27 Feb 2011

How a Live Pet Project Can Help You Learn

I have a pet. It’s a bit of an odd pet, and it grew from a childhood obsession. My pet is Unique Sentence, a website I run for saving, well, unique sentences. Sentences said in everyday conversation that you know have just never been said before. Like this one: “Kylie Minogue is not going to come […]

26 Feb 2011

A SQL Server Correlated Subquery Gotcha

Warning: exceptionally geeky post coming up. Those reading for Kindle reviews and other fluffy stuff will want to skip this one… I was hanging out Stack Overflow the other day, and saw a question title that resonated with me: Column does not exist in the IN clause, but SQL runs. It resonated because I’d fallen victim […]

12 Nov 2010

Pretty Poor Security, Apple!

Posted by in Updates | 2 Comments

Apple just emailed me someone else’s account name and password. On Monday I got in touch with Apple’s MobileMe “Chat Support” service. I was having a problem with my MobileMe account. Specifically, I’d deleted an event in my local calendar, and it had disappeared from the MobileMe calendar, too, but it was still showing up […]

6 Nov 2010

Books Are Cheap

I’ve been prodded into this post by the recent Agency Pricing announcement on the UK Kindle discussion forums, and subsequent furore. But really this stems from a conversation I had with a friend a couple of weeks ago about e‑book pricing in general. My take on it is this: books are cheap. I believe that […]

28 Oct 2010

Review: Duragadget Kindle 3 Leather Case with Adjustable Stand

In my marathon Kindle 3 review, I bemoaned the price of the official Amazon Kindle case (£30 for the basic version!) Also, though it’s great that I can put the Kindle down on a table and read it — it doesn’t fold itself shut like a paperback would — the slightly-glossier-than-paper screen means it’s more sensitive to viewing angles […]