Claire Miller, a data journalist at Media Wales, is pushing for more open data in Wales:
This page from Openly Local pretty much sums up the problem with Wales, with a grand total of no open data councils, not even any semi open ones – every other region of Great Britain at least manages a few.
(via Open Wales – clairemiller.net)
(via @cpbyers)
Curiously, I seem to be getting much more traffic now I’m hosting this blog on WordPress.com. I used to get 100-200 visits per day on Posterous, but now I’m seeing 200-300.
It could be a simple reporting difference, but I know from personal experience that Posterous could be slow to the point where the page never finished loading. I wonder if it regularly prevented the Google Analytics script at the end of the page from getting loaded?
Dribbble is a community site for very talented graphic designers. It’s not their role to debate these details. I would love to see a Dribbble for writing. A place where I can post the latest Intercom broadcast, email, even a sentence from the interface and get feedback. “You can strip the word currently there.“, “The important word here is buried in the middle of the sentence!“. “The message makes sense, but what I am supposed to do next?“.
(via The Language of Interfaces – contrast.ie)
A clever idea. I could see this being useful outside of UX circles. Perhaps for crafting the perfect marketing tweet or optimising a paragraph for SEO? I could even see some ways to make this profitable…
The National Assembly for Wales have put up an e-Petition to abolish collective worship in schools:
As it stands, the law requires all schools to hold an act of collective worship every day. Even in schools that aren’t ‘faith’ schools, this must be ‘broadly Christian’ in character. In a society which is increasingly diverse, this is an affront to the rights of young people to express their beliefs freely. Although there is the opportunity to opt out, this is reliant on parental permission and is not respected by all schools. The law is extremely unpopular, with opinion polls showing teachers don’t want it, parents don’t want it, and children don’t want it. As such, it is long past time for the daily act of collective worship to be replaced with inclusive assemblies that add to cohesion and a sense of community within the school. We petition the Government to repeal the requirement for compulsory collective worship in schools and to encourage schools to hold educational assemblies that will include all children, regardless of religion or non-religious belief.
Long overdue. One of my main memories of Torpoint School was of myself and a friend being punished by a particularly nasty geography teacher after failing to sing along in an assembly. He forced us to sing ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ in front of his next (much more senior) class.
It’s the final day of fund-raising for NightVision, the ‘Facebook theatre’/horror production I blogged about last month. Check out some of the 3D artwork I produced.
They have raised $7,756 of the required $10,000 total, so it would be a real shame if they didn’t make the final mile. As a bonus, they recently signed up Keith Allen, who seems a perfect fit based on what I know of the project.
I just asked a question on Twitter:
Static brands like Coffee #1 and Clark’s Pies are very dull on Twitter. Besides running promos and RTing complements, what else can they do?
Now, I don’t mean to call out Coffee #1 or Clark’s Pies in particular. (I happen to love coffee and pies, though not necessarily together!) Both of these brands are small, local companies who are interacting with followers. They look and sound professional, and are probably doing everything a ‘social media expert’ would recommend. But the experience of following them can be, to choose a charitable word, repetitive.
Should brands like these be on Twitter? What better ways could static brands take advantage of a fast-moving medium?
The Museum of Obsolete Objects is a snazzy YouTube channel:
Sadly, as our daily lives become more and more digital some things fall by the way side as they are replaced by newer, «better» devices.
Let us not forget those fallen appliances, tools and gadgets and relive those bygone times by taking a visit to The Museum of Obsolete Objects. Step inside to step back in time!
PressBooks is a book-making tool that outputs as epub, print-ready PDF, HTML, and InDesign-ready XML. Built on WordPress.
In 2040, jobs suck in a whole new way.
You may have noticed a slight change at this blog – it was finally time to give up on Posterous and move over to WordPress.com. There’s still a bit of tidying up to do, but I’m really happy with the change.
All the old Halfblog.net content is still available at foomandoonian.posterous.com. Gradually, I may migrate some more content over and eventually shut down the Posterous blog entirely, but I haven’t really decided yet.
Sheeped Away tells the tale of a farmer who just wants to be with his beloved sheep. When a giant UFO enters his life to claim his sheep, what will he do to keep them safe from harm? And can he do this without waking his monstrous wife?
When some puppets discover their creator dead in his studio, they celebrate his life the only way they know how.
Over Time by Oury Atlan, Thibaut Berland, Damien Ferrie
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Welcome to Planet Earth is the story of the extremely unique Jody Pendarvis and his 30 foot UFO he built in his front yard in the small town of Bowman, SC. After a sighting of alien life forms, Jody built the giant UFO as a place to welcome aliens when they return. All though visitors are welcomed to check out this unique and slightly odd landmark, Jody hopes that he will one day see the return of his friends from the sky. This is his story.
Filmed at the UFO Welcome Center in Bowman, SC
Welcome To Planet Earth by Michael Livingston
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The film is set in post-nuclear Tokyo in a dimension not so distant from ours. Young salary-man’s morning commute takes a surreal turn.
A simple animation that packs an emotional punch. Made with ‘flash and AE and love’.
A boy learns to play the piano.
Created as a promotional piece for The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, this film shows the impact one word can have.
A rogue with an eye for salvage – and the ladies – Ray: A Life Underwater is an affectionate portrait of one man’s deep sea diving career, told through his extraordinary collection of marine artefacts.
Like a modern-day pirate, 75-year-old Ray Ives has been scouring the seabed for treasure his whole life.
The former commercial diver has plundered the deep for over fifty years, bringing to the surface anything that glittered — even gold.
In a shipping container near the water, Ray tends his museum of cannon, bottles, bells, swords, portholes and diving gear.
Ray: A Life Underwater by Amanda Blueglass & Danny Cook
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A brilliant scientist travels through various dimensions and realms in search of his lost love.
A fun musical from the team behind the excellent the excellent Fallout: Nuka Break film, designed to show off some low-budget gore effects.
Fluids The Musical, Blood, Vomit, Snot by Backyard FX / Indy Mogul
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