The new Google Earth version has all the topographical info and the occasional 3D building. It’s like travelling the world all over again. Absolutely breathtaking,. It’s like air travel without the horrors of immigration awaiting you at the other end. They’ve still got to improve the resolution of Kingston, mind. maybe when the population hits 4 figures they’ll upgrade it…
This just in from London’s premier ecologically-minded design agency, Sprout, aka Bert’s Big Green Business: Binvention is now on sale and apparently in a range of hues.
“Gets your recycling sorted” ain’t a bad tagline. Don’t think it’s bin done before. Looks like an offer too good to refuse. Can‘t think of any more crap puns. It wouldn’t be of huge use here in Mexico, as recycling of cans as part of household waste is something only done by the extremely conscientious. If you’re dead set on saving the world, your best bet is to collect your cans, in a Binvention or otherwise, then leave it next to the rubbish which gets collected 3 times a week. Either it’ll get taken away by the dustmen and shoved in landfill or it might just get picked up by someone collecting cans to sell to metal yards for a few pesos. Interesting that household waste is the only thing that doesn’t get recycled. Everything else seems to get fixed and live forever womble style, fridges, tvs, cars, furniture etc…
Anyroad, here’s Bert’s junk email in full:
Our binvention is now on sale!
We have Limited Edition batch of binventions in red, green, dark turquoise and plain aluminium and you can get yours here: http://www.sproutdesign.co.uk/buy_a_binvention.htm or return the order-form we’ve attached. They are also available for collection from our studio in Hoxton and you can arrange a time by replying to this email.Competition Winner and Results
Thank you for your votes and wonderful comments – in all we had over 300 votes! Our lucky winner was Saara Renvall, from Imu Design in Finland. She said ‘I never win anything! This was a GREAT surprise!” see all of the results here: http://www.sproutdesign.co.uk/competition_results.htmBinvention shortlisted for the Grand Designs Magazine Awards
Our recycling bin is up for an Award in the ‘eco product’ category.Eco Design Summer Fair
The Eco-Design Summer Fair returns this year with a host of British-designed, ethically manufactured and
fairly-traded products. We’ll be there selling bins so come find us — it is on Sunday 18th June in Islington. More details here: http://www.ecodesignfair.co.uk/Do you need sprouting?
Sprout Design is an award winning innovation and design consultancy and our main business is product, packaging and furniture design. Our designs are characterised by being clever, friendly and easy to use – we put people first. We’ve also got experience designing websites, leaflets, books, posters, cards etc. We’re currently available for work, so please have a think about whether you or anyone you know might be needing anything and get in touch at info [at] sproutdesign.co.uk
I’ve a few video clips too I might post later. A bientot, mes lecteurs.
EDIT: Some Web 2.0 site asked for permission to use some of my Minerva photos, help yourself I said:
Eat my goal… Classic Alan Partridge:
We’re off to the Minerva to shout a bit and have a coffee to celebrate.
Well the plan was to go to La Fuente cantina @ 8am (when the England vs Paraguay match starts over here), but I didn’t make it after a latish night sampling the wares of Sacromonte (new top 5 Guadalajara restaurant) and a few drinks at the bar opposite. i can’t remember its name, but its logo is the same as Enron’s (a slanted E) and finished off with Dr.Who (Cheap and cheerful cross between The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, The Matrix, The 5th Element and er, Dr. Who). A well nice evening all round. So I watched the match at home, good first half, dull second half… but we won… Then I spent an hour or so pestering people around the world on Skype and now I have to do stuff: Sort out the divine salon . com .mx website, source a Sopranos DVD set and a few other minor errands. Sita’s got the camera cos she’s off with her professor friend and a gaggle of reporters interviewing tequileros in the countryside. It’s harder to motivate myself to go out if I don’t have my camera on me, but I’ve got a few new podcasts to keep me busy. Found a great kareoke program too, more of which later. Comment if you’d like me to post my rendition of The Bangles’ Eternal Flame… Darlin’
Instead of full blown reviews, check out the ‘Consumed’ iFrame to the right (bottom IE users) in 10 minutes or so… Righty, a la chamba…
Friday’s Ocio is usually Guadalajara’s events listing, new reestaurants, gigs, exhibitions, etc. This week an article caught my eye on home chemistry and DIY. It’s gearing up for a thunderstorm right now and hopefully I won’t ever have to mix up this concoction:
Tiempo de lluvias, tiempo de frescura. Pero no todo es felicidad, porque algunas veces las goteras invaden nuestras casas y entonces llega el tema de impermeabilizar. Si no se cuenta con mucho presupuesto la solución más recomendable es la cal. La fórmula es simple: 70 litros de agua, tres jabones Lirio y un kilogramo de alumbre. Acto seguido, hay que hervir los jabones y el alumbre de manera separada en un gal’n de agua. Luego se diluye la cal en los 70 litros de agua., y después se revuelve con el alumbre y la cal. La mezcla se aplica sobre el techo (dos o tres manos mínimo) con una escoba y listo. La cubierta lo protegerá por lo menos seis meses.
