The only thing mindless about the riots is the response
blogpost 16 Aug 2011
I'd just walked out of the cinema in Clapham, South London, on Saturday 6th August at around 11pm, having sat through Spielberg's Super 8 and found it pleasant enough. Idly checking my Twitter feed as the lady did the customary bathroom trip, I spotted some... keep reading
The user experience of flathunting
blogpost 30 Jun 2011
As followers of my London blog will know, I've currently been in the process of moving flat. It's been a fairly lengthy effort and it's well-documented on the other blog. What this entry will cover is the mind-numbing frustration the websites of estate agents caused... keep reading
On student journalism and "digital first"
blogpost 19 Jun 2011
Since graduating from Leeds University I've followed the path of the student newspaper, Leeds Student, with keen interest - I spent almost two years of my time at Leeds working on the newspaper and owe my current career to the experience gained writing and designing... keep reading
How not to make me download your mobile app
blogpost 06 Jun 2011
Earlier today I was checking out app recommendations over at reddit's Android community. Someone suggested an app called Glympse, which allows users to share their location, Google Latitude-style, but falling back to SMS when the recipient doesn't use Glympse. Cool, I thought. I checked out... keep reading
Portal 2: Missed opportunities?
blogpost 16 May 2011
I'm a fairly big Valve nerd, having played even the slightly less good outings in their Black Mesa universe with vigour and enjoyment. It was essentially a foregone conclusion, then, that I'd be checking out the recently-released Portal 2 within a few weeks of its... keep reading
On deleting Facebook and being human again
blogpost 01 May 2011
The topic of deleting a Facebook account has been written about in depth in various other places, so it's with hesitation that I begin this entry about my own experiences with it. However, in a post-Social Network world, the site may have beefed up its... keep reading
The arrogance of Google and their quest to store everything
blogpost 11 Apr 2011
At the morning conference in the Guardian's offices last Wednesday we were visited by the Head of Google Europe, Philipp Schindler. He gave an interesting talk about Google's future plans and current achievements, and was asked some tricky questions from the assembled journalists including issues... keep reading
SXSW 2011: Music and hack days - where the girls aren't
The Guardian 14 Mar 2011
A couple of notes to preface this entry: Firstly: I'm indebted to Jessica Hopper of Punk Planet, whose famous column... keep reading
SXSW 2011: How we made our interactive band tracker
The Guardian 10 Mar 2011
Last year I attended my second Music Hack Day, a spirited event encouraging geeks who love beats to get together... keep reading
Why Microsoft will never regain developers' trust
blogpost 06 Mar 2011
In honour of the 10 year anniversary of Internet Explorer 6, Microsoft is promoting a new site they've called IE6 Countdown which lets them highlight the largest culprits still using the crippled software (step forward, China and South Korea) and suggest reasons for upgrading. As... keep reading
Reality TV: escapism from the flaws of, er, reality
blogpost 02 Feb 2011
In the past few days, British TV has graced our television sets with several distinctly working class-focused reality TV shows: celebrity chef Michel Roux's Service on BBC2, Channel 4's My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, and BBC4's Snog Marry Avoid?. Each one of these programmes featured... keep reading
Apple TV: ...and all that could have been
blogpost 23 Jan 2011
Towards the end of December last year I won a £500 Amazon voucher and decided to splash out on some TV/audio equipment. Part of that splurge included the newest model of the Apple TV. It's a little box of Apple's curved-edge magic, weighing barely as... keep reading
Broadcast media: dumbing down or catering for demand?
blogpost 19 Jan 2011
Recently, Britain's Radio 1 performed a kind of broadcasting experiment that got me thinking. They called it the 'daytime takeover' - essentially, their DJs with shows normally relegated to the graveyard shift were given the chance to take over on the primetime slots - breakfast... keep reading
Switching to Google-hosted jQuery
The Guardian 15 Dec 2010
Like thousands of other sites, the Guardian uses the excellent jQuery framework to power our javascript. Previously, our jQuery build... keep reading
The (new) internet: the death of culture?
blogpost 28 Jul 2009
Could the digital revolution have exiled individual thought? MICHELLE IS BORED. Andy wants to go out tonight. Jessica is looking forward to seeing "a certain sum1, lol". This is your brain on Facebook. Or Twitter. "RT @Tehran123: Change your location to Iran NOW to confuse... keep reading