I’ve just noticed that The Sun has started providing RSS feeds. So now it’s possible to get even more racist, sexist and homophobic bile delivered direct to your RSS reader. Interesting to read how they try to explain the concept of RSS in words of one syllable for the benefit of their readers. I’l get… Continue reading The Sun Does RSS
Tag: tech
Shopping at PC World
I’ve been looking for a new laptop. I’ve had my current one for about five years and it’s looking a bit long in the tooth. It struggles to keep up with the demands of any newish operating system. I’m currently working near the Moorgate branch of PC World so I decided to go in there… Continue reading Shopping at PC World
DRM is Killing Music
Well, at least, it is according to the keyboard player of Counting Crows: The public should support all “digital rights management software” because, in the end, it means that more movies will be produced, and they will be of better quality. Copy protection is fair and it’s right and it’s good for art, for artists… Continue reading DRM is Killing Music
What’s Wrong With ORM
Last night I gave a talk to the London Perl Mongers about “What’s Wrong With ORM”. It was a first draft of a talk that I hope to be giving a few times this year. There’s also an article in preparation (well, I say “in preparation” but I actually mean “slowly coalescing in my brain”).… Continue reading What’s Wrong With ORM
SWIM
Perl has a concept called “DWIM” (do what I mean). Greg McCarroll has prototyped a idea that he calls “SWIM” (search what I mean) where he monitors the speed that you type words in a Google search box and automatically quotes words that seem to have been typed together. There’s a fuller explanation in his… Continue reading SWIM
Giving Software Away
An interesting story from Gervase Markham (who works for the Mozilla Foundation) which demonstrates that the concept of Open Source software is still confusing to a large proportion of the population. A little while ago, I received an e-mail from a lady in the Trading Standards department of a large northern town. They had encountered… Continue reading Giving Software Away
Interviewing the Interviewer
This article contains some good advice about getting the most out of an interview. In particular it has some interesting sample questions for the “do you have any questions you’d like to ask me” section of the interview. How long does it take from the time someone identifies a need for a new piece of… Continue reading Interviewing the Interviewer
Gervais to Charge for Podcast
This won’t go down well in the blogosphere. Or the podcastosphere. Or whatever it’s called. There were a couple of jokes in an episode of the Ricky Gervais Show podcast about how much money they would have made if they had charged for downloads. And now. it seems, that’s exactly what they’re going to do.… Continue reading Gervais to Charge for Podcast
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 Maps Error
I spent an hour or so this weekend working out my exact latitude and longitude so that I could see the Google Maps photo of my house. Now it seems I may have wasted my time as there is a margin of error in Google’s co-ordinate system. Lloyd pointed me at the Register story. Here’s… Continue reading Google Maps Error