Author: Matthew Cashmore

Costa or Starbucks? An example of a PR backfire

I’d almost feel sorry for Starbucks if it wasn’t for the fact that whilst they certainly do produce a vast amount of mediocre coffee they are a massive pain in the butt that has driven the quality of coffee in London to the floor and beyond…. here in Melbourne the vast selection of independent coffee shops results in some of the best java in the world… I’m not saying that Costa are any better, they’re just smaller, and yes I do prefer their coffee, and their stores and frankly – their brand.

So why is Starbucks making this complaint a PR disaster? If upheld it’ll show that the big SB has something to worry about – to be specific it shows that whilst they’re niggling over the small print of an advertising campaign they seem to have forgotten about the customer. Fight back, take Costa, improve your coffee, change your stores put a little of the zest that you seem to have in buckets with your off-brand stores and run your own survey. Simples.

Coffee chain may count cost of advertising claim
Dominic Walsh
The Times
05 Nov 2009

Costa, the coffee shop chain owned by Whitbread, could find itself in hot water over its claim in its advertising campaign that “7 out of 10 coffee lovers prefer Costa”. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is understood to have concluded in a…read more…

© Copyright 2009 Times Newspapers Ltd.

Jogging makes you fat

It was a startling revelation to me that the reason I was fat… was because I ate too much and didn’t exercise. In order to lose the 3 1/2 stone (I need to lose at least that again) that I have to date, all I did was eat less, exercise more often and cut back on touching anything other than the odd apple between meals – simple.

However, what I have noticed is that for every person who discovers this simple fact, there’s an army of people who need a complicated diet to make things work. I understand that different people need different things to get motivated and to get the weight off and I applaud anyone who makes that effort – I know how tough it is. What does get my back up is ‘research’ that suggests that it’s ‘not your fault your fat’. It is. It’s not nice but it’s true.

So, here’s some research. Because we jog more in the western world, but we are all getting fatter it naturally follows that jogging makes you fat.

How Not To Lose Weight

The Times
19 Oct 2009

Forget those sporty trainers. Give up jogging. Don’t bother with stationary bicycling in the gym. This is a pointless activity, not only because it gets you nowhere, but also because it will not help you to lose weight. Quite the opposite, in fact. We…read more…

© Copyright 2009 Times Newspapers Ltd.

The ideal Travellers Phone

I’ve been inspired. This posting over on the mobiface blog has offered what it thinks is an ideal travellers phone…. I think we may be able to do better… so I started drawing it, and actually I think we can come up with the perfect phone for travelling – between all of us we know what we need – and we have enough enough mobile people around to know what’s achievable.

So here’s the deal – let’s use this page – leave comments and I’ll update this post – and use this flickr group I’ve created to upload your drawings – and we’ll see how far we get, then, if I can pull it off I’ll get the little black book out and see if we can’t get some feedback from one of the manufactures…. this is going to be fun.

This is my first stab at it

Technology: (updated)

  • 8mp+ camera on back
  • lq camera on front
  • very loud speaker (possible use as a siren?)
  • emergency aaa battery slot / multiple charge options – inc mini usb
    • 110/230v 50/60hz and unregulated 12v dc supplies
  • whole back should be a solar panel
  • should work all over the world on all networks
  • dual sim?
  • exceptionally long battery life (dual mode? good battery vs performance?)
  • hq / medium sized screen to view maps – should be anti-glare for reading on – perhaps e-ink
  • GPS / DGPS
  • External GPS antena plug
  • wi-fi and bluetooth – easy to manage in power settings / hardware?
  • LED Torch
  • Hard Drive
  • Video playback & audio playback
  • Sat phone compatibility (plug in external antenna)
  • Pico Projector
  • Projected keyboard?
  • PLD/ Spot device (personal locator beacon)
  • OS based mapping (not internet)
  • 2x mini usb to attach peripherals
  • normal sd card slot
  • audio & video recording

Design: (updated)

  • made from very hard, durable ‘flexable’ plastic – not metal – perhaps from a hard rubber?
  • ‘grippy’ sides
  • easy large buttons
  • dust/wind/rain proof
  • easy menu navigation, even in bright/low light
  • screen / settings change in low power mode
  • Light of some sort – flash? led torch?
  • d-ring

OS: (new)

  • Should be hackable
  • Should allow access to an app-store
  • Full PC OS / small cut down version?

