So, here are my mobile predictions for 2013. Although I work for Telefonica, this blog is personal and my day job doesn't involve any of the products or services listed here. I've deliberately left of the boring predictions. Yes, Android will get bigger. No, iPhone won't release a budget model, etc. BlackBerry 10 I want this to succeed. But I don't see it. I had a play with a demo device a…
Continue reading →
Journalists love context-free numbers - things that sound large and scary, but without any helpful information to allow you to judge their significance. Here's a good example from a BBC article about Electric Vehicle subsidies: There are around 1.3 million electric cars on Britain's roads but currently only around 82,000 public charging points. Bloody hell! That's rubbish! Bring down the…
Continue reading →
These are little biographies of characters who tried to inveigle their way into stories that were inappropriate for them. Perhaps they'll graduate to full stories one day. For now, regretfully, they are stuck in the Writer's Waiting Room leafing through dusty magazines until inspiration strikes. Who knows, maybe one will become your new favourite. I first started breastfeeding cats when I…
Continue reading →
The scream of a hundred days drew to a close and silence covered the land. The choir of villagers were delirious with exhaustion. Some of them had been at the chant for a week without sleep in order to draw God ever closer. The last few months had been spent screaming in a foreign tongue and the sudden absence of noise felt oppressive. The choir collapsed in a tangled heap onto the threadbare …
Continue reading →
"The electric tongue says the soup needs more salt." "It got more salt!" Mothers and daughters have been bickering about seasoning ever since the stone age. One person's "too salty!" is another person's "you call that flavour?!" It is amazing kitchen knives are only ever rarely used to dispatch a disobedient daughter-in-law or to remind a nagging matriarch that she's overstepping the mark. …
Continue reading →
Every year since 2009, I've taken part in NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month. The aim is to publish a new blog post every day in November. In the last few years, I've blogged pretty much constantly - daily for 2020, 2021, and 2023. A total of around 2,800 posts. But now it is time for a new challenge - NaNoWriMo. Where I - and thousands of other plucky souls - try to write a 50,000 word…
Continue reading →
This is a short piece of mostly fiction. It looks at the secret life of data and algorithms. Enjoy! Data Becomes Her I never knew my mother. OK, no one ever really knows their mum. But I never even got to meet mine. She made it clear at the hospital that she'd smother me to death if she was ever left alone with a mewling baby. Looking back, I think I might have preferred that fate. I never…
Continue reading →
I get confused when I hear statements on the news like "community leaders have called for calm" or "community leaders will be encouraged to host informative programs" or "assurances were provided by local community leaders" or "community leaders have launched a campaign"... I want to ask you a simple question. Who are your community leaders? Take a moment to think about that. Who are my…
Continue reading →
This is part 5 of a series of blog posts looking at the security of the UK Government's web infrastructure. The primary cause of the vulnerabilities I've exposed over this series is abandonment. In a flurry of excitement a website is commissioned and created. Then, as time wears on, people begin to drift away from the project. Job titles change, people are reshuffled, and senior…
Continue reading →
We've just come back from a lovely holiday in the USA. I'm a fairly seasoned traveller - yet I always find the USA the strangest country to visit. Perhaps its because it all seems so familiar - from the movies and TV shows, and the fact the speak the same language - that the differences seem really bizarre. Here are the Top 5 Weird Things about the USA: Credit Cards During our holiday, we…
Continue reading →
