Alx Klive's WorldTV Blog

The Science of Raving

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:59:00 +0000

18 years ago I was fresh-faced, barely out of my teens and up for a global adventure.

I headed to Canada with a box of records and a pair of headphones with plans to work my way as a DJ across Canada and America.

My first stop was Toronto and I never went any further. I started organizing parties, big raves, and club nights under the moniker Chemistry. Details magazine called them "one of the best nights out in North America" and they kick started a scene that continues to this day.

Here's the story as written for the Canadian rave website Communic8ter.

The importance of URL channels in Google Adsense

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:27:51 +0000

Within Google Adsense there are two types of channels you can set up to track your earnings - Custom channels and URL channels. Most of us know all about custom channels as they were the first to be introduced and are thus very familiar. If you have set up lots of custom channels it is easy to think that URL channels serve no useful purpose. You would be wrong.

Out with the old...

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:04:50 +0000

It might not look like it but... I've completely overhauled my blogging software (Movable Type). It turns out I've been using the same old version (3.2) since my very first blog post and it's long been due for an update.

Ironically it was security problems with its competitor (Wordpress) that prompted the change. At work we've been frantically updating all our Wordpress installations and I figured some spit and polish on my personal blog would be nice too. (It looks a lot nicer behind the scenes)

The only real visible changes are that I've been forced to say goodbye to the blog roll (links to other blogs) due to a technical issue and in its place is a spanking new 'most popular posts' section - on the right.

Expect some other little changes here and there over the coming days... I might even update my photo.

Build your own set-top box pt 4

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:54:31 +0000

In the last part we fitted the hard drive and installed our first operating system - Ubuntu. Today we install Flash, check the performance of Flash video playback and hook the box up to a TV for the first time.

To install Flash on Ubuntu you will need to enter some commands into the Terminal window. If this frightens you, don't worry, I'll make it super easy and painless.

The Future of Publishing

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:40:29 +0000

To the left is an image of a certain Mr Usain Bolt, the fastest man on the planet. It was taken earlier today by a Professional Photographer in Germany working for Zumapress - a major photo agency. What is unique about this image is that it didn't cost me a penny, and it's totally legit.

The model is straightforward but revolutionary. I signed up today for an account with Fotoglif, browsed up to the minute photos from the likes of Getty Images, Splash and Reuters, grabbed an embed code and embedded it on my blog. It comes with a small Google ad underneath, and the proceeds are split 50/30/20 between the rights holder, Fotoglif and the publisher (that's me).

For any web publisher just starting out - this levels the playing field. Traditional photo licensing of newsworthy images can cost hundreds of dollars per photo. Kind of hard to start a celebrity news blog unless you have deep pockets.

Not any more...

Fotoglif is not the only startup in this space. GumGum has been licensing photos on an ad-supported and CPM basis for about a year, and an Israeli startup PicApp offers a similar thing. But at the moment very few bloggers and publishers are aware of this concept, and it is certain to get bigger with time.

What I find interesting is that Google are clearly doing a special arrangement as it is possible to have any number of Google Adsense supported images on a single page. Just look at the Fotoglif blog for an example. Normally Google restricts ads to a maximum of 3 per page.

What I also find interesting is the wider context of ad-supported content gaining traction. Technology trends typically follow a text-image-audio-video cycle and it is thus inevitable that branded audio and video content, perhaps the latest Amy Winehouse single, an episode of 24, or one day a Hollywood movie, will become readily available to web publishers to carry on their sites for free, while getting a slice of the ad revenue.

Around the same time a new concept of Viewer Controlled Advertising is likely to take hold, where the consumer can choose the level of advertising they wish to tolerate. Lots of ads? Get paid to watch the content. No ads - you pay.

Some fascinating opportunities for entrepreneurs are around the corner...

UPDATED 09/09/09: Since writing this post a number of problems with the Fotoglif service have seemed to appear. People reading this post in Google Reader were getting a grey rectangle in place of the image, same in Outlook, and more seriously the Fotoglif server seemed to be slowing down my blog's home page significantly. This is unacceptable and for that reason I have replaced the code with a screenshot marked 'screenshot' for now. If I hear from Fotoglif with a reasonable explanation then I may change this.

Where to play Free Solitaire online

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:22:26 +0000

Solitaire is enjoying something of a resurgence these days with searches for Solitaire up almost 100% since reaching a low in 2007. As regular readers know I have an interest in online, browser based versions of games like Solitaire having set up the Free Video Games Project in 2005.

