Puffbox

Apologies for the quiet spell over the last couple of weeks. In addition to the standard festivities, I finally bit the bullet and had laser eye surgery, bringing an end to 25 years of shortsightedness. All went perfectly, and I’m really enjoying being able to see without mechanical assistance. Of course, that means I’m going to have to remake the header graphic on the old blog… 🙁

This morning Suffolk Police announce the detention of an unnamed 37-year old man. By this evening, we know all there is to know about former special constable, Tesco employee and part-time taxi driver Tom Stephens. Even down to the address of his Myspace profile (now offline, thankfully). Suddenly this brings a whole new dimension to the ‘social networking’ thing. The Daily Mail website has details of what was there before it got removed. (Er, did I just link to the Daily Mail? Wow.)

Incidentally, while we’re on the subject: Sky News has done a Google map with embedded video (served by their new mates at Google Video) in the popup windows. I’m not sure I like the execution: the code looks like it was hacked together in Word (surely not?), the design could certainly have been much much better, and the use of the Sky News (wide rectangular) logo for the pinpoints is a bit daft. But I’m all for the innovation.

If you haven’t heard of microformats yet, don’t worry. Initially I couldn’t get my head around the concept, but they’re a brilliantly simple idea which could have significant benefits in time. And there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t embrace them immediately, if you’re doing or commissioning any coding. Let me explain.

Modern webpage coding is based on CSS stylesheets and ‘classes’ in the HTML code. Classes are defined in a shared stylesheet file, and the HTML refers to the classes, rather than any specific formatting. So for example, you might have a class ‘subheading’, which is defined in the stylesheet as ‘big red and bold’. If you decide one day that red isn’t your thing any more, you change it to ‘blue’ in the stylesheet, and every subheading on the website now appears in blue. Fabulous.

Usually, designers make up the class names off the tops of their heads. With microformats, the idea is to use a standard set of class names for common things. So for example, the microformat ‘hCard’ is a way to mark up contact information. Following the standard, you use the class name ‘tel’ to identify a phone number, or ’email’ to identify an email address. (This online hCard creator is a great ‘worked example’ for those with some HTML knowledge.)

The plan is that software will be told to look for these standard class names, and will be able to recognise (for example) when a web page includes someone’s contact details. You will then be able to offer one-click exporting from the web page to your Outlook contacts. I’m consciously using the future tense here because, although Microsoft and Yahoo are doing some things with microformats, and although there are a couple of Firefox extensions which proves the concept, we’re still a long way away from the mainstream.

So why care now? Because, quite simply, it doesn’t cost you anything to start using the conventions now. So what if nobody spots that it’s a microformat? You will almost certainly be marking up your code using classes (er, won’t you?), so you might as well use these particular class names. It will cost you precisely zero, has absolutely no technical implications, and might pay off in the long run. And then how smug will you feel? 😉

I expect the microformats for ‘business cards‘ (also extended into a full CV microformat) and event calendars to be the ones most likely to take off, but there are quite a few others. If you fancy trying them out, the Tails extension for Firefox is less obtrusive, but Operator is maybe a bit slicker.

I suppose it’s good news for the blogosphere to see Tory MP and former leadership candidate John Redwood joining our ranks. I’m not sure he’s as relevant or as influential today as he used to be, but he’s a big name recruit.

Redwood, incidentally, is the chair of one of David Cameron’s various ‘policy review groups’ – which are, depending on your point of view, a way to tap into the experience of the party veterans; or a way of keeping the potentially awkward old gits quiet. There’s a mini-network of blogs supporting these: for example, Redwood’s own Economic Competitiveness Policy Group. All seem to be WordPress-powered (again), and include ‘social web’ links to del.icio.us, digg, newsvine and Yahoo. The addresses were registered this time last year, but the sites themselves only seem to have sparked into life in the last few months.

I know nobody’s reading this for my thoughts on politics per se… but I was left feeling very angry last night as we saw the government media machine burying one bad story beneath another. The morning’s news was dominated by Post Office closures, and previewing the Diana report, both big stories in themselves. Then suddenly they slip out the news that Blair has been ‘spoken to’ by the cops. Oh, and just in time to really annoy the evening news bulletins, the Saudi case being dropped ‘in the national interest’. Plus, in case you missed it: ‘the government has reaffirmed its commitment to airport expansion plans despite opposition from green groups.’ All this coming, conveniently, immediately after Blair’s two ‘holding to account’ opportunities (the monthly presser and PMQs). It smells.

Do you think Apple’s getting a bit too cocky with its ‘cool’ sales pitch?

[youtube=http://youtube.com/w/?v=z3p7UyWEsGw]

Anyway, should you be buying a PC? Or a Mac? Simple answer is no, unless the kids are going to kill Santa otherwise. There are some staggeringly good deals out there just now: I’ve seen a few surprisingly good laptops advertised for as little as £299, and plenty under £400. So what’s the catch?

Simple. Lots of big things arriving in January. Microsoft is (finally!) releasing the new version of Windows on 30 January, and it needs some pretty serious hardware to get the most out of it.  Meanwhile, Apple is expected to make some big product announcements on 9 January.

