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Pooka
Benjamin “Pooka” Maydon, 26, is a London-based geek who relies upon the Internet for sustenance. As Pookie K, he performs musical comedy. As Benjamin, he has been an actor, teacher and nurse, among other things. As Pooka, he has written for video gaming website RealVG, student newspaper Platform, and various charity websites. Pooka currently writes for Suite101.com in addition to Areatrade’s tech blog, independently reviews Nintendo games, writes fiction and fanfiction, anonymously produces articles about dating and relationships, runs an award-winning Superfrog website, moderates the James fansite Egoiste, and officiates a weekly chat session on knightmare.com every Sunday night. He’s managed to get to sleep a few times, too.
Posts by Pooka
Hackers get Hacked – the power of online action
Jul 20th
The recent ’phone-hacking scandal which has tainted the reputation of Rupert Murdoch – who was already a hate figure in some media circles – and his News International corporation seemingly caused an online reaction so extreme that international hacker collective “Lulz Security” (often known as LulzSec) took steps to infiltrate the website of News International’s Sun – the best-selling newspaper in the UK. LulzSec officially renounced their retirement from hacking in June; however, they have claimed responsibility to the attack, at first posting a fake news story about the death of Rupert Murdoch on the Sun’s website with the headline “Media mogul’s body discovered”. Minutes later, any attempt to access thesun.co.uk caused an automatic redirect to LulzSec’s Twitter account. “How can we read this morning’s breaking Sun stories when there is no Sun website?” joked @LulzSec. Twitter has been for days the go-to site for information about the hacking scandal as it continues to break, and online pressure in the form of petitions and retweets has been blamed partially for the collapse of the News of the World, sister paper to the Sun and now closed down permanently. However, although News International still stands, its official website has previously been More >
Reporting in 140 Characters: Twitter’s Guide for Journalists
Jul 5th
Social media rears its head whenever news breaks. Facebook, once the pinnacle of information-sharing, held its own for fast news stories, with Reuters, BBC News and Sky all using it – in conjunction with their websites, news tickers, and YouTube channels – to get news out onto the Internet fast, so that it can be used on the blogosphere, and perhaps even get noticed by the general public. However, in recent years, nothing can hope to beat Twitter, the fastest-updated social networking site ever created, which journalists have praised on account of the fact that typing a headline and hitting “send” is remarkably easy, wherever you are.
To work on this, Twitter has launched its own guide for journalists – “Twitter for Newsrooms” – encouraging the hashtag #TfN. TfN defines a “common bond” between news reporters: “the desire to make a difference in the world, bringing reliable information to the communities you serve”. The four sections of the service – report, engage, publish and extra – provide support for journalists across the globe, providing support for those not yet au fait with the power of microblogging, and networking for those who are.
Facebook itself has also launched a resource for journalism, encouraging news More >
Twitter’s Tribute to Ryan Dunn
Jun 21st
Ryan Dunn, 34-year-old star of popular student stunt programme Jackass, died in a car crash in Pennsylvania on Monday morning, and within minutes of his death, he had appeared as a trending topic on Twitter.
Dunn – @ryandunntv on Twitter – used not only the microblogging feed, but also the picture-based social network Tumblr – posted a link (which has since been removed) via Twitter to a picture of himself drinking with friends on his Tumblr, hours before his crash.
As news of his death spread, celebrities and Jackass fans alike were posting tributes over the Twitterverse – with one user of photo-sharing service Flickr snapping the wreckage of the car.
Although film critic Roger Ebert has drawn controversy for his harsh comment – “friends don’t let jackasses drink and drive,” @ebertchicago said, most of the tributes spanning the social networking services Dunn used – Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and even Facebook – have been overwhelmingly positive, remembering his sense of humour, friendly manner, and willingness to shine in the eyes of the camera.
The Power of Social Media – Anthony Weiner vs. Twitter
Jun 14th
The effectiveness of social networking has reared its head again in the United States Congress. Congressman Anthony Weiner has reacted to his mistake in unwittingly sending an allegedly indecent message – and image – via Twitter, forgetting to hit the ‘direct message’ button. Thanks to the speed at which social networks run, the image was gotten hold of by other users of the popular micro-blogging network, and subsequently re-tweeted around the world.
President Obama, who has called for the resignation of Weiner, is familiar with the impact of social media himself. Throughout his presidency, and even his initial electoral campaign, Obama has kept his supporters updated via his own Twitter account (@BarackObama has over eight million followers worldwide), his Facebook account, and YouTube – a speech by Vice-President Joe Biden concerning health reforms was an instant success on the video-sharing website.
