Talking Teddy Afro with Ethiopian friends

This evening I had supper with some friends from Ethiopia. The food was simple Italian and we drank of course good Ethiopian coffee and the mood was convivial. We spoke of the politics and culture of the country, but mostly we spoke of food and music. The track below and in the sidebar was the one my friends spoke of most. I am a big fan of Ethiopian music though the language barrier means I don't know much about it. Thanks to my friends, though, I'm picking up some tips that I can share with my readers. Sometimes we need to get into another cultural orbit to experience new ideas and to appreciate things from a different perspective. Today I also made another nice discovery thanks to a comment left on Chocolate Covered Vegan by Lizzy of Trying Veganism. I found her interesting Street Art in Kreuzberg on Picasa, which got me thinking that maybe I should put together a nice album on Google's photo sharing platform. At present my pictures there are just a cluttered mess. Sometimes I think that, just as in life, we leave behind a trail of unfinished bits and pieces on the internet. Like all those unread books that one day we will get around to reading we have a blog here, a social network there, gathering virtual dust. Every day I postpone the inevitable upcoming internet spring clean. Does anyone else have a trail they left behind on the web that they feel is in need of a cleanup? I know I won't make a start today. The weather is too bad and I want to listen to some nice music.

Mr Scruff and why the internet is lovely

Finding something new is always exciting and for me finding exciting new music is always cool so I am grateful to Terrible Love Songs for helping me find Get A Move On as well as a lot of other cool stuff. I woke up the Amsterdam public library when I clicked on her blog and music blasted out of the MacBook but nobody noticed here on the fifth floor where most of the students sit. This is an amazing building and much more than a traditional library with lots of desktop internet terminals, and ongoing art exhibitions and events for both children and adults. In fact there are so many lovely distractions that I hardly get to read a book! It's no longer as quiet as in the picture, which was taken just after the opening.


I did manage to find a book to read, James Gleick's biography of Isaac Newton, without whom I would not be writing this now. Newton seems fitting reading, surrounded as we are with all of the technology whose very foundations lay in his ideas and contribution to science. Thanks to his laws we must keep on moving. The internet is indeed lovely! Would the world be a better or worse place if Newton had never lived? Joli weekend, mes amis!

Broadband digital divide...

...It's getting bigger. The digital divide between broadband services in cities and towns and the countryside is getting larger says the BBC today. I know this to be true from talking to some farmers recently. They were complaining about their poor internet connection and how it was directly affecting their business. Farmers who wish to get into direct marketing of their produce need a good internet connection. Part of the Raluy permaculture project in Spain is dedicated to looking into finding a solution for the digital divide by using WiMAX which avoids the need to use prohibitively expensive cable connectivity.
Wimax stands for Worldwide Interoperablity for Microwave Access. It is based on the IEE 802.16 standard, also known as WirelessMAN.
It can provide wireless data over much longer distances than wifi.
In countries with good fixed line infrastructure, WiMAX acts as a filler but in some developing countries is can be the dominant infrastructure for broadband access. Countries such as Pakistan are planning nationwide WiMAX rollouts.
WiMAX can deliver speeds of up to 70Mbps and operate over distances of up to 50km, although not concurrently.
WiMAX Forum
WiMAX has the potential to be a cost effective means for rural communities to get a fast broadband internet connection and could play an important part in rural development.

All we want for Christmas is an iPhone...

...so do we head for Paris or Berlin? How about starting a campaign to persuade a UK mobile provider to offer a discount on a deal on an unlocked iPhone just like Debitel are doing in Germany. You get 600 euros cashback when you sign up with them, which means you end up getting an unlocked iPhone for 399 euros. Or should we wait till next Christmas and get a 3G iPhone with much faster internet connectivity? I'm inclined to wait as I think that faster internet will help to make this an amazing piece of kit. PC World The only downside could be battery life so we shall have to wait and see how Apple solve that problem.

Cookiepedia...the internet...

...The internet was invented by Al Gore, Made in China and is run by the Pentagon in the US and by the CIA in the rest of the world. It is mostly used for watching porn, selling stuff and throwing sheep at your friends on Facebook. The internet has a zero privacy policy. It is highly addictive and requires large amounts of coffee to be understood.

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WWW should not be confused with the internet. WWW stands for World War Won and was a secret group of Nazi scientists working for Al Gore to create viruses that would destroy the internet. WWW was sold to Google in 1984. To use the internet you need to be under 16 and fluent in HTML, which is short for Hotmail, and is used for spreading viruses. On no account open a hotmail as it can cause impotence and brain drain. The internet is housed in a building called Web 2.0 which stands on a paradigm shift that is expected to cause a tsunami soon.

Cookiepedia...online banking...

