The Old Friary

Column “Dork Talk” published on Saturday 4th October 2008 in The Guardian “Dork Talk” – The Guardian headline. Stephen Fry explains the principles of cloud computing and recommends a few services I first heard about the principles of what is now called the “cloud” but was then called “network computing” at a talk given many […]

Stephen Fry on one of the most frustrating and useless gadgets devised by man, the so-called Universal Remote Control Column “Dork Talk” published on Saturday 27th September 2008 in The Guardian “URC: Universal Remote Control or Useless Rotten Crud” – The Guardian headline. I yield to few in my love of gadgets: let a new […]

Are you Coke or Pepsi? PC or Mac? Oxford or Cambridge? Nikon or Canon? Stephen Fry reveals where his loyalty lies Column “Dork Talk” published on Saturday 20th September 2008 in The Guardian “What kind of camera are you?” – The Guardian headline. Every Coke has a Pepsi, every Visa a MasterCard. Who do you […]

Stephen Fry: I Skype, you Skype, he/she/it Skypes, we will have Skyped, they would have been Skyping Column “Dork Talk” published on Saturday 13th September 2008 in The Guardian “Save yourself a packet on mobile calls” – The Guardian headline. Every once in a while a proprietary device or process strikes it lucky and becomes […]

It is rare for me to contemplate new gadgetry without a pang of regret for the early passing of Douglas Adams. Column “Dork Talk” published on Saturday 6th September 2008 in The Guardian “Dork Talk” – The Guardian headline. I miss him both as friend and technology guru. For years, we played with digital toys […]

Stephen Fry decries compliance.

Twenty five years ago this month, a man called Richard Stallman announced to the world his intention to create a complete operating system from the ground up. He called it, GNU, which stands for GNU’s Not Unix. To help celebrate this occasion, I’ve made a video to tell you about GNU, and free software. Stephen […]