All posts by Armand

Update

Self-pity doesn’t burn calories

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(no, this isn’t the seven songs meme I owe on. That’ll come. Be patient my child.).

I’ve spent most of the last week in bed, in pain cause by a bunch of malignant viruses (and I believe this is the technical term for what they were doing) running up and down the length of my body setting off miniature shotguns with precise aim and intent. These nefarious negligible entities kept my eating very, very modest — my most attentive readers will remember that I have been attempting in some way to reduce my weight and improve my fitness — but, I’ve discovered, despite not really eating for a week Wii Fit tells me I’ve only lost about one pound. One pound!

This is going to take approximately forever, even once my activity consists of more than lying around, groaning melodramatically occasionally to impress the empty room, feeling sorry for myself and making occasional trips to Boots and The Doctor to obtain more magical pharmaceuticals*.

Ah well. Onwards and upwards. Hopefully be well enough for squash next week, and am back to work on Monday too so calorific burn rates will doubtless shoot through the roof.

*For reference: anti-nausea medication == awesome. Industrial grade cough mixture == awesome. Nurofen == magic. Rehydration sachets == taste of ground up dirt.

Sport

Euro 2008 – Fantasy League

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In defiance of the fact that I know very, very little about football I’ve set up a mini-league and promoted it via Twitter. I currently have two fellow leaguers — Mr Tom Phillips and Mr Nick Leonard. Anyone else fancy it? Mosey on over to Metro’s site, go to “mini league” and find “Twitter League.” The password is twitter1234.

Join the fray. And don’t mind that I picked my team more or less at random, without the usual discernment I put into fantasy football (I look for Spurs players). I’ll buy the winner a Mars bar.

Personal

Fame is having your blog targeted by PRs

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I’ve been pitched! As someone who’s always treated this blog as a self-indulgent dumping ground for any random thought that occurred to me, it’s flattering that someone thinks I have an audience and coherent enough content to feel it’s worth targeting me.

In any case, (and I’m not paid to promote these guys), if you want last minute father’s day gifts, you should…

Feckless Shoppers Warned Against Smash-and-Grab Gift Buying Kiss goodbye to panic gift buying: new website LateLateGifts.co.uk is helping thousands of last minute shoppers cope with Father’s Day. The idea behind the site is simple. Users can browse 60+ shops that offer immediate, same day or next day delivery gifts to take the stress out of last minute shopping. Time is of the essence for the feckless gift giver, so the easy to navigate website offers simple search options to help users find the presents they need pronto. Shoppers who are really racing the clock can search same day delivery gifts. For those with a day or two’s grace, Late Late Gifts lists retailers offering delivery by the following morning. The range of shops means there’s an ideal gift for everyone. From electricals, gadgets and computers to jewellery, chocolates and experience days, it’s all on offer – and delivered fast. Late Late Gifts creator, Richard Kershaw, was inspired to build the site by his own shoddy gift-giving habits: “I know all too well the stress of last minute smash-and-grab gift buying. But I was certain I wasn’t the only person who was, well, just a bit rubbish at buying presents. “I couldn’t find anything out there to take the pressure off buying gifts for your nearest and dearest. I hope that Late Late Gifts will make Father’s Day and those other big occasions a little less daunting.”

Thank you Kay Smith of LateLateGifts.co.uk.

Technology, Travel

London – tech hostspot?

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Silicon.com (part of CNet Networks UK, a Brands2Life client – my employers, for those who haven’t been keeping up) has published a study into tech hotspots and London figures at no3 globally. Which is nice — and the rationale makes sense — lots of tech companies are based/invested in or near the big smoke.

But I couldn’t suppress a wry grin given the fact that the Circle Line and District Line continue to play havoc with my commute on a daily basis and we have a Boris Johnson as our mayor — who, despite his entertaining appearances on HIGNFY, probably couldn’t find the front side of an iPhone. And we all know what happened with Terminal 5…

Surely those things should have an impact on our standing?

Still, it is a good place for me to be working in tech. Wouldn’t trade it for any other techno-paradise (though I am hoping to visit San Francisco in the not-too-distant future, and who knows what impact that will have on me? Silicon Valley is no 1 on Silicon.com’s list).

PR, Technology, Work

Full disclosure

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If I wax particularly lyrical about Google Apps in the near future, it is because I think they’re awesome, but it is important readers understand that we’ve been appointed to handle the PR for Google Enterprise in the UK. This is the division of Google that helps businesses organise their information with its cloud-based productivity applications, its Enterprise Search products and its Geo applications.

You can imagine this is somewhat exciting for me, and my increasing use of Apps is one of the factors that has me wanting an EEE PC so much.

And, to answer your unasked questions, no, I haven’t met Larry, Sergey or Eric, but yes, I’ve been to the Googleplex in London, and yes, it is as awesome as you’d imagine.

Social media

Blog aggregation

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Why is Technorati the only blog aggregation service to institute some measure of ‘authority‘? It seems ludicrous that every other blog search/aggregation engine gives such limited indication of whether anyone else is reading and linking to the bloggers that come up when you search for them. Given the existence of Google PageRank and the ability to search for the number of sites that “linkto” a site via a number of different search engines, you’d think more people would have built this in.

These sites need these ‘trust barometers’ in some sense so you have some gauge over whether the blogger whose post you’re reading is a spammer or other misanthrope, or is offering genuine insight/advice.

Are there other services I should be checking out?

Personal

Health

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I’m trying to be more diligent about diet and exercise at the moment, having had enough of being ludicrously unhealthy. Wii fit is helping a bit, but if you catch me at a moment of weakness, please snatch the cheeseburger/pizza/whatever out of my hands and slap me in the face with it, then try to pot it in the nearest bin. Also, if you want to play squash in West/Central London let me know.

Thank you very much.