The Perfect Curve

Potatoes fondante

simon gray — 2016-04-03, 14:53:36 - 167 words

If you want the best potatoes you've ever had, try these:

Take a load of waxy potatoes (eg Charlotte), peel them, and cut them in half lengthways. 

Put them in a pan just big enough to hold them all as one layer, together with a massive blob of ghee (or butter if you live somewhere that doesn't know what ghee is). Heat the pan to melt the ghee, then add enough water to cover the potatoes - and crumble in a vegetable stock cube. Reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are cooked, adding some Herbes de Provence towards the end. The water will boil off, leaving them continuing to cook in the ghee.

Optionally, after cooking and before serving, put them in an oven at 220°C for a few minutes to crisp up the surfaces. 

#cheatcuisine

Read the rest of Potatoes fondante .

Antisocial pedestrians

simon gray — 2016-03-22, 08:57:46 - 25 words

Standing by the button on a busy pedestrian crossing and not pressing it - there really should be a law against it. 

Read the rest of Antisocial pedestrians .

Comedians, prostitutes, and webteams

simon gray — 2016-03-18, 17:44:39 - 47 words

Stewart Lee likens being a comedian to being a prostitute - providing a service people crave yet are despised for. 'At least people don't write in to prostitutes to say they could have done it better'. Sounds like being part of a webteam, really.

Read the rest of Comedians, prostitutes, and webteams .

A web strategy for local government

simon gray — 2016-03-11, 13:38:00 - 1881 words

"There will come a time soon when for some councils there won't be a council website any more - the website will be the council" - Tom Steinberg, founder, MySociety

Purposes of the strategy

• To document the roles of the council's website estate and how we might best achieve those purposes
• To agree key stakeholders
• To state ownership and governance of the web estate
• To plant a stake in the ground outlining our aspirations for the future

Purposes of the council website estate

• To deliver channel shift savings by enabling citizens and others to interact with the council digitally instead of by telephone or in person
• To promote the services the council offers (or commissions) to citizens and visitors
• To promote civic engagement shifting people from being passive residents into active citizens, taking an interest in the council, its policies, and its workings to enable them to better inform us in our decision making and be better informed themselves at election time
• To communicate key messages to target audiences
• To promote the city / borough as a location for business and tourism

Stakeholders and audience

The stakeholders of the council web estate are:

• Ordinary citizens of of the area,
• Business operators in the area,
• Potential and current investors in area,
• Potential and current students in [...]

  Read the rest of A web strategy for local government .

  In group Public / Third Sector Digital

Wordpress security

simon gray — 2016-03-07, 08:00:00 - 52 words

Seen on Twitter last night - a company selling insurance against one's Wordpress installation being hacked. If the Wordpress security landscape has got so bad that people need insurance to pay for recovery after a potential hack, I'd say it's time to stop using Wordpress. #internet #webdev

Read the rest of Wordpress security .

Baby food

simon gray — 2016-02-02, 19:46:32 - 56 words

That moment when you’re making the separate dinner for the deBaby because yours can’t be babified & think ‘i wouldn’t mind that for myself’.

(cabbage, red pepper. onion, cumin seed, and caraway seed, since you were wondering)

#cheatcuisine

Read the rest of Baby food .

Spooks

simon gray — 2016-01-28, 18:33:52 - 33 words

I’ve come home to a news story that apparently the Russians spied on Mao Tse-Tung’s poo. It’s a glorious life, the life of a spy.

Read the rest of Spooks .

iPhone sales figures

simon gray — 2016-01-27, 09:08:10 - 12 words

END OF THE IPHONE AND IMMINENT COLLAPSE OF APPLE KLAXON!!11!!

Read the rest of iPhone sales figures .

Spiralised vegetables

simon gray — 2016-01-25, 20:38:30 - 16 words

I give them another four months before people have forgotten they ever existed. 

Read the rest of Spiralised vegetables .