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Farming and becoming a Godfather with Facebook

Posted in Farmville, Mafia Wars, crime, Facebook, Social Networking on September 4, 2009 at 3:48 pm

Ever felt the urge to grow some vegetables? Plant some seeds? Milk some cows? - apparently millions of you Facebook users do.

According to statistics, we are all are a nation of virtual farmers - Farmville is the most popular application on Facebook with a massive 35 million users.

If you haven’t played it before, it’s where you control a computerised farmer whose job it is to tend and grow their own farm. As you plant more crops, get more money and more experience, you can buy different stuff like tractors, fences and buildings.

I don’t know whether it was just boredom or an example of how dead my life has become, but I started playing it recently. I thought it was cute - I don’t have a games system so maybe I was trying to replace it with something. (I was in a past-life a World of Warcrafter).

It is a strange experience playing this game. I don’t actually know how much ‘enjoyment’ I’m getting out of planting crops and watching them grow, but I keep clicking back on it. Maybe I’m just on Facebook so can’t resist clicking on a link and checking out how my little spiky-haired asian farmer is doing. Alas.

Personally I find Mafia Wars more exciting. It’s written by the same company Zynga, and its a bit like one of those role-playing games you played as a kid where you build up your stats and experience and level up. Here you rob pimps, mug old people, buy big tommy guns and build up Mafia-owned shopping centres.

Anyway, that’s the game I’m mostly on. I’ve got around 21 mafia friends made up from Facebook buddies. I’m not sure what this says about me, but I would say its addictive and as Farmville, its easy to play when you are one click away on Facebook.

There’s similar games to get on the iPhone - but I don’t think that’ll work. Not enough iPhone buddies to be in my gang you see. I like the community aspect- especially when I get presents like shivs and revolvers.

Rated: 100% (1 votes)

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Twitter’s gone offline again….

By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial

Posted in Twitter, Social Networking on August 20, 2009 at 4:14 pm

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It’s been offline for the last ten or fifteen minutes.

Currently investigating.

It says:

HTTP Server Error 503

No available server to handle this request

UPDATED: The website is now back online. Did it just crash under the weight of users?

I think perhaps Twitter may need to iron out some of these issues before its going to make any money…

Rated: 60% (2 votes)

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The top five Flashmobs of all time

By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial

Posted in flashmob, social, Facebook, internet, Social Networking on February 10, 2009 at 2:50 pm

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Last Friday Liverpool Street Station was forced to close after a reported 13,000 people congregated to take part in a silent disco, organised using the social networking website Facebook.

With a crowd listening to music through headphones, they all broke into dance at 7pm in a scene imitating a T-Mobile advert that was filmed at the station last month. Police had to close the station for more than an hour due to overcrowding fears, while people partied on with antics including crowdsurfing, stripping and climbing of station furniture.

It isn’t the first time this a flashmob (when a large group of people assemble in a public place and perform an unusual action) has caused a ruckus - the social networking phenomenon has made it possible for a while now. Here are five of the best.

1 Worldwide Pillow Fight Day

This was the largest pillow fight flashmob ever, taking place on March 22 last year. Over 25 countries took part, including London, New York, Paris and even Shanghai. The rules were self explanatory - in London thousands of people brought a pillow to Leicester Square to whack each other for a good period of time. Yelling “Pillow Fight!” at the top of your voice was a necessity. “If this is your first time at Pillow Fight Club - you have to fight.”

Video of the Pillow Fight Club

2 Leeds and London Hyde Park water fight flashmob

These are up here mainly because they went very wrong. An open invitation on Facebook resulted in thousands of pounds worth of damage to the city’s prize winning public garden. According to the council it resulted in trampled plants,ripped up turf and emptied water features. In July last year one in Hyde Park, London resulted in a girl being punched in the face!

Leeds Water Fight

3 The Rick Astley Rickrolling flashmob

Back in April last year, hundreds of people arranged on Facebook before 6pm at Liverpool Street Station to indulge in a rendition of Rick Astley’s trademark hit “Never Gonna Give You Up”. Some had Rick Astley masks on, and continued with the internet ‘Rickrolling’ trend, where millions of users have been tricked into watching Astley’s 80’s pop video classic.

All together now: “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you!”

The London Rickmob footage

4 Flashmob - The Opera

The first Flashmob opera of the Orpheus story was performed in October 2004 in Paddington Station, London, one of Britain’s busiest railway stations. It was screened live on BBC Three with the aid of a flashmob. Soloists performed around the concourse, to commuters bemusement. Another was performed in Sheffield in 2005, showing a version of Faust.

5 The Flashmob chicken dance

No explanations are necessary, - just watch this video.

Rated: 73.33% (3 votes)

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Seven months in as an IT journalist - 20 things I’ve learned.

By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial

Posted in list, IT PRO, Security, Social Networking on July 14, 2008 at 10:56 am

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Seven months in working as a Staff Writer at IT PRO… What can i say? Probably the best thing to do is in what my editor does - write a list based thing about what I’ve learned.

1 Journalists always complain about pay (especially me)

2 Some IT journalists are very strange. It’s a very incestious bunch.

3 IT journalists love getting free stuff - and won’t give it back unless prompted by the PR about fifty times.

4 Once you get a reputation in IT journalism, it’s very difficult to lose it.

Rated: 40% (2 votes)

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