Google+ circling the drain or a great place to hangout?

by

For those who don’t yet know, Google+ is Google’s latest entry into the world of social networking. After Wave and Buzz, you have to wonder why – but more on the question why later.

Here are some thoughts based on a few days usage.

The Basics.
Upon registering you are asked to fill in a rather long winded profile. Annoying, but best to get it out of the way at the start I suppose.

Next you enter the site. It is clean and uncluttered. Facebook and Twitter should take note. Uncluttered is nice sometimes! There are a few sections that make up Google+. Read More ...

Online Gaming. A positive and enjoyable past time.

by
423073 390626730966234 374094667 n Online Gaming A positive and enjoyable past time

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away… oh wait wrong story.

A few years ago, in a town somewhere in Cardiff, before I was a father or even married (I was at University), I got my first taste of online gaming. More specifically, clan gaming.

The game in question was Starship Troopers on the AOL network. It was a fairly simple Birdseye view space shooter, set in the Starship Troopers universe. What made it stand out was the fact that you needed to use real teamwork to get anywhere in it. Until then, most games I had played just needed you to run around shooting each other (Duke Nukem, Doom, Quake). None of them needed or promoted teamwork. Read More ...

He who shouts loudest isn’t always the most knowledgeable.

by

Rant alert!

The more blogs, articles, and tweets I read, the more I am seeing people described as experts. Often this is self-proclaimed, but not always.

The Oxford Dictionary describes an expert as:
“a person who is very knowledgeable about or skilful in a particular area”

Some of these people are legitimately experts. They know huge amounts about their field and can be very informative and interesting. Sadly, this is not always the case.

I am finding more and more that the people who make the most noise are being classed as experts (again, often by themselves). The travesty is that others listen, because as is the rule of the playground – He who shouts loudest will be listened to. Read More ...

Gamification: what is it, why is it important?

by

Just as a thought, as a tag line – Gamification: why you have been doing it since you were a small child.

Gamification is another one of those words that seems to be getting a lot of use at the moment, a little bit like Cloud. If you look at the Internet for a description (in my case Wikipedia) you get;

“Gamification is the use of game play mechanics for non-game applications (also known as “funware”), particularly consumer-oriented web and mobile sites, in order to encourage people to adopt the applications. It also strives to encourage users to engage in desired behaviors in connection with the applications. Gamification works by making technology more engaging, and by encouraging desired behaviors, taking advantage of humans’ psychological predisposition to engage in gaming. The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, or reading web sites.” Read More ...

Clouds in the sky – what is the cloud?

by

Cloud computing. It seems that whenever I hear talk about a new technology, the word Cloud is never that far from the description. From the humble, yet devastatingly handy Dropbox to the mysterious iCloud.

The question that I keep asking is, what is the Cloud? It seems to be a question that no two people can offer the same answer to.

Some seem to think that if they offer an online service, be it storage or an online word processor, that they are offering a Cloud based solution. To many it is just a new word to describe the Internet. Massive and a little fluffy round the edges. To an extent they are correct. The term cloud stems from the cloud like symbol used to represent the internet in simple network diagrams. Read More ...

Exit mobile version