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December 2007 - Should mice and men spend so much time together? |
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My three year old daughter has recently discovered the cBeebies games website. I was initially a bit sceptical about letting her anywhere near my laptop, but whether it was her persistent requests or my own childish curiosity, I did eventually allow her (OK, me!) half an hour of unadulterated fun. Whether 'Charlie and Lola's Germ Count' or 'Gordon the Garden Gnome's Veggie Patch' had any genuine educational value I'm not entirely sure, but watching her holding a mouse for the first time did spark the idea for this article!
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October 2007 - Have you been hit by a pillow recently? |
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I have and it didn’t hurt one bit, let me tell you more. Last week I was lured into the wonderful world of “Facebook”, having managed to avoid social networking sites until now, I bowed to the pressure of countless friends who seemed to be talking about it constantly and pestering me to join. Curious to find out what all the fuss was about and a little concerned that I was missing out on the next big thing in the virtual world, I signed up to create my own Facebook profile.
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September 2007 - When I'm 90? |
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Call it mid-life crisis or call it just day dreaming but the other day, while on a joyous flight back to the Island I was watching people tinker with their myriad electronic devices, i-pod, blackberry or others and I started to think, “what was driving all this ability to do things which 20 years ago would have been impossible?” This led further to the inevitable thought provoking question, of what currently impossible things will increases in computational power deliver to us all in the next 50 years?
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August 2007 - Location, Location |
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Having written an article recently based on the
phenomenon of interactive websites known to some
as Web 2.0 after the conference of the same name, I
was amused to discover that there is now also a
conference called Where 2.0. This year’s event was held at the end
of May in San Jose California (where else) and according to their
web site, brought together organisations as diverse as the
Norwegian armed services and Walt Disney, not to mention car
companies, telecoms, and most of the big names of the IT / ecommerce
world.
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July 2007 - Forget spam |
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Tired of trawling through endless
websites for the stuff you’re
interested in? Google returning a
zillion results for your search
term? Your latest company email marketing
campaign not having the desired response?
One of the biggest problems with the Internet
for both consumer and business is getting
your message across in an already
overcrowded marketplace.
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June 2007 - Getting to grips with the blogosphere |
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Acommon trait amongst many interesting web sites is the
concept of user-generated content – sites made up of information,
pictures or other contributions from the sites’audiences. Such sites have adopted a variety
of different forms – one of the most prominent being the ‘blog’.
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May 2007 - Identity |
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So, what is Identity? Having looked for a simple definition it
would appear that the answer very much depends on who is
asking the question. According to Wikipedia, philosophically,
‘Identity’ is whatever makes an “entity definable and
recognisable, in terms of possessing a specific set of qualities or
characteristics that distinguish it from other entities of a different type”.
Identity is whatever makes something distinguishably the same or
different.
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April 2007 - Brainwaves |
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I have an aunt who is electro-sensitive. Her arms go numb
and she starts to feel dizzy if she gets within about 100
yards of a mobile phone - at least, she does if she happens
to know it’s there. This particular aunt is also German and
a keen believer in homeopathy, both factors which appear to
predispose her to a fascinating array of psychosomatic
conditions. Interestingly, according to one of my unimpeachably
reliable online sources, electro-sensitivity affects up to 8% of
people in Germany, about 5% in Sweden (which also has a
fantastic welfare state) and virtually nobody in Japan.
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| March 2007 - Patents |
| Over recent years, debate has been rife regarding the appropriateness or otherwise of the patenting of IT-related ideas and inventions. The balance between the legitimate protection of intellectual property and the potential to stifle the development of the industry as a whole is difficult to strike – but the history of computers and communications has been supported by a number of milestone patents which provide an interesting insight. |
| February 2007 - New Horizons |
| Vista, the latest version of Microsoft Windows was launched at the end of January. According to Wikipedia.org (the pub quiz setters bible) Vista means a distant view or prospect or a site offering such a view. It is also the Latvian word for chicken, a fact which keeps making me laugh for no particularly good reason although I doubt it has the same effect on the Microsoft marketing department. |
| January 2007 - The Future of Emails |
 For a number of years experts have been painting a gloomy future for emails as organisations and individuals continue to be attacked and bombarded. In many cases they are almost overwhelmed by the sheer volume and proliferation of useless spam and its derivatives. Will the "engines give out" or is there a solution waiting in the wings? |