Apps: (new)

Okay over you… what else should it have – let’s start with building out the requirements and those of you with a design bent can use the flickr group to upload designs…..

Writing, weight and Over The Air

What a month back in London. It was amazing to catch up with everyone, and to see – even for a short moment – how much London can pull you back in and take over your life.

The trip back was to organise Over The Air 2009 – a full post and round-up coming soon – but for the moment I think it’s enough to say it was a massive, massive success. The photos I managed to take in-between moving bean-bags and hugging Daleks are to be found here, and some video of my putting fires out after blowing things up have started to appear on YouTube.

The other news from London is that I joined the Travel Club. It’s a private members club based out of St James Square that caters to people who work in the Travel Industry. It’s been put together by a gentleman called Tom Nutley, who was the exhibition director for World Travel Market with Reed Exhibitions – he’s a very smart fellow who understood that the travel industry had no place to call ‘home’ in London – and his choice of the In & Out club was inspired. I spent a very happy month walking the halls and running meetings from there, a perfect base in central London. (they have the first privately built squash court in the country – which is single handily responsible for my conversion to the sport).

Talking of sport (see what I did there), and squash – sooooo much fun – and helpful with the weight loss too. I had a small blip in the week of Over The Air, and put on a little – but after some swimming and more games of squash with Frank Wales and Paola Kathuria I seem to have managed to pull it back on track… even if it’s only ‘just’ back on track. The new target is 110kg by Christmas…. 3kg below what I ‘should’ be on the 16th December.

That’s about it from me for this long update. Look for more OTA stuff later this week, and also, some rather exciting news about a Lonely Planet Hack Day here in Melbourne that we’ll be announcing on Monday.

I don’t mind the rain… I’m Welsh

Taking my lead from Mr Dalton, this weekend saw us planning a ride up to Yea and back via a whole collection of roads that you really shouldn’t take a gixxer on – but Mr Dalton, being Mr Dalton – a farm boy from New Zealand type – ignored such advice as ‘you haven’t got the ground clearance’ to declare ‘I’m inclined to ride unless utterly shite, are we not men?’.

BOM Radar from BOMradar iPhone AppHe was of course referring to the slightly dodgy weather forecast for the day. ‘Cloudy start with chances of isolated showers in the afternoon’. So I replied ‘Quite, I’m inclined to ride come what may… grew up in Wales – meet yours?’. You could argue this was tempting fate – but a quick check of BOM* radar that morning suggested a small windy front clearing for a good ride later in the morning.

We headed off and hit the Hume Freeway on time to meet up with Jamie… it was then Nigel realised we needed the Hume HIGHWAY, one junction back along the M80. ‘Shall we just go back?’ I meekly suggested…. ‘No! We’ll meet him down the road – call him’. Or something along those lines – suffice to say we missed Jamie and finally caught up with him a few miles up the road at the Craigieburn Servo (service station for my UK readers).

BOM Radar from Oz Weather iPhone AppThis was actually a fortuitous turn of events – the weather front was massing and again checking the radar we saw it was just a band of rain and we’d sit it out. An hour later I decided to check the radar from another source – and was rather amazed to discover the difference in radar images from two different iPhone apps… it appears that a radar station was down – and whilst my app (Oz Weather) reported this, Nigel’s didn’t (BOMradar) – but continued to show a small amount of rain. When the radar station came back online I saw what the weather was really doing – to which Nigel quietly stated, ‘sod this for a game of soldiers’ and fled the scene.

So our 288km ride turned into 50km north of Melbourne and back again in the pouring rain. Ah well – can’t have it all.

*BOM – AAustralia Bureau of Meteorology

It did however result in a nice collection of photographs of a typical Australian Service Station – sorry Servo – in the rain.

