Friday, 20 August 2010
Thursday, 8 July 2010
Saturday, 3 July 2010
All done and dusted
The biking is done for this year. Today we rode North up Pacific Coast
Highway 1 back to San Francisco. It was really cold on the coast but
warmer as we moved inland again.
headed to Sausalito for lunch. W got a great video of us riding over
the bridge. We then rode back over the bridge - $6 toll for a motorbike. What a
rip-off! I got us back to the hotel on Post Street, W checked in and
took our bags in and I went to hand the bike back. It wasn't due till
tomorrow morning but if took it back early it would save hassle
tomorrow. So I make the not unstressful rise through downtown SF back to the
bike shop. So glad to hand it back without any mishaps. Then, still wearing my bike kit, I walk out of the bike shop, hail a
cab and get back to the hotel. When I get back W asks me where the luggage is. Ha ha - of course she
already has taken our stuff in. No really - where is the lugage we
left at the bike shop for the week. Oh... Looks like I'll be making another trip to the bike shop tomorrow
morning. Damn.
Friday, 2 July 2010
some video riding towards Carnel Valley
We've got a better video in Carmel Valley but I can't post it yet because it's too big. Will do later.
Lake Nacimiento and Carmel Valley Road
Yesterday's roads were great - Lake Nacimiento, then Carmel Valley Road. I wasn't going to try Carmel Valley Road as I though it might be a bit to twisty, but I was persuaded by Norm - a biker we met at the Bluebird Motel. I'm glad to did it - the views were absolutely amazing and the ride was just right. We could ride for an hour without seeing traffic. Amazing!
In one of the pics you see what we thought was a tornado at first. It looked like a massive cloud originating at some point and turned the sky really dark. Turned out it was actually grass fires at Fort Hunter Ligggett which we were riding through.
W has taken some great videos but I am having trouble uploading them at the minute.
Frenchman on Kwak
We saw this guy stopped at the side of the road crossing Lake
Nacimiento dam. We didn't see the 'No Parking Any Time' signs till
after we had stopped and got off.
face helmets and proper biking jackets. We explained we were European
then it made sense to him and we agreed that most Harley riders are
mad going about with tiny helmets and just t-shirts. Turns out he was French and had been living in California for 30
years. He sounded like he had just got off the boat. We told him we were heading for Carmel Valley Road and he warned us
that the road was quite small and difficult. Another few minutes chat
and we were on our way...
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Pacific Coast Highway 1 to Cambria
Yesterday got off to a good start when the 'limo' that was arranged to take us from the hotel to the bike rental place turned out to be a proper white stretch limo.
Got to EagleRider and there was a Portuguese guy, Pedro, there hiring a bike and taking the same route as us so we agreed to ride down together. eD from sport-touring.net came along too to help us get out of San Francisco and take us on a bit of a tour out of the city. So grateful to eD - without him we would have been quite screwed getting out of the city! Nice twisty roads out of SF then we stopped at a famous biker cafe called Alice's Restaurant (see previous post for pic).
OK, I don't have time to write more now - got to go ride! Take a look at the pics and I'll write up more later. We're in Cambria now. About to go try Route 58. :D
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Penguins and pancakes
- Went to Monterey Bay Aquarium. Saw more sea otters. Penguins will rule the world one day
- Now in San Francisco. Exited BART as Gay Pride March went past with ticker tape falling from the sky. A suitable welcome for our arrival I think.
- Waited 40min for a table for breakfast at Dottie's True Blue Cafe. I had pancakes but I didn't really like them that much tbh.
- Went to visit a friend at Google HQ today. Google HQ rocks. Please can I have a job there? I could be a gardener or something...
- Going to pick up the Harley tomorrow. Now the real holiday starts!
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Spot the Seal
I hired a bicycle yesterday and took a ride down to Monterey, where I hired a kayak for a few hours. It was not particularly sunny, but of course I still managed to get burnt. I had a wetsuit on, so I have a nice line at my ankles, and my forehead is glowing nicely. Out on Monterey Bay I saw loads of seals, quite a few sea otters and a seagull using a dead seal as a surf board. :D
Burnt feet really hurt. Not good.
