Music. Marketing. Macs. Not necessarily in that order.
January 22nd, 2012
Well, it’s fair to say that my new role is time consuming – fantastic and I love it – but definitely time consuming.
If you’re interested in what I’m up to (and I assume that by being here you are!), then I suggest you re-point your browser to www.inphi.net or go direct to www.inphi.net/news… or go crazy and read both of those, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
Speak soon,
RB
November 8th, 2011
Hi – if you’ve come to this site to complain about a piece of spam I’ve sent you, I didn’t. I haven’t and I wouldn’t.
For the past few days my Spam items on Gmail has been filled with bouncebacks generated by ISPs around the world, returning emails I’ve supposedly sent promoting everything from college degrees to pills to enlarge the male member.
Nope. Not me.
I’m sorry if one of these emails has reached your Inbox but I didn’t send them. Someone’s appropriated my email address. If you look at the web sites these emails direct you to, you’ll notice they’re nothing to do with me or rossbrown.co.uk
Things to do before I’m 40ish…
November 4th, 2011
Completely and utterly inspired by my friend Caroline’s blog post on the same theme but with a twist that I can’t really avoid.
Unlike Caroline who’s only 34, I’m 40 in less than four months and there’s simply no way I could achieve everything on this list in such a short period of time.
Continue reading...
October 3rd, 2011
If you’re anything like me – which, for your sake, I hope you’re not – you’re a little bit giddy right now.
It’s like being an eight year old the night before Christmas: you’re fairly sure there’s going to be a shiny new bike under the tree but you don’t know the precise details. The bike’s enough to get you excited but you’re still going to get giddy when you discover the bike’s colour, number of gears and wheel diameter.
Tomorrow at 6pm, those lovely people at Apple will announce… well, nobody’s quite sure.
Noel Gallagher, me and the music industry
September 12th, 2011
I play the guitar. Not very well, I may add. But it keeps me amused.
I’m completely self-taught (something which is evident to all who have had the ‘pleasure’ of hearing me) and, whilst I know what sounds wrong, it takes me time to find the right notes and chords to find what’s right for a particular song I want to play.
So I do what every bedroom guitarist does – and hit The Google ™
It doesn’t matter what musical genre is your preference, the chances are high that you’ll discover a web site somewhere where someone with more talent than you has worked out that that tricky chord before the chorus in “Don’t look back in anger” is an A flat over an E7 (which is tricky to play, let me tell you).
Anyway…
I’ve noticed more and more recently that the web sites I visit for my instruction are shutting down or their catalogues are getting deleted. I presume this as a consequence of legal action because, after all, the musical notation of a song is as much copyright as the song itself.
But… well, there’s always a but. And, yes, I’m going to rail against the music industry again.
I have form after all.
September 5th, 2011
Hello faithful readers.
I’ve not been meeting your every need recently have I? And, for that, I’m truly sorry. Call it pressure of work. Call it pressure of commitments. Call it pressure of life in general.
The truth is, well… it’s not you, it’s me.
Lord knows I’ve got things I want to say. I’ve got more than a dozen draft blog posts written, all waiting for me to spend some quality time with – and get them finished off.
But that time never comes. And the blogs never get finished. I don’t like throwing things up that are half-formed, half-hearted and half-finished.
So… with a promise that I *will* get some new content up and onto this site within the next week – can I recommend you scan my tag archive to find something that tickles your fancy. There’s some interesting stuff here. And I hope to add to it very, very soon.
Yours, apologetically,
Ross
“I wear t-shirts now; t-shirts are cool…”
September 4th, 2011
I’m repeatedly told that I’m getting too old for ‘comedy t-shirts’ but, well, I’m close to begging for an exception with this one.
Oh come on… all I’d need would be the curly wig and booming voice – and my transformation into Tom “Fourth Doctor” Baker would be complete.
No? Still not ‘allowed’ it. Oh well.
Further information on this Doctor Who t-shirt can be found here.
July 25th, 2011
It can’t all be in-depth insights into the world of digital marketing you know.
A boy has to have some diversions.
And, come on, after watching this – aren’t you a even a little bit excited about the next half of the series?
