Will Knott

I’ll be honest, I love my XBox 360. The halls of Rapture have been responsible for the loss of many an hour. But the XBox live system has a few drawbacks.

To begin with, since nothing purchasable has a refund (you can re-download something you’ve bought, but you can’t get your gamer points back), not having previews is a problem. Game demos are one thing but the likes of themes and gamerpics (essentially a profile picture for the XBox live system) are not available as a preview.

But people have worked around it. The Theme Xbox site is essentially a collection of videos. These videos are previews of the XBox themes, usually premium themes. I don’t know if the creators of the themes are slipping codes to the people doing these videos or if they are paid for themselves, or if some of these videos are by the theme creators. All I do know is that is has saved me from spending some gamer points on something I’d regret within seconds of paying for it.

In case you are wondering, the difference between a theme and a premium theme currently is that the “friends” section is customised in the premium theme, and he standard theme uses the XBox 360 defaults.

However, the date brings scary things to the fore. For example here is the premium St Patrick’s Day theme. (I just hope these links inside XBox.com work when you’re not logged in to XBox.com)

And Microsoft seem to have created a collection of avatar items for St. Patrick’s Day. Like Leprechaun outfits for him, for her and a spare leprechaun “prop” to steal the gold out of your pocket. Just like having the MS points taken.

Ah yes, more Orish than the Irish themselves.

Why do we do this! Couldn’t we have someone do nicer things? Even if you hate River dance, its is at least not “Orish”. Avatar items of the Riverbance dancer outfits for example? Or have someone create a cooler Irish theme. Something like a Secret of Kells theme? Or a Newgrange theme? Or a Rock of Cashel theme? Something that doesn’t look like its meant to be coated in a layer of cheap, tacky “kelly” green plastic. Why not Buntratty Castle medieval outfits? Irish right?  I can almost see Newbridge Silver or Waterford Crystal making a theme and avatar items just to show that Ireland can be classy.

So how do I create my own theme?

And where did this post come from; well, I’ve been mostly posting to Culch.ie, and ntil recently I’ve been unable to sit down and write a lot. I now have the time again.

There will still be photos coming (I have a lot of the AMC to do yet), but the tagling for this blog is… “Musing about technology, culture, people and the places in between”. So I should do just a little bit on technology, culture and more people.

I have a few words on Wordpress (and Wordpress Camp), Google Buzz, a Massive Hadron (not a typo) and Weedle to come.

In Ireland we end up with the politicians we elect. That sounds perfectly logical and democratic; suggesting anything else would be, well, non-democratic.

However this means 3 things, firstly a TD needs to make a lot of people happy to be elected and re-elected. All politics is local, but a large amount of a local TDs work is giving their constituents the things they are already entitled to. National politics can be scuppered due to local pressures.

Secondly a TD tends to be a certain type. The talking professions such as teachers and lawyers (and one or two professional PR types) account for most of the Dail. The corporate types (who understand standard expenses claims systems) or small business people tend to not run as they don’t have the time. That and family ties. If their mother/father/close relation was a TD, there is a high chance that they will give it a shot too. Of course there are the party lines being followed.

And thirdly, a TD usually wants to be re-elected. Which means caution and conservatism.

So why not try something out. Dail reform is being talked about so lets add a radical element. A National Lottery. We already have the “millionaire raffle” so why not offer a more desirable prize; a job. Also having the National Lottery run this makes sense as they have all the infrastructure in place.

I know it sounds dumb, but how many people have said “I could do better”, so lets let them. Its one way to get a random person in there. The seat would have to be non-local, as its a national lottery, anywhere could have a winner. There should be some criteria for eligibility, I assume that the standard types for a TD would apply (age limit, Irish citizen and not in prison etc) but with a few additional catches. Current public servants would be ineligible as would currently sitting TDs and Senators. This is important; the winner cannot win next round.

Why, well its a random element. One person who is (at the start anyway) whip-less. He or she need not follow a party. This person will, statistically, not have the standard background of a TD. Could be a Moore Street trader, or a Cavan farmer or a new citizen in Mullingar. And as he or she is not incumbent to a constituency, then they can think a little more nationally. Naturally he or she will have a local focus, but those strict constituency lines may not apply. And there is nothing to stop this person trying to run as a standard TD, and declaring his or her constituency (probably local for them) next election. But they cannot try to enter again next time. And the next person to get the job will also be a random (self) selection.

Anyway, it would be an experiment. And could shake up the ruling class.

Does it make sense?

Every so often you have to empty out the spam folder.

And how tings (and things) have changed. Along with the usual interesting array of chemicals (some of which have numbers in their names showing that they must be even more powerful) is a new one.

Tamiflu.

Yes, it appears that in the event of a major swine flu outbreak, your local friendly spammer has all the chemicals required. They probably have the masks too.

Most criminals do.

While the picture below looks like something for “picture is unrelated” there is a story behind it.

I don’t know the whole story, just my part.

And the phrase “bring your camera everywhere with you” (and yes I have bathroom graffiti shots to prove the “everywhere part”).

