By @edent · Book Review · 250 words · read ~102 times.
Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles. Achilles, “best of all the Greeks,” is everything Patroclus is not—strong, beautiful, the child of a […]
Continue reading →By @edent · data language · 11 comments · 250 words · read ~146 times.
To be clear - I don't care about this; I just think it is interesting. Is the word "data" a plural? On a strict reading, yes. Datum is singular, data is its plural. But humans are spongey meatbags who evolve language. And there will always be a tension between traditionalists and modernists. So, I took […]
Continue reading →By @edent · education MSc uea university · 7 comments · 750 words · read ~336 times.
Backstory - I'm doing a taught Masters course. It's going OK. Mostly. But I've been thinking about the nature of university lecturers. This Tweet has been doing the rounds. HI EXCUSE ME, I just found out the the prof for this online course I’m taking *died in 2019* and he’s technically still giving classes since […]
Continue reading →By @edent · Book Review · 250 words
I don't understand this book. I enjoy Robin Ince's stand-up comedy, and have marvelled at his incredible free-association at numerous events. But I'm not so sure that it works well as a book. What makes us funny? What drives us to entertain others? The first half of the book takes a high level view of […]
Continue reading →By @edent · bitcoin Book Review · 150 words · read ~115 times.
Everything that BitCoin and BlockChain touches is poisoned. Except for this fun wee book. It's a near-future sci-fi cyber-heist with a great cast of characters and some delicious predictions about how the Internet of Things could go disastrously wrong. Thankfully, there's very little technobabble. I nodded along with most of the technology - only pausing […]
Continue reading →By @edent · HTML5 web WeekNotes work · 53 comments · 650 words · read ~62,975 times.
I've told this story at conferences - but due to the general situation I thought I'd retell it here. A few years ago I was doing policy research in a housing benefits office in London. They are singularly unlovely places. The walls are brightened up with posters offering helpful services for people fleeing domestic violence. […]
Continue reading →By @edent · Movie Review Sci Fi · 1 comment · 250 words · read ~204 times.
It's rare to find a sci-fi / rom-com crossover - and it's even rarer to find one that's good. TiMER is excellent. Like all good speculative fiction, it changes just one aspect of the modern world - what would it be like if you knew exactly when you would meet your one-true-love? It doesn't bother […]
Continue reading →By @edent · games review · 7 comments · 300 words · read ~270 times.
Blogging like it's 1991! I'm pretty sure that I had the shareware version of the original Monkey Island. At any rate, I remember the amazing graphics... But I don't remember getting further than the first few screens. I do remember a few years later, my brother and I completing the CD-ROM version of "Day Of […]
Continue reading →By @edent · 7 comments · 700 words · read ~431 times.
Briefly (and incorrectly) put, Moore's Law estimates that the cost of computer power halves every 18 month. Got a grand to spend? Wait a couple of years and you can buy twice the amount of computer for the same cost. Or, if you prefer, the old computer for half the price. The Nokia N95 - […]
Continue reading →By @edent · innovation MSc · 5 comments · 450 words · read ~279 times.
There's a famous quote from Tom Goodwin about the way the world has changed recently: Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting […]
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