Ged Carroll

Blog

  • Delete your direct messages + more things

    Even years later, Twitter doesnt delete your direct messages | TechCrunch – interesting possible GDPR risk for Twitter. I have cleaned out my public tweet feed as what you share is ephemeral. I could imagine people doing foolish things, but Twitter doesnt delete your direct messages and they could conceivably gathered by court order

    HSBC forex trading costs cut sharply by blockchain – executive | Reuters – low transaction rate, less than 4,000 transactions a day. This looks more like a niche case for blockchain rather than a panacea for fintech

    Why I’m Deleting All My Old Tweets | WIRED – I do it because the content is of a time and loses something out of context and the content is ephemeral. Who cares about my Merry Christmas into the ether of late 2007? I don’t.

    Angry over campus speech by Uighur activist, Chinese students in Canada contact their consulate, film presentation – The Washington Post – People participating in the chat expressed disbelief that their government operated mass detention centers, saying they had not seen Chinese news reports about them. (The centers have been widely covered in international media, but many of these reports are censored in China.) (paywall) – Interesting for the mirror that it offers up to our own media eco-system and our reality

    Madison Avenue Makeover Insights | Holding Companies at a Tipping Point – interesting take on the advertising holding companies

    EU Elections: Will Populists Win or Have They Peaked? Bloomberg – great use of graphics in this reporting. More design related content here.

    Mastercard’s new “sonic logo” will play every time you make a purchase | Quartz – will this become annoying or will the branding lose its meaning in our world of point of sale beeps particularly in supermarkets and big chain stores?

    Nato Straps – 031CWZ011621w | OMEGA® – Omega have made a strap of synthetic spider silk which is calls BioSteel which is made by AMSilk – a German textile company

  • Pioneer Axe + more things

    Pioneer Axe was an old-time US manufacturing company. The company used skilled labour and machine tools to manufacture axes. The Pioneer Axe plant didn’t seem to have been invested in during the 20th century and globalisation was starting to make itself felt in light industrial areas. This documentary film about their manufacturing process was made just prior to the the business closing. I’m a sucker for these kind of films that show case processes. There is something poetic about them. The processes have likely evolved from an initial plan over time organically to enhance productivity.

    This is one of a series of ads done for RACV Pet Insurance in Australia. It’s the kind of work you’d be proud of doing. I love some of the customised rigs that the disabled dogs have been given to enable to keep being good dogs.

    Naomi Wu demonstrates a bin that heat seals its bags. At first I thought it was frivolous; but then thinking about the kind of summer we had last year I can understand the appeal to reduce smells and the opportunities for insects to take up home in your bin content. The bin is positioned as a smart device; but it isn’t really.

    Water Margin Podcast: Outlaws of the Marsh – my favourite general interest podcast to fill the gap after Cocaine and Rhinestones. It is a podcast that explains in relatable terms the Chinese classic. This makes a lot of sense as the number of characters starts to expand a lot.

    I ended up working out of Somerset House for some of this week and shot this Thameside time lapse video. It is amazing how much river traffic there is on the Thames in central London. Despite the congestion charge and outrageous parking charges, the car is still very popular. More London related content here.

  • Brexit approaches + more things

    Sky, Unilever and McDonald’s slash UK ad spend as Brexit approaches | The Drum – not terribly surprising. I would expect other changes as Brexit approaches. Changes in warehousing or even moving teams offshore. From a marketing perspective there is a compelling argument for a counter-cyclical strategy, which is how Proctor and Gamble built their brand in the US during the great depression via sponsored radio plays and serials which gave us the ‘soap opera’. The theory would go something like this. As Brexit approaches, media spend declines. Which means for flat or increasing spend your share of voice increases. Market share growth is directly related to share of voice.

    China’s lunar new year spending growth slowest since 2005 | Financial Times – That was an increase of 8.5 per cent from last year, a sharp drop from 2018’s year-on-year growth of 10.2 per cent and the slowest rate of growth since such data were first tracked, in 2005. – interesting numbers. China is seeing weakening capital investment due to recent interest rises, paired with declining consumer sentiment and consumer spending growth. It impacts global economic indicators and also the Communist Party of China plan for a ‘dual circulation’ economy. (paywall) More related posts here.

