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A great community project happening in Langham, just into South Scotland and only a stone's throw from where I grew up. It's a beautiful area with plenty of wildlife already (including a solid …

I am a huge fan of the ever insightful talk show Last Week Tonight, hosted by John Oliver. I love the directness of the opinion pieces, agree with many of the stances taken and largely find the …

Last month I wrote up a post detailing the films I'd seen in March. When I initially started blogging again last year I had hoped that mini-reviews and similar content would become a mainstay, …

Well that's that then. The great legal firewall has descended and the BBC's iPlayer service is now firmly on the other side. As of today, you can no longer watch catch-up TV for free in the UK; …

I find it slightly bizarre how popular Last.fm has become over time. I understand that the service now offers a plethora of features, including some powerful music discovery tools, yet at the core …

I am an …

Yes, I am one of those irritating people that have decided to resurrect an audio format that, by all rights, should be long extinct. And, further yes, I'm also now going to complain about my …

I've recently been spending a lot of time researching, and ultimately buying, a new camera. From an outsider perspective it might seem a little odd, as I already have a very good DSLR that, whilst by …

It is Christmas Eve and the penultimate week of the New 52 challenge! There's a nice symmetry to that, which, of course, is why I picked today to write a post... and nothing to do with it being the …

I'm a pretty big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so it felt a bit ridiculous when I was given Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2 for Christmas. To be clear, the gift wasn't ridiculous; …

I just fell down a rather wonderful rabbit hole. My tale begins with a book review, written by Ross Barnett, of Sabretooth (Mauricio Anton). Apart from instantly causing me to add the book …

I have to admit, after a particularly awful experience well over a decade ago I have deliberately avoided travelling through the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. As a result, I had no idea about …

We have seven days in a week, 24 hours in a day – but what does that actually mean when trying to set aside time to work on side projects? Once you take into account work hours, time to eat and sleep, and everything in between, is it all as bad as it feels?

A look back and a look forward... it must be the start of a new year. 2019 held a lot of change and personal improvement, but I can't help but feel that 2020 is going to be a big one. So what exactly do I have planned and what am I hoping for the next 12 months?

An amalgamation of all the data you get fed at the end of a year. From Spotify Wrapped, to Google tracking, to my own beer journal, a look back over 2019 from a (mildly) data-centred viewpoint.

Oh boy, there's a lot worth pulling out of this overview of upcoming web …

I mostly use my iPad for watching YouTube. So what do I do now that Google has locked my device out of the YouTube app because it's too old? Why is it possible for a company to effectively remove features from my device that worked yesterday?

Notes from my second fully remote conference, this time Sparkbox's UnConference. Being able to freely access talks from the US is a rare bonus of everything going on right now, and this did not disappoint. Musical cameos, great talks on UX, accessibility, design systems, and amazing speakers. Great event (despite the time difference).

The Sigma 150-600 Contemporary has been on my shortlist as the wildlife lens to get for some time. Today, it left that shortlist... and entered my camera bag! Whilst I can't go out and test it on actual wildlife right now, I have been taking some test shots around the house.

When I rewilding farming schemes I don't think of the Karoo. The Landmark Foundation are trying to get that to change. The idea is simple enough: the Karoo grassland has evolved to persist around …

Two months after Disney+ launched I'm still a huge fan of the content catalogue but swing between feeling bemused and exasperated at the actual experience of using the service.

The tale of Hans Gensfleisch, later Johannes Gutenberg, and the invention of the Gutenberg press. Packed with interesting historical …

Notes from the 2020 Jamstack Conf. Some interesting dives in the Jamstack community and various applications of Jamstack technologies, with tweet threads as usual.

We're almost at the midway point of 2020, so I thought it would be a good moment to take a look at my New Year's challenges list and see how things were going.

I love books. I have a huge collection of them and I routinely add to it. But when it comes to the topic of spreading knowledge and information, I think the web wins. It may not be as nice to use, but it is more accessible, and that means it's more valuable.

A fascinating dive into the mentality differences between Bandcamp and Spotify. Spoiler: Bandcamp comes out looking a lot more positive, particularly for artists. Interesting to see the CEO of …

I only know two things about Bitcoin: it's an environmental nightmare and I don't know anywhere near enough about it to get involved, financially or technically. So I'm adding a pinch of salt to this …

A powerful and insightful piece by Michelle on the direct environmental impact the tech sector has, the way in which tech workers can demand further accountability and action, and the reality that …

I find the whole Australian link tax to be silly and a rare instance where I'm very much on the side of Big Tech, but Thomas has done a much better job of explaining why it's all a farce than I …

A depressing deep-dive into the world of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), cryptoart, and why crypto-anything is an ecological and social …