Updates from Ed Ross http://blog.edross.co.uk featuring Blatant Follower Promotion and more! posterous.com Sun, 20 May 2012 12:34:02 -0700 My past few months http://blog.edross.co.uk/my-past-few-months http://blog.edross.co.uk/my-past-few-months Hello! You may have noticed I've not posted much recently. Life has gotten quite busy recently. My wife and I have been spending a lot of time planning a new youth group in the village we now live in:

Additionally, it now takes me longer to get to work than it used to when I lived in Portsmouth. We are also trying to make our new back garden in to something more than just a pile of mud, which has been especially hard for the past few weeks when it has been raining so much.

What have you been up to? Please let me know in the comments.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:58:27 -0800 A Boring Report http://blog.edross.co.uk/a-boring-report http://blog.edross.co.uk/a-boring-report On Saturday 19th November 2011, I got out of bed at about 5:50am and started getting ready for my day. This included making some coffee, and eating an apple. The apple was mostly red, with hints of green.

Once I was dressed and ready to get out of the house, a taxi driver knocked on my door. Actually, he knocked moments before I was ready, but they were kind enough to wait for me. By 6:30am, I was in the taxi, being driving me to Gosport Ferry Terminal. The taxi was quite large for one passenger: in fact it was almost a minibus (at least it seemed that way from the outside. Inside it only had a few seats). My wife was also supposed to be travelling with me, but she couldn't make it in the end. I guess when she booked the taxi she might have said it would be for more than one passenger, so that might have accounted for the extra space - or perhaps taxis are just bigger than I remember them being.

The Gosport Ferry Webcam is quite good, if you like to see the sea - and ferrys.

I waited at the Gosport Ferry Terminal for a few minutes, and then the ferry arrived. I queued and then gave the ticket collector my ticket. He clipped it, and then gave it back to me. I say "my" ticket, but really it was a ticket my wife lent to me for the day.

Once the ferry had arrived in Portsmouth, I made my way to Portsmouth Harbour railway station. This journey took about 90 seconds by foot. A few minutes later, I was sitting on the train to London Victoria, waiting for it to set off.

At about 7:12 am, the train set off.

Time passed.

We arrived in London Victoria station at about 9:16am.

I got to the ticket barrier and slid my ticket in to the slot. It was rejected. I tried again. It was rejected again. I guessed the problem was probably that my tickets were bought from an online vendor, rather than offline at a station or on the train. I walked over to the ticket inspector, and showed them my ticket. They let me though. I then realised I had been holding the ticket upside down. I'm still not sure how much attention the inspector paid to the ticket.

As I made my way to the Underground station, I realised I had my Oyster Card in my coat pocket from the last time I went to London. (On that occasion, I met @98rosjon for the first time offline. It was a good meeting. You should meet him too if you have the chance). It was pleasing to find my Oyster Card, but my wife had lent me hers already, so it wouldn't have been too much of a hardship if I hadn't found mine at that time. But it was good that I did anyway, I thought.

I got out of my bag a sheet of paper I had prepared a few days earlier with the instructions for my journey on the underground system printed on it and looked for the entrance to the right set of tubes, so I would end up going the right way. Having had a bit of a false start (I started queueing in a queue designed for those with luggage, when I had none), I eventually found myself on what I believed to be the right platform to catch a tube to Embankment.

I was right.

Getting out at Embankment, I walked to Bank. The walk required having more faith in the Transport For London guide, taking me down a road with very few signs pointing the way to Bank station.

I thought of "The Weakest Link".

I descended the steps to Bank. Bank is an oddly constructed station, with multiple entrances spiralling out from a central circle, and you must remember which location number you entered from so you can make your way out from the same location on your return journey. I checked with the member of staff if I was at the correct location to get a tube to Bethnal Green. They grunted something unintelligible back at me. I decided to take the risk, swipe my Oyster Card along the entrance to the escalators, and descend even deeper into the London underground tube system.

