Category Archives: Politics

The facebook problem

Posted on February 27, 2011 by alex

When a for-profit company gives you something for free, with little chance of ever charging, you have to ask, “who is the customer and what is the product?” Facebook has (reputedly) 500 million users, none of whom pay a penny … Continue reading →

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Posted in Life, Politics, Social Networking, Technology | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Banks: the problem with ‘too big to fail’

Posted on September 25, 2010 by alex

We hear it time and again.  Such-and-such bank is too big to fail. To me, that simply means too big. A bank failing needs to be like a ripple in a pond not like a tsunami crashing all before it … Continue reading →

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Posted in Business, Politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

Local councils having a busking policy?

Posted on June 17, 2010 by alex

Bizarrely, in the news today (17th June 2010) it turns out that Exeter has a policy for busking in the city. Stunning, isn’t it. Apparently, said buskers have to audition for a place in the city so that they can … Continue reading →

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Posted in Life, Politics | 1 Comment

About Googlegate

Posted on June 17, 2010 by alex

I was reading this at El Reg. I like Privacy International. I share many of the same values but I’m not sure that Alexander Hanff has any idea of how code is written at Google. I don’t, but I’d hazard … Continue reading →

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Posted in IT, Politics | Tagged , | Comments Off

Dear BBC: It’s not ‘Digital Piracy’, it’s ‘copyright infringement’

Posted on April 9, 2010 by alex

It really, really annoyed me this morning, lying in bed, listening to the radio, hearing a journalist parrot the ‘digital piracy’ line. Piracy evokes images of beards and cutlasses on the high seas, where pirates board ships, steal galleons and … Continue reading →

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