Calls for net addiction to be universally recognised

From vnunet.com 19.03.08

Excessive gaming and email/text messaging should be added to psychiatry's official guidebook of mental disorders, according to an article in this month's American Journal of Psychiatry.

Withdrawal and an associated sense of anger or depression when users cannot reach a computer, the constant need for better equipment and the feeling of social isolation and fatigue are all signs of technology-related mental disorders.

The conditions are difficult to treat because internet addiction is "resistant to treatment, entails significant risks and has high relapse rates".

I think many of the bloggers out there are all net addicts of varying degrees.  Some are more predisposed to it than others, of course. Still, I don’t count myself as a suffer - I just like the internet.  I can stop any time I like. No, seriously - I can.

Porn deserves same respect as Hollywood movies

From Torrent Freak 18.03.08:

The legendary Ron Jeremy has had enough of video streaming sites such as YouPorn and PornTube, that host pirated versions of his epic movies for free. Jeremy says adult content deserves the same respect as Hollywood’s majors do, and is happy that Vivid Entertainment is going after these sites.

The public needs to understand that piracy is killing the adult industry, Jeremy said: “What harms the industry is the Internet.

“Now Vivid is suing them, while demanding the same treatment as his colleagues in Hollywood. You wouldn’t see YouTube play a full-length feature of a Steven Spielberg film. But they think that it’s just porn so they can get away with it. So now Vivid is striking back. Piracy is piracy, whether the film is PG, R or X. We deserve the same respect.”

Now the world is firmly in the midst of the digital creative-content era – of which the internet plays a massive part in distribution - piracy and abuse of IP rights is at an all-time high. This is largely unavoidable: as access to all manner of creative material is increased, naturally the abuse of intellectual property rights will rise too. Some insiders have argued that the internet has ripped the heart out of the porn industry; others have claimed that whilst the business model has just undergone a massive change, business is booming.

More formats for the material, larger audiences and greater ease of distribution must be balanced against a an increasing number of IP rights being infringed. The porn industry can't have its cake and eat it, I suppose. The quantity of and access to pornography has undoubtedly skyrocketed in the internet age. Competition in the industry, too, has never been higher. Indeed, you could even argue the industry has changed out of all recognition. Ron Jeremy's moustache and medallion days are gone, it seems. Nowadays, every other 22 year old with a webcam is a potential porn star.

Whatever your views on X-rated material, though, Ron Jeremy makes a worthwhile point: why shouldn't adult movies be afforded the same respect and protection as mainstream Hollywood films? Creative content is, after all, creative content. Whether it takes the form of hardcore porn, he argues, is neither here nor there. And if certain internet activity is infringing the content owners' rights, it should be tackled head-on. Nevertheless, the industry faces up uphill battle. At best, the general public views such content in a rather light-hearted manner and would likely consider that the IP rights in X-rated material to be less worthy of protection than, say, a Hollywood movie. Others, adopt a dimmer view, believing porn to be a bane of the internet. Either way, society is unlikely take Ron Jeremy's message to heart, leaving the content owners to take on the hosts of pirated material through legal channels.

The grape slip-up

From BBC News 17.03.08:

An accountant who claimed he injured himself by slipping on a grape in a Marks and Spencer car park has lost his High Court bid for damages.

Alexander Martin-Sklan, 55, from Golders Green, north London, was claiming £300,000 over the incident in his local store car park in June 2004.

He said a piece of fruit found on his shoe after the fall could have been picked up inside the store or car park.

The judge ruled in favour of the retail giant which was contesting the action.

I nearly choked to death on a grape once so I appreciate better than most just how hazardous this fruit can be. But slipping over because of one? Seems like the claimant didn’t even know if the grape was to blame or not. Maybe the mushy mess he found on his shoe after he bit the dust wasn’t actually a grape at all – perhaps it was a big ground beetle.

So the judge didn’t find in his favour? Wow, I certainly didn't see that one coming.

Weekly Roundup

From Personal Computer World 14/03/08:

"Broadband speeds don't live up to hype" (and since when was this new?)

Only one in 25 people subscribing to broadband services claiming data rates of 'up to' 16Mbits/sec get the full rated speed, according to a new survey. Just over seven in ten people with 512Mbit lines reported getting full speeds, with the figure trailing off to 23 percent at 4Mbit, 15 percent at 8Mbit and 4 percent at 16Mbits.

