Filed under: News | Tags: blog, Gordon Kelly, gordonkelly.com, hosting, new site, wordpress
Gordonkelly.com might only be 5 weeks old, but it has received a lot of feedback, some excellent comments and some rather decent traffic (proportionately speaking) so the time has already come from some proper hosting.
Up up and... away?!
The site will be moving from WordPress across to Fat Cow hosting over the next 24 hours and while the content should all be here it may go back to looking like a dog’s dinner for a short spell.I’ll fix it don’t worry, that’s my job!
Stay tuned…
NB – Should everything go balls up, the old blog will be available at gordonakelly.wordpress.com during the transitionary stage.
Filed under: News | Tags: CNet, Crave, Gordon Kelly, iamgordonsliver, non human Twitter user, Twitter
Looking for something a little more positive following news the planet was 24 hours from economic and political collapse. Try this on for size…
My liver is in this?!
After the wholly immeasurable honour of winning the UK’s top technology journalist in December (January results should be any time soon – I’ll chase them up!) I’ve turned up on another list, well at least part of me has.
The Twitter profile @iamgordonsliver has been named as the 8th ‘Greatest non-human Twitter User’ on CNet portal Crave. Irony is, I don’t write this (seemingly) tribute profile and have no access to it! Here’s what CNet had to say:
8: I am Gordon’s Liver
URL: www.twitter.com/iamgordonsliver
Type: Human organ
Typical tweet: “Building my hopes up again for a healthy lunch, but expecting a liquid one.”This is the liver of a journalist called Gordon. Day to day, the personified organ comments on life inside the human body, providing a unique and easy-to-digest account of what it’s like to work as an organ in a 21st-century male.
Thankfully other bizarre copycats such as @iamgordonsego and @iamgordonstoe have yet to show similar signs of take off (the liver is on over 120 followers as we speak). Of course it’s always possible to just follow me on Twitter instead – it may prove slightly less disturbing…!
via 8 Greatest Non Human Twitter Users (Crave/CNet)
Filed under: News | Tags: bankers, banks, economy, finance, global collapse, recession, US economy
There has been much debate recently about whether bankers deserved their huge bonus pay-outs this year or indeed the high salaries given to them in general after their starring role the current international recession. Now I think the answer is pretty self evident and that’s not what I’m hear to discuss at this point. If you want to vent your frustrations at that then here’s a petition where you can be pro-active in doing that.
No, what needs to be pointed out above all during these endless talks of interest rates, job cuts and businesses going into administration is just how close the planet was from complete economic and political collapse: 3 hours in the US, 24 hours globally. This may sound melodramatic but it’s not, it’s a spine chilling fact according to previously undisclosed insight from elected Democratic politician Paul E. Kanjorski.
Paul E Kanjorski
The full video is below, but here’s the shocking core of it – which kicks off 2 minutes 21 seconds in:
“On Thursday [18 September], at 11am the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the United States, to the tune of $550 billion was being drawn out in the matter of an hour or two. The Treasury opened up its window to help and pumped a $105 billion in the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn’t be further panic out there…
If they had not done that, their estimation is that by 2pm that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed… It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it.”
Now knowledge of this doesn’t solve anything. It doesn’t make the banks any less culpable or the political leaders who ignored their negligent high risk practices any less responsible. If anything it makes it worse. It does do one thing however and that’s the next time you’re feeling down about the latest national or international turmoil just remember: it could’ve been one heck of a lot worse…
Great kudos to Zero Hedge for this brilliant – and important – spot.
…when I say this is a rare piece of satirical genius to which we can all empathise:
Filed under: Feature | Tags: Facebook, followers, following, instant messenger, RSS feeds, social networking, TrustedReviews, Twitter
The second of my two part Twitter feature inspired by comments I made on an article entitled Correct Twitter Usage on my good friend Spode’s Think About Tech website:
Let’s get this lazy comparison scrubbed from the very first line: I don’t believe Facebook and Twitter are even remotely connected.
The old line: “Twitter is mass Facebook status updates for your friends” I believe to be utter – well – shite. The difference is Facebook has a certain ‘distance’ to it. With it I feel I get to know something about the LIVES of my friends on it and also the school friends I haven’t seen in years, but vitally many – if not most – of my Facebook friends I have no desire to interact with. Facebook is largely voyeuristic.
What are you doing with your time right now?
By contrast, Twitter is INTERACTIVE. Sure, there are professional sites simply rehashing their RSS feeds but they are largely catastrophic failures when you consider their number of followers when proportional to their site’s web audience.
