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Your guide to London's culture and transport news and events taking place across the city.

Your guide to London's culture and transport news and events taking place across the city.

rants - Archive Articles

No, just not going to happen – ever
No, just not going to happen – ever

No, just not going to happen – ever

Time for an email fisking… Hi Ian, I’ve just seen your twitter post about [major London museum]. Just to quickly introduce myself, my name is […] – I manage the [major London museum] affiliate programme here at [spamming agency]. So

Apr
13
2011
A letter to PC World
A letter to PC World

A letter to PC World

Dear PC World Customer Care, My laptop is on its death-bed and at the moment, fiscal constraints means I really can’t spend the money on a replacement/repair right now, my flatmate is building me a desktop replacement. I just need

Mar
29
2011
It’s a registered trademark
It’s a registered trademark

It’s a registered trademark

In my job, I get a lot of press releases® and PR from telecoms® and media® firms. As these verbose® statements, filled with useless® fluff and usually® just one sentence® of any use also mention® the company brand name®, they

Mar
25
2011

Web designer rants are dead: Long live web designer rants

In the world of the website designer, there is a dark force abroad, a nemesis of such evil potency that its very existance drives thousands of web designers to suicide each year as its malign existance causes waves of despair

Mar
05
2011

Hospital food

The periodical issue of hospital food seems to have reared its head again – like a proverbial bad penny and I thought I might recount my experiences and thoughts on the issue. Due to a serious illness a few years

Feb
21
2011

Juggernaut threat to tiny Hanway Street?

As noticed by several people this week – after planning permission was granted – an incredibly useful side-street by Tottenham Court Road is due to get revamped. Not so that pedestrians wisely using it to bypass the congestion at the

Feb
01
2011

Flickr’s use of the NoFollow tag in weblinks

<web geek mode activated> Some years ago, Google introduced the rel=”nofollow” tag that can be added the links on websites.  The idea being that websites with user submitted content could mark any submitted links as being untrusted so while Google’s

Jan
23
2011

Blink, Blink, Blink

I don’t cycle using my own bicycle as much as I used to, and although I now use the Boris Bikes a fair bit when in the center of town, I do recall some of the basic principles of cycling

Nov
04
2010

An open letter to Costa Coffee, et alia

As we approach the end of the year, various festivals start cropping up. Obviously Christmas is the dominant event, but there are a number of events such as Halloween, Bonfire Night etc., to get on with en-route to the end

Oct
16
2010

Stupid website feedback forms

Rant time! I often fill in feedback forms on websites or comment on blogs – but unless I am going to be using a website a lot, I am quite wary of opening “yet another” account with “yet another” website.

Oct
12
2010

Inventors, your country needs you!

Oh dear, a time for a fisking of a press release: According to the statement: “over half of the those working in the UK’s creative industries, a staggering 52% of the 1000 people surveyed, have never had an idea for

Sep
06
2010

End of the road for cowboy car clampers

Much trailed in the press this morning, the formal announcement finally arrived in my RSS reader. “End of the road for cowboy car clampers” screamed the headline. Sounds good – clamping down (hur!) on the cowboys who do much to

Aug
17
2010

PR Fail

I am about to do a diamond geezer style fisk of a press release that has just arrived and made me blink in some disbelief. In my work job I have to process several hundred releases per day (usually skimming

Jul
28
2010

London 2012 Game Makers – Disabled people need not apply

I am about to be a total and utter hypocrite*. In my previous, and to a limited degree in my current, jobs – I was a mild drum-beater for making websites accessible for those who have problems with their eyesight 

Jul
27
2010

Buying Shoes

Why is buying shoes so incredibly difficult? It should be simple – go into shop, look for shoes, pick up shoes, try them on and if they fit, buy them. After all, that is how we buy clothes. No –

May
02
2010

Flickr Spam

I use Flickr to host my photos as it is a convenient repository and has some nice, but generally subtle community aspects to the website. However, there is a dark side to the website – and that is the groups.

Apr
04
2010

Phone numbers and memorable questions

Two IT based moans in one day – must get back to fluffy posts about London history as soon as possible! Today, the London 2012 website started trawling for email addresses to contact with information about various Olympic happenings and

Mar
22
2010

The Weather Forecast

October 30th – Sunny weather, nice day, sat on the balcony for a while. October 31st – Bit windy and damp, but went out for a nice walk. November 1st – Blowing a gale and pouring down with rain. Deciduous

Nov
02
2009

Companies that take a month to update a database

This morning I had a bit of an odd email promoting some charity thing from Vodafone. Although I don’t recall signing up for the emails, I am a customer of the company, so just clicked the unsubscribe link to remove

Oct
20
2009

Photography Banned in Greenwich Foot Tunnel

This is probably more the remit of The Greenwich Phantom, but as part of the Greenwich foot tunnel lies on MY side of the river, and this concerns a particular bugbear of mine, I shall talk about it. The tunnel,

Jun
07
2009

Job Cuts at Channel 4 News

A news item was brought to my attention this morning which suggests that Channel 4 is about to take the axe to some of its news production teams and cut back on the news broadcasts. While it seems that the

May
18
2009

Filming gets easier on the London Underground

Had a press release come through from TfL gushing about their improved service for film makers and the setting up of a dedicated film office. Great if you want to make films, but what about the remaining 99.99% of people

Apr
07
2009

Science programming on Television

Last night I settled down to watch what was once my favourite TV show, and is still tolerable – the science series, Horizon. Like much TV on the “main channels” though, it has dumbed down a lot over the past

Feb
18
2009

Why do companies take 5 days to reply to emails?

On a personal basis I can be slow to respond to private emails, mainly as my work emails get a high priority and there is an awful lot of them. I would expect any company which offered an email route

Nov
17
2008