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Five Online Predictions for 2007 (or, everyone is is writing theirs so why can’t I!)

Published January 12th, 2007 in Uncategorized. Comments

Well it’s the new year and my blog has certainly suffered from a considerable amount of neglect in the last few months. This in part is because my blogging efforts (not to mention real life efforts) have been swallowed up by this. However, I thought it would be fun to start the year by first, actually writing a new post, and secondly writing the post of the moment which everyone seems to be doing, so without further ado here are my online predictions for 2007:

1. Foldera will launch and so steady but not monumental growth towards the year end.

After months of ever diminishing public opinion in Foldera (in the last 9 months it has gone from the next-big-thing to the-latest-vaporware), the product will launch publicly in Q1 2007. The product will be flooded with new interest and service will suffer due to the demand. After a few hiccups, the service will see steady but not monumental growth towards year end with 2008 looking potentially very exciting.

2. OpenID will see widespread adoption across the internet except with the big players

OpenID will be widely adopted in the blogging / community-driven / open source web sites and services but the Googles / Yahoos / Microsofts of this world will still stick with their own legacy systems.

3. Plaxo will reach Tipping Point

Plaxo will reach the tipping point in 2007 where the benefits of being a member will outway the annoyances of not being one! Through the use of their Open API widget, localisation in Plaxo 3.0 and the soon-to-launch AJAX calendar they will see growth in 2007 reach 30 million users and the natural courting of the big players for a buy out will duly follow.

4. The Big Players will augment their search results with social data

This year we will see the big players (read Google, Yahoo & Microsoft) begin to augment their search results with human-tagged results, the first step in a gradual move away from depending wholely on algorithmic search. Yahoo, especially, is in an excellent position to begin doing this with its del.icio.us database. I already find myself turning to del.icio.us for certain types of search knowing that the results will be better. If you use firefox and don’t use del.icio.us then I strongly receommend the search plugin available here. The reason for the change will be the realisation that the new search players who are already in this field are producing more accurate and useful results for their users.

5. The iPhone will be runaway success

Despite the fact that Apples new iPhone device will have plenty of things for end users to grumble about, it will be far and away the slickest, easiest to use, braggable, got-to-have gadgets of 2007. Sure it may be pricey, but people who have been waiting to get a new portable media player and a new phone this way may be able to kill two birds with one stone with this one. For gadget nuts, road warriors, early adopters and appleoholics this will be too much to resist.

Also, on a side note, there has been a lot of speculation since its announcement on the device being closed platform, but I have come to the conclusion that this will not affect its appeal as much as people might think. It will be crazy for Apple not to distribute software apps for the phone through iTunes. If it is truly closed off for external developers then Apple will need to work hard internally to satisfy its users - which I’m sure they will. However, the smart move would be for Apple to let 3rd party developers build for the platform and then distribute them only through iTunes with Apple taking its cut on the sale price (and also have approval on quality to keep the unit running bug free)….

Well that’s five. Not a huge number but I will come back to them in a years time and see how I did….

By the Skin of our Teeth

Published May 17th, 2006 in Beijing, China and Vineyard Cafe. Comments

Well we have the official word - we are safe (at least for now). They have posted signs around the area stating the building numbers they are going to demolish and thankfully we are not on it.

The plan is to demolish all the building to our north up to our back wall, which does mean that we potentially could have an entrance to our north which would be good, and since they are demolishing to create a green belt we may even be able to make use of the grass on that side. :)

This good news was marred somewhat though by the landlord, clearly under the influence of his overbearing wife, who pitched up asking for more money. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for us, he can’t do anything since we all signed the contract. Clearly he thought that our debatably improved location should earn him more money…

Balancing on the Razor’s Edge

Published May 12th, 2006 in Beijing and Vineyard Cafe. Comments

As many people now know I recently left my job to, among other things, open a restaurant here in Beijing. Things have been progressing in a more or less forward direction until today. We were standing in the shell of the building that will soon be our restaurant overseeing the construction when two men wandered in and announced that they were from the demolition company charged with demolishing the whole area! As you can imagine, this came as something of a surprise, and also meant that our discussions of the interior design minutae were suddenly obsoleted.

Xuduan and Will then went into a phone frenzy trying to dig out the facts from wherever they could find them. Xuduan managed eventually to get hold of someone who told her that the plan was to demolish all buildings thirty meters back from the ring road to our north, to create a lovely grass area next to the road… We then imediately ran outside and up the side street between our hutong and the second ring road armed with a tape measure, and proceeded to measure from the building to our north back towards our place. The result of this proved that the northern most point of our building lies approximately thirty eight meters from the road giving us a supposed eight meter safety net - provided the facts we have are even accurate. Our last attempt to get more informaton was to charge off, scooters throttled to the max, bound for the office of commerce which was unfortunately closed for the weekend by the time we got there which means we have to now wait for monday to learn more…

The conclusion of all this is such that we are either (a) about to be better positioned, right by the second ring road with the potential of a northern entrance across a nice grass lawn, or (b) completely fucked, and about to be rather substantially out of pocket. Hopefully Monday will provide as with a concrete answer either way. I will let you know.

