Computing, GIS and Archaeology in the UK

Does anyone else see the irony in these two statements, which fortuitously popped up in my feed reader one after the other?

It’s so depressing when people talk about phasing out paper maps. It seems to be part of a general feeling that all maps are for is getting from point A to point B on the road. Does your sat-nav point out interesting things you maybe ought to detour for? (I’ll probably get a wry smile from Mr Archaeogeek at this point, who knows I love to buy paper maps of new areas and sit down all evening just looking at all the sites on them. Particularly archaeological sites. He’s very long-suffering). I guess sat-nav just doesn’t have that same sense of history.

A few things from the last month, some slightly off-topic and some just plain geeky:

• I’ve been fake ed’d… honestly, there’s no one I’d rather be called an idiot by
• Ever seen emails being sent to donotreply.com- this guy owns the domain (via 43 folders)
• Our work with openmoko makes it to the Independent- though the title is a little over the top
• Ways in which my government embarrasses me part 1, and part 2
• I missed this one while I was away, but lets face it, every day should be document freedom day
• Indiana Jones heritage trading cards- give me them now!

In case you were wondering about the lack of Thursday Tip Day last week, I haven’t been “got” by furious software vendors or anything like that, I had some family stuff to deal with. And now, there will be another hiatus as we head up to Scotland for some diving and email/internet cold-turkey. See you in a week or so…

Again, better late than never are a couple of links I’ve seen over the last month that are worth having a look at:

1. A History of Visual Communication, from cave painting to computer design, via Kottke. I especially liked the earliest sections from cro-magnon cave painting to the Nazca Lines. I’m still working through the later sections!
2. What happens to your blog post when you click publish, from Wired. An interesting article, though the image itself is very hard to navigate around.
3. A new aggregator for archaeology and ‘digital antiquity’-related blogs: Electra Atlantis. Much reduced productivity now expected…