Archive for April, 2008
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
15 years of the public domain web
It’s fifteen years since CERN announced that web code was in the public domain
Tim Berners-Lee has talked on the BBC news site about the way things could go in future, and I managed 4 mins on BBC Radio 5 Live talking about why the Web matters…
3 Comments » - Posted in billstuff by bill
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Something comes of Nothing..
[As ever, you can read this on the BBC News website]
I used to be a professional computer programmer, writing in the C language on the Unix operating system back in the 1980’s when half a megabyte of memory was enough to support a sixteen-user system.
These days I’m only really up to hacking other people’s code [...]
No Comments » - Posted in billblog by bill
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
Workspace
Workspace
Originally uploaded by BillT.
This is my desk at the moment – haven’t quite migrated off the old Vaio desktop onto the new iMac, and apart from picking up the wrong mouse from time to time I’m managing the keyboard switching ok.
Should really have put the [...]
No Comments » - Posted in billblog by bill
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
Context is everything
It’s late on Sunday evening and I’ve just finished writing a column for Ariel, the BBC’s inhouse newspaper. I’m tired, but thought I’d spend five minutes installing Growl, the fabulous tool that tells you about what your Mac’s up to, on my new iMac.
And I came across a discussion thread on the Growl google group [...]
No Comments » - Posted in rambler by bill
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Machine Love
[As ever you can read this on the BBC News Website. It was inspired by a debate at the ICA which I chaired, and has attracted some comment online from Tara, Jordan, and Clare, among others]
Much as I adore my MacBook I have no desire to form a life-long union with it or attempt to [...]
No Comments » - Posted in billblog by bill
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Three essays by Samuel Johnson
My friend Giles at Proboscis kindly invited me to suggest the material for one of their really cool eBooks, and being that kind of hack I chose three essays by Johnson, the man to whom all journalists are beholden.
The eBooks are part of their Diffusion project to create a platform for public authoring and cultures [...]
No Comments » - Posted in rambler by bill
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
Networking Journalism
[As ever, you can read this on the BBC News website. And thanks to my City students for the inspiration!]
I’ve just finished marking the essays my students at City University have to do as part of the course in online journalism that I teach. They’ve done some good work, especially the assignment where I get [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in billblog by bill
Monday, April 7th, 2008
My tweetcloud
My tweetcloud
Originally uploaded by BillT.
Tweetcloud takes all your public tweet and makes a tag cloud out of them. It’s far too accurate… home, coffee, cambridge, sitting, watching, train, time…
No Comments » - Posted in billblog by bill
Saturday, April 5th, 2008
Who Will Write Tomorrow’s Code?
[As ever, this is available on the BBC News website]
On Monday 31st March I was at Queens’ College, Cambridge, for the dinner to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the formation of the Mathematical Laboratory, which later became the Computer Laboratory. Maurice Wilkes, who build the EDSAC in 1949, was there, and gave a speech. [...]
7 Comments » - Posted in billblog by bill
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
Lunch at Les Deux Magots
Lunch at Les Deux Magots
Originally uploaded by BillT.
I went to Paris yesterday to see the Patti Smith exhibition, Land 250, at the Fondation Cartier. It was fabulous, a thrilling insight into the mind and work of someone I have admired for many years.
And afterwards [...]
