Blog — Page 7

These are some pretty old posts! I don't blog that much any more, but if they are of interest, feel free to browse. Alternatively, you can go back to the homepage to see some more recent stuff.

The Open Source Disadvantage

Written on Friday 28 Oct 2016

Three years ago, Google shut down its popular RSS reader web application. The decision angered many users, and I penned a long rant about how horrible proprietary services are as they can be taken away from the users at any time without their consent. I found the News app for...

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How I Blog Now

Written on Thursday 27 Oct 2016

It’s fifteen years today since I first posted something—specifically, terrible teenage poetry—on what would become my blog. Back then my website was a purple-and-black exhibition of my poor teenage sense of humour, and I started posting snippets of poetry to it under the category of “Thoughts”. In 2002 I was...

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Pokemon Going

Written on Sunday 24 Jul 2016

Bournemouth Gardens is packed on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Shoppers bustle past, teenagers play on the grass, but today more than usual their gaze is directed downwards at their phones. Kids, adults, old and young; cyclists, bus drivers and big hairy bikers all alike. In a parallel universe, the place...

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Brexit, Stage Right

Written on Friday 24 Jun 2016

Alternately, "Brexit, Pursued by a Bear." [1] When I was born, thirty-one years ago, the UK was in the middle of some tough economic times. The value of the pound was low, and interest rates were high. But in the intervening years, despite the recession at the end of the...

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The Constructorium Story

Written on Thursday 9 Jun 2016

“Hackerspaces”, or “Makerspaces” are very much an idea whose time has come. The analogy I liked to use most was that of a “community garden shed”—they are places run by the community, where any member can come along and work on their personal projects and collaborate with others. This is...

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The Long, Slow Death of Facebook

Written on Saturday 30 Apr 2016

“Facebook has a big problem”, the tech media breathlessly cries. Despite using it every day, I’m not a fan of Facebook, and so am drawn to these articles like a moth to a flame. Let’s all enjoy guilt-free schadenfreude at the expense of a billion-dollar business! So, what’s Facebook’s problem...

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A Base Hardware Set for USV Control

Written on Thursday 28 Apr 2016

Here’s a thing that I don’t have, wouldn’t have time to use, and really shouldn’t buy. But a thing that I really want anyway. It can do 40 knots. While I haven’t quite talked myself into buying it yet, I have been thinking about the hardware to make it autonomous,...

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Goodbye, Dungeon

Written on Tuesday 19 Apr 2016

Today, Southampton’s Dungeon club announced that it would be closing this weekend. Although it’s been a long time since our university days, it’s sad to see it go. It’s one of the formative places of my youth—I was introduced to the place at age 18, full of nerves; by 21...

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The Bookmark

Written on Sunday 14 Feb 2016

The second book is nearly finished now, the one that not so long ago I thought I had lost the knack of reading. For all my worries, I had not lost the knack of reading, or of filling my mind and body and soul with all that I read. An...

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A Most Productive Week

Written on Saturday 16 Jan 2016

January, it seems, has become our decorating month. This year it was the turn of our bathroom and bedroom, unwisely at the same time and with both sets of parents helping. It was long overdue—both rooms had mould problems that we’d been ignoring for as long as we could. Our...

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