It’s the year 2010 already – isn’t that a little creepy? When I
was a boy, the year 2010 seemed like some far-flung time in a
futuristic world where everyone would spend their lives in front
of computers and ride around in flying cars. Well, we may not
have the flying cars yet, but a lot of us do spend most of our
lives in front of computers of one type of another. Which brings
me on to my latest gadget... I recently bought a 32GB iPod Touch (3rd generation), which has been the most surprising purchase I’ve ever made! You see, I have always been against Apple products since the days of MacOS 8, which was a clunky and ugly interface running on a proprietary brick of a computer. So when two of my colleagues in DaC IT (Jason and Benjamin) bought an iPod Touch each, I dismissed their superficial triviality and went about my merry way. However, my resistance soon proved futile as I began to realise that this was more than simply an MP3 player – so much more! The Touch is a powerful handheld computer; similar to the Apple iPhone, which allows you to access the Internet via WiFi, play games, watch movies and podcasts, listen to music and much more besides. The sheer staggering number of "apps" available for this little device is astounding. The Apple store have around 100,000 apps available, many of which are free or ridiculously cheap – as low as 59p! In the process of playing with |
In a world where technology moves at an astounding pace, DaC Network Administrator Jonathen Winterburn takes an occasional look at the latest gadgets… JON ASKS WHAT’S NEW? |
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my new toy, I stumbled
upon Twitter. Some months ago in Call Sign,
I disagreed with a driver and slated this web application as
being dire and simply a means for sad, lonely people to announce
to the world what they were doing at every
minute of the day. But I was wrong! Due to one exceptional lady
- none other than Ms Twitter UK -and her fascinating, inspiring
life story that I discovered at http://rebeccawoodhead.com,
I found myself being drawn in to the world of Twitter. Before I
knew it, I was not only reading everything
she had to "tweet" about, but I also found myself following many
other riveting "tweeters" including the brilliant Stephen Fry
himself - Twitter: @stephenfry.Ms Twitter UK is actually known as Rebecca Woodhead from the Cotswolds (find her on Twitter: @rebeccawoodhead). Rebecca is a novelist, tech pundit and an avid tweeter who is quite simply a breath of literary fresh air. As her writing and Twitter credentials far outstrip my own, I asked her to describe Twitter for Call Sign. She told me: "I grew up in the middle of the countryside on the edge of the Cotswolds, but every birthday from the age of three, I asked my parents to take me to London for a birthday taxi ride - I kid you not! We would |
get in the
cab and ask the driver to show us London. Sometimes we would see
all the tourist spots and sometimes we would tour the East End,
but every time, the highlight of the ride was the story. There
are no storytellers like London taxi drivers and the budding
writer in me loved to listen to them. Twitter is the online
equivalent of a taxi ride through London with the perfect
cabbie. Its real time search engine is The Knowledge that
connects you to ideas being thought around the world at any
given second. The people you follow are the ones who drive your
twitter story-cab. In fact, Twitter recently introduced Lists,
which is like having your own fleet of taxis. Hop onto a list
called London and you have one experience, build a list called
football and you have another. The more black cab drivers that
join Twitter the better, because Twitter is all about the
stories - and who has more stories than a London cabbie?" Thanks Rebecca, I’m never afraid to admit when I am wrong and in this instance I concede to Richard Cudlip (V23) - Twitter: @cabbiescapital - that you were right! Twitter is an excellent tool, there is no doubt about it and I retract my likening the users of it to the proletariat et al. A prosperous new year to you all, and thanks for reading!
Jonathen Winterburn |
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