Pornography to get its own space on the Interwebs but will it work?
After a ten year battle between Icann (the people who look after the www. protocol) and Stuart Lawley a British internet entrepreneur the .xxx domain has finally been approved.
The idea is that all pornography or ‘top shelf’ related material will move from .com, .co.uk, .net, .mobi etc to the new .xxx domain. Porn is still the most searched item on the web but it is only in the last two year’s that sites like Facebook and Twitter have kicked the porn sites from the Alexa top 50
It’s a good idea as it makes the Internet as easier place to police, it also makes it a lot easier for parents to content filter what their kids are looking at online by simply blocking the .xxx domain on their machines. Companies like NetNanny who specialise in web filtering will surely welcome the new domain and anyone operating a public machine will see the benefits.
That said, it will never work (in its current form). Believe it or not porn sites actually want you to look at their sites, no matter who you are so they go out of their way to step around web content filtering, this new domain is simply that, a new domain. It has been set up by a business man not an authority or a Government so it cannot be policed. Porn sites cannot be forced to use the domain and they are surely not going to give up their valuable .com domains in a hurry, In 2007 porn.com was sold for $12m and there has been a near 20 year battle over sex.com. (more…)
Cheaper by the dozen ? Not any more !
A new barmy law has been passed down from our good old buddies in the European Union. All food sold in EU stores must be advertised, priced and sold by weight and not quantity.
Until now, Britain has been exempt from EU regulations that forbid the selling of goods by number. But last week MEPs voted to end Britain’s deal despite objections from UK members.
This means Eggs, bread rolls and oranges too, so gone will be the day of buying a box of 6 egg’s for 99p.
Now you will have to buy 382grams of egg’s or 396grams of eggs depending which box you pick up, no box of 6 egg’s will ending up the same price as the next as it is nearly impossible to get 6 egg’s to weigh the same, unless we can somehow program the chickens to fire out 50gram eggs on comand but that would probably be in human.
What a load of balls, not two balls of course, a load of balls. Who thinks of these stupid laws? How is this helpful to the general public ? I want 6 egg’s, I’m quite happy to open the box and judge if the egg’s I am buying are big enough after all, I am not a complete moran ! (more…)
Volcano’s, Bankruptcy and Strike’s, Oh my ! Is it time to loose faith in the airline industry ?
The traveling public have had a bit of a wake up call this year with regard to air travel. Between strikes, bankrupcy’s and that bloody volcano people have began to slowly learn just how fickle the industry is and just how much we actually rely on it for everyday life.
The complete shut down of UK airspace has knocked the world out of sync, planes dispatched in far corners, mail not arriving, friends and family stuck dear know’s where.
Personally I think Michael O’Leary has done the industry a massive injustice last month when he agreed to pay out passengers for responsible expresses after claimed he would rather go to court than hand over the readies. Legally bound to pay yes however a court case would have highlighted just how tight a rope these companies walk on and that you really do get what you pay for. He had a opportunity to change the game going forward. After all someone has to pay for this so we are going to feel it in flight prices for years to come. You can’t really expect to pay £10 for a flight and then be put up in a hotel for 5 days when the flight can’t go through no fault of the airline can you ? (more…)
Hey teacher, leave us kids (Facebook profiles) alone
I am a part time volunteer youth worker and I have many friends who are teachers, there are two schools of thought on weather or not teachers and students can be friends on social media sites.
The first argument is that, Facebook and sites like it are a great way to connect with students out of school. Many teachers use blogs to do this but I have heard of a few recently who have been friending students to update them about classes, news stories and topics of interest. The issue comes when students or teachers start posting personal things on their sites, who they are going out with, what they are getting up, photo’s and the like. Things that could be taken in the wrong context and can personally damage the view of students or the professional life’s of teachers. (more…)
Nobody beats Laser ! except the banks off course
The stark news hit just at the Start of this month that Laser Electrical had gone into Administration. Usually when this happens the administrators try to trade the stores until a buyer or a way forward can be found. Sadly with Laser things were grimmer than most, just hours after the receivers took control of the business the stores were closed and days later the firm was placed into full liquidation. The final nail in the coffin for the ailing retailer.
