The final day’s shows were different, we tried to bring a touch of culture to the day, starting with a talk from Nicholas Carr at the Book Festival. Put simply, Carr believes the Internet is destroying our attention span, he thinks we are inadvertently ‘training’ ourselves out of being able to concentrate on longer tasks – reading books, etc. An interesting theory and one that I’m sure to come back to.

Then we kicked the evening into gear with a tutored whisky tasting session at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. The society is quite unique: they taste and bottle single casks (so long as they pass muster), without any blending, at cask strength. They deal directly with Scottish distilleries creating distinctive and always interesting bottles. It was a great experience, learning about tasting and trying some pretty unique whiskys.

So came the final show of the festival – Richard Herring’s Christ on a Bike. A last minute booking on recognition of the name, not a great way to choose a show, but worth a shot. Unfortunately Herring’s show was stale, cliched and pretty uninteresting; it seemed like he wasn’t trying, that or he’d performed the routine so many times he was simply bored. A bad note on which to end the fest.

We were still going from the tasting whiskies earlier but a night-cap was needed before the morning’s long train ride home. A Talisker 10 year was the choice: a simply, smokey, whisky but with a clean palette as well.

With that the festival was over, we stayed in a lovely house, Edinburgh is a beautiful city, and the festival is a great time. Thoroughly recommended.

Day five, the day of the big headline gig. But to start we needed to warm up with something new. Caroline Mabey was a recommendation from last night, flyered with Josie Long’s show programme. Mabey greeted everyone at the door, handing out napkins in preparation for the show to come. She talked about breakfasts, using lovely little illustrations and homemade soundtracks throughout, very charming but completely cookey as well.

Next, after a quick run along Cowgate to the Underbelly, was a show from another sketch troupe. Comedy Bitch is three girls and three guys jumping from sketch to sketch with some clever little observations wrapped up in it all. A nice, gentle, comedy ride but no revelation.

The last item of the day was the big name – Jimmy Carr. Jimmy was playing at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, by far the biggest venue available in the city. It was standard Carr fare: quick one liners, cutting comebacks, and some filthy punchlines. So nothing new, maybe that was the problem; with a big name you expect big things but his show fell flat. And in the light of some fantastic unknowns we’ve seen Jimmy was even more disappointing.

To drown our sorrows (well, disappointments) we needed a couple of drinks. First up a deeply smokey Lefroy 12 year with woody overtones and a just hint of Walls vanilla ice-cream. For the night-cap a 12 year Bowmore was required: a smoothy with a kick in the tail, the Bowmoore brings thoughts of dark cocoa and morello cherries.

Day four, a four show day. Starting with It Is Rocket Science, Helen Keen’s one woman (plus shadow puppeteer) show all about rockets. Helen is charming throughout and clearly knows something about rockets, but the jokes fall a bit flat and she doesn’t connect with the audience. I’d have preferred she give a straight lecture, with a few throw-away jokes thrown in there for fun, rather than a comedy routine.

Second up was a flyerers recommendation: The Incident. Two Aussie’s and their one stage cardboard box show about…well I’m not sure. Very physical comedy and alarmingly fast-paced, fun but somewhat disturbing at the same time. Recommended if only for the novelty of its oddness.

Time for a coffee break

Josie Long has been a longtime (geddit?!) favourite of ours so her show was really a given. The lovely lazy Josie went on and on about breakfast and Walter Ezell (her favourite Flickr celebrity) but that was okay, breakfasts are a funny subject. She had a point too – everyone should be a better person, or at least try. A noble show from a funny girl.

At the end of a long day there’s nothing better than a sketch show, at least that’s what my mother says. The Beta Males’ Picnic offered up a great show, set in a post-apocalyptic bunker with everyone going a little crazy. Disgustingly energetic, amazingly clever and full on puns, a brilliant discovery to finish a long day.

Balvenie double wood 12 year was the choice tonight: woody and tasting of oak chips this is a lovely nightcap.

Day three, we’ve made it to day three, that’s exciting! It was a slower day today, only two shows but they were both big names.

We kick off with Kevin Eldon titting about. He really does tit about, right there on stage, pulling half a dozen characters out of the bag throughout. Paul Hamilton (Kevin’s poet alter-ego) opens the stage with unique rhyming style before introducing Kevin proper. Kevin sings, dances and acts, all the time with utter brilliance, his song about skipping CDs a particular highlight.

