The medium is not the message
blogpost 30 May 2012
Note: this blog entry is taken from the third issue of my print zine, "I'm a Pretender". If you'd like to see the original article in print, along with dozens of other pieces of my writing, you can order the zine for free online here, or... keep reading
Policing love: Anti-gay marriage campaign nonsense
blogpost 06 May 2012
Note: this blog entry is taken from the third issue of my print zine, "I'm a Pretender". I'm publishing it here online because of the recent debate over the British Government's plans to introduce gay marriage. If you'd like to see the original article in... keep reading
Twitter's #ukopenhouse London - my notes
blogpost 25 Apr 2012
Last night I attended the first of Twitter UK's Open House sessions on their engineering work. It was a free event at LBi's London office and sold out very quickly. I managed to get tickets and went along, with little idea of what to expect,... keep reading
Web cookies & the E-Privacy Directive: alternatives and workarounds
blogpost 24 Apr 2012
It hardly sounds like the most stimulating of legal documents. As a title, Directive 2002/58 on Privacy and Electronic Communications lacks the punch of, say, SOPA or PIPA, although its potential impact on European society could be measurably similar. Having gained the dubious privilege of... keep reading
London Mayoral Candidates: their manifestos, critiqued
blogpost 23 Apr 2012
I've been taking quite an interest in next month's upcoming London Mayoral Elections. I threw together a webapp a couple of weekends ago to see how people in a specific London postcode area voted. Today I got home to find an election leaflet through my... keep reading
How I finally understood the value of "Social"
blogpost 21 Mar 2012
I'm something of a sceptic of social media at times, as this blog has previously documented. Having built much of the Guardian's Facebook app, I've experienced much of the social giant's promotional guff surrounding how making your products 'social' can impact their success hugely. While... keep reading
One click to achieve absolute apathy
blogpost 12 Mar 2012
Anyone following the news of late will be familiar with the UK governments' efforts to pass a bill reforming the NHS, apparently in order to save it, but in the minds of sceptics and apparently most health professionals, it's more likely to destroy it. David... keep reading
The love affair of the tech nerd with themselves
blogpost 23 Jan 2012
We in the technology world are a self-centred bunch of people. I recently attended a training course where we were asked to complete Myers-Briggs tests to figure out our personality types. I'd never previously completed one and was initially sceptical, but after receiving my result I... keep reading
Why Private Eye's scepticism of "new media" is as unreliable as Glenda Slagg
blogpost 04 Jan 2012
I've been an avid reader of Private Eye since I was a teenager and my dad brought a dog-eared copy home with him after a trip to London. From that point on it was my connection to a wider world outside of my hazy Midlands... keep reading
Music Hack Day London 2011: a developer's view
The Guardian 06 Dec 2011
While I wouldn't quite describe myself as a hack day veteran, I've certainly attended a few in my time, mostly... keep reading
My favourite film: The Goonies
The Guardian 04 Dec 2011
Picture, if you will, a Midlands household circa 1990. Cable TV was still a distant dream and cinema trips were... keep reading
Business:designed
The Guardian 14 Nov 2011
Bright and early on 4 of November, two members of the Guardian's Digital Development team headed up to Edinburgh to... keep reading
The class struggle, revolution and Alan Sugar
blogpost 03 Nov 2011
“Are you a glory hunter, Lewis?”, Karen Brady asks a teenage scouser. “Yeah”, he quickly assures her, straightfaced. They sit across from one another in Lord Alan Sugar's televised boardroom, as Lewis takes responsibility for his failure to adequately present their product to the buyers.... keep reading
When celebrities Tweet: a Ricky Gervais special
blogpost 16 Oct 2011
Ricky Gervais rejoined Twitter in the last few weeks, having sworn it off almost two years ago with the verbal shrug of "I don't see the point". Now he's back, gaining followers, and tweeting with the frequency of an out-of-work student. For me, it's a... keep reading
Facebook F8 2011: because everyone wants to know everything
blogpost 23 Sep 2011
Last night I attended Facebook's annual F8 conference – their yearly chance to show off new features that will, in the words of Mark Zuckerberg, “change the world”. I'd already had some exposure to the new features, having been a “partner developer” through my... keep reading