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Spot the Seal
I hired a bicycle yesterday and took a ride down to Monterey, where I hired a kayak for a few hours. It was not particularly sunny, but of course I still managed to get burnt. I had a wetsuit on, so I have a nice line at my ankles, and my forehead is glowing nicely. Out on Monterey Bay I saw loads of seals, quite a few sea otters and a seagull using a dead seal as a surf board. :D
Burnt feet really hurt. Not good.
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Freezing in Asilomar; TomTom California map?
We arrived in Asilomar yesterday after a 2.5h bumpy bus ride from San Francisco. This conference place is a little odd - kind of like a cross between a scout camp (Douglas Wood anyone?) and something from Amityville.
Main problem is that it is really cold and misty. This isn't the weather that Arnie was showing off on all those "Visit California" adverts recently! I'm sitting in front of a roaring fire right now. It would be warmer if we headed in-land, but considering we're planning on riding Pacific Coast Highway we might not be getting much sun.
W is working now in some meeting. I'm thinking of going for a cycle ride but I'm not sure I've got warm enough clothes!
Gripe: I still planning the route for next week. I have my TomTom Rider (v1) with me and wanted to add a map for California to it. However, it seems you cannot buy individual state maps in the US. Seems a bit daft when you can buy individual country maps in Europe. The US is the size of a continent and California is about the size of the UK so you've got just as much chance of only needing a regional map. Would someone using their TomTom in Washington really want to be forced to buy a map which included Georgia? Seems like a economically motivated decision by TomTom which is daft when they're about to be crushed by Google et al who will be offering a more customer focused service.
You used to be able to buy individual state maps for TomTom so if anyone can point me in the direction of one please do. It doesn't matter how old it is - I doubt Pacific Coast Highway has changed much recently!
Pic is of Crater Lake taken on the flight over.
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Time to ride California again
On Tuesday I'll be flying out to San Francisco and on the following Tuesday I'll be picking up a Harley-Davidson Electra Glide and riding for four days around California. I did this 6 years ago and loved it. This time I'll have W sitting behind me! Like the social media geek I am I'll be using Posterous to tweet, blog and Facebook my pics as I go along. If Google Latitude worked properly on an iPhone I would be able to track my route properly too. Use a map you say? Yeah I guess that would make sense...
Technical gripe - when you email a photo directly from the iPhone to Flickr via Posterous, the GPS Exif data seems to get stripped out, which is a shame. I'd like to have all the photos geo-tagged.
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Post Office Oxford
When i arrived at the Post Office with the queue below there was only
two people serving. I wonder how busy it has to get for them to
consider opening all the counters. Really people should be grateful
that the Post Office has shut all the local post offices. If they
hadn't people wouldn't get the opportunity to travel in to central
Oxford and queue for 20 min. Thank you Post Office for being so useless!
two people serving. I wonder how busy it has to get for them to
consider opening all the counters. Really people should be grateful
that the Post Office has shut all the local post offices. If they
hadn't people wouldn't get the opportunity to travel in to central
Oxford and queue for 20 min. Thank you Post Office for being so useless!
Saturday, 16 January 2010
LipDub videos and stupid record companies
I made a Barenaked Ladies LipDub movie with some friends in Dundee over Christmas as a wedding present for a friend. It was inspired by a fantastic LipDub movie of the Black Eyed Peas' song "I Gotta Feeling." It's such a fantastic clip, I think I've probably watched it more than a dozen times (also see the follow-up 'making of' video). It's impossible to watch without it putting a smile on your face.
I tried to upload our movie to YouTube. OK, the video has the Barenaked Ladies' song "If I had $1000000" playing throughout, but I just assumed that YouTube would automatically add a "buy this from iTunes" link that you often see on videos with music in them.
Nope, YouTube just blocked the video as soon as it was uploaded.
I knew that most of the major record companies had been getting their knickers in a twist about arranging licensing deals with YouTube so that their music could be posted. Turns out Warner Music Group has thrown a major hissy fit and now all their music is blocked. There are amusing/annoying stories about of people's videos being blocked because some copyrighted music is playing in the background i.e. on the radio or something!
