ændrew.com v8

Ændrew Rininsland

One of very many voids

19 May, 2017

I get a feeling whenever I travel, and I can’t really place it, but it persists no matter where I go or how often I’ve been somewhere…

Some thoughts on memory, the Internet and turning 30

24 April, 2017

It’s been an astonishingly long time since I wrote a personal blog entry. I think in between moving to London, getting my degree and then…

My first year at The Times and Sunday Times

07 May, 2014

This is the portfolio post to accompany my Tumblog post about my previous year at The Times and Sunday Times. Go here to read my more…

aendrew.com version 5

03 March, 2014

It’s been a long time in coming, but I’ve finally migrated from Drupal 7 to the static HTML-generating powerhouse that is Octopress. This is…

Migrate from WordTour to OpenMusicFestival

09 April, 2013

The reason I created OpenMusicFestival in the first place was so that I could migrate MotionNotion.com from WordPress (And its…

PodSix lives!

11 March, 2013

After Minehost went belly-up, the communal Minecraft server I played on went dead —and stayed dead — for about 6 months. However, I have…

New project: GitHub Pages for Drupal 7 (Also: I'm Git vetted!)

10 March, 2013

Over the last few months working with Drupal, I’ve wanted to become a more productive member of the community. To that end, I’ve been…

New project: OpenMusicFestival

18 February, 2013

OpenMusicFestival is a Drupal distribution enabling music festivals of all sizes to create a rich, semantically-enabled website…

Help me launch Visualization on groups.drupal.org!

24 January, 2013

I’m trying to start a group on G.D.O dedicated to visualization with Drupal . We need more members and activity before being promoted to a…

New project: VizCloud

23 January, 2013

In my ongoing quest to make a non-Java-based ManyEyes clone, I have launched VizCloud, a Drupal distribution intended to allow simple…

New project: DrupalInstaller.kdapp

15 January, 2013

Use Koding.com ? Want to install Drupal — with Drush — really easily? Now you can, with my snazzy new Drupal Installer app. Just add it to…

Economist: Sinodependency Treemap

04 November, 2012

For another treemap I did for The Economist , I mapped dependency of how exposed various S&P500 companies are to declining investment in…

Economist: Olympic Medal Map

04 November, 2012

For a project I did for the Economist, I created a treemap script that could be easily updated via Google Spreadsheets every day, allowing a…

MA Project: Rainfall at UK music festivals

08 July, 2012

For my MA project, I compiled a massive database of popular outdoor British music festivals and cross-referenced that with Met Office…

Interesting quote from Kenneth Clarke's Leveson Inquiry testimony

14 June, 2012

I found this particularly illuminating: I think a lot of the criminal justice legislation of recent years has been a response to popular…

About

29 May, 2012

This is the blog and portfolio of Ændrew Rininsland, London-based Canadian expat multinerd. I use Google+ . Woo. (This is mainly a…

Waiting for TfL: bus punctuality on Transport for London's network

25 May, 2012

Londoners collectively spent an estimated 36 million hours waiting for late buses in 2011, data revealed through FOI has shown. That means…

New project: n0tice for WordPress

21 May, 2012

n0tice is a hyperlocal, community-driven news, events and classifieds website brought to you by The Guardian . This plugin is designed to…

Media Law Exam Review Session 2

16 May, 2012

Note: I wasn’t able to attend the second revision section, but listened through the audio recording on Moodle. Media law Examination 2011 N…

Media Law Exam Review Session 1

14 May, 2012

Note: These may be somewhat scattered and incomplete, same caveat with all my notes — Battle moves really quickly through this stuff. Also…

The Evolving Newsroom: Q&A with Simon Rogers

08 May, 2012

The Evolving Newsroom is a series of Q&As with important names in the data journalism field, discussing how the newsroom is evolving to…

The Evolving Newsroom: Q&A with Paul Bradshaw

08 May, 2012

The Evolving Newsroom is a series of Q&As with important names in the data journalism field, discussing how the newsroom is evolving to…

The Evolving Newsroom: Q&A with Aron Pilhofer

08 May, 2012

The Evolving Newsroom is a series of Q&As with important names in the data journalism field, discussing how the newsroom is evolving to…

