In July 2006, another Wikipedia user left a message on my talk page to say that he had begun an article on renowned Leicester space physicist Ken Pounds, and noting that I was a Leicester physicist, invited me to contribute to the article. Although I was reluctant to write about someone I vaguely knew, the […]
Today marks 10 years since I was given my first e-mail address and started using the internet on a regular basis. The occasion was that I started university. The internet was only just starting to find its way into people’s homes, so the majority of people online were academic users. I kept the same university […]
I’ve decided not to post an April Fool on my website this year. That’s not because of a lack of imagination (well, OK, it’s partly that too) but rather that I realised the internet covers all of the different timezones, so it would always be the wrong day for the joke somewhere in the world. […]
Yesterday I read about a new web browser, called Browzar, on BBC News. This browser, so claimed the BBC , would offer “total privacy for its users” by removing any trace of the sites they had visited from the computer. Today, the BBC article‘s claims have been significantly toned down. Now the program simply “leaves […]
Legal video download services are looking to the technologies used by “illegal” fire-sharing services to speed up downloads. By using a peer-to-peer network, the files are downloaded in parts from other users instead of being downloaded sequentially from a central server. This should improve the speed as it isn’t limited by the server’s bandwidth. But […]
Last week I noticed that the appearance of my Google search results had changed. There was a new column down the left side with links for Images, Groups, News, etc. and alongside each one there was a green bar-chart, presumably to indicate the number of search results for each type of search. There were some […]
Recently, I read about two newly-launched web-based services that help to match people up with others for their mutual benefit. One, studentswaps.com, was for students going away to university to live in the home of another family in a swap system, with the aim of saving money on accommodation costs. The other, localmothers.co.uk, was for […]
Last month I described how a new licensing regime has meant that listeners from outside the UK may no longer listen to British independent radio stations. But certain stations, including Classic FM, only required the listener to enter a valid UK postcode to listen. Then, at the start of this month, something changed again, and […]
From 1 April 2006, internet streams of British independent radio stations ceased to be available for listeners outside the UK. Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), who collect royalties on behalf of record companies, informed broadcasters that they are only in a position to sell broadcasting rights for the UK. Therefore, when the old licences expired on […]
We often hear about the “Great Firewall of China”, the filter put in place by Chinese censors to prevent access to material that is disapproved of by the Chinese government. For example, there is no access to BBC News. However, for those in the West, it’s usually only possible to read media reports, or hear […]
20th Century Fox 35mm film accident addiction address adverts aerial photo Airbnb airport air travel alcohol America American English animation anniversary apostrophe app archive arts funding backup bank bank charges BBC Beijing benefits Big Ben Birmingham bitrate BNP bottle bridge broadcasting BT budget bus business calendar camera cannabis cartoon cash cash machine castle catchup TV cathedral Catholicism CD celebrity censorship CERN Channel Tunnel chart children China Chinese Chinese New Year Christianity Christmas church classical music Classic FM climate change clock code coin collaboration Colombia comedy commission Communism complaint composer computing concert concerto Conservatives contempt copyright corruption councils countryside courier court crash crime critics culture currency DAB date David Cameron debt demolition development Didcot Didcot Power Station diet digital photography digital radio digital rights management digital television diplomacy direct debit discount Disney disrespect diversity domain Downton Abbey drink driving driving drugs dust e‑cigarattes earthquake eBay eclipse education election electricity electromagnetic fields email Empire employment energy engineering ethnicity etymology EU Europe Eurostar exams expenses Facebook fanfare feed fees file‑sharing film music fire fitness flag Flickr flying football Formula One fraud Freedom of Information free speech Freeview fuel duty gambling game show gay George Gilbert Scott giant hogweed Google government Greenpeace guitar health Heathrow heraldry heroes holidays Hong Kong honours hotel housing human rights ID cards image use immigration independence inflation interest internet interview Iraq Islam Israel ITV Japan jazz Jazz FM jigsaw jingle job John Williams joke Jubilee jury justice Kidderminster Kodak Labour landscape law Leicester lens letter licence life expectancy litter loan local government logo London Lords lorry lottery mail Malaysia Mandarin manners mathematics mayor measurement megapixel Met Office military millionaire mistake mobile phone monarchy money monopoly moon motto mountain murder Murdoch Music names nationalism Nationwide newspaper New Year New Zealand NHS Nick Clegg Nokia Northern Ireland nuclear obesity obituary Ofcom Olympics opening hours Open Rights Group open source opposition Oxfordshire pandemic parents parliament peerage petition photogaph photograph photographer physics Pinyin Plaid Cymru planning plant plat poem Poland police poll Pope post postcode post office power lines power station prayer prime minister prison privacy privatisation prize Proms pronunciation property protest publication Queen quiz racism radio railway record recording referendum regeneration renting republicanism ringtone rip off river road royal royal mail RSS rubbish satellite savings Scala Radio school Scotland seatbelt shop shopping sky skyline smoking SNP social networking song Spain spam sponsorship Star Wars station statistics STFC streaming street view sun supermarket swearing Switzerland symphony synchrotron tabloid tax taxonomy telecoms Telegraph television Tesco Thatcherism theatre The Simpsons time timelaspe timezone Titanic title toll Tony Blair tourism trademark tradition transit travel trees tsunami Twitter unionism unit university vandalism vaping Venus violence Virgin visa vote Wales war waste water weather web web design website weddings weed weekend welfare state Wikipedia winter wireless Wordpress work writing Yahoo yob
