A Thinking Man

I’m a child at heart, and I love playing with new software.  Occasionally I discover new toys that seem too important and enjoyable to put aside. About three weeks ago I discovered Evernote and have been using it (playing with it) ever since.
I was sceptical at first.  ”After all,” I thought, “Evernote is only an [...]

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As David Aaronovitch remarked in the Times:
If polo is the most expensive sport in which to participate, then archbishop-baiting must be the cheapest. You don’t even need your own archbishop, but can share one with millions of others. No saddle is required, only a pen. The man in the biretta simply has to offer an [...]

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I was recently shown a full page advertisement in a magazine that almost had me choking on my coffee. It was for a £29.99 porcelain composition of two figures on either side of a children’s roundabout. One of the authorities quoted in the advertisement described the figures as the most moving statuettes created [...]

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OK. A quick techie post - the kind I feel compelled to make from time to time. Boring and annoying for those who do not share my interest in these things, and for those millions out there who have somehow managed to survive so far without an iPhone.
I find myself doing it more and [...]

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Twitter is passing into mainstream. Latest figures from Hitwise, the online intelligence service, show a 974 per cent increase in traffic, jolting Twitter from the 2,953rd most popular site among UK users to the 291st most visited by mid-January.
Richard Goad, director of research for Hitwise, said in a recent Independent article: “Twitter [...]

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It’s been a good week for users of Gmail (Google Mail).  I must admit, I have been a fan from the beginning.  Before the arrival of Gmail I had other internet mail accounts, but the arrival of Gmail seemed to take the experience into another league.  Free webmail, accessible from any computer already existed, but [...]

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Things are definitely changing fast.
I have always tried to embrace technology. I enjoy novelty, regardless of usefulness. I can remember my first computer - a ZX81 purchased from WH Smiths. You couldn’t do anything with it really other than try to learn BASIC. Soon the specialist magazines were filled with programs for it that made [...]

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I have enjoyed 2008, and as I have reflected on why, I have come to the conclusion that part of the reason for my enjoyment is an increased appreciation of the internet.
Some of you, like me, may be able to remember the early days when going online was expensive and extremely slow, and you only [...]

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Just testing to see if it really is possible to create and post a WordPress blog from an iPhone. If it is, I need to seriously think about the real occasions when I actually might need to / want to do this. I mean the iPhone keyboard is fantastic - even more user-friendly than I [...]

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Like many Roman Catholics these days, Father Antonio Rungi from Mondragone in Southern Italy, is very concerned about the serious drop in numbers of people who have a ‘vocation’ - those seeking to join the church as priests or nuns.  Many monasteries in Italy are dieing because of the lack of new members.  It appears [...]

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