When social networks die.

gplustomb When social networks die.

It is 2012, social networks are the most common way for people to communicate and yet while there are clear leaders such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn there are also hundreds of other services vying for market share on the internet.

Google+ is of course the newest to the leader pack, but even it is suffering the slings and arrows of mediocrity when compared to the established networks.

So why is it failing? and why do so many fail where others succeed?

First a little history.

  • 2004 – Facebook launches, limited to Harvard Students.
  • mid-2004 – Facebook expands to include other university campuses.
  • 2005 – A ‘High School’ version of Facebook is launched.
  • 2006 – Twitter is launched limiting its users to only 140 characters per update.
  • late-2006 – Facebook is opened to the public.
  • 2007 – Twitter’s popularity gains ground with SXSW festival participants.
  • 2008 - Twitter has 100 million tweets posted per quarter.
  • late-2008 - Facebook sets up international HQ in Dublin, Ireland.
  • 2009 - Twitter crash due to  Michael Jacksons death, 100,000 tweets a minute.
  • late-2009 - Facebook becomes ‘cash-positive’ for the first time.
  • 2010 - Twitter has 65 million tweets a day posted on average.
  • 2010 - Facebook’s estimated value calculated to be $41 billion.
  • 2011 - 20,000 pages are removed from Facebook per day due to security issues.
  • late-2011 - Twitter rolls out its third major design change.

This of course is by no means a full and annotated history of social networks, but it does include several important milestones along the way. Both Twitter and Facebook have had their fair share of scandals and hardships placed upon them due to world events, international legislation and capacity problems, both services however have managed to keep afloat through incoming investments and several venture capital rounds.

You might at this time be wondering why I haven’t mentioned other networks like Bebo, Pownce, Identi.ca or Yammer. Well don’t fret, I’m getting to those…

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Business Time: iPad or Android?

XOOMiPad2 Business Time: iPad or Android?

With the rumour mills firing up to full capacity about the next iPad and its specifications, the time has come to ask the question: Will I buy a tablet?

I personally don’t have a tablet device, I’ve never really needed one for home having both a netbook and desktop machine. Recently though I’ve been toying of the idea of using one for work.

What I’d want to do with a tablet for work:

  • Take notes in meetings
  • Record meetings (audio)
  • Access previous meeting notes
  • Access WiFi in meetings
  • Create or Access documents in meetings

What I’d like to do with a tablet for home:

  • Browse the internet
  • Write on-the-go blog posts
  • Play games
  • Stream movies from network drive

The software I use every day like Dropbox and Evernote and Google Docs are supported on most devices these days so transferring from an Android or Apple device would be easy.

One thing I can see that may be a slight hitch in this plan is that I own an Kindle Keyboard. Now this doesn’t seem like too big a deal, but I do love my Kindle to death so moving to either Kindle for iPad or Kindle for Android may be either an enhanced experience or a degraded experience depending on the circumstances.

In any case I’ll still be keeping my Kindle Keyboard as it is the best travel companion one could ask for, other than some good human company of course!

So here lies the dilemma, jump now? or wait till the next Apple iPad is released?

Decisions, Decisions…

The Universe is fucked, and so am I

Isn’t it lovely when we start new things, when we form new friendships and relationships.

How bright the candle burns during those times, how we feel like all the horrid things that have happened to us in the past aren’t of any consequence and finally the veil is lifted to see the light of all that is good once more.

But, just as quickly all hopes can be dashed against the levels of fucking bullshit that The Universe decides to throw back in our faces, when at your highest peak you can be thrust into the belly of dispair once more… dispair at an intensity you never thought you would feel so soon again.

You’ve got to laugh, why do we even bother? I mean is it worth it?

Does it feel right to focus all your hopes, dreams, fears and excitement into what you deem as so good, so pure that if it all fails then you will be left with nothing? As nothing more than a Human Being is it the great cascade of misery how we define ourselves? If so why do we even bother? What if nothing but heartache and misery could ever become of anything?

Looks fade, youth quickly leaves, feelings are fleeting and what is left over is but a withered, failed husk that is nothing more than the culmination of past miseries? Should I feel that? Should anybody?

Is it too much for an individual to ask for happiness, too much to know even for a fleeting moment what that is? Why when we are at our best do we end up so devastated?

What even gives us the right to feel happy? What gives us the need to feel fulfilled? What is it that takes special things in our lives and turns them to dust?

But this is just the way we all move through life, some crawl when they could run, some run when they will stumble. And so is the great cog of life, turning over itself until the death of the one it turns for.

I think I’ve finally figured it out:

The Universe is fucked…

and now…

 
 
 

…so am I.

Emery – Chapter One

I was once a man

Street light flooded in through a small window and came to rest on an old orange glass lamp, casting a golden hue onto this mostly empty room.

All except for a single corner.

The corner was dim, light gradually faded, not ever leaving completely, but faded.

Residing in the corner was a writing desk covered in small pieces of paper from different sources. Books, magazines, pamphlets and all manner of printed material that had been mutilated to make a menagerie of text. Under the cuttings, drawn in a thousand different inks, were arcane symbols and images.

Accompanying the desk was a chair, small, quaint and covered with a badly worn red velveteen, but you couldn’t see the chair’s covering right now, not at this exact moment.

Here sat Emery.

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Facebook integration, ain’t it grand?

Yup, I’ve integrated Regravity.com with Facebook now!

Its early days and I haven’t added Facebook Connect or Comments as yet (but I just might!) so for now it will just be the ability to like posts and send them to other people.

Anyhow, if you do like a post then don’t hesitate to hit the button below!

 

A little further…

 

 

There you go!

Ok so I fixed the sidebar.

So you may have noticed that I fixed the typography in the sidebar, yippee!

While I have you, let me tell you about a few things I have on the cards for 2012:

  • Deck 9 -  A novel that I’ve been hacking away at for some months now.
  • SixInchPress.com - eBook publishing house.
  • WriteSauce.com - A network for writers, more on this later.
  • New Caledonia - I so want to go back there to see the rest of the islands!
  • And probably a hundred more things I can’t yet think of!
Just don’t look to hard at those websites… they are almost non-existent at the moment.

Expecting big things for 2012.

Another year is upon us, and yet another attempt by me to blog about it… well ok, so I probably won’t be giving you a blow-by-blow account of my days of this year.

Probably the first thing I have to do is fix that HIDEOUS typography over there in the side bar… so if its not looking like default blue link text with an underline then I’ve at least done that…

So what do I have planned for 2012?

Well I’m a free man again, no strings attached… I can set sail wherever and whenever I like. But I do have some important goals for 2012, I’m going to make an attempt at beginning a writing career.

I love writing, fiction is my game and I’m knee deep in the first few chapters of a new novel called Deck 9, but if I keep writing back story then I’ll end up nowhere but I’ll have a kick-ass background for a ton of flash fiction, shorts and novella.

Well its 3:17am here and I have work in the morning…

Pffft, as if I sleep anyway…