There is constantly issues with sites like Facbeook, YouTube, Myspace, where people are bullying, trolling, or just being tools (for one of a better term), however to be a mennace on these sites, you had to create  fake profiles and email accounts, and it is time consuming. Formspring allows its functionality with no prior screening.

So, in essence, it’s a pretty pointless site. However, people start using services like this, and get people asking questions. The first kinds of questions you’ll see straight away, are have you had sex, or are you gay, pointless, immature questions that are only there to antagonise or upset the author.

What’s more frustrating is to see people use this service, then finally wake up and realise, hang on, this totally stupid and then start to bag the application as if it caused the bullying or harassment that went on. Even though the authors knew specifically what Formspring was doing, and not doing.

I like the following quotes on gawker.com

Formsping.Me should come with a warning label you have to check off before you use it: BEWARE. WILL CAUSE LINGUISTIC, INTELLECTUAL, AND EMOTIONAL DIARRHEA.

This is a dangerous, mischievous platform of oversharing that is, at best, indulgent, and at worse, the most self-serving experience one can create for themselves on the internet from every which angle you approach it. For the people asking the questions, it’s an anonymous comment box that they can inundate their interviewees with candid interrogation after interrogation.

For the people answering the questions, it fulfills so many awesomely narcissistic desires: you’re on a stage, you’re interested in by people asking the questions, or if asked about any number of various topics, the desire to feel like some kind of authority on something. At the very least, someone wants to hear something from you, and you get to sit there and think of an answer. And if there’s anything better than being desired, its having someone take some kind of interest in you.

Read the rest of the article here.

As you know our esteemed Premier Bligh of QLD suggested that the blood alcohol should be reduced from .05 to .02 in an effort to stop car incidents and death on the road. The only problem is that this idea will not do anything. Similar to the proposed “NetFilter” this concept will only punish the innocent and do little to fix the underlying problem.

The biggest incidents on the road are caused by people who well and truly know that they are in no state to drive, but continue to do so. But by brining the BAC back to .02 people who have had one drink after work may now find they are .021 which will be a punishable offence, while Jimmy Dunk is well and truly intoxicated will get in his car and accidentally crash his car into a funeral or  drift off the road onto the footpath and kill an innocent pedestrian and the examples go on. These are the drivers who need to be cracked down upon, not someone who’s had an innocent drink, and now is unable to drive home out of fear of being booked a “drink driver”.

Similarly the NetFilter which seems to come in and out of the spotlight, if fully rolled out, it will punish the people who are innocently using the internet (both by blocking potentially legitimate content, and by service degradation) while the true perverts who wish to look at sexually explicit content will be able to bypass the Federal Govt’s filter in a matter of minutes.. Work that one out.

Both these issues come back to people who believe that it’s the governments job to somehow make out lives easier or safer by trying to do these things, and not taking any personal responsibility for their own actions.

About a year ago I went out and bought a Cannon LIDE100 scanner, which is one of the most basic scanners around there, but it featured the cannon software that would detect if you scanned  4 pics, and would save each off separately at 600dpi which is quite impressive. This software was PC based, so I had to boot the Macbook Pro into XP to do it, there may be suitable and similar Mac software that does it?

About 800 photos later, I think I have scanned all my old photo albums that I have, I have FINALLY got my pics scanned, saved on the iMac, backed up with time machine and also saved online too.

The obvious reason why you need to have your photos and videos saved electronically, is that you have a terrific backup, should a) the photos deteriorate with age & humidity, b) you loose the photos c) something like the house burns down and you’ve lost everything. Having it backed up and saved online is terrific piece of mind!

My next step, a slightly more involved one, is to start backing up videos from VHS and video camera tapes.

After facebook really boomed in Australia by about 2007-2008, it was already pretty popular elsewhere, and since the growth of facebook was so enourmous they have been able to continue to build, re-tweak and redesign many elements of facebook as it continues to evolve with it’s users.

On a recent update facebook have added new features, things like the ‘live feed’ which like all updates, annoys a certain group of people who don’t really like it, and will create groups to try reverse it. The latest update also included more social connection tools that facebook want to you try “connect” with more people by trying to guess new friends (yes that’s been around for a while) but they have now introduced the concept of ‘Re-Connecting’ with friends.

From what I’ve seen it basically looks for contacts (friends if you will) that you have not made any contact with, or not posted, commented, liked anything to do with them, and suggests you “write on their wall” to reconnect.  This is almost as bad as your mother forcing you outside to play with friends you don’t want to be around.

I think Stephen Colbert put it best, “Facebook is a service that can let you see what all your friends are doing, and within the same three seconds, stop caring”.

I am all for respect of MJ as an entertainer, but as a person, does in death, is his past history be wiped?

Seeing Rev’d Al Sharpton up there saying that Jackson was to the likes of Martin Luther king is an insult to real activists such as Luther King and Mr Obama. If Jackson was so proud of his heritage wouldn’t he have remained a darker skin colour? Not bleaching his skin.. crazy.

Watch the following video, only lasts a couple of minutes and O’Reilly makes some good points.

Doing this story the day of his funeral? Maaaybe a little foolish.