March 24, 2013

An Assortment of (relatively) Old But Interesting Links

These tabs have been cluttering up my browser for months now... nagging reminders that I'm not blogging as much as I'd like (one of many things I'm not finding as much time to do as I like, but what's new...)

Anyway, rather than just close them, I'll share them here. Feel free to read them and then imagine what the blog post they would've inspired would look like, or write one of your own instead :-)

Posted by Adrian at 06:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 23, 2013

Links: Design, the Internet of Things, legalities and work

Things are rather busy at the minute, and I'd amassed a few open tabs in Firefox of assorted things I thought "ooh, I should share that" when I encountered them in my RSS reading. Normally they'd just go out as a tweet, with a brief bit of background but as (a) I'm not on twitter as much at the minute (see earlier point about being busy...) and (b) when I am, I'm already sharing plenty of links (partly because we're in promo mode for the Good Night Lamp kickstarter campaign and partly because I've been blogging quite a lot - for me of late - recently) I figured I'd continue the blogging-kick and post an old school link post.

  • Hack Design An online course trying to teach developers how to be better designers. I've signed up, and so far it's been quite interesting. We'll see how long I last...
  • A few thoughts on design and the internet of things. A fairly long piece from Tim Burrell-Saward, which suggests some design principles for connected devices. It's nice to see other people starting to talk about these sorts of things. I liked "make it Poppins"
  • Tom Coates - An Animating Spark: Mundane Computing and the Web of Data. More principles for the Internet of Things, this time from Tom Coates. Principle #3 is excellent, although I'm not sure I agree with principle #7, I can see why he's included it but I'm much more a fan of keeping intelligence at the edge of the network where possible.
  • A Moment of Silence for Aaron Swartz. Bunnie Huang sharing his experiences of challenging tech behemoths and how the legal system can be used against someone doing things on the edges of the ordinary. A great post, such a shame it was written in the tragic circumstances of Aaron Schwartz's suicide.
  • Hiut Denim - Do the work. Now you're (hopefully) fired up about doing important work and changing the world, a great reminder from Hiut Denim that all we need to do now is the hard work it takes.

Which is a good note for me to end on - part of the reason I've been blogging (a bit) more of late is that it works as a good way to get my writing muscle-memory going, so I can get on with finishing the next chapter of my book (another thing I'm long overdue explaining here, but that will have to wait for another day...)

Posted by Adrian at 08:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 05, 2013

Blog All Documentary Quotes: I Love This Dirty Town

"We could actually live in cities, if we still believed in cities".

Another of the BBC Four Collections videos, I Love This Dirty Town is part of the "London" collection. However, it's not really about London specifically, and shows a bit of Cambridge and Coventry among other places as it provides what is effectively a good primer on Jane Jacobs' now classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities. There'll be a "blog all dog-eared pages" post for that here too when I finish reading it - lots of good stuff in it.

"If you don't look closely you think it works"

As ever, nothing is new - along with the mis-guided large-scale regeneration that I've often covered it's nice to see a guy from a design studio back then reusing the slightly-tired-but-full-of-character properties in the same way that we do today...

"They're packed with handy characters that you can find. Somebody to cut things for you, or make jigs or bolts or blow a little bit of plastic. There's always something, some little firm, some little chap around the corner who has exactly the particular craft you happen to want. You can grow almost any kind of photographic, light-engineering, design industry in these old buildings. And I would've thought that's a social gain."

On businesses in the city...

"There's nothing wrong with the big getting bigger, as long as the small get more numerous"

I do wonder if this is the nub of the problem - an eternal struggle between people who want to bring order to our cities, when the inhabitants are busy optimising for many more smaller and conflicting plans of their own...

"Planners are so paternalistic, don't they know that a lot of people have plans of their own? [...] Streets go up and they go down in the world, it has something to do with people who actually live there"

Posted by Adrian at 03:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 30, 2012

Engines Must Not Enter the Potato Siding

What's the video equivalent of dog-earing? Whilst finding details about the recent Golden Age of Steam documentaries, I stumbled across the BBC Four Collection on Steam.

The BBC Four Collections are a fantastic way to start opening up the archives, and it's lovely to be able to watch old documentaries again. I have a feeling I'll be leafing through some more of them in future, this Panorama documentary from 1966, for instance, looks interesting - predicting what the tech industry in California will look like in the year 2000... There's also The Great Railway Cavalcade: Rocket 150 at Rainhill, looking at the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Rainhill Trials, which I remember attending as a boy.

Anyway. I've just watched the Tuesday Documentary: Engines Must Not Enter the Potato Siding. First broadcast in November 1969, it's a look at the railway network and men who worked on it, particularly the area around Sheffield and Manchester but also touching on London.

It's from a time when steam was on the wane and the electric and diesel engines were taking over. Commenting after a section showing old railwaymen sharing stories and banter in the railwayman's club, the narrator says:

"when they argue the superiority of steam, they don't mean at all that it was more efficient - because they know it wasn't - but steam to them is better because it was a more demanding thing. It was a difficult thing to do well, and they take pleasure in remembering how they did it."

Lovely.

It also shows some of the forward-looking thinking of the day - shots coming up the escalator from the tube into a gleaming new Euston station; mentions of containerisation and how it simplifies the freight interchanges; and shots of a new "electronic marshalling yard", where trackside sensors allow the movement of the wagons to be controlled by "computer tape". Apart from the punched tapes, it doesn't sound all that far from some of the Internet of Things projects being proposed now.

I'll finish with a quote from one of the drivers, who describes a cafe that I'll bet hasn't featured in eggbaconchipsandbeans, probably because it will have died with the passing of the steam engines...

"you can't get a better feed than bacon and eggs fried in a shovel"

Posted by Adrian at 09:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 17, 2011

links for 2011-09-17

  • "HOW could it possibly cost more for a government agency to hire a private consulting company with its own headquarters, executives, support staff, shareholders and so forth to prepare a bid for a project, compete for the contract, execute the project, compile reams of data proving what a great job it did on the project, and then spend the next six months lobbying the government to do a follow-on project and hire it again, than it would for the government agency to just do the dang job itself?"
Posted by delicious at 09:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 13, 2011

links for 2011-09-13

Posted by delicious at 09:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 08, 2011

links for 2011-09-08

Posted by delicious at 09:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 31, 2011

links for 2011-08-31

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 27, 2011

links for 2011-08-27

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 23, 2011

links for 2011-08-23

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 22, 2011

links for 2011-08-22

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 07, 2011

July 29, 2011

links for 2011-07-29

Posted by delicious at 11:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 28, 2011

links for 2011-07-28

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 27, 2011

links for 2011-07-27

  • Interesting-looking open-source Pachube competitor, although it seems a little abandoned (and I've not looked into how robust the database, etc. is - which is the big problem when you start throwing lots of data around)
Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 24, 2011

links for 2011-07-24

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 30, 2011

links for 2011-06-30

Posted by delicious at 09:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 22, 2011

links for 2011-06-22

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 16, 2011

links for 2011-06-16

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 14, 2011

links for 2011-06-14

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 05, 2011

links for 2011-06-05

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 15, 2011

links for 2011-05-15

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 11, 2011

links for 2011-05-11

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 09, 2011

links for 2011-05-09

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 08, 2011

links for 2011-05-08

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 26, 2011

links for 2011-04-26

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 20, 2011

links for 2011-04-20

  • Will come in handy if/when I get round to expanding on the AudienceBot to allow it to better gauge what people thought of a particular song/performance
Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 14, 2011

links for 2011-04-14

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 05, 2011

links for 2011-04-05

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 24, 2011

links for 2011-03-24

Posted by delicious at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 22, 2011

links for 2011-03-22

Posted by delicious at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 19, 2011

links for 2011-03-19

Posted by delicious at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 11, 2011

links for 2011-03-11

Posted by delicious at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 24, 2011

links for 2011-02-24

  • Good to read an explanation of how someone uses git and branches to manage releases. This is the sort of workflow I'd run with, particularly if I was working in a bigger team. It's basically what we ran at STNC/Microsoft, but it's good to see how it relates to git (I'm still getting my head around the distributed version control thing)
Posted by delicious at 08:02 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 18, 2011

links for 2011-02-18

Posted by delicious at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 27, 2010

links for 2010-12-27

Posted by delicious at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 24, 2010

links for 2010-12-24

  • A lovely idea - an informal liability waiver form for people to use if they're doing something (e.g. clearing snow/ice, clearing waste ground) where the person who owns the ground is concerned that the volunteer might sue them if things go wrong. Basically saying that the volunteer is happy to engage in the work, and takes responsibility for their own actions.
Posted by delicious at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 19, 2010

links for 2010-12-19

  • Excellent project to boost engagement in local issues. Wonder if we could run something like this in Liverpool and even provide some low-tech feedback (in addition to the high-tech website side of things) with regularly printed and updated posters - pick places to advertise the questions, but then have a network of volunteers to print out updates and paste them over the adverts on a daily or every-few-days basis
  • A good overview of the Open Space method of conference/meeting organisation. I like the "chairs are all set out in a circle" format - dressing the venue will be an important part of working out how the long-conference proceeds.
Posted by delicious at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 17, 2010

