Archive for the ‘ Technology ’ Category

A brief history of climate change

Just saw a gargantuan poster on a link at Devil’s Kitchen and felt the need to perform the blogging version of a retweet: so here it is. It traces in astounding detail the history of the climate change scare – which is undoubtedly a very recent phenomenon, since as late as the 1990s the ‘prevailing [ READ MORE ]

Too much tax?

Well at least count yourself lucky that you’re not French. The government of President Nicolas Sarkozy are apparently mulling a ‘Google tax’, according to an article in the Telegraph (and here on the BBC too). Yes, that’s right, a tax that is levied on Google “every time a French internet user clicks on an advertising [ READ MORE ]

In focus: the power of social media

You will probably have become aware of the recent incident on the Tube at Holborn station, where a London Underground worker wholly overreacted to a customer’s complaint at having gotten his arm trapped in a closing train door. The entrepreneur and blogger Jonathan Macdonald, who managed to catch the latter part of the exchange on [ READ MORE ]

Phone of the future

Thanks to Samizdata, a wonderful little video courtesy of Nokia, in which they explore what kind of benefits nanotechnology could have on everyday items with which we are now familiar. Phones that fold, stretch, clean themselves and change colour – all through nanotechnology. One word: beautiful[ READ MORE ]

Plastic bags no longer a worry?

Dizzy has an interesting piece about the discovery by a 16-year-old Canadian by name of Daniel Burd of a way to decompose ordinary plastic bags in considerably less than the 100s of years cited by the green lobby. Through judicious use of a bacteria called Sphingomonas, along with a helper bacteria called Pseudomonas, polythene can [ READ MORE ]

Obama and the fly

When I saw this story for the first time, I genuinely thought it was a hoax. The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have criticised Barack Obama for swatting dead a fly that was pestering him during an interview – frankly, I can’t think of a news story that carries less [ READ MORE ]

Can’t take criticism

Oh dear. It seems like Gordon Brown hasn’t been given an easy ride by the watchers of his YouTube video on MP’s expenses. You know, the one in which he randomly grins as though someone off-camera keeps holding up a weak joke on a piece of card every 30 seconds or so… Only 4000-odd views [ READ MORE ]

Home Office and Phorm

Oh look – it seems that the people who want complete access to our emails and texts were in cahoots with the notorious online ad firm Phorm. Phorm, to be clear, got rapped by the Open Rights Group and the Foundation for Information Policy Research for the inability of consumers to consensually opt-in to the [ READ MORE ]

The wrong tactics

Just came across this post on Devil’s Kitchen, in which he gives (in no uncertain terms) his opinion on a truly bizarre fringe eco-lobby group called Climate Rush, and their inspired idea of gluing themselves to a statue in the Houses of Parliament. To put it bluntly, DK is less than impressed. Tom Harris, normally [ READ MORE ]

Branching out

I thought I might flag up a little the website I spent most of my Easter holidays working on: it’s for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, which is  part of the Oxford University Department of Politics and International Relations, and essentially acts as a base for visiting journalists to participate in its [ READ MORE ]

Light entertainment

Courtesy of xkcd[ READ MORE ]

Twitter

Just the teensiest of mentions that I’ve now also jumped on the Twitter bandwagon at http://twitter.com/mariusostrowski. Funny thing, Twitter – it’s like Facebook status updates but without the entire rigmarole of Facebook attached. Plus you can ‘follow’ people who probably would never touch Facebook with a bargepole – Stephen Fry, Richard Hammond and the like. [ READ MORE ]

Back to the Stone Age?

O for goodness’ sake. A euphemistic approximation of my initial reaction when I saw this article on the BBC this morning. Apparently using the internet is now harmful to the environment – no, this isn’t another one of those stories about how our broadband connections are killing off all the bees (a novelty I was [ READ MORE ]

Wisdomap

I’m very conscious that I’ve completely and utterly failed to write anything substantial over the last, well, 2 months almost, but I’m hoping this will all change once I go back home for the Christmas holidays. To ease the wait, however, I thought I’d flag up a very good software I came across while idly [ READ MORE ]

The second Internet revolution?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7475986.stm Appealing, isn’t it? The thought of your very own domain on the internet. Not blog, not website, domain. Just think of the possibilities – self-customised websites based on your initials, www.bbc.jfk or www.facebook.fdr or even (dare I say it) www.wordpress.lbj, not that I imagine that this would have to be the sole preserve of [ READ MORE ]

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.