DialaGeek Part Sponsors Bristol Bike Polo Tournament

DialaGeek part sponsored the Bristol Bike Polo Tourney alongside Chunk Clothing, Taylored Cycles and Crumpler.  Our very own Richard Miller is very involved with the sport and they required some extra funding to cover the costs of the Jersey Barriers to make up the ends of the court. The tournament was held in Dean Lane Skate Park on the 12th Sep 2010 with teams from Sheffield, London, Cardiff, Oxford, Bristol and various other places competing. The final involved The Whisperers Vs London Pride (in Black) The thing I really like about Bike Polo is it has a great DIY spirit to the sport, the bikes are made up from old racer or mountain bike frames then adapted to suit. The spoke protecting discs are usually made from old estate agents signs, single speed gears are the norm, though not all fixed wheel. The mallets are also home made. And numerous variations on this theme

8 ways not to make a fool of yourself on an internet forum

We all know you’re not supposed to swear, be obscene, break the law, or give out personal information. But what about everything else? Whether it’s a Bristol City fan site, Mumsnet, or DIY advice group, chat forums have plenty of informal, invisible rules alongside the formal ones. Here are some chat forum dos and don’ts from one who’s been there and got the cyberslap marks to prove it. . 1. DO make your initial ‘introductory’ message low-key and to-the-point. Kind of: “Hi, I’m new here. Just wondered…. if anyone knows about supporter coaches for the Millwall game/if my husband’s having an affair/why my combi boiler keeps spewing black smoke. Ta.” Because if you’re too friendly and full-on, too “whoo hoo, I’m heeeerrre, someone put the virtual kettle on!” you’ll come across sad and desperate. And if there’s one thing chat forum users - with all that free time unencumbered by friends, lovers, jobs etc that they spend typing unpunctuated ‘sentences’ into a computer for total strangers to skimread - they are definitely not sad or desperate. Got that? . 2. DO pop up a few times in the first few days to reinforce your presence. It’ll take ...

Memories Of The Dotcom Bubble

Ten years since the height of the dotcom bubble. Wow. Remember that? Suddenly, you were a loser for having a proper job.  You know, a job where you did real work and sold real stuff to real people. Every geek and their granny had some amazing ruse for becoming an internet squillionaire. But they couldn’t risk telling you what in case you nicked it. But then they did anyway, and nine times out of ten it was something so spectacularly lame you vowed to shoot Tim Berners-Lee himself if it would prevent said ruse getting off the ground. I scoff now, but ten years ago I left a good ‘proper’ job to go and work at a dotcom startup. They threw more money at me than I’d ever hoped of earning before and I did absolutely nothing for the entire period I was there, except tinker with the background colour of my powerless PowerPoint presentation and drink the office fridge dry of Minute Maid. There wasn’t anything else to do. Because, at the head of my list of memories of the dotcom bubble is: 1. No one could really understand what it was ...

Google Wonderland

I think I may have a Google problem. Like all addictions, it began harmlessly enough. A handy tool for essential research conducted via the careful inputting of Boolean logic (“restaurants” + “Bristol” NOT “Nandos”). But before too long I was Googling morning noon and night. You name it. Because the first time I realised I could type, word for word, whatever dimwitted query was buzzing in my head that day and get pages of precise answers it was opening time for those floodgates. Boolean shmoolean! Google instinctively knew whatever it was my heart desired. When it introduced that drop-down menu of other’s people’s search terms, Google became even more fun. Finding out you’re not the only person in the world ever to wonder if Fleet Foxes really are singing “Lay me down donkey man” in ‘Quiet Houses’ (apparently they aren’t), where the season’s best jumpsuit can be found (TopShop)  or how to say cheers in Chinese (“Nien nien nu e”) is really heart-warming. Again: I don’t need to know this stuff. I’m finding it out because I can. It’s got silly now. Google has come to represent something it can never live up ...

Proof the 80′s are back someone debadged my VW last night

[caption id="attachment_15" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="VW Debadged"][/caption] This stopped around 1988 I thought, but no it makes a return, you gotta fight for the right.... If you've been a victim of a retro crime call RetroCrimestoppers on 01 811 8055