The Evolving Newsroom: Q&A with Conrad Quilty-Harper

08 May, 2012

The Evolving Newsroom is a series of Q&As with important names in the data journalism field, discussing how the newsroom is evolving to…

Potential quickfix if WordPress starts refusing to recognize page templates for custom taxonomies when permalinks are on

19 April, 2012

Is WordPress being sofa kingdom by returning Error 404 for custom taxonomies, or doesn’t recognize taxonomy-{name}.php template files in…

PC Pro: Greenpeace: Apple's cloud needs cleaner energy

18 April, 2012

My fourth article for PC Pro discussed a report put out by environmental group Greenpeace, which argued for using cleaner energy for cloud…

PC Pro: Qualcomm warns of Snapdragon chip shortage

18 April, 2012

My third article for PC Pro looked at the looming mobile device chip shortage at maker Qualcomm. {Launch (same window)} {Launch (new tab…

PC Pro: Twitter creates 'defence only' patents

18 April, 2012

My second article for PC Pro discussed the new “defence only” agreement Twitter created with its developers. {Launch (same window)} {Launch…

Guardian: Razzie awards visualised using interlinked graphic

17 April, 2012

One of my first projects for the Guardian Data Store was using linked data to constructed a hierarchical graph of Golden Raspberry Award…

PC Pro: New Flashback exploit targeting Macs

17 April, 2012

My first article on the PC Pro website discussed a new variant of the Flashback exploit that was targeting Macs at the time. {Launch (same…

Guardian: How open is your Internet? An interactive map

16 April, 2012

For a Guardian series on the openness of the Internet, I helped with building a data set that fed into the interactive below. I also wrote…

Some fun with the semantic web

12 April, 2012

I’ve recently been playing with the semantic web (for the uninitiated, the semantic web is a structuring of web content in terms of what it…

Guardian: London's health compared and mapped

12 April, 2012

For the Guardian’s London 2012 municipal election, I did a writeup about how different boroughs compared in terms of health indicators…

Importing a proprietary user database into BuddyPress like a boss

09 April, 2012

Disclaimer: this may have changed in more recent versions of BuddyPress, so your mileage may very substantially. Please let me know if…

Guardian: Asylum seekers mapped: where did they come from, where are they going?

05 April, 2012

To coincide with the release of a UN report on asylum seekers, I built two interactive maps showing change over previous year, both in terms…

Media Law -- Copyright Law

26 March, 2012

For exam 30 multi-choice questions; Know the names and intent of provisions; know case names. Important cases Flood v. Times Newspapers Ltd…

Media Law lecture -- Privacy continued

19 March, 2012

From last week: Section 4(2) — postponement order. Allows postpone publication of proceedings. Not forever. For avoiding a substantial risk…

Media Law lecture -- Confidentiality and Privacy pt. 3

12 March, 2012

Questions from last week: Talking to people in hospital? Must identify as a journalist and get permission from hospital authorities. What’s…

Media Law lecture -- Privacy, pt. 2

05 March, 2012

Answers from last week: What is the watershed? 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., more adult content is allowed. Not allowed outside of that span in order to…

podSix Minecraft Server

21 February, 2012

A couple friends and I run a laid-back survival Minecraft server at podsix.minehost.org . Feel free to connect if you want to check out…

Media Law lecture -- Sources

20 February, 2012

Questions from last week: What is a §39 order? Court can make an order to prevent the identification of person aged 17 and younger involved…

Media law lecture -- Feb. 13 Libel law pt. ???

13 February, 2012

From last week Reynolds Defence: Defence of responsible journalism on matters of real public interest. Pg. 257 of Quinn 10 step procedure…

Media Law lecture -- Feb. 6: Libel law, cont'd

06 February, 2012

For next class — Ch. 20 Libel, cont’d Quiz of the week: What is the Reynolds Defence? What are the ten factors? What is the offer of amends…

Media Law lecture -- Jan. 31: Libel Law, cont'd

31 January, 2012

Who can sue? Individuals Not the dead However, complaint can be brought via PCC or Ofcom. Groups of individuals Who is reasonably…

Entrepreneurial Journalism lecture -- Jan. 31

31 January, 2012

Entrepreneurial Journalism — “Journalism in the age of disruption” Disruption — interruption of normal work and practices. If it displaces…

