Category: Media

  • From the archives: The Seven Deadly Sins of Apple Ownership

    Another old MacFormat one – this one predates not just Leopard, but Vista too – but I’m amused by the intro, which is a load of old bollocks. Fun bollocks, I hope. Mac ownership is often described in religious terms, but the link between Macs and the heavens goes back further than you might think.…

  • From the archives: The Phantom Menace – are wireless networks really killing us?

    [Originally published in PC Plus. Shortly after publication I had a perfectly pleasant chat with the Powerwatch people. We agreed to disagree on this one – Gary] Fast facts: Powerwatch claims that up to 35% of the population suffers ill-effects from electromagnetic fields, and that 5% of people are severely affected. A possible link between…

  • From the archives: Has Privacy Croaked?

    [Originally published in PC Plus. Some of the privacy options mentioned in this article, particularly for Facebook, have changed since this piece was originally published – Gary] Never mind ID cards: social networking sites are creating a data mine governments would kill for. As Gary Marshall discovers, the devil’s in the details. In July, US…

  • Screenwipe: writers on writing

    This week’s episode of Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe was fascinating. Instead of pouring bile on the usual deserving targets, Brooker sat down with the writers of Doctor Who, Peep Show, Hustle, Shameless and the IT Crowd and asked them to talk about writing. Which they did. Russell T Davies was a particular delight, but I found…

  • Is there more to the Glasgow Herald / Evening Times redundancies than meets the eye?

    Newsquest, publisher of the Herald and Evening Times, is giving redundancy notices to more than 230 journalists and giving them the “opportunity” to apply for “new” jobs. 30 to 40 hacks will get the bullet. According to Media Guardian: The move is seen as a way of dismantling a powerful National Union of Journalists chapel…

  • From the archives: everything you need to know about user-generated content

    You wander downstairs, bleary-eyed, and grab the morning paper. The front page is blank.  So is page two, and page three, and every other page. The paperboy’s delivered 70 bits of blank paper and a biro, but when you call the newsagent to complain, he says you should be happy. “It’s newspaper 2.0!” he’ll cry.…

  • From the archives: Why Macs are better than PCs

    This gleefully biased piece was written for MacFormat aaaaaaages ago – Leopard wasn’t out, MSN Music was still a going concern, etc – and it was designed for potential switchers who might be sneakily reading Mac mags in the newsagents [There’s a companion piece, the Seven Deadly Sins of Apple Ownership, that I’ll post later].…

  • God bless the tabloids

    The Sun reports that condom sales have increased. The headline? “BRITAIN HUMPS THROUGH SLUMP”.

  • Freelancing, fatherhood and (not really) working from home

    I’ve been meaning to write this for a while, but for reasons that will soon be apparent it’s taken a lot longer than I expected. As regular readers will know, I became a dad for the first time in October 2007, and since then I’ve had the joy of watching Baby Bigmouth’s first thirteen months.…

  • “If this is the future of journalism, I don’t think CNN has anything to worry about just yet”

    Interesting post by Alan at Broadstuff, reacting to the “Twitter is the future of news!” stuff going round the internet at the moment: the bulk, the 90%, was pure cr*p, with stuff such as: – Wild surmises to gain attention – Re-tweeting mainstream media in an endless circle jerk – Mediawhores jumping on the bandwagon…