Announce A Hose Pipe Ban To Get The Wettest April On Record!

 In the south of the UK a hose pipe ban was announced in early April. Since then I think it has rained almost every single day! Yesterday we had over an inch of rain in W5. It is almost certainly going to be the wettest April on record, however in all seriousness, although it clearly helps, it doesn't make the complete difference after the driest 18 months we have just had! Despite all of this rain, in fact due to all this rain, the garden is going ballistic again this Spring. The tulips have come and have now mostly gone, although a few are still showing off their colours!

 My favourites, the peonies are springing back (pun intended - yes I know how bad it is ;-) ) into action:

 

The flower beds have been taken over by Euphorbia. when the sun shines on these, not that we have had any of that recently, they really do provide a magical green:

   

A few bleeding hearts are sprinkled throughout the beds. You can probably see why they are named this:

   

 The bluebells are back. these always remind me of an impressionist painting:

   

 The Iris pond - read large pot filled with water, is exploding again:

   

 The forget me nots are providing some welcome low lying colour throughout the garden beds:

   

 The pulmonaria are doing similar to the bluebells:

   

The trees are flowering:

   

Then there is this. No idea what it is but an intriguing flower all the same:

 

If you have any ideas please let me know!


There is a load more happening throughout the garden. Weather permitting I will get out in amongst it over the weekend and clear up some of the mess, and see what other intriguing growth is going on! As I mentioned earlier, largely, gardening has taken a back seat while the garage is replaced. Although I really do have to get out and clean things up a little this weekend!

Cheers


M

Commercial TV Needs To Understand The Concept Of Social

I cannot help but think that commercial TV stations are being bypassed by OTT applications, in the exact same way that mobile carriers are being bypassed by OTT application developers. We always hear about mobile carriers simply becoming bit pipes to deliver content by application developers. The same paradigm is true of TV networks.

With the common availability of PVR's that will record entire series of programs for you, who can actually spare the time to watch live TV any more? Sporting events aside, Why watch live TV programming with advertisements when you can invest two thirds of the time to watch the same content that has been recorded by fast forwarding through the advertisements. You don't even have to wait that long. Take a classic example of any 'talent' show broadcast on Saturday evening. Wait 30 minutes after its scheduled start and then watch and not be bother by needless advertising! this is exactly why ITV are having kittens about The Voice clashing with the scheduled start time of Britain's Got Talent. People still watch BGT, but they do so thirty minutes later, and fast forward through all the advertising. ITV have now moved the start time of BGT, to avoid a clash with the Voice on BBC, but are still complaining of a three minute over-run of the Voice!

The delayed watching of television programs of course will kill off the viability of commercial TV. The whole paradigm of commercial TV requires people to watch advertisements. Why would I invest the money in TV advertising, if increasingly no-one actually watches them? Without eyeballs on TV advertising, commercial TV has to suffer

This is precisely why the social aspect of sharing the television watching experience is important for commercial television. Why? As sharing the TV experience usually (not always) involves sharing the experience of watching live TV. A classic example is the zeebox application that allows you to create a chat room with your friends and watch a television show, while having a dual screen discussion. Guess what, before you know it, as you are watching live TV, you may very well end up discussing the advertisements as well. There really can be nothing better than this for someone advertising a product. Generating a buzz, preferably positive, as a side effect of dual screen television watching.

A nice feature, that should be built into the dual screen experience is then being able to share links to the content, yes even the advertisements, to share in real time on your social networks. People love sharing innovative and funny, or even disastrously poor advertisements with their friends. Why haven't the incumbent TV  stations done this? Why are their a proliferation of applications like zeebox springing onto the market that allow this? To be fair I cannot easily share a link to a TV ad from zeebox either, however i bet it appears in an app before it appears in anything a TV station offers! ;-)

The more social TV catches on, the more people will feel left out if they are not watching and discussing with their friends at the same time. This will draw more people back into watching live television and hey guess what - watching more advertising! The thing is though, for me, apart from the odd hash tag thrown up on the screen, so far the TV networks have failed somewhat to really engage in the social experience of TV. TiVo is a classic example of the lack of social by incumbent TV players. TiVo could very easily be zeebox. It isn't though. A massive play by Virgin into the TV market, I am sure costing a massive investment, but not a social aspect in the product to be seen.

As I mentioned early I cannot help but feel that the OTT application developers are treating existing TV infrastructure in the same way they are treating the mobile networks! All this being said there is still so much that existing TV networks (and yes even mobile carriers) can do to embrace the world of social, as opposed to fear it. More on that later though! ;-)

Cheers

m

Local Foxes Putting Their Mark On Our Garage Foundations

 

 Despite copious amounts of squalling rain and wind yesterday the builders finished off the foundations for our new garage. Due to the wet the concrete hadn't really set too well, as one of our local urban foxes discovered last night. The picture above shows the footprints of the fox traversing the wet concrete. I guess he didn't carve his or her name into the corner! ;-) The picture below shows the complete foundations now laid. Next step the plumbing followed by the concrete slab. It's tipping it down again this morning so let's see how much progress is made. It has been very quick progress so far!

