Luke Richards: The Internet and You

A great response

2010-05-06T13:21:00.001-07:00

This came from my lib dem mp. Amazing...

Hi Luke,

Thank you for contacting me about the Digital Economy Bill.

The Digital Economy Bill has now passed into law. We have been highly critical about the so called "wash-up" process which has enabled this Bill to pass with limited Parliamentary scrutiny before the General Election. The "wash-up" of the Digital Economy Bill was essentially a carve up between the Labour and Conservative parties that ignored Liberal Democrat arguments to consult more widely before introducing a measure to introduce web-blocking for copyright infringement. Liberal Democrats voted against the Bill at 3^rd Reading in the House of Commons and against the Labour and Conservatives web-blocking amendment in both the Lords and the Commons.

Liberal Democrats remain to be convinced about the necessity for technical measures, which could include disconnection from the internet. Liberal Democrats were successful in getting the Government to agree to a period of at least a year in which no technical measures can be considered and then to undertake a process of rigorous analysis and consultation into the need for any such measures. We also believe that the music, film and other content industries must work more urgently to develop easy and affordable ways for people to legally access their products.

The recent Liberal Democrat conference in March voted to establish a party working group to look into further detail about the issues raised by the Bill.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact me.

This has to be the best response i ever got from a candidate ir MP.

Just to let you know the last MP who got back to me was your crook and mine John Denham labour wanker. I contacted him about the digital economy law (or as it was then the digital economy bill) and his response was essentially this,

I was not there...I would have voted against it...I stole money and homes from old people in the 70s...I couldn't care less about you or my constituants...I am in it for the money. Please don't vote for me because I have made it quite plain I am out of touch.

Now I might be paraphrasing here but still. Oh well.

Luke

Sent from my iPhone?

it's about time

2010-04-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes all it takes is one meeting to scare the Bee jesus out of you.

Can’t really go into details but essentially, people have not given us enough information, we assumed everything was ok and then it turns round and bites everyone in the ass. This seems vaguely familiar in some respects, I mean lets look at what happened to the economy…from my blinkered opinionated view. Banks around the world carried on, sold packages doomed to fail, debt climbed books were cooked black magic was performed. We thought oh the answer will come it will all be ok, and didn’t worry…then we got fucked.

Kinda what happened here, but I’m on the front line.

A tip, never work in IT you’ll go grey really young. Or bald take your pick.

So the internet, what’s been going on, feels like I have been away for a while.

New iPhone 4g: It’s a Prototype case, a base hardware platform from which they can stick new toys and play around with software. The look is just kind of wrong; it doesn’t seem to adhere to any of apples recent design principles. Gizmodo boldly claims this is apples next iPhone, and yeh they have a phone in their grubby mitts but I am not sold, because of the above reasons. I mean look at the design verdict is ours I feel.

http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone

Such Tweet Sorrow #suchtweet : Hmmm, @hannahnicklin posted a very good blog post on this, so I won’t reiterate her points, but will instead link to this…

http://www.hannahnicklin.com/2010/04/such-tweet-sorrow-a-blog-post-in-two-acts/

From my point of view (Oooh look at that im in the comments) I feel that actors, who are under the instruction of writers, may be ill equipped to tackle this project. I am not uniquely equipped or skilled here, I am a drama graduate, with a lot of experience in improve and some experience in writing theatre, I have been paid for my work and I have asked to perform in many places. I am also au fait with the internet and computing. I am a technician with experience with networking and desktop, I am deep in technology, and whilst I am not positioned as a great SocMed contributor, I am deeply involved. I try my best. I am upcoming I hope, I am starting to really feel I can voice my opinions in a valid way. Anyhoo I have plans in my mind, plans which have been tested in other guises, people who will be interested if I approach them. I think I can create something new here.

Or recycled garbage, fuck it it’s new to me.

To those who enjoy my style of writing, it’s nothing new; I write from the gut and apply the TLDR rule to my own walls of text. Those who don’t like it aaah well can’t please everyone but I do try and entertain you.

Peace out yall

Digital economy Bill #Debill

2010-04-08T05:24:00.001-07:00

Well it’s official, it is #Debill day today.

Ok well maybe not officially, but if you listen to Radio5 or follow @documentally and listen to his Boo’s, hell even if you keep one eye on politics and believe your rights matter in the digital economy / society then it most definitely IS #debill day today.

