Rugby World Cupping

Unless you've been stuck in your room binge watching Narcos on Netflix (I won't blame you), you've probably realised that the rugby world cup is well under way in England. Having never seen a rugby match, I thought I would give one a chance. And what some have called the "greatest Rugby World Cup shock ever" happened.

Japan Beat South Africa

This headline was all over the place. South Africa, also known as the Springboks, has one the best teams in the world. They are joint all time world cup winners with New Zealand and Australia. Each have 2 wins under their belts.

Japan, on the other hand, had won only 2 out of 25 world cup matches and hadn't won a world cup match in over 18 years. Clearly the Springboks were heavy favourites to win that match. It is difficult to put the win for Japan into words. So I decided to show pictures of the fans - after all, a picture is supposed to speak a thousand words, and transcend any barriers.

And if a picture speaks a thousand words, then surely a 100 second video at 60 frames per second speaks 6 million words:

Japan did go on to lose against Scotland. But beat Samoa 26-5 today. They may be the Cinderella story this tournament.

England Rugby Team Vs England Football Team

England has a vital match against Australia today at 8pm. The results of the match could mean the end of the tournament for the host team. It's never good to lose a host team this early into the competition. As a regular football fan, I've been disappointed with England's recent performance on the world stage. If the same applies in rugby, I doubt I'll be a regular rugby fan as well. My heart can only take so much.

Awake

It has been a few months since the last blog post (seven if you’re counting). A lot has happened in that time, not just within Livelynight, but around the world in general. The moment that stands out to me, at this time of writing, is this tweet from the Rosetta Mission:

It may seem strange but seeing that brought warmth that I had not expect. An extension of humanity made the journey millions of miles away only to go dark after a daring mission to land on a comet. And when the lander was all but declared lost, it wakes up months after and sends gigabytes of data back to earth. That's the sort of space exploration movie I would be interested in.

Of course, we at Livelynight are nowhere close to the achievement of the Rosseta mission and we wouldn’t dare make that comparison. What we take from this is that you can always rise up after a lost period. We can all stand up when things don't go as planned. The Philae Lander woke up. Livelynight is waking up. And you can wake up too if you need to.

If you’re looking for more information on the philae lander, the last communication was on the 9^th of July. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/philae-lander-has-gone-silent--and-we-might-never-hear-from-it-again-10405036.html.

http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/

Teaser Video

We have created video to show what the app is about. You can find more details on our website as well.

Let us know if you have any comments.

3, 2, 1, GO!

We are pleased to announce that we have had a successful go-live process. Livelynight is now available for use. You can download the app on the UK App Store. Currently it’s only available on iOS devices. 

The website is also available at livelynight.co.uk. You can find additional information on the app at http://livelynight.co.uk/info/app

For the technical and perhaps management focused audience, the go live experience was very smooth with very few issues.

There are stories about some truly horrendous and wonderful ones from around the world which have included:

• 26 hour work shift by all employees to get an application live
• Buffet service for everyone working during go live
• Masks worn by all employees to keep the excitement (or hide the frustration)
• A click of a button and it was all over

The team is glad we don't have to include this in our list of horrendous stories. 

Give the app a try and let us know if it really enhances your night out experience.

Hot Spots in London

Most Londoners will have a general idea of the night life sections of London. Even if you’re not spending your weekends behind a bar at a London pub, sipping cocktails at a table or finding dance space at a club, you’ll have an idea of the party scene in London. This post attempts to describe it with some help from data picked up by Livelynight Beta Test and other social media.

The main areas where you’ll find a crowd of people are highlighted below:

Heathrow Airport

Based on social network updates, lots of people announce their trips at airports. Of course we’ll only be including bars, pubs and clubs. This was to show that some refinements were made from the actual data. The real list starts from below.

Leicester Square

The crowd here start early and die out a bit after 3am on weekends. It is filled with many restaurants, pubs and bars to attract the passers-by. A lot of tourists can be found here as well so expect the prices to be a bit higher.

Soho

Very similar to Leicester Square and very close by as well. Soho is also home to the gay scene of London with many gay bars and clubs.

Covent Garden

This completes the Leicester Square, Soho and Covent Garden triangle. There are many cocktail bars at Covent Garden with people swarming the bars. The streets are also filled with tourists but with lesser numbers compared with Leicester Square.

Cargo in Shoreditch

Shoreditch

The party scene in the east of London. Shoreditch is known for its trendy, hipster looking bars filled with young professional and students. It is also host to many clubs with some opening till 7am in the morning.

Brixton

Similar to Shoreditch in nature filled with many pubs, bars and clubs located in the south of London. Prices are mostly slightly less than in Shoreditch.

Clapham

Close to Brixton in the south of London, Clapham is known as the party scene south of the river. Expect to find many local pubs and bars but fewer tourists compared to the west end.

Camden

The party scene in the north of London. Prices are lower compared to most other places and the crowd will be sure to provide an interesting night.

London Bridge

London Bridge is becoming more popular as a night out destination. It is mostly compared with Shoreditch and some say it will surpass Shoreditch as the cool destination for a night out.

Wherever you're spending your nights, including tonight, have a great time.

The Night of Fireworks!

New Year’s Eve ushers in the start of yet another year. And many people welcome this with fireworks. We mean this quite literally. As you well know, millions of people welcome in the New Year by looking at spectacular fireworks display across many cities around the world. London is host to one of these fireworks displays.

Over 500,000 people are expected to be at viewing locations in London. 

Whatever your plans are, have a great time celebrating the start of 2015. With the end this post, we would like to wish you all a Happy New Year!!!

The Designer in the Programmer

As a programmer, you mostly spend a lot of time creating specific functions for a product. But at times, you have to create the interface as well. Although the function and the interface seem to go hand in hand, and they usually do, a separate set of skills and mind set is needed in creating them.

This post introduces the programmer to some graphic design aspects of interface building and useful resources that can be found on the web.

It is very likely that you’ll need some icons and images on your interface. You can get a designer to create specific images for you. Or you can browse through the many different online resources to buy the ones you need. Some of them include istockphoto, shutterstock, fotolia and gettyimages.

If paying for a designer or buying images is not an option, you can browse through some icons that are offered free by some websites including:

• Thenounproject
• Fatcow
• Webappers
• Freeimages

Most of these have a license agreement that usually states that you have to mention the source in your product. Be sure to read the license in details before using them.

And if you can’t find a unique image you’re after, and can’t pay for the services of a graphic designer, you can create your own (or attempt to). Photoshop is the most widely used graphic design program, but an open source alternative is Gimp.

Once you have all the required images and icons, then comes layout, navigation, consistency, structure and many others. Tips for a good interface design can be found on this Creative Bloq post.