By @edent · FIRE personal · 23 comments · 250 words · read ~349 times.
I've got about another 10 months left at my current job and after that... I don't know what I'll do. I've already moved down to 4 days a week in an effort to glide down to FIRE. Do I really want to go back up to 5 days? Could I find somewhere that would be […]
Continue reading →By @edent · OpenIdeas personal work · 250 words · read ~241 times.
As previously mentioned, I quit my job. So now I'm no longer working for The Man. Instead, I am working for a man. Specifically: me0. I've launched Open Ideas Ltd. It's a bespoke computing consultancy focused on open technologies. Here's a brief run-down of what I offer: Open Source Want to understand open source licencing? […]
Continue reading →By @edent · MSc personal Virtual Reality · 150 words · read ~486 times.
This is the final post in my MSc journey. Last month, in an academic congregation at Northumbria University, I was formally awarded a Master of Science Digital and Technology Specialist (Data & Analytics) with Distinction. Look! Actual proof! Thanks to Mike, my Father-in-Law, for ripping that stream. As my research was about "Exploring the visualisation […]
Continue reading →By @edent · personal · 8 comments · 250 words
When I was... Oooh... 8 or 9 I entered a "count the number of spots on the giraffe" competition one summer holiday. Apparently I was the only child who noticed that there was a spot on the tail, so I won a YEAR'S SUPPLY of Cadbury's Curly Wurlys. Nothing I've ever won since has lived […]
Continue reading →By @edent · Liz lockdown love meta personal · 300 words · read ~192 times.
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 →By @edent · hair meta personal · 5 comments · 900 words · read ~1,155 times.
Way back in 1999, I moved to Canada for a year. Ottawa got down to -30℃ - so I grew my hair to prevent my ears snapping off in the cold. And then I kept growing it. Very occasionally I'd go to a barber for a trim, but I hated the experience. I'm not good […]
Continue reading →By @edent · FoI government personal · 500 words · read ~2,940 times.
(Disclaimer - I currently work for GDS, although I don't work on FOI. This is an opinion piece and doesn't represent the views on any of my employers - past, present, or future.) The Irish government recently complied with a Freedom of Information Act request from journalists at RTÉ. The journalists wanted copies of messages […]
Continue reading →By @edent · NaBloPoMo personal politics · 600 words · read ~249 times.
I don't often venture into American politics. It is hard to know whether Trump is a master strategist - as Dilbert seems to think - or merely a chaos monkey. But, somehow, he seems to have stumbled on genius tactic. Trump has repeatedly called for Clinton to be thrown in jail. This has provoked a […]
Continue reading →By @edent · personal · 1 comment · 850 words · read ~152 times.
Being a review of 2013, from my FourSquare check-in and blogging perspective :-) The year started off cold and snowy in Woking. I was busy teaching a Code Club in the local library. For our anniversary, Liz and I went on holiday to Las Vegas. The jetlag was unfortunately crippling, and the Beatles' Love show […]
Continue reading →By @edent · data influence klout personal yammer · 22 comments · 300 words · read ~23,009 times.
Sites like Klout and Kred are perfect examples of social media frippery. A vaguely plausible "score" that you can use to justify your "investment" in tweeting all day long. When they're used as a silly little badge, or an informal competition with friends, they're a (mostly) harmless way of gamification. Of continual annoyance is the […]
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