The reasons for the renewed interest in Solitaire are not clear but a possible reason may be companies restricting access to the game by removing the built-in Solitaire game on Windows computers from the workplace. Several people who work in offices have told me that their company removes the games from the computers and clearly a lot of people are searching for an online version to get round this. Users in France seem to be particularly interested. One of the biggest searches is for "solitaire en ligne".

While there are many online versions of Solitaire available it can be frustrating to wade through the rubbish to find a good, Flash-based, clean version that does not require a download, is fun to play and is not over-run with advertising.

Happily I'm pleased to say that there is now a new, awesome online version of Solitaire from the Free Video Games Project.

Bookmark it, pass it on, enjoy!

Build your own set-top box pt 3

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:32:12 +0000

Previously we got our set top box to its first boot into the BIOS screen. This time we dig deeper, add a hard drive and install the box's first operating system. By the end of today's installment you'll be surfing the Internet and browsing websites on your soon-to-be set-top box.

Putting together hardware is all about having confidence at each stage that things are working up to that point. Booting into the BIOS was an important step and confidence builder. It proved that the power supplies, memory and motherboard are all working.

Build your own set-top box for over the top TV pt 2

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:42:17 +0000

In the first part of this article I introduced the concept for the WorldTV set-top box and some basic requirements.

In this part I delve deeper into the hardware-side and show just how easy it is to make your own streaming set-top box (aka TV PC, aka Over the top Set Top Box).

Build your own set-top box for over the top TV

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:52:08 +0000

I'm heading up a fun project at work to build a prototype set-top box that is capable of receiving video from sites like YouTube, Vimeo & Daily Motion, and present them in a user friendly way on a TV.

The box will be built using off-the-shelf hardware and I'll be detailing the whole process here. At the end I'll be interested to see if it is possible to replace normal TV viewing with online TV viewing.

An Introduction to Solid State Drives - A Speed Revolution

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:47:47 +0000

A new type of hard drive promises to revolutionize our interactions with computers in the very near future. The revolution is so dramatic, so different from what we are used to, that anyone who uses a computer is going to benefit in a profound way.

The biggest bottleneck in your computer right now is the hard drive. It's the only part of your computer that remembers anything when you turn it off, so it's kind of important, and unsurprisingly its something we use and rely on a lot. That's why most of us have had a painful experience with them in the past.

Well the good news is that a new type of hard drive promises to not only make them more reliable, but much much faster. So much faster in fact that a speed revolution in our interactions with computers is about to take place in 2010 and 2011.

Fixing an overheating Mac Pro - no expense required

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:46:58 +0000

Lately my Mac Pro has been crashing and freezing with greater regularity. From prior experience with computers crashing, and it being the summer (and a particularly hot one in London!), I had a hunch it was heat related.

Weird artifacts on the monitor display (strange green and pink blocks and lines) clued me in that it might be the Radeon X1900 display card that was the cause of the overheating, and a bit of searching around on the Internet showed that this card has something of a reputation for overheating. The solutions people talk about all seem to revolve around removing fluff from the fan ingest (did that), purchasing after market coolers (not cheap and quite complicated) or buying a new card (even more expensive). I wanted to find something else.

The first step was to confirm that it was heat related. I shut down the computer, opened the case, and let the computer cool down for an hour. When I started it up again the computer lasted longer before crashing than normal. A good clue.

I went looking for a way to see what the temperature actually was inside my Mac Pro. There are several methods for doing this but I found a wonderful free utility called Temperature Monitor. This shows you the temperature for many points within the machine and can graph them over time. A very useful tool indeed.

Although Temperature Monitor did not show a specific temperature reading for the graphics card itself, two readings in particular seemed high and are indeed physically close to the graphics card - the Northbridge and Memory Module B2. Both were up around 80 degrees C which is definitely a little hot.

I used another free utility, the brilliant SMCFanControl to adjust the speed of the fans within the computer. While running the history graph feature of Temperature Monitor I first turned all the fans up to full and immediately saw nearly all temperature readings within the Mac Pro go down. It was amazing to watch. After some fiddling I set the PCIe/HDD fan to a minimum speed of 1700 rpm which brought the Northbridge and Memory Module B2 temps consistently down under 70 degrees. I left the other fans in the end at their default settings.

Since then I haven't had a single crash and I've not spent a penny. I've created different profiles within SMCFanControl (Normal, 1/2 cool down, 3/4 cool down, full cool down) and can instantly change the speed of the fans at will, depending on the ambient temperature.

