Archive for August, 2006
Tuesday, August 29th, 2006
Modern Times
I’m getting older, if not old – 46 next birthday, and starting to feel it in my joints and show it with my white beard. But the new Dylan album makes me feel that the whole thing is bearable, that age and experience have their merits and that if you can rhyme, sneer and laugh [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in I saw this by bill
Tuesday, August 29th, 2006
Speaking Truthiness to Wikiality
[truthiness: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness]
My article [available here on the blog or here on the BBC] about Wikipedia and the plans by the German edition to put new editorial controls in place on their edition on the site seems to have been taken by some of those involved as an attack on the site and its philosophy, [...]
7 Comments » - Posted in billblog, billstuff by bill
Monday, August 28th, 2006
What can you say in one hundred words?
For the last three months I’ve been working as tame geek and online advisor for two friends who have a fantastic project built around writing and producing plays with one hundred words, and doing them in English and Chinese (Mandarin) as part of a wider cross-cultural programme.
The site – and blog – is at http://www.100wordplay.com/, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in billstuff by bill
Sunday, August 27th, 2006
Dead trees for the rich
Roy Greenslade notes the debate prompted by The Economist’s attempt to understand what is happening in the newspaper world, and refers to a piece on Today earlier this week:
Here is the response to The Economist by two editors: Alan Rusbridger of The Guardian and Simon Kelner of The Independent, talking on this morning’s Today programme. [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in I saw this by bill
Sunday, August 27th, 2006
Lazy Sunday Afternoons…
Some of us read the papers, others walk the dog. But for a true geek, Sunday is just the day for installs and configuration.
I, like many millions of others, have a Linksys WRT54G wireless router at home. Generally, it’s been fine, but recently I’ve found myself having to reset it every few days when connectivity [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in I saw this by bill
Saturday, August 26th, 2006
What makes a Wiki?
[As ever, you can read this on the BBC News website]
For some time now the people behind Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia assembled from reader contributions and edited and maintained by those who care to get involved, have been coping with the fallout from a widely-publicised failure of their quality control mechanism.
1 Comment » - Posted in billblog by bill
Saturday, August 26th, 2006
Will we want to open the Windows?
[As ever, this is also on the BBC News website]
The imminent release of Vista, the latest incarnation of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, could mark the point at which the ongoing argument between two very different models of how software should be developed and maintained is finally resolved.
1 Comment » - Posted in billblog by bill
Friday, August 18th, 2006
Castro’s birthday
Venice: August 2006
Originally uploaded by BillT.
Fidel Castro was 80 last Sunday, and I was in Venice But I’d remembered to take along my last cuban cigar, bought in Havana on my trip there with Lili earlier this year… and so we toasted the great [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in billblog by bill
Friday, August 11th, 2006
Travelling in Turmoil
This should be coming to you from Venice, where the cybercafes have started offering wireless connections and you can even log on while sitting at the Palenca vaparetto stop.
Instead I’m sitting on my living room floor trying to decide whether the seven pm Ryanair flight to Forli I booked myself on last night will actually [...]
4 Comments » - Posted in billblog by bill
Wednesday, August 9th, 2006
No photography
I do a fair bit of freelance work for the BBC, so I’m often in Bush House and other buildings. While there I sometimes spot things of interest, such as a display case containing Alistair Cooke’s typewriter.
And, this being the digital age, I take photos of the things I see and post them to Flickr.
Well [...]
