Verba @ McAWilliams.com

So Tuesday and Thursday Twitter question time or TTQT as it shall now be known, sort of got lost a bit lately but its back!

And what a way to come back, yesterday while on the bus on the way home people witnessed my anger in full flow and it brought about todays question, I was sitting minding my own business on the way home and a man sat in the seat in front of me, what he proceeded to do is one of the major things in life that really get my back up. I am 6 foot 4 inches, so quite tall, the majority of the height comes from my legs and leg room is quite precious to me on public transport, generally my knees rest on the seat in front so imagine if you will a man sitting down bouncing and leaning back like in some sort of fit all the time walloping my knees. Yes I was mad! and my knees are black now from the bruising I got for 35 minutes of my journey home.

So todays question was a simple one

“What sort of person brings out the hulk in you?”

It all started very slowly but @icedcoffee was first to answer “ah well that sucks. so what sort of person makes me mad? thats easy the one who tweets 50+ times a day!” I am sure he was not refering to me but did not give out any names!

@pixievondust was next “People who walk slowly. Makes me want to whack ‘em across the head. I’ve more, lots of people anger me hulk-style! People who blatantly scan you while talking to you. Hello? I can see you scanning and its rude and makes me feel uncomfortable!”

Icedcoffee said “I totally agree with you, im constantly overtaking ppl.. slow ppl should *not* walk in the middle of the path.”

At this stage it went very quiet until @talideon joined in “What brings out the hulk in me is belligerent silence; when you’re trying to talk to somebody and they clam up. Grr! Also, people who not just *want* to be right, but *need* to be right, and can’t take any contradiction or reasoning otherwise. Also, it gets my goat when people get angry at others for trying to do something nice for them. Chivalry’s a good thing!” This guy has issues, but in retrospect I agree with them all.

@maryrose following on from what pixievondust had said “I hate people who drive extra extra slowly in car parks. very annoying. Also people who moan about the weather when it’s bad and when its good.” Yes the question had now started to filter out through twitterland and the responses came fast and furious.

@benkenealy “People who talk really slow and deliberate like a teacher really make me green and all bicep’y.”
@patphelan “Women and their effing purses at cash registers like its a surprise they need to pay, now that’s annoying and the worst, the same women taking 90 secs to resegment the change back into the purse,arragghh”
@redmum “Ha @patphelan and men shuffling for money AFTER they get on the bus is even more annoying I am driven demented by disgusting noisy eaters, hate someone eating obnoxious smelling crisps on bus in morning ARGRghhh”

Talideon jumped in with a great one liner “I have to say, this is nicely cathartic!”

Back to the question the tweets kept flying in with next up @johnpeavoy “People in airport security queues that suddenly realise that hey, I might need to get ready…. AT THE MACHINE … Grrr! What about customer service / retail staff who never speak, just grunt a “mmm” or “na” …. ? Now we’re really cookin.”
@elfinamsterdam said “Other than slow walkers and Q skippers, negative outlook annoys me most, Whats so hard about trying to look on bright side?”
@nathaliemc added “The sort of person that he gets a one-off lift with my driving mate & I, and then hops into the front seat without asking.”

It was at this point I thanked everyone for joining in on what I thought would be a quiet question time, but oh no half an hour later I had more answers.

@karenquinn brought up the “People who can’t make up their mind in the sandwich queue at lunchtime!”
@simonmcc “Bullies, rudeness/ignoranant behaviour, seat bouncers and airplane seat recliners included!”, could not agree more Simon how could I forget the recliners!!! he went on “People who get to the door and stop, blocking all of us who have a clue where we are going!”
What I imagined would be the final answer came from the North of Ireland with @bigstevie1275 who was very late home from work but obviously saw my question from hours before, he said “I missed it at 6 because I had to work late which brings me on nicely to my answer. Bosses, why do they expect u to be able to, fit a weeks work into 1 day with pointless checks and paperwork then get u to work late then ask u to stay later than u already are then ask to plan in hours then moan because nobody wants to work extra cuz they are knackered aaaaahhhhhh then there’s old people that jump the queue in shops. Fuck off OAP I was next I’m on my break u have all day now piss off to the back of queue! Im done now LOL”

Finally 6 hours on from asking the question came @NiallHarbison saying “My answer to TTQT is…..People who are always making excuses instead of just going out and doing it!”

