There is much wailing and gnashing of the teeth about Murdoch's plan to charge for his content. The swine! The blaggard! Regardless of the sanity or effectiveness of this idea - I thought it would be an interesting idea to turn the tables. What would it be like if News International were unable to scour the web for stories to rip off, comments to plunder and images to steal? Turns out, it's rather simple. News International owns a rather large swathe of IP addresses. % Information related …
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Update! Those wonderful, delightful, considerate, and fragrant smelling people at The Times have corrected their mistake. All is well with the world. This blog post is staying merely for #NaBloPoMo. .social-embed {all: unset;display: block;}.social-embed * {all: unset;display: revert;}.social-embed::after {all: unset;}.social-embed::before {all: unset;}blockquote:not(*) {all: unset;}.social-embed a {cursor: pointer;}blockquote.social-embed {box-sizing: border-box;border: .5px solid;width:…
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I've been to many Real Ale festivals in the last few years. Small ones - such as Newbury - take place in the summer and allow one to sit on a deck chair, supping a beer while watching cricket. Behemoths - like the Great British Beer Festival - take place in vast, anonymous venues like Earl's Court; although the range of beers on offer makes up for the bland surroundings. Woking falls comfortably in the middle. Ironically, it takes place in a temple to health and fitness - Woking Leisure…
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A stunning majority - 88% - voted in favour of Connect merging with Prospect. It's not known how many ballots the CWU delayed due to strikes. Adrian Askew, Connect's General Secretary, said: I am delighted that our members have strongly backed plans to merge with Prospect. This promises an exciting future and we look forward to working closely with colleagues in Prospect, sharing our expertise and our innovative approaches to trade unionism to represent and protect our members. While it w…
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UPDATE! Sizzle now available. I first met Mike Atherton (aka Sizemore) at a Tuttle event a few years back. I'd been following him online for a while and was interested to hear what he had to say about the future of voice. He let slip that he was trying to develop a Sci Fi series - I'm ashamed to say I ignored him; everyone is working on a sci fi show. Turns out, he has been working on a sci fi show. It's called "Slingers" and he has been steadily teasing the Internet with the odd …
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A few months ago I was contacted by dodgy timeshare merchants Club Lacosta. Being slightly disturbed by their weasely words and reputation for dishonesty, I recorded the call. Listen to the call on iPadio. The iPadio service died several years ago. There are no backups. I'll admit, it's not the most cutting edge piece of investigative journalism. To create the recording, I placed the rep on hold, dialed iPadio, then conferenced the two calls together. Hey presto - the call was recorded. O…
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In May 2009, the Government published a consultation called ‘Keeping the right people on the database: Science and public protection.' On this mater which has dominated the news and the blogosphere, they received only 503 formal responses. Seriously, if the blogosphere wants to change the world, it needs to direct people to respond to those who make the descisions. You don't even need to lift your arse off a chair and find a stamp! I emailed in this quickly written response: If a person is …
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ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET* *One plate only, limit of half a sausage per person, no refills, persons weighing over 75Kg will have to pay a supplement, does not include ice-cream. Doesn't really seem fair, does it? The Internet industry loves to abuse the word "Unlimited" - the mobile industry is particularly bad. Despite complaints from the public, the Advertising Standards Authority recently ruled that "unlimited means limited" We noted that that information showed only a very small …
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I like wine. I don't know much about it, but I enjoy visiting vineyards, tasting it, and drinking it with friends. While I can tell the difference between red and white, I'm not entirely sure of the difference between grape varieties, and I can rarely remember which wines I like. I tend to go by price. Which is a dumb thing to do. The American Association of Wine Economists (what a job!) recently published a paper "Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better?" Well? Do they? Our main finding is …
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When I was a fresher at university, Mitch Benn played the union. I don't remember why I didn't go. I do remember being woken up by the guys in my halls banging on my door telling me that I'd missed a brilliant evening. The CDs that they bought back from the gig were hilarious - the perfect antidote to looming finals. Since missing him play 10 years ago, I've caught up with him on The Now Show and Twitter (where I'm happy to report he's a user of Dabr - the mobile Twitter client I code fo…
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I met Ethel Delali Cofie at BarCampBrighton. She was telling me that she wanted to run a BarCamp called #bcAfricaUK09. I pointed her towards the BarCampLondon 09 organisers and told her that I'd see if she could use the Vodafone Group HQ. I woke up on Saturday morning after a long and difficult week at work. The last thing I felt like doing was making the trek into the office. I just couldn't face spending half of my precious weekend trapped within the same walls I look at every day. I…
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How do you indicate that something on the web is "clickable"? The W3C - the body which sets the standards for the Web - recommend you don't use "Click Here" for link text. Normal text is usually underlined and / or a different colour when it is a hyperlink - images don't have any specific decoration to indicate you can click on them. In this animated GIF, an advert for Lexus, we see a call to action which says "Click Here". Lexus Advert Would it not be obvious to readers that this is an a…
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