I got home last night and my dad had cooked some chicken drum sticks. They smelled awesome!

This is what’s going to be difficult. Not bacon, that old fried cliche, but chicken, rare steak, ribs…proper chunky meat.

This morning breakfast was another bowl of Frosted Wheats. I do like those. I also had a boiled egg on a slice of toast, because my mum had one and it smelled amazing. Breakfast will be easy. I only have meat for breakfast if I’m running late and get a roll at the train station, but that was never that often anyway.

For lunch, I made my own tuna mayo and brought two fairly generously cut slices of tiger loaf with me. If I do say so myself, it’s amazing!

Not only is it amazing, it’s really easy to make. I spend a little extra on decent ingredients for it, as I do think it makes a difference to the taste and quality.

I ran out of red onion and used a white one. You should use a red onion.

Kevin’s Tuna Mayonnaise:

• 1 tin of Princes Tuna Chunks in spring water – not brine!
• Half a medium sized lemon
• Half a small jar of organic mayonnaise
• A quarter to a half of a red onion, dependent on your preference
• Crushed black peppercorns, again dependent on taste.

1. Drain the tuna, empty into a mixing bowl and, using a fork, break up the chunks into smaller flakes.
2. Squeeze your half-lemon over the tuna until you get all the juice out our until your tuna is evenly covered, and mix it through well making sure all of the tuna gets some juice.
3. Using a pepper mill, crush your peppercorns over the tuna and lemon juice. Be careful not add to much, you don’t want to overpower the other flavors and you can always add more later. Once you’re happy with the amount stir it through.
4. At this point I usually cover the bowl and put it in the fridge for about half an hour to let everything settle and work its way through the fish. After the half-hour take it out, mix it up again and add your mayonnaise. Mix it really well, stirring and folding for several minutes until the mixture starts to look like it’s properly blended.
5. Half a small jar should be enough, but add more mayo if you don’t think you’re getting the right consistency.
6. Finally, chop your red onion into smallish chunks and add it in, again stirring it all through the mixture.

Spread it on a nice bit of tiger loaf, and chow down.

I haven’t decided what to have for dinner tonight, but I’m thinking along the lines of roasted red pepper and goat’s cheese, or something.

In that time we’ve sold our house, moved in with my parents (temporarily) and come to arse-end of a rather difficult pregnancy. The bairn is due on the 24th May. I’m still plugging away at Yes Scotland, with some personal projects on the go in the sidelines, and I’ve decided the blog needs reviving if for no other reason than my own sanity.

My last few non-death related posts concerned my self-imposed challenge of going a full 12 months without having a beer and, with the exception of my father-in-law’s wake, I managed that quite happily. So it’s time for the next challenge.

Wipe its arse and put it on a plate.

This one might be even harder than going a year with no beer. I’m not giving up alcohol completely, dear God, no. I’m quitting meat.

Yep. For the next 12 months I’m cutting out pretty much everything that used to have a face from my diet. I’m not going 100% vegetarian as I’m still going to eat fish, but chicken, beef, lamb, pork…all other meat is going. It’ll be hell.

Why am I doing it? Dunno. I need the challenge, I suppose; something to exercise my willpower . I imagine there will be health benefits too but that’s by no means my reason. I reckon I’m healthy enough, even if I am a bit of a porker these days.
I also need something to blog about.

My wife is vegetarian and for the last 13 years we’ve mostly cooked separate meals, so it might be nice to cook for her more often as well.

Today was day 1. Easy enough. I’ll let you know when I’m on the verge of cannibalism.

Today’s non-meaty goodness:

• Breakfast: a bowl of Kellogg’s Frosted Wheats
• Lunch: a vegetable samosa and a tandoori prawn and calamari pack from M&S Simply Food
• Dinner: not had it yet, but the plan is to have a tin of Cullen Skink and a tiger bread roll.

It’s going well. I’ve discovered a love for brandy, particularly Three Barrels or the delightful Stock XO. I’ve developed a tolerance for most ciders, and actually quite enjoy Stella Cidre, and I’ve come to really enjoy Kopparberg’s strawberry & lime cider or, as my regular drinking buddy calls it, “that fairy juice”.

I’m in the home straight.

Twice this year my father-in-law, Michael, forgot I was doing this and bought in beer for when I visited, and he was quite gracious and impressed both times when I turned them down, explaining my quest to broaden my horizons. He found it to be an admirable goal; I was still drinking alcohol after all, and I was the one who had introduced him to Innis & Gunn and Stock XO.

