In Babbage’s column this week, Virtual Lemmings, he argues that humans are a gregarious lot, which gives rise to herd mentality, while Will Self writes of superficial advances that provide us with more disposable time we just fill it up fiddling with iPhones. First, let’s look glance through a few headlines in today’s Mashable. One [...]

With all this social media around I have asked myself if Jesus would have tweeted: “Performed miracle at Cana wedding. Guests thirsty and restless. Asked mum to fetch more water”, or “Cranking out a few parables after lunch with Stephen Fry”? Recently, the Pope was in Britain and warned of “aggressive secularism. Meanwhile, the Vatican [...]

In this week’s Economist, it expounded on the future of the internet. They argue that there is a virtual counter-revolution in the making, one that has powerful forces of fragmentation that are “threatening to balkanise it”. I don’t agree. The  Economist’s article this week argues that the internet’s “very success” has given rise to forces [...]

Imagine, if you will, Arthur C. Clarke’s third law that states: “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” and that Harry Potter’s “magic” will soon be realised through advanced technologies that are nearing a “Singularity”, the dawn of a new civilisation. For over three decades, futurist Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most [...]

The advance of social media discourse could be harshly described as a continual distraction, containing noisy encumbrances of rapidly-sampled psychotic diatribes from multiple silos. This, it is said, is one of the profound questions about the narcissism of the modern psyche. In Nick Carr’s recent book, “The Shallows”, he explains how the printed book served [...]

A recent article in The Guardian newspaper claims that Rupert Murdoch’s online version of the Times is losing “almost 90% of [its] online readership”. Transposing business models of print media into online deserves an unrighteous kick in the pants In general, websites are support mechanisms for bricks-and-mortar companies and the attempt to elevate and transpose [...]

Google said it was “very pleased” that the Chinese government has renewed its ICP licence, thereby resolving a six-month stand-off. Had it not done so, it would not have had the platform to develop and market Android on the mainland. Google’s ICP licence now runs to 2012, subject to annual renewals. On the strength of [...]

A recent report issued by the OECD paints a gloomy picture for the future of newspapers. However, according to The Economist, the publisher of Bild and Die Welt “recently recorded the most profitable first quarter in its history”, with a profit margin showing a startling 27%. Maybe that’s good news for the German publisher but [...]

The bitter friction between Apple and Google following the release of its Android operating system was one thing, but sour relations between the two companies has reached a new stage of intensity following Google’s announcement of its own Tablet. Steve Jobs recently accused Google of “stealing features from the iPhone” and that the company had [...]

There seems to be a proliferation of Q&A sites, which assume to offer “answers” to anyone who poses a question. Aardvark, WikiAnswers and Mahalo are three new services that purport to deliver education on demand. But it’s not quite feasible, is it? If you are of a mind to ask randomly trivial questions, you may [...]