Introduction to Social Management -- Alison Battesby

27 January, 2012

Having a plan can prove the objectives behind a social media strategy, as well as a way to measure progress. Allows you to: Discover and…

City Interhacktives blog: It all started online -- #OccupyWallStreet

04 January, 2012

I’ve written a post for the City Interhacktives’ “It all started online” year in review series, discussing social media usage for the Occupy…

RSS feed of planning applications and appeals in Hackney

03 January, 2012

UPDATED: Now allows you to filter based on a comma-separated list of wards! More accurate application geolocation data based on eastings…

Hackney Citizen: "Houseboaters being 'forced out' from Olympics area"

31 December, 2011

First article in the Hackney Citizen , “Houseboaters being ‘forced out’ from Olympics area.” It was cover of the January 2012 issue…

All Hackney ward maps in one KMZ shapefile

09 December, 2011

As part of a project I’m working on for the Hackney Citizen , I’m creating a comprehensive map of a lot of different stuff going on in…

Visualizing the UNODC

06 December, 2011

The UNODC’s yearly World Drug Report is always a fun piece of data to play with. For my data journalism course, I’ve used some of their…

Media law lecture -- Libel law

28 November, 2011

“Anything that tends to lower the reputation of an individual amongst right thinking people or damages them in their trade or profession…

Media Law lecture -- Reporting on Children and Young Persons

21 November, 2011

Missed questions for this/last week. Did you get them? Post in comments, please! Who is a child? 17 and below (in civil court and criminal…

City JTech (CULJTEG) Update -- Notes from Nov. 14 meeting

18 November, 2011

…Well, maybe next week we’ll have a meeting at the scheduled time? Due to Greenslade cancelling his Monday lecture, we bumped up our meeting…

Speaker: Turi Munthe, Demotix

16 November, 2011

A bit about Demotix… Background is politics and freelancing Desire to create not just a socially-responsible business, but a “actively good…

Media Law lecture -- Court Reporting cont'd

14 November, 2011

Questions from last week: Section 39 order — to surpress publication about details of a youth. Automatic ban in Youth Court. PACE — Police…

The London drug trade -- who traffics and who consumes?

11 November, 2011

Where are the most trafficking arrests in London? Where are the most possession arrests? While Tower Hamlets has the most charges for…

George Brock -- Internships, job applications, CVs, cover letters

09 November, 2011

Internships “The more clear you are about what you’re wanting to get out of an internship, the more likely it is you’ll get something useful…

City JTech (CULJTEG) Update -- Notes from Nov. 8 meeting

09 November, 2011

UPDATE: there’s no Greenslade lecture today (Nov. 14); today’s meeting is thus moved to 3:00 p.m. First off, sorry to anyone frustrated with…

Bradshaw online journalism lecture: Communities

09 November, 2011

Community management becoming more and more important Makes sites: sticky and engaged Makes information collection: distributed Community…

Media Law lecture -- Contempt of Court Pt. 2

07 November, 2011

Answers from last week: Jigsaw identification — individual identifiable even though name not explicitly given, i.e., through multiple pieces…

City J-Tech update -- first meeting Nov. 8!

07 November, 2011

Just a quick City University London Journalism Technology Exploration Group (CULJTEG) update — last week was supposed to be our first…

PA Week -- Gideon Skinner, Ipsos MORI

01 November, 2011

Long-term trend towards rise of government and public sector research Increased emphasis on evidence-based policymaking consultation policy…

Media Law lecture -- Contempt of Court

24 October, 2011

Q’s for next week: What is jigsaw identification? What are the rules on sketching court proceedings? What is the CPS Media Protocol? What…

More on FOI requests

20 October, 2011

An FOI request is like a journey… It’s a many-step process, and while it might not go entirely smoothly, the more planning you do, the…

Paul Bradshaw Data Journalism Massive -- scattered notes

19 October, 2011

Scraping Tools: OutWit Hub Needlebase Scraperwiki Google Spreadsheets Formulae Walkthru using Google Docs (=import) Open a spreadsheet In A…

Robin Hamman talk -- Community and Social Media

19 October, 2011

Robin Hamman, Director of Digital, Edelman (London) Visiting Fellow of Journalism, City If you ask general questions, the responses tend to…

