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Both admirable and a little frightening... - Alan

While this is an interesting post, I don't recommend the comments. - Alan

Blood Bowl frustrations - most of which I recognise from the beta. - Alan

Blood Bowl frustrations - most of which I recognise from the beta. - Alan

Jon Smith, a finalist in last year’s Photography.Book.Now with his book “The Bridge Project” talks to Pocket-lint about his career taking photography in urban areas and shares some tips on how to take photos at night. - Alan

It seems that us PR people are taking to Twitter like ducks to water. I don't have a number but I'd assume there are potentially tens of thousands of us around the world using Twitter for client initiatives and to build relationships with our peers and journalists. If you're looking to follow more of your peers on the popular micro-blogging platform I have a handy little tip for you which I found on the blog, Mr Google Alerts. - Alan

The results of a negative online reputation may be as subtle as a user clicking on a competitor’s search result instead of yours or as damaging as an industry-wide boycott of your products and/or services. - Alan

Last week I decided to tweet 15 things public relations professionals can use to show a RETURN ON ENGAGEMENT (ROE)–the new return on investment–on their social media efforts. Here is a recap of those tweets: - Alan

FriendFeed has got to be one of the most innovative companies around these days. It seems every week, it’s hatched something new with its service. That alone makes it worth being there. - Alan

Anyone who tells you that Social Media ROI cannot be calculated, that the tools don’t exist yet, or that Social Media is about conversations and not ROI is putting up a smoke screen. What they should be saying is “I don’t know how to do that yet,” but it’s a lot easier to perpetuate the myth that Social Media ROI cannot be calculated – for obvious reasons. It’s a terribly self serving and counterproductive thing to do, and “professionals” in the Social Media world need to stop hiding behind that argument before business leaders looking for real traction give up on Social Media altogether. - Alan

We've all heard the rant. With e-books, there's no paper, printing, transportation, and so forth. So why should an e-book still cost $9.99 (typical for Kindle) or even more? - Alan

Earmarking a chunk of budget for professional monitoring companies and technology has enormous benefits, but it can be costly, especially for smaller businesses. Thankfully there are some great free tools out there to help you make sense of things. - Alan

You know Facebook inside and out, and you can Tweet with the best of them. So you've got the communicating part down pat. But the big question is, Are you listening? If you have customers, chances are they're talking about you to their friends, to their coworkers, and to anyone else who will listen. Here are some of the top tools for listening to and monitoring the online chatter about your brand: - Alan

Over the last several years, the problem of attention has migrated right into the center of our cultural attention. We hunt it in neurology labs, lament its decline on op-ed pages, fetishize it in grassroots quality-of-life movements, diagnose its absence in more and more of our children every year, cultivate it in yoga class twice a week, harness it as the engine of self-help empires, and pump it up to superhuman levels with drugs originally intended to treat Alzheimer’s and narcolepsy. Everyone still pays some form of attention all the time, of course—it’s basically impossible for humans not to—but the currency in which we pay it, and the goods we get in exchange, have changed dramatically. - Alan

Geeks are not the only folks who like gadgets. In today’s technological world, it’s hard to get by without some knowledge of new technology and gizmos. These blogs will keep you up to date on all the newest technology, gadgets and consumer information. - Alan

There are two kinds of brands in the world. If you are a marketer, you know what I mean. There are brands people like to talk about, and brands they don’t. Brands of the first kind – the brands that marketing thinker Rohit Bhargava calls “talkable” – are uncommon. Apple’s iPhone is a talkable brand. So is Harley-Davidson. If you market a talkable brand, you have the luxury of tapping into customers who love you, but you’ll have to be careful – those customers have already decided what the brand stands for, and woe unto you if you go against their wishes. Brands that people don’t like to talk about – I’ll call them “boring” brands – are everywhere. If, like most marketers, you market a boring brand, then you’re really earning your living as a marketer. That’s because you are trying to get people interested in something they don’t really care about. I’ve been analyzing social strategies for both kinds of brands, and they form an interesting contrast. - Alan