   

Cheers

m

Advertising In Virgin Media TiVo EPG - Why I Don't Like It

Over the weekend while I was trawling the Virgin Media TiVo EPG (Electronic Program Guide) I saw the above Advertisement for the HTC One smartphones, in the recommendations bar. Although it does have a yellow 'A' in the top corner I would not say that this is clearly marked as advertising content. The appearance of this advertisement coincided with the advertising campaign on TV for the HTC One smartphones as well.

At the time I tweeted about it, suggesting that the advertising in the recommendations bar was ugly. @VirginMedia tweeted me back asking what I would like to see instead. If I want to see advertising, for physical goods, in the recommendation bar of the TiVo EPG then at least I want it to be socially aware and offer me recommendations as opposed to unintelligent product placement. Read on. 

The reason I don't like the advertising in the Virgin Media TiVo EPG is that it is not a recommendation. It is a paid product placement that is not recommended to me based on a specific reason. Sure, to be fair, most of the recommendations in the recommendation bar in the TiVo EPG could be paid product placements but at least they are for television shows and not physical goods such as mobile phones. At least they have relevance to a television EPG. As an example when Virgin Media have a new show on a particular channel I think they are entitled to promote it via content management. This, at least, relates to television programming as opposed to promoting physical goods. As long as this content managed content is not too frequent, from my perspective, this is OK.

Virgin Media play a lot in their TiVo advertising, on TV as well as the starter pack you receive when you get TiVo, that they will recommend content to you based on the preferences that you tell them about. TV today demands a service like this as it is so hard to find content that you like in the overwhelming choice of channels. To tailor the TiVo  recommendations towards things you will like, you can seed the system by telling TiVo what you like and dislike. This is done by selecting the 'good' thumbs up button, or using the thumbs down button to tell TiVo what you really dislike. There are even different levels of good - from one to three thumbs up. Based on these settings, recommendations should be made to me in the recommendation bar of the EPG. Not only this, but recommendations are automatically recorded for me to watch later.

The advertising, over the weekend, that appeared on the recommendation bar, appeared to have no relevance to my preferences as it simply tied in to the promotion that was happening on TV at the same time. Again it also had nothing to do with TV. I don't want advertising for physical goods clogging up the TV service that I use, especially when I pay to use the TV service! If my monthly fees for Virgin Media TV were subsidised by this advertising then it might be different! I think I would submit to advertising if my monthly bill was dropped accordingly. ;-)

Also if the advertising was based on my social network preferences, again it might be different. I.e. if these advertisements were served as recommendations based on what my friends and contacts were talking about on the social networks that I use, then they would have far more relevance to me. As I have previously mentioned though, I think that TiVo does suffer from a lack of social integration. I think services like zeebox will be far better placed to make use of social preferences, with respect to advertising, but that is another story!  

So that is what I would like to see @VirginMedia. A tighter integration with TiVo into the social networks that I use, and if you have to have advertising in my EPG, either a discount on my monthly bill, or make the ads relevant to me based on my social networks. Thanks! ;-)

If I wanted unintelligent product placement I'd watch a Bond film!

More later.

Cheers

m

Ealing Council's New Garden Waste Recycling Scheme

Ealing Council changed how it collects garden waste recycling at the beginning of April. As I highlighted in December Ealing Council is now charging an addition £40 a year for residents to use garden waste recycling collection. I have already discussed why I see this as a barrier to entry for residents to use recycling services, thus promoting fly tipping, so I won't dwell on that! 

The changes in how gardening waste is recycled has also occurred when Ealing Council changed garbage collection contractors. Let's just say this change has had a few teething problems. In fact so many that for the first week at least, it seemed that garbage and recycling collection seemed to be optional! There were stories of people having garbage on the streets for 2 weeks outside their houses. Pretty rank really. Anyway I am sure there is more than enough written about this debarcle already, so lets concentrate on the new recycling bins! Needless to say if your garbage or recycling collection has been missed (and lets face it is seems that most people's have been!) then you can report the issue on the Ealing Council website. Hopefully that might trigger some action for you?

The above image shows the new garden recycling bins that were provided to residents in early April. There are also recycling sacks that can be used, up to two per household, that so far have not been delivered to residents. At least not the folks who live on my street. Residents who ordered recycling sacks have been asked to continue using their existing sacks, that can be seen below.

