Month: January 2008

Bond fans are getting the chance to become part of 007 history by getting the opportunity to write the music to the new Bond movie. Unfortunately, I think my musical talent doesn’t stretch this far but I am sure there will be a lot of people out there who would be interested. I am a huge bond fan and would love to be associated with anything bond related. Penguinannounced its search for the theme tune to Devil May Care, the eagerly awaited new Bond novel, written by Sebastian Faulks. Visitors to uk.myspace.com/devilmaycarebookall have the chance to create an original piece ... Read more

I read an interesting article in the Guardian this morning which said Nokia are reportedly in meetings with Facebook to try and develop a mobile version of the social networking site. The article states: “Facebook already offers its own mobile application that can be used to upload photos, notes and to exchange messages on the site, and a look-up function for phone numbers.” I must say that it would appeal to the millions of people who commute everyday who are stuck with nothing to read on the train. The simple functionality of being able to have a quick gander through ... Read more

There was an interesting article (paywall) which appeared in the last edition of PR Week which underlined a number of points I have been making in pitches to new clients recently. The main one is that search engine optimisation (SEO) has changed and is continuing to change and although buying into link farms and using SEO specific companies still works to a certain extent there is now a new kid on the block for getting high rankings on Google and that is using digital communications effectively. In fact, the head of Google’s webspam team Matt Cutts issues a warning within ... Read more

Well after much badgering and lecturing from my boss Mr Stuart Bruce about how great digital TV recorders are, I decided to go out and buy one myself in the January sales. I did the normal Internet research to see which is the best and Humax came out very highly as did the one I purchased. I already knew the benefits of Sky Plus as a number of my friends had shown me their own systems – so I understood the basics. However, that said, I have to say that the Sharp TUR160HA (see picture) is a great piece of ... Read more

My esteemed colleague Mr Stuart Bruce has tagged me (AGAIN) with the ‘My week in the media’ meme. So I feel obliged to list out what I have been up to so here goes: What I’ve read To be honest I like to break it up a bit and read several newspapers in one week, so I know what’s going on in the various publications but the ones I read regularly are The Times, Yorkshire Post, Metro, Yorkshire Evening Post, The Harrogate Herald and The Sun (due to the sport section). Magazines that I enjoy to flick through include DJ ... Read more

It seems Sony’s Blu-Ray format is finally winning the public relations battle of the high definition formats. Blu-Ray and HD DVD have been frantically fighting a bitter war over the last couple of years – similar to the VHS Betamax one back in the 80s – to win consumers hearts and minds and to create the next dominant movie format. In October, I researched both formats myself to see which would be best to have in my home and I nearly decided to go for a Toshiba HD DVD player. However, just as I was about to pop into my ... Read more

Stuart Bruce has tagged me with the ‘Eight things you don’t know about me’ meme. So here goes: I came sixth in the British DJ Championships at Earls Court in London and lost in the finals to the overall winner who went on to play across Ibiza in the following summer. My favourite food is Pizza (New York Pizza is the best) and I hate eggs. I was part of a jury which had to decide on a case which included a well organised drug smuggling ring. The jury also included the deputy editor of the Sunday Times and a ... Read more

Here is an interesting blog post I found whilst researching something for a client this morning. Basically Jim Tobin from WebPro News takes an interesting view on how social media is just a distraction and adds nothing to your business. It certainly got me reading and he does make some interesting points. The best of which is that you have been distracted for 30 seconds reading his article. I decided to distract myself for a further minute while I commented on the article and pointed out that if social media is used correctly it can lead to new business pretty ... Read more

I celebrated the new year in the Lake District with my wife, Jacob and several of my friends. We hired a beautiful traditional cottage in Eskdale, (about an hour from Ambleside) which slept eight people. It  was a fantastic looking building with low ceilings, an outside toilet  – also had an indoor one btw – and a lovely coal fire which managed to keep us all warm and toasty during the long winter evenings. We spent the majority of the nights testing out the latest board games but the overall winner for us was Articulate which is great fun for ... Read more