Blackphone is Designed with Security in Mind
If you’re concerned about mobile security, then you might want to spend $629 on a phone designed with security in mind. Blackphone is a joint venture between phone manufacturer Geeksphone and the cryptographic service Silent Circle. Announced in January, it has begun shipping this week. Blackphone uses a custom version of Android its developers call […]
Miss Mernagh is Top of her Class [Video]
Schools out for the summer, and Miss Mernagh‘s Senior Infants Class have graduated! We met her last year at Blog Awards Ireland where she took the top spot in the Science and Education category. Cathriona Mernagh blogs at MissMernagh.com where she has encountered a community of readers and collaborators who share her interest in early childhood education. It’s very important work and we […]
Is Facebook Ad Revenue built on Fake Likes?
Antonie Geerts pointed me to this video last night which makes an astonishing, but not very surprising, assertion about Facebook advertising. We already know that buying fake likes is counterproductive, because Facebook’s algorithm penalises pages and users who have a lot of likes from followers who do not engage with them. Veritasium’s Derek Muller gives an overview of […]
Orkut To Close In September
Google announced earlier today that it will be closing down Orkut in September. Orkut was Google’s first foray into social networks, long before social networks were really called social networks. The site was originally launched back in 2004 and over time it gained popularity in Brazil more than in English speaking countries. I’ll be honest […]
Facebook Experiments: The Ick Factor
Facebook is facing a storm of criticism after an academic paper revealed that they conducted an experiment in conjunction with researchers at Cornell University and the University of California, San Francisco, into how users moods are affected by the posts of their friends. Over the course of a week, the Facebook news feeds of 689,003 users […]
The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz
Aaron Swartz took his own life in January of last year. Since then there has been a lot written about his short life and untimely death. The new documentary film by Brian Knappenberger “The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz” was released last week. The film takes its title from a quote from […]
The Sodshow’s Peter Donegan on Blogging, Broadcasting & Business [Video]
Peter Donegan never shuts up about gardening. It’s his business, of course, but that’s not enough for him. If he’s not gardening, he’s blogging about gardening. And if that wasn’t enough he started a podcast with Brian Greene, that turned into a radio show: The Sodshow on Dublin City FM. Now, people who should know better have […]
Science is for Girls
Here’s a video that provides a pause for thought for anyone who is raising a daughter. According to the US National Science Foundation: 66 percent of 4th grade girls say they like science and mathematics, but only 18 percent of all college engineering majors are female. via Huffington Post. Bonus link: How to Talk to […]
New TLDs are in Ireland Now!
So you’ve heard about the new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) such as .london and .clarehurling? OK, I made that one up – but you get the idea. ICANN received applications for almost 2000 new gTLDs and over 300 have been delegated so far. You may also have heard that availability of these new domain names from EU registrars was […]
ICANN 50 Breaks Network Records
ICANN 50 is underway in London, and as we’ve reported, it’s the biggest ever. Latest reports are that 2803 people have checked in out of 3787 registered for the event, exceeding the previous registration record of 3141 set in Beijing. By definition, you can’t get a more online group of people than ICANN. That’s reflected in […]