Well 2009 went out with a bang, we attended some spectacular events and even hosted one of our own. Here’s what we’ve been upto this winter:

Le Web

Paris is an amazing place for a web conference. People from all over the world gathered together in this beautiful city to network and attend some really interesting workshops. There were a lot of top industry people speaking at the event, but none of that compares to the appearance of Her Royal Highness, Queen Rania of Jordan – who’s on Twitter! Queen Rania spoke about changing the world with online media, it was an inspiring speech, which I’m sure is on YouTube somewhere.

hanukkahLDN

So the idea was simple, let’s host a party for the winter holidays and raise some money for charity. We acquire the splendid G Casino in Piccadilly Circus, MoonBingo sponsored the bar, and we gambled, drank and had an amazing night of fun and stories. We raised money through Poker & BlackJack, which went to support JHAfrica.

XmasCrunch

Another fantastic 2pears event. XmasCrunch ended the year with startup pitches, presentations and drinking games. There was the now traditional 3 minute pitch, followed by a very odd one minute pitch. I’m all for short pitches, but I feel the one minute pitch barely gave presenters enough time to say the company name and tagline – stick to the three minutes I say. Speakers and Pitches video content is available on TC.

After all the official business was over, the 2Pears/TC party got under way. We had the TC Air Guitar Competition, Raffle prizes, lots of free booze and the traditional ‘run around with Mike Butcher around on our shoulders’ to congratulate him on another good event/year and say thanks. All the video proof is here. Really, really fun event in a great choice of venue; Gilgamesh (Covent Garden) offers something a bit different. The event ended in the AM, which was followed by a pub crawl around Covent Garden.

Great end to the year. May 2010 bring many more.

The Event:

We proudly present hanukkahLDN 2009. Join us from 7pm ’till Midnight at G Casino, Piccadilly Circus on Monday 14th December to celebrate the festival of light.

From 7-9 PM we will be hosting a charity Poker Tournament. To enter the tournament you’ll need at least 1,250 chips. The top two finishers with the most chips will win a prize. (There will be re-buys available, through Twitter.)

Concurrently, we will be running Blackjack and Roulette tables using hanukkahLDN chips.

All chips won during the gambling portion will be considered legal tender for partaking in our Auction.

The Charity:

Jewish Hearts for Africa is a New York based charity [501(3)c] that purchases Solar, Water and Clean technologies from cutting-edge Israeli companies and donates them to African villages that do not have any electricity or running water.

Their projects include providing electricity for clinics, which enable the clinics to provide vaccinations and medical care, as they are actually able to refrigerate the medications. JHAfrica also installs solar-powered pumps to drill for clean water located beneath the ground.

hanukkahLDN has decided to raise money to bring electricity to schools and orphanages, so we can truly make this a Festival of Lights for everyone.

We have opened the possibility to sponsor.

Okay so call me a Thatcherite prick if you must, be I honestly think there’s no reasonable time to strike.

Striking is like blackmail. “I’m not coming in to work until you give me what I want. I’ll disrupt your business, and everyone else’s, I don’t give a shit. Until you give me what I want.” It’s a ridiculously selfish attitude.

When the Unions for Transport for London workers and Royal Mail workers decide to strike, they’re not only disrupting TFL/RM, they’re putting the whole Capital, if not the whole Country on hold for their own selfish purposes.

If you want more money – get a better job. It’s just that simple. If you don’t have the qualifications, flipping earn them. If for some reason it’s too late for you to re-qualify (which I understand may be the case), then I’m sorry but that’s your business. Don’t make it mine.

When a Union strikes because of reform, that’s even more frustrating. You’re then not only holding back businesses, but you’re holding back our society. If the Royal Mail has some ideas to improve the service, but this means more robots and less workers, then so be it. Yes there may be some job losses, but there may be a whole load more created in the robot manufacturing warehouses.

You have to remember, this is not your business. I don’t have the right to come into your business and tell you how to run it – so why should you have the right to tell them? If you want to be the decision maker, run your own damn  business.

I’d fire the lot of them. Simples. The Royal Mail have hired 30,000 temp workers to maintain the service whilst the strikes take place. If I were in the top position, I’d fire all the workers on strike and hire the temp workers.

In this recession there are too many people out of work, trying desperately to find a job. Then we have these idiots striking and QQing. If you don’t like the job, give someone else a chance.

Striking hurts the economy. The last RMT strike (TFL workers) cost London businesses £100,000,000. We’re in a flipping recession – think about it!

Striking is a lame tool, that’s over-abused today in the UK (and France for that matter), I think we need to clamp down. For anyone who disagrees with this statement, I end this post with two words: Bob Crow

Seriously, when are these banks going to buy themselves a clue?!

If you’re suspicious about a purchase I’m attemtpting to make, and you block my card: call me! Do not hinder me, then make me pay to call you, to find out why. Also, do not just randomly suspend my card for the simple reason that I’m using it to make purchases online! That’s flipping rediculous.

I just tried to book a train ticket with Virgin Trains, something I do regularly, as I have family up North. My card was declined. When I call to find out why, the guy explains that “when someone steals card details, they tend to use them online and go on shopping sprees”, which would be fine if I’d been spending bucks at HMV or something. When Abdul asked me to confirm that I’d payed £5.99 to Microsoft and £x.xx to 123-reg I really got pissed. How is an Xbox Live subscription flagging on my account, when I make the exact same payment *every month?!* and what kind of spending spree is a domain renewal? Seriously…

I honestly don’t think Barlcays have an anti-fraud algorythym, I think they just block cards at random, I really do. When I asked why the hell these payents were flaggng on the syste, Abdul explained that Internet purchases aren’t safe, because there’s no security like there is when I use my card in a shop. Stop right there, dumbass. If I use my card in a shop, someone only has to observe my pin number – then if they steal my card they can use it as much as they want. Not to mention dodgy corner shops double-swiping cards to make clones. However when I use my card online, I have to enter the 3 digit security pin, my full card details and home address, when I get passed those basic details I’m forwarded to a VISA Security page, where I have to enter random characters from a password. Now tell me that shopping online is less safe than shopping with a card irl. Jeeees.

Get a clue. Really.

Since I’ve been posting a lot about Spotify lately, I thought I’d ask the question; what kind of music are you into?

I’ve been compiling a few playlists myself, which is more fun than I remember. I haven’t has so much fun creating playlists since the days of Napster and mix-CDs. iTunes playlists always felt like a chore somehow.

This is my primary playlist, that I can shove on any time of day/night, my mainstream (or Popular Music) list. Then if I’m feeling a bit ghetto, there’s my Rap playlist. Old skool and Reggae playlists for those chillout sessions. When I’m working I like to put on some Classical piano music. The great thing about Spotify is that you can create collaborative playlists. I opened an R&B playlist, Cherelle and Ruk have pretty much done all the hard work for me .

cr ~ Pop
cr ~ Classical
cr ~ Rap
cr ~ Old Skool
cr ~ Reggae
cr ~ R&B