Wonderfully, YouTube gives you the option of uploading the video with a) no audio, or b) audio from YouTube's library of available music. Me thinks that might somewhat spoil a LipDub movie. For example.
I don't really have a problem with record companies protecting their music per se. I've always been against file-sharing as it just feels like stealing. However, I do think that the record companies are being quite short-sighted with the opportunity that YouTube presents to them. When I listened to the I Gotta Feeling LipDub, I immediately bought the tune on iTunes. A few months later I bought the whole Black Eyed Peas album (should I really be admitting this?!).
I didn't buy them through YouTube, so Google gets no money from this - just Apple, the record company and the band. However, I bought them because of the video on YouTube. I wouldn't have bought it otherwise.
Warner Music Group apparently don't get this. I therefore presume they are run by thickos and I fart in their general direction. Black Eyed Peas' record label, Interscope (part of Universal Media Group) are clearly much more enlightened.
Of course everyone wants to get their video on YouTube so they can have their 5-minutes of fame! Instead I have uploaded the video to Vimeo, which is a really beautiful video website. They've actually been encouraging people to make LipDub movies (and even claim to have coined the term). Sadly though, they're getting sued for their efforts.
Anyway, here is the video we made. I expect the morons from WMG will come along eventually and issue a takedown notice, but in the meantime please enjoy:
$1000000 LipDub from Steven Renwick on Vimeo.
A LipDub movie we made to Barenaked Ladies' "If I had $1000000" for Kev and Hilary's Wedding (8th Jan 2010). Filmed at various locations in Dundee and Carnoustie.
Image from Flickr user Tracy Russo used under a Creative Commons licence.
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Engrish: Green Grass is Afraid of your Trample
Friday, 25 September 2009
AffectLabs (FestBuzz) at TechCrunch London
Yesterday I pitched Affect Labs (aka FestBuzz - for more on that see below) at TechCrunch London.
Update: See also TechCrunch Europe's Event Wrap.
I'm rather pleased, and still more than a bit surprised, to say that we won "best pitch"!
Picture above is me on stage with Mike Butcher, Editor of TechCrunch Europe, receiving a bottle of bubbly.
There were a lot of interesting companies there with some very good pitches. I did think it would be nice to get in the top 5 but I didn't think I'd really done anything to deserve winning. Not that I'm complaining though!
Credit where credit is due though, the presentation was largely based on Jennie's learnings in the run up to the TechCrunch Geek 'n Rolla event earlier this year where she pitched Affect Labs. Some of the slides were ones that she had made for a pitch she did at an Astia London event, also earlier this year.
Of course, like all my interactions with TechCrunch events, I don't like things to be straightforward. I had visited the relevant Amiando page almost as soon as the event was announced. The first thing I did was click on the link to export the event in to my Google Calender. As I knew I was going to be pitching I didn't have reason to buy a ticket or visit the Amiando page again.
So yesterday, at 3pm, I turned up like an eager beaver for some pre-pitch practice.... at Gilgamesh Studios in Camden. Nobody had a clue what I was talking about as I wandered around what looked like a giant empty Indian restaurant asking where the TechCrunch event was.
Turns out the original plan was to hold it at the Gilgamesh Studios, but the venue had quite quickly been changed to the Cafe de Paris near Piccadilly Circus. The people that had already bought tickets were notified of the venue change by email, but as I wasn't buying a ticket I wasn't notified (random link found through Google shows venue as Gilgamesh).
So in future I'll remember not to blindly trust Google Calender exports. In the end I wasn't too late for the event and managed to get some very helpful tips before I went on stage.
Cafe de Paris is an interesting venue isn't it? The private rooms (where we prepared before the pitches) had what they describe as a VIP boudoir but which everyone else described as looking like some kind of porn set. I wonder what goes on in there hmmmm. It would have been a bit nicer without the dodgy stains and cigarette burns on the beds...
