Ad agencies
THE UPSIDE THERE’S NOTHING ADVERTISING AGENCIES like more than spending their clients’ money. (Actually, that’s not quite true. The one thing they like more is spending a weekend with a naked...
Author: Steve Caplin
The right multi-tool
SWISS ARMY PENKNIVES are very cute and make great birthday presents for 13-year-olds, but they’re much too clumsy to use as serious tools. Far better are multi-tools of the Leatherman/Gerber style,…
Go cordless
THERE HAVE BEEN MANY OCCASIONS in the past when I’ve wanted to do a simple job, such as drilling a hole, sawing a piece of wood, or using a glue gun...
Tools: start cheap
WHENEVER I NEED a new tool of a kind that I haven’t tried before – a table saw, a pair of pliers, a hack saw – I always start with the cheapest one available. After...
Instruct, don’t humiliate
NO CHILD LIKES TO BE TOLD WHAT TO DO, especially in public. If your child has a habit of eating with their mouth open in restaurants, then drawing attention to it – especially…
Distraction beats anger
ONE OF THE MOST FRUSTRATING behaviours for an adult to cope with is a child’s tantrum, especially in a public place. They’re embarrassing for the adult, and the recourse is often…
Stick to the point
WHEN TRYING TO PERSUADE an adult to do something they have an aversion to, we try to come up with as many reasons as we can why they should follow our...
Why is spam illiterate?
I GET A LOT OF SPAM. You probably get a lot of spam. Email in-boxes around the world are overflowing with spam. But is it all as slapdash and rushed...
Why buy a Mac?
IN THE LATE 1980s, in the early days of what was then known as desktop publishing, you needed an Apple computer if you wanted to run the so ware that would…
The iPhone problem
THE iPHONE IS PROBABLY one of the world’s most popular technological achievements. It revolutionised the mobile phone industry when it was introduced in 2007, and I strongly recommend you take…