New Year Reflections

A piece I wrote for the local newsletter as 2020 ends and we all hope fervently for better things in 2021.
See also Books read in 2020
A piece I wrote for the local newsletter as 2020 ends and we all hope fervently for better things in 2021.
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.
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.
This weekend has been so good, it's worth writing about
Jeremy Corbyn has been suspended from the Labour Party.
The news is worse than ever. I am genuinely depressed by the ongoing Brexit/Trump phenomenon. I need an escape …
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.
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?
My parents and grandparents' generations sacrificed a lot in two world wars. How come I'm not waving a flag today?
Some of my colleagues are frustrated by my insistence on using plain text email. Here's why I do it …
Having worked in and around standards for 20 years, I dare to think I know what a standard actually is by now.
If you want local businesses to survive the effects of the Coronavirus, please support them.
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 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.
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.