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Tams80

Listed below are comments made by Tams80 between Tuesday, 14th July 2009 and Monday, 23rd November 2009.

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Hi-tech hacks 6:22pm on 23 Nov 2009 I agree with Seamus, professional reporters will always have a place, or at least should. They are the only ones who can reliably supply a balanced view and professional editors and film crews will always be superior. That's not to say the general public can't report in the same way and maybe even film and edit, but the chances are vry unlikely and thus it they are not a reliable source (at least for news sources such as the BBC). User generated content is useful though, even if it should not replace professional reporting, it is useful to supplement it.

begin rant:

badger_fruit, this blog post has nothing to do with Open Source (at least not anything worthy of merit) and yet you still decide to bring up the even more irrelavent argument against Rory for blog post on Ubuntu. I'm surprised that your comment, that has nothing to do with anything in the blog post has even got passed the moderators (provided their human). Firstly, my personal view is you should stop this "crusade" against Rory. Secondly, if you haven't already guessed, this is a blog, Rory doesn't have to have a balanced view on it, it's meant to be more personal. Finally and I do hope you already have picked up on this, stay on topic, please.

PS No one likes the grammar police.

/rant

Anyway, an interesting post Rory. It brings good issues surrounding the future of reporting and its integrity.
A week with Windows 5:03pm on 21 Oct 2009 Windows 7 is a very useful OS and is definitely over Vista, just as Vista was to most people over XP.
Almost every article and most of the comments on the BBC website seem to be negative towards Vista. I know there were and in some cases still are problems, but my personal experience is that Vista is fine, not perfect, but hardly some of the adjectives used to describe it. In fact I find XP rather awful compared to Vista, it 'fell to pieces' under less strain than I have put Vista. I think Vista got a bad press because it wasn't good enough for 'techies', who made themselves quite vocal, but worked fine for most people who therefore didn't bother making a fuss.
Also, Rory, you say you use Google Docs. How confident are you that they are secure (both from deletion and snooping), especially when you don't have a backup?
Apple: All sizzle and no steak 6:55pm on 10 Sep 2009 I don't know why people were expecting an Apple tablet, because the event was quite clearly going to be an iPod and iTunes event. Personally the only thing I vaguely like is the updated iTunes (not that I use it much).

On the face of it, this Apple event the reporting hasn't been over the top (I can only see the main article and this blog post). However, underneath that it certainly has been bias. By not reporting on competitors and other issues (e.g. Nokia World 2009 as londonitis mentioned) the BBC seems to be going against its core value, impartiality. This, if I am not mistaken is supposed to apply to whole of the BBC, not the just the main parts (e.g. conflicts,politics).

@ dave_sparrow
"Yes, they have. They've also been pretty rubbish and too expensive for anyone to care."
The current tablets are actually quite good. They certainly aren't perfect and obviously aren't as cheap as a normal laptop. An Apple one though is hardly going to be cheaper (so, according to you, it would be more than "too expensive =s). If anything it will be more expensive. Anyway, there is already an unoffical Apple tablet like device made by axiotron, called a ModBook (it's powerful, but VERY expensive).
What makes a tech story? 12:56pm on 02 Sep 2009 KingofallSamurai, I agree with most of what you have said, but not with all your comments on product announcement.

The BBC technology website reports on a wide range, as the blog post says, so reporting all new products releases is obviously not sensible (there are other websites for that). New products that have a significant changes to technology in general should be reported. The problem is the BBC sometimes gets overboard with these, with the iPhone and Twitter being prime examples. A few articles, more than most other subjects would have been acceptable, but there seemed to be a flood. This makes it seem like advertising. Groundbreaking technology that comes along very infrequently should perhaps get such get such coverage, but the iPhone wasn't such a moment.

Also, if the BBC should make people aware of Apple's product cycles, shouldn't they make people aware of every other technology companies cycles? If product cycles are given, it shouldn't be in a slew of articles, but rather just a link in one article, a rather minor pert of the reporting, but present non the less. In general though, those who care about product cycles can go to websites that are better catered for reporting on them.
An evening with Generation Whatever 12:34pm on 02 Sep 2009 I agree that TV is still a great draw. There is something about catching the programme and the anticipation caused by waiting for the next in the series that keeps it going. Also online TV quality isn't as good (we need faster broadband and at the very least higher caps for that).

I disagree with Twitter though. Most of the people I know (I am a teenager if you have guessed) have heard of Twitter, but refer to it as "It's just that thing. It's rubbish". This is in part because many people my age don't know that much about Twitter, but also because we don't generally see the point of it (a generalisation, I know).

Personally I have tried Twitter and don't see much use for it. Facebook is better for updates (you can had more meaning, rather than "I'm on the toilet"), Windows Live Messenger is better for online conversationsn and texting is better when out. I do use it sometimes like an RSS feed and did use it for Channel 4's Surgery Live.

Torrents are quite populur as far as I can tell, but a lot of music and videos are shared on USB drives, Cds etc. Spotify is certainly becoming kmore well known and services like Grooveshark seem to be used quite a lot.
Spinvox, we stand by our story 7:13pm on 01 Aug 2009 An exceptionally good piece of journalism. Twitter wasn't even mentioned, I'm impressed!

I'm sure Spinvox are complying to the law to the letter, but they certainly aren't doing so morally. To me the message is just as personal as the phone number etc. What on earth makes them think that it is any different?
Microsoft: There's a buzz about Bing 7:03pm on 01 Aug 2009 I for some reason prefer Bing and have now set it to my default search engine.

Can I just point out that you seem to be rather critical of Vista (even if it is not the main part of the post). I've had no considerable problems with Vista, at least none that weren't easy to fix and fewer problems than XP. I suspect most people don't even know they run Vista and many probably don't have problems, so aren't vocal about them. Vista just seems incumbent because more people are vocal (link to the development of the internet?) about their problems and they are probably really in the vast minority.
Twitter's front page makeover 11:01am on 29 Jul 2009 Twitter this, twitter that, you ever seem to do is twitter! Surely, as a ridiculous number of people who read this blog have already stated, there is something else to report on in Silicon Valley?! There MUST be. Most people don'y know twitter exists, then many don't care and then there are the few who have made accounts and most of those never actually use them! I only use it like an RSS feed so I can get multiple news sources. Please DON'T make an acticle about it though!
'I could go out here to 53rd and Broadway and get people to say hi to me' 10:59am on 24 Jul 2009 To be honest I think we have heard enough about twitter. The odd post is OK, but almost everything seems to have some sort of twitter reference. Twitter really isn't THAT great! (the hype, not helped by the BBC makes it seem so).

More diverse reporting and blogging would be much better.
118800 and a web revolution 9:16pm on 14 Jul 2009 ravenmorpheus, I must agree. Although you don't need the internet to opt-out, the general assumption is that people have internet access, which as we know is certainly not true, otherwise why was Digital Britain commissioned? That isn't the main point though. Some people, as you have mentioned do not even know that their number has is on the directory, even some tech savvy people and even then some none tech savvy people don't know how to opt-out.

Personally, I think that all options should be legally be required to be opt-in. Companies would also put the option in larger font in order entice people, but this would surely act as as assurance to people that they haven't been opted-in (if that is what they wish). The terms terms to the opt-in should also be in large font and easy to find (e.g. what the company can do with the information, such as selling it on (which surely should never be their's to sell unless you agree and receive some profit). On an even more sidetracked note cold calling should just be made illegal and be punishable with a huge fine, although it's probably almost impossible to catch the culprits (is that the right word?).

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