Woop woop!

After almost two years of procrastination I've finally managed to take myself on a real holiday to the Isles of Scilly, St. Agnes to be exact.

Here's some quick photos.

Full resolution snaps will go on flickr when I get back. :)

Hellicar & Lewis gave a talk in June at Northern Digitals BLAB Night.

It was a really awesome talk so I was very pleased that it was videoed.

I really really enjoyed the talk - look at some of my reactions on identi.ca.

"This has been one my favorite and inspiring events I've been to this year."

This was a quote from my identi.ca the evening it took place. I still stand by it.

I really recommend watching it, and checking out OpenFrameworks

Young Rewired State Manchester's video of the events of the week

Shot on a Nokia N900, Edited in Kdenlive by @tdobson on the train down to London.

Audio:
Give (Us Your Heart Remix)
Music by Kerodean / Lyrics by DJ Connectionist / Vocals by Tdobson

Download the ogg from here: http://ur1.ca/10su6
Download the Audacity src here: http://ur1.ca/0zy17

Licence: Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0

I'm so happy for Laura Dekker.

Laura is a 14yro Dutch girl with big ambitions and lots of persistence.

She wants to circumnavigate the world, singlehanded (with stops).

If you remember Laura was told by a court a few months ago that she couldn't go because she was too young and inexperienced. She's just managed to talk them round and, as I understand, has already set off!

Whether she completes it or not, as far as I'm concerned, isn't the point. She's managed to get to the starting line which, for her, has been incredibly tough in itself. I can only start to imagine her frustrations!

Young Rewired State 2009

What is Young Rewired State?

Young Rewired State (YRS) is a initiative that aims to support young developers and coders in using public data to build apps, websites and anything else that people may use. It is about mashing up and getting out there with data people may not have seen or experienced before.

Who can take part?

Anyone aged between 15-18.

When is it?

YRS will take place *next week* between Monday 2nd August and Friday 6th August 2010

Where is it taking place?

YRS is taking place at centres across the country - there are centres in Brighton, London, Norwich, Oxford, Birmingham and Manchester.
In Manchester we will be based at the MadLab - a space well-known for digital collaboration in the city centre.

What will happen?

We will meet on the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the MadLab and work together on ideas and developments. On Friday 6th August we will take the train down to London to meet the other teams, show & tell our work and perhaps win a prize!

I live in a flat, not a particularly exciting flat, in the centre of Manchester. It's nice enough, but a world away from what I grew up with in Glossop.

I thought getting some sort of plant might make things a bit more homely..

My new triffid:

You can now fan my Triffid on Facebook, if you're into that kind of thing!

Blame Loz Kaye for that!

It's been quite hot over the last few days...

On a quick trip back to Glossop, my dog Bess thought it was a bit too hot and flopped out on the lawn.

I got these photos on my phone...

When your fir is black, it gets hot in the sun.

A few weeks back I went to Barcamp Blackpool which was pretty awesome.

Rick Quick made a video of it with a slightly embarrassing few clips of me it.

Shout out to Keri Sholicar for the awesome T-shirt design!

Big thanks to Gemma Cameron for putting the leg work in to make it happen. I know what it's like - it's certainly not easy - but Gemma pulled it off - Well Done! :)

I made this video with footage I took of DFEY (Digital Freedom in Education & Youth) at Young Rewired State 2009.

Unfortunately, I lost the original footage before I could complete the video and this short is all that remains.

My apologies for the low quality and the overlaid time-code.

Shot on a Sanyo Xacti WH1 and edited in Kdenlive.

I'm helping to run an event on Thursday 8th July to introduce this years the next generation of coders and designers to Manchester's Young Rewired State event.

Young Rewired State is a decentralised, UK-wide, hack-week open to anyone aged 15 to 18 with an interest in data, coding or design.
This year, it's the first week of August.

It's a great way for young people to learn what skills are needed for industry, make friends with people at the cutting edge of technology and perhaps, develop the next 'killer' app!