Bouncing Back was an event put on last Tuesday by the Cambridge Network to provide an opportunity for entrepreneurs to get together to network and discuss common issues.
As I've mentioned in the past, I'm still working out what the term "networking" entails. Other than milling around a room feeling like Billy-no-mates. Like most of these things, it's not as bad as it first seems - things were a little awkward initially, but by the end of the day I'd started to get into the swing of it. I found it encouraging just to talk to other people in a similar situation to myself, and the exposure to new ideas adds valuable fresh blood to the creative gene pool in my head. When my software is further along then such opportunities will be of even greater value.
The seminars were the main draw for me, and over the next couple of days I'll devote a separate post to each one I attended:
Some fantastic views of Ice Climbing in Pyrenees Spain and 360° view from the top of Everest.
You need Quicktime to view them, but you can then pan round and zoom in yourself. Breathtaking.
From Critical Section - Engineering Conversions...
The height of geekdom, I know, but in case you have a burning desire to find out that you're the 111th McEwen (when you're not even in the top 500 Adrians, oh the shame), then the Googlerank Calculator is the tool for you.
Last night, I saw an excellent performance of Pride and Prejudice given by the Combined Actors of Cambridge at the ADC Theatre.
I hadn't seen it before, nor read the book; the main reason I went on this occasion was that my friend was playing Jane Bennet. I'd decided, for no particular reason, that it was a stuffy period-drama; so was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be quite the comedy.
Very enjoyable, with particularly fine performances by Hugh Mellor and Rocca Russell as Mr. and Mrs. Bennet; and Catriona Clancy was the star of the show as Elizabeth.
Although I keep pondering remodelling my bathroom (I'm refraining from removing the brown tiles there from when I moved in because that would expose the even worse pink tiles underneath...), I'm not sure I'll have space for, or need, a urinal.
So, luckily, I don't have to work out whether I think that this mouth-shaped urinal is amusing and fun, or something which reminds me of the Rolling Stones logo; and I definitely don't want to be thinking of Mick Jagger's mouth at that point...
I mean, you get to see what time it is... just check the Human Clock.
(via Good Experience)
Given that there've been some ramblings about smileys recently, I thought it was worth pointing to how it all started. None of your silly little pictures there, just good old-fashioned ASCII ;-)
I guess one benefit of the rise of home videoconferencing is that geeks will be forced to come to terms with their personal hygiene. Well, they will if this how to look better with your iSight camera article is an indicator of things to come.
Shame it still recommends wearing black ;-)
And not just because I seem to be getting more surfing done than coding. The Art Of Kissing, and particularly with the pithy comments from Ms. Little.Red.Boat has had me creased up.
Parts two and three are further up the page.
I don't particularly enjoy shopping malls. I find the controlled environment and climate to be stuffy and a little stifling. However, after reading this interview with the man who perfected the mall, I have a new found understanding of the reasoning behind the design of the mall. The mall is an optimised machine for shopping; a little over-optimised for my liking.
(via Kottke.org)
Florida never seemed like much of a holiday destination to me, but that was before I realised I could visit P.J.'s Auto World Inc.
I think today I'll have this one.
Looks like I won't have any excuse not to vote in the next local elections, as the Politics in the City of Cambridge website gathers links and information about politics and elections in Cambridge.
Dystypia - the typing equivalent of dyslexia, getting the letters in the wrong order.
I don't generally suffer from dystypia, but do commonly replace the word I want with a different, although usually related in some way, word somewhere between my brain thinking it and my fingers typing it. Often "thing" instead of "think", "there" over "the", or "bugger" in place of "buffer" (mind you, if you'd seen my code... ;-)
So I was amused to find that when I'd been ripping some old vinyl recently, I've ended up with Simon & Garfunkel trying to "Keep the costumer satisfied". To hell with their customers presumably.
A departure from the usual sort of McFilter content, but some things are too lovely not to share. (Be sure to scroll up for parts 2 - 4)
Found some very interesting information out over the weekend. Unfortunately not something I can talk about publicly just yet. Most exciting.
Gamasutra has an interesting article exploring
why independent game developers sell their companies, and why their companies get bought.
It looks a bit deeper than the usual "woohoo, we get loads of money" assumption, there's definitely more to being acquired than that (although it helps :-). I remember it feeling quite strange when STNC was acquired by Microsoft; very mixed - we suddenly switched from being a tiny little startup to part of the biggest software company on the planet. It validated what we were trying to do, and that we were good enough to interest the biggest players, but I was also saddened by the end of our great-startup-adventure.