Stewart Priest

Democracy in Action

// July 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // Charity, Twitter, Web 2.0

One of the great things about the web is that it empowers all sorts of people to go out and make a difference. Sometimes that difference isn’t world-changing, but it’s a difference all the same. We get the chance to air our views, and with the birth of the blog, we have a permanent platform for any issue we wish to shout about.

Today, I’m calling on the readers of my blog to help a charity which is very personal to me: No Strings Attached (Scotland). The reason I’m using my blog to promote this charity is because I’m trying to drum up enough votes to enable them to be appointed as the official charity of the Glasgow Twestival. What’s a Twestival? It’s a Twitter Festival. Basically, there will be an evening of music and fun at a venue in Glasgow city centre which will hopefully raise lots of money, and I’d love for No Strings Attached Scotland to be the recipient of the proceeds. It’s a very worth charity.

No Strings Attached (Scotland) aims to help children and young people with asthma better control their condition through playing wind instruments like the flute, clarinet, etc. It helps increase lung capacity and stamina, and I know from personal experience that it works. They also aim to educate children and young people about their condition, and steps they can take to help themselves.

Please vote for No Strings Attached (Scotland) here, and you can listen to my personal plea on the charity’s website here.

Finally!

// July 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // DIY, Web 2.0

Yes! I’ve finally managed to get a new pair of monitor speakers. The JBL Control 1s, to be precise.

It’s been a bit of a journey to get them, to be honest. I had to wait A-G-E-S to get served in the shop, so I whinged about it on Twitter, and immediately got a follow from Richer Sounds. They’ve offered me a tenner for my trouble, but I can’t imagine what else I’d buy out of there.. I’m poor AND I’m getting married!

Moving on from that, I decided to mount them on the wall yesterday, and the first speaker went up fine. The second speaker however, did not. It lasted all of two minutes before all 1.4kg of it started to come away from the wall. There was nothing else I could do but curse myself for making four bloody big holes in my nice, newly decorated wall.

Fast forward to today, and a chat with one of my colleagues, Brian. He’s an Active Directory wizard now, but he’s a joiner to trade. He suggested larger rawl plugs, so off I went to B&Q after work, and I bought the next two sizes of rawl plugs. I got home, tried them out, and BINGO! I now have a pair of speakers on the wall, not just one lonely speaker. I was on a roll, so I got my nice glass shelves from Ikea – which have been sitting in their boxes for weeks – and stuck them up on the wall. Now I think I’m a DIY god!

I’ve christened my speakers by playing The Jam Song, and I’m now load-testing the shelves! Woo!

Oh, and before I forget, check out ‘AutoTune The News’ on YouTube! It’s excellent!

Congratulations!

// July 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // General

So, my little sister got engaged last night. She’s been hinting at Robert, her now fiance, for a while now, and its finally paid off!

It seems, however, that everyone knew but me. That’s not strictly true, but it certainly felt like that last night. Yesterday was also her birthday, and a group of her friends and I were summoned by Robert to be at a restaurant for a surprise party. When I say ‘surprise’, I really just mean it as a figure of speech – again, there was some amount of hinting during the weeks in the run-up to this meal.

Anyway, I digress. We had a lovely meal, and when the meal and birthday cake were dispensed with, Robert stood up and started to make a speech. I thought it was odd that he would be making a speech at my sister’s birthday meal, and then it clicked. It wasn’t long before the ring box came out, and he’d dropped to one knee. She naturally said yes, there was much applause and serving of champagne, followed by a few people asking me if I knew this would be happening. I did not. It turns out though, that a few of her friends did.

Why not me? Well, family wasn’t to know. My mum didn’t know, but this was also true of my dad. Oops. He doesn’t look that bothered, but I think he might have liked to have been asked beforehand. It turns out Robert’s dad knew though, so I guess I’m feeling bad for my dad at this stage.

It wasn’t quite like this video though..

AudioBoo, PhoneBoo and iPadio

// July 1st, 2009 // 2 Comments » // General, Web 2.0

OK, so I know I’m coming to the party a little late, but you’ve got to give me credit for showing up at all, right? No? Whatever.

Anyway, AudioBoo is the latest Web2.0 craze, and to be honest, its one I can totally get on board with. It is audio-based, after all. The only complaint I have had with AudioBoo in the past is that it’s an iPhone-only app, and it has been since launch. However, the nice guys at AudioBoo are planning to launch an API on 11 July to enable others to build cool stuff. Some of that cool stuff, I’m hoping, will be applications for the Symbian S60 OS. Creating apps based on this API will allow me to use AudioBoo properly, and in higher quality.

Now, I know that I said it was an iPhone-only app, and that’s true, but as part of the internal testing of the API, an AudioBoo developer created PhoneBoo – a version of AudioBoo which allows you to call a UK-based number and create your Boo that way. This is how I plan to use AudioBoo until the Symbian-based apps start appearing. Roll on 11 July!

Anyway, just for giggles, here’s my very first Boo:

UPDATE:

The iPadio folks have been Twittering me since I posted about AudioBoo, and have convinced me to give it a try. I’ve given it a go, and so far, it’s much the same as AudioBoo. However, they are working on an MP3 upload service which will post audio to Twitter in much the same way as TwitPic posts images. It just goes to show what a chance email can do, eh?

Unlike AudioBoo though, iPadio is creating apps for mobile handsets other than the iPhone. They have indicated to me that there will be something much better coming for Nokia handsets, but due to a Non-Disclosure Agreement with Nokia they couldn’t go into anything substantial with me at this time. I’ve asked to be a beta tester for the service, and they’ve agreed, so if I can talk about it, I’ll post it here.

Just for laughs, here’s my iPadio phlog: