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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When I was a child of six or seven, a kindly Aunt bought me an orange-plastic recorder. I'd never previously shown the slightest interest in music - but I loved that recorder. I joined the school's music lessons, I performed for my parents, I even tried to learn what a treble cleft was and what those splodges on a stave meant. My Key To Musical Genius Then, one day, I lost my recorder. I was…
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As Shakespeare said... "[Blog posts are] a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Today Ofcom published the responses it had for its consultation on plans for the BBC to encrypt its HD broadcasts. The blogosphere went nuts! DRM? Not on our watch. Boing Boing mobilised its army of commentators, the BBC published two blog posts which quickly filled up with comments, …
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There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand statistics and those who don't. ±8. Ever since I took GCSE and A-Level statistics, I've had a healthy appreciation for the way they are presented to the public. I vividly remember my grandmother shouting at the television one night. The news presenter had said "20% of people polled - that's nearly a quarter..." Before she could …
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Another in the occasional series looking at mobile advertising gone bad. Who doesn't enjoy a good, clean game of scrabble. After a busy day reading The Times, nothing takes the edge off the day like a word puzzle. Wait! What's this? Scrabble Banner So far, so good. A clear, professional banner. It clearly emphasises that - although it's an advert - it's endorsed by The Times; so you won't g…
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What Are Twitter Favourites? Twitter allows you to mark certain posts as favourites. You may do this for a number of reasons - because you thought it was funny or interesting, because you want to reply to it later, or as a general bookmark feature They're Private, Right? Wrong. You can see any Twitter user's favourites - even if they've protected their tweets. You can't see the tweets of …
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In 1998, Douglas Adams wrote a essay about the de facto Universal Power Supply - the in-car cigarette lighter. He was half right. We've settled on USB as the standard - simply because it's ubiquitous. A few days ago, the ITU finally caught up with the rest of the world and endorsed micro-usb as the standard for all phone chargers. Sam Manchin tweeted about now seeing USB charging stations in …
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It's been a while since I last wrote about Mobile Badvertising. Although we're constantly told that mobile advertising is going to be HUGE, you wouldn't know it from looking at the adverts on mobile sites. Over this occasional series, I'll be picking examples from popular UK sites. I've tried to avoid naming the sites in question, but sometimes it's unavoidable. The Lie Is that too good to be…
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No. Learning a new skill is hard. Evidentially, twitter is too hard for some people. Robert Llewellyn was rightly confused when he saw this... What Had Happened? Turns out, the BBC had read a tweet to Robert Llewellyn and mistaken it for a tweet by him Everything Electric SHOW & EXPO@Everyth1ngElecI think they should be on #BBCqt, I know the oxygen of publicity argument but I believe 90% …
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angusprune@mastodon.lol 🫡@anguspruneThe guardian should have qr codes so I can teeet what I'm reading in the paper❤️ 1💬 0🔁 010:58 - Thu 22 October 2009 Let's Make It Happen So, assuming each story has a URL, how would that look http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/22/post-national-strike-begins Turning it into a QR code using my encoder... The URL in QR form That's probably a bit large for a…
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After my disastrous attempt to upload data under Ubuntu, I found a Windows laptop to upload my energy usage data. The good news is that Sam from Humm is actively working on making the Adobe Air upload application work under Linux. So, how does the process of uploading your data to the service work? All in one The Application is a real "one click" experience. It autodetects your SD card, sees…
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One of the things I love about Private Eye is the columns I don't read. Corners of the magazine dedicated to the gossip of the classical music world, the perils of modern architecture, positively incomprehensible reports about big business buying into football. I care for none of these subjects, but I'm immensely relieved that they are reported on somewhere. The Guardian's Saturday edition s…
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