hackbash

Ah nuts. My mobile, which has been hanging on gamely since going on the fritz last October, looks to be finally shuffling off this mortal coil. It’s still working, but the screen isn’t, so I’ve no idea who’s calling me, or who’s texting me and about what.
I was pondering this, and what a pain in [...]

Read Full Post »

Now look, I’ve been turning a blind eye to this but enough is enough. Copywriters everywhere, please pay attention.
Iconic means relating to, or having the characteristics of an icon. An icon is something ‘that stands for its object by virtue of a resemblance or analogy to it’.
I think one can, perhaps, describe the iPod as [...]

Read Full Post »

Click here to go straight to step-by-step instructions.
Anyone who’s used Word will know that, by default, it replaces bog-standard straight quotes (and here I’d demonstrate what they look like, but our theme will change them to curved ones) with curved ones. It also changes hyphens (-) to en dashes (–).
No big deal, you’d think. After [...]

Read Full Post »

I’ve been writing a How it Works on OpenID. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a decentralised ID system that stops the user having to remember and provide separate login credentials for every online service. Instead, you assert ownership of a URI which becomes your OpenID login.
Eyes glazing over? Therein lies the problem.
I’m [...]

Read Full Post »

We’ve been bashing Microsoft a bit lately, though I don’t notice anyone but Scott rushing to their defence. It’s a lazy pastime, so I promise to be nice to them. After this post.
I started thinking about the opprobrium heaped on Microsoft by bloggers, commentators and anyone else who’s used its products. Much of it unfair, [...]

Read Full Post »

I’ve just read that Microsoft was spoofing itself with the Vista SP1 video.
I’m not so sure - they’ve got a pretty long and rich history of making shite promotional films, such as this one, which just keeps on giving.

Still, fair play to MS if it is a spoof - I certainly believed it. They haven’t [...]

Read Full Post »

Thanks to Adam for this. It comes from Facebook Lexicon, a new trend-tracking tool for the social network that can tell you how often certain terms appear in wall posts.
The blue line is “party tonight”, the beige is “hungover”. The big fat spike is New Year’s eve. Click on the pic to see it full-size.

Read Full Post »

This is sort of the second half to the earlier Microsoft post, where I was rambling on about people running lightweight operating systems on lightweight computers, and only requiring lightweight applications delivered through a browser.
I’m reminded of the Network Computer, or NC, something that a consortium of manufacturers and the database company Oracle tried to [...]

Read Full Post »

A TechCrunch post yesterday helped focus my mind on something that’s been dawning of me of late: Microsoft is in deep shit.
XP refuses to be killed off and Vista is flat-lining, while people are increasingly inclined to dabble with Linux-based OS like Ubuntu. Meanwhile, Office is bloated, expensive and hideous to use. Open Office is [...]

Read Full Post »

I’ve come to a mini-realisation. There is no getting away from IT.
Let me fill you in - I used to work in tech support, which was OK, but there’s only so many progress meters a man can take. If you laid mine end to end they’d probably reach Belgium.
My plan was to begin my career [...]

Read Full Post »