29 Jul 2025

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. […]

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 […]

6 Sep 2024

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 […]


  • Software stories

    Anyone who does product design or marketing should read this entertaining and inspiring account of the history of a Mac software product called Audion. Why? Because a) more and more…

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  • Explain this, then…

    Wind forward about 38 minutes into this stream of tonight’s Westminster Hour (Radio 4) and you’ll find yourself listening to another programme all together – a programme that’s not on…

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  • Trying to keep up…

    I’ll tell you something, either I’m getting old or podcasting (a concept so new that Google is still trying to correct me when I search for it) is going mainstream…

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  • We’re here, we’re Royal, get used to it

    If you’d been thinking, before all this media fuss about ambition and status and education, that maybe Prince Charles might make quite a modern monarch – someone a little less…

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  • No. The BBC does not have a Nectar Card

    Fi Glover opened Sunday’s Broadcasting House on Radio 4 by saying, enigmatically, “No. We do not have a Nectar Card”. She offered no explanation and didn’t return to the topic…

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  • I think I’ve waited long enough…

    I’m really thrilled to be able to say that I’ve been enjoying Azeem and Shen’s new venture a lot (resisting the temptation to illustrate this entry with a wedding photo).…

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  • Book Review: brand fanaticism

    Understanding Mac users used to be quite easy. For a few years at the beginning (maybe 1984–1989) Macs were undeniably cool and undeniably better than anything else you could buy.…

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  • Gun crazy

    Yesterday I was on the telly. I was invited (why? No idea) onto BBC2’s The Daily Politics to talk about the non-scandal of guns on eBay. It’s a non-scandal not…

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  • Big Idea TV advertising

    I love the way these advertisers have moved their brands by claiming ownership of human values only tangentially linked to their products. Nothing cheesy or aggressive about either, though –…

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  • Peel and Day – more really good radio

    You really can’t overstate the richness and usefulness of the BBC’s radio output. Not possible – honestly. A couple of brilliant examples: Peter Day does great business radio (against the…

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  • The only good idea in this entry is right down at the bottom

    Today (Sunday) I’ve deleted about 130 spam comments from this weblog (with the aid of the redoubtable MT-Blacklist). Yesterday was about the same. Likewise Friday, Thursday and so on. I’m…

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  • I made a place!

    Forums are places, I suppose. IRC channels, MUDs and chat rooms too. But blog entries? Not really. Here’s an exception. Ages ago I blogged a special ‘flowchart issue’ of Mizz,…

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