Would Google have succeeded if it had been called something else? Apparently, the original title for the project (round about 1996) was “Backrub”. While a rose generally smells as sweet by any other name, I am not sure that phrases … Continue reading →

The internet is a big place. I have been exploring it for years and consider myself an advanced user but part of that is being experienced enough to accept that there is far more going on than one person can … Continue reading →

I mentioned yesterday that I now have a sat nav device. I have been thinking about getting one for a while but had a trip to Stansted airport to do a pick up. I am familiar with the route from … Continue reading →

One of the routine processes I have set up in my job is a scheduled backup of all my development work. I have two machines – a Linux box that acts as a development webserver and stays on all the … Continue reading →

I enjoyed the #oxtuttle meeting this morning. It was good to meet @ihatemornings, @petecranston, @colinmercer, @jake, @missdd and @aogw face to face. Did I miss anyone? It was good to be there at the beginning, when it was small enough … Continue reading →

I was recently reading about web development security and PHP and noted that appending an @ symbol to a function call was regarded as being a good idea because it hides any error messages generated by the function. Error messages … Continue reading →

Last month, I added a small addition to my website to spot entries on my twitter account (@basswulf) that matched certain formatting requirements and insert them into the blog. This provides me with a way to keep friends and family … Continue reading →

Today I impressed one of my colleagues by spotting a problem in a job advertisement she had published on an external recruitment website (any would-be postdoctoral researchers in mechanobiology out there?). She had copied and pasted the text from the … Continue reading →

Last night I went to an Oxford Geek Night at the Jericho Tavern. The upstairs room was packed with web developers and the like and focused around various talks that were given. I have to confess that a room full … Continue reading →

I have been exchanging a few tweets with @steevc (of Bag of Spoons) about how to deal with microblogging overload on services like Twitter and identi.ca. He suggested something like PostRank but most tweets are so short and trivial that … Continue reading →