i don't think i'll every get over the sheer amount of product in shopping centers in america. well not just in america but the amount of product in general we have in supermarkets.

how much does go to waste? - why have we never done anything to address that dead time problem when you do go super market shopping? - we push these shopping trolleys around sometimes in a blur pulling things that spark at us from the sidelines between the coupon codes.

what if you had a tablet based unit in the trolley, making suggestions after auth (maybe qr code or something) about what you should be eating based on your other information on your diet, weekly workout and upcoming birthdays etc.

add to that row awareness, food discounts and leaderboard social updating i think you could really take that shopping experience to the next level and communicate in a multitude of ways - both sales advertising, eco and well being.

notifications - it's the key to doing something in the space your at right now.

i've arrived!

currently writing this out from the ground base that is conjuncture - a fantastic mellow co-working space in austin texas.

arriving into austin around eight last night as i missed my 3:30 connecting austin flight from houston i got put on standby and did not get going until around 7:15pm - landing just after eight at the austin airport.

i then got chatting to a great guy on the information booth about austin - he gave me a bunch of places that i should check out over the course of the week. feels great to have a conference that i can go to and then explore austin around the edges.

for the first time i also braved out a different method of transport from the airport - the $1 flyer 100 from the airport was super simple. i'll be using that on sunday to get back to the airport no doubt.

wandering over to the hilton last night to see if i could grab the mifi from the ups hosted at the hilton (it was closed too late) it was interesting to see a quieter southby.

the buzz of all my adventures of this city however remain with me so i was painting in the visuals of the crowds regardless. i feel blessed by my sponsors for making this happen.

i'll be trying my upmost to get as much coverage out over here about our livingARK project but also learning a lot from the sessions and the speakers who are in attendance this week.

if your here to demo a product, project or service for sxsweco and we are not following each other on twitter do follow back and check out the ark site - ark.me.dm for more details of where my content from this week will be heading too.

right now, i'm heading out for lunch at the iron cactus i think. i love that darn place, a beer or two and a bit of a lay down in the park near the river till after 3pm when i'm hoping i have a place to crash for the week in downtown.

connected with friends local old and hoping to meet the new ones over the coming days - feels good to get a virtual break of sorts too.

feels like i'm back home.

quicklink | feasibility report, oak tables and mailing list

looks fantastic right? - that's the kind of size the ark will be - the table and chairs next too it are going to be a gift from livingARK.  we are super pleased and chuffed by this offer as it gives me and bella somewhere to sit and play, talk and eat and just enjoy each others company.  i'm actually thinking of taking up lessons for an instrument (guitar or something maybe) - yes yes, i know it sounds uber hippy but i do need the polar opposite of my super fast existance balanced somehow! :)

it's been a bit quite on the ark front over the last four weeks.

a waiting game, sitting waiting for someone to tell us if we have the signoff for the ark project or not.  behind the scenes livingARKs are gearing up for the go and they are scrabbling around making the process as sustainable as possible for it to happen. that sort of planning i find out costs additional admin (seems most things in the world have costs that don't get factored in i guess) so we are trying to resolve those small hiccups with offsetting of products, services and ramping up our output and services here in the fibrecamp studios - slowly things seem to be aiming in the right direction.  with a few clients under our belts for pcmprojects with me working as a volenteer in the space it's time i sorta had a job position again.  that's looking like it might be a possibility after getting the studio to this position.

i'm not actually sure how i would have coped if the ark was built now adapting to the proposition of a partner in fibrecamp and being true to the ark so i'm starting to the think the timing of things is actually better.  i have two crucial stages right now and that's a regular income and transport.  the transport more than anything in at least i can be visiting conkers twice a week and at the same time picking up my daughter and getting her familiar with the site.  she's been before but we need to be going very regular.  i'm still super excited about what this project can bring and i'm hoping that unofficial cradlepoint group will pull a lot of my thoughts together about people on the move, on the grid and in the clouds but actually disconnected from other things.  i'm hoping cradlepoint see it and get behind it.

gerry from conkers (the ranger - go follow him on twitter he's awesome) put together a fantastic detailed feasibility study for the area/land/space where we want to locate the ark - i still have to re-read it but give it a blast it's brilliant.  i do hope very much that i'll be able to work with gerry on his bushcraft skills work that he does at conkers - that guy has so much passion, he's the next web tv celebrity when we up the quality and output.  very keen to get started and tell gerry's story.

Click here to download:

feasibility-report-livingark.pdf (1.41 MB)

another thing i quickly wanted to talk to you about was these oak table sets i've included in this post.  they are normally a tablet set that goes along with every ark that is sold but at the moment as they are building a variety of prototypes they really need the space and they have about thirty sets of tables to sell.  we have managed to get an agreement sorted with livingarks where 15% of every sale of a oak set will go towards the arks admin fund i was discussing at the top of this email.  i'll have more details about this soon but if your interested they normally retail at £1500 (pure oak remember) but we can get a much better price than that on them.

Picnic Oak Set 1.7m price: 540.00;  RRP (recommended retail price: 999.00+)
Picnic Oak Set 1.5m price: 490.00;  RRP (recommended retail price: 999.00+)
Delivery & Assembly price: 150.00

Crafted with passion and the utmost respect for nature, this truly individual furniture is made using seasonal oak - rustic, natural and gloriously unadorned, it looks almost as much a part of the landscape as when still a tree. Custom-made to order exclusively at livingARKs LTD.

drop me a line if interested - remember 15% of your purchase will go towards helping our admin costs for the ark project.

the new ipad autotrader application is awesome. really nicely made, good skills whoever pulled that together.

i've been looking at a variety of different transports, eco, diesel - small and large and all with a variety of reasons from backup living quarters to nippy, good on fuel 'runners'

problem is insurance, mot and tax. i could probably find money to pay for fuel three times a week to get back and forth but the rest is just so beyond my means at the moment - that's a problem. because i NEED transport to make the ark happen.

not having a proper address is difficult as well for getting insurance. i've lost all my no claims discount and so i'll be very problematic to insure i'm guessing - when your away from the grid your an unknown calculable quandary to the system.

keeps you contained. keeps you local, trackable. i'm still perplexed as to how RV owners who travel around a lot get on with insurance. i'll keep looking. ..

i'll be finishing up on the v3power stand and charging unit this week on wednesday.  i'm going to get over there early so that i can get my frame finished so it's up to speed with the other guys - i also need to take them some money over for the unit.

i'll be using the unit in the studio for the time being and then it will eventually transition over to the ark when that is up and running just in case anything happens to the solar/wind unit and at least this will give me enough power to charge my ipod and the mifi unit.

the green geek transition has started! ;)

P.S - the little stands you see at the start of this video are very similar to what we are building but obviously those are mass produced by the looks of it - a matter of time before everyone starts selling these things i'm guessing! :)