At the bottom of the escalators, I found two archways. One to the left, and one to the right. in front of me were two tube maps. One next to the archway on the left, one next to the archway on the right. One of the maps contained the words "Bethnal Green". I walked through the archway next to the sign (the one on the left).

Once I found I was at Bethnal Green, I remembered I had forgotten to make a map from the station to my intended destination. I started writing a tweet along the lines of: "I've forgotten to make a map - how do I get from Bethnal Green to York Hall?". Just before I was going to send it, I noticed there was a map on the wall, so I walked over to the map and first started trying to identify my current location. Having identified my current location on the map, I then turned my attention to locating York Hall on the map. Soon after I had completed that mission, someone walked past me, turned round, and said my name. That someone was @adamcreen, who somehow had managed to identify me on our first offline meeting from the back of my head. I was impressed, and pleased to see him.

We walked to York Hall together, and talked while we did so.

We arrived at York Hall.

We attended Boring 2011.

After the conference, @adamcreen, his wife, @inRedPen and I walked to a pub in the Bethnal Green area, and @adamcreen was kind enough to buy a round of drinks. I had a Diet Coke. We talked about various subjects. I worried about the time, knowing I would have to get to London Victoria by 8:00pm to get on the train my ticket was for. We talked some more. Then I left, and made my way back to Bethnal Green Underground station. The three others remained in the pub. I don't know  how long for, as I had left.

From Bethnal Green Underground station, I travelled to Bank. I discovered Bank is an oddly constructed station, with multiple entrances spiralling out from a central circle, and you must remember which location number you entered from so you can make your way out from the same location on your return journey. Having made at least one complete circuit of the exits, I made my way  back out to the street, and walked to Embankment.

From Embankment I moved on to London Victoria. I was pleased to find that I hadn't got on an incorrect tube for the entire journey, there and back.

At London Victoria I bought some dinner, and walked down to the train station entrance once I saw which platform my train would be departing from. In front of me stood a man asking for entrance in to the platform area of the station. The ticket inspector checked their ticket, and told the man he had to buy a new one as that ticket had been for a train that had already departed. The man looked sad, and walked away, allowing me to show the inspector my ticket. I showed the inspector my ticket, and they let me through to the train.

The train was long. Actually, it was two trains joined together to make one longer train. I heard the instructions bellowing from the speakers: passengers travelling to Portsmouth Harbour must travel in the front four coaches.

I got in to coach 1, and consumed my dinner. After that, seeing as I had to travel in the first four coaches, I decided to produce a review of the four coaches. This actually took quite some time, and once complete, I was back in Portsmouth.(By the way, I saw  the man with the bad ticket on the train, so they must have been able to get a correct ticket at London Victoria).

But I was only at Fratton Station.

After Fratton Station, the train moved on to Portsmouth and Southsea station, and from there completed its journey at Portsmouth Harbour station, at around 10:06pm. I got off the train and decided to use the stars and bridge over to the exit side of the station. I saw a woman running. I thought they might be running towards a ferry, so I started running too. Well, I walked more quickly anyway. She ran out of the station and headed towards the ferry terminal, but then slowed down and then stopped. The ferry was not there yet. I slowed down too, and walked to the ferry terminal.

There were around 6 or 8 people ahead of me at the ferry terminal, and at first no one behind me. Then several people arrived after me, and then some more. By the time the ferry arrived, there was quite a crowd waiting to board.

I headed back to Gosport on the ferry, and decided to walk home rather than take a taxi.

I walked home.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:52:52 -0800 A post about other religions http://blog.edross.co.uk/a-post-about-other-religions http://blog.edross.co.uk/a-post-about-other-religions I belong to a group that is interested in studying a few different religions. I've recently heard some talks about different religions, so thought it would be good to send them the links so they could hear them too. Also I know of some other resources, so I thought I'd add them all to one blog post to save having to send out a big email of links.

