This was a talk I gave at Social Media Camp London in 2009. In it, I describe my experiences working with user-generated-content, pornography, and other adult material. This was one of my earliest BarCamp talks, and contains several ideas which now seem quite outdated.I was attempting to warn people about accepting UGC - not only the danger it posed to their sites, but also to their sanity.The tone is a bit too jokey in places, and some of my ideas around sex, gender, sexuality, and the like…
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Terry Eden (Connect) speaking in support of Composite Motion 10. I want to focus on public procurement and the role it can play in driving forward social and environmental goals and, in particular, raising labour standards. The money public authorities spend on buying goods and services amounts to £108 billion every year from major capital projects to buying office stationery. Our public money supports private business. It is right that our public money should be used to encourage the private …
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This is a necropost - resurrected from one of my ancient USENET posts. In an exclusive preview of the new series, GEORGE MURPHY tells CulTV why the show is possibly the worst thing you will watch on British Television in 2005 CulTV's review of "Rose" Here's my exclusive review of CulTV's review. Get over it, Granddad. I sat and watched it with a bunch of guys (and girls! You know, girls - the ones that are a bit like boys but smell nicer) all in our mid-twenties. We loved it. I've…
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I use a RIM Blackberry (6720 I think) to get my emails and browse the web on the move. I think its interface is deeply lacking and the hardware is flakey to say the least. But it has an amazing keyboard. I couldn't imagine typing anything this long using predictive text - or even handwriting recognition. I still love my Treo 180 - but its consigned to a drawer until there's a Blackberry client for it. The same goes for any smartfone - unless my email comes to me I'm just not interested.…
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This is a necropost - resurrected from one of my ancient USENET posts. Some web-browsers use "Stop Loading" icons that were represented with USA stop signs. To anyone else in the world, that's just a red octagon. Similarly the spell-check button in MS products is a tick over an "ABC". I don't know what the spell check button is like in countries with a different lexicography. Also, in countries which read right to left, are the back and forward buttons reversed? If you are only writing…
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This long-forgotten review has been resurrected from one of my ancient USENET posts! It uses a D-Sub9 to Scart socket rather than a standard SCART. You can't flick to radio channels without pushing the "radio" button first. You then have to press TV to get back to TV. It doesn't come with an RF splitter or remodulator - which means you'll lose all your analogue channels. It is nice and small! …
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In 2002, I wrote this dissertation as part of my B.Sc. at UEA. I've kept this edition as close to the original as possible. I've added in links (where they still survive) and inserted a few comments where I was ludicrously wrong or unexpectedly right. This paper is not especially well-written and, if memory serves, received only a adequate mark. Terence Eden - 2016 Executive Summary This project report draws on many disparate sources to investigate: The future of the computer. How…
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This review was orginally written for a now-defunct website. Terence Eden - 2016 The Spec Mello Branded Cyprus CompactFlash MP3 player (v11) + 128MB Compact Flash card (a 128MB CF card gives you 124MB (130658304bytes) which is just about enough for 2 hours of 128Kb music. If you go down to FM quality (64kb) you'll get 4 hours worth of music.). Manufactured by http://www.themindfactory.com/Products/Mello_MP3/mello_mp3.html Purchased from http://e2thepower.com for £99.99 Acts as a true …
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This is a Necropost. Reanimated from an ancient site. Programming (great having the API in one monitor, the IDE on another and the output on the third!) Web browsing + email + Trillian + winamp all in easy reach. Writing documents on the centre monitor and having the references on the two side monitors! Sorry for the crappy picture - someone buy me a digital camera... please! Config 3342 WinXP, 3 monitors, 3 video cards K6/2-500 576MB Gigabyte GA-5AX DXr3/Hollywood+ DVD decoder. Must…
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This is a necropost - resurrected from one of my ancient USENET posts. One of the problems I've encountered is that most people (users and, to an extend, designers) are socially conditioned to believe that tasks should be difficult. They expect a learning curve that isn't always logical. It stems from childhood when we don't understand something and are told "that's just the way it is". Users have become conditioned into accepting a hundred page manual for toaster ovens because, often,…
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This review was written for a now-defunct university website. Terence Eden - 2016 Another year - another Pratchett book. I am usually the first in the queue to read his latest offering, I was a little reticent about purchasing this tome; it's quite short (160 pages), it's illustrated and his last offering, "The Thief Of Time", hadn't left me with much confidence in my favourite author. It's good to be wrong. Pratchett is back with a story which will have you laughing out loud within the…
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This is a necropost - resurrected from one of my ancient USENET posts. I can only apologise... On the other hand, Tim Curry as Lockhart... (pictures Harry dashing into Lockhart's office, and seeing him wearing a Merry Widow bustier and high heels. Begins giggling hysterically.) (To the tune of "Sweet Transvestite" by Richard O'Brian) (Gilderoy Lockhart) Don't get strung out by the way that I look Don't judge a Wizard by his cloak, I'm no good with a wand, by the light of day But by night …
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