The Economic Starvation Loop: When AI Destroys Its Own Customers
How AI-driven productivity could undermine household purchasing power, create an economic starvation loop, and force reform only after widespread disruption.
IDEAS CAPTURED AT THE TIME
Writing
Most of my writing starts with a practical problem, a new technology that looks promising, or a question that refuses to leave me alone.
Published articles
Posts from 2006 to 2026, newest first.
2026
2025
Part 2: “How Far is That Galaxy Really?”
The second part of The Light is a Liar asks how we measure a galaxy’s distance when the light reaching us has travelled through an expanding universe.
Part 1: “Does Light Ever Travel in a Straight Line?”
The first part of The Light is a Liar explores gravity, curved spacetime and whether light really travels in a straight line.
The Web Can Speak Now
Introducing the Semantic Publishing Protocol: structured publishing with meaning, context, attribution and consent for an agent-aware web.
🧠 The AI Starvation Loop: How AI Is Starving The Web (And What We Can Do About It)
A proposed feedback loop: AI consumes web content without sending readers back, weakening the publishing ecosystem it depends on.
Chapter One: The Pre-Null State
A speculative opening chapter about the origins of meaning, distinction and the stories humans tell about existence.
Chapter Two: Null Mechanics and the Division Paradox
A speculative chapter on division, null mechanics and the paradoxes that follow from splitting a whole.
The Flesh Illusion: Consciousness, AI, and the Great Lie We Tell Ourselves
A response to claims that AI cannot understand language, exploring consciousness, embodiment and what understanding might mean.
2020
Managing a SharePoint MultiChoice Field in a PowerApps List Form
A practical walkthrough for editing a SharePoint multichoice field inside a Power Apps list form.
This year I will be cutting my meat consumption for the good of the environment
A personal reflection on cutting meat consumption in response to climate concerns.
2019
Microsoft Flow Community: How to write a good forum post
Guidance for asking useful Microsoft Flow questions in the community forum.
Next month (February 2019) I am launching a subscription service that delivers monthly Office365…
Announcing a planned monthly Office 365 update service with newsletters and webinars.
2018
Creating and sending a MailChimp Campaign with custom HTML from SharePoint Lists using MS Flow
A step-by-step guide to building and sending a custom HTML Mailchimp campaign from SharePoint lists with Microsoft Flow.
Generating pseudo-random passwords in Microsoft Flow
Two approaches to generating temporary passwords for an Azure B2C onboarding flow.
Challenge: Flow Expressions
A challenge to simplify a Microsoft Flow expression that reformats a date string for SharePoint.
Microsoft brings Mixed Reality to the masses with SharePoint Spaces
An early look at SharePoint Spaces and what mixed reality might offer beyond familiar document interfaces.
Simulating Transactions in Microsoft Flow
How to handle a multi-step Microsoft Flow so related actions succeed or fail together.
Building error handling into your Microsoft Flows
Handling failure, skipped steps and timeouts in Microsoft Flow instead of letting a workflow stop silently.
Building resilience into your applications in a Cloudy world
Lessons from building cloud applications that need to keep working when dependent services fail.
Resetting Unifi Cloud Key after power failure
A practical recovery note for a UniFi Cloud Key that fails to come back after a power cut.
2016
SPS Cambridge – 2016
I had the pleasure to present 2 sessions at this years SQL / SharePoint Saturday event in Cambridge (the UK one).
SUGUK NW – SharePoint Framework (SPFx)
Please find below my slides from yesterdays SharePoint User Group event in Manchester (2 August 2016) where I talked about the SharePoint Framework.
MVP Renewal
April 1st. It’s that day when I sit and watch my inbox wondering if “The Email” will come again this year.
Microsoft’s Tay AI worked. And what it teaches us about ourselves.
Tay worked. Simple. And we can learn a lot about AI and ourselves from her less than admirable beginnings.
2015
Short Post: Stop using CSOM and move to REST
Up until now most of my client side work has been done using CSOM and, more accurately, JSOM, the Javascript implementation of CSOM.
Goodbye SharePoint Designer Hello Visual Studio Code
I am a huge fan of my Macbook Pro and whilst I run both OS X and Windows 10 concurrently (via Bootcamp through Parallels) I want to do as much work in the best tools possible.
SharePoint Evolution Conference 2015 – Slides
Please find below a link to my slides from the, always, most excellent SPEvo this year. Once again I am exceedingly proud and honoured to be invited to speak at this conference.
The future of Collaboration with SharePoint and Office 365
Microsoft has started to release a few tidbits of information around the longer term strategy for SharePoint On-Premises and Office 365.
Speaking at the SharePoint Evolution Conference - 2015
I am really excited to have been asked back to present at the most excellent SharePoint Evolution Conference in London this year (April 20th - 22nd).
