gilesthurston.com

I'm an IT Manager based in the UK, undertake freelance web projects, mountain sports and am a husband & a father. Here I blog about web apps, all things Apple & life in general. I also highlight my posts & status updates from around the web.

Articles from September, 2008

Day one at Microsoft Remix UK 08

Mike Flasko speaking at Microsoft Remix

Firstly I should state that I come from a Microsoft background, developing both Windows and web based solutions using a variety of their products, attending their conferences, doing their qualifications etc etc etc.  However over the years I have come to think that although their products are very impressive, my experience has shown that in many cases the bells and whistles their products are launched with are soon followed by disappointment and frustration as you start to…

Posted on September 18, 2008 21:15 / 0 Comments / Read article in full ...

The best till last at dConstruct

Well it was definately a case of leaving the best till last at dconstruct today. The final session kicked off with a dopplr double act from Matt Biddulph & Matt Jones, two of the main players at travel focussed app/network Dopplr.

With a great blend of jokes and retro tv videos this was entertaining while still being informative Looking at extending the boundries of your app by identifying and utilisng cross overs with other applications, this was definately the highlight of the conference for me.

The final slot fell to Jeremy Keith from Clearleft, the conference organisers. Usually this session…

Posted on September 05, 2008 21:17 / 0 Comments / Read article in full ...

dConstruct08 and the post lunch lull

So after lunch we had an excellent presentation from Daniel Burka, chief designer for Digg & Pownce on Designing for Interaction (link to follow). Lots of good examples for designing with users in mind, some pretty obvious but then these are always the ones you overlook in the rush to realise. Definately lots we can use in our projects going forward.

Dan was followed by Tantrk Çelik who talked about microformats and the need for social networks to be able to share a common profile. He demonstrated some good examples and hopefully these standards will be the answer to the…

Posted on September 05, 2008 21:15 / 0 Comments / Read article in full ...

Morning sessions at dConstruct08

This blogging lark is pretty time consuming and there has to be a more efficient way if doing this than I am following.

Blogging during the presentations is a none starter as you end up missing details. So for the morning I’ve decided to leave it until the lunch break and then do a summary of the first 3 sessions. So let’s go ......

We started with an interesting talk by Steven Johnson on the urban web. The first 15 min were about cholera outbreaks in London, which as you can imagine was a real ice breaker. However what he…

Posted on September 05, 2008 21:13 / 0 Comments / Read article in full ...

Good buzz around the room

Well here we are, we managed to get here without getting soaked. As last year there us a good general buzz around the conference. Looking forward to finding out more about Silverback, clearlefts new usability app. Looks like a def option for OLs usability offering.

The sub title of this years conference is “designing the social web”. So here we go with the keynote .....

Posted on September 05, 2008 21:12 / 0 Comments / Read article in full ...

dConstruct 08 & iphone app

Well I’m off to dConstruct 08 today and what better excuse to try out the iPhone Wordpress app than a bit if conference blogging. Very modern!

I’m writing this in my hotel room using the app, so keep an eye on the blog for more posts during the day and my Flickr photostream (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gilesthurston) for some visuals

Posted on September 05, 2008 21:11 / 0 Comments / Read article in full ...

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About Giles Thurston

Giles Thurston

Hi, my name is Giles Thurston and this is my personal site.

I'm based in Ely, the second smallest city in the UK just north of Cambridge. I have over 15 years commercial software development experience, spending the first few years as an application developer before moving into web development and consultancy. I've led teams, managed multi million pound contracts and have a number of years of business development experience. My day job these days tends to focus on IT management and in particular Business Development but I keep my hand in by undertaking personal web development and design projects.

In 2008, after 16 years using Windows based PC's, I made the switch to a Mac and boy was it worth it! Although I continue to use PC's on a day to day basis, my personal preference is always to go with Apple products and I hope to blog about my experiences as a switcher here on this site, with various hints and tips which may be of use to anybody following me over the fence from Windows

Away from software development and technology, I am a husband to Leanne and father to Arlo James, who joined our family in April 2009. I'm a keen sportsman and enjoy a variety of mountain sports, including mountaineering, climbing (rock & ice) and mountain biking. I've recently got back into running and am hoping to do my first triathlon in 2010.

On this site I hope to blog about web apps, all things Apple & life in general. I also highlight my various posts, links & latest twitter updates from around the web.

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