11 Jul 2026

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 […]

3 Jun 2026

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 […]

13 Jan 2025

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 […]


  • Five myths about web services

    I’m sure I’ll find Bob Sutor’s Five Biggest Myths about Web Services very useful when I finally decide what to do with webservices.net. Link via Werblog

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  • Moblogging without going out

    Update: like practically every post of this vintage on my blog, the links here are broken and the post is, as a result, incomprehensible. And whatever the Memory Hole actually…

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  • Fraudster?

    Update: looks like it’s been in use since 1975 – and the first use is from the revered Financial Times! When did we all adopt the Daily Mail-ism ‘fraudster’ and…

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  • Winter of Discontent update: unrest spreads

    School teachers, tube workers, firefighters. Now monks? How will we know they’ve gone back to work?

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  • Intensely New York

    I have no idea whose link I followed to find Hugh MacLeod’s gapingvoid.com but I think these cartoons drawn on the backs of business cards are just about the most…

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  • Knocking Docherty

    I think Danny’s wrong to knock David Docherty’s ‘Cookie Monster‘ analogy. David may have been on a hiding to nothing from the beginning at Telewest, but the nub of truth…

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  • BBC Online under the microscope

    A long overdue enquiry into the BBC’s investment online should be a good thing for all parties but it must strike a delicate balance. If it turns into a mugging…

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  • What were you doing in 1964?

    Rachel Frank runs an online wine store called Arthur’s Bar. It’s a good site – excellent customer service, next day delivery, single bottles (most sites require you to buy a…

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  • You read it here first…

    After four years on the rollercoaster running another.com – and nearly ten years in the industry – I’m a free agent again. If you know me, you already knew this,…

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  • I want Danny O’Brien’s job

    Danny and Quinn interviewed Brewster Kahle.(Things I have written about Kahle and the public domain recently: Public domain in Peril? Not again! “It’s just not that big!”).

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  • “I don’t know why we call it a mouse…”

    I just found Douglas Engelbart’s 34 year-old SRI demo in which he introduced the mouse, word processing, outlining, graphical displays, a nifty chord keyboard and dozens of other concepts that…

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  • Mog is dead!

    Judith Kerr, much-loved children’s author, on why Mog had to die.

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