When David Maybury was departing for parts foreign, a small bloggers party was thrown for him at Le Circ. (I have a few pictures of the night). I left early via the bar’s rear door, which opens on to another street with more bars.

And this fellow was standing outside thanks to the smoking ban.

I have no idea why. I did ask if it was OK to take the shot, but I have no idea why.

Vicars and tarts anyone?

Oddly, since the window in Le Circ overlooking this scene is all stained and leaded glass, I doubt anyone inside noticed.

No seriously. New Zealand Rugby Clubs (well their Super 14s anyway) and Adidas has done an odd little flash site.

Choose two Rugby players from this list, Tamati Ellison, Ali Williams, Richie McCaw, Jimmy Cowan or Liam Messam and they will take off their rugby shirts and swap with each other.

You can even get a personalised (well fake personalised) poster of the shirtless player, if you have a printer attached. Apparently (crashed my machine when I tried).

I wonder if there will be a Leinster and Munster version shortly? Could the version of Goys and Fiens cope?

take care,

Will Knott

It all started shortly before the Irish Blog Awards. That was the reason that Jason Roe was on the site, which caused the first insults.

The widely reported insult against bloggers which is being heard across the globe. I have been warned not to play in to Michael O’Leary’s hands and promote his apparent need for publicity (despite the ire its caused) over the company’s levels of customer service.

So much so that the search for their opposite is now on. LeCraic has the details behind the search.

Well according to O’Leary’s PR spokesperson, Stephen McNamara, we are “idiot bloggers” or “lunatic bloggers”.

Not to worry, as the company starts to limit their presence to online only, and as a lot of people type the URL in to Google (rather than the address bar) the negative rail against bloggers may bite them yet. Its is all very well being the name hat most people think of when they search for cheap flights. But they search, frequently when they don’t intend to (after all, Yahoo is a top search for term in Google, and vice versa).

However they didn’t say they won’t correspond with all bloggers – nor that all bloggers are idiots. But it sure is implied.

After the Blog awards I’ve come to take the Jack Kerouac approach. If we are the insane ones… we are a lot of fun to be with.

The only people for me are the mad ones,
the ones who are mad to live,
mad to talk,
mad to be saved,
desirous of everything at the same time,
the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing,
but burn, burn, burn,
like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars…

Burn brightly,

Will Knott

Timing is interesting. Markham Nolan blogged about, well, bloggers being used and abused by marketing types and quoted the example of The Big Switch outreach done by Bord Gáis electricity. Go read it and come back. This post is my comment as he “plucked out” a comment I left and given that I’ve been named, I’m not intending to be shamed.

(I have shame, don’t use it much)

The rest of this post is the comment I left…

I think I need to defend myself after you “plucked me out”.

I’ll go with this one example of the Bord Gáis meetup. This wasn’t a scheme dreamt up by a PR firm, this was Bord Gáis doing it themselves. All the bloggers that attended did so out of curiosity. None of us knew what it was going in.

If we did, I suspect a different group of bloggers would have shown up.

If you want bloggers, ask bloggers who blog about your area. For the event the ideal group would be business bloggers, consumer affairs bloggers, green affairs bloggers. Oddly enough marketing and advertising bloggers would have been interested too.

Or to put it another way, would you invite a music journalist to the launch of a new cheese? (No jokes please)

I know that not everyone who attended blogged about it (yet at any rate). I know that it ended up being one of my longer posts.
From what I can tell, it was the first attempt at blogger outreach (not just their first attempt, but THE first attempt following the Collision Course).

Lots of information was freely given. It was interesting to see a “grown up” product that few would describe as “sexy” being used for outreach. Things are changing in the marketplace, bloggers may be invited to more, but that is no guarantee of a write up, let along a favourable one.

The early inviter will get the “well they invited us” posts, but if it becomes more commonplace, the “I was there” won’t be blogged. The “I’m interested in this topic, give me the info” will take over. After all, most (if not all) Irish bloggers are amateurs.  They have work, school or other duties in the mornings. They can’t attend a day-time press conference (or film screening). They don’t all live in Dublin (interesting to see how many of these things will take place in Cork, Galway, Kilkenny or Limerick). And bloggers are under no real obligation. A day without posting isn’t going to cause much harm. Not the same can be said about mainstream media.

Or to use your analogy, the swarm of locusts may find the field is empty when they get there.

Of course, locust only swarm then their serotonin levels increase. That’s the happy chemical of the brain.

Who says that bloggers make a happy meal?

take care,

Will Knott

So King Damien wants us to go and do our own “Fluffy Links”.

I can do that…

On the odd but technical front we have a game of the 80’s classic “Defender”. But an odd twist on it. Ok how about making it really really small. Say 16×16 pixels.? And what about putting it in the favicon of the site instead of in a page. And lets make it playable too? (Knott warning, doesn’t work in all browsers, and I’m sure it won’t work in the iPhone).