For those of you who, like me, are not always the best of informed people then let me find some links for you.

http://www.openrightsgroup.org well that’ll be the open rights group then

http://bit.ly/cmMZ0r what we do next...

http://bit.ly/4kHGAi a summary of the bill from the government and relevant information

http://bit.ly/cMXUim Guardian on how bill has exposed broken system

So first, let’s make some noise. If you are reading this and you are also, lets not say angered but instead, frustrated by the #Debill then here is something to note. The bill is not only about the infringement of rights on citizens when it comes to downloading, it also covers things like forcing Channel 4 to make public service broadcasts open to public; it seems there are some good things in the bill. However you can’t deny that there are some absolute whopping great holes in the theories and technical implementation proposed.

Basically, if you value your rights on the internet, you want information to be free and accessible then please make some noise with us., Lets get the word out there, let the media know how appalled we are. Ask you local MP why they voted for the bill if they did, or as I am about to do, why they didn’t show altogether!

Shout it out.

How Many things....

2009-12-17T01:25:00.001-08:00

Can we label as HD??

I have to ask, really I am getting truly fed up of people putting this useless label on things which do not require it! By Definition (Get it?) thanks to some Wiki bashing, HD refers to High Definition, which in turn relates to Television broadcasts, High resolution pictures usually at 1080p (The P standing for progressive scan which redraws the entire picture in every frame, as opposed to 1080i which is interlaced which redraws the odd lines, then the even every other frame) it can also relate to sound quality generally things recorded above 24-bit or 48/khz.

Things HD should not apply to the following:

Wireless lan equipment,

Please do not use the Definition for wireless signals, we are talking bandwidth or frequency here not Definition. You may use these other acceptable Luke sanctioned terms…

High Frequency
High Band
High Power
High End Power
Similar variations on those listed above.

You get the idea.

Binoculars / Telescopes / optical equipment

STOP CALLING YOUR NEW BINOS FUCKING HD…seriously, as long as we aren’t looking through Clingfilm I would argue that our eyes are seeing in Highest Definition. Again use terms such as high power or at least put the zoom rating instead of HD. It’s misleading and using HD almost as a brand not a piece of information.

Radio Equipment

Fair enough you can receive a HD signal on your radio, or transmit one or both…but your product is NOT HD! It receives High Definition signals, which are as I discussed earlier recordings up in the 48/Khz range…this in itself is pretty meaty, (on a side note, I dread to think of the bandwidth overhead an analogue signal would be, thank god for digital)

This was sparked when an advert popped up and thus prompting the last category here

Computing Experience

Now I have seen this touted a few times,

“A HD computing experience” This nugget of HD arse comes from a Citrix advert promoting it’s new virtual remote desktop solutions. And I swear it said it right there, a HD experience, why is the experience HD, it fucking isn’t, if it can deliver HD video from a remote machine then this is another matter, it is not delivering the HD content, this is done by the streaming or the remote machine, all it is doing is allowing a wider bandwidth remote session. Let me proffer this solution to your fucking idiotic problem,

“Capable of delivering high definition media over a remote connection*

*High Definition media delivery dependant on connection speed”

This solves your problems and mine, now bugger off with your HD Citrix, stick it up your arse.

If you have any more suggestions on things that are HD and shouldn’t be then please let me know.

Luke Signing out.

Tattoos and the meaning.

2009-11-26T12:45:00.000-08:00

Now before I start this I want to say a few things.

1 thanks to Dave for lending me the space on his blog to publish my opinions

2 this is not meant as personal to anyone and just my views.

Right now that’s out the way let me begin.

Anyone who knows me will know that im a huge fan of tattoos and the lifestyles and cultures that involve them. But I have a problem.

It seems to be more and more that people are getting a tattoo in order to say “Look I have a tattoo and im now officially original and no longer mainstream” This is BOLLOX!!!!!

Walking into a tattoo studio and just grabbing something that you have seen off the wall or getting the same tattoo that your favourite footballer or celebrity has does not make you mainstream it makes you a sheep, becoming part of the flock and having something that someone already has as it you think its going to make you into them?

I don’t think there has ever been a month where I have bought a tattoo magazine and not see the very generic Black Panther tattoo that you see on every tattoo shop wall around the world, and I have to be honest and if you know me will know how true this is but I hate them! There are 1000’s of variations of this tattoo but they are all the same no matter how different they are. (please note this is the tattoo I don’t like not the canvass).

It almost seems to be that now a Tattoo is a fashion statement and people don’t seem to look into the meaning or history of them, e.g. saw a guy in a bar in London that had the spider web tattoo on the elbow and also a tear drop tattoo under his eye, out of curiosity I asked him how many years he served (tear drops are normally a prison tattoo obtained when you have killed someone). He gave me a strange look and asked what I ment? After explaining the meaning of the tattoo his reply was “ I just thought it looked cool”

Im guessing the message of this is if you want a tattoo that’s cool, but make sure that it is a tattoo that has meaning and relevance to you. That’s assuming you’ve read this far and have not thought im mad man that just rants on.

