magpiebrain

John Peel, RIP

John Peel died today whilst on holiday. Radio 1 will never be the same.

magpiebrain theatre presents, A story of Final

Act 1: In support of the pessimist

<dl>
<dt>Fred:</dt><dd>So, I’ve made this thing for you</dd>
<dt>Bob:</dt><dd> Cool! What’s that tube for - and why the electrodes?</dd>
<dt>Fred: </dt><dd>Don’t worry about that, have a play…</dd>
<dt>Bob: </dt><dd>Cool, now - what does this do? Oh, and if I poke a stick there, put my finger there, then stick my tongue in the power socket…*ouch*!</dd>
<dt>Fred: </dt><dd>Dammit! That’s not how you’re supposed to use it! I’ll never get that out of the carpet now….</dd>
</dl>
Read the rest of this entry »

And in GMail related news…

Skinning GMail

Over at persistent.info, Hammers has used the URLid extension for Firefox to create a personal skin for GMail using CSS. The result is less than stunning, however does show the potential. Personally, GMail’s interface has put me off – not just the look (which is so 2002), but the actual UI – I frequently find myself hunting for links, and find the interface far too busy. Now whilst I can’t change everything I’d like to, I can change some of it, so I should probably stop moaning about the excellent free service. Read the rest of this entry »

Think Simple

Simple code that works is only considered a bad thing by programmers who either don’t care about maintainability, or like to hide their inadequacies behind complex solutions.

The personal portal

My morning routine before leaving for work goes a little something like this:

1. Get up & dressed
2. Wash
3. Watch BBC Breakfast to see if aliens have landed
4. Check the web for Underground news (London Underground)
5. Check the weather (the BBC)
6. Quickly scan mail to see if anything needs a reply before I leave (Gmail) Read the rest of this entry »