Diaspora*: Shiny new things and open-source nerd love.

Posted on  •  12/09/2011  • 

The new, privacy aware social network 'Diaspora' (a quick introduction and some first impressions can be found here) has been gathering steam in recent weeks. Enough that the supply seems like it has been struggling to keep up with demand. Apologies came from the HQ profile as people became aware that one of the larger pods, joindiaspora.com, was slowing to a crawl at times, as more and more people began to explore and share on the shiny new platform.

My Diamonds.

Posted on  •  30/08/2011  • 

When it comes to people, I have a metaphor: People are like diamonds.

Every person is a multi-faceted gem, some facets are flawed, and others are perfect. A person may have many flawed facets, but so many more perfect ones. Sometimes, the first facet you see, your first interaction, is with a flawed one.

Diaspora: Social networking that could warm the heart of any nerd.

Posted on  •  29/08/2011  • 

This last month I've been spending a lot of time sat on Google+, networking, learning from and sharing content with other people. Like-minded, and otherwise. I was incredibly pleased with Google+ in the early stages, before all of this policy talk began to emerge. There is increasing focus on the policies over at Google+, as expressed in an earlier post, and how it looks to be evolving is becoming frightening to say the least.

During a discussion about exactly that, I was pointed in another direction. Diaspora.

Googles ever reaching arm of control, and why you should care.

Posted on  •  29/08/2011  • 

We are all hearing a lot about the Google+ names policy lately. Someone made the mistake of letting Eric Schmidt out of his cupboard for long enough to put in his two cents, where he ended up calling the platform an 'identity service', not a social network.

Google have been strictly enforcing their new policy, one that requires people to use their real names. If they think you're not doing that? Be prepared to have to prove to Google that it is your real name in order to get back on the platform.

I'm not going to do into the details of the nymwars here, but I am going to give a perspective which appears to be getting largely ignored. Many people are saying what a great idea it is, make people accountable, make people transparent. Others simply don't care and would just like to get on with it, without being bombarded by nymwars perspectives (hey, guess what, you can uncircle people - You don't have to read it).

To all of you receiving your exam results, I wish you luck in the future

Posted on  •  18/08/2011  • 

It's always nice to see some of our old traditions. We have so many of them. It's exam results day, and each year it's a similar picture to the last. Tomorrow, newspaper sales will go up slightly as the country has the chance to see happy, scantily clad teenage girls, grasping bits of paper with delight. One of the services used to get results will go down due to high demand. Someone will have done their exams while heavily pregnant. There will be a story about someone who hasn't quite made it, usually involving a small interview with the parents. And John Prescott will talk about it all day.

Comments on the political evictions. Does the Housing Act even allow it?

Posted on  •  16/08/2011  • 

Update already because people on Twitter are AWESOME

It turns out that I may not have been barking up the wrong tree after all, despite my thinking I probably was. Thanks to the good folks of Twitter, I have been pointed to a user there who keeps a blog. A solicitor working in housing, he's blogged about exactly this, minus the deep speculation and with a lot more knowledge behind him. If this is a subject you want to know the legal side of, I highly recommend you read it.

Here's his blog, and in particular an article titled 'Wandsworth: headed for the naughty step?'

Google+ have introduced games, but have you checked to see what game they're playing?

Posted on  •  13/08/2011  • 

Ahh yes, data once again.

On top of their 'real names policy', Google have now potentially degraded the rights to control your data on Google+.

Games have been introduced.

The idea of games being introduced doesn't sound especially alarming. I mean, they're games, right? It's all good fun and that. But.. It was brought to my attention pretty quickly that a lot of people take issue with the way games and apps are requesting permission to access your data. When you go in to play again, you have to allow them access to certain things on your profile.

Why the internet can be a lifeline.

Posted on  •  01/08/2011  • 

My friend John and I have recently been discussing the importance of the internet in our lives growing up. We are both physically disabled and our lives and ability to socialise face-to-face have been severely affected as a result. Neither of us can imagine where we would be or what we would be like today without the web

What's in a name?

Posted on  •  29/07/2011  • 

One thing about google+ which many people will have been unable to avoid hearing about... The real names policy. It's stirring up debate all over the place. To try and count out a number of negative aspects of many social media websites, google have introduced a policy which states that you cannot sign up with a fake name. Many accounts have already been closed for not adhering to this rule.

I can understand putting blocks on nicknames, or generic handles that are used just about everywhere else. No one wants to have an in-depth conversation or network with someone calling themselves hotman4u-uk (unless perhaps they're hotgirl4u? I don't know..), such handles are surely reserved for Yahoo! Chat and IRC servers. However, if you're supposed to use a real name, it brings up some issues.