The Agency Dream

The agency I have now is not the agency I wished for!

What do I mean by that? I had a dream of being the ‘best’ agency around, with work that everyone would envy, designs that would make people say wow to, an agency that people who are passionate about the web would aspire to design like and want to work for, basically an awesome agency. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got great staff, I’ve got a great office environment and we work with some great clients but we’ve bent too many of my/our morals on the way.

My agency would be amazing, if it wasn’t for clients.
We would produce stuff of dreams, with no boundaries, no ‘make my logo bigger’, no compromise and no IE6 but we would also be out of business. At the end of the day we have to pay wages and bills and the only money we get are from clients, so although they’ve ruin my dream they also make my dream a possibility.

Don’t get me wrong we have tried to draw a line, we have tried to explain to clients that a bigger logo isn’t the way forward, we tried to explain that it’s not wasted white space, its part of the design and brings balance to the page and increases usability, we’ve tried really hard to explain that it’s not what you want that matters it what your visitors want to see but in the end it’s up to the client. The only analogy I can think of is trying to explain to a child that sweets aren’t good for them, no matter what you say, no matter how many white papers or proofs you bring to them they are still going to eat sweets.

I have come to a few conclusion:
1. That to produce something amazing we have to produce it for ourselves for no other reason that we simply can; without the annoyance of clients, money or a brief. The only issue with this great idea is time and money.

2. We need to produce a product that we can love, like a web app with features and designs we decide upon, with users that want to use our software without the ability to interfere.

3. Sometimes we need to stand up for our principals and tell clients that we are unwilling to make the changes they want, despite the cost or emotional turmoil that may bring.

So what are am I going to do about it?
We are going to dedicate 1/5 to 1 day a week to a internal project of our choosing, but until we make our millions from our internal project we will still be saying “yes, if you really want..but you really shouldn’t because…” to clients.

iPad vs Kindle Review

I been trying to decide whether to buy an iPad or kindle for a while now. I thought I would write up a quick explanation of why I ended up buying an ipad for anyone else out there trying to decide between the two.

Kindle

Basically I really like the new look of the kindle, it’s small, has a massive battery life and can hold 3500 books; furthermore it has some web browsing features and it can handle PDFs. I also heard it has some social media integration like Twitter but not sure whether that is actually true. I’m not a big reader and the reading I do is mostly on my iPhone just before I go to bed or when i’m on my pc going through my RSS reader catching up on all the blogs I follow. I did however think that because the kindle was so small and light and cheap I would be much more likely to carry it around and also the books I would buy would also sync with my iPhone kindle app. The final feature I was really keen on was the clipping and highlighting as I do this with normal books however I never go over them again and I though the kindle might solve this by having a library of clips I couldnsearch though.

iPad

I really like the idea of the iPad, ten hours battery, internet, lots of apps and just looks cool. The only things that were stopping me were the price and the fact it was Apples 1st attempt at a tablet and I remember the 1st iPhone being a bit rubbish. Moreover, no tethering, closed OS, no camera and did I mention it’s really expensive but it does have lots of apps.

Why I’ve ended up buying an iPad

It came down to a couple of things, I use my Google RSS reader a lot and the kindle doesn’t have apps that support this and I use Twitter a lot and again I wasn’t sure about the kindle’s integration with this. Also I came to the conclusion that I could use the iPad kindle app to buy all my books and if I ever decide to get a kindle they would just sync across anyway so no wasted money.

So now that I’ve got one

It’s great, it’s basically replaced my home computer and laptop for surfing the web and I have also found myself using my iPhone apps a lot less at home. I ended up getting the cheapest one as I didn’t want to be tied into a data plan and also I thought most my stuff would be on the cloud so I wouldn’t need a huge amount of storage. Before I took the plunge two friends highly recommend it for me and I’m glad they persuaded me because I love it, I’m just waiting for my case to turn up to I can bring it everywhere I go.

Things that are rubbish on the iPad

I have made a list of things which bug me with the iPad, some of them will get fixed when iOS 4 gets released for the iPad (currently on version 3), some will only bug me and some Steve Jobs will never fix.

• No multi-tasking
• Apps and websites that are built for the iPhone only look and work like shit for example Facebook app, Skype app, Google Reader website, google tasks etc.
• Speakers are in mono, could really do with a couple of speakers when watching video.
  Within the App store you cannot filter via free, paid and popular like when you view the app store from the iPhone.
• When the screen is dark, like when watching films, the reflection off the screen is really bad.
• No tabbed browsing for safari, this one really bugs me. They,ve basically used the same browser on the iPhone and it’s not enough. Tabs are really needed especially when surfing s few websites.
• No podcast subscribe you still have to sync with iTunes. I don’t mind this so much on my iPhone but syncing my iPad every couple of days is really annoying.
• Safari and apps seems to crash a lot but hopefully iOS 4 will fix this.
• Finally no flash, again don’t mind it too much on my iPhone but because my iPad is now my primary surfing tool I really notice the absence of flash.

