I've got a "fun" new hobby! Step 1) Find a racist sticker. Step 2) Remove it. Decentralised sticker production is a mixed blessing. Anyone with a printer and an Internet connection can print off dozens of lo-fi propaganda hits. Of course, the crappy stickers were of crappy quality. All the stickers in my community were removed. I reported them to the police, which took the issue seriously but - as they said - they can't exactly dust rain-sodden stickers for finger prints. So, next time …
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Way back in the 1990s, the word "Netizen" was coined. I always took it to mean "someone who lives on the Internet". In modern times, the neologism has been superseded with "webizen". I find this an interesting development. It is well known that people often confused the Net with the Web. Hence the need for these "explanatory" t-shirts: Of course, the original meaning of Netizen was something quite different. Netizens are the people who actively contribute online towards the…
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My laptop battery has died. It was working fine yesterday, but today I shifted slightly on the sofa, dislodging the power cable and the laptop blinked out. It still works when tethered to the wall - but the battery is shot. TIME TO BUY A NEW LAPTOP! Because shipping in non-essentials from China is so easy right now... Nah, I'll just replace the battery. A fifteen quid job rather an a grand for a new machine. I've had this laptop for about 6 years. It has served its master well and is…
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I hate writing CVs. But I love reading them. I recently had the chance to review applications for some fairly senior positions at work. I'd like to talk about some of the common - and downright weird - mistakes people make on them. I promise you these are all real - only lightly adjusted for privacy. Hopefully they'll help you realise that even senior people make mistakes. Bring your whole self to work... but not like that! A candidate with the email address of "ChunkyFudgeLover@....."…
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Way back when Blackberry was the smartphone, my team at Vodafone obsessed over the idea of the "Unified Inbox". "What if," the marketing chaps said, "you could see all your notifications in one place!" Imagine a single inbox where your MySpace friend requests mingled with your Email. And your Facebook and Google Buzz notifications were in the same list. It was a lovely idea. And users all proclaimed that was what they wanted. But users lie. And good ideas fail when they come into contact…
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I'm right about everything. My opinions are wholly rational and a product of logical analysis. Your opinions are scattered thoughts and half-remembered fairy-tales. That's how most of us think, right? The only way we can get through the day is by thinking we're correct. I want to examine some of the things I think I'm right about - but secretly worry I'm wrong about. Let's start with a gentle one - online voting. I truly and fundamentally know that online voting is a terrible idea. Every…
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