Freelance editor and proofreader
Since a lot of people now come here (and link to here) because of the Highbury goodies herein, I’ve set up a ‘Highbury’ category so you can all get your information undiluted by any of my other ramblings. Its URL is /finance/highbury/ if you feel like linking directly.
I’ve not yet created an RSS feed for the category, but there is a feed for the whole blog so you can subscribe to that if you’d prefer.
While it may be aimed at kids, Colin and Cumberland is an excellent site for absolute beginners trying to learning Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic or Welsh (North and South). I’ve not tried the Gaelic versions but the Welsh one’s good.
Slate has a vague stab today at trying to explain why someone might want to spend £100 or so on Rosetta Stone. I’ve tried Rosetta Stone’s German course and wasn’t desperately impressed: you essentially end up with a brain full of vocabulary and no grammar or useful phrases, if you’re lucky; if you’re unlucky, you’ll have a different kind of learning style altogether and none of the images actually sink in, leaving you considerably out of pocket and no wiser.
I personally prefer the ‘Instant’ books, which get you up to a rudimentary level in a short time. Certainly, they help more with reading foreign languages than Rosetta Stone does, unless you’re learning a language with a non-Roman alphabet such as Greek or Japanese – the ‘Instant’ books use transliterations instead of the native script.
There’s a useful amateur podcast on learning languages as an adult that’s far more use than the Slater article, though. It’s called Trying to Learn Spanish, and while later episodes are far more concerned with Spanish language learning, the first few podcasts look at more general approaches to language learning as an adult.
A rather lovely piece, I think, by The Hitch on the current cartoon feud. Compulsory reading for anyone who thinks he’s re-aligned himself with the right-wing of late.
Ernst & Young are currently sending out letters to Highbury freelances, advising them of where they stand. If you don’t receive yours within the next few days and Highbury owe you money, you should give Lukshmi Arulkumarasan a call on 020 7608 6304 (she’s Margaret Mills’ assistant).
There are a few notable points in the letter:
She also says that the company directors haven’t yet submit a statement of affairs so the company’s full financial position isn’t known yet. Want to bet it’s probably a lot worse than we already thought?
Media Week has a few more facts on SMD Publishing, confirming that it’s a subsidiary of Remnant and that Attitude and What’s On in London will be joining SMD from Remnant.
This letter from Damian Butt to a subscriber of gamesTM was posted to the EuroGamer forum recently:
With regards your worries about gamesTM, have no fear. Imagine Publishing will honour all current and future subscriptions for this title and we are even now working to increase the quality and bring it back to its former glory.
I’m afraid however that we cannot deliver any issues you are missing until the first Imagine issue hits the shelves. This is because we have no control over what has already happened, and there is an issue of gamesTM that has not yet been printed. As such there may be one or two issues missing which were produced while Highbury was going into receivership. As soon as the Imagine issue hits the shelves though you will receive every issue until your subscription runs out or you renew it.
If you are contributor to EuroGamer then please spread the word, though do bear in mind that if people have tried to subscribe in the last few months, the records may well be incomplete and we may not get the names and addresses.
I know it’s not like me to mock one of the magazines I work for, but how’s this for an article intro?
How Open Source Frees the World
Enshrining openness in what was hardly more than pseudo-legal terminology codified the belief that spreading technology and the means of universal communication did more for the cause of social democracy and capitalism than maintaining a technological edge using military-style secrecy.
Everyone clear?
If you’re owed money by Highbury, the London Freelance Branch of the NUJ has published the following advice:
If you are owed money by Highbury House Communications plc, note that it was put into receivership on 20 January. You need to file a creditor’s claim form with the liquidator: write to Margaret Mills at Ernst and Young, 1 More London Place, London SE1 2AF. If you do so you should receive a proportion of what you are owed.
If you’re a contributor or subscriber to Web Designer, Digital Creative Arts, Web Developer and Advanced Photoshop, the thread in this forum should give you some hope and information about the future of the mags – and your subscriptions.