Inspiring Week

Posted by stephen on Tuesday, 01st November, 2005 @ 00:25

I've been back from holiday for a week, and I have to say I think it's been a rather good week all in all. So many things have given me inspiration this week, it's hard to recall them all!

How many of them will actually translate into anything more than ideas is a completely different question. I'm an easily excited person when it comes to ideas, ever since I can remember. Unfortunately for as long as I can remember I've also had the habit of starting lots of little projects, personal and technical, and not really seeing them through.

But anyway, that's rather depressing and I'm actually in a good mood at the moment. To bring it back upbeat, I also feel pretty confident that one day I'm going to find a project that will hold my attention, hopefully make the world a better place in some small way, and if I'm lucky make me loads of money :)

For now, let me tell you (in no particular order) about some of this week's inspirational things, what they inspire me to do and how likely or not it is I'll do anything about them. Sorry if this post gets a bit long, but hey, it's not like there's many people reading this, so not too many man hours lost!

Tom Coates' final post whilst working at the BBC is all about the project his department has been recently working on, a web-based system for audio annotation. It looks like they've done an incredible job, I'm really excited about the applications this has for personalised content delivery. A seamless, automated and highly personalised audio/video news report seems within reach. All powered by folksonomies and the network effect. Oooh look at me using the jargon!

Inspired to build a cool AJAX application. Chances pretty minimal. Not enough time or useful ideas to hand, or patience to program anything for hours at a time.

More4 has proven a good source of inspiration this week too. Grand Designs Revisited told the truly aspirational tale of Ben Law, a woodsman who has built his beautiful house, entirely by hand, with an occasional and voluntary workforce, utilising only materials from the local area, mostly his forest. Now he, his wife and baby son live an almost entirely self-sufficient life, with their own power, heat, water and food. And a good, fulfilling life it appears to be.

Inspired to get around to sorting out my house, plastering, painting, bathroom. Get garden shed, which is also partially inspired by this guy and by the currently rusting BBQ in my garden. Chances are fair on some of this I'd say, need spare room clear to practice on though. And better weather for garden stuff. Already making excuses!

Also from More4, Super Size Me proved to be a much more interesting film than I'd expected.

It was certainly a provocative documentary and gave me plenty to think about. It's time to cut out the fizzy drinks and eat out less! It also led me to season pass 30 Days, a weekly documentary by Morgan Spurlock, the man behind Super Size Me. In the first show, he and his girlfriend attempt to live on US minimum wage for a month, and it's certainly an enlightening experience. It made me realise how easy it is to take for granted lucky we are to have the social security system we do. It may not be perfect, but we'd be worse off without it.

Inspired to eat better and be more thrifty. Chances not too bad actually. Haven't bought any fizzy drink or chocolate bars yet, despite massive craving. Am still managing to take sandwiches to work. Am cooking more interesting stuff at home. Partly helps having lovely boyfriend to cook for.

All the wireless stuff I've previously mentioned has been rather inspiring too. Not just because I want to play with the technology, but because I've been reading up about how the antennas work and it's revived the nerdy little science geek in me. Should have paid more attention in A-Level Physics!

Inspired to learn/recall the maths and physics behind electromagnetism (primarily radio waves, etc), want to build cantenna and go test. Chances are I think in the 25% area, some more investigation may occur.