(translation:) The rainy season, a season for freshness. But it’s not happiness all the way… because sometimes the rain gets into our homes and that’s where the whole waterproofing issue comes up. If you don’t have much in the way of a budget then the best solution is lime (calcium). The formula is simple: 70 litres of water, 3 Lirio soaps and a kilo of alum. First thing to do is boil up the soaps and the alum separately in a gallon of water. Then dilute the lime with the 70 litres of water and then mix it together with the alum. The mixture is applied to the roof (A minimum of 2 or 3 pairs of hands will be needed) with a mop and Bob’s your uncle. The covering will protect it for at least 6 months.
I worry most about the thousands of “roof dogs” across this vast metropolis though…
They need to get this bloke: Things That Make Me Angry on Room 101 asap.
Just saw an ad for the new(ish) Dr. Who series on megacable (People & Arts), tomorrow at 10pm… Shall have to interrupt whatever I’m doing, grab a cushion and watch that one. We’re also about to embark on The Sopranos season 6 too. Saw the first one yesterday and it was like it never went away shall try and buy the Official Box Pack down at San Juan de Dios maana.
We went to the cinema this evening to see Good Night and Good Luck, but it wasn’t on till 10pm so we thought bugger that and went for a coffee and are about to play online boggle… Yeah, that’s living alright…
Just got another freelance job, audio editing some tracks to remove vocals and transpose them a couple of tones down. I think there’s plenty of freeware that’ll do just that. Ka-ching!
I’m developing a new habit of writing about myself in the first person plural… Anyroad, just posting this as a SEO thing and it’s a handy article for people wondering how business gets done round my way. It’s on my main site in Spanish, but it doesn’t hurt to have keyword rich articles under the same domain name and since I wrote it in English first I’ll shove it up here. Still trying to summon up the critical skills for those films I mentioned a few posts back. There’s a good few books too, but they’ll get short shrift here.
How does the whole AgaveWeb design process work?
We don’t expect you to be experts in web design, that’s what you’re paying us for! However if you do know about the process so much the better! For that reason we encourage you to ask questions throughout the process if there’s anything you need clarification on. What follows is a description of how your site will be built from the initial ideas to going live and updates thereafter.
Hi, I’m Gwyn and I’ll be your bilingual web developer…
Firstly there is an initial meeting with the client, preferably in person but also by phone or email, during which we establish the goals of your site. Once we have discussed your requirements we can decide on a package or a bespoke solution. What we need to know before starting are the following:
The domain name you’d like, eg. www.midominio.com or www.minegocio.com.mx, etc.
We’ll help you decide on a good name. The best names are short and easy to remember. A name you won’t have to spend time spelling out for people, eg. http://gwyn2xyg.net.uk . If you already own a domain name you’ll have to give us the details of the company you bought it from so we can use it. If you don’t have one yet we can arrange it for you (prices vary according to whether it’s a .com, .org, .com.mx, etc.)
The full name of your company and tag line/ slogan.
All sites we produce are optimized for search engines, Google, Yahoo!, etc. This means including all kinds of invisible meta information which gets picked up by the ‘search robots’ that crawl the web in order to provide them in search results. Your company name will be prominently displayed on all pages in text and in the form of your logo.
Your site objectives
This is the most important piece of information we gather. The more specific the objective, the better. For example, ‘increase sales” is a feasible goal, but it is better to define how to do this. For example, to provide an online catalog so that clients can see what products you offer and make it easier to contact you. Or to improve efficiency by reducing time on the phone explaining common questions such as your location or opening hours. This will help us decide the next point:
Pages / Sections in the site
On the downloadable form there is a list to give you ideas. We will suggest the main parts you need based on your answer to the last question. Pages or sections might include: Welcome, Contact Form, Gallery, Catalog, Blog, FAQs, etc.
Design information.
Is there an existing colour scheme for your organization?
Are there any competitor’s sites you like? Which elements?
What adjectives would you like to describe your site? eg. Modern, traditional, youthful, colourful, sober, exciting, etc.
Do you have a logo?
If you prefer not to have to think about this design information now, leave it to us! We’ll make sure the overall look of the site perfectly compliments your company’s image and objectives.
Hosting options.
All websites need a hosting service. This is where the files that make up your site are stored and are sent from whenever someone goes to your site. We can arrange this or we can recommend a hosting provider for you. We generally recommend paying for this annually for a reduced price (between 50 and 70 US dollars depending on optional extras)
Photos
Do you have any images, on paper or files to use for the site? If not we can arrange a time for a photo shoot.
