Following on from yesterday, I was thinking now the Twitter site will probably feel it has an obligation to tell it's users that their identity/data is at risk of being provided to law enforcement, no matter how trivial the law that is being enforced.
Maybe also each tweet will have to carry a signature, much like corporate e-mails which disassociate the corporate entity directly from the person sending the e-mail. "The text in this tweet are the views and responsibility of the tweep only".
I'm looking forward to the "social responsibility" phase of social networking!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Tweet at your peril
The world of court injunctions on media reporting has finally collided with the world of the web and the feeling that you are not responsible or accountable for your comments.
Twitter is a nice idea for sure, surely harmless and possibly useful somewhere between a blog and a status update. But not when you are commenting on affairs of others it seems, you will be in legal hot water.
In some ways I like the injunction in this case because it keeps trivia out of the media, it really is none of our business. But with the social element, we can all find out who this "unamed celebrity" is if we really did care.
But there comes a point where the fact that "everyone knows" is itself a news story, which the media sees as legitimate to report. To think that this gets top billing on the news really does show how the media chases these trivial stories over more pressing world events.
I do not doubt that many managed twitter accounts that celebrity users have probably have legal vetting of anything that gets said, but for the everyday user - say what you like and find out what the consequences are later!
Could be an expensive time in court proceedings. Careless tweets don't cost lives, but it seems they should come with a responsibility warning.
Twitter is a nice idea for sure, surely harmless and possibly useful somewhere between a blog and a status update. But not when you are commenting on affairs of others it seems, you will be in legal hot water.
In some ways I like the injunction in this case because it keeps trivia out of the media, it really is none of our business. But with the social element, we can all find out who this "unamed celebrity" is if we really did care.
But there comes a point where the fact that "everyone knows" is itself a news story, which the media sees as legitimate to report. To think that this gets top billing on the news really does show how the media chases these trivial stories over more pressing world events.
I do not doubt that many managed twitter accounts that celebrity users have probably have legal vetting of anything that gets said, but for the everyday user - say what you like and find out what the consequences are later!
Could be an expensive time in court proceedings. Careless tweets don't cost lives, but it seems they should come with a responsibility warning.
Over Communication
We live in a world now where if you choose you can be in contact with everybody you know pretty much all of the time.
So this leads to people walking down the street, staring at their phone handset in order to get the buzz of having someone message them to find out some trivial information that really could have waited until later. Worse still are people talking on their phone as they walk, also about something that is not important and really did not need to be done right now.
It also destroys the ability to plan ahead and organise, going to the shops? Make a list! Why do that when you can stand in the aisle using your phone discussing with your partner "have we run out of toilet roll". How is this more efficient?
Has this made the world a better place? Because communication is more instant and accessible it now gets treated without thought, on the one hand it is nice to be accessible, but surely there are times when you do not want to have the disturbance - yet some people seem to crave this constant inane interruption.
These technologies have provided some useful features, access to information on the move like maps, or location based search are truly useful. Being able to update your facebook status, mark your position with a location tracking site, or never be out of touch with the stream of messages less so.
Will the tide ever turn? Behind all this are the mobile companies who are all too happy to have their consumers pay for bandwidth to facilitate all this, and it seems the consumer is all too happy to be trapped in this business model. The current generation do look trapped into something that they think will make them happier but in the end probably leads to a degree of misery, hidden pressure, and frustration.
So this leads to people walking down the street, staring at their phone handset in order to get the buzz of having someone message them to find out some trivial information that really could have waited until later. Worse still are people talking on their phone as they walk, also about something that is not important and really did not need to be done right now.
It also destroys the ability to plan ahead and organise, going to the shops? Make a list! Why do that when you can stand in the aisle using your phone discussing with your partner "have we run out of toilet roll". How is this more efficient?
Has this made the world a better place? Because communication is more instant and accessible it now gets treated without thought, on the one hand it is nice to be accessible, but surely there are times when you do not want to have the disturbance - yet some people seem to crave this constant inane interruption.
These technologies have provided some useful features, access to information on the move like maps, or location based search are truly useful. Being able to update your facebook status, mark your position with a location tracking site, or never be out of touch with the stream of messages less so.
Will the tide ever turn? Behind all this are the mobile companies who are all too happy to have their consumers pay for bandwidth to facilitate all this, and it seems the consumer is all too happy to be trapped in this business model. The current generation do look trapped into something that they think will make them happier but in the end probably leads to a degree of misery, hidden pressure, and frustration.
Film: Pirates of the Caribbean 4 Directed by Rob Marshall
Went to see this film at the cinema, it had not had great reviews and maybe was looking like a installment too far for the franchise.
But it was ok, Depp plays the pirate role well and is quite funny - almost switching between in period and comedy that only a modern day person would know. The effects are good, even without the obligatory 3D that every film seems to come in now.
Geoffery Rush shows he is versatile as one of the competing captains for the fountain of youth. Ian McShane is good as Blackbeard.
The plot marches along, some effort at the end for a plot twist that you could really see coming, no real surprises but an ok film.
But it was ok, Depp plays the pirate role well and is quite funny - almost switching between in period and comedy that only a modern day person would know. The effects are good, even without the obligatory 3D that every film seems to come in now.
Geoffery Rush shows he is versatile as one of the competing captains for the fountain of youth. Ian McShane is good as Blackbeard.