A walk up to Arthur’s Seat served as the meat in our comedy sandwich, all 251 metres of it. Exhausting but pretty.

The second big name was Greg Davies with his show all about those beautiful ‘you had to be there’ moments in life. Titled ‘Firing Cheeseballs at a Dog’ Greg tells us about his life: from year zero, through his days as a drama teacher, to his recent holiday tormenting a Spanish dog. There are some roaring laughs in the show, particularly during the retelling of some of his encounters as a teacher. It’s a great theme, very uplifting, and ties together Greg’s life story nicely.

An Oban 14 year was the choice of the spirits shelf tonight: a creamy palette with notes of toffee and burnt caramel, like a creme brûlée in a glass.

After Josh Howie saved our Monday we continued the curly haired middle-aged theme with Andy Zaltzman. Andy told us about the life changing impact that delivering your own child has on a person, I don’t doubt it. The show was full of satire and cricket references (as is Zaltzman’s style), a sure hit with any fans of his Bugle podcast.

Day two, show two: we took a chance on Toby Hadoke – Now I Know my BBC. The long lost descendant of fishermen Toby loves the BBC, he even knows the correct positioning of the apostrophe in Howards’ Way. It’s an endearing show, full of Toby’s passion for the importance of the institution (rightly so, as it’s one of the cornerstones of our British culture). A brilliant little show/lecture that lifts the heart.

The final event of the day and the first musical number of the festival was Barbershopera. Apocalypse? No! Half barber shop quartet, half opera, half comedy – the show is cleverly constructed by just four actors playing and singing all the parts. Genuinely hilarious despite being of the musical genre.

Tonight’s whisky choice was a Dalwhinnie 15 year: much more depth than yesterday’s choice, with light fruit flavours, particularly watermelon.

We travelled to Edinburgh on the flying scotsman (which is disappointingly just a regular diesel train), the journey meanders through beautiful countryside (and for a brief time Newcastle) so is really very pleasant.

First impressions of Edinburgh are very confusing; it’s one big hill with lots of levels, making finding anywhere in a lot less than easy. Nether-the-less we found our house (thank you Festival Beds) and made our way to the Pleasance Courtyard.

First up Seann Walsh; a great start with some original observations (not usually my cup of tea, most comedians seem to observe incredibly mundane things). Just under half way through things were obviously turning. Stumbling, Seann lost it, put his head in his hands and had a little lie down. We filed out of the venue. This would be hilarious if it were all part of the show, but alas it wasn’t (our tickets were refunded).

Not a great start to the festival. But Josh Howie managed to save the day with a tour through his life living with his gran. Josh gave us some top tips for coping with an elderly housemate as well as making a lovely cup of tea.

Tonight’s whisky: Highland Park 12 year, quite one dimensional with a unpleasant lingering aftertaste.

I bought an iPad. Now, in light of the last time I wrote about this device that may seem a little hypocritical, but let me explain…I wanted one. And I’m surprised at how useful this thing actually is.

When 90% of what you’d use a computer for is Internet-based while sitting in front of the TV the iPad is the perfect device. It is brilliant for watching video and reading (conquering “the bedtime reading market”) but it did surprise me at how much more it can do.

Every time I let someone play with this thing I hear “wow, it’s just a big iPhone” and that’s true but it’s where the iPad changes eveything. The iPhone is an incredible device but size is a big issue! The iPad takes the bigger screen real-estate of your computer, combines it with the iPhone’s beautiful user interface, and puts it in your hands. A bigger screen is a huge difference.

Writing this blog post on the iPad!

My iPad doesn’t replace anything, I still need my laptop and I still need my iPhone, but I do need them a lot less. I’ll pick up the iPad for most everything; Twitter, email, web-browsing, RSS, even a little writing (like this post). The laptop is relegated to DVDs and syncing whereas the iPhone is only for on-the-go. I’m using it a lot at work too; making notes in meetings, showing off websites and reading reports. This point is; I use my iPad the most.

But it’s still only really a toy, a want not a need, and starting at £429 a pretty expensive one. So is it worth it? Well, for most people; no, it’s a little too expensive and not quite useful enough, if it was £300 everyone would be buying one, but they’re not. Anyway, I wanted one.

Originally published on the Blue Hive blog as part of Digital Honey.

