My Name is Dave

A beautifully put together and well-argued article from Craig...

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:56:00 +0000

A beautifully put together and well-argued article from Craig Mod about the future of books. I particularly like his methodology of splitting text into ‘Formless’ and ‘Definite’ categorisations, and I think he’s right about the relative value of printed materials for those categories.

Have a read, it’s thought-provoking stuff.

Awesome and really well done. I thought these kind of Heath...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:23:44 +0000

Awesome and really well done. I thought these kind of Heath Robinson-esque videos were kind of old hat, but this is top notch.

An Unlikely Twitter Synchronicity between Mr Samuel JOHNSON and...

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:04:07 +0000

An Unlikely Twitter Synchronicity between Mr Samuel JOHNSON and Ms Kirstie ALLSOP ‘Pon the subject of the BRIT awards.

In Transition

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:33:30 +0000

So in the whirl of getting ready for our big move to Scotland and the excitement of finding a new flat (omg, it’s huge), we somehow didn’t notice until the other day that we really only have one weekend left in London. Nearly six years for me and three for Valerie will be over pretty soon. All of a sudden things we’ve been meaning to do for years have become things we’ll probably do on a future trip to London, rather than when we actually live here. We haven’t left yet, but the days are literally numbered.

So, now we’re in limbo, the house is full of boxes and pretty soon we’ll be waking up to a medieval castle in the distance and clean, cold, drinkable water in the tap. Blogging has been and will remain pretty light here while I work hard to make the move a success (my new office in Edinburgh is lovely and I’m getting very familiar with the East Coast mainline as I begin to work with Scottish clients) and we both get our little shoebox of a house packed away, but after that you may see a fair few posts as I reacquaint myself with the city of my birth.

I can’t wait for the move, but I’ll admit to a few melancholic moments as I’ve gazed at London’s skyline from various high places these last few weeks. It’s a big, dirty, noisy, smelly expensive madhouse of a place, but it’s been an education.

Old school Irn Bru cans rule.

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:36:38 +0000

Old school Irn Bru cans rule.

"Tomorrow, it’s Prague - and if it’s possible to have too much pork or too much beer, this is where..."

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:08:09 +0000

“Tomorrow, it’s Prague - and if it’s possible to have too much pork or too much beer, this is where that would happen. As you’ll see, I hope, it’s spectacularly beautiful there and the food, while a bit on the heavy side, is, in fact, delicious. But if ever a place had me craving a salad, this was it. If you commit a homicide as a vegan, they should sentence you to the Czech Republic. That would teach you the error of your ways. Death by sausage.”

- Anthony Bourdain

Arguments of Technical People Against the iPad, No 1:

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:03:01 +0000

“I am a coder, and I learned my chops on systems of type X, ergo any new coders and tinkerers of the futures can and should discover their passion for code the same way. Change is bad because I can’t contemplate the possibility that anything but the systems and standards I grew up with will produce coders. And therefore everything must remain the same and all devices and systems must be identically open so that one day, somewhere, a new coder may be born. Because any encounter with a closed or proprietary system will break their little hearts and doom software development for ever.”

John Scalzi on the latest AmazonFail

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:10:00 +0000

John Scalzi on the latest AmazonFail:

A very succint and useful analysis of the spat between MacMillan and Amazon over the weekend. I’ve bought books and countless other products from Amazon for years - indeed, they were my first and only online shopping experience for most of last decade.

Now, however, I’ll be getting my games, music and DVDs from Play.Com and my books from Waterstone’s, when I don’t just go out and buy them from my local bookshop.

Glorious Spirit

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:00:05 +0000

Glorious Spirit:

Xkcd today is wonderful, but heartbreaking.

Hell Yeah Friday Night Shopping.

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:51:54 +0000

Hell Yeah Friday Night Shopping.

stevenf.com - I need to talk to you about computers. I’ve been...

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:40:21 +0000

stevenf.com - I need to talk to you about computers. I’ve been...:

Fantasic and very perceptive post about what the iPad represents. Worth reading for the pleasant mélange of analogies alone.

(via Instapaper)

Fairly easy to see where most of the British national papers see...

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:12:22 +0000

Fairly easy to see where most of the British national papers see the future of text-based news going.

Sleep Talkin' Man

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:23:33 +0000

Sleep Talkin' Man:

Quite simply the best blog. Ever.

Orson Welles on Citizen Kane and Rosebud (via Kottke.) ...

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:48:12 +0000

Orson Welles on Citizen Kane and Rosebud (via Kottke.) Fantastic interview (despite the interrupting interviewer). It takes something special to puff on a cigar, drink from fine china and hold forth the way he does in this.

It’s not December until you’ve seen a Weegie snowman...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:38:06 +0000

It’s not December until you’ve seen a Weegie snowman half-inching your precious, precious Bru.

In Defense of Pax Americana - David Brin

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:42:21 +0000

In Defense of Pax Americana - David Brin:

Via the ever-excellent Futurismic.

Reblogged from pirata I love the serendipity of the Interwebs. ...

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:50:42 +0000

Reblogged from pirata

I love the serendipity of the Interwebs. A random search for ‘Edinburgh’ on Tumblr comes up with this video, and ten minutes later I’m adding a band to my Simplenote list of music I want to investigate. Even five years ago, I’d have had no chance of finding a new band like this except through seeing them gig in Glasgow or personal recommendation. Diamond. Cheers Internet.

The Guardian explores the Darknet

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:52:09 +0000

The Guardian explores the Darknet:

Fascinating and long investigatory article by the Guardian about the ‘deep web’, unindexed repositories of knowledge and unsearchable, invisible private networks. I love the Guardian’s tech coverage for its relative lack of hysteria and assumption of intelligence on the part of the reader. Great stuff.

What would it look like if the Earth had a ring system like...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:27:47 +0000

What would it look like if the Earth had a ring system like Saturn? Incredible and beautiful video, although it does kind of skip over the ramifications of having several trillion tons of rock and dust in close orbit, not least the high probability of regular impacts.

Visualizing empires decline on Vimeo (via Vimeo)

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:14:15 +0000

Visualizing empires decline on Vimeo (via Vimeo)