Journalism Masterclass -- how to break into the industry

18 October, 2011

Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford with… John Kay, chief reporter, The Sun Qualities: Dogged determination Ability to think on feet at…

Greenslade lecture notes: Sources

17 October, 2011

Why are sources important, and how does one deal with them? Sources are sources for a reason — they know things the rest of the world doesn…

Request for feedback: City University London Journalism Technology Exploration Group (CULJTEG)

13 October, 2011

Update: Sun., October 30. First meeting Tues., November 1st at Saddlers Bar on campus! There’s been a bit of interest, but I’m still looking…

Liveblogging Heather Brooke's inaugural lecture

11 October, 2011

To preface this, I’ve never liveblogged a lecture and figure this would be a good place to start. Note that my Macbook Pro is getting old…

Two different visualizations: OpenFile's Poppy File and Britistics

06 October, 2011

Good data journalism ultimately makes a story more accessible to an audience, and ties together threads one might not normally see. Here are…

My new social media strategy

05 October, 2011

I have way too much social media property, and it’s all set up in such a way that I’m never quite sure what’s going to go where, or whether…

Media Law lecture -- Court Structure

03 October, 2011

Interesting topics: Photography in court — in Britain, court sketches only; must be done from memory outside of court. Ken Clarke (sp?) said…

Night at the Westbury

18 September, 2011

Well, where to begin? I’ve been in London almost two days now, having arrived at around 2:00 p.m. on the 15th. My flight was fantastic…

Thank You, v. 3

29 August, 2011

Something I’ve always done at each major turning point in my life is to write a very long, detailed thank-you note. I wrote this initially…

BRB moving to UK, lulz (Or, "The Great Purge")

03 August, 2011

This blog has admittedly been somewhat inactive the last, well, ever — but especially so recently given I’ve been very much in the process…

PodSix Minecraft server online!

03 August, 2011

A few friends and I have been spending an inordinate amount of time playing Minecraft on a server hosted by somebody I know. Given we’re…

Calgary Herald: Practice scan proves to be a lifesaver

07 July, 2011

Originally published in the Calgary Herald, Business section, page B1, July 7, 2011. When Gary Watson volunteered to allow Southern Alberta…

Calgary Herald: Bow Valley College graduates feel confident entering the workforce

27 June, 2011

Confident in their new skills while venturing into an uncertain labour market, more than 400 Bow Valley College students celebrated…

Calgary Herald: Blindness in Africa can be prevented, says visiting expert

23 June, 2011

Originally published in Calgary Herald, City & Region section, page B9, June 23, 2011. Eyesight, for many, is something taken for granted…

Calgary Herald: Mall hosts street hockey tourney

18 June, 2011

Amateur and professional hockey players alike are taking to the streets today, as CBC Hockey Night In Canada’s Play On! 4-on-4 street hockey…

Pothole slows Deerfoot to a crawl

17 June, 2011

CALGARY — A pothole brought a new headache to commuters heading northbound on Deerfoot Trail this morning. The pothole, in the left-hand…

Prof rewarded for making others better teachers; Reid 'humbled' by national fellowship

15 June, 2011

When University of Calgary geoscience professor Dr. Leslie Reid started teaching a decade ago, little did she know what the future had in…

Calgary Herald: Giddy up, cowboys: Stampede creates online scheduler

15 June, 2011

Those overwhelmed by everything the Greatest Outdoor Show On Earth has to offer will have an extra tool in their planning arsenal this year…

Calgary Herald: Book sale tables are being restocked with new treasures

14 June, 2011

The wet weather on the weekend didn’t deter book lovers from attending the 9th annual Calgary Book Drive and Sale. “We actually had more…

Calgary Herald: Book lovers set to flock to the Calgary book sale

10 June, 2011

Book lovers will get their first chance to dig through pile after pile of interesting novels, reference books, anthologies and other written…

Why I only use Dreamhost

24 May, 2011

Another update: While I’m doing increasingly more on Digital Ocean, Amazon Web Services and GitHub Pages for content hosting, I feel I…

ændrew dot com -- version 4.

24 May, 2011

Welcome to the new ændrew.com. Apologies if it’s a bit barren right now; I’m gradually porting all of my old content from Joomla! 1.5x to…

© 2018 Ændrew Rininsland, except where otherwise noted.