A Screen that Ships without a Mouse Ships Broken

Clay Shirky's talk from O'Reilly's 2008 Web Expo points out just how much free time we actually have to "waste" on social participtation projects. The next time you roll your eyes at someone for editing Wikipedia or Musicbrainz or for playing about on Facebook remember, at least they're doing something rather than contributing to the billions of hours of free time spent in front of the latest reality show.

Elbow Patches, Redux

This is the time of the year when the excitement of a new set of books and a new course with the OU fades with the onset of the first Tutor Marked Assignment. For the past couple of years, I've been leaving these to the last minute, which has ended up with me writing all night before it needs to be in and trying to buy time travel delivery from the local Post Office. This year, however, I'm trying to be grown up so I've decided to get cracking a week and a half early. I've used Mind Maps before when taking notes so tried this open source application. I've managed to create my entire outline in the time it's taken the boss to have a bath. Maybe I won't be sneaking envelopes through my tutor's door this year.

One elbow patch

Having attempted a piece of minor madness I've got my first year's results back. I was hoping for a bare pass in the exam just so I could have a couple of month without worring about a resit, instead I got 60%.

One year down, another five to go.