Rattleblog: Tales from the blogosphere

08-09-2006

by Damien Mulley

In Tales from the Blogosphere this week we feature quite a mix of blog pieces on issues such as privacy and telecoms.

Starting off is news from Om Malik which says that instead of welcoming a slew of new features, Facebook users have instead kicked up a huge fuss. These new features will tell all your friends and associates about your activities on Facebook and so users who like their privacy are not impressed. The features can easily be disabled by the users themselves.

Bernard Goldbach blogs about the biggest news in tech blog circles this week -- the story of H-P snooping on the phone calls of employees and journalists to find a leak. The resulting public outrage comes just weeks after AOL fired a number of its research team for publishing the search habits of thousands of users online.

Sticking with phones and privacy, Bruce Schneier on his blog highlights a survey that shows while some people are becoming savvy about erasing data from their PC before selling it, most people are neglecting to do the same with the data on their mobile phones, with the result that many private numbers and messages can easily be found on second-hand phones.

Smart mobs tells us that the mobile phone-averse Amish community, who are allowed to use payphones only, are resorting to building their own kiosks as more and more phone companies remove payphones due to lack of use.

Meanwhile, John Whelan tells us that Google is now displaying ads on your mobile phone when you use its mobile search service. Google still strongly denies that it's an advertising company more than a search company.

Paul Watson blogged about an Irish company that released a free service with the inspiring name of Zinadoo. The service allows you to create a mobile version of your website.

Still saying local, the We Make Money Not Art blog tells us about a virtual sculpture by Irish artist John Gerrard called "The Smoke Tree", which instead of breathing out oxygen, breathes out smoke.

Lastly, Dan King highlights the success of a broadband company in the UK that has recruited David Hasselhoff to appear in its ads. He goes on to suggest that Joe Dolan could be used by tech companies over here. Oh me oh my.

Damien Mulley is an Irish blogger and works as a technical writer in Cork.