... is to download classic Christmas songs and get them into the Top 40. The power of the internet strikes again!

This is why I think that the internet and downloads will make, rather than break, the music industry. Cheaper, more accessible, music means that people will be far more willing to spend money on it! I have never bought CDs because of the expense, but I will buy downloads - they are cheaper and faster.

Apple Press Release

Apple Computers announced today that it has developed a computer chip that can store and play music in women's breast implants. The iTit will cost $499, $599, or $799 depending on speaker size.

This is considered to be a major breakthrough because women have always complained about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them.

In honour of Theo Spark, a blogger unfairly and quite ridiculously put behind a Google "Content Warning". Free the Outlaw Blogger!

The Last Supper, now viewable in sixteen billion pixels. Yes, sixteen billion! You can zoom right up as if you were just a few centimetres from the painting itself.

What are they going to suggest as a means to stop this? Banning Google Earth? There isn't anything that can be done to stop them from using it. Quite an ingenious idea, though, really. Very clever use of available resources.

Sources: The Guardian, The Telegraph

I am very much for this modernisation. As I wrote before when the idea was raised:

Quite frankly, it is a long overdue modernisation. In fact, I would go further and say that MPs should also be allowed to take laptops in. That way, MPs can continue doing constituency and other work whilst aiding in holding the government to account.

Having the ability to do other work whilst waiting to speak in a debate would also allow MPs to increase their efficiency and give us, the British taxpayers, better value for money. Instead of sitting on the green benches for
hours with little or nothing that they can do, having the opportunity to do other work, such as answering constituents' emails.

Britain is a modern nation, and it is really about time that our democratic institutions begin to reflect this... Of course, precautions would have to be taken with the noise that such equipment makes, but that should really be a minor effect, especially if silent "rubber keyboards" like those on the Welsh Assembly computers were used.

It is simply about time that MPs can email in the Commons. Iain Dale is "totally against" it, but I just can't see any reasons why. It just makes no sense. Parliament must not be cut off from society.

I am also very much for the "open questions" period, but I'm not convinced by the idea of giving new MPs three weeks to "settle in" before the House of Commons returns to session after a general election.

Is there to be an end to anonymous online comments?

It is unlikely that this will really make much difference. The ways in which to hide and protect your identity online are legion, and this sort of story will just increase them. It will never be possible to identify who's who online, as every level of detection will be countered by several layers dedicated to preserving anonyminity.

What this does show, however, is that it is very much becoming less easy - or at least more troublesome - to be and remain anonymous online. Many bloggers write under pseudonyms, like I do - even though my real name is openly shown on this page, and easily findable by anyone who can be bothered - but this won't really make my difference to that. Certainly until they bring in thought crimes, anyway.

via A. Tory
Source: The Guardian

Google to keep politicians honest:

Through the Google the Australian Election site, you can keep up-to-date with the goings on through YouTube, Google Maps and Google Earth, as well as specifically created election gadgets, such as ‘On the Record’ , which allows users to research all 226 Federal MPs’ past statements on any given political issue, by searching Hansard and their personal web pages.

Absolutely superb! I hope that they develop one for the next general election we have in Britain. It would really give the electorate the ability to check up on politicians and see how much their rhetoric in one place is matched by that in another. The Lib Dems would be screwed by it for sure.

Source: The Telegraph

The TUC are saying that employers should allow their employees to access social networking sites such as Facebook during office hours.

Except that during office hours, it doesn't matter if you have a life outside of it. While you are at work, your time is the companies time. When they are paying you to work, they have the right to say what you can't do.

I don't think that the outright ban of those sort of sites is a good idea, but there is no denying that the companies have the right to ban them during working hours if they want to and feel that it is necessary. I think that it is unnecessary to ban the use of such sites if they are not interfering with the employee's work, really, but I also very much accept that the employer has the right to say whether or not social networking sites are off-limits during working hours.

A total ban is never really a very good idea, as it will only inspire people to break it. But the choice is up to the company. If they want to prevent their employees from using Facebook, that is their prerogative.

