Next summer’s bestsellers: phone hack novels I’m not one for predictions but here’s a hunch: next summer your holiday reading will include a door stop sized page turner about phone hacking and tabloid journalism. Furthermore I bet that this week publishers have made as many calls to their authors floating that idea as they’ve received unsolici
Summer reads: three novels where the internet is the star Following on from last night’s post asking for summer reading picks, here are some recommendations for you, with an internet theme. Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby A return to music and music fandom as a central theme finds Hornby on his best form in some time. This a rather melancholy love story, ce
Summer holiday reading – a £15 Kindle store challenge I’m going to be taking a good chunk of annual leave soon, so I’ll need some sort of summer reading list. Rather than looking at a broadsheet for a list of unlikely awards fodder, I thought I’d put this out to my pals, to see what ideas they have. Some of you make me jealous… Continue reading Summer
learning and teaching Why graduate web designers should have an opinion on FTP software Specialists in all fields have a tendency to fetishise their kit because mastery and selection of tools is a way of demonstrating expertise. James Bond choose an off beam choice in his Beretta 418. That tells us something about him – he’s a maverick, a specialist, an expert. I can only find this sc
Why doesn’t the Internet want to fix my socks? Many of my socks are broken, and the Internet is to blame. Today I was walking around the office in odd socks, that too is the Internet’s fault. Whatever happened to the man subscription? About ten years ago I remember seeing an advert for a mail order man survival kit, a subscription to being a… Co
Dear print designers, if you want to use QR codes you need to think usability too Dear Print Designer, I noticed your poster today at Perry Barr station. It’s an attractive enough poster, and very much in keeping with London Midland’s house style. I noticed you’d used a QR code with the call to action “scan me”. Now I’m a very obedient guy, so I did, but it was tricky,… Continu
When I had an authentic Glastonbury experience It seems to have been Glastonbury weekend this weekend. That traditionally means that people come out telling you that Glastonbury jumped the shark and it’s not like it was in the old days. So there’s no point in going really is there? After all you won’t have an authentic experience. I had an authe
business FAQ: a simple accountancy system using office software “Where can I get some basic cheap accountancy software?” A common question I see on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. My standard response is “if you need something basic, just use your office software”. I’ve found that most basic bookkeeping tasks can be done using Word & Excel (or your own preferred
boxsets A favourite ‘Six Feet Under’ clip, perfect for you Rapture watchers We finished watching ‘Six Feet Under’ last night. I’ll celebrate by sharing this rapture themed clip with you. Incidentally I’m landscaping my garden today, so I’m going to look pretty stupid if the rumours are true. SHARE THIS: * Share * * Twitter [https://theplan.co.uk/a-favourite-six-f
Garden working 1. Find the area of the garden that has wifi range (my router is at the front of the house, my garden is at the back – I need to sit closer to the building and in the clearest line of site I can get) 2. Holding laptop wonder around the wifi area until you… Continue reading Garden working [https://th
Poppadoms: the rules When ordering a take away curry, the situation around poppadoms may be confusing. Here’s a handy cut out and keep guide to explain how it works 1. The order guy doesn’t mention poppadoms Result: you receive 1 poppadom per main dish ordered. In most cases that is one poppadom each. No charge is levie
altbeebies A beginner’s guide to: Zingzillas. AKA “Lost for Toddlers” #altbeebies At first I found Zingzillas unnerving for no discernible reason, then my other half cracked the key problem: it’s a programme where people have dressed up as monkeys who then dress up as people. That’s unsettling. Beyond that presentational issue, what else is going on? The show is about music, and
blogging A response to the “Pen & Paper Blog” A blog that you write on paper* and then upload each “post” as a photo is an interesting idea in principal I guess… Here’s the original *Written on a Moleskine, of course, as befits the concept. There’s being low fi and then there’s being cheap. SHARE THIS: * Share * * Twitter [https://th
Is my Kindle nickable? A lucky escape yesterday when someone tried, and failed, to break into some houses on our road led to Corrina instructing me today: “make sure you put your Kindle well out of sight when you go out of the house” Which has got me wondering: “Is a Kindle nickable?” I’m not sure it is, really.… Continue
And all the Slipsters fell down Moore’s Chasm… You’ve probably seen this, or heard the terms it uses such as “early adopters” and “laggards”. It’s the “Diffusion of Innovation Model” (picture credit: Natebailey via Wikipedia) which describes the adoption of technology over time. The diffusion model suggests innovation adoption follows a bell cur
How to write a polemic on social change Distil your thesis down to one word. It should either be an adjective which you wish to imbue with new deeper meaning like “Free”, or a neologism (maybe even a portmanteau) like “crowdsourcing”. Open your book with an account of an ordinary person who dared to think differently. They represent the
howto Scrivener + EndNote crib sheet After much prevaricating I’ve downloaded Scrivener. Why? Because everyone told me I should, and I was convinced after watching the demo video (10 minutes well spent). For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s a writing tool that makes long writing projects easier to manage. One thing that I w
bearwood A local media thought experiment: “The Bearwood Question” So local TV is back on the agenda, offering more questions than answers. In the Guardian Media Talk podcast Matt Wells questioned Jeremy Hunt about the ability to deliver “local” in any meaningful way through broadcast television. TV, in its traditional broadcast sense, is territory based: signals h
Internet Heroes #2: Martin Lewis This is the second in an occasional series on people who have done interesting things to do with the Internet or digital culture, but who we don’t talk about enough, or perhaps who we don’t think about as being “off of the Internet”. Who? Martin Lewis is “an award-winning campaigning TV & radio pre
excel Cleaning up Twitter data in Excel for analysis A lot of academic work that draws on tweets as primary data will use hashtag archives as the basis of their study. What’s nice about that is that you can use tools that capture data and present them to you in a usable manner (e.g. a CSV file). If you’re doing something a little different, like revie
Happy New Website Footer Happy New Year to you. I’ve been having a bit of a chat on Twitter today about copyright notices in website footers – apparently today’s the day to change them. I’m not so sure. Let me tell you why, and if I’m wrong please do use the comments to correct me. UK copyright law My… Continue reading Happ
listening Social media listening: dear brands, please stop rewarding me for being a grumpy git I’m getting worried about social media listening strategies. Not in a paranoid, surveillance society way. I’m worried about social media listening strategies because corporations reward me every time I moan; whinges are the new currency, and companies are incentivising me to be grumpy. Discounting s
meme May I be pedantic about “fake memes”? “is this meme a fake?” No. If an idea is out in the wild, being reproduced by folk then it’s not a fake meme – it is actually a meme. The given basis for starting the meme could be a total crock, but the meme itself is real. You know that because you can see… Continue reading May I be pedantic about
socialmedia Owning conversations: the commercial TV back channel for #xfactor Twitter’s a funny place. The folk I follow on there are passionate champions of free speech one day, insisting that my local councillor can make racist jokes for example, and the next they’re all “this isn’t the place to talk about popular culture – I will unfollow you if you tweet about xfactor you
literature Internet Heroes #1: Geoff Ryman 💡April 2025 update: fifteen years ago I wrote this piece, mostly for my friend Ben Whitehouse. Ben and I talked about this book a lot over the years. He wished me happy 253 day on 11th January every year. Ben passed away at the end of March. He was due