August 27, so I hear, is when the adventure starts again. Yours setting the Sky+…
Let the cool kids play with the new toys first
July 18th, 2011
After a gestation period equal to that of a baby elephant, Spotify has finally launched in the US. The excitement that’s greeted the arrival of the streaming music service has reached epic proportions, with the amount of press coverage far exceeding its likely short-term impact.
With competitor services like Pandora well-entrenched in the US already – and, of course, the colossus that is iTunes generally-considered to be the flick of a switch away from launching a streaming service of its own – Spotify had to find a way of gaining immediate cachet.
And, hats off to whoever came up with the idea, they hit the marketing nail on its social media head.
Continue reading...
July 12th, 2011
Hi there Santa,
Yes I know it’s only July and, well yes, it’s true that I’m accelerating towards 40 but if believing in you will ensure I get what I want this Christmas then I’m happy to ignore these facts for a few minutes – if you’re prepared to put your hand into your bountiful sack and give me one of these.
Continue reading...
Google takes another stab at social
June 29th, 2011
You can’t fault their tenacity. Or their ambition. Because it’s becoming clear that Google’s going to keep coming up with new social media products until one of them sticks, finally, like well-cooked spaghetti to a virtual wall.
The search giant’s latest foray into the world of social is Google+, which is not to be confused with the Google+1 button it launched a few weeks ago, is certainly in no way connected to Google Wave (which, like a ginger stepchild, Google doesn’t like to talk about) and, for those of you keeping track, definitely not Orkut, Google’s ‘big in Brazil’ social network.
So what is it then?
PlayBook ad: subtlety at its best.
June 20th, 2011
You gotta laugh.
I’ve just seen an advert for the new BlackBerry PlayBook – you know the one, the self-styled ‘professional’ answer to the iPad. And the song they’ve chosen to soundtrack this advert?
“Flash” by Queen.
You don’t think this could be a “subtle as a breezeblock” way of reminding people the PlayBook runs Flash – and the iPad doesn’t – do you?
Nah. They’d be more subtle wouldn’t they. Wouldn’t they?
Google Analytics + Deduction = Know your visitors
June 15th, 2011
You gotta love Google Analytics. Combined with some deduction and intelligent reasoning it’s possible for me to identify the individuals who are visiting my web site – and how often. And who doesn’t love having a little insight.
As well as being able to see information on which cities are delivering my visitors, I can also see which web browser they’re using, the computer operating system they’re running and even which internet service provider provides their broadband.
Combine enough of these pieces of information and it’s possible to make an educated guess on which individuals are visiting my web site – and how often. And, of course, I can see which site they visited before… and after they visited my web site.
You gotta love technology.
June 14th, 2011
It’s funny really. I began my career as a writer. Both as a journalist and, after I crossed the floor, as a PR practitioner. Words were my bread and butter. I wrote, I subbed, I revised. Pulitzer Prizes were unlikely to come my way, unless awards were handed out for writing about industrial flooring, but – without wishing to blow my own trumpet – I like to think I had a way with the Queen’s English.
And then, well, my love of technology kicked in. When I was a kid I spent many happy hours transcribing lines of code from a book into my ZX81. And that love of ‘making things happen with computers’ has continued into my late 30s.
Because, whilst I absolutely adore writing English, I also really enjoy writing code. And that’s an odd combination. But me being me, I see symmetry between the two. The flow of a well-constructed sentence is a thing of joy. But so is the happiness I get when I manage to get web code to achieve the aim I want.
Both are a means to an end.
A great sentence delivers a message: helps sell a product, paints a fictional picture or provides an education. It helps to deliver an intended result. Well-written code does the same thing. It delivers the person interacting with it to the destination you wanted them to reach.
Just saying…
1966 adobe album of the month android Apple BBC beatles blog clients facebook farmville Firefox flash geek goodies george harrison Google humour ie6 ios ipad iPhone ipod itunes john lennon Mac Microsoft mp3 MSN Music old skool paul mccartney revolver ringo starr security seo skype social media social networking sony star wars twitter video Windows Work youtube
The clever whizzy tag cloud requires Flash Player 9 or better. Which is why you are just seeing a list.
