At first when i saw the reports that it was pulling all adverts was simply the corporate version of quitting before being sacked, simply damage control to stop the flood of stories about various companies pulling their advertising. Now in the light of the closure announcement though, it looks even more sinister to me.

Personally I would like to see the police take control of the offices to ensure that there is no chance of any evidence ‘accidentally’ going missing in the closure and pack up of the paper. I still think that criminal prosecution should be brought against the people involved in the hacking both under the misuse of telecommunications act, wasting police time and tampering with and investigation.

I also find it laughable that it’s already being suggested on twitter by @subedited that the staff at The Sun have been told they are going to a 7 day operation.

It’s long been known that News Corp see The Sun as their flagship paper, not the News Of The World.

This isn’t a closure, it’s no intention to close their Sunday trade, it’s just a rebranding exercise to get rid of the now unmanageable tarnish that the New Of The World name now has attached to it.

EDIT: Surprise surprise, look what was registered on the 5th…. http://who.is/whois/thesunonsunday.co.uk/

~Shepy

UPDATE: The email from Mukesh was previously quoted here in it’s entirety, however Mukesh contacted me and requested that I remove his email from the site, which I don’t quite understand. There was a positive response from several people that they were happy he had taken action to resolve the spamming, as the comments below (which auto retrieve from twitter) show. I have removed the email from this post as requested, but that again shows a lack of understanding of all things social from Mr Quib in my opinion as it’s already in the google cache. as is the way with blog posts.

I’m really glad to see that they have responded so promptly, and have taken action to stop the spamming.  I found out last night after my blog post that apparently they use an outsourced company to handle the twitter account for them, and it is this company who have been doing the hourly spamming.

Now whilst I still stand by the premise that Mr Quib will have laid out criteria and requirements for how the account should be handled and ultimately the responsibility lays at their door, I can also appreciate that sometimes the minutia of how it should be ran can get lost along the way when not handling these things internally.

Regardless of what went wrong, I’m very pleased to see that they have re-thought their stance on twitter, and the hash tag, and ultimately that we who follow the #nefollowers tag wont be getting spammed every hour. I hope Mr Quib (and customers/partners) do well, and as Mukesh says I’m happy to put this whole thing behind me now, It’s all dealt with and done as far as I’m concerned.

~Shepy

Screenshot of Mr Quib

Some companies really have not got the hang of this social media thing, and the etiquette that is expected necessary to carry it out successfully.  The internet is no longer a one way medium where people read information from the big sites and output little themselves, most people now have a twitter account, a blog, a tumblr or any other number of ways of making themselves heard.

It’s because of this participation and feedback system that companies engaging in social media must take care to do it correctly, or else deal with the repercussions of going at it half cocked. One such example of this is the company Mr Quib, a deals and promotional company which deals with Newcastle at the moment, but looks set to expand to other cities.

In the North East of England we have a twitter hashtag which is #nefollowers, which is typically used to share information that tweeps think would be useful to other people in the region.  Typically you can expect to find news information on here, weather reports, traiffic info, job vacancies etc – you know, the kind of thing that people living in the region would like to be kept informed of.  Sure, there is the odd advert on there, and as long as it is kept to a minimum then no one seems to mind too much. Then you get people who take it too far…

Mr Quib – who is on twitter as @MrQuibNewcastle, has taken to spamming their deals on this hashtag ever hour, on a loop, without fail.  This gets very annoying, especially considering that even if you block a person on twitter they will still appear in any search you may do on a hashtag (such as a search column in Tweetdeck).  Twitter is a follow based system, if people want to find out about the latest deals then all they have to do is follow the account, there is no need to spam a hash tag every hour.  Do it sporadically to attempt to attract new followers, but not constantly.

As far as I’m concerned, this abuse of a local hashtag is wholly unacceptable, at least if you’re spamming it every hour (once or twice a day, sure I wouldn’t mind so much) and is a sure fire way to guarantee I will have nothing to do with your company.  If a company chooses to advertise using such invasive and spamming methods then I will personally never use their services and will actively recommend against them.  I’ve even mailed the companies I’ve seen advertised on Mr Quib to let them know this.