What a great answer to end on, and what a great reaction from twitter this evening, thank you all so much for taking part in todays TTQT, which I have to say was the most exciting and fun one to date!

If you would like to participate in the question time on Tuesdays and Thursdays about 6pm follow me on twitter my user name is mcawilliams, its a bit of a laugh and also a good way to meet new people out there!

The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) have created an in-depth set of video overviews and tutorials that take you deeper into the new Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 4 program. Hosted by Scott Kelby, Dave Cross and Matt Kloskowski (The Photoshop Guys) also Featuring Corey Barker and RC Concepcion.

This videos show whats in store for everyone waiting to get their hands on Photoshop CS4. The Camera RAW features that have been added make this for me a worthwhile looking product, with the ability to dodge and burn, sharpen add brightness or contrast all of which is non destructive, this really makes RAW in photoshop so much better!

Jesh is this blog turning wordy or what, well this evening I held the first of the evening twitter question times. My question today came after what happened yesterday on Meltdown Monday.

“What’s going on with the world, recession, markets in turmoil and let’s not forget the ever worsening weather. People are depressed what can we do to improve things?”

I was dubious about the change in time of asking the question and it did take a moment or two before Szlampy started the answers off with “What can we do as individuals? Save money, reduce fuel usage, downsize your house and reduce your mortgage.” I replied to this saying that “saving money in Ireland is getting harder, don’t know what it’s like in the uk but here electricity and gas are going up a lot!”

It was at this point that Icedcoffee from Northern Ireland said “Both went up by 33% here a couple of weeks ago” fellow Northern Irish Tweeter and first timer on question time Grannymar said after I tweeted up being worried that the responses were slow said “They are ignoring you like they are the recession!”

It was also fantastic to see someone I have followed for quite some time Pixievondust get involved too, she said “All these things seem better when people have worthy distractions like love, family, devotions be it knitting or rock climbing. There’s nothing like being devoted to a cause or love to put a more positive spin on your world, dare I say find your version of ‘religion’?”

My mother Aileenwilliams added that “Judging from the news it’s going to get worse, but ah well been there before!” Very true for a lot of folk but the celtic tiger generation aint ever encountered hard times before now, in my opinion.

Karenquinn again another first time person to question time came on later on with “You get many replies to your question? was trying to think of something we could all cheer ourselves up with in the current financial climate and the best I could think of was at least our grandparents will be pleased frugality is back in fashion!” I had to laugh at this all but true answer.

So on a night of first timers what about the other old reliables? well bigstevie1275 was last to reply with “Only getting to look now at it question as I’m sick today. World market could be sorted if the greedy banks and governents and oil compaines stopped thinking about lining there own pockets. They have the money to sort it as it was them that caused it by but they want us to sort it. Look at how many people have lost jobs or have had hours reduced (me included) my team was reduced by half and are now expected to do twice the work load. As for the weather I’m buying a dingy to get about LOL”

And so ended the first evening Twitter Question Time, and I have to say after a slower then normal start I ended up getting fantastic opinions and it was great to see so many other people get involved too. So untill Thursday enjoy tomorrow and catch you on Twitter.

Todays question came about from all the media attention on the The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex, intended to collide opposing beams of protons with very high kinetic energy. The question I posed was

“With the LHC now fired up are we wrong trying to play god? Or is it a good thing?”

Danclements was first to answer with ”I don’t think the LHC falls under the realm of God Playing, we won’t reach that until we start altering the human genome.” Elfinamsterdam added “I don’t think its trying to play god, I think we need to reenact things in order to discover how they work. To understand nature. We need to play with it and take it apart. As with many things this is the best way to learn. Ignorance isn’t always bliss. Physics is the understanding of how the universe works. These experiments help us understand where we came from.”