"Truth Between Us" was a series of talks released in late 2011 by Mosaic, which covered the religions below. Best to right-click and Save As:

Islam: Audio / Video
Buddhism: Audio / Video
Atheism: Audio / Video
Hinduism: Audio / Video
Scientology: Audio / Video
Catholicism: Audio / Video
Mormonism: Audio / Video
Judaism: Audio / Video

The Lifespring! Podcast also ran a series about other religions back in 2006/2007. Use the player or download links on the pages:

If reading is more your thing, then check out The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry which has articles about many different religions.

That is all for now.

Please don't turn the comments section of this post in to a flame-war!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross Tue, 30 Aug 2011 06:00:00 -0700 What have the youth ever done for us? http://blog.edross.co.uk/what-have-the-youth-ever-done-for-us http://blog.edross.co.uk/what-have-the-youth-ever-done-for-us

After the 2011 Riots in the UK it may have been hard for some people to belive the youth of the UK could do anything good. I know they can: I've seen it myself. I put a call out on Twitter to see if anyone else could suggest positive youth projects in the UK, and here are the responses so far:

Alan Mellor pointed out The Message Trust, specifically, their Eden Projects, and the Message Enterprise Centre.

The University of the First Age and Jamie Oliver's work with young people were also mentioned.

If you know of any, please suggest more positive youth projects in the UK to show that the youth are not all mindless rioters.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross Sun, 24 Jul 2011 14:28:00 -0700 Jonstieglitz http://blog.edross.co.uk/jonstieglitz http://blog.edross.co.uk/jonstieglitz

Welcome to Blatant Follower Promotion! In this episode, @jonstieglitz talks about:

  • His jobs: keeping us free from radition, and creating web sites;
  • His use of and views on social media and online privacy;
  • Becoming a Christian;
  • And more!

jonstieglitz.mp3 Listen on Posterous
Jon online

Tweet of the week

This week's tweet of the week is from @danlank:

Christian fundamentals: 1) Love God 2) Love your neighbour. What happened in Norway has nothing to do with Christian fundamentals.

What happened in Norway this week was awful. It should not have happened. The suggestion that the man who commited those crimes was doing so becuase of Christian beliefs is worrysome too. Jesus is the centre of the faith, and there is nothing in the way he lived his life that could lead to the idea that bombing and shooting people was a good thing to do.

 

Be interviewed on the show

To be interviewed on the show, please follow me on Twitter - my username is: @edaross .

Music on the show: "I dunno" by grapes (licensed under CC Attribution (3.0))

 

Subscribe in iTunes

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross - Thu, 14 Jul 2011 05:22:00 -0700 What would you reveal online? http://blog.edross.co.uk/what-would-you-reveal-online http://blog.edross.co.uk/what-would-you-reveal-online

A couple of weeks ago I started asking on Twitter to fill in a form telling me what their greatest need is. The form doesn't say how I'll use the results, or if they will be made public. I got 22 results (though 2 were gibberish). Interesting to me though, are the stats for the visitors. I managed to get a screen shot at 100 visitors, which makes working out percentages easy:

Stats
What do you reveal online without thinking about how the results will be used? Do you mind what service providers are doing with the extra information you might be handing to them at the same time?

What assuances do you seek from service providers before you hand over your information?

Please let me know in the comments section.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:21:04 -0700 The podcasts I currently listen to http://blog.edross.co.uk/the-podcasts-i-currently-listen-to http://blog.edross.co.uk/the-podcasts-i-currently-listen-to Here is a rundown of the podcasts I currently listen to:

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross Sun, 29 May 2011 11:43:19 -0700 A web log of social media and web articles http://blog.edross.co.uk/a-web-log-of-social-media-and-web-articles http://blog.edross.co.uk/a-web-log-of-social-media-and-web-articles Here are a selection of articles I've found recently that you might find interesting too:

How do you build local engagement on Twitter? - some good tips here and links to interesting services such as Nearby Tweets to see people tweeting near you (or anywhere else). Say you'd just started a job where you needed to talk to people in your local area on Twitter, that would be a good site to start at.

