technology | writing notes

Online Tics

Tomas Lindroth expressed his annoyance at an article in a Swedish newspaper that attempted to describe users as addicted to certain websites. The example in the article concerned a user who would several times a day check out apartments for sale. The thing that bugged Tomas, and I totally agree with him, is that the paper wanted to define this as an addiction.

Checking your email, facebook, blogs or any other programs can become extremely habit forming but addiction is too strong. I have always liked to think of the periods in my life when I fall into these behavioural habits as being update mania. Tomas refers to these behaviours as being online tics. The term is both apt and amusing. I like it.

Three words defined by dictionary.com

Addiction: –noun the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

Mania: An excessively intense enthusiasm, interest, or desire; a craze: a mania for neatness.

Tic: A habitual spasmodic muscular movement or contraction, usually of the face or extremities.

Posted on February 12, 2009 by mklang

New Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents

Reporters Without Borders has come out with a new version (Update: I am a year late with discovering this book see RSF release article) of its Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents. The handbook offers practical advice and techniques on some easy and some quite complex issues.

Everything from how to create a blog, how to make entries and get the blog to show up in search engine results. It gives clear explanations about blogging for all those whose online freedom of expression is subject to restrictions, and it shows how to sidestep the censorship measures imposed by certain governments, with a practical example that demonstrates the use of the censorship circumvention software Tor.

The handbook is very useful on many levels so blog about it to make sure it gets out there.

Posted on February 2, 2009 by mklang

A great step for UK art & world culture

This is really cool news and it just makes you wish that all other countries will follow suite. So what’s the news? Well the director general Mark Thompson of the BBC has just announced that the BBC is going to digitalize and put online all paintings in public ownership in the UK and the contents of the Arts Council’s vast film archive online as part of a range of initiatives that it has pledged will give it a “deeper commitment to arts and music”. Just the art amounts to around 200,000 oil paintings! (via The Guardian)

Lady Agnew of Lochnaw

John Singer Sargent, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Lady Agnew is one of the 200 000 pictures we can look forward to seeing online. The good news may still be spoiled if the technology used (or indeed the licenses) somehow prevents users from being able to enjoy them properly.

Posted on January 28, 2009 by mklang

Mobiles on planes

Mobile phones are radio transmitters and as such were banned from use in civilian airplanes, for fear such devices could interfere with airplane avionics. So we turned of our phones and stared angrily at those who did not comply – it’s strange how well behaved we are in the air, especially when we are told it was for security purposes. The strange thing is that almost any laptop is packed full of wifi and bluetooth devices but no-one stops us from using a laptop on the plane.

The Telegraph reports that British Airways will be trying out mobile phone technology that will allow passengers to send and receive text messages, emails and access the internet during the flight. British Airways will introduce voice calls if the trails are succesful. I wonder what constitutes a success in this case. British Airways is not the only airline, the Telegraph reports:

Since Emirates introduced the service, on a flight from Dubai to Casablanca, it has begun extending the technology to the rest of its fleet – more than 100 aircraft. So far, 28 planes have been fitted.

Low-cost carrier Ryanair announced last year that it would begin testing the technology – including voice calls – on at least 10 of its aircraft, with the intention of extending the service to its entire fleet.

While the fears surrounding mobile telephones and airplane security seem to have been magically resolved the question remains whether or not we want to be stuck in airline seats while passengers around us invade our privacy and disturbing us speaking loudly about all their crap.

Also, why do only the business class passengers get this service? Is it that we plebs are undeserving or can it be that British Airways is being elitist?

Posted on January 27, 2009 by mklang

Technology too far

Technology is fun and often frustrating but for me the most frustrating element of technology are touch screens and automatic sensors. The reason for this is that they never seem to work properly when I am around. As a result I stand in public restrooms pointlessly waiving my hands under the tap and hoping for water. Or standing in line at for train tickets only to attempt to attempt to input my wishes on a touch screen that adamantly insists that I am not here.

