Posts

This trial seems to have gone on forever, but the beeb is reporting Andy Coulson has been found guilty of conspiracy to hack phones, but Rebekah Brooks has been found not guilty.

Blimey, so I assume Mr Coulson will get a prison sentence. Maybe the Sun will bug his cell 

All seems a dirty and messy business, and somehow I can already see the Hollywood film in the making...

lol brilliant, and not even Friday  Here's the cartoon:

credit to Mikey Heller

So the highly emotive HS2 project is now firmly looking at phase 2 (or HS3 depending who you talk to).

According to George Osbourne on the Beeb, he wants this expanded to connect a high speed link between Leeds and Manchester.

So phase 1 - Birmingham to London.

Phase 2 - Routes from the West Midlands to Leeds and Manchester

Phase 2 addition - A direct link between Leeds and Manchester

So this sounds like good news for the North, means we become a hub in the Midlands, and theory opens up faster access to the North from London.

Versus cost, environmental impact and changing attitudes to the way we now work and how offices are manned.

So what are peoples thoughts? Are you fans or opponents of HS2?

If you are fans, do you agree with the expansion ideas, or maybe it should be taken further?

If you oppose HS2, why? What is the your main objection?

"The French government has criticised the US body responsible for web addresses after it launched a .wine domain name" - Sky News

I can't believe anyone will take this seriously. How can a country lay claim to a domain name representing a product. 

Will they protest over .cheese .garlic and .baguette?

I wonder what the UK could protest over which it considers itself to be the world leader on?

.fish&chips

.callcentre

.empire

.benefits  

Image credit: www.uni.edu/becker/

"The AA motoring group has floated its shares on the London Stock Exchange and has completed a management buy-in backed by institutional investors" - BBC news

So the new Executive Chairman is the former boss of Greenflag! It's interesting how some of these large brands become almost incestuous when it comes choosing it's top execs. Reminds me of Yahoos CEO who was an ex high ranking Googler.

Seems to be plenty of flotations at the moment and apparently the AA was oversubscribed. Obviously a good sign for the economy. I wonder if the ethos will change at all now the AA will be a slave to shareholder profits?

Blimey, how did it get in? You hear stories of foxes coming in to houses and molesting babies but never really believe it. Great pic though! Wonder what your cats made of it 

This September the school syllabus is being amended to make computer subjects including coding compulsory across all state primary and secondary schools.

I think it's great news and a reflection of the modern world we live in. My kids have been using iPads and electronic blackboards in nursery, and technology to them is almost backwards when they come across non touch screens on TV's or older cameras.

But an interesting story on the beeb talking about Coding summer camps, offering residential high tech courses for kids as young as 6!

"Child-focused programmes include Lego robotics, 3D game design and one course which uses the popular game Minecraft to teach students to understand and virtually build the inside of a computer.

"Parents are quite surprised because we're not just childcare with a technology element - we have a properly academic approach so the children really do learn key skills"

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27924559

I think the kids of today are going to have some amazing opportunities if they decide to pursue developer style careers, rather than help desk reboot monkeys  Lets hope all kids get the same opportunity, and with the syllabus change, it looks like things are going the right direction.

Must be a challenge to find enough suitable and qualified teachers? You can't really have the Gym teacher stepping and running a class on the fundamentals of programming!

Infographics, the ability to convey a message or useful information visually. They have been and arguably still are a very effective form of marketing.

But where once upon a time you would see a clear and concise well crafted and useful infographic, where you could quickly absorb the information and pass on credit if you deemed it worthwhile, we now seemed to be bombarded with them, particularly more and more complex ones.

Visit any Social Media platform, especially community style groups, and you will witness a sea of infographics of all shapes and sizes, and every colour of the rainbow. Some are fantastic pieces of crafted content (unlike my magnificent example ).

But a lot of others seem to have missed the original concept, and want to cram as much text and information onto the image as possible, making them unreadable, and normally having to zoom in to try and make out what the text says.

If I have to work hard at reading your content, it had better be good, and this doesn't seem to be the case. Re-churned top 10's and how to write great content, or SEO 101's from yesteryear. 

I think infographics still have an important place in your marketing mix, but lets keep the visual message shorter, punchy and readable.

Sometimes I wonder if some businesses think they have to be seen to be creating complex infographics looking at sharing and social media signals, such as likes and Google +1's. But how much of this sharing is quick impulse pretty picture +1's, or share onto my wall as it makes me look interesting as opposed to an audience absorbing and digesting your message and giving you feedback. Most comments tend to be "awesome graphic" or "great info" rather than "good analysis, but how did you get the data for point 3".

Be interesting to see some analysis on conversion rates or targeted traffic coming from infographics other than being used as social media follower bait  Maybe an excuse for a future graphic!

What does anyone else think? Anyone had any experience with using infographics, good or bad?

So more importantly will Eastenders go back to normal

Wow!! Ok thats impressive

Very clever to use a weapon as a way to prove the technology. Addresses and answers technical issues such as can it make complicated devices and stand up to pressure and stress. Whilst ensuring superb exposure by taking on an emotive and controversial subject  Great marketing!