Archive for August, 2006
He said, she said
There’s an interesting discussion on Digg.com at the moment: do people actually read the articles before pitching into the debate? Helix400 makes a particularly good point about the echo chamber effect of the Internet:
With many websites such as Digg or other blogs, information is now being spread through the following means:
An event happens -> A person reports on this event -> A user briefly summarizes what he thought this reporter said -> Users read the summary and comes to their own opinion based on a very brief summary.
It’s sad just how powerful the short headline is to forming people’s opinions. The headline, above anything else, is usually what people trust the most.
Also, since passing information along in this manner almost always leads to inaccuries, this leads to people forming opinions based on this inaccurate misinformation.
The new .net and fifty brilliant britblogs
Issue 154 of .net arrived in the post this morning, which means it’ll be on sale in the next couple of days. I’m in it with a very bad joke about solid gold ponies, but I’ve also put together a list of 50 British blogs that I reckon everyone should check out. It’s not an attempt to create the definitive “these are the best blogs ever” list, but rather an attempt to showcase a pretty wide range of blogs worth reading.
I’m hoping that it’ll do two things: firstly, give some exposure to some superb sites as well as the usual suspects; and secondly, spark some feedback so we can run a later feature covering more great blogs that we’d never heard of. Once again I’d like to thank everyone who made suggestions, because they helped me discover some excellent blogs I’d have missed otherwise.
The article won’t be published online for a while - there’s a two-month gap between printing and posting, to encourage people to actually buy the mag - but the links will appear on del.icio.us/netmag in a few days.
Update, 1 Sep: The delicious links are up, and you’ll find them here.
I’m a little bit country, a little bit… HAROLD SHIPMAN?
That’ll teach me. This is doing the rounds just now: MyHeritage.com enables you to upload a pic of your face and compare it against its database of 4,000 famous people. And here’s my results.
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/ kills pensioner self
Windows Vista magazine is hiring
So if you’re a production editor, new media editor or fancy a job as staff writer then click here for info.
Sony’s w810i. The perfect gadget?
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When it comes to slagging off Sony I’m usually first in the queue, so to redress the balance I’m returning to the w810i WalkMan phone. After a few days playing with it, I’m convinced that it’s a genius product.
For me, the main attraction is convenience: instead of carrying around my iPod mini, phone and camera the w810i is all three in a single, small case. As I’ve already mentioned the sound quality is superb (and there’s a graphic equalizer! Woo!), and despite my reservations about the interface there are some nice touches such as one-key muting, the ability to boot into a music-only mode for plane travel, and really good T9 predictive text input. I like the way you can press and hold a number key to get to the right part of the phone book too.
Downsides? To compete with an iPod mini or nano means a memory card, so expect to pay £80ish for a decent 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo (and if you’re sensible, a USB 2.0 card reader for speedy file transfer) on top of the £179-odd you pay for the phone. There’s a noticable lag between choosing a song and it starting to play, although it doesn’t interrupt the previous song while it gets the new one, and while the supplied headphones are excellent the teeny-tiny wee wires don’t inspire much confidence (I’ve had several sets of Sony headphones over the last few years, and they’ve all died due to weak cable connections). Camera performance isn’t great at night either, although you’d expect that from a cameraphone, and the shutter lag can be irritating too. Oh, and the supplied USB cable doesn’t seem to work with my Mac, although the bluetooth sync is flawless.
Upsides? It’s great. I’d definitely buy one, if I hadn’t already.
The war on pineapple
As everyone knows, two of the greatest things in the world are based on pineapples: pineapple yoghurt, and pineapple jelly. So where the hell are they? In recent months my local supermarkets have been slowly but surely ridding their shelves of yoghurty pineapply goodness, so the only way to get pineapple yoghurts is to buy a multipack. Sure, you get three lovely pineapply cartons of joy, but you also get three yoghurts with some horrid peachy nonsense. And what good is that?
Still, the news wasn’t all bad, because elsewhere in the supermarkets you could still get pineapple jelly cubes. But no! As of yesterday the gelatinous globs of pineapple power have vanished, replaced by blackcurrant, tangerine and even bloody lime flavours.
Conspiracy? I think so.
Cutting edge technology
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Yesterday’s Guardian ran an underwhelmed piece about the new Gillette Fusion razor, which ups the shaving arms race by having not four, not five, but six blades (five on the front and a “precision blade” on the back for sideys and nasal hair, apparently). I have to disagree with the article, because despite my cynicism it really does shave better than the M3 Power.
Mind you, I’m not sure about having a blade for nasal hair. If it’s long enough that you can attack it with a razor without lopping off your nostrils, you really should have done something about it already.
Eight quid for four cartridges, though. Sheesh.
The war on screwdrivers
From The Times:
A flight from London to Washington was diverted to Boston today, flanked by fighter jets, after a passenger was found to have a screwdriver, matches and a note with a reference to al-Qaeda on her.
From CNN:
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) — Fighter jets escorted a London-to-Washington, D.C., flight to Boston’s Logan airport Wednesday after the pilot declared an emergency because an apparently claustrophobic passenger caused a disturbance, a federal official said.
The federal security official said there was no indication of terrorism and denied reports that the woman had a screw driver, matches and a note referring to al-Qaeda.
[Via Fark]
Put a Nano in your knickers
Daft idea of the week: knickers with a pouch for an iPod nano.
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Oh dear.
[Via Gizmodo]
Terrorism: good for business
Press release from Laplink:
SECURITY CRACKDOWN RESULTS IN EASIER TRAVEL
Many prefer laptop-free travel experience: Laplink offers safe and simple alternative to traveling with a laptopBellevue – August 14, 2006. In an unexpected twist, some airline travelers who thought they would be inconvenienced with recent airline carry-on restrictions found that travel was easier without their laptop.
“No question, it is easier,” said Warren D’Mello, who flew through Heathrow en route to Toronto on Monday. “Instead of carrying my laptop, I left it in my office - and then accessed it remotely. I know my laptop is perfectly safe and I know that I won’t get slowed down by security.”
D’Mello isn’t the only traveler to discover this. As airport security restrictions were tightened last week, thousands of airline passengers were looking for a solution to their carry-on problems. Many of them found what they were looking for with Laplink Everywhere.
“Our product, Laplink Everywhere, allows you to access your PC any time from anywhere using any device that has Internet access,” explained Laplink Chairman and CEO Thomas Koll. “So for example, you can use a PC in the hotel business center or borrow a PC at the business or friend you are visiting, and then work as if you were sitting in front of your remote PC, no matter where you are and no matter where your PC is located.”
Etc etc etc.