Category: Opinion
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Analysis: UK low-carbon sources generated more than fossil fuels in 2017
Great news that in 2017 low-carbon sources of power generation generated more than fossil fuels in the UK. That includes nuclear, which is pretty expensive and had obvious long term disadvantages by it’s great to see us relying less on dead dinosaurs! Image is Scout Moor Wind Farm and some people by Gidzy.
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Blaming tech entrepreneurs for political failings is a form of prejudicial demonisation that helps no-one
A colleague recently shared this essay by Andrew Russell and Lee Vinsel. It’s main point is that Elon Musk is morally corrupt for pursuing a dream of putting humanity on Mars instead of helping solve social issues like poverty and inequality. Russell and Vinsel suggest that anyone with wealth is morally obligated to engage in selfless humanitarianism.…
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Fitbit Surge – one month in
In December I started wearing a Fitbit surge (a work perk) and wanted to share my thoughts/experience. Steps seem largely accurate, although as you might expect it’s not so great at counting them when you’re pushing a pushchair! However, I have managed to achieve my steps target (7k per day) whilst; walking up to bed…
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Banning the Niqab is not secularism and the NSS should know better
Just as I said about the French ban on face coverings, an English school banning the niqab is equally divisive. It’s disappointing to see the National Secular Society supporting the policy. Religious Freedom Banning the niqab is restricting the religious freedom of the individual. Why does a school have the right to decide what children can…
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Open source rules, and it’ll kill Apple
“Both [Microsoft’s] C# and [Apple’s] Objective-C are unsurprisingly almost invisible [on GitHub], because they’re both ecosystems that either don’t encourage or actively discourage open-source code.” From ReadWrite Most people who know me know that I’m not exactly an Apple fan. I am a big open source fan though, and the two are connected. As a…
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Why I backed App.net
Given the choice I’d prefer to pay for a product than be the product. I want ownership of my own data, my own mutterings, musing, incoherent rants and drivvle. My own words and creations should be available to me in the format I want them in, not subject to someone else’s corporate branding guidelines and platform…
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Spotify are digging their own grave by not going social
There’s a phrase I picked up from somewhere a while ago and now use it quite a lot. It’s; No involvement, no commitment. The basic premise is that if you don’t feel involved in something then you’re less likely to be committed to it. Take work, for example. If you don’t feel as if you’re…
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There is no web 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0
This is deliberately similar to my first Posterous post, “There is no new vs. old media“… There is no web 1.0 or web 2.0 or even web 3.0. There is only the evolving web. I despise the use of the phrase “web 2.0” when it relates to web design, for example – it implies that it…
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There is no new vs. old media
I’ve said it many times at various events this year but I decided a short but sweet blog post was needed (and what better place than my as yet unused Posterous). Here goes… There is no new and old media. There is only evolving media. Right now it’s going through what I consider to be a paradigm…