2014
My Slides from SPSUK 2014 - Using SharePoint's Geolocation Field
This weekend i was delighted to present a new session on the SharePoint Geolocation field.
EvoConf - Slides from my sessions
I am now home from my stint on the excellent SharePoint Evolution Conference Roadshow and feeling rather sad not to be continuing on with the rest of the speakers around the UK.
BBC News: Microsoft 'must release' data held on Dublin server
BBC News has reported the following story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27191500)
Introduction to Information Architecture
Building a solid "Information Architecture" is important for a number of key reasons
Auto-setting a Windows Azure Virtual Machine DNS setting
If, like me, you are starting to move your Virtual Machines off those pesky laptops and Hyper-V servers that are sitting under your desk, and embracing The Cloud, then you might come…
2013
Migrating from one Office365 Tenancy to another
My company is in the process of rebranding, and with that comes a new name: Red Plane.
AI - Decision making based on Need and Experience
E.g... Core temperature is too high Required Action = lower temperature What happened previously that led to a lower temperature? Open a window…
The role of "Emotion in Decision Making
I have been thinking about the role of emotion in decision making for a long time. I have not been influenced by any existing research in the…
Multiple Raspberry Pi Control System
My anticipation for controlling the robot is to use multiple Raspberry Pi's that all serve a specific role. There is no reason it has to be…
Memory and experiences
When storing and recalling memories it is well known that we don't remember every minute detail of a situation, instead some of the key…
Follow my Robotics Category for Robotics, AI and Control posts
This Category (Robotics) is a collection of thoughts and ideas about Cybernetics - to me, this is encompassing Robotics, Artificial Intelligence…
Part 1: A network in the Sky - The dream
Part 1: A network in the Sky - The dreamPart 2: A network in the Sky - Coming soon
2012
List of SharePoint Search Crawl Error IDs and Messages
I was recently trying to export a list of SharePoint Crawk Logs in to an Excel format so that I could use them to locate potential defects in a large selection of Team Sites during a…
International SharePoint Conference Writeup
I wanted to drop a quick note down to say how great the recent International SharePoint Conference has been.
SUGUK Manchester April 3rd - Usability and Adoption - Ask the Experts
We will be back at Outsourcery in Spinnignfields, Manchester on Tuesday April 3rd with what I am hoping will be a blinder of a session.
Need Help: Rebuilding my HyperV server
I have blogged about my HyperV DevRig before, but want to look at making some annual modifications.
SUGUK North West - February 2012
I just wanted to thank everyone for coming to the February meeting in Manchester.
2011
Thoughts on Remote / Home Working
As a Freelance SharePoint Consultant I have worked in many different “Management Styles” over the year, with some requiring me to be on-site 9am-5pm, some allowing me to work at my…
SUGUK North West: Real World Special - 22nd November
Welcome everybody to the last SUGUK North West Meeting of 2011. This one is going to be very special.
Data Type values for creating Managed Properties from PowerShell
I am just in the process of writing some PowerShell Scripts to import Managed Metadata Properties and Crawled properties from an XML configuration file and came across a small point…
Configure SharePoint Search to crawl a portion of a website
I was just playing around over the weekend with a Content Source and Search Scope to index a few of my favourite SharePoint blogs and sites.
Moving to the Cloud - Part 3 - SIP Telephone system
As part of my on-going series of moving as much of my IT / Life into the cloud I have spent the last few weeks trying to get a Cisco 7960 IP phone working with Sipgate.
Migrating between Office 365 Plans
A few weeks ago I moved my Email and website up to Office 365.
A little information on DocumentIDs
Ok.. I just had a play with 2 Site Collections in the same web app.
Moving to the Cloud - Part 2 - Current IT setup/costs
In this section I want to get a rough idea of my current IT costs. Now, as Part 1 suggested I already have some services in the cloud, so I am not starting completely from scratch.
Question Regarding Managed Accounts and Multi-Farm deployments
I am just about to upgrade my development sandbox to represent a multi-farm environment (Shared Services, Intranet, Collab, Extranet) and came up with an interesting question regarding…
Moving to the Cloud - Part 1
Over the last year or so I have started to move some of my core personal IT functions to the cloud.
SharePoint Best Practices Conference '11
Thank you to everybody who came to Stuart and my session on "How we implemented Governance at Kelloggs" We both felt the session went very well…
Introduction to Star Photography
I have been asked by a number of friends to post my introduction to Star Photography, so here it is. As an example, here is a recent photo I…
SUGUK North West Meeting - 15th February - Manchester
I am very happy to announce our February 15th meeting in Manchester, the first of 2011.
2010
Please review the service account usage of my SharePoint 2010 setup
I have just finished setting up my first SharePoint 2010 demo server and want to validate and correct some areas where I may not be spot on.
