Tech or Treat! Technology Brings Halloween Into the 21st Century

You might be a high-flyer with a mountain of emails to wade through and countless meetings to attend this week, but in the back of your mind is the impending doom that you need to think of something original for Halloween or lose your cool parent status forever in this modern nightmarish tale.

I am always fascinated by how people use a combination of innovative ideas and technology to bring something a little different to age-old traditions. The pressure for families to outdo their neighbours by adding something unique to their annual Halloween celebrations and deliver the ultimate scare factor is here once again.

The days of simply carving a traditional pattern to your pumpkin are gone, and there are now a wealth of patterns and stencils available online to ensure you secure the cool factor with your friends and family. However, the latest hair-raising trend of ghost droning has raised the stakes for anyone wanting to bring All Hallows’ Eve into the 21st century.

Tech fans have created a fusion of old and new methods to deliver the ultimate fright night by adding traditional scary costumes to drones that were originally designed for aerial filming. Those who have a fear of clowns might want to stay indoors next Saturday if these videos by @djlilraz are an early indication of what to expect.

Who are you gonna call when an apparition of a terrifying flying clown haunts your neighbourhood?

Technology is also on hand to ensure you do not find yourself in the ghastly position of arriving at a party in the same costume as one of the other guests. Google Frightgeist helpfully allows you to to see what costumes are trending in your neighbourhood obtained from Google Trends 3-billion searches. Predictably Harley Quinn and anything Star Wars related will be incredibly popular this year as fans get their geek on.

The ubiquitous selfie and the sticks that accompany them will be hitting the streets in full force, and there are a few apps such as Vampire Me that allow you to capture your inner bloodsucking vampire. However, the fact vampires do not have a reflection seems to have been conveniently left out of the app description.

When it comes to the afterlife, vampires might seem a little lame to zombie obsessed millienials but thankfully there is no shortage of apps for fans of the Walking Dead to quite literally zombify yourself for the ultimate Halloween selfie.

Meanwhile, GhostCam allows you to spice up your photos by placing ghostly figures in the background to add a little authenticity to those late night spooky stories.

Scare Cam allows you to trick your friends into performing an eye test only to flash a scary pic on-screen and film their reaction to share their lack of nerve on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

If you wanted to add a 21st-century angle to the spooky stories around a campfire, there are a wealth of ghost story podcasts available on Stitcher that will certainly be responsible for a few sleepless nights. Meanwhile gamers might prefer to enter the world of Silent Hill with the lights off or sample one of the many scary titles at their disposal.

Halloween might be an ancient tradition, but it’s our love of technology that will ensure this year’s parties bring something a little different to the table. Although these are days of selfies, flying drones, mobile apps and online trends. The truth is these are also just more tools at our disposal to up our game this Halloween.

As a society, we have evolved so much over the last 2,000 years and yet fundamentally we are exactly the same trying to scare each other with the same old ghost stories whether it be by a campfire or via a podcast.

However, if you feel that the whole day is complete nonsense, you can point your telescope to the skies and watch an asteroid larger than the Empire State building hurtling past the earth aptly named ‘Spooky‘

It seems that when the darkness falls across the land, it’s technology that will be bringing people together whatever you choose to do on October 31st.

Bodyboarding in Croyde Bay With a GoPro Hero

People often ask me where I find my inspiration and energy. As a guy that spends far too much time staring at a screen and tapping away at a keyboard. I think it’s getting out and about in the great outdoors that helps me maintain a very positive outlook.

My two favourite places in the world would be the Glastonbury Festival of contemporary performing arts where I can go completely offline and lose myself for five days soaking up over 1,000 different acts across a 900-acre site. My second favourite place is Croyde Bay in North Devon where I can hit the beach armed with a cheap wetsuit from eBay and a £20 bodyboard.

Sure, learning to surf properly is high on my bucket list. However, a distinct lack of time, money and water near my home makes it quite difficult, but one day I live in hope of spending my final days as a Johnny Utah style character in Croyde.

Until that day, it was time once again to hit Croyde Bay in October to store up my last shot of vitamin D to get me through the winter. And recharge my mojo by catching a few waves in my favourite place.

