Since I began writing this blog, I’ve started using two new computers - one at home, and now one at work. My home computer, a Vista-running laptop, has now become completely integrated into my life, but my work computer is still taking some getting used to.

On the plus side, it’s a hell of a lot zippier and reliable than my old one (which seemed to manage to run into errors if I hit more than two keys in quick succession; not ideal, really). But it seems to be taking me an age to get things set up the way I want them. Every time I think I’ve got everything sorted out, I run into another program I need that I haven’t got, or another folder or e-mail account that I need to access and can’t, or, worst of all, another Internet account that I can’t remember the password for, because it had been saved in Firefox on my old computer a year ago and I’ve since completely forgotten it. Nrghhhh.

More trivially, I’d completely forgotten how hideously ugly XP is with all its default settings in place. Changing the colour scheme and desktop background was the first thing I did. I’m getting there; before long, this computer too will be like an old pair of socks, familiar and comfortable and easy to slip into, and I’ll stop thinking about it. But before that happens, I should probably just appreciate that super-fast loading time. Ahhh.

Apparently, it’s National Work From Home Day today. I know this because a press release about it dropped into my inbox about a week ago. And although I wasn’t planning to work from home today, I’ve ended up doing so anyway. I did intend to work from home yesterday, and managed to finish the article I was working on as well as having a leisurely breakfast and even washing the dishes yesterday, so I’m completely happy that it’s possible to work from home and actually get things done, it’s just that… well, I’m not convinced the rest of the country was aware that it’s National Work From Home Day today, and thus many of the supposed benefits of the idea probably won’t pan out.

According to the press release, “with fewer commuters, the roads are clearer and public transport less crowded than usual. Stress levels have fallen, pollution levels are down and CO2 emissions reduced. People are happier, have a better work-life balance, and ultimately will be healthier.” Which almost makes me wish I was at work today, since it seems a shame to miss out on lovely spacious public transport and lower pollution levels, but since I’m at home, I’ll just have to take their word for it.

All of those things can only be true, though, if the day was well-publicised enough, and I’m not entirely sure it was. Obviously, there are only some professions that can allow people to work from home anyway, so it’s not like city centres will be deserted today; and the press release that came about National Work From Home Day was under embargo until today, which seems a bit counter-intuitive since by the time people are at work, it’s a bit late for them to arrange not to go to work. They needed to know about it last week, ideally.

Pfft.

Lack of awareness aside, I do think working from home can be beneficial. My brain tends to be most awake and capable between about 8am and 1pm, but factoring travelling to work into the equation means I can’t do much during my first phase of productivity. Working from home means I can leap out of bed onto my computer and be working away before I’m even technically supposed to be in the office…

Which explains why I’m writing this blog post at, well, it’s gone 9am now, but it hadn’t when I started. And I’ve already sorted out my work e-mail inbox…

Did anyone else know they were supposed to work from home today?

I’m off on holiday next week, and I’m planning to be completely cut off from technology. I’m not taking my mobile phone - it won’t work over there anyway - and I’ll leave behind my MP3 player and laptop, too. I will take a camera, but that’s it.

Promise.

Even though the guide book I picked up yesterday details where every cyber cafe in the city is. Even though it gave me details of how much it costs, and everything. That’s just temptation I don’t need. I’m going to spend three days exploring a new city, eating new and strange foreign foods, and hopefully swimming in a geothermal spa. Checking my Facebook profile doesn’t need to be involved in that.

So, if you see me online next week, slap me.

It doesn’t seem like it was all that long ago that I bought my laptop. At the time, I was still using my decrepit old PC, which was struggling along on its last legs, and the laptop felt altogether too new and alien to me.

Slowly but surely, though, I started to get used to the convenience of the laptop. Being able to pull it out and put it on my lap while I watched TV, or just curled up on the sofa rather than sitting at a desk, was a new and entirely welcome experience. I live in the future! I can have a computer in my hands, wirelessly connected to the Internet, streaming video… that’s just not something we’d have been thinking about a decade or so ago. But it’s awesome!

As I gradually began to use my laptop more and more, though, it replaced my old desktop as my primary computer and I had to kit it out properly - new keyboard, new mouse, new desk and chair - so I’m almost back where I was. Except with Windows Vista Home Premium, a load more RAM, and a ton more hard drive space. Excellent.

How long does it normally take before a new piece of technology starts to become almost an extension of your brain? It’s taken me a couple of months, I think.

The statement issued today by the BBFC suggests that, in its world at least, banning Manhunt 2 is a great bit of publicity for the classification board, and for British standards on the whole.

Ummm, does anyone else have deja vu? It seems like Manhunt’s sole purpose for existing is to generate moral outrage; and, in the process, to create press coverage. A couple of years ago, games retailers were pulling the first Manhunt game off the shelves when it looked like a teenager murderer had been playing it. As it turned out, the game actually belonged to the victim in that case; but the publicity had already done its work, encouraging people to buy the game from anywhere that still stocked it.