links for 2010-12-17

Posted by delicious at 08:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 11, 2010

links for 2010-12-11

  • Circuit showing how to use a capacitor to store energy from a solar panel until there's enough to power something.
  • Boulderdash, built with just an AVR microcontroller chip, crystal and a few capacitors and resistors. It's not one of the AVRs that the Arduino uses, but that might make it a good "playing with other AVRs" project for a hackspace evening...
    (tags: avr game)
  • "We have a crisis of leadership in America because our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under earlier generations of leaders, made us complacent, and for too long we have been training leaders who only know how to keep the routine going. Who can answer questions, but don’t know how to ask them. Who can fulfill goals, but don’t know how to set them. Who think about how to get things done, but not whether they’re worth doing in the first place. What we have now are the greatest technocrats the world has ever seen, people who have been trained to be incredibly good at one specific thing, but who have no interest in anything beyond their area of exper­tise. What we don’t have are leaders."
Posted by delicious at 08:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 07, 2010

links for 2010-12-07

Posted by delicious at 08:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 10, 2010

links for 2010-11-10

Posted by delicious at 08:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 09, 2010

links for 2010-11-09

Posted by delicious at 08:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 06, 2010

links for 2010-11-06

Posted by delicious at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 04, 2010

links for 2010-11-04

Posted by delicious at 08:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 20, 2010

links for 2010-10-20

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 19, 2010

links for 2010-10-19

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 03, 2010

links for 2010-10-03

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 24, 2010

links for 2010-09-24

Posted by delicious at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 02, 2010

links for 2010-09-02

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 16, 2010

links for 2010-08-16

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 09, 2010

links for 2010-08-09

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 04, 2010

links for 2010-08-04

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 03, 2010

links for 2010-08-03

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 31, 2010

links for 2010-07-31

  • I think this article makes a good case that Detroit should be the city that Liverpool is looking to as a kindred spirit, rather than chasing Shanghai tower blocks.

    "Detroit will re-invent itself and prosper through the help of makers, thinkers, and entrepreneurs who thrive while operating on a lean budget, without the bloat that has caused the demise of many of our once-venerated large corporations. True, lasting change cannot happen overnight, but with a little patience, room to operate, and a lot of sweat, we can entice both our young people to stay in the area and help in this reinvention while enticing other artists and makers — who may be claustrophobic operating in other cities — to stretch out and make Detroit their home."



Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 29, 2010

links for 2010-07-29

  • "The first step in those efforts is to stop seeing the systems we depend on as out of our control. They aren't, and that we're so convinced they are is a testament to the dedication of the powers that be to shoo us away from interfering in their profits.

    Cynicism, boredom and fear are their tools. They reinforce, at every opportunity, the idea that government is broken, that civic engagement is for dupes, that real rebellion involves shutting up, making money and spending it."

    Ostensibly a look at the Transition Town movement and postulating that it's targetting the wrong problems, but in addition to the green agenda this could almost be a manifesto for civic renewal.





  • Another cheatsheet for git. One of these days I'll use it enough to get my head round it and not need to look through these things whenever I'm doing anything with it.




  • Handy wiki to track what sort of SIM to get when you're visiting a different country


Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 10, 2010

links for 2010-07-10

  • Interesting software to provide a mobile-phone cell hooked up to broadband. Not clear what hardware you'd need to pair it with to get it working.
  • An interesting (as they so often are) essay from Adam Greenfield wondering what the future of the city might look from a technological and ubicomp perspective. I wonder what Liverpool would be like if there was such a bug-tracking-system for the city... Some good comments too, which pull at the fact not visible in the main text - that Adam is thinking about this not just from a techno-utopian viewpoint, but from a realist someone-will-build-this-sooner-or-later perspective where it's better to be engaged and involved in it and helping shape it in better (egalitarian, secure, civic-rather-than-purely-commercial) ways.
  • "A paving slab that says “20 Tonne Crane” is not the same as a 20 tonne crane."

    A lovely piece looking at the difference in approach to regeneration of two dock areas of Leeds.

    "When a building is first made it belongs to the builder, the architect and their paymasters. They alone can tell stories about why and how it came into being in its pristine form. But over time, the balance tips in favour of the place’s users, its neighbours and even to passers-by. Their stories become the building’s stories and the building’s stories become inspirations, symbolic of the city’s authentic character."



Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 07, 2010

links for 2010-07-07

Posted by delicious at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 05, 2010

links for 2010-07-05

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 04, 2010

links for 2010-07-04

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 25, 2010

links for 2010-06-25

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 19, 2010

links for 2010-06-19

  • American presidents have been promising to wean America off oil for thirty-six years. Jon Stewart's explanation is hilarious and sobering in equal measure.
  • "Right, the creative class. Maybe Richard Florida has promoted the wrong creative class. In his model, artists beget coffee bars that make formerly dreary neighborhoods attractive to real estate developers, who lure lawyers and accountants into luxury loft buildings with names like “the Shoe Factory.” Maybe there’s another model, one that sucks a little of the class bias out of the formula and privileges artisans over artists, blue-collar jobs over white-collar ones. Give enough people who are passionate about making things the stability to invest in equipment and hire workers, and you might slow, or even reverse, the death spiral."
Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 16, 2010

links for 2010-05-16

  • A really interesting interview with Adam Greenfield. I particularly like his take on the sorts of offices we should be working in, and how the Google-style "free food, sports facilities, etc. all on campus" offices are more of a ploy to keep you at work for as long as possible. I much prefer my current work experience which is nearer to this:

    "My idea of a good workspace is a little different: a small office, with windows that open and lots of natural light, in a dense and well-served neighborhood in the central city."



Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 26, 2010

links for 2010-04-26

Posted by delicious at 09:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 17, 2010

links for 2010-04-17

Posted by delicious at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 09, 2010

links for 2010-04-09

Posted by delicious at 09:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 20, 2010

links for 2010-03-20

Posted by delicious at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 13, 2010

links for 2010-03-13

  • Found via Mel Starrs' delicious links, this isn't really a "mistakes I've made and how to avoid them" but more of a confession of continued failings. I'm bookmarking it not because I've learnt any new tips to help my work, but because I share a lot of these problems and it's good to know that others suffer from the same problems.
Posted by delicious at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 01, 2010

links for 2010-03-01

Posted by delicious at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 26, 2010

links for 2010-02-26

Posted by delicious at 08:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 24, 2010

links for 2010-02-24

  • A lovely approach to life.
  • A good way of thinking about the increasing enroachment onto our privacy of firms like Facebook and Google... "What's happening is that our privacy has become a kind of currency. It's what we use to pay for online services. Google charges nothing for Gmail; instead, it reads your e-mail and sends you advertisements based on keywords in your private messages. [...] The genius of Google, Facebook, and others is that they've created services that are so useful or entertaining that people will give up some privacy in order to use them. Now the trick is to get people to give up more—in effect, to keep raising the price of the service."
    (tags: privacy ethics)
Posted by delicious at 08:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 15, 2010

links for 2010-02-15

Posted by delicious at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 10, 2010

links for 2010-02-10

  • Lots of interesting little projects a guy is making for his and his kids' enjoyment.
  • "Britain has plenty of things to worry about; it would be absurd to suggest the contrary. But the big ones are not sex, drugs and rock ’n roll. There is a statistically small class of people, including a number of underskilled young whites and Caribbeans, who are being left behind in a general march toward the light. Many of those who were already at the bottom of the pile are finding it impossible to get out from under and join in. And this is serious." The Economist takes a detailed and thorough look at whether we do live in a "broken society" and finds that on the whole, we don't.
    (tags: crime society uk)
Posted by delicious at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 06, 2010

"New Southampton looks much the same as New Everywhere Else"

I was just going to add this link to my delicious stream, but I wanted to pull just that bit too much in the way of quotes out of it, and so figured a blog post was more suitable.

In From the Mill to the Mall, Owen Hatherley provides a lovely essay on lots of the problems with the retail park and shopping mall architecture and planning of the modern city. It's nominally about Southampton, but I was pointed to it by someone spotting the similarities with Birmingham, and obviously I can draw the comparisons with Liverpool (even down to the hugely busy but invisible container port and the civic architectural legacy from the White Star and Cunard lines)

"Jobs For Local People are no doubt the eventual result, and the alibi for the extremely profitable land deals. The result is a city devoid of any real civic pride, with a series of chain pubs where shops used to be, competing for cheap pints."

"(Southampton is lucky enough to have only one 'Quarter', though a Cultural Quarter has been promised for some time)" Indeed. Liverpool isn't so lucky, we have the Knowledge Quarter, which seems to overlap quite a lot with the Georgian Quarter, and in the centre of town is the Met Quarter (although maybe the council isn't responsible for that, as it's basically a shopping mall... At least the redevelopment around the Baltic Fleet pub is the Baltic Triangle.

At least our big city-centre shopping temple, Liverpool One, does a reasonable job of interfacing to the surrounding city - its walkways are covered rather than enclosed, so there's plenty of natural light and some exposure to the elements; there's some variety in the architectural styles; and the preservation (or recreation) of the original street pattern gives it some ebb and flow with the existing city. It's still a big shopping mall, full of chains that could be anywhere else and has privatised a huge chunk of the city centre, but it's in the centre and about as well done as you could hope for.

