Doctor, Father and your eminence - Titles

Do we pay too much attention to titles? What we expect from people based on letters before their name. Are all doctors the same? All equally qualified? All of them capable of not abusing the trust that comes from having those coveted letters?

I think that is one of the many things that make wikipedia good. What you did in college matters less than whether or not you listen to people you meet and read books that you are intersted in.

Being interested in stuff is the only sure fire way to get on in it. Having some letters does not necessarily indicate anything - but it can. Good people are good people and the letters don't take away from them. Usually they can be listened to.

Only about a quater of the world uses the web

Only between 20 and 30 percent of the population of the earth have access to the web. A short number of years ago, that would have sounded reasonable, but in the last few years the importance of the web for those of us in the developed world has skyrocketed. Our phones (those of us who can afford the clever ones) are connected, our televisions -if you are digital(?), even some people's cars. But most of the world can't get near it yet. Mobile telephony has had massive penetration in the developing world, so the web is next. Apparently the difference in utility between skinnyband and broad band is in kind, not just degree. Dial-up is unusable, even if you are a poor Ghanain farmer. Usability it seems matters even if you are poor.

So maybe the future for Africa is bright. Mobiles helped and the world is full of shagged computers, so there is nothing to stop africa getting going for nothing.

BBC programme on the digital revolution - Competition for facebook

The beeb programme that I have been watching - the virtual revolution - referred to the fact that there is no competition for facebook. This comment came from a contributor, but they can't have spent much time on the web. The idea of social networking is nearly as old as the web. If you think about it, the web is a social network. Even sharing those documents on www.cern.ch was a social network of sorts.

Easy to see all the same where that idea may have some from. Networking sites depend on having a large number of users. The bigger the number the more valuable the network. So its in the interest of network operators of any sort of do all in their power to enlarge their network. Also in the interest of their users to go for the big one. That way their friends are there when they look. Even the friends of old from school who they haven't seen since they were younger than their children.

I reckon that is why fb is so big, nothing sinister, just forces in the inside and outside trying to do the same thing. Mr. Zuckerberg was more than chasing the zeit geist when he same up with that little notion.

Dormant blogs

The bbc programme that I am watching is talking about the fact that most blogs are dormant. No surprise to most people, only those who have not done any blogging, or even those who have not read any - not many web users. The reality is the the way most of us arrive at a blog is by searching for something that we want to know - sort of second level knowdelge - wikipedia has the first level, top of google search stuff covered. How does joe public (the main idea of the blog?) come up with enough original stuff to be interesting enough for people to find us through the now normal channels?
Maybe they just can't.

Blogging

The programme on bbc about the web has switched to the topic of blogging. Hmmm. There was some stuff on very early morning telly today (feeding baby) about bloggin - very much a how to kinda thing. Maybe blogging is going mainstream - I thought it had ages ago to be honest. I am a bit of a laggard of an adopter even in technical things - despite the day job. Or maybe its just that both of these programmes were on bbc. A local meme perhaps. That wine was definitely stronger than I thought :-)

Digital programme on bbc

Watching a programme about the development of the internet on the telly. Its on dvr, was really on earlier this evening. Not too bad. Bit of Tim Berners Lee hagiography, some Bill Gatesy stuff. Generally not bad. I am surfing and posting tipsy bullshit at the same time as watching, but then again a programme about the history of the internet on prime time weekend telly is unlikely to be that compelling for someone who works on this stuff all day.

Water shortages

Another day of reduced water pressure. Had to have a 'shower' in the kitchen. Pretty bloody miserable. The infrastructure in this country does not seem to be up to much. About 10 days of bad weather and the whole country - one of the wettest in Europe - is lacking drinking water. This is happening with greater frequency. Galway suffered from severe water bourne infections a couple of years ago. Local government seemed to be at fault there.
Now it seems as if every local authority is having trouble meeting the basic needs of their residents. Kildare County Council seems to be passing the buck for the current water supply problems to Fingal, claiming that they supply all of the water for here. Regardless of who supplies, are KCC not responsible for at least answering the queries of their constituents? Maybe that is not how they view us. Less like their reason for being than an annoyance to be tolerated.
The pressure today is higher than yesterday, so maybe this won't last too long. It is still not enough to push the water up the stairs, but at least we are not having to queue at stand pipes and tankers. I think personally we need to think about what we will do in a situation like this. Next time it may be a lot more serious. Indeed, this time it may yet get worse.
Getting to work took almost two and a half hours. This is normally an hour. There was black ice on the M50 and a lane had to be closed to allow it to be gritted. Maybe there was a good excuse for this, but the impact on the economy was surely serious with so many economically active people stuck in traffic wasting their time. Here's hoping for better tomorrow.

After the big freeze

We are just coming out of the worst cold weather that this country has seen in about 40 years. It was a different place 40 years ago. A lot less people and almost no hastily constructed housing estates. The water supply could not deal with the cold and the resulting leakage from the system is causing huge water shortages. These are also the worst I can remember. The government are claiming that a lot of the difficulty is caused by people running their taps in the belief that this will prevent them freezing. If this is the case, then these people should be ashamed of themselves. Not only are they thick, but they don't seem to realise that water is a resource to be shared by all. The tragedy of the commons. The sooner it is metered and we have to pay for it, the better.

Pies from Tesco

A friend in work was in the North last weekend and brought us back some pies from Tesco. Steak and kidney and Steak. Heated them in the oven last night for dinner. I was delayed a bit in work (looking at cameras on the web for the last half hour if I am honest) so did not have time to make the lentil and egg curry from Delia book 1. That's at least 2 abortive attempts at that dish mid week. With a new baby in the house, that really is too ambitious for a mid week snaffle. Maybe a Friday night special, but I would not count on it.
Boiled up some potatoes - nice enough roosters, but at this time of year none of them are perfect. Certainly not Irish ones. The weather is particularly poxy. Apparently a lot of the potato crop is still in the ground and is frozen there to rot. Not a good situation for the farmers.
Few tips of asparagus steamed on top of some frozen sweetcorn and frozen peas. Minimal work when knackered.
Even some HP sauce did not liven this one up much. A pretty dismal offering, even for a Wednesday.
Must try harder.