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Writing

  1. Anyone can write this crap

    David Simon wants newspapers to be as good as they once were and start charging. I’m not sure they were ever that good.

  2. No one will be pointing at them

    If all websites cost money to read, what would I pay for?

  3. Shownar

    I recently worked on Shownar, a new website about which BBC TV and radio programmes are surprisingly popular.

  4. The highwalks are an island

    A response to Will Wiles’ post ‘In Praise of Beech Street’.

  5. When theft isn’t theft

    Why I dislike the use of the word “theft” in relation to illegal downloading of software, music, movies, etc.

  6. Twittering betimes

    Samuel Pepys is on Twitter but doesn’t have many friends. Here’s why you should be his friend.

  7. Mailman Archive Scraper

    A Python script I wrote that scrapes a Mailman mailing list archive and republishes it elsewhere, with some optional additional changes.

  8. Email improvisation

    Guidelines for successful improvisation, whether on stage or on a mailing list about an imaginary office.

  9. Pretend Office

    I’ve been enjoying myself on the employee mailing list of a fictitious company.

  10. A tiny, tiny fraction

    I’ve archived a few GeoCities sites that will otherwise soon be wiped from the web by Yahoo.

  11. Ugly and neglected fragments

    GeoCities is an ugly disorganised mess. But it’s still a huge shame that Yahoo! is closing the whole thing down.

  12. Google Street View

    Google Street View is currently at its least amazing stage. Two thoughts on why and how it will get better as the years go by.

  13. It’s not a race

    Wondering why the BBC continually schedules hit US TV shows in bizarre ways, as if they don’t want anyone to watch them.

  14. Liking something the wrong way

    I was banned from a Flickr user’s photos for favouriting them too often.

  15. SXSW 2009

    A summary of my experience of the conference.

  16. Old Think for Old Publishers

    The ‘New Think for Old Publishers’ panel at SXSW 09 was an exercise in failing to managing expectations.

  17. Choosing a wiki

    A quick run-down of what I looked at when trying to choose a wiki for Septivium.

  18. Chart Hits 83

    Some of my favourite tunes from a cassette compilation I had when I was twelve. And why mainstream nostalgia makes us neglect things.

  19. Septivium

    I’ve started a new site, about learning everything.

  20. A new kind of front page

    A step towards a better front page for an individual’s aggregated content on the web.

  21. Flickr, Getty and the greater good

    The new Flickr/Getty arrangement is good for those aiming to get into stock photography, but not for the Creative Commons

  22. What am I up to?

    For everyone who thinks I’m just being an actor or something now.

  23. Physicalising ebooks

    How can we best represent the heft of real books in ebook readers?

  24. What on Earth is going on at ‘Today’?

    Fury at ‘Today’s slot on the Pope saying how homosexuals are killing the human race.

  25. Pelinore from ‘Imagine’ magazine

    I scanned in all the pages I have from the early 1980s ‘Imagine’ magazine describing the Dungeons & Dragons campaign world of Pelinore.