3 May, 2024
A little change on this website
In the past, this website was sort of my place to keep family and friends in touch. I first set it up in 2005, just before going away to Peru on travels. It was a great. Facebook had been invented but wasn’t generally available or popular yet, other platforms weren’t well thought through or scattered, […]
12 October, 2018
Why learning to lose is the path to winning
Last night was the count for the local by-election, in which I stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate. I lost. I came third. And I’m OK with that. But this isn’t a political blog, at all, even though I’m involved in it. So if you want the results, they’re here. Once upon a time, I […]
11 March, 2014
Bono’s office, some time in 2014
Hi guys, I suspect you know why I’ve called you in here for this meeting. Adam, Larry, uhm… hat guy… you know that costs have been rising and, what with piracy and everything we just don’t get the receipts we used to. Obviously that means we have to find some savings and, after looking through […]
5 June, 2013
Liverpool Central Library
So, Liverpool Central Library has had a revamp. The reading room was always ace, but had been closed for ages and I’d not been able to show it to friends. It’s now all been lovingly restored, and the ‘modern’ bit done in a much more interesting manner with wonderful natural light. It’s great to see […]
5 October, 2012
What It’s Like to Dine Out When You’re Veggie
Imagine, you arrive at the restaurant. It’s slick, it’s luscious. Wonderful smells assault your nose. You’re hungry. Very hungry. This is going to be great! So, you sit down, the waiter comes over. Oddly, he doesn’t hand you a menu. Instead, he decides to tell you what you can eat. “Tonight, for starters, you can […]
18 July, 2012
It’s OK, Coming Second Isn’t So Bad
One of the lessons I’ve learned, from motorsport and life in general, is that coming second is actually OK. You’re brought up in school to believe that winning is important. Anything else is being a loser. Well, they’re wrong. The minute you learn to accept that you win by being the best that you can […]
4 March, 2012
Why Gay Marriage Matters
Two people meet. They decide to live together and grow old together. Let’s ignore whether they are a man and a woman, or gay, or two brothers without any other relationships. Doesn’t matter. What does matter is that they’re not married. Together, these two people set up home back in 1970 in a house for which […]
26 February, 2012
Why You Should Be A Secularist
All these arguments about Britain being a ‘Christian’ country at heart (see Baroness Warsi here, here and most importantly here) are so much bull, and I’m tired of it. It’s part of an attack on the growing secularist movement but framed in such a way that it’s designed to scare the religious into thinking they’re going to be […]
3 November, 2011
Do You Need an SLR?
OK, I’ve always said that you don’t need a fancy camera to take good pictures. All that a good camera does is add flexibility and choice, but so long as there’s a decent amount of light (and even then, not necessarily that much) a compact or a smartphone camera could well be adequate. This lunchtime […]
10 August, 2011
The Liverpool Riots Do Not Indicate That Our Society Is Broken
Ok, the riots matter. Especially if you’re unlucky enough to have had to face rioters in your district, near your home, or near your business. In fact, the riots and disturbances are full of tragedy, deaths and ruined lives. They are, frankly, horrible. And strong action is needed to stop it turning into a joyfull […]
24 May, 2011
Thinking Digital University (2011)
So, here I am again at Thinking Digital. Only this time I’m no longer driving the seemingly doomed Golf TDI I had last year that did one of it’s self destruction tricks en-route. Consequently I’m not missing out on the workshops here. In fact, I’m doing better than that – an additional workshop was added […]
17 May, 2011
Homage to Beatrice Warde or a bad idea?
I recently saw in the book “Just My Type” by Simon Garfield a poster by Beatrice Warde, the famous American born typographer who spent much of her career in the UK*. There seem to be many variations of typesetting for the poster, so I’ve no idea if she designed one herself or if it was […]
12 March, 2011
Freedom of Information is Abused
In 2000 in the UK, the Freedom of Information Act gave us all the ‘right to know’ what our public bodies were up to. We can ask for information about a huge range of items, and it’s a great idea. Information should, in my view, be as open and transparent as possible. But there’s a […]
22 September, 2010
New Spectacu.la Discussion Updates
My colleague James has been extending the threaded comments plugin that I use(d)* on this site. It’s available from http://svn.wp-plugins.org/spectacula-threaded-comments/trunk for those of you with SVN clients, and for download and easy installation from WordPress.org and Spectacu.la within a few days. If you wish to test it out, feel free to comment here… It adds […]
21 September, 2010
Headshots
The new company website will be launched shortly, and today we were taking new headshots of most of the team (James won’t play, meh) for the site. I think I like this one best:
26 May, 2010
Gateshead/Newcastle Pics from Thinking Digital (part 1)
Just a few quick shots from last night. I’d arrived late for the first afternoon thanks to a failed gearbox mount (thanks for that, VW Warrington) but at least did get there thanks to a courtesy car (also thanks, VW Warrington!) that got me here just a couple of hours late… Anyway, to the pics. […]
19 May, 2010
WordPress Performance, Make it 3x Quicker!
I’d started to notice that my site could often be slow to load – other sites on the same server weren’t suffering the same way, so I wanted to document a simple way in which one can identify performance issues on the site. This is one of them.
5 April, 2010
Collateral Murder in Baghdad
There’s enough in the video to convince anybody, but I’ve decided to add my own few thoughts. As long as the military culture exists that allows this to happen, then the West can never consider themselves superior in any sense, nor can we ever expect peace in the Middle East or the cessation of Islamic […]
7 January, 2010
18 December, 2009
Liverpool Skyline
This is the view from our new office in Liverpool, right now. Well, a few minutes ago. I consider myself very lucky to have this just behind my desk and it has to rate as the best view of any office I’ve worked in. You’d think the office would be very expensive, but it’s not, […]
31 August, 2009
Argh! Spiders!
To my great shame, I’ve allowed the cobwebs to build up somewhat during renovation work. That’s going to have to stop, because today I just saw something scary. An entire spider family, with big mummy spider sitting in the middle. O_0
14 August, 2009
Old Reel to Reel Tapes
Found these in the garage and have popped them on eBay. Love the old style designs – so simple by today’s standards. Easy to reproduce too. Also realised just how many bands from this era were called “The” something or other. How things change…