Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night?
Are you worried about something but don’t quite know what? Do you often stare at a word until it doesn’t look like your language anymore? Do you worry that existence as you know it might just be a subjective projection of your own subconscious, and that the people that you love are wispy veneers that vanish out of reality whenever they’re out of range of your eyes and ears? Are you really alone in your own universe, surrounded by the spectres of your diseased imagination?
Yes?
Fair enough. I was just being nosey really. Good luck with all that anyway.
So, tech links.
FANCY A TRIP TO DIBI?
Did you love Aral Balkan’s talk at this year’s Thinking Digital? Well, the organisers of DIBI certainly did, because the experience designer and developer is back in the North East for DIBI conference on October 7 and 8. Aral’s tour of dodgy design around the world was a big hit at TDC, and he’ll be an afternoon speaker at the twin-track design and development conference at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (next to The Sage).
Other speakers include BBC Sport and Break the Page’s Dan Donald, coder, Kapture lead engineer and Ignite100 favourite Phil Sturgeon, designer and photographer Dan Rubin, as well as Luke Murphy-Wearmouth, Ross Lawley, Wes Mason and more. Check the site for more speakers, and keep coming back for updates.
DIBI is still offering £125 early bird tickets through its site.
APPYSNAP RETURNS
Well, technically it’s been running for a few weeks now, but that was a super-stealthy bug-zapping kink-flattening momentum-building phase. However, the photo challenge app has now been featured in TechCrunch, which means it’s firmly out of the mist of mystery (that’s an official launch stage, right?)
Appysnap originally launched a couple of years ago, and offered users the chance to complete photo-based challenges which tested their creativity. The initial project hit the buffers after a spell of bootstrapping, but it’s now back with shiny designs and a slightly different gameplan, in which gamers can now fire challenges over to other individuals themselves, rather than waiting for the great puppetmaster in the sky to send commands from on high.
The app is currently only available on iOS, although there’s an Android version coming soon. There are also plans for things like sponsored missions. Get playing by downloading it from the App Store.
SPEAKING OF WEB
You might recognise a few names from the Speak The Web event in Nottingham. Designer Naomi Atkinson is part of a bill that also includes Phil Wright, Ryan Taylor and James O’Connell. It’ll take place at Antenna from 6.30pm on July 17. Syd Lawrence and Industry conference speaker Rachel Andrew are at the Leeds event on July 23. Gavin Elliott will be part of the Sheffield lineup on July 16, and there are also events in Manchester and Liverpool.
Sounds intriguing…
PODCAST: THE REVENGE
Congratulations to Deb and Matthew for reaching episode seven of the Particular Podcast, a whip-round of tricky legal issues. The latest episode is about confidentiality, and you can download or listen to it on iTunes.
MEXICAN SUMMER
Digital Union are continuing another tradition of the Codeworks era, and are gathering up people for a Summer Net Together in the hotter months. This year’s event will have a Mexican theme, and will feature stuff like networking, chilli, kickball and possible drunken blackmail material.
The Summer Mex-Together takes place on July 11 (that’s Thursday next week).
ON BETAROCKET
Need a bit of extra help in putting on your great tech event? Ignite100 has teamed up with Rackspace to offer a community fund (Ignite launches fund to support events)
BLOGPOSTS THAT ROCK
Paul Sawers of The Next Web runs through his most prized apps. It’s like Through the Keyhole for tech journos, and who doesn’t like a bit of a nose around in someone else smartphone? Yes, world governments, we’re looking at you (Indispensible Apps)
Technically, this is more of a press release, but it’s an opportunity to find out a bit about Newcastle University’s planned Cloud Computing Centre, which will act as a test bed for products and services (On Cloud Nine)
A nice find from Lyndsey Britton here. Shane Snow talks about some tips that you can adopt to make you a bit more efficient (9 Startup Habits That Will Transform Your Work)
Kevin Ashton on why it’s often a lot better for you to turn a few things down (Creative People Say No)
Paul Graham talks about what’s happening with startup funding right now (Startup Investing Trends)
A FEW ANNOUNCEMENTS
Remember, head to the ever-decent TechDiary for the thrills and spills of the North East tech calendar…
This weekend sees the first DigitalCity Hack roll into action from Friday to Sunday. The weekend hack is run in association with 23mile, a tech startup fund run by Paul Callaghan of DCB Ventures. Good luck to everyone taking part over the next few days.
Refresh Teesside will take place on Thursday at the usual place, and will feature food, drink and various speedy speakers. Go here to sign up.
Wednesday July 17 sees NEBytes whirr into action with a session entitled Tech It and Build It. Andrew Westgarth, Jonathan Noble, Ben Lee and Damien Foggon are going to be looking back wistfully on the action and news from Tech Ed US/Europe and //Build 2013.
Remember, you can share your own news or list your event by emailing john@betarocket.co.uk. Beer is calling. See y’all soon.