Sources: The Times, BBC, The Telegraph

Is TV dying?

I watch very little TV, mostly because it's utter rubbish. Far more than ever before, people my age are turning off the television - and booting up the computer instead. I already stream most of programmes I watch from TV Links or watch them on DVDs - that way, I get what I want, when I want it. I am not dictated to by TV schedules or anything else. It also has a great selection of old programmes which are no longer shown on TV, so I have a far greater choice over what I watch as well as well as when I watch it.

I don't even watch the TV news very often any more. I get my news from the internet sites of the BBC and newspapers and from blogs rather than the half-hour condensed version that you get on the television. It is again about choice - I read the news I am interested in, and not the stuff I'm not, and I can get far more information on it as well.

On this same issue, Mike Rouse has written an excellent guest post over at the Wardman Wire*:
So even as the traditional TV is dying, a new more on-demand style is rising from the ashes. Internet TV stations, like 18 Doughty Street, are providing a 21st century solution to the end-of-TV dilemma. TV is dead, long live TV!

* I am also a guest poster there while Matt is away, but I'm current suffering blogger's block on the posts I want to write! I'll get there eventually...

Despite being an extremely modern nation in so many ways, Japan seems to be backward in one way - online electioneering, which is illegal:

"Now the campaign for the upper house election in Japan has started, tough rules on how politicians can canvas for votes have come into force...
[I]t is now illegal for candidates to create new websites or update existing web pages between now and election day, 29 July.
So instead, the loudspeaker vans are out on the streets again. The candidates sit inside, waving regally wearing white gloves, smiling and politely asking for votes." (BBC)

So, instead of the revolution of electoral politics by the internet that is beginning to take off in the US and Britain, Japans elections are "almost a throwback to the 1950s".

The internet is an essential tool in modern communication. However many political TV discussions are made, it is the internet that allows the greatest direct communication between politicians and the people - and, in many formats, allows the people to reply. Even though the internet is freely usable the rest of the time, elections are when people are most interested in what politicans have to say.

It really makes no sense to outlaw the political use of the internet during an election campaign.

Source: BBC

Facebook is a social-networking site, on which there are millions of people. Most of these are students or "young people" but the numbers of the oldies is growing...

"Leading "social network" sites such as MySpace and Facebook, which once left adults baffled, are reporting a huge influx of members who are longer in the tooth.
Facebook, which began life as a site for students to talk to each other and exchange news and photographs, threw its doors open nine months ago to the rest of the world. Last week, the site reported that more than half of its members are now non-students, with membership growing fastest among the over-25s." (The Telegraph)

That so many Facebook members are no longer students isn't that much of a surprise - as a large number leave university every year. And neither is the fact that membership is growing fastest among the over-25s, as most of those under 25 who will join already are members.

But there is an inter-generational battle going on, especially between members of the same family, with one person saying: "My college-age daughter indicated she would rather torch her computer than give me access to her page." I am again not particularly surprised about it, though I can't really see the point of not making parents with a Facebook profile a "friend". You can, after all, give "limited profiles" which restrict the information on your page that can be viewed by that person. One young Facebook user says: "Everyone in the whole world thinks it's super creepy when adults have Facebooks." Except they don't. It's only creepy if they try to be "down with the kids" while they do it.

Facebook has evolved into a very useful tool beyond it's original purpose, I'm sure. I keep up with my brothers more through Facebook than any other means - partially at least because we all still nominally live at "home" [even though I am currently the three of us only one not there]. I would be happy for my parents to join Facebook - I just don't know what possible use they could have of it, since none of their friends are likely to have profiles. I would probably give them only limited access, however. There are some things that it is best for parents not to know or see.

Facebook is a modern phenomena. There are groups for everything - even one for Readers of Iain Dale's Diary now [and I'm a member of the group]. It has evolved way beyond it's original premise, and has taken on a life of it's own. It is certainly no longer just for the kids.

Source: The Telegraph