Reductive Thinking and the Unfairness of Spotify Payments


Spotify Logo.

In "Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior" by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, the authors discuss the card game of poker. There are dozens of variations of poker, each with their own intricacies. But they all boil down to the same pattern - is my hand stronger than your hand? Here's how the authors […]

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Episode 31 - Modernising the Ministry of Justice


The emojified face of Kim Rowan.

How do you modernise the technology of a huge organisation like the UK's Ministry of Justice? Kim Rowan has some bright ideas. 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:38 — 1.1MB)Subscribe: RSS

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Digital Justice Part 2 - It Just Gets Worse


3 page CPS form - lots of little boxes to fill in.

Regular readers will know about my recent court visit. I was grumpy about the lack of connected digital services within the court. As I left court, I asked if there was anything they needed me to fill in or sign. They said there wasn't. I just sort of assumed that I wouldn't get any expenses […]

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Responsible Disclosure - Citizens Advice Bureaux


Logo for citizens advice bureau.

A quick report into a nasty privacy vulnerability I found with the CAB. Unusually for me, this has no Internet component. Regular readers will know about my recent court visit. As part of that, I had to telephone the CAB Volunteers at the court who look after witnesses. I called, and was put on hold, […]

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Digital Court


Posters on the wall, telling victims of crime about their rights.

This is the story of my encounter with our justice system. It's a personal post that doesn't necessarily reflect my employers' opinions. September 2017 - I was standing by a bus stop when I noticed a man playing with his phone while driving. So I snapped a couple of photos of him and his car. […]

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Why Can't I Pay Tax Only On My Profits?


King of Google Eric Schmidt has written in The Guardian about how unfair it is that people don't think Google pay a fair share of taxes. He makes three pretty good points. Companies only pay tax on their profits. Politicians shouldn't make laws with loopholes. International laws need harmonisation. I agree with his second two […]

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Crowdsourcing Leveson


I've already blogged about the Leveson Inquiry's disturbing habit of releasing evidence as scanned in PDFs. I had a suggestion from digital journalist Kevin Anderson @edent Put the Leveson docs up on Google Docs. I'd be curious how their OCR could handle them. Then click 'make public' — Mr Anderson (@kevglobal) May 11, 2012 Google […]

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