It seems that a few of you are a little narked that I didn’t Roast anything last Sunday. My explanation is that I got taken away for the day to paddle on the beach and look at some old cars. I had a lovely time playing with my SLR, wasting rolls of film, getting hypothermia, and not blogging for the day.

Whilst I did neglect y’all shamelessly, on the plus side, you get a bumper Roast to make up for it this week 😀

Things in the News:

Forgive me if I’m a little behind the curve on this one, but Keele university is joining the crowd of those cracking down on Facebook. Perhaps because I can’t access Facebook at work (SurfControl considers it “dating” *rolleyes*) I’m not all together surprised. I will ask what are “legitimate ways to express dissatisfaction”? There are plenty of times when you just need to vent steam without lodging a formal complaint. Hell, the number of times we sat in the courtyard and spouted off about our lecturers at Uni! How does Facebook differ? (I know the answer: permanency, I’m just posing a hypothetical).

On a related note, I read something this past week about the differing natures of web control between East and West. Something along the lines of the difference between restricting personal opinions, who-can-say-what-and-where, copyrighted data etc, but I’ll be damned if I can find it. Sadly Google still can’t read my brain to find me what I want when my query is so ill defined.

*edit*

Oh, web serendipity, how I love thee! Found it. Read, think about, discuss at your leisure 🙂

Privacy on the Net is a big thing for a lot of people. Personally I’m making peace with the whole thing – yes, people could gather one hell of a lot about me online, but why the frell would they actually want to!? – but whether such a pragmatic approach is wise is another matter. Until the day I decide to take up the fight for myself, at least the EU is stepping up.

In keeping with my Facebook exploration, is it possible to be too old for networking?

One smart chap in the States has invented a way of tracking graffiti. And here was me thinking it could be done with some pins in a map.

There’s been a teeny bit of broo-ha-ha this week over Google’s new Street View and the identifiable pictures of people that are cropping up. Privacy concerns and all that. Go else where for reasoned debate on this subject – I’m linking to this NYT story for the sole reason of the quote they use in the second paragraph:

“If the government was doing this, people would be outraged”

I’m sorry honey, but what makes you think the government AREN’T doing this? Who do you think owns/controls the satellites that Google gets its images FROM?

Web-Bits:

Liverpool museum a while back launched an exhibition partly using Flickr pictures to build an idea of how Liverpool was/is. Now Tate Britain is joining in on the act and you can still take part.

This has GOT to be breaking the law, or at least a few health & safety guidelines.

You know it’s been a bad week at work when your minions are emailing you things for the roast – We Has Tribbles and Also Troubles (thanks illyna – *hugs* sweetie 🙂 )

You know Wikipedia has hit the mainstream when government websites are linking to it (click on the links to the Gunning Fog and Flesch-Kincaid tests). Where do I start to say what is wrong with this? It’s a government website linking to information that anyone can edit and alter. Yes, wisdom of the group etc. You can argue that the information is self correcting. Any gross errors will be found and corrected. But Wikipedia has no authority other than that we grant it. It is wonderful to get background on an idea, but it is not the final answer, or at least it never should be and to point to it from a government page that is meant itself to be a resource? It shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of Wikipedia and the web.

Feel free to argue with me on this point of course – it’s why I love the field. We’re making the rules up as we go along. (And thanks to Moose for finding it in the first place and pointing it out to me).

My Head Hurts.

Is the web for you about information or relationships? I suggest you also read the comments on Liz’s excellent post.

Which in turn brings me to something Neko said to me a few weeks back as we basked in the sun (I paraphrase):

They’re not exactly comments on your blog, are they? I mean, often it’s a whole new conversation. That’s what I like about it and what I think it’s all about – getting people talking.

To say I could have kissed her then and there is an understatement. She gets it. I made the decision early on to always respond to comments here on Bright Meadow – as well as just being polite, it means I’m not just talking to the dog. I keep forgetting that this isn’t, actually, the norm. I’ve commented on more than a few blogs lately where my comment was just ignored: one case in particular springs to mind because it was the first time I’d dared to comment on this blog. I’m a reluctant commenter at the best of times and to be ignored so totally, not just by the blog owner but by the other commenters… Well, it crystalised two things for me: 1) I won’t be commenting there again and 2) how lucky I am here at Bright Meadow. Y’all seem to get it as well. *hugs* to the lot of you, and now go spread the word.

Movies to (possibly) see:

The Kingdom – my personal distaste of violence and war aside, this looks like it could be worth a watch. Or it could be one huge diatribe why America is great, how the entire Middle East is one terrorist breeding ground, and how the good old USA needs to go stomping over the place armed with rocket launchers. Or am I just being cynical?

Fido – zombies as slaves…

Rise: Blood Hunter – nothing like a good vampire flick to make a girl excited.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets – so the first movie was more than a little pants, but Nic Cage… The first two thirds of the trail are boring as hell, what with all the exposition and the golden writing, but it’s worth it for the few seconds of live action you get. Funny.

And that’s me finished for the day. To look at this post you wouldn’t think it’s taken me near four hours to write, but it has, so you’d better bloody enjoy it! 😉