Citizensheep » internet http://citizensheep.com/blog Michael Grimes lives in Birmingham (UK). This is his blog about anything that he fancies. Wed, 23 May 2012 15:29:35 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 YUI Graded Browser Support http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/06/25/yui-graded-browser-support/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/06/25/yui-graded-browser-support/#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:00:09 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/06/25/yui-graded-browser-support/

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    • ]]>     This page has been around for a good while. I’m flagging it up now because I’m trying to build up a sort of toolkit and primer for colleagues managing websites; the rather unsophisticated ‘every user should have exactly the same experience on our website’ is – sadly and surprisingly – still a common attitude.

    This explanation of Graded Browser Support and ‘progressive enhancement’ from Yahoo! is well put and, coming from Yahoo!, adds credibility to our arguments for it.

    Visit YUI Graded Browser Support

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/06/25/yui-graded-browser-support/feed/ 2     Education Eye – Mapping Innovations http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/05/19/education-eye-mapping-innovations/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/05/19/education-eye-mapping-innovations/#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 16:02:37 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/05/19/education-eye-mapping-innovations/

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    • ]]>     Education Eye is a pretty tool from Futurelab, showcasing online educational innovations.

    “Education Eye is a free, engaging and easy-to-use online space that gives access to a wide range of useful and relevant innovations across educations’ varied communities. Connecting people with innovative uses of digital technology, new resources and new approaches to teaching and learning to help inspire further innovation in education.”

    Visit Education Eye – Mapping Innovations

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/05/19/education-eye-mapping-innovations/feed/ 1     Ruby on Rails beginners club in Birmingham: are you interested? http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/04/22/2293/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/04/22/2293/#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:00:57 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/?p=2293

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    • ]]>     For months I’ve been having conversations with people about how we should set up a Rails beginners group in Birmingham, so now I’m actually going to do it.

    I realise that even among beginners there will be a wide range of expertise levels. Therefore I ask attenders to have at least started trying to write a Rails application.

    It doesn’t matter how far you’ve got with it – you may only be halfway through the first page of a tutorial and are stuck trying to install something – but this approach should give everyone a context for being there. In other words: rather than trying to learn together from different starting points, we can each bring a problem that we need help with and collaborate on concrete goals.

    When?

    If you’re interested please indicate on Doodle your preferred times for a first meeting.

    Update

    The most popular time for a first meeting was 7.00pm on Tuesday 4 May, so that’s when it will be.

    Where?

    The first meeting is being held in Room B225, Birmingham School of Media, Perry Barr. (Many thanks to Paul Bradshaw for arranging the room.)

    We’ll see how this first one goes, but we might try for any subsequnt meets to be more central. If you have any suggestions let me know in the comments below. We need a space that:

    • is free to use;
    • is available late on weekdays;
    • has free, reliable wifi;
    • can comfortably accommodate a number of people working together, without disturbing others.
    http://mediacourses.com/find.asp
    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/04/22/2293/feed/ 18     With all the digital communications tools I have, why does my brain sometimes want pen and paper? http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/04/21/with-all-the-digital-communications-tools-i-have-why-does-my-brain-sometimes-want-pen-and-paper/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/04/21/with-all-the-digital-communications-tools-i-have-why-does-my-brain-sometimes-want-pen-and-paper/#comments Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:45:31 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/?p=2274

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    • ]]>     On the train this morning I had with me my laptop, iPhone, Flip video camera and Zoom audio recorder. But my brain wanted pen and paper: why?

    It wasn’t that I couldn’t use what I had, but that in order to get my thoughts out of my head relatively intact my brain needed another conduit.

    The thing is, thoughts are for our heads. The tools we have for communicating them are never really adequate because they tend only to accommodate a particular way of communicating (writing or speaking, for example), rather than attempt to make sense of the incredibly complex set of electronic pulses that constitute our thoughts.

    Therefore the tools also don’t take into account how those pulses are affected by environment, by the risk of other thoughts – however subconscious – being sparked and getting in the way, or by how the body feels comfortable transmitting specific thoughts at specific moments and in specific ways. Environment and physical state are important for conceiving and communicating thoughts; what appear arbitrary and insignificant changes in them seem to have a profound effect on the cognitive process.

    I was told once that the best way to remember a dream when you wake from it is not to move until you’ve consciously committed it to memory: when you move your head, everything vanishes. I have no scientific verification for this, but it’s worked for me every time. The only problem is remembering not to move in the first place.

    I want to be able to think physically – and publicly, if the mood takes me – without the constraint of tools. Sometimes I wish for an augmented reality that allows me to interact fully with my physical surroundings.

    For example, the augmented bit would allow me to push my walls aside to create a bigger space in which to draw massive diagrams on the floor, and then share the room with a friend so they can visit and see my diagram; the real-life bit would allow me to roll up the diagram, stick it in a tube and post it to my friend. Alternatively, I might write big scrawls in the air, then scrunch them up and throw them into the real, physical, wastepaper basket by the telly, at which point they would be deleted.

    I expect some clever people are already working on something marvelous along these lines, but I’d probably still have to choose between the version that’s compatible with my friend’s house and the one that’s compatible with my wastepaper basket.

    So, for now at least, I need to find a pen.

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/04/21/with-all-the-digital-communications-tools-i-have-why-does-my-brain-sometimes-want-pen-and-paper/feed/ 0     Talk About Local unconference 2010: Legal issues discussion http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/04/18/talk-about-local-unconference-2010-legal-issues-discussion/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/04/18/talk-about-local-unconference-2010-legal-issues-discussion/#comments Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:42:51 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/?p=2214

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    • ]]>     The first session I went to at yesterday’s Talk About Local un-conference was on the legal problems of managing sites that allow user feedback or investigate stories of public interest.