Weiner, who initially denied that the indecent image was posted by him, has apologised via Twitter, but Obama is still insistent that “if it was me, I would resign.” Interviewed on US channel NBC about the incident, a clip including Obama’s comment has been seen circulating – appropriately enough – on YouTube.
Big iBrother – Steve Jobs’ response to the tracking controversy
Apr 26th
The recent discovery of a “location history database” built into iOS (the OS employed by the humble iPhone) – which effectively tracked users’ locations and activities – has finally been addressed by the Big Apple himself: CEO of the company, Steve Jobs.
According to the website MacRumors (macrumors.com), a concerned reader wrote directly to Jobs regarding a file built into iOS named “consolidated.db”, which keeps a record of precise locations via longitude and latitude co-ordinates. A visualisation of this data, which could be effectively used to pinpoint an iPhone user on a map, was created by enterprising researchers via a program for Mac OS X, sparking media attention and rather a large amount of paranoia in iPhone users. The anonymous reader who wrote to Jobs cited the idea as “unnerving” and threatened to switch to Android – an OS designed for smartphones which is becoming an increasingly popular rival to the iPhone and other competitors such as the BlackBerry – unless Jobs gave a response. “[Android] don’t track me,” claimed the reader.
Steve Jobs’ response was to call the idea that the information could be circulated “false”, saying verbatim that, “we [Apple] don’t track anyone.” While there is no evidence to suggest More >
B is for Bing! Microsoft’s bid to win the search war
Apr 12th
According to data released recently by eagle-eyed Experian Hitwise, Google’s grip on the search engine market – leading to the colloquial use of “to Google” as a verb – may be slipping, due to competition from the name that keeps cropping up when computers are concerned – Microsoft.
64.42% of searches in the US routed through Google in March, claim Experian Hitwise, and while that is still two-thirds of the market, a sizeable 30.01% can be claimed by Microsoft – 14.32% via their well-publicised search engine Bing, and 15.69% from Yahoo!, which is technically owned by the Microsoft corporation. In a smooth and virtually silent virtual coup, Yahoo! is now powered by Bing.
Bing, ridiculed by some as an acronym for “But It’s Not Google,” also appears to be doing well in terms of successful searches, 80.32% of its users clicking on a search result, whereas the idle Googler only has a 65.91% chance of finding an appropriate website via the search facility. As a result, Google appears to have flatlined somewhat, their market share down 10% since August 2010.
Bing, on the other hand, is up massively from 9.9% of searches as the last year ended, and although Google still controls the More >
Reformspring How the Q&A site just got cooler
Apr 6th
Formspring.me, a popular social website which works with a unique question-and-answer format, unveiled a new look for its site yesterday, which has sparked comments about its similarity to the new Twitter interface.
Designed seemingly with egotists in mind, the site’s primary system is a function which allows anyone – member or not – to ask a specific user a question about themselves, their opinions, or their lives, with the prompt “ask me anything”, which can (and often is) cross-posted to Twitter or Facebook, to gain more questions. A ‘follow’ function, not unlike the aforementioned rival social networking sites, allows you to ask, contact, or smile at the people you know. You can also answer their questions, too.
“One of the most significant design evolutions in Formspring’s history,” according to the company, adds a top-screen navigation bar, allowing for instant navigation back to your profile or questions – saving those precious two seconds one previously used up scrolling back to the top of the page – and shifts the site’s layout to 760 by 490 pixels by default. Formspring claims that the new layout is suitable for all sizes of computers – desktops, laptops, netbooks and even tablets, like the new iPad 2, More >
Mind The &nspb! – London Underground’s 2012 Wi-Fi Goal
Mar 29th
Commuters wanting to send the inevitable text message telling their office that their tube is held once again at a red signal will have the chance to finally do so by 2012 – if the plan to roll out widespread Wi-Fi throughout the London Underground is successful.
London Mayor Boris Johnson’s boast of May 2010 that “every every lamp post [and] every bus stop will, one day very soon, be Wi-Fi enabled” preceded October’s attempt to match what has already been established in Berlin, Tokyo and Singapore: BT’s Wi-Fi hotspots for London Underground users were tested at Charing Cross, and in a strangely serviceable event, users of the Bakerloo and Northern platforms, as well as those in the main ticket hall, were able to connect to open-access Wi-Fi.
Deemed “successful” by Transport for London, telecom companies are now being invited to place a bid for a contract to supply a widespread area of Wi-Fi hotspots to a number of Underground stations – 120, to be exact. The winner, to be announced in the closing months of 2011, will be awarded with the task of establishing these hotspots before a set date. The date itself? June 2012 – to coincide with the opening More >