Take Meeting Minutes From Your Tablet or Laptop With Minutes.io - talks about minutes.io a site you can use to take minutes for a meeting. Could be quite useful with a bit of refining. Not bad for a free tool though. I wonder if they could make custom versions for specific organisations. Maybe having some sort of Twitter integration too?

Find Out What 100+ Corporate Strategists Have Planned for Social Media in 2011 - leads to a 33 page PDF report on social media uses in Corporate environment (once you have entered your email address and other details). I'm currently reading other resources, so this will have to be added to the queue!

Call-to-Action Wording Best Practices - some interesting insights in to helping people follow the calls to action on your web site.

Sorry to the people I found these from - I forgot to add that to my notes. I know some were from @tweetsmarter but I can't remember the rest. Thanks to a new feature on the site, you can now read tweets from the people I follow - the links would have come from them somewhere!

Do you have any articles on social media or web design you'd like to share? Please post them in the comments.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross Sat, 09 Apr 2011 03:33:59 -0700 Posterous http://blog.edross.co.uk/posterous http://blog.edross.co.uk/posterous

Welcome to Blatant Follower Promotion, the @Posterous episode! It was great to have this chance to talk to @richiepear from Posterous, the blogging system I use to bring you Blatant Follower Promotion. I could have asked more questions for hours, but in this half hour interview, we discuss:

  • What is Posterous
  • Posting anything from anywhere
  • Technology troubles and triumphs
  • Posterous Mobile apps
  • The future of Posterous
  • and more!

posterous.mp3 Listen on Posterous

Posterous online

Twitter users of the week

This week's user of the week is: @xboxsupport who are the Guinness World Record Holder for Most Responsive Brand on Twitter and it shows. Many times I've seen people I follow mention their Xbox situations, and @xboxsupport always replies really quickly. Well done to them for leading the way when it comes to Twitter communications from a brand.

I see they use a tool called TweetRiver to coordinate their efforts, but apps such as TweetDeck with their instant updates and custom searches could also be useful if you wanted to track what people are saying about your brand. What Twitter tools do you use and what for? Please let me know in the comments.

Be interviewed on the show

To be interviewed on the show, please follow me on Twitter - my username is: @edaross .

Music on the show: "I dunno" by grapes (licensed under CC Attribution (3.0))

 

Subscribe in iTunes

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross - Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:01:22 -0700 Shirleyar http://blog.edross.co.uk/shirleyar http://blog.edross.co.uk/shirleyar

Welcome to Blatant Follower Promotion, the @shirleyar episode. In the interview, Shirley talks about:

  • Her use of social media
  • Leading Girl Guides
  • Hull
  • The role of faith in her life
  • Women in technology (no, not this album)
  • And more

shirleyar.mp3 Listen on Posterous

Shirley online

April Fools!

Did you have any fun April Fools jokes to share? Add them in the comments please.

Here are a couple I picked up on this week:

Gmail Motion

IKEA HUNDSTOL Dog Highchair

More from Google and more from elsewhere

 

Be interviewed on the show

To be interviewed on the show, please follow me on Twitter - my username is: @edaross .

 

Music on the show: "I dunno" by grapes (licensed under CC Attribution (3.0))

 

Subscribe in iTunes

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross - Sun, 27 Mar 2011 16:59:00 -0700 March for the Alternative http://blog.edross.co.uk/march-for-the-alternative http://blog.edross.co.uk/march-for-the-alternative

Yesterday my wife and I (along with around half a million other people) attended the March for the Alternative, organised on Twitter via the @march26march account.

26march.mp3 Listen on Posterous
It was a great day and we didn't see any of the violence that unfortunately broke out after the main peaceful march had concluded.

As you can see from my photos, people from many different services and sections of society came together to make their voices heard.

