A piece I wrote for the local newsletter as 2020 ends and we all hope fervently for better things in 2021.

• The view from here

I was recently asked what I felt was 'good science-fiction.' Hmm … it probably boils down to "I'm not sure how I'd define it but I know it when I read it" but let me try and jot down a few more specific ideas.

• What constitutes good sci-fi?

Many aspects of this Christmas Eve were the same as usual. The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College, Cambridge (albeit recorded without a congregation due to Covid-19), while I prepared vegetables for the next day. But in what looked like a massive case of 'take out the trash' but wasn't, there was an announcement from Downing Street and the Berlaymont.

• The deal is done

This weekend has been so good, it's worth writing about

• A good weekend

Jeremy Corbyn has been suspended from the Labour Party.

• I might change my vote

The news is worse than ever. I am genuinely depressed by the ongoing Brexit/Trump phenomenon. I need an escape …

• An upside to awful daily news – I’m reading more than ever

Twitter is a really bad place to have a discussion about diversity in standrds writing. Especially when you're unwittingly on the wrong side of the argument.

• Equality in standards development – we have a way to go

It's easier than ever to make videos and share them these days, but an alternative is to make a Power Point presentation and record your voice track. I've found it very useful at work in recent months so I thought I'd make a narrated Power Point presentation to show you how to make a narrated Power Point presentation.

While we're at it - how about including some visual interest as well?

• How to make a narrated Power Point presentation

My parents and grandparents' generations sacrificed a lot in two world wars. How come I'm not waving a flag today?

• VE Day 75th Anniversary

Some of my colleagues are frustrated by my insistence on using plain text email. Here's why I do it …

• Why I use plain text email

Having worked in and around standards for 20 years, I dare to think I know what a standard actually is by now.

• What is a standard?

If you want local businesses to survive the effects of the Coronavirus, please support them.

• Supporting a favourite local restaurant

Most people recognise the value of old books — it's how humanity passes information on from one generation to the next. In my own field, preserving digital documents is just as essential and useful as preserving physical objects.

• The Importance of Digital Persistence

The aim of my work at GS1 is to connect our system of identifiers for products, shipments and more, to the Web. It's about combining two very mature technology stacks. Despite that maturity, 'GS1 Digital Link' is seen as 'new' and 'innovative.' Well, yes, it is innovative, but it's not new and no one involved in the project invented any of it.

• A history of the ideas in GS1 Digital Link

My work gives me the privilege of travel. With no more than a handful of exceptions, everyone I meet on those travels thinks the UK has taken leave of its senses in its decision to leave the European Union. They are right, and I am ashamed to be British.

• Brexit Day