Anyway, my ranting aside, it's a good read.

Tags:

Posted by Adrian at 11:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 25, 2010

links for 2010-01-25

Posted by delicious at 08:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 20, 2010

Gordon is Right

Gordon McLean has written an excellent post on his blog, entitled Why blogging is good, pointing to some of the conversation around the recent blog post from Clay Shirky claiming arrogance and lying can be useful traits. There are links to the discussion over on Gordon's post, so you should go and read them first because (1) they're good, and (2) I'm going to assume that you have for the rest of this post :-)

I was just going to comment on Gordon's post, but decided I should celebrate the fact that I've got a blog (even if I don't post to it as often as I'd like) and write my comment here.

Gordon says: "As for the issue being discussed in these posts I have to agree with Tom, particularly when he talks about how arrogance and confidence have a place in your “personality toolbox?, but the person who only has those tools is all the poorer for it. Unfortunately society, and certainly the workplace, still seem to favour people with confidence when what we should be doing is cutting through the noise to see what substance lies underneath."

I agree, but I also think that we should all strive to reach into our "personality toolboxes" for our arrogance and confidence in order to call "Bullshit" to dampen the "noise" when we can.

Posted by Adrian at 01:41 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 14, 2010

links for 2010-01-14

Posted by delicious at 08:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 06, 2010

links for 2010-01-06

Posted by delicious at 08:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 25, 2009

links for 2009-12-25

  • Really interesting and thought-provoking discussion about the possible ethical and moral problems that services like Mechanical Turk might create. Not all doom-and-gloom, and with good examples of problems beyond the obvious "it's really poorly paid, so is like a sweatshop" concern.

    We (the tech community in particular, along with wider society) need to have more of these sorts of discussions, and at least with this it's happening fairly early on in the adoption of the new technologies.



Posted by delicious at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 16, 2009

links for 2009-12-16

  • As well as being a detailed look at how a Porsche car was built back in the 60s, I love the insight you get into the production techniques - the specialised tools and jigs produced to make things easier (I have some similar but lower-tech versions for Bubblini) and the attention to measuring and documenting the car as it's built - the exact CC of each cylinder being marked on it for example.
Posted by delicious at 08:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 26, 2009

links for 2009-11-26

Posted by delicious at 08:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 20, 2009

links for 2009-11-20

  • A good summary of the different types of RFID technology about and what they can and can't do. Very good at helping you to understand the difference between the vague ideas about what could be possible, and what the limitations of the different solutions are.
Posted by delicious at 08:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 13, 2009

links for 2009-11-13

Posted by delicious at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 15, 2009

links for 2009-10-15

Posted by delicious at 09:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 09, 2009

links for 2009-10-09

  • I didn't make it over for TEDx Leeds as sadly it was on the same day as the Art of Digital Learning Lab in Ulverston. This is a good write-up of the event, complete with links to each of the talks on YouTube. Think I'll be watching them when I get a spare twenty minutes.
Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 08, 2009

links for 2009-10-08

Posted by delicious at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 05, 2009

links for 2009-10-05

Posted by delicious at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 29, 2009

links for 2009-09-29

Posted by delicious at 09:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 20, 2009

links for 2009-09-20

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 18, 2009

links for 2009-09-18

Posted by delicious at 09:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 13, 2009

links for 2009-08-13

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 08, 2009

links for 2009-08-08

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 25, 2009

links for 2009-07-25

Posted by delicious at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 14, 2009

links for 2009-07-14

  • A bit late, but always good to brush up on il mio Italiano.
  • Cross-platform software to rip DVDs to AVI (or similar). Recommended on GeekUp, so keeping a note of it in case I want to use something like this in future (maybe if I get round to moving all my DVDs onto the media server)
    (tags: dvd avi software)
  • Interesting-looking website gathering information about local councils (in this case Liverpool). The committee meetings calendar seems particularly useful stuff to surface. Of course, it could be that all this is already on the Liverpool City Council's own website somewhere...
Posted by delicious at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 13, 2009

links for 2009-07-13

Posted by delicious at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 07, 2009

links for 2009-07-07

Posted by delicious at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 30, 2009

links for 2009-06-30

Posted by delicious at 09:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 23, 2009

links for 2009-06-23

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 20, 2009

links for 2009-06-20

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 17, 2009

links for 2009-06-17

  • Nice project by Landon Rohatensky, who's modified my Alertuino perl script to trigger his Arduino controlled teasmaid. It picks up the type of tea from a tweet, and that sets the time that the tea steeps before it is dispensed into the cup, ready to drink.
    (tags: arduino tea robot)
  • It turns out that a bike left unlocked in the centre of Liverpool lasted longer (nearly four hours) before being stolen than any of the other locations they tried, including London and Norwich
Posted by delicious at 09:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 07, 2009

links for 2009-06-07

Posted by delicious at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 31, 2009

links for 2009-05-31

Posted by delicious at 09:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 28, 2009

links for 2009-05-28

Posted by delicious at 09:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 26, 2009

links for 2009-05-26

Posted by delicious at 09:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 25, 2009

links for 2009-05-25

Posted by delicious at 09:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 11, 2009

links for 2009-05-11

  • A brief explanation of how Scott Bader Co Ltd became the Scott Bader Commonwealth.

    "What that did was change a traditional firm, accountable to its shareholders, into one that could balance doing well with doing good."

    Interesting approach with a laudable set of rules to govern how the business is run.



Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 09, 2009

links for 2009-05-09

Posted by delicious at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 01, 2009

links for 2009-05-01

Posted by delicious at 09:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 28, 2009

links for 2009-04-28

Posted by delicious at 09:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 24, 2009

links for 2009-04-24

Posted by delicious at 09:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 21, 2009

links for 2009-04-21

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 20, 2009

links for 2009-04-20

  • Interesting firmware for the popular Linksys WRT54G WiFi router. Would be useful if I get round to getting one to use to make Bubblino easier to hook up to a WiFi network (i.e. I could use this rather than a laptop as the Ethernet <-> WiFi bridge)
    (tags: wifi firmware)
Posted by delicious at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 18, 2009

links for 2009-04-17

Posted by delicious at 02:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 14, 2009

links for 2009-04-14

Posted by delicious at 09:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 04, 2009

links for 2009-04-04

  • Great use of the Open Street Map data to overlay all sorts of useful info about Sutton (part of London). Click on the "+" on the right and you can bring up things like recent planning applications, "fix my street" issues, local gyms...
Posted by delicious at 09:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 20, 2009

links for 2009-03-20

Posted by delicious at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 19, 2009

links for 2009-03-19

Posted by delicious at 08:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 06, 2009

links for 2009-03-06

Posted by delicious at 08:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 27, 2009

links for 2009-02-27

Posted by delicious at 08:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 25, 2009

links for 2009-02-25

Posted by delicious at 08:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 12, 2009

links for 2009-02-12

Posted by delicious at 08:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 30, 2009

links for 2009-01-30

Posted by delicious at 08:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 24, 2009

links for 2009-01-24

  • A bit of a rant, but a great summary of the potential problems of "cloud computing".

    "this idea that ... a vital, distinct part of what you do and what you’re about or what you consider important to you is on other machines that you don’t run, don’t control, don’t buy, don’t administrate, and don’t really understand."



Posted by delicious at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 19, 2009

links for 2009-01-19

Posted by delicious at 08:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 14, 2009

links for 2009-01-14

  • Delightful - an instructable detailing all the steps taken in boxing up an Arduino robot kit, from laser cutting components to weighing the bags of bolts to ensure there are enough in there. It also shows the fun you can have building custom machines with a laser cutter - all those clear plastic constructions remind me of Fraggle Rock!
  • A great collection of photos taken in Liverpool in the 80s. A real trip down memory lane for me - there's even one of the Albert Dock before it was done up, complete with the missing corner from where a bomb hit it in WW2
Posted by delicious at 08:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 13, 2009

links for 2009-01-13

Posted by delicious at 08:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 07, 2009

links for 2009-01-07

  • Suw has just launched "Ada Lovlace Day" - a movement to celebrate and promote women in technology. I've signed up to the pledge, and you should too.
  • One of the dilemmas of modern technology: the cost of storage makes it easier for more and more data to be collected and kept, and remembering things for us is a useful feature of computers - but should they remember everything for ever?

    I think more people should be worrying about the answer to that. This paper proposes a good solution, where all data is given an expiry date and is deleted at that point.

    I think there's scope for a more nuanced solution though, where data gets fuzzier over time. For a while it could be useful to know that I made a phonecall at 10:34am this morning, but in 10 years if I need to know at all then surely something like "early Jan 2009" would be close enough?

    Tricky to implement, because remembering is such a hard task that deliberately forgetting feels very wrong, but I think we should be exploring what we do and don't want to keep for ever.



