Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time had a pair of episodes on the history of cities that were packed with fascinating ideas, any one of which could probably have spun off into a programme of its own. And of course I shouldn’t criticise for what wasn't there. But really, to spend 80 minutes discussing the h...

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Or perhaps it wasn't. But it feels as if it could have been. After a surgical strike on IKEA early this morning I assembled my Besta as best as I could. (Oh God, the wit of it.) And then -- here's the breakthrough -- I ditched all the bits and pieces I didn't need for this particular configuration....

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A commenter wrote:

I’m interested in your choice of pronoun in the following: “Each website author or publisher has to find their own solution,” I prefer to bounce between “his” and “her,” but am always interested in hearing writers’ rationale for their choice. By the way, I see “their” more a...

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There's no greater validation, when one casts a frail little paper-boat of a blogpost onto the maelstrom of teh interwebs, than to have some stranger, or even friend, respond. ¹ Go to any reasonably popular website, however, and it rapidly becomes obvious that 90% of comments are crap. What to do?

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About this time last year, and the year before that and the year before that, a thought troubled me. Could this be the year I kiss Quicken goodbye?

Anyone who has used this venerable financial package -- especially on a Mac -- will surely sympathise. I'm not going to go into the myriad ways in whi...

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