If you buy something now, it’ll work fine for years. So much these days is happening via the web anyway, so the operating system doesn’t matter anything like as much as it used to. But you’re going to feel short-changed if you spend money this month, when you see what’s coming next month.

IBM and Yahoo have joined forces to offer a free search engine, which will index up to half a million documents. All you have to do is supply the hardware. Three clicks to install, various tuning functions, and what looks like some nice interface design, on both the front and back ends. Did I mention it was free? Mmm, nice.

Having never been inside the House of Commons chamber despite working in government circles for over a decade, I put in a request with my local MP’s office, and managed get a ticket for the weekly showpiece: Prime Minister’s Questions.

You’re separated from the proceedings by a thick glass wall, floor to ceiling – and it ruins the sense of ‘being there’. You might as well be watching it on TV, albeit in HD. In fact, from up there, you do spend quite a lot of time watching the TV screens, since you can really only see from the despatch boxes to the Speaker’s chair. Bad luck if you’re hoping to see any Lib Dems or minority parties.

Throughout PMQs there’s a steady hubbub in the chamber, which comes across crystal-clear via the speakers embedded in the benches. But as soon as anyone mentions soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan, and particularly any fatalities, the whole place falls absolutely silent. You could hear a pin drop, not that anyone holding any pins would have dared drop them.

Blair was forced to give a lengthy and complex answer on military pay, which – frankly – was impossible to follow without a slide, whiteboard, handout or something. And suddenly I’m aware how low-tech it all is. Never mind the lack of visual aids – they confiscated any technology (phones, PDAs, iPods) on the way in. Nobody in the press gallery was even using a laptop that I could see.

But after PMQs, once it’s thinned out, the chamber took on a very different tone. John Hutton gave a statement on replacing the Child Support Agency, and Peter Hain introduced the new Northern Ireland justice bill: an unexpected bonus for an Ulster boy such as myself. And during both Ministerial appearances, MPs were quite happy to offer (apparently genuine) praise and support to those on the opposite benches.

Most of it comes across as (shock!) constructive debate! Then suddenly, pressed on whether the proposed CSA changes can’t happen faster, John Hutton turns unexpectedly vitriolic. Fingers point. Gestures get animated. It seemed to come out of the blue… but thankfully, cordial relations are soon restored.

The MPs are generally pretty disrespectful of the place. People not looking at those who are speaking to them. A surprising number doing their paperwork rather than paying attention. Feet on the furniture. One of the junior Ministers seemed to be reading Auto Trader at one point?

But it was a surprisingly positive experience overall. PMQs wasn’t as much fun as I expected; it comes across as a pantomime, an opportunity to let off steam once a week, an interruption to the otherwise civilised atmosphere. The proceedings which followed were (for the most part) adult, reasoned, calm and constructive.

Maybe politics isn’t as bad as it’s portrayed after all. PMQs makes for great TV, but it’s simply not representative of Commons business.

Last week I wrote about my ‘mashup’ of Google Maps with Hansard, and how easy it was to throw together, thanks to TheyWorkForYou.com. It’s received several positive reviews around the UK blogs, for which I’m very grateful. But for anyone visiting from TechCrunch UK… I only iced the cake which was baked by Matthew Somerville and co.

Speaking of whom… Matthew has just extended TWFY to cover proceedings in the Northern Ireland Assembly. If you aren’t familiar with Ulster politics (and why would you be?), it can be tough reading. Look out for the occasional use of Irish from SDLP and Sinn Féin members, although it’s usually limited to ‘thank you’; and, in classic tit-for-tat fashion, a bit of Ulster-Scots from the Unionist side.

Now, if you’ve never encountered Ulster-Scots, you’ll need to know that it is considered a proper language, recognised by the EU and everything – and contrary to appearances, it isn’t just a transcription of somebody doing a Rab C Nesbitt impersonation. See this extract for example… and if you can’t immediately understand it, try reading it aloud. (Helpfully, Jim Shannon follows his Ulster-Scots passage with a translation into English.)

It’s great to have Stormont back. I’ve missed stories like this on Monday: a motion opposing equality legislation for gays and lesbians (that’s right, opposing equality) fell thanks to a 39-39 tied vote… and would have passed if it hadn’t been for the vote of a dead man.

I’m only surprised that it’s taken this long for someone to come up with the idea. Media Guardian reports that the BBC is trialling a system which pushes 50 hours of TV programming – preselected by them – to a Sky+-style set-top box.

The BBC – and Sky, and the cable guys for that matter – now have well-established channels for getting TV signals into your house. The video-recording hardware is equally well-established, with Sky+ leading the way, but the others catching up rapidly. The marginal cost of hard disk space is almost negligible. The ability to scroll through a collection of ‘on demand’ TV programming, delivered locally, should allow for a very neat user experience, including – crucially – a very pretty user interface.

Two ways this could work: a ‘best of’ selection, ensuring you don’t miss the week’s TV highlights, and a ‘niche’ service for stuff which meets the public service remit, but just can’t find a slot in the mass-market schedules. Both have their merits. (Media coverage of niche interests is suddenly a big news story, with a three-day-eventer – is that a word? – winning the BBC’s Sports Personality Of The Year award.)