Conclusion

I bought an iPad and haven’t looked back but I’m not using the kindle app as much as I hoped I would mainly because the apps and internet is too much of a distraction. Even with the looming samsung galaxy and blackberry play tablets on the horizon I still think the iPad is the best tablet around, at least until the iPad 2 is released. And what of the kindle? well I’m probably going to end up buying on of those as well, it’s only £110 after all.

Oh yeah, I also wrote this whole review on my iPad with the WordPress app.

Great American Psycho Quote

A great quote:

“We have to end apartheid and slow down the nuclear arms race, stop terrorism and world hunger. Ensure a strong national defence, prevent the spread of violence within central urban areas, work on the middle east settlement, prevent US military involvement overseas. We have to ensure that the US is respected as one of the world’s economic leaders. Now that’s not to belittle our domestic problems, which are equally important, if not more. Better and more affordable long -term care for the elderly , control and find the cure for the AIDS epidemic, clean up environmental damage from toxic waste and pollution, improve the quality of primary and secondary education, strengthen laws to crack down on crime and illegal drugs. We also have to ensure university education is affordable to everyone and protect the Medical Health Service for everyone plus conserve natural resources and areas of nature beauty and reduce the influence of political action committees.”“But economically we’re still a mess. We have to find a way to hold down the inflation rate and reduce the national debt. We also need to provide training and jobs for the unemployed as well as protecting existing US jobs from unfair foreign imports. We have to make England and the rest of the US a leader in new technology and at the same time preserve our historical companies. We need to promote economic growth and business expansion and hold the line against income tax and hold down interest rates while promoting opportunities for small businesses and control mergers and big corporate takeovers.”

“We cannot ignore our social needs either. We have to stop people for abusing our welfare system, while still providing food and shelter for the homeless. We need to oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights while also promoting equal rights for women but change abortion laws to protect the right to life yet still maintain women’s freedom of choice. We have to control the influx of illegal immigrants. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values and curb graphic sex and violence on TV, in the movies, in popular music, everywhere, but allow freedom of choice to those above a consenting age. Most importantly we have to promote general social concerns and less materialism in young people.”

Patrick Bateman

My Wish List

There are a few cool things in the world that would really love to try, I’m not just talking about the latest tech from the big players like Apple, Google or Microsoft. I think the heavily funded small guys have some really innovative ideas.

23andMe

https://www.23andme.com/

23andMe is a retail DNA testing service providing information and tools for consumers to learn about and explore their DNA. It covers information such as Ancestry and Health; things like finding and connecting with relatives, map the global origins of your ancestors, tells you whether you carry any inheritable diseases or whether you are generically more at risk to certain diseases.

Basically it’s cool.

Cost: $499

ZEO

http://www.myzeo.com/

Zeo claims to be a personal sleep coach and is essentially a brain wave monitor linked to an alarm clock and an online application. It tracks sleeping pattern which include, hours of sleep, REM sleep, Light sleep and Deep sleep furthermore it rates you sleep which provide you with a sleep quality and quantity. If you subscribe to the web application it will also provide you with tips and tailored recommendations on how to get the most out of your sleep.

Although not avaliable in the UK.

Cost:$349

Fitbig

http://www.fitbit.com/

Fitbit accurately tracks your calories burned, steps taken, distance traveled and sleep quality. Fitbit contains a 3D motion sensor that tracks your motion in three dimensions and converts this into useful information about your daily activities. You can wear the Fitbit on your waist, in your pocket or on undergarments. At night, you can wear the Fitbit clipped to the included wristband in order to track your sleep. Anytime you walk by the included wireless base station, data from your Fitbit is silently uploaded in the background to Fitbit.com

Again not avaliable in the UK!

Cost: $99 (a bargain!)

Then there is the normal stuff

Xbox – (update: just bought one)

Nice Watch

Digital SLR Camera

iPad

Mini-amp

Amazon wishlist

https://www.amazon.co.uk/registry/wishlist/1XN6FKURTK4RN

And that’s it, Im sure there’s load of other stuff out there just waiting for me to find an put onto my wishlist.

2010 New Year’s Resolutions

My new year resolution for 2010.

1. Visit 2 countries I haven’t been to before
2. Learn to play an instrument
3. Learn to do a back flip off a wall
4. Learn Ballroom Dancing
5. Get a resting pulse rate of below 55bpm – (Done Jan 15th)
6. Drink more water
7. Pay all standard personal outgoings through recurring passive income
8. Eat less red meat
9. Read at least a book a month
10. Reduce alcohol intake to within Government recommended amounts
11. Find a PLP
12. Be true to myself