Have your say

Being aboard for so long, you yearn for something British.  Sorry HBO is American, the BBC World Service seems to be stuck in the 1970s?  Forget having a Sunday roast, and so even something as simple as ordering a burger in McDonald’s or three pieces of Chicken in KFC becomes a nightmare when, you are asked if you want rice or noodles with it (What no chips!?!).

So what do you do? Well, after teaching English to those that want to practice, seeing umpteen temples and ruins, watching badly dubbed foreign films, Tweet, Twitter and Blogging become your new life. You have to find something to do when it is too hot to be outside, and not do the ”Mad Dog and Englishmen”  bit.

I was overwhelmed as to how many “Blogs” there were and over how many subjects!! Within hours, I was blogging on sites everywhere from The Far East to the Far Out West.  I was amazed as to how many comments I was getting and to how quickly I was accepted into this cyber-publishing arena.  I really enjoyed getting the odd Tweet or Twitter from things I have posted or I have subscribed to, and it was a great way to keep in touch with people, show others what I had been doing or where I was.

I also found that there were millions of great posts, buried away from sight due to “Sponsored” blog sites taking the glory away from the genuine posters with something important to say to the world. The more I dug, the more I found.. and of course there was a lot of rubbish posted out there too LoL. 

There also there seems to be a blur between Blogs and Forums in some areas, and many people not really knowing the difference between them or where they should post what…

Sadly so many of the sites are un-moderated and un-supervised.  I was amazed as to how many genuinely honest posts were destroyed by “Trolls” (as they are called) with little better to do than rip someone’s post to bits over content, spelling or grammar, and themselves use  bad language and obscenities in the process, and often aimed at the younger or “Newbie” posters.

It wasn’t just limited to the ad-hoc or fanatic sites, it often appeared on major commercial sites too!

No, I do not want a “Nanny-State”, but would expect that some censoring of language used should happen, especially expletives, should be edited out (or the whole post or reply deleted). They do it on most sites when external links or personal details are used, so why not foul language? If you imagine your young son or daughter posts on a site only to get a hail of fouled mouthed abuse, would you not want some censorship, if only to protect them? Funny thing was, I never got any foul language on any of my posts, but several I followed got huge amounts of abuse. Sometimes because their posts were not considered important or relevant to the “Trolls”, sometimes because they were newbies asking for genuine advice. These very same people who should be acting as the Peer Group were, rude, unsupportive and generally offensive to the very people they should be encouraging to contribute to keep the sport or interest going.

I personally would love to see the Blog sites moderated and supervised so that foul language is kept out (unless of course it is an adult only site, rated as such and members only). If the owners of the Forum or Blog can’t or won’t moderate or supervise their site, then it should be forced to close, to protect the younger, would-be posters.

Also I feel that Blog sites should be un-sponsored, or else they become no more than advertising space for everyone with a chequebook and no real opinion is made in case the sponsors pull the funding. After all, blogging is about opinions and not advertising. My own personal site is not sponsored and it will never be, as I want to write about what I want without it being a conflict of interests when the praise or gripe is about the same firm that is paying me to write. I don’t even advertise my own blog on other sites, find me if you can lol.

Even Ebay is more like the local newspapers small ads section, with adverts pestering you on every page and nothing to do with what you are searching for!

But seriously, there is no need for the “Trolls” on any site. If they have to get their fun let them have their own site, with controlled membership, like the proverbial “Porn” sites do. Where they can snipe and dig at each other and stop them having an unnecessary go at the younger, newbie or genuine posters.

Same goes for “Sponsored Ads”, these should be kept to a minimum or else the Internet becomes worse than American TV… More adverts than content!

Image from Localseoguide.com
The other day my colleagues and I were all busying ourselves shaking, dusting, spraying and polishing our monitors, phones and keyboards.

The reason?

It was all down to this article on the BBC.

I’m not one of those people that is constantly cleaning and obsessing, but it did make me think. We become so comfortable in our daily lives that we do forget about these things.

And now that winter is officially here and everyone has started sniffling, maybe you’ll think twice before you pick up the phone?

BT has been trialling its network of internet access on the tube. At first I couldn’t believe it but when I read on I realised it’s only on the platforms, not on the tube itself.

Considering you only have to wait a couple of minutes for a tube before you board the train I don’t think it will change my life. Anyway, you have to be a broadband customer or those with Openzone minutes can use it.

BT seemed perfectly placed to trial this as it was reported on IT Pro recently that they reached the 2 million wi-fi hotspots record.

Wi-fi underground may only be one small step for BT, but we hope it will lead to a giant leap for surfing.

Now it means we have even less reason to talk to each other! Whatever happened to a good book!

I read this brilliant blog a few months back called The Digital Economy Bill: Thinking about Banana Ice Cream. It’s a great analogy for the absurd law that got rushed through before the end of Labour’s term in parliament.

Of course the aspect of this legislation that I am referring to concerns the disconnection of internet for those suspected of improper use of file sharing across the web.

I recently stumbled upon another article, which reported that two major telecoms companies have started a petition against the DEB and has already garnered over 35,000 signatures.

Seriously, if one of your kids, housemates or even a neighbour started surfing using your IP address and either intentionally or unintentionally downloaded something illegally, your internet connection will be cut.

Does that seem fair to you?

Has anyone already fallen victim to this?

A Few weeks ago, I presented you with the results of our Dream Gadgets survey and introduced you to some of the gadgets that you would like to see in the future. Yesterday, I discovered that there are those among you that truly have the innovative invention thing down.

On the 18th of June, I found a posting of Microsoft’s vision of the home of the future – somewhere I definitely want to end up living. Not surprisingly it has aspects which are very much like some of your dream gadgets. Remember the Trans Tech – walls made of glass on which you could display anything – well it’s due to be a reality (kind of). Although in the bedroom, the system works through ceiling-mounted projectors rather than super glass, the living room screens do seem to work in the same way. Even the dining room table is dynamic and interactive.

Looking back at the survey, some of you predicted that the future was practically on our doorstep and I believe that with the leaps and bounds we seem to be making in technology every day, that is the reality. So, I just wanted to remind all of you to dream on and reach high, because you never know when that small step will allow us to boldly go where no one has gone before…

Being a child of the 80s, and a total geek it turns out, some of my greatest memories from my childhood involve computers. Playing interactive chess at my mum’s computer at work when she’d have to take us in on a weekend and getting my first taste of modern gaming with the original Nintendo were enough to get me hooked.

There’s nothing quite like waking up on a Saturday morning and shooting ducks on a screen or rescuing the princess from the evil King Koopa!

We can live it all again – kind of!

The National Museum of Computing hosted its first Vintage Computer Festival last week. Held at Bletchley Park, notorious as Britain’s code-breaking centre during WWII and the pioneering location for digital computers, the event brought in more than 2,000 enthusiasts.

Besides the retro games that were running, and being played, on some of the machines, other computers had been modified to run newer programmes and show the world just what they could do. Among the demonstrations were a ZX Spectrum running Twitter, and a Commodore VIC-20 producing sounds and graphics.

I think it’s important to note here that the whole point of the festival is to preserve and spread the story of the computer revolution by allowing people to experience those technologies. After all, if you know your past, you’re future is more likely to be a success.