I was unreasonably annoyed by some media commentator on Twitter complaining about the BBC. So I decided to use data to prove someone wrong on the Internet. In a recent article, the BBC described Christine Lagarde thusly: The role is likely to test the silver-haired 63-year-old, who has admitted before that she lacks economic experience. The commentator was disgusted that she'd be described as "silver-haired". He wondered out loud "I bet the BBC don't refer to men in this way!" Luckily,…
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In Mismatch, Kat Holmes describes how design can lead to exclusion, and how design can also remedy exclusion. Inclusive design methods—designing objects with rather than for excluded users—can create elegant solutions that work well and benefit all. Holmes tells stories of pioneers of inclusive design, many of whom were drawn to work on inclusion because of their own experiences of exclusion. Part manifesto, part manual. This is an excellent overview of inclusion and design. More than just …
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Way back in 1999, I moved to Canada for a year. Ottawa got down to -30℃ - so I grew my hair to prevent my ears snapping off in the cold. And then I kept growing it. Very occasionally I'd go to a barber for a trim, but I hated the experience. I'm not good with strangers touching me, I don't like making small talk, and I resented paying for a needless expense. So I stopped going. Fun fact - nothing bad happened. As I hit a significant birthday recently, I decided to let the "wisdom" of the c…
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My friends, and former employers, at the Government Digital Service have written a spectacularly good blog post "Making GOV.UK more than a website". In it, they describe how adding Schema.org markup to their website has allowed search engines to extract semantic content and display it to a user. For example, the "Learn to drive" page has content which can appear directly in a search engine: Even better, if you ask Siri / Google / Alexa for something, it can give an answer from an…
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Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia. Blue belongs to Garden, a single vast consciousness embedded in all organic matter. Their pasts are bloody and their futures mutually exclusive. They have nothing in common—save that they’re the best, and they’re alone. Now what began as a battlefield boast grows into a dangerous game, one both Red and Blue are determined to win. Because winning’s what you do in war. Isn’t it? It is impossible to write a decent time-travel novel. Th…
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(For the avoidance of doubt, I have nothing to do with hiring at my employer. This test is probably deeply problematic in ways you'll angrily Tweet me about.) I'd like to tell you a story! I am a teenager applying for temp jobs. It's the late 1990s and the temp agency have asked me to take a Microsoft Office test. You know the sort, do some data entry, format a letter, maybe perform a mail-merge. "No worries!" I think, as I sit in front of the wheezing 486 with a nicotine stained keyboard.…
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Welcome back, friends! I've identified all of the mobile phones used in every episode of Doctor Who! This post looks at S11 - starring Jodie Whittaker - but feel free to rummage in the archives. The Woman Who Fell to Earth A great crop of phones for the inaugural episode - and some mysteries. Ryan's phone looks like a Samsung of some flavour, but it is hard to say. Grace has a modern iPad - probably a mini. Ryan's phone seen from behind doesn't offer much more of a clue. He does have a…
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Do you have a female brain or a male brain? Or is that the wrong question? We live in a gendered world where we are bombarded with messages about sex and gender. On a daily basis we face deeply ingrained beliefs that your sex determines your skills and preferences, from toys and colours to career choice and salaries. But what does this constant gendering mean for our thoughts, decisions and behaviour? I saw Professor Rippon give a talk about this book a few months ago, and have been…
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I went to an interesting seminar a few weeks ago. As part of it, the facilitator projected this image up on the screen. They asked us to call out what we could see. I could kinda, sorta, maybe see an alien face. Someone else called out "a field". Another person shouted "a dog?" "Yes!" said the facilitator, "a dog. Can anyone else see it?" All of a sudden, the image snapped into focus for me. "Yes, a Dalmatian," I said. The person next shook their head, "isn't it a eye staring upwards? …
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This is a quick guide to adding a new dictionary to your eBook. This uses the English Wiktionary Dictionary. I've tested it on my Likebook Ares and it works! Download the latest dictionary from DictInfo.com. At the time of writing, the latest English version is October 2018 The dictionary file is a .7z file. It's easiest to unzip it on your computer, rather than the eReader. I recommend 7zip. There are three files: wikt-en-en-2018-10-07.ifo wikt-en-en-2018-10-07.idx…
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I write book reviews on my blog. I also want to syndicate them to Goodreads. Sadly, Goodreads doesn't natively read the Schema.org markup I so carefully craft. So here's the scrap of code I use to syndicate my reviews. Goodreads API Keys Get your Keys from https://www.goodreads.com/api/keys You will also need to get OAuth tokens For this documentation, I'll use the example keys - please substitute them with your own keys. from rauth.service import OAuth1Service, OAuth1Session # Get a…
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Steganography (/ˌstɛɡəˈnɒɡrəfi/ is the practice of concealing a file, message, image, or video within another file, message, image, or video. I recently saw someone tweeting the hashtag #ManchesُterDerby Do you see an odd character in the middle? It's an Arabic Damma (U+064F) - a vowel character. Although it comes after the "s" in Manchester, it appears after the "t" because it is a Right-To-Left (RTL) character. Yet, if you click on the hashtag with the extra character, you get through to …
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