Top 5 reasons I don't use FaceBook

Earlier this year, I went from checking into my Facebook every 5 miniutes to maybe once every 2 months and here are the top 5 reasons why:

5. No more over-share - I don't want to know what you had for breakfast or how drunk you got last night. Nor do I need to listen to you fighting with your boy/girl-friend. Have some self respect will you?

4. Overloaded interface - when I started using facebook, it was actually useful. Now it's as filled with all the bands, causes, quizzes and assorted other random junk that stopped me ever getting into MySpace.

3. Being invited by "friends" - I no longer have to wrack my brain to remember whether or not I liked that person from primary school that just friended me and I don't have to feel unaccountably guilty when meeting someone for the second time because I rejected their friend request 5 months previously.

2. No more Hobo-Vampire-Farms - I used to spend a lot of time harvesting, feeding, attacking and such... then one day I thought to myself, "WTF and I doing!?!". (It would be a different story if I could actually grow Hobo-Vampires IRL)

1. FREEDOM!!!! - I've got so much extra time now. It's amasing! Seriously, count up the amount of time you spend being on MyTweetFace and then ask yourself  how much you actually get out of it... I think you'll find the result depressing.

I think the only thing my Facebook site is still used for is as a place to house is my relationship status and all those embarassing party photos. Quite frankly, I'm relieved to be out of it and if you need to contact me, send an email. If you don't have my email and don't see me often enough to ask for it... why do you need to talk to me?

In the News

Large Hadron Collider creates infant universe - pretty cool... begs the question of when they'll package it as the latest and greatest virtual pet.

Chernobyl plant life adapts to high radiation environment - Nature is truly amasing.

UFO's monitoring US nukes - I don't know what's more troubling... that ET is watching or that they let so many of these people work with nuklear weapons.

Panasonic announces new robots - from a hair-washer to a bed that folds into a wheel-chair... awesomeness!

Mexico to secure an entire city with biometric scanners - Maybe it's easier, safer and more convenient than carrying around ID, credit cards and bus passes... but if anyone tells me to have a Joy-joy day, I'll scream. (note: that was a movie reference)

I hope the five of you that read this blog are still enjoying it :) Tell your friends! post a comment! Peace.

-Odd

"Privacy is dead, and social media hold the smoking gun." 
- Pete Cashmore, Mashable CEO

Defining art

Art is an incredibly difficult concept to nut-shell. On one hand, I feel that anything that is produced as the result of someone's creative process should be considered art (even if it's bad art), but on the other I look at some examples of "modern" art and cringe. A lot of it seems to be more and exercise in marketing than creativity, random collections of objects that are post-rationalised by people trying very hard to sound esoteric and self-important

What got me onto this? Well, I don't know if you notised, but there's a new link on the right to a great site called Surviving the World. This is what has been termed a "Photo-comic", and there's a lot of debate about whether or not it classifies as a web-comic, a photo-blog or just a random collection of meaninglessness. Personally I think Dante is a literary genius and his unique presentation is something to be envied.

In the News:

Film Industry Hires Cyber Hitmen to take down Internet Pirates - ...and since this article, said Hit men have themselves been whacked by 4chan for their troubles. It's never a good idea to attack people on their home ground... Sun Tzu, Russia and now 4chan.

Kiribati makes huge sacrifices for future generations - I hope we can all follow in their visionary footsteps.

BP Seals Macondo Well Permanently - About bloody time!

Airbus to build a transparent plane - ... you think you had a fear of flying before? Try fly on one of these.

Water on Moon is bad news for China's lunar telescope - It's great news for a possible colony, but it will cause havoc for China's plans

Another week, another post. Tune in next week. Same geek time, Same geek place.

-Odd

"If free verse is considered poetry, then aren't we uttering stanzas with every sentence that we speak?" -Dante Shepherd, STW

Living in yesterday's SciFi

If you stop to think for a minute, you'll notice that we're all effectively (if not biologically) cyborgs. Technology has infiltrated our way of life to an extent at least equal to the hallowed stories golden age of SciFi books, even if not exactly in the way those writers predicted.