This time round, the BBFC has deemed Manhunt 2 to be such an immoral piece of work that it shouldn’t be sold to anyone: Rockstar had applied for an 18 certificate and was denied.

(As an aside: what on Earth could it possibly have contained to merit that? This is the same BBFC that passed Hostel Part II uncut, and awarded the gorefest that was Final Destination 3 a 15 certificate. Madness.)

What’s going to happen? Well, people will be intrigued as a result of the publicity and, seeing the BBFC as a bunch of stuffed shirts trying to ruin their fun, get their hands on an illegitimate copy of Manhunt 2 as fast as humanly possible, of course!

The thing is, even in the first case, retailers didn’t really care about protecting the youth of today or any of that nonsense; it was just a nice bit of spin. The BBFC seem to have imagined banning the sequel demonstrated thatstandards of entertainment and conduct still existed, and that it was still a worthwhile moral guardian. Actually, what this has done is create a buzz for Manhunt 2, and foul up the BBFC’s public image in the process. (The mileage of Daily Mail readers may vary.)

The phrase is so common that it seems unnecessary to ever say it, but clearly not everyone remembers it: no publicity is bad publicity. Now, how do we get the BBFC to “ban” IT Pro…?

If there’s one thing the Internet is really good at, it’s organising campaigns.

Look at the recent push to bring back Veronica Mars: fans managed to organise themselves to send 2040 Mars bars, as well as 4,848 Snickers bars, to the offices of the network that cancelled the show. Original, clever, and probably completely without success, though I guess we won’t know till all that chocolate gets delivered. Other TV shows have inspired similar campaigns; see Firefly, Jericho, Farscape, and so on.

Sure, once upon a time, people might have organised letter-writing campaigns, but with the help of the Internet, it’s a lot easier to get people mobilised, as well as to raise awareness.

Another example is the sheer number of petitions posted online - and the number of signatures on them. The Government’s e-petition site alone lead to petitions being raised that gathered thousands of signatures, and though these might not have actually provoked any action, they do at least get read, and responded to.

The thing that made me think about it today was the Blog Like It’s The End of the World meme, organised for tomorrow. Bloggers from around the world (probably primarily America, mind you) will spend June 13th writing their blogs as if there was a zombie uprising occurring. There’s already a list of blogs committed to doing it, but I suspect more will jump on the bandwagon once it actually starts (and I’m considering it myself!).

The odd thing is that this doesn’t appear to be tied into any particular product. Maybe it was inspired by Romero’s forthcoming Diary of the Dead; and if this stunt was being coordinated by the PR team behind that, it’d be genius. There are ways and means of making communities work for your benefit … not many companies seem to have realised that yet, though. But there’s potential there.

What do you get if you send out over 600 e-mails to elected candidates all over the country, and then monitor their responses for two months?

Well, a headache, for one thing. Lots of headaches, really. And a burning hatred of Excel documents, followed by elation when Excel actually does what you ask it to do after all…

And then you get a headline like that.

The backstory is, we e-mailed MPs in England, Wales and Scotland, asking them about the issue of technology recycling — on a national scale, and on a personal, “we’ve got two computers to get rid of” scale. There were several things at stake: whether they’d reply at all; whether their office would reply in their stead; whether they knew anything about the WEEE directive and local initiatives; and even if they had a published e-mail address at all.

Lots of them replied, several of them more than once, someof them very, very helpfully.

But 98 MPs didn’t reply at all. Which, considering how much cheaper and easier it is to bang out an e-mail reply compared with writing a letter, is a bit disgraceful. Five out of every six MPs did reply, though, which is probably more than would have done this time last year, and fewer than would do this time next year. Ah, the march of progress.

(Yes, this is pretty much just a big ol’ plug.)

According to a couple of major UK newspapers this week, social networking site Bebo has “won” exclusive rights to a UK spin-off of LonelyGirl15. It’s been a while since LG15 has been in the news, though things certainly haven’t been quiet in the Breeniverse. But more on that later.

The spin-off will feature the adventures of “Kate Modern”, a 19-year-old student living in London with a hideous pun for a name. Starting from July, her video diary will be posted on Bebo, where fellow Bebo users will be able to offer feedback, interact with the character, and even influence the outcome of the story, in some peculiar modern version of those Choose Your Own Adventure books.

The Creators of LG15 posted an announcement about this on their forums on Monday 16th April, which read as follows:

Just want to let you in on the good news since the press is breaking today. We are launching an LG15 spinoff in the UK! We formed a partnership with Bebo (www.bebo.com) and in July we’re launching a completely new storyline featuring new characters that live within the LG15 universe. Think Angel vs. Buffy. It should be a lot of fun, and because we have a budget in advance we’re going to be able to do a ton of interactivity and ARGish things. We’ll keep you posted as we make our way through the production process. Thanks!

