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A slightly inflammatory piece by me on Techradar: why the music industry doesn’t deserve government help. Now, like General Motors, the record companies are hurting – and like General Motors, they want the government to save them. GM wants cash; the record companies want ISPs to act as their policemen, while the Digital Britain report… [more]
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Wired Magazine has a fascinating piece about the rise of the netbook: For years now, without anyone really noticing, the PC industry has functioned like a car company selling SUVs: It pushed absurdly powerful machines because the profit margins were high, while customers lapped up the fantasy that they could go off-roading, even though they… [more]
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Between now and the 17th of March .net’s giving away free subscriptions via the mag’s Twitter account. More details here. [more]
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More words on the Internet. First, six companies Google should buy including, yep, Twitter: Google’s search spiders are amazing things, but they can’t do what Twitter Search does: let you see in real time what six million people are saying. Bringing Twitter into the fold could work in two ways: as a search tool in… [more]
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I wrote this four years ago: Arena’s confused – it can’t make its mind up whether it’s going after GQ readers or Loaded readers, and falls flat between the two Today’s Guardian reports that Arena is to cease publication after 22 years. In the same post, I wrote this: Perhaps the problem is that there’s… [more]
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First up, a feature: seven reasons why Apple should make a netbook (and a few reasons why it shouldn’t). Here’s one of the reasons why it shouldn’t: An HD Touch would be more compelling Take one iPod Touch, make it twice the size, give it some desktop-style apps and you’ve got something that no other… [more]
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Two by me, one by Neil Mohr that I thought was really interesting. First up, Cloud Computing – or Clown Computing? So much for the cloud. Can we really rely on web-based services and software? If you’re expecting us to say no, surprise! Then a look at some of the interesting things Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!… [more]
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Back in 2006, I wrote this: Many laptops, such as the MacBook Pro, are real desktop alternatives. But they also cost an awful lot of money, and they’re hefty things to carry around. Any time I’ve used a laptop when travelling – on planes, on trains, on ferries – I’ve wished I had a smaller… [more]
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Yes. Yes, it is. Guess where the link goes? That’s right! Techradar! Overall, we like Safari 4 a lot. We’re not convinced we’ll actually use Top Sites or the visual History Search, but flashy gimmicks aside it’s a fast and pleasant way to do stuff online. [more]
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Last.fm isn’t telling the RIAA that you’ve pirated the new U2 album. But you might be. Why go to the hassle of trying to get data from websites when the users will hand it to you on a plate? We’re sure that some of the people listening to the leaked album simply forgot that Last.fm… [more]
Read me in books
My debut memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was a Scotsman book of the year and Damian Barr’s Literary Salon book of the week, and it was shortlisted for the 2023 British Book Awards book of the year in the Discover category.
My latest book, Small Town Joy, is a celebration of queer influences on and queer artists in Scots music and is out now.
I’m also a contributor to the excellent anthology Fierce Salvage, which is also out now.
