Thinker, Blogger, Hacker, Hiker.
The Pirates: Just a political party for a certain age group in Sweden?
The Pirates: Just a political party for a certain age group in Sweden?
4 February 2012
At Learning Without Frontiers Conference, Keri Facer, Professor of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University said: …in Sweden we have the first political party, that, if you like, is allying itself with a particular age group – the Pirate Party. I don't think this is true. I mean sure, in Sweden there's a political party called the […]
Ellen MacArthur at Learning Without Frontiers Conference
Ellen MacArthur at Learning Without Frontiers Conference
3 February 2012
When I was a teenager, Ellen MacArthur was a great inspiration to me. Her autobiography "Taking on the World" where she describes the trial and tribulations of her childhood as she struggles to fulfil her dreams of sailing were particularly inspiring. I sometimes feel a bit uncomfortable watching people talk about their past successes at […]
What when anonymous turns out to be not anonymous?
What when anonymous turns out to be not anonymous?
2 February 2012
Hypothetical scenario: Someone starts an anonymous website that states it's aim (in the future) is to make information available that governments and companies may dislike. Clearly being anonymous would be a key part of their strategy to avoid trouble. Hypothetically, one decides to see what publicly available information one can find about who's running the […]
Reality TV for [almost] sane people: Tallafornia Swipe
Reality TV for [almost] sane people: Tallafornia Swipe
1 February 2012
I want to apologise in advance. If reality TV – even if someone is satirising it – isn't your thing, stop reading now. Tallafornia is Ireland's answer to Jersey Shore. If that doesn't mean anything to you, I suggest you save your soul, stop reading and go to a happy place right now. Tallafornia is […]
UK man jailed for possessing publicly available US Army field manual on terrorism charges.
UK man jailed for possessing publicly available US Army field manual on terrorism charges.
31 January 2012
I strongly suggest being aware of legal issues in your jurisdiction before attempting to obtain any of the publications mentioned in this blog post. Someone once asked me why I've never read the Anarchist's Cookbook. I said: I'm not interested I can't be bothered I don't want to go to prison in the UK Today […]
Step outside analogue boy!
Step outside analogue boy!
29 January 2012
Who says that hiking has nothing to do with digital rights? Today I walked up Bowfell in the Lake District (from Dungeon Ghyll, Langdale) in the beautiful snow! Any analogue or digital boys and girls are more than welcome to come hiking sometimes and chat about their thoughts and concerns. 🙂 Hiking transcends usual boundaries. […]
Here's a challenge…
Here's a challenge…
28 January 2012
On the 1st of March, I will start my fifth year of blogging. It's had various incarnations over the years and I did have a website before that, but I thought this not-very-impressive birthday deserved a bit of a celebration. "Well Tim", you smugly point out, "shouldn't your Happy-Birthday-To-Me post be on the first of […]
Reddit for giving. Reddit for good.
Reddit for giving. Reddit for good.
27 January 2012
Over the last couple of weeks we've heard again and again that the Internet is the scouge of our cultural industries, wrecking our economies and upsetting the neighbours. Of course, none of this is true, but I thought it might be worthwhile if I highlighted what I feel is a growing trend in people's behaviour […]
Does your mum now have my O2 phone number?
Does your mum now have my O2 phone number?
25 January 2012
Today we found out that O2 had screwed up their mobile internet proxy settings quite epically and had sent customer phone numbers to millions of websites, worldwide, as a matter of process, presumably by accident. We already know this from the fantastic investigative works of O2 customer and twitter user Lew Peckover, a 28 year […]
Well done Laura Dekker!
Well done Laura Dekker!
21 January 2012
Some of you may remember Laura Dekker – the plucky young dutch girl who, as a 14 year old, was involved in a massive legal battle with the dutch child protection agencies to allow her to sail round the world single handed. Laura, who has been sailing from a young age and was born on […]
The 5 best, anti-SOPA protest songs
The 5 best, anti-SOPA protest songs
17 January 2012
So with the blackout of Wikipedia, Reddit and everything, Rick Falkvinge got me thinking. If the iconic singer songwriters of the labour movements were Arlo Guthrie and Billy Bragg, who are the iconic singer songwriters of the Digital Rights movement? I'm genuinely interested if you have a suggestion. To help you consider the question, here […]
Hackers and Repetition
Hackers and Repetition
17 January 2012
Sometimes reddit throws up some fantastic stuff about life and work. This graph really highlights what's frequently referred to as the first hacker virtue "Laziness". Instead of being content to do a task manually, they want to sit around and do less of that, thus the second hacker virtue "Impatience" comes in to play. The […]