chrisgreen.co.uk

Back in January I blogged about a new campaign to encourage PRs to stop spamming the press with unwanted and unfocused communications. After a fantastic initial response, the team behind this campaign have put together a survey looking at the issue in more depth.

You can find the survey here, if you are a journalist please take a few moments to complete it and tell us exactly what you think about the state of irrelevant press release emails (otherwise known as “PR Spam”).

Me on Google Maps Street View, outside the office

Originally uploaded by Chris Green.

I’ve been captured again by the Google Street View cameras. This time one of Google’s sinister-looking black Vauxhall Astra camera cars caught me walking back into my office in Hampshire at lunchtime.

It’s a surprisingly good pic, helped by it being a clear sunny day, and has captured far more detail than the last Google Street View pic of me walking down the road from my old house in West London.

As a journalist I know all too well that there is simply far too much spam pushed out by the PR community. It is something I have always vowed I would try and change given the opportunity.

These days, I do have that opportunity and I do my bit wherever possible to stop the flow of unnecessary and irrelevant comms flowing out to my colleagues, who have much better things to do than read press releases about lawnmowers when they write for a PC modding mag, financial results releases when they only cover product.

Anyway, the guys over at RealWire, along with some like-minded PRs and journalists have come together to support a campaign to stamp out PR spam. I’m backing it too! They have a video, it’s rather good:

Find out more at: http://inconvenientprtruth.com/

January 2010 Snow

Originally uploaded by Chris Green.

Woke up to a big blanket of snow outside this morning. It even froze the canal, as you can see from this pic. Someone even built a snowman at the end of the tow path.

Suffice to say, the roads are terrible and the office is inaccessible, so working from home today. Fortunately, heating, broadband and TV are all fully functional so I’m able to be productive.

I’m also thankful that I have an employer that doesn’t automatically assume that working from home means staff are skiving, and instead knows we are working hard by the results we produce.

More on my Flickr site.

Yes, it has come to this. I’ve been asked to do an article on Google Wave, providing I can get access to it.

Despite having signed up early on for the waiting list, I didn’t get a direct invite from the nice folk at Google. If anyone can pass me a spare invite, I would really appreciate it (and buy you several beers as a thank you).

My email address can be found here.

Cheers

Chris

My car and the house

Originally uploaded by Chris Green.

Another piece of Google Maps Street View fun. It was a beautiful day when the car came past taking photos, so this shot of the outside of my house came out well.

Thankfully Google blurred out the registration number on my car (the green Rover 75) and the Peugeot 206 next to it.

As you might be aware, Google today added Street View images to the UK Google Maps service.

As luck would have it I was walking to the tube station on the morning that the Google camera car drove down the street where my house is, taking panoramic pics of the street as it went.

The car in question was a black Vauxhall Astra with a Google logo on the door and a set of cameras on the roof. Not as high-tech as you would expect from Google, but its how you do it.

Anyway, as I was standing on the pavement watching the car go by, I figured there was a chance that I might pop up in one of the subsequent images - and  I was right:

Google has smudged all the faces of people captured in the Street View images, along with car registration plates. Trust me, that really is me!

Street View also has a very nice pic of my house (furtunately it was a lovely day when the car came to do the pics). I’ll post that later.

One of my last projects of 2008 has now gone on sale - it is a bookazine devoted to one of my favourite technology subjects - the BlackBerry.

You can buy The Ultimate BlackBerry Guide from those nice people at Amazon.co.uk, where it is currently on sale with an equally nice online discount.

The book will tell you everything you need to know, from handy shortcuts to undocumented features, along with tips on the best third party software and games available for the current range of devices. There is even a section dedicated to using your BlackBerry with a Mac.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this book possible. It was hard work, but I hope you will agree it was worth it.

Stafford Road under snow

Originally uploaded by Chris Green.

Another pic of Ruislip under a blanket of snow. This one taken from the front door of my house. Look at the bins in the bottom right of the pic to get an idea of how thick the snow actually is.

I’ve posted a set of pictures of the snow around my home in Ruislip on my Flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisgreen/sets/72157613229248285/

Enjoy!

Icicles

Originally uploaded by Chris Green.

Woke up this morning to find Ruislip under a blanket of snow. About six inches fell overnight in West London, the biggest snowfall to hit London for over 20 years.

I’ve posted a set of pictures of the snow around my home in Ruislip on my Flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisgreen/sets/72157613229248285/

Enjoy!