Is anyone surprised at this? Actually, call me a cynic, but I thought those figures were pretty good considering the shocking state of the broadband market. The timing of this story is bit ironic, really, given that an email from ’10 Downing Street’ dropped into my inbox on Friday morning. It was sent to bring my attention to the Government’s response to an online petition I signed on requiring ISPs to advertise the ‘actual’ download speed a customer can expect from their broadband package, not a theoretical maximum. Unsurprisingly, the official response was sufficiently vague, unspecific and non-committal to quell the immediate furore without committing themselves to any particular action.

If you’re wondering, “Ofcom has expressed concern to the ASA, and is in discussion with industry and consumer organisations to look into the other options that might be available to provide greater clarity for consumers and reduce the possibility of them being misled.”

While listening to the Macbreak Weekly podcast earlier I heard a great anecdote involving a user of the gorgeously svelte but functionally-limited Macbook Air. Michael Nygard was at a US airport checking in and had taken his laptop out of its case to go through security. The advisor on duty saw something that he thought looked like a laptop but was impossibly thin. It didn’t have an optical drive, had no conventional ports at the back, no replaceable battery but featured a ‘couple of lines’ where the hard drive should be. It caused consternation between several of the security staff who examined the X-ray images of the suspicious item. After eventually realising it was in fact a computer and not a ‘device’, Nygard was cleared by security. Not before, though, the flight he was scheduled to catch had taken off.

You can read the full story on Michael Nygard’s blog post: “Steve Jobs made me miss my flight”.

Newspapers soon to be a thing of the past?

From Personal Computer World 14/03/08:

The younger generation of internet users are more likely to avoid traditional print media and get all their news online, according to research from comScore.

Meanwhile, heavy newspaper readers are more likely than average to engage with traditional print news brands online.

But the internet represents a significant opportunity to extend and improve existing news brands and reach out to new consumers with living, breathing, real-time content.

Just because print circulations are declining does not mean there are fewer news consumers. In fact, just the opposite is true.

For the past several years, I’ve relied increasingly heavily on the net to keep up to date with news. Save for the odd train journey, say, I never actually buy a hard copy newspaper now – and why would I? You can get the same content for free, faster, in a format that’s vastly superior, doesn’t degrade or get dog-eared and is readily searchable with a couple of keystrokes. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s eco-friendly and doesn’t leave your hands grubby with newsprint. So everyone’s a winner, right?

I suspect the majority of people in my age bracket have similar consumption habits for news and I think it’s clear that the world is fast heading towards an almost paper-free news delivery solution. As a consumer of news it’s an exciting time; there has never been such an array of choice for the delivery of news, nor has there ever been a faster service or greater convenience in obtaining it.

Nowadays on the net, news is everywhere, and in a whole manner of formats on an ever increasing amount of hardware. Of course, as well as sources relying on the written word, presenter-fronted and podcast formats are becoming just as ubiquitous on the internet, too. What with mobile computing growing at an alarming rate, it seems clear that the days of newsprint-stained fingers are definitely numbered.

'Rate my Cop' website causes a stir

From CBS13.com 9/3/08:

Police agencies from coast to coast are furious with a new website on the internet. RateMyCop.com has the names of thousands of officers, and many believe it is putting them in danger.

Kevin Martin, the vice president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, agrees. "Will they be able to access our home addresses, home phone numbers, marital status, whether or not we have children? That's always a big concern for us," he said.

Creators of the site say no personal information will be on the site. They gathered officers' names, which are public information, from more than 450 police agencies nationwide. Some listings also have badge numbers along with the officer's names.

Rebecca Costell says, in a statement, that the site helps people rate more than 130,000 officers by rating them on authority, fairness and satisfaction. She adds, "Our website's purpose is to break the stereotype that people have that cops are all bad by having officers become responsible for their actions."

