Category: Uncategorized

  • Looking back, ten years ago,

    A bit of history: the post I made to mark ten years on usenet Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!colt.net!diablo.theplanet.net!mephistopheles.news.clara.net!news.clara.net!landlord!wards.force9.net.POSTED!gaines.plus.com!nobody From: Penny Gaines <pe…@gaines.plus.com> Subject: Ten years on usenet Newsgroups: misc.kids Reply-To: pe…@gaines.net Lines: 63 User-Agent: KNode/0.7.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit Message-ID: <s3s6eb.da3.ln@gaines.plus.com> Date: Sat, 05 Jul 2003 17:54:37 +0000 NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.56.67.99 X-Complaints-To: abuse@plus.net.uk X-Trace: wards.force9.net […]

  • First Usenet post

    Twenty years ago, I made my first usenet post: Newsgroups: comp.editors,alt.fan.warlord Path: gmd.de!newsserver.jvnc.net!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!uunet!pipex!uknet!root44!penny From: pe…@root.co.uk (Penny Gaines) Subject: Re: Demystifying vi one step further.. Message-ID: <C9p2ux.7JA@root.co.uk> Organization: UniSoft Ltd., London, England References: <1993Jun29.163526.19829@Celestial.COM> <37929@castle.ed.ac.uk> <1993Jul01.161714.15055@Celestial.COM> <1993Jul2.210933.17371@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> Date: Mon, 5 Jul 1993 13:59:19 GMT Lines: 24 In <1993Jul2.210933.17…@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> cro…@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Matthew Crosby) writes: >Ok. Why is dd […]

  • It was almost a throwaway comment

    It was almost a throwaway comment, but sometimes even throwaway comments cause ripples. In an article on HS2 for Engineering and Technology magazine, I concluded One option would be government support to decarbonise the electricity industry. Many people think that a better use for the money would be to build a world-class digital infrastructure in […]

  • Me, interviewed about campaigning

    On 9th December 2012, I was interviewed by Bill Heine, on campaigning. Specifically it was about the use of signs within campaigns. Here’s what I had to say: If you want to download some of our posters, they are on http://stophs2.org/toolbox.

  • The real digital revolution is yet to come

    A post on Next Gen journal – Why Every Social Media Manager Should Be Under 25 – crossed my radar recently. The title summarises the viewpoint of the article: that unless you were a teenager when Facebook began, you are way too out of it to be a social media director. She’s wrong of course: […]

  • Hidden Destination

    Nun’s Passage, Queens College, Oxford. You can’t see over the walls, the path curves, so you can’t see where it leads. A metaphor for life, sometimes. Follow the Path. See where it goes.

  • A thought on the Granny Tax

    There has been much said about the so-called Granny Tax. But all the commentators I’ve read have failed to mention is that there was already a ticking time-bomb with age related allowances. Currently, the age related personal allowances kick in at the same time a man can get their state pension – currently 65. However, […]

  • Jane Austen, on blogging

    Jane Austen didn’t actually predict the rise of the internet and blogging. However I was struck by the following discription of letter writing, from her novella Catherine: ‘Why indeed, Mrs Percival,’ said Mrs Stanley, ‘I must think that Catharine’s affection for her bower is the effect of a sensibility that does her credit. I love […]

  • Turbalance Ahead

    Seth Godwin recently published a post about Unexpected Turbulence It’s hard to summarise a post that’s only four sentences long, but the final sentence struck me as being very relevant to the HS2 proposal: If your plan will only succeed if there is no turbulence at any time, it’s probably not a very good plan […]

  • Things I wrote

    During 2011, Stop HS2 made a number of submissions to various inquiries as well as producing numerous leaflets. Although I didn’t write everything we published (although at times it felt like it!), the following three reports were written by me. Transport Select Committee Inquiry into HS2: Stop HS2 TSC Submission May 2011 Labour Party Policy […]