Posted by delicious at 08:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 06, 2009

links for 2009-01-06

Posted by delicious at 08:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 28, 2008

links for 2008-12-28

Posted by delicious at 08:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 22, 2008

links for 2008-12-22

  • Useful-looking charting library for web apps. Has a couple of features (like saving charts as images) that my current choice doesn't.
    (tags: charts webdev)
Posted by delicious at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 20, 2008

links for 2008-12-20

Posted by delicious at 08:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 12, 2008

links for 2008-12-12

Posted by delicious at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 11, 2008

links for 2008-12-11

Posted by delicious at 08:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 09, 2008

links for 2008-12-09

Posted by delicious at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 08, 2008

links for 2008-12-08

Posted by delicious at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 04, 2008

links for 2008-12-04

  • "a subscription to a magazine about taekwondo will only be as useful as your decision to drag your fat ass into a dojo and start actually kicking people. Over and over. Otherwise, you’re just buying shiny paper every month."

    Great to see Merlin back on form. I'm glad I didn't unsubscribe during his dip. Go read it.


    (tags: advice)

Posted by delicious at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 22, 2008

links for 2008-11-22

Posted by delicious at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 17, 2008

links for 2008-11-17

Posted by delicious at 08:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 13, 2008

links for 2008-11-13

Posted by delicious at 08:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 27, 2008

links for 2008-10-27

Posted by delicious at 08:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 22, 2008

links for 2008-10-22

Posted by delicious at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 19, 2008

links for 2008-10-19

  • "An essay is something you write to try to figure something out.". It often surprises me that I ended up blogging, given that I spent my A-levels and degree trying to get away from writing essays.
Posted by delicious at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 18, 2008

links for 2008-10-18

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 09, 2008

links for 2008-10-09

Posted by delicious at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 22, 2008

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

Last month the BBC website had a series of articles about the problems with the sorts of numbers and statistics oft bandied about by people and the media. They're well worth a read, even if it just means you'll never trust a number in a news report again...

Tags:

Posted by Adrian at 05:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 08, 2008

The Geldart Public House, Reborn

I last went for a drink in the Geldart when it was a slightly seedy local, good if you wanted a game of pool, or to watch the not-quite-legal-Norweigan-satellite-feed Premiership football, but other than that nothing special. It's main claim to fame in those days was the pretty-much-daily lock-ins which meant it was about the only place to get a drink after hours in pre-liberal-licensing Cambridge.

The lock-ins were clamped down upon and stopped well before the late licences were brought in, and the Geldart went back to oft-overlooked and neglected residential pub.

Tomorrow, however, all that is set to change. My mate Elvis (no, really, that is his name) has left his role as manager of the excellent Kingston Arms in order to branch out on his own and will be relaunching The Geldart under a new guise.

The pub has been completely refitted and refurbished and will be serving good beer and good food in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. There'll be the usual Guiness and a couple of lagers on tap, but the main focus will be a good range of ales.

I had a sneak peek round the place a couple of weeks ago, and it's looking very good. Sadly the beers hadn't arrived (mainly because they'd have gone off otherwise), so I didn't get to sample the drinks. Nor did I get to try the food, which I'm intrigued to try because in addition to the usual pub fare there'll be "hot rocks" where you get to cook the food yourself at the table on, guess what, a heated rock.

The grand opening is tomorrow, Saturday 9th August from 6pm 'til late.

Tags:

Posted by Adrian at 04:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 22, 2008

links for 2008-07-22

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 19, 2008

links for 2008-07-19

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 16, 2008

links for 2008-06-16

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 13, 2008

links for 2008-06-13

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 06, 2008

links for 2008-06-06

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 27, 2008

links for 2008-05-27

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 23, 2008

links for 2008-05-23

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 15, 2008

links for 2008-05-15

  • On the strength of watching this I'll be buying "In Defence of Food". To be healthy, shop round the edges of the supermarket (or better still, not in a supermarket at all)
    (tags: food video)
Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 07, 2008

links for 2008-05-07

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 04, 2008

links for 2008-05-04

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 03, 2008

links for 2008-05-03

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 30, 2008

links for 2008-04-30

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 29, 2008

links for 2008-04-29

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 22, 2008

links for 2008-04-22

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

April 20, 2008

links for 2008-04-20

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 19, 2008

links for 2008-04-19

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 12, 2008

links for 2008-04-12

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 08, 2008

links for 2008-04-08

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 06, 2008

links for 2008-04-06

Posted by delicious at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 21, 2008

links for 2008-03-21

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 15, 2008

links for 2008-03-15

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 09, 2008

links for 2008-03-09

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 06, 2008

links for 2008-03-06

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 04, 2008

links for 2008-03-04

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 03, 2008

links for 2008-03-03

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 22, 2008

links for 2008-02-22

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 19, 2008

links for 2008-02-19

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 15, 2008

links for 2008-02-15

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 13, 2008

links for 2008-02-13

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 07, 2008

links for 2008-02-07

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 05, 2008

links for 2008-02-05

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 30, 2008

links for 2008-01-30

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 28, 2008

links for 2008-01-28

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 18, 2008

links for 2008-01-18

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 16, 2008

links for 2008-01-16

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 15, 2008

links for 2008-01-15

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 13, 2008

links for 2008-01-13

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 12, 2008

links for 2008-01-12

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 05, 2008

links for 2008-01-05

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 04, 2008

links for 2008-01-04

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 18, 2007

links for 2007-12-18

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 16, 2007

links for 2007-12-16

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 03, 2007

links for 2007-12-03

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 29, 2007

links for 2007-11-29

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 26, 2007

links for 2007-11-26

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 18, 2007

links for 2007-11-18

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 10, 2007

links for 2007-11-10

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 06, 2007

links for 2007-11-06

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 05, 2007

links for 2007-11-05

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 03, 2007

links for 2007-11-03

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 01, 2007

links for 2007-11-01

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 31, 2007

links for 2007-10-31

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 27, 2007

links for 2007-10-27

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 17, 2007

links for 2007-10-17

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 16, 2007

links for 2007-10-16

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 12, 2007

links for 2007-10-12

  • Help! The city is being overrun by plasticene bunnies! The latest Sony Bravia advert is out, and it's even better than the bouncing balls.
Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 10, 2007

links for 2007-10-10

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 05, 2007

links for 2007-10-05

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 04, 2007

links for 2007-10-04

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 02, 2007

links for 2007-10-02

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 26, 2007

links for 2007-09-26

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 20, 2007

links for 2007-09-20

  • I find it rather ironic that social networking sites, of all things, call part of their protocol for interacting (and presumably proliferating) OFF.
  • Learning a foreign language gets the Web2.0 treatment. I've been trying the Italian course, and it seems pretty good so far - you get to hear and see the phrases, with nice touches like being able to repeat part of a phrase by clicking on it. Good for a
  • Stephen Fry has a blog! Who's going to tell him that the entries aren't supposed to be quite so long? If he carries on like that he'll give the rest of us a bad name...
Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 13, 2007

links for 2007-09-13

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 12, 2007

links for 2007-09-12

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 10, 2007

links for 2007-09-10

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 07, 2007

links for 2007-09-07

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 06, 2007

links for 2007-09-06

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 31, 2007

links for 2007-08-31

  • A list of all the markets (antiques, arts and crafts, organic produce, local produce...) in Torino. Tells you where they are, and on which days they're held. There are quite a few!
Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 27, 2007

Dealing With the Grief of Others

Over on her blog, Zinnia has written a series of excellent articles about what to write or say, or how to act when someone that you know loses a loved one.

Hopefully lots of people will read it and realise that, whilst there isn't a right answer, there are also far less wrong answers. On the whole, when somebody dies the worst things to do are to avoid the people grieving or to avoid the topic of the deceased. Zinnia covers that, but more importantly gives tips and ideas for what you should do.

Tags:

Posted by Adrian at 06:02 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 26, 2007

links for 2007-08-26

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 24, 2007

links for 2007-08-24

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 08, 2007

links for 2007-08-08

  • For anyone who wants to see more of the city I've moved to - a very varied selection of shots of Torino with a new one posted every day.
Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 04, 2007

links for 2007-08-04

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 18, 2007

links for 2007-07-18

Posted by delicious at 09:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 16, 2007

links for 2007-07-16

Posted by delicious at 09:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 07, 2007

links for 2007-07-07

Posted by delicious at 09:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 20, 2007

links for 2007-06-20

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 16, 2007

links for 2007-06-16

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 15, 2007

links for 2007-06-15

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 14, 2007

A Correction: Cannes Is Coming To Cambridge Tonight

I should learn to read things more carefully.

When I blogged about the series of short films being shown at the Box Tree last week I said that the event was happening on that Thursday. I was wrong. It's today.

Hopefully anyone who was planning on going looked at the date in the full post, rather than going from my "tomorrow night" description. Still, the organisers have at least benefitted from some more exposure as a result of my mistake, so I don't feel too bad about it...

Tags:

Posted by Adrian at 11:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

links for 2007-06-14

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 07, 2007

links for 2007-06-07

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 02, 2007

links for 2007-06-02

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 30, 2007

links for 2007-05-30

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 29, 2007

links for 2007-05-29

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 26, 2007

links for 2007-05-26

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 22, 2007

links for 2007-05-22

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 18, 2007

links for 2007-05-18

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 15, 2007

links for 2007-05-15

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 11, 2007

links for 2007-05-11

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 10, 2007

links for 2007-05-10

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 02, 2007

links for 2007-05-02

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 28, 2007

links for 2007-04-28

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 21, 2007

links for 2007-04-21

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 20, 2007

links for 2007-04-20

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 09, 2007

Other Blogs, Loosely Grouped

I don't know when I last updated the list of blogs that appear down the left of the main page of McFilter, but it must be a couple of years at least. The background task to make the maintenance easier (using MTBlogroll plugin) itself has taken over a year...

