This is a delightfully silly magical romp. Without getting too deep into the spoilers, it is the anti-Potter of books. Middle-aged, feminist, modern witches - drinking wine and kicking arse. And they're all out of wine. I don't think it adds much new to the genre - bitchy witches bullying their peers hasn't changed since Mildred Hubble burnt her first cauldron. But this is done with such glee - …
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After reading Shashi Tharoor's Inglorious Empire I was keen to read more about my country's history. It's weird that studying history in the UK consists of the Tudors, Shakespeare, the Industrial Revolution, and the World Wars. Nothing about how modern Britain came to exist, our empire, its global and local consequences, or the path it put us on. I guess we have to learn that from random statues …
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This is a sequel to Shouting Zeros and Ones - Digital Technology, Ethics and Policy in New Zealand and follows a familiar pattern. It's a series of essays looking at digital issues from a uniquely NZ perspective. There is a fair bit of Te reo Māori (Māori language) in the book. It's great that the language is enjoying a resurgence. Most concepts are explained in context - although you may need t…
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This is a profoundly depressing but utterly necessary read. It charts Fiona Hill's journey from the moribund educational opportunities provided in a dying coal city in England, all the way to her testimony in the Trump impeachment hearings. It is part biography and part political manifesto. Both parts work well together, but requires a degree of context switching. She contextualises all her…
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My mate Julia has written a book! And, as per the title, it is really good. This is a book about helping you discover if that idea you've had - for a product, feature, book, business, whatever - is likely to catch on. It does this through the lens of understanding users. The Really Good Idea Test puts people at the heart of innovation, rather than the other way around. Essentially, it's a…
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If you've visiting Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur, I have two tips for you. Firstly, get there as early as possible in order to avoid the heat and other tourists. Secondly, after climbing a mountain of stairs, marvelling at the wonders therein, and being stared at by hundreds of monkeys - you're going to be hungry. So treat yourself to lunch at Rani's. A varied vegetarian menu - helpfully…
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This thorough examination of Pink Floyd's epic album is a lushly illustrated coffee-table book. Breezily written and good for dipping in and out of. It gives as a brief history of Pink Floyd and then dives in to every nook and cranny about the making of DSotM. It's chock full of some great archive photos - it really goes for the deep cuts. Although I'm sure that die-hard fans will have seen a…
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This is pitched as the first gay love story from a major Hollywood studio. I don't know how true that claim is - but I do know this is a funny and sweet movie. When I was at University at the turn of the century, there was a guy in our halls named "Big Gay Gareth". He was my go-to guy when I had questions about the insidious homosexualist agenda. He was instrumental in helping me understand…
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I couldn't find this movie on any streaming service - but I took a flight to New Zealand an it was on the in-flight entertainment. Not the cheapest way to watch a film! Whina tells the true story of Josephina Cooper, a Maori woman fighting for her rights, and the rights of her people. The film doesn't sugar-coat the story. Whina was headstrong and, it would appear, sometimes a bit difficult…
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This is a perfect movie. It's packed full of little in-jokes and fourth-wall-breaking asides. It is smart, funny, and incredibly well paced. Honestly, it doesn't have a duff moment in it. If you've never seen Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" - I strongly advise you to watch it before this film. No, you probably don't need to - but it adds to the metatextual delights. Is the "Whodunnit" aspect…
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More on my experiments with silly Punycode domain names. http://↑↑↓↓←→←→ba.tk/ Yup, copy and paste that into your browser and it will resolve. (more…) …
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I returned home from holiday to a pile of letters. Mostly junk, a few Christmas cards, and something from the NHS. This is what the envelope looked like: As it happens, I'm not particularly concerned about who knows I had a fairly normal medical procedure. I've blogged a bit about it and Tweeted about the experience in an attempt to de-stigmatise it. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentReplying …
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