Revision and my new blog

I am currently super busy with my revision for my final exams at university EVER (hopefully - assuming nothing goes terribly wrong). This is why this blog has been so poorly updated and I apologise. I am however still using Twitter (as seen on the right) and have also started a personal blog with vox, you can find it here. I am updating this blog to the Vox question of the day and the occasional random post.

I hope to resume normal blogging after I have completed my exams in a few weeks! Hope everything is going well for everyone else, be it revising or essay writing that seems to be plaguing all at the moment.

x

Moodmill.com: Emoticon your mood

Ok so Moodmill is a site where you log in, choose an emoticon according to how you are feeling and then explain why you are feeling that way in a little blurb. Sound like internet therapy to you? Yes me too. And you even get a page to yourself so you can track your emotional progress. Pointless and just another thing to sign up for? Perhaps. I'm not going to be joining. I much prefer to do my emotional splurging in private thank you. Or at least on Twitter where it can only last for 140 characters.

Vote for your town to be part of Monopoly

Monopoly are giving the opportunity here on their website for YOU to vote for YOUR town to become part of a new 'here and now' Monopoly board which will be sold alongside the traditional London layout. Visit the site to vote for your town.

Here is the BBC Article where I first read about it.

World IP Day and RSPCA Week

Today, as helpfully pointed out to us Intellectual Property students by our tutor on blackboard, is World IP Day! Here is a list of activities happening today in honour of this, from Barbados to Latvia.

Also this week is RSPCA week (23rd April to 29th April)! It is their national fundraising and raising profile week. Find more information about this here.

Lecture Notes

I just noticed this post on The Diaries of UK Law Students about how it can be impossible to keep up with lecturers in lectures, resulting in incomprehensible notes. I actually laughed out loud and it brought back memories of some of my notes I have come across when trying to revise. My personal favourite was in the first year. Property I. It went something along the lines of 'Estoppel requires detriment as seen in the case of A, similar facts to a previous case, ok now i'm lost, i'm sorry for me trying to read this back, it makes no sense. textbook?!'

Similarly last year during reading the facts of a case I had written in a lecture where I was particularly far behind in the notes I discovered one sentance which said 'est. det. ECJ. HL. conflict. damages.' umm yeah, that could actually be any case, and what?! Perhaps lecturers can't slow down otherwise we won't cover the material, but then when I asked to record lectures I was told by many lecturers that they didn't like it. I think the moral of the story is learn shorthand, that is if you can find time around everything else!

Earth Day!

It's Earth day today! Check out the website for more information.

collegeboyslive.tv

Collegeboyslive is a website which is similar to justin.tv, only it has now been running for 3292 days, 22 hours... so basically it is the original justin.tv. Unlike justin.tv they have several camaras around the house and various that can be carried around following the six roomates. I just think it's strange that I haven't seen anyone pick up anywhere that this site already exists...

Facebook status to kill off Twitter? I doubt it.

NB Since I wrote this Mashable has written this article about the issue. (Take note, no uk compatability for mobile updating [same as no photo printing, or advert running]. Does something tell you that Facebook aren't taking the UK seriously? Besides the fact that anyone living in the South East can only choose London or Portsmouth as their networks, agh! Good job they've got the networking bit down!)

There has been alot of speculation regarding whether the Facebook status feature will kill off Twitter, or at least dampen it's use. To me there is no real conflict between the two. I mean I use both, ALOT admittedly, and use them completely differently.

The Facebook status is for you to tell your friends (people who know you personally) about what you are doing.
You can tell them you are going home for three months and leaving your uni house empty. You can tell them that you just saw a photo of Dave with Andrea who have previously claimed they hate each other (and then share a photo through facebooks share feature to prove it) because they will care about that information. You can tell people you are happy, or sad, or excited, and this will stand (big and proud under your name, thanks to the new facebook layout) until you change it when your mood changes. (And annoyingly you must write your status to conform with '*Your Name* is...' and if you don't type your status in the third person it appears with the grammar of a three year old). Facebook status is a fantastic Facebook extra, but this is not Twitter. Or at least this is not Twitter for me.

