Categories
notes from JK

Link Catchup

After a trip to Poland, death of the Pope and a stag night it's time to get back in the blogging saddle.

First things first, some interesting links that have been hanging around on my desktop for far too long.

  • The unceasingly excellent Phil Gyford has a great post on Boing Boing credibility and the challenges of the grey areas between amateur, semi-pro and pro in the blog world. Link

  • Over at 43 Folders there's a post that any technology consultant will sing 'Amen' to. Check out The Project Triangle

I have a huge postal vote post brewing… every time I get ready to finish it off more happens.

The General Election is pretty boring so far… and this is a junkie speaking. Still we did have the amusing doctored photo incident. This was an astonishingly stupid move by the Conservative candidate.

UPDATE: One more link I forgot to mention. Bruce Schneier's excellent analysis of the rules for electing a new Pope. Better than postal voting by a long way!

Categories
current affairs

Jan Pawel II RIP

Jan Pawel II

A river of tears pours from Poland today… From Lublin, Poland where I am tonight Rest in Peace Karol.

BBC Report

Categories
technology

Mac the fish

When I spent all of my time at university pestering my mate Paul about how brill Macs were I had absolutely no idea it would drive him to this….

Categories
technology

And so begins the Google backlash…

Ben Hammersley uses a piece in The Guardian to kick off the end of the media's love-in with Google. Have Google done anything wrong? No. On the other hand Yahoo! have certainly turned things around quite dramatically and compared to MSN's continuously dismal efforts they seem to be getting value for money with their investments in search.

There is a sense of inevitability to this Google backlash. Having ridden the hype curve Google had to come down. Yahoo! have been there, done that and now they are quietly delivering… rather well it seems.

What is important to note is that from everything I can see Yahoo! and Google are fundamentally different companies. Ignoring the search, context-sensitive advertising and two Os in their name and what do I see? Google is focussed on providing simple, easy, powerful access to other people's data. Yahoo! is still hell bent on producing and delivering content. As we read all those years ago, Yahoo! really do want to be a media company. Google is a tech company through and through.

So why is Yahoo! piling dollars into better search? Without a decent search it can't keep drawing consumers in front of its content, adverts and dating services. Google, relax – let Yahoo! do their thing we still love you.

UPDATE: Google fights back with Google Gulp!

UPDATE 2: John Naughton doubts Hammersley's logic…

Categories
voting

Suspect UK e-voting survey

I suppose beggars can't be choosers when a survey is reported as Brits voice fraud fears over high-tech voting but still I can't help but be suspicious when the results report that 51% of 'younger people' would vote if there was a dedicated website. What?

UPDATE: More coverage on Silicon.com

In other news the Electoral Commission have published their new code of conduct for candidates, canvassers and campaigners handling postal ballots. It's a long overdue process of stating the obvious but I'm afraid it's inevitably little more than a sticking plaster to the fundamental problems of postal voting.

Categories
technology

Long Tail TV

In exactly the same vein of a column I recently completed for LinuxUser, Wired magazine's editor Chris Anderson has put together an excellent post on why the TV business is in for a big change. Let's face it, the more we get used to downloading music etc the more not being able to watch video content when we want is going to grate. The technology (BitTorrent) is here – gimme gimme gimme!

Categories
current affairs

The Government Inspector

Just finished watching Channel 4's The Government Inspector which certainly left Gilligan, Campbell and Kelly all looking rather bad. Some answers were hinted at but many still seemed beyond the reach of the film-maker's apparently detailed research.

I couldn't help feeling as the film ended that I hadn't been given enough to explain why a man like Kelly would kill himself, if indeed he did. A number of family problems were alluded to but not detailed – perhaps that is where the missing pieces of the puzzle lie?

Categories
e-democ / e-gov

Richard Allan on the anti-terror bill

If you're not aware of it already, LibDem MP Richard Allan's blog is offering wonderful insights into what it's like to be inside the never ending votes on the government's ill-fated anti-terror bill. Add to your feed-readers today!

Categories
technology

Google News Customisation

Google News now how sports some interesting customisation features built in Dynamic HTML. Not only can you rearrange where blocks of news appear on your page but you can also add your own keyword driven news sections. Very interesting… It's My Yahoo all over again, but not, if you know what I mean!

Categories
voting

Japan revokes e-voting result

Whilst there are pushes for a national e-voting system in Japan, a recent court judgement has voided the result of a July 2003 city council election. This is one of the few times I can recall a result actually being declared void due to e-voting results. I'm glad to see the Japanese legal system going against a 'technology is always right' view.

UPDATE: The municipal authority in Japan have shelved e-voting for the next election