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Writing: 2010

  1. Falling out of love

    The final volume of Samuel Pepys’ diary has been a disappointment. Not due to the content, but due to the shoddy printing.

  2. Why the iPad newspaper might not be doomed

    Rupert Murdoch’s forthcoming iPad newspaper might not be a failure.

  3. The launch of bipolar disorder

    How bipolar disorder was launched as an identifiable condition.

  4. Week notes

    Bored of writing week notes, so I’m going to stop.

  5. The American Civil War, one day at a time

    The ‘New York Times’ is starting a blog telling the story of the war, day by day.

  6. Week 384

    Continuing with the large American client, and doing some things for Hypergame.

  7. Muji PP Storage comparison spreadsheet

    I made a Google Docs spreadsheet comparing the different Muji boxes and drawers.

  8. Nearly future

    Thoughts on James Bridle’s post about Network Realism.

  9. Week 382

    Starting with a new US-based client.

  10. It no longer makes sense

    Nick Denton is planning to change the structure of his sites’ front pages in a similar way to that I did 18 months ago.

  11. Week 381

    Frustrations and other things with Django.

  12. Week 380

    Comparing freelancing to proper jobs, in terms of money and holiday.

  13. COMMENTS_APP error when extending Django comments

    I was getting an error when customising the Django comments app. Here’s my solution.

  14. Setting up a Django environment and project structure

    My notes on what I do to set up an environment for a Django project.

  15. Willy nilly

    My brief talk about Foursquare etiquette at Playful 2010.

  16. Coding in public

    I’ve put the code for the Django version of the site I’m building up on Github.

  17. Should you build your own home?

    Should you build your own (online) home? Or live in one of the existing communities with their cute little houses?

  18. Week 378

    Starting to re-write my own site in Django, in order to learn how to use it, and very much enjoying it.

  19. Week 377

    Spent most of the week preparing my OpenTech talk about Today’s Guardian.

  20. Week 376

    A short but good week.

  21. A map for every day

    I’ve made maps of my activity for every day, using tweets, Foursquare check-ins and Flickr photos.

  22. Week 375

    Fiddling with twittery things. And a day off. Nice.

  23. It’s not me, it’s you

    My frustrations with ‘Today’ have reached a peak, and I won’t be listening any more.

  24. Week 374

    Spending way too long improving the maps on Pepys’ Diary.

  25. Wired Index

    The Wired Index is very similar to Wired UK’s advertising campaign from 1996.

  26. Week 372

    Design-as-development for the new client, and lots of Pepys.

  27. A better afterlife

    Two bits from reports about UK social attitudes, aspiration and inequality.

  28. Ignore the naming of objects

    Is it better to know everything about a city, or the countryside, or is it better to rely only on your imagination?

  29. Pay-per-point

    Pay-per-view seems a bit rude when you want to show people things. Maybe pay-per-point would be nicer.

  30. Week 369

    Catching up on overdue tasks, arguing, Django.

  31. ‘Cognitive Surplus’ by Clay Shirky

    My notes from reading the book.

  32. SuperMe

    The site I’ve been working on at Somethin’ Else has launched.

  33. Week 368

    Getting on top of things.

  34. Publishing with old dates in Movable Type

    What I did to make the Pepys’ Diary website work with 343-year-old dates in Movable Type.

  35. Pirate economics

    The pay differentials of 18th century pirates.

  36. 30 tons of baggage

    A description of a Victorian journey into Africa and the huge amount of resources required.

  37. A pint bottle full of HeLa

    The story of Henrietta Lacks and her cells that went on to be used in medicine without her family knowing.

  38. Making a web page fit an iPhone screen

    I had problems making a web page fit and fill the iPhone screen width-wise in both Safari and when opened from the Home Screen.

  39. Cool down, little girl

    Some examples of little details that bring to live much larger issues.

  40. More than a million

    Some bits from a review of a book about Henry Wellcome’s huge collection of objects.

  41. Week 367

    A busy week, work and socially.

  42. Sieve filters

    My Sieve email filters, an example.

  43. Week 366

    Still struggling with animation and swiping on Today’s Guardian.

  44. Week 365

    Fiddling with Today’s Guardian on iPhone/iPad, moving photos, and Pepys.

  45. Today’s Guardian feature requests

    The three most common feature requests for the Today’s Guardian website.

  46. Week 364

    Today’s Guardian, work with BERG, and more Pepys.

  47. Today’s Guardian

    The thinking behind my new Today’s Guardian website.

  48. Week 363

    A bit of work and too many other things to make much progress on the news project.

  49. DIY Design

    My notes from the St Bride Library conference 2010.

  50. Week 362

    Work on a personal news-related project and the St Bride Library conference.

  51. Nothing else to do

    Sunday’s aren’t what they used to be, but Tony Hancock’s ‘A Sunday Afternoon At Home’ reminds us what they were.

  52. What have we today?

    Some clippings from the New Statesman’s ‘This England’ column from the early 1990s.

  53. Week 361

    Catching up on weeknotes after a holiday and procrastination.

  54. Twenty-four small drawers

    Re-organised and labelled for the first time in more than twenty years.

  55. Foods I craved

    Food I wanted when on holiday in Morocco with stomach trouble

  56. Week 356

    Getting towards the end of the project, not feeling good about pressure.

  57. Week 355

    Project going fine, Facebook Connect aside.

  58. This is an outrage

    Frustration at both the Digital Economy Bill, but also at the Twitter echo chamber spouting nonsense about proceedings.

  59. New York Holiday

    I had a few days in New York after SXSW and loved it.

  60. Week 353

    Back on Project Humphrey after a break, and all is good.

  61. SXSW 2010

    I had a good time at SXSW, despite the conference itself being a bit uninspiring.

  62. Week 351

    Busy finishing work off, then to SXSW.

  63. SXSW & NY

    I’m off to SXSW and then New York.

  64. Week 350

    A busy week on Project Humphry, El Morro and Samuel Pepys.

  65. Week 349

    Wireframing and some quick coding for BERG’s El Morro project.

  66. Week 348

    Suddenly, the next two weeks are chock full of exciting things.

  67. Week 347

    Looking at the failed news project, and moving on to Project Humphrey.

  68. Replace comments with letters pages

    Maybe we should replace commenting on popular websites with letters’ pages.

  69. News week, day 2

    I think I’m tackling the wrong problem with this project.

  70. News week, day 1

    Frustrated after only one day of this news project.

  71. Next week’s news

    What I plan to do next week: write a weekly news website.

  72. Small publishers of news

    Wondering whether there’s a future for small publishers of news.

  73. Looking for news

    Why I don’t read, watch or listen to any news, which isn’t a good thing.

  74. Week 345

    Reserving a few weeks to work on my own projects.

  75. Week 344

    Getting stuck into Django by starting a new personal project.

  76. Pen v keyboard v Newton v Graffiti v Treo v iPhone

    I tested the speed of inputting text with pen and paper, full-size keyboard, iPhone, Palm Treo keyboard, Palm Graffiti and Apple Newton MessagePad.

  77. Learning to quit

    I’ve been thinking about how to spend one’s time, particularly with regards to learning new things.

  78. Pretend Office RSS feed improvements

    The feed now includes the full text of emails sent to the mailing list.

  79. Practical Django Projects source code

    I uploaded to Bitbucket the code I ended up with after following James Bennett’s book.

  80. Week 342

    Moving into a new office for the first time.