Newest thoughts →

March 2014

And I know that there's a heap of great scholarly thinking unpacking that logic, but it just struck me again today.

Rhetoric from publishers that they serve authors makes sense in service model, but in commodity sale mode is strange. Authors are suppliers.

I tried using Skype out/in when I was away in Germany last week. Awful. Any paid alternatives? Want VoIP to a real bidirectional phone no.

The only thing I hope is that retrograde publishers don't take this as an opportunity to push embargos to maximum, or to remove deposit.

Admittedly, justification that the journal was "best", but that it didn't allow deposit, is a loophole, but that wasn't "line"; was draft.

THE piece calls HEFCE's policy a "softening on line" regarding OA. Considering they didn't have a policy before, I can't see that it is.

MT @ChuckRybak: Anyone else out there pay for own work-related web hosting b/c campus policy too restrictive? < yes, have done

Oh joy, there's a new Facebook interface. Shame you can't block posts whinging about it. And the meta posts whinging about that. And the...

Was reading and enjoying Dave Eggers' The Circle on my plane trip. Feel that while his writing improves, he remains an unsubtle allegorist.

You know, there is a footnote function in all modern word processors, but why use that when you can just make text superscript & add a list?

One thing I've been horrified by my recent dev work is the number of people who submit articles with footnotes just as superscripted numbers

My friend has just reported on a taxi driver who thought lecturers earn £140k per year. Didn't understand why there were strikes.

Doc Brown shades on: "Pathways to impact? Where we're going, we don't need 'pathways'".

"Actually, Martin, I'm afraid you do."

"Damn."

All news: So it seems that today's budget is going to be pretty grim and will hurt the most vulnera.... OOOH SHINY NEW £1 COIN!

Government decries focus on research instead of teaching. Then cuts funding for teaching, which is already gone in humanities subjects.

Was using meTypeset in a real-world setup today (for @OrbitJournal). Excluding reference tagging, from Word to perfect XML took 5 minutes.

Done my bit at #digifest14 -- @ellenscollins tweeted my talk if interested! Good to see @Graham_Stone, @brian_hole & @josswinn (briefly)

Feeling thoroughly nauseated now as a result of tilting train to Birmingham. Need to get it together for my talk!

So tempted to click that "how much is my Twitter account worth" stuff to see how many mega-bucks it's worth. Except it isn't.

Heading off to Birmingham today for the first time in 10 years to speak at the Jisc Digifest on my techy stuff.

Breaking things key to curiosity in IT & telling people it's just a tool is not education. That said, has to be ltd for safety of others.

Whenever I speak to IT teachers at schools I recount how much trouble I got into (sometimes w/ @harrylund99) & recommend they let kids crack

If you visit that Scholarly Kitchen article about anti-privacy trackers on university press websites, you will encounter six trackers.

I'd like to expressly extend my solidarity and support for International Woman's Day. Let us continue the march to equality for all. #IWD

How exciting! There's to be an event at Leicester commemorating the 50th anniversary of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane.

StackOverflow is wonderful. Can almost guarantee that if I need help, someone will have got back to me in half an hour.

Text below article on high incidence of mental health problems in academia: "Looking for your next university role? Browse Guardian jobs..."

Don't be fooled by Getty's embed programme; this is more dodgy tracking & you'd be better using MorgueFile & contributing to free culture.

"the Author's Accepted Manuscript contains all of the academically important aspects of the research article..."

Nick Clegg sets out Lib Dem plans to cut surveillance. Could we have some clarity though, Nick. Is this a "pledge", a "plan" or a "promise"?

Most grandiose posts about Paul Scofield are improved if you accidentally read them as concerning Philip Schofield.