Access is denied. Check that the Default Content Access Account has access to this content
Configuring my first SharePoint 2010 server has thrown up some interesting issues. I am trying to document them as I find and fix them.
Welcome to SharePoint Studio
Welcome to SharePoint Studio.
Complete Workflow, Storage & BackUp for Photography Video | Chase Jarvis Blog
Complete Workflow, Storage & BackUp for Photography Video | Chase Jarvis Blog
Jose Barreto's Blog : Site Directory in MOSS 2007 via a custom Search Scope
Jose Barreto's Blog : Site Directory in MOSS 2007 via a custom Search Scope:
Searching SharePoint Sites from the IE7 Search Bar - SharePoint Reporter Blog
This is a great tip on creating a custom Internet Explorer Search Provider that directs the user to your corporate search page. Searching…
Services | SharePoint 2010
Services | SharePoint 2010
Tories may scrap IR35 tax rules for contractors
Tories may scrap IR35 tax rules for contractors:
Sneak Peek At Photoshop’s Mind-Boggling Content Aware Fill
Sneak Peek At Photoshop’s Mind-Boggling Content Aware Fill:Adobe is working on a new feature for Photoshop called “Content Aware Fill”, and posted a mind-boggling demonstration of it…
Feedback around protecting SharePoint
Feedback around protecting SharePoint:Our friends on the Forefront Server Protection team are conducting research to understand what applications you would like to protect, and how you…
Commodore 64 reincarnated as quad-core Ubuntu box
Commodore 64 reincarnated as quad-core Ubuntu box:
Announcing the Messenger for Mac 8 beta release
Announcing the Messenger for Mac 8 beta release:After a long effort, I am pleased to announce the beta release of Messenger for Mac 8 which supports audio and video calls.
Why do we still have multiple usernames and passwords?
OK, I know it, you know it, this post is going to be a rant. But within the rant there is a serious question and request.Why the hell do we STILL have so many usernames and…
Project Ideas for 2010
New for 2010 I have a couple of project ideas that I am hoping to make a start with. This post is a simple record of what those might end up being:
HP MediaSmart Server 3.0 Upgrade Available for Order MS Windows Home Server
I think I will be upgrading!HP MediaSmart Server 3.0 Upgrade Available for Order MS Windows Home Server
Fixing VMWare Fusion when it fails to delete snapshot files
I had a situation recently where I wanted to delete about 10 Snapshot from a VMWare Fusion VM.VMWare managed to delete the snapshots from the Snapshots manager window but also gave me…
2009
Changing (or removing) the Toolbar from a ListViewWebPart
myView.Toolbar = "None"; ormyView.Toolbar = "Freeform"; ormyView.Toolbar = "Standard"; ormyView.Toolbar = "Full";
2007
Noosa Beach
My original plan was to travel down to Surfers Paradise with Nicole for a spot of surfing before heading to Sydney to change my ticket and fly home.
SS Yongala, Ayr
This is the dive I have been looking forward to doing since my Pro-Dive trip to the Great Barrier Reed in Cairns.
Hervey Bay and Fraser Island Hervey Bay
Hervey Bay was just a stopover for the night before going to Fraser Island. We had a meeting the afternoon before we started the tour.
Ayr
Since I have run out of money and decided to cut my trip short, I have to be really selective over any activities I now choose to do.
Airlie Beach
When we arrived in Airlie, Sam and I booked into Kuala Backpackers. She had free nights as part of a package tour she had bought and it looked fine to me.
Mission Beach and Skydiving
I passed through Mission Beach on my way south. I just wanted to do my skydive here and move on, so I planned on 2 nights and 2 day.
Darwin and Kakadu National Park
I flew into Darwin from Singapore to start my Australia experience.
Cairns and Diving the Great Barrier Reef
The flight to Cairns was fine and uneventful. I got to the airport in the morning and got a shuttle bus to the main road, the Esplanade, where I started to walk up and check out a…
Singapore
When I got to Singapore I had already decided I was over the cities and wanted to get back to the beaches. So roll on Australia.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
I left the Germans (and French) in Taman Negara and made my way to the boat stop to catch my boat/bus to Kuala Lumpur.
Taman Negara, Malaysia
The bus journey to Taman Negara was pretty good fun. It was only Eva, Volker, Sophie and myself.
Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
I finally managed to tear myself away from the Perhentian Islands, after more than a month on the Island.
Perhentian Islands 2, Malaysia
Wow, it has been a couple of weeks since my last update.
Perhentian Islands, Malaysia
Hey everyone. Just a quick post to let you all know I am still alive! The internet connection here is very ropey, so I am not sure when I will be able to get my photos up..
Railay Beach / Koh Phi Phi
After spending time on Koh Tao I moved to the other side of the mainland to check out Phi Phi, Phuket and Railay beach.