This year I borrowed my son’s GoPro Hero camera to try and capture some of our antics and also see how this much cheaper model handles the sea. I have to say that this £90 model seemed to capture just how much fun we had and presently surprised at the HD quality.

For anyone that is wondering if the cheaper and original GoPro Hero offers a high enough level of quality, I hope this video helps you make a decision.

No more trips are planned for 2015, but once again I have been fortunate enough to have made some amazing memories and enjoy the company of my friends and family. Although, I am back in front of the screen, it won’t be long until I am scouring Holiday Pirates for my next cheap flight.

The Soundtrack to Life Lessons and Thought Leadership

We all gain inspiration from the content we consume, our surroundings and our loved ones. For example, my love of music taught me about thought leadership long before it became a buzzword. Bruce Springsteen encapsulated my own thought process when he sang the line ‘We learned more from a three-minute record than we ever learned in school’

The famous 75-85 boxset by the boss introduced me to a wealth of stories of flawed characters with big hearts and dreams. Despite, getting knocked down by the monotony of daily working life, they used the burning fire within to lift themselves out of desperate situations.

I clearly remember entering the workplace for the first time trying to make sense of this world as an adult, and the song Badlands seemed to help me make sense of it all in the simplest of ways.

Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king, and a king ain’t satisfied until he rules everything

Sure there was the cynical realisation in the lyric, but ultimately the underlining message I took from Badlands is if you want to make anything happen then you have to create goals and form your own path to make it happen.

Aerosmith cemented the theory of turning negatives into opportunities with their line “You’ve got to lose, to know how to win” in their hit Dream On, many years before Eminem sampled the chorus to deliver the same message in his own unique way. Meanwhile, Bob Dylan taught me not to criticise what you can’t understand and Ice Cube kept me grounded by booming ‘You better check yo self before you wreck yo self’ into my ears.

Despite having a love of technology and gadgetry, I equally appreciate the simple things in life and sometimes you just need to breathe some fresh air and soak up your surroundings. Sometimes, we are guilty of becoming so goal oriented that we forget to live, love, laugh and walk in the rain. However a quick listen of Breath by Pink Floyd ensured a very valuable life lesson was learned sooner rather than later.

Arcade Fire might have sent me a subliminal message to stay on my own path with the line ‘the past won’t rest. Until we jump the fence. And leave it behind‘ but it was the Rolling Stones who poignantly pointed out that ‘You can’t always get what you want, But if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need’

The risk of becoming selfish or self-absorbed was quickly quashed by the legend Bob Marley who hammered home the importance of helping others on this journey called life with the simple message ‘Be not selfish in your doings, pass it on. Help your brothers in their needs: Pass it on‘

Maybe we underestimate the influence that music can have on our lives and do not always realise that the songs we listen to can empower us just a much as any self-help book or life coach ever will.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not the guy that sits in a dark room full of melancholy searching for deep meaning in every song that I hear. After all sometimes you just want to shake it like a polaroid picture and I’m likely to find just a much inspiration by busting out a few moves with wild abandon on a sunny afternoon.

My music obsession leads many to think that I’m just a dreamer, but in the words of John Lennon, I’m not the only one, and I know for sure that one day you will join me.

Let me know the songs and lyrics that have inspired you on this journey of life by commenting below.

Hiking to Kjeragbolten and Preikestolen (The Pulpit Rock)

Any parent will tell you that the summer holidays can be quite challenging when your tiny children become teenagers. All theme parks have long been ticked off their bucket lists and everything you suggest seems to fall under the labels of boring or too childish.

I spend most of my time writing about the latest technology trends and often find myself conflicted by the benefits and negative aspects of this digital age. I am also increasingly conscious of the amount of time that both my son and I spend staring at screens and don’t want to be the dad who says “in a minute” paying more attention to email than each other.

The older that I get, the more I realise that its experiences rather than possessions that truly make us happy, so decided to take my teenage son on a father and son adventure to Norway. A short 90-minute flight from the UK into Stavanger would allow us to soak up some of the finest scenery that this world has to offer and allow us to spend quality time together.