    It’s very depressing to hear of the crippling situations people repeatedly find themselves in, simply through a determination to get at the truth in the face of power and wealth that’s determined to stop them. The heartening bit I suppose is that sometimes there are also powerful people prepared to join in the fight.

    Problems faced by people in the room had included: unfounded but effective demands to have comments removed from websites; moral dilemmas about balancing legal rights to publish with social implications for individuals; threats of crippling legal action.

    Some tips from the room

    • Make interaction/commenting guidelines clearer
    • Always check your story with more than one source
    • Consider remove first-post moderation: if you moderate comments you are legally responsible for their content. Instead add a ‘report this comment’ button and ensure you have a tight take-down policy
    • Don’t hold the website in your own name but set up a limited company, so that you’re only liable for the amount that the company is worth. However you must make sure that all content is transferrable to other websites and under your personal control.
    • Ensure you have clear terms and conditions are on your site, and review them regularly.
    • Ignore the majority of threatening letters from lawyers: most of them are just trying to scare you.

    Please remember:
    This post is a report of information from other people at a conference. Therefore I may unintentionally have misunderstood or misrepresented what I heard. Please do not treat anything here as fact: check with a reliable source before, say, putting yourself in danger of defending a libel case.

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/04/18/talk-about-local-unconference-2010-legal-issues-discussion/feed/ 0     Nibbler – take a taste of your website http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/29/nibbler-take-a-taste-of-your-website/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/29/nibbler-take-a-taste-of-your-website/#comments Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:01:45 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/29/nibbler-take-a-taste-of-your-website/

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    • ]]>     Nibbler is a free online tool for testing websites. Give it a URL and it will test five associated pages against a range of criteria. It's still in Alpha, and I haven't looked closely to see how it actually works, but it could be very useful as part of a web developer's toolkit.

    Visit Nibbler – take a taste of your website

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/29/nibbler-take-a-taste-of-your-website/feed/ 0     Google Reader – Play http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/19/google-reader-play/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/19/google-reader-play/#comments Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:00:13 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/19/google-reader-play/

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    • ]]>     This appears to be Google's belated answer to StumbleUpon, which has been around for ages. It claims to find cool stuff on the internet based on your interests. I quite like it, but it's bloody hard to find. There was a temporary message in Google Reader shouting 'Try it now!', but that's now gone and I can't find any link to it in my Google profile. Hence this bookmark.

    Visit Google Reader – Play

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/19/google-reader-play/feed/ 0     Digital Economy Bill: my email to Lynne Jones MP http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/18/digital-economy-bill-my-email-to-lynne-jones-mp/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/18/digital-economy-bill-my-email-to-lynne-jones-mp/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:55:53 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/?p=2106

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    • ]]>     I’m concerned about the Digital Economy Bill so I’ve just sent one of those standard lobbying emails to my MP.

    I used the online form at 38 Degrees because it was easy, but I made substantial changes to the message (I would have added more but I was in a hurry, hence the convenience of the form in the first place).

    This is the version I sent. You’re welcome to re-use it for your own MP. (Be sure to include as much contact information as you can. They need to be sure you’re a constituent and may well not reply otherwise.)

    Dear Lynne Jones

    I’m concerned that the Government will rush the Digital Economy Bill into law without a full Parliamentary debate. I am concerned because I believe the bill to be draconian, even dangerous.

    Many people think it will damage schools, businesses and innocent people who rely on the internet, as it will allow the Government to disconnect people it suspects of copyright infringement.

    This seems to run counter to rhetoric from the same government around moving to a digital society in which much of our civic engagement is enacted online. Cut people off from the internet and you cut them out of society.

    Industry experts, internet service providers (like Talk Talk and BT) and internet companies such as Google and Yahoo are all opposing the bill, and I urge you to do the same.

    I should very much like to hear your views on the matter. If you would like to discuss it further, I know a few interested folk in the constituency who would be happy to meet for coffee.

    Yours sincerely,

    Michael Grimes

    If you live in the Selly Oak constituency would you be interested in discussing this with Lynne Jones? Or in collaborating on a fuller lobbying statement?

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/18/digital-economy-bill-my-email-to-lynne-jones-mp/feed/ 0     A world without newspapers http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/01/a-world-without-newspapers/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/01/a-world-without-newspapers/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:50:50 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/01/a-world-without-newspapers/

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    • ]]>     A very good piece by David Schneiderman on the effect of the internet on journalism. I particularly like his 'Final Perspective', which I think applies to organisations acroos sectors:

    "Many of the fundamental, underlying principles of effective public relations remain unchanged by this emerging world without newspapers.

    "But make no mistake, the revolution is indeed here.

    "And that fact makes it all the more imperative that every institution affected by this revolution not miss the boat in adapting its communications capabilities to this new reality."

    Visit A world without newspapers

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/01/a-world-without-newspapers/feed/ 0     Harvard professor says downloading is 'fair use' http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/05/21/harvard-professor-says-downloading-is-fair-use/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/05/21/harvard-professor-says-downloading-is-fair-use/#comments Thu, 21 May 2009 09:01:56 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/05/21/harvard-professor-says-downloading-is-fair-use/ "Downloading music without the permission of the copyright holder should qualify for copyright laws' exemptions for 'fair use', a Harvard academic has said. Partial responsibility lies with the music industry itself for failing to adapt, he said."

    Visit Harvard professor says downloading is 'fair use'

    ]]>     "Downloading music without the permission of the copyright holder should qualify for copyright laws' exemptions for 'fair use', a Harvard academic has said. Partial responsibility lies with the music industry itself for failing to adapt, he said."

    Visit Harvard professor says downloading is 'fair use'

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/05/21/harvard-professor-says-downloading-is-fair-use/feed/ 0