 

The old Ealing Council Garden Waste Recycling Sacks

So the bin above, that probably holds the same amount of recycling as three of the old sacks, is only collected fortnightly. This is a real issue in Spring and Summer when flourishing gardens create quite a deal of waste! The picture below shows my new recycling bin almost full after 3 hours of gardening on Saturday. This was the result of mowing half the lawn, and pruning back a few plants! If I were to trim the hedges as well and mow the back lawn, which I may have to do next weekend, then this bin will be overflowing.

 

Anyway it is still early days. Hopefully a fortnightly collection of garden waste won't result in additional fly-tipping. I know during the Spring and Summer I will have to be making additional visits to the Greenford Reuse and Recycling Centre, but this is not an option for everyone. I have made several visits here recently due to:

• my recycling simply not being collected during the Ealing Council garbage contractor change over. I simply got sick of waiting for it to be picked up so I did it myself. Can I charge Ealing Council mileage for this? ;-)
• Not being made aware that garden waste would not be collected in the first week when the new garden waste recycling scheme came into being. Unfortunately there was no notification given to residents as to when the recycling would be collected. Turns out the first week of the new scheme was not a collection week, so again I had to take a complete load of garden waste to the recycling centre.

All in all the Ealing Council change over of garbage contractors has been a complete schamozzle. I am sure with time that things will settle down. I wonder if the LHR Terminal 5 delivery team is now working at Ealing Council ;-).

I also hope that a fortnightly collection of garden waste will not result in additional fly tipping. All I know is that I will have to make additional trips to the recycling centre to manage my recycling. I am essentially paying more for a service that delivers less than half of what it did previously. It is not going to stop me keeping my garden, it will just add to the overhead that I need to do so.

Cheers

M 

An Addition: The Greenford Reuse and Recycling Centre is excellent. It is clearly highlighted where you should place your different types of recycling or waste. there are two tips I would offer before visiting:

• Have your recycling separated before going e.g. garden waste, wood, cardboard, glasss, waste etc... It makes it far easier when you get there.
• Get there early! It opens at 8am. If you get there late there are a queue of cars and it can take a while. Given this is eating into your valuable gardening time if you get there early, before the crowd, you minimise the impact!

Gardening Will Take A Back Seat While The Building Occurs.

So on Tuesday the rebuilding of our garage started. Before this occurred their was a load of plants to remove and some to tear down. The yellow forsythia shrub that you see above, that provides a burst of spring time colour, had to be removed :-(. Shame but simply too big to move! I think I will replant once done as it really does arrive on the scene with a burst of much wanted colour! We also had to remove a clematis that had taken over the far wall of the garage. That completely filled our recycling bins, not that this matters as Ealing Council seem to no longer collect them, so there have been many trips to the recycling centre over the past week.

Also moved were a holly tree, that I hope never to have to move again. That was a brutal experience due to the sharp nature of holly leaves! I was covered in scratches for days! Also transplanted some ivy that should be fine, although I think the holly hocks that I moved might not survive! Shame, but not sure they take to replanting? Lets find out!

Now the building has started, other than routine maintenance, it will be hard to get motivated to start any big projects. One large one on the go is probably enough, and every day I come home there is something else taking up some space in the garden! I did manage to save all my hedge cuttings, although I have had to move them to a safer spot after they were surrounded by uplifted paving stones! They looked rather precariously balanced and I didn't want a years work crushed!

After day 1, something seems to be missing! The builders really wasted no time in removing the garage.



After day 2, the concrete slab has been removed and the new garage layout has been marked. You can see in the background that the garden is being used as a storage unit at the moment! I will try to mow around all the additional garden 'sculpture' this weekend, but that will probably be the limit of activity! Actually I desperately need to weed the front lawn (fun, fun, fun!!) so will also do that! Should really do the edges as well where I can.



Actually I should also try and take some photos of the new spring growth. After the daffodils have come and gone, and the tulips are almost on their last legs, all of the usual suspects are emerging from their winter hibernation. The garden is going ballistic, but until the garage has been finished, it'll be a little harder to enjoy it!

Cheers

m

T-Mobile - Giving Britain's Businesses What They Love

The above is an advertisement for T-Mobile unlimited business plans. As you can see it has the sub-caption of 'Giving Britain's Business What They Love'. I guess this is a reference to the unlimited call minutes, texts and data allowances.

Unfortunately the sub-caption sits right underneath an upside down calculator with the word BOOBS displayed. OK this is a juvenile prank that brings back memories of my first digital calculator, but finding it odd that it has found its way into a mobile phone business plan advertisement.

Is it just me who finds this odd?

Cheers

m

Danish Easter Smørrebrød (lunch) 2012

OK, not quite mobile or gardening related, but I guess I took the photos on a mobile ;-). Have been meaning to capture the Danish Easter, and Christmas, dining traditions for a while though, so a quick blog about the Danish Easter Smørrebrød (lunch - although it translates as butter and bread) we had this Easter.