The plot marches along, some effort at the end for a plot twist that you could really see coming, no real surprises but an ok film.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Walk: Extended Run Route
The last three weekends I've done the extended run route and built up running on 3 parts of the route. The distances are about 200-300 metres at a time so some progress.
Still some way off ever running it too completion, and still some way from doing the complete Abbey circuit - but the progress is that my back holds up ok now that I do some exercises daily to help with that.
Still some way off ever running it too completion, and still some way from doing the complete Abbey circuit - but the progress is that my back holds up ok now that I do some exercises daily to help with that.
The Social Network Bubble
The first of the social network IPO floats has happened. In some ways it is the one I have most sympathy with, LinkedIn is at least not on the trivial side of this social connection phoenomena.
Still it feels ludicrously overvalued, what do you do, what do you produce - what is your revenue stream - all these feel fairly weak.
Of course we all know we've seen it before, web style companies with valuations bigger than a company like Boeing (who actually do something, not just a service company).
Another good example from history was boo.com, collapsed in the last bubble, and the BBC had a good documentary about it this week:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tv/2011/05/evan-davis-business-nightmares.shtml
Maybe we have not quite reached those heady heights yet. This company had tens of millions in monthly running costs, kept putting the website launch date back, and when they did launch the shopping was rather quiet.
Still it feels ludicrously overvalued, what do you do, what do you produce - what is your revenue stream - all these feel fairly weak.
Of course we all know we've seen it before, web style companies with valuations bigger than a company like Boeing (who actually do something, not just a service company).
Another good example from history was boo.com, collapsed in the last bubble, and the BBC had a good documentary about it this week:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tv/2011/05/evan-davis-business-nightmares.shtml
Maybe we have not quite reached those heady heights yet. This company had tens of millions in monthly running costs, kept putting the website launch date back, and when they did launch the shopping was rather quiet.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Alan Sugar Interview
Interesting interview with Alan Sugar with the new series of The Apprentice coming up, which I enjoyed in it's early business orientated form - but now feels just like a talent contest "monkey fight" show without so much business background.
So I always thought he should have done a decent FreeView PVR, presumably his Sky box production contract was more lucrative and stopped him from doing anything competitive. This was exactly his sort of product in a not too crowded market place.
But he seems to be returning to this area, on the board of YouView a hybrid FreeView and iPlayer product. Interesting if they can get it to market before all the satellite/cable incumbents get their offerings polished.
Another part of the interview discussed the E-mailer, an early example of a product with subscription sold on top. A disaster, but apparently broken even after all these years!
So I always thought he should have done a decent FreeView PVR, presumably his Sky box production contract was more lucrative and stopped him from doing anything competitive. This was exactly his sort of product in a not too crowded market place.
But he seems to be returning to this area, on the board of YouView a hybrid FreeView and iPlayer product. Interesting if they can get it to market before all the satellite/cable incumbents get their offerings polished.
Another part of the interview discussed the E-mailer, an early example of a product with subscription sold on top. A disaster, but apparently broken even after all these years!
Ebook read: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Conan Doyle
The third of the four full length Sherlock novels and perhaps the most famous with the most adaptations. The writing style has really developed by this stage, less concentrating on introducing Sherlock and more plot and case solving.
It contains a famliar ruse of Sherlock using Watson as a decoy so that he can do his own detective work on the moors - that would have been the twist in the plot in its day but the countless adaptations of this story mean it is telegraphed a bit too quickly.
Still a good story, and a difficult case for Sherlock to solve.
It is interesting to note that this novel represents almost a ten year gap between the Sign of Four. It was written and serialised in 1901.
It contains a famliar ruse of Sherlock using Watson as a decoy so that he can do his own detective work on the moors - that would have been the twist in the plot in its day but the countless adaptations of this story mean it is telegraphed a bit too quickly.
Still a good story, and a difficult case for Sherlock to solve.
It is interesting to note that this novel represents almost a ten year gap between the Sign of Four. It was written and serialised in 1901.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Paper read: Extra Terrestrial Relays by Arthur C Clarke
The now famous 1945 Wireless World article where Arthur C Clarke proposes the geo-stationary satellite for relaying of communications:
http://www.clarkefoundation.org/docs/ClarkeWirelessWorldArticle.pdf
Written back in 1945. His predictions though tentative came true. He did well to see the application as this was before anybody had got anything into orbit, let alone knew that that signals transmitted would propagate from space. One amusing part is where he jokes about now having a good use for the V2 rocket after the war.
http://www.clarkefoundation.org/docs/ClarkeWirelessWorldArticle.pdf
Written back in 1945. His predictions though tentative came true. He did well to see the application as this was before anybody had got anything into orbit, let alone knew that that signals transmitted would propagate from space. One amusing part is where he jokes about now having a good use for the V2 rocket after the war.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Book read: Why does E=mc2 by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw
On the back of reading a brief history of time this book looked like an interesting read. In some ways it has the same aims as the older book but does not shy quite so far away from any mathematical treatment. That said the maths it presents is fairly basic, little enough not to scare away but enough to make you want to know more if you are so inclined.
This book did make me think more about the time dilation effects of spacetime, something I had not properly appreciated before. Also the discussion of invariants and wanting to do physics with equations that are invariant for all observers.
There is a more up to date treatment of the fundamental particles, and more coverage of the mass energy equation.
Finally the standard model is presented and the missing link goes on into the discussion of the LHC and what it hopes to reveal.
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