Photos Archives - SA Mathieson

Searching for specialist search services

General search engines are an amazing free service that participants in one piece of research valued as being worth US$17,530 a year. (Not sure about that, although DuckDuckGo did help me find said piece of research in seconds.) But as I write for Computer Weekly, professionals can benefit from more-focused search services.

Several of these specialist search services are aimed at journalists. Krzana focuses on recent material, linked to geography and subject to minimise time wasted by journalists in Birmingham sifting out news from the city of the same name in Alabama. The Inject Project aims to provide related but different material, such as similar stories in another country. (More on both these services from the NUJ Freelance newsletter here.) Image library Shutterstock has launched services that let users search for images with images. Continue reading “Searching for specialist search services”

From Alan Turing to Clive Sinclair, a Cambridge computing tour

The Register has published my walking tour of Cambridge’s computing history from Alan Turing (King’s College) to Clive Sinclair (6a King’s Parade, just across the street). On the way, it takes in Porgy the bear, EDSAC, Acorn, Elite, Robert Maxwell and a fight in the Baron of Beef.

The Baron of Beef: scene of Sinclair vs Curry (or possibly a winebar nearby)

Picturing the Ends of Britain: photos for Beacon

One nice thing about Beacon is that every article has to have a header image. So in writing the Ends of Britain series, I increasingly take photos when I visit somewhere. A selection of header photos appears above; there are links to the articles from the image pages. Continue reading “Picturing the Ends of Britain: photos for Beacon”

Britain’s CCTV cities: we need a clearer view

The UK uses surveillance cameras like a comfort blanket, with some care homes for the elderly planning to install them in bedrooms. Rather than arguing about security versus privacy, we should be more discriminating.

Originally published on Beacon. Continue reading “Britain’s CCTV cities: we need a clearer view”

Spain’s nationalised heritage paradores: unlikely in Britain, sadly

The new top storey of the Santiago de Compostela parador, added in the 1950s

Modern gargoyles of some of those who converted the Santiago de Compostela parador

A new glass wall at the Parador Santo Estevo at Nogueria de Ramun near Ourense

If you were looking for parts of the economy to nationalise, luxury hotels would probably be low on most people’s lists – and for the last three decades, British governments have mainly privatised, not nationalised, with most of Royal Mail being privatised this week.

Having just spent a week in a different parador – Spain’s nationalised chain of hotels – every night, that’s a bit of a shame. Not because hotel accommodation urgently needs to become part of the public sector, but because it’s difficult to imagine any organisation but a government doing what Spain has done with several paradores: take a fantastic but decrepit old building and make it usable again. Continue reading “Spain’s nationalised heritage paradores: unlikely in Britain, sadly”