Tech News Trends: Tracking Brand Buzz

A statistical overview of the last 6 months in technology

As a result of assembling technology news articles through news aggregator teXpy, I've got an extensive and well-organised record of the state of technology news coverage dating back to September 2006 - with nearly 100,000 articles and 640,000 keywords associated with those articles, there's a healthy body of data, ripe for analysis. [read more...]

Why is RSS adoption so abysmal amongst UK newspapers online?

Old media, meet new

The transition from old media to new media is inescapable, and for most the daily dose of news via the internet is now perhaps more common than the newspaper on the doorstep in the morning. Why then, are the RSS subscriber numbers so weak? [read more...]

Alexa Rolls Out New Stats

If you're a compulsive statistics sort like I am, and are familiar with the statistics available at alexa.com, then you may want to take a look at this. Looks like they've rolled out a few new features in the last couple of hours, and there's some interesting new metrics. [read more...]

New music site: Fuzznut

Flagrant self promotion? Perhaps.

I've been busy working on all sorts of things over Christmas and the new year - some projects drawing to a close, other new and exciting projects on the horizon. One of my new personal projects is new music site Fuzznut. [read more...]

New year, new look, 2007 predictions

Yet more design tweakery & speculation

So, it happened again. I got bored with how Modern Life looked, so I thought a fresh new face was in order. I’ve ditched the two column layout in favour of a far simpler single column, and I’ve ditched all the gradients and Web 2.0 chrome in favour of a super-simple, delicious dichromatic design. [read more...]

Who's Using What for RSS?

A peek inside the RSS kimono

RSS is a funny old thing - once it takes hold in a person's daily routine it becomes as essential as checking ones email or reading the morning newspaper - but as far as mainstream usage goes, it's a long way from attaining widespread approval. The technology behind RSS is not the issue - it's just the underlying transport, like the ink and paper of traditional media. If RSS is to break into the mainstream, it's the means of delivery that will make it or break it. [read more...]

New ModernLife Page Design

Now in neutral.

I've 'reinterpreted' the old blue/white space invaders look - and by 'reinterpreted' I mean I threw it out the window and started again. This is still a young site, so thankfully it's in quite a malleable state, but it's already proven quite popular (read: controversial). The original design was cobbled together in a couple of hours without much forethought - with the possible exception of 'Space Invaders are cool and retro'. [read more...]