May 12, 2010 Posted by alan jones

If you’re a geek, be proud of being a geek

Why add polish when in today’s society, being so geeky is so credible? I love this intro video for Diaspora. Now it needs to be mashed-up into a music video for some yet-to-break indie band. Call it “OK Go Make A Social Network”. The thought for today: when branding, be true to who you are. Customers have a seventh sense for these... read more

April 3, 2010 Posted by alan jones

Great tagline: “When you care enough to hit send”

Someecards.com is a provider of ‘ecards’ — the things Hallmark and Facebook make a fortune out of these days. Unlike the boring twats at Hallmark and Facebook, the ecards on Someecards have a particular dry satirical tone I love. It extends to their killer tagline, which neatly summarises what Someecards does and how important their product really is — “When you care enough to hit... read more

March 31, 2010 Posted by alan jones

Fear of the blank page

I suppose I suffer from fear of the blank page as often as any other writer — that is to say, often. I feel it all the time, unless I’m writing in anger or I’m drunk, neither of which happens often enough that I could count on it to earn a living as a writer. In this animated short, George Metaxas confronts the demon of the blank sheet of paper and comes off second-best. It’s an amazing... read more

March 10, 2010 Posted by alan jones

Create your dream job, dream family, win an iTunes gift voucher

Got downtime? Here’s a fun game: use a web tool with an orgchart or mind-map or genealogy feature to create a map of your dream company structure or perfect family. Then share it with your work colleagues, your real family, or your friends on Facebook. Then see how long it takes to be fired, or frozen out of Grandpa’s will. Here’s one I did earlier using Yammer’s orgchart feature.... read more

November 6, 2009 Posted by alan jones

Friday funny: Code Monkey

I was talking to a CIO yesterday about how hard it is to relate to “IT people”. I think by “IT people” the CIO meant developers. Personally, I enjoy relating to developers and prefer their company to other species of IT people such as  project management, sales and marketing. I think I’m half-geek — unable to gracefully code but deeply in awe of those who do. Today... read more

June 3, 2009 Posted by alan jones

Swap Marceau for Cousteau and the fun begins

I’ve rescued this post from my old personal blog, which I’ll be retiring soon. The post was written in 2002, when Marcel Marceau was still alive, but Jaccques Cousteau had just died. The importance of that information will soon become clear if you read on… It’s a shame Jacques Cousteau is dead, as it effectively ruins my chances of ever persuading him to swap places with Marcel... read more