Author: Carrie

  • Feed weirdness

    The RSS feeds from this blog are misbehaving: while they should all be full feeds (ie, each entry is the full post rather than a summary)  the RSS 2.0 one is only serving up article summaries. For the time being I’d recommend the RSS 0.92 link or the Atom 0.3 link. If any WordPress users…

  • “U.S.: Killer confesses to 3 more child killings”

    Not a news story; a spam subject line. I know it’s a transparent attempt to get through spam filters (and it doesn’t work, because I have SUPER SPAMSIEVE POWER!) but over the last few days there have been lots of these, with a distinct emphasis on violent killings. I suspect that says something rather depressing…

  • Survey finds that most Brits are idiots

    An overwhelming majority of people in Britain are willing to surrender civil liberties to help tackle the threat of terrorism, the nation’s leading social research institute will disclose today.The survey found seven in every 10 people think compulsory identity cards for all adults would be “a price worth paying” to reduce the threat of terrorism.…

  • The sweet smell of hypocrisy

    This is the cover of this week’s Now magazine: It’s pretty appalling, but the worst bit is the editor’s letter. As it explains, Now employed Jade Goody as a columnist until November of last year, and her contract is well and truly terminated. The implication is that Now has sacked her because of her Big…

  • New WordPress version available

    If you’re using WordPress to power your blog, there’s a brand new version available with a better post editor and lots of goodies. More information here.

  • Please don’t put blogs in my news feeds

    Aggregators – sites that combine information from multiple sources and serve it up in one place – are enormously handy things, and one of my favourite ones is NewsNow.co.uk. It’s a simple idea that works well: news feeds from various sources, big and small, organised into category. Brilliant. It’s not perfect, of course. Nothing is.…

  • Citroen Xsara Picasso owners are the worst drivers in the world

    This is one of those theories I can’t prove, but which I know in my gut is right: Citroen Picasso owners are the worst drivers in the world. I’m not being funny, either: when I see one I start driving like one of those Institute of Advanced Motorists chaps who drives on the basis that…

  • The doggy destroyer

    One for the dog owners… any ideas how to stop a dog being destructive for no good reason? We’ve been through the “I have teeth and must destroy things!” period and Megan’s been fine for months, but all of a sudden she’s discovered the joys of eating things again. If we leave her for as…

  • Another mobile phone study

    This one’s important: it’s looking at long-term use of phones. I interviewed the man behind the proposed new study, Professor Lawrie Challis, for last month’s PC Plus story on electrosensitivity and other tech-related health scares, and he’s a great example of how the “no evidence” side of health issues should be addressed (he’s a great…

  • In defence of the iPhone

    I’m going to be on Radio Scotland’s MacAulay and Co to talk about mobile phones on Tuesday morning. The piece is partly because of the iPhone hype, and partly because of a PayPal survey that suggests a majority of Brits have no idea how to use their various gadgets. According to the survey, phones are…