Category: Misc

  • On Uber in London

    (Note: This mostly comes from something I wrote on Facebook. So I thought I may as well broaden it out and publish it here.) TFL has decided it will not award an operator licence to Uber from 30 September. In essence, it is saying that Uber must cease operations in London. TfL has today informed…

  • Today We Are 15!

    Happy Birthday me! This blog is 15 today. This is probably only of academic interest to most people, but who says blogs don’t have legs? Over time this blog has morphed and changed a bit. But I still enjoy using it as an outlet for writing about things that interest me. And yes, for showing…

  • Phones in Cars

    From today, increased penalties are applicable in the UK for people who use their phones in the car. Infringers will get 6 points on their licence and a £200 fine. Get caught twice and you’ll find yourself in magistrates’ court facing a fine and a ban. If you’re a new driver, then you risk having…

  • Misleading Infographics

    I find few things more annoying than thoroughly misleading infographics. At the weekend, I was flicking through the latest copy of The New Statesman, and came across an advertorial published by Western Union addressing overseas trade. The most startling part of the two-page spread was an infographic showing the top UK export destinations. Now leaving…

  • “A portion of the proceeds”

    This may seem unfair with respect to charitable giving, but I wonder if there are any more mealy-mouthed phrases than, “A portion of the proceeds”? You hear this regularly when people are going to be donating something to a charity. The issue is that a “portion” might be anything from $0.01 to 99% of the…

  • Tube Strike Day

    An all-out London tube strike seems to be quite a rare thing these days. While individual lines can be affected, or a percentage of services disrupted, the full network doesn’t go down all that often. But today is one of those days when nearly the entire network has stopped working. For many it’s a question…

  • Editorial Note

    Looking at my WordPress dashboard, I see that I have over 100 posts in draft form – saved, but unpublished. This is clearly ridiculous. Now it’s true that many of them are only very slightly sketched out, but others are full pieces that I, for whatever reason, never quite got around to publishing. So I’m…

  • Future Shock: The Story of 2000AD

    The comic, 2000AD, was launched in 1977 when I was 7 years old. While I read a fair few comics when I was young, I can’t say that I was reading 2000AD from the very start. It was more about The Beano at that time, which I’d begin to buy with my pocket money on…

  • Image Posting – A Bit More Optimised

    Yesterday I mentioned that I was struggling with embedding properly responsive images that will go lovely and large if you have a nice big screen, but only download a small image if that’s all I need. Added to which, I use Flickr to host all my images for me. Thanks to Emily in the comments…

  • Rail Fares: Who’d Benefit From Cutting Them?

    Today, most of the country went back to work, or at least began to return judging by the generally quiet commute I had today. But a new year means new rail fares. Or more to the point increased rail fares. It’s always worth noting that it’s UK Government policy to reduce rail subsidies. Like most…

  • A Final Farewell to Demon

    My first use of the internet was when I started university in 1988. We were all allocated an email address, but it was mostly used for sending around messages between ourselves, and gaining access to the mainframes that we conducted most of our work on. At least until I discovered the joy of news groups…

  • Bastille Day at the Tour Was Memorable This Year!

    Today’s stage on Mont Ventoux was probably as insane a stage as we’ve ever seen. While the win was contested by a three man breakaway, the overall standings were being contested further down the mountain with the Yellow Jersey, Chris Froome with Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema. Suddenly there was a crash. The TV motorbike…