Beware the Truthometer!

She calls it "reality TV" but this week's net.wars column by Wendy Grossman reads more like unreality TV to me.

I mean, a Twitter account operated by a fictional Xerox machine in a popular TV series about advertising?

Anyway, Wendy has been in Hollywood. Will it go to her head? Will she join Kermit and become rich and famous? Waddya think...

Fox in the hen-house?

Actually, for all we know the US bankers who didn't know that what they were doing was dumb, really didn't.

They probably dismissed Warren Buffet as an old fart...

For me, Kate Moss... it's "Art"

Would the picture shown here deprave or corrupt you?

Is it obscene?

If not, why not? If so, why?

Buffy the EULA-breaker

Vampires in Oxbridge? Well, a new Joss Whedon thriller set amongst the dreaming spires or the calm punts would be fun! but this week, the net.wars series explores the future of cloud computing, and what Angel might have done about its terms and conditions.

At least, when I was editing it on my flight from Faro, that's what I thought it was about...

net.wars - doplr-gangers. If you go there, I'm not!

It may be time to join yet another "social networking site" like doplr - and then again, as Wendy so succinctly put it:

"Friends don't LET friends join social networks..."

Edited by author 08-22-2008 08:22 AM

Sir Alan Ayckbourn

You back my scratches, and...

Literary criticism? We haz LitCrit. At least, if you're going to discuss copy protection, "software as a service" and video distribution rights, you'd better discuss someone whose output is worth protecting.

Wendy has been to the Scarborough theatrical production of an Ayckbourn play. Why does Sir Alan prevent publication of video performances?

---

Five ringtone circus...

Smog? Never mind the smog, check out YouTube!.

Edited by author 08-03-2008 05:58 AM

Car boot sale?

In 1980, it was your signature which gave you away.

Today, it's your "spending patterns." Which is clever, when it works, says Wendy. But what's the explanation for when it doesn't?


Image: Walter Matthau as Miles Kendig

Retroactive incentives?

It's easy to see who has the lobbying muscle, when it comes to reforming copyright laws (writes Wendy this week).

Wouldn't it be nicer if the performers, rather than the recording business, got the benefit?

I have to disagree with Wendy about newsletters. I run a mountain biking club, www.bogtrotters.org. We used to publish a printed list of rides with some editorial material every 3 months. It was very tedious filling envelopes, even for just 40 members. I moved the list of activities to our website 6 years ago, combined with a couple of mailing lists for announcements and discussions. In the intervening period the membership has steadily grown, to 115 now. I'm 55, and there are only 3 other members older than me, who seem to be able to cope with electronic delivery perfectly well. There are a few luddites who rely on a quick mobile call to check what's happening

Edited by author 06-27-2008 11:09 AM

That's a Black Goose, that's what...

The sad tale of a Government department that regarded security as a low priority has now been told, in the Poynter Review.
Read all about it, and weep...

Edited by author 06-21-2008 04:48 AM

Print deadlines

The trouble with going for email newsletters is that you can procrastinate forever about when it's finished.

When you give it to an operator of one of Mr Gutenberg's devices, the printer has a schedule, and expects copy the day you booked the presses. It comes out on time that way.

Well, that's one theory, sure...

Smuggling Smarties ... in a glass case?

You do feel naked when you find people at the conference giggling over your filenames.

Ouch.

Edited by author 05-30-2008 10:26 AM

Happy Birthday, FIPR!

Hulk Hogan is not a great model for a society's database, our chief columnist points out this week.

But despite "promises" that's what we're getting. And any local council can hire Hulk, it seems...

---

New is old again

Wendy has spent too much time in SF movies...

---

Edited by author 04-26-2008 09:35 AM

Power to the cpu!

Actually, the disaster may already be happening, because electricity supplies to data centres are already the primary cost of running an Internet Service Provider. But think about the data storage alone...

Please attach comments.

---