Highlights
Count Binface and electoral theatre
Don’t be a costumed loon — It’s trivially easy to stand for Parliament in the UK. Any loon can do so. You need ten electors to nominate you and £500 for a deposit – and it’s actually been getting easier. The deposit was introduced in 1918 (£150 – quite a lot of money then). Before […]
I hate this
But does it matter? — I don’t usually say that sort of thing here. I try to be more measured, less personal. I’m talking about the police face recognition vans obviously. This might not surprise you: I mean that I don’t like them. I’m an old git after all, a man who’s written here before […]
Where is my patriotism?
Come, love of country, fill my heart… — I do love Britain. I guess I love England more. London most of all. I hope that in my life I’ve honoured the place I live and not disgraced it or undermined it (I support England and GB in sporting events – I fly a little flag […]
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Joe Strummer
I’m certain we’ll see better obituaries for Joe Strummer from some of the great writers of that period (many of whom are presumably now drowning their sorrows) but, in the…
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Intoxicated
I make no apology for the fact that this weblog has taken a domestic turn lately. It’s Xmas. The pleasure of watching the faces of our three and four-and-a-half year-olds…
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How do they do that?
This £9.95 toy records twenty second sound clips and incorporates them into its programme of lights and sirens and racing around. Oliver, aged four, takes this entirely for granted, of…
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Tily in the gloom
The questionable low-light capabilities of this Ericsson cam-phone (have you wondered why the TV ads all seem to be set in the Sahara or Southern California in high summer?) and…
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King of the fishes
Olly, our four year-old, is on his way home dressed as a fish after his impeccably multi-cultural, non-denominational Xmas concert yesterday.
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Oxford conference on code, the net, ideas
I just registered for this conference. Looks like a good opportunity to hear Lessig et al in action – organised by the ambitious (and well-funded) Oxford Internet Institute.
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Telecoms mast toppled – singularity deferred
Here’s a tough reminder that technology always exists in a (potentially hostile) human context. People respond to technology and to change in complicated and often contradictory ways. As a result,…
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“Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy” – Tim O’Reilly
I’ll join the throng bookmarking this cogent defense of file sharing from publisher Tim O’Reilly. Tim is the man who made a fortune by selling his early portal, the Global…
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A ‘documentary musical’
I have no idea what it’s like to live in a young offenders’ prison like the notorious Feltham but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that…