The more you look at this, the more absurd it gets.
I wonder if anyone will recieve a reply for these gems on today’s freecycle… WANTED: Digital Camcorder, WANTED: Windows XP Pro, several people hoping for a whole list of furniture each, and finally one hopefully lady posted 4 times in search of a dictaphone, minidisc recorder,crochet hooks and finally ‘wheelchair and comfy sofa’…!
If any of you hopefuls actually manage to score for free such obviously saleable items, please: email me, I’d love to know.
freecycle “wanted” absurdities
If anyone wants an idea for a Google Maps mashup: A map of the closest NHS dentists, searchable by whether they are actually accepting new patients or not, would be very popular…
Data here: Find a Dentist / Dental Service
Struggling TelOne, the main government owned ISP in Zimbabwe, has had it’s internet access slashed to a fraction of the previous bandwidth by satallite provider IntelSat.
The fascinating backstory centres around the lack of foreign currency, in a country where world-leading 1200% inflation has destroyed the local currency, and political nervousness is destroying trade. 70% unemployment along with fuel and food shortages mean that TelOne has a near-impossible mountain to climb – but they are fighting back by lobbying the government for permission to charge in foreign currency, and even branching out into farming and export to raise the currecy to pay their bills.
Zimbabwe’s Net crawls due to unpaid debt | Tech News on ZDNet
The American TV show ‘Oprah’ has put together a ‘ Debt Diet‘ guide which is apparently highly regarded. It includes such tips as
‘If you put just $10 a day towards your debt, in one year you could put $3600 towards your debt!’
‘Pay credit card bills on time to avoid late fees’
Try ‘Putting your children in public school’
…and every page warns you to consult a financial advisor. I know they legally have to put things like that but it would be more responsible to also point out that there are number of ways in which you can get good advice on debt issues without spending more money!!
If that’s a good guide, what does a bad one look like?
The BPI (UK version of RIAA) has been given permission to sue AllofMP3.com in UK High Court. It seems their goal is to force the closure of the site.
The Guardian manages to neatly step around the issue of legality in the UK.
The High Court decision should make interesting reading since there is currently no legal precedent to make use of the site illegal.
Interestingly, there are still no plans for the BPI to sue consumers. Given the enthusiams that the Big Four have shown for sueing file-sharers, this has to suggest they think they would fail in court.
The Observer | Business | Music companies to sue owners of ‘Russian Napster’
I love most of Google’s software. Gmail is my favourite web application. Google is my only search engine. My blog is covered with Adsense. I use a Google calander, Google Earth, and even Picase.
But some of their stuff is a step too far. Google Flickr – branded Picasa Web – is not going to get my photos until it’s a long way ahead of flickr. And with Yahoo at the helm of Flickr, that is unlikely to happen. So, like Blogger and Google Reader, this is another try once and forget Google product. (But I do love my Gmail, oh great Google, don’t take it away…)
Picasa Web : Learn More
Fecalruba. Sounds like an interesting place for a holiday.
Also a cool made up word. Making up words is harder with the internet, there’s a lot of competition for good made up words.
These beautiful maps show where one can get to within a set time, from a handful of locations.
The saddest thing about these is the possibilities they hint at. With a published, open data-set, beautiful maps such as these could strongly enhance public transport, open up areas of the country for many people, and guide transport and housing policy for the government. But the data belongs to the government, (and sometimes to badly government-regulated industry), and so you will never see a map like this for where you live. Your tax money bought that data, but now your government has locked it away, and only the very rich can afford to buy it back again.
Kottke.org found some great pixel art including a very nice mockup of London
Look, there’s me! – The robot with red arms in the top right in this T-mobile hotspot map of London is standing on the office I’m writing this from.
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