This year, it was 10 years since the first OpenTech event. I’ve been to a fair number of the events and I rate it as one of the best tech conferences going. It is cheap (a fiver for the day), has reasonably good politics and a good percentage of the speakers are women -- unfortunately a rare t …

I am actually kind of surprised that I hadn’t read this novel before. It is probably one of the first steampunk books. Imagine an alternate Victorian era Neal Stephenson and you will have a fairly good idea of w …

This is a collection of Gibson’s ruminations on technology written for various publications including Wired, Time and Rolling Stone. I enjoyed the collection immensely. This is smart, accessible and compelling writing abou …

I have been working my way slowly through this classic FP book for the last couple of months. Bird’s style is rigorously mathematical but very readable. He is interested in developing programs a …

This was a birthday present from a chum of mine. A really wonderful book that manages to capture the anarchic spirit of Anonymous, LulzSec and all those lot. It manages to be anthropologically interestin …

A pioneering lit …

Here’s all the books that I read in 2015, by month. On the each month’s page there’s quick review or synopsis of each book that I read in that month. …

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) was founded in 1985 to promote software freedom. In the 30 years since it was founded, it has battled for the rights of users to control the software they run, rather than the makers of that software — still an critical fight today.The FSF’s newly rel …

Very exciting news this. There is going to be a (an?) Hacktionlab this winter once more. As often happens the event will be held at Bradford’s 1 in 12 Club — one of the longest running Anarchist social spaces in the UK. This year we will all no doubt raise a glass to our fallen comrad …