In the late 1990s I delivered several months’ worth of training sessions to civil servants, training sessions that combined computer use with tips about publishing and printing. The delegates were about to start using their computers in a way that would save time and money in a clearly quantifiable way. This doesn’t happen with every… Continue reading Hyphens, En Dashes and Em Dashes
A former colleague emailed me earlier this week, asking about keyboard shortcuts on the Mac: “Just wondering if you use keyboard shortcuts much on the Mac? For some reason I have never really used them. I find the symbols confusing and maybe because my Mac is mostly used for leisure and Windows shortcuts are so… Continue reading Mac and PC Keyboard Shortcuts (by special request)
Do you have “version control issues”? Do you have multiple copies of the same documents (digital or printed copies) and end up with confusion about which copies are most up-to-date? I remember this being a problem 10-15 years ago but it feels like we are over the worst of it now. It’s a problem that… Continue reading Version Control
Brick: it’s now a verb, as in “iOS5 upgrade bricked my iPhone 4”, which means that someone’s Apple-made mobile phone has become about as useful as a brick. I remember when mobile phones were the shape of a brick, and just as heavy, so putting “brick” and “mobile phone” into the same sentence is rather… Continue reading Word of the week: brick
When I first started working with computers, in the late 1980s, companies had “IT departments”. As I have had to explain to people under the age of 10 and people over 70 IT stands for Information Technology. Since the 1990s schools have taught ICT, which stands for Information and Communications Technology. Some companies now have… Continue reading ICT, IT, or just T
Why do people use computers? It may seem an obvious question, or a pointless question, but every now and then it’s worth asking exactly why we do the things we do. For me there have always been three big reasons why we use computers: one, to help us to work better; two, to make us… Continue reading Three reasons to use a computer
The picture below shows a selection of my pocket diaries going back to the 1970s. There’s an unbroken run going from 1979 to 2001, available any time if I want to check the dates of holidays, meetings, gigs, exams, Film Festivals, and very occasionally how I was feeling about things. I saw Lou Reed at… Continue reading Diaries: old, new and in between
Like many decisions, this one is based on a combination of personal experience and stories in the news. I hadn’t signed up for Uber (the cab hire App) before last Friday and, based on our night out in Ladbroke Grove, I won’t bother anytime soon. One of my friends is very happy with Uber, has… Continue reading Why I won’t be signing up for Uber anytime soon
Two stories late last year showed me the gulf between how I use technology (smartphone or laptop computer) and how other people use it. In Simon Hattenstone’s excellent, lengthy piece (over 9000 words) about alleged bullying in the Tory Party and the sad death of Elliott Johnson there’s a paragraph about how someone was blackmailed,… Continue reading Two ways that I will never use technology
I wrote earlier this month of technological woes, specifically the death of hard drives, and I continue to hear of other people’s troubles with technology. Earlier today I picked up that refurbished Hard Disk Recorder with built-in DVD burner and Freeview receiver. I commented on Hard Disk troubles to the chap in the shop, and… Continue reading Technology Sucks (postscript)
The Compartments 