News.com reports on the case of two US teenagers, who posted a malicious “fire in the hole” video on YouTube. In it, they ordered drinks at a fast-food restaurant, then threw them over the attendant as she gave them their change. In addition to clean-up costs and 100 hours community service, the judge sentenced them [...]

“The upshot is that if Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, or so on received a wiretap order for text or voice flowing through their IM networks, they could (and would) be able to comply because the services are centralized … [Skype couldn't] Which means that it’s the most privacy-protective mainstream method of communicating through voice or instant [...]

As I said in my recent post, I’m intending to get a proper review of the BarCampLondon4 sessions I attended written up tomorrow. In the meantime, if anyone’s interested I’ve uploaded my [slightly rough-around-the-edges] presentation on “The Geography of Technology” to Slideshare.

It’s not great as a standalone presentation - rather, it was more framed as [...]

The Guardian reports on the Treasury Select Committee’s recommendation that, after 2011, census data should come from government databases rather than manual form-filling. While on the face of it it may seem a sensible, time-saving proposal, this raises many questions - both about technical and feasibility aspects, and surrounding civil liberties and data protection. Regardless [...]

Better late than never, I’m back to blogging after going to BarCampLondon4 at the weekend. Somewhat ironic that I was possibly surrounded by the highest concentration of laptops in the world, and yet I’ve only just got round to writing this Anyway, in a nutshell, I had a great time - met lots of [...]

This is cool! This is the first ever live ad shown in the UK - a group of skydivers spelling out “Honda”. I particularly love the “Hello Mum”
Video from YouTube. The official “Difficult Is Worth Doing” site is here.

BBC News reports on the EU’s Directive on Unfair Business-to-Consumer Commercial Practices, which outlaws practises such as setting up fake blogs simply to promote products, or companies reviewing their own products on ratings sites. In theory, a great idea - these advertising tactics are bad for the consumer and underhand on the part of the [...]

“The environmental movement has never been short on noble goals … But today, one ecological problem outweighs all others: global warming … Just one problem. Winning the war on global warming requires slaughtering some of environmentalism’s sacred cows.”
Wired has a great bunch of articles looking at the sacrifices environmentalists may need to accept in order [...]

“Targets also miss the point of what the public want. The Home Office judges each police force by how many crimes it detects and clears up. The public want something different. They do not want crimes happening in the first place. They believe, like Sir Robert Peel, the founder of the Metropolitan police, that ‘the [...]

Greg Clark MP recently introduced his Right to Roam (Mobile Phone) Bill in Parliament. The bill would encourage mobile phone companies to allow roaming between UK networks, in the same way that phone signals are seamlessly transferred on the European continent. While phones would preferentially connect to their home network, when the user went out [...]

I saw this last month but didn’t get round to blogging it. Showing what can be achieved when big business considers social issues, YouTube software has been adapted to help analysts from the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) find child pornography. In turn, this will allow solutions to be developed to [...]

“After listening to Jacqui Smith MP talking about skunk cannabis in Parliament today millions of young people have decided to quit using cannabis and drink 3 litre bottles of white-lightning cider instead.”
The Transform Drug Policy Foundation blog has an amusing post on the futility and impacts of reclassifying cannabis. Despite the caustic humour, the charity [...]

Steve Jobs on following his dreams and facing death. A thought-provoking speech from a Stanford University graduation ceremony. On YouTube, here.

Electric Universe: How Electricity Switched On The Modern World
David Bodanis
Rating:
I just finished this last week, and it was a fascinating read. Covering everything from radar to static electricity, autobiography to science, it’s definitely worth picking up a  copy
I’ve written a full review on LibraryThing, here.

Scotland on Sunday have a fascinating article about the plight of Sudanese children who are abandoned by their parents. Until recently they were not considered orphans in Sudan, and 80% of those in the country’s orphanages died of neglect. However, a recent law and fatwa have drastically changed this only a few years, helping Sudanese [...]

“A few days ago, New York’s State Senate passed a bill making it illegal to recruit someone into a street gang … In the never-ending fight by city officials and legislators to combat gangs, this is one of the latest efforts to outmaneuver gang members.”
Yeah, ‘cos that’ll really do the trick. The gangs mug people, [...]

“The United Nations is using the mapping programme Google Earth to highlight the plight of millions of refugees and its humanitarian work to help them … Users can explore the lives of those in exile by clicking on exact locations in the refugee camps to see photos of the facilities, such as health clinics, schools, [...]

Seems this story’s a few months old now, but not being American I only just heard about it. New York unveiled 20 state-of-the-art public toilets in January, but reputable website PoopReport.com (I’d like to point out that I’m not a regular reader, but instead found it via a New York Times article) takes issue with [...]

As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela
Mark Thomas
Rating:
I read quite a lot, and as I like giving my opinions (that’s what this blog’s for, after all) I thought I’d start writing some reviews However, as external websites provide fuller information on the books, the authors, and other readers’ opinions than I’ll ever be [...]

Time reports on increasing evidence that biofuels may not be the eco-friendly solution to oil dependence that they are made out to be. Not only do they result in land being used to grow fuel rather than food, but the planting of these crops causes large-scale destruction of vegetation. While good land management practices can [...]