Category: Rant

  • A New Outlook

    A New Outlook

    19th Feb 2024 – this morning Microsoft finally forced its “New Outlook” onto my Windows desktop. And now, it’s broken. I don’t mean “bugs” broken. I mean “they want more money” broken: Exactly one year and one day ago, I posted a favourable review of Windows Mail, the little desktop app built-in to Windows that […]

  • On the Microsoft Pro-EU position – how not to write a letter

    I wrote in a previous post that I have a gut feeling about the EU referendum. In fact I have a gut feeling about most things, which is all the more reason I like to subject myself to criticism. Come and knock spots off me, show me how I’m wrong. In fact I’ll go out to […]

  • On Empathy, and the Referendum to Leave the EU

    Many months ago and early on in the unfolding story of the British referendum to leave the EU, it was common to hear the electorate – at least presented by the media – decrying “we feel that neither side has really come up with a good enough list of reasons to” [delete as appropriate]: leave / stay […]

  • From Russia With Cash – barking up the wrong tree

    I have no links with estate agents in my life. I don’t like them, I don’t dislike them. As a portrait photographer or in any other capacity, I’ve never had one as a client myself. Channel 4 last night aired a documentary called “From Russia With Cash”. It featured secretly-filmed property viewings by a fictional […]

  • How Kerning Could Save Your Life

    As someone who buys electronic goods from China on a regular basis, I am used to looking closely at the CE logo to check how close together the letters are. For my buying habits it doesn’t matter. I’m dealing with low-voltage stuff. The worst that could happen is a component might overheat and cause a […]

  • An open letter to my Facebook friends

    Facebook, it seems, has become a front-end for cheap, baiting, advert-laden websites like Buzzfeed and apparently my Facebook friends are falling for it by the droves by posting links to “Top ten tatoo fails”, “8 reasons you are single”, “10 things you can do to be nice to a single person”, etc. I thought Facebook […]

  • Surely nobody thought “Fiscal Union” was really a good idea?

    Far from being an Orwellian nightmare, I love the idea of greater fiscal and political union with our neighbours. Maybe it could even work… in 100-500 years? But right now, as long as different countries within Europe teach different versions of history, value different types of trade, have different climates that affect their vastly diverse […]

  • How to configure your NTL 250 to work with wireless

    If you are merely browsing this blog, don’t read the below. It’s dull as dogs. This is for incoming google searches. (Hint. If you actually want to configure wireless for your NTL 250 cable modem, skip to the far quicker and superior “Option B”.) This blog is for the benefit of anyone who might be going […]

  • Top Ten Grammar Peeves

    I recently read one of those annoying graphics that are being shared on Facebook. What makes them annoying is not that they are faddy, inert, and positively dull, but that they are low resolution JPGs of plain text which have been resized to look like arse. Anyway, the latest – which I simply couldn’t let […]

  • The Pluralist Paradox

    Deep down inside of me, there is a swing voter waiting to get out. A true British I-don’t-really-know-what-I-think voter, someone who could go both ways. Hell, I could go three or four ways. I know, dear imaginary reader, you are thinking, “but how can someone so … so – political – how can you not […]