Disqus - Friends of AJCann

Re: Multi-Tab URL Shortening

alun — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:46:55 -0000

An interesting idea, but from a spammer's perspective isn't that like multiple pop-ups? I know I'll sound a bit Nielsen here, but making multiple links does at least put the option with the user. But with more integration happening between sites it does sound like a sensible suggestion.

Re: UK Edublogger Censored

alun — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:48:43 -0000

You are right that there are problems with the full background of the situation. Does that mean that TALMOS will be releasing the contents of the email to clarify their position?

Re: What Defines Reputation In Social Software?

alun — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:15:00 -0000

I'm wary of votes because as the community grows you may find opinions polarising along political or social lines. But making the number of replies part of the answer is a good idea as it gives a good reason to ignore trolls and rewards being social.

Re: Not all Wordpress comments importing

alun — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:56:06 -0000

I'm afraid I get no comments imported. After clicking the button to export into Disqus the Disqus page in the control panel only half reloads. That's with WP 2.6. It's a shame as potentially Disqus is a very good idea, but I don't want to use it if it means losing around a thousand comments.

Re: Suckiness abounds: delicious makes a bad move (and an even worse movie)

alun — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:31:48 -0000

I'm wondering who the video was made for, because it clearly wasn't for users who might want to know what the changes are. On the plus side, I'm starting to understand more what networks are, but then I'm way behind you on that. I can see that usability might be lost for people who know what they're doing.

Re: No Zombie Vampire Superpokes Please, We're Scientists

alun — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:57:58 -0000

I wonder if a Friendfeed room paired with a static(!) or static-ish site might be better. The static site could have the basic information on how to sign up to Friendfeed on it, along with an 'about this project' page and a javascript embed of the room (if that's possible). That way if people friend me, then they get to see what I'm doing with social websites, rather than just a list of them.

If most people are facebooked, then they already have a feed to import which is profile-ish, but I don't know how searchable that would be.

Re: No Zombie Vampire Superpokes Please, We're Scientists

alun — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 05:00:02 -0000

Clearly I'll have to type more quickly. :) Also moving 70 people might be less of a pain than moving hundreds in a year's time.

Re: Screaming jelly babies - we're f*cked

alun — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:13:41 -0000

84% of their respondents thought science was 'outdated'? How do you overcome that kind of ignorance? Perhaps a nationwide strike of science experts until the BBC reinstate Tomorrow's World? And not on BBC4 either, it should be on BBC1.

Re: Facebook: Cleanse or Delete?

alun — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 15:22:16 -0000

I've got to admit, I'm on Facebook but I haven't got a clue what it's for. If I really want to contact anyone then I'll still use email, blog comments, twitter or phone. Perhaps that's why I'm stuck on 12 friends.

Or maybe just no-one likes me.

Re: Lies, damned lies and frustration

alun — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 04:27:47 -0000

It's not even 9:30 and you've already suggested another paper I need to cull from the thesis. I don't know whether to be pleased or annoyed. :)

Re: Are you on the list?

alun — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 04:57:01 -0000

I'm not sure I'd agree with that. I wouldn't use the lists because Twitter is about having a personal network. But that's only the way I use it. I can see how someone else might want to look in wefollow and find other #eminem fans to swear at. It's possibly down to depth of engagement. Just because someone likes #science or #history it doesn't mean I'll have much in common with them. The Creation Museum is listed under those two tags on wefollow. On the other hand if all you want see what's bubbling in the internet's stream of consciousness, a journalist maybe, then maybe list following is useful?

Re: Google to Buy Twitter…Not

alun — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:30:22 -0000

If you combine that with the news that Google's going to be using behaviour based adverts, that becomes worrying. From a privacy point of view using a client rather than the web interface might be a good idea.

Re: Oral sex causes cancer

alun — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:28:17 -0000

Following that line of argument should we really be saying that smoking causes cancer? I know there's a statistically significant correlation, but there's a lack of RCTs and last time I looked (some years ago, so I may be out of date) there was no definite causal link. I'd imagine the statistical correlation is a lot stronger between smoking and cancer than oral sex and cancer due the number of studies, so accepting one doesn't mean accepting both, but at the same time it shows that stats can themselves be persuasive. Its then down to how swayed you are by the correlation between oral sex and cancer.

Given that you're providing people with the means to judge for themselves, would adding a '?' at the end of the headline help?

Re: Yahoo Scraps Geocities

alun — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 06:43:52 -0000

From a humanities perspective, I'm hoping the Wayback Machine will capture most of it. By simply removing Geocities is a bit like getting rid of a wing of the Library of Alexandria. I'll admit it's a grubby run-down wing, with poor illumination and a rodent infestation problem. Still, it could be useful in saying something about early internet culture.

Re: Does the Digital Age belong to the Media Scholars?

alun — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:17:45 -0000

The more you explain your work, the more I think what you're aiming for is anthropology, where media studies knowledge is useful, than media studies. That's not entirely bad news. It means you're approaching digital anthropology from a different angle to most of the anthropologists. I don't know if you are aware of http://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthro... but you may find it useful.

