Bye, Steve
Steve Jobs’ obituary on Techradar. I was getting a bit teary as I was writing the end of it. We’ve lost a giant.
Archive for 'Journalism'
The next iPhone needn’t be fancy
It’s Apple’s new iPhone event tomorrow, and we know what that means: most of the internet is publishing “ten things Apple will announce tomorrow” articles, most of them split into eleventy-nine pages to rip off advertisers.
Kindles and iPads are the Tescos of tech
A wee Techradar piece about something that’s been nagging at me for a while:
As a gadget fan, I’m well aware that closed ecosystems such as iOS or the Kindle deliver the best possible end user experience. But I can’t shift the nagging feeling that when we welcome our new retail overlords we’re buying into something we might later regret.
I’m not sure I’ve quite nailed what I wanted to say here, but it’s close enough.
“Self-doubt convinces us that our own failure is inevitable, an unavoidable recourse based on our own screaming lack of talent.”
Chuck Wendig wrote this post for writers, but I think it’s relevant to any kind of creative activity:
Suddenly Old Mister Doubt is jabbering in your ear.
You’re not good enough.
You’ll never make it, you know.
Everyone’s disappointed in you.
Where are your pants? Normal people wear pants.
…self-doubt is the enemy of the writer. It is one of many: laziness, fear, ego, porn, Doritos. But it is most certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, in the writer’s rogue gallery of nemeses.
78% of burglars are not using Twitter and Google Street View to plan crimes
There’s a news story doing the rounds today: in the words of Metro, “A massive 78 per cent of ex-burglars” believe that other burglars are using social media and Google Street View to commit crimes.
I’ve nothing against advising people to be careful – the survey’s part of a national crime awareness week – but the survey that’s being reported here (and by Sky, and by others) simply found that 39 of 50 ex-burglars interviewed “believe” that other burglars probably use social media to identify targets. Three-quarters of the ex-burglars also think it’s “likely” that the baddies use Google Street View too.
What people believe and what is actually true aren’t necessarily the same thing.
R Kelly believes he can fly. He’s wrong.
The A to Z of ebook publishing
I thought it might be an idea to do a huge ebook-advice post based on the various discussions we’ve had here and on other sites, so that’s what I’ve done: an enormous A to Z of ebook publishing aimed at would-be ebook publishers. If there’s anything I’ve missed or got hopelessly wrong, I’m sure you’ll let me know in the comments.
Steve Jobs steps down as Apple CEO
They reckon that we’ll never have another Beatles or another Rolling Stones: the world is too different, too fragmented, and the perfect storm that created them will not happen again. Jobs and Bill Gates are tech’s Beatles and Stones. I’ll let you decide which one’s which.
Column: here come the internet police
BT has been ordered to block newzbin2, a Usenet archive site largely devoted to sharing movie rips and other infringing content. I don’t think this can end well.
The BT ruling is worrying because it turns ISPs into censors, and of course copyright infringement isn’t the only kind of content people would like to block.
We’ve had calls to ban sites that espouse extreme political views, sites that promote anorexia, sites that discuss ways to commit suicide. If BT can block Usenet archives, why can’t it block everything that anybody thinks is unpleasant or undesirable – like WikiLeaks, or anti-Scientology sites, or anything that isn’t appropriate for under-fives?
Facebook is the Windows of the Internet
Oh yes it is. Me on Techradar:
Social networks also benefit from lock-in. I hate Facebook: I hate its horrible UI, its overly complex privacy settings, its photo albums, the algorithm that seems hell-bent on hiding important and interesting updates. Given the choice, I wouldn’t use it. Unfortunately I don’t have a choice, because for now everybody I know does use it. Cutting off Facebook would mean cutting them off.
Sooner or later, though, a strategy of “ha ha! We’re the only game in town!” will bite you in the backside.
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