Duncan Stephen

Article — 30 May 2013 — 1,322 words

Nexus 10: my first tablet

Up until now, the tablet revolution has passed me by. But now I have decided to get the Nexus 10. It is a highly impressive piece of kit, but there are frustrations too.

Article — 29 May 2013 — 367 words

Kinpurney Hill

Walking

It has been a while since we have had a chance to do one of these walks. We returned to Newtyle to tackle the romantic looking Kinpurney Hill.

Article — 20 May 2013 — 337 words

Tayside House demolition

Architecture

One of Dundee’s most notable buildings currently undergoing demolition.

Article — 14 May 2013 — 563 words

Dundee Law sculpture

Walking

The new sculpture at Dundee Law initially served to confuse me rather than amuse me. But hopefully it is the first of many improvements needed in the area.

Article — 2 May 2013 — 421 words

Mobile first

Web

I have made some tweaks to the design of this website. I decided to take the opportunity to make the CSS file mobile first.

Article — 27 March 2013 — 470 words

Lake District – Day 5: Aira Force and Ullswater

Personal — Walking

This was our final day in the Lake District, so we had just a few hours to spend before we had to think about making our way back home. I returned to Aira Force, and we explored further around Ullswater.

Article — 23 March 2013 — 855 words

Lake District – Day 4: Coniston and Keswick

Personal — Walking

Our fourth day in the Lake District saw us trying to climb the Old Man of Coniston, before taking a more relaxing — though unsettling — trip to Keswick.

Article — 13 March 2013 — 963 words

Lake District – Day 3: Stock Ghyll Force, Wansfell, Grasmere and Kirkstone Pass

Personal — Walking

This was a day of getting lost and unexpected adventures. But it was probably the highlight of our holiday. We took in a waterfall, two high hills, a lake, a beautiful village and a great pub.

Article — 5 March 2013 — 615 words

Lake District – Days 1 and 2: Ambleside and Windermere

Personal — Walking

Last week I went on a holiday to the Lake District with my girlfriend. This is the first post in a short series about our adventures in the Lake District. In days one and two we explored Ambleside and walked to Windermere.

Article — 11 February 2013 — 795 words

Living your life at random

Economics — Personal

A shortage of spare time has seen me deciding how to spend my spare time by using a random number generator. An experiment by Steve Levitt of Freakonomics fame has got me wondering if I could make even bigger decisions at random.

Article — 2 February 2013 — 994 words

On the web, big is beautiful — but not in extremes

User experience — Web

No matter how great a design trend feels at the time, we always look back and cringe. What is today’s clanger? I am worried that everything on the web is getting too big.

Article — 28 January 2013 — 990 words

Subscription options and the failed promise of RSS

User experience — Web

RSS feeds were once a promising feature of the web, but are usually only used by geeks. So is it still a good idea to publicise RSS feeds on your website?