Random Thoughts » Miscellany

Aweditorium for iPad is Awesome for music

Drew — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 22:07:01 +0000

Aweditorium is a free app for the iPad which is designed to allow you to find indie music. If you are thinking meh then let me tell you that this app does this in an awesome, immersive and gorgeously presented way.

When you download and start it up you are presented with a [...]

Who needs iTunes for The Beatles when you can hear them in the medium of Ukulele?

Drew — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 22:26:30 +0000

So this week the Beatles finally came to iTunes. Meh. If you want the real Beatles then look no further than The Beatles Complete on Ukulele. Genius.

paper.li – Catch up on your Twitter feed

Drew — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:14:53 +0000

Twitter is great but I can't watch it all day every day and so I've known for a while that I've been missing things. For much of this it isn't an issue, Twitter is largely transient after all, but there is a lot of content from the people I follow that is of interest and [...]

Posterous – The one blog to feed them all

Drew — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 21:42:31 +0000

Posterous is a site that has been around for a while but may have passed people by. In simple terms it is a blogging tool but what sets it apart is that it is designed to be as simple to get posts up as possible. With that in mind the default way to post is [...]

What Motivates Us At Work?

Drew — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:32:32 +0000

I’ve read research along these lines before but this is a really nice way of illustrating the findings relating to what motivates us to work. The results surprise many but should be mandatory reading for anyone who manages others.

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Pictures from Calke Abbey

Drew — Wed, 19 May 2010 21:04:21 +0000

Another Piggy Originally uploaded by drewkeavey

Calke Abbey in Derbyshire is a National Trust property that is unique in that far from being a place that has been renovated it has been restored back to the eccentric ramshackle creation of the former owners. A couple of elements stand out, pigs and stuffed birds. [...]

Cool Large Hadron Collider Photos

Drew — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:42:59 +0000

The Boston Globe has a piece on the restart of the Large Hadron Collider that has some fantastic photos including some of the damage done at the original startup. The scale of this thing never ceases to amaze.

The article and the rest of the photos can be [...]

Colours Made Easy

Drew — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:09:23 +0000

For the non-arty one of the hardest things to do when putting together websites is to get just the right colours. For the criminally untalented, like me, there are loads of free css templates but when using these there is always the desire to choose different colours that make the site stand out. Even if [...]

Interesting Font Comparator

Drew — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:27:28 +0000

I have to confess that I have an irrational hatred of the Arial typeface. I have no explanation for this, I just find it intensely annoying. It could be because for years it was the default in Microsoft Word and so a) it was one that was seen most often and b) it struck me [...]

Pig Masterbation and 9 Other Orgasm Facts

Drew — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:13:45 +0000

Another TED talk. This time by the excellent Mary Roach who discusses 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Orgasms following the release of her book Bonk: The Curious Coupling Of Sex and Science . As always with Roach she has researched the topic with more depth than many actual researchers in the field.

Her previous [...]

Interesting Video Projects

Drew — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:56:49 +0000

I was catching up on some TED talks* when I came across this one from Yann Arthus-Bertrand, a French photographer/filmaker and environmentalist, which included references to a couple of projects that he has worked on recently.

The 6 Billion Others project is a fascinating view of the peoples of the world. A group of [...]

Hardwick Hall Photos

Drew — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:51:12 +0000

Went over to Hardwick Hall, just off the M1 Jct 29 near Chesterfield. Have a few photos on Flickr.

Birthday Weekend Photos â€“ Part 2

Drew — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:56:43 +0000

Second installment of photos from the weekend now uploaded. They can be seen here.

Birthday Weekend Photos – Part 1

Drew — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:36:21 +0000

This weekend saw my 40th birthday come and go. I’ve just got back from a few days up in lovely North Yorkshire with some of my family and have posted some photos up on Flickr.

The picture here is of the George and Dragon pub which is where we stayed. It is a lovely [...]

Excellent Student Animations

Drew — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:48:01 +0000

The New York School of Visual Arts has posted their “best of 2009“. There are great examples of both computer animated short films and visual effects/motion graphics created by the 2009 cohort. There is clearly a lot of talent around, it’s well worth a look.

Entertainment Industry v Truth

Drew — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 08:49:23 +0000

I’m usually skeptical of statistics that are bandied about by the mainstream media. I’m especially skeptical when those figures come from the entertainment industry. From their wildly over estimated numbers of sales to the ludicrous notion that everyone who has ever downloaded something would buy it at full r.r.p. if the download were not available. [...]

Perhaps Exercise Is Worth It

Drew — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:04:54 +0000

Exercise. It’s all very well but all that sweating means that once finished you need to rehydrate and frankly it all seems a bit of a chore. However, some research just released from the university of Granada in Spain shows that in terms of hydration, beer is better than water. So there we are, exercise [...]

Awkward Photos

Drew — Sun, 24 May 2009 19:05:31 +0000

We’ve all been there. A photo oportunity with the loved ones. It seems like such a good idea at the time. But then you see them on the Internet and realise the depths of your error! For some even more emarassing and oddly inappropriate pictures head on over to awkwardfamilyphotos.com.

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Flying is for birds

Drew — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:32:09 +0000

I’m not the worlds best when it comes to flying. It seems an entirely unnatural way to get about and I’m always slightly uneasy at putting my life in the hands of people who wear uniforms with gold braiding. Of course I know that per passenger the risks of flying are lower than when I [...]

Ahhhhh Nostalgia

Drew — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:55:29 +0000

I’m the first to admit I’m starting to age. It’s a good thing. Honest. Where technology is concerned I personally find that age brings some benefits and one of them is the ability to reminisce over technologies past. Now Harry McCracken over at MSN has created a list of one time technology leaders who have [...]