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Caffeinehit Bloggings. Musings and rants of caffeine addict turned designer, Andy Ashburner.

Microsoft Photosynth on Mac

By Andy | August 21st, 2008 | 2 Comments

Microsoft Photosynth

On first look the Photosynth website looks seriously sexy and that’s before actually knowing anything about it… In fact, I still no nothing about it so I’m none the wiser. When I clicked on the ‘Go’ button I was faced with this inspiring bit of copy:

Microsoft Photosynth

So, I guess I’m going to have to wait and see exactly what it is that Microsoft Photosynth can do. In the meantime I can revel in the glory of Microsoft admitting that PC’s are shit and Mac’s rule. Fact.

CATEGORY: Random

Constant Setting Sunsets

By Andy | August 14th, 2008 | 1 Comment

Sunset

I stumbled across this really nice (and simple) concept by Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Constant Setting.

It’s a website that pulls in creative commons photos from Flickr and then displays sunsets in ‘realtime’ for that specific town or city where the sun is actually setting. You can read more about it here.

Visually it’s a really nice, clean way of dealing with what is a very simple concept. It would be nice if the Google maps was embedded into the page when you clicked on the location link, if it was possible to view more sunset images for that location it would be good too.

Anyway, lovely idea!

CATEGORY: Design, flash

New look Caffeinehit blog

By Andy | August 7th, 2008 | No Comments

Thanks to Donkey for the new look Caffeinehit blog

A very quick post really. I wanted to say a massive thank you to Steve for getting the Caffeinehit blog working with Wordpress. It’s working brilliantly and now sits perfectly with the rest of the site.

I’d recommend him 100% so if you need any Wordpress hacking done then you can find him at Peeled Carrots.

CATEGORY: caffeinehit

YouNoodle StartUp Predictor Goes Live

By Andy | August 7th, 2008 | 3 Comments

YouNoodle Startup Predictor

Finally, the much hyped Startup Predictor from YouNoodle has gone live. A very impressive little application which (I’m sure) is incredibly accurate.

I’m wondering how I’m going to spend my retirement. Caffeinehit has been valued at $14,400,000 for in three years time (August 1st 2010). Lovely.

CATEGORY: caffeinehit, web 2.0

Start-up struggles, one year on (Seedcamp 2008)

By Andy | August 7th, 2008 | No Comments

Seedcamp 2008

It’s great to see coverage of MyBuilder and Kublax in the FT today (6th August 2008).

I’ve got the pleasure of working with MyBuilder at the moment and have recently pitched for doing some design work for Kublax. Having seen what Kublax can do (it’s just gone in to Alpha) I can happily say that it’s one of the first websites that I’ve seen that I actually thought “you know what, that could be really useful”. Once the design is nailed (obviously if it’s not done by Caffeinehit it won’t be quite as good!) but it will be awesome, a definite success.

MyBuilder is another one of those sites (although maybe not as relevant to me) that you will find really useful. I often hear friends and family saying “do you know anyone that could do…”. With MyBuilder it allows you to find and use builders on the site that are local to you and recommended by people that have used them through the site.

The team at MyBuilder are awesome and I honestly think that if the ‘credit crunch’ and property market behave themselves they could find themselves in an incredibly interesting position in the next year. I hope so at least.

Read about all the other success stories (and failures) from last years Seedcamp on the FT.com.

If you think you’ve got what it takes you can submit your idea to this years Seedcamp.

CATEGORY: Design, web 2.0

Bose Headphones

By Andy | August 1st, 2008 | No Comments

Bose headphones

Right… I don’t know why I’m using this blog as more of a ranting platform than a design blog. I’m sure I can try and bring it back round to ‘design’ somehow.

So, I bought a pair of Bose headphones last September to replace my Apple headphones. Don’t get me wrong the Apple headphones are good, they just get a little painful when you’re wearing them all day, every day. The Bose headphones seemed like the way forward.

Anyway, since I got them it seems to be one thing after another. First the wire went funky, then the replacement pair just disintegrated, now the third pair appear to have lost all base in them - wtf is that about!? It’s not like I walk particularly energetically or put my headphones through unecessary stress or strain, so why do they keep breaking?! I always thought that Bose were shit hot when it comes to audio. Am I wrong or do they only become shit hot when you’re spending a few thousand pounds?

Has anyone else had problems with their Bose headphones, is it really just me or is it a bad DESIGN?

CATEGORY: Random, Rant

Chad Man

By Andy | July 31st, 2008 | No Comments

Google Chad

On another, slightly more random note, check out this on Google maps, the guy is seemingly looking up at you, how come you can zoom in so close over Chad anyway?!

CATEGORY: Random

New look Caffeinehit.com

By Andy | July 13th, 2008 | 7 Comments

New look Caffeinehit.com

I’ve just put the finishing touches to the new look Caffeinehit. I thought it was about time it had a bit of a sprucing up and spring clean. Being the 1st birthday and all it seemed a very suitable time!

It would be great to hear what you think, so leave some comments here…

Check it out here: www.caffeinehit.com

Happy 1st Birthday Caffeinehit

By Andy | July 8th, 2008 | 3 Comments

Happy 1st Birthday Caffeinehit

Well, I missed it - Caffeinehit’s (official active) 1st birthday. I realised that I left MTV on 6th July 2007, although I didn’t start ‘working’ until August 16th 2007 but I guess my official freedom was 6th July so that should be the date.

Anyway, what a first year it’s been. It’s been great, so thanks to all my fab clients and my amazing grilfriend for her support.

Roll on year 2! Let’s see what happens…

Google Maps

By Andy | June 23rd, 2008 | 2 Comments

Google Maps Mashup

I was just using Google Maps, as I often do and spotted a new addition to the interface, a neat little dropdown giving the option of viewing photos AND wikipedia content on your maps.

Now, I know it’s only going to be a matter of time before they introduce browser type ‘add-ons’ to your Google maps but for the time being this is a seriously sexy addition. One issue that I have with Wikipedia is that there is no way to view location based content in any sort of context, to have it viewable on a map makes it seem somewhat relevant.

Not only does it add interest to the basic google maps it does look pretty cool at the same time. I know this is pretty common place with many mashups but it’s nice to see Google finally adding a little bit more to the basic Google Maps.

CATEGORY: Design, UI Design, web 2.0

Tales from Caffeinehit towers...

Microsoft Photosynth on Mac (Aug '08)

Constant Setting Sunsets (Aug '08)

New look Caffeinehit blog (Aug '08)

YouNoodle StartUp Predictor... (Aug '08)

Start-up struggles, one yea... (Aug '08)

Comments...

You have to give them some credi... (Aug '08)

You bugger! You got me all excit... (Aug '08)

Thanks for picking up on this! Y... (Aug '08)

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