Koh Samui / Phagnan / Tao
There isn't an aweful lot to talk about for the last week or two (I don't even know how long I have been here!) that I have been in the Islands.
23rd – 25th July - Siem Reap (Angkor Wat)
The trip up to Siem Reap was another typical 8 hour minivan journey on changeable quality roads!
20th to 23th July - Phnom Penh
I travelled to Phnom Penh with Malcolm and Max on a 2 day boat trip along the Mekong Delta.
17th - 20th July - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
I was only planning on staying in Saigon for a couple of days, in keeping with my intention of not spending much time in big cities.
Nha Trang
Nha Trang was awesome. This is probably one of the most fun places I have been yet.
Mui Ne
On the way down to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Gordon and I spent a night (ish) in Mui Ne, a small beach town set along a single road, about 11Km long.
Hoi An
Hoi An Gordon and I arrived in Hoi An and found a really nice hotel called Than Bihn 3, which came complete with a swimming pool.
Sunday 1st July - Vang Vieng
Sunday 1st July - Vang Vieng
Sunday 1st July - Hanoi
The flight to Vietnam was pretty straight forward. We met a couple of Canadian girls, , in the airport that I had met elsewhere on my trip, the waterfall in Luang Prabang and again in…
Monday 2nd July - Ha Long Bay
Monday 2nd July - Ha Long Bay
Sunday 24th June - Luang Prabang, Laos
Sunday 24th June - Luang Prabang, Laos Oh my god... what a hangover! My head is pounding and I really don’t want to get up!
Saturday 23th June - Luang Prabang
Saturday 23th June - Luang Prabang The gang met up early, well early in Lao terms, had some breakfast and off we trundled to the waterfall.
Friday 22nd June – Luang Prabang
Friday 22nd June – Luang Prabang The last couple of days have been quite hectic here in Luang Prabang.
Wednesday 20th June – Nong Khiew
It is a good job that we got to the bus station nice and early. At about 7:45 there were just a few seats left on the bus! We met Ania at the bus station and bought our tickets.
Tuesday 19th June – Luang Nam Tha
The trip to Luang Nam Tha was a little confusing! When we booked our tickets we were told that a shuttle bus would pick us up at 08:30 and take us to the main bus station, where our…
Thursday 21st June – Nong Khiew
Thursday 21st June – Nong Khiew First thing after breakfast we took a walk to the boat landing on the other side of the river to try and charter our boat to take us to Luang Prabang.…
Monday 18th June – Thailand / Laos border crossing
Today was the start of my trek into Laos. The target is Luang Prabang, but it will take a couple of days to get there.
Monday 18th June - Chiang Mai to Laos
Monday 18th June - Chiang Mai to Laos
Sunday 10th June - 2 day Hill Tribe Trek
Sunday 10th June - 2 day Hill Tribe Trek Monday 10th June - Hill Tribe Trek
Friday 8th June - Phitsanulok / Sukhathai
After finding some nice food last night at the Phitsanulok night market I got a good nights sleep. It was sooooo nice to have a cold shower and a shave.
2006
Run custom action before "save and close" event
This is a useful blog article I came across explaining how to run your own JScript code before the standard Save and Close event runs.
Pre-populate ListFields on a SharePoint form
I needed to prepopulate a field in a SharePoint form with the value passed in from a QueryString.
Microsoft SharePoint server tutorials: note fields have a maximum of 255 chars?
I posted a reply to this article in December, but have just been asked to extend upon my answer, so I thought I would post the reply herre as well for everyone else.Microsoft…
How to use a URL parameter to filter a Data View Web part in FrontPage 2003
This is always useful......How to use a URL parameter to filter a Data View Web part in FrontPage 2003
How to add Presence Information to your Custom Web parts
To add presence information to your custom webparts, you simply need to call the following javascript functionIMNRC() function, passing in the email address of the account you wish to…
Document Library Template Selector
1. Implementing the Document Library Template Selector1.1. Add Custom Document Template
Create a list in a portal area based on a list template
This link is a fantastic article on how to get over the issues of list templates not being available to sub areas of the portal home page that are not based on the same template as the…
Configure SharePoint Search to crawl a portion of a website
Introduction and project outline Ok, this is a well documented task, but I wanted to add my own methods here.
Carlos Segura Sanz - SharePoint - Visual Studio 2005 - WebPart template project
Fantastic, at last I can remove VS.Net 2003 from my laptop and still write my 1.1 version web parts for SharePoint!Well done to everyone involved in this and thank you very much!Carlos…
Leaving for a while
Hi everyone.I know I have not been very good at keeping my blog up to date lately, but the day job has simply taken up so much of my time!And I probably won't be updating it for a very…