constantinos charalambous

after the massive invasion of digital music downloads and iPods, I was under the impression that all the other means of distributing and selling music were history.
but it seems that i was wrong (fortunately). during the last years it seems that vinyl is making a dynamic comeback. I collect records myself. every time i visit London, i love spending some quality time in few independent record stores, looking to buy some absolute classics. Although i have a huge collection of digital downloads and I’m loading more and more into my iPod, i believe that nothing comes close to the warm sound of vinyl.
more and more people are turning back to vinyl. older people who seek those nostalgic sounds to younger people looking to discover what they were missing and how music should be sounded.

artists themselves are pressing their new releases to vinyl. most of them are also collectors. recently, on BBC 6  music, there was a show called “Vinyl Revival” presented by vinyl expert Pete Paphides, who had notable musicians talking about their vinyl collections and presenting some of their favorites.

in my opinion vinyl is not just a way to distribute or record music. it is a music subculture. cover artworks, colored records, the old and dusty sound, avid collectors and the ritual of playing a record are all those components that make it special.

is it really difficult to live a simple life? do we all want to have a simple life?

going back some decades ago, I recall how simple people life’s were. meeting in small traditional coffee shops and chat about daily stories. not much to concern on details and materials. life was slow and simple and people knew how to enjoy every single moment.

nowadays, obviously, is not the same story. things are moving so fast, difficult to keep up. new technological advancements promise simple ways of doing everything, but instead are creating more problems and complexities.
people are going out to expensive restaurants, buying expensive stuff, struggling to buy the latest smart mobile devices just for the show off. they are seeking the detail that is going to make them appear special to their interaction circle.
all those new stuff create the need for more. the greedy monster attacks, invading people’s already confused and complex minds. they need to go out and buy more. because they need to be the first owning something, because they have to, because they want to feel special. and at the end, using all the means of modern communication, they advertise themselves.

so it is kind of difficult to live simple. try to do stuff that express yourself, your spirit and your mind. this will give you satisfaction. don’t be the casual greedy monster.

most companies decide to have an online presence using the various social media platforms to promote or advertise services and products. unfortunately the majority did not realize that they call them social for one reason, interactivity.
social media is a completely new platform very different from the traditional internet advertising methods. in order to plan a campaign you have to study and learn about the various social networks and what you can get from them. it is important to find and discover ways to interact with your followers and target groups. that’s right to interact. if you plan to open a twitter account and just not follow anyone and the only thing you do is to publish links, then better invest on a website with a nice (in content) blog and i’ll evaluate you. if it interests me, i’ll add your rss to my reader and that’s it. i’m not saying that you don’t have to publicize your blog posts on twitter or facebook, but make this a part of your strategy. keep your followers in the loop, let them interact and engage with products and ideas and reply to their comments and suggestions.
there are a lot of organizations that they make good usage of social media. try to search and find similar to yours and use them as an example to study and implement your own campaigns and strategies. a wise usage of social networks can boost your organization’s reputation.

i’ll take the opportunity of the iPod’s 10 year anniversary or birthday (as you prefer), to write a little something about that evolutionary gadget.
it is really weird to pay tribute to a gadget. but iPod changed a lot in the music culture since it’s existence. it immediately became a cult among music listeners of every age. you could see them moving around with their white headsets, trademark of owing an iPod. there was no need to carry an entire CD collection with you and change CDs according to your mood. your entire music collection is now in your pocket and you could easily create playlists of your favorite tracks (even on the go) or shuffle your collection and get songs at random.
among years, Apple evolve the iPod. a different model for every need. iPod nano, classic and touch. the huge success of iPod force competitors to make products capable of competing iPod but it was too late.
with no doubt, it is a landmark gadget for Apple. somehow it made people “discover Apple”. let’s not forget that iPod was originally compatible with Apple machines only. and a lot of people after getting an iPod made a turn to other Apple products as well. and of course the  successful marketing campaigns followed by Apple, made iPod not just another gadget but a fashion trend.

my search for a proper media center to play my favorite series and movies on TV was kind of confusing. lots of them around, confusing reviews so i couldn’t conclude somewhere. my google searches lead to the xbmc site were i read about the possibility to install that brilliant piece of software on an AppleTV2. the relatively low price allows you to experiment and test various stuff.
so i bought one. it is a brilliant piece of hardware, very slick and beautiful. i really don’t bother about home sharing and streaming from my itunes or renting movies and TV series. i only care to work with my existing collection which is on my NAS drive, something the AppleTV2 does not do by nature. so i manage to jailbreak it and install xbmc in no time. through the nice xbmc interface i mapped the network drives where movies and TV series rest, and my media center was ready. xbmc will scan your library and retrieve all the relevant movie and TV series information from internet sources (imdb, tvdb), so you get the summary, ratings, covers and lots of other related data.
no problems so far with xbmc. but AppleTv2 has some useful features as well, like listening and viewing podcasts, flickr photos, streaming from internet stations and youtube access. so there you go, a complete media center.