It is just a shame A) violent people turned up to spoil the party and B) the government has said it will ignore this march and what it stood for.

Have you ever gone on a protest march? What for, and did it make any difference?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross - Sun, 20 Mar 2011 00:58:00 -0700 Max_cross http://blog.edross.co.uk/maxcross http://blog.edross.co.uk/maxcross

Welcome to Blatant Follower Promotion, the @max_cross episode. In this week's interview, we discuss:

max_cross.mp3 Listen on Posterous

Max Online

Twitter user of the Week

The Twitter user of the week this week is: @codebutler:

  1. He created Firesheep, discussed in detail on Security Now 272
  2. I think this spurred Twitter in to action to fix the problem on their site
  3. Though while adding the fix, Twitter went down which we discussed in the interview
  4. Follow Twitter's guide to enable the new feature now

 

 

Be interviewed on the show

To be interviewed on the show, please follow me on Twitter - my username is: @edaross .

 

Music on the show: "I dunno" by grapes (licensed under CC Attribution (3.0))

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross - Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:51:52 -0700 Design for Dead Simple Distinction http://blog.edross.co.uk/design-for-dead-simple-distinction http://blog.edross.co.uk/design-for-dead-simple-distinction

Design for Dead Simple Distinction, originally uploaded by edross.

Imagine it is 6am, and you've wondered downstairs to make you and your wife
a cup of tea each. She likes goat's milk, but you have cow's milk. As it is
so early, the parts of your body that are required for reading are not quite
fully functional yet, but your taste buds are, and you don't want to end up
drinking tea that tastes of a Greek salad. How are you supposed to pour the
right milk in the right cup?

In the case of Tesco, they have come up with quite a simple, but effective
way to differentiate between the two types of milk: the bottle of one has
the handle in the middle, and the other has the handle on the edge.

Even at your most blurry eyed moment, you should be able to feel around for
the edge and the middle of the bottle and tell which is which!

And so there you have it: one small way in which the design of an every-day
object has helped increase its usability. Can you think of any other
examples? If so, please let me know in the comments section below.

via flickr2posterous

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross Sat, 12 Mar 2011 07:57:00 -0800 Ricky Moorhouse http://blog.edross.co.uk/rickymoorhouse http://blog.edross.co.uk/rickymoorhouse

Welcome to Blatant Follower Promotion, the @rickymoorhouse episode. In this interview, we discuss:

rickymoorhouse.mp3 Listen on Posterous

 

Ricky online

 

Question of the week: Is Twitter biting the hand that feeds it?

This week Twitter announced: We don't want you making Twitter apps that just let you read and write to Twitter any more.

What do you think about that? Is it fair for them to let third party developers help make Twitter the giant it is today, only to turn their back on them later down the line? Maybe Twitter is just doing what it has to in order to help the users know what Twitter is? What do you think. Please let me know in the comments section of this post.

 

Be interviewed on the show

 

To be interviewed on the show, please follow me on Twitter - my username is: @edaross .

Music on the show: "I dunno" by grapes (licensed under CC Attribution (3.0))

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross - Sat, 05 Mar 2011 14:34:00 -0800 Matt Pearson http://blog.edross.co.uk/matt-pearson http://blog.edross.co.uk/matt-pearson

Hello, and welcome to..... an audio update not Blatant Follower Promotion. This week an old friend: Matt Pearson popped round for an evening and so we took a few minutes to discuss Facebook, Kent and his current and former jobs. Enjoy.

mattp.mp3 Listen on Posterous

Apart from on Facebook, Matt doesn't appear much online, though you can listen to him give this 2006 sermon: "God wants to use everyone".

Subscribe in iTunes to future audio updates, including Blatant Follower Promotion.