In that time, the mix of blogs that I read regularly has changed a bit, and expanded quite a lot. There have been more blogs that I was tracking, but I went through a purge a while back when it became clear that just reading them all was taking too much of my time.

So have a browse. They're all interesting in their own way. I've tried to group them into rough categories, but that's only to help people choose what they might be interested in - individuals just aren't that easy to pigeon-hole.

Posted by Adrian at 09:13 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 06, 2007

links for 2007-04-06

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 05, 2007

links for 2007-04-05

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 04, 2007

links for 2007-04-04

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 31, 2007

links for 2007-03-31

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 23, 2007

links for 2007-03-23

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 16, 2007

Red Nose Day, And The Book Is On Sale

Front cover

Shaggy Blog Stories by Mike Atkinson (Book) in Humor can now be bought from Lulu.com (who are also donating their profits from it to Comic Relief).

Full details of the contributors and how it all came together over at Mike's blog.

Buy your copy today!

Posted by Adrian at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 13, 2007

It's All For A Good Cause

As Red Nose Day looms there have been a few calls on my hard-earned cash; but as it's all for a good cause, who am I to refuse?

Firstly, my friend Jo (along with some of her colleagues) will be trekking 100km across the South Downs to raise money for Oxfam - and you can sponsor her here.

Secondly, now that the annual Which Decade Is Top For Pops project is out of the way, Mike has launched an ambitious venture in aid of Comic Relief.

"I have had a Big Idea!!!

Next Friday (March 16) is Comic Relief's Red Nose Day day in the UK. What I’m proposing is to assemble and publish – in the space of just seven days - a paperback anthology of blog writing, that can be sold to raise funds for the charity.

The book will be called Shaggy Blog Stories: a collection of amusing tales from the UK blogosphere."

I don't have any hilarious posts tucked away in the McFilter archives, so haven't submitted anything. What I will be doing though is buying a copy of the book when it goes on sale on Friday.

Head over to Troubled-Diva for full details on the mission.

Tags:

Posted by Adrian at 09:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 09, 2007

links for 2007-03-09

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 06, 2007

links for 2007-03-06

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 04, 2007

links for 2007-03-04

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 19, 2007

links for 2007-02-19

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 03, 2007

links for 2007-02-03

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 28, 2007

Your Weekly Dose of Good Writing

Post of the Week

Post of the Week is a newly (re-) launched website aiming to highlight some of the best writing on weblogs, on a weekly basis.

As Mike said when announcing it on his site:

"Absolutely everyone everywhere is heartily recommended to do any or all of the following:

1. Nominate cracking good blog posts for inclusion, via the comments box in the "Call for nominations" section.

2. Volunteer their services as a guest judge, for one weekend only.

3. Publicise the site on their own blogs. Pimp it, kids. Pimp it HARD."

Or at least head over and have a good read.

Posted by Adrian at 04:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

links for 2007-01-28

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 23, 2007

links for 2007-01-23

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 09, 2007

links for 2007-01-09

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 21, 2006

links for 2006-12-21

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 19, 2006

links for 2006-12-19

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 08, 2006

links for 2006-12-08

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 17, 2006

links for 2006-11-17

  • Lots of links to companies offering recycling (and such) services in the (south of the) UK. I thought I posted this ages ago, but couldn't see it.
Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 14, 2006

links for 2006-11-14

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 12, 2006

links for 2006-11-12

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 04, 2006

links for 2006-11-04

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 02, 2006

links for 2006-11-02

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 21, 2006

links for 2006-10-21

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 17, 2006

Divide and Conquer

Collective Genius is a collaborative blog where each month there's a chosen topic for everyone to write about. This month's topic is "Getting Unstuck", and I've written some thoughts about how breaking a task down into smaller chunks can help you start (and finish!) big, nasty tasks in the article Collective Genius!: Cutting Things Down To Size. Of course, keeping track of your newly multiplied tasks is something that tedium is adept at doing...

This has been an announcement from the Where Else Is Adrian's Content Available department.

Posted by Adrian at 04:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 02, 2006

links for 2006-10-02

  • Plugin for websites that require users to sign-in so that your website can offer single sign-on from services like OpenID. Is this an indication that some of the federated identity services are starting to mature?
Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 23, 2006

links for 2006-09-23

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 15, 2006

links for 2006-09-15

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 08, 2006

links for 2006-09-08

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 07, 2006

links for 2006-09-07

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 05, 2006

links for 2006-09-05

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 26, 2006

links for 2006-08-26

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 17, 2006

links for 2006-08-17

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 16, 2006

links for 2006-08-16

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 10, 2006

Black Box - Now Showing at a Cinema Near You*

Posted by Adrian at 03:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 08, 2006

links for 2006-08-08

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 27, 2006

Home Energy Check. Create Survey... Check. Make Results Useful... Err...

I've just completed the Energy Saving Trust's online Home Energy Check and I'm rather underwhelmed.

It claims to create a "personalised report listing all the ways you can reduce your energy consumption. You could save up to £250 a year on your energy bills, as well as around two tonnes of CO2 a year."

That all sounds quite useful and interesting so I ran through their short questionnaire filling in my details. My personalised report recommends that I fit more loft insulation, and replace my central heating boiler with a more efficient one. If I do that, I'll save around £86 each year.

Now, I'm sure that I should do both of those things but they aren't particularly challenging suggestions. Where's the recommendation that I switch to a green energy supplier? How much would I save if I installed solar water heating? It seems a wasted opportunity to inform me about some of the less common (but surely becoming more mainstream) options.

Similarly, just telling me how much I could save isn't particularly useful. Given enough investment in solar power and wind turbines, surely I could reduce my energy bill to 0 - but it would cost quite a lot to get there. I'd be more inclined to act upon the survey's recommendations if the results were presented as "fitting a new boiler would cost £700 and save you £86 a year, paying for itself in 9 years". Although writing this blog entry has helped me find out that info, as I've just looked it up to make sure my figures are realistic...

Posted by Adrian at 03:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 18, 2006

links for 2006-07-18

  • Statistics on the capabilities of assorted mobile phone browsers - get stats for specific features such as screen size, or XHMTL version, and limit them by phone manufacturer for finer-grained analysis.
Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What Do You Remember?

The Time When, the latest website to come from the BBC's experimental arm, has just been announced by Phil Gyford.

It's a place for people to record their memories, and it looks quite nice so far although there's not a lot of data in there yet.

Some first thoughts on the how it could be even better though, in case they're reading and because part of the announcement seems to be to start gaining feedback...

A minor techie thing to start with - the URLs aren't very hackable. Surely www.thetimewhen.co.uk/memory/2006/07/16/memorynumber would be better and let people explore more easily. Such a URL structure would also encourage the provision of some other very useful pages - ...co.uk/memory/2006/07/16/ would show me all the memories for yesterday, and ...co.uk/memory/2006/07/ would give all the memories for July 2006 and of course ...co.uk/memory/2006/ would give everything for this year. Or maybe just a calendar showing each day with the number of memories for that day shown by making the day's number/background/whatever more eye-catching? Start with pale grey for days with no events, and run through to bright red bold text for those with lots of memories...

It isn't very easy to browse round memories at present. The popular and most recent lists on the home page are a good start, but are heavily skewed to major events like September 11th 2001. If I search for a year I'd like to get the memories from that year, not the memories from today's date in that year. It would also be good if the individual day pages, in addition to their "previous day / next day" links also had "previous day with a memory / next day with a memory" links, so I can just pick a random day somewhere and still find memories to read about around that time.

I also wonder what the earliest memory is. A search for 1066 did seem like it had found some links, but that's only because it's finding things in the Wikipedia data feed. Unfortunately you can't see what memories William the Conqueror had ;-)

Posted by Adrian at 12:05 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 12, 2006

links for 2006-07-12

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 05, 2006

links for 2006-07-05

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 24, 2006

links for 2006-06-24

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 20, 2006

links for 2006-06-20

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 19, 2006

links for 2006-06-19

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 17, 2006

links for 2006-06-17

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 07, 2006

links for 2006-06-07

  • Stuart Bell is writing up a lot of his rides in and around Cambridge including the distances. Looks like it's building up into a useful collection.
  • Huge searchable archive of Movietone news reels (as was shown before films at the cinema years ago). Aimed more to let people find clips to licence for use in their own films or TV programmes, once you register you can see a small-sized version of any of
Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 02, 2006

links for 2006-06-02

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 31, 2006

links for 2006-05-31

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 30, 2006

links for 2006-05-30

  • Interesting looking idea for charging people to use websites - as a user, once you've joined IndieKarma, whenever you visit a website that's signed up, they'll get a penny (actually one US cent) from your account. Doesn't cost you much, but potentially a
  • Wampad is a new mobile-phone targetted web service. From the review it sounds like the service is actually thinking about what people might want to use their phone for with regard to accessing the Internet. It's making it easy to search google, the imdb
Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 20, 2006

links for 2006-05-20

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 17, 2006

links for 2006-05-17

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 04, 2006

links for 2006-05-04

  • Long article about what Al Gore has been up to since losing the presidency battle. You can't help but wonder what the world would be like if he'd won, but maybe his new zeal for solving the climate change problem is more important... maybe it will all wo
    (tags: green al_gore)
Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 30, 2006

links for 2006-04-30

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 29, 2006

The BBC Open Catalogue

It's interesting to see that the BBC have launched one of the first pieces of their Open Archive project this week.

