Tag: uk

Bookmarks for November 19, 2010

  • MY PHONE IS OFF FOR YOU
    I'm reminded of reading someone's new definition of cool "If I'm hanging out with you, I never see your mobile phone". I know I'm, ah, less than faultless with this, but then, I've never claimed to be coo (althought I've tried to do better since reading that particular article). Still, getting one of these might be a good start. Although, reflecting on it a bit, there's a fine line between signalling to someone that they're important to you, and acting like you want brownie points for simple politeness…
    Tags: manners, phone
  • Abandoned Communities
    No idea what I'll use this stuff for, mind. But I bet I will at some point.
  • BBC News – The secrets of Britain's abandoned villages
    I imagine that I'll find a use for this information at some point.
    Tags: history, uk

Bookmarks for November 18, 2010

  • John Allison's UK Indie Comics Manifesto
    Good, harsh, honest, smart. Worth reading.
    Tags: comics, uk
  • 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 October 29, 2010

  • No terror arrests in 100,000 police counter-terror searches, figures show | Law | guardian.co.uk
    I think the most surprising thing about this story is this quote: "A policy which fuels resentment and antagonism amongst minority communities without achieving a single terrorist conviction serves only to help our enemies and increase the terrorism threat." And the reason it's surprising it that it's coming from a Conservative MP. (Although I it is David Davis, who I confess to a grudging admiration for on the subject of civil liberties.)
  • Del's plain english guide
    Yes. More of this sort of thing, please.
  • WGGB – News – PLR agency written off
    Here's one of the governments cuts that won't make headline news, that won't get any of the usual arts bodies fighting against it, because it's not music or theatre or public art or any of the other stuff luvvies and lefties get up in arms about. And honestly, it probably won't change most' people's lives, but realistically also won't save any serious money. It's a cut for the sake of making a cut, an idealogical statement. And that statement is, broadly "fuck writers".
    Tags: politics, uk, cuts
  • budgie's squawks – The Fast Fiction Challenge 2010: The final list
    Budgie has managed to write 150 ultra-short stories in 150 days. If you think that consistently writing 200 words a day isn't a remarkable feat, then I suggest that you try it. Every day, for almost half a year, you sit down in front of a blank piece of paper, and force yourself to have a good idea. No excuse for illness, no excuses for just "being busy with other things". 150 days, having a new idea every day, and executing that idea to a high standard, without fail. Yeah. My hat's off to you, squire. 200 days next year, year?

Bookmarks for October 28, 2010

Bookmarks for October 21, 2010

Bookmarks for October 20, 2010

Thursday 1st January 1970

Bookmarks for June 4, 2010

Bookmarks for May 13, 2010

  • The Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change. – Pew Research Center
    I'd always thought Gen X stopped in about 1975, but apparently I'm a gen Xer. But this survey isn't about me, so much as it's about a lot of the people I know. It's, er, interesting. I'd like to see similar stats for the UK….
  • Coilhouse » Blog Archive » Save the Life of Kiana Firouz
    Well, here's an interesting test case for out new government, and for caring sharing Dave and his compassionate conservatism. But more importantly, do like the article says, and start writing, if you'd prefer that Britain not deport people who will be tortured or killing for the crime of being a lesbian.
  • Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options – Graphic – NYTimes.com
    I'm not sure I've got all this locked down, even on my ultra-locked-down work-only account. And I am by any reasonable lights, an expert web user. How is the casual user supposed to get it right?
  • Facebook is a feminist issue | Geek Feminism Blog
    This, by the way, it why I get so het up over privacy. This page contains a link to some talk about how facebook until the other day, made it possible to trace your location. I didn't blog the link, because Facebook fixed the hole before I could, but the fact it existed at all relates to a wider point about their privacy culture – they either do not think, or do not care, about how it will affect vulnerable people for whom privacy is a very important concern. And it's all very well for them to say "if you don't want it public, don't put it on facebook", but why should the vulnerable, for whom it might make the most difference, have less rights to share with their friends? Why should excluding the vulnerable from Facebook be acceptable?

Bookmarks for May 6, 2010

  • The Post-Game Show On A Tory Win
    I should have written this, yesterday, rather than rambling on with a narrative that no-one read, but I didn't, and Andrew did, so go read his piece: "The Tories don’t like you. They don’t care about you. They will try to ruin your life. They will shut down women’s shelters and homeless shelters and youth clubs. They will hinder minority rights and keep brilliant foreigners out of the country because they talk funny. They will take a hacksaw to the NHS, and they will turn the BBC into a pirate radio station. They will remove safeguards on everything from banks to trains just to turn an extra buck. They will guarantee that struggling families have to struggle more, and that people on the fringes of society are pushed further to the fringe, because they are only interested in the preservation of wealth among the wealthy and the conservation of stifling and fantastical Victorian values. They are monstrously awful."
    Tags: politics, uk