Using the Hedge Cuttings from 2011

I finally got to use the hedge cuttings I took in 2011. It's been a while. In fact three years since I took the cuttings! They have survived three winters and, if I am honest, a fair bit of neglect these past three years! Still, happily, they finally had a need and found a permanent home!

There are actually three sections of dead hedge in our border and the ones used today served to fill the largest area of concern. The steps for use:

1. Saw out the dead piece of hedge, and dig out the roots
2. Remove the existing dirt from the area. It is very likely that the hedge died from honey dew fungus so best get rid of the offending dirt.
3. Fill the resulting hole with water and really soak the area.
4. We then used five of the cuttings in the gap. Three in a line across the front and two in a second line in the gaps behind the first three.
5. Fill with a decent topsoil.

Will have to soak really well, probably daily for the next two weeks, and then let them take ownership of their new found home!

Next steps are to re-use the pots that the cuttings came out of. I need to pot on several smaller pots and allow the smaller cuttings to grow in larger pots before using those to fill some of the other gaps in the border!

A couple of pictures along the way. The front line,

Planting the second line

Cheers

M

An Important Life Skill - How To Make A Works Burger

Today (26th of January) is Australia Day. As this is the case I think it important that the knowledge of building a Works Burger is shared. This delicacy should not be only be available for those from the Antipodes. So here is the 12 step process to build your Works Burger. If you feel that this sounds like too much to attempt, rest assured that the effort required, results in sheer joy and immense satisfaction at having climbed such a behemoth! (For proof of this look at the sheer joy in the last photos of this post!)

Step 1. Get a bun. Preferably very large.

Step 2. Add Tomato, Mayonnaise or BBQ sauce. This one is your choice. It's freestyle

Step 3. Add the burger, with melted cheese and bacon. Some call this step 3, 4 and 5. However for recipe simplicity and to remove the sheer terror of the recipe I combine into one step.

Step 4. Add a slice of pineapple. The order is important here, as will become apparent in the next step.

Step 5. Add a runny fried egg. So you can see here why order is important. If the egg breaks, the pineapple ring provides a well for the yolk to collect in, as opposed to squirting out the back of the bun on first bite.

Step 6. Add fried onions

Step 7: Add fried mushroom

Step 8: Add salad leaf. This is an incredibly important step. It's important to eat your greens.

Step 9: Add beetroot. Order again is important. Beetroot should be last in this process, as will be explained in step 10.

Step 10. Add the top of the bun. So the beetroot order is important, as by adding it last, the beetroot juice that squeezes out, is soaked up by the top half of the bun. Again it doesn't squirt all over the shop when you take your first bite

Step 11. Celebrate the behemoth that you have created. Look at the sheer joy on that face! However this is the daunting thing. At this stage you have actually only climbed half the mountain! The second part of the climb is actually consuming the beast!

 

Step 12. Eat 

Some suggest there is a step 13, although amongst connoisseurs this is often debated. However if you have managed to make it though step 1 to 12, then quite often a step 13 is required, which is sit still for a long period of time. This is sometimes required as it is difficult to breath, or indeed be active in any way, shape or form, post consumption.

So now you know how. Now you know why - again look at the joy it brings. Now go ahead and create. You will no be disappointed!

Cheers

m

 

Why Are Carriers Not Supporting Developers?

It filled me with great sadness when I visited the BlueVia Developer Portal yesterday to find that all developer APIs have been removed from the site. I used to work with the BlueVia team and for some reason we were unable to make a business case out of supporting access to Telefonica resources to developers.

I had been campaigning without success to expose developer APIs to all DT resources - something that Developer Garden does for developers who want to engage with DT's German customers - for ages before moving to BlueVia. BlueVia for me was a chance to succeed at providing simple access to carrier assets i.e. SMS and Voice services. We had limited success with BlueVia Voice in that we were able to launch a beta service to provide access to these services for a limited number of developers. Unfortunately I was not able to convince those that needed to be convinced that there was a business case that would support the necessary investment required to make the service profitable.

At the same time. companies like Nexmo on top of $4.83 million in funding are now expecting total revenue of around $40 million for calendar 2013. According to Crunchbase Nexmo:

Currently seven of the top ten messaging platforms rely on Nexmo to route SMS and Voice calls to over 200 countries globally. The Nexmo platform handles over 250 million messages a month, with 20 percent growth monthly.

