If last year had anything to go by then I have at least another 108 posts to write during 2012. Whilst I am pleased with the performance of mikewhite.co.uk last year, the blog has still not reached “where I would like it to be”. It needs more traffic and higher engagement. Then I realised something crucial… I’m not giving back to the community Blogging during 2011 was mostly a case of sitting... 

Last year this blog had its best yet with an astounding 18,972 visits. Stat-tastic doesn’t quite honour this achievement and so below is my feeble attempt at creating an infographic. I hope this silences critics for my “so called” lack of graphical wizardry… go on, humour me.  Read More →

As an ode to the late Christopher Hitchens I have decided to write an article concerning my opinion of religion at this festive time of the year. Between 2005 – 2008 I used to write frequently on the subject of religion, partly because it stimulated debate. Bertrand Russell’s lecture in 1927 entitled “Why I am not a Christian” immediately evoked debate in a society who had just endured the... 

Popular writer, journalist and public speaker, Christopher Hitchens, died yesterday at the age of 62 at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He was being treated by Francis Collins, an American physician and genealogist, for oesophageal cancer which he was diagnosed with in June 2010. In a memoriam published by Vanity Fair it was noted he died in the presence of friends. Throughout... 

The Techie Talk podcast has officially become a victim of its own success. Traffic measured from the 18th October currently stands at 225.11GB of bandwidth, the result of 2,587 downloads. Over the course of one month it is foreseeable to see traffic rise to 1TB a month. My server cannot take the strain. Can you help? The Techie Talk podcast is presented by Alex Jones and myself as part of our show... 

I’m pleased to announce that I will be back on the University of Gloucestershire’s student radio station, every Thursday between 4pm – 6pm. Designed by Alex Jones My fellow Radio Presenter from year 2 of University, Ian Pinnell, has now graduated. In his place new student, Alex Jones, shall be presenting with me. As some of you may recall the past radio show called “Not Wireless Radio” covered... 

It is a well-known fact that once the last episode of The Apprentice airs suddenly all of the candidates from the series appear on Twitter. Here is the series 7 list of all The Apprentice candidates I could find: Tom Pellereau Twitter: http://twitter.com/inventor_tom Website: http://www.tompellereau.com/   Helen Louise Milligan Twitter: http://twitter.com/helen_milligan Website: http://www.helenmilligan.co.uk/   Jim... 

It is roughly mid-year and it is time for a top 10 blog posts on mikewhite.co.uk… post. Based on data from Google Analytics I have compiled together the top 10 posts from this year so far. All the views are unique. Why I Quit Facebook (and you should too) – 512 Views Probably the most embarrising article I have written on this blog as my quit only lasted a few weeks. Still, this is a useful... 

Building online communities is a tricky business. In my opinion the key values for any social network is simplicity. This applies to function, design and purpose. Yet as @_ianr of Twitter pointed out “Surely the key is ‘all your friends are on it!’”. Whilst the technicalities of a social network could be perfect, it takes time to build up a user base. During my GCSEs I was very active in a... 

Deciding to read Madeleine wasn’t easy. In many ways I feel cheeky to have said I’ve ‘read’ the book because I never actually managed to complete it. At the halfway point I had to put it down because the emotions portrayed behind the words represented a sadness only a parent could feel for losing their child, an emotion which all wish to avoid. Just reading the notes on Madeleine’s Wikipedia... 

The warning was sent to me through email, “Make sure the Google Panda doesn’t get you”. In April Google updated an aspect of their search algorithm which dictates (I use this word with its full meaning) how sites appear in search. Google Panda is essentially an update which removes those sites which show low quality, questionable or copied content. Google has listed the below questions as measures... 

David Willetts on BBC News A deeply agnostic Universities Minister, David Willetts, appeared on BBC News yesterday morning discussing the possibility of creating extra places for those students who could cover all of their higher education expenses although I must add that this is only a possibility. By every means this is an interesting point of view but one which should be considered at arm’s...