Tonight they're hosting the FHM High Street Honeys '09 party. I should have hidden in a toilet for the night or something. Quite contrasting clientele to have one night after the other! Om nom nom nom :D
I got some good questions from the floor. I particularly liked the audience's reaction when I was asked where the technology originated: "Jennie's PhD research in a NLP group at Cambridge University". I think I did hear a kind of "ooh" from the audience. Hud that!
A Hungarian chap, who knows the sentiment field, attempted to ask a technical question. Fortunately, nobody, including myself, could really understand what he was saying. I say fortunately because I did go and speak to him later and I wouldn't have been able to answer his question very well on stage.
One slight issue that did become apparent through the night was our own brand perception. We were publicised as FestBuzz, we were introduced as FestBuzz, and the first thing I did was go up there and say "I'm Steve from Affect Labs". I pitched as AffectLabs (which is the registered name of the company), told the audience about FestBuzz (our 4iP funded Edinburgh Festivals project), and referenced Benchmark7, which is the working name of our sentiment classification engine. Also my business cards are heavily Benchmark7 branded.
Well for the rest of the night I was "the guy from FestBuzz". I had to explain the three names more than a few times. I spoke to Mike Butcher about it and he was definitely keener to refer to us as FestBuzz - "that's what people know you as"! (TechCrunch had written a short piece about us when our 4iP funding was announced). So that's something we'll have to keep in mind as we move forward.
Anyway, I had a great time at the after show party, which was timed to coincide with the end of Seedcamp. It was pretty nice having lots of people compliment the pitch (even before we won) and then have people congratulate me later. :) I met a whole bunch of great people. Now the challenge is to connect the business cards to the faces to the conversations to the follow-ups that may or may not have been promised!
Some more pictures from the event can be found here on Flickr, courtesy of BitchBuzz.
The event was actually streamed live on Ustream. If my day before the event had not been so busy/chaotic I would have put the link in my Facebook account. Is it possible to watch things which have already been streamed?
Thanks to TwistedTree for organising the event.
Sunday, 13 September 2009
The 51st Company
In my previous blog post I was lamenting our failiure to get in to the TechCrunch 50.Well this week, in an unexpected twist to the story, I got an email from TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde asking for us to go over there and pitch.
Oh my heart did skip a beat!
Apparently some companies were at risk of not making their slot, so she wanted us to come over as the "first reserve" so to speak. If it turned out that we weren't needed then we would be given a DemoPit spot instead.
I received the email on Wednesday. She wanted us to fly over on the Friday to work through our pitch then get stuck in on Monday or Tuesday.
Only problem was, since getting the initial rejection, we had been working on other things - not making a specific demo for TC50 (we had something specific in mind that would have been exceptionally cool for all companies there - not just us).
Shortly after getting the email I was on the phone to my co-founder Jennie.
"So you know that demo we were going to do specifically for TechCrunch 50 that was probably going to take about 2 or 3 weeks to get ready? Do you think you could still do it in two days? How about if you just stay here and work on the demo, while I go over to San Francisco, have a great time at the conference and bask in the limelight of being a presenting company? Strictly speaking do you need to take time out to eat and sleep?"
OK, so pretty obviously it wasn't going to be possible. Nevertheless, we could have presented something, possibly shown FestBuzz. The only problem would be that it wouldn't be a product launch, so much as a technology pitch, and TechCrunch 50 is about launching products.
Even if we didn't end up on stage, we would have been in the DemoPit. Doing an exhibition without any preparation would be challenging to say the least. I figured we could probably wing it, however with rather prophetic timing, Jason Calcanis' email newsletter had just arrived with 22 tips on how to operate a trade show booth.
Let's just say that none of these tips include, "decide to go to a trade exhibition a couple of days before it starts and just wing it". Hmmm....
So anyway, Heather had said in her email that she would call me the next day or that I could call her at any hour to discuss, so I did that. No answer on her cell phone so voicemail was left and then I sent her an email outlining my concerns and suggesting that we probably couldn't do it. I tried calling a few more times, because I was really hoping that she would try to persuade me to do the pitch. However I never heard back from her. No phone call or reply to my email, so I guess it was taken as a decline (unless they're still expecting us to turn up. That would be awkward!).
