badlyDrawnToy

OK. It didn’t take long to decide if I like or dislike facebook. Call me a luddite, but, whilst I do see the attraction, it doesn’t really seem to offer me anything useful. more »

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1. The stereo that auto-adjusts the volume when you drive faster
2. The heated electric seats
3. The car exhaust isn’t held on with a bootlace like on my old car
4. The stuffing isn’t falling out of the driver seat like on the old car
5. The fact that it’s cheaper to insure than a VW Polo; that it’s less likely to get nicked than a VW Polo, yet basically it is a VW Polo.

I’ve never really been a rev-head, but I am really enjoying my new Skoda Fabia Elegance 1.4 16v 100 bhp!

Categories: General | 1 Comment »

So, yesterday I discovered that some of my close friends are on facebook and I didn’t even know. I’d never bothered looking at facebook. I imagined that it was like myspace, which might appeal to my 11 year old niece, but certainly didn’t do it for me.

Anyway, to see what all the facebook fuss is about, I needed to sign up to view my friends profile. It’s pretty much what I’d expected - a place to share photos, thoughts and to see how I’m connected to other people. Since joining, I’ve been poked and invite to join a food fight. Not sure why!

I immediately customised/mashed-up my page to remove everything provided by my default profile, and instead import my existing blog, flickr photos, last.fm playlist and twitter updates. As of yet, I can’t seem to import my linkedin profile.

And here lies the problem, for me. Whilst I can see the appeal of being able to see what my friends are up to, I’m not going to check their profiles regularly, nor update my profile on a daily basis. I’ll update my blog, and my flickr photos, and last.fm will publish my playlist. And I’m more likely to update twitter using instant messaging, than to visit my facebook page. I’m already being bombarded with e-mails every time someone contacts me through facebook, and this is likely to annoy me pretty quickly.
I don’t want to be emailed. I want to periodically check for updates to my friends profiles, in my Google RSS reader. It appears that this isn’t possible, as facebook don’t publish feeds.

I’m beginning to wonder how successful social networking will ever be. My blog is rearely read as my non-techie friends don’t understand what RSS is, nor how to use an RSS reader. When I was travelling, my blog was only read when I send out a link in my email. Occasionally my friends check the web site when they’re bored (normally those friends with the most senior jobs!).

Perhaps, in time, as RSS is integrated into e-mail clients like Outlook, things will change. But perhaps, by then, it will be too late. Rather than blogging, my friends will by facebooking, or twittering.

So, let’s see if facebook is more successful at keeping my friends in touch than blogging. The jury is out, but I’ll give it a try. Stay tuned for my verdict.

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