Not sure who to say ‘wow!’ about but somewhere between WordPress and Google, I’m very impressed. 15 minutes after publishing the previous post, there it was, top of the Google rankings. Ok, the search criteria was a bit specific, but what an amazing thing.

The reason I’m interested in this specifically is that it reminded me of an instance earlier this year. The UK had a relatively decent earthquake at about 1am. I was on the computer at the time and my first reaction was to Google something like ‘earthquake London’. I remember being a little confused as to why nothing came up. I tried the BBC news site, nothing. In a world of instant everything, I expected it to be on the web instantly. Moreover, I got the nagging feeling that if it wasn’t on the web, did it really happen? I needed the web to back up my real-life experience.

It’s a scenario that plays out in many areas of our modern lives, reducing the responsibility or validity of our own actions. We can leave for a meeting with just a phone, safe in the knowledge that when we can “call you when I get there”. No organisation or forethought needed. Sat nav allows us to travel without the faintest idea where we actually are. Even in shopping, we can’t feel happy with a purchase unless we know we got it at a good price… because we’ve done a price comparison. If we’re not sure about a real-life transaction, we walk away comforted by the fact we can probably buy it cheaper online anyway. I did it recently, dithering over £5 difference on a £30 printer. I’d argue the wasted time was worth more than £5, especially as I’d spent £3 in petrol getting to the store. Even the vast resource of the web means we don’t really have to remember anything… it’ll always be there, right?

Relying on technology, especially information technology can be a worryingly addictive thing (ask any Blackberry user). The slightly uneasy feeling I get when I forget my phone reminds me of that first lone journey after passing my driving test. Like a slightly risky adventure… will I even survive past the shops on the corner?

Nothing quite demonstrates our dependence as well as the dreaded power cut, especially during a working day. Utter paralysis is the usual reaction until the old, dusty synapses start to fire. I can’t help thinking to myself, what would we all do if there was no technology? No electricity even? Oh hang on, I how will I set the alarm on the way out… See!

On thing’s for sure, we’d have to use our own skills a hell of a lot more and I’m not sure we’d all survive. Next time you’re with your friends or at work… look around you, who would be the first to perish? I know who’s on my list… do you? Makes your tea round a lot easier to prioritise, that’s for sure.

We were waiting at then Mount Kinabalu Park HQ when I noticed a gorilla’s head at the summit. A quick Google session turned up a few references to the ‘gorilla rock face thing’ but it seems nobody has posted an image of it. Wonder no more…

Is it a bird, is it a plane… no it’s a cloud that looks a bit like Superdog.

I was walking along Oxford Street in London this afternoon when I noticed a gaggle of photographers jostling to get a picture of the three dubious looking characters in costumes. Ah yes, it’s the day before the release of Disaster Movie and this was obviously the last push to drive sales.

Now call me old fashioned but last time I looked, it took a bit more effort than that to drum up punters to go and see a movie. It’s a student movie right? How many students are on Oxford Street at 11.30am on a Thursday? Maybe I’ve just missed the other stuff and this was the icing on the cake of a hugely successful campaign? Maybe the underground ‘student’ army will mobilise and blog the hell out of it in the following 24 hours having seen this image somewhere in a free evening paper.

Either way, I was struck by the fact this was the ONLY marketing I had seen, which made me think…

What if it was my fault? What if it was so brilliantly done that the campaign targeted ONLY the movie’s audience (mainly students) and therefore missed me out with clinical precision. How would I ever know? How many other campaigns are whizzing over (or through) my head without me being aware? I almost feel a bit left out. Like a kid no-one wants in their team for a game for football. #Sniff#

So here’s the challenge… have you seen any marketing for Disaster Movie? I’m genuinely interested to see where it was placed and in what context just to see why it missed me.

At the end of the day, at least it made me smile as I passed.

Just one of those random questions that popped into my head a while back.

Luckily, I’ve just got back from two weeks in Borneo and I’m probably as tanned as I’m going to get. Without going into too much detail, the answer is yes.

Now let that be the end of the matter.

Wow, I’ve just discovered Applescript… after 15 years!

If you have a Mac and you’re even remotely drawn towards programming or fiddling, you’ve got to have a fiddle with Applescript. Never really though about it but had one of those nagging “I wish I could just…” issues with resizing images to send via email or post to blogs.

All I wanted was a simple drag-and-drop utility to resize my images ready for posting. After a few searches, I found a thread about using Applescript to do it and some sample script. I looked in my Applications folder and there it was, the Applescript editor. A copy-paste later, a bit of editing and saving the code as an application later… I had a desktop app to resize my images! Yay!

I do have plans to make one app that asks you what size you want before starting the batch, but I haven’t found the time to fiddle some more. In the meantime, I thought I’d share the ‘drop-apps’ I created from the script mentioned above. I’ve got these on my desktop and I just drag an image on to resize it. The app will save the new image in the same location but prefix the filename with the new size.

There is an app for each of the sizes I regularly require. If you need a different size, just drag the app onto your Applescript editor and change the “set the target_width to 640″ to whatever you need.

Here are the ones I use:

Resize to 240 pixels

Resize to 320 pixels

Resize to 640 pixels

Resize to 800 pixels

I also experimented with an app that converted PC remote VPN filepaths from our work server and opened the file on your desktop. All very cool. You’ll be surprised just how powerful it is so give it a go!

Hope it comes in handy!