Thanks for your time and big props to Big Dave for letting me hijack his blog.

So more (moar??) self indulgent posting.

2009-11-09T08:10:00.001-08:00

It’s been a while but really I have been gathering Intel on this blog post. Or I’m fucking lazy…

I am in a band, as some of you may know and for those who don’t it’s @citytorn on Twitter, and we had a meeting last night.

On thing that came out of this meeting is that my drummer, and mostly the band leader, didn’t know what the hell social media / networking is. This concerned me slightly, he is 23 with his finger vaguely on the pulse but at the same time he had no idea of what Twitter was or what it’s various uses are. Now don’t see me as some sort of social media guru, I am far from it, for that you need to be looking at the @documentally and @hannahnicklin ‘s of this world. No I would class myself in the power user category of tweeps, (this is the MS security version of a Power User, someone who uses most functionality can do basic to advanced tasks but does not do complex administration or configuration) I do not use Twitter to it’s full potential, but I understand it has potential, it’s just unlocking this that I find a little hard.

Now There are several ways I can get people interested in my band’s Twitter and get them following and possibly converting those followers into fans, most of these though I view as ethically a little dubious, namely adding every last person who mentions the words city or torn in a tweet, or just trawling and following people hoping they will view and follow the band back. Like I said this seems a little dubious to me, it’s fine for spam bots to do this, because that’s their job, the people who use them however in my opinion can fuck off, so that’s why I can’t employ one myself. The other approach would take too much of my time and investment to show little real results. So I am stuck, sort of. The other way I can get this to work is to try and generate a following base of people using other sites, such as FB with Twitter integration or any various twadgets built into other pages, or just plain ol' fashioned “Hey were on Twitter, just search city torn” . But this has it’s own problem, people are very unwilling to join Twitter.

It may seem strange to say but people just do not want to move to a new site, namely because we come back to my drummer’s position of…I don’t understand Twitter, or we hit the roadblock of, but I am on Facebook why should I join Twitter?? Well there is no moral reason why you should really, I can’t force you into it to be honest, but you could follow my band and unlock the potential for yourself, discover what a world Twitter is, it isn’t just a whole bunch of ME ME ME or “Aren’t I quirky in under 140 characters” or the invariable influx of new users #lunchtime tweets. (Ok to fess up I have my #lunchtimephoto but I am requested to do them now because people like seeing me and my friend @bearpiglett having lunch) Twitter is like the social consciousness for the online world. It is millions of users with their opinions, their finds on the internet and their blog posts putting mp’s to rights over #3strikes…

It is the central repository for the pull-centric idea of information and media delivery. The user decides what they want and they retrieve it, they aren’t having the content forced at them, they aren’t being told what to look at or which articles to read, they are generating their own content and creating a world wide repository for human ideals, interests and #failpics. It is an exciting world to be a part of…

I just wish @citytorn could get a foothold in it…

2009-10-30T01:41:00.001-07:00

Dear _____________,

Dear Record company executives,

Dear Musicians of the world,

I am writing to you in this hour of need, in this hour of greed and hate and persecution. Yes it is a dark time for our nation and for our world. People are in media induced comas, being told not to panic about swine flu which inevitably leads to panic. People are afraid to leave their houses at night for fear of being stabbed by children on street corners, and now people are terrified by pirates, “Hackers” (Note this is in inverted commas as a hacker is your definition not ours), phishers, scammers, script kiddies, viruses, worms and Trojans roving the high waves of the internet.

And why not? We have been told to be afraid of them for our own protection, we are told everyday that these are the people who are sending our world to hell, we are looking through the windscreens of our luxury cars at the edge of oblivion, being slowly nudged towards it by these people! Or so we are told.

I looked out of my window yesterday, I work in a large building it was a good view, and I couldn’t help but look down at the analogue world (If we have a digital then what is this I stand on now? Not real world because for some the digital domain is more real than this) and I looked at the people in their cars, on the pavement. I looked at this proportionately small mass of people, and I tried to imagine their crimes for which they would be tried and punished. Films, music, television show, I looked at these people and pointed a virtual gun to their temples, but the difference is you are willing to pull the trigger.

I am a musician, I am in a band, we have recorded music, it has been copyrighted, am I concerned about people sharing it? No. Fervently not. I am not concerned by people sharing my music, I am not concerned with my music reaching a wider audience, I am not concerned with people obtaining it FOR FREE. Music is my integrity. If someone however were to perform my music elsewhere under a different guise as a different band, and claimed it as their own, then I would be furious. But this is not the issue here. We are not talking about a report in which plagiarists are punished heavily for the false propagation of my work, it is instead a report which presumes the, guilty until proven innocent, users are all downloading illegally.