The BBC Programme Catalogue doesn't have any actual video footage, but does provide a huge amount of meta-information about the programmes in their archive, so you can do things like find out what was on TV on the day I was born, or all the programmes that Floella Benjamin has been in.

All very interesting, and from a web developer point-of-view, nicely done - Atom and FOAF feeds all over the place; nice little sparkline-like graphs showing how the appearances map over time; and clean, easily-guessable URLs.

Posted by Adrian at 09:18 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 26, 2006

links for 2006-04-26

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

April 11, 2006

links for 2006-04-11

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 27, 2006

links for 2006-03-27

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 17, 2006

links for 2006-03-17

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 15, 2006

links for 2006-03-15

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 07, 2006

links for 2006-03-07

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 22, 2006

links for 2006-02-22

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 19, 2006

links for 2006-02-19

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 17, 2006

links for 2006-02-17

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 14, 2006

links for 2006-02-14

  • Why do so many creative firms avoid putting prices on their websites? I like this firms approach - offering a set of "design packages" so those of us who assume that getting professional design would be expensive can see that it mightn't be as bad as the
    (tags: logo design)
  • Suggestions on how to choose the names for your CSS IDs and Classes. Basically, choose names that link to the structure of the webpage (like "branding", or "main-navigation") rather than the presentation of the webpage (such as "banner", or "left-hand-me
    (tags: CSS webdev)
  • Online tool to let you test webpages "for quality, accessibility and privacy issues."
  • From this week's Micro-ISV digest, this is an online version of a book about starting your own business by Bruce Judson.
Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 12, 2006

links for 2006-02-12

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 11, 2006

links for 2006-02-11

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 20, 2006

links for 2006-01-20

Posted by delicious at 08:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 14, 2006

links for 2006-01-14

  • Yet more mashups, this time via Troubled Diva. Lots of good ones here; I particularly like "Free Love Child" and "Loves Torn Theme" (Natalie Imbruglia meets Barry White) is superb.
    (tags: mashups mp3 music)
  • One of the downsides of working from home is that you're more likely to be at home when the tele-marketers call. If British Gas start another of their concerted efforts to get me to switch back to them, I'll keep a copy of this next to the phone and try
Posted by delicious at 08:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 12, 2006

links for 2006-01-12

Posted by delicious at 08:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 11, 2006

links for 2006-01-11

Posted by delicious at 08:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 10, 2006

links for 2006-01-10

Posted by delicious at 08:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 05, 2006

links for 2006-01-05

Posted by delicious at 08:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 03, 2006

links for 2006-01-03

Posted by delicious at 08:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 02, 2006

Helping You To Resolve

Happy New Year!

It's pretty typical for people to start the year deciding to do a whole raft of things differently from how they've been doing things in the past. It's not something I partake in much, my mind seems to wander onto "should I be doing X differently" or "am I happy with Y" thoughts at random times throughout the year, and I try to let it run through to a "resolution" then. So my resolving is a rolling item rather than a yearly overhaul, although while choosing my Christmas present list I did decide to try to read more books this year.

Anyway, given that some of my friends have been thinking about making New Year Resolutions (and because an assortment of people have been blogging about such matters), here are a couple of links I've encountered recently that might be useful:

  • Momentum 2006 is a PDF file containing a number of questions/exercises to run through to help you better define your goals, and then get started on achieving them. It appears that one of the items in "Step 2" is missing, but that isn't a huge problem...
  • And Curt Rosengren has a short quiz to help you decide whether you're in the right career.

Posted by Adrian at 09:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 24, 2005

links for 2005-12-24

Posted by delicious at 08:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 15, 2005

links for 2005-12-15

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 13, 2005

links for 2005-12-13

  • Not sure how long this has been available, but for a while now I've thought that an RSS feed of news would be a much better way for the alumni to keep up to date with developments than the 6-monthly(?) magazine. (The RSS2.0 feed isn't validating at the m
Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 09, 2005

links for 2005-12-09

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 08, 2005

links for 2005-12-08

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 29, 2005

links for 2005-11-29

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 27, 2005

links for 2005-11-27

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 24, 2005

links for 2005-11-24

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 23, 2005

links for 2005-11-23

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 10, 2005

links for 2005-11-10

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 03, 2005

links for 2005-11-03

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 02, 2005

links for 2005-11-02

Posted by delicious at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 27, 2005

links for 2005-10-27

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 17, 2005

links for 2005-10-17

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 14, 2005

links for 2005-10-14

Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 07, 2005

Who's Blogging In Cambridge?

Fresh from his success with the Our Social World conference, Geoff has just launched Cambridge Blogs - a Wiki directory of bloggers here in Cambridge.

So if you're blogging in or around Cambridge, head over and make sure you're on the list. And maybe put your name down for the embryonic Cambridge blogmeet...

Posted by Adrian at 02:45 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 06, 2005

links for 2005-10-06

  • Riser cards! So *that's* what they're called. I've been wondering whether you could get something to rotate PCI cards 90 degrees. Will make my hi-fi separates mp3 player a bit lower when I finally build it ;-)
Posted by delicious at 09:17 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 07, 2005

Claiming My Feed On Feedster

No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster feedster:6fde87605d6127e5d6bcc6cee55e0921 so that I can add a pretty picture to go with links to my blog on the Feedster links results pages.

Posted by Adrian at 01:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 04, 2005

A Local Conference, But Not Just For Local People

Local blogger Geoff Jones has put together a very interesting looking conference about blogging and business - Our Social World.

The line-up includes a number of speakers I'd really like to see, and it's right on my doorstep.

At the moment, I have no idea whether or not I'm going to attend. The cost is one problem, given that I have zero income at present. The "Why don't British businesses blog?" theme is another issue - there could be useful things to learn, given that I'll be into full-on promoting my business by then, and blogging will be a part of that; but my business is already blogging and my conference-going itch is really the sort of geek melting-pot of Reboot, or Open Tech 2005. Working on my networking skills would also be good, but again there are more cost-effective ways of doing that locally that I've yet to take advantage of.

I might see if I can find out a bit more about it, and maybe even volunteer to help in some way as that'd help prevent my usual wallflower behaviour at such events...

Posted by Adrian at 02:35 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 07, 2005

A Terrible Day

I didn't get any work done today. Not until this evening at least. I've spent the day watching the terrible events in London unfold.

I did think about blogging about it earlier, but there seemed little point. Anyone reading my blog is bound to have heard about it elsewhere beforehand. And anything I say would just be re-iterating what other have already said. I am surprised at how few fatalities there've been (so far, perhaps). I have been impressed with how well the emergency services have reacted, and generally with how well London seems to be picking itself up and dusting itself down.

It was interesting to discover that most of the people I know in London are bloggers - it was reassuring to tick them off one by one as they posted to let everyone know they were okay.

It's also interesting how much information and communication I have access to. I first heard about the attacks on IRC, and soon after decamped to the front room in front of the TV. The TV was the best source for facts, as they scale better than websites for disseminating information to lots of people. BBC News 24 seemed to do a more responsible job - reporting which facts were officially confirmed, and pretty clearly marking what was rumour - much better than ITN or Sky News.

Instant messenger meant I could discuss events, and exchange facts and rumours with friends up and down the country, and even abroad; and text messaging meant I could find out that my friend in London was okay, although things will no doubt be a bit strange when she got into work this evening at St. Thomas's Hospital (South of the river, so probably not too involved).

And blogs and digital (or even mobile phone) cameras have provided a less filtered, unofficial, but more real view on events. Tom Reynolds has posted about his day, something I'd been waiting for all day, given his job at the London Ambulance Service. I'm sure there'll be interesting posts from him over the coming days. Via Mike, there's a a detailed report from someone caught in one of the tube explosions. And all day there more and more photos have been appearing in two Flickr photo pools for the explosions.

My thoughts are with the victims and their families.

Posted by Adrian at 09:52 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 28, 2005

No New Ideas

Over a year ago now, I spent some time playing around with some code to scrape the events pages of local venues and build up an RSS feed of what was on. The idea was that I wouldn't keep missing gigs. However, I didn't get it working well enough to release, and haven't had time to play with it further since.

The other day, I discovered Upcoming.org. Admittedly, it doesn't do the scraping of existing websites, it relies on the users entering events; but that's largely to be expected, scraping the websites was the bit I was having most trouble with :-)

The "consuming" events side of things is very cool though - you can see your own events, events being attended by your friends, or events for your area (or Metro, as Upcoming calls them). For example, here's the page with all the events in Cambridge.

Even better (at least, it is once you've gotten into RSS feeds, which you really should...), you can get an RSS feed of events so you don't have to keep checking the website for new stuff. Or there's an iCal feed which you can use on a Mac (I think, not having one myself :-) or with a calendar program like Sunbird to have the events show up in your calendar.

