Mostly This:

Things that catch the eye or engage the senses. Now and upcoming. Games, Fashion, Tech, Mobile, Fun and Just mostly happening. mac@mostlythis.com Haddock
November 3
Byron has taken it up another level with the Grizz-Mo burger, its a burger with Welsh Raebit on top. What’s not to love. It’s for Movember, the month where growing a Tom Selek is suddenly ok.  Well, it’s always ok, but you have an excuse :) 50p from each Grizz-Mo burger goes to Movember, and if like me you are taking part, from the 7th to the 20th you can get a free burger EVERY DAY from 3-6pm. I feel a lot of late lunches coming on. http://www.byronhamburgers.com/movember/ My Movember Page, should you wish to donate :)

Byron has taken it up another level with the Grizz-Mo burger, its a burger with Welsh Raebit on top.

What’s not to love.

It’s for Movember, the month where growing a Tom Selek is suddenly ok.  Well, it’s always ok, but you have an excuse :) 50p from each Grizz-Mo burger goes to Movember, and if like me you are taking part, from the 7th to the 20th you can get a free burger EVERY DAY from 3-6pm. I feel a lot of late lunches coming on.

http://www.byronhamburgers.com/movember/

My Movember Page, should you wish to donate :)

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October 26

Tin Tin

Tin Tin was good, I enjoyed it and so did the kids (7 and 6, The 4 year old skipped it as it was too scary) Actually congratulations to the makers for not over sanitising it, there was plenty of death, peril and drunkenness. 

I have no real history with the characters so I was really coming to it fresh, It felt slightly too british, Captain Haddock being Scottish. Frost and Pegg as the Thompson twins were good, but as both laid on such thick posh accents, it was impossible to tell who was who. But the styling was great, with the characters all being slightly cartoonish in proportion to stop them falling into the uncanny valley, It’s defiantly an animation not trying to be live action, even though it was motion captured. 

The film is basically one set action piece into another in a constant state of out of the frying pan into the fire. Some of them are delightful, especially the pirate scenes.

I ended up at a 3D showing, as with all other 3D movies I’ve seen, it added nothing, in the first 5 minutes you are looking at the depth and going wow, then your brain just works it out and it’s effectively back to 2D.

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September 23
Just what are QR codes useful for? Machines, not humans. QR codes were developed for manufacturing, so machines could identify and handle objects.  And that’s where they work, and work well. Where they don’t work is when an artificial step of human interaction is forced, its always  one, two or more unnecessary steps for a human to do, mimicking a machine.   Berg just launched a film showing some of there thoughts for extending that machine automation into the everyday world. Clocks for Robots One of the key thoughts I take away is, let the machines talk to each other - minimise human action.  I particularly like the qr code reader that hides the camera display - which is unnecessary.  Of course theres lots of other potential machine communication possible outside of human detection, thinks like NFC and scanning codes requires a human intent, theres other possibilities such as audio signals, radio waves, etc that may well allow devices to hear where they are too.  All these time and place signals will give your actions a real context and linked to cloud - an index of actions and objects around you. As devices get more powerful the ability to recognise objects and decode the real world will only get close to human abilities, negating the need for explicit markings and digital signatures. 

Just what are QR codes useful for? Machines, not humans. QR codes were developed for manufacturing, so machines could identify and handle objects.  And that’s where they work, and work well. Where they don’t work is when an artificial step of human interaction is forced, its always  one, two or more unnecessary steps for a human to do, mimicking a machine.  

Berg just launched a film showing some of there thoughts for extending that machine automation into the everyday world.

Clocks for Robots

One of the key thoughts I take away is, let the machines talk to each other - minimise human action.  I particularly like the qr code reader that hides the camera display - which is unnecessary.  Of course theres lots of other potential machine communication possible outside of human detection, thinks like NFC and scanning codes requires a human intent, theres other possibilities such as audio signals, radio waves, etc that may well allow devices to hear where they are too.  All these time and place signals will give your actions a real context and linked to cloud - an index of actions and objects around you.

As devices get more powerful the ability to recognise objects and decode the real world will only get close to human abilities, negating the need for explicit markings and digital signatures. 

