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If there’s one internet buzz term and trend that has refused to bow out over the past couple or more years it is ‘social networking’.
Online social networks can best be described as websites where people share information about themselves and then assemble into groups based on like-minded interests rather than close geographical location to each other.
The huge popularity of social networks first became apparent with myspace.com which, as you will know if you have ever been unfortunate enough to visit it, is a horrible hotch-potch of personal photographs and people saying ‘hi’ to each other.
The MySpace phenomenon left me largely non-plussed, although Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp clearly saw something in it when it bought the site in 2005 for a staggering $580 million.
Not long after the acquisition, all the talk and hype about MySpace started to dwindle partly because as it had started to feature so regularly in the mainstream, all the cool kids suddenly decided it was no longer the in place to be, but also because focus started to shift dramatically to the new player in town – Facebook.
Facebook is undoubtedly a better site. It’s much clearer and easier to read and manages to appeal to an older audience.
For a while I used Facebook regularly and caught up with some old friends and relatives which was great. I still dip in and out occasionally but have quite easily managed to lose the habit of checking every five minutes.
Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook has turned down a $750 million offer for his website, apparently holding out for the $2 billion he actually thinks it is worth.
Such valuations are clearly crazy, particularly given how transient these types of websites have proven to be.
Indeed, the latest trend to really hit the ‘social’ big time is twitter.com which is starting to gain mainstream attention and mentions in the popular press.
Twitter is slightly different and some say a breath of fresh air.
Rather than building up vast libraries of information about yourself, twitter users send out short messages (or ‘tweets’ as they are officially know). These messages can be activity updates, questions or comments but each one can be no longer than 140 characters. Each message is then sent out to ‘followers’ who have opted to receive them.
It sounds puerile but is surprisingly useful, interesting and fun.
Having recently moved house I’m looking at getting a secondary internet connection installed.
I already have a main ADSL line which is provided by my employer but this has a couple of negatives in that a) it’s not very fast – apparently physical distance from the ‘local’ exchange means I’m stuck with a connection that even on a good day with the wind behind it is usually somewhere around 1.5Mbps and b) I should at least be limiting my personal use of the company line to the occasional web page and email.
Obviously a second telephone line would result in a similarly paltry connection so last week as I was pondering the things I need to get sorted to properly complete my move (to Sky+ or not to Sky+? That is the question) and my mind turned to cable.
My last dalliance with cable was some years ago and left me loathing and detesting three particular letters of the alphabet – those of N, T and L.
Grade NTL’s reliability and customer support on a scale of one to 10 and it would be down in the minus triple figures.
Somewhere in the archives for this column are such tales of woe and misery that they’re probably sealed in a lead-lined box for fear of a national outbreak of a spleen-venting pandemic. And this was back in the day when those of us on the cutting edge were paying £45 a month for a 1Mbps connection!
These days, despite producing an involuntary shudder in me whenever I type its name, NTL is no more, having been bought up by the household favourite that is Virgin and renamed Virgin Media. Can my faith in cable be resurrected? Should I sign on the dotted line and have workmen channeling a line to my door?
Unfortunately, I’m still undecided.
As with everything I consider buying, I spent a long afternoon conducting online research into Virgin Media and wasn’t greatly encouraged by what I read.
I realise that an open forum is more likely to attract negativity but there’s a lot of stuff out there stating problems with a service that seems barely any better than the bad old days.
So could I open up the floor to readers of this column, please? What are your experiences with Virgin? Should I take the plunge or flee in terror?
Drop me a line at david.mcmanus@gmail.com
Another Christmas is upon us and this year I’ve managed to do the vast majority of my shopping online.
Quite why anybody would want to battle their way through crowds of hyped-up shoppers in a drizzle-drenched high street is beyond me.
These days, with the exception of groceries, I turn to the web for just about all my shopping needs. Not only do online shops have a substantially greater range than their bricks and mortar counterparts, if they even exist at all, they are really starting to get their delivery times down and more reliable.
It’s rare that we actually require something instantly, so a wait of a couple of days in normally a reasonable trade off for the inconvenience of traffic queues and overpriced car parking or public transport. I would even be prepared to pay a small premium for such convenience but online products are almost always cheaper, even after postage is added.
The world’s best known online shop, Amazon, has just come out with a new service called Amazon Prime.
For £49 per year you can order anything and have its delivery guaranteed the next day for no extra charge. The company is even promising same day deliveries for London and Birmingham addresses, with other large metropolitan areas bound to follow if the service is a success.
If you buy anywhere near as much stuff from Amazon as I do, this is ultimately a money saver and a great way to hasten the delivery of your orders.
Of course, speedy and cheap delivery is all very well and good but if Mr. Postman or Ms. Courier knocks on your door in the middle of the day when you’re out earning the money to make all these purchases, the convenience of a home delivery is turned on its head by the dreaded ‘Sorry, you were out’ note, resulting in either a drive around an industrial estate trying to find a non-existent delivery outlet or standing in line with a hundred pensioners and ladies with prams at the local post office.