Music Credit:

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross - Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:16:00 -0800 Mattfarina http://blog.edross.co.uk/mattfarina http://blog.edross.co.uk/mattfarina

Welcome to Blatant Follower Promotion, the @mattfarina episode. In this episode, Matt talks about:

mattfarina.mp3 Listen on Posterous
Matt online:

Matt and his baby:

Feedback

Thanks to Jon Butler (interviewed on the jonwitout episode) who asked on the techmate episode about why I leave feedback and other comments to the end of the shows. I have answered this question in a separate post: "Why Leave Feedback Till After The Interview?", so please post your comments on that question there.

Please add any feedback for this week's episode in the comments section below.

Tip of the week

My tip this week: subscribe to the Web Evangelism Bulletin, by @soonguy - Every month you get a large handful of links to great articles, which you should be able to appreciate if you are a non-Christian too.

Be interviewed too

 

To be interviewed on the show, please follow me on Twitter - my username is: @edaross .

Music on the show: "I dunno" by grapes (licensed under CC Attribution (3.0))

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross - Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:03:00 -0800 Why leave feedback till after the interview? http://blog.edross.co.uk/why-leave-feedback-till-after-the-interview http://blog.edross.co.uk/why-leave-feedback-till-after-the-interview

Jon Butler, who you may remember from The @jonwitout episode of Blatant Follower Promotion, and his review of the year, asked an interesting question in the comments of The @techmate episode of Blatant Follower Promotion:

Just a thought but have you considered putting feedback from previous weeks at the start of the podcast, as in pre-interview? It may be that after the interview people switch off as they heard what they came for?

Thanks Jon. Having listened to podcasts for many years, I've had a long time to consider the options when it comes to my own podcast, and putting the feedback and other comments section after the interview is something that I did deliberately for a couple of reasons.

My thought process goes like this: basically, the more time sensitive a topic is, the less relevant it will be over time:

Time sensitive topic

Equally, if a topic is not time sensitive, then it will be roughly as relevant in the future compared to when it was released:

Time insensitive topic

The interviews are the non-time sensitive sections of the show, and the post interview section is more time sensitive. Given that the shows will hopefully be available for a very long time, I don't want people listening to shows released a while ago to have to fast forward through time sensitive (then irrelevant) portions just to get to the interview that they chose to listen to.

Ok, this method means that people might stop listening straight after the interview, but I'd rather they get what they really downloaded the show for in the first place anyway. Also, I do mention at the start that there is post interview content, so those who carry on listening should be the hardcore fans who take an interest in the whole show (or people who have dozed off while listening on a lazy Sunday afternoon: you know who you are!). 

Occasionally I may talk a bit more about specific items of interest at the start (in fact there is at least one subject that I want to make sure everyone hears about, so I will talk about it at the start, end and maybe even the middle of the show I announce it. More about that when I reveal it).

I've listened to a lot of podcasts, and many of them tend to do all the feedback/news etc at the start. If you've ever listened to an episode of the excellent Security Now podcast, you will have heard the hosts talk for up to an hour on the week's news and other time sensitive topics before delving in to the week's actual topic. As I listen to the episodes when they are released, this is fine - but if I ever wanted to go back and listen to a particular topic (which would be quite reasonable for such an informative show), I'd be a bit annoyed about having to fast forward and guess where I should restart the show so I could listen to just the relevant section.

Granted, my thoughts on this were formed while I was still using a Creative Zen Nano Plus (which only has a scroll wheel for fast forwarding though a podcast) rather than the iPod Nano I use now (with its faster method for skipping to any section of a show), but not everyone has an iPod, or knows/wants to have to fast forward though parts of a show, so to be fair to them I'm happy to keep things as they are.

This isn't my image of a typical Blatant Follower Promotion listener, but in this case, I'm imagining this is the future, and she is looking back at me and thinking:

Why did I have to listen to all that news from two years ago before I got to listen to the interview on your podcast?!

Anyway, I hope that clears up the matter for you.

I'm interested in what others think about the subject though. Would you rather have news/feedback at the start, or do you like it that I tend to jump right in to the show? Is there anything else that you'd like to see introduced to the show?