I&G quickly became a favourite of his, and it was often to be found in his fridge beside bottles of Leffé. Upon tasting the Stock XO, just a few weeks ago, he declared that he was going to get a bottle for new year, along with his usual dram.

My plan was always to see in 2013 with an Innis & Gunn, or a nice Brewdog, making it exactly 365 days without drinking a beer.

Alcoholic horizons were broadening all over the place!

But this weekend those plans have changed. You see tomorrow is dear Michael’s wake, ahead of his funeral on Monday morning. He suffered a sudden, massive heart attack last week and we lost him. Our world has been shattered, and even now as we work to mend it we know there’ll be no hiding the cracks. I don’t think we’d ever want to.

I was so looking forward to joining him in a Leffé on New Year’s Day. Instead I’ll toast him with one this weekend and, in tribute to his own unrealised plans, I’ll see in the new year with a Stock XO. Or two.

Rest easy, Michael Toner. I will miss you.

I happened to mention that I was using a rather, um, “attractive” green wristband to toggle the brightness of the phone’s screen when I go outside in the sun. I commented that I was planning on swapping it for a black one, and my intention was to order a black version of the one I’ve been using the next time I order new tags.

Well, the awesome chaps over at AndroidBands.com happened to read my post and sent me one of their black wrist bands, and two of their sticker tags! How cool of them was that? Very cool, is how.

Their band is much cooler looking.

The strap size is adjustable, having 3 rubber studs at one end which can connect to any of the 7 holes at the other. The “face” containing the NFC tag is rounded and has the AndroidBands.com logo on it in white, giving it a nice contrast.

The tag itself is functionally larger than the old green band. AndroidBands.com provide the large MIFARE tags, which have a usable size of 716 bytes. That’s pretty huge for NFC, and should be more than adequate to store your NFC tasks and data.

My old green band wasn’t MIFARE, it was an old Forum Type 2, which only had useable 46 bytes, which is pretty limiting if you’re a serious NFC user.

The two stickers they sent were MIFARE 716 byte tags also, and similarly branded with the AndroidBands.com logo. I get the impression that the guys are new players in the field of NFC products, but they’re definitely off to a great start.

So far they’re only selling self-branded NFC stickers and wristbands, but as the technology sees more uptake (and it will, there’s no way on Earth that Apple can leave it out of the iPhone 5) I bet they expand into key fobs, printable stickers and other NFC tag products.

If I have one criticism it’s that the band takes a bit of fiddling to secure with the rubber fasteners; it’s worth persevering with, but in the future I’d like to see a Velcro or buckle style wristband become available, even at a higher price point.

As an NFC user and mobile geek I’m impressed so far. The wristband they sent me is just what I was looking for (thanks guys!) and I’ll definitely be ordering up a few of their MIFARE stickers when my supply needs replenished.

Go check them out.

What products would you like to see come NFC enabled? Let me know in the comments.

Rather than embed them here, I’ll just link to the post I saw them on at Inneractive.com, by Hillel Fuld.

I’ve had a Galaxy SIII for about 5 weeks now, and it has to be said I do love the crap out of it. I’ve been having especially good fun with the NFC (near field communications) capabilites of the device, and I wanted to share with you a few of the ways that NFC has made some niggly little tasks that bit easier.

WiFi Bubble

On Metal tag on the iPad

This one was a no-brainer. My iPad is WiFi only; I opted for that one because the phone I had at the time, my HTC Desire, could create a wifi hotspot and the iPad could go online through that. Since I always have phone with me when I have the iPad, I don’t need a second 3G device – £100 saved right away.

Turning on the hotspot on the Desire was easy enough as it was a seperate app. On the Galaxy SIII, turning on the hotspot means going to Settings >> More Settings >> Tethering and Portable Hotspot >>Portable Wifi Hotspot.

So, using NFC Task Launcher I created a toggle tag for the wifi hotspot. Touch it once and the hotspot activates, touch it a second time and it deactivates. I wrote the task onto a special “on metal” capable NFC sticker and popped it on the back of my iPad – simplicity itself!

If you’re doing this yourself be sure to use an “on metal” tag. Standard tags won’t work on metal surfaces like the back of an iPad because the circuit is exposed; on metal tags have a protective layer to stop the circuit and the metal surface from making contact.

