Archive for March, 2007

Out Of Power?

Monday, March 19, 2007 23:18 21 Comments

On the way to work at eight o’clock this morning, my mobile phone gave a warning ring to let me know it was nearly out of power. It did so again ninety seconds later. …and continued to issue the same warning trill every ninety seconds for the following eleven hours, until I finally got home [...]

This was posted under category: Oddities

Why I Don’t Really Hate Patrick Griffiths

Monday, March 19, 2007 19:40 4 Comments

I went to @Media last year. It was great. I talked about it on my blog, I listened to various people speak, I got to talk to loads of intelligent, lovely people, and I got to see all sorts of fantastic presentations, and left having learnt a lot and feeling really inspired about web design. [...]

This was posted under category: Oddities, Technology, The Pickards

Getting Into Andy’s Pants

Monday, March 19, 2007 19:32 2 Comments

I’ve been reading an article on Malarkey’s site called the BritPack and where do we go from here where he — as well as the other “Proud Members” of the Britpack — is concerned about appearing elitist. Let’s face it, the Britpack is made up of some of the finest web designers and developers in [...]

This was posted under category: Oddities, Standards, Technology

The Comic Relief Joke

Friday, March 16, 2007 19:17 19 Comments

I bought two jokes today, for Comic Relief, for 50p each. The first one was the one about the singing frog, and the hampster who played the piano and was a ventriloquist. I’d heard it before, but what the heck, it’s for charriddy, right? However, the second joke I was much less impressed with: Q: [...]

This was posted under category: Funnies

Assessing Accessibility Part 1: The SOCITM Story

Friday, March 16, 2007 18:58 7 Comments

There’s bit a bit of a furore going on in the last couple of weeks in some quarters as regards assessing accessibility of different websites and comparing them against one another. Basically, what has happened is that the SOCITM Better Connected 2007 report was published, looking at the state of Local Government websites across the [...]

This was posted under category: Accessibility, Articles, Public Sector, Standards

The Old Lancaster University Crew

Wednesday, March 14, 2007 23:05 19 Comments

With a joke the other day from someone I knew when I was at Lancaster University — and in fact still do know now, this got me thinking about all of the people I was close friends with at Lancaster University, who through a combination of me being a lazy bugger, me being a dozy [...]

This was posted under category: Life, The Pickards

Hello Paul!

Wednesday, March 14, 2007 21:22 1 Comment

I’d just like to take this opportunity to welcome Paul Canning to the blogosphere. Paul is another one of those local government geeks who cover the accessibility/usability stuff, which is obviously how I know him, but what is worth pointing out is that he’s been blogging only since 5th March, and he’s already managed to [...]

This was posted under category: Blogging, Public Sector

A Spam Smörgåsbord

Wednesday, March 14, 2007 21:14 26 Comments

I’ve been deluged by spam recently. Very little of it has got through, thanks to my spam filtering. In fact, my filters have stopped one hundred and eighty-seven spam comments from making their way onto the site in the last week alone. Taking a look through the contents of the spam, excluding the links of [...]

This was posted under category: Blogging, Oddities, Scams & Spams, The Pickards

Tuesday Joke: Beauty Treatments

Tuesday, March 13, 2007 18:41 6 Comments

Yes, admittedly it’s not Friday. But a long-not-quite-lost friend sent me this one this morning and it made me grin while I was waiting at the bus stop. The “not-quite-lost” refers to the fact that my good mate Lyn (love and kisses) is someone I made friends with when I was at University (a “townie” [...]

This was posted under category: Funnies

Eleven Seconds

Tuesday, March 13, 2007 0:49 1 Comment

This is a slight departure from the norm: this is a piece of short fiction I was working on for the Gateshead Short Story Competition 2007. Unfortunately, I never got around to finishing it in time for the competition. Or possibly fortunately, I dunno. You’ll have to make your own minds up about that. In [...]

This was posted under category: Fiction/Writing