http://adrianshort.co.uk Design, Citizenship and the City Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:52:20 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I love version 1.1s -- that first post-launch release which bridges the gap between prophecy and reality. If there aren't a lot of changes in your 1.1 you're either a design genius or not paying attention. No plan survives first contact with the enemy, as the saying goes, so after ... http://adrianshort.co.uk/2008/08/21/64 Problems: 1. Sutton Council's Latest News section doesn't have an RSS feed or any easy way for the public to track it other than by visiting it regularly. 2. The Sutton Guardian has more dirt than diamonds (although at least it has a feed). 3. Other things happen that don't get reported. 4. You ... http://adrianshort.co.uk/2008/08/18/59 First came the guerilla gardeners, sowing seeds and planting plants in public places without permission. Then there were the guerilla benchers, installing street seats where the local authority had been too poor or too mean to do it themselves. On the web, a growing community of civic hackers has been building sites ... http://adrianshort.co.uk/2008/08/16/58 Growing up in Sutton just got a little more confusing. You may remember that this is the place where the council spent £15,000 to remove a set of steps on which young people liked to sit. It's also the place where a housing association sees fit to impose a 9pm curfew ... http://adrianshort.co.uk/2008/07/24/57 We have a winner! The 2008 Opportunistic Book Title of the Year Award goes to... Giles Milton! Paradise Lost is an account of the great fire that destroyed large parts of the Turkish city of Smyrna in 1922. Of course it is. Mr Milton wins a £10 book token for his efforts in getting ... http://adrianshort.co.uk/2008/06/23/56 To some it must seem the very vision of Utopia: an elegant New England-style enclave with neatly clipped lawns, docile residents and a 9pm curfew for social housing tenants aged under 15. This is The Hamptons -- not the real ones on Long Island, New York but a housing development in ... http://adrianshort.co.uk/2008/06/19/55 Westminster City Council has taken a bold step today towards ending the misery of thousands of London tourists each year who buy counterfeit street sign souvenirs. The forward-thinking council has purchased the copyright to the design of its signs, created by notable designer Sir Misha Black in 1967. The council ... http://adrianshort.co.uk/2008/04/08/51 I'm still frustrated and to a degree baffled by all those otherwise-wonderful sites that are serving up RSS feeds with just headlines and summaries. Where are the rest of the articles? Sometimes this happens through laziness, sometimes with careful thought and intent but mostly through ignorance and fallacy. So why isn't ... http://adrianshort.co.uk/2008/04/04/47 The newly-launched WordPress 2.5 (download; release notes; changelog) has got some great improvements to the WXR import feature that lets you pull a file of posts, pages and comments exported from one WordPress installation into another: File attachments (eg. images) can now be imported directly (#5466). Just tick the box at ... http://adrianshort.co.uk/2008/04/01/46 According to Westminster Council, the bulging bladders of that city's denizens are an accident waiting to happen: Every year 10,000 gallons of urine is at risk of ending up in the city’s streets and alleyways through irresponsible and anti-social behaviour. But help is at hand thanks to the new Sat Lav service, ... http://adrianshort.co.uk/2008/03/27/43