Nighttime Torch

I don’t currently have a bedside lamp. There’s only one power point beside my bed and it gets used to charge my phone or iPad overnight. I don’t want to put a multi-socket in as it would look messy and there’s a little part of me that still views them as a bit of a fire hazard.

Not a standard feature on Ikea beds

I do currently have kids who still come crawling into bed with me at un-godly hours and then proceed to kick and punch me in their sleep. I use the camera flash on my SIII as a torch for reading or, if both of the kids have come into our bed, navigating my way dowstairs to the couch in the dark!

The SIII (as far as I can tell) doesn’t have a native torchlight app, so I installed the free TeslaLED app. The thing is, it’s a horrible shortcut icon and I don’t really want it using up valuable home screen space. So I left it tucked away in the apps menu, set up a tag for it and stuck it to my bed.

That’s right, dear reader. I’ve NFC enhanced MY BED!

Now, when I’m woken from my slumber by a 5 year old foot in the face and fancy doing some reading, or kicked out of bed entirely and have to decant to the couch downstairs, I grope for my phone which should always be in the same place anyway, touch it to the corner of the headboard, and let there be light!

The same tag also turns it off, but that’s easy to do with TeslaLED via the notifications bar anyway.

Brightness Up/Down

Something that’s always annoyed me about phones is how they can be really hard to see outside when it’s a really bright day. Granted, it’s not a common problem here Scotland but in recent times we’ve had a few bright, beautiful days.

What? Technically, this is wearable tech!

The automatic brightness setting rarely gets it right. If it’s bright outside you need to manually crank the screen up to 100% brightness, and when you get back indoors you want to turn it all the way down again to save battery.

The problem is, of course, that when you’re outside in the sun you can’t see the screen properly to make the adjustment. It takes a combination of guesswork, recall, and strange looking attemps to cast a shadow over your phone before you can get the brightness up.

Well, not for me it doesn’t.

I created 2 tasks in NFC Task Launcher – one to set brightness to 100%, the other to set it to 0%. I then created a “switch” action which toggles between the two tasks in a similar way to the Hotspot On/Off task above.

I then wrote it to a wearable tag in the form of a fetching green NFC wristband which I slip on to my wrist if I’m having to venture out in the sun. I don’t care if it looks daft – I’m generally a long sleeves kinda guy, and I plan to switch it out for a black one soon anyway.

And there you have it. Three ways I’m using NFC every day.

I also have a tag in my wallet to toggle between WiFi and Mobile Data to save my battery, and one stuck to my work ID card which checks me in on Foursquare.

Beyond use as a payment system, like the one Barclaycard are touting just now, NFC is a feature many folk will ignore, but hopefully I’ve shown you why it’s worth spending a little time to familiarise yourself with it, and maybe given you some thoughts as to how you could use NFC yourself.

Are you using NFC regularly? I’d love to hear what you use it for, let me know by leaving a comment!

I don’t think it is, because I think the reasons cited by both “road warriors” in the article won’t be readily overcome. Below is the conversation Martyn and I had about it. Have a read of the article and let me know what you think.

So, what do you reckon? Is the laptop slowing going the way of the VHS and audio cassettes, or does it still have relevance and advantages?

They released a statement saying that they’ve only just discovered it due to “increased security analysis”. You can read it here, if you wish: http://www.crypticstudios.com/securitynotice

Let me save you the jump, and give you the very first paragraph:

At Cryptic Studios, your privacy and security is important. As part of our ongoing efforts to monitor and enhance security, we recently detected evidence of an unauthorized access to one of our user databases. The unauthorized access occurred in December 2010, and evidence of this has just been uncovered due to increased security analysis.

I’ve emphasised the bit in bold, fair reader, because it is, pardon my French, a big leaky bucket of shite.

Evidence of this was uncovered by Cryptic’s customers back in February 2011, and Cryptic were informed about it. I know this because I was one of those vigilant customers who wrote a concerned email.

Here’s what happened. I received some spam to a unique address that had only been used to register for Star Trek Online beta access. I mentioned this on Twitter, and a chap called Bryan got in touch saying the same thing had happened to him, he had emailed Atari (owners of Cryptic), and he copied me in on the next email to them to which I replied expressing my concerns.

