Highlights
Nearly half a bicycle
The atomic theory in Kilburn — This place (on Kilburn High Road) has been morphing steadily from dry cleaner’s to bike shop over the last few years. I remember being surprised one morning to see a few kids’ bikes lined up for sale outside but I’d say the shop is now approaching 50% bike shop. […]
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 […]
Some bullet-points about regulation
In case you’d got the wrong idea about how the ’regulatory state‘ is supposed to work — UPDATED 23 May 2025. I could update this thing daily. Regulation is always a news story in the UK (Search any news service for ‘regulation‘ right now and you’ll get a long list of current news stories about […]
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urbanism World City Last night,
urbanism — World City — Last night, Saskia Sassen, Richard Sennett, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Spencer de Grey and Archie Galloway discussed the future of London as a ?World City? at a…
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warchalking Matt’s Meme A sketchy
warchalking — Matt’s Meme — A sketchy etymology (backwards) for Matt Jones’ astonishingly infectious ‘warchalking’. Warchalking: depression-era hobo private language married by Matt to > war-driving: Wi-Fi era update for…
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Self promotion
self-promotion — ‘Virtual Logos’ — Esther Dyson is a force to be reckoned with in high tech. Founder of the near-legendary Release 1.0 Newsletter and of the PC Forum conferences,…
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Blog this (experience)
Every weblog tool has a ‘blog this’ button. Clicking the button copies the URL of the site you’re looking at to your weblog so you can annotate it later. Now…
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“It’s just not that big”
Brewster Kahle, web archivist, asserts that the history of world cinema has produced no more than a hundred thousand feature films ? even at 5 gigabytes per movie that?s a…
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Analogue is not dead yet…
The digital ideologues in Government, industry and the media have got us all convinced that the switch to digital is inevitable and that ITV Digital?s failure is a potential disaster…
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Public domain in peril? Not again!
Net-heads and civil libertarians are worried that the public domain is being eroded and enclosed. Media owners fear a ravenous, technology-enhanced public domain will eat their businesses. Who’s right? Neither.…
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Being wrong about technology
We always get the final effects of new technology wrong, usually by a mile. The big media companies are no exception. People routinely over-estimate the effects of change – technological…
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Dot.com Entrepreneur Demands More Regulation Shock!
Since the draft of the Communications Bill came out a few weeks ago, I’ve been worrying (here and elsewhere – see my letter to The Guardian) about the net’s mysterious…
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”Don’t put full cup in backpack for later“
Quirky POS graphic at West Hampstead station cappuccino stand (photo now lost). The stand (part of a new chain, or at least new to me) is covered in whacky urban…
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Is BBCi out of control?
The BBC’s admirable web site sets the standard for the rest of the UK media. In adding a web search feature and pitching it as an improvement on the commercial…
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The unlikely persistence of the PC
Draft Communications Bill notwithstanding, the digital action is still resolutely – and against all the odds – on your PC. With the doughty exception of Sky TV, digital telly in…