Dr Jaq Silver. Skier, scientist, international jet-setter, explosives expert. She blows things up to keep people safe. Working on avalanche control in Slovenia, Jaq stumbles across a problem with a consignment of explosives. After raising a complaint with the supplier, a multinational chemical company, her evidence disappears and she is framed for murder. Jaq must find the key to the mystery.…
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Long time readers will remember that I was lucky enough to see the premiere of The Force Awakens in London. So I was overjoyed to see that TodayTix had discount tickets for TFA live in concert at THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE! It was the last day of our big Australian road-trip, and we'd sailed past the opera house so often that it was becoming a familiar friend. Once we'd found our way to the…
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For the sake of my mental health, I've blocked a few people and organisations on Twitter. They can't see what I do, and I can't see them. I'm sure you've done the same to a celebrity or pundit you just can't stand the sight of. Perhaps you have an abuser you'd rather not have thrust in your face. The blocking tool is pretty handy! Except it doesn't work the way I would expect it to. Here's an …
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GPS is a modern miracle. Using SPACESHIPS and RELATIVITY you can locate yourself anywhere on the planet. Fun fact! Your GPS won't work if you're above 18Km or going faster than 500 metres per second. Just in case you're a Soviet Guided Missile. But if you're on a regular international flight, you should be just fine! Here are some screenshots I took using the open source GPS Test for Android. …
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This post starts off talking about Star Wars, but it isn't really about that. I enjoyed Rogue One - the newish Star Wars film. It's not a perfect film, but it was heaps of fun. My only real problem was with Donnie Yen's character - Chirrut Îmwe. As soon as I saw a Blind Asian Monk, I knew that he would be a kick-ass warrior with almost supernaturally good sword skills. Even if you've never …
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I travel a lot for work - and occasionally for relaxation - and I've always suffered from terrible jetlag. But, in the last few years, I've found a method which works perfectly. For me. Travelling East The week before you travel, wake up an hour earlier each day. Monday, wake up at 06:00. Tuesday, 05:00. Wednesday 04:00. Etc. Go to bed an hour earlier each day. Monday, sleep at 21:00.…
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Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. Why do we…
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I go to lots of hack days and hackathons. Some are big corporate affairs, some are boutique community events. They all have one thing in common - Geeks suck at giving demos. You have 3 minutes to convince the judges - or your peers - that you've built something brilliant. How do you do that? One Hundred and Eighty Seconds. It is not a lot of time. So here are my top 3 tips for succeeding at a…
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This is a follow-up post to 2015's "What's Your Christian Name?". tl;dr "Christian Name" used to be synonymous with "First Name" or "Given Name". The majority of people in the UK are not Christian and, therefore, don't have Christian Names. Yet there are lots of local Government forms which still insist on this archaic phrasing. Here are a few of my "favourites". Local Government First up,…
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The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary. Terry Pratchett The law leaves indelible traces in our language. In the UK, cars have to undergo an annual vehicle…
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I'd recently given a talk at a conference and was gently basking in the glow of people telling me how fabulous I was, when some entitled prick came up to me and said... Great talk, mate! Really interesting stuff. But... "Oh great!" I thought. "Here it comes..." To play Devil's Advocate for a moment, have you... "No. Stop." I said. And, to my surprise, he did. "The Devil doesn't need any more …
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I am not an economist - so perhaps someone more intellectually equipped than me has already written a better version of this blog post. "I, Pencil" by Leonard E. Read is an influential essay on the nature of free-market capitalism. It correctly points out that the modern world is so complex and interdependent that no one man can know his true place in it. The world is impossible to control, so …
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