After some fan comments, another clarification message was posted, reading:

Thanks everyone! We’re really excited! Joanna and the whole team at Bebo are really awesome and completely open to all of our ideas, so it should turn out great. We’ll be writing and producing all of the “top level” story development, puzzles, interactivity, etc. and then we’ll hire a London based team (writer, director, producer, actors, etc.). I’ll be moving out there to run the show for the duration… might direct a little if needed, do revisions, etc. We’re working on hiring more people here so that things on Lonelygirl15 continue… and get even better. We’re very excited.

This is interesting for any number of reasons; not least because this time around, the Creators will actually have a budget to work with. And sponsors. And integrated advertising. In other words, a way of actually making a profit out of this crazy thing they’ve created.

Since my last post about LG15, the Creators have managed to get some product placement into one video, which may have earned them some dosh. But right now they’ve got more problems with the series than ever before: without going into too much detail, a spin-off ARG was integrated into the story, causing a few alterations to the original story to be made to accommodate it; then, just as things were getting really interesting, something rather bizarre happened between the creators of the ARG, the Creators of LG15, and the forum members. Everyone’s very tight-lipped about it now, but as a result, the ARG characters, having only just been properly integrated into the real plot, were unceremoniously ripped back out again. An announcement on the forums explained in no uncertain terms that Tachyon, OpAphid, and Brother weren’t going to be seen again, and a supposedly ‘unofficial’ video attempted a retcon, changing the motivations of the aforementioned three characters and all but declaring them dead.

On top of that tangled mess, the central storyline has become tired and repetitive. Bree and her friends go on the run; they get kidnapped; they escape; they go on the run; they get kidnapped. The initial mysteries of the series still haven’t been satisfactorily explained, and it now doesn’t look like they ever will be. The enormous audience that the show gained are steadily dropping off; their loyalty unrewarded, their wallets unraided, and a universe of other YouTube clips clamouring for their attention.

I stick by my earlier assertion that the best thing to be done with LG15 now would be a blow-’em-away finale, a DVD, and some action figures. Maybe with the added experience and insight the Creators have gained, Kate Modern will be better: the signs are good, considering they seem to have a bit more business sense now. But if they can’t figure out a way to get out of this mess, LG15 will go down in history as one of the most spectacularly wasted opportunities of all time.

(With respect to my earlier article criticising the incomprehensibility of Internet slang and acronyms, here’s a quick glossary:

ARG: alternate reality game
Breeniverse: the universe inhabited by Bree, aka lonelygirl15.
LG15: LonelyGirl15 (that’s a pretty easy one, though)
Retcon: retroactive continuity - a way of fudging plot holes, basically.)

I read something on CNET recently (okay, about a month ago, if you want to be picky) about the death of the smiley.* Personally, I’m in at least two minds about the topic.

As the recent call for a Blogging Code of Conduct demonstrates, even the most rational and mild-mannered amongst us can come unstuck online. Anonymity lets us say whatever we please with little fear of rebuke or consequence; similarly, it can be difficult to interpret tone online, and to take to heart something said (or, typed, anyway) lightly. Emoticons seem to be one way of fixing this problem — though writing more thoughtfully and clearly might be a better solution — and, moreover, they’re something that everyone seems to get the hang of right off the bat.

Internet acronyms can be difficult to figure out, since their meaning isn’t immediately apparent, and most of them have evolved to mean something completely different from their original meaning anyway. When was the last time you saw someone use “LOL” to actually mean they found something funny, rather than to be mocking/sarcastic/intentionally and painfully ironic? Emoticons, on the other hand, are a lot easier: you just have to squint, or maybe turn your head slightly to one side.

I’ve always felt a little uneasy about using them, though. My inner snob insisted on feeling that punctuation should be used to, well, punctuate; I love semi-colons, particularly, and using them to represent one half of an ASCII lascivious wink seemed somehow perverse. MSN Messenger’s obnoxious insistence on turning these symbols into hideous bright yellow faces didn’t help matters; AIM’s smiley set is even worse, and even Microsoft Word is at it. Suddenly, there are grinning faces everywhere, gurning away at me…

But reading that quote from the New York Times cited by CNET made me reconsider. (Oh, don’t get me wrong, I used smilies anyway; I usually just felt a bit guilty afterwards.) In 1969, Vladimir Nabokov was asked how he ranked himself among the greatest writers ever, and responded that “I often think there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile

As per usual, I was in magpie-mode on the Tube this morning. Of the fifteen people in my carriage, I spotted four pairs of white earphones and one pair of black ones.

The woman sitting next to me was using a green iPod Mini — which isn’t all that retro, really, though it is a couple of generations of iPod ago. More interestingly, a guy a couple of seats down was playing Sonic The Hedgehog on a Sega Nomad. Yup, a console that went on sale in 1995.

I’m not really sure what that means. Other than “wow, that guy probably really takes care of his gadgets” (I’m not sure I’ve owned anything that’s lasted longer than a year, ever).