Author: TechDigest writer
Yoko Ono judges Twitter poetry competition
High-culture monolith, Yoko Ono, will begin judging the first ever Twitter poetry competition which started today.
London commuters are being encouraged to submit haiku poems about the British summertime, and those judged good enough will appear on the largest digital display at Kings Cross station and on Twitter.
Scottish poet, Jackie Kay, who will also judge the competition said: “I liked the idea of doing something that combined an old form with a very new form.
“People could do a haiku on the way to work and it’s a good way to exercise the brain. It’s like the sudoku.”
Whether the crowded commute on the tube is the most conducive environment for creativity is yet to be seen, and with a measly 128 characters to work with after the @kingsplace prefix, budding poets might find their burgeoning verse stymied.
But, getting into the spirit of things, I had a pop at one:
I recall summer,
The sun between may and july,
When I forgot how to write.
Not too shabby I think you’ll agree. Why not leave your comments as a Haiku? That’d be nice.
(via Telegraph)
Prison Officer sacked after friending prisoners on Facebook
There are several no-nos to avoid when you’re a prison officer. Letting the inmates out for a picnic is one. Swapping places with the prisoners and pretending you’re in some kind of Bizarro World is another. Befriending them on Facebook is another equally stupid sounding mistake, but one that a Leicestershire prison officer was sacked over.
An investigation into Nathan Singh was initiated when he was suspected of providing mobile phones and other such banned items to inmates. He was really caught bang to right when it was discovered that amongst his Facebook friends were 13 criminals, even though they didn’t find any evidence of his alleged smuggling. He was sacked for gross misconduct as a result.
GALLERY: Our 12 favourite fake and fictional Twitterers
Ever since Twitter first emerged, there have been people creating fake accounts. Some of them are are done spitefully, while others are a little too close to their real life counterparts to be truly entertaining.
But the folks that do it right, with just enough humour to make it obvious that there’s some gentle ribbing going on… those are our favourites. In this gallery, we’re going to celebrate their contribution to the internet: celebrities, fictional characters and beloved pets await. Just click the glorious visage of Captain Jon Luc Picard to continue the tour when you’re ready to continue…
Alan Martin (@alan_p_martin)
Teen paints 60ft penis on roof of parents' house for Google Earth's cameras
When you’re designing a million pound house, there are all kinds of things you need to check. Double glazing? Check. Burglar alarm? Check. 60 ft phallus painted on the roof? Ch… wait, what?
And that expression of surprise was probably comparable to the reaction of Andy McInnes when reporters from The Sun asked him if he was aware of the giant penis daubed in white paint across his rooftop. Unsurprisingly he wasn’t (it’s not the kind of question you answer with “why yes, of course” is it?). Turns out the stunt was his son’s dong doing – having seen a TV programme on Google Earth, he wanted to see if the giant phallus would be picked up by Google’s cameras. The answer? No, the website still shows the original pristine rooftop at the time of writing, despite the artwork being up there for over a year now.
Elecom Power Graphixx series make mp3 players jealous of the earphones
In the whole world of tech, earphones seem to attract the most functional, boring designs. I appreciate there’s not a great deal of scope for creativity, given they still need to fit in the ear (thus making some kind of starfish design distinctly uncomfortable), but I always thought they could be a little bit more interesting than just lumps of circular black (or white, Apple fans) plastic. Turns out I was right, and the result is this lovely series of colourful earphones from Elecom.
LOL juice no laughing matter, says school
Kids, just say no to LOL. That’s the message coming from Bankstown Grammar School in Sydney, where the carbonated fruit juice is being consumed as a breakfast beverage by children as young as six.
Despite the claims that the side of the packaging make about the soft-drink containing “no bad stuff”, each can contains 26mg of sugar, and the design – with its large smiley face and colourful labelling – has been criticised for looking similar to the Red Bull design.
OnLive – top end PC gaming on your TV for less than a subscription to Xbox Live
I started out as a PC gamer with a 486 and single speed CD drive. I was one of those people who entered the constant upgrading loop to try and keep up with the must have games of the time. Then something happened: I moved out and had to deal with rent and bills – suddenly keeping my PC up to date wasn’t quite the priority of yesteryear and I slipped slowly into console ownership. But what if there were a way to play the latest PC games in top resolution through your TV without the need to upgrade your hardware? And what if this were to cost less than the current consoles on the market? Well, I think at that point I’d probably proudly clutch my mouse once more, but that’s never going to happen, right? Wrong, if OnLive has anything to do with it.
The OnLive service, seven years in the making, will allow games to stream games to their front room – it’s essentially cloud gaming. Whereas previously your controller of choice would play the game in the same room, now you’ll be controlling the game on OnLive’s central servers, where the video will be streamed back to you. All you need is a basic computer – even a netbook should do it – and a broadband connection to send and receive the data.
AT&T leak some juicy iPhone gossip
According to the Boy Genius Report, a high ranking anonymous source at AT&T has spilled the beans on the much anticipated new iPhone release. Well, spilled the beans may be a little on the strong side, but we’ve certainly got a few talking points from the information gleaned.
First up, we’re told to expect a full unveiling in June. No surprises there, but always nice to be able to smugly say ‘told you so’ to the handful of people who didn’t care enough to speculate. Then we’re told that the device will be faster and an overall more seamless experience “unmatched by any device”. Again, not too much to write home about here, unless your parents have a Steve Jobs poster on their bedroom wall. If they are, incidentally, be prepared to talk to them more often, because the annual iPhone launch is “becoming a tradition” according to our chatty source.
Pirate Bay to offer improved annonymity to bit torrent users
As the Pirate Bay trial comes to its conclusion, bit torrent has once again been dragged, kicking and screaming into the light. The defendants of the case could spend their time worrying about the outcome, but instead they’ve channeled their efforts into adding more protection to keep the long arm of the law away from those who use the service for nefarious purposes. They’ve developed a new service called IPREDATOR, which promises to be better at keeping users’ details a secret than current VPN services.
The service is currently in private beta, and will be gradually rolled out to all users some time around April 1st. The significance of the date isn’t thanks to April Fool’s Day, but because that’s the date when Sweden’s contraversial new Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) come into effect, which grant copyright holders more rights to get their hands on file sharers’ details. You’ve got to hand it to the Pirate Bay – they’ve got a lot of chutspa.
KOZO lamps bring the charm of the industrial revolution to modern lighting
Whilst those of us in the tech world love everything shiny, perfect and aesthetically pleasing, there’s something to be said about furnishings based on butt-ugly components from the recent past. Take these lamps handmade with galvanised iron, complete with authentic rust, dents from the tools used to create them and an angular retro charm.
