Apr 02 2012
It looks like there will soon be a new TLD according to UK.gov gives nod to .scot!
I was going to write about this yesterday, but I was afraid it would be confused with some of April Fool’s Day madness!
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Mar 27 2012
Liam Stacey, a 21 year old student, has been jailed for comments he made on Twitter, according to Student jailed over Muamba comments.
I have not seen the exact comments that Liam made, so I cannot comment on whither or not they were racist. However, regardless of their content, I firmly believe that Liam has the right to say whatever he wants (online or otherwise).
It is also a sad day for the UK! I am amazed that its judicial system has been reduced to this level of stupidity by policing teenagers’ comments on social networks.
Mar 26 2012
I came across this interesting infographic in Job Wars: How Google Stacks Up Against Facebook over the weekend:
Google Versus Facebook (Copyright Mashable)
Enjoy!
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Mar 21 2012
Sean Sherlock is the Irish Minister (albeit a pseudo minister) who is responsible for research and innovation. Unfortunately, he is also a bit of an idiot :( He is one of many Irish politicians that has very little understanding of the Internet, yet he still embraces creating legislation relating to the Internet.
He recently gained a lot of publicity for championing a piece of legislation referred to as “Irish SOPA”. Naturally, he decided to pursue this shortly after it was abandoned in the US! At the same time Sean and his government colleagues want Ireland to become a major international centre for IT excellence. Yes, it is a sad reflection of this country that our politicians are so inept :|
This week I came across a site detailing how Sean has violated copyright several times on his own web site! The details are in Sean Sherlock TD violates copyright on his own site…, and it is very interesting reading!
Sean, you are truly an embarrassment to those of us working in research and innovation!
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Mar 19 2012
There was a lot of discussion last week about using homeless people as mobile hotspots at SXSW, as described in Use of Homeless as Internet Hot Spots Backfires on Marketer.
I think that it was a good idea, but badly executed :o It was good to employ homeless people, but they should have been paid a better wage, and they should not have been objectified by their t-shirts.
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Mar 18 2012
I love the message that was posted on the homepage of The Pirate Bay over the weekend!
The Promo Bay (Copyright George Barnett)
Brilliant messaging!
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Mar 17 2012
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day everybody!
Given the day it is, I thought that I would write about a very Irish themed Google Doodle! No, not the slightly bland St. Patrick’s Day doodle that is being used today.
Instead, the doodle created by Irish student Patrick Horan, as described in Ireland’s winning Google Doodle graces homepage today.
Patrick Horan's Google Doodle (Copyright Google)
I really like the steampunk look of it!
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Mar 14 2012
I read Teen charged over Facebook post this evening, and frankly I am amazed at the stupidity of this charge! (It is a very short article, so I will include it here.)
A teenager has been charged after making comments on Facebook about the deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan last week.
Azhar Ahmed (19), posted the comments on his profile page and has been charged with a racially aggravated public order offence, according to West Yorkshire Police.
A police spokesman said Mr Ahmed, of Fir Avenue, Ravensthorpe, West Yorkshire, was bemoaning the level of attention the British soldiers who died in a bomb blast last week received compared to Afghan civilians who have died in the war.
Mr Ahmed will appear at Dewsbury Magistrates’ court on March 20th.
Making prosecutions against teenagers based upon Facebook comments seems extremely petty to me! Teenagers make stupid comments (it is part of being a teen), and any adult with a bit of sense would just ignore them! Crime must really be low in the UK if this is what the police spend time investigating!
Secondly, without seeing his original comments, his reported comments do not appear racist to me!
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Mar 04 2012
I recently read an article about Irish politicians wanting to censor the Internet – Senators want online abuse images blocked.
They are calling for Minister for Justice Alan Shatter to introduce systems to block access to websites containing child abuse material.
It always amuses me to hear politicians pontificating on subject matter that they do not understand :)
Jan 25 2012
Wikipedia is going to be free for Orange users, according to Wikipedia Wants to Be Free — for Mobile Users, in Africa.
Technically it is a really simple, but I love the idea of sharing knowledge freely with people who may not otherwise have access to Wikipedia. It also has great potential for generating good press coverage.
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