You can download different sized gifs for desktop pics. It’s worth reading the accompanying text in the post too because they are hilarious. An example:
Last but not least we have added a Web generation number (is it web 1.0? or Web 2.0, is it a corn or is it a nut?). I don’t want to spoil all of the little things in there, but please note that there are some websites that are web 1.5, some are 2.5 and some that are 0.5. This is not a mistake. Web 2.5 is what facebook is up to… Web 0.5 is what Jakob Nielsen is still doing.
Remember when MySpace was once cool? Most of that had to do with musicians taking it up and all that tasty tasty music on their sites.
MySpace rumoured to be flexing its News Corp leveraging muscles and maybe we will see a similar thing happening, this time with TV - but the danger remains that the audience will come just to watch the show and then leave the theatre.
It has quietly without fanfare, media flair, or bidding warfare, struck a deal with some Hollywood talent, expecting this little group to start new broadcasts of their first original series. Unlike traditional stations on air, this time jumping right to online shows. This once more guarantees MySpace the inalienable right to term itself once again, “A Pioneer among emerging markets”.
MySpace refuses to comment on having closed the deal.
Many of the social web services (Facebook, Pownce, MySpace, Twitter, etc.) have messaging services so you can communication with your “friends”. Most of the services will only ping you on communication channels outside their website (e-mail, SMS/text messaging, feeds (RSS), etc.) and require the person to go back to the website to see the message, with the exception of Twitter which does this properly.
Here is where things are horribly broken. The closed services (except Twitter) will let you know you have a message on their service on your choice of communication channel (e-mail, SMS, or RSS), but not all offer all options. When a message arrives for you in the service the service pings you in the communication channel to let you know you have a message. But, rather than give you the message it points you back to the website to the message (Facebook does provide SMS chunked messages, but not e-mail). This means they are sending a message to a platform that works really well for messaging, just to let you know you have a message, but not deliver that message. This adds extra steps for the people using the service, rather than making a simple streamlined service that truly connects people.
Technology now actively enables our public agendas but this often comes at the expense of many of our private ones.
I was at the Mobile Media 2007 conference recently and Genevieve Bell gave a brilliant keynote overview. She raised the point that our human nature means that we will want to lie and obfuscate but now our technology rats on us.
I remember when video phones were touted to take over talk but here we are some years later and not only have video phones not had their predicted uptake but the grossly overpriced text messaging is still rampantly popular. Simply we like to control our communications but we don’t realise (or forget) how much information does actually leak out if someone is looking for it.
It is a supremely disturbing thought to know that while I carry my mobile phone and it is switched on, my every movements are being recorded and stored. There are no requirements to de-identify that data in the system either immediately or after a specific period of time. In fact, it’s been a big surprise present for law enforcement agencies in their unending battle against crime as they can now present seemingly credible evidence that someone was at a particular place at a particular time because that’s where their mobile was.
And you know they probably were there doing whatever ever crime they were charged with. But what worries me is that it’s also a pretty easy way to set someone else up. Just borrow their mobile phone. In the conference, there was plenty of evidence of the disconnection between assumptions of use of mobile phones and observed actual uses. Like back the 90s when it was assumed that an email from a certain person if their email address was in the “from” field (hopefully we now know how easily that can be faked), it’s assumed all too readily that an sms is from a certain person if their number shows up. One paper talked about how teenagers in Milan played games with their mobiles, eg girls giving their phones to their friends unbeknowst to other friends. I know myself that it’s easy enough at the pub or at a party to have had stuff done to your mobile phone while your bag was unattended - I’ve had ringtones and languages changed a number of times.
Camera phones contain all the necessary ingredients for completely invasive stalking: a microphone, camera, personal data on the user, location information, a chat and call history — you name it. And victims carry them everywhere they go. All that’s missing is the software that lets stalkers take control.
This new software, called snoopware, does just that. Snoopware — both legal and illegal — enables stalkers to secretly seize control of a phone’s electronics to listen, watch and spy on their victims.
For the time being there are some things you can do:
The best cure is prevention. Don’t allow strangers to gain access to your phone. Like any other kind of software, snoopware doesn’t install itself. The leading methods for installation are physical access installation, where the user installs by clicking on an attachment or link; or via Bluetooth. By preventing potential stalkers from touching your phone, never clicking on e-mail attachments or links from strangers, and turning off Bluetooth autodiscovery, you’ll keep snoopware off your phone.
