Tales From A Crowded Island - Latest Comments

Re: Rediscovered Music

TFACI — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 12:28:31 -0000

It was a great gig; although McRae has always been value for money every time I have seen him. I might get Snyder's 2nd album. Do you have McRae's latest? If not, you can have a listen when you are up this weekend.

Re: Rediscovered Music

Lee — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:18:59 -0000

Adam Synder is great. I still listen to him now (a name starting with the letter A helps). One of the best gigs I've been to that - Tom McRea and Adam Synder in one night.

Re: Death of Contemplation?

Susan Duffy — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:03:36 -0000

Shaun - who gave you permission to read my mind, darling? You have just brilliantly captured my thought processes, and articulately expressed them in writing. You ask if your experiences register with other people. They parallel my thoughts and present-day life, and I have abstractly sieved each and every component of your article through my brain-strainer on numerous occasions. I have printed out your "Death of Contemplation" as it is beautifully written and concise. Thank-you for such a lovely piece of work.

Re: Social Media: A Community Asset

TFACI — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 12:38:37 -0000

Thanks for the comment Nick. Sadly I missed Bill Thompson's session, but following the Open Tech hashtag on the day, there were a few people raving about it, so I will have to go listen to the audio at some point.

The social surgery idea struck me as a great way of fostering the online community presence that you talk about; even better if you can trigger a collection of community focused blogs that feed off one another whilst providing their own unique voice.

Re: Social Media: A Community Asset

Nick Booth — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:14:25 -0000

Thank you - it was fine conference. @Billt on digitising really roused my interest. We also work with neighbourhood managers, encouraging them to blog about the places they serve and run surgeries to compliment the work, nurturing online civic plurality within a neighbourhood. Sometimes it really works like a dream!

Re: Death of Contemplation?

Susan Price — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 08:45:11 -0000

Heidegger also said that "questioning is piety of thought".
In a purely secular sense (but using language usually associated with religion) I do wonder how individuals and future society will be impacted upon by the shattering of "sacred space" i.e time to think, reflect, be alone with oneself.

External: Rush rush work work.
Internal: techplug scan, distract, rush.

Re: Death of Contemplation?

Susan Price — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 08:31:57 -0000

Heideggers "Seinsfrage". The "forgotton question of being".
Is it more than concentration that is being fragmented, shattered, lost?

Multi-tasking is a myth. What is actually occuring is rapid moving back and forth between each topic, or sensory object, giving each a tiny sliver of mind time.

Re: Climate Change Populism

Shaun — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:36:42 -0000

By way of an update, I saw this article in the Guardian the other day that suggests climate change scepticism is bubbling along below the surface in the Tory party: http://bit.ly/cYOW2o

Re: In Sickness & In Wealth

Shaun — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:49:05 -0000

There is a penalty within the current benefits system for tax credits, where under certain circumstances a single parent is paid the same as a couple, encouraging people in some cases to live apart, or pretend to live apart, to maximise their benefit payments. The Conservatives have said that they will abolish this, but will also look to provide tax breaks to married couples as well.

Re: In Sickness & In Wealth

Tassiesusan — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:33:30 -0000

In Australia cohabiting couples ( formally married or not) have equal status. Are you saying that they don't in the UK?

Re: Losing My Facebook Virginity

Shaun — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:40:28 -0000

@Stephen - Thanks for popping by and commenting.

I am sure I will come to the bigger issues you mention in due course, or maybe I won't, if I carry on with my fairly restricted usage. Twitter is alot like just the Facebook status updates elements, but more dynamic and easily searchable. It's a no frills service really, but I think Facebook themselves certainly recognise the attraction of it in the various ways they have tried to build a Twitter type equivalent into Facebook (the live newsfeed, Facebook Lite, the acquisition of FriendFeed). Facebook has the user base advantage too, so you are more likely to know more people on FB than on Twitter.

On my initial gripes with FB, it's really no more than a matter of personal preference. Others, like yourself, will like the school groups and so on, and I can understand why people do. Doesn't make FB a bad thing necessarily, just means others are more likely to get more out of it than me. The photo tagging thing and the friend recommendations do bother me though, and you should be able to turn off both in settings.

I am sure my view of FB will evolve as I use it more. I do like how it manages Events for example, which was not something I looked into until tonight. I was also amused to find from Andy, that the games he was playing on there were essentially ones that I played on Yahoo in the mid-90s: guess they must have lasting appeal!

Re: Losing My Facebook Virginity

Shaun — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:25:28 -0000

@TassieSusan - The friends thing really would not be so bad if you could toggle it on and off as you desired. I do think Facebook is alright, and like any social media platform, I suppose it is just a question of using it how you want to use it.

Re: Losing My Facebook Virginity

Stephen — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:22:12 -0000

Interesting reading with some valid points, 1 or 2 maybe a little nitpicking (suggested friends and weird meme groups for example are easily ignored IMHO and if I were picking fault with FB - fairly easily done - there would be much bigger issues).

I'm not really in a position to compare indepth, only knowing 2 people who Tweet regularly it's never really been worth my while signing up. That said, from what I have seen/heard about Twitter compared to my experiences with Facebook, I'd still probably lean towards Facebook and for many of the reasons you find Facebook so annoying.

I like being able to reconnect with people I went to school with, reconnecting with people who I've not seen for years. Some of it is nostalgia, some of it is curiosity and some people I'm regularly in contact with again. Anyone I don't want on my friends list doesn't go on.

I'm in two minds over photos. Due to my own issues about being photographed I'm not keen on people posting pics and tagging me. On the flipside I can untag and then the people I care about seeing me (the people on my friends list) don't get to see me once I untag myself. Not perfect by any means and it needs work but it's more control than I have anywhere else on the internet (flikr being a repeat offender).

Obviously this isn't the most balanced arguement,then again t really wasn't as such,my of a counter-view (for what it's worth) from a Facebooker.

Wow, that was rather more than I meant to write

Re: Losing My Facebook Virginity

Tassiesusan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 01:18:05 -0000

Being bugged for friends constantly is not my idea of OKness. Perhaps better plan is to convert friends to Twitter! Enjoyed the soliloquy however :)

Re: Losing My Facebook Virginity

Shaun — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:04:59 -0000

Thanks for the link, I will check it out. Yeah, Social RSS is not the easiest thing to set up, but it was the first feed importer I came across, so maybe there is a better one.

Re: Losing My Facebook Virginity

Lee Turner — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:19:10 -0000

Just remembered that facebook implemented a lite version when twitter came on the scene - http://lite.facebook.com/

It makes things a little simpler. Just tried Social RSS as well. What a pain in the ass !!