Smørrebrød is essentially open sandwiches on Rye Bread (Rugbrød) with all types of seafood - typically pickled herring (sild), followed by further open sandwiches, sometimes on white crusty bread, with all types of Charcuterie and Danish cheese. The goal seems to be to consume as much as is humanly possible, whilst drinking as much akvavit as is humanly possible. Akvavit (apparently meaning the water of life - although I would be tempted to say this is rot! ;-) ), or snaps is a spirit that ranges from 40% to 50% alcohol content. When you eat the sild (herring) it has to swim, so after swallowing your herring, bang goes the akvavit! The amount of herring consumed is directly proportional to your ability to stand and walk straight after the meal ;-)



The following is the bottle for the 2008 Christmas akvavit.



It's not all about the akvavit of course! There is the open sandwiches as well of course! Firstly the herring (sild). The curried herring (karry sild)



The dill herring



The smoked salmon (laks)



The smoked eel and scrambled eggs



Then after the seafood dishes comes the meat dishes. Yeah at this stage I am no longer that hungry. But hey it's Easter so one has to keep consuming! Firstly the Danish meatballs (Frikadeller) with pickle,



This followed by various salamis. OK by this time the camera was not really in use. To be honest by this stage of the meal all I needed to do was to lie back on the couch and have a sleep!

So this happens pretty much well every Easter and every Christmas day for us. It's hard work but someone has to do it! Be thankful that it's us instead of you ;-)

cheers

M

HTC One Phones and HTC Desires

Through work I have had access to HTC Android handsets since they became available. This started with the T-Mobile G1, built by HTC, through the HTC Desire, Desire HD and Desire S. All of them individually are cracking phones for their time.

However on getting the HTC Desire S it was a massive let down. It was a real 'Meh' experience. Although the build quality is great and at the time it was running the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, there really seemed to be nothing particularly novel about it. This, for me, was largely due to the HTC Sense overlay that was forced on HTC Desire users. Through the phones hardware updates (again this is my personal view) there was simply nothing that appealing to me. To be honest I rarely use my HTC Desire S now.

It all seemed very much to me like to Nokia N95 to N97 downward spiral. I loved my Nokia N95 when it first came out. The first phone with on-board GPS (that was incredibly unresponsive and generally rubbish!) and, at the time, great mobile internet browser. It was really ground breaking. Then came the Nokia N96. O.K. that was a disappointment. Probably the first Nokia flagship device that I had no interest in :-(. Then the Nokia N97. Ho hum. By now Android devices were available and Nokia seemed like a distant memory.

The Nokia N95 from 2007

To me this is what the HTC Desire series of devices has been. The gradual decline of a great handset into an also ran. Samsung have kicked their way through the door with there Samsung Galaxy S series of devices. To be fair though both manufactures have far too many devices for a consumer to make a decision they will be happy with for more than a few months!

It doesn't surprise me that HTC had a pretty rough Q4 in 2011. Lets see if their HTC One device range can help their flagging sales. I am sure it can. HTC do not seem to be an oil tanker sized company, in the same way Nokia were, that are simply unable to turn their strategy around. To be fair in the past year Nokia seemed to have ditched the oil tanker for the lifeboats - lets see how the WP7 solution works for them. Nice looking phones so far but a consumer/commercial success?

The HTC One Series of phones is definitly causing some interest and nice reviews. Engadget give a reasonably glowing review of the HTC One X and HTC One S. Definitly worth getting my hands on to see if HTC are making phones again that are as good as their brand names - Sensation, Desire, Incredible, Amaze, Hero, Inspire, etc...

Cheers

M

zeebox - I Love It When Product Ideas I Want Work Their Way Into Products I Use

When I had look at zeebox a couple of weeks ago the only real issue that I had with it was that I could not use the service as a TV Guide. In the previous version of zeebox you could see, on a per channel basis, what was coming on next, but you could not scroll the entire EPG across to see what was going to be showing at 9pm across all channels. As I said a small gripe, but still it was a feature that I really wanted to have, as if I want to see what's coming on TV next I want to be able to see across all channels as opposed to searching on each channel individually!

Happy to see that in the new version of zeebox, released about a week ago, you can do exactly that! The photo above, of the iPhone app, shows the day and time slider across the top of the EPG. This allows you to scroll to any time within the next 7 days to see what will be on. Excellent! I love it when a feature I want to have, in an app that I use regularly, shows up! Perfect! Makes a great app even better.

Recently I have also heard zeebox mentioned on the intro to shows on the Watch channel. They mentioned it was a great way to socialise TV - true. There are even TV ads popping up



Seems that things are really moving forward for zeebox! Well done to them.

Cheers

m