The only problem now is getting enough people to start putting events into the Cambridge bit so I find out what's happening, although I see that Damien has at least been adding the Broken Family Band gigs...

Posted by Adrian at 06:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 22, 2005

Another Random Reality Radio Appearance

When Tom Reynolds was last on the radio talking about workplace blogging I created a link to let him direct people directly to the interview, rather than having to tell people how far into the radio show it was.

Although it's relatively easy to do, it requires a bit of geek hacking so I spent some time looking into how easy it would be to knock up a little web service to make it more user-friendly. And added it to my list of projects to do sometime.

Of course, before I get chance to build the web app, Tom gets himself another radio appearance, this time on BBC Five Live.

So, hand-coded again (partly so I could listen to it easily myself), for the next week here's the link to Tom's interview on Five Live.

Posted by Adrian at 05:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 11, 2005

Photography Sale In Aid Of The Tsunami

As Jo noted over here:
"Cambridge photographer Jean Luc Benazet is selling his collection of prints to raise money for the appeal. He will donate 100% of the profits and his company will match his funds raised. There are some nice Cambridge pics."

I've held off blogging about it until today because for the first couple of days the sale was only open to his colleagues at Citrix.

But now the sale is open to all of us! I'm getting one of the Anfield prints, and a few of the others have caught my eye - not sure if I'm going to succumb to temptation though.

So head over to his website to have a look, and get yourself a cool picture whilst helping the victims of the tsunami.

Posted by Adrian at 09:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 04, 2005

Not Just A Song By The Manics

There's not much left to say is there? Especially with the terrible disaster happening when I was away from broadband internet access and so am blogging about it late.

It's my personal connections that've brought it home to me, rather than the blanket news coverage.

The sister of a friend is out travelling in the area, and for a while they didn't know if she was okay - luckily she decided to move on and missed the tsunami by hours.

Evelyn Rodriguez, one of my regular reads, wasn't quite as fortunate but survived (largely) unscathed and has been providing lots of useful information and stories since. Start reading from her post in the immediate aftermath.

There's another personal report here, and the Guardian has a roundup of reports from blogs.

And finally, in case you haven't yet helped out, here's the link to DONATE TO THE EARTHQUAKE APPEAL.

Posted by Adrian at 02:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 17, 2004

Much Linking

Only about a year after all the super-cool-early-adopter geeks signed up, I've finally jumped on the del.icio.us bandwagon.

For those of you who don't know, del.icio.us is a "social bookmarks system". Bookmarks because it's a way of storing your bookmarks or favourites on the web; so you can get at them from any computer anywhere and you can provide a short description so you've some chance of remembering why you bookmarked it. And social because you can see other people's bookmarks.

That last part doesn't sound very interesting, until I tell you about tags. When you create a bookmark you can specify some tags for that bookmark, a bit like keywords or categories. Then you can search for all of your bookmarks with a given tag, or all of everyone's bookmarks with a given tag - for example, http://del.icio.us/tag/liverpool+football gives you all the bookmarks tagged with liverpool and football.

The upshot of all this, for those of you who haven't rushed off and signed up yourself, is that I've set-up del.icio.us to post any new bookmarks to McFilter. So, in an hour or so (if I've set it up right, otherwise real soon now honest...) there should be a new entry containing my bookmarks. Then each day, if I've saved any new bookmarks, there'll be an entry with the new ones in. There may be some changes to the formatting too, depending on what the entries look like.

If you're still reading, and if the idea has piqued your interest, here's a good, user-friendly introduction. Then you might want to look at nutr.itio.us which makes choosing tags a bit easier when you add bookmarks, and the delicious Firefox extension which gives you some handy new items on your right-click menu if you use Firefox rather than Internet Explorer (and you should). Finally, instructions on getting del.icio.us to post bookmarks to your blog (I'm currently working on how to set this up for blogger/blogspot blogs, so I'll post details when I work it out).

Posted by Adrian at 12:24 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 15, 2004

The Art In Liverpool Weblog

Now that the Biennial is over, Ian Jackson (he of Biennial Blog fame) has launched a new blog - the Art In Liverpool Weblog. More general in scope, although something tells me it'll still pretty much focus on Liverpool. And art.

Be sure to check out the cool Jaguar sculpture.

Posted by Adrian at 03:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 01, 2004

Cambridge In Having Night-life Shocker

Varsity Online reports on interesting developments in Cambridge's night-life

"Over the course of the coming year, all existing licences regarding the sale of alcohol and public entertainments are being replaced by a new licensing system that allows for the possibility of staying open until 5am, as clubs and bars on the continent do. B Bar, Vaults, Bar Ha Ha and Number 1 King%u2019s Parade are all applying for extended licenses."

Coco's club seems set to close and be reborn (again) as "The Soul Tree", which at least sounds promising, and Po Na Na is due for an extension. It doesn't say whether thats an extension of physical space, or an extension of its opening hours - both would be useful...

Posted by Adrian at 09:59 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

October 07, 2004

The People Down There Look Like Ants

-- The Museum of Modern Art: Tall Buildings -- is a superb online exhibition about modern skyscrapers. Twenty-five buildings (or proposals for buildings) from the past decade are represented, including a few of the proposals for the World Trade Centre site in New York, the London Bridge Tower, and the Swiss Re "Gherkin".

The Elephant & Castle Eco Towers is a particularly interesting project, incorporating vegetation into its sustainable construction.

(Via Downtown Liverpool)

Posted by Adrian at 05:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 30, 2004

Hacked Off

Last year, when Hullabaloo wasn't even a twinkle in her eye, Emily was over on location in France, helping a couple of her friends with a film they were making.

Hacked Off, a slasher horror movie, is now finished and will be available to buy on DVD from tomorrow.

I haven't seen it yet, so offer this synopsis in lieu of a review, or just go watch the trailer (smaller version).

Posted by Adrian at 10:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 29, 2004

Little House On The Pier Head

I never program my video recorder. Ceefax doesn't give the Videoplus numbers, and I can never be bothered to set it manually. I don't record much anyway - generally things I'd miss otherwise from being out - so I usually start it recording manually before I head out; the time display is good enough for me to find the programme later.

This does result in my recording all sorts of bits of TV I don't intend watching. Occasionally I catch something of interest, as happened last week when I recorded Newsnight Review before a Gram Parsons documentary.

Among the subjects for review was recently opened art festival in Liverpool, Biennial 2004. Lots of contemporary art scattered across the city. I'll have to see if I can get across if I end up in the North-West for Halloween this year.

I'm enjoying exploring the festival through the semi-unofficial Liverpool Biennial Blog 2004.

Posted by Adrian at 02:45 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

September 28, 2004

Let's Hope He Doesn't Need To Put It Into Action

Much better than the Beeb's Dirty War "mockumentary" and vastly more informative than the discussion afterwards, Tom Reynolds explains the London Ambulance Service's plan for dealing with a major incident.

Posted by Adrian at 10:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 15, 2004

Getting Things Done

43 Folders is an ever expanding collection of tips and tricks to help you be more productive. And it isn't just for geeks, the common thread binding the ideas is a system for organizing your life, called GTD.

GTD stands for Getting Things Done, and 43 Folders includes a handy guide to getting started with GTD.

There are some similarities with how I was already organizing things, but I think I'll be cribbing more ideas as time progresses to hopefully get even more things done.

Posted by Adrian at 06:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Guardian Style Guide

The Chicago Manual Of Style seems to be the most cited reference tome for matters such as whether to capitalize, the difference between "complementary" and "complimentary", and whether it is acceptable to split infinitives.

However, it's a guide to American English and is nearly forty quid, so I was most pleased to discover that the Guardian style guide is freely available online.

Posted by Adrian at 12:26 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

August 18, 2004

[mcqn @ Uborka] Ade's rap Postcard Response

Dr. Pockless replied to my letter with a scan of a handwritten letter. As I don't have a scanner, I used my wits to come up with Ade's rap Postcard Response.

Posted by Adrian at 09:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 17, 2004

[mcqn @ Uborka] Kings College Chapel at Sunset

This week's theme is Letters. I managed to restrain myself from just posting Eddie Izzard's letters to the Corinthians, and just replied to one of Dr. Pockless' essays:
Uborka: King's College Chapel at Sunset

Posted by Adrian at 02:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 10, 2004

Cumbria - The Art Gallery

Andy Goldsworthy - Sheepfolds is a collection of ephemeral art dotted around Cumbria.

I particularly like this one - is it the screaming mouths of lost souls; or the burrows of a long-lost Lakeland creature? The almost missable qualities of this also appeal: snaking through the reeds like the flightpath of a damsel fly, and the fiery colours of this contrast wonderfully with the muted tones of its surroundings.

Posted by Adrian at 12:48 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

August 06, 2004

Huge Pictures

The Sect of Homokaasu - The Rasterbator. A superb web app that you give an image, and it gives you a multi-page PDF file containing a big black and white newspaper-style (i.e. made up of lots of dots) version of the image.

Then you can print it out and make a massive poster!