I’d urge anyone getting into the social media advertising space to think carefully about what they are doing, what the likely reaction will be from the target audience, and what the potential damage to the brand could be if their advertising is handled badly.

(and yes, I realise I have tagged this post with #nefollowers, but more so that the people annoyed by this constant spamming can see the post and have their say, I’ll only be posting it once)

~Shepy

UPDATE: I got a response from Mr Quib, which is on it’s own post: Mr Quib – Speedy and positive response

Today I saw a  @paul_a_smith retweeting a link from @arlloyd which was an article, with video on the guardian site showing mounted police charging on the protestors, one of whom is pregnant (and though they had no way of knowing that, they should assume the possiblity of potential risks such as this).  Here is the video from the article:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgxwTF-qeAo&feature=player_embedded

While some of the damage and material loss caused by the protest is deplorable, nothing warrants these people being charged by officers mounted on horses. For the Met Police to then deny that the crowd were charged shows a level of incompetency and underhandedness that is simply unacceptable.

In my opinion, there should be an external investigation which covers:

• Why the order was given to charge
• What risk assessment was done prior to the order
• Why the charge was hidden and denied afterwards
• What injury was caused by this charge
• How will those responsible be brought to task (criminal or professional).

The original article on the Guardian website can be found here for anyone wanting to read more.

~Shepy

I saw a link a few days ago on twitter to information about a new browser called Rockmelt about to launch, with emphasis on the ever more connected world we live in, and social media.  I headed along to the site, and it was invite only beta, so I signed up for an invite, and today that invite arrived so I downloaded it to give it a quick whirl.

I opened the browser after install, and was immediately asked for permission for it to link to my Facebook account, which I provided, and then the browser launched. The first thing you will notice is the two side bars, or edges as they are called in Rockmelt, which you can see in the screen shot:

The two edges allow you to keep more up to date with what is going on with your favourite sites and interact with people as you browse. The two edges are:

Friend Edge

The friend edge down the left of the window keeps constantly update with your online friends for Facebook chat, showing primarily those who are online right now.  At the top of the bar as you can see in the screen shot on the left here, there is also a favourites option denoted by a star, where you can add those people who you would most often interact with, for easy access.  I’d have liked to see these friends who are added to favourites also display their star when viewing the normal list, perhaps in the bottom right of the icon, so you can quickly see if any of the online people are favourites, but it lacks this feature.

Mousing over someone in this bar will bring up their name, along with most recent Facebook update, and clicking someone in this bar will bring up a Facebook chat window with the person, with buttons and tabs to also allow you to quickly view their recent activity, write on their wall, send them a message or add them to your favourites list.

One of the nicest features of this friend edge is the ability to share something with that person, simply by dragging a link or the favicon from the address bar over their icon and releasing you will be presented with the option of sending it to them on Facebook via chat, wall or inbox message.

I’d have liked to see the ability to add other types of contact in here, such as Twitter people which would present option to @message or DM them the link, or perhaps even the ability to add email contacts in here, though at present it does only seem to support Facebook contacts.

App Edge

The app edge down the right is where the browser will monitor and keep you informed of news feeds, sites, rss etc. As you navigate sites, the right bar will illumate the bottom “add” button to let you know it has found another RSS feed which can be added to the bar, breaking these down into:

Current Site – The page currently showing in active tab

Recent Sites – Sites it may have found while you were surfing

Most Visited Sites – From the sites you view most regular

My Apps & Feeds – The active or previously active feeds

As you continue to use Rockmelt as a standard browser, which essentially it is being based on Chrome, it will continually try to find new sites and feeds to add to this column, and presumably there will later be the ability for people to custom code addins and apps for this bar, such as one to monitor your email account or perhaps your forums etc.

When you click on a feed in this bar, it will bring up a small side window with the title, a small excerpt of articles and any images associated (as provided by the RSS feed) so you can have a quick glance at what is new.  Clicking the article titles will take you direct to the article, or clicking the feed’s icon in the top left will take you to the main site.  Click the thumbnail on the right for a preview:

What’s Good?