At first glance, this is disturbing on so many levels. Having said that, seeing how many other ‘rate my..’ sites are around, maybe it was only a matter of time before something like this reared its head. While it could represent a security risk, I suppose, many will argue that if the information is limited in scope and available from other sources anyway, there can’t be too much harm in it. It all comes down to the extent of the information available. Names and numbers are one thing; photos, home addresses, vital statistics and the school their kids go to is quite another.  Still, the perceived security risk that the website poses has got Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness considering letting his officers use aliases when on duty. 

But why shouldn’t they be rated – it goes on internally to some extent? Regular police officers are hardly operating clandestinely, hold a position of high responsibility and authority and are directly accountable for their actions. What’s more natural, then, for them to be rated by the public they serve? You never know, it might even help members of the public to re-establish a connection with the police and get the local community rallying behind their local bobby. Then again it might just alienate the local constabulary even more than they were before.  The biggest question, though, is whether people would ever care enough to vote.  Unless an officer was spectacularly bad, I can't see anybody taking the time and trouble of rating a name on a website. 

I doubt we’ll have to worry about it; I can’t see the idea taking off in the UK somehow. But, still, you never know.

Young females making the net their own

From The Times 09.03.08

A recent study by the Pew Internet Project in America on teens in social media found that blogging growth among teenagers is almost entirely fuelled by girls, whom it describe as a new breed of “super-communicators”. Some 35% of girls, compared with 20% of boys, have blogs; 32% of girls have their own websites, against 22% of boys.

Girls have embraced social networking sites on a massive scale, with 70% of American girls aged 15-17 having built and regularly worked on a profile page on websites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook, as opposed to 57% of boys of the same age.

Girls will browse, take a real journey around the site. Social networking has really captured a young female audience.

Matthew Bagwell, editor of My Kinda Place: “I put this down to girls being open to communicating, having longer attention spans and more widespread interests. We have to be inventive and diverse in our female content. Boys are easier, they will download pictures from galleries, viral ads and videos, but they’re in and out again.”

This survey confirms what I have suspected for a long time: females spend more time online now than ever before and have just about surpassed males in terms of logged internet hours per week. Females and teenage girls in particular are flocking to the internet and pushing out creative content in a way that males just never would. The fact this is happening could be deemed good or bad, depending on your viewpoint. Personally, I don’t believe it’s a bad thing in itself.

After all, how a person uses the internet is just an extension of their personality and lifestyle.  It's a modern medium for expression and should be openly welcomed and embraced as such.  Equally, there's a lot to be said for the educational and developmental value that a person gains from producing written or graphical content.  Surely allowing a person to explore their own creativity and produce thought provoking material as well as reading that produced by others is a positive thing?  Computer skills and knowledge gained in actively embracing a Web 2.0 lifestyle is yet another reason why a well-balanced, online life should be encouraged, not shunned. 

I don't like or agree with social networking sites per se - the types that promote the mindless generation of worthless material and shove it down your throat – yes, I’m referring to Facebook, My Space and all the rest here. Still, all things are healthy in moderation, I suppose and there’s no doubt that it’s a useful form of expression for young people. But when grown adults ceaselessly flock to Facebook every spare minute of their day, well, that just kills me.

None of this, of course, does anything to detract from the potential dangers faced by young people on such sites, but I don't want to 'spoil the Facebook party' for young people too much.  Kids will always be kids and have always had a natural ability to seek out danger from a seemingly benign activity.  You can argue all day over the pros and cons of young people embracing an online life but one thing is clear: the net is here to stay and will only keep on growing in importance. What's more, the disadvantages associated with getting left behind in this new, hyper-connected information age far outnumber the possible advantages of remaining overly reticent in embracing the internet. And that goes for young people as well.

Getting back to the article, it seems there are certain domains that are still more male oriented – such as online video sites like You Tube. That being said, females are very much the driving force behind the social networking revolution that is so much of what the Web 2.0 concept is all about. Another thing is also clear from the study: the actual innovations behind the technologies that are used to push out all of this creative content are almost invariably created by males. By extension, it is males who are generally using the internet as means of making money. That’s perhaps not all that surprising and in line with the perceived stereotypes of male and female skill-sets. The male, with his technical flair and innovation - offset with a lack of artistic temperament and short-attention span - engineers the technology in use. The female, on the other hand, makes best use of that technology and uses her artistic ingenuity, cultural wisdom and social aptitude to enjoy life to the full.

Well, something like that.