Amazon Web Services

I’ve been a bit busy this week, so I haven’t mentioned the Amazon Web Services talk that I went to on Monday evening. Amazon Web Service Evangelist (cool job title) Jeff Barr talked for almost two hours about what Amazon are making available. It was all very interesting and I wish I had more time… Continue reading Amazon Web Services

Basic URL Advice

It’s about time for another look at some basic mistakes that people make on the internet. Today we’re going to be looking at URLs. It’s important to design a useful URL scheme for your web site. The easier your URLs are to understand, the more likely it is that people with share them with their… Continue reading Basic URL Advice

Google Web Survey

See, this is a good example of what you can do if you’re parsing every page you can find on the web. Google has been examining the HTML used in the pages that it trawls and has published its findings. The results are interesting but not altogether surprising. The executive summary seems to be “most… Continue reading Google Web Survey

Public Unaware of RSS

It’s good to see something like this every once in a while. It’s easy to sit there in a little geek cocoon and assume that everyone out there on the interweb is using all the same time-saving tools as you are. But as this article from The Register shows, that’s often not the case. It… Continue reading Public Unaware of RSS

The Internet is 10

The internet is 10 this week. Well, no, of course it isn’t. It’s been around in some form or another since 1969. But a leader in today’s Guardian says that this week is being celebrated as the tenth anniversary of the internet as a mass phenomenon – and I can’t really argue with that. Interestingly,… Continue reading The Internet is 10

Anyone You Want Me To Be by John Douglas and Steven Singular

Amazon link This is book four in my attempt to read fifty books in 2005. Here’s a good rule of thumb for choosing true crime books. Anything that is endorsed on the cover by Patricia Cornwall has a very good chance of being almost unreadable. On the front cover of this book Cornwall is quoted… Continue reading Anyone You Want Me To Be by John Douglas and Steven Singular

Grammar

I go online sometimes, but everyone’s spelling is really bad. It’s… depressing. Tara – Buffy the Vampire Slayer I’m having one of my periodic phases when I get really wound up by the illiteracy that is so prevalent on the internet. Sometimes I find IRC incredibly painful. Grammar tip of the week: Remember, “install” and… Continue reading Grammar