machine-envy

James and I are off to the beach for a couple of weeks. Hope y’all enjoy the weather whilst we’re away…

Is this the hardest end of year quiz of all time? I actually worked at openDemocracy for most of this year, and I still only scored 64%. And most of that was thanks to the questions in the internet and copyright section. How much will you score?

I had an interesting phone call from a friend who wished to settle a Christmas family argument. The argument was over Deal Or No Deal. Imagine the case where there are only two boxes left closed, one belonging to the contestant and the other to someone else, and the million is in one […]

I’m pleased to announce that as of 15 January next year, I’ll be joining the Open Rights Group as their new Executive Director!
Suw Charman, ORG’s outgoing Exec Director, has just posted the announcement on the ORG website. I’m looking forward to working with her, ORG’s Ops Manager Michael Holloway, and the incredibly diverse and talented […]

I just finished reading The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper. One of the chapters discusses the idea of Utopian engineering rather than piecemeal engineering.

The Utopian approach may be described as follows. Any rational action must have a certain aim. … To choose this aim is therefore the first thing […]

I’ve been playing with the excellent pyjamas and I thought i’d share my experiences of using pylons to create a simple json service for the pyjamas client.

Some really fab coverage on Gowers in the Guardian and the Observer, starting with this Leader from Friday’s edition:
“…The report was given a guarded welcome by the recently formed Open Rights group which campaigned strongly against extending the 50-year limit, but the war is not won yet. The Gowers report is only a staging post, […]

My interview with Andrew Gowers has gone up on openDemocracy.

“‘Look at the debates that there have been on intellectual property since the arrival of the internet. They have been loud and shallow. They have been between people who say everything’s free and you shouldn’t pay for […]

openDemocracy will shortly be publishing my interview with Andrew Gowers. In the meantime, the New Statesman have put up my latest column - what to buy a geek for Christmas. Of course, if you’re a real geek, you will have ordered all your presents online by now, so treat it as a little light relief:
“I […]

With thanks to David Berry on the FC-UK list, here’s the government’s response to the Gowers Review in the Pre Budget Report:

“3.81 The Government welcomes the Gowers Review and will take forward those recommendations for which it is responsible. The Government firmly believes in the need for strong enforcement of IP rights to support the UK’s creative […]