steve jobs was a very inspirational man. he prove one thing. if you want to do something and you believe in it you can do it. he went back to apple, when the company was close to the bankruptcy, and with his ideas and hard work manage to make it number 1. because he had a vision. and he did not stop after a big success. he immediately planed his next move. as a true leader he transfer all this enthusiasm to his coworkers. his ideas and visions are now in our daily life. user friendly computers, brilliant music products, cool phones and amazing tablets.
his ideas created a whole new market. let’s take iPad. there were no tablets before iPad. then the others follow the idea. and apple was a competitor in the market they initially created. another example was the iPhone. there were no touch screen phones so simple to use. and then everyone tried to compete iPhone with their products.
we can definitely say that steve jobs is the man who change the technology world.

there is another thing we need to consider. steve jobs did all those amazing stuff. but he couldn’t beat the damned cancer. this disease does not make any exceptions. enjoy everyday in your life. money is not the only thing that can make someone happy.

what excites me about cities is that there a lot of things going on constantly. observing life in the city is fascinating. cars, buses, trains going back and forth creating all this movement and noise.
there are a lot of contradictions like modern buildings next to classic ones but they blend together so nicely creating something beautiful. you can find big shopping areas and then you turn a corner and you enter a very urban area with graffiti, abandoned buildings and warehouses and big empty spaces. and then again you can reach a nice little square full of coffee shops and quiet pubs or maybe museums, exhibitions and markets. there is a little something for everyone.
observing the people is quite interesting, as well. people walking in a hurry probably to catch their train and bus for work or meetings. other people are walking slowly looking at the shops around. there are lonely people in small coffee shops enjoy their coffee and reading their newspapers and others chatting or discussing about anything.
and as the day passes by, the city lights are on creating an amazing atmosphere. people are off their works going out for a drink or somewhere else to chill and relax from a busy and perhaps stressful day.
i want to capture all these moments and save them. i carry my snapshot camera everywhere. cities are so unpredictable in every concept and i don’t want to miss something interesting, even a small detail.
i gathered some of those snapshots in a photoblog i created. enjoy them here [http://urban-shots.tumblr.com/]

those little black and white weird square boxes, also known as QR Codes are everywhere these days. especially in magazines and in the ads within. that is a good possible use, but i really don’t want to scan the code and take me to a website, which sometimes is not even designed for a mobile device, to read the same stuff written on the ad or play a flash game and enter the draw for a prize.
what will be some good usage of QR Code? basically what qr codes do, is to connect the real world with the web world. someone can use them  to find information about anything. an example? you walk into the city and you are next to an amazing cathedral. you want to know the story. a QR-code is attached to the entry or next to it. you scan the code which contains a link to the history of the cathedral and you can learn everything about it.
in this web page [http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/] you can find a QR code generator. just have a look at the possibilities. you can create a QR code containing your contact details, for example. print it on a business card. not only you will have the coolest business card, but someone who really wants to save your contact details on his smartphone, he will scan the code and your details will automatically entered into his address book immediately.

these are some of my thoughts regarding the digital era that we are living and experience everyday

in the beginning it was the internet with the web. there were no proper search engines, just some lists or catalogs let’s say, from were you could get the info you needed. we evolve the internet, we have it everywhere now. but probably the best of the web is now, through the social networks which changed people’s lifes.
popular social networks like facebook and twitter are good to share your party pictures, the lunch you just had which apparently was brilliant, to show how popular you are by having thousands of followers or being mayor in every place in your town. i think that the power of social networks is more than that. they are helping people to put ideas into work.
first of all see your followers as a community. finding people that share the same interests and passions with you is a giant step. you don’t need to know them and in my opinion, that is the beauty of social networks.  share interesting and inspiring stuff, your creations and your ideas and be passionate about it.  no matter about the subject, social networks are for everything. you will find other people to engage your ideas and you will collaborate with them. you can take it offline if you wish or have a more personal communication through IM.
generally I believe that now we are living in a new era. not just an evolution. similar to the iron age, the renaissance now we have the digital era. and how do i explain that. businesses change the way they work. moving into cloud and now they are based on  internal collaboration tools. forget about email. it is a 40 years old technology.  marketing and advertising change their whole traditional philosophy. there is a more direct interaction with the buyer. people themselves change the way they communicate, they change the way they read and get their news. the biggest news networks on the planet are now using social networks as a way to distribute news. and we all have seen the effect and the importance of social media during the revolutions that took place in the arabic world.
and everytime facebook has a change in the interface or a new addition it’s on CNN. that is something don’t you agree?