Death by car bonnet

Every machine I own is actively conspiring to make my life a living nightmare.
I thought I was fairly open-minded when it came to technology but I’m rapidly subscribing to the Way of the Baseball Bat.
(This was recommended by a friend. He bought a job lot of old Macs and keeps them in his back yard so he can smash one up when his Computer Range is particularly bad).
Anyway, the latest sortie was made by my car. It tried to kill me.
I was headed to work today, NOT listening to my iPod through the radio (thanks for nothing Belkin) when the bonnet suddenly flew up without warning. At 60mph…
It was an exciting moment both for me and for the lorry driver I was overtaking – and only when I made it safely to a layby so I could sort the damn thing out did I realise I had officially had a near miss.
Meanwhile, the social networks project continues; the more I research this whole issue of newspapers and Web 2.0, the more I realise how far the industry has fallen behind.
I asked Rob Marcus from Chat Moderators how newspaper social networks could succeed. His advice, in a nutshell, was:
1). Control freakery is as unattractive in newspapers as it is in people; take part, don’t take over
2). Have a little humility
3). You only get one chance to make a first impression
In the interests of extending our reach to readers I briefly wondered if the Daily Post should get a Pownce account; having read this it sounds as though we’re better off sticking with Twitter until things become a bit clearer.
Talking of Pownce, co-creator Kevin Rose could soon be a rich man by all accounts.
Microsoft and Google are apparently fighting it out for Digg in a deal rumoured to be worth $200-$250m. And Facebook’s creator is now worth around $15bn.
Ever wish you’d chosen a career in computers?

Web2.BigFatZero

Today has been one of technological challenges which have left me with a pounding head and a need for red wine in significant quantities.
First I installed a portal to play my ipod through the car stereo which took me about two minutes. It was small, unobtrusive… and on current evidence totally bloody useless.
I drove about a mile when the thing BLIPPED – at decibel levels RAF planes are forbidden to create over mainland Britain – then died. I nearly died too – I was so shocked I accidentally swerved into the second lane of the dual carriageway and seriously mithered White Van Man.
It’s still not working.
Then I had to take part in a webinar, liasing with various other editorial managers across the country via a webcam/chat set-up. It turned out to be 45 minutes of technical problems, 10 minutes of some people repeatedly mouthing “Can you hear me?” while everyone else typed “no”, and five minutes of useful information.
Bored with the technical shenanigins on my screen, and flushed with success from Blidget-creation, I ambitiously tried to add RSS to the blog.
It has so far proved a spectacular failure.
Not content with wasting an hour of my life on something I wasn’t even sure I wanted (I just wanted to see if I could do it) I finally roped the digital editor in for some expert advice. He knew exactly what was wrong; it was me.
RSS has beaten me… for now. Battle will recommence once I have calmed down.
(LATER)
When I tried to post this my computer crashed. It was the most crushing techno-insult of the day.

Tribes online

Why do people use online social networks? What do we get out of it and what prompts us to join certain communities?
As well as the inevitable Facebook I’m on Twitter, Linkedin and Flickr to name a few.
I like my friends being the click of a mouse away. I like to know what they’re up to (although I don’t need to know what kind of Superhero they are, thanks Facebook) and I like feeling a part of a wider network, of knowing via Twitter that there are people batting for me when I’m having a grim day at work.
Plus sites such as Digg are damn useful.
Now however, work has intruded on my little social network idyll. No, I’m not banned from using them – it’s worse than that: I have to research why we use them.
Yes, in a bid to try and give Liverpool Daily Post readers what they want, I’m now researching the phenomenon… the catch is that I have to fit this rather unwieldy subject around my working day and have a fully researched report ready to go by the end of the fortnight. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.
Personally I think it’s all a bit tribal. We belong to something; we are a part of a network that transcends family and friends. I’ve had people I barely know try to link up with me via one network or another. It can also be a bit exclusive. Okay, I didn’t know Twitter existed until two months ago but now I do and I’m extremely supercilious with anyone who isn’t sending tweets yet.
So, there you have it: We’re all just smug Web 2.0 tribes, wasting time at work by networking with mates across the world.
Now I just have to stretch that to 3,000 words…

Blidget building

So here I am, back from skiing less than 24 hours and instead of unpacking the suitcase I’ve been busy discovering how to turn this blog into a bligdet.
This would no doubt be the work of moments for anyone under 25 but it took me some serious effort, and not a few stomps around the room – plus a thrilling two minutes when I locked myself out of my Facebook profile after turning H&D (as I like to call it) into an application and uploading it to my profile.
Anyway, those of you who have a blog and would like to make it a blidget go to www.widgetbox.com and you’ll find an idiot’s guide to making your blog into a widget and spreading it around the world.
It was easier than I thought and and I now have a blidget logged with Widgetbox (although I am somewhat further down the popularity list than the divine Perez Hilton www.widgetbox.com/widget/perezhiltoncom).
I’ve also set up a blog badge so people can add my widget… and the strangest thing was that it was very satisfying being able to grasp the technology and do something with it.
I thought before I started it was going to be difficult and I’d end up abandoning the project halfway through.
Sometimes it’s nice to be wrong.