Tag: technology

#TimOnLoan: borrow me for a week for FREE (worth £3000)

15 March 2017

Are you drowning in emails? Trying to get some things done whilst juggling a bunch of other things? Perhaps I can help? I want to lend out my skills to organisations in Manchester for free: Is this you? You know decision makers need your product or service but it sometimes feels like they speak ‘different language’ […]

This One Time I Screwed up (or Sorry I Was a Dick)

29 March 2015

I don't think there's enough analysis and sharing of non-technical mistakes for others to learn from (see a dramatic hiking trip postmortem). It must have been a year or so ago now, I was sponsoring and exhibiting at a conference. Also exhibiting were a company I'll call FooCorp from an industry that I have a strong distaste […]

I protested BBC iPlayer in 2007, and I don't regret it.

5 March 2014

During the summer holidays of 2007, I was a teenage sailing instructor who was volunteering locally, to teach younger teens how to sail (better) for a week. On Tuesday, I skived off teaching, jumped on a train to Manchester and changed my life forever. But that's not the beginning… A few months earlier I was […]

The danger your children escaped! Technology!

17 November 2012

At school, I was largely a goodie-two-shoes – however, that is to say – I was was aware of the line, and however close I was to it, I did my best to ensure I wasn't caught crossing it. I'm dubiously proud to say that I never got a detention. Unfortunately, this wasn't always successful, and […]

Stephen Fry at Oggcamp? Awesome or Awesome?

29 August 2012

It's not often I go to events were well known people are speaking. It's even less frequently where the tech events I go to have well known broadcaster speaking. However, Oggcamp – the world's friendliest unconference – is a special sort of event and persuading Stephen Fry to give a video address, answering questions and […]

I need your help: challenge me something!

13 May 2012

In three months, I want to have completed 7 personal challenges. I'm not too bothered about where the achievements weigh in on a global scale – I'm not trying to set a world record – just a "Tim record". I need your help to help me work out what to do. I've had a few […]

"Hi I'm An Engineer"

13 February 2012

I've blogged in the past about my difficulties in explaining my job as a Systems Administrator to my parents… Sadly, this also applies to most other people who don't work in an internet related field… and even more frustratingly, I don't have the time to explain it all to those who really want to understand. […]

Problem: How long will it take to fix it?

5 February 2012

As a geek, one generally gets good at fixing things. An interesting thing about technology, as opposed to say, carpentry, is that generally it's very very small things that have significant implications. Frequently you spend a lot more time looking for the problem than you do actually implementing the solution. Example: The symptoms: your website […]

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 […]

My first Javascript program

16 January 2012

Embarrassingly for a techie, my coding skills are somewhat lacking – despite various dabblings, my focus largely having been system administration without a firm basis in basic programming logic. 🙁 Clearly, if this is something I'm wanting taught in schools, I should make an effort to learn and understand about it myself however there are […]

Hello, I'm Tim and I have a job no one understands.

29 December 2011

Ok, I hear you: I work with computers and the Internet – you understand that. But what exactly does a "Systems Administrator" at a "hosting company" do? Indeed… what's a "hosting company"? What do you mean by "Systems Administrator"? These are frequent questions I encounter when explaining to friends and family how I'm gainfully employed. […]

Geeks on an Island

9 January 2010

In a discussion on the Geekup mailing list about a particularly stupid bit of Government legislation, I came across this: Robert Burrell Donkin wrote: It would have been wiser to invest in a couple of islands and some yachts…. Caius Durling wrote: Any room on there for another (possible) expat? 🙂 Simon Ward wrote: If […]