Just a reminder about this week's request:

Please could consider the people you follow on Twitter, and suggest who you would like to hear on a future Blatant Follower Promotion interview, using the #BFPinterview hash tag. For example:

Hey @edaross I'd like to hear the #BFPinterview with you and @.... http://go.edross.co.uk/bfp

(where the @... is replaced by the user you would like to hear)

I'm really looking forward to seeing who you suggest.

 

Credits:

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross Sun, 20 Feb 2011 04:09:00 -0800 A box of happiness http://blog.edross.co.uk/a-box-of-happiness http://blog.edross.co.uk/a-box-of-happiness

You may remember my entry from last June: "Delivering Happiness, And The Circus" where I talked about the book "Delivering Happiness" by Tony Hsieh. Well, the kind folks behind the book have been kind enough to send me a "Happy Box", the contents of which I am happy to share with you now. This video shows what was in the box:

Thank you @dhbook for your delivery. I look forward to whatever comes next!

Buy the book: Amazon UK / Amazon US


(By the way, I know there is a bit noise on the video. Unfortunately all I had to film it on is my digital stills camera. If you'd like to buy me the better video recording equipment on my Amazon Wishlist then I would be very happy, and be able to produce videos without the hum.)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:36:00 -0800 Techmate http://blog.edross.co.uk/techmate http://blog.edross.co.uk/techmate

Welcome to Blatant Follower Promotion, the @techmate episode. In this episode, @techmate talks about:

 

  • His use of Social Media
  • His photos of food and his pets
  • The Geeks and God podcast
  • Wordpress vs Drupal vs ExpressionEngine
  • Getting in to web design
  • His “Audio Show and Tell” item
  • His comparison of different phones
  • His job
  • And more

techmate.mp3 Listen on Posterous

@techmate online:

@techmate:

His "Audio Show and Tell" item:

Photo
This week's request

Please could you think about the people you follow on Twitter, and suggest to me who you would like to hear on Blatant Follower Promotion, using the #BFPinterview hash tag. For example:

Hey @edaross I'd like to hear the #BFPinterview with you and @.... http://go.edross.co.uk/bfp

(where the @... is replaced by the user you would like to hear)

I'm really looking forward to seeing who you suggest.

Thanks for all your feedback from last week's episode. Please add any feedback for  this week's episode in the comments section below.

 

To be interviewed on the show, please follow me on Twitter - my username is: @edaross .

Music on the show: "I dunno" by grapes (licensed under CC Attribution (3.0))

 

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross - Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:14:55 -0800 Contacting uncontacted tribes http://blog.edross.co.uk/contacting-uncontacted-tribes http://blog.edross.co.uk/contacting-uncontacted-tribes

Back when I was on the YWAM DTS course, at Holmsted Manor, I said in a blog post:

Later we talked about how in Revelation, it promises that people from every people group will be represented in the group of believers at the end of the age (Revelation 5:9 and Revelation 7:9). This is a message of hope for us: the Great Commission will be completed: people from all nations will hear the Gospel, and have the opportunity of responding to God's call on their life.

This is all very well, but what does it mean for the "Uncontacted" Tribes in South America?

You see, if everyone is going to have a chance to be a believer in Jesus, does that mean Christians will one day walk up to these "uncontacted" people and tell them the good news?

Is that really necessary?

Should we do that?

Maybe not.... What if they already have a knowledge of the saviour though the stories they would have had passed down from the generations that left the Ark, then spread across the world? What if they are spoken to by the Holy Spirit and don't need other humans to contact them to know about Jesus? Do they really need us to add anything to their understanding of God?

Is that possible, or is it inevitable that one day, we will make renewed contact with these people?

I'm interested in what you think about this. Please let me know in the comments.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/781813/bigme.jpg http://posterous.com/users/gsXBbzK54 Edward Ross Ed Edward Ross