api MSc · 1 comment · 700 words
As part of my MSc, I'm being asked to think about "digital disruption" - so here are some personal thoughts about the future of transactions with the state. The UK Government has a lot of APIs to let computers communicate with each other. Most of them are department-to-department. For example, the Ministry of Birds wants to get an updated list of incidents from the Department of Avian Accidents …
Continue reading →css javascript · 10 comments · 700 words · Viewed ~31,228 times
I'm a weirdo - I fully admit that. As part of my home working set up, I use a vertical monitor. I read and write a lot of long documents - and this form factor suits me perfectly. I've been doing this for a long time. It is a natural part of my workflow. For anything longer than an email, it's the perfect orientation. Most Linux apps work just fine like this - although menu buttons tend to…
Continue reading →networks · 1,000 words · Viewed ~298 times
One of the great things about the Web is that you don't really need to ask anyone's permission before you use it. There are no fees to pay for the HTML spec, browsers don't cost any money (they used to!), and most websites don't charge a fee to read, or use. But is it really true that you don't need permission to publish? Let's take a look at how easy it is to get content onto the web without…
Continue reading →Book Review · 250 words
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, Achille…
Continue reading →data language · 11 comments · 300 words
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…
Continue reading →education MSc uea university · 7 comments · 800 words · Viewed ~362 times
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 lear…
Continue reading →Book Review · 250 words
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…
Continue reading →bitcoin Book Review · 150 words
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…
Continue reading →HTML5 web WeekNotes work · 57 comments · 700 words · Viewed ~69,017 times
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…
Continue reading →Movie Review Sci Fi · 1 comment · 250 words · Viewed ~216 times
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…
Continue reading →games review · 7 comments · 300 words · Viewed ~291 times
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…
Continue reading →8 comments · 700 words · Viewed ~543 times
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 m…
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