One Girl Revolution

According to this BBC video – NY cafes crack down on free wi-fi*, independent coffee shops in New York are struggling to cope with the number of laptop users practically moving in and using their free wi-fi. Unfortunately, the video leaves a lot to be desired in the way of actual questioning of the subjects, so I’m going to fill in some gaps in the questions I would have liked to see answered.

Is the problem really table-hogging, or something else?
The video seems to be saying that it is customers staying a long time (and using the internet) that is causing independent coffee shops to lose money. How about the cost of bandwidth and electricity? Is that a factor? And if not…

What about people who are reading books, writing novels without a laptop or talking endlessly to their friends?
Table-hogging causes lost business. I know this from experience working in a coffee shop – people see the place is full, turn around and leave. They want a sit-down more than they want your particular style of coffee. But…

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Technorati Tags: bbc, culture, nyc, starbucks, usa, wi-fi

A lot of people have been saying it since that bluebird of twitterness started whistling his happy little tune: Twitter is pointless. And now, there is a study to prove it.

Over at Pear Analytics, they’ve been analysing Twitter traffic to categorise exactly what it is people are tweeting about.

….We took 2,000 tweets from the public timeline (in English and in the US) over a 2-week period from 11:00a to 5:00p (CST) and captured tweets in half-hour increments. Then we categorized them into 6 buckets:

News, Spam, Self-Promotion, Pointless Babble, Conversational and Pass-Along Value.

Pointless Babble won with a 40% share. “Pointless babble”; i.e. something that wasn’t talking to anyone specific, wasn’t a retweet, didn’t contain a news item and wasn’t spam. Things like “I’m chilling out, watching TV”, for example.

Which makes me wonder. These tweets are about our basic, everyday lives, and those lives are being branded pointless. Lately it seems like unless you are a cog in the machine 24/7, you are… well… pointless. Twitter about your job (as long as it is positive and vaguely schmoozy), network with potential clients or talk about lofty current events, you lazy schlub!

Those tweets tend to be the funny ones. And they seem to be the only things tweeted by celebs… or is it self-promotion for them? The boundaries are a little blurrier than that, I think.

And what about those tweets that cross the categorisation boundaries? Amanda Bonnen made a “Pointless Babble” tweet that later became News. There’s probably a lot more of that on the horizon (so beware if you have a complaint about something!).

I must admit, I was rather surprised – and pleased – at the lack of spam reported by the study! Guess they’ve not had to deal with those darn pr0n ’stars’.

[via Mashable and various other internet sources.]
[image credit - A Little Bird Told Me by mattknow via HongKiat.com]

Technorati Tags: statistics, study, twitter

I went to see Adam last night. In case you aren’t aware of this movie (and it isn’t surprising, considering the limited release), it is about a man with Asperger Syndrome who falls in love with a neuro-typical (referred to as NTs).

Being somewhat on the spectrum myself – it is hard for an adult to get a diagnosis, especially an adult female – I thought I should go and check it out. I found the only local cinema showing it, and joined the enormous Orange Wednesdays queue. Despite queuing round the side of the building, there were maybe 10 other people in the room.

Many critics have condemned the film as dull, one or two (who shall remain credit-less) comparing it unfavourably to Rainman due to the protagonist’s lack of savant powers (see Autistic Impressions here for more on the savant focus in movies and its influence). Or they set the film up as: “Look at how weird these people are. Look at how abnormal they are – they must suffer sooooo much! Isn’t it no surprise they can’t have proper relationships?”

Adam is ultimately a film about love and humanity, and while Adam shows a great knowledge in the area of space and engineering, he is clearly not a savant. Just a regular Aspie. To me, that’s what makes the film so charming, even if the script feels as disconnected as its main character.

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Technorati Tags: adam, aspergers, autism, film, movie