I am also writing to you as a supporter of open source, creative commons and hacker based ethics, I work with computers day to day. I disseminate information from social media sources, I gather resources from the internet, it forms part of my life and my work. I understand the digital domain, I understand how quickly it will change and adapt to your moves, already the wheels are turning, people are moving against your plans and changing the way they share information, as the hackers manifesto says, you can stop one of us but you cannot stop us all. Do not think for a moment your #3strikes policy will stop people sharing, these measures have not worked in the past why will they stop now, you will simply drive the problem underground where it can boil and grow and rear its head again (This will cause you a bigger problem in the long run).

But what am I writing? (After such a long and rambling introduction?) Of course it is another incendiary and inflammatory letter about the #3strikes policy. I do not agree of course with this policy, as I said I am a musician and a computer user, and I (As well as many of us) are happy for our work to get spread among the people. Any press is good press, the more people who listen to my music are more likely to come to my gigs, are more likely to read my publications, to view my pictures and to enjoy what I do. I make music, art, theatre for the people. Of course it would be wrong of me to say that I am not in this for myself, because of course I am, but I do not make music for the money, I do not act for the fame, I do these things for the reward of being able to get on the stage, watch people react to what I do. As Hannah Nicklin has already said, money is the carrot not the stick; it is the encouragement for people to create art and music.

I guess I have no argument here, I guess there is no great literary work contained here, for that you will have to read the open letter written by Hannah. I guess there is no real reason for anyone to read this, or to have it published, after all I am not a writer I am a musician, one who is writing this as quickly as possible at work, but I feel my point is contained here…somewhere.

Thanks

wbbigdave

Man with Guitar seeks technology for passionate affair

2009-10-12T01:15:00.001-07:00

So after a month or more without blogging it’s time to write again. Im finding it hard to think of new technology to bring to the fore and to write about, namely because I don’t seem to have the money to invest in new tech so I cannot review any new tech. Then I realised I am buying technology all the time. Guitar tech, that is my domain, it’s where my money seems to be poured, the pedal makers, the amp crafters the great steel forges where tubes are born and these are the places which thrive on my money. I am proud to wear my “MUFF” t-shirt proudly displaying the Electro Harmonix logo on the back, declaring my love for everything EHX my colours proud.

My latest purchase is the Line 6 Relay 30, it is a Bluetooth based wireless system operating at the very top of the license free wireless frequencies (around 2.4ghz I am told!) so there is little chance for interference from radio systems and mobile phone signals. This is imperative in this modern age plagued by hand held communication devices, and it allows for some fantastic stability of signal (the only interference I have encountered so far is from the other guitarist using the same wireless system and thought it would be a larf to switch to my channel). As I can hear so far there is no real loss in signal, it sounds pretty clean which is good as the box claims “Wired tone, wireless freedom!” it’s not a bad claim either. The tone I was using was mostly provided by the EHX Metal Muff pedal running through the effects loop of an ENGL reverb 50 combo amp, which meant at least I wouldn’t loose signal quality from the pedal tones. The only downsides to this set up were, A) it actually meant I used more wires, one for sending to the effects loop one for returning, power for the Metal Muff the Big Muff Pi and the Tuner, power for the Small Clone (running EHX proprietary 9V adapter) patch leads for these effects on the board (three in total) then power for the Amp, patch lead for each end of the wireless and then the power for the receiving unit as well. All in all we are talking 11 cables compared to my usual 8. B) For some reason the Big Muff Pi I am using feeds back like a champ whore when I run it through the effects loop. This could be because I am running the effects loop totally wet and need to blend it out some or the gain on the amp needs to come down some, but either way I can’t use it’s beautifully crafted muddy tone. This is something I need to play with.

As you can see I don’t have the most complex rig ever imagined but my mind is always looking for more areas into which I can expand. I am constantly looking up more and more pedals and effects. Some day I am sure I will run out of money or space in my rig, but I hope not. I can always find space for one more effect, even if it has to float on the edge of my board, or sit on top of my amp.

Oh another quick note. My favourite piece of technology at the moment are my ear plugs. Crafted by the fine people at Elacin, my ER-20 cost me quite a bit off the shelf (Can’t remember quite how much but enough to make me choke on my drink) but they are so good. I have used regular plugs in the past and I find that they are muddy and block a lot of sound from damaging my precious hearing. But they seriously compromise the sound I am hearing as well. This is good until I really need to hear what’s going on. I need to hear the drumbeat and the bass to get my timing down. Now i'm not saying these plugs are perfect, it takes a while to get used to putting them in, as they are by no means intuitive, and if you don’t put them in far enough not only do they fall out. But they have a tendency to not work properly (functioning like regular plugs) plus the can be a pure bitch to clean. But they have saved my ears on more than one occasion and I am incredibly grateful (I have suffered for up to four days with tinnitus after forgetting them once or twice)

Final word, you can never have enough pedals, guitars, amps, or good quality cables. This, my friends, is a fact.

