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POSSESSED: Fascinating Insight to Hoarding

Looking for inspiration to encourage you to tidy up? Look no further than a documentary from Martin Hampton titled, ‘Possessed.’

POSSESSED from Martin Hampton on Vimeo.

In addition to great wordplay (the title alone is a formidable pun), the video offers a fascinating insight to obsessive compulsive hoarding.

‘POSSESSED‘ enters the complicated worlds of four hoarders; people whose lives are dominated by their relationship to possessions. The film questions whether hoarding is a symptom of mental illness or a revolt against the material recklessness of consumerism. When does collecting become hoarding and why do possessions exert such an influence on our lives?

If you, or someone you know, suffers from this problem, consult the resources located with the video in its original location.

Be a Responsible Netizen

YouTube prides itself on being able to offer a whole array of statistical information to its users about each other through its ‘Insight’ feature. It seemed, however, less endeared to the idea of sharing similar information with Viacom, inc. According to an article from The Associated Press:

Lawyers for Google Inc., which owns YouTube, said producing 12 terabytes of data — equivalent to the text of roughly 12 million books — would be expensive, time-consuming and a threat to users’ privacy.

YouTube have hit back at Viacom on the site’s own blog, though concedes it has to comply with the court’s rulings. YouTube hint that Viacom’s demands may infringe on user privacy, Viacom maintains YouTube has done little to curb the problem of copyright infringement. Clearly these two commercial entities will be locking heads for a long time to come. Perhaps both viewpoints are valid. At any rate this entry isn’t about making a case for either YouTube or Viacom. This entry concerns someone you may know much more intimately; this entry is about YOU.

As much as many people would like to pretend their activities online were an anonymous affair, they really aren’t. You are identified by your IP Address and your Internet Service Provider. Data is transmitted - and recorded - at every point of contact; by your computer, by your internet service provider, and by the sites you frequent. And of course a quick WhoIs Search will reveal who any domain is registered to and their contact details.

I don’t tell you this to scare you. It seems doubtful that unless you are doing something particularly illegal that anyone will care enough to dig into your browsing habits. But the point remains that you have a digital fingerprint. While there may not be a ‘paper trail’ per se to follow there is certainly an electronic one. And if we learnt nothing from Spiderman, it was surely that, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

The next time you leave a comment on a video or a blog post, stop for a moment and ask yourself if you would still post what you have written if it had your name on it. Your real name. Not a user name. Not a pseudonym. Not an alter-ego. But your legal name. Would you be happy to be associated with the comment if its author could be easily identified?

Most users on YouTube don’t use their real name, but it is worth noting some do. A notable example is the enigmatic Ian Crossland. Ian rose to fame under the handle of Crossmack, but resolved to start posting under his own name IanCrossland. At the time he most certainly didn’t endear himself to many other users who failed to follow his example. To Ian, it seemed a moral imperative to identify himself by his own name instead of ‘hiding’ behind online monikers.

Clearly this approach isn’t for everyone. Indeed most security resources insist we shouldn’t provide too much personal information online, and some websites even outlaw the practice in their terms of services agreements. But the point remains you must be responsible for your actions online in the same way you are in quote-unquote ‘real life.’ The distinction between ‘online’ life and ‘real’ life is one many users make, though it is not a meaningful distinction to the legal systems of the world. People have been sued for defamation as a result of MySpace blogs in the same way people have been sued for defamation as a result of making statements to more traditional forms of media.

This collection of technologies, this intangible ’space’ we call the Internet is shared by millions. We need to find ways to coexist with others. Hopefully the legal ramifications help you appreciate this as something more than a lofty ‘touchy-feely’ sentiment.

Oh… and for the record: I post on YouTube under the name of JohnOfJordan though frequently include links to my personal blog which identifies me under my real name John Lacey.

Get Organized with 30Boxes

Are you considering making the switch from a paper diary or calendar to an electronic one? Or perhaps to finally start utilizing a system for the first time instead of keeping things inside your head?

Over the coming weeks we intend to look at a number of different online calendar / organizer applications. You could be forgiven for thinking that all calendar programs are the same. I mean, they are restricted by the conventions of the calendar; certain number of days per month, seven days to a week. It is true that the differences between these applications are subtle and this is the reason we intend to highlight them in our reviews.

Let us start with 30boxes. The thing that really sets 30boxes apart from the others is its use of a command line-like interface. With most applications you would have to first click on a box and enter the details for your appointment (and indeed that is also possible, if desired, for 30boxes). Here, however, you can smply type in something like:

John Lacey Birthday 21st January

A dialog box appears requesting clarification on the event: is it infact a birthday? Will this event be repeated? Also if you know the person’s year of birth you will be prompted to include this information and each year 30boxes will advise you of their age.

This style of data entry has the potential to save you a lot of time, especially for straight forward items. (It may also be quite comforting for DOS and UNIX enthusiasts.) However including more detailed information will require either a greater knowledge of the 30boxes syntax or a moment to add the information in the ‘detailed entry’ dialog.