...is readily available in Siberia at the phishing branch of most High Street banks for as little as $75. You will need two CD copies of the ID of 25 million people to set up your own branch or you can get details from a Russian-registered vendor "offering UK and US bank logins with 'good price and service!'" At some time of course you will need Money for online banking.
(Cookie's First Law: For most things you need money.)
(Cookie's Second Law: For most things Richard Branson always has money.)
(Cookie's Third Law: Try buying Branson's ID in Siberia.)
Money has been known to work as an aphrodisiac, especially in the part of Amsterdam to the left of the Damrak as you come from Centraal Station. It can also be exchanged for drugs, alcohol, coffee and chocolate. For these pleasures offline banking, or even better, hard cash is recommended. Hard cash is the kind that can be exchanged for drugs...etc.
Online banking, like blogging, has its health hazards but is very handy if you want to buy sexy underwear on eBay.

Knowledge is Power...Is Big Facebook Watching You?...

...I've been involved in a thread on Mashable titled Facebook asks Can we see your id? The post throws up a number of issues connected to our privacy and also the possibility of identity theft (BBC story) a topic in the news again this morning. I have contacted the Welsh office of the ICO for clarification of some the issues raised by the mass collection of personal data. The Wales network of Facebook alone already has 195,586 members and Wales is just a small country! It is perhaps important at this stage to make sure that all this data being collected is not breaking current data protection legislation and also to ask the question: Where do we draw the lines between the individual's right to privacy and the practical control and knowledge of all the data being collected. Facebook has a few spooky connections such as possible CIA links
and the now defunded Information Awareness Office whose motto was "Knowledge is Power." Some of the aims of the IAO were:
* Human Identification at a Distance (HumanID) to develop automated biometric identification technologies to detect, recognize and identify humans at great distances.

* Wargaming the Asymmetric Environment (WAE) focused on developing automated technology capable of identifying predictive indicators of terrorist activity or impending attacks by examining individual and group behavior in broad environmental context and examining the motivation of specific terrorists.

* Futures Markets Applied to Prediction (FutureMAP) was intended to harness collective intelligence by researching market-based techniques for avoiding surprise and predicting future events. The intent was to explore the feasibility of market-based trading mechanisms to predict political instability, threats to national security, and other major events in the near future.
All a lot of innocent fun to provide us all with useful suggestions as to what to buy for Christmas based on our known interests and purchasing habits? In view of recent deadwood press criticism of bloggers and the cult of the amateur (story/Rachel) why aren't our gatekeepers doing more to investigate these issues?
This is what the FT had to say this morning: "...allowing advertisers to exploit the deep connections between users on the Facebook site - a web of relationships known in the industry as the "social graph" - could backfire if the move ends up alienating the users themselves.

"What we've learned from the commercialisation of the web is that people are more than happy to exchange their privacy for free stuff and greater convenience as long as you allow them to maintain the fiction that their activities are not being monitored and recorded," writes Nicholas Carr, a prominent technology author, on his blog, Rough Type.

"In breaking that illusion, Facebook is taking a big risk. It may set off a rebellion among its users, who up until now have felt comfortable cavorting behind Facebook's walls." There is a perceived and real inequality between the rights and freedoms of the citizen and the power of large multinational corporations and an urgent need to make sure that advances in technology do not deprive us of our liberties.

Google buys Jaiku...

...according to the Jaikido blog today. New user sign up will be by invitation only for the time being. As the search engine's share price soars to over 600 dollars there are rumors of a Google mobile phone coming out soon. According to the Telegraph it will not be a phone but a mobile operating system that will be offered for free in order that Google can gain a foothold in the small, but rapidly growing, mobile advertising market. All of this fits in with my view of the coming mobile internet being the next big thing as technologies converge and more people adopt a mobile online lifestyle. This time Nokia lost out but they are still very much in the game. I quite like Jaiku as it's fun and has many practical possibilities. What I have yet to find, though, is my favorite mobile phone.

Increase your WiFi signal...

...with just a mobile phone, your laptop and an Ethernet cable. Awesome!

Craig Murray's blog censored...

Cartoon/Matt Buck (Creative Commons)

