Skype hype

I won't spend my time preaching about how Skype can save you money on your phone bills. What I will say is that I once knew a girl whose boyfriend found his Dad's long-lost half brother using Skype. True story! His Dad's long-lost half brother lives in the UK and they got to having long distance Skype conversations to make up for the long-lost time. So there you go.

Scribble

As well as studying the dramatic arts at NIDA with Cate Blanchett, I also have a range of other qualifications under my belt that not many people know about. I once did a degree of Information Management & Systems at Monash University, it was one of the more boring ones - less intense than Quantum Physics, and not as exciting than ancient Archaeology (just to compare it to a few of the others I've done in my time).

So diagramming has always been my thing; the ability to picture things in circles, lines and boxes to make them meaningful. I was always the one in class to come up with the best Data Flow Diagrams and ER Diagrams. Back in those days we used tools like Microsoft Visio, but it seems these days there are online tools you can use as well. Gliffy has fairly extensive flowcharting capabilities, allowing you to do complex things like Network diagrams, UML charts and heaps more.

I'm also the type to have random scribbles of inspirations on whatever scrap of paper or napkin comes to hand; so I was keen to try out http://bubbl.us/ for some mind-mapping. I like that you could just jump straight in and start jotting stuff down without having to sign up and account. I also like the ease of adding, removing, etc without the page ever reloading. Mindmaps, here I come.

RSS

I've had a bloglines acount for quite a long time now. At some stage I ended up with way too many RSS feeds to actually keep up with, and decided to migrate across to Google Reader instead.

The main benefit I find with Google Reader is that my colleages also use it and can share items that they find to be of interest. Like Kanye is always sharing photos of Megan Fox.

Here's a handy tip for those of you who may not already know: you can create 'vanity searches' in Bloglines too - for example, do a search for your blog's URL and then save that search in your feeds. Every time you visit it, you can see a list of all the other blogs linking to or mentioning your blog. Good measure of how popular you are, and of what the blogosphere is saying about you.

Amazing how far technology has come - here's a picture of me researching WW2 history using microfiche reader to look up old newspaper articles about Hitler. Can you even imagine if all that stuff was available via RSS??

Second Life

I was helping my man Max with the mail run this morning, when we got to talking about Second Life. Max is an avid user, he always has a story or two about running a virtual marathon and banking up Linden Dollars for charity. So anyway, I was interested to find out more about it.

I'd never really understood the appeal of Second Life, but I have read from time to time about people becoming real-life millionaires just by selling virtual products on there. On further research, this seems to be the exception and not the rule, with only a small number of entrapraneurs really raking it in off their Second Life income.

The major downfall of Second Life as far as I'm concerned, is that I couldn't immediately find any way to select an avatar that wasn't human. I mean really, humans may have fantasies of being other humans, but if I wanted a fantasy life it would NOT be as a human (no offence Max and keep up the good work).

The irony of Social Networking

I've had lots of emails from you fans asking for my opinions about Social Networking. So here are my humble thoughts.

My Space: I know a girl who has 13,026 MySpace friends that she's never met (it's a true story). So, how are they even friends? The irony of social networking is that for many, it actually prevents them from being social. Quite a few studies have now come out with these findings. Online social networks can actually act as a barrier for us so that we no longer have to go through the trials and tribulations of communicating with people face-to-face. The impact of this isn't very immediate - but will it hinder the social development of younger generations to come? This remains to be seen. The other irony is that, while we do less actual socialising and in turn become more socially isolated, we actually know more than ever about everyone else's lives. We know what they did over the weekend (often quite graphically in someone's random camera snaps); we know when they break up with their boyfriend and we even know what they ate for breakfast. But rather than finding these things out by having a casual chat, we find out by having a sort of voyeuristic view into their lives.

So while I don't think we should rely on social networks as a communicative tool, I do think they are now instrumental in the world of marketing and advertising. Online social networks are a manifestation of the old adage, "It's not what you know, it's WHO you know." They are an intensely interesting study into the effects of word-of-mouth promotion; into personal and corporate branding; and into the importance of business networking. They've also spawned a new breed of fame where anyone and everyone can be something to someone as long as their online presence is strong enough.

MySpace as a social network fell down because it was too easy to spread promotional messages and create expansive networks of people, and it became a hot-bed for spammers as a result. Facebook relies more on a trust relationship between people who have a real-life relationship and therefore are willing to have a mutually beneficial system - a system that will only survive if they stay within the bounds of non-spammy communication.

Niche social networks that bring together people with specific interests are a different kettle of fish again - while general social networks are based around taking your relationships with people you already know out of the real world and into the online world, niche networks can be used in the opposite way. They can be used to meet new people online; people who will be good business contacts, or people who share a passion with you.

Despite my doubts about MySpace and Facebook as long-term social tools, I do use both networks to keep in touch with friends, family, and fans - in particular to keep all my fans up to date with the latest Winston news via my fan pages.

That's it from me for now. Peace out, Winston.

The Winston Times

Due to overwhelming demand from you, my fans, I've setup a weekly newsletter to keep you up to date with all th news.

The first issue details the upcoming State Library Chess Competition and how to enter.

Click here to view the first issue of the Winston Times (and be warned, I am a Chess MASTER).

P.s. The newsletter was created with a service called 'LetterPop' which is ajax-based and pretty easy to use, but seems to have the cheesiest templates going.

Winston in Wiki

If it weren't for wikis, so many things wouldn't be properly documented. Because the people get to pool all of their useless knowledge into topics that traditionally respected sources would never care to pay any attention to. Wikipedia is great when you suddenly need a big list of something - like a list of dystopian films, or a list of unusual deaths; or when you need masses of information on a totally geeky topic like Star Wars or LOLCats.

I have my own wikipedia entry, naturally, being a subject greatly admired by all. What the article fails to tell you though, is how cultured and intelligent the iDog species actually is. You can often find us (me in particular as I'm even more cultured than most) traversing the halls of galleries and museums, travelling the world to brush up our superior language skills, or whipping up culinary delights in our sparkling kitchens.

There are so many wikis out there on so many topics - if Zombie Survival warrants its own wiki, maybe it's time for an iDog wiki too.