Our base was the Scandic Stavanger City hotel which ticks many boxes for anyone sightseeing in the Stavanger region. The airport bus drops you across the road from the hotel, it offers an all you can eat breakfast and the all important free wi-fi.

Hiking to Preikestolen (The Pulpit Rock) simply involves crossing the road and getting on a ferry (pay on board) to Tau, then hop straight onto one of the buses waiting (pay the driver) and begin your hike. Refreshingly you are encouraged to pay on your card rather than using cash on your travels making the whole trip incredibly simple.

Hiking with your dad could still be interpreted as boring to the typical teenager, but I had something special up my sleeve. The plan was to climb to the top of Kjerag and stand on a large boulder (Kjeragbolten) wedged in the mountain’s crevasse for the ultimate Instagram moment.

Although, the photo’s give the impression that standing on the boulder is incredibly scary, it is much bigger when close up and reassuringly nobody has ever slipped or fell off the precariously placed rock. Maybe, it’s a combination of a survival instinct kicking in and the channelling of one’s inner mountain goat that comes to the rescue when the health and safety risk assessment police are nowhere to be seen. (more…)

New York City Second Time Around

I was fortunate enough to visit New York for the first time around 7 years ago and, as a rule, I don’t return to the same place twice because I feel that you are missing out on somewhere else.

However, I had unfinished business with NYC and my first visit consisted of rushing around like a madman trying to see as much as I could racing to the top of the Empire State, Statue of Liberty and the Rock frantically attempting to tick as many things off my bucket list as possible.

Now that Grand Central Station, Central Park, Times Square, Wall Street and Brooklyn Bridge are a fading memory, I thought it was time to return and soak up the other things that New York has to offer at a more leisurely pace with 5 full days for our return visit.

Arriving into Newark on an internal flight at 21:45, we got the train from the airport to Penn Station for only $12.50 which was only a 2 minute walk to our hotel the New Yorker and there were no safety concerns at all and everywhere was very busy despite the arriving in Manhattan quite late.

Day 1

It was time to learn and conquer the New York Subway so purchased a one-week unlimited subway and local bus pass for $30. NYC is a big place, so having the ability to zip around the city without scrambling around for loose change was the best decision I could have made.

Understanding the metro system offered a slight learning curve, but again the beauty of the unlimited pass means any mistakes were quickly rectified when I understood the difference between uptown and downtown or express and local service.

Next to the New Yorker Hotel Tick Tock restaurant is a subway station that allowed us to hop on the A, C or E line downtown to ground zero where the freedom tower has recently opened. Upon leaving the subway station, we were a little disoriented and unsure which direction to take but we turned a corner there it was and the sight takes your breath away. (more…)

YouTube Gaming Aims Sights At Twitch

Last year Amazon raised more than a few eyebrows in beating Google to purchase Twitch for a cool $1 billion. As the gaming community continues its phenomenal growth, we shouldn’t be too surprised at the recent announcement of the unimaginatively titled ‘YouTube Gaming.’

A post on YouTube’s blog yesterday revealed that YouTube Gaming is built to be all about your favorite games and gamers, with more videos than anywhere else. From “Asteroids” to “Zelda,” more than 25,000 games will each have their page, a single place for all the best videos and live streams about that title. You’ll also find channels from a wide array of game publishers and YouTube creators.

And when you want something specific, you can search with confidence, knowing that typing “call” will show you “Call of Duty” and not “Call Me Maybe.”

More details will be revealed at E3 next week in Los Angeles where the world’s press will be soaking up a plethora of announcements. We can be sure that there will be a wealth of information that will dominate our newsfeeds along with tales of million dollar game releases and virtual reality with Oculus Rift. (more…)

Are You Ready For Virtual Reality?

Back in 2014, Google invested $542 million in a secretive and mysterious augmented reality glasses start-up known as Magic Leap, but it wasn’t until last week that we got our first glimpse of what we can expect from the project when a video called ‘Just another day in the office of Magic Leap‘, appeared on their YouTube channel.

