Clik here to view.
A week in Athens
Last week I visited Athens again to give keynote “Long-Term Engagement” at Usability And Accessibility Days 2014. The rest of the event was in Greek, so I got excused to wander across to see the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
the year that was 2014
While 2013 was full of momentous events (Miriam getting married, online HCI course and walking 1000 years around Wales), 2014 seems to have relatively little to report. A major reason for that is the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Big themes
We were talking about the big themes, and what bigger theme than Christmas. John talks of the Word, that pre-exists all, the Logos, the ruliness we seek in random events, the laws of the universe...
View ArticleClik here to view.
lies, damned lies, and the BBC
I have become increasingly annoyed and distressed over the years at the way the media decides a narrative for various news stories and then selectively presents the facts to tell the story, ignoring or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
toys for Tech Wave – MicroView
I’m always on the lookout for interesting things to add to the Tiree Tech Wave boxes to join Arduinos, Pis, conductive fabric, Lilypad, Lego Technic, etc., and I had chance to play with a new bit of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It started with a run … from a conversation at Tiree Tech Wave to an...
Spring has definitely come to Tiree and in the sunshine I took my second run of the year. On Soroby beach I met someone else out running and we chatted as we ran. It reminded me of another run two...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Statistics and individuals
Ramesh Ramloll recently posted on Facebook about two apparently contradictory news reports on vitamin D, one entitled “Recommendation for vitamin D intake was miscalculated, is far too low, experts...
View ArticleClik here to view.
If the light is on, they can hear (and now see) you
Following Samsung’s warning that its television sets can listen into your conversations1, and Barbie’s, even more scary, doll that listens to children in their homes and broadcasts this to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Into the heart of darkness
Life is not all joy and fun, but often dark, depressing and painful. Easter and Christmas are part of popular culture: Easter bunnies, Easter eggs, Christmas presents and Santa Claus. However, except...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WebSci 2015 – WebSci and IoT panel
Sunshine on Keble quad, brings back memories of undergraduate days at Trinity, looking out toward the Wren Library. Yesterday was first day of WebSci 2015. I’m here largely as I’m giving my work on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
REF Redux 1 – UK research assessment for computing; what it means and is it...
REF is the 5 yearly exercise to assess the quality of UK university research, the results of which are crucial for both funding and prestige. In 2014, I served on the sub-panel that assessed computing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
REF Redux 2 – world ranking of UK computing
This is the second of my posts on the citation-based analysis of REF, the UK research assessment process in computer science. The first post set the scene and explained why citations are a valid means...
View ArticleClik here to view.
If you do accessibility, please do it properly
I was looking at Coke Cola’s Rugby World Cup site1, On the all-red web page the tooltip stood out, with the uninformative text, “headimg”. Peeking in the HTML, this is in both the title and alt...
View ArticleClik here to view.
REF Redux 3 – plain citations
This third post in my series on the results of REF 2014, the UK periodic research assessment exercise, is still looking at subarea differences. Following posts will look at institutional (new vs old...
View ArticleClik here to view.
REF Redux 4 – institutional effects
This fourth post in my REF analysis series compares computing sub-panel results across different types of institution. Spoiler: new universities appear to have been disadvantaged in funding by at least...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Making the most of stakeholder interviews
Recently, I was asked for any tips or suggestions for stakeholder interviews. I realised it was going to be more than would fit in the response to an IM message! I’ll assume that this is purely for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
REF Redux 5 – growing the gender gap
This fifth post in the REF Redux series looks at gender issue, in particular the likelihood that the apparent bias in computing REF results will disproportionately affect women in computing. While it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
level of detail – scale matters
We get used to being able to zoom into every document picture and map, but part of the cartographer’s skill is putting the right information at the right level of detail. If you took area maps and...
View ArticleREF Redux 6 — Reasons and Remedies
This, the last of my series of posts on post-REF analysis, asks what went wrong and what could be done to improve things in future. Spoiler: a classic socio-technical failure story: compromising the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Alan’s Guide to Winter Footcare
My feet are quite wide and so I prefer to wear sandals. I wore sandals for over 700 miles of my round Wales walk back in 2013, and wear them throughout the winter. When the temperature drops below...
View Article
