Have you got the balls to WIN Wimbledon Final Tickets & Sony Camera, Bloggie, TV.

Sony Leaderboard

Win tickets to the Wimbledon Ladies final and other Sony goods such as HD 3D Bravia TV, 3D Vaio Notebook, 3D Handycam, NEX-5 and a 3D Bloggie.  It’s a very simple competition where all you need to do is:

1. Sign up here
2. Start collecting tennis balls
3. Win stuff – it’s so simple

Sony will direct you to various websites and the tennis balls do come thick and fast.  As you can see from this leader-board screen shot I am (was) in 17th place as I wrote this and had managed to find 159 balls so far.  No mean feat I would say as each one is an entry into the competition.

You can even include your own website in the list by hosting the simple JavaScript yourself – although a hosted WordPress site such as this one won’t allow the script unfortunately.  I am hoping to put the script onto our company blog to increase traffic to the blog – which is a very interesting blog all about car and insurance related matters – but am just awaiting confirmation from our SEO expert.  You’ve got to hand it to Sony though as they’re really pushing the social network element of their marketing approach.  Lets face it, Sony could certainly do with the good publicity as they’ve taken a bit of a hit lately.  Throwing a few prizes out there in this way where people are so encouraged to share the competition must be helping Sony to restore their electronic “Halo” back to a nice hovering position as it’d certainly slipped to a nasty angle of late.  I have personally won Sony goods from previous competitions run on their Facebook page so it’s difficult for me to say anything other than nice things about Sony.  After all I won an NEX-5 camera just before Christmas.  It even came wrapped in Christmas paper with a hand written label with my name on it.  Now that’s some attention to detail that is.  I’m sure that the Wimbledon competition will show an equal amount of attention to detail and hopefully WHEN I win I’ll get to find out.

Good luck people.  Just remember – you’ve gotta be in it to win it!! – Click here to visit Sony NOW!

 

Can I get a free domain name, free web hosting and free email? All for free? But should I?

Recently, upon updating my own portfolio on the behance network I ran into a small issue of not being able to display an fairly old piece of Flash work that used ActionScript, local folders, and and XML document to put it all together.  I really wanted to be able to demonstrate this to someone via the internet so I started looking at a quick solution to enable me to do that.  As with many things that I do I very quickly got a little bit carried away with the options and what I might be able to do with them.  For example, the image I’ve used on this post was an adapted version of an image that I’ve just this second got royalty free from stock.xchng who are a fantastic free image website.  In fact, here is a link to the original piggy bank image that I’ve adapted in Photoshop to create the one used on this post.  I, and a lot of people, just like getting stuff for free.  I don’t mind a little extra work if needed I just like keeping my hard earned pennies going on the things that I enjoy spending money on.

 

Digital Portfolio – Behance Network

Amongst the many template based platforms available for showing a portfolio of work I have recently discovered Behance.net.  I had been looking for a place to store my work for demonstration purposes and had looked at a few different platforms – including WordPress – the platform on which you’re reading this.  I had stumbled across Behance amidst my search whilst looking at the profile options and add-ins on Linkedin – which is another fantastic and useful networking portal.

Click Here to see my digital portfolio on the Behance.net network.

Being able to plug the template into Linkedin is definitely part of the appeal of using Behance.

 

Chelmer Web Design – Website Design (2009)

http://www.chelmerwebdesign.com

Chelmer Web Design was a new start business set up into a market with plenty of existing web design companies.  Chelmsford, much like most towns and cities in the UK, did not lack web design businesses before Chelmer Web Design was set up.  In such a saturated market it can be difficult to launch a business, find it’s unique selling point and distinguish it design-wise.  At the time Chelmer Web Design was set up I was working freelance and was given the task of creating a design identity that reflected the ethos of the business.

 

Website Design – Limehouse Dry Cleaning

http://www.limehousedrycleaning.co.uk/
http://www.limehousecleaningservices.co.uk/

This website was designed as a replacement for an existing but outdated website.  The final design followed a few stages where information was first collated to enable a me to design a mock-up an example page to define the look and feel of the website.  

 

My skill as a documentary film maker – Edge Article June 2009

After filming stand up comedian Padraig Hyland take a group of office workers through a one day comedy workshop I reflected upon the experience in print.

http://theedgemag.co.uk/Robert-Rutherford/Could-I-do-stand-up-comedy.html

The video that I filmed can be seen below.  The whole day was an absolutely fascinating experience and still, 2 years later, a very fond memory.  I still have a lot of footage from that day indcluding stand up routine’s by Padraig Hyland himself and also a comedy / poetry reading by Mac McFadden.  Mac put on a wonderful show and performed a range of poems that you could not help but be both touched and amused by.  He also performed a poem written about the people who’d just performed before him on stage which was simply wonderful to hear.  The promotional video for the One Day Comedy Workshop is below.

One Day Comedy Workshop Video

 

And what do you do…? – Edge Article April 2009

One of my least favourite questions asked by strangers (although someone who knew you wouldn’t ask) is, “so, what do you do then?”  What is it that these people want to know and why?  What are they after?  Just breaking the ice?  I’m not so sure….

http://theedgemag.co.uk/Robert-Rutherford/UNkown.html

 

Pants – a brief history – Edge Article April 2009

Following on from my research piece on why Jeans have buttons not zips I came dangerously close to becoming a writer of historical textile stories by writing this follow-up piece on the history of underpants.  I also admitted in print that I was sat there writing the article in my Asda cheap bargain pants.

http://theedgemag.co.uk/Robert-Rutherford/Pants-a-brief-history.html

 

Why do jeans have buttons not zips? – Edge Article March 2009

Why do jeans have buttons not zips when clearly zips are the more technologically advanced option?  I don’t know that I definitely put the question to bed for all time but I certainly had a go.  If there were a campaign to make jeans illegal with button flies, you would probably find me leading it.

Here’s the full article:  http://theedgemag.co.uk/Robert-Rutherford/Jeans.html

 

Working Freelance – Edge Article Feb 2009

Following a discussion in the pub with a friend of mine regarding working methods and the recession starting to really take shape he came out with what I still think is one of the most fantastic quotes I’ve ever heard.

“The last time there was a recession like this was in the 1970’s and Punk music was born out of that. Maybe it’ll be okay.”

Said by Sean Neylon in the 2 Brewers Pub whilst drinking Guinness (some time prior to Feb 2009)

http://theedgemag.co.uk/Robert-Rutherford/Freelance.html