Nzime

Four months ago I was stood track side at Silverstone in awe of the talent and ability of this man as I tried to take photos of these riders and their machines at unimaginable speed. Unfortunately today Marco Simoncelli is no longer with us due to a terrible on track incident in Sepang. I was one of the lucky ones getting to witness his talents before he passed. He was the only Racer on the grid in my mind that could have truly follow in Valentino Rossi’s footsteps after he retires. No other rider had his flare, talent or drive.

Many of us in the studio are huge MotoGP fans and have followed for the sport for more years than we can count. Our thoughts go out to Simoncellis Friends and Family, not forgetting Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards who were helpless to avoid the horrific, unavoidable collision.

Experienced, excitable, dedicated and ludicrously organised individual required to work on national and regional digital accounts with a smattering of traditional media. Email Andrew with details of past experience and why you’ll fit like a glove with Nzime.

To celebrate singer Example’s latest single (where he mentions Elastoplast in the lyrics) we’ve been working with Elastoplast to promote limited edition packs featuring the artist. Nzime have produced an ‘example’ page on the Elastoplast website and set up a competition to win one of the very limited edition packs.

Recent social activity on Twitter has seen the hash tag ‘examplaplast’ trending worldwide and ultimately driving traffic to the competition pages. So any fans of Example should take a peek at the Elastoplast site and enter the comp now to be in with a chance to grab one of the cool new packs!

Facebook have recently been making a lot of controversial changes adding more privacy settings, changing the UI and overall “improvements”. Initially I wasn’t impressed with the improvements but I have come round and agree with most of them, but disagree with the manner they were introduced.

From a PR perspective releasing a large update was the right thing to do but from a users point of view Facebook should have phased in the new functionality.

One thing Facebook are holding back from the masses is the new profile replacement “Facebook Timeline”. Facebook Developers have been given early access to this wonderful new profile page which is a massive improvement on the previous “profile page”.

The timeline is cleaner, more structured and offers functionality previously not available within Facebook. The most notable changes are the timeline down the right side of the page allowing you to track back throughout the years, the large cover image and the layout of your recent activity.

The timeline has great potential, it will be interesting to see how Facebook uses it.

Lou’s other half dropped by earlier to say hello in style! Not everyday you get your very own air display over central Nottingham.

Nike have made the ‘Air Mag’ after 22 years! Although lacking the auto-lacing system they’re still damn cool and feature on-board lights!

Living by the rule of work hard, play hard, some of us took some time out last night to watch the GMB Nottingham Panthers play Coventry Blaze in the Challenge Cup. The Panthers played an amazing game with a 10 – 1 victory that didn’t disappoint the fans.

Panthers mascot Paws took some time out his busy schedule for a quick photo.

End of the final period with a glorious Panthers 10 – Blaze 1 on the score board.

After a recent meeting with Lee Kum Kee where they very kindly gave me bottles of their finest Premium Brand Oyster flavored sauce and a bottle of Double Deluxe Soy sauce I decided to ‘get to know the products’! As the originator of Oyster Sauce (123 years old this year) Lee Kum Kee are one of the worlds largest producers of Chinese sauces and condiments. There products are second to none; my cooking however may not have done it the justice it deserved. Not a bad effort though as I even surprised myself at how good it tasted.

Here’s the recipe I followed…. stir fried beef fillet and leek
I did add Udon noodles which I must admit isn’t typical Chinese but….

According to media sources David Cameron has hinted at the government blocking social networks to prevent further riots. Without going into the details of the technical implications of this process that even China struggles with, it seems that the government hasn’t considered the financial impact of blocking social networking services.

“Prime Minister David Cameron has suggested that the government plans to block social media services like Twitter as a way of preventing further riots.”  Read more: Metro

If the Government were to find a way to remove all UK access to Facebook, Twitter and similar social networking services they would need to block the API’s that mobile devices use to connect to the social networks otherwise the block would be pointless. By blocking the API’s you also block the thousands of businesses from using the authentication methods provided by the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

To make the registration and login process easier for users of online services/businesses, many companies have integrated their services and websites into Facebook and Twitters authentication platforms. These platforms allowing users to use their social media accounts to register/login to sites without having to have a separate login and password for every site/service they use.

For example: James has registered with an online store with his Facebook account and wishes to make a purchase. He adds the items to his basket and proceeds to checkout where he is asked to login. James has registered to the site with his Facebook account so he clicks on the Facebook login to be greeted by our governments social media block and cannot proceed with his order. Depending on the duration of the block and the customer in question, the e-commerce seller has potentially lost a sale. If a large percentage of their customer base use Facebook or Twitter Authentication their business wouldn’t be able to make any sales.

Hopefully I am wrong and any block wouldn’t impact businesses but I won’t hold my breath.

Update: Other areas to consider are: Businesses that employ people to handle their social media, businesses that revolve around social media such as facebook applications and facebook online stores.

Nzime recently attended the launch of the Idolins new album at an intimate gig in central Nottingham. As friends of the Idolins for several years we were more than happy to help them out with a new web site, especially as all proceeds from their latest album goes directly to the Rainbows Childrens Hospice.