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Normal service resumed
If I realised one thing this week, it’s that website malware is really, really annoying. Google flagged up this site as being infected with something non-specifically bad, which seemed to go away after reinstalling WordPress. Then the warning went away. Then it came back. Then I checked all the little pieces of code WordPress scatterguns …
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Why I can’t cancel Facebook
I keep threatening to remove my Facebook profile. I don’t use it, honestly, and it’s just amassing information about me over which I have no control and someone else is making money from. Then, every once in a while, it becomes the only way I find out about things like Mark Sparrow’s The Truth About…
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Ice city
Over at BLDBLG: Project Iceworm, the US army’s cold war bunker built under the arctic icesheet. Nuclear powered and with twenty-odd giant caverns, the pictures are amazing. No dates, but according to the original site it was occupied between 1959-1966. Amazing.
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Why aren’t you an iPad?
This week I have been mostly testing Android tablets. My thoughts: the on screen keyboards are all awful compared to Apple, the Market is a mess and no access to iPlayer on anything but the Galaxy Tab is just tedious. There are a couple of gems, though, which I’ll reveal later. In the meantime, it’s…
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All that glitters…
Had better not be gold. Not a the price it’s currently commanding on the commodities market. $1340 an ounce? I could barely afford to redecorateDavid Cameron’s office in at that rate. Still, good news for those of us on more modest budgets. There’s plenty of research going on into gold alternatives for the electronics industry (link…
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Big smackdown in Ironforge
I used to play WoW far too much, but really haven’t had time to do much other than stick my head in occassionally to say hello to friends lately. I am enjoying the pre-Cataclysm expansion events though. The final phase before the in-game world gets changed irrevocably kicked off today and I caught an early…
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Chandra finds 30 year old black hole
It may be fast approaching middle age, but NASA has found the youngest black hole in our galaxy, courtesy of the Chandra telescope. I remember the awkward feeling, 30 years old and still the youngest person in the room. Trust me SN1979C (for that is its name) it’s all downhill from here. In a few years’…
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The open source journalist’s toolkit pt3: Transcription software
If you do a lot of interviews, either you have to get very good at shorthand or you’ll spend a lot of time with a pair of headphones clamped to your ears trying to figure out if the last sentence on the tape was was “ending cheap loans” or “send in the clowns”. Transcription is…
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The portable LAN centre for rural Africa
Computer Aid International has just issued a press release describing it’s latest project in Kenya. A portable, solar powered LAN cafe packed into a shipping container. One PC, 11 thin clients and a shedload of solar panels, and apparently it’s almost self-sufficient. I’d love to take one of these to Simakakata.
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The open source journalist’s toolkit part 2: Twitter
Perhaps it’s because it was the first Twitter client I ever properly used, or perhaps it’s because it was coded by a friend, but I find Journotwit an indispensable (and free) tool for researching stories or staying on top of Twitter. It has two key advantages over anything else I know of, including the better…
