August 2008
44 posts
Jakobian Wordpress theme →
The creator of this theme, which is based on the look of highly overrated web usability guru Jakob Nielsen, freely admits that it is “hideously ugly” and “a bit of a usability design in-joke”. No demo, sadly. Which means that I almost want to install it and try it out. Almost.
14 Ways to Use Twitter Politely →
And people continue to write at length - perhaps somewhat ironically, given the service’s 140-character limit - about the right and proper way to ‘behave’ on Twitter. “Think twice before twittering in an altered state”, for instance. Er, right. Thanks. Articles like this make me want to go out and shout at people in bus queues.
10 Words That Will Help You Win at Scrabble →
And I’ll bet my last Xu on that.
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
– Ernest Hemingway
Comedy producer dies in accident →
Geoffrey Perkins, the creator of the game Mornington Crescent from the Radio 4 show I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, has died. Rumours that he will be buried in Highgate Cemetery, with the hearse playing a startling variation of Toksvig’s Protocol by following a route from Blackhorse Road to Great Portland Street via Totteridge & Whetstone, could not be confirmed at this time....
“I would like the BBC reporters speaking from the actual spot where soldiers are...”
– spEak You’re bRanes
“If I see a toy that was misplaced or is lying face down, I get unbelievably sad...”
– i am neurotic: toy love
Britain's happiest places mapped →
So apparently the Welsh county of Powys is the happiest place in the UK, with the Scottish capital of Edinburgh being the most miserable. I am well-known for my dislike of almost all things Welsh (um, yes, sorry Wales), whilst I have always wanted to live in Edinburgh. Clearly, there is no hope for me.
IE Death March →
Rather geeky, but as someone who has to suffer the indignity of using IE6 every working day (then heaves a sigh of relief when I get back to Firefox), I highly approve of this site.
Woork: 10 Awesome typewriter fonts for web... →
Sometimes I find myself looking at fonts and wondering how, if I was a remotely talented designer, I would use them creatively on the web. Other times, I just sit and stare at those same fonts, whilst drooling embarrassingly from the corners of my mouth. This is an example of the latter.
Host Your Own Muxtape Clone With OpenTape →
Now that Muxtape has made itself “unavailable for a brief period’, thanks to problems with the RIAA, Opentape looks like an interesting solution to how I can continue to offer my adoring internet public my varied collections of obscure melancholia and one-hit wonders last heard in 1989 (usually for very good reasons), all of which I know they miss so much.
My broken-foot summer is an edifying trip into... →
Oh dear. A Guardian journalist breaks a bone in her foot. Spends a few months on crutches. Writes about it. Claims that this experience gives her some empathy and insight into what it’s like being a disabled person. And as if that’s not bad enough, she shoots herself in the foot (sorry) by once again making the mistaken assumption that ‘disabled’ automatically equals...
Fix the Problems With Your Someday/Maybe List →
More ‘Getting Things Done’ rubbish that makes me hate Lifehacker with a passion. Particularly on a sleepy morning after a blissful long weekend …
The Sheep Market →
Because you can never have too many sheep. Not even 10,000 of them. [via]
“I think with British ingenuity, wit and… resourcefulness we are going to...”
– Boris Johnson, Mayor of London. Sounds like we’re really going to be breaking out the packets of sparklers and the pork scratchings, then.
UK economy comes to a standstill →
A new entrant in the list of Headlines Telling Us Things We Are Already Well Aware Of, Thank You. Others include World Is Indubitably Round and Pope is Catholic! Who Knew? At least this way I won’t have to listen to any more commentators on Radio 4, theorising about whether the economy really is at a standstill. What a relief.
Abandoned baby whale mistakes Australian yacht for... →
My environmental conscience is clearly lacking, because I am trying not to laugh at this headline. Whale. Yacht. Yacht. Whale. How hard can it be?
10 ways Britain changed over the weekend →
BBC News suggests that the GB medal haul at the Olympics has altered the national character. I’m not sure which I hate more: when the British do abysmally at sport, and we get weeks of post-mortem, or when we do exceptionally well, and then get weeks of self-congratulatory back-slapping.
Less Friends →
A web application that quickly allows you to find out if the people you follow on Twitter actually follow you in return. Or to put it another way, the paranoia of social networking in just a few seconds. Please kill me now.
Bad spelling 'should be accepted' →
A university lecturer has proposed that common spelling mistakes should be accepted into everyday use. In particular, he suggests that misspellings that break the ‘i before e’ rule should be allowed. Just the thought of reading words such as freind, wierd and peice everywhere is bringing me out in a cold sweat as I type.
“Kingswood today is a strange place; beyond the croquet lawns and grand oak doors...”
– BBC: Stately decline
Nick Cave should get a kitten →
Possibly the best Facebook group ever. Especially the picture. Although the kitten looks more terrifying than old Saint Nick does.
"The black dog is abroad tonight ..." →
“This culinary computer will utilise our newly discovered formula to ascertain...”
– The Sarniematic 6 Cheddarometer
