Posts by Category: opinion piece

It’s my party and I’ll talk if I wanna!

Awesome March 19, 2010 posted by

Zermatt Summit – humanizing globalization

A press release for something called the Zermatt Summit which landed in my inbox yesterday certainly made me blink. The meeting, which will be held in Switzerland June 3–5th, is aiming to help ‘create a better world’ by seeing how we can make the economy serve the common good, rather than just enrich a few. Hallelujah brother! Sure, the cynics will sneer, the skeptics will mutter darkly about communism and the rest will probably move on quickly to read something more interesting, but…


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opinion piece March 2, 2010 posted by

Save the BBC

The BBC is under attack from commercial organisations who want to remove it from their competitive landscape, as a scapegoat to paper over their own commercial inefficiencies. Great for them, lousy for the rest of us. There’s a petition to Save the BBC for those who are interested. Pass it on  – http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_bbc/97.php?CLICKTF and another one http://38degrees.org.uk/page/s/bbccuts#petition Tags: bbc, save+the+bbc


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hmm..interesting February 26, 2010 posted by

Big Change in the tech world – more unease about the rise and rise of web service control

Mmm…seems like we’re not the only ones getting worried about the dominance of the large online services and their control over our data. Web icon Dave Winer yesterday echoed our sentiments that the trend towards monetizing and dominating chunks of the web [direct link down, Google cache version] is leaving us all vulnerable to a potentially nasty future.  The moral of the story of the Facebook patent and all the recent news from Apple and Google: Tech companies are no better or…


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opinion piece February 5, 2010 posted by

Heinz Dip & Squeeze – World peace in a sauce packet?

Crikey people. Heinz invents a new tomato sauce ketchup sachet and suddenly it’s all over the internetz with people making out that it may just cure cancer or something. Well, Down Under where I come from you always bought ketchup tomato sauce in silly little dipping containers which were completely useless for meat pies, the staple Australian food. So the boffins at Masterfoods and Conoflex Packaging came up with this little beauty, the Masterfoods Squeeze-On Tomato Sauce sachet. Snap it…


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Heinz Dip & Squeeze – World peace in a sauce packet?
hmm..interesting February 4, 2010 posted by

Nokia starts to cull mapping competition – forces Nav4All to cease trading

Hot on the heels of its successful roll-out of the free Ovi GPS navigation service in 10 countries – with over 1 million downloads in a week – it looks as though the Finnish giant is embarking on a campaign to destroy rival services. Popular free GPS navigation service Nav4All has just sent an email message to its 27 million customers shuttering the service after 5 years of operation. The reason? The owner of the international maps they use, Navteq (100% owned…


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Awesome February 1, 2010 posted by

Wikileaks needs support

WikiLeaks, the non-profit campaigning website has suspended operations and is currently looking for public donations to keep going. It’s a hugely worthy cause – we need as many outlets for whistleblowers as possible nowadays, so donations will be gladly received. Tags: wikileaks, donations


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Awesome January 29, 2010 posted by

The Red Ferret Product of the Year 2009: Google Android

The Red Ferret Product of the Year for 2009 has in some ways been a fairly easy pick. The Google Android operating system platform has literally punched its way out of nowhere into the public consciousness, helped of course by the massive public awareness of the search engine colossus itself. But what interests us more than just the marketing glam of front row products like the Motorola Droid and Nexus One, is the potential for the platform to really revolutionise…


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Awesome January 28, 2010 posted by

The Red Ferret Product of the Year 2009: Software – Presto

Presto is the latest and most interesting version of Linux to target consumer computing. The weird thing is the fact that this Xandros made product actually runs on top of Windows, which for Linux purists is nothing short of heresy, but really the best way to encourage people to try a new operating system is to give them the chance to play with it on their own computer, free from the fear of ditching their comfort zone. The Presto install is fast and clean,…


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Awesome January 27, 2010 posted by

The Red Ferret Product of the Year 2009: Web – TV Trigger

Oh the competition was fierce in this sector this year, which just goes to show how sophisticated the new crop of Web applications and services are becoming as new technologies take hold. Our choice of TV Trigger as the winner was prompted however by the fact that it combines three of the most important and volatile components of the new web revolution in one awesomely simple to use package – television, BitTorrent and online shopping. TV Trigger lets anyone set up…


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heh heh! January 27, 2010 posted by

30 Fun Uses For Your Old Apple Newton Tablet

Now that Our Beloved Appletm is about to launch the ultimate tech saviour of humanity, we suddenly remembered that there’s one part of the population which might not be cheering so loudly. Those unlucky purchasers of Apple Newton MessagePad computers. So for all those distraught Newton users sobbing into their paisley man-bags we thought we’d help out with a short set of alternative uses for your precious and now sadly redundant hardware. Tech icon for slum landlords (‘sure, de apartment comes with…


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Eco Friendly January 26, 2010 posted by

The Red Ferret Product of the Year 2009: Green/Ethical – 40Fires.org

40Fires.org is a not-for-profit organisation which aims to encourage open sourced manufacturing across the world. The first product of the Foundation is the Hyrban, an electric/fuel cell powered vehicle which is currently in prototype. Detailed plans for the main sections of the car will eventually be available under an open source license to allow all-comers to deliver their own derivative products as needed. The idea of open source hardware is of course not new, but the vision of the people…


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Awesome January 25, 2010 posted by

The Red Ferret Product of the Year 2009: Imaging – Livestream Livepack

It’s safe to say that 2009 was the year that television discovered the Internet in earnest, and not in a particularly good way. The incredible explosion of content that is YouTube, the drift away from packaged programming towards on demand delivery across the broadband pipe, and even the decline in our traditional nightly news addiction as the immediacy of the Web took hold. All of these factors served to reveal the cracks in the dominance of mass broadcast in ways…


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cool tech December 15, 2009 posted by

50 Cheapo iPhone Clones – or why lock-down lovin’ Apple could be heading towards a music industry type meltdown

Two companies, two completely opposing attitudes. In the green corner, Apple, champion of the lock-down, closed off, proprietary platform. Our way or the highway. In the blue corner, Google, home of the ‘do no evil’, open systems, come-one come all platform. Apple vs Android. We’re not going to say much other than show you all this page full of 50 iPhone clones from the Far East. Sure they’re not the same as the real thing, but we all know it’s just a…


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opinion piece November 25, 2009 posted by

Call to Brits – time to sign the petition to safeguard Internet access?

Both the Finnish and French governments have recently declared access to the Internet to be a legal right, which makes the latest move by the UK government to randomly remove such a right if you’re an alleged file sharer even more disgusting. It’s like removing the right to get a job from someone who is accused of being late for work too many times. Not to mention the risks of depriving a completely innocent family of access because of hacking or some…


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announcement November 19, 2009 posted by

Request to PRs – aaaaarrrrghh……

A short request to the PR folk out there. Please don’t send us any more press releases relating to: a) Gadget cases. Have you any idea at all just how AWFUL these things are? What, they keep your handheld warm, cosy, safe and BORING?? b) iPhone stands. Who cares? No really. c) Plastic screen protectors for cell phones. Mind numbingly dreary. d) iPod docks. Ditto. Unless they’re nuclear powered and come with a signed copy of The Audacity of Pope. e) Cutesy…


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