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September 12
Rugby Apps: As you all know its rugby world cup time, there is an official app on Android and Apple App Store, but whats around for symbian? Well oddly theres a Nokia Rugby App, it’s a results based app, rather than a news/match report app, but if it’s live scores/results and tables you need ‘on the go’ it seems very comprehensive. Price FREE. Get It Here. Also being pushed on ovi store is Planet Rugby Planet Rugby is a news site and this app is a feed of news - categorised by teams / competition.  So between the two apps you have a comprehensive set of content for all rugby fans, during and beyond the rugby world cup.

Rugby Apps: As you all know its rugby world cup time, there is an official app on Android and Apple App Store, but whats around for symbian? Well oddly theres a Nokia Rugby App, it’s a results based app, rather than a news/match report app, but if it’s live scores/results and tables you need ‘on the go’ it seems very comprehensive. Price FREE. Get It Here.

Also being pushed on ovi store is Planet Rugby

Planet Rugby is a news site and this app is a feed of news - categorised by teams / competition.  So between the two apps you have a comprehensive set of content for all rugby fans, during and beyond the rugby world cup.

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September 9
A tale of two burgers: One real, One fantasy. After yesterdays Uncle Sam from Byron delighting all taste buds. The second revivalist is the McDonalds 1955 Burger, I ordered without bacon, as I’m not sure bacon is a classic burger ingredient, and to ensure a freshly cooked burger to evenly compete with Byron. At £3.59 its less than half the price of the Byron Uncle Sam, but about 1/4 the value. As you can see what you get is a sorry sight, and somewhat unlike the promotional photo. To be fair it didn’t taste as bad as it looks, but was very dry and over cooked, the burger is larger than a normal quarter-pounder, but much thinner, so it retains no moisture.  It reminds me of the inedible big tasty, but much improved, as the ‘smokey sauce’, similar to big mac sauce, and cooked onions at least added some flavour. The previous ‘M’ Burger was a much greater success.   This one felt that it wasn’t very well prepared, there was next to no lettuce in it, and a tiny amount of onion. Consistency and portion control is something that mcdonald’s is normally good at. I would avoid and stick with the big mac or quarter if you are swinging by a mcdonalds. 

A tale of two burgers: One real, One fantasy. After yesterdays Uncle Sam from Byron delighting all taste buds. The second revivalist is the McDonalds 1955 Burger, I ordered without bacon, as I’m not sure bacon is a classic burger ingredient, and to ensure a freshly cooked burger to evenly compete with Byron. At £3.59 its less than half the price of the Byron Uncle Sam, but about 1/4 the value. As you can see what you get is a sorry sight, and somewhat unlike the promotional photo.

To be fair it didn’t taste as bad as it looks, but was very dry and over cooked, the burger is larger than a normal quarter-pounder, but much thinner, so it retains no moisture.  It reminds me of the inedible big tasty, but much improved, as the ‘smokey sauce’, similar to big mac sauce, and cooked onions at least added some flavour. The previous ‘M’ Burger was a much greater success.   This one felt that it wasn’t very well prepared, there was next to no lettuce in it, and a tiny amount of onion. Consistency and portion control is something that mcdonald’s is normally good at.

I would avoid and stick with the big mac or quarter if you are swinging by a mcdonalds. 

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September 8
Burger Time.  There seems to be a revival for revivalist burgers, Byron has launched their Limited Edition Uncle Sam Burger, It’s got a ‘Glazed Bun’ which is much nicer than the stock byron buns, Otherwise it’s just the classic cheeseburger ingredients, American Cheese, Pickles, 4 in mine :p, French’s Mustard and Ketchup.  It is just a brilliant Burger, when I unwrapped mine (I had a takeaway) someone said “Is that a photo of a burger, it looks too perfect”. £7.50 and available until the end of September only.

Burger Time.  There seems to be a revival for revivalist burgers, Byron has launched their Limited Edition Uncle Sam Burger, It’s got a ‘Glazed Bun’ which is much nicer than the stock byron buns, Otherwise it’s just the classic cheeseburger ingredients, American Cheese, Pickles, 4 in mine :p, French’s Mustard and Ketchup.  It is just a brilliant Burger, when I unwrapped mine (I had a takeaway) someone said “Is that a photo of a burger, it looks too perfect”. £7.50 and available until the end of September only.

Uncle Sam Promo In Store

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September 7
I can’t believe I’ve not blogged about Utilikilts before, my favourite non trouser wear. They come from Seattle with bags of attitude, are warm, cool, comfortable, practical and outlandish all in one. I have 3 The Survival (above) a Rugged Workmans in black and an everyday ‘original’ in green.  Frankly they are wonderful, dont worry what people will think, its not that far from a pair of shorts really - oddly i wear mine more often in winter than summer (I also have a ‘real’ wool kilt I got married in - but that’s too warm/formal for every day wear).   They will ship worldwide, and quickly if in stock, they have stores in Seattle and San Francisco and - well go get one ;) If you have the balls to wear it! 