There are a few things which are nice about this browser, not least of which being the speed.  Being based on Chrome I expected it to be fast, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised with just how fast, even faster than Chrome itself it would seem sometimes.  I know that page load can be somewhat subjective at times, so rather than rely on my perception of it, i used the Browser Load Time Stopwatch from Lifehacker on two sites, and got the following results:

The share button to the right of the address bar is a nice addition too, clicking it brings up an option to share the current page on Facebook or Twitter (assuming you’ve added Twitter to the App Edge), incudling sucking the title from the page for you, and applying a url shortening service automatically.  You can also opt to include your location, or even to send the link as an inbox message to someone from here (with auto completing Facebook friends names).

Being based on Chrome, the browser has the advantage of being able to use the wide selection of extensions out there, which while perhaps not as extensive as those for Firefox, they are growing rapidly and allow you to further customise your browser and the way you use it.

Obviously there is the social aspect of the sharing tools as well, I think I’d be more likely to share links with specific people and also Twitter / Facebook as a whole with it right there as a constant reminder, and so easy and quick to do.

Sadly that’s all that immediately jumped out, for now, in the good column, though I would expect this to grow quickly as the browser matures and there are more third party additions to it also.  And so, on to…

What’s Bad?

The first thing that annoyed me was the size of the icons in the friend edge, with each avatar being reduced to a mere 27 pixels wide. If someone has a close up of their face as their avatar then you stand a chance of being able to know who it is, but if its a longer distance shot then it become practically impossible to know who is in the bar there though obviously seeing them regularly would make it more recognisable.  Sadly the bar is of a fixed width, so there is no way to tinker with this and make it a bit more viewable. Perhaps even the ability to have it show the person’s name, or a configurable text string / nickname might be nice.

While I’m on the edges, another gripe is that newly added feeds get added to the top of the bar, which seems irregular to me as I’d already have my most important feeds at the top so it would seem more logical for new items to add to the bottom.  This is thankfully not too difficult to rectify, and feeds can simply be dragged and dropped into the order of your preference.

One of the bigger annoyances was the lack of any notifications for what i would deem to be important updates, things such as Facebook notifications, @replies on Twitter or DMs. While the count on the Facebook Notifications icon will increase, it would also be nice to have a bit more of an attention grabbing notification, perhaps with a small window such as with Tweetdeck, or even if the icon just flashed, increased size, or any similar method of just highlighting that it is a more important update than simply a new article on one of the RSS feeds.  This lack of notification would be the biggest thing stopping me from using Rockmelt as my regular browser, for fear that I would miss important updates, or get to them late. Perhaps this could be customisable as to which apps can and cant give out notifications.

It’s also somewhat annoying that it has to wait for it to log in to Facebook every time you open the browser, whilst I appreciate the necessity of this to show the friend edge, if i was simply opening it to quickly check something it would annoy me having to wait for that to login.  In my opinion it should open the browser instantly so you can get searching or looking at what you want, and then login in the background and simply show the edge once it’s logged in.

And there are some small annoyances, such as the removal of the stop / reload button as standard in Chrome, which is now embedded in the right edge of the address bar.  Another is that if you type a search in the top bar, it drops down a mini-feed window with the results, much like the feeds from the app bar, with an option at the top to “View in tab” – which opens the search results in the current tab, which seems a little strange as all other open in tab links and shortcuts from feeds and friends etc open in a new tab. Perhaps this is something that will be change, or made an option, in future releases.

Conclusion

On the whole I like the concept of having these edges keeping me updated at a glance of the information I choose to keep there, which isn’t surprising considering how much I like things like Sysmetrix for being able to keep an eye on system information. I do think though that there is still some way to go, and a few things need to be tweaked, before I would opt to use this as my main browser.  For such an early release though, it’s looking very promising.  I’ve got a couple of invites if anyone wants to have a look for themselves, just let me know.

As ever, comments and suggestions welcome.

~Shepy

UPDATE: It also seems to be a bit slow with updating some stuff, I added someone on Facebook over 5 minutes ago to send them an invite (the only way to send them it seems) and they are still not showing in friends list for sharing invites (despite even closing browser to try), nor can I manually update / refresh that list or even type in an email to send to.

