Greetings from 2008! I'm really pleased you've picked the Early 21st Century Social History module this term. You're going to love it. But before you dive into the wealth of primary evidence we've left on the net, there's something we need you to understand. We know it doesn't look good, but we weren't really shallow … Continue reading Note to future historians: We know it doesn’t look good, but we weren’t really shallow time-wasters in the Noughties
Category: introspection
Thomas A. Watson Ate My Internet
"But daddy, if people didn't have computers, how did they buy things from the internet?" It's amazing how something we've come to take for granted hangs from such a fragile thread. As part of a new product trial for my employer, we recently had a visit from two very helpful telecoms engineers who checked out … Continue reading Thomas A. Watson Ate My Internet
Relax, your photos are in the sky (but I’ve burned a CD just in case)
The conversation in our household goes like this: Me: I'm clearing the digital camera. Its memory's nearly full. My spouse: I don't like the idea that all our photos are just on the computer. Me: Well they're safer there than in tatty envelopes under the bed... Spouse: Yes, but why can't we print them all … Continue reading Relax, your photos are in the sky (but I’ve burned a CD just in case)
Sous les pavés, la plage
The payphone has bluescreened... ... the departure board has 404ed... ... the giant TV screen is somebody's Windows desktop... Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! Since posting my three broken technology pictures, I've been suffering the blogger's equivalent of what the French call "l'esprit de l'escalier," and for which German has the … Continue reading Sous les pavés, la plage
Everything I Know I Learned From Old Ladybird books
We recently inherited a stack of Ladybird books and have wasted many happy hours inside the uncomplicated mind of the 1960s educationalist. Here's what we've learned: Computers do not have brains and they cannot really think for themselves A stockbroker in the City is probably more interested in financial news, and has time to read … Continue reading Everything I Know I Learned From Old Ladybird books
Pattern: Bundle of identity
The Enlightenment philosopher David Hume proposed that identity is nothing but the bundle of our past experiences. Don't test me on this, because I just read it on Wikipedia, but it seems like a good place to start this piece of introspection on the need for a unified identity. It goes like this. Context: I … Continue reading Pattern: Bundle of identity
honest, tasty and real
Picture 033 Originally uploaded by mattedgar. We believe that life is too short to find our own voice, and that it's easier to copy someone else. We take some dippy hippy Ben and Jerry's blurb and add a dash of Dave Cameron Innocent Smoothy mateyness, then we mix it up a bit (but not much). … Continue reading honest, tasty and real
the space between the tracks
Remember the old story about the plan to sell ads on vinyl records in the gaps between the tracks? It never happened because the crackly silence turned out to be an essential part of the LP experience. I'm on a train with the world's information sliced and diced into 500 pixels in my hand. But … Continue reading the space between the tracks
No, I did not say ‘Sunday’ and if I shout any louder it’ll wake the baby
Overheard conversation with the cloth-eared computer of a national cinema chain. Or why context of use is all-important for mobile applications :)
The private life of a digital camera
Flickr etiquette is a tricky thing. For starters I have to pigeonhole the tangled web of people-with-whom-I-share-photos into "family", "friends" and that wonderful catch-all "contacts" (maybe we should all be using a Cold War-style dead letter box in Regent's Park?) But that's nothing to the almost daily dilemma of how to share each photo I … Continue reading The private life of a digital camera
What we say versus what we see
So I know what you're going to say, text isn't the point of mobile blogging - it's all about pictures, videos, media, capturing the moment and storing it up or sharing it out. Yes, I love taking pictures with my phone and zapping them up to Flickr, and yes, Shozu is one of that rare … Continue reading What we say versus what we see
mo-blogging text-entry benchmark
i’m typing this on my phone, top deck of a bus travelling up chapeltown road. i reckon i can enter text at about a 10th the speed i think it. that works out about 30 words a mile on the number 3a bus. less outside the rush hour. Equipment used for benchmark (should you wish … Continue reading mo-blogging text-entry benchmark
Mobile blogging five years on (and off)
August 21, 2001. Newly armed with Nik Haldimann's Wapblogger (2001-2005) on my trusty Nokia 7110i I bash out a record seven blog posts in one day. On the bus, in the lift, in the café, In just a few short hours I live every mobile blogging use case known to marketing. That date remains my … Continue reading Mobile blogging five years on (and off)
Matt Edgar writes here 