No, Twitter is not about saying “I polished my car today” it is about interaction. It is a great online IM brothel between your friends/respected colleagues or others and one which goes on whether you are there are not. With Twitter I genuinely feel I have BONDED with virtually all of those I follow, I have not just watched them from afar via a sterile ‘Today’ page. I would even go so far as to say Twitter has helped improve social relations with a number of friends because we no longer need to engage in fatuous small talk . We already KNOW what is going on with one another’s lives and have often commented on it via Twitter so when we meet up we already feel comfortable, can cut the “so how has your week been…” waffle and have far more meaningful conversations.
Personally speaking, I know many people have issues with Twitter but let me be blunt here. If you find the people you follow say things you find dull then DON’T follow them. Cruel as it may sound I have many good friends in real life whose Twitter feeds I do not enjoy. I had the stones to remove them and we get on as if Twitter never existed.
Do you really participate with Facebook or just sit back and watch?
Likewise for those I do continue to follow I find I now feel genuinely closer to them. Their tweets delight, entertain and touch me about the goings on in their lives. One friend in particular who is living abroad I watch to see how his very ill son is coping. From his Twitter updates alone and my occasional real time responses to them I feel more useful than 50 FaceBook wall messages, virtual app flowers and picture posts ever could.
In essence then, perhaps what I am trying to say is that while Twitter can seemingly be written off by generalist and trite statements it is actually a hybrid creating a new form of communication. A merger of Facebook and IM, a grand forum or cyberspace town hall where you can share your daily/weekly/monthly highs and lows in a way representative of what drives you in this wonderful thing called the human condition.
Hardest of all however is to realise your own tweets paint an unrelenting self portrait, something which scares away many. Yet hopefully this close-up study of yourself and others also brings about realisation of where and how more can be made of your own life to give you more interesting things to Tweet about…
Link: Twitter Gordon Kelly Profile (follow me and see just how exciting/dull my life is!)
Filed under: Feature | Tags: Twitter, followers, following, stephen fry, veronica belmont, Think about Tech, Dark Vader
Time to chip in on what seems to be the hottest of hot topics recently: Twitter. It is the first of two features I’ll be publishing on web’s hottest topic.
Interstingly, this post was inspired by what began as a short comment on my great friend Spode’s excellent Think about Tech website and evolved into something altogether more substantial. Here’s a slightly revised version:
I’d like to address this Twitter usage issue as I think I see it from a slightly different viewpoint: it’s called natural evolution. The clear split between personal and professional users.
In one corner you have the original Twitter message: “What are you doing?” Admirably backed up by a recent post from Twitter king Stephen Fry where he declares: “For me Twittering is not a commercial or PR activity, it’s a fun and fascinating way to interact with all kinds of people who have so much to say. Since the primary function of Twitter is to answer the question “what you are doing?” my tweets will sometimes, obviously, involve news of publications or openings or events. Just be assured I am not using Twitter to advertise!”
Thanks Stephen by this is naive. You couldn’t manage your 100,000 followers without the assistance of your army of agents, secretaries and general helpers. After all, you may only be using Twitter in a social/interactive way but to allow this your life is being professionally managed in the background.
Everyone for each other or everyone for themselves?
Against this you have the undeniable fact that Twitter is an incredible mind hive/thought shower/[insert cringe worthy marketing term here]. For example, on my Twitter profile about 70% of my 310-ish followers are fellow journalists and PRs. This doesn’t bother me, in fact I quite like it as a giant online resource. I can throw out questions and expect (reasonably) intelligent answers from a wide array of sources. In fact, when Twitter (almost inevitably) hits Facebook/MySpace levels of popularity I’m not sure I really want my friends hearing that I’m struggling with a Windows 7 beta installation incompatibility or witnessing my delight as I proclaim a product like NuevaSync to my geeky circle.
In essence then I think Twitter is headed down two unstoppable paths simultaneously and ultimately it will get torn in two with professional and social settings and possibly even separate sites.
As for the pros and cons of Twitter as a whole, I recognise it is a horrendous time swallower – that’s a well known fact – but I think there are benefits in taking time to become established in an emerging medium. Take a look at the likes of friend and US tech journo colleague Veronica Belmont who has been there since the very beginning in early 2006. She has amassed almost 60,000 followers and like Stephen Fry this has only enhanced her career. Veronica was already a respected writer and now with the help of Twitter she’s something of an industry celeb – whether she signed up for this reason or not.
Consequently it’s naive to think Twitter can continue its humble mission of “What are you doing?” at least in its current form. As a tool its potential benefits for the individual have grown so powerful that so we can’t castigate professionals, small companies and even corporations for trying to better their prospects through it. Whether they can pull this off is another matter entirely. But just look at where it has taken the razor sharp humour of Twitter’s Darth Vader persona in just 300 tweets…
As I concluded my Think About Tech post: “I think I’ll be swiping some of this for my own blog and posting it on Twitter”…
Can you blame me? 
