Dr Laura James's writings

I've enjoyed a range of web comics over the years. I check a range of comics daily, weekly, or on RSS, for ongoing storylines or random, thought-provoking content - from a long-standing love of Sluggy Freelance to a more recent fascination with Cat and Girl (whose shirts I can often be spotted wearing). Web comics are not all frivolous, as the Phoenix reports this week; there can be a lot more to them. It's good to see Dorothy Gambrell of Cat and Girl cited here! Having read that, I now feel I should go and read more Dinosaur Comics - I've only ever seen the odd one before... must wait until the weekend, though...

Today SETWomen is launching the first of a series of podcasts about enterprising women and women working in technology fields. I was one of the women interviewed for the series, and I'm very much looking forward to hearing what we all had to say!

Of late, I've realised how much my web usage has moved on. I no longer want to work my way through a pile of comics pages each day, but most still don't provide RSS feeds. I prefer the ones which give me a feed, as they make my daily web trawl shorter. I now see that some comics offer Facebook feeds ! There's a side point there about RSS feeds and how minor, advertising supported websites can manage with them. With comics, I am very happy to subscribe to a feed with both the images and some news items, so I'll still see a request to buy a book or T shirt to support the site, but I won't see the site-supporting ads. I detest partial RSS feeds, and will opt to visit only rarely a site that uses them, rather than regularly headline-checking in a feed reader and sometimes clicking through. Now even my boss is on Facebook , raising the topical question of whether such people should be one's Friends, if they are just colleagues; but is it wise to refuse a friend inv...

Michael and I had a full week away from the internet in Scotland. The scenery, and cloudscapes, were impressive. Once more we took a great many photos without really realising it - page 1 , page 2 , page 3 . Each lot is probably best viewed as a slideshow. Now it's back to reality and piles of email and a now-urgent requirement to produce an A0 poster about myself, which will require me to consume wine tomorrow night...

A diverting piece in the Indy today about how UK PhD candidates would benefit from more public examinations, to bring openness and, more importantly, a sense of occasion, to the end of an arduous process. Indeed, the end of a PhD here is a long drawn out affair. The first moment of triumph, and sense of completion, is at the submission of a thesis; after many months of writing, this large document is finally printed and handed over to the authorities. Most candidates then return to their jobs, no longer burdened with writing up at evenings and weekends, or start new employment, rapidly forgetting the trials of the PhD. Months later, after a stressful buildup (during which the candidate frets that they have forgotten what they wrote about, or that they will not be able to answer the questions of their examiner) comes the day of the viva. This is pretty much exclusively either anticlimatic or a nightmare. But afterwards, assuming the student has passed (which most do), life returns inst...

I met the founder of Logiblocs yesterday. I'd never seen this plug and play, electronics and logic building block system before. It's like Lego Mindstorms but on a much lower level; AND gates and signals, rather than programming icons. The blocks are friendly colours and nicely translucent, and as well as hands-on building you can do simulations on a PC or Mac. There are energy blocks, input sensors, output devices, wires, logic gates, delays and so on. There's also a robot kit. Apparently it's huge in France, but hasn't really taken off over here. I felt embarrassed that I didn't know about it - the company has been going for 10 years! - but at least I've seen it now. Although it's clear that part of the company aim is to bring electronics, and the real basics of programming, to kids who would otherwise be unaware of these concepts, I was somewhat disappointed to see that the upcoming range of products, "Logimen", are mostly fighting machines...

At the weekend, Michael and I went camping in Sizewell, at a site recommended by Gray . Although the bathrooms were not the best when compared to previous campsites, the location (right next to a nuclear power station, and the beach) was unparalleled. Photos are here . This week I'll be off to Techlinks and a MentorSET event in Birmingham. Next week, Michael and I are off to Scotland.