Twitter is about sharing web articles, sharing funny and amusing things that have happened, sharing funny and amusing thoughts, sharing deep thoughts. You don't want to tell the whole world on Twitter that your house is empty (as I have mentioned in my previous post about Twitter) for obvious security reasons. Many of your Twitter friends may not know you personally and so don't care about what Dave and Andrea have been doing. And if you mention you are happy, or sad, or excited it is a snapshot of that moment in time (not a continued feeling until you say otherwise).

And those are not the only ways Twitter is different to Facebook.

• Being able to update amusing thoughts from sms is a major plus point of Twitter for me. Often you will think of something amusing only to forget it a couple of mins later. Facebook does not offer text updating yet.
  
• Often there is something that does not warrant a whole blog post, that can be shown in 140 characters. Using Facebook status for linking articles etc is practically unknown.
  
• Each update you make is given a permalink making it easy to share other peoples thoughts, and your own, with people outside Twitter as well as the whole Twitter community. Facebook status can only be seen by your friends and your network.
  
• The Twitter public timeline and search systems such as Twittersearch and Twitterment allow you to find and follow people who interest you via phone, im or on the web.
• Addons allow flexibility of updating. You don't need to log into the site to share with the world.

One thing I would say however, is that if you are privately updating to your personal network of friends it is possible the similarities between Facebook status and Twitter would be more pronounced.
But these are different services, providing very different things. Facebook status is just one of the many things Facebook offers. Twitter is about broader social networking, beyond your group of friends. Eventually as Facebook develops its features further, and Twitter begins to add more complex features and options, they may become more similar. However suggestions that either of these services is intruding on the other to any real degree at this point just seems silly.

Shinyshiny article: Why I love Facebook
Twitterati Article: Will Facebook kill off Twitter?

Cute Robotic Dinosaur

This is possibly the cutest fake dinosaur I have ever seen... although looking at it it looks like it might be a velociraptor, clearly they weren't freaked out by Jurassic Park.

Busy

I'm having a busy couple of weeks and so this is just a quick post to say, as potentially seen by my twitter feed, I have not disappeared off the face of the planet. I have simply been catching up with friends and family, writing a carriage of goods by sea essay and preparing for BUSA nationals which is this coming week. Hope everyone has had a wonderful Easter, and I should be back blogging properly in about a week.

Facebook Diaries Finally Launches!

I'm so glad it has finally happened because I have actually been telling people about this for months and they haven't believed me. I can't remember where I first read it either BUT it is true. Facebook are working alongside Ziddio (a video sharing site) to have Facebook users create video diary entries about their lives, of which the best will be shown on tv (and i remember from the earlier rumour possibly as a film at the cinema). I think this project will be very interesting, loving as I do finding out about people. Will it catch on? Certainly, everyone I know eventually gives in and loves Facebook, alot of people want to be famous, it combines the two! Will I be entering video diary entries about my life? Probably not. Will I watch some? Almost certainly. The Facebook Ziddo group is here.

Happy April Fools

Today has apparently already started with a host of bizarre lies April fools. Mashable has reported Google Paper which apparently is sending documents via snail mail with associated adverts (i think that is definately a fool), and if you head on down to the Google search page there is a lovely link to Google TiSP, which is apparently new breakthrough broadband that Google want to give you for free! It works through the sewer system and it's even vacuum sealed to prevent water damage... umm yes...

Keep your wits about you and Happy April Fools Day!

NB just discovered The Daily Puppy... is... for one day only... The Daily Guppy.

Facebook are also in on the act. Among my favourites are :
- Harry and Voldemort have listed their relationship as 'mortal enemies'
- Introducing LivePoke. Facebook will today send a real live person to poke a friend of your choice*. (*Offer only open to the first 100 pokers per network).

Size Zero Debate

I thought that this brief comment on Brandish.tv was interesting as it is a view of size zero women from a male perspective. It is so often discussed by us women, being all about looking good for work, for other women, for ourselves, so what of the men? Size zero does not appeal to the writer at Brandish. Does it appeal to you?