Which looks like a really interesting wee bit of kit to me, and solves a problem I often have with my phone.  I often find that I’ve left my phone on my desk and hear it beeping from upstairs while I’m sitting on the sofa, or vice versa.  Whilst I wouldn’t want one of those phones you can get on eBay and the likes which are actual mobile phones in a watch, the ability to have a remote display for my actual phone that is a watch and therefore always on me, would be really useful.

Not only would it help if I have left the phone in another room, but even just if it’s in my pocket and I don’t want to take it out to check for messages etc, even while driving a quick glance at this could tell you if the beep you just heard is something important and worth pulling over to read / respond to. I’ve still got a few months left with my Blackberry contract, and had kind of been holding off on Android till there was a good handset with physical keyboard which are now appearing.  I think as soon as upgrade time comes around I’ll be moving to Android, and getting one of these (especially as they are less than £50).  I’d also expect some pretty cool apps and hacks to come out in first months after launch.

~Shepy

This evening I posted a comment to Twitter about Tiger Bread, which someone quickly responded to on Facebook. As the notification popped up to tell me so, I clicked it and was taken to Facebook, where I saw the following:

The most interesting bit of which being that last line stating “See 1 more post from twitter”.  This isn’t something I have noticed previously (though I may be late to the party, as I say I don’t check Facebook much), and it doesn’t actually seem to function at the moment.  Clicking the link does nothing, despite trying this in 3 different browsers.

Whilst having no immediately visible purpose or servicing any real need, this could be an interesting addition to Facebook.

• If it is based on the text of the update, then it could be interesting to show how many retweets.
• If it is based on the URL (if any) in the tweet, then it could show how far the link has spread.
• Aggregating Twitter in like this means those people only using Twitter sparingly have even less reason to leave Facebook now.

It is entertaining to watch this cross pollination of the various social media platforms, and seeing them integrate and try to draw in the users of other platforms by making the transition easy and seamless like this.  With the recent announcement that Gmail wont allow API connectivity for Facebook to suck out your contact list unless Facebook is willing to open up their data in return, and the impending launch of a Facebook email service (which imo will have many plus points, like for example being able to mark things as important or spam more reliably based on those people you talk to often from the data Facebook already has about you), things are about to heat up in the social and communications space. I personally am all for it, as competition such as this inevitably drives innovation and improvement.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

UPDATE: Seems there are a few changes underfoot at Facebook HQ.  I’ve used the remove post tool a few times to get rid of a Facebook sync when I have made a typo on Twitter, but I’ve never noticed these new options before allowing you easier granular control about what can and cant post to your wall without having to delve into the account settings screens:

~Shepy

A quick image for people who are not familiar with the backscatter machines might help you understand why one might want to opt out of these;

Move your mouse over that, for an invert of the image. That’s an invasive image if ever I saw one, likely recognisable to anyone who know’s that girl, and far beyond what someone should be expected to subject themselves to in order to gain passage through a country’s border. Now whilst we are assured that this type of image is merely to show the capabilities of the machine, and that in actual use the resolution will be dialled back to preserve privacy, there is no 100% guarantee this is done in every airport & installation, and the trust in this statement is damaged more with other statements being proved wrong about their operation;

When these AIT scanners were rolled out there was assurance that no images could be stored, saved or transmitted from these machines (even if you ignore for a moment the ‘Analogue Hole’ of someone being able to photograph the screen), despite a report and spec sheet months prior to launch asserting that they would need these features for ‘training purposes’. Then a few months ago, a federal agency admitted that it routinely saved and transmitted these images; news article here (new window). One guy has even be charged with assault after his co-workers at the airport where he worked at started a tirade of abuse about his genitals after they were seen during training on the device; news article here (new window)

Here is a quick CNN video on the machines:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muYh8d70yow

So what happens if you don’t want to go through an AIT machine? Well then you can opt to have a pat down to be checked for concealed items, as has been done for years by police and security officials, right? Wrong, things just got a whole lot worse.

Starting October 29th the TSA in America have began a new pat down procedure, entitled ‘Enhanced Pat Down’ in which the subject will be essentially groped and felt all over to check for suspicious items, which will include genitals and breasts etc being checked.