Re: Why am I not surprised?

alun — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:55:14 -0000

I'm working on the assumption that it'll be RAE with some extra bits bolted on at the last minute that don't act consistently with the rest of the assessment. There could be some form of 'public engagement' metric, but I doubt it will count for a lot. That means you were right when you said that academics involved with public outreach won't get into the REF to get their work credited.

What I'm wondering is whether or or not the rules will be set before or after the submissions go in for assessment.

Re: For Richard Williams and Chris Wehner

alun — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:48:44 -0000

If you look closely you'll also notice Thomas Paine on the left, who famously wrote about the existence of God. ;)

Re: Exploring Metaplace

alun — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:32:28 -0000

I had a go at making a world http://www.metaplace.com/al... but the free version is so limited I wasn't inspired to sign up for anything extra. Interactivity with the environment should mean more than clicking on a door icon.

If I could use SL, then I'd be more interested in that but the control system is no good for me. I'm lousy at Half-Life too. With a VR style headset and Wii-style gloves, it could be interesting but any virtual world is going to have a problem when everything you handle feels like a mouse.

Re: BNP: should they be allowed to advertise?

alun — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:10:17 -0000

No, Mark is mistaken. You don't *have* to let the advertising happen for freedom of speech to occur. The BNP have a right to say what they say, but they don't have a right to compel others to repeat their message. The Leicester Mercury has had a consistent editorial line on this for years. Saying they must allow something in the paper has implications for their own freedom of speech. The journalists, publisher and newsagents are all citizens, not eunuchs, and have their own rights.

Ideally a paper with an effective monopoly in a region would be politically neutral, but in this case either accepting or rejecting the adverts will be a political act. It's not an easy decision and either way you're likely to be vilified for making the wrong choice.

Re: Pedant's Corner: Fewer or Less?

alun — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 05:20:02 -0000

Ok, but my local Sainsbury's has one till marked 10 items or fewer and another 10 items or less. Doesn't the inconsistency grate on your soul? Or is it just a clever marketing device to get people like me to buy more than 10 items to avoid using those tills. :)

Re: Solar storm hitting Earth causes spectacular aurora displays

alun — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:34:45 -0000

Nope Jack you're wrong. The people who NEED SI units are reading the primary sources. For most people the imperial units are more familiar and accurate enough. If we were to follow your example most French papers would have to report science stories in English to avoid translation errors.

Re: Free school milk: the white stuff might not be the right stuff

alun — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 08:32:37 -0000

I think there may be hazards in giving children untreated water. No other animals on the planet treat their water, so I'll concede it's not natural, but it doesn't stop it being a good idea.

Re: A long list of things I don't like about Mendeley

alun — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 07:24:21 -0000

I think one key point you make is if your community moves to Mendeley you'll need to be there. I think that makes some difference to the usability.

At the moment I don't experience any network benefits from any reference system. CiteULike is a good system, but it's not that useful with a network of zero. Mendeley also has network effects, but if you have no network it still works as a PDF manager and bibliographic manager. I'm looking at re-doing the iScience social media workshop from scratch and I think for people with no network or experience collaborating online Mendeley is the easier tool to see the point of. It also helps that the iScientists will be able to install the client on their own tablets, but if Mendeley is going to be useful to a lot of people in HE it'll have to work around limitations on installs from computer centres.

The price is awkward. Compared to EndNote I think it's a bargain, but it's an online service so it's natural to compare it to Flickr, Picnik etc. Of course the University pays for the software so we don't notice that. In fact if you don't use EndNote you don't notice it at all, but large numbers of people are still tied to that, and that's the market CiteULike, Mendeley and Zotero have to crack if they're going to gain mass acceptance. I'll have a think for a blog post on that.

Re: IVF Nobel Prize: shame the Vatican can't congratulate Prof Edwards

alun — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 10:55:13 -0000

No I can't agree with that. People have IVF treatment precisely because they cannot have children naturally. If they could then there wouldn't have been much incentive to develop the treatment. These are not adults, children or even foetuses we're talking about. These embryos would not be growing up to lead fulfilling lives as accountants or architects. Without IVF they would die unnoticed.

Re: IVF Nobel Prize: shame the Vatican can't congratulate Prof Edwards

alun — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 11:43:04 -0000

If you want an exact date for the start of development, I can't give you one. My body is the result of life combining and recombining over billions of years. You might feel that life starts with conception, but that can only happen with live egg and sperm cells. I see a chain of life rather than continuous sparks. It does raise the question that, if it's the fact that a human cell is alive that qualifies it for protection, is contraception murder?

It reminds me of one of Julian Baggini's philosophical puzzles. You're in a clinic that has caught fire. You're in a lab in this clinic with a convenient trolley and a fire-retardant blanker. On this trolley is space for two three-year old children (who for some reason are in the lab) or a heavy freezer that contains a thousand embryos from IVF treatment. You're only going to make one trip out of the clinic. Who or what do you choose to save?