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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.… [more]
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[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… [more]
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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… [more]
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Title says it all, really. Features list promises standards support, better performance, SVG… [more]
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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… [more]
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We’ve all experienced it: someone says something really annoying or offensive, you search for a witty comeback and your mind goes blank. Three days later, in the wee small hours, the words come to you – “Yeah! But your wife looks like a horse!” but it’s too late, because the moment’s gone. Online, though, things… [more]
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Until recently internet TV tended to involve cameras pointed at cheese or happy slapping clips on YouTube, but the telly times are changing. Internet TV is coming! It’s incredible how far we’ve come. In the bad old days you’d spend £200 on a TV set, another £100 on a video recorder and you’d get your… [more]
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When boffins invent teleportation we’ll be able to travel around the world in seconds, but for now online auctions offer the next best thing: with a click of the mouse you can send all of your money or all of your possessions to Nigeria. When you advertise your dog-eared 2006 Official Girls Aloud calendar on… [more]
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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.… [more]
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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].… [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.