And if you do think you’ve been infected then Mike Elgan suggests some solutions like getting malware software, turning on passwords for your voicemail, downgrading your mobile to a less advanced model that doesn’t support Java or Bluetooth and/or switching carriers to one that’s better at protecting their customers.
It’s really astonishing how much opportunity the big 3 GYM had to do something truly innovative, how many assets & properties & APIs they had to turn into great platforms, how many brilliant geeks & architects & programmers could have laid out a BIG VISION — and yet how PATHETICALLY & AWFULLY they missed the mark & overlooked the biggest potential for the IntarWeb since Clarke & Andreesen birthed Mosaic.
Have to admit that I’m unhealthily addicted to facebook at the moment (though it is raising some privacy related self realisations - will write more in the next post) and it’s like it’s hit some sort of critical mass in the past few weeks judging by how many of my friends in different countries have signed up completely independently.
The ease of the facebook app system for the end user is brilliant and why the experience is just so much catchier than when I registered for a mySpace and then just got totally bored in about two minutes.
But while those apps are confined to operating within facebook it will always be limited. It’s not an OS nor a browser and who would want it to be? Do I want to do my essay writing in facebook? No way.
It may well change but pure page space is another big contraint, I’ve already run out of room on my homepage (and if it’s not linked off that then it loses most of its point) for any more apps - if I add one another has to go (or should go anyway - it’s already looking like Paradise Lost).
Quite importantly, is also the addictive nature of facebook. I’ve been calling it Crackbook because it’s almost impossible at the moment to not check to see if there have been any updates. I’m checking it more than my email and that is scary. Like I switch off any sort of instant messaging when I’m trying to be productive - I’ll switch off facebook. I don’t need my crucial app running off it and creating all that temptation.
I think far more promising is Google Gears to developing apps on web.
In the lawsuit, Urban, who married Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman last year and who recently ended a stint in rehab for alcohol abuse, claims the other Urban’s website is being used “in a manner likely to deceive the public into believing that the website has a connection to Plaintiff that does not exist”.
At first, I was like “groan”, but on checking it out, Keith Urban (the singer) has a case. It’s pretty deceptive for a gullible consumer. All the guy had to do was stick a little disclaimer that he wasn’t THAT Keith Urban and I’d be completely on his side (but then there probably wouldn’t be a lawsuit), instead the front page has a very suggestive “To Those Who Don’t Know, Oil Painting Is One Of My Hobbies.”
This video by Michael Wesch (Kansas State University) illustrates the flowing, intertextual and massively communal nature of our growing internet:
When we post and tag an image, we are teaching the Machine. Each time we forge a link, we teach it an idea. Think of the 100 billion times per day humans click on a web page what we think is important teaching the Machine.
Web 2.0 is linking people… … people sharing, trading, and collaborating… We’ll need to rethink a few things… copyright… authorship… identity…
It’s both a beautiful celebration and a little disturbing. Maybe I’ve watched too much Matrix.
When I checked out the YouTube page, there were 3113 comments (love the symmetry), here is a small selection:
ferment666: The more connected we become to virtual reality, the less connected we become to actual reality.
grantium: If we’re teaching the machine, who’s teaching us?
lokandfffan: you made me think alittel a lot or maby a littel who knows i dont dont ask.. but it was maeking me think how long i wasted on this computer..
jgrim9020: thats really cool…but it makes you think about if computers and machines are watching up and waitin to use it against us ( i kno i sound all nerdy and shit, but it’s kind of creepy wen u think about it)
Aigan: It makes me want to….do something….like make a website….make a difference
davecodave: i can’t read that fast. i am personally making our computers dumber. (Thanks for the reminder.)
Throughout the modern history of P2P, many networks have come and gone. Some networks achieve stunning success, like Napster, FastTrack, WinMX, AudioGalaxy, eDonkey2000, and BitTorrent. There’s an old saying that no empire lasts forever, and neither does the holder of the P2P crown. As Usenet continues to evolve and its clear advantages delineate themselves to the mainstream public, it’s very possible that in the near future, file-sharing may end up where it all began…with Usenet.
“Almost a year ago, Access Copyright (”AC”) announced - with great fanfare and some acclaim - a public domain registry project” writes Howard Knoft from Excess Copyright. [Knopf is an Ottawa-based copyright lawyer who’s been lead counsel on legal challenges both at the Copyright Board and in the Courts against the excesses of the music industry establishment. He’s regularly quoted in the mainstream media and acted against CRIA in the file sharing litigation, and continues to act against the CPCC, in which CRIA is still a major stakeholder, on the levy front.]