Atari, having dismissed Bryan’s situation as random spam and generated phishing, never bothered getting back to us. I’ve included a screen grab of the mail chain below, with Bryan’s surname name and email address removed for his privacy. Start from the bottom and work your way up.

So here we are, A YEAR AND 4 MONTHS later, and Atari have issued a Mea Culpa. Let this be a warning to any business who holds customer details on a network.

Your customers aren’t just your payday – when we raise concerns over the security of our information, and present you with something tangible, you bloody well check it out no matter how secure you think your “precautions” are!

It is just beer I’m avoiding, not other drinks. Basically it’s an effort to discover new things and broaden my horizons, and shift a bit of belly in the process.

That last bit isn’t really working, but I’m blaming that on the pizzas.

The first bit is though, and the end of March was the end of month 3; I’m 25% there.

Since the end of January, which was my last update, I’ve developed a taste…no, more like a tolerance, for cider. It still smells like cat piss, but if you can get past that then Bulmers is ok. Magners pear cider is alright, it doesn’t really taste of anything, to be honest, and the new Cidré from Stella Artois is quite nice, if a little heavy.

The jewel in the February-through-March crown had to be Thistly Cross Gold, Oak Cask Cider. I bought a bottle on my first visit to Illegal Jack’s. It was surprisingly nice. Very woody and smoky, but quite thick and a little cloying after about half a bottle. Didn’t stop me polishing off 3 of them though.

That same night I was chatting to Alaster Phillips and Stewart Kirkpatrick about whisky, digital journalism and video games…and my twelve month abstainance from beer.

I explained how I saw out 2011 with an Innis & Gunn, haven’t touched a beer since, and I was open to suggestions as to which beer I’ll have to welcome in 2013. I’m still open to suggestions, folks.

Stewart suggested that as my first beer in a year it should be something Scottish, as it’ll be consumed on Hogmanay, and something a bit special to celebrate going whole year. Perhaps something from the lads at Brewdog. I liked that idea.

Then Alaster suggested that I should get Brewdog to I craft a whole new beer for me to see in the New Year. Now, I liked that idea even more.

So if you’re out there, @BrewdogJames…what d’ya say? Shall we talk?

Paid content is the non-free electronic commerce of digital content and information goods in digital media.

In other words, it’s when a website charges you to read its articles or watch its videos.

It’s a controversial topic in media circles; some think it’s the future and the saviour of journalism in a digital age, and others think it’s a waste of time because people are too used to getting a free ride online and are reluctant to pay. What do I think?

Since you ask, I’m on the side of the the former.

I don’t think it’s a saviour by any stretch of the imagination, but I do think it’s the cornerstone of a workable business model for online media publishers. As the millenial generation grows more savvy, on-site ads just aren’t as effective for media outlets as they were before – they don’t sufficiently subsidise the free model that many newspaper and magazine websites are based on.

But you’ll have noticed the title of this post wasn’t Paid Content but rather Paid Community, which I’m coming to now. It was a train of thought about paid content that led me to the notion of a paid community.

But what is a Paid Community, exactly? As it happens the mighty Wiki doesn’t have an entry for it, and sticking it in Google returns stuff about compulsory paid community service, so you’re getting the Kev-ipedia definition of this one:

A Paid Community is a group of like-minded individuals who pay for exclusive access to the resources of a central organisation and the collective’s time, knowledge and shared resources.

I’ve made it sound a bit wanky there – basically it’s a club. Or the Borg. No, definitely a club.

So why am I going on about this stuff? Glad you asked. What if the media is trying to monetize the wrong part? What if you could give your content away but charge people to be a part of the community around it.

This way you might be able to get around people’s attitude of “why should I pay to read it here when I can read it for free over there?”

Well, over there they have a free for all comment board where mentioning that you have an iPad gets you spammed by bots and flamed by Android fanboys**, and their forum has to shut down every other month to clear out the World of Warcraft gold farmer posts. Whereas over here we have an engaged community with a passion for the subjects we cover, and a depth of knowledge and opinions of their own that will enhance your experience beyond simply reading an article.

Take a look at the websites of newspapers, magazines, and to some extent the BBC – look at the comments. When you cut through the trolls and the spam what you’ve got there is good old-fashioned conversation. Take a look at forums too; I’ve been a member of forums about all kinds of stuff from sci-fi to digital art – again, you cut out the crap and it comes down to useful, insightful and fun conversation.

