- Blog
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Transforming trade unions
The debate about wage discipline leaves a lot unsaid. Unions, government and employers all have their points of view but none can acknowledge the simple economic truth that underlies the need to keep salaries under control. It’s not a pleasant truth. I think we’d rather not think about it. We ought to, though, because it’s…
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Deli duel
Here in Radlett on the Northern fringes of London’s suburbs we’re getting ready for an awesome deli smackdown. Yummies, the incumbent – just renovated and under new ownership – is getting ready to take on nervous-looking newcomer Tzar, a few doors down the road and now sporting a sightly defensive banner saying “it happened here…
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Hacking the iPhone
I love this lad‘s story. I hope he can take this globe spanning triumph of geek ingenuity and teenage self-belief and build something really substantial on it. He’s just started his degree course so he has plenty of time to screw it up. Seriously, though, smart kids like George Hotz will form the next generation…
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Mid-century masterpieces
Another great big muscular 20th Century prom last night, with exceptional music from the old Austro-Hungary. I’m a sucker for this kind of ambitious, cerebral and passionate music: something dark and vital about it. Something to do with its origin slap bang in the middle of Europe during its most turbulent century too. These works…
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Making TV news more open
Channel 5’s proposal to make TV news more honest should become a standard for transparency in media production. David Kermode announced that Channel 5 news is banning ‘noddies’ and some of the other artefacts of old school news production. This is a big deal. Channel 5’s been trying to shake up news for a while…
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OK. I give up
No one liked the idea of my tumblelog over at Bowblr.com (geddit?). Everyone said it was a stupid idea to abandon Bowblog after five-and-a-half-years, not least because I’d have been chucking away a huge amount of ‘Google equity’ in so doing (duh). So I’m back. I’ll keep blogging here and maybe I’ll just get myself…
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William Gibson
William Gibson was in town. He was relaxed, stooped, quietly spoken. Tired, by the look of it. He’s promoting his new book. I’d never seen him before. Never even heard his voice, so it was very exciting, surprisingly like encountering a hero of punk. He didn’t seem jaded, showed no sign of the irritation you…
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Another post over at bowblr
I’m now blogging over at tumblr. I’ve just put up a post about last night’s mind-blowing Stravinsky/Bernstein/Gershwin Prom. Go on then. Click!
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Meet Bowblr
I love Tumblr. It’s simple, it’s… Well, actually, that’s it. It’s simple. Also, I take the developers’ word for it when they say they’re going to add a way to leave comments sooner or later. So, allow me to introduce Bowblr, Bowblog’s little brother. I guess I shouldn’t get too carried away. I may decide…
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Breakfast with Mike Butcher and some reading
This morning, at his very congenial Breakfast Bites event in D’Arblay Street, Mike Butcher introduced me to a friendly gang of new media types as ‘the grande dame of the UK web’. I’m not entirely sure how I should take this, since the image it produces is a bit too Dick Emery for my liking.…