April 2009 Archives

A *LOT* of people use Facebook applications.

They all seem harmless fun, in the main, such as chosing your 'top five' in all manner of subjects, taking quizzes and suchlike.

On the other hand there is a side to these programs which many people don't seem to consider.

You are allowing a third party, not connected to Facebook, access to all information you place on the site.

A MIDLAND magistrate who resigned following a complaint about his use of the social networking site Twitter today said he had done nothing wrong.

Steve Molyneux, who had been a magistrate in Telford, Shropshire, for 16 years, came under fire after posting messages about a court case online.

The 54-year-old IT consultant said his "tweets" were designed to demonstrate that justice was being done and added that everything he wrote had been said in open court.

Mr Molyneux, a former IT lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton, chose to resign after a colleague lodged a complaint following a hearing about an alleged robbery.

Wheelman
XBox 360
Midway
£39.99

GRAVEL-voiced baldy Vin Diesel has been ubiquitous on the Freeview channels recently plugging this driving fest, delivering the line "I'm Milo Burik. I'm a Wheelman." as if he's gargling napalm.

Not exactly famous for costume dramas, Diesel is associated with the Fast and the Furious franchise, and is himself a keen gamer.

Set in the unusual location of Barcelona, the 'plot' involves infiltrating the local underworld to gain information about a huge robbery which is set to take place in the near future.

Unsurprisingly most of the detective work involves driving sports cars as fast as possible (I don't remember Miss Marple taking the same approach).

A new ultra-unrealistic move called the 'airjack' involves somehow leaping from your car, hundreds of feet, landing in an enemy vehicle and taking over.

A bit different to Grand Theft Auto's yank open the door and pull the driver out, and not, I would say, any improvement.

There are some amusing glitches whereby you can plough straight through a brick wall but get stuck on a cardboard box.

It's a competent big dumb driving game, but doesn't really bring a great deal new to the genre.

71 per cent

Hollywood 'legend' Ashton Kutcher is the first person to break through the million barrier for followers on Twitter.

He was shortly followed by CCN's breaking newsfeed half an hour later.

So what, you might ask, has Mr Demi Moore got that is so much more interesting than all the other celebrities who are taking part in the micro-blogging phenomena.

I must, at this point, make a confession. I did myself start to follow Ashton (left) on twitter (his 'handle' is aplusk) purely for nasty journalistic reasons.

I wanted to do a blog on the pointlessness of so much which is posted on twitter (and let's be honest, posts of the 'just had toast for breakfast', 'I'm tired', and 'I'm in Tesco' variety assume a colossal level of interest on the part of your followers, and also, I hesitate to add, indicate a huge ego on the original poster), so I picked Ashton purely on the basis that he seemed such a pointless Hollywood actor that it was likely to be full of such air-headed nonsense that it would make for a top posting.

You'll also have noted that such a blog hasn't appeared, and I suppose, that also reveals the reasons behind his Twittering success.

The key, as Alistair Campbell might say (see blog below) is authenticity. He genuinely updates the posts himself, and conducts conversations various other stars, as well as his wife Demi, allowing any follower an insight into his life.

He hasn't fallen into the trap of getting one of his flunkeys to update it on his behalf, purely using it as a cold-eyed marketing tool.

Aussie actor Hugh Jackman (right) came a cropper when he posted: "Having lunch on the harbor across from the Opera Center. Loving life!"

The twitter community wondered at the use of the word "Center" instead of "House" in relation to Australia's most famous building, but also at the American-style spelling.

Turns out some underling in the US typed it in for the Wolverine star.

Similarly rapped 50 Cent and pop singer Britney Spears (as if anyone thought she did it herself...!) have been unmasked as having their accounts 'managed' by staff members.

So the lesson is - do it yourself and keep it real (kids).

Follow me on twitter for updates.

Alistair Campbell has decided to wade into the debate over heartwarming Britain's Got Talent and now Youtube 'sensation' Susan Boyle.

The former spin doctor, responsible for intimidating hacks, writing saucy stories for Penthouse, swearing even more than Roy 'Chubby' Brown and, er, pulling the wool over our eyes in the run up to the Iraq war is impressed at her success.

