7 tech predictions for the future from a #Google Creative Director - http://tnw.co/oxEzpg my prediction: most of these are nonsense
Yet Again, Evidence Of The Need For Fashion Copyright Is Totally And Completely Missing - http://bit.ly/nH9NVj who needs facts?
Open Science Summit 2011 - http://bit.ly/oyjGZA great stuff; be nice to have it in Europe sometime, too... #openscience
#HP Discovers The Wonderful Power Of #Scarcity, And The TouchPad Lives On - http://tcrn.ch/ntGEjl & so does techcrunch
mySociety launches FixMyTransport.com - http://bit.ly/qqp41w very cool idea #opendata #transport
Apple accuses Motorola, Samsung of monopolizing markets with patents - http://bit.ly/ouV4kt bullying not enough: adds hypocrisy
10th Circuit Affirms in All Respects - #Novell, Not #SCO, Owns the Copyrights, etc. - http://bit.ly/qYktJf so, it was all a waste of time?
Australian Department of Defence conducts OpenOffice.org trial - http://bit.ly/n4IIEa how long before MS makes offer they can't refuse?
#Uzbekistan to rival #Facebook with state-run social network - http://tnw.co/qOZiFH I'm there'll be no state #surveillance or #censorship
“Respect Explorer’s Heritage” - http://tcrn.ch/mSwz4m wow, is #microsoft really this rudderless?
James Gosling: I've moved again - http://bit.ly/p9wepy from #google, to Liquid Robotics... #java
Outbound space probe looks back at tiny Earth and Moon - http://bit.ly/ousZUI eeek: be afraid, be very afraid... #insignificance
Patent Shill Attacks Google for Complaining about Patent Predation - http://bit.ly/pF8fLC good rebuttal #patents #intellectualmonopolies
More on a Space Elevator in <7 - http://bit.ly/o5ymzg interesting points about using #opensource etc; not so sure about global warming stuff
BitTorrent Grandma Was Wrongfully Accused, Lawyer Admits - http://bit.ly/nJn10i why we need false accusation laws in these cases
CCDC: Reasons why sourceCIF data must be Open - http://bit.ly/pNGohr ridiculous that these battles must still be fought #opendata
Politicians Start Getting Digital #Copyright Right - http://bit.ly/nr0OLe well, some do: kudos to @clarecurranmp #deact #nz
Garbage In, Garbage Out - http://bit.ly/nbTekY fab, if rather depressing, numeric debunking of idea we can get lots of #energy from waste
Horrific: Two Years, Heavy Fine For 60-Year-Old Music File Sharer - http://bit.ly/r6VCaP compare: "Homicide by strangling, 6 months"
Welcome to OpenWear, a collaborative clothing platform - http://bit.ly/rv4R5G very, er, neat (v @remixtures) #sharing #fashion
#Sony Finally Fully Unveils Its #Android Tabs, The Sony S and P - http://tcrn.ch/oFDMJU oh no: 1 has *rounded* corners... #ipad
The Emergence of Benefit-driven Production - http://bit.ly/nRtgeF useful review of peer production and "commonism" #opensource
Potential Buyers Sizing Up #Kodak Patents - http://dthin.gs/oS02pn feeding the #patent pyramid scheme
Infringement Nation: #Copyright Reform and the Law/Norm Gap - http://bit.ly/rdvGdF I know this is old (2007), but it's also brilliant
Yes, It’s Time To Abandon The United States - http://bit.ly/quI0fy provocative stuff, but interesting things on scaling (v @webmink)
Solyndra to file for bankruptcy, lay off 1,100 - http://bit.ly/oKsRu8 chinese competition major factor? #energy
Free #opensource laptops for 32,000 students Languedoc-Roussillon - http://bit.ly/ofwNGs lucky them #france
#Facebook opens up about #opensource software - http://bit.ly/q5guN1 “Engineers enjoy working on open source" (v @remixtures)
#Apple's Chinese Suppliers Accused of Causing Significant Environmental Damage - http://bit.ly/q3SZwL ah, yes, those #externalities
DOJ Sues to Stop ATandT, T-Mobile Merger - http://bit.ly/qXMQQx big for US, not sure if there are ramifications much elsewhere
Why the Impossible Happens More Often - http://bit.ly/orrA5w particular good piece, I thought; at the heart of all the opens etc.
#China's telecom patent boom heralds innovation era - http://reut.rs/nmjkvJ false: patents & innovation quite different
Never too late: Taking measures to promote #Armenian #Wikipedia - http://bit.ly/pi11Bm interesting to see #stallman getting things moving
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Welcome to Moody's Microblog Daily Digest
I joined Twitter on 1st January 2010 as an experiment. I wanted to see whether this trendy thing had any real merit, or was simply the latest fad that would come and go. I was was soon disabused of my prejudices about it being just for posting about what you had eaten for breakfast. Indeed, I discovered that the presence or absence of such culinary info was a very quick way of deciding whether someone should be unfollowed or not.
