Internet

More Erosion of Civil Liberties

| Richard

I can’t recall who it was who said that the time to bring in oppressive legislation to clamp down on individuals’ civil liberties was when there was any fear and uncertainty of the kind that the Government continues to spread as part of the so-called War on Terror (itself started in response to US foreign policy and their illegal invasion of Iraq, which we decided to join in as the 51st State…).

We are already one of the most watched countries in the world, in terms of CCTV cameras per capita, so perhaps the news that “Ministers are to consider plans for a database of electronic information holding details of every phone call and e-mail sent in the UK” shouldn’t really come as any surprise.

Whilst they’re more than welcome to plough through the Spam I receive – more than 1,300 yesterday alone – and take action against the spammers, they can fuck right off if they think I’d be happy for some shiny-suited, job-protected twat in some local authority or agency to be able to read my private messages to friends and family.

It’s none of your business!

And this piece by AC Grayling in the Guardian pretty much sums up my thoughts about those who trot out the trite “if you’ve done nothing wrong…” nonsense, although far more eloquently than I could.

Free Hugs

| Richard

I’m a great believer in smiling, saying “please” and “thank you” and just generally being ‘nice’ to people who are usually expecting the same old shit, just a different day. A little bit of charity every so often doesn’t go amiss either.

A friend just posted this YouTube video on their blog »

Look how people start off by ignoring the guy offering free hugs. Then when someone breaks the usual barriers and goes for it, it seems to break the log-jam until everyone’s doing it and there’s some happiness being spread around. If only real life could be like this more often…

I Love Angelina Jolie!

| Richard

Well! Who could resist yelling that (from Red vs Blue: Real Life vs Internet) in relation to any story concerning Angelina Jolie and that lucky bastard Brad Pitt.

Yes, it turns out that Brad and Angelina have decided to buy a $20M dollar house in Provence after they managed to get consent to build Brad his own personal motorcycle race circuit in the garden.

Bastard!

Now let’s all go home and masturbate!

Web 2.0 – The Management-Speak

| Richard

Over a sandwich this lunchtime, I started reading an article in the February 2008 edition of “Project” magazine about using Web 2.0 technology to aid communication within a project team.

But I must admit to a true “laugh out loud” moment when I read the final paragraph:

“It is by leveraging Web 2.0 technologies to facilitate excellent collaboration, the dissemination of the common vision, streamlining of workflow and delivery of rapid authorisation processes, that organisations can create the highly effective working environment required to keep a project focused on the corporate objective.”

Pardon?

Management-speak at its best!

PayPerPost

| Richard

As readers of my blogs should by now be aware, I have been running Google AdWords on them for a while now; they generate a small amount of revenue every time a visitor to the site clicks on one of them.

Always keen to ‘monetise’ my blogs, I came across payperpost by following a link from another blogger’s website (I forget who now).

PayPerPost basically act as the middle man between potential blog advertisers and bloggers: we are given the choice of “opportunities” whereby an advertiser wants bloggers to either review a product, website or service or to simply help create a ‘buzz’ about something such as the launch of a new website, artiste or whatever.

The potential advertisers then make an offer to pay x number of dollars for a blog entry that matches their criteria: as a blogger I can see what they want and if I am prepared to review or mention the product or service or to help create that buzz then I can.

Some advertisers will want only a positive flavour to the potential blog post in which case as a blogger you can choose whether to write it that way, or – as is the case on this blog – choose not to write the review at all.

Advertisers can choose either to invite the whole blogging world to write a blog entry or they can approach individual bloggers to write a review for them. There’s a button over there in the sidebar to allow potential advertisers to contact me directly to negotiate a blog entry here.

So it’s early days yet for me: I’ve only just received approval for this blog from PayPerPost. We’ll see how they do … and yes, they are paying me for this entry!