...as, following threats by Usmanov's lawyer Schillings, Craig Murray's ISP takes his blog down. Usmanov, a Russian billionaire, has a large holding in the Arsenal football club. Once again free speech is under threat from the super rich and their fancy lawyers. Schillings proudly proclaim to protect the reputations of high profile individuals, corporates and brands. Presumably from the rest of us, the great unwashed of the blogosphere. See Areopagitica and Chicken Yoghurt for plenty of details. See also Wikipedia/Alisher Usmanov and check out these links:
Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, Blairwatch, Davide Simonetti, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric (who suggests dropping a line to the FA about Mr Usmanov), Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, Suesam, Devil’s Kitchen, The Cartoonist, Falco, Casualty Monitor, Forever Expat, Arseblog, Drink-soaked Trots (and another), Pitch Invasion, Wonko’s World, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Mediawatchwatch, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia (with a list of Craig Murray’s articles that are currently unavailable), Obsolete, Tom Watson, Cynical Chatter, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Matthew Sinclair, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston Pitch Perfect, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, Lunartalks, Tygerland, The Crossed Pond, Our Kingdom, Big Daddy Merk, Daily Mail Watch, Graeme’s, Random Thoughts, Nosemonkey, Matt Wardman, Politics in the Zeros, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, Blood & Treasure, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, An Englishman’s Castle, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Rebellion Suck!, Ministry of Truth, ModernityBlog, Beau Bo D’Or, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Serious Golmal, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, Lenin’s Tomb, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, England Expects, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog, Katykins, Jewcy, Kevin Maguire, Stumbling and Mumbling, Famous for 15 megapixels, Ordovicius, Tom Morris, AOL Fanhouse, Doctor Vee, The Curmudgeonly, The Poor Mouth, 1820, Hangbitch, Crooked Timber, ArseNole, Identity Unknown, Liberty Alone, Amused Cynicism, Clairwil, The Lone Voice, Tampon Teabag, Unoriginalname38, Special/Blown It, The Remittance Man, 18 Doughty Street, Laban Tall, Martin Bright, Spy Blog The Exile, poons, Jangliss, Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From?, Imagined Community, A Pint of Unionist Lite, Poldraw, Disillusioned And Bored, Error Gorilla, Indigo Jo, Swiss Metablog, Kate Garnwen Truemors, Asn14, D-Notice, The Judge, Political Penguin, Miserable Old Fart, Jottings, fridgemagnet, Blah Blah Flowers, J. Arthur MacNumpty, Tony Hatfield, Grendel, Charlie Whitaker, Matt Buck, The Waendel Journal, Marginalized Action Dinosaur, SoccerLens, Toblog, John Brissenden East Lower, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Peter Black AM, Boing Boing, BLTP, Gunnerblog, LFB UK, Liberal Revolution, Wombles, Focus on Sodbury…, Follow The Money, Freedom and Whisky, Melting Man, PoliticalHackUK, Simon Says…, Daily EM, From The Barrel of a Gun, The Fourth Place, The Armchair News Blog, Journalist und Optimist, Bristol Indymedia, Dave Weeden, Up North John, Gizmonaut, Spin and Spinners, Marginalia, Arnique, Heather Yaxley, The Whiskey Priest, On The Beat, Paul Canning, Martin Stabe, Mat Bowles, Pigdogfucker, Rachel North (193).

US can now intercept European communications...

...that are routed through the US, eg via Google or Yahoo.
“The bill clarifies that no court order is required for foreign-to-foreign communications that pass through the United States."
It’s now official: George Bush and Alberto Gonzales have the legal authority to spy on you and I without a warrant at any time. The vote was as follows:

Yea:227 Nay:183
Wired news

Is it not time that Europeans woke up to the fact that data security and personal freedom are being eroded on a daily basis by an Anglo-Saxon creeping fascism? In the Observer yesterday Henry Porter once again reminds us how Britain's liberties are disappearing too. We are sleepwalking into tyranny.

Aad's cookies...famous the world over...

...with only organic ingredients. Today I've decided to turn my life into a virtual lifestyle magazine. Brought to you by Ceridwen Media, our muse's infotainment conglomerate. Inspired by Flann O'Brien and comic books the idea is to make some internet space with a common thread...

Social Objects...

...is a project to "develop tools and practices that would make the consumption of locally-produced and second-hand objects socially attractive on the web." It sounds like a great idea, using the web at a grassroots level. Thanks to Hobby Princess for the link to Doors of Perception. The project uses a free product code service called Thinglink, which is an open standard and service that anybody can use. Sounds like a great way to recycle.

Escaping Flatland...

...with Lza's three dimensional internet workshop. Bon voyage!

All the silliness you need to know...

...and I always wanted to know more about these guys. "Since its launch two years ago, Uncyclopedia, an addictive parody of Wikipedia, has grown into one of the largest Wikia-hosted wikis. In this interview with net , co-founder and college student Jonathan Huang reveals what it’s all about...If you print it out, it’s great for wrapping fish or lining your birdcage."

Cut and paste with Pipes...

...Newsfeeds have been around for a while. Now Yahoo has a new project called Pipes that "is an interactive feed aggregator and manipulator. Using Pipes, you can create feeds that are more powerful, useful and relevant." For example you can create simple mashups of tech sites and clone and custom other Pipes. It is a GUI-based interface for building applications that aggregate RSS feeds and other services, to create and publish Web-based apps from various sources. The site works by letting users "pipe" information from different sources and then set up rules for how that content should be modified (e.g. filtering).