25 lttrs n th alphbt

Nike + actually quite good

Nike + feels like one of those things that I have talked about in presentations and at conferences for years. Since before the Internet. Since Tom Hanks last did a good movie.

You know the script - branded utility, blah, blah, not what you say but what you let people do, blah, blah.

But I had never actually really used the blighter. To the point where I went through a phase where I slagged it off everywhere (contrary provocative type me). This was down to the increasingly negative reviews of the product in the Apple store. Initially everyone gave it 5 stars, but after 3 months this reversed and started becoming closer to 1 star. It appeared that the doo-dah that you put in your shoe runs out of juice after a few months, and you can't replace the battery (or the doo-dah separately). So people were grumpily returning to the Apple site to voice their displeasure at having to buy another.

Now you could look at that one way - it is a shit product that everyone will eventually hate. Ooooor, you could say that it is so God damn good that when it dies (after much overuse), that people are so devastated at the loss that they irrationally take out their addiction deprivation angst on Apple and Nike.

I plumped for the first theory until I started using it. I'm doing this bloody 10km thing on Sunday, so thought getting a Nike + band would inspire me to actually train. And blow me it has.

Sure, the flash website is far too wanky and contrived to be of genuine use. All the loading bars and crawling pace of user experience make it feel a bit 2001. But there is nothing more satisfying coming in from a run (as I just have) and plugging in the dongle and seeing all your effort plotted in pixelated glory.

I've got into it so much, in fact, that I over-exerted myself on Monday and managed to fling my doo-dah out of my shoe. Concentrating far too intensely on my run (and techno in my headphones), I missed its departure at 5.25km in. Bollocks. But it took me less than 12 hours to go back to Nike Town and buy another one. £40?! Pah. It's worth it.

Oh, and if anyone needs a dongle without a doo-dah, shout and I'll flog it to you.

Beck's Music Mixer Live

 
Hurrah! Been excitedly awaiting this to go live for what seems like ages now. Our sexy Beck's Music Mixer is now good to go. Taken a loooot of effort by a gaggle of terribly clever and musical peoplehere at Dare.

Even for the musically incompetant like me, you can now spend hours sat at your desk convincing yourself that you are living the DJ dream. Here's my first effort using the Does it Offend you, yeah? sample set.

Probably the coolest part of this whole shindig is the quality of artists that we've got involved. So far we have got sets from Moby, Roisin Murphy, Midnight Juggernauts, Axwell and my faves Does it offend you, yeah? And looks like we will be adding to this over this year and beyond. The artists and labels are loving it. Hope you do too. Yay!

You can save your track and wang it around like I have. But also submit it for the Live Studio that will be returning in a month or so. The best mixes will get piped into our studio and some select artists will be creating live art in time to the winning tracks. Not just music - but your music inspiring art, innit.

Olympics day at Dare

My Ayers Rock cake, with Bouncer from Neighbours on top.
Originally uploaded by helenium.

We're having an Olympics themed day at Dare today. Each floor has a different country and is hosting a food-based event. Had a French brekkie, Chinese lunch and about to have German tea (with some American stuff thrown in).

Our floor did Australia (brilliantly). Helen baked an Ayers Rock cake. In her words "it looks like a menstrual disaster". Bouncer seems happy enough astride it though.

Mapping Crime

Lovely little Google Maps mash-up from the Met Police. Crime levels split by sub-ward across London displayed in nice pretty colour overlays. Lots of intricate stats to delve into if you are the official statistician of your local Neighbourhood Watch.

Looking at the grab of my local 'hood, must say that the crime level stats kind of correlate with what you would expect. Lots of dodginess around Brixton centre (as backed up by the ever-present yellow incident boards and friendly dealers). With it quickly disappating a few streets back. Seems them crims can't be arsed to travel far.

Also interestingly, some of the bigger estates have below average crime rates. The result of a cohesive community? Or do you take the Daily Mail approach and go for the "don't shit on your own doorstep" theory?

Either way, my pad seems to be sat in an above average area. Wonder what effect that will have on my house value...

Banning "gay" advertising

Dot matrix water

Sure I've seen smaller experiemental versions of this before. Trust those crazy Japanese to build a huge one in a shopping centre though. Bagsy working this into a digital idea first.

Fantasy User Experience

Premiership season starts tomorrow which is of generally no consequence (the real football season started last week). But what *is* of consequence is that it means the start of yet another season of Fantasy Football. Woo!

Myself and a dedicated band of would-be managers have dedicated the best part of our internet bandwidth to religiously playing Telegraph's Squad Manager game since the turn of the century. And before that in the years before the Internet, we even played the paper version - how quaintly antiquated that all looks now.

That makes us pretty dedicated brand enthusiasts towards this game (sickenly the Torygraph too). We've watched the game develop over the years, improving each season with another little tinker here and there based on user feedback. Last year's game was a joy to play. It just worked. And am now realising how much of the joy came as a result of the slick user experience.

Simple, no nonsense, needs-based navigation. Simplistic team picking interface laced with all the pertinant information you need to make selections each week. Fast, responsive and intuitive - just what you need when making those last minute transfers 2 minutes before kick off.

And now this year, Telegraph have gone "fuck it", and binned all of the usability knowledge that they have developed over the years in favour of a new off-the-shelf solution from the monkeys at Clever TV.

The rules are the same. The game is the same. But crucially the experience of playing it has changed beyond belief. I won't bore you with all the details - I'm sure you don't care. But lots of fanatsy football geeks like me do, and they don't like it one little bit. Wonder how many will endure playing this for the whole season. And more importantly, how many will part with £10 to play this drivel next year? I for one would rather go back to the paper and pen version of my yoof.

User experience is key. Fuck it up. Fuck people off. Naughty Telegraph.

Euphemism generator

Unsurprisingly this makes me giddy with glee - a euphemism generator. Equally unsurprisingly, swears-like-a-sailor Helen found it for me.

Freebie tickets for Becks Fusions

The full line up for the Beck's Fusions event in Manchester in September has been announced today. And very juicy it is too. You can't buy tickets, but you can get your mitts onto some for free from here.

These are the bands playing 

FRIDAY 5 SEPTEMBER	SATURDAY 6th SEPTEMBER
Hercules And Love Affair The Presets Sonny J Live Cicada Elektrons Tokyoblu Mechanical Owl	Massive Attack VERY SPECIAL GUESTS Santogold Midnight Juggernauts Das Pop Phantom Limb.

These are the artists they are fusing with 

FRIDAY 5 SEPTEMBER	SATURDAY 6th SEPTEMBER
Michael Mayhew Juneau Projects Plus many more TBC	United Visual Artists (UVA) Zevs Plus many more TBC

 Full line up and info on Beck's website.