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Internet access a ‘fundamental right’?
I would say that I’m something of an ‘online person’ I ran a Bulletin Board ‘the hard way’ in the late 1980s / early 1990s using a phoneline, a modem and a PC at home, and have been on the Internet in one way or another for over 20 years, and was involved with Prestel
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Twitter – the medium is NOT the message!
Regular readers of my ‘jottings’ might recall a recent post of mine in which I debated the value of Tweeted Wisdom. Always one to consider returning to the scene of past musings, I was today motivated back in to Twitter criticism territory after I read a Tweet that suggested that: “100 is the new 140
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Keep your tank full!
Some years ago when I was engaged (in a small way) in the movie industry I read a rather interesting book of advice to low budget (or zero budget) film makers. One of the most useful things I read was the advice to make sure that you kept the tank of your car full of
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Sturgeon’s Law
Following on from a recent post when I commented on the quality of Web 2.0 ‘user generated content’ I started thinking about the continued validity of Sturgeon’s Law – usually stated as ‘90% of everything is crap’. When it was first formulated, the vast majority of the consumers of science fiction – the genre to
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Google predict the end of desktop PCs….
When I started in IT, I encountered a program called ‘The Last One’. It was a menu-driven application generator that allowed a non-programmer to specify the sort of system they wanted (within a limited range) and generate a BASIC program that would do the job. When it was first announced – and before any of us got to
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The problem with Tweeted Wisdom….
Like many of us on Twitter, I follow a number of Twitter users who post aphorisms, quotes, sayings, etc. A sort of electronic review of the ‘Wisdom Literature’ of the last 2000 years. This can be pretty cool; I do wish that some folks would post their tweets across the day rather than in large
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The end of 6 Music
So, the BBC are going to close down 6 Music – which will be a great shame as it’s one of the few stations around that play a good mix of contemporary and past music, AND also has presenters that are knowledgeable about music and that have a love and passion for it. Which is
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Time for a memorial to Bomber Command crews.
From a very early age I was always interested in the history of the Second World War – part of this almost certainly came from that fact that I had Uncles who’d been in the Army and Merchant Navy who had served in WW2, and my mother had been a ‘Fire watcher’ in my current home-city of
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Gender Disappointment – psychological condition or just spoilt?
When I was a kid, out strolling with my mum, we would often meet a lady of similar age to my mum who’d had a child that suffered from Down’s Syndrome. Back then in the 1960s / 70s, it was a rare sight to actually see a child with Downs out and about. Many died
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24 hours of techno-hell!
For better or worse I’m a tad dependent upon the technology around me working to support me in my work, entertainment, staying in touch with friends – the usual. So, I have to say now that Friday 26th February has now been officially declared ‘Techno-Hell Day’ – the day on which most aspects of communications