Part II coming 4 February
Filed under: News | Tags: Microsoft, operating system, Redmond, smartphone, Windows 7, Windows Mobile 6.5, WM 6.5
Could Microsoft really be about to serve up something this 2006 as it’s next generation 2009 smartphone OS? Please Redmond, don’t undo all the good will you earned from Windows 7 so fast…
A face only a Ballmer could love?
Filed under: Rant | Tags: Paris Hilton, socialite, CNet, IT girl, paparazzi, Nokia 5800, celebrity, XpressMusic
Quick one this since it seems to be doing the rounds – including on the Ranieri Blog…
It's behind you...
Yes, I was a guest at the paparazzi free-for-all also known as the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone launch (the Finns’ affordable iPhone rival). Yes there were celebrities and yes, Paris Hilton was one of them and yes, I really – like really, really – dislike Paris Hilton and everything her pseudo-fame represents.
What I didn’t realise was she spent a fair portion of time standing right behind me as I expressed these demands. Embarrassing? No, empowering and retrospectively satisfying. Of course I didn’t know my good friend Paul Monckton would catch it all on camera with me blissfully unaware mid-rant.
Apparently the socialplite was further away at this point, but you get the gist…
Despite this a great evening was had by all in the fine company of the CNet posse of Nate, Rory, Kate and Pene, the aforementioned Mr Monckton and the legendary Rob Kerr.
The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic itself? Too early to tell I’m afraid, but I understand the regrettable decision of employing a resistive touchscreen instead of a capacitive one was taken so I’ve already got one bullet point for my next Just the Bad Points (JtBP) review…
Right, now I’ve squeezed this heinous post out the chamber let’s hope for the sake of December’s #1 UK Tech Journalist (!?!) the good stuff comes flowing through…
Update: Yep, that worked. Here we go.
Filed under: News | Tags: Apollo Journalist Profiler, Gordon Kelly, journalist rankings, Top UK Technology Journalist, uk journalists
It’s hard to know how to take both praise and criticism. As a writer and journalist I tend to run into both on a fairly frequent basis (probably more the latter given readers are generally moved more when angered than entertained) so I think I’ll be taking this with a pinch of salt…
‘Top UK Technology Journalist December 2008′
That’s me according to the Apollo Journalist Profiler, a service “used by PR Agencies and in-house PR departments to identify the key journalists in their sector” – ummm, very nice. Cheers fellas!
Of course on the other hand how this ranking system is compiled is another question entirely. If it’s based on profile you’d have to say Jemima Kiss and Jack Schofield of the Guardian and Observer should probably come out top and while not included the likes of Rory Cellan-Jones at the BBC or Stephen Fry would dwarf me.
Still I’ll take the pat on the back thank you very much, brace myself for the inevitable cosmic karma kick in the pants and not take any of it too seriously – whatever it means…
PS – companies are never going to get it are they? There is NO space between ‘Trusted’ and ‘Reviews’ – never has been, never will!
Filed under: Just the Bad Points Review | Tags: JtBP, Jump Lists, Just the bad points, Windows 7 Public Beta, Windows 7 Review
Read The Rules if you aren’t familiar with my already seemingly cult and contentious reviews’ system. In short, with JtBP I save the gushing praise for every other review you’ll read and bring you the bullet points on any potential deal breakers with something before you commit to the long winded waffle on your favourite sites/publications. It’s a time saver.
So, bring on that most monstrous of beasts:
Windows 7 Public Beta – Just the Bad Points
- It’s an evolution of Vista, not a revolution and not XP. Vista done properly is still Vista for many
- The new taskbar reeks of MAC OS X/some Linux builds and though I think that’s a great thing – many prefer to stick with what they know and it does present a learning curve
- Home networking is still more fiddly than it should be
- Jumps Lists while potentially very useful currently only seem anywhere near their potential with Microsoft’s own programmes
- Sleep and Hibernate remain twitchy on various hardware setups
- You will find some of your favourite programmes don’t work (CloneDrive *sniff*)
- Antivirus support is scant. Trials of Norton (which doesn’t then play nicely with Word 2007) and Kaspersky last less than a month leaving AVG as your best option
Now I’m breaking with tradition just this once however because I feel compelled to say BUT it’s better, so much better than it should be. It’s lean, mean and remarkably stable. In fact, I’ve already adopted it as my primary OS and it may just stop me buying a Mac…
I’ll give you guys another update in a few months as Microsoft continues the shaping but if you aren’t a technologically frigid I can only advise: try it.
Ok, I can’t possibly end on a positive so… hmmmn. Oh yes, IE remains stuck in a time warp and hopelessly, painfully, embarrassingly behind the likes of Firefox, Opera and Chrome. That’s a negative – kinda.