For those not in the know, Ms Boyle, (pictured left) the 47-year-old spinster from Scotland, has won a legion of fans around the world, with her rendition of I Dreamed A Dream from the musical Les Miserables on the ITV show.

The number of viewings of her clips on Youtube has hit 25 million and is rising rapidly.

Campbell, on his blog, basically praised high waisted trouser wearer Simon Cowell for managing to once again tug on the public's heart strings and create a popular phenomenon.

His take on the success was that because Ms Boyle was 'authentic' the public warmed to her, and suggested Gordon Brown and co could learn something from that.

Mr Campbell knows all about 'authenticity'. After all, who could forget the infamous 'dodgy dossier' which was presented by the government in the run up to the Iraq war.

It had loads of helpful information about weapons of mass destruction in it, and suggested Saddam was getting a nuclear capability.

Later it transpired that it had been knocked up by the Number 10 press office, cutting and pasting anything they could find on the internet, and had not even been looked at by the intelligence services before it was published.

Campbell and Cowell - now there's an Axis of Evil.

Follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/BenHurst

The UK music industry today welcomed the conviction in Sweden of four men connected to a major internet file-sharing site.

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom were each sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay £2.7 million in damages to a number of entertainment companies including Sony, EMI and Warner Brothers.

The Pirate Bay website provides a forum for tens of millions of people to share and freely download music, films and computer software.aring.

The internet is abuzz with the rumour that amazon has removed the sales rank numbers from lesbian and gay literature.

According to some commentators the online retailer believes the books are 'adult' and as such should be excluded from some searches.

In any case a quick check by Technobabble found that books including The Whole Lesbian Sex Book: A Passionate Guide for All of Us, Up All Night: Adventures in Lesbian Sex, and Lesbian Sex 101: 101 Lovemaking Positions, all did not have a sales number.

You understand the above was all done in research - oh heck, that'll show up on my amazon homepage now...

Anyway...in the interests of fairness...Yes, even straight down the line help books such as Walking with Gay Friends: A Journey of Informed Compassion, which describes itself as "A vital resource to enable Christians to support fellow believers who struggle with their sexuality in their choice of a biblical lifestyle." haven't got a number.

However it's also worth pointing out that items such as "Grow A Sex Toy" which promises to 'grow' to 600% of its size in water', and helpfully points out: 'You dont need a man!!' is ranked 21,765 in Kitchen & Home.

And for our Welsh readers there's always Dolly The Sexy Inflatable Sheep, 'Genetically modified for your pleasure, ewe'll never want another partner!', 'she's the plastic pal who's fun to be with', and, amazingly (for a purient website such as amazon): 'Oh, and they push back harder on the edge of a cliff.' (might decide to delete the last one) Ranked an astonishing 717 in Garden & Outdoors.

Anyway, off to do lots more amazon searches before the wife gets on the computer...

The law is currently still being formed on computer privacy.

Currently the internet resembles something like the 'wild west' with a fairly lawless frontier environment.

In most cases laws actually exist but few resources are dedicated towards enforcing them and protecting people - not least because there are no real borders online, so enforcing locally held laws is incredibly complex and difficult.

In my opinion one of the areas which certainly needs more attention is that of the 'tracking' programmes which seemingly get downloaded with great frequency, often contained in cookies.

An investigation was under way today into how a computer 'worm' was able to strike the Twitter social network over the weekend, its co-founder Biz Stone said.

In his blog, Mr Stone said that Twitter had suffered four separate attacks from a program known as a worm starting on Saturday and ending early yesterday.

It was set up to promote an alternative social networking site, StalkDaily.com, and was designed to automatically reproduce itself once clicked on.

It displayed Twitter messages, known as "Tweets," on infected Twitter accounts, urging people to visit the website.

So how much does your mobile cost you in your lifetime?

Well, according to new research a cool £21,000.

Apparently on average we pay £29.21 each month, £350.52 a year.

Across the UK, mobile phone charges account for a colossal £16.5 billion each year.