Several years back - FIVE of them in fact - I raved about the Kelloggs Christmas TV commercial. Click here for my original post.

A couple of days ago, I received an email from Warren Ripley, who, along with me is also a fan and who has been looking for the ad ever since.

It's been found and the result is below. As I originally wrote, I consider this ad to be beautifully shot, lit, edited, scripted, cast and acted. Why on earth aren't Kelloggs running it again?

Thank you for passing on the news, Warren. Here's the commercial at last . . .

Amazingly, Sheila was sitting outside the house in the car when it happened. The Google car drove past and Sheila immediately recognised what it was.

Our street is a dead end so we knew he had to come back, so Sheila shouted for me and by the time he returned she was standing outside with her camera and I was doing silly dances by the car!

The chap at the wheel grinned, slowed a little then gave a thumbs up which we assume meant we'd been snapped! I doubt he gets many people in sleepy old Worcester who know what he's doing.

We'll keep an eye out for it's appearance of course.

I also dropped Google a note asking when UK Street View might be online. If and when I get an answer I'll update this post.

Now this deserves the tag "Cool"!

Fonolo is a service that helps consumers (or business people) deal with large companies over the phone. Fonolo's 'Deep Dialing' feature allows you to skip those dreaded phone menus (AKA Interactive Voice response or "IVR" systems) I moaned about a while ago, and get right to the point.

With Fonolo, users can easily navigate those ghastly "phone trees" - you know, "You now have seven options, press 1 for service, 2 for support, 3 for sales..." It's all done visually, on a computer or mobile device, then click to be connected directly, rather than plodding through the menus step-by-step. What's more, Fonolo's Intelligent Call History feature tracks all the calls a user makes to a particular company, no matter which phone he or she uses, and automatically organises them along with notes and recordings.

Fonolo has developed proprietary technology that automatically "spiders" IVR systems, in the same sort of way Web spiders search the web and bring you search results. It's the 'Google of the phone system', so to speak.

Thus a database of the numbers that consumers typically call is built up. This "map of phonespace," a dataset that has never been built before, powers Deep Dialing and Fonolo's other innovative features.

The process is simple. A user starts by finding the company he needs on the Fonolo Web site, then visually scans through the phone menu and clicks on the appropriate point. Fonolo will then dial the company, navigate the phone system and call the user's phone. When the user answers, he will be connected to the desired point in the menu. Furthermore, the user can bookmark this point inside the menu so that in the future, it is only a click away.

Excellent! There's a closed Beta Test going on now, but take a trip to www.fonolo.com for the details.

On Friday, I was at the O2 Arena and my attention was arrested by some signage announcing "Ravensbourne is Coming".

Now, in the late 60s, I was the one and only AV, Multimedia and Film Technician at what was then Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, back when it was in Rookery Lane in Bromley, Kent.

I also worked with the Ravensbourne School of Film and Television in Wharton Road, Bromley, alongside a wonderful man (and a great "luvvie") Bob Butler.

Apart from working with them, it was there I learned what I needed to know (beyond the merely technical) to later progress my own career in Radio and TV.

Keith Colburn was Principal of RCAD (as it was affectionately known) at the time and I worked closely with him, John Olton, Bernard Denvir, and particularly with Anne Alexander, with whom I did the technical design and operation of a number of multimedia shows - one of which "Search for a Hero" won high critical acclaim and was performed at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs for a week - high praise! It was quite an era in the history of the college.

So, was this the same Ravensbourne, well out of context, here on the windswept Greeenwich Peninsular, or is this a mere coincidence of name? It's the same one - and it's on the move to a wonderful new home alongside the O2 Arena.

To quote THEIR WEBSITE: "The new College will feature a layout and series of work spaces that deliberately simulate the environment and working practices that students are likely to experience as creative professionals, with a greater emphasis on shared space and facilities, enabling them to make even more of the collaborative opportunities with fellow students, programmes and other institutions. The move will place our future students even closer to the creative industries of Central London, and provide greater opportunities for collaborations with industry professionals and other Higher Education institutions, allowing them to draw on the wealth of facilities that London offers.

The Greenwich site will give future students:

new state-of-the-art facilities

new technology, equipment and resources

opportunities for collaboration with nearby institutions with an interest in the creative industries and performing arts

closer physical links to potential employers and networking opportunities

Wonderful. But there's more - it seems they're planning a reunion sometime this summer-autumn, so if my 900 unique visitors a week give a boost to the College's profile on Google, and if you're RCAD Alumni, please do CLICK THIS LINK! (Drop me an email too if you want.)

Let's add some former student names here as well: Stephen Hitchins, Eleanor Frost, John Taylor, Julian Kingston, Philip (Gulliver) Barnes, Jill Ingham - more will come to mind once I start thinking about it.

I am SO pleased to see Ravensbourne moving to it's exciting new home. Purpose built art teaching establishments are extremely rare. Many thought Chislehurst, to which the RCAD moved in the early 70s would be the last, I'm delighted to see it won't be!

And I definitely want tickets to that reunion! :-)

One small additions to this post; I wrote an email to the Ravensbourne Alumni address their website suggests and guess what? No reply! If they're teaching their students all about New Media (my speciality) Rule 1 is Internet-speed reasponse! Still love the place though. :-)