Book Review: Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller


A Greek helmet.

Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles. Achilles, “best of all the Greeks,” is everything Patroclus is not—strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess—and by all rights their paths should never cross. Yet one day, Achilles takes the shamed prince under his wing and soon their tentative connection gives way to a stead…

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Data Is / Data Are


Binary code displayed on a screen.

To be clear - I don't care about this; I just think it is interesting. Is the word "data" a plural? On a strict reading, yes. Datum is singular, data is its plural. But humans are spongey meatbags who evolve language. And there will always be a tension between traditionalists and modernists. So, I took a serious, scientific, and accurate Twitter poll. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentData:#UKGC21is: (231)231are: (72)72❤️ 3💬 12♻️ 011:41 - Thu 21 January 2021 It's amazing how many people are …

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What's the point of a lecturer?


A young, beardless Terry - wearing graduation robes.

Backstory - I'm doing a taught Masters course. It's going OK. Mostly. But I've been thinking about the nature of university lecturers. This Tweet has been doing the rounds. Aaron Ansuini 🍋🪴🌱@AaronLinguiniHI EXCUSE ME, I just found out the the prof for this online course I’m taking *died in 2019* and he’s technically still giving classes since he’s *literally my prof for this course* and I’m learning from lectures recorded before his passing..........it’s a great class but WHAT❤️ 201,459💬 1,303…

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Book Review: I'm a Joke and So Are You


Robin Ince dressed as a clown.

I don't understand this book. I enjoy Robin Ince's stand-up comedy, and have marvelled at his incredible free-association at numerous events. But I'm not so sure that it works well as a book. What makes us funny? What drives us to entertain others? The first half of the book takes a high level view of the current state of the science. It doesn't provide answers - but it provokes some interesting questions. It's a scattershot look at the psychology of comedians, then it veers off into…

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Review: BitCoin Hurricane (SimCavalier Book One) by Kate Baucherel


A bitcoin network visualisation.

Everything that BitCoin and BlockChain touches is poisoned. Except for this fun wee book. It's a near-future sci-fi cyber-heist with a great cast of characters and some delicious predictions about how the Internet of Things could go disastrously wrong. Thankfully, there's very little technobabble. I nodded along with most of the technology - only pausing occasionally to consider how I would have done that particular hack. Could a shadowy criminal gang really make money by cyber criming a…

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The unreasonable effectiveness of simple HTML


The HTML5 Logo.

I've told this story at conferences - but due to the general situation I thought I'd retell it here. A few years ago I was doing policy research in a housing benefits office in London. They are singularly unlovely places. The walls are brightened up with posters offering helpful services for people fleeing domestic violence. The security guards on the door are cautiously indifferent to anyone walking in. The air is filled with tense conversations between partners - drowned out by the noise of…

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Movie Review: TiMER


A woman holds the hand of an unseen man.

It's rare to find a sci-fi / rom-com crossover - and it's even rarer to find one that's good. TiMER is excellent. Like all good speculative fiction, it changes just one aspect of the modern world - what would it be like if you knew exactly when you would meet your one-true-love? It doesn't bother much with the science part of sci-fi, it goes straight for the paradox. If you knew - really knew - something was predestined, how would that affect your life? Would you sit around waiting for life…

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Game Review: The Secret of Monkey Island - Special Edition


High resolution graphics.

Blogging like it's 1991! I'm pretty sure that I had the shareware version of the original Monkey Island. At any rate, I remember the amazing graphics... But I don't remember getting further than the first few screens. I do remember a few years later, my brother and I completing the CD-ROM version of "Day Of The Tentacle" - by which time computer games had advanced so far that there was no compelling reason to go back to Monkey Island. Thanks to PS Now - the game streaming service from…

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Moore's Law and Cars


Car leasing screen - the car is £194.73 per month inc VAT.

Briefly (and incorrectly) put, Moore's Law estimates that the cost of computer power halves every 18 month. Got a grand to spend? Wait a couple of years and you can buy twice the amount of computer for the same cost. Or, if you prefer, the old computer for half the price. The Nokia N95 - the last great Smartphone before the iPocalypse - cost around £370 in 2005. That's about £560 in 2021's money. For £550 today, you can buy an iPhone 11 or a OnePlus 8T - or any number of amazingly powerful co…

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What's the "Uber" of the Civil Service?


Royal coat of arms of the UK. A lion and a unicorn.

There's a famous quote from Tom Goodwin about the way the world has changed recently: Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening. As part of my MSc, I'm being challenged to think about the nature of disruption and how it might apply to my emplo…

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Why don't video calls have stereo audio?


Headphone box.

This is probably me being a bit dense. I'm on a video call with two other people. Alice is on the left of my screen, Bob is on the right. Why isn't the audio in stereo? (Zoom lets you send stereo audio - but only of you have a stereo microphone. Whereas I'm talking abound individuals sending mono and receiving to stereo.) Every video conference system I've used delivers the audio in mono. That's fine when one person is speaking, but gets really muddy and confusing when multiple people are…

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I only know you from above the shoulders


Two dogs sat at a computer. One says "On the Internet nobody knows you're a dog."

One of my lovely colleagues made an small speech during a recent meeting. She was delighted to announce that she was heading off on maternity leave next month and looked forward to seeing us all next year once the pandemic was over. There were the usual round of congratulations and how-will-we-cope-without-yous. But a few of us were left a little blindsided. For the last 10 months, we've only seen each other through the lens of a video conference. And, while some people's call etiquette can be …

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