Content
It is up to the client to provide the text for the site. We’ll need to have the contact details of the person who will be responsible for this. If your site is going to be bilingual we’ll also need to know who will approve the translations.
You can download the form that we use during this first meeting here. (PDF) Once we have all this information we can decide on which packet suits your needs and produce a timeline and cost estimate.
A typical timeline for a small to medium sized site looks like this:
and it looks like Dad’s been playing with the Hockneyizer:
about the distinct lack of blogging of late, the blame lies with www.viveajijic.com now with less lorem ipsum and more English… Click on the pinche US of A’s flag for a preliminary English translation of the jewel of Lake Chapala’s premier events listing service… I’m chuffed with the guestbook and gallery. I’m also planning on having javascript see what language settings your computer has and sending you to the appropriate page. I’d really appreciate it if you could comment whether the photo gallery page works since I’ve had problems with simple viewer and cross browser compatibility before now. There should be 30 or so photos popping up to click on. Thanks in advance 😀
Coming soon to these agave/paint/bunny-filled pages, reviews of: Spanish film: Crimen Ferpecto (The Ferpect Crime), United 93 (Truly distressing ‘entertainment’), and if tonight goes as planned, ‘Good Bye and Good Luck’ which has only just come out in Mexico. Also a bit more info on Pocilga Fest 2006 from last Sat.
Lastly, I’m well happy with a new Flickr toy that “Hockneyizes” your photos. Here’re a couple:
Also considering a jaunt back to the UK in early December, anyone around then?
I’m going to have a go at embedding a Flickr slideshow. Pics are from the Colomos Park in Providencia, filled with joggers and too-bold-by-far squirrels. And the occasional rabbit. Rodents galore, basically. Did lots of playing with the depth of field…
Next mission is to work out how to stop it autoplaying…
I’ve been having a bit of a lie-in and shall prob’ly blog later about last night’s activities. In the meantime have a video of some cats …
Another car crash occurred at the crossroads outside out house, quite a nasty one actually. I wasn’t here for it though, Sita was. Luckily our house is on the ‘safe side’ of the dangerous crossing. Anyroad, they took out a chunk of the electricity/telephone pole and now it’s being kept up by the wires. I always thought the poles were to keep the wires in the air, but turns out I had it the wrong way round.
I was feeling pretty guilty at not having achieved anything at all yesterday save for a few blog items so I packed up my camera and mp3 playa and set off for a stroll. I thought I’d check in on the area where I used to live 8/9 years ago, called Tolsa. I was very happy to find my taco shop, Tacos Rafa was still in business. They’ll serve you anything you like as long as it’s Tacos al Pastor in freshly made tortillas. They remembered me and we spent half an hour reminiscing about the good old days. Then their son (also Rafa) came back from work. He was 6 or 7 when I saw him last and he and his brother (Luis) used to hang out with us in the casa internacional. Anyroad it was a grand reunion. And the tacos aren’t half bad neither. They said to come back, even if i wasn’t hungry and I said I’d bring Sita along for them to meet her. Lovely peeps. Here’s their photo:
I ambled back home via Mondo Cafe in Chapultepec (for one of their famous bucket’o’coffees) then off for farewell drinks for Sarah as she is moving on to better and fulbrighter things in Wisconsin, Belgium and Guatemala if memory serves… Victor y Jana came out ‘n’all and we had a stormin’ evening in the Sacromonte bar replete with veggies and chile, cueritos (soggy pork scratchings) and ceviche (riceless sashimi on a budget/ marinated raw fish) and then some proper food. If you’re reading, Sarah, you’re going to be well missed round here. Don’t be surprised to be hounded to the ends of the earth, or belgium, by skype…
The thing is that right now I’ve got some projects on the go but I’m waiting for people to get back to me before I can continue, so I end up surfing the net reorganizing my desk. I can’t really look for more clients because next week I’ll be up to me neck in projects again. Anyroad, that’s my explanation for the proliferation of links in the last 24 hours. Also today’s Friday so there’s B3ta‘s newsletter and the newly free The Friday Thing.
Anyway this one’s via BoingBoing: Woman struck by lightning while praying… favourite line: “She said ‘Amen’ and the room was engulfed in a huge ball of fire. “
Did America get Thomas the Tank Engine voiced by Ringo Starr? It was a thinly disguised series of morality tales by some English vicar or other where Thomas usually ended up getting bricked into a tunnel for not being strong enough to make it up a hill. I know they made some travesty of a children’s film out of it, but the original ITV series tune was better than the series itself. Anyroad, if you didn’t get it, tell me if it tickles your fancy, my stateside readers… :
See review two posts down then click for a review from a Scottish farmer here: Private Eye
Click that there link and wave yer mouse around, hitting the left button occasionally. Strangely therapeutic, no? And when you start getting bored with it, just pretend you’re Gerald Scarfe instead of Mr. Pollock…
