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NEIGHBOUR PAULINE dropped off a Christmas present a little early so we let Mia enjoy some fun playing with a wooden train set made in Germany. I like those German toys and German toys are one of the biggest features of Weihnachtsmarkts for me. It's fun watching our three-year-old play with wooden toys because it brings out the storyteller in her. Watching her play causes me to wonder what I did when I was three. I suspect I also had wooden toys too.
Video shot and joined with Nokia N8.
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WITH A FEW VISITORS in the house for the Christmas season, I have to remember to log out of Facebook on my laptop, phones and iPad. This is important because one of my "friends" modified my profile picture when he discovered Facebook was live and accepting updates as he borrowed my laptop. Another "friend" created a status that only a small group of other people could see. The status message divulged something about a piece of lingerie belonging to a woman who was very concerned about a private party in someone else's flat. When she logged on, she could see a post in her newsfeed with embarrassing details and it created a lot of trauma. If you're feeling devious this holiday season and you discover an open log-in, you could also drive someone crazy with a Facebook post too. Just remember that before you post the message, click the lock icon next to "Share" and select "Custom Edit". Then set the post so it becomes visible only to "Friends of friends". And to wind up the unsuspecting victim, find the field called "These people" and pick the friend with whom you wish to share special joy. But don't expect much joy in return.
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I AM SPENDING part of the Christmas break trying to recompile a social network of shared bookmarks and it's proving difficult. I'm pushed because the Delicious social bookmarking service that I have used since January 2005 is faltering. Most of the key engineers have been laid off by Yahoo! With more than five million users to serve and around 180 million bookmarks stored, the cost of running the Delicious servers does not fit into the grand strategy of Yahoo! I've stored fewer than 6000 bookmarks on Delicious but every one of them involves at least two other pieces of information that suggest why I found specific web content useful enough to hold onto. I've told Delicious more about some forms of web content than the original creators often offer. And I've seen my summaries served up in searches made by others for common purpose content. And it's this common purpose content that holds the greatest value for me on Delicious. It's a shame that the collective content that I have helped produce during the past five years is valued so little by Yahoo!
The essence of Web 2.0 flows from the social dynamic of people sharing the same assets. Delicious has become more valuable because several of my trusted colleagues use it I believe it will take years for me to recompile the same community dynamic. I'm starting with content on Diigo and Pinboard.in.
I'm topgold on other social bookmark services.
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"MY MIND IS ABSOLUTELY FRIED," wrote Steven Gill in a blog post on the run-up to the winter exams in Tipperary Institute. He explained that he had a cold and that the local environment was treacherous. "The stream next to my house is probably going to flood tonight along with some areas of Old Bridge. My house is a state again and that does not include the large amount of assignments for my “BSc (honours) Degree in IT and Creative Multimedia” to add to the stress levels."
Through Steven's writing, I return to the sanctum of student work. In a blog post, he wrote about "the first of the presentations, which lead the way for the assignments and sub sequentially will guide us towards our exams. It is this junction which defines a student--the crunch time as it were. Many of us have our own techniques and methods for working through this stage, some are just trying to wing it and hope for the best, some have tried and tested skills which present themselves at this crucial stage and they shock the world with their impressive improvements. We all have our own way at the end of the day and hopefully we are all successful."
Here's what interests me more than any other facet: "For some they see this course as a competition. Is it? Should it be?"
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AFTER MONITORING MY IPAD use for a fortnight, I discovered I'm using it more for reading than I expected. I'm pulling a lot of journalism onto the iPad's screen. I read FT Mobile, Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Economist several times a day. I buy the paper edition of those publications already. I've added RTE News 3G, the Kindle app, The New Yorker and The Atlantic as well. I surprised myself by increasing both the number of words I read every day and my reading speed. Add to this reading mix a flow of information from Audioboo, the Sunday Times, Flickr, Marketing Over Coffee, Reeder, and Osfoora and I often feel totally overwhelmed by information flowing from the iPad's screen and earbuds. If your job involves reading ahead to stay ahead, I think the iPad will help your business.
Starting an iPad photo collection.
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AFTER A FRIGID IRISH winter night, I discovered that I could not run either my JVC HD camera or my Dell Precision laptop. My car said it was minus 10C outside and I think that's colder than inside my waist-high freezer. Now I know that I can't hide my laptop overnight in my freezer and expect it to boot up directly from Hibernate mode. I recorded this clip on my Nokia N8 to show how depressing things look when they're too cold.
Watch on Flickr or view on YouTube.
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THE BEST INDICATION of impending Christmas quiet comes in the form of thin Sunday papers. I've dissected the Sunday Times and Sunday Business Post, making a short 10-minute clip on Qik.com with my Nokia N8. Lots of speculation continues about the length of the current government, seen by many as tired and broken. Commentator David McWilliams believes there's a strong mood in Ireland for major change but that's not going to happen with a simple change of government. In the Wall Street Journal, Paul Hannon reveals that the IMF believes "Irish budget cuts aren't enough." And Vincent Browne (#vinb on Twitter) points out that the problem with Irish ministers is that they are easily seduced by "power's pomp" and that within a few weeks in ministerial cars, with "the door-openings, case-carrying, diary-keeping and backslapping" the feeble Irish politician just rolls with European pressure. When that happens, two additional generations of Irish will pay for the massive losses experienced in the banking sector. That requirement banishes Ireland's State services to the lower tier of the eurozone.
Sunday News as seen by a blow-in
Listen on Audioboo. Watch on Qik.
One Year Ago: "Sunday News from Ireland" on December 20, 2009.
Five Years Ago: "Social Generation" on December 19, 2005.
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RUTH AND I got married outside of an Irish Civil Registry Office on September 5, 2007. We were not the first couple to do this because we know at least 10 other couples preceded us in County Tipperary, leading me to believe that a Tipp couple can lay the claim to being the first couple married outside of a church or Registry Office in Ireland. I'm raising the point in the hope that Google helps to correct a front page error in the Irish Independent and furthermore, I hope that presenters like George Lee will fact-check this kind of claim before voicing it on national radio. So if Fergus Burke and Michelle Owens name-check themselves in regards to their special wedding date, they should now join the chorus of others who made their vows at a civil marriage in a venue outside the State Registrar's Office. Fergus and Michelle tied the knot in Cahernane House, Killarney, Co Kerry. We enjoyed our wedding in the Raheen House Hotel in Clonmel, County Tipperary two months earlier.
Ralph Riegel and Anne Lucey's front page error -- "Couple become the first to marry outside Church or Registry Office" in the Independent, 17 November 2007.
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I HAVE 52 first year final exam papers that beg to be corrected before Monday so their results can be registered into an electronic system and my mind can enjoy the holiday season. However, I need to get into a Christmas giving mood before I make a second pass through those papers since many students need a boost in my Media Writing module. I don't like passing third level students in my writing class unless they have the potential to write for hire. That's a real standard, based on my underlying belief that all students should have commercial skills that enable them to pay for my pension. If they cannot write a script, provide written treatment for a shoot or analyse a topic through effective critical writing, then I've failed if they fail. I'm wrapped up in a little frustration because academic failures have a cause and it's often easy to pin blame at the facilitator (i.e., the lecturer who set the exercises and delivered the education). So part of my pre-Christmas challenge is to give myself the gift of a tactic that might help the next cohort of students get through this module without the pain of failure. That next group is special because they're unemployed members of the Dell Redundant Workers' Association. Time to get cracking and rediscover the giving spirit.
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