Its not like I have not tried different strategies to attempt to fool the technology in question. My cooker at home is based on touch screen technology so I know what I am talking about. But the cooker at home is not as embarrassing as all the public technology and in particular not being able to work the technology available in the men’s room. The last area is also more than mildly disturbing from a hygienic point of view when I think about others who cannot wash their hands.

I want a return to knobs and switches, taps and real buttons so I will not look like such a fool in public. So! From a hygiene point of view I demand a return to the more primitive technology! Call me a luddite if you want, but all I want to do is to be able to wash my hands in the bathroom…

Posted on January 26, 2009 by mklang

More crap in the kitchen

How much unnecessary technological crap can you fit in a kitchen? Obviously this depends on your definition of unnecessary, technological and crap – in addition to the size of your wallet and kitchen. But taking a walk through the aisles of kitchen products available is a frightening display of the excellent collaboration between product developers and marketing departments.

In much of the developed world the basic kitchen contains a cooker, an oven, a fridge and a freezer. Beyond this some would argue that the microwave is a basic necessity but after that things get more complicated since the line between necessary and unnecessary becomes blurred and ever more subjective and difficult: Is a toaster a necessity? What about a coffeemaker?

Even if we limit this exploration to those products that require a powersource the list is impressive: A bread maker, rice maker, pizza maker, popcorn maker, juice maker, kitchen aid, electic knife sharpener, milk foamer, egg boiler, juicer and sandwich maker…

pizza

popcorn1 eggs

Of these strange products that surprise and annoy me the most are the ones which are completely unnecessary – I know the term is vague – the pizza maker, the egg boiler and popcorn maker are all excellent examples of products which do not really increase efficiency in the kitchen. These three machines do not make the tasks of boiling eggs, poping corn or making pizza any easier. They are products which show the great advances which can be made so long as there is a strong marketing department creating desire.

Posted on January 5, 2009 by mklang

Farting cows and poisonous concrete

The hole in the ozone is blamed upon lots of factors, my favourite is blaming it on cow farts! Lots of long explanations about how methane gas from cows causes greenhouse gases seems to make us forget that we are the ones responsible for the massive cow population so therefore damage caused by cow farts is our fault.

What I did not know, and the Guardian made me aware of, was the fact that concrete is very hazardous to the ozone: “Making the 2bn tonnes of cement used globally every year pumps out 5% of the world’s CO2 emissions – more than the entire aviation industry.”

Engineers have now devised a concrete which reverses the process. The Guardian:

Novacem’s cement, based on magnesium silicates, not only requires much less heating, it also absorbs large amounts of CO2 as it hardens, making it carbon negative.

Very cool stuff. But what are the negative effects of this evolutionary step in concrete?

Posted on January 2, 2009 by mklang

Social and Technological Determinism

It’s been a long time since I had a real good discussion on determinism but recent discussions online and off have brought determinism back in focus. In particular the differences between technological and social determinism.

As a brief recap technological determinist believes “the uses made of technology are largely determined by the structure of the technology itself, that is, that its functions follow from its form” (Neil Postman). On the opposite side of the spectrum is social determinism which, as Langdon Winner states, “What matters is not the technology itself, but the social or economic system in which it is embedded”. Basically that society is not controlled by technology but innovation and the consequences of technology are shaped through the influences of things like culture, politics, economic arrangements and regulation.

What really annoys me with both these positions is their lack of flexibility. In order to make their positions work both the social and technological determinist attempts to be blind to facts which do not support their pet theory.

Look at file sharing – yes I know that this is a big target.

The regulation of file sharing through social, economic, political and moral attempts have been a failure in attempting to change the way in which certain social groups behave. Given fixed price, high bandwidth Internet connections and high storage – low cost mp3 players there is a high incentive to file share. Technology alone is not enough. The low chance of getting caught is also an incentive to copy.

But being either/or in attempting to explain the reason for file sharing is too narrow minded since it can only provide a limited view of the problem. So when the legislator attempts to regulate the problem it is indispensible to see both the social and technical forces which drive social changes related to technology.

Posted on December 28, 2008 by mklang