thought of the day

Source: profero.com

super, super fred… oh crap!

Watching England in any sport is like getting on a roller coaster. And our opening efforts in the Cricket World Cup are no different. How we laughed when the first Kiwi ball delivered us an extra. How we sat stunned when Ed Joyce went second ball (1 for 1!!). How we thought all was not so bad for a little while until Pietersen, Collingwood and Flintoff decided to put us into more misery. At 175-7 i decided to have a scout round the sites (as promised below).

The BBC were about 10 minutes behind Sky in their live reports so my previous vindication that Sky have better over by over commentary still holds. And of course the human tone they employ conveys the English gallows humour we’ve sadly come to know so well. But Auntie has some hidden gems. Such as the Monty mask!!

Live commentary & debate too on 606 with such gems as “133 /3 …to 138 / 7… my club side could perform better than that..I mean Scott Styrus….god help us”

I also like the wicket icon, i wonder if they’ll have a special Billy Bowden one with the crooked finger??

In the meantime, I’ll be praying that Monty can rescue us.

a million things

Brian Eno 77 million Paintings

Million dollar home page (an oldie but goodie)

“One million dollars!”

and we thought pr was all champagne – social media press release

“Pass the champers, dahling” has changed to “tag it, digg it, link to the podcast and we’ll talk on Skype if that’s OK with you, dahling?”

This is a great format for making press releases work harder in the digital age: the social media press release from Shift Communications.

Acknowledgements: Burson Marstellar 

line and length, son

The next 6 or so weeks will give (almost) everyday a special lift, spin or thwack. The cricket world cup started yesterday – I ignore the opening ceremonies for fear of being bored away from any tournament by Barry Davies or his commentator fraternity suddenly extolling the virtues of jamborees, traditional dances and ridiculous tightrope walking atop fantastically awful “national” and “historical” costumes and themes. Give it up. Get on with the show!

And the show started last night. And the home team won! This is great for the tournament as the west indies have been a bit shit of late and it would be great to see some swashbuckling batting and rib-shattering fast bowling from them again.

Of course my wedge (metaphorically as always) is on England (as i always hope… One day…).

In a slightly skewed way toward my profession, I’ll be trying to assess the relative digital merits of my good friends Sky Sports, The Times and BBC as the tournament progresses. Looking at the fairly large but somewhat uninspired content of their pullout yesterday, the times is looking forward to bombarding me with podcasts, live updates, blogs etc. Sky is my natural home for over by over commentary as they add some subtle humour. And please lord let bumble have a daily column! As for the beeb, well old auntie has dropped in my rankings already. I just don’t go there for sport as my mind has shifted to sky over the past few years. TV driving online usage? I am a statistic.

Unlike the ashes which all took place while we were snoozing and led us into a constant state of depression and occasional sense of hope when we awoke, the world cup will play out from lunch to the 10 o’clock news (ish). So I can check in at work, attempt to muddle my way to getting the scores on my blackberry on the way home and keep flicking to sky sports 1/2 when I get home.

And most of all I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of David Gower’s seaside lair in barbados. Now that’s my £37 a month well spent!

boy meets girl? not in digital world

It would appear that there’s a distinct lack of girls in digital. So much so that the creative folk in the industry are trying to get more girls into the industry. If you’re a girl and want to get into digital, go the the She Says site.

web 2.0 + star wars

Ever noticed how web 2.0 companies all have silly sounding names? On a practical level this is mainly becaue all the normal sounding names have been trademarked by the corporate world leaving odd sounding, meaningless ditties as the only route to go. But this has thrown up something of an amusement factor in that the names of the web 2.0 world sound like they’ve been lifted right out of the Star Wars universe.

This site has an amusing quiz to determine your geek level. And if you ever want to lighten the mood at a presentation, use this deck.

And a final bit of Star Wars for today, it would appear the US Postal Service has registered uspsjedimaster.com. Check out some funky images of R2-D2 post boxes at Show me Sci-Fi blog.

Acknowledgements: murray grigo-mcmahon and chris clarke