Latest activity → Feed

January 2014

Short thought

Sage Open is the first platform where I enjoy the HTML more than the PDF. That is partially due to a dislike of two column flow though...

Short thought

Today, I wrote some new book, did lots of XML, saw Jonathan Lethem at the LRB and had a good catch up with a certain Joe Brooker. Good day.

Short thought

Which means I either trust the Scholarly Kitchen's summary of it (unlikely), or don't read it (likely).

Short thought

Saw Scholarly Kitchen article on newly published "Global Social Science and Humanities Publishing 2013-2014" document. It's $2,500.

Short thought

Perhaps Google buys companies based on the degree of creepiness it will add to their portfolio. "Deep Mind".

Short thought

I am particularly pleased that, in a book about Pynchon, one can construct an index entry: "Death, see under love"

Short thought

I just re-read Robin Osborne's "Why Open Access Makes No Sense" and the piece still makes no sense to me.

Short thought

Counting every day, there are ~155 days in those 4 months (just doing x 31). That's ~4 items per day. Every day. Some of which are books.

Short thought

So even if the whole "we read every article" shtick is true, these are well beyond panel members' remits & will be read hastily at best.

Short thought

I have heard 2x separate reports this morning of REF panel members being asked to read 500-600 items by May.

Short thought

'Tory MP Aiden Burley "caused deep offence" by organising a stag party in France with a Nazi theme, an internal investigation has found'.

Short thought

to an extent that might obscure important messages". Taylor & Francis jrnl. Informa Group's annual report: 150 pages long. Informa owns T&F.

Short thought

My favourite line in a journal this morning: "concerns have been raised about whether annual reports are overloaded with information ...

Short thought

"What do you want to hear repeatedly on the radio this year?" / "Something that sounds like what I listen to, with different words"

Short thought

Should you ever need to give a lecture on genre, the lyrics to Tut Tut Child's "Dance to It" might be amusing.

Short thought

For those who play Dominion, my wife has suggested a card combo based on my research environment: trash an office, gain a book. @j_w_baker

Short thought

I work in English Literature. I prepared for a job interview question: "what book/author outside your discipline has most influenced you?"

Post

"Every generation has its philosopher"

Every generation has its philosopher — a writer or an artist who captures the imagination of a time. Sometimes these philosophers are recognized as such; often it takes generations before the connection is made real. But recognized or not, a time gets marked by the people who speak its ideals,…

Short thought

Not sure about the appraisal of the Beckett trilogy currently under way on Radio 4. Beckett wanted it at the "speed of thought"...

Short thought

Proofs returned on David Mitchell/Russell Hoban article. Hardest thing I've ever written. Not entirely happy with it. Still.

Short thought

Dear Publishers #3: actually, scrap getting my title right, please get my NAME right in the article proofs.

Short thought

Off to a meeting of the HEFCE Open Access Monograph Expert Reference Group today. Preliminary fact finding.

Short thought

If you are a quasi-spammy book publisher who solicits edited collections off conferences, at least get your addressee's title right.

Post

Dear Publisher (#2)

10 month review process. Two week typesetting wait. And you want me to return proofs within 24 hours as it may delay publication? Dear Dr. Martin Eve, Your manuscript "_" has been accepted for publication in Journal. In order for Publisher to proceed with publication of your article, you must…

Short thought

Odd request, BUT: could someone with some capable image program on Windows create a small blank white square in WMF format for me please?

Post

Handling the absence of a (newline) break tag in JATS

As I noted in a previous post, a lot of my work this term involves technical implementation of an open source JATS (previously NLM) typesetter for scholarly articles. What this means is that I am writing a system that takes imperfectly formatted Microsoft Word documents and transforms them into an…

Short thought

Enjoying final copyedits to Pynchon and Philosophy ready for May release. Then off to see @Lisadwan in the Beckett trilogy! Not a bad day.

@Lisadwan very much enjoyed trilogy this evening - brilliant atmosphere, well held!

Short thought

For some reason best known to itself, the @guardian website has just appeared to me in a new layout, labelled "alpha"... whoops?

Short thought

If you're ever looking for a python IDE, check out pyCharm. Been using it today and it's superb!

Short thought

For those who care, after much pen and paper scribbling, the logic is coming together and the typesetter is beginning to pass section tests!

Short thought

I am currently in a world of pain debugging a section nesting algorithm for meTypeset. Resorted to writing out the stack on paper.

Short thought

Police want water cannon on same day as jury finds Mark Duggan was "lawfully killed" by police, despite not holding a gun. Coincidence?

Short thought

Had my article accepted to SAGE Open. I've got some very good things to say about their review process that I'll write about once it's out.

Short thought

That's right young people! Know that your pain, hunger and lack of a social safety net is so that people can have free TV.

Short thought

I don't know what madness this is, but the Lincoln train from Newark has THREE carriages today. Going up in the world. @the_blochian

Short thought

Just done my first academic writing of 2014. Extremely pleased! Amazing what a break does to unclog any blocks.

Short thought

It's worth reading Willetts in today's @timeshighered. An oblique response to @amcgettigan claiming recognition of public value. Hmmm.