typing the void

Sydney is one of those cities that carries its own perfume, one you get a whiff of from open bus windows, moments stuck in traffic jams, or just walking down the street. It is the unmistakeable scent of gum trees, the eucalypt sweet-citrus that is as much a part of the city as the Harbour [...]

Had a lovely social in The Beresford Hotel in Sydney Wed night, thanks to a tip-off from the lads at Happener, with some charming ad interesting bods. I really love this friendly city and the open warm connections it is possible to make here. Anyway, the group is called a STUB, is for Sydney twitterers [...]

I was inspired today by being an inspiration.
I guess I should explain.
In the distant past, I used to be a photographer, before I took up the keyboard. My main forte was still life and small objects, nature isolated. You may recall at the start of this blog in the first posting, I wrote that my [...]

What I want when I want it and all for free or with transparent pricing.
We have not had a television in the house since about 2002, partly as it was a TV I acquired from a flat I moved into in 1991 (!) and it was a bit tired, partly because reception got a bit [...]

I just booked a romantic holiday for two, on a remote island in Fiji, where there’s no electricity, the food is local and the beach is all ours, literally.  There is only one Bura (we call ‘em huts round here!) and one dining space and  the nearest village is a hike around the island. The [...]

As mentioned earlier, I run the Web Standards Meetup London and really get a kick out of talking the semantics of web-page creation with the excellent people who come to these meetings. I like combining the ease of a digital meet-space like meetup or facebook or LinkedIn with the pleasure of actively listening or truly [...]

Carrying on from my theme about using the online world to support rather than supplant the physical world, I thought I’d tell you about these monthly meetings I have been holding since late 2007, in London.
Called the Web Standards Meetup London, they aim to allow practitioners to discuss problems and successes with implementing web [...]

Net Neutrality.
Arguably one of the largest threats to open democracy and freedom of information and content at the moment as it is being decided upon by people who don’t “get it” and people who want to financially control it, particularly in the USA. If the large telcos like Verizon are permitted to throttle parts of [...]

OK so it’s been written about by voices more dextrous than mine but I felt I had to have a go. I just wrote my paltry list of “friends” that I would prefer it if they did not send me any more invites to bite their Zombie’s Friends character, or tend their Lil’ Green Patch [...]

Isn’t it great to be told that when a site does not work, it is YOUR fault?
I went to skype.com to download the latest release for my Mac, went to the downloads page, and landed on the default Windows download page. OK, I’m used to this and expect it, even though I thought they used [...]