ALL A-TWITTER
The article "Is Twitter the perfect way to network?" (29 January) set out to explain Twitter to those on the outside. It contained interesting facts, but in my opinion it failed to give insight into why Twitter is causing such a stir. Firstly, Twitter is causing a mini-revolution in customer service. This was entirely missing from the article. It stated that "companies are latching on to the search facilities at Twitter to find out what people think of them". Companies are not just stealthily dipping into Twitter, they have Twitter accounts. Dell have 28. They're not eavesdropping, they're having conversations. Sometimes they're not having conversations, and that has been even more dramatic. An example like Motrin Moms would illustrate this and give non-Twitterers an insight into what's happening.
manwomanandchild.com
DIGITAL BRITAIN
Well, it's good to know that we can forget about the credit crunch, about the violence in Israel, the non-war in Iraq, children suffering, and on-going crime. None of that matters. Because, praise the Lord, we will all have broadband by 2012. This for me fits in the same category as the hunting bill. The world is going to pot, get a sense of perspective here. Let's try and fix the things that really matter. I mean, what's the point of having broadband if none of us can afford computers.
spread-these-wings.blogspot.com
NEGROPONTE & OLPC
Well, our interest was certainly piqued by that OLPC XO-2 mockup that surfaced yesterday, and now the Guardian is saying that the hardware development will take place open source. This is certainly fitting with the company's idealistic ethos, and it'll be interesting to see what other companies bring to the table as the reportedly $75 dual-screen device gets closer to real reality. "The XO-1 was really designed as if we were Apple," Nicholas Negroponte says in the interview. "The XO-2 will be designed as if we were Google - we'll want people to copy it. We'll make the constituent parts available. We'll try and get it out there using the exact opposite approach that we did with the XO-1." He let a few details slip too, saying that it will be dual touchscreen, with one of the displays featuring a touch-sensitive, force-feedback, haptic keyboard. When asked how he feels about the possibility that other companies might profit from all this hard work developing the laptop of tomorrow? "I wouldn't complain." Class act, that one. Bravo.
engadget.com
In The Sugar daddy for future generations we learn that One Laptop Per Child is farther down the Windows XO dual boot path that expected. Nicholas Negroponte says that OLPC should start shipping laptops with Microsoft Windows XP in April. That would be a huge shift from earlier assertions that OLPC would not offer Windows XO - it would only be a custom modification made by Microsoft. But Negroponte feels that by offering XP, he can remove and objection to the XO: Sugar. Now as a recent Apple convert, I have to strenuously object that the ability to run Windows is why Apple is gaining market share. The amazing maturity and stability of the OSX operating system, the quality hardware, and even the iPhone cool factor had greater impact. In fact, if anything, the rampant viruses on XP and the abject failure of Vista would be specific reasons not to trust hardware that can run Windows.
olpcnews.com
WALES HEALTH RECORDS
I read with interest your article on the Individual health rocord in Wales and whilst I agree that in principal it sounds as though a great achievement has been made in comparison with the English Model. In truth the computer system you describe has only been rolled out to 1