It's an exciting time to be sure, but I'm a trifle worried that we're picking the wrong books. We look to be leaning towards the stories that were about the dangers of technology, rather than the more Utopian visions of the future. We've got the scary proposition of any EU government being able to follow someone all across Europe with camera surveillance, and a group of scientists teaching robots to deceive us (which goes against Isaac Asimov's essential three laws of robotics).

I love SciFi stories, but that doesn't mean I want to live in a world ruled by the Terminator.... even if I think Arnie would make a good US president.

In the News:

Self-Assembling Photovoltaic Tech From MIT - Clean power is good. And machines building themselves is cool. 'nuf said.

Narcissists and people with low self-esteem love facebook - what a shocker...

Zombie 101 - A forward thinking institution of higher learning is giving a course in Zombies.... sign me up!

Mars organics may still be there - Turns out the  Mars rovers' method of collecting and testing material for signs of life may be killing off the very organisms they're testing for... but NASA has a plan.

Scientists Cut Greenland Ice Loss Estimate By Half - Good news! We've got a little more time before we drown ourselves.

Steve Jobs tries to smuggle Ninja Stars onto plane - wow... he's such a geek... ^^

There's another post. Hope you enjoyed it. If you come across any cool Tech news, please drop me a line.

-Odd

"Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd."  - Edith Sitwell

World Cup 2010 aftermath

I love seeing that many people here in South Africa are still proudly flying the flag. I think it's one of the most positive things to come out of the world cup. So I am in no way suggesting that we take them all down... but.... yes, there is always a but.

As I drive through our beautiful city, I see a lot of flags. Flags on cars. Flags on poles next to the road. Flags abound. But it's been a while since the world cup, and a lot of them are looking decidedly tacky. Are we going to keep these on our cars till they fall apart? Are our municipalities going to leave the flags up until they're so covered in grime and dirt that they're unrecognisable? 

I hope not. I think that we either need to refresh the flags or take them down... we can make our city as clean as we like (I wish) but as long as these flags are still up, it will look shabby.

In the News:

Wikipedia Reveals Secret of 'The Mousetrap' - As someone who's actually seen the play, I think this is a tragedy for thespians everywhere.

New Calculations May Lead To a Test For String Theory - the first real test has been developed for String Theory... this could be a major breakthrough in our understanding of the universe.

Changing one of natures constants - Science is constantly challenging everything we think we know about the how the world works... no pun intended.

4Chan decides to do something nice for a change - wow... I didn't think these guys had it in them... but well done to them /cheer

UK music calls truce with technology - about time the music companies woke up to the new world paradigm

Transition metal catalysts could be key to origin of life - more evidence for a scientific explanation of Life, the Universe and Everything.

Duke Nukem Forever demoed at PAX - The gaming worlds biggest Vaporware title is actually on track (apparently)... after 12 years in development, I can't wait to play it.

And there you have it. Another week, another post. If you enjoy the blog, please post a comment, tell your friends and I'll see you next time.

-Odd

"...like stubbing your toe, only you've stubbed your mind."

    -Tycho, Penny Arcade

Media Freedom

Our government's recent talk about limiting the press in South Africa has been waving a huge red flag in this country and abroad. Press freedom is a cornerstone of democracy and widely held to be a key weapon when fighting corruption.

We're constantly bemoaning the government, but our excuse for not doing anything is always "what can I do about it?" ... well, if nothing else you can do this:

Go to the Right To Know (http://www.r2k.org.za) website and add your name to the petition. Talk your boss into adding your company, tell your friends, tell your relatives, show your Granny how to log onto the Internet and sign up.

This is it folks... time to step up.

In the News:

NASA Buying Private Companies' Suborbital Rocket Flights - great news for the private space industry

'Imaginary' interface could replace the real thing - and I can't wait.

FBI Prioritizes Copyright Over Missing Persons - shows that there is something VERY wrong with our society

Scientists Develop Brain-Microchip Bridge - .... where can I get mine?

Human Tests of Mind-Controlled Artificial Arm To Begin - a serious, real, honest, SciFi-like Cyborg? pure distilled awesomeness.

The Hidden Security Risk of Geotags - yet another privacy worry in the Internet... who didn't see this one coming?

Two posts in one week (even if it is two different months)... it must be snowing.

-Odd

"The free press is the mother of all our liberties and of our progress under liberty."

   -Adlai R. Stevenson