Rapid information share

I heard some sad news last night. Tom Walkinshaw, the former Jaguar sportscar boss and manager of the Benetton, Ligier and Arrows F1 teams, died of cancer. He was 64.

I heard this news through a number of my racing contacts posting status updates on Facebook. As soon as I read the “RIP” messages I immediately went on to the BBC F1 site to find out more information. Nothing. I then went on to ESPN F1. Nothing. ITV. Nothing. The official Formula 1 site. Nothing.

I then decided to turn to trusty old Google. The only thing that came up offering any information was the rolling Twitter feed. The only website that had been updated was Wikipedia. It was several hours before any official news sources were published.

Now, I know the late Mr Walkinshaw was hardly the most well-known person in the world and I’m sure that if it has been somebody like the Queen, the entire world would have come to a standstill in minutes.

Still, the fact that it was only social networking sites that picked this up just goes to show the potential power they have now and the speed at which they can deliver messages globally through viral means.

I can just imagine the poor grieving Mrs Walkinshaw holding her husband’s hand in the hospital whilst updating her Facebook status with the other. And changing her relationship status from “Married” to “It’s complicated”.

It also highlights how big these sites have become in everyday life. Rather than picking up the phone or writing a long winded email, people are just picking up their iPhone, logging on to Facebook or Twitter and posting short messages (under 140 characters obviously). So the key is, if you want to get your message out there fast, Tweet it.

And finally, I am aware that my last two Datapartners blogs have involved people dying so to cheer things up a bit I’d like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Is it really good to share?

One of my friends recently posted a status update on Facebook informing everyone that a year had passed since his Nan died. There were a few replies from people offering their condolences and generally saying nice things. It was all rather touching. What I found slightly odd was that one of his friends clicked the “like” button. Is it just me or is that a bit inappropriate?

Facebook and Twitter have made people open to the concept of sharing every personal detail with the world. I won’t sit here and pretend that I don’t update my status. I update it fairly regularly in fact but only when I have something useful to say like informing the world about how well I did at a race. Occasionally I will just make a flippant comment or amusing observation but only when I think it’s something people will find useful… or offensive.

It’s when people start posting status messages informing everyone about some family drama that is occurring in their life and bleeding their hearts to the world about personal rubbish that should really be kept private that I get really annoyed. I’m not interested in knowing how pathetic someone’s life is. Keep that kind of thing to yourself.

The one that makes me laugh is when female friends post status messages complaining about getting friend requests from perverts and strange men who they don’t know. Well if you’re going to take pictures of yourself in your underwear and use it as your profile picture, you are going to attract those kinds of people.

The new “Facebook Places” and “Google Places” take this sharing malarkey to a new height of dangerousness. Using GPS tracking you can basically tell people exactly where you are at any given time. This now means some of my friends are informing everyone that they are at home. Who cares? Then they’ll inform everyone that they have checked in somewhere halfway across the country. Great, thanks for letting me know you’re not at home so I know it’s safe to break in and rob you!

Seriously, I would never publicly display my current location. I mean, I could get into serious trouble for that…

Who would win in a fight, Batman or Superman?

There has been this long-running feud between Mac and PC users as to which one is superior. It's much like the Everton vs. Liverpool argument in football or Holden vs. Ford in Australian Touring cars but with slightly more intellect and less bloodshed.

Now, let's face facts here; Microsoft is rubbish. Everyone hates them and their unreliable software that requires 500 million patches to be downloaded every day to fix some glaringly obvious bug that a spotty 13 year old hacker has exploited. The same patches that crash your computer once installed.

Macs are much more reliable and have fewer problems. But then there are considerably less people who use them.

I won't sit here and pretend to be a computer snob. The truth is I couldn't give a toss what computer I use as long as it does the job I ask of it. I use a PC and always have done simply because it's what I’m familiar with. Having said that, I also use an iPhone, which as you very well know, is an Apple product.

I like my iPhone. I've become one of those annoying idiots who gets it out and plays with it every 5 minutes for no reason whatsoever. I also do that with my iPhone.

What I like about it is its simplicity. It's very intuitive and easy to use. I'm told this is what Apple is good at.

So last night my girlfriend came back from work with a new smart phone that she was given by her company. It's one of those HTC things made by the Chinese. They used to develop software in conjunction with Microsoft but have more recently collaborated with Google Android. She told me to have a play around on it, claiming that it would make me very jealous and want to ditch my iPhone in a heartbeat. Well it didn't.

Firstly I found it very unintuitive. It was hard to navigate around the menus and not very well laid out. Although it had a better camera on it, the first time I tried taking a picture I ended up zooming in on her chest by accident, which was nice but not what I intended.

Another thing I like about the iPhone are the apps. I've got some useful things on mine including business tools, social networking sites, games, a spirit level and a lightsaber. Now, this HTC thing has also got apps but unless you are extremely rich it isn't really worth your time downloading them.

So what about the phone itself? That is, after all, what its main use will be for. Well my girlfriend tried adding a contact to her address book and ended up inadvertently phoning her boss in the middle of the night. This made her feel extremely guilty.

So my verdict is this: Everton are just as rubbish as Liverpool. They are both equally as rubbish as all other football teams on the planet. Holden is also rubbish because they are basically Vauxhall. Ford is no better. Australian Touring Car fans have about as much intellect as football fans. The combined IQ of a football fan or Touring Car fan is less than that of a soggy banana. And I'm sticking with the iPhone.