What I wanted to share with you in this blog is something I came across a few weeks ago that’s got me very excited! Audio blogging. Yeah, I know it doesn’t sound that exciting and audio for internal comms is nothing new. But what’s really gripped me is the simplicity of the latest technology – and the fact it’s two way. - Alan

Finding a way to contact someone has gotten a lot easier: just type their name into Google and follow a few links. For many people, you’ll quickly find a profile on Facebook, a blog or even an email address you can use to get in touch. But a Google search doesn’t turn up good results for everyone. Maybe the person you’re trying to reach has a fairly common name. You may need a tool a little better than a simple Google search to find him. - Alan

If you want to use Twitter, but aren’t sure how to use it well, these process by using these 10 essential Twitter tools for business may help smooth the learning curve: - Alan

We really can’t deny the fact that businesses are testing out Twitter as part of their steps into the social media landscape. You can say it’s a stupid application, that no business gets done there, but there are too many of us (including me) that can disagree and point out business value. I’m not going to address the naysayers much with this. Instead, I’m going to offer 50 thoughts for people looking to use Twitter for business. And by “business,” I mean anything from a solo act to a huge enterprise customer. - Alan

I was particularly interested in making a tripod for my mountain bike that I could install on my handle bars or seat post for video recording parts of my rides. So, in addition to the parts shown on the right and listed below I needed to find a way to attach the tripod rig to my bike. - Alan

Do plumbers need to start posting messages about what they had for breakfast in order to drum up sink-repair orders from desperate Internet hipsters? No, but you can and should use Twitter to connect with your customers, clients, and fans in a way that you couldn’t do before. Here are some tips on how to use Twitter effectively—and a few cautions, as well. - Alan

It’s an increasingly common Twitter experience — you mention a company in passing and suddenly find that you’re being followed by its Twitter marketing robot. Nest Unclutterer helps keep your follower list free of those kinds of distractions. - Alan

A short story for every station on the London Underground. - Alan

So, you’ve been on Twitter for awhile and realize it has some value beyond updating others on your every move. You may have followers and conversations, but most of your tweeps are on the surface. So, how do you build stronger connections? - Alan

Despite the law being clear on a citizen's rights to freely take pictures in public places (with a few restrictions) there is growing evidence of the police, police community support officers (PCSOs), security guards and general jobsworths failing to respect the rights of photographers going about their lawful business. This article hopes to outline your legal rights as a photographer, whether you're taking snaps on a mobile phone camera or wielding a monster Nikon about. - Alan

Here are five free, easy steps you can take to get things started. Do each task in the morning when you start work, and you should be good to go. - Alan

We imagine the rat as despicable, disease ridden, grotesque. In tandem with fleas and plague, rats nearly did us in. But they may also have saved us. It is from the rat that we have learned most of what we know about ourselves. - Alan

Since its introduction, The Settlers of Catan has become a worldwide phenomenon. It has been translated into 30 languages and sold a staggering 15 million copies (even the megahit videogame Halo 3 has sold only a little more than half that). It has spawned an empire of sequels, expansion packs, scenario books, card games, computer games, miniatures, and even a novel—all must-haves for legions of fans. And it has made its 56-year-old inventor a household name in every household that's crazy about board games, and a lot that aren't. - Alan

An excellent guide to finding and using CHDK's best features. It includes details for taking long exposures, ultra-fast exposures, running time-lapse and other scripts, taking HDR photos, and even how to write your own scripts. - Alan

If you're using a consumer grade point-and-shoot Canon digital camera, you've got hardware in hand that can support advanced features way beyond what shipped in the box. With the help of a free, open source project called CHDK, you can get features like RAW shooting mode, live RGB histograms, motion-detection, time-lapse, and even games on your existing camera. - Alan