Last year, I set myself a challenge to read a new book per week. I managed to read 50 books, which I was pretty happy with. This year*, I decided to only read books written by women. Here’s what I learned. Obviously, COVID had a fairly negative effect on my reading rate. I went months…
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New Year! New Me! I’m crap at sticking to my multiple resolutions. I think I did okay on last year’s resolutions. So this year, I’m just making a single one. At the start of the Gregorian calendar 2021, I’ll begin an MSc Digital and Technology Specialist. My resolution is to get my coursework in on…
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It’s my birthday! As is customary, here’s my year in review. See 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010. WHAT. A. FUCKING. YEAR! The year started with me getting a colonoscopy – and went downhill from there. Well gang, I'm drinking a litre of industrial strength laxative in preparation for a colonoscopy…
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All dogs go to heaven, that’s just science. But cats are contrary buggers and hang around long after their nine lives are up. My cat, Busby, was the scourge of squirrels. The menace of mice. The dispatcher of rats. Legend tells of the day a dozen foxes ran screaming from the bushes, being chased by…
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Well, that was a whirlwind! After 18-months at NHSX, my 6-month temporary secondment has reached its end. It’s always hard when a job finishes. The secondment was twice extended, and that let me carry on defining open technology standards for the NHS. Now it is over and I’m a bit sad. The pandemic seems to…
Continue reading →We’re exactly halfway through 2020. Fuck. It feels like I’ve spent two-thousand-and-twenty days living through the year 2020. I know how lucky I am to be employed and to be shacked up with a loving spouse. I’m festooned with privilege, but it’s emotionally tough. Liz and I have spent the best part of four months…
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I started dating Liz – my now wife – one cold January back at university. We were young and disgustingly in love. This was it – 💕true love💕! And then, right in our honeymoon phase, she left to Australia for the summer holidays. We both wailed and made overly dramatic speeches about how we’d stay…
Continue reading →Early Internet pioneer, Jon Postel, beautifully captured the “Robustness Principle” for networked communications. “Be strict in what you send, and generous in what you receive.” That is, any computer sending data to another, should stick closely to the specification for that communication channel. Any computer receiving data, should expect that the sender isn’t following the…
Continue reading →Many years ago, when I worked at Vodafone, we had a senior network engineer give us a talk about keeping the network stable in the hours after the 7/7 bombings. He was completely dispassionate. He spoke about analysing network traffic, predicting demand spikes, routing around damage, physically securing sites, supporting the emergency services – and…
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At a recent Staff Away-Day, we were encouraged to write a “Manual of Me”. A quick summary of the general ways that you like to work. I don’t spend much time on introspection and I found it disturbingly personal. So here’s mine for you to enjoy! Excuse my crappy drawing and even crappier spelling. Here’s…
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