Conversations help people to learn and solve problems. Conversations are the lifeblood of community. But what makes conversation in a paid community any more valuable to the user than conversation in a free one?

Well first, you’re only going to get interested, relevant parties joining. Spammers aren’t going to want to pay only to be permanently blocked after their first infraction, and trolls will learn the hard expensive way. The people you’re going to be in the community with are quite literally invested in it.

Second, if the implementation is right it can enhance your social media engagement, and if you have a blog or some other website it could help boost your traffic and maybe even your search engine rankings a bit.

Think about it. Once you join the community you then hook up with the other members across the social landscape on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+. You create relevant content that they are (presumably) interested in so they comment, they “like”, they tweet, they +1.

Your content suddenly has a greater and more relevant reach, and the social activity helps your SEO a little bit too.

Third, every club has its members perks. If the club has a bit of clout in relevant circles it can negotiate discounts, offers, even freebies for its members.

We’re all a part, or have been a part, of paid communities offline for years; karate clubs, boy scouts/girls brigades as children. As adults we join gyms, sports clubs, golf clubs, Malt Whisky Societies and we derive value from them for our investment.

If we take that attitude online then someone with a better head for business than I could really make it work, for themselves and for their communities.

Days after all these thoughts occurred – literally, about two days – Chris Pirillo announced a paid community around LockerGnome. It’s called Gnomies.

I’ve been a LockerGnome reader for a long time, and I enjoy Chris’s YouTube cast, TLDR, on a daily basis. For a couple of weeks I thought over everything I’ve outlined here, and watched Gnomies develop from day to day.

Finally I put my money down and signed up. It actually feels good to give a little back after all I’ve gotten out of LockerGnome. But more than that, I just need to see if I’m right.

Would you pay to be a part of a niche community? Let me know in the comments.

**I’m neither iOS nor Android inclined. I have and love both for different reasons, that was just an example. 

One. Whole. Year.

Now, as I’ve gradually informed my friends about this over the last few weeks the reaction has gone from “ooft! A whole year?” to a more derisory howl of laughter coupled with “no chance!” That last lot clearly don’t know me as well as they think they do.

Anyway, I’m now a month in and no beer has passed my lips. It wasn’t as hard as I thought, but it hasn’t been a cake walk either.

I’ve been out a few times, the lads drinking Stella and me on Morgan’s & Coke or brandy (pub brandy is not so nice, I’ve discovered), and every time the smell of the beer has been a killer!

Work is currently stressing me out something chronic and, again, the temptation of a beer on Beer Friday (they buy us beers every Friday) to wind down is huge. I’m resisting though, and I just head home instead of hanging around. Another work related temptation was some outreach work I’ve been doing for a client that involved me contacting – wait for it, you’ll like this – BEER BLOGGERS!

Imagine you’d just turned vegetarian and then you were forced to make bacon rolls for hours every day. It’s a bit like that.

One good thing that happened this month, though, was a wee trip to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society with Alaster Phillips and Andrew Burnett.

Andrew is a member and signed us in, and we spent a good 3 or 4 hours gabbing away and sampling the malts. First up was a Glen Scotia, number 93.49, I think. It was good, too. Really smoky, which I like, and sort of meaty. Next we went for 93.50, another Glen Scotia. It wasn’t as smoky but was a bit cheesy, like cheese Quavers. It was also a little fishy. Alaster said it was a seaweed smell, like the smell of a beach just as the tide has gone out, but I reckon it was stronger than that, and sweeter; more like prawn cocktail.

The third one, Invergordon, wasn’t quite as nice, but was pleasant enough all the same. It was rougher than the first two, and I’d have had no problem knocking it back if I had to – the others I’d rather have savoured. There was also a rum, whose name I have forgotten, which was about 80% proof. It drew all the moisture out my mouth, but tasted lovely – sort of like chocolate and licorice with just a hint of strong coffee.

I don’t drink whisky enough to justify the membership fee to SMWS, but for folk like Andrew and Al who buy it a lot to both drink and invest in, it’s a sound investment.

So now, we’re 3 days in to month 2 and it’s another Beer Friday at work:

What with my beer embargo I’m currently enjoying a #deskcider. Well, I say “enjoying”, it still tastes like cat pee, I just want the alcohol

— Kevin Gilmartin (@KevinGilmartin) February 3, 2012

We’ll see what February brings and I’ll keep you informed.