Now if only I could get a speed increase utility for my air conditioner...

The Weirdest 24 Hours

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:24:56 +0000

Just over a week ago my very close friend Ian Loveday (aka EON aka Binty aka many other monikers) passed away from a very rare reaction to Pneumonia. It was a total shock and nobody expected it. Only now am I beginning to come to terms with it. Only now can I begin to write about it.

I've never lost a close friend before and I've never organized a funeral before. It's all been very difficult, emotional and surreal.

One of the things we are going to do for our friend, who will be buried on Monday, is organize a grey/silver coffin. He liked silver and was a huge sci-fi fan - shows like Star Trek, The Outer Limits, Quatermass Experiment. The practicalities of this meant that yesterday lunchtime I found myself in the basement of the Funeral Directors, with Keith, a burly, tattooed man who looks like Uncle Fester from the Addams Family. Keith is the man who does the stuff that the rest of us don't want to think about. We need people like Keith, and they're a very strange breed indeed.

Seeing Keith's 'workshop' was surreal. I was there to pick out fittings for my friend's coffin. I'm pretty sure the body under a blanket on a gurney a few feet away from me was my friend. Rows and rows of coffins lined the walls. Boxes of fittings, tools, and a coffin lift. I chose the fittings as quickly as I could, said my goodbye to Keith, who cheerily told me he would be a pall bearer on Monday (only wearing "different clothes") and I walked away, trying to make sense of the experience I'd just had.

The day had started emotionally, the most emotional since I'd learned my friend was in critical condition in hospital. In the morning I'd sat down to write my funeral speech. As I typed the last sentence I completely broke down. I broke down again a few moments later in the bathroom.

I spent the afternoon working on a presentation DVD that will be shown at the funeral with photos and quotes about Ian. Some of the quotes that have been flooding in are really remarkable. Ian was an underground music producer but had a dedicated fanbase. Going through those photos and quotes I broke down again. It was all beginning to sink in that my friend really was gone.

A get together with other close friends of Ian in the evening proved a welcome distraction. We were meeting with the lady who will conduct the ceremony, with the idea to recount stories about Ian for her benefit. It was a chance for us all to get together again and discuss final preparations for the funeral.

Later I was breaking down when I found myself chatting alone with Ian's girlfriend. I've been pretty solid the past week, but that strength and support for the people around me finally folded. I had to break the news to her about Ian's death, and his dad, and had picked up Jo - a broken woman - in the street on the way to hospital.

It was around this time last night that another very close friend of mine texted me to let me know he'd become a dad for the first time. Dan and I have been friends since school and live very close to one another. After the birth of my son we'd both really been looking forward to the day when our two kids could play together. This was a joyous moment in an otherwise depressing day.

Dan told me his child had been born at St Mary's - the same hospital that my friend died a week earlier. Life is definitely weird, and now the circle of life is complete. I went from sadness to joy very quickly.

Since his wife was staying over at the hospital and Dan couldn't stay overnight, I invited him round to join us. He could have steered clear of a 'funeral planning meeting' but he didn't. He's good like that. I picked up a bottle of Champagne and with Ian's friends we toasted a celebration in his honour.

Seconds later we learned that Michael Jackson had died...

It was all getting a bit much, and talk of Michael Jackson and the wall-to-wall coverage we were now seeing on CNN threatened to completely overshadow my friend's night. We bailed, and I took Dan down the pub where they wouldn't serve us. Last call had finished and despite the valiant efforts of some of the locals, we were left high... and dry.

We decided to head back to our neighbourhood to a pub we know well. Last orders had finished but this time we were successful. You can always rely on your local I guess. We found ourselves in a discussion with strangers about Michael Jackson.

We ended up back at my friend's flat, a flat in waiting for the new baby. It was the last night it would be a flat without a baby, and probably the last time I'll visit the place before my friends move house. This alone would usually have been surreal.

I woke up this morning and for the first time in days I didn't break down. The mornings have been the hardest. I had to persuade a council worker that... Monday, the day of the funeral, was a really bad day to be digging up the pavement outside my house rendering my parking spot inaccessible.

I drove to my office, and to top off the weirdest 24 hours I can remember, I arrived to find my dear old neighbour Ethel, who I regularly share tea with, fix her TV and stereo, and listen to stories about the really old days, had passed away. The funeral had been yesterday.

I guess I will have two graves to visit now.