MONDAY UPDATE: The guy who can tell us is in a meeting all day today, so we now have to wait till tommorrow.

Chav Arse Regal

Published May 11th, 2006 in Beijing. Comments

On wednesday evening I went to the Chivas Regal “Milan” party. This was one of those events where the funds put in definitely exceeded the taste of those involved. On arrival, all the guests walked up a red carpet complete with press photographers snapping shots of us towards the entrance to the building which had had Milan cathedral projected on to the fron of it. Inside things we equally strange, including an Opera singer singing (badly!) over the dance music, stylists offering hair and face make overs and an assortment of downright nasty (but at least free) Chivas-based cocktails. You needed only look at the faces of the other guests to realise that everyone there was as bemused as we were. In fact the whole event was firmly planted in the so-bad-it’s-good camp. Enjoy the pics.

Perks of the World Traveller

Published May 8th, 2006 in Uncategorized. Comments

Having been upgraded to Business class on my flight back to the UK two weeks ago, I felt that my years of flying back and forth from China to the UK were at last being rewarded with some perks. This made yesterdays events even more satisfactory - I arrived at the airport where they told me that since they were overbooked, if I would fly tomorrow, they would give me a free flight� and a 650 quid BA voucher or 350 pounds in cash. At firest I dismissed it but suddenly began to think that it might be worth doing - it was not absolutely vital that I arrived back in Beijing today� anyway. Also, the money meant a free return flight home at a future date. It really seemed too good to be true so i took them up on it. The only downside was that I then had to get home again having been dropped at the airport.

The Long Way Round

Published May 7th, 2006 in England and THorncombe Street. Comments

Ben drove up from Somerset on Friday to take visit and take a break from his law studies. On Saturday we went for a walk though the Winkworth Arboretum just above my parent’s house which was looking amazing since the Bluebells had just come out to compliment all the other spring flowers. See the pics here. We then decided to walk on to the White Horse in Hascombe, passing Chris Evan’s house, but managed to get it completely wrong walking a mile or so out of our way. We managed to do a fantastic recovery in the end though by cutting back cross-country over the Hascombe Hills to descend victorious at the pub for a well deserved pint of Adnams Bitter.

Foot on the brake but the wheels still turn….

Published March 1st, 2006 in Uncategorized. Comments

A few on friday, a few more on sunday, one last night. I see it is very much an organic process. I’m chiselling away at those irresistible urges one day at a time….

“What harm could one do?”

Published February 24th, 2006 in Uncategorized. Comments

Okay, I actually smoked 3 cigarettes last night in a moment of weakness…

What can I say?

The truth is it is very hard to resist when surrounded by chain smokers. Blame delegation in action….

However the guilt today has hardened my resolve and I think I am even more commited as of today. We shall see. Friday tonight….

Quitter

Published February 23rd, 2006 in Uncategorized. Comments

I woke up on tuesday morning with the usual part-ashtray feeling and decided enough was enough. I cleared the house of empty fag boxes, dumped the ashtrays at the back of a cupboard and hid all the lighters in a drawer. No distractions. No temptations. No fags.

Thursday today and so far so good except for the massive increase in gum chewing. Almost had a hickup last night when I found an open pack under the sofa which I had missed, but managed to resist smoking one. They say the weekend is the real test. Let’s see if i can make it beyond 9 months which was my last effort…

One day at a time. I’ll keep you posted.

Sailing in Thailand over Chinese Year

Published February 8th, 2006 in Photos, Sailing and Travel. Comments

Only a year after I was last there, I found myself back in Thailand, this time with Robbie and his parents, Bunny and Montsi, on their boat, Effendi. Over Chinese New Year we flew down and met them for a week of sailing and diving and general relaxation. As we arrived at the Boat Lagoon in Phuket on our arrival I could hardly believe that I was back there again, but must confess some levels of glee thinking about those of you who were with me last year. ;)

After a highly entertaining lunch party on our first day which left all of us in a seriously inebriated state, we stumbled aboard and departed at 9pm. Then, in the way that only murphy’s law can strike, we proceeded to have various things go wrong with the boat, starting with the engine leaking diesel into the bilges and finishing with us somehow tearing a whole in the zodiac. The long and short of these events that we decided to abandon our plan to go up to the Similan islands north west of Phuket because we realised that we wouldn’t have enough time.

Instead we decided to stay around Phuket going to the islands in the area, and spent the rest of the week doing lots or snorkelling, diving and sunbathing. It was a very relaxing few days and at the end of the trip, I actually felt rested and ready to face the world again, rather than the usual requirement of another holiday to recover from the first one!

Anyway, enjoy the pics.