When Jennie and I were talking about the possiblity of doing the pitch, there were quite a few things running through my head. This is TechCrunch 50 and we've been asked to do it! It's web-tech lifetime opportunity - we would be mad to turn it down. Even if the demo is not perfect we should just do *something*.
Luckily Jennie was the voice of reason, not least because she would have to make the damn demo! Sure we could turn up and do a demo of *something* but it wouldn't be good enough. We might end up doing more harm to the company than good. Just because it's TechCrunch 50 doesn't mean we should put our reputation at risk. Even if we're just mediocre, people don't remember mediocre. I think I was being driven more by the prestige of the TC50 badge rather than the practicalities of the situation.
The reality is that although I was extremely excited when I got Heather's email, I knew we probably wouldn't be able to do it. At first I was like "Yah!" but then I "Meh'd"...
So I guess we were the 51st choice company (unless some other reserves had already turned them down!), and Michael Arrington's 75-80% chance of us getting in was fair. I wish the best of luck to whatever company has presumably replaced us. I do hope they get a chance to go on the main stage and make the most of this (presumably) unexpected opportunity.
That's twice in the past couple of weeks I've meant to have had a conversation with Heather and we have not managed to connect. I really hope I'll get the chance to speak with her eventually! And hopefully they'll remember us and Affect Labs will still get a chance to pitch at a TechCrunch event in the future!
N.B. We've actually got a few pitches coming up in the next few weeks. We were selected as one of the Guardian Tech Media Invest top 100 companies and we'll be pitching at the related event at the Emirates Stadium, London on 1st October.
Monday, 24 August 2009
TechCrunch50 Rejection
[Update: We actually got asked to pitch!]I started writing this post as a response to another person's blog post in which he talked about his rejection from TechCrunch50. It was turning in to a bit of a mammoth response, so I thought I would be better posting it on my blog and just leaving a link to it on his. So it begins as a response...
Hi, we had a similar experience, although possibly with more mishap and with our expectations even higher.
So we applied and were happy to be told we would be interviewed. Unfortunately the interview timings seemed pretty difficult to book and were timed for US West coast people and we are in the UK, so we had a bit of difficulty getting a reasonable interview time.
Eventually we got the interview time set, with the screen sharing and teleconference details sent out. My co-founder and I were waiting in the teleconference (separate locations) and in the screen sharing facility. Our interview was with Heather and we got an email saying she's running 5min late. Fair enough.
I had researched her so knew she was TechCrunch CEO and saw she had worked in corporate M&A, which is similar to my background so I thought we might have something in common.
After a few minutes we could see Heather in the screen sharing facility and she started chatting to us. She says she's in the teleconference but can't hear us. We're in the teleconference too but we can't hear her. Oh crap.
Anyway, we faff around for a few minutes but she says that she has to go and we will rearrange. Oh crap, we've just missed out on pitching to the Techcrunch CEO. :(
We do rearrange. Unfortunately the only time they can do the interview is when my co-founder is due to be hosting a big event for us. So it's up to me alone. I gladly take up the challenge! So I'm due to be speaking to Tyler from Mahalo. Ok, cool.
So in the run up to the meeting, I start getting a bit panicy that the teleconference is gonna mess up again, so I change our phone details to get them to phone me direct. I'm exchanging emails with various assistants to try and make sure they have the correct details. I'm convinced telecommunication technology is going to let me down again.
The time comes. And passes. I'm checking the online room. There's no-one there. No email this time saying anyone is running 5min late. I wait for ages. I have three phones so I keep dialing in to the teleconference rooms to make sure he's not dialed there by mistake instead of phoning me directly.
Eventually I get an email saying Tyler is running a bit late. OK, fair enough. So about an hour after our scheduled time I get the call. I try to demo, but he can't hear me properly. He asks if he can phone on another number. Lucky I have three phones!
So we get on to a decent phone and start the demo. It goes well. Tyler actually has a pretty cool idea for something we could do. I agree it is a cool idea (I'm sure we would have thought of it anyway ;) ). Towards the end of the demo, Tyler asks me to show something quite specific that I'm pretty sure is going to be impossible. I try. I was right - it was not possible (yet).
