Accidentally in Code

  • Average Browsing

    Saw this video the other day – Google in New York asking people if they know what a browser is. Most people didn’t. Or rather – they essentially think the browser is Google. Is the browser so pervasive that people don’t register that it’s a distinct “thing”? Or does the average user basically just not…

    →: Average Browsing
  • #unfollowdiddy
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    #unfollowdiddy

    Earlier, I was trying to work out why “Amedisys” was trending (job postings! Crikey), and then people including it in their posts just to get their posts showing up on that trend. Does that work? Do people really follow people who just tweet all the currently trending topics periodically? One guy was trying to pimp…

    →: #unfollowdiddy
  • Wow
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    Wow

    The US State Department confirmed that it intervened to keep Twitter going and downtime was recheduled to take place in the middle of the night in Iran, not in the US. The #IranElection hastag has been trending for days. See: I saw this, and thought – wow. This is big big news on Twitter. Right…

    →: Wow
  • The Iranian Election is Trending

    The Iranian Election is Trending

    There’s a large Persian population in Ottawa, especially in Computer Science. So, a lot of my friends are from Iran and I follow the international news so I’ve been watching the election results with interest. One of my friends wasn’t going to vote, so the other day I was embroiled in an argument about that…

    →: The Iranian Election is Trending
  • The Rise of the BNP, in Trend Data

    The Rise of the BNP, in Trend Data

    I came across this yesterday. “Hope not Hate”, in response to the BNP getting two seats in the EU elections. I loathe the BNP, I do. They’re racist and offensive. But – this is a democracy, and even stupid and racist people get to vote. They exercised their right to vote in electing in the…

    →: The Rise of the BNP, in Trend Data

  • The Indecision of Crowds

    At the moment, I’m reading The Wisdom of Crowds. It’s a really interesting book, all about how crowds can organize themselves to achieve great things… and how sometimes they organize themselves in such a way that things go horrifyingly wrong. I picked this book to read next in part because of an experience I had…

    →: The Indecision of Crowds
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    Tweeting Normally, Mr. Average

    This week I’m at another conference, this one put on by FOSSLC. It’s an Open Source conference, which isn’t strictly related to what I’m doing but it’s good to get out there and meet people, and hear about what people in industry are saying. I’ve had a few conversations about Twitter… of course. I’m really…

    →: Tweeting Normally, Mr. Average
  • , ,

    Personal Value and Social Value

    Lately I’ve been reading Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. It’s a really interesting book, and one that I would thoroughly recommend if you’re interested in this kind of thing. Something in Chapter 11 (Promise, Tool, Bargain) struck me because it resonated with an experience I had this week…

    →: Personal Value and Social Value

  • Why Not Fix Your Broken Business Model?

    Been reading a lot about how the music industry and the TV and movie industry are falling down, and they all blame “pirates” (great article on how stupid and offensive a label that is given the Somali pirates here). I also recently finished reading Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World…

    →: Why Not Fix Your Broken Business Model?