‘Okay Google. Where is Antarctica?” Children can now get answers to all their questions using smart speakers and digital voice assistants. A few years ago, children would run to their parents or grandparents to answer their questions. But with the ascendence of voice assistants to the mainstream in recent years, many children rely more on… Continue reading Should Children be Polite While Using Smart Speakers?
Category: media
The Return of RTD
Doctor Who has a new showrunner. But he’s actually an old showrunner. Is that a good idea? Since the news broke yesterday, Doctor Who fan forums have been discussing nothing but the fact that Russell T Davies is returning as showrunner after Chris Chibnall’s regeneration special is broadcast next year. Most fans seem to be… Continue reading The Return of RTD
Doctor Who Festival
In 2013, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, the BBC put on a big celebration at the Excel centre in London’s Docklands. They must have thought that it went well as this year they decided to do it all over again at the Doctor Who Festival which took place last weekend. Being the… Continue reading Doctor Who Festival
Quoted By The Daily Mail
This morning Tweetdeck pinged and alerted me to this tweet from a friend of mine. @davorg Did you see that you feature in your favourite online newspaper? http://t.co/pumrCggsZr — Robin Houston (@robinhouston) April 17, 2015 He was right too. The article was about Reddit’s Button and about half-way though it, they quoted my tweet. I… Continue reading Quoted By The Daily Mail
UK Film Releases
I like watching films. I’ve been a member of the Clapham Picturehouse for about ten years and I like to get there a few times a month. But I’m not very organised in my cinema-going. I never really seem to have much of an idea about what films are being released in the coming weeks.… Continue reading UK Film Releases
The Return of Winterval
One Christmas tradition in my household is marking the appearance of the first Winterval story in the British press. Some time in late November or early December, you could always guarantee that one of the tabloids would take some innocuous council memo, link it with the Winterval meme and concoct a “war on Christmas” story.… Continue reading The Return of Winterval
Mail Misinformation
Yesterday, the Daily Mail ran a story about the London Borough where I live. It was entitled “The brightest spot in Britain: Wandsworth named brainiest place with 54% of residents having a degree“. The story did pretty much what you’d expect from the headline. The ONS have produced study which measures the percentage of the… Continue reading Mail Misinformation
Amanda Palmer vs The Daily Mail
I’ve obviously been slacking in my Daily Mail watching duties as this completely passed me by. Two weeks ago, the Mail published a write-up of Amanda Palmer’s appearance at Glastonbury (don’t bother following that link – it’s really not worth reading). I say “write-up” rather than “review” because they didn’t mention her songs or the performance… Continue reading Amanda Palmer vs The Daily Mail
I Am Number Twelve
I made a t-shirt. You might like it. If you like it, you can buy it from my Spreadshirt shop. Other colours are available.
Doctor Who News
I’m getting bored of the number of media outlets who are taking the slightest of comments that someone makes about the upcoming Doctor Who anniversary special and spinning it into a story packed full of completely unsubstantiated nonsense. Headlines like “No Doctors To Return For 50th Special” which, when you read them turn out to… Continue reading Doctor Who News