Writeyness :: Info to snack on

One of my must-read websites for keeping up to date with things from a layman’s point of view is The Guardian’s technology section: Guardian Online.

Here are a couple of good resources in their archives:

Series of well-written “How to…” guides on everything from podcasting to RSS feeds.

A look at the people and ideas behind the new social networking Internet applications currently changing the way people interact (and do business) online: “Weekend Web 2.0 Issue”

The Guardian has published a list of their most useful websites of 2006 — The new 100 most useful sites.

It’s interesting to compare this list to their previous one in 2004 — Cream of the crop: 100 most useful websites.

They rightly point out (taking the UK-view, as a British newspaper):

“In 2004, the internet was a different place: there was, for example, no YouTube, and most Britons online didn’t have broadband. That’s changed dramatically: now, more than 75% of users have broadband, and the arrival of Web 2.0 has brought sites where the interaction is as fast as if it were on your machine.”

bigmouthmedia report on how Google and Nasa have teamed up — Google and NASA plan a future together.

How long before we’re searching on Google for “Last minute flights to Mars leaving from Heathrow” or “Moon accomodation with view of Sea of Tranquility”?

Not so long ago, if you wanted to have your say on a subject, you wrote a letter to the editor, called a radio phone-in show or stood on a box on a street corner and shouted at passers-by.

If you were really determined, you started a pirate radio station or published a fanzine.

It’s easier now, as Time Magazine acknowledges with 2007’s Person of the Year award going to… “You.”

Cue every content-generating user out there linking to Time’s website. Finger on the pulse, or cunning traffic-generating strategy, asks ProBlogger.

Ok, the Web’s a convenient and limitless resource and, used effectively, a great communications and business tool. And we’re all wired up to the eyeballs these days.

But rearrange the letters in “wired” and you get “weird,” which nicely sums up a lot of the rest of the Internet. And there’s no better, or funnier, representation of this than “Real Life Versus the Internet”:

Link.

There’s a good article on the BBC site — “How to make the web go worldwide” — showing a breakdown of Internet usage worldwide. According to the stats from Internet World Stats, South Korea is the most connected nation with 70% of homes having a high-speed broadband connection. The figure for Africa, on the other hand, is just 0.1%, leaving experts worried that the continent is being left far behind in terms of global Internet expansion.

There are some good links to other articles in the sidebar of this story.

I’ve set up office in a variety of places before. Coffee shops, back decks, parks, airports and railway stations. But never in a baseball stadium. Until today. The Vancouver Canadians have joined the wireless revolution — offering free access on game days — and are actively encouraging people to bring their work to “Nooner” games. (They insist the boss will never know.)

I’m not the world’s biggest baseball fan, having been brought up with the faster, more intense and headbutt-laden football (or soccer, depending what side of the Atlantic you’re on). However, a sunny Friday afternoon game at the Nat Bailey stadium — a great little vintage ballpark set in Queen Elizabeth Park with some of the most scenic views Vancouver has to offer — is as good excuse as any to take the Canadians up on their offer.

Of course, the spread of wireless access is another big driver of the Internet boom, along with low-cost home computers and the growth of broadband worldwide. It’s just another reason to get your business online sooner rather than later.

Anyhow, one of the Boise players has taken a tumble going for second base — so of course the theme to ER is playing — and those hot dogs smell good…