This is how I assume _____ works

2009-09-09T23:11:00.001-07:00

This week economics. I was prompted to my studies into world, Internet
and inane economics after catching up on some blog entries from www.guys-worldtour.blogspot.com

In one entry he refers to Venice and how full of fucking mask shops it
is. Yea I get it, carnivale and all...but...really in such a tourist
trap as Venice I doubt they have a fucking sex party every night of
the week (or so it isn't solely a sex party but feh)

So this is a basis for how economics must work in tourist ville, this
can however be transposed to pretty much every software vendor on the
Internet mostly on the app store. after yesterdays apple launch of new
iPods etc, they showed a couple of games in development one which
seemed to be a direct port of audiosurf from steam, and a fps Halo
clone. Seriously it looked the fucking same. Anyhoo luke economics
101...
Person A) hi do you sell masks
Vendor) No we do not
Person B) do you sell masks
Vendor) No we do not!
Person C) do you sell masks
Vendor) yes but as the sole supplier they are fucking expensive but to
keep your trade they are high quality.
(every fucking moron with half an idea sees the roaring mask trade)
Every other idiot) WE HAVE MASKS!, OMG MASKS, L@@K MASKS, MASKS MASKS
MASKS
Market gets flooded people get the fuck off.
A few years later only a few people carry masks but once again the are
expensive but now lower quality as they are too expensive to maintain.

This is it pretty much it, I assume I am right cos why would I be
wrong. Can't think of something original rip someone clever off and
flood your Market with shite.

Thanks, nothing funnier than that today. Suck it up.

Sent from my iPhone

early adopters

2009-08-12T22:25:00.001-07:00

[DISCLAMER] before anyone reads this and gets offended by what I have written, note this; it was not written about anyone in particular, it is a rant so you can expect coarse language and opinion, note OPINION. If you feel like rallying against me, go ahead I will ignore it all. Also if you are one of my close friends then know I still love you all dearly and again I AM BLAMING MYSELF FOR MY PREDICAMENT. [/DISCLAMER]

Let me first put this into context. I am not angling this at a certain person or persons, this is something born of watching a twitter feed I filled by mistake (a recommendation of people but i see this is a mistake) I am not blaming anyone for what I have done but myself, I now know I shouldn't try to be one of the cool kids. Hell I never was at school, and even though the Internet has swung to my favour in the technological age, I should have known i wouldn't be one here either.

I am angry,

I am not angry for a cause, this is no political post, this is not a call to rally behind me. I am angry, depressed and without hope. But why? I thought i was past all of this, I am. This is not a long term thing this is just a fleeting feeling. And it stems from twitter. I am not rescinding my early post about twitter, i believe more of my friends should join the service. It would give me someone to talk to . I also believe it is a cause for good, trying to do right, and facebook has become bloated and useless. It is the next myspace. So why am I upset at twitter?

I am not an early adopter. I never have been, it took me a good year and a half of people nagging me about facebook to get into that, I tried twitter off my own back when everyone was still going on about Stephen Fry, a name which has now become a cliche, I did not pick it up early on by no means. I jumped on the band wagon, and why not? I am one of the great unwashed heard...or that's how I'm being made to feel.

The early adopters of twitter (of which on of my best friends is a part of I'm sorry to say but it is not you, you are very open and welcoming) and friend feed, and phreadz and all of these sites are doing everyone else a great service. I acknowledge this, they pick up new technology tell us if it is any good, and then we invest. It's been that way for a long time, in fashion and arts, they are trend setters, but as people looking in / up they are still unreachable. We can't be them.

Luckily they don't want us to be there either, if we were then where would they go, what would they do? They would be slumming it with the unpopular kids. This is why it makes me feel as depressed as I was in school, I was not popular in school, no one really liked me but the bizarre friends I had. Same in college etc (but this was also angst) I was sent to Coventry at university in my second year and I had a nervous breakdown. This has always been a problem for me, so i should have seen the signs.

I should have noticed that when I started "following" these people they were all talking about concepts and topics I was interested in, but when I joined in there was no response. Even if it was well wishing etc, it felt like whenever I used my voice I was being ignored. After a while I felt like i was merely squawking my name out loud. This is a common theme of my life most notably in university (a long story where I ended up ostracised by all but about four people in my second year).