We got in touch with our inner fashionista this week and took a look at the brilliant Westfield Fashion Detector. Have you ever been browsing Facebook photos, jealously eying up your friend’s new jacket? Or been walking down the street and spotted your perfect party dress? The Fashion Detector is for you.

The Fashion Detector web plugin allows you to select a photo, highlight that jacket and quickly search for it across all the Westfield shops. Pretty clever, the mobile app is where it gets genius though. The app let’s you snap a photo of anyone and search Westfield for that dress. Creepy?! Well, yes, a little, but this is the Internet!

The Westfield Fashion Detector app

The idea is certainly genius. It’s sure to drive sales and boost the brand, but its brilliance is in answering that problem we’ve all felt; “oh, that’s nice, I want it!” The problem is…it doesn’t exist. Yep, it’s just a concept put together by students at Miami Ad School. The technology isn’t there yet, in fact it’s not even close, such complex image recognition would be required that it’ll be a long time coming.

So we’re consigning this one to the growing pile of apps in the ‘wouldn’t that be cool, one day maybe’ category. Oh well, a girl can dream.

The Decode exhibit (V&A museum until 11th April) is a wondrous collection of interactive and visually stunning exhibits. Sold as a showcase of “the latest developments in digital and interactive design” it’s full of beautiful, immersive installations.

The exhibition features some of the world’s premiere ‘interactive artists’, including Golan Levin and Aaron Koblin, and it has certainly attracted a lot of attention. I went along to check out what all the fuss was about. These are my favourites.

Body paint

Mehmet Akten’s virtual painting installation is unlike any painting you will have ever attempted before. The piece works by sensing motion allowing intrepid artists to splatter, smear and spray paint over the large virtual canvas. The result is inevitably a messy smear of vivid colours but that doesn’t matter; it’s the interaction that counts.

Body Paint (via Ben J Gibbs)

The real-time tie between the user and the canvas is fascinating, with a flick or the wrist you can spray a flurry of pink up the canvas. It’s like begin child with poster paints again, except this time you can do it all day without any mess and still claim artistic integrity.

Dandelion

The concept here is pure simplicity; allowing users to blow away the seed of a dandelion. This being a virtual interactive piece however both the dandelion, and the wind which affects it, are virtual.

The installation was created by Sennep; a London-based design studio specialising in creating digital experiences. It’s another child-like activity brought into the virtual world as an adult’s plaything, but it’s that simplicity which makes it so delightfully engrossing.

Dandelion (via Pixelthing)

Exquisite clock

This piece, created by the Italian group Fabrica, is one of the only exhibits to allow participation from the wider world (rather than just the viewer). The piece is a clock, but of course it’s interactive! For months anonymous online visitors have been able to add their images on the exquisite clock website, each user adding a photograph of (or representing) a number, thereby building a database full of number images. This database is then plumbed by a live updating clock displaying each digit as a different image.

The beauty in this piece is that it can really be contributed to by anyone, it’s a truly crowd-sourced application reliant on willing users. A live updating version of the clock can actually be seen on the website. Why not submit an image yourself and wait to see if it comes around?

There were of course many more amazing pieces in the exhibit, from a virtual (but real) tree to an interactive wall of bubbles. The whole exhibit was great fun, I’d thoroughly recommend a trip to see it before it closes. For more information and tickets visit the V&A museum website.

We’re seeing the slow and inevitable death of IE6. At last. Latest figures put it at an ever decreasing 20% market share. It’s got us a long way but the new kids on the block need to take over now. We need a web full of modern browsers, HTML5 and CSS3 compliance is the future, a web where simplicity and data are the driving forces is what we need to strive for.

The faster our browser usage evolves the better, there are some ways you can help as well:

1. Install a new browser and ditch IE yourself;
2. Pester your work’s IT guys to install one;
3. Stop supporting IE6 when you develop;
4. If you develop anything do it with the modern web in mind.

That last one is the most important. We need the web to move on, but we can’t do that when we’re still developing for technology that’s 5 years old. With every new thing we build we need to try and push the advances of the modern web. Use HTML5, ditch Flash, expose your data, syndicate, mash up, utilise real-time content. It’s not about the browsers really, they’re just a little thing holding us back, it’s about achieving a more integrated, simplistic, beautiful web.

So the next time you have an opportunity to make something, don’t do the same old, make something different; innovate.