Q: And Life

For around two years I have not bought Q magazine.  Then today, with Grohl gurning on the cover I got  tempted.  It's four quid now, thinner, smaller, but still essentially the same magazine it was when I started buying it over twenty years ago.  There's a pile next to my bed as tall as some people of Q mags.  It's better than a pile of porn I guess.

Magazines used to be everywhere in my house, by the bed, in the bathroom and the lounge, well that was like a fricking library.  Friends used to come round and between their turn beating me on ProEvo they'd be leafing through Games TM, Edge, Q or the NME.  Now, there's maybe one mag in the house and I don't buy any every month.

Buying Q today was kind of evocative.  It, along with NME (which I kind of saw as it's unruly kid brother) used to be my bible.  The net has played its part in changing that, but I don't log into their website to read reviews etc, I get them from 'real' people on Twitter.  Blog posts, throwaway 140 tweets about an album or a song, life has, for better or worse changed.  But it was nice today to curl up on the sofa with a magazine and just read about bands for a while.  Q were always good at not giving into the 'success = wanker' thing, turns out they still are.  Good.

My waking life is spent connected to the net.  Even when I'm asleep the iPhone stays connected, Boxcar racking up the overnight tweets and my mail accounts, both personal and project related receiving mail.  It's not often I don't wake up to one update or another, even if it's just to say it's my turn on WWF.  Even three years ago the PC lived upstairs, my phone was incapable of a Facebook update, only my PS3 saw me regularly connecting online with what could be described as 'strangers'.  And to be fair those strangers were mainly just shooting me.  A lot.  Facebook wasn't anything other than a way of interacting with colleagues and friends back then, but now it's more of an extension of Twitter.

So what did Q do for me today?  Well it stopped me tweeting for a couple of hours.

Then I tweeted about buying it...

The Orange Facebook Fail

Today, most people with a mobile phone on the Orange network could not connect to facebook.  By the sounds of things facebook blocked someone for abusive behaviour, but blocked the IP address for their phone, something which, unfortunately, is shared between many many users on each network.  Brilliant.

How Twitter Changed Facebook

Earlier this week @mattwhatsit wrote a great piece highlighting the differences between facebook and twitter and it inspired this post.  Facebook is a phenomenon, twitter's the younger sibling biting at Zuckenberg's heals that's less inclusive, harder work but far more addictive.

Ledger Facebook Community Page

Community pages are new to facebook.  They will probably be shit but I set one up last night for the Ledgers.  

They are different to normal Pages, like the one that I set up for the blog, because although initially they start of like a fan page they can, apparently, evolve and become owned by the community within.  So if we get enough 'fans' I'll lose any administration rights and the community will take control.  Fuck knows what that actually means but if you wanna see how it turns out feel free to join the literally 12 other people that already have.

Culling In The Name Of

I culled 50 odd tonight from my facebook account.  I wouldn't normally write about this here but I'm fairly sure that no one that I culled has the remotest interest in reading anything I write here anyway.  If I'm wrong about that and you're here reading this, feel free to call me out on that and I'll happily apologise.

F*** you I won't do what you tell me.

Well done the internet then. Rage Against the Machine are the Christmas number one. I listened to the charts for the first time in roughly twenty years tonight.

I just can't help but feel this tinge of sadness that we haven't yet figured out how to achieve something truly wonderful through social media. Maybe next year twitter and facebook will step up to the plate and do something marvellous and I really believe, post tweetathon, that anything is possible. Ok so it is a great 'fuck you' to Simon Cowell and I heartily applaud that, but it's hard to believe that this has been discussed at greater length than Copenhagen this week. If anything it's buried what an appalling fuck up that's been.

I'm happy Rage Against the Machine are number one. But I would love it so much more if we grabbed hold of the moment and did something really constructive. But that said it's been fun to have a race for the number one spot this week, something that a generation of kids have missed out on, and we have a song that means a lot to a loads of us at number 1. And when was the last time that happened?

It is a start. Well done the internet. *raises glass*

And in particular well done @moogyboobles who I've been following for ages on twitter who started the whole thing with her partner. I only realised this about 30 seconds ago. What a mook.

Twitter to charge? Facebook's now a gaming Platform...

Now before the twitterverse takes up a call to arms over the 'charging rumour' that emerged over the weekend I think it's worth clarifying a few things. Firstly it's a trial in Japan. Secondly it makes sense for twitter to charge for commercial use. Doesn't it? Well sort of I guess, although it does mess with the 'hippy, twitter village' thing. But if it leads to a more stable, reliable service then I can't see anyone complaining. But, and it is a big but, there's no way on earth any of us are gonna pay to read someone's tweets. That's not a model that'll work. Sorry twitter but we all just enjoy talking and sharing stuff way too much, to start making people pay for that would just mess with the whole point of twitter.

Which is?

Well I'm f***ed if I know, but for me it's about the people, about the way it's changed and spun out my world view in a way I wouldn't have thought possible. Giant chat room? Maybe. Some of the coolest people I've ever met? Yes. Wouldn't have it any other way. And the thing with twitter is that at least once a week I meet someone else that's interesting and engaging. That doesn't happen anywhere else. Twitter Village gets bigger all the time. But that's how I like it. Just let us keep tweeting for free. Ta.

Farmville is clearly addictive. So are Mafia Wars and Bejeweled Blitz. Facebook users have been indulging themselves with these mini-games for a while now but I can not express how annoying the regular updates are in a news feed. Sure you can hide them (new discovery yesterday) but facebook needs to recognise how irritating some of these games are. I don't object to people playing them at all. Hell, I game, a lot. It's one of life's greatest pleasures as far as I'm concerned but I don't feel the need to tweet every game I play on COD or which level I've reached on Uncharted. Ok so I do talk about it. Just not in everyone's face, all the time.

So facebook, dear dear facebook, home to the people I actually know, please sort it out. Because I know there will be another one of these addictive lil games available at any moment and I don't wanna hear about it. Ta. Unless I get sucked in and start playing. In which case that's cool. You dig?

Get me having a rant. Doesn't happen often eh? Must have had a bad day? Nope, good day. Crap train journey home. Happily I now have the 'new' Sky electronic program guide. I've only had Sky HD since April. Thanks Sky. You're so prompt. Also, John Giddens. Nice line up. No really. Up to date and that.

Winge over... once in a while it's good to vent. Once in a while though, not every post ;)