Ewan Spence

Musical Time Capsules

Posted on February 26, 2018 by Ewan Spence

What happens when you try to power up and look at the contents of your seventeen year old iPod? James Bareham fights Firewire cables, antiquity, and Thunderbolt dongles to find out. And the results? not just a bit of digital archaeology but a look back into the mind of his younger self: Though my Apple music devices changed over time, growing slimmer and more powerful with every iteration, much of the music on them remained the same. Seventeen years is a long time in both the worlds of music and technology, but not everything dates in the same way. Though

Starting an obsession with the Rubik’s Cube, from Quartz

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Ewan Spence

Always nice to see someone go a little bit deeper into the world of Cube’ing. It;s more than Rubik, but Quartz’s Weekend Obsession post is a good starting piece: The breakout story of this year’s Super Bowl—for some—wasn’t which quarterback had the best hands, or which call was the most controversial, but who could solve a Rubik’s Cube the fastest. Was it back-up Eagles wide receiver and special team standout Mack Hollins? Or Patriots starting guard Joe Thuney? This charming diversion was proof of something we probably didn’t actually need to justify: Nearly 40 years after its invention, the world’s most confounding

What’s Going On With My Body

Posted on February 15, 2018February 18, 2018 by Ewan Spence

I had posted this on Facebook, but of course it’s now a week later so is impossible to find. And you wonder why old hands like me prefer our own blogs on our own servers… TL/DR: I’ll be fine. I’m staying at home for a bit to get the right level of medication in my body, and then I’ll be back out reporting on the real world. Thursday 18 January, I was rushed into hospital following an unexpected full body seizure/fit and loss of consciousness for 12 minutes. Although discharged the same night with a referral to ‘first fit’ clinic

On Publishing Five Hundred Podcasts

Posted on September 26, 2017 by Ewan Spence

Last Friday saw one of the moments where numbers conspired to mean something. Over on ESC Insight, I posted the five hundredth episode of my Eurovision Song Contest podcast. There was nothing particularly special about the contents, it was a regular episode of ‘ESC Insight News’, covering the last two weeks of news in the world of the Song Contest. The only concessions to the episode number was a sad party twizzler sound effect at the end of the show, and the subtle use of a Fiat 500 as the key image in the post and shared social images. And while

Talking about the iPhone and why we’re still saying it wrong (according to Apple)

Posted on September 20, 2017 by Ewan Spence

Apple’s legendary response to the issues with the iPhone 4 antenna was “you’re holding it wrong” (before it started to sell suitable bumper cases). As the iPhone X (iPhone Ten?) takes to the stage, it’s worth reminding yourself of Apple’s attempt to define everything about the iPhone. Here’s Phil Schiller after taking to Twitter in 2016 to explain that we were saying it wrong as well: Weighing in on a discussion of how to talk about two or more Apple devices, Phil Schiller said that it’s not a question that needs asking – because nobody should be referring to Apple devices

Harry Dean Stanton, 1926-2017

Posted on September 15, 2017September 16, 2017 by Ewan Spence

Cool Hand Luke, Kelly’s Heroes, Dillinger, The Godfather Part II, Alien, Escape from New York, Christine, Paris, Texas, Repo Man, Pretty in Pink, The Last Temptation of Christ, Wild at Heart, The Straight Story, The Green Mile, Alpha Dog, Inland Empire… the list goes on. Harry Dean Stanton died in nearly every film he starred in, and I loved him for it. Even though it now has to be in the past tense.