Wondering what the monthly growth in Carrier SMS is? Well here's a hint, unfortunatly mobile carrier SMS is peaking and starting to decline :-(. As I've long campaigned carriers have not innovated on SMS since it's invention, other than offering increasing bundles of SMS to Customers. It is developers who will lead any growth within SMS usage, but they will only do this via services that provide simple access to it. It is only the OTT players who are providing this access.

Another example is Twilio - who were on track for 50 million in revenue for 2013.

While Mobile Carriers are failing to expose their assets to developers, OTT players continue to grow and engage with developer hearts and minds.

Ho hum.

Cheers

m

The Power of SMS Marketing #SMSIsNotDead

This info-graphic was lifted from the Business2Community website. #SMSIsNotDead

SMS Revenues for carriers are slowly diminishing. I have long been a campaigner for carriers to allow others to innovate on top of their SMS asset. Carriers simply don't support this, which is why developers go to aggregators and emerging OTT providers.

SMS  is not dead, it simply has to be used in a creative fashion to engage with the users who are slowly starting to move away from using it. It's value as a consumer to consumer communication tool might be gradually diminishing (it isn't in emerging markets), but it still has far reaching legs in the B2C and M2M world.

If carriers want to continue playing in the game - that they created and owned, then they have to allow others to innovate on top of what they created. Open up your networks to people who would love to innovate on top of them. Or don't and watch the innovation (and read the fine print - the money) head elsewhere.

Carriers should not even have to think about this. Why then are there no simple to use developer API's exposed by carriers to support innovation within the world of SMS. For that matter, why are there no simple APIs to innovate on top of voice, exposed by carriers, either?

Cheers

m

Lending A Hand In The Garden

This past weekend saw some much needed time in the garden. The place is getting a little overgrown now the summer is finally upon us! Sort of!

Of course Peter had to get right in the thick of it. Really funny how he watched us and then copied what we were doing. He really wanted to be part of the action and join in the fun!

We are planning to start a raised bed for vegetables, which I hope he gets into as much as he has the pruning! Was great fun watching him try to get the garden waste into the recycling bin. He was just able to reach, although half of his handfuls ended back on the ground.

Got to love his dedication and effort though! Much fun!

Thunderbirds Jeff Tracy Communicator Built by Voxygen Using Raspberry Pi and BlueVia Voice

When I was a kid, and in fact even through high school, I loved the TV show the Thunderbirds. In fact if I am being honest I probably haven't gotten over this yet! ;-). So I was pretty happy that the Jeff Tracy style communicator above, built by Voxygen, uses the BlueVia Voice API for its communications needs ;-).

As Voxygen suggest in their blog post for the Tracy Island Communications Platform, they may consider putting a project kit up on Kickstarter. I strongly suggest if you need this in your life, and lets face it who doesn't, that you get in touch with them and convince them that this is a damned good idea!

I would suggest a name change for the product though. a Tracy Island Communications Platform, or TICP for short, rolls off the tongue like a brick ;-). Thinking through an acronym for F.A.B. for the product :-)

Cheers

m

BlueVia Voice API - One (Of Three) Key Service Differentiators When Compared to OTT Voice APIs

In the blog I posted on Tuesday about Using BlueVia Voice directly on calls between 2 phones, I think the key point to reinforce is that as BlueVia is an application layer built on top of the mobile network, it is actually possible to use that network in ways that our competitors cannot. The product demonstrated, see the video above, is not the key point. The key point is that it is possible to do enact any call functionality, supported by BlueVia Voice, on any outbound or inbound call to a mobile phone.

That mobile simply needs an Intelligent Network trigger set at the network level, to allow calls to be forwarded to an application server. The is the first key differentiator that carriers can have over OTT players, i.e. between BlueVia Voice and other Over The Top (OTT) Voice API providers. OTT Voice API providers have no control over the network, they cannot add in call functionality without the use of a Direct Inward Dialling (DID) number.