But why did things go so wrong ?
Quite simply the business model had not worked for a number of years, 2008 /2009 accounts showed a profit of only £34,177, not what you would call great for a retailer with 10 prime locations, good cachment areas and 140 staff. There was however a few ways this business could have been saved.
As I said, the business model had not been working for a number of years. Currys and Harvey Norman have better buying power and better terms with the bank for getting consumers finance. What Laser needed to do was to create more ways of doing business rather than sticking to the tradional ‘waiting for people to come in the door approach’ (more…)
The People’s Manifesto – an attack on 4×4 drivers !
Alan in Belfast talks about Mark Thomas new book, the People’s Manifesto. Its a good post, read it. The book looks good to, like a common sense approach to politics.
I just want to pull a few points from the book though,
“4×4 drivers should be forced to drive everywhere off-road, even to Sainsburys.”
That would sadly be illegal, most of the land (over 80% in Northern Ireland) is owned farmland and as such driving across it is trespassing.
“Anyone with a 4×4 in a city must also volunteer for the nearest mountain rescue service.”
On the UK Mainland their is such a thing as ‘The 4×4 response team’ which is a voluntary organisation and they do great work. Sadly in Northern Ireland this does not exist and no one I spoke to in local council seemed overly bother about setting one up.
I am off course, picking holes. I am for the 4×4 driver ! The correct 4×4 driver that is, I don’t have a 4×4 at present however when I did own one, I drove it off road. I stopped to pull fallen tree’s from the road and I pulled car’s from ditches. 4x4s are not a bad thing however the large % of 4x4s on our roads are nothing more than cars ferrying kids to school and mums to shops and these people do not know how to drive a 4×4 correctly !
I will buy a 4×4 again and I will take it off road ! (legally)
Rant over
Russell
Is twitter a valid newsroom for Northern Ireland ?
Since the dawn of Newspapers people have rushed to the local store to grab the morning headlines, then came along radio and people could tune in hourly to get their fix of local and national news. During war time people stayed glued to their radio’s to find out where the Natzi’s had bombed next and how the troops were getting on in Europe.
One thing has remained constant forever, people crave news and people want to be the first to know.
We had it really good there for a while, were we could hop on to numerous news sites and grab our fix but times are changing and newspapers are at the advent of charging for online content. So were do we look to get our news fix ? (more…)
When Politions try and fail …… to understand social media
Proof read anyone ?
Really, if you don’t get it just stay the hell away from it !
50p Broadband Tax, gone …….. but not forgotten !
I won’t get bogged down with talking about the digital economy bill or whatever other title’s that have been thrown about for what is effectively the EU Data Retention Directive re-packaged to suit the British Government. I can’t, as an ISP, I’m too close to it and the outcome of whatever does eventually pass through law effects not only my company but my clients and end users as well. When the time is right however, you will hear my thoughts !
What I can talk about though is this 50p line rental tax. What Labour proposes is that a tax of 50p per month per line is strapped onto every phone line in the UK, the money it says will fuel a new super fast broadband product available to all, well not quite superfast….. What we are actually talking about here is 2meg minimum in rural areas (that is anyone not in a ‘big’ city) (more…)
Stephen Brown from The Adventure Team talks about Social Media
I met Stephen just over a year ago when he followed me on Twitter. We quickly began exchanging tweets, Facebook messages and texts until we finally met in person some months later and have bumped into each other several times since at various networking events.
As a scouter, his business fascinated me from day one as he basically gets paid to do all the fun stuff we do at scouts…. and he does it full time.
I booked him for a black tie event last year to do some pre-dinner games which turned out to be very novel, great sport and people are still talking about it today!
So what does this have to do with Social Media, well its simple. Stephen started his business (The Adventure Team) just over 12 months ago with virtually no money and absolutely no money for marketing or sales. What Stephen did have though was a computer and he quickly was able to build a large following on Facebook and Twitter. I look forward to Stephen’s daily Facebook update where he talks about what he is going to get up to that day. (more…)
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