This needs to be said. This needs to be heard. If I were invited to speak at the House of Lords, this is the speech I would give.

Having downloaded this a while ago and finally got around to reading it last night I find myself wondering which camp I belong in.

I did not grow up with ubiquitous network access and a world of information at my fingertips but I now find myself being able to assimilate data from a variety of sources simultaneously. I find myself learning more through doing than I do through being taught.

I do however find myself telling my kids that they have to pay attention at school, listen to what I try and teach them, and learn through instruction rather than through the trial and error of actually attempting what they want to achieve.

So which am I?

I remember when first reading the Otherland quadrilogy by Tad Williams that it would make a great, if difficult, project for an MMO developer. I’ll be watching this one closely.

What section 11 of the Chrome EULA says, basically, is that anything you post to the internet through Chrome; Google has a right to use it, edit it, repackage it, distribute it and genrally fuck about with it as much as they like and don’t have to credit you, pay you, or even acknowledge that it came from you.

For instance, if this post to my blog was made through Chrome, Google would have every right to re-use it, claim they wrote it, edit it to better reflect their interests, and they wouldn’t have to do anything for me in return.

Google has dropped tha ball on this one. Spread the word so that they see the error of their wayward ways and change the EULA.

You may wonder what I’m blathering about, well its this. I’ve been following CAD for some time now (if you like a good chuckle and a well written webcomic check out the archives) and honestly didn’t see this coming. The subject matter is a difficult one and as a away of breaking out of the pigeonhole of ‘Gaming Comic’ its one of the most effective plot twists I’ve seen. Tim sums up his reasons for it here, and I stand behind him wholeheartedly.

Gamers are people too with all the baggage and emotional turmoil that that entails, its about time someone said so. I salute you Tim and will continue to read CAD as long as you continue to write it.

Originally written serially and published online as a blog (unfortunately no longer available), it gained a large following and widespread praise for its humour and style. The author continues to delight readers with short stories and novellas, again published online, which expand upon the history of the universe of Simon and give insights into how things as they are in Simon of Space came to be. There is an entire world of characters and events encased in Mr. Brown’s skull and I can heartily recommend this book and Mr. Brown’s continuing online work to any fan of new science fiction. Read and be enthralled.

“Yeah,” she said, “its the same every year. For about a month you get irritable, restless, and are unable to focus your attention on any one thing for very long.” Theres also the feeling of futility and uselessness of it all which I don’t mention to her. I have the feeling its slightly better this year because I’ve got Arthur to look after. Its possibly somehting to do with a vitamin D deficiency brought on by not enough sunlight (I should maybe visit a tanning salon). I’ll get over it though so its nothing to worry about really.

The upshot of this is I tend not to sleep very well and lie awake letting my mind wander where it will. Last night I had an Idea (I think it deserves capitalisation)….

The Rise of the Social Web.

It seems that the latest fashion on the internet is for social websites, especially social websites which recommend other websites based upon user ratings (Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, and others). We also have various other forms of social interaction on the web from fora on all manner of subjects, the oft demonised chatrooms, and information repositories such as wikis (Wikipedia being the most famous example). These things all have something in common, they require the input of large groups of people to be successful. Surely the same rule can be applied to government, and the same technology.

Government and the Web

Current administrations have been woeful in the degree to which they embrace this new technology and the way the present their use of it. Most simply use it to gather and disseminate information from those who interact with it, not actually using it as part of the mechanism of democracy. They tell you how its going to be, get you to fill in a form online to do your tax return or pay your council tax, but don’t actually ask your opinion. Its a combination if ignorance and age. In the UK the majority of our MP’s are not part of the internet generation. Even the youngest members didn’t have the internet in their home until the mid nineties, that same as everyone else. Its seen as a toy, or a giant virtual shopping mall. The only concession I have seen so far has been the petition system on our Prime Minister’s website. Depending on how seriously the holder of the office takes it, it is either a very good thing or simply something that they can ignore. I haven’t seen them paying any attention to the petitions (apart from the Green Road tax petition, which they only took notice of because the press made a big fuss about it). It is still an impersonal and detached way of getting the government’s attention and relies quite heavily on people knowing that a petition you submit is there. There’s no feed of new petitions so you can’t simply use a newsreader to find out what people are petitioning about. They are slowly making use of the new technology but are yet to realise its full potential.

Write about a life event in one sentence. Harder than it sounds. There are some really touching ones on there if you take the time to look.

The link is to mine btw.

Funny, funny and more funny. A comic for gamers by gamers. My current favourite is “l33t 3nuf?”

More news:
Arthur has a tooth and is sleeping through the night at last.

I am currently unable to read any blogspot blogs or Samizdata which is a pain. If anyone knows why this might be and possible solutions let me know.

The hit rate for this site is slowly in decline and I’m not sure what I can do about it. If anyone has any ideas feel free to let me know.

The story is available on Blogger but for some strange reason I can’t read it there, or comment unfortunately. If you read it there tell them Mandrill sent you

A dark and dystopian vision of our future from Mr. Brown. Lacking his usual whimsy but no worse for it. The scary thing is that it could come to this.

Update: On Ch7 now and it’s getting better every time. I think I see what Mr. Brown is attempting. Lowers the mood in the first half, but begins to build it back up in the second.