03 October 2024

2024 Georgia

 

Kvetera fortress church
Kvetera fortress church

Sitting inside the Kvetera fortress church.  What an astonishing masterpiece.  Its form, with the four main apses linked by smaller infills.  The shocking blue of the tiled roof.  And inside, the porous, almost edible stone makes the whole surface alive.  

The stone of Kvetera fortress church
The stone of Kvetera fortress church


The columns have wonderful capitals – with square elements in the upper corners, and semicircles in the lower parts.  Amazingly original, you wonder what the architect/stonemason was thinking when they came up with it…

Inside Kvetera fortress church
Inside Kvetera fortress church

A recent trip to Georgia, mostly spent in the wine-making region of Kakheti.  Surrounded by the Caucasus, and bordered by Chechnya and Dagestan, it is home to some amazing churches and much more. With photos...

09 July 2024

2024 Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

High in the mountains, at the heart of Kyrgyzstan
High in the mountains, at the heart of Kyrgyzstan
Thanks to the driver, we reach the pass at 3,400 metres - very cold, but we did arrive.  The view on the other side just staggering - the mountains behind Bishkek, seen from the south.  To the west, Kyzart.  Then a deep rut in the mud caused us to skid, with the car at an angle to the road, and tipping upwards at what seems 45 degrees, wheels spinning hopelessly.  We had to gather from the surrounding fields suitably big but flat stones and put them under the wheel to provide some grip.  Got out finally, but road still really bad… 
This year's big trip was to Kyrgyzstan, via Almaty in Kazakhstan.  Wonderful unspoilt landscapes, including the huge and improbable Issyk-Kul Lake, looking like a pale blue sea ringed by snow-capped mountains, on one side of which lay China's Xinjiang...

The shipping containers of Dordoy bazaar
The shipping containers of Dordoy bazaar

17 July 2023

2023 Tajikistan

The entrance to the Yaghnob valley
The entrance to the Yaghnob valley

At the last fork in the road for us: up to Margib, down to the Yaghnob valley.  Two huge peaks lour over the village here, green follows the river.  Just stunning.  The road here long, long, long, but worth it.  Not met anyone else along this stretch.  Before we got to Anzob, a few lorries, some carrying coal.  Turns out my driver has a water melon to deliver, so we follow the road to another part of Margib village.  Fine by me, but means we will get to Dushanbe late…

This year's big trip, to Tajikistan, little-known but evidently developing rapidly.  Come for the mountains, stay for the friendly people and the, er, mountains.

17 March 2023

2023 Bilbao

The Guggenheim Bilbao by night
The Guggenheim Bilbao by night

By the cathedral in the old town.  The smell of drains, and a light rain falling.  A characteristic feature of the houses in this district is the glassed-in balconies – like Turkey and Georgia.  Strange to see them here.

My latest trip, to this fascinating and little-known Basque city, home of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the "Spanish Mozart", Arriaga, and the extremely drinkable txakoli...

15 February 2023

Incoming: Spare Slots for Freelance Work in 2023


I will soon have spare slots in my freelance writing schedule for regular weekly or monthly work, and major projects. Here are the main areas that I've been covering, some for nearly three decades. Any commissioning editors interested in talking about them or related subjects, please contact me at glyn.moody@gmail.com. I am also available to speak on these topics at relevant conferences around in the world, something I have done many times in the past. 

Privacy, Surveillance, Encryption, Freedom of Speech 

Over the last decade, I have written hundreds of articles about these crucial areas, for Techdirt, Privacy News Online, and Ars Technica. Given the increasing challenges facing society in these areas, they will remain an important focus for my work in the future. 

Copyright

I have also written many hundreds of articles about copyright. These have been mainly for Techdirt, where I have published nearly 1,900 posts, CopyBuzz, and Walled Culture. Most recently, I have written a 300-page book, also called Walled Culture, detailing the history of digital copyright, its huge problems, and possible solutions. Free ebook versions of its text are available

EU Tech Policy and EU Trade Agreements: DSA, DMA, TTIP, CETA 

I have written about EU tech policy for CopyBuzz, focussing on the EU Copyright Directive, and for Privacy News Online, dealing with major initiatives such as the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the Artificial Intelligence Act. Another major focus of my writing has been so-called "trade agreements" like TTIP, CETA, TPP and TISA. "So-called", because they go far beyond traditional discussions of tariffs, and have major implications for many areas normally subject to democratic decision making, notably tech policy. In addition to 51 TTIP Updates that I originally wrote for Computerworld UK. I have covered this area extensively for Techdirt and Ars Technica, including a major feature on TTIP for the latter. 

Free Software/Open Source

I started covering this topic in 1995, wrote the first mainstream article on Linux for Wired in 1997, and the first (and still only) detailed history of the subject, Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution in 2001, for which I interviewed the world’s top 50 hackers at length. 

Open Access, Open Data, Open Science, Open Government, Open Everything 

As the ideas underlying openness, sharing and online collaboration have spread, so has my coverage of them, particularly for Techdirt. I wrote one of the most detailed histories of Open Access, for Ars Technica, and its history and problems also form Chapter 3 of my book Walled Culture, mentioned above. 

Europe 

As a glance at some of my 580,000 (sic) posts to Twitter, and 18,000 posts on Mastodon, will indicate, I read news sources in a number of languages (Italian, German, French, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Georgian in descending order of capability.) This means I can offer a fully European perspective on any of the topics above - something that may be of interest to publications wishing to provide global coverage that goes beyond purely anglophone reporting. The 25,000 or so followers that I have across these social networks also means that I can push out links to my articles, something that I do as a matter of course to boost their readership and encourage engagement. 


London 2023

14 February 2023

Moody: the works

A list of links to all my non-tech writings:

Essays

Glanglish
 - with audio versions new post

Travel writings

Novels