Here’s the moment, caught on camera that the whole thing ‘just went wrong‘

Moules Marinières

We’re onto the fourth video in my cooking on the road series and this week I take a look at mussels. They’re cheap and when you’re near the coast you can’t beat them for a quick and easy meal. An excellent source of Selenium, and vitamin B12, and a good source of Zinc, and folate, they also have a high calorific value – making them the perfect food for on the go.

The really simple recipe for this video comes from Alexlebrit, again on Horizonsunlimited.com


(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Mg_66ulk4)

Ingredients:

  • 0.8kg/2lb mussels,
  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped,
  • 1 shallots (or a small onion), finely chopped,
  • 8g/¼oz butter,
  • Parsley, thyme and bay leaves,
  • 50ml/ 1½fl oz dry white wine or cider,
  • 60ml/2fl oz double cream or crême fraiche,
  • Crusty bread, to serve,

Method:

1. Wash the mussels under plenty of cold, running water. Discard any open ones that won’t close when lightly squeezed.
2. Pull out the tough, fibrous beards protruding from between the tightly closed shells and then knock off any barnacles with a large knife. Give the mussels another quick rinse to remove any little pieces of shell.
3. Soften the garlic and shallots in the butter with the herbs, in a large pan big enough to take all the mussels – it should only be half full.
4. Add the mussels and wine or cider, turn up the heat, then cover and steam them open in their own juices for 3-4 minutes. Give the pan a good shake every now and then.
5. Add the cream and more chopped parsley and remove from the heat.
6. Spoon into two large warmed bowls and serve with lots of crusty bread.

Alex, from Brittany, France.

Chicken and Bean-curd Stir-fry

Next in the series of cooking on the road videos is Chicken and Bean-curd Stir-fry – a recipe by Peter from Oslo in Norway via horizonsunlimited.com


(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI7M9dWSIIs)

Ingredients:

  • sunflower oil
  • 2 chickenbreast
  • garlic
  • green paprika
  • sugar peas
  • spring onion
  • cabbage
  • beancurd/light miso
  • unsalted cashew nuts

Method:

Cut everything into thin slices,except the sugar peas and nuts. Stir fry in above order. I usually precut all ingredients at home,so this meal is best eaten on a weekend trip, also, buying so little quantity ingredients in the local market may be more trouble than it’s worth in our part of the world.

Is it worth the hassle? Yes, it is so much better than expensive dehydrated packets, though they have their time, and with a good pilsner beer you are satisfaction guaranteed.

Peter, in Oslo (GSPeter)

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Keeping up the series of on-the-road recipes today I had a crack at a meal suggested by Flyingdoctor (Allan from Staffordshire in the UK) from horizonsunlimited.com


(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c5uk-fNUoo)

Ingredients:

  • Chicken Breast
  • Red / Green Pepper
  • Packet Chinese Sauce

Method:

I brown off the cubed chicken an onion and some green or red peppers then chuck in one of those little packets of chinese sauce. If you can’t find fresh chicken then I’ve used frankfurters (Norway of course!), which are lovely. I’ve made a sauce from tomato puree when nothing else was available. Throw some rice in there and you’ve got a decent meal.
(Flyingdoctor)

One Pot Camping Cooking – Salami & Rice

One of the simplest things to carry when traveling is rice – it’s light, packed full of energy and provides a hot filling meal when you need it most. My favorite traveling recipe is really simple. In this video I show you how to make it.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2qD0n4a8H0)

Ingredients

  • Rice
  • 3 times as much water as rice
  • cup-a-soup

if available

  • meat (salami works really well)
  • vegetables (my favorite is peas)

Method:

Boil the rice for about 3/4 of the required time before adding your meat, at this stage also add your herbs and spices and your vegetables – mix well before adding the cup-a-soup straight from the packet. Stir in the powder for a few minutes and you’re done – simplicity itself and a hot, filling, energy packed meal in a little over 10 mins.

Your turn

Do you have a one pot recipe you wouldn’t be without on the road? Email me (or leave a comment below) and tell me how you make it and I’ll turn it into a video… credited to you of course.