Tag: on the web

Hyper-connected

I’m a pretty Web-2.0-savvy kind of person. I have a domain name, a blog, I’m on Facebook, LinkedIn… No one could say that I’m a Luddite.

However, I have to ask — what’s with this Twitter thing? So much press, ‘everyone’ is on it. A few weeks ago, the Guardian reported:

…it is huge step up to hold, as the Israeli consulate in New York did last week, a public, government-backed “citizens’ conference” on the social site Twitter – and then to keep replying to comments from all over the globe. It has proved massively popular: the consulate’s Twitter site (twitter.com/israelconsulate) yesterday afternoon had 3,739 followers, and at one point was posting a new comment, or answer to a comment, nearly every second.

On the Twitter website, it says, ‘With Twitter, you can stay hyper–connected to your friends and always know what they’re doing.’

  • Eating soup? Research shows that moms want to know.
  • Running late to a meeting? Your co–workers might find that useful.
  • Partying? Your friends may want to join you.

Why? Why would you want to be hyper-connected?

I usually can’t think of anything non-banal to pass onto my friends via my Facebook status. So I don’t update.

According to Twitter, though, my friends, family and co-workers want to know the banal details of my life. Eh? Really? Really really?

Aeroplane food

How bizarre and interesting!

The Age reports, ‘No turbulence at A380 superjumbo restaurant‘.

Imagine boarding a plane without security checks or even tickets and more importantly, there’s more than just fish or chicken for dinner.

Set in a dull commercial building in central Taipei, the A380 In-Flight Kitchen looks and functions like an airline in many ways, expect that it serves a regular restaurant menu of Western food, sometimes in plastic trays.

From the picture gallery the food doesn’t look all that much better than real aeroplane food. However, as I was growing up, any Western food was exciting. My favourite thing about being in hospital for a week whe I was 12 years old was the food. Mmm… Aeroplane Jelly.

Time for a change?

This is interesting: MI6, the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service is advertising for recruits via Facebook.

Gone are the days where you are secretly tapped on the shoulder while studying at Oxford or Cambridge universities. Now anyone posting their most personal details on social networking sites can work for MI6.

(Just kidding, I can’t work for MI6 because I’m not a British citizen but isn’t that the ultimate cover anyway.)

I used to live ten minutes away from MI6 headquarters. I walked past it whenever I walked home from work. The building is bristling with CCTV cameras. I am sure MI6 have lots of grainy black and white photos of me on file.

MI6 headquarters in South London — isn’t it an ugly building? I think of it as a wedding cake.

I used to also republish this blog and my photos on Facebook. I really liked being able to bring my writing and photos to all my more passive and non-RSS-cluey friends through Facebook. Reluctantly, though, I have now deleted almost all my original work due to this statement in Facebook’s terms of use:

‘By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide licence (with the right to sublicence) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorise sublicences of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time.’

I’ve thought about removing my work from Facebook for a long time. It was a difficult decision — I feel the risk of Facebook using my work in a way I didn’t like was low and the benefits of Facebook delivering my work to friends were high.

But… I found out I cared about these things more than I originally thought when a non-profit website used one of my photos without giving me credit. I was very upset, even in this case, where it is for a good cause. (They denied that it is my photo but I have proof.)

Sigh. Oh well.

Life explained

This looks interesting — VideoJug. The tagline is ‘Life explained. On film.’

The short films are on topics as diverse as ‘How to tie a tie – full Windsor knot‘, ‘International Waltz: Basic steps for a follower‘, ‘How to kiss someone passionately‘, and ‘How to open and clean scallops‘.

This is what I need — ‘Fashion Advice For Your Body Shape: Pear‘. Surprisingly, by trial and error, I’ve worked out the same rules that they’ve mentioned in this video.

Damian joins blogworld

I welcome Damian, my housemate, to the blogworld — Worldwide Rants. Damian is ruthless and entirely accurate in his opinions. He likes Jaws and bobbleheads. From his blog, we can expect to read workplace woe, praise where he witnesses (rare) competence, and bobbleheads of the week.

Undemocratic

From Made in China in The Age.

Yu says [Chinese] policymakers are beginning work on a new five-year plan beginning from 2011 that will intensify the country’s current energy, pollution and climate-change efforts. But he says China is sticking to the levers of administrative edict rather than considering a domestic carbon-trading scheme.

“In my view, if there’s a huge polluting factory next door, then the best option is to shut it down, rather than allow it to buy credits so it can keep polluting and then pass the higher costs on to consumers,” says Yu.

Brilliant. None of this mucking about with this ‘market solutions’, ‘flexible mechanisms’ or ‘public consultation’ stuff, just the all-powerful arm of big government.