This means that for a Customer to engage with a service, build on top of an OTT providers Voice API, they must dial a DID, as opposed to directly dialling their friends number. The BlueVia Voice demo above shows a call being made directly between two mobile phones, not through a DID, and BlueVia Voice commands then being played on that call. This is the power of a telco being able to provide access to their own voice services to developers. Telcos have a unique opportunity to provide differentiated Voice API services - should they choose to.

Don't dwell on the thought that free calls based on advertising didn't work in the UK, as the product demo above shows. Remember there are still many billion mobile subscribers outside of North America and Europe who might just be interested ;-). But that is not the point.

Cheers

m

Using The BlueVia Voice API To Modify Calls Directly Between Two Phones

Using the BlueVia Voice API, and some help from Voxygen  and the Lab team at O2 (thanks guys), we have been able to create a free call demo service based on advertising. This is a voice service that allows customers to make free calls to their friends  if they listen to an advertisement first. At the end of the call there is also a mechanism to support a sales opportunity that can use the 'Charge To Mobile' API, available at BlueVia in order to convert a sales opportunity for the advertised digital content.

The significant difference about this demo, as opposed to something built on another cloud based voice API provider, is that we are able to set an Intelligent Network (IN) flag at network level for the calling SIM. This allows us to forward the call details to an application server that can then use the BlueVia Voice API to forward in call commands directly on a call between two phones. In other words we do not have to use an intermediary DID (Direct Inward Dialling) that Customer A calls, and then connect Customer B.

As there is no need for a DID in order to manage in call commands this means that a customer can call their friend directly in order to make a free call. Based on business logic at the application level, if the customer is not entitled to a free call, then the call can be dropped back onto the GSM network. For instance the customer may only have access to 5 minutes of free calls a day. This business logic is handled at the application layer, as opposed to being handled at the network layer. This in turn provides an excellent opportunity for developing a host of services based on this technology.

This is something that is not available when using other cloud based voice API services, as they don't have the same level of network control. This is something that mobile carriers do have!

On the advertising demo above, the following is happening:

• When a call is made from the first handset to the second, an IN trigger on the network forwards the call details to an application server
• the application then engages with the caller using the following BlueVia Voice commands 
• a Play command to stream the advertisement.
• a Speak command to tell the caller that they are being connected.
• a Dial command to connect the call to the number that the caller dialled (Note again, this is not a BlueVia Voice number, but their friends number).
• a Wait command for 20 seconds, and this time is arbitrary (it could be any time set by the application server).
• a GetDigits command that provides a mechanism for a sales opportunity - i.e. 'press 1 to purchase ....' etc...
• a HangUp command to end the call.

At the end of the call a SMS is sent to the calling handset with the download link for the content that the caller has purchased. Alternatively if the caller has not purchased the content a SMS is sent with a link for further information about services.

It is also possibly to have the GetDigits command directly after streaming the advertisement, i.e. support the conversion to sale at the time of advertising. This is simply a matter of ordering the BlueVia Voice commands to support this.

This is a very simple example of how a mobile carrier could make a difference in the Cloud Voice API space. Carriers who can expose their own voice services, as opposed to partnering can provide a very compelling differentiated service, should they choose to.

Cheers

Murray

BBC Reports - The Death Of SMS - well not quite ;-)

Interesting story in the BBC (Other news services are available) today that Chat app messaging has finally taken over SMS in terms of volume of messages sent. There are a myriad of group messaging apps which seem to have finally broken the SMS camel's back? Hmmm unlikely!

I am glad the BBC story also covers the following discussion: 

"most of the chat apps were used by consumers who own smartphones. However, ... there are a large number of consumers, especially in emerging and lesser developed economies, who use normal mobile phones and rely on SMS as the preferred messaging tool."

SMS as an effective means of communication, across EVERY SINGLE mobile phone often escapes the press coverage of its demise. What also is often missed is discussion about how SMS could (and should) evolve through use within the machine to machine (M2M) world.

There are worlds of growth available to SMS that would be greatly aided by one thing. Mobile carriers that whine and moan about the death of SMS and it's dwindling revenue need to ask themselves one thing - what are they doing to support it's growth. Largely from an outsiders perspective very little. As an entrepreneur trying to engage with Customers through SMS it is a difficult process should you want to do this through a mobile carrier. Sure it's pretty easy through an OTT player like say Twilio, or Nexmo, but what are the carriers doing to support innovation?

