In May 2009, the Government published a consultation called ‘Keeping the right people on the database: Science and public protection.' On this mater which has dominated the news and the blogosphere, they received only 503 formal responses. Seriously, if the blogosphere wants to change the world, it needs to direct people to respond to those who make the descisions. You don't even need to lift y…
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ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET* *One plate only, limit of half a sausage per person, no refills, persons weighing over 75Kg will have to pay a supplement, does not include ice-cream. Doesn't really seem fair, does it? The Internet industry loves to abuse the word "Unlimited" - the mobile industry is particularly bad. Despite complaints from the public, the Advertising Standards Authority recently …
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I like wine. I don't know much about it, but I enjoy visiting vineyards, tasting it, and drinking it with friends. While I can tell the difference between red and white, I'm not entirely sure of the difference between grape varieties, and I can rarely remember which wines I like. I tend to go by price. Which is a dumb thing to do. The American Association of Wine Economists (what a job!)…
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When I was a fresher at university, Mitch Benn played the union. I don't remember why I didn't go. I do remember being woken up by the guys in my halls banging on my door telling me that I'd missed a brilliant evening. The CDs that they bought back from the gig were hilarious - the perfect antidote to looming finals. Since missing him play 10 years ago, I've caught up with him on The Now Sh…
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I met Ethel Delali Cofie at BarCampBrighton. She was telling me that she wanted to run a BarCamp called #bcAfricaUK09. I pointed her towards the BarCampLondon 09 organisers and told her that I'd see if she could use the Vodafone Group HQ. I woke up on Saturday morning after a long and difficult week at work. The last thing I felt like doing was making the trek into the office. I just couldn't…
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How do you indicate that something on the web is "clickable"? The W3C - the body which sets the standards for the Web - recommend you don't use "Click Here" for link text. Normal text is usually underlined and / or a different colour when it is a hyperlink - images don't have any specific decoration to indicate you can click on them. In this animated GIF, an advert for Lexus, we see a call to a…
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Organised by CamerJam, this was the first MobileSQUARED Roadshow. I was extremely proud to be ask to represent Vodafone on the "Operators' Panel" - but I'll let others review my slot. I want to concentrate on the four aspects of the day I found fascinating. As ever, these views are my own. Mövenpick As some of you know, I boycott Nestlé. So I was unable to try any of the sponsor's ice-cream. …
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HTML is a complex beast. Especially when it comes to languages. I don't mean the difference between English and French but between UTF-8, Windows-1252, and all the other methods for encoding text. When it goes wrong, you can come a cropper - take a look at this advert for the BlackBerry. Somehow a character has crept in to the text which can't be rendered by the browser. BlackBerry? Advert? …
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Twitter has a gaping security hole. Changing your password won't stop malicious users logging in as you! I received a rather worrying email from Twitter. Apparently they thought my password had been compromised and needed to be reset. Reset Your Twitter Password After checking to see if it was valid, I went and changed my password. Any site which relied on a cookie to post to Twitter would h…
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It's been a rollercoaster year for Bletchley Park. Studiously ignored by the Government for so long, the British home of cryptography and computing is finally getting the recognition it deserves. However, it is still badly short of funds. Looks like they need.... A Benefit Gig! Thus was born https://web.archive.org/web/20090815094446/http://www.boffoonery.com/comedians.html! A comedy gig to …
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Last night, thanks to the lovely people at SeeFilmFirst, I went to see a free preview of Harry Brown starring Michael Caine. Harry Brown is an unremittingly violent film. Utterly devoid of sympathetic characters, it offers a terrifying glimpse into the fear, violence and sadism on an unnamed council estate. Every scene is wired with tension - nervous tension which often culminates in bloody…
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One of the joys of the Internet is that it is international. Anyone, from anywhere, speaking any language can visit any page on the World Wide Web. This makes life difficult for advertisers. Not only do they have to ensure that what they're showing is applicable in the viewer's country, but also that it's legal and written in the correct language. If they don't, at best they've wasted their…
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