Why Web 2.0 will end your privacy

“My firm belief is that the net effect of the Web 2.0 movement will be a marked loss of privacy on the internet, one which leads to big business knowing more about you than it ever did before. This is why.”

(I don’t have anything inherently against “Web 2.0”. I do have a problem with most types of modern marketing though, and “Web 2.0” is guilty of that by default (it is marketing), and for the reasons this chap outlines in this article.)

Diet Coke & Mentos Bellagio Fountains

What happens when you combine 200 liters of Diet Coke and over 500 Mentos mints? It’s amazing and completely insane. The first part of this video demonstrates a simple geyser, and the second part shows just how extreme it can get. Over one hundred jets of soda fly into the air in less than three minutes. It’s a hysterical and spectacular mint-powered version of the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas, brought to you by the mad scientists at EepyBird.com.

(It really is amazing and completely insane. They’re not just saying it.)

Greetings from Ubuntu

Dapper Drake booted straight into a desktop, livecd style, which is where I’m posting from now. Totally cool. I have to go now though, there’s an Install icon on the desktop and I can’t resist clicking it… :)

EDIT: You can actually work away while it installs. Loving this.

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini

Best book I’ve read so far this year, probably the best in several. I’m not really good on reviews, but in basic terms it’s a story about family and friendship, using a modern history of Afghanistan as a backdrop — the story brought a tear to my eye, the history was both fascinating and maddening. Read this book, you won’t regret it.

Pirate Bay raided and shut down

An anonymous [Slashdot] reader writes “ThePirateBay.org, a longtime fixture of the BitTorrent community, is currently under investigation. Slyck.com is reporting their servers have been seized by the Swedish police.” What’s really interesting about them is the strange political power that they held in their homeland. There was much discussion even of a political party. This will be interesting to watch unfold.

O’Reilly: Apologise, Raftery

I’m afraid I won’t be one of the commentors brown-nosing O’Reilly for his response to the Web 2.0 debacle. His point-by-point response is contradictory and disingenuous imho. Here’s how it should have read: (more…)

Structured Procrastination

I’m notorious for procrastination, so although I think this guy is only kidding himself, I reckon I’ll give it a go. Hopefully I can kid myself too. :)

“Take for example the item right at the top of my list right now. This is finishing an essay for a volume in the philosophy of language. It was supposed to be done eleven months ago. I have accomplished an enormous number of important things as a way of not working on it.”

An Ironic Posting

Breaking my own rule on not posting about blogging here, but then I’m not a blogger so it doesn’t matter: Something I’ve noticed about Irish blogs, or at least the ones I’m subscribed to, is that their update frequency is atrocious. Some of them throw 2-3 posts at me at a time, but usually only every 2-3 days. (more…)

2.0 sides to every story

Just posting this because I like the title of this SiliconRepublic article. ENN did a piece too, but they weren’t clever enough to come up with a witty title.

The Betelgeuse Incident

While on tour in Kerry last week meself and T stopped just across from Whiddy Island for lunch, and loads of questions popped up about the explosion there, and what different bits and pieces were, or were for. As ever, Wikipedia clears everything up: (more…)