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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industry awards Strike a medal,
industry awards — Strike a medal, hire a band — New media awards come and go ? these days mostly go. Most of them are thinly disguised promotions ? wobbly…
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Now this is a good idea
According to the FT, a new DTI report on speeding broadband adoption is not very optimistic. It concludes that wider availability and falling prices will not be enough to persuade…
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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…