It would appear that the race to bring a touch of virtual reality to our world is picking up pace as Facebook, Samsung and Sony also make advances in this area. As a user you will probably fall into one of two camps that consist of “wow this is the future” or “Not another pointless gimmick, didn’t we learn anything from 3D TV’s?”

If resistance really is futile and we are all heading for a future where we plug ourselves into the matrix, let’s take a look at what the Oculus Rift rival brings to the table.

Although you cannot deny how visually impressive this fusion of a digital and physical world are, it doesn’t take long until you are left thinking that this is yet another case of style over substance that when stripped back doesn’t actually offer us anything new, other than leaving you stood in your living room with giant ski goggles waving your arms around blissfully unaware that the joke could be on you. (more…)

iBeacons and Meerkat App Bring Human Element to SXSW

Over 100,000 attendees are expected at South by Southwest (SXSW) where the annual event offers a smorgasbord of music, film and interactive technology in Austin, Texas from March 13-22.

However, the big news is how once again technology is rapidly invading event space as the organisers of SXSW have teamed up with Eventbase to place over 1,000 Gimbal’s series 21 iBeacons in 265 of the events official venues to offer tracking and communication via the official mobile app, which is also the largest deployment of iBeacons for an event.

Typically this form of technology interacts with your mobile phone when you enter or leave an area and send messages depending on your interests along with any promotions that can be pushed to visitors, but this latest event partnership is concentrating on using beacons to offer a human element that will allow visitors to network effectively.

Finally it seems that there is a realisation that there is more to iBeacon technology than retail marketing or advertising which is refreshing as nothing frustrates people more than receiving unsubtle and intrusive messages telling us to buy more stuff that only annoy the recipient.

We have a low tolerance of being used as a walking billboard, but location-based interactions with other visitors are something that could revolutionise the event space. For example, imagine checking into a conference and instantly be able to see exactly who else is in the room and filter through the results based on profile tags that allow you to network effortlessly with other visitors. (more…)

Life Lessons From the Words of Terry Pratchett

We all find inspiration from different sources that surround our everyday lives and as someone that has always harboured a hidden desire to become a writer, how could I write about anything else today after hearing about the sad passing of Sir Terry Pratchett.

In a digital world where the written word is slowly being replaced by the more visually appealing videos on websites and journalists or authors turn their back on writing due to the lack of financial motivation, but a true writer simply does not have a choice and has a simple desire to tell a story in their own natural voice regardless if there is a reward or not.

The prospect of Alzheimer’s disease taking away your own voice and how you communicate in this life is terrifying, but even in the face of adversity, the author filled with greatness that wrote over 70 books remained as philosophical as ever.

If I had been Terry Pratchett the farmer or Terry Pratchett the dentist, nobody would have paid any attention if I had announced I had Alzheimer’s. But there is something fascinating about an author losing the power over words.

There was something about those worlds he created that were full of misfit heroes that struck a real cord with me and there are so many quotes that we all know by heart that will forever inspire writers of all generations such as the line “If you don’t turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else’s story” from the Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.

In his passing we have inherited his beautiful words that will remain long after you and I have left this world, but in the words of the great man “Don’t think of it as dying, just think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush”

Here are just a few of my favourite quotes that have come from the brilliant mind of a great man with a fantastic sense of adventure.

Goodness is about what you do. Not who you pray to
I have no use for people who have learned the limits of the possible
A man’s not dead whilst his name is being mentioned

Pratchett was so much more than just an author of fantasy novels and there are so many life lessons to be found in his words such as the book Moving Pictures that perfectly illustrates what this crazy life is all about.

The whole of life is just like watching a film. Only it’s as though you always get in ten minutes after the big picture has started, and no-one will tell you the plot, so you have to work it out all yourself from the clues. —from Moving Pictures

All too often we fail to realise the true effect we have on others in this life and whatever you background or outlook in life, I believe the most powerful line written by Sir Terry Pratchett is “No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away…”

Have the words of Terry Pratchett inspired you? I would love to hear your thoughts and favourite quotes.