View More at my flickr set page

The We I mention are Paul Stanton, Ryan Taylor, Deb Bassett and of course ME!..

We had a good response yesterday from the preshow which was just to get Stanton and Taylor used to talking via a podcast and will be recording the next one… soonish

The real one launches in Jan with lots and lots of shiney (read: crappy) video until we can afford some decent stuff

Version Control by Lorna

Q and A by Rockstar

(half of) TV 3 by Mark

and a few others, I really was intending on podcasting the day and doing some interivews but that really didn’t go to plan, however people seemed to like the day and have blogged some good stuff (especially about my session) and who could forget the ultimate barcamp battle of Rockstar’s latest game - Wii Table Tennis, in one corner - DOM, someone who never touched the game before, in the other corner IAN - Art Director for Rockstar Leeds, it was a tense battle with the warmup game handed to Ian first off but when The Hodge got into it Rockstar was defeated!.

The best bit about barcamp is the evening, and thanks to Rockstar for helping us out with that (congratulations to all afterparty attendees for out geeking a Rockstar coder), theres a lot of pictures floating around the internet, (do a search on flickr for barcampleeds)

God knows when the next one will be but I’m sure you’ll be informed..

As for geekup, last night I did a presentation about MTGCast and how it grew from this small little podcast to a network of casts thats too big for its own good ;), it was a 20:20 presentation that I felt went badly because well basiclly with everything that had been going on this week, I didn’t have time to sit down and go through it, but the information was there and it was a starting point for people to ask me questions after the presentation (of which I got quite a few).

We also announced the development of Northcast (I’ll link when things are up), a podcast that will demonstrate the abilities of northen companies and developers, the presentation was a “test the waters” thing to gauge peoples reaction and I’m glad I did a lot of people had comments and seems genuinely enthusiastic about it, a lot offered advice and quite a few wanted to book a slot to demo / talk about there site, company, experience, Ryan and Paul of Havoc Stuidos also joined as partners in podcasting, podcasting with people you know and gel with works a lot better (as was said in my presentation).

There are plans for a Rockstart’s Party in the evening however that hasn’t been finailised yet…

Thanks to everyone at Rockstar Leeds for being so accommodating and we look forward to kicking your arse…at the game you made?

(since I’ve had a few questions,

• I’m one of the organisers so this isn’t a load of Bollocks
• Rockstar Make Grand Theft Auto
• I don’t know if they are looking for developers.. ask them on the day

• http://www.openstreetmap.org/ was displayed with an invitation to an Open Street Map Party In Leeds (I’ll probably be in attendance)
• Someone I Have No Idea Who - did a presentation on eye tracking.

After the contreversy of last months presentations I’m hesitent to write my thoughts down but I believe I told Deb and Rob last night what I thought so o well, The presentations did an excellent job..there I said it… BRING ON THE FLAMES..

But seriously I felt that the Open Mapping presentation was more suited to the 20:20 style because of the information that was displayed, I can honestly say I remember hardly any specifics about the Eye Tracking one which is disappointing because I was looking forward to it, I understand 20:20 is ment to keep things exciting and not bore the audience but with certain subjects… 20seconds per slide just isn’t enough, don’t get me wrong half an hour on the subject and I would be typing a complaint about the length of the presentation but this is a choice for the organisers but I’ve gotta put my 2 penneth worth in..

As for me, well an interesting conversation sort of took over the nigh, what started off as a joke turned into a full fledged idea and marketing promotion.

whilst having a chat with a few friends somehow we approched the subject of the training for my run and if any companies were sponsoring me to which I replyed no, somehow the offer was there that all my expenses would be paid if I did the run in a Borat Mankini, upon hearing this Imran stepped in and upped the ante, £5000 on the table if instead, I walked from my Office to the next opencoffee in the center of Leeds in the afore mentioned Mankini, there was a lot talk and discussion at that and pretty soon plans for a YouTube promotion and BBC Local and ITV Calendar interviews were in motion…

Two bright sparks then tried to get there website on my two arse cheeks and thus the Million Dollar Arse Cheek Plan was in motion, Although I’ve lost a bit of weight im sure I have a lot more than a million pixels on my posterior, what if I was to sell the space at a $1 a pixel…. COMPANIES WOULD GRAB AT THE CHANCE… (though that would be sexual harrasement and wrong)…

Anyway It was a good night thanks Deb and Rob , thanks Paul and Ryan for the lift home (you already have your links), Thanks Imran for an interesting conversation subject.

Next Month: I may be doing a presentation on Making Cash With Banners / APIS / Fun Stuff

I’m in North Wales in a place called Llandudno, quite a nice place and I’ve been here around one and a half weeks.

On the 2nd day I had to send my laptop back for reapir due to power issues and it STILL hasn’t been returned (roll on NEXT wednesday). Holidays are usually the best time for me to relax and code and intresting section or part of my websites, this year I havn’t managed to do any of that ( apart from design some outlines on a big pad of paper) but hell its been nice not having a laptop and just relaxing (don’t get me wrong the laptop is coming next time…)

I missed opencoffee this week which is a shame but its geekup a couple of days after I get back which will be great.

Anyway I think we are going to Bangor today so I’m sure I’ll be blogging again soon

I read a lot of blogs and news sources, sometimes I feel the internet is too slow for news but thats a different story.

I love books that make me giggle (and I do giggle), Bill Bryson and I love script books, I have a lot of tv show script books  and scripts from films that I love…

So my tens of readers, what do you like to read?