http://www.nicksmith.co.uk/blog Spotlight on random items from the web Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:57:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've been quiet on here for some time, only because I've been busy running a marathon and starting a new job... all normal stuff :) If you've been around you may have seen that I've been adding to my bookmarks. I think that list follows the same theme of: things interesting ... http://www.nicksmith.co.uk/blog/2008/06/01/to-be-contd/ This post is of a rarely personal nature and only a stub for the main message. I'm hoping to point people there over the coming months. Friends, family and other interested people - I'm running the London Marathon 2008 and I'd appreciate your help. I'm aiming to raise money for WaterAid. ... http://www.nicksmith.co.uk/blog/2008/02/25/marathon-man/ After reading about Microsoft's proposal for a new meta tag and the pages (and pages) of debate that followed, I've been subconsciously trying to find a metaphor to use to express my gut feeling on the topic. Considering myself fairly sensible, I've been hesitant to post anything about this because ... http://www.nicksmith.co.uk/blog/2008/02/06/fluoride-free/ Iain recently reminded me of a website I think I'd seen before, but not recorded: www.dontclick.it. It's an experiment in not clicking. The website is built in Flash and, after an introduction, actually chastises the user in the event of an accidental click (I suppose it’s some form of operant ... http://www.nicksmith.co.uk/blog/2008/01/26/new-year-gesture/ Time is pretty scarce, so here is a brief roundup of links/events/opinions that have come my way... If it didn't make sense the title is a reference to a quote from Harold Wilson, it seemed fitting given Opera's move against Microsoft. Something that's provoked a passionate reaction from the likes ... http://www.nicksmith.co.uk/blog/2007/12/14/a-week-is-a-long-time/ My previous post looks like a rant. I think the events of Tuesday allowed a long running issue I had with Government (mostly web) security to spill out. The post was quickly written. I'm usually not as apparently irate, I'm quite sociable actually ;) - is it conspicuous that I ... http://www.nicksmith.co.uk/blog/2007/11/23/open-and-social-week/ It happens over and over again. Today the BBC reported that Her Majesty's (HM) Revenue and Customs has lost the bank details of 15 million(!) child support recipients, apparently that's all of them. The story is probably going to develop over the coming days. Our government seems to be good ... http://www.nicksmith.co.uk/blog/2007/11/20/over-and-over-and-over-and-over/ Using QuickTime VR, panoramas.dk has collected immersive images of new year's eve 2006 in over 15 cities across the globe. I particularly like Times Square; there's so much going on and if you look up you can see the ticker-tape falling (I don't think I'm allowed to say 'confetti'). What ... http://www.nicksmith.co.uk/blog/2007/11/20/on-the-spur-of-the-moment/ What's the point of the web if you can't receive and send information as and when you want it? Google seems to know this and so, for those that haven't heard, they've released the SDK for their mobile platform Android. This is the first time I've seen an introduction to the ... http://www.nicksmith.co.uk/blog/2007/11/13/my-first-look-at-android/ I write this on the understanding that I don't often get technical, so there may be glaring errors/omissions that you're welcome to point out. Having recently looked at accessibility in Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) I started playing around with VoiceOver. It's also included in OS 10.4, which is what I'm using. ... http://www.nicksmith.co.uk/blog/2007/11/09/does-your-screen-reader-read-phone-numbers-properly/