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Ada Lovelace Day: Meg Whitman

Ada Lovelace Day: Meg Whitman

Meg Whitman was the CEO and President of eBay from 1998 to 2008 and is now pursuing a bid for the Governorship of California. She led one of the biggest technology-based companies in the world, taking it from start-up to global dominance. In many ways she was the most powerful woman in Silicon ... Read more »
Estate Agents: hope springs eternal.

Estate Agents: hope springs eternal.

Do you remember the hyperbole that estate agents used to pop through the door? Times have changed. This amused. Translate as: "People keep saying the housing market has collapsed. It's not true, we've actually sold a flat on your ... Read more »
iPod Accessory for the Ladies

iPod Accessory for the Ladies

I spotted this in a Brighton gig guide. It's an intersting little iPod accessory. Just plug it in and, well, just plug it in. It's all reasonably ... Read more »
The Great Escape Online Ticket Rip-off!

The Great Escape Online Ticket Rip-off!

Just went to bag my ticket online for the Great Escape festival in Brighton in May. It was great fun last year and the 2009 line-up is shaping up nicely. But I was astonished by the additional charges being applied to fans buying tickets online. £9.95 in postage and processing fees. It's ... Read more »
Ryanair: cheap flights and cheap jibes

Ryanair: cheap flights and cheap jibes

All it needed was a cheery 'thanks very much, we'll look into it' and all would have been well but that easy-going Irish humour was lacking recently when several Ryanair staff decided having a pop at a blogger making some quite minor but nonetheless constructive, critical points about the online ... Read more »
Southern Railway Passenger Playlist

Southern Railway Passenger Playlist

Southern Railways usually do a pretty good job of running trains to and from London and Brighton. But the past few weeks have been horrendous. I'll forgive snow disruption reluctantly (although not the website being down due to demand as people were desperate to get info) but signal failures, ... Read more »
Apes, Recruitment Consultants and Metaphors.

Apes, Recruitment Consultants and Metaphors.

I had two conversations with recruitment consultants the day before yesterday. One chinwag was engaging, challenging and positive (Do I get extra points in the 'buzzword bingo?'). The other was like discussing nuclear physics with a chimpanzee. There's never much point, especially when the other ... Read more »
Little Hopes for the Eleventh Doctor

Little Hopes for the Eleventh Doctor

The arrival of a new Doctor is always a bit harrowing. I can remember each regeneration since Tom Baker turned into Peter Davison (admittedly dimly) and as a result can remember occasions when the next Doctor wasn't equal or better to his predecessor. But Matt Smith seems like an excellent choice ... Read more »
2008: My Top Five Favourite Songs

2008: My Top Five Favourite Songs

Last year I started what I suspect will become a bit of a tradition. I named my 5 favourite new songs of 2007. I was loose in my definition of new. This year, 'new' means new: all but one of the songs was published in 2008. So here you go: my top five new songs of 2008. Vampire Weekend: Oxford ... Read more »
Wilsondan.co.uk: That Was The Year That Was

Wilsondan.co.uk: That Was The Year That Was

I'm posting this graph for illustrative purposes only (I've stripped off numbers and dates). It's my blog traffic for the year 2008. What do you notice? The peak is my post on Max Gogarty, which really caused a storm back in March. It was great to be part of that conversation. And then ... Read more »
Brighton: I like it here

Brighton: I like it here

A fellow Brightonian read my previous post on Brighton and asked me why I like the old place, in a bit a more detail. We had a long conversation that ranged from the general to the specific and the arcane to the absurd. So, why do I like it in Brighton? Here are some incomplete and random thoughts ... Read more »
3 things that have been on my to do list for more than a year

3 things that have been on my to do list for more than a year

I had to rummage through an old notebook earlier and found an old to do list. Most of it had been completed, but some line items from a year ago are on my current to do list. Sort out iPod/iTunes This I haven't done. I'm constantly annoyed by the way that music is catalogued in iTunes and then ... Read more »
Bollocks arguments that just don't wash.

Bollocks arguments that just don’t wash.

If you rattle around the web long enough, or frankly even just your local boozer, you get involved in a few discussions here and there. Whilst there is an awful lot of good stuff out there, often discussions are low quality and arguments pathetic. I love reason based argument with examples and ... Read more »
Browsing the Booth Museum

Browsing the Booth Museum

On a cold saturday after Christmas, a little excursion is in order. Where better than the Booth Museum of Natural History in Brighton? Thankfully very little has changed since I used to visit frequently as a child. Founded by Edward Thomas Booth in the 19th century, it was very much a ... Read more »