Nik talks a lot of sense about technical interviews. As a purely anecdotal aside, I’m pretty sure that the interviews where I’ve been asked the kinds of questions that he’s talking about have lead to some of the jobs that I have least enjoyed. And, as Nik mentions, this is all in the context of… Continue reading Technical Interviews
Category: tech
iPhone
So, iPhone. Looks nice, but I can’t see anything that says that it plays Ogg Vorbis files. Which makes it useless to me.
When is an MP3 not an MP3?
The BBC has a story about Digital Music Downloading. This is a forthcoming service where if you like a song you hear on digital radio, you’ll be able to buy it immediately. The BBC says this: The service, called Digital Music Downloading, allows listeners to buy any song they hear, with MP3 copies being sent… Continue reading When is an MP3 not an MP3?
Upgrading
I’ve updated this blog[1] to the latest version of Movable Type. If you see any glitches that this might have caused, then please let me know. [1] And also Alternative Freak, Battersea MP and the Planet Balham Blog.
Geo-Coding the UK
I’m currently building a web site that will involve plotting the positions of buildings onto maps. I’m going to be using Google maps for that. Unfortunately, the data that I need to plot is a list of postcodes and as far as I can see, the best way to plot stuff on a Google map… Continue reading Geo-Coding the UK
Windows Refund
I thought that the Windows refund campaign had died in 1999. But the BBC are reporting that a Sheffield man has got a refund of £55.23 from Dell by refusing to accept the standard Windows licence that came with his new PC and installing Linux on it instead. PC manufacturers like Dell have a deal… Continue reading Windows Refund
Why Spam Is Out Of Control
Very worrying article in today’s Guardian technology section. We all know that spam levels are constantly increasing but this article says that 91% of email is now spam. It then goes on to put at least some of the blame on the people who connect completely unprotected PCs to the internet. These PCs then get… Continue reading Why Spam Is Out Of Control
Virgin Media
The company formed from the amalgamation of ntl, Telewest and Virgin have announced that from early next year they will be rebranding as Virgin Media. I really hope that the promotional video on that page isn’t indicative of the quality of their services. I’ve had cable TV services for seven or eight years now. I… Continue reading Virgin Media
Too Clever By Half
I’ve just noticed that Firefox 2.0 is a bit too clever for its own good. It’s the new RSS autosubscription feature that’s the problem. It’s great that when I click on an RSS feed, it gives me the chance to subscribe to that feed in Bloglines. But it insists on doing that whenever I try… Continue reading Too Clever By Half
Defective By Design
A nice subversive use of technology. Amazon.com has started allowing customers to tag products (don’t think that’s available on the UK site). A group of DRM campaigners have started adding the tag defectivebydesign to products that implement some kind of DRM.