Showtime Networks has partnered with game publisher Broadband Libraries to offer an online gaming channel… On Broadband Networks would be a competitor to Turner Broadcasting’s GameTap gaming network that brought back fan favorites like Uru Live. According to analysts, that gaming network has become a place for smaller game companies to go in the face of big-publisher dominance in the game industry.
Was reading this article about the convicted hacker Adrian Lamo, who seems like quite a decent fellow:
Lamo’s modus operandi differed from other convicted hackers. When he successfully broke into computer networks, Lamo would notify the operators, offering to work with the companies to remedy the bugs that granted him access. He was responsible for hacks on Yahoo!, Microsoft, AOL, MCI WorldCom, broadband provider Excite@Home and more.
And his refusal to give blood for a DNA sample:
But it won’t be long before Lamo fronts court again. He’s fighting a government demand to take a blood sample for DNA profiling. Lamo opposes the “spilling of blood” on religious grounds. “Let me be clear, I’m not refusing DNA. I’m asking to give it via a buccal (cheek) swab,” he says. “I oppose the needless spilling of blood, something that every human being, really, should be against. I’m not a religious kook, I just think the Bible is very clear on this issue.”
Apart from the weirdness of not accepting an alternative means (maybe blood contains better DNA?), I thought the fact that they were wanting to enforce collection of DNA somewhat worrying. After all, he didn’t commit a violent crime. I wouldn’t have even characterised it as malicious. Shouldn’t there be some sort of sliding scale for this?
Should one non-violent infraction mean that the State has the right to profile your DNA?
I actually like the look of the new MS Office (though the lack of customisation options is worrying) and am at least curious enough to give the trials a test run, but Vista leaves me completely cold. The ads with the tag lines about how sometimes something comes along that just make you go “WOW” also doesn’t help the overall feeling that it is lacklustre and not really worth the great expense and locking into what will be an increasingly proprietary system.
Anyway, the news is that pirated versions are showing up on the streets of Mexico and Brazil. It wouldn’t surprise me if Vista doesn’t do as well as XP that it gets blamed on piracy (it’s a good scapegoat). Thing is I’m a fairly early adopter as far as the general population goes, I’m a sad git that covets speccy hardware over the latest designer handbag (okay maybe that’s not so sad) and I’m not even slightly tempted. [Will add links to the reports that put me off later]
Pirated and workable versions of XP were all over the place when it came out despite the complicated online verification system they created. Its DRM was cracked in a second. Point is, XP did mighty fine with all the masses of piracy around. I doubt very much that Vista is plagued by so much more piracy that it would warrant any special attention over what XP got.
What I found particularly worrying about this story was this:
Police in many Latin American cities are struggling to fight violent crime and mostly turn a blind eye to what they see as minor offences like film, music and software pirating. Often on low pay, police are susceptible to bribes.
Are they suggesting that they divert their attention from fighting violent crime in order to police intellectual property infringement? Do we have any sense of priorities? How on earth did protecting the interests of the biggest company in the world become more important than ensuring people’s basic human right to be free from physical harm?
Despite all the prosecutions, nothing much seems to have changed:
The Mexican attorney general’s office says it busted thousands of piracy operations in 2006 and seized millions of counterfeit items. But it is fighting a losing battle. “We’ve seized hundreds of (CD and DVD) burners but the industry generates enough cash to carry on,” a spokesman said.
Sometimes I wonder what is the point anyway, it is just like throwing money into a big hole. The line sold to countries like Mexico by the likes of the Business Software Alliance (who in this story estimate that “some 65% of software programs sold in Mexico are illegal copies”) is that strong software regimes=strong native industries. To use Francis Wheen’s imagery (How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World), it sounds like the spiel from a snake-oil salesman.
Aren’t there better ways to spend this money? Maybe on education, health and preventing more violent crimes? Mightn’t that help build your country’s economy and society more than cracking down on copyright infringements?
Though, I do like the metaphor from the Business Software Alliance’s Mexico director, Kiyoshi Tsuru, explaining how buying pirated software might not work like the original product:
“The other day, someone said to me: ‘It’s like leaving your son in the care of a prostitute.’ Likewise I couldn’t entrust my machine … to a criminal,” Tsuru said.
It’s really quite funny. I wouldn’t entrust my machine to Vista in its present form, pirated or official. Even if each copy was free and came with a $200 voucher. It’s a lousy product. And it might not even play my iTunes at this stage.
