Spore – too clever for its own good?

September 29, 2008 in Technology
Tags: computer game, gaming, SimCity, spore, video game

There’s no question that the new EA game Spore is the creation of some very intelligent and smart people. It bursts with quality and creativity – rather like a Pixar movie. But does this translate into a decent game at the end of it?
I should make clear up front: if you’re looking for a game [...]

Security markings

September 26, 2008 in Miscellany
Tags: roadmarkings, roads, security, street art

Walking home from the office one day, we couldn’t help but notice some strange markings had appeared on the streets of Lambeth.

So is this the demented work of some surrealist mathematician relation of Banksy? Alas, no – just the contractors hired by Lambeth Council who go around using maps and detection tools, marking out the [...]

Training day

September 24, 2008 in Government
Tags: strategy, training, Work

I was out of the office today for a course on ’strategic thinking’. It’s always good to have a bit of a change in routine and chance to meet other civil servants from across government.
I went on this course after some feedback from a recent job interview that I had been unsuccessful because I wasn’t [...]

Writing 2.0

September 22, 2008 in Social Media, Television, Web 2.0, writing
Tags: blogs, emails, scripts, wikis

A book I’ve been looking forward to getting my hands on finally appeared on the shelves of Waterstone’s at the weekend. And even as it comes out on ‘deadwood media’ (i.e. paper), the actual format seems to me to owe at least a little to Web 2.0.
The book in question is “The Writer’s Tale“, by [...]

Social media is a’changing all over

September 19, 2008 in Social Media
Tags: facebook, flickr, friendfeed, twitter

Is there something in the rule book that says this is the time of year for social media web sites to redesign themselves? It began with Facebook but now Flickr, Twitter and FriendFeed are all engulfed in the redesign storm.
I was going to write about “Spore” today but I’ll leave that for over the weekend, [...]

Days and Knights in Kingston

September 16, 2008 in Photography

I’m pleased that I’m remembering to take my camera with me everywhere I go these days, because you never know what sights are going to pop up unexpectedly.
Walking down Clarence Street, the main shopping street in Kingston-upon-Thames, I found a large throng of people grouped outside the local branch of Currys.digital. Getting closer, I found [...]

Not talking about it

September 12, 2008 in Government
Tags: browser, compliance, Government, standards, testing

I always knew when I started this blog that there would be subjects that I’d have to steer clear of – for reasons of personal and professional integrity, not to mention the UK Civil Service Code of Conduct and all that. But by and large my work is routine and not terribly interesting material for [...]

What’s in a name?

September 6, 2008 in Blog Business
Tags: blog, name, naming, writing

The most difficult thing about starting up this blog hasn’t been getting to grips with WordPress; on the contrary, I’ve been very impressed by how easy to use it’s been.
Nor has it been integrating the various other feeds (Twitter, Flickr, Google Reader and all) through WordPress’s wonderfully flexible widgets.
Nor has it been difficult to think [...]

Chrome detailing

September 3, 2008 in Technology
Tags: browsers, chrome, google

Wow. Google’s announcement of its new browser has certainly set the web ablaze with fevered activity and conversation. Almost every other news site, Twitter or RSS article I’m reading this evening is about the dawn of Chrome.

According to the download page for the beta version, Google Chrome “is a browser that combines a minimal design [...]