- Government Service Design Manual
This looks like a really good resource for people involved in web projects. It's not so much that it'll teach anyone who has been in the the business for a while anything wildly new, but it'll definitely focus some thinking.
Tag: government
Bookmarks for April 11, 2012
- GDS design principles
The guiding design principles behind the current UK government's digital strategy. Good sold work.
Bookmarks for April 1, 2012
- BBC News – Email and web use 'to be monitored' under new laws
Please tell me this is an April Fools joke.
Bookmarks for November 18, 2010
- John Allison's UK Indie Comics Manifesto
Good, harsh, honest, smart. Worth reading.
- BBC vows action if ISPs throttle iPlayer
The BBC are squaring up to fight ISPs who indulge in traffic shaping/two-tier internet type behaviour that affects them, by making it clear when ISPs do so, and refusing to pay for faster deliverry. Which is good news, I guess. Here's hoping other big internet firms do the same.
- BBC News – Minister Ed Vaizey backs 'two-speed' internet
I'm getting kind of tired to linking to idiocy perpetrated by our governement. I can only assume that Ed Vaizey is either evil or a moron, because it is simple not reasonable that I should pay my ISP for a service, and them for them to tell me that I cannot have the level of service I want because *a third party* has not also paid them. *I* am paying for the fucking service. And while I appreciate that the counter argument is "well, then go elsewhere for your service", but what happens if there *is* no elsewhere to go, or when I'm locked in by a fixed term contract, the terms of which my ISP can vary, but I can't. Argle argle rant!
Bookmarks for June 14, 2010
- FOI reveals how costs of Crown Prosecution Service website ballooned past budget | Technology | guardian.co.uk
This makes me angry on many many levels. Yes, this looks like total waste, and yes, they got a shitty, shoddy website that was massively over-budge. One the other hand, though, the outrage about serious undervalues my profession. £122,000 is *not* an unreasonable amount to spend on a major website in one year, and headlines that suggest it is are fucking annoying to me. What's unreasonable is what they got for their money, not the amount they spent. (FWIW: their initial budget of £45,000, while it would not get them laughed out of the office around here, would definitely put them on the low end of business that we like to pitch for. Since they're a major department, I'd expect a higher budget.)
- U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan – NYTimes.com
Oh bollocks. Looks like Afghanistan is going to fucked for a very, very long time to come, because it turns out we're not just blowing them up as a point of principle any more. Now they've got useful resources, too.
Bookmarks for June 4, 2010
- Street Giant » Leroy Stick – the man behind @BPGlobalPR
In the course of excoriating BP, a noble end in and of itself, he says this: "You know the best way to get the public to respect your brand? Have a respectable brand. Offer a great, innovative product and make responsible, ethical business decisions." To which I can simply say: Yes. This. Now please all got and read the whole piece, because it's great.
- Coins database: Government opens up books on public spending for first time | Politics | guardian.co.uk
You know, I don't think I have a spare 120GB of storage space. I may need to do something about that. In any event, this might well make things interesting over the next while, as people start digging into how much is spent where…
Bookmarks for April 9, 2010
- Economist/YouGov polling: This week's Economist/YouGov poll | The Economist
I would love to see a similar poll conducted over here, because I bet it would get similar results. No one I know is in favour of cutting funding to the NHS, Education, Social Services, Pensions, infrastructure, or really, anything. And yet, we look like we're going to elect people who are going to do that.
- If you're looking for class war, you can find it – in David Cameron's policies : Johann Hari
I try and be tolerant about people who fall in different places on the political spectrum to me, I really do. But as this article makes clear, David Cameron is poised to declare economic war on me, my friends, and those less well off than us.
Bookmarks for April 28, 2009
- The Art of Penguin Science Fiction
An archive and commentary on some very very striking SF cover design. Well worth a look.
- BBC NEWS | Technology | Home Office 'colluded with Phorm'
My goodness, do you think I might be very, very angry about this? Why yes, I am. Someone please find me someone to vote for at the next election who actually possesses a principle or two.
- Font Squirrel | Handpicked free fonts for graphic designers with commercial-use licenses.
Some of these are very lovely.
- Revolutionary Espresso Book Machine launches in London | Books | guardian.co.uk
This is brilliant, and I live near it, and that makes me happy. I shall have to go and find an excuse to purchase something from it.