Recursive

Author: jezmck

  • Blogosphere Could Change

    I genuinely believe that the oddly (and uncatchily) named Real Time Matrix and/or similar services could significantly affect [tag]online[/tag] publishing.

    While aggregation and [tag]blog-search[/tag] aren’t new, services like this could change the dynamics of the [tag]blogosphere[/tag] – the big guys might find themselves getting less traffic as the smaller sites get more attention, and hopefully there will be less of the echoing effect recently discussed.

    There could also be negative effects – the more underhanded [tag]blog[/tag]s could try and cheat the system, in much the same way as [tag]keyword spam[/tag]ming affected early search engines.
    What else could change? What else do we want/need?

  • Pink For October

    All this month this blog will be [tag]pink[/tag], in honour of the wearitpink [tag]Breast Cancer[/tag] Awareness campaign and Pink for October in the US.

    Oh yeah, and I am donating as well. 🙂

  • RSS updates

    It has occured to me that [tag]RSS[/tag] (etc) readers should allow the user to [tag]refresh[/tag] the [tag]post content[/tag].

    This would mean that if the post is updated, which many often are, those edits would be visible from within the feed reader.

    Better: get the reader to check the posts and notify the user if the content has changed.

    Even better: allow the user to set a minimum-change threshold, so that if the edit made was for example simply correcting spelling they wouldn’t be notified. But if the update was adding new information then it could trigger.

    If anyone knows whether this has already been done, please lmk so I can be suitably ashamed for my complete lack of research.

    (Please accept my apologies for the rambling ‘style’ of this post)

  • Sunday Bloody Bush

    May not be what you’re expecting…

  • Christmas Is Coming (Apparently)

    Well, I’ve received my first [tag]Christmas[/tag] catalogue.

    I’m unwilling to accept even the arrival of the autumn, let alone winter. (Maybe it’s [tag]global warming[/tag]…)

    To be fair, the RNLI catalogue wasn’t purely Christmassy, but it does have ‘snowy morning’ 1000-piece puzzles and mulled wine whisk sets.

    Is it too early to even mention the ‘[tag]holiday season[/tag]’?
    Or is there harm in it? Does it devalue ‘the meaning of Christmas’, making it more and more about [tag]materialism[/tag]?

    Are ‘Seasonal Products’ made available ahead of time for those who can’t afford it any other way? Or are those people simply lacking in [tag]will power[/tag], or the ability to simply save money?

    UPDATE: I have since received the actual Christmas catalogue from the RNLI, nearly 3 month early!

  • Wasted Energy

    This [tag]short film[/tag], produced for Greenpeace, explains how our power infrastructure in the [tag]UK[/tag] wastes an enormous amount of [tag]energy[/tag].
    I’m no eco-nut*, and wouldn’t usually support Greenpeace, but this is a noteworthy issue and ‘[tag]decentralised energy[/tag]‘ does appear to have considerable merit.

    It is 18 minutes long, but worth watching (or at least listening to while you browse elsewhere in another tab/window).

    *- not that nutty anyway.

  • Green Packaging

    Sainsbury’s has started using fully compostable packaging for 500 of its products.

    Sainsbury’s say that this will save 4010 thousand tonnes of [tag]fossil fuel[/tag] each year, with the added benefit of saving 3550 tonnes of plastic, an embarrasing amount of which would have gone to landfill.

    Friend of the Earth were typically negative, saying (with an awful pun)

    “Today’s announcement is a step in the right direction, but it has a long way to go before it can be viewed as a [tag]green[/tag] grocer.”

    They’re right that there is more to be done, but people, and businesses, thrive on compliments not “it’s not good enough”s.

  • Kenya: Reef Walk: Starfish

    On the last full day of the holiday, after the gf had injured her foot, I went on a guided walk out to the reef.
    It was about a kilometer out, and I was shown various creatures by the beach boy (who was probably my age actually).

    Starfish

    This is a male starfish (the females are 5 sided blobs), and I was told that there are also green and blue versions of this.
    You can see some damage to the end of the lowest ‘arm’ – this is where it had been nibbled at by a __ (I forget), and it was unable to move away from it. (I have video of Spider Starfish moving – it’s quite bizarre that they can even choose a direction to move!)

  • Kenya: Safari: Zebras

    You probably want to see less of me, and more of the animals, so:

    ZebrasZebras Hosted on Zooomr

    Notice the fuzzy manes on the young ones.

  • Kenya: Hotel Pool: Me Swimming

    The drip-feed continues…

    This is me in the hotel pool on one of the three (iirc) wet’n’windy days.
    My gf had hurt her foot by this point so was taking photos, and I wanted the exercise.

    Hotel Pool Me SwimmingHotel Pool Me Swimming Hosted on Zooomr

    Note the swim-up bar, where (as at the other bars at the hotel) they didn’t use measures, and the alcohol was free.