I mentioned to Elfinamsterdam that “I still personally think creating an energy 100000 times hotter then the sun in a pipe 100 meters underground very dangerous” her response was swift “In specific yes, I think its dangerous. In general reenacting circumstances and situations is the only way to learn. bit like cycling here, in theory taking your 6yr old kid to school on your bike is a good idea, in practice allowing her to stand on the parcel carrier with her hands on your shoulders as you cycle through traffic is rather dangerous! Id say it is dangerous alright! no? both CERN and the cyclists could be in for a nasty surprise, lets hope they both go to plan”

It was great to see Bigsteve1275 back answering with “in some cases yeah would be good to find a cure for cancer but trying to recerate the big bang ! Not the best idea along with GM food and dolly the sheep.” I piped in with “also creating the big bang opens up the next never ending question where did the particles come from to create THAT bang.” to which he replied “LOL yeah could also put an end to the question of god”

Icedcoffee came in late this evening with his reply “God? It’s all about the science. Where did we all come from?? while also trying not to get into a huge debate about this; beliefs and such playing ‘master of the universe’ maybe… im still confused what they hope to do with the knowledge, they can’t do any harm.”

This whole experiment really has got divided views, and all we can do is wait and see what comes of it in a few weeks time.

I have also decided to move question time from the mornings to the evenings instead, I think 8.15am is far to early to be asking these sorts of questions, so join me next week after 5.30 for another question that is on my mind.

Thanks as always to all todays contributers.

Well are we sick of the rain yet, I certainly know I am and because of this when sitting on the bus this morning no major thought provoking questions came to mind, so I asked the simple one,

“Why is it you love Twitter. I have my reasons which are obvious, and you?”

I think the rain really annoyed people this morning so the responses were very slow and few, but fortunately Elfinamsterdam and Icedcoffee were on hand to answer this simple question, and Twitter Question Time can continue.

ElfinAmsterdam was first to answer with “Sad I know, buts its a form of community for me being away from home (Ireland now living in Amsterdam). Also its a nice ‘office atmosphere’ during the week the odd smart comment and joke and bit of chat between tasks. At home its kind of like a nice friend … quiet when you are doing stuff and chatty when you want to chat, and it inspires me to blog better.”

Icedcoffee came on soon after with “the interaction, the quick response to questions, finding new people, getting news and links, spread the word about my blog etc”

As I said in my question my answer is so obvious, I find it a great place to chat to people I have never met, but hope too, and people I have known for years. To exchange jokes, take the piss out of each other, pat ourselves on the back when something goes right for someone, commiserate when iPhones break down etc

Yes I am a noisy tweeter, but thats what I love about it, getting reactions like last week when I attempted to take over Rick O’Sheas twitterfeed with the help of Peterd. We got a reaction and how it made us laugh, even Rick found it kinda amusing. So thats really why for me.

I promise to come back to better questioning on Thursday, see ya then!

This morning question came up due to a tweet yesterday from David Maybury about the EULA or terms and conditions when downloading Googles much hyped “Chrome” browser, which was released on Tuesday. Basically the wording in the EULA stated that,

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

This is also the case with Facebook and as I found out in todays answers not uncommon in other places aswell.

So my question was quite simply “Following on from the revelations in Google Chromes terms and conditions, should we be paying more attention to what we sign up to, Facebook for instance also own everything we put up even photos and can use them as they wish”

GrooveMachine was first up with a rather startled “Facebook does that? eek! whats happening to the web?” Faceman101 was also very quick to reply and obviously a bit shocked by the question “Whats in chromes t&c’s”

Davidmaybury was next in “MySpace tried it last year with uploaded music content but had to change the wording eventually” Faceman101 I think knew what answer was coming because as quick as his first tweet arrived he said “the best way to see how open to abuse you are on Facebook is to try and delete your account nothing is deleted”

I wanted to make sure to anyone outside of Ireland that in relation to Facebook what I was talking about was in Ireland, I know in the UK there was uproar over it and the wording was amended, but GrooveMachine went and checked the US Facebook EULA and tweeted “looks to be the same in the US t&c’s, good to know”

I knew at this point I had hit a nerve and was thrilled these companies should not be allowed do this, Elfinamsterdam joined in at this stage with “I think its naive to believe that if you put something in the public domain that it remains private property” this view was also backed up by question time veteran Topgold who said “You cede a certain amount of privacy once you start using the internet as your workspace and play area” both of which are very valid points, but forgetting about privacy, I want to retain the rights to things I may post up on my blog or Facebook or anything for that matter.