Other than allow their Customers to send SMS between mobile networks the mobile carriers have done almost nothing to innovate with SMS since the very first SMS was sent on the 3rd of December in 1992. To be honest carriers have been lucky to be able to milk the SMS cash cow for this long, without continually providing innovation with respect to SMS. Now that revenues have peaked and are starting to reduce, if carriers want to rely on SMS as a growth revenue stream they need to act.

SMS is largely a closed market though. The only way to access SMS was to own a handset and manually type the text into your phone and send it. OK there has always been access to aggregators to provide access for developers to SMS. This access is continually becoming cheaper and easier allowing any developer to engage with it. However developer access to SMS is driven not be carriers, but rather by aggregators and OTT players.

If carriers wish to embrace innovation on what is rapidly becoming a stale product then they need to open up to the possibility of innovation by others. Innovation is most likely to not come from an internal source but rather from an external party. The only way to play in the game and potentially share in the spoils is to open up developer access to core assets, in a sensible way. Why for instance, as a developer, can I not buy a SIM (or virtual SIM) with the same tariff that a regular mobile phone customer has access to - so access to a bundle of SMS that I can use within my application. This is just one very simple option (one of many!) that a carrier could entertain. As it stands at the moment any engagement surrounding SMS or Voice (two core assets of the mobile carrier) through a carrier is simply too hard to do. This is why developers are queuing up at OTT players to get access.

Cheers

m

BlueVia Voice API launched

We finally launched the BlueVia Voice API alpha on April 10th 2013. I have been campaigning that SMS is not dead for several years now, and although the Voice API doesn't provide access to SMS just yet, the plan was at some stage to add support for SMS as well. SMS isn't dead, carriers just need to understand that they are not currently using their Voice and SMS assets in an innovative fashion. Carriers need to provide open access to their Voice and SMS assets to developers, such that anyone can play and be innovative. Innovation isn't the remit of a team within an organisation. Anyone should have the tools to demonstrate and build innovation. Herein lies the beauty of BlueVia - it now provides trivial access to voice functionality for developers - and I hope also SMS soon.

To access the BlueVia Voice Alpha go to the BlueVia Portal and request access to the alpha. The following diagram shows the landing page for the BlueVia Voice API alpha from which you can request an invitation. This, links off to a Google+ community, which you can join and request access to the service. This is a little clunky to be sure, but we wanted a simple community solution in order to gather feedback from early adopters of the service. Feel free to join - we will give you $50 USD of credit to play with the service. Then feel free to leave feedback. Be brutal if you want to - all feedback is incredibly valuable to us.



Once you have been given access to the service you can then manage the numbers that we will give you. For the alpha period we will give you numbers in the USA, the UK and Germany to play with. 2 numbers in each country. These are completely free during the alpha period, however there is a limitation in that you cannot purchase further numbers during the alpha period. The following diagram shows a summary of the numbers associated with your developer account, once they have been assigned to you.



Simply click on a number to configure it to point to your application. The URL you associate with your number provides the commands that BlueVia will execute when your number is called. For an overview of what you can do, please have a look at the BlueVia Voice API alpha documentation. To see how trivial it is to use the APIs maybe look directly at the BlueVia Voice API quick start guides.

Let me know what you think. Don't hold back ;-)


On a personal note, I have been working in carriers now for 6 years. In that time I have been campaigning, unsuccessfully it seems(!), to provide access to developers to carrier assets. In DT I was desperate to provide developer access to shortcodes and extensions to provide access to enablers such as group messaging through SMS. Never got anywhere with it, while all the while OTT players were exploding the group messaging market. Now rumours are that Google tried to acquire WhatsApp for a billion.

Then came the emergence of the OTT voice and SMS players - the media darling Twilio, and the rest - Nexmo, Voxeo, Hoiio, Plivo, etc... (please forgive me if I have left you off - there are just so many of you now!). These companies provide trivial access to voice and SMS for developers and have become successful as carriers DO NOT provide trivial access to SMS and Voice.