Justin.tv

Justin has a headcam strapped to his head. This headcam links to Justin.tv. This means you can see what he sees 24 hours a day. I'm struggling a little with this concept - check out the camera he has on his head, it is huge, everyone would know he was filming. And as far as I can work out he is a major net geek (not that there is anything wrong with net geeks but this means that when he talks about the net I don't understand...). Also on the site users can constantly comment on what they see in a little chat room under the video. This could potentially be interesting when there is something interesting going on, but right now he is sleeping! (Major time difference because he is in the US).

I am seriously struggling writing this because i'm truely unsure what I think about it. Two things are certain though, Justin has been live for 9 days, 10 hours, five minutes right now, and he has no intention of hanging up his camera anytime soon.

200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade in Britain

Today marks the 200th anniversity of the abolition of the slave trade here in Britain.

The BBC News website has several stories following this including this one about a religious walk that took place through London led by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York yesterday.

And here is information on the government website about the bi-centenary and the history of slavery, and here on the same site is a list of events to mark the abolition.

Twittervision 12 hour warning

I've taken to hiberating my laptop while revising, and leaving net pages up etc without using them for several days. I think it must be the computer version of having a messy bedroom. For some reason revision seems to bring out my messy side. I think it is having one million things out at once; textbooks, handwritten notes, handouts, typed notes, statute books, paper and pens to make notes on etc.

Anyway imagine my surprise when I switched my laptop on to find this screen (photo). Twittervision actually has a twelve hour warning system, I assume calculated according to when you logged in considering my laptop was off for about fourteen hours (I am really not sad enough to watch it for that long). And i'm wondering why they bother to have it... (except obviously to remind people like me to clean up our internet windows). Logically speaking it must mean people are watching Twittervision for 12 hours, and it might be just me but isn't that slightly concerning?!

'How I Changed the World Today' blog

How I Changed the World Today is the personal blog of a woman called Julia. She blogs every day about one thing that she has done towards changing the world. It is very interesting to read, and although not completely relevant to us in the UK because we obviously can't join the same initiatives etc., it could be a breeding group for ideas to join or start similar projects over here.

Twitter Drinking Game

Blog post about this here.

Twit This

I know i always seem to be talking about Twitter, and I do apologise, but it is a very fast growing site will lots of new addons appearing every minute. There is Twitterific for Mac, and Twitteroo for Windows, Twittervision which I have posted about previously, and a whole host of other progammes and sites. The newest is Twit This which I have just added to my site on the right. This allows people to link your site easily by turning it into a Tiny Url (which I have also previously posted about), and then adding it to Twitter. It is a simple concept but potentially quite effective if alot of people added it to their pages, allowing sharing of what you are reading to be quick and easy. However I think i'm going to stick with my Tiny Url on my toolbar for now since constantly linking your own site is neither fun, nor particularly ethical or nice, and I have yet to see Twit This anywhere else.

Mashable discusses Twit This here.
TwitterBuzz shows the most popular twitter links here.

kiva.org

Kiva.org gives you the opportunity to loan money to entrepreneurs in developing countries in order to help them establish their businesses. Over the period of the loan (usually 6-12 months) you can also receive email journal updates from the business that you are sponsoring. The way I think this site triumphs over other more established charities is that it allows you to choose who you lend to. Often the inability to keep track of exactly what your money is being used for is what prevents people from giving money to charity. You can view profiles and people's businesses. You know directly who you are helping.

Apparently the people who are featured have been chosen specifically by Field Partners such as CREDIT (who among other things organise loans to vulnerable women), and ACTION NOW KENYA, to ensure that you are likely to have your money repayed. To date kiva.org has a 100% repayment rate to lenders, but there is no security so in theory you could 'lose' your money. You gain no interest from your loan but to my mind this is irrelevant because of the impression you will be making on someone's life. And if you do not get your money repayed then surely it is still worth it for giving someone a chance.

You can choose how much of the money the borrower needs that you loan (you can loan from only $25), and so their total money can be borrowed from a large number of lenders. If you have some spare money, and want to give to a worthy cause I think this might be the way forward. This is helping people to help themselves without crippling interest rates that would usually attach to perceived 'high risk' enterprise.

You can follow KivaThon on Twitter.