It all began when my good friend sat down with me and recommended I follow some folk. All very well and good, I don't resent them in the slightest, best of intentions and all. This was fine for the first few hours possibly day, (hell it only happened Friday proof of how quickly the world of tech moves / influence). Actually no it began before that really.

It is hard to be on twitter and try and keep up with the newest technology (as i tried to do to keep up with this blog) without falling into the category of an early adopter. In this category there are people you here about, other more influential and powerful than you, people amplifying cons, talks, sites and concepts. you end up trying to contact these people and not hearing a thing back (see above statement) so really it happened a few weeks ago. I started plugging in to twitter and the Internet really hard. I immersed myself in everything but I was seeing no pay off for my work and attention. I was pouring a lot of myself into this. I had nothing, and now it is really starting to hit me hard. Hence I am blaming myself for how I feel but I will still point the finger.

OK at this point I have had an hour or so to look back at what goes above, yeah it may seem a bit harsh, and more than anything a bit rushed and angry, and although I may not agree with the exact words I used up there I still hold the sentiment. If you aren't in the in crowd you are out, and unless you are brought in, then you are out.

I will still point the finger though, at no one in particular but the finger wags at you alllll.....

The prime example I can think of at this moment is the AudioBoo party. I have only just come into audio boo really. (as I said I'm not an early adopter) I get the concept and I like it, its a more personal micro blogging alternative. It requires some time investment on both sides but can really be worth it. But recently they had a party at their offices. Not a bad thing by itself, companies like this have parties all the time.

The worst part of this was, it was invite only, you got an "in" if you knew the right people or were the right people. And this is cool, companies have parties and guest lists like this all the time. But this is where the social media which had been adopted by the masses turned into something terrible. I and the twitter/audio boo/12seconds/blog-verse was flooded with stories, photos, sound bites, videos and amplification of the party. It looked like fun, it looked like a jolly good laugh, good for you.

But from the outside it felt like this.

"We are having so much fun here, everyone is so cool and awesome and there are people here you could never comprehend because you are not part of the technological set so you aren't invited. But look at how good it is!"

It feels like technological celebrity watching.

There are more examples but this is one I can bring to the front of my mind now.

If you have reached this part then thank you for reading. This is ranty and i know some people will be hurt by some of the comments here. The only thing I say is this...I AM BLAMING MYSELF FOR HOW I FEEL NOT YOU, BUT BE AWARE YOU ARE IN POSITIONS OF POWER DON'T MAKE ME QUOTE SPIDERMAN (power / responsibility) COS YOU KNOW I WILL.

Thanks for listening doc, is my hour up?

IAQ

2009-08-03T05:17:00.001-07:00

Infrequently asked Questions

Ok this one might get a bit rambly so bare with me here…Soemtime I get really annoyed at websites. Especially those which offer to send me goods for money, I would name and shame but I really can’t be chewed, so here is the problem I have. Well couple of problems…

Firstly, why do these sites carry so many things that I want. I have now cycled three to four baskets on the www.thinkgeek.com and www.routeone.co.uk websites each, everytime I am clocking anywhere between 70-100 pounds of goods, each time different things…damn them. But the main gripe I have is not that I cannot afford such things, or that there are things which grab my eye, because if this was the case I would have not shown the restraint I do now. No the problem I have is “FAQ’s” (yes I do pronounce that FACKS / FAX).

It would seem that during the tenure of some webdesigners / technical support all they seemed to be doping was wasting their time idly browsing the internet looking for cool things and cycling through hundereds of potential shopping baskets on various websites…yeh and what if I do I don’t have to write FAQ’s, and that’s my point. Sometimes people you shouldn’t be allowed to write FAQ’s without actually collating the subject matter first or shall we call them Frequently Asked fucking Questions! Let’s break the phrase down here, so as to extract it’s full meaning…

· Frequently: adverb, often; many times; at short intervals.

I don’t know about you but I think this implies that you get asked something a lot, many times over such as. “I no longer have access to my email account. Why can I no longer access your website”

· Asked: Verb, to put a question to, to inquire of.

Kind of self explanatory…right?

· Question Noun, a sentence in an interrogative form, addressed to someone in order to get information in reply

This is the main part of a FAQ right, the actual questions. This is never much of a problem as FAQ’s generally only contains questions.

So there we have it a reasonably comprehensive breakdown of the definitions of a FAQ (courtesy of www.dictionary.com plus I can highly recommend the iPhone app from the same site). With such a simple definition you’d think it would be hard to screw up an FAQ. Wrong, apparently it is surprisingly easy, and a lot of places contain the incomprehensible IAQ, or Infrequently Asked Questions. These beasts lurk in the darkest recesses of the internet, fabled mythical beasts which are becoming more and more real. It’s easy to fall into a ravine if you are walking with your eyes closed, and it seems many sales teams / web designers have forgotten to wake up. The main one I noticed (And one for which I paraphrased my question earlier for the “Frequently” example) is www.facebook.com (as if you need the link).