These missed deliveries remain a big problem. Various ideas to combat them have been suggested ranging from delivery to a nearby supermarket ready for pick up on the way home from work to padlocked boxes by the front door or delivery to your work address. Unfortunately each of these solutions has a downside.
Even with this potential shortcoming I’m still happy to take my chances.
Anything beats traipsing around the shops.
I upgraded to Mac OS 10.5 Leopard a couple of days ago and I’ve been in computing heaven ever since.
I won’t waste time saying why it’s so good when every other review out there says the same thing. Read it and weep, Microsoft. Vista is an embarrassment.
I also spent a single hour with iMovie earlier – my first real delve into its delights. Here is my first effort. What struck me so much was its ease of use for this type of quick web video editing.
Dear God
I hope you got the letter and
I pray you can make it better down here
I don’t mean a big reduction in the price of beer
But all the people that you made in your image
See them starving on their feet
Because they don’t get enough to eat from God.
I can’t believe in you
Dear God
Sorry to disturb you but
I feel that I should be heard loud and clear
We all need a big reduction in amount of tears
And all the people that you made in your image
See them fighting in the street
Because they can’t make opinions meet about God.
I can’t believe in you
Did you make disease
And the diamond blue?
Did you make mankind
After we made you?
And the devil too!
Dear God
I don’t know if you noticed, but
Your name is on a lot of quotes in this book
And us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look
And all the people that you made in your image
Still believing that junk is true
Well I know it ain’t, and so do you, dear God.
I can’t believe you
I won’t believe in heaven and hell
No saints, no sinners, no devil as well
No pearly gates, no thorny crown
You’re always letting us humans down
The wars you bring, the babes you drown
Those lost at sea and never found
And it’s the same the whole world round
The hurt I see helps to compound
That Father, Son and Holy Ghost
Is just somebody’s unholy hoax
And if you’re up there you’d perceive
That my heart’s here upon my sleeve
If there’s one thing I don’t believe in
It’s you.
Barely a year ago it would have been a tall order to find anyone outside of all but the geekiest of circles who had any idea what a blog was.
Today, some very important people are writing blogs and the word is casually dropped into conversations and news bulletins.
But even though the term has become part of our everyday language, there are still many people I talk to who, although they fundamentally understand what one is, still don’t really see the point in blogs or fully comprehend just why they have become so popular – both to read and to write.
The word ‘blog’ is a contraction of ‘web log’ and it has its origins in online diaries which were initially written and maintained by angst-ridden teenagers.
“Why on earth would anybody be interested in reading someone’s personal diary?” is a question I often hear when explaining blogs to somebody.
Apart from the obvious answer that there has always been something strangely exciting about such voyeurism, modern blogs are far more than just mundane accounts of somebody’s life.
In fact, the word ‘blog’ has become almost meaningless these days. Any site that is regularly updated and presents its content in dated, reverse chronological order, usually with an accompanying RSS feed, could legitimately describe itself as a blog.
And although the diary-style blog still exists, today’s most popular blogs are about particular subjects like music, politics or the news itself.
I’ve heard it said that blogs have become so popular because they give people a voice but this isn’t strictly true. It is, of course, the web – or, more precisely, the internet – that gives the voice. Blogs simply offer an easy entry into the medium.
Until blogging took off, creating a personal website required at least some technical knowledge. You needed space on a web server and at least a rudimentary knowledge of HTML, the language used to make up web pages.
Today, services offered by Google (blogger.com), MySpace, TypePad and WordPress, to name but a few of the most popular, make online publishing an act of utter simplicity.
The next version of Microsoft Word, due out shortly, includes built-in blogging options. The document you have just written can be saved, emailed, printed or published to your website, all from the click of a button.
The Totally unedited video of the X-Wing rocket launch, and what really happened to it.
For the past week I’ve been suffering from the most unimaginably bad toothache (that’s not me in the picture, by the way).
Fortune smiled on me yesterday as I had to hold a workshop in London and was really concerned that I’d be unable to even open my mouth. Fortunately I was blessed with a day of relative relief (sponsored, in part, by copious quantities of Anadin Extra) but today it came back and it bought its evil mates with it.
Last week was stabbing pain and today is head-throbbing ache. I’ve got a very high pain threshold but this is starting to get me down now.
Looks like I’ve got to spend my money on a dentist.
Wow. If you like smoke-flavoured tastes in your food, let me be the first to recommend Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Smoked Cheddar to you.
On its own it’s like eating solid, oaked smoke – delicious. Best used grated on some fresh cherry tomatoes on toast (I love Vogel’s soya and linseed bread), cooked in a little olive oil until they pop and covered in salt, good black pepper and basil (I used dried stuff but no doubt the aficionados would kill me).
I sound like that fat-lipped mock Cockney but it IS delicious!