Posted by Adrian at 11:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 05, 2004

How To Be Creative

I held off posting this when it first appeared as it was clear it was going to evolve a little. And then it exploded everywhere. Well worth reading, and be sure to explore the links to more.

Hugh MacLeod's how to be creative.

Posted by Adrian at 11:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

[mcqn @ Uborka] Unexpected Music

Poetry week this week at Uborka. I don't think I've written a poem since I was at school. However, inspired by the arrival of my copy of the Uborka Mix CD, whilst in the shower this morning I composed Unexpected Music.

Next poem to be released when I'm 45...

Posted by Adrian at 11:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 04, 2004

Maybe Not Today...

Okay, I'm not sure exactly how it would fit into the lounge, so it might not make an appearance at one of my parties for a while, but I definitely fancy getting some of this one day...

Posted by Adrian at 08:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 30, 2004

[mcqn @ Uborka] Caption Competition: Are You Lost?

Uborka: Are You Lost?

Posted by Adrian at 09:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 29, 2004

[mcqn @ Uborka] Caption Competition: The Alpine Hoover

Uborka: The Alpine Hoover

Posted by Adrian at 12:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 22, 2004

[mcqn @ Uborka] The Day Of The Ants

Uborka: The Day Of The Ants

Posted by Adrian at 04:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 14, 2004

[mcqn @ Uborka] Freedom

Uborka is into its third phase of guest-blogging, where a theme is chosen for each week, and any of the past guest-bloggers can post about that theme.

The first theme is The Uborka Mix CD. Obviously I couldn't pass up the opportunity to choose a track, so go here to read about Freedom.

Posted by Adrian at 06:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 29, 2004

A Diva Less Troubled

Mike has bypassed his server woes, and is newly double-barrelled as troubled HYPHEN diva.

My blogroll will be updated to reflect this (and many other changes that have been building up) when I get a spare five minutes...

Posted by Adrian at 11:11 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 21, 2004

For All You Healthcare Professionals

Even the none-healthcare-professionals among you might, as I did, enjoy reading Random Acts Of Reality, a blog from an ambulanceman (actually an E.M.T. but given that I don't know what one of those is... Emergency Medical Traveller? Excessively Maroon Tortoise? Enraged Monkey Troubleshooter?)

And from the medical section of his blogroll, I stumbled upon This won't hurt a bit!: Save the last dance, which pointed me at these two lovely poems.

Posted by Adrian at 06:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 18, 2004

[mcqn @ Uborka] How To... Be A Link-Whore

Well, Uborka gets the scoop. The company now has an official name - MCQN and a website at http://www.mcqn.com/.

The next step is to find out some more about what people want from their backup software, so that PeerBackup is as good as possible, I urge everyone, and their friends, and their friends' dogs to fill in the survey.

Posted by Adrian at 01:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

[mcqn @ Uborka] Cocktails

Lyle (my co-guest for the week) is now taking drinks orders for this afternoon's cocktails. If you rush over and leave a comment then you can attend the party later on.

Posted by Adrian at 10:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 17, 2004

Don't Know About Egloos, But Eglus Are Cool!

At first glance, I thought that David Weinberger's post on Egloos was about the cute iMac-esque hen houses available from Omlet. But it isn't, it's about a Korean weblog provider, and the omlet coops are eglus.

Still, it reminded me that I hadn't blogged about them, so now I have.

Posted by Adrian at 05:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

[mcqn @ Uborka] The Bumps

Available at: Uborka: The Bumps

Posted by Adrian at 04:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 16, 2004

[mcqn @ Uborka] May Week (Full Version)

Available at: Uborka: May Week (Full Version)

Posted by Adrian at 11:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 15, 2004

[mcqn @ Uborka] May Week

Available at: Uborka: May Week

Posted by Adrian at 07:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 14, 2004

[mcqn @ Uborka] Culture

Available at: Uborka: Culture

Posted by Adrian at 06:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Guest Week @ Uborka

This week, I will mostly be guest blogging over at Uborka. I'll even link to each post from here so you can find them more easily, so go on over and have a peek.

Posted by Adrian at 02:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 08, 2004

Flying Long-haul? Find The Best Seats Here

SeatGuru.com - Your Enlightened Guide to Airplane Seating

(Via ongoing)

Posted by Adrian at 09:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Keep Tabs On Your MP

TheyWorkForYou.com is a great source of information about MPs. You enter your postcode, and it brings up a whole host of information about your MP - such as how likely they are to rebel against the party, or how many votes they attend. Plus, you can get an RSS feed of their comments in the Parliament!

And you can search through everything said in parliament since 2001! For example, weblog has been mentioned twice.

Posted by Adrian at 05:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

More Statistics Than You Can Shake A Stick At

From gay domestic violence to foreign economic espionage... a huge array of statistics.

(Via kottke.org)

Posted by Adrian at 09:56 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

June 01, 2004

Lots Of Useful Web Design Info

A List Apart, lots of interesting articles and tutorials about web design. Guess who's building a website at the minute...

Posted by Adrian at 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 31, 2004

Photo Links

If you want an image for some CD artwork, or some web design, then there's a vast selection at Stock.XCHNG (royalty-free and cost free) and www.istockphoto.com (royalty-free, and pretty cheap, plus you can upload your own photos and get paid if anyone uses them).

And then if you're using the Gimp (free image manipulation package) to manipulate them, GIMPguru.org has lots of useful tips and tutorials; something you'll need unfortunately, because the Gimp UI is rather unintuitive.

Posted by Adrian at 11:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 23, 2004

Not Even Best At Being Crazy

It's always good to remind yourself that whatever mad thing it is you've decided to do, there's always someone doing something more insane. And blogging about it more. And just getting on with it.

(Via Ben Hammersley).

Posted by Adrian at 02:41 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 02, 2004

More Political Blogging

I see that Shaun Woodward, the MP who controversially stood for Labour in St. Helens South, has just launched his own blog.

Posted by Adrian at 01:40 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

March 27, 2004

Find Your Googlerank

The height of geekdom, I know, but in case you have a burning desire to find out that you're the 111th McEwen (when you're not even in the top 500 Adrians, oh the shame), then the Googlerank Calculator is the tool for you.

Posted by Adrian at 01:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 16, 2004

You Might Not Like Shopping Malls

I don't particularly enjoy shopping malls. I find the controlled environment and climate to be stuffy and a little stifling. However, after reading this interview with the man who perfected the mall, I have a new found understanding of the reasoning behind the design of the mall. The mall is an optimised machine for shopping; a little over-optimised for my liking.

(via Kottke.org)

Posted by Adrian at 01:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 09, 2004

The Cambridge Politics Page

Looks like I won't have any excuse not to vote in the next local elections, as the Politics in the City of Cambridge website gathers links and information about politics and elections in Cambridge.

Posted by Adrian at 05:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 20, 2004

RSS Must Be The Future

If even the BBC are promoting it ;-)
BBC NEWS | Magazine | The really simple future of the web.

Posted by Adrian at 06:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 16, 2004

Promoting The North-West

Political activism through blogging. Is it a new force in politics, or just the replacement for micro-scooters?

The Necessary Group are hoping for the former, as they are promoting blogging as a tool for people to get involved, and also linking to Meetup.com. Shame they haven't embraced the format for their own website, surely an RSS feed could keep the campaign fresh in people's minds?

Doing some investigation, I found this report which claims that "[a]wareness of government policy for the English regions was very low, with around 50% across England having heard nothing of government proposals."

I'm not surprised. I can't even find the whitepaper about devolution in England (Your Region, Your Choice) on the government's website - the site it was on seems to no longer exist. Google was a little more fruitful, finding the aforementioned report, along with a white paper explaining the implications for the North-West. Nor have I been able to find any details of the "official Yes Campaign" mentioned on the It's Necessary FAQ or a No Campaign.

From what I've read so far, I'm largely in favour of a regional assembly for the North West. Not that I'll have any say in it, seeing as I don't live there anymore. The entrepreneur in me, however, feels that it would be more beneficial to narrow the North-South divide through innovation and commerce; get back to what the North West did best when it was leading the industrial revolution and succeed, if necessary, despite government help.

Posted by Adrian at 08:10 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 10, 2004

CDs Ripped? Check. Next Step DVDs...

BYTE has a basic HOWTO for ripping your DVDs and converting them to DivX in the article Building Your Home Video Jukebox (paid subscription to Byte required).

I'm not as into my films as I am my music, so it'll probably be a while before I can stream movies around my home network...

Posted by Adrian at 11:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 21, 2004

Joi Ito Promotes Better Blogging

Joi Ito's Web: Writing style and blogging gives some links to articles covering common mistakes made by writers and suggestions for ways to improve.

I have read them, but I can't guarantee a noticeable improvment in the quality of postings on this blog...

Posted by Adrian at 03:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 19, 2004

Next-gen Taxi Services

It seems that location-aware services are starting to gain some traction. Zingo is a taxi service in London which will route you through directly to the nearest black cab when you phone for a taxi, so hopefully you'll get a taxi quicker.

I wonder if it'll route you through to the same driver when you phone back half an hour later to find out where they've got to...?

Posted by Adrian at 10:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 17, 2003

Explore Words

In case I forget it again, and because it's a really interesting and innovative UI for exploring relationships between words, here's a link to the