A while back my email provider, Lycos, went under as a search engine and took everything with them. Lycos was not my main mail account by any means, it was my spam account (I have at least four email accounts all used for different things…) and as thus I directed all of my FB traffic there. I didn’t want to wade through tonnes of crap and i'm too lazy to alter the settings; however this is where the snag occurred. Apparently the FB “Team” sent out an email or something to confirm my account details, or at least tested the address was valid, (possibly when the received thousands of Mailer alerts they got the picture) and my account was disabled. I tried to change my password / email, but could not log in to the site at all, even the support pages. I trawled for what felt like hours through their supposed FAQ system, I used their search function combinations of black magic and ritual sacrifice just proved bloody and useless. I gave up, and launched a new FB account realising the time it would take to get it set up to my specs again…(this was pre twitter when I still cared about FB). I tried to search the help one more time, and then after just clicking on a seemingly unrelated link (I can’t remember the path now, as if it were a dream) it took me to a page of links one of which was the unlock procedure for my situation…(I understand that a lot of people trying to change email etc are either scamming or have been scammed but some of us are innocent) it also told me not to open a new account (crap…)

Anyway, the point is I had to resort to opening that new account cos FB fucked up their own FAQ! Now I am stuck with an account which points to my Google mail address (linked to my iPhone ffs) and forwards all the crap to me. After about an hour of FB spam I altered all of my settings (Another hour or so) so I would only receive email about Wall posts (something almost defunct thanks to status comments) and friend requests, and even these I find a bit much.

FB are not the only culprits they were however the ones I had the worst experience with, feel free to post your own experiences with IAQ’s below!

Luke out!

Fucking cool shit I can do with technology

2009-07-31T09:48:00.001-07:00

Ok so here's the thing: I can do some awesome stuff with technology.
No suprise hey, everyone can, yeh I know that too. But lets take a
minute here to ponder those fucking cool things.
•BASICS
sattelite communications: you can talk to anyone anywhere in the
world. View television LIVE from anywhere if you wish, to quote the
cable guy play mortal combat agai st a friend in china. Awesome.
•read ebooks anywhere: might not seem astonishing until you realise
the kindle is using epaper. A screen developed to work like paper,
viewable in high and low lighting with no backlight, yeh it's refresh
rate sucks (links and reasons after the break) but it's fucking cool.
•email / blog / tweet from anywhere: case in point, I'm emailing this
entry from my iPhone. Fuck yes.
ADVANCED SHIT.
Ok more about super cool technology hacks/stuff I do ^_^
•use a PSP as a second / third screen on you pc...wirelessly: using
pspdisp driver and a custom psp you can get a small screen. Useful for
system info / monitoring whilst in game / video.
• use conductive fabric and paint to implement technology into almost
anything: oh yeah there is graffiti with led's built in, circuit
boards built into clothes. This shit is amazing.

There are millions of other cool things I do and you can,
Free your mind at:
Www.hackaday.com home of most of my inspiration
Www.instructables.com holiday home of my insipration

Short one today. Not too much going on being POETS day I'm shattered
from work. (piss off early tomorrow Saturday)
They may go early I have to fix their stuff so they can.

Sent from my iPhone even any spelling mistakes!

Why people don't use twitter

2009-07-27T08:15:00.001-07:00

And why I think they should…

So here’s the deal, I use twitter, I use it a lot. Not as much as some others but I do use it a lot. As thus I can say that I understand the power of this micro blogging site, the ponderous things that this “Social enabling” site does for us. I have tracked the progress of my favourite geeks throughout the San Diego comi-con this year without actually being there, I have been given up to the minute updates for this year’s Shift Happens and I have experienced the thoughts and feuds between Will Wheaton (Wesley crusher for the uncultured….) and his cat.

Things that Twitter has done for the world

I figure I should put forward some good things to come out of the twitter-verse, and some of them really are good. It has standardised most civilised comment threads, before you might see this.

Well hamface223 I think you are incorrect. And….*wall of text*

This, whilst serving a purpose, is sometimes completely lost on the intended user, unless sent as a direct response or email alerts spam your account every time someone posts another comment, but thanks to twitter we now have the @. OK well we had it before, it has been a convention of email since nigh on the beginning, but using it as a reference to a username makes it so much easier to read conversations, and if necessary interject with your own ravings. Basically the @ makes it easier to see responses when scanning through, it’s not too intrusive and gives a more direct response to proceedings.