    Opinion | China’s Online Censorship Stifles Trade, Too – The New York Times – I only agree to a point on this, China’s services, in particular Baidu who went to head-to-head with Google won out in China. This was as much down to Google’s lack of preparedness to invest in search indexing that would grow at the same rate as the Chinese net. Censorship then provided them an excuse to get out of China. Amazon China is still way behind JD.com and Alibaba and its market share has been going down for years. That doesn’t mean that these services shouldn’t be blocked in international expansion as part of the trade dispute, but also don’t discount US hubris so lightly

  • AngloArabia by David Wearing

    I got sent a copy of AngloArabia and was interested in having a read of it. I grew up at a time when the Gulf states influence grew through OPEC. I started my work life with a brief time in the oil and gas industry. Since then I have moved on through a number of iterations in my career.

    Currently reading

    The Gulf states sit in a peculiar AngloArabia part of British history that isn’t generally understood. Wearing goes through the history of the the area from the Trucial states attached to the British rule of India. And brings up to date regarding the UK’s role in the modern Middle East.

    The modern relationship between the Gulf states and the United Kingdom blurs the hierarchy between client states and their former colonial master. Oil and the OPEC oil crisis was the catalyst as countries got increased financial power and the UK became the number one Euro Dollar market.

    Lots of western countries have seen sovereign funds invest with a view to gaining influence. The UK is unique in terms of the role played by Gulf States who are bailing the country out. Without the support of Middle East money, the country would be overwhelmed by its current account deficit. This money has gone into property, the UK stock market, private equity investments and trophy businesses such as football clubs. The Gulf states are also responsible for a huge amount of consumption in the UK. The UK luxury market revolves around their consumption patterns.

    The implication is that the British economy and the UK government literally can’t afford for any of the Middle East monarchies to fall in an Arab Spring style revolution.

    The author David Wearing is a left of centre leaning journalist with wonkish credentials. As with any author, you need to ask yourself about his agenda. He has managed to write a relatively accessible book. More related content here.

  • Roland file trademarks + more things

    Roland Files Trademarks For 303 & 808 Designs In Germany – Magnetic Magazine – interesting reading, in particular patenting designs so long after they were manufactured. Roland files trademarks and patents aimed at trying to stop Behringer who are due to be releasing a near perfect copy of the 808 drum machine

    Why Jeff Bezos Went to Medium With His Message | NYTimes – evidence that blogging isn’t dead and social media isn’t everything

    Huawei Threatens Lawsuit Against Czech Republic After Security Warning | NYTimes.com – interesting that Huawei is trying to cow the government with legal force. Huawei’s interpretation of Chinese law seems to be different to legal experts

    An Honest Take on the Hits and Misses of SIHH 2019 | SJX Watches – Baume et Mercier’s abandoning of the silicon hairsprings that made their debut in the Baumatic of 2018. The elimination of the silicon hairspring has lowered the retail price of the watch by about €250, but that’s notable for the reason behind the retreat. According to several insiders, Baume & Mercier, and by extension its parent Richemont, was kindly asked to stop using silicon hairsprings because the intellectual property for them belongs to a consortium led by Swiss micro-engineering institute CSEM, which is in turn backed by Rolex, the Swatch Group and Patek Philippe

    Are Influencers Over? | The Daily | Gartner L2 – interesting read and contrasting approaches between Unilever and Diesel.

    5 Asian Trends for 2019 – TrendWatching – After decades of economic growth, rising numbers of Asians are no longer primarily focused on pursuing material wealth. On the contrary, the pressures of progress are catching up: overwork, mental health issues, apathy, and more. In 2019, many Asians comfortable with their economic status

    Meet the ‘godfather’ of China’s smartphone industry | SCMP – the founder of BBK which backs Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, RealMe etc. More related content here.

    Cheatsheet: Snapchat is no longer adding more users (but it isn’t losing them, either) – Digiday – bots are loyal?

    WSJ City | As US and Germany draw up trade barriers, Germany fights back – makes sense

    WSJ City | Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts leaving company – makes sense. Apple’s move into true luxury pricing has shown to be a fallacy if one looks at consumer reaction to iPhone sales and laptop pricing. A number of people I know downgraded in the range rather than follow through on MacBook Pro purchases. Also the retail presence has felt like straightening deck chairs rather than moving forwards