Anyhow, demo over and Tyler gives me his email address and says if we could rig up a demo of the "not yet possible" thing, then that would be pretty cool.
A few days pass by. Tuesday night at 8.50pm I get a call on my landline. Calls on my landline are either a) my g/f's parents, or b) recorded message spam. Tonight it is c) Michael Arrington's assistant from Techcrunch. Ooh, I wasn't expecting that!
"Michael would like to speak with you in an hour."
Crikey! I do know of him already as I read Techcrunch a lot and I follow his Twitter stream. However, there's always time for some obsessive Google searching and I find out he is no. 100 on the 2008 Time Magazine 100 most influential people list.
Wow. That's quite influential. I mean, granted there's 99 people above him, but there's around 6 billion people below him, so I'm thinking that's pretty good going.
So at 10pm he calls. First thing he says is he doesn't know my name. That's ok, I'm quite insignificant, he can call me Susan if it gives us a better chance of getting in to TC50.
I do the demo. Michael mentions the same cool idea that Tyler did. I presume Tyler mentioned it to him. I agree whole-heartedly that it would be a cool idea. As before I can't show the demo of what he's suggesting, but this time I can show him it in command line form.
He says he "gets it" and he "loves it". The most influential man in Web tech GETS it! He LOVES it! Woo-hoo!
He then says that he thinks we'll be an "edge case" because the other partners (Heather and Jason) have not seen us, but says that his opinion carries weight so we still have a good chance. In fact, he says he reckons we have a "75-80%" chance of getting in.
75-80% chance?! That's like, more or less 100%! I mean, nothing with a "75-80%" chance ever actually fails does it? I mean if someone tells you you have a 75-80% chance of winning the lottery tonight you'd be making friends with the local Aston Martin dealer PDQ. Dead cert! (Notice I quickly suppress the words "edge case").
We wait a few days in eager anticipation. Surely we're in - I wonder what I should wear on stage?
But then I notice a tweet from Michael saying they've made the final decisions on the last companies for TC50.
Oh, but some mistake surely? Our email has gone astray! Curse you technology and your missing emails!
So we wait. And then get the /other/ email.
“Unfortunately, we regret that we are unable to place your company as a TechCrunch50 finalist…"
Oh, bummer.
We also get the invite to DemoPit, which I would *love* to do, but unfortunately in our near-zero financing state (as well as being located in the UK) it is prohibitively expensive so we have to decline. It's probably a good thing in a way, because it would have been a lot of pressure to get the product ready in time and we might not have been as good as we would have wanted to be.
However I am a bit bummed and I can't help wondering what difference the failed teleconference with Heather made. :/
Still, it doesn't keep me down for more than a few hours. It was pretty good validation to have made it to the semi-final stage. It was also a pleasure to get the chance to speak with both Tyler and Michael. I was glad they at least liked our product, even if we didn't quite make the final cut for TC50.
We've had similar validation experiences, tempered with a hint of dissapointment. We got invited out to San Francisco to do the 15min interview for Y Combinator this year. That's a long way to go for a 15min chat. Although we didn't make the final cut, it was good to make it from the 600-1000 companies that applied down to the last 60.
We also applied to all the Y Combinator-like schemes, and all of them interviewed us at least once, so there was definite interest in our company. In fact, we actually got an investment offer from one of them but decided to turn it down in the end so that was an especially good validation.
Since then our company, Affect Labs, has had some funding from 4iP to launch our Phase 1 product FestBuzz and we did get mentioned on TechCrunch Europe, which was nice.
We also have some other very good irons in the fire, one of which is certain and others which we will find out about over the next couple of months.
So I'll be keeping my fingers crossed, but not getting my expectations up too high, because even when you've got a 75-80% chance of success, that's still a 20-25% chance of failure. I mean, if someone tells you you've got a 20-25% chance of dying tonight, you'd probably put on your best underwear...
Apologies for random tenses in this post. I can't be bothered fixing them. Photo from Flickr user KatieL366.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)