Work - Mark Steadman

Work

A collection of 21 posts

We are not our screw-ups

We are not our screw-ups

Last night a shitty thing happened in my business. It was preventable and a classic "not my fault, but my responsibility" problem (although it was a bit my fault too). I sent an email out to everyone affected, apologising and explaining exactly what the issue was, and not

A farewell letter to my company

A farewell letter to my company

Dear Bloomsbury Digital, Thank you for the last two-and-a-bit years... well, nearly three years if we go from the founding date. You let me make a living and you gave me very few sleepless nights, but ultimately you let me branch out and find my Thing. You supported me when

The hangover

Too much wine is a bad idea. More than two regular-sized glasses and I’m no good. Woke up with an absolute stinker of a headache. Really horrible. Glad I had some decent painkillers, as they seem to have worked their magic, pretty much. Well, that and coffee. So it

I made a mess on the Internet

I made a mess on the Internet

Rough day. It started early - I got up before 6am - and got to work on a new idea for solving the RSS problem. I’d been storing feeds in S3 very recently, but getting NginX to silently redirect to those feeds. This meant that NginX was often busy

A year in review

A year in review

Technically speaking, Bloomsbury Digital began its life around October 2015, but it didn't really spring into action until July of this year, after a few weeks of stress. Six months on and things are looking strong for my little studio. This is the most successful freelance venture I&

Hands-free punch-and-roll with Adobe Audition on a Mac

Hands-free punch-and-roll with Adobe Audition on a Mac

Punch-and-roll is a technique voice actors use when recording on their own setups, to easily manage those moments when you fluff a line. When you hit a stumbling block, you hit a button, spool the track back a few seconds, let it play and then resume recording over the bit

I risked my health to start this business. Was it worth it?

I risked my health to start this business. Was it worth it?

After a trip to Atlanta in September 2015 I did a little soul-searching, and came to the conclusion I wasn't happy in my job. I worked for a great agency who was attracting diverse and interesting clients, but I'd lost that lovin' feelin', to

Where we're going, we don't need roads

So after a year in the wilderness, having fun and making mistakes, I'm returning to Substrakt, frankly the best digital agency I've ever worked with. Contrary to what some might think, this isn't a step backwards or some tacit admission of failure. It was

NBT007: Nymbol

If you were at last month's Tech Wednesday you'll have seen this already, but if not: this is what all my "Next Big Thing" posts have been leading up to. Nymbol is a content management system for the physical world. As our signup page

Lessons learned from the death of a digital startup

It'll have escaped the attention of just about everyone that Meegloo is no longer available. I pulled the site down a few weeks ago to save money for my Next Big Thing, and the distinct lack of reaction - from anyone - goes some way to explaining why

NBT006: Partnerships

In late February I mentioned I was looking for a CEO. I knew that my Next Big Thing couldn't be attempted on my own, and would need a business brain who could present well and whom I could trust. I'm delighted to say that I'

I’m looking for a CEO

As things progress with Meegloo and my Next Big Thing, I think it's time I started thinking about bringing a CEO on board. I'm probably an OK Chief Technical Officer - I definitely have the ideas, as my last 2-day project can attest - but while

What is Meegloo anyway?

I realise that there are still plenty of people to whom I've mentioned Meegloo (on Twitter or Facebook and in the so-called real world) that don't know what it is. That's hardly a crime; I don't know if I've ever

NBT005: Secrecy

I like talking. This is not news to anyone who knows me. I like to talk about myself, what I'm up to, funny things that happened to me on the way to the other thing… I also love talking about other people, and listening. I'm not

NBT004: The name

I did a little digging around on trademarks today. Only about 15 minutes or so, but it was enough to make me think it was worth changing the spelling of my Next Big Thing's name. I still don't fully understand - and don't much

NBT003: Business plan

This week saw me embark on a whole new journey, one which has reigned my passion for what I do. In the past, profit and loss forecasts have always been a surefire way to snuff out the delicate flame of hope that I could build something exciting and unconventional. My

NBT002: Prototype

I was at an event on Tuesday which got me thinking that it was perhaps not too early to build a very rudimentary prototype for my Next Big Thing. So I spent an hour or so trying to find a half-decent name, just so I could start a new Django

NBT001: Research

The first big thing I need to do to make my Next Big Thing happen is to research what already exists. I know my product idea is useful and who would pay for it. What I don't know yet is anything about the market itself: * Who are the

NBT000: Welcome

My company is called Flaming Tarball. A tarball is like a Zip file, most commonly used to distribute software, so one that's on fire has got to be awesome, right? My first project is Meegloo, an app for citizen journalists and social reporters. It's a pet

Moxy’s hatching an egg

A note from future Mark (11/08/2018) Moxy is the name I went by, from late 2009 til early 2012. A few days ago I eluded to some big news, for me anyway. and I'm finally in a position to share it, so here I go, sharing

TweetPaste RIP

A note from future Mark (11/08/2018) Moxy is the name I went by, from late 2009 til early 2012. TweetPaste is a tool that predated Twitter's oEmbed support (the ability to embed a tweet into a blog post without taking a screenshot). TweetPaste was one of,