Posts by admin

Why do I have to choose?

Posted by on 11 Feb, 2010 in My Stream | 1 comment

Dvd_player

I find it so frustrating I have to make this choice. I am a Brit, living in Canada, who consumes a mix of content from the Americas, Europe and elsewhere. I don't want to restrict what DVDs I can play. Like the geo-restriction of TV content, which I wrote about earlier, this is just another example of how the technology infrastructure of the 90s and early 2000s has failed to catch up with the reality of the global village we live in today.

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The statistic US healthcare debaters should be paying attention to

Posted by on 9 Feb, 2010 in My Stream | 0 comments

Media_httpandrewsulli_wahbs
via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com

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How to split up the USA using Facebook data

Posted by on 9 Feb, 2010 in My Stream | 0 comments

Media_httppetewardent_xccoh
via petewarden.typepad.com

This is really interesting… Someone has analysed Facebook data to discover which parts of the USA are most connected to each other. Based on what little I know of the USA, these clusters do seem to represent the different cultural divides within the country. It’s amazing what you can find from social network data.

Make sure you check out the application too, which lets you see which countries are most connected, what their favourite celebrities/topics are, and their most common names.

Update: This article on ReadWriteWeb is well worth a read too, and explores the subject in more depth.

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Posted by on 8 Feb, 2010 in My Stream | 0 comments

http://www.bitcurrent.com/why-you-should-let-your-computer-spy-on-you

Discussing how we can help computers to help us if we share more information with them

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Travel Bite #3: Tulum, Mexico

Posted by on 7 Feb, 2010 in Articles | 0 comments

Over the Christmas 2005 / New Year 2006 period, we spent three weeks in Central America. One of the highlights was Tulum,  about 80 miles south of the not-worth-visiting tourist metropolis of Cancun on the Yucatan peninsula.

 

From the main hostel area in Tulum Pueblo (the village of Tulum) it’s only 70 pesos for a short taxi ride to the entrance of Tulum Ruinas, the Mayan walled city (or a long dusty walk which was the option we chose unfortunately!). The site, also known as Zama (City of Dawn) was one of the last outposts of Mayan civilization, being occupied from around 1200AD all the way through to the Spanish colonization in the 16th century which marked the end of this 3,500 year old empire.

 

As we walked down the dusty track we saw stalls and traders selling colourful ponchos, rugs and sombreros as well as faded postcards and tacky replica Mayan ruins. 

I bought a fresh coconut and enjoyed the juice, something I hadn’t done since my last trip to Malaysia in 2004. One trader beckoned me over and starting bargaining with me; he literally wanted the shirt off my back – as it was a genuine Premiership Southampton shirt.

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