This is why BlueVia, and the chance to provide Voice and SMS access so appealed to me. It provided a chance for a carrier to actually do something innovative and allow developers to use us for their innovation - in a way that no carrier has ever been able to do before. Sure AT&T and DT have launched voice services through their developer portals, but they have only done so in partnership with the OTT voice players mentioned previously. BlueVia on the other hand, is the first carrier to expose voice services, warts and all, through using their own assets. The first carrier to do so. We might be now playing catch up with the OTT players who have jumped the gun and not only demonstrated the value of doing this, but have also demonstrated how to do this, but at least we are in the game with our own technology.

There is a load of work to do to take the BlueVia Voice API alpha to be a truly commercial success, but if you cannot see where and how that success will be possible, then I suggest opening your eyes. We are a carrier. We have two assets that we control, Voice and SMS that are providing access to a decreasing revenue stream. We are not innovative enough to define an ever increasing revenue stream from these assets. That might sound a little harsh, but dig deep - you know it's true. The only way we can fuel growth, through innovation, is to let other people play and experiment with our assets. This was the beauty of BlueVia - Come Play With Our Network

A Four Month Winter Is Not Acceptable!

March 2013 was the second coldest March on record. It was bone chillingly cold for the entire month, and in fact, although the first month of Spring March was actually colder than December, January and February. Arctic easterly winds, from Siberia, were the norm for the entire month. Taking wind chill into account I don't believe there was a single day where the temperatures made it over 0 degrees Celsius. The average daytime temperature for March is around 8 degrees Celsius.

Consequently, most of the plant life in the garden is still in hibernation. The above photo shows a cherry blossom tree on the 31st of March with no blossom at all. Looking at at the same tree from the 29th of March 2011:



Just a little different! What the picture above doesn't show is the insane buzz of bees that are in the cherry blossom  There must have been hundreds of them. This year, so far I have seen one single solitary bee, which I saw on the past weekend. We finally had temperatures of almost 10 degrees, this past weekend (6th and 7th of April) and I was lucky enough to see the first bumble bee in our garden. I am just happy that somehow there are some bees left after the insane extended winter we have had.

Looking at the long term forecast it seems as though we are now through the winter and that hopefully the garden should now explode into growth. Here's hoping anyway as there has been a lot of damage caused by the builders over the past year! Think the garden might take a year to recover yet!

Saturday the 6th of April 2013 was a joyous day for me, as it was the first day I went outside in 2013 and didn't feel as though I would shiver to death! It felt so warm - I think we hit the majestic level of 9 degrees Celsius! Relatively speaking that felt remarkably warm! I am a creature of warmth and the London Winters, especially when they last 5 weeks longer than they should, drive me crazy.

Cheers

M

O2 APN settings for Pay As You Go Internet and MMS

After much searching and discussion with O2 Customer Care, I finally found these APN settings for supporting both MMS and Internet with an O2 pay as you go SIM, in a HTC Desire S. Original detail posted here


On your HTC Desire S (possibly other Android Phones) go to > Settings > wireless and network > mobile networks > Access Point Names


then hit the menu button and add a new APN. Don't forget to save once you have added the detail ;-) 


Name: O2 PrePay Web/MMS
APN: payandgo.o2.co.uk
Proxy: leave empty
Port:  leave empty 
Username: payandgo
Password: password
Server:  leave empty 
MMSC:  http://mmsc.mms.o2.co.uk:8002 
MMS Proxy: 82.132.254.1
MMS port: 8080
MCC: 234
MNC: 10
Auth Type:
APN protocol: IPv4


Don't forget to hit the menu button and save!!


Once you have done this you can then MMS pictures to twitter. Well you can if you are an O2 customer! ;-)


Have fun.


Cheers


m

This Years Poppies Are Popping A Month Later Than Last Year

Last year I noted that the Poppies popped on the 22nd of April. Today, the 22nd of May, this years first poppy emerged.

Must be something to do with the wettest drought I have ever lived through! The month of rain and ongoing cooler temperatures have stalled this years poppies.

This past week though we have had warmer temperatures an even some sun! Cue the poppies making a comeback. :-)

Very nice!

Cheers

M

What's The Best Smart Phone Ever?

So what's the best smart phone ever? According to Siri, the iPhones reasonably average voice commanded assistant, it's the Nokia Lumia 900! Steve Jobs would be turning in his grave!

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