In the acknowledgements to Close Reading with Computers , I write: This morning, I have sent a copy of the book to Andrew, having managed to track him down, along with a side-by-side picture of our two books – separated as they are by 26 years – Mars and Back published 1993 and Close Reading with Computers in 2019. I hope it makes him smile when it arrives.

Birkbeck, University of London, my institution, has pulled out of all national league tables. I think this is a good move. In my opinion, league tables are poisonous instruments of marketised higher education premised on nebulous ideas of market consumer “choice” for students.

It has been a pretty epic editing process and one that I would not be in a hurry to repeat any time soon, but I am pleased to say that the volume that I am editing with Jonathan Gray is pretty much ready to go back to The MIT Press and should be done this month.

Today marks the publication of my latest book, Close Reading with Computers: Textual Scholarship, Computational Formalism, and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, at Stanford University Press.

In Everest, F. Alton, and Ken C Pohlmann, Master Handbook of Acoustics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009), p. 247, a range of room ratios are listed to achieve optimal modal distributions using the Bolt range and a set of external sources. In other words, this addresses the question: what size should I make my room to achieve the best even distribution of sound throughout?

The autoimmune conditions from which I suffer are a total pain to describe under the general frameworks within which most people understand illness. For most short-term infections – which are, after all, the frame of reference most people hold for illness – rest is helpful. You should go back to bed and you’ll feel better. If you are tired, it is a sign from your body that you should rest.

Today I read Kathleen Fitzpatrick’s Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University , a book that touches on many of my interests (public humanities, open access, reforming university assessments and hiring etc.). I’d already had the pleasure of reading the draft version, which was available for open comment, but the final edition really did feel even better than that.

The economy of prestige in academia is odd. We often like to think that the prestige of our institutions – whether that be a university or a publisher – is not made on the basis of a monetary or financial decision. But I think there are lots of things that give the lie to this. Consider the debate around new open-access book publishers.

The Sacred Unreadable Artefact: Digital Preservation, Computational Abundance, and Scarce Access Martin Paul Eve Birkbeck, University of London This is the text of Eve, Martin Paul (2019) The Sacred Unreadable Artefact: Digital Preservation, Computational Abundance, and Scarce Access.

I have a music release/EP out on Tici Taci records today, called The Learning Experience . Available for purchase at: Juno Download Beatport Traxsource Amazon What the critics/DJs are sayin’: "This has track of the year all over if for me." "One of my faves from the year so far." "This is a terrific release. Remixes are stellar (naturally) and will go down a storm.

The PreSonus Quantum interfaces are definitely not supported on Windows 7. But if you are not faint of heart, it is possible to hack the driver onto a Windows 7 system (or perhaps Windows 8). Here’s how I did it. OK, so first things first, this is TOTALLY unofficial, definitely not officially supported, and I am not responsible if these instructions brick your Quantum, render your PC unbootable, or cause any other kind of damage.