Ok so there are better examples (Tweetups / Twitter meet-ups, tweeps (twitter peeps) moving on injustice; namely Adam Savage from myth busters and AT&T not really injustice but showed potential power of thousands of followers) but I stand by it Twitter has given us a lot without a lot of people realising it.

So Why don’t you use twitter??

I don’t have enough friends to follow me.

Ok this is a common one, people think that you need droves of people to follow you on twitter to see it as a viable platform. This is not true, your tweets show up all over the place, in searches in trends everywhere, people see what’s going on in the “twitterverse” and you are contributing, ok so it’s not live interaction ala Friend-Feed (See later post about collaborative communication on the internet) but it is part of something larger. Heck if your interesting enough people will find you.

It’s not as good as Facebook / beebo…etc

Ok let’s kill this one off nice and quickly, Twitter is nothing like Facebook, it is nowhere near. Yes unfortunately they are grouped in the social networking websites umbrella but they just aren’t the same beast at all. And Facebook is a beast, a foul beast of unimaginable horror and disgust, but if you use it you already know this. FB (Facebook) is a incredibly Narcissistic platform, it is completely “look at me look at me!” in its approach to social networking. It used to be that it was simplified, easy to use and a stripped out version of the then bloated, useless spam riddled MySpace, and now it is the new bloated, useless and spam riddled Facebook; filled with badges of social distinction (via www.twitter.com/hannahnicklin @hannahnicklin) and essentially the “News Feed” is a group of people shouting at each other. I used to love the aspect of being able to track my social life in one website, but now I rarely use the full version of Facebook, checking only my messages on the iPhone or my email.

I don’t see the point. Isn’t it a little me me me?

Well it is if you use it for the purpose they intended…ok this one might be a little odd but here we go. Twitter is not all about the “What are you doing now?” question, I mean Yeh that’s the opening gambit and for a while you will use it for that, but it can be so much more. For example, again my good tweep and real life friend @hannahnicklin essentially summed up the Shift Happens conference this year, tweeting directly from the floor (and abusing her battery at the same time) I have gained a cult following from posting bizarre pictures of my friend @bearpiglett, and people such as @documentally posting somewhat cryptic messages about his chainsaw with sufficiently creepy videos too…oh and being somewhat of a tech buff so I am told! But yea this still might seem a little me me me. But it is not just that.

As I stated before Twitter is a collaborative space, people update and blog on twitter, and you choose to follow them, you don’t have to read all of the posts, I do because I am like that, but you don’t have to. It’s selective, and as many people have said the shift in media is towards the selective, the collaborative and the user generated / driven. The iPlayer from the BBC is a good example of this. People choose what to watch and when to watch it, for free. They select the television they like, it is huge and it is so successful that other media companies are trying to shut it down, but they won’t. The other great contender is Spotify, a legal completely free music service (if you don’t mind the Ads, and I don’t) it has user generated playlists you can share, and the ability to reach millions of people. This is what Twitter is part of it is more than the sum of its social networking components it is something more, something intangible, something I feel passionately enough to write about.

Something that has bored the pants off of you…

Links and apologies

2009-07-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

Ok well I have to apologise for the last post, it was a gritty story of plot holes and spelling mistakes!

Told ya the phone was a poor platform for me personally i work too fast. Anyhow links!

www.twitter.com/documentally A tech micro blogger of great acclaim so i hear!
www.twitter.com/hannahnicklin A close friend of mine involved deeply with Theatre and technology.
www.hackaday.com My usual haunt for technology hacking
www.hannahnicklin.com Hannah's website full of good stuff and links to her blog.

just a couple of things i think you should check out really.

Take care out there.

What's it all about?

2009-07-23T22:56:00.001-07:00

So this is the first blog entry I am writing from my iPhone, and may I
say it is a wonderful thing. The only problem I perceive is my la k of
ability to spell and the iPhones not so intuitive spelling checker. So
far it missed my I before e fail in perceive, and attempted to
undermine me with thong instead of thing.

So what is this blog all about? Well lets see...

•it's an experminet: I am terrblle at rememebering to update blogs
etc so I am seeing if I can keep this one up.
•it's about technology: I love technology and as many of my peers are
heavily involved in technology (links after the break) or scientists
of sone sort I figured I should join the ranks and blog about it in a
light hearted way.
•it's about choice: people choose their own media these days, they
pull content from the Internet, just look at the BBC iplayer and hulu.com
! So this is about giving people more choice in their reading.
•it's about humour: yep I'm English just look at that surropticious U
in humoUr!

So stick with me and I will try and keep you updated on my world of
tech and a guide to the Internets and real life.

Sent from my iPhone with pride!