It's all very numbing. Under normal circumstances I might actually care that Michael Jackson has died. Frankly right now I am only thinking about the people who've left me, and the people who are still with me.

It's a cliche, but... life is short, you must enjoy it. Because you never know when the great starship in the sky will come to take you away...

Top 5 Social Bookmarking Share Tools for Web Publishers

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:42:06 +0000

We've seen the little icons on web pages that let you bookmark and share content to the various popular social bookmarking and networking sites. But what if you are a web publisher and you want to add this type of functionality to your site? What if there were a webservice or plugin to do it easily?

I went looking today and it turns out there are a few. The most compelling feature for me was a hosted service that would ensure someone else is updating it as the various services change their access details or requirements. From prior experience this is a major 'make-work' project to keep up with dozens of different social bookmarking sites.

ShareThis.com - The most professional-looking of the five services and with big names using it like Huffington Post, Techcrunch, MTV and Wired. Offers Wordpress, Typepad, Blogger and 'any' website versions. Has a neat 'import addresses' feature that lets your site's users import and send something by e-mail to their Gmail, MSN, Yahoo contacts. You don't get the e-mail addresses, in case you're wondering.

AddThis.com - Another widely used and professional-looking service counting ReadWriteWeb, Time Magazine and Myspace among its users. A Compete.com analysis of this and ShareThis.com show very similar numbers of users. These are users accessing the sites of publishers who are using the service - in other words, a pretty good barometer.

AddToAny.com - Looks like a single person developing it but seems to offer some nice features. Quotes some big names using it but it is clear some of these are no longer doing so, if only because two services here both mention Mashable as one of their users. (Out of interest Mashable appears to be using neither ShareThis.com or AddToAny.com any more. They've created their own it seems).

Bookmark Me - A Wordpress Plugin for adding social bookmarking links to a blog or Wordpress powered site

Alex King's Share This - Another Wordpress Plugin. One of several this developer offers.

If you have any experience of these services consider writing a comment below to help others who might be comparing these services. As for our site? I'm going to be taking a closer look at sharethis.com but as our site is Flash based, we will probably have to roll our own as usual. :-(

UPDATE - I've just come across a 6th service that looks on a par with ShareThis.com. Tell a Friend seems polished and the user experience is very nice.

A Victory for Common Sense - My Car Clamping Saga

Fri, 08 May 2009 14:37:33 +0000

This morning I got word from my local councillor, Paul Dimoldenberg, that my recent car clamping drama had resulted in a likely future change in policy.

I'm still awaiting more details and will update this post, but basically it seems a new grace period will be introduced on my estate (and possibly others in Westminster) to avoid the situation where a resident has their car clamped within days of their permit expiring.

Regular readers of my Twitterings will know I had my car clamped on April 1st, just one day after my permit expired on March 31st. Incensed after a similar incident a year ago I went on a mission. As I pointed out to Paul...

I think it's easy to forget that the whole point of clamping is to ensure residents can have access to their parking spots. My car was in my parking spot, and was trapped, unable to go anywhere.

Fortunately I found a conscientious ally in the fight for common sense in Mr Dimoldenberg. He followed up the matter resulting in the following response from the contractor...

In trying to resolve this and taking on board your comments about the objective of parking control on the estate, we could take on board the grace period suggestion and look to implement for next year's renewal timetable

A rare victory for common sense!

Oprah - Future Queen of Twitter

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:34:00 +0000

Tomorrow, Ashton Kutcher will appear on Oprah talking about Twitter. Oprah has secured the @oprah address and already has 43k followers before she's sent one tweet.

This is huge.

Forget that Ashton Kutcher will be talking about his sparring with CNN to be the first to have 1 million followers. Forget as well that the act of appearing on Oprah talking about Twitter will drive huge numbers of new users to to the site. Forget that some silly people are already saying silly things like the inevitable crash of Twitter's servers will send people rushing to their competitors.

The huge event here is the possibility that Oprah herself will actually start to use Twitter. That she'll recognize the impact she could have with Twitter, and add it to her communications quiver.

If Oprah does start Tweeting, and assuming at least some of it is her doing it herself, the argument over who got to a million followers will be ancient history. Oprah will storm past both CNN and Ashton Kutcher within weeks and leave them in the dust. Neither of them will ever be in first place again, and nor will anyone else. She will cement her place as the person with the most followers on Twitter. Oprah - Queen of Twitter.

Good luck @ev and @jack and @biz the founders of Twitter for their own battle tomorrow.

Ta ra Facebook ...a footnote?