Here is a video that shows you a little bit more about the new procedures:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrq86qV2x2s

In my opinion, this has gone too far and has firmly overstepped the line from security into an invasion of privacy and affront to the dignity of the passengers, to quote an oft used line:

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. – Benjamin Franklin 1755

It is for this, and other security measures in place such as iris / retina scanning that I refuse to visit the USA, and will continue to do so until (if ever) there is a change. One group is working to try and bring about that change, and is encouraging people to opt out of the AIT scans on November the 24th, which is when a lot of Americans fly home for their Thanksgiving celebrations.  I sincerely hope that this protest has an effect, and starts the ball rolling to bring about changes in these policies, though the realist in me rather worries that it wont, and things will continue unchecked.

If you want more information on the November 24th National Opt Out Day, that can be found here (new window).

Comments and suggestions always welcome.

UPDATE: A friend on facebook commented, to object to TSA intrusion call state senator before Nov 17th hearing – info @ http://is.gd/h1YWd

~Shepy

How does sitting about for a year, doing nothing, but still getting paid £40,000 for that year sound? Sounds bloody good to me, and that's basically exactly what PayPal are offering the chance of right now, just by shopping between now and the 5th of December and paying with PayPal you will be entered into a draw, with one every week to Win £40000 over at www.paypal.co.uk/win

As a person who buys an insane amount of things on eBay at times (including over £350 one night on Jack Daniel's merchandise after consuming a bottle of Jack!) I'm keeping my fingers crossed for my chances on this one.  Ok, ok, so i may just be looking for an excuse to buy more stuff, but who cares, it's worth a shot! 

That said though, I'm not entirely sure that £40,000 would quite cut it, i mean a whole year sitting at home not working is far too much time for gadget shopping, that money could soon run out! You could guarantee that within hours of the money hitting my account I'd be on a site trying to spend it as quickly as possible.  I'm one of those people with a penchant for buying gadgets, usually stuff that i didnt know i needed till i saw it, then i cant live without; for example just browsing for 5 minutes through iwantoneofthose.com can make me want:

Messless Gadget Charge Kit – ideal for the OCD side of me that hates a messy desk

Night Vision Binoculars – Ideal for seeing way round dark urbex trips

Wrap 280 iWear – Great for watching movies from laptop / ipod touch on train journeys

Nighthawk Gyro RC Helicopter - I'm a sucker for remote control toys, I've got cars, boats, boats that turn into planes, robosapien, etc :P

NeoCube Alpha – I've already got one set of these, and I've pretty much exhausted the list of things i can make with them , i want more!

Anyway, if you're interested in finding out how to win the £40k, then just head over to paypal to find out more and make sure you enter now for your chance to win, and remember terms and conditions apply.

~Shepy
 

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Dawkins explained how many companies are using the draconian libel laws to silence, financially cripple and ultimately hinder any scientific study or paper which might damage their business in any way.  What is especially galling about this is the fact that the large corporations are going after the individual carrying out the research in many cases and not the publishing entity, generating hundreds of thousands in legal fees for the scientist. Obviously this can cause a reluctance to publish findings for fear of being sued, and can lead to the slow down in advancement of our knowledge, understanding and development as a people. The very thought that someone may avoid some particularly innovative research into something such as cancer simply because they can not afford the financial problems that it may bring when they are sued is simply staggering. Case in point being Simon Singh, a widely respected author who had the audacity to challenge the chiropractors claims of being able to help with sleeping problems, ear infections and asthma through chiropractic treatments.  Mr Singh is now wrought in a legal battle with the British Chiropractic Association which has cost him at least £100,000 to date alone. More info can be found on Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Singh#Chiropractic_lawsuit

Today I received an email from a friend highlighting a new petition which is aimed at changing all of this, bringing about real change in the libel laws with an aim to improving free speech, scientific debate and publishing of findings.  As someone with a deep interest in science in its many facets, and living in Newcastle which is often dubbed the City Of Science I felt it almost a duty to sign the petition and I think you should too.

The petition, and more information, can be found at: http://www.libelreform.org/sign and after you’ve signed the petition the site will even send an email to your local MP on your behalf if you so wish.

Thanks for taking a moment to read this, from myself and no doubt future generations who would be helped by the scientific advances made by the removal of this fear of ill founded libel claims.

~Shepy