On the technical and might just be useful front, how about a “Multicolr Flickr search“? Its a search tool for Flickr which selects “interesting” (their quotes) pictures from Flickr based on colr.. I mean color… I mean colour. Dang this spelling. Consider that my entry in to the Redmum colour post challenge.

On the self-referential front (and the fact that I think I need a photo in every post), Conor O’Neill has a shot of me taking the shot below of him.

And since there isn’t a fluffy due to the Mulley man going to see The Dark Knight, let me offer you “ItsJustSomeRandomGuy“’s take of the expectation of the movie in the “I’m a Marvel and I’m a DC“. He’s been doing these for a while.

So did it meet expectations?

take care,
Will Knott

Dear Ms. Marianne Mikko Member of the European Parliment,

I’ve been reading reports that you have called for a registration of bloggers.

Given the importance of the Internet in Estonia, I suspect that you would get a lot of, er, assistance in answering an explanation of what you mean.
Or at least a high level of details on what you are actually requesting.

Most blog posts are highly personal by nature, be it personal observation, on the ground reporting of a war in their local neighbourhood, on the antics of their cat (depressing there are a lot of these) or the rote by which a blogger investigated the dealings of a disgraced public official.
They are closer to opinion pieces than investigative reporting.

There are also blogs which by their very nature need to be anonymous. Those detailing illegal activities by officials for instance. A registration of such a blogger is likely to lead to intimidation or death.

Do you wish to clarify your wording.
Say in a blog of your own for instance?

Yours sincerely,
Will Knott

http://WillKnott.ie

The way we interact with technology changes from year to year (and on occasion, something comes along and changes an interface overnight, like TwitterFone). Given that one of the creators of Twitterfone, namely Pat Phelan, posed the question “Have we over innovated?“, its surprising.

Image via Wikipedia

The answer is no. I think that Robin Blandford, Damien Mulley and Alexia Golez all agree that we have more innovating to do. Part of the perceived problem is that the innovators produce something for the general person; but the general person doesn’t want it. The bleeding edge early adopters might love it, but not their less technology loving friends and relatives. The early innovations tend to be the “engineering model” with a few unfinished features, bugs and complicated instructions. A remote control which has an individual button for every function the device can do is not the most user friendly of interfaces. The early adopters will flock to it and understand it. But if it isn’t obvious and fast and easy to use, I know my Mum will hate it, and the chances are that the device won’t survive to a second model. Its an innovators dilemma.

The true irony of this dilemma is that its caused by a mixtre of a lack of communication, and too much. After all, some innovations were things that the users didn’t know that they wanted. An “unknown unknowns” sort of thing. This is a want, which is so convenient that it rapidly becomes a need. Sometimes this is generational (e.g. mobile phone uptake), sometimes this just swoops in out of the blue and everyone joins in (grandparents and grandchildren on the Wii). But sometimes they are consigned to the “ideas before their time” bin. Being able to “vote out” unnecessary parts of the solution, means that the idea has less of a problem.

The other type of solutions is the “What if?” caused by the “Why not?”. The “Why doesn’t this exist yet?” type problems. Which is usually what is thought about when people talk about a lack of innovation. The slow incremental kind where the steps seems obvious only after the product comes to market. And these steps are being sped up due to communication.

Now an idea or observation can become a idle tweet, which sparks another’s blog post, which sparks a small blog storm, which sparks a business plan, which sparks a gathering of minds and ideas, which sparks improved ideas and a flurry of research work, which (might) spark a business plan but is more likely to spark a business start-up first. And each step in an itteration of the idea, refining the initial notion with practicalities and possibilities. Due to the wonder of social networking at it’s finest, this allows people who know brightsparks to become involved in an interesting idea and produce something. Because ideas are easy, but the skills to do something specialised are, well, specialised, and few people have them. But knowing someone who knows someone who might be able to help you is a practical possibility due to the sped up communication of social networks. Then your idea moves from notion to production.

But you have to produce something which enables others to know some of your ideas. You have to give in order to get. You have to spend time or talent to get attention. To get communication. And you have to join the conversations, otherwise you are considered the unwelcome gatecrasher that will be ignored. But if that gatecrasher helps out, then he or she is no longer an unwelcome gatecrasher, but a welcomed guest. And this new guest may point out that part of the solution yo are trying to make already exists, so there is no need to reinvent that wheel (or how to avoid being sued by that wheel’s inventor).

Open source projects and wikipedia works this way. Individuals who may never physically meet work on a project in their spare time. And it works for businesses, where one entrepreneur meets another on line, or a third party brings them together virtually and then physically. Perinatal ideas get defined through this virtual iteration and idea refinement so that not only is a full bodied idea born, but the creation process creates a bit of interest in the idea itself. Enough interest, and there might be interested funders.

Can we over-innovate? Only if we are willing to accept it as (science) fiction, but science fiction frequently sparks the research to become science fact. Is innovation over? Not as long as others can spark ideas and collaboration. As for a visual representation of this collaboration, see the video below.

take care,
Will Knott