30Boxes Command Line Cheat Sheet
If you want to repeat an event include the word ‘repeat’ followed by the frequency of the event ‘weekly, monthly, yearly.’
[event] [date] repeat [duration: weekly/monthly/yearly]
To invite another internet user to your event simply include a plus sign and their email address.
[event] [date] +[email@domain.com]
To tag an event as being important, include an asterix. This will put a yellow star next to the item on the day it appears, and bring it to the top of the list of events appearing on that day.
[event] *
Tags are useful to separate aspects of life. You might, for example, want to tag some things as being “work” and others as being “personal.” Simply include the expression ‘tag’ followed by the tag name.
[event] tag [tag name]
Color tags help you identify different items at a glance. You can choose from the following: navy/blue/maroon/purple/green/red/teal/magenta/olive/lime/orange/aqua/yellow
[event] tag [color name]
Include hyperlinks with your events, or addresses (which will be represented by Google Maps, where available) with square brackets.
[event] [[url]]
[event] [[address]]

You can set reminders with each event you include on your calendar. Reminders can be sent by either e-mail or SMS/text messages (with selected providers only). Please note your phone provider may charge for the use of this service.

30boxes has a basic “to-do list” function, although there is nothing particularly unusual about it. You can, however, access it via RSS although I personally can’t see any obvious benefit to this feature.

A more useful (and unique) feature is the ability to view twitter messages and update your twitter status from within 30boxes. Why have two open windows (or tabs) when one will suffice?

30boxes have a great printable versions of their calendars in either Day, Week, or Month formats.

While 30boxes claims to have the ability to import from existing calendars in either ICS or CSV, I was unable to successfully do this with either format. (30boxes confess this is a new feature and may not function correctly.) This is an obvious stumbling block if you were hoping to upgrade from an existing calendar program.

Play Commodore 64 Games Online

Do you pine for simpler times when computer games were filled with two-dimensional sprites, 8-bit music and menu screens adorned with ASCII art?

Do you long to again play classic games like Wonderboy, Ghosts ‘n Goblins and Giana Sisters?

And all without getting your dusty Commodore 64 out of storage?

Well, now you can!

C64s.com gives you the opportunity to revisit a collection of classic Commodore 64 games through the wonders of simulation and Java.

A few caveats though. Despite the best efforts of the programmers both the simulator and some of the games can be a tad temperamental. While some games are clearly marked as being “buggy” even those which aren’t won’t necessarily respond in the same way they did on your faithful Commodore 64.

Also, Commodore 64 gaming was traditionally joystick orientated. Here games are played via a keyboard. Certainly the gaming experience is a different one. Some joystick commands translate awkwardly to the keyboard; and, frankly, some don’t translate at all! I couldn’t, for example, negotiate my way past the first screen of Ghostbusters.

If we can look past these ‘glitches’ we are projected into a gaming experience almost forgotten. And I don’t know about you but give me Giana Sisters over Tomb Raider any day!

Twitter In Plain English

Twitter. It is one of those things that sounds absolutely ridiculous on paper, but you start using it and find it difficult to stop - even difficult to explain why you cannot stop!

Fortunately The Common Craft Show can be a little bit more eloquent on the subject than I can.

Twitter in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.


Sign up to Twitter and follow me today!

Wordpress Themes For Non-Designers

Wordpress is a great free tool for Blog and Website publishing. The look and layout of your site is the first impression your visitors have of you, your site and your content. Webmasters have the opportunity of purchasing a theme, designing their own theme, or even enlisting the services of a designer for their website to get just the right look. However if you are working on a budget, don’t overlook the free Wordpress themes that are available!

Before you even start scouring template sites for ‘the right look’ it is important to take some time to establish exactly what that is. What is the purpose of your site? Who is your audience? It might seem obvious but a site aimed at graphic designers is going to have very different aesthetic requirements compared to one aimed at programmers. Is your subject matter contemporary or classic? Playful or serious? How frequently will you post? Is your content time-sensitive or will it be eternally topical? Will visitors pour over your content for hours at a time, or are they looking for quick solutions to their problems? All these things are important considerations for the structure and look of your website.

With a clear definition of your goals you already have an idea of the kinds of themes you will be able to automatically eliminate from consideration, saving yourself time and sparing yourself the ‘joy’ of indecision.

While it is possible to make adjustments to themes, the very premise of this entry is that it is directed at non-designers. (Indeed if you were a designer, you could just design a theme from scratch.)

It is important to judge each theme on its own merits and not its perceived “potential.” You want something that you can add your own flair to, without making a great deal of changes to - especially in terms of coding, structure and graphics. Most theme designers assume you will want to brand your own site and make allowances for this. Many, though not all, will have a ‘configuration’ page which you access from within the Wordpress Dashboard - offering for slight variations on themes, especially in terms of color schemes and general appearance.

Are widgets important to you and your site’s functionality? Please be aware that not all themes that are available are ‘widget-ready.’ If a major function of your site requires the use of a widget and your theme doesn’t make allowances for widgets, disregard it and keep looking. Please keep your vision for your site and its usability in the front of your mind at all times. Don’t ever compromise the integrity of your site in the pursuit of some pretty design element.

Experiment with lots of free themes until you feel confident with your selection. Remember, you can change between themes at a moment’s notice, and using free themes - the price is always right.

Finally, remember content is king! It doesn’t matter how good looking your website is, if it offers nothing of interest or value to your visitors you will not have any return traffic.