Day: 7 September 2025

Weeknotes #137: From tiebreakers to take-offs

Lively week of quizzes, theatre, good company and smooth travel

Week commencing Monday, 1 September 2025

A view across Heathrow Airport's car park at dusk, with rows of parked vehicles in the foreground and aircraft visible on the tarmac beyond the perimeter fence. The sky displays soft pink and blue hues as evening approaches, whilst planes and airport infrastructure create a silhouette against the horizon.
The airport winds down for the evening as viewed from the Thistle Hotel

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 6/7 and Move 6/7. (90%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 69,528

Life

  • Once again, the week started with a quiz. And again, we ended up in the ninth-place tiebreaker (as a reminder, that’s good). The lady who answered ‘Tainted Love’ was too quick off the mark for Ben. Always fun!
  • I had a Christmas planning session with my brother. It’s only just September.
  • Unusually, I had an office day on Wednesday. The journey to the Barbican that followed should have been straightforward. As it was, I ran into the auditorium just in time for the house lights to go out.
  • Related, Sean Hayes is very good in Good Night, Oscar. Lots of discussion afterwards about whether it was based on a true story (yes) and whether he really could play the piano (also yes).
  • Thursday was one of those office days where I said what I really felt and then apologised for it. I don’t think I should have done. But all good.
  • Related, as a consequence, the work social in the pub could have been messy but ended up being very restrained.
  • I finished Friday on time, which must be a first before a holiday. We went to visit a new pub, The Leather Bottle, and it was nice.
  • Related, on the way home, we picked up a ‘hot honey’ pizza and then noticed ‘hot honey’ is everywhere. Is it a trend I am missing?
  • Saturday: is it unusual to admit I find my dentist funny and enjoy going?
  • A lovely lady in NatWest helped me with a banking problem 25 years in the making. All will be resolved.
  • On Sunday afternoon, the Heathrow T5 pods marked the start of the holiday. In the restaurant, it was busier than on previous visits. The planes were taking off in the other direction.

Media

Curns’ Ad Links for 7 September 2010

Curns’ ad links is a collection of links about the digital advertising industry; generally focussed on the display advertising market with an emphasis on the technology to deliver great advertising experiences.

  • Can Marketers Catch Up with Millennials?
    Experian Simmons data on attitudes toward advertising, quoted at eMarketer, shows 18- to 34-year-olds are actually more open to advertising than the general adult population. Fewer millennials said they did not like advertising and did not let it affect their purchase decisions.
  • Web-to-TV video revenue to see explosive growth
    Another web-to-TV story: “Web-to-TV Gaining Momentum in the U.S.,” forecasts revenue from the sale of Web-to-TV video content to grow from $2 billion to more than $17 billion by 2014, says In-Stat. Unfortunately, the rest of the data is behind their paywall, so we can’t say much more.
  • Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories
    There are a number of articles today about technologies connected to the web and television. Lots of people have been trying to do it. Can Yahoo! succeed when they bring it to Europe next year?
  • It’s Not About Data Leakage
    Rajeev Goel, CEO of PubMatic, says “Data leakage” sounds nasty. It does, so he talks about gardening. Who’s plucking your data? It sounds better than theft, and it’s an interesting point – publishers can learn from those who are selling their audiences.
  • New Display Tech Fueling Online Ad Growth – MarketingVOX
    As I mentioned on Twitter, is there, or has there been, a commoditization of display advertising? Maybe it’s easier to say than to prove, but interesting coverage of Borrell Associates’ report suggests display advertising technology is powering online ad growth. They say that “Driving this growth will be the display format, a once quiet, even moribund subspace in the online ad industry.”
  • Digital Display Advertising Case Study: Windows 7 Launch
    On the Microsoft Advertising blog, a case study on how Microsoft used digital to increase brand favourability metrics around the launch of Windows 7. It might be Microsoft using itself as a case study, but I think it’s worth reading about their digital approach to a major consumer launch.

Watching Me Everywhere

Apparently, there are 4.2 million cameras watching the people of London.

In my little piece about Gmail last week, I noted that my journey to work covers many CCTV cameras. In a piece published on the same day at CNN, it was noted that there are something like 4.2 million cameras observing our movements around the British capital. That really does seem like a great number. An American author, Jeffrey Rosen, notes,

Instead of being perceived as an Orwellian intrusion, the cameras in Britain … were hailed as the people’s technology, a friendly eye in the sky, not Big Brother but a kindly and watchful uncle or aunt [source]

Do you really think this is the case? I certainly don’t think of it as the people’s technology, although I will admit to a resigned acceptance of the devices. Overall, I suspect they are a necessary evil in the world we inhabit. Is that a foolish notion?

Old Friends

Today was a good day to get reacquainted with people who I haven’t seen for a while.

Bristol is only a two-hour ride from my house. I have an old friend who lives there, and I haven’t seen him for ages. Today was the day we met up again (after about 18 months without seeing each other), and it’s great when everything just slips back to how it was. You know how, with some people, it’s hard to talk to them sometimes. You get on really well, but there’s just nothing to say. Well, it usually gets worse over time, and if you haven’t seen somebody for a while, it can be very awkward (how many strained meetings must have happened thanks to Friends Reunited?). Anyway, today wasn’t like that. We slipped into our old conversations and habits. It’s nice to be reacquainted with people. Today was a good day.