One of the first rules of setting up a political lobby group is that you should have a name which defies opposition. Who in their right mind would be against "Citizens For Prosperity" or "The People's Democratic Society" or "Ministry of Peace" - why only a violent Communist! That's who! It is this spirit that the "TaxPayers' Alliance" was named. We're all tax payers, aren't we? It's so wide a…
Continue reading →
Eric Joyce MP has written about why he doesn't think the vote should be extended to 16 year olds. While I've admired his stance on digital rights, I disagree with him and his reasoning on this issue. This isn't about whether young people are able to understand the issues, or whether they are taxed without representation, or even if they are somehow "mature". We vote because the direction of…
Continue reading →
I arrived at Woking Library shortly before 1600 on a Thursday. At that time of day, the library is filled - somewhat understandably - with people who aren't working a normal 9-5 job. Retirees, students, and the unemployed. I walked through the extensive computer section of the library. Dozens of computers with free Internet access. While a few people were on Wikipedia, or checking out the…
Continue reading →
Annoyingly, FourSquare has started be be a source of spam for me. I get friend request from people who only like certain brands of stores, from recruitment consultants trying to work out who I'm visiting, and from cultists who are desperate for me to visit Scientology centres. I also get friend requests from people I've never met, including from Ahmed al-Najjar (احمد النجار). I've never met Ahm…
Continue reading →
In Terry Pratchett's book "Going Postal" he writes about the impact on the Discworld civilization of the semaphore tower. A new - but relatively basic - technology which revolutionises how people work, play, and interact. It changes the fortunes of the humble and the mighty. It is as useful for individuals as for nation states. In our universe, the modern semaphore tower was first conceived…
Continue reading →
One of my hobbies is looking for QR codes by leafing through the free papers which blight the city of London. Yes, I lead a tragic existence, but it keeps me off the streets - so let me be, eh? Most of the QR codes that I see now are pretty good. They have clear explanatory text, point to mobile websites, and generally follow the Ten Commandments for QR codes. But, every so often I spot one…
Continue reading →
... as our money becomes completely electronic, new crimes will undoubtedly be committed which take advantage of the technology itself. Perhaps if we could imagine what crimes might happen, we could start to think about how to prevent them. What financial crimes could be committed within a completely electronic marketplace? Future of Money Design Award On one level, there's no change to the…
Continue reading →
When I was a child, I prayed to God to send me a bicycle. The Priest told me God doesn't work like that; so I stole a bicycle and prayed for forgiveness. Emo Philips (probably) There's a noble tradition in hackerdom of finding creative ways around obstacles. My personal favourite expression of this desire to get things done quickly is the maximum "far better to seek forgiveness than beg for…
Continue reading →
There's been a little bit of confusion in the blogosphere recently about the true cost of smartphones. Ewan Spence points out that the iPhone actually costs $2,000. An instant response by Bill Palmer points out that Nokia's Windows 8 smartphones cost $2,500 Dead link.. The US and European markets are radically different in how they operate and advertise. The US tends to advertise phones as…
Continue reading →
We're in a fairly mature phase of social networks now. Broadly speaking, most social networks separate out into a few main groups. Eyes - e.g. services like Flickr for pictures and YouTube for moving pictures. Ears - e.g. AudioBoo for voices and SoundCloud for songs. Feet - e.g. FourSquare for where I am now and RunKeeper for where I have been (running). Hands - e.g. Etsy and…
Continue reading →
For the last few years, I've been trying to opt out of having any postal mail sent to me. Wherever a company offers online billing - I sign up in a flash. My insurance company are now bored of me saying "rather than posting the policy - can you email it to me instead?" I've opted-out of receiving unaddressed mail and I've signed up to stop junk mail. Mostly, I'm pleased to say, it has worked. …
Continue reading →
Last night, I ran my second Code Club at Woking Library - teaching kids how to program using Scratch. We're following CodeClub's syllabus which has loads of kid friendly lessons. The first lesson was a great success. It was held before the Christmas break - so I was eager to make sure that interest hadn't waned. Far from it - we were over subscribed! We had 10 PCs and 12 kids - which lead…
Continue reading →