I was particularly impressed at the many different ways that people used Twitter. For some, it was truly an online diary, recording what they did, often in exhaustive (and exhausting) detail. For others, it was a way of passing on news far faster than traditional outlets. And for some it was evidently a real microblog – a way of publishing extremely short piece of information with optional comments.
This turned out to be the way that I felt Twitter was most useful, and my own use soon conformed to this model. I realised that it solved a problem with blogging that I had been wrestling with for a while. I frequently came across stories that warranted passing on, but which looked decidedly thin when posted to one of my blogs. What I wanted was a quick way of saying: “hey, take a look at this – it's good/bad/stupid/funny/horrible” without needing to come up with anything more detailed in terms of analysis. What I wanted, it turned out, was Twitter.
As my followers there (and later on identi.ca and Google+) will know, I soon lost control completely, and started posting dozens of microblog posts a day. Indeed, I have had several people unfollow me because they say I post too many interesting links, which stops them working....
But for all that I feel my microblogs work well on their own terms, there is one huge problem. I have apparently posted some 43,000 of them in the last 20 months (really? How posts fly by when you're having fun...). Quite a few of them have useful information that I like to refer to. But it is a truth universally acknowledged that Twitter's search function is pretty useless. Even though I have supplemented this with bit.ly, which has its own search feature, it frequently happens that I can't find that super important link I posted a few months ago.
This is not just frustrating, it is becoming a serious problem. It means that the not inconsiderable effort that I put into choosing my links and commenting on them is effectively going down the digital drain.
So, in an attempt to preserve at least some of the more interesting posts, I have set up a new blog called, with stunning originality, “Moody's Microblog Daily Digest.” As its name suggests, each day this will provide a digest of those microblog posts that I think are worth keeping. These will be posted in an entirely minimal format, simply a paste of the microblog content – don't look for any prettiness here.
This will, I hope, have two advantages.
First, it will allow Google's not inconsiderable search engine capabilities to index stuff on the new site. That means any post should be retrievable by me and anyone who feels the need. Secondly, it offers an alternative way to deal with the Moody flood: not only will it be a pared-down list of microblog posts, but it will be one-per-day (I aim to update it during the day, and then close it at the end, although I'm not sure if that will mean multiple appearances in RSS readers...) This might help those who find that you can have too much of a good thing....
Obviously, I'll be reviewing how things go, and would appreciate any comments along the way as this latest experiment progresses.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+
I was particularly impressed at the many different ways that people used Twitter. For some, it was truly an online diary, recording what they did, often in exhaustive (and exhausting) detail. For others, it was a way of passing on news far faster than traditional outlets. And for some it was evidently a real microblog – a way of publishing extremely short piece of information with optional comments.
This turned out to be the way that I felt Twitter was most useful, and my own use soon conformed to this model. I realised that it solved a problem with blogging that I had been wrestling with for a while. I frequently came across stories that warranted passing on, but which looked decidedly thin when posted to one of my blogs. What I wanted was a quick way of saying: “hey, take a look at this – it's good/bad/stupid/funny/horrible” without needing to come up with anything more detailed in terms of analysis. What I wanted, it turned out, was Twitter.
As my followers there (and later on identi.ca and Google+) will know, I soon lost control completely, and started posting dozens of microblog posts a day. Indeed, I have had several people unfollow me because they say I post too many interesting links, which stops them working....
But for all that I feel my microblogs work well on their own terms, there is one huge problem. I have apparently posted some 43,000 of them in the last 20 months (really? How posts fly by when you're having fun...). Quite a few of them have useful information that I like to refer to. But it is a truth universally acknowledged that Twitter's search function is pretty useless. Even though I have supplemented this with bit.ly, which has its own search feature, it frequently happens that I can't find that super important link I posted a few months ago.
This is not just frustrating, it is becoming a serious problem. It means that the not inconsiderable effort that I put into choosing my links and commenting on them is effectively going down the digital drain.
So, in an attempt to preserve at least some of the more interesting posts, I have set up a new blog called, with stunning originality, “Moody's Microblog Daily Digest.” As its name suggests, each day this will provide a digest of those microblog posts that I think are worth keeping. These will be posted in an entirely minimal format, simply a paste of the microblog content – don't look for any prettiness here.
This will, I hope, have two advantages.
First, it will allow Google's not inconsiderable search engine capabilities to index stuff on the new site. That means any post should be retrievable by me and anyone who feels the need. Secondly, it offers an alternative way to deal with the Moody flood: not only will it be a pared-down list of microblog posts, but it will be one-per-day (I aim to update it during the day, and then close it at the end, although I'm not sure if that will mean multiple appearances in RSS readers...) This might help those who find that you can have too much of a good thing....
Obviously, I'll be reviewing how things go, and would appreciate any comments along the way as this latest experiment progresses.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+
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