I can’t believe I’ve not blogged about Utilikilts before, my favourite non trouser wear. They come from Seattle with bags of attitude, are warm, cool, comfortable, practical and outlandish all in one. I have 3 The Survival (above) a Rugged Workmans in black and an everyday ‘original’ in green.  Frankly they are wonderful, dont worry what people will think, its not that far from a pair of shorts really - oddly i wear mine more often in winter than summer (I also have a ‘real’ wool kilt I got married in - but that’s too warm/formal for every day wear).  

They will ship worldwide, and quickly if in stock, they have stores in Seattle and San Francisco and - well go get one ;) If you have the balls to wear it! 

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+
styledeficit: Note to self.

styledeficit:

Note to self.

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September 6
Ok - I WANT this set up - Two Play 360 speakers in my living room, to play music at home, a bh-111 headset for music while im commuting and a Nokia N9 to play with meego and NFC loveliness to link them all together. Why - well look at them, lovely. They OOZE ‘want’ or as the americans say jonesing. Nokia are the only company in my opinion making hardware with the industrial design and quality that apple have taken the lead position globally.  Also it’s a linked set of devices, so ease of use, NFC means tap to pair - what could be easier. This again is what apple do SO well, a complete linked eco-system - If it’s easy people will use it. Just as entering your google account into any android phone - make its YOUR phone. OVI never quite made it as that eco system support, and I suspect meego will be missing it too. Windows Phone will have it via the XBOX/ZUNE and windows. But the best thing is more wonderful stuff from lots of suppliers, making for great choice for consumers. I love apple gear, but I love android and nokia, kindle and lots of over amazing devices too.  It’s all brilliant. 

Ok - I WANT this set up - Two Play 360 speakers in my living room, to play music at home, a bh-111 headset for music while im commuting and a Nokia N9 to play with meego and NFC loveliness to link them all together.

Why - well look at them, lovely. They OOZE ‘want’ or as the americans say jonesing. Nokia are the only company in my opinion making hardware with the industrial design and quality that apple have taken the lead position globally. 

Also it’s a linked set of devices, so ease of use, NFC means tap to pair - what could be easier. This again is what apple do SO well, a complete linked eco-system - If it’s easy people will use it. Just as entering your google account into any android phone - make its YOUR phone. OVI never quite made it as that eco system support, and I suspect meego will be missing it too. Windows Phone will have it via the XBOX/ZUNE and windows.

But the best thing is more wonderful stuff from lots of suppliers, making for great choice for consumers. I love apple gear, but I love android and nokia, kindle and lots of over amazing devices too.  It’s all brilliant. 

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September 5
This morning at the tube I was handed a NEW metro high street edition, I took one thinking it was a metro in a new size, but it’s a separate publication - focused on fashion. So while the content a bit rubbish (much like a normal metro) the size is very nice.  Newspapers, even tabloids are too big, they need an armchair or table to consume at a leisurely pace. Times have changed, I would buy the guardian if it came in this size (and ONE piece - rather than the 4 to 6 bits that normally spill out - and into the bin) I know they introduced the ‘Berliner’  size a few years back, but that was not a big enough change, it’s still too big to compete in the digital consumption age. In fact when last year they had a campaign of just giving out copies of G2 with vouchers for the next days copy, I was quite happy - I like the size of G2, it didn’t make me want to buy the whole paper.

This morning at the tube I was handed a NEW metro high street edition, I took one thinking it was a metro in a new size, but it’s a separate publication - focused on fashion. So while the content a bit rubbish (much like a normal metro) the size is very nice. 

Newspapers, even tabloids are too big, they need an armchair or table to consume at a leisurely pace. Times have changed, I would buy the guardian if it came in this size (and ONE piece - rather than the 4 to 6 bits that normally spill out - and into the bin) I know they introduced the ‘Berliner’  size a few years back, but that was not a big enough change, it’s still too big to compete in the digital consumption age.

In fact when last year they had a campaign of just giving out copies of G2 with vouchers for the next days copy, I was quite happy - I like the size of G2, it didn’t make me want to buy the whole paper.

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