ben hanbury

NOOOOOOOO!

Ben Hanbury — Sat, 03 May 2008 09:25:18 +0000

I don’t understand how this could of happened? A right-wing, upper-class, Eton prefect who only got into politics because his dad was already an elected tory MP becomes Major of London! (Does he even live in London - wasn’t he previously the MP for Henley?)

Oh well apparently he’s a keen cyclist so maybe it’s not all bad - though I do feel this is what it must have been like to be an american who didn’t vote for Bush?!

May Mixtape: Music for Montages

Ben Hanbury — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:15:26 +0000

The mixtape for this month is “Music for Montages”: whether you’re workin up to that big fight, practicing your dance routine or just want to be the best of the best - to turn that 3 months of training into 3 minutes you’re gonna need a good montage with a great soundtrack!

Listen to the mix
(to download right-click and select “save target as” or “download linked file”)

Subscribe to podcast
(p.s if you enjoyed this please big me up on my iTunes page)

London Mayoral Elections

Ben Hanbury — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:33:36 +0000

Time to vote for who’s gonna be the big boss round London. Why anyone would vote for this man is beyond my understanding?!:

iPlayer on TV

Ben Hanbury — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:38:32 +0000

Big iPlayer news today - the service has had it’s first launch onto a TV platform, starting off with the Virgin Media set top boxes with other services to follow. More info on the BBC internet blog

Vintage and Retro design

Ben Hanbury — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:32:27 +0000

Wow I think Smashing Magazine definitely gets the favourite blog of the month award - a great post here all about retro and vintage design (I particularly love James White’s “retro cosmic” stuff!)

RumbleTV

Ben Hanbury — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:37:53 +0000

Stumbled upon this in Make Magazine, it’s pretty random - there’s something I really like about it though? (Reminds me of something you’d see in the Terry Gilliam film, Brazil?)

Check out this clip of it in action

Superhero movies ALWAYS = bad films?

Ben Hanbury — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:13:04 +0000

I had a quick flick through the Apple Quicktime site to see if there was any cool trailers for upcoming films over the summer. Unfortunately it seems that yet again Hollywood seems to be churning out film adaptations of comic-book superheroes?! I understand that by doing so they tap into an already established fan base and so potentially stand to make more money - BUT (with a couple of exceptions) they are generally ALWAYS rubbish?!

Whether it’s sequels (Hellboy 2), film versions of minor superheroes (Ironman), or remakes of previous superhero films (Hulk) it always seems to guarantee an interesting trailer and a boring film? It seems particularly ridiculous that the Incredible Hulk has already had a bad remake a few years back and yet the 2008 CGI-Hulk seems to look just as unbelievable as the 2003 CGI-Hulk?

- - - -

UPDATE: This spoof news report by the Onion sums up my feelings nicely I think!

Future of Web Design conference

Ben Hanbury — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:15:08 +0000

I really enjoyed the Future of Web Design conference today, most of the talks were really interesting. I particularly enjoyed Andy Budd (Clearleft) talking about the ‘user experience design curve’, Paul Farnell (Litmus) talking about unconventional ways of promoting sites, Daniel Burka (Digg) on iterative and adaptive design and a great presentation from Steve Pearce from Poke (pictured below) all about user experience vs brand experience.

Another thing that struck me about the day was virtually everyone there was a pasty, skinny, white guy with thick glasses! … Concerning!

Picture by jkleske

Family Guy on bad interaction design

Ben Hanbury — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:44:29 +0000

I watched this the other week - the Family Guy episode “Blue Harvest” which is essentially a big parody of the original Star Wars film. However this is easily my favourite clip - who knew that the whole story kicked off because of bad user interface design?! Watch on YouTube

New Podcast: Daylight Savings Mix

Ben Hanbury — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:13:04 +0000

Thought it was time to get the podcasts up and happening again, I think (like blogging) it’s a case of little and often, so here’s a little mix to celebrate that it’s now still sunny when you finish work - hooray!

Download file:
(Right click the link below and select “Save Target As”):
http://cdn2.libsyn.com/benhanbury/Daylight_Savings_Mix.m4a

Subscribe to podcast:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=207664846