Over the last couple of weeks, Martin Belam has been reviewing the search functionality on UK newpaper web sites. He has now published his conclusions. The article also links to detailed individual entries on each paper surveyed. Some of his findings are quite surprising. Papers who aren’t seen as particularly web-savvy did well in some… Continue reading Searching Online Newpapers
Author: Dave Cross
Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Syd Barrett has died. (I bet I’m not the only person to use that title for this story)
Digital Video Recorder
I suspect that it’s about time I dragged myself up to date and bought a digital video recorder. My first thought is to buy a new PC and set up MythTV on it. But it’ll cost quite a lot to get a quiet enough PC with a large enough hard disk, and it looks like… Continue reading Digital Video Recorder
“Interest Free” Credit Cards
Over the last few months I’ve been shuffling a bit of credit card debt around in order to avoid paying interest on it. If you’ve ever tried this, then you’ll know the first rule of credit card shuffling. It’s “never buy anything else with a card that has an interest free balance on it”. The… Continue reading “Interest Free” Credit Cards
The United States of Total Paranoia
You need a permit to do everything in America. You even need a passport to buy a drink. But interestingly you don’t need one if you wish to rent some guns and some bullets. I needed a 50 cal (very big) machinegun. “No problem,” said the man at the shop. “But could you just sign… Continue reading The United States of Total Paranoia
Real DJs Code Live
This is very cool. An article in Wired features a member of london.pm Some DJs spin vinyl or twiddle fader knobs. Others write subroutines in C++. A new brand of music maestro is turning programming into performance, eschewing turntables for a compiler and a mind for syntax structure. “Livecoding” practitioners improvise using Perl or homemade… Continue reading Real DJs Code Live
Here We Go Again
Remember last year when Tony Blair was defeated on plans to increase the time that suspects could be help without trial? He wanted 90 days but a compromise which “only” doubled the time to 28 days won the vote. Well, it looks like the Home Affairs Committee have decided to re-open that particular can of… Continue reading Here We Go Again
On Being Aggregated
Blog aggregators are the latest thing. Well, ok, they aren’t really the latest thing – but they’re starting to become popular. And tools like Plagger make it easy to set up an aggregator. Actually, that’s not true either as the documentation for Plagger is shocking and you often end up reading the source code. But… Continue reading On Being Aggregated
Banana Jr. 6000
Fans of Bloom County (and is there anyone who isn’t a fan of Bloom County?) will enjoy these photos of a Banana Jr. 6000.
Vanity Fair Can Get You Arrested
An interesting article in today’s Independent (read it quickly before the paywall drops into place) about the gradual erosion of civil liberties by Blair’s government. In another example of the Government’s draconian stance on political protest, Steven Jago, 36, a management accountant, yesterday became the latest person to be charged under the Serious Organised Crime… Continue reading Vanity Fair Can Get You Arrested