The Cure at Wembley - Amazing Concert

Just a quick note to mention what a great concert The Cure put on at Wembley Arena on Thursday night (20th March 2008).

Their set was an astonishing 3hours and 25 minutes including 3 encores totalling over an hour. Thirty years of material still couldn't be crammed into that time, but they made a great selection, and in the encore the emphasis was clearly on the older stuff - somewhat re-invented. It was also a good reminder of how consistently good and inventive they have been across their career (cf: U2).

The photos - taken for proof I was there, certainly not for quality - were taken with my iPhone (the "close-up" through one side of a pair of binoculars!). I think it highlights a key weakness of Wembley! (I also didn't realise they let you take in proper cameras into such places).



I hate Wembley Arena as a venue, and perhaps it was to make up for that (and that this night was their ONLY UK gig) that made them go out of their way to provide a memorable night. The stamina required for such a gig is incredible and puts younger bands to shame - well done, Robert (and rest of band).

If The Cure are stopping through your city in the next few months, do check them out for a memorable evening.

Tags: The Cure, Robert Smith

Blogging hiatus and ChargeBox

Just a quick note as to my recent blogging silence. Hopefully you've all (the two of you that is) not gone away.

I've been working increasingly long hours and that is only going to get worse for a while longer. For the last 36 months (the last 18 months of which in a part-time consultant FD role) I've been involved with an exciting company called ChargeBox®, and as of the 1st November, I will be taking over as MD - even if just for a year or so until the founder, Toby returns from an extended sabbatical helping Oxfam in Nepal.

ChargeBox® is a kiosk for the 21st century - in our case charging mobile phones, smartphones, mp3 players and portable game consoles in a secure locker. We've designed the ChargeBox®, got it manufactured in the UK (yes!) and are developing a global brand with kiosks now in France, Iceland, Spain, Ireland, Turkey, South Africa and, soon, Papua New Guinea. You can also find them in 14 high street phone stores of a certain mobile phone company I couldn't possibly mention. Our ChargeBox is equipped with a GSM module allowing 2-way SMS and GPRS data connections for monitoring purposes and even a payment-by-SMS function. Our web-based IT system allows us to monitor the performance of every ChargeBox® around the world with a SIM card. We were featured on BBC Click earlier this year.


We're still very small, and we have a lot of challenges, but we're hoping for some major progress soon, both domestically and internationally. If you use a ChargeBox®, let me/us know what you think.

Visit our website at http://www.chargebox.com to find out more, to look at maps of where they are and instructions on how to find a chargebox when you're out and about.

I will look to bring back some blogging around this subject and my usual rants in the months ahead. Unfortunately, much of what I'd like to say about growing a small company has to remain confidential (because of our clients), so that makes some topics off-limits. Do keep subscribed, and do let me know your thoughts on ChargeBox® if/when you get a chance/need to use one.

Inevitable iPhone post coming up (in case you thought I'd gone soft)....

Tags: ChargeBox®

Sad News for us

A brief tribute to my de-facto father-in-law, John ("Jack") Richard Cotterill 18/10/20 to 28/12/06. JR, as we have known him, has been my 2nd Dad for more than 26 years and I have only seen him as a good and wonderful man in all of that time. He will be sorely missed by me, and of course, by my partner, Sue who has done so much to enable him to enjoy a good quality of life these last few years, while he was suffering increasingly from the effects of Parkinson's disease. While this itself is not a killer, it's debillitating effects are incredibly frustrating to its sufferers and ultimately create danger from normal everyday activities such as eating and walking. JR, we'll miss your dry wit, your incredible knowledge, your love of the arts, our 2-3x daily phone calls, your stays with us, our discussions about the test matches...

MacII heads to landfill

It was a sad day today when, while visiting my mum, I took my old MacII down to the recycling centre (c'mon, I just wrote the headline to attract the Greenpeace brigade).

It had sat in a cupboard since being replaced by the iBook G4 last year, and hadn't been used for a few years previously by my mum. Nevertheless, as a machine that was manufactured in February 1987 - so almost 20 years old - it has had a long life. I know the manufacture date because I took the lid off to remove the hard drive - an 80MB superfast model that I bought separately at the time. Inside the top was written the date of manufacture with a marker pen! It struck me how well-engineered this box was - particulary the way the top came off and how the Nu-bus cards could be added/removed - neither actions requiring a screwdriver. The monitor, keyboard and box itself where all of very solid construction indeed.

I think this was my second (or maybe my third) home Mac, but my first colour one (was it the first colour Mac?) and cost upwards of $5,000 at the time when I was in the US. At then exchange rates, that was around £4,000!

In an ideal world of course, I'd have kept this, but really it wasn't in good enough condition to be a museum piece. For my mum, I think the last straw came when she opened the cupboard and had the monitor fall on her head! So, out it went. In disposing of it, I was amazed at the lack of options available to us for recycling such devices in this country, and I hope that will soon change.

I had a great time with my MacII and it was a revolution at the time. Next week we should be welcoming a MacBook Pro CD2 into the household (though not for me unfortunately - it is to replace a Titanium G4 PowerBook stolen from my partner's workplace). It makes me realise how much things have changed. 2,000times the disk storage, 500 times the memory (I think I had 4MB), and a processor that is clockwise 300 times more powerful than the 16Mhz Motorola 68020 (but not allowing for other chip improvements), all in a portable device a fraction of the size and weight, and for a price about 1/4 of what I paid for the Mac system!

I apologise for the quiet posting lately. Got a few articles in the works, so stay subscribed...

Tags: Apple, Mac II, MacBook Pro, recycle