Page 33 of full list of posts


Dell XPS 13: the unboxing

Two days ago, the Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook finally went on sale. Two days ago then, I bought one; no, no, no, not for me, you understand, but for Donna, to replace her old one. It’s the fully-kitted out one: Intel Core i7-2637M, 4GB RAM, 256GB SSD. […]

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Exile: a review

Over the weekend, I finished Exile, a three-part drama series from the BBC. I’d ordered the DVD from Amazon.co.uk never having heard of the production, but since it starred John Simm (I hugely enjoyed his performances in both Life on Mars and State of Play) and Jim Broadbent (think any number of TV productions or movies, he’s one of the top actors of his generation) I felt that I couldn’t go wrong. […]

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Adventures in creating an ebook

As I mentioned a week or so ago, I discovered that my book, The Tomes of Delphi: Algorithms and Data Structures, was out as an ebook. And that, since the ebook was mostly created from a mechanical process converting my PDF for the physical book, it was pretty grim formatting-wise. So, over the past 10 days (not continuously, I hasten to add), I’ve been recreating it. […]

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Programming the Extras tab

A reader asked me how the Extras tab on my blog was made. It’s a bit of CSS and a bit of JavaScript, so let’s describe it all. […]

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My first HP calculator: HP-27S

It’s about time I introduced the first Hewlett-Packard calculator I ever bought. Unlike the previous calculators I’ve shown (Litton Royal 5T, Casio SL-800, Casio ML-81) which were replacements obtained long after the originals had been lost or thrown away, this is the actual calculator I purchased and used back in 1988. I can’t remember the cost, but it must have been enough that I also splashed out on the deluxe leather case to protect it. These days they go for about $150 on eBay for one in good condition with manual and standard case. […]

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Tomes of Delphi: Algorithms and Data Structures is available as ebook

I learned today that my book Tomes of Delphi: Algorithms and Data Structures is available as an ebook for both the Nook and for iOS devices like the iPad. It is not available on the Kindle. […]

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Tilt-shift on the cheap

You’ve probably seen those photos which look as if they are images of miniature landscapes. […]

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PCPlus 304: A day in the life of an email

PC Plus logoA quick synopsis of the history of email, plus a discussion of how email actually works (in other words, what POP3 and STMP servers do). I even touch on MX records. I can’t remember how the topic came up at this remove (it doesn’t sound like something I’d think of), but I’ll admit it was a quick write. Probably the most fun I had with it was drawing the figure. Let’s call the article workmanlike without showing any particular craftsmanship. […]

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Thinking LESS of this blog

Over the weekend, I spent some time updating the CSS (cascading stylesheet) of this blog. There were two main purposes for this: Less and @media queries. […]

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Taking the Volvo 1800S out in snow

Overnight, it wasn’t exactly snow falling so much as fog freezing. There was snow left over from the past couple of days, but the roads were clear and the freezing fog had covered the trees with a sugar dusting of white. It was also very cold overnight: around –12C or 10F. […]

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