Chrismehigan decided to get his 2 cents out there “companies should be more careful about terms they push to consumers - lot of protection in Europe on this. Adobe ran into trouble with this recently and DID change the EULA to address consumer concerns, Facebook have a terrible policy and YouTube is also quite demanding I believe, for creative professionals it is very important. Strictly speaking they are creating derivative works of your items which they can then use - but it could be drafted better”

Elfinamsterdam added “I agree it SHOULD be the case that you own the intellectual property, but in reality, do you think taht is the case? when it resides on a server you do not control, and its in the public domain. When software exists to assist if someone wants to claim it as their own. I don’t agree that it should be this way, it just seems to be that we must see it this way to change it. I think we should say no, but I think we should understand that when you give a corporation access to your material really you relinquish your full control over it. Its not locked inside your head and it resides on that corps server. Its not utopia”

Icedcoffee was late to arrive and reiterated what David had said with “isn’t it the same with MySpace and music - they can do what they want with it?”

Topgold finished off the discussion with “A lot of people in my first year media writing place their faith in Bebo!”

This discussion I hope will continue, I feel we only touched the tip of the iceberg this morning. This afternoon it was revealed that Google have in fact amended their terms accordingly, obviously people power won out once again, which is a great thing.

Thanks again to everybody who took part in today’s discussion, these remember are views, and should be treated as such.

LINKS

Chrome EULA before the amend - http://url.ie/nze
MySpace EULA - http://url.ie/o0w
Adobe EULA issues - http://snipurl.com/3mu61
Topgolds take on Google Chromes EULA - http://url.ie/o15

This mornings question was quite simple really “why do you follow certain people, friends? followers of friends? followers of followers or because they are nearby on Twinkle”

BluPsych from California once again was first to respond with “I folllow because it’s not what you know it’s who you know”

So we were of to a flying start next up came Icedcoffee with his reply of “just wanna be loved” I had to ask if it worked and his response made me giggle even more “yes 200 ppl love me now, even Cali Lewis”

Topgold was next to jump on with a great answer “I follow people who offer helpful @ replies and unfollow toxic whingers” obviously has had a bad experience then on Twitter?

It then went very quiet on question time and at 9.10am I decided to retweet the original question again since more people seemed to be around. I was thrilled to see Debbiemet take part again, not only that but with a great answer too “started off 1 friend and his friends. Then music bloggers then Irish bloggers then just joined in the conversation and it grew”, Chrismehigan added with “follow friends, people recommended to me and other peeps I find interesting”

Icedcoffee at this stage realised his previous tweet may not have been serious enough so told me “I started by adding irish bloggers, then local tech bloggers, then Cali Lewis” I knew at this stage a google of Ms Cali Lewis was an essential part of my day!

Suddenly a rush of tweets came in with Eske been first, “I checked twit.ie for interesting people, twubble for friends of friends, then twitterlocal for nearby twitters”, Damienmulley piped in with “Started of with about 15 blogs, some Irish like Bernie and some American Tech and then I added blogs that could teach me stuff” it felt nice to know I was included with that bunch.

Irishstu also finds the @ replies beneficial “if I see someone new in an @ response I check them out and then follow them if I find them interesting or relevant”. The last reply I got was from Willknott who said that “I follow people I know and/or geographically close to me” Topgold was quick to reply to that with “I follow Willkott because he is always good for a laugh” Very true Bernie!

For me I have to say I have been found by people more then likely because I never shut up and maybe folk see me as interesting, untill they see me make so much noise and try to piss Rick O shea off. I will always, without fail follow an Irish blogger that finds me but also look out for the @ replies and if that person is noisy like me generally follow them.

Anyhow I hope to see you all again on Thursday 8.15ish for the next question, and thanks so much fot the great response once again twitterers!