany.

Vineyards Below A Stately Home

Vineyards leading up a hill to a stately home in Meersburg.

The region is famous for it's wines and the town is a bit of a building site today as it prepares for it's annual wine festival this weekend.

Meersburg Watermill

We went to Meersburg today. It's a very beautiful town just down the lake from Immenstadt where we're staying.

This is the watermill by the old castle there.

The Bodensee At Night

The view from the end of the Bodensee House's garden, across Lake Constance, to Switzerland at night.

A Bodensee Boat In The Evening

One of the bodensee pleasure boats, all lit up for the evening, has just passed the bottom of the garden on it's way to Immenstadt.

A Lovely Morning At The Bodensee House

It's a lovely morning down by the Bodensee.

Views Of Konstanz

Some views across the Bodensee from the top of the cathedral in Konstanz.