A rather wet bank hol in Brum today and as ever the twitter trends page sums up what people are talking about on the microblogging website... and off it.

Top subject is 'rainy' and second possibly sums up the prevailing Brummie 'optimistic' personality.

Yes it's 'typical' as in 'typical, it's raining on a bank holiday.'

Oh well, makes me almost glad to be at work...

A council defended its legal fight to unmask a blogger amid reports Twitter has handed British users' details over to the local authority following a court order.

South Tyneside Council, which is based in South Shields, has been pursuing legal action against a blogger known as Mr Monkey, who has levelled a stream of criticisms and false allegations against councillors and council officers.

The council issued subpoenas in California to get Twitter to reveal details about a number of accounts as part of this libel investigation.

The number of internet users relying entirely on mobile broadband devices to access online services has increased, research has found.

A report by communications regulator Ofcom and broadband monitoring specialists Epitiro, based on research conducted between September and December last year, found that 7% of UK households were using mobile devices exclusively to access the internet, compared with 3% in 2009.

The research, which also measured average broadband speeds and the performance of five mobile operators in areas of good 3G network coverage, focused on internet access using dongles and datacards. Smartphone usage was not included in the study.

British firms which use cookies to track how their customers browse a website will be given up to a year to comply with new privacy laws, the information watchdog has said.

The new EU rules, which come into force tomorrow, mean firms which run websites in the UK will need to ask for permission to store and receive information on users' computers in the form of cookies - small files that a website uses to track users' actions online.

But Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said companies will be given up to 12 months to "get their house in order" before the new EU cookie law is enforced.

A detective has warned that social networking sites are increasingly hampering major police investigations.

Detective Chief Inspector Jes Fry, from Norfolk Police, was speaking after Michael Tucker, 50, was jailed for 26 years at Norwich Crown Court for murdering his partner, Rebecca Thorpe, 28, and hiding her body in a freezer.

The murder happened in the village of Snettisham and during the original investigation there was widespread speculation on Twitter about the circumstances of the killing. Rumours included untrue speculation that Miss Thorpe had been decapitated.

Mr Fry said the investigation had been a "complex one" which was complicated by the use of social media. He insisted officers were not Luddites and said he regularly used networking sites himself.

You can always rely on the internet community to come up with the goods.

The Facebook community inspired by Princess Beatrice's amazing royal wedding hat has come up with a host of pictures they've created/found online.

Yes this is the hat which is now on ebay raising cash for charity (showing, I feel, a certain sense of humour from Bea).

It's certainly become a fashion icon and it's sitting pretty at £17,000 at present!

Not at all making light of this seminal moment for the American military:

When you first see this picture you think wow. Soon it becomes apparent it's been tinkered with but all the same - good work!

Only a terminator could pull this look off...

Tellytubby bye-bye to Bea's fashion credentials?

A portal to a cat dimension?

New Federation superweapon?

Never let it be said that the online community is slow to take advantage of an opportunity.

The map is available to download from gamebanana.

Map creator, "Fletch" said: "What a lot of people don't seem to understand is that the only thing this map has in common with Osama is location."

Although at the moment it's not fully integrated into the bomb/hostage game mechanics, plans are afoot to do so...

...As ever the online comments relating to this raise a giggle, including:

"Theres a glitch with this map in that when you die, you respawn on the deck of an aircraft carrier and get chucked in the sea before you can carry on playing."

"So instead of freeing the hostages you just shoot them in the face?"

And, of course much 'is this in poor taste' debate... (Nah - the technobabble verdict!)

A bizarre hat sported by Princess Beatrice at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton was put up for auction on eBay today.

The Philip Treacy creation went up on the website with a starting price of £5,000, with the funds raised to be donated to charity.

Anyone wanting to emulate the young royal's look has 10 days to place a bid for what is billed as the "unique sculptural celebratory headpiece."

The curious item has attracted derision, mirth and utter bafflement from royal wedding watchers, who have compared it to a Turkey Twizzler, a toilet seat and a giant pretzel.

It has even inspired its own Facebook page, with a following of almost 5,300 people.

But in a recent interview with Grazia magazine, the 22-year-old princess defended the flamboyant headgear, insisting it was "wonderful that it's had such a reaction".
She added: "It's an incredible response to a hat, really. I'm glad it provoked so much conversation."

Half of workers have been banned by their employers from using Facebook and other social network sites in their offices, according to a report today.

A survey of more than 2,000 employees for computer services provider HCL Technologies found that many bosses feared their business reputation was at stake by staff using social networking sites.

Chief executive Vineet Nayar said: "It is quite remarkable that in this day and age, many employers are still putting their employees' interests as a low priority by not allowing them to use sites like Facebook.

"While we always advocate responsible use of social networks in the office, banning them outright will impact employees' approach to work in a negative way, having a detrimental effect on the business as a whole."

One in five parents think their children's school grades are suffering due to the amount of time they spend on social networking websites, a new study has found.

A questionnaire completed by 4,427 adults, found that 20% of parents believe their child's education is being hampered by the amount of time they spend on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and other other non-educational web pages.

The survey, conducted on behalf of TalkTalk's internet security service HomeSafe, found that children are spending an average of two hours and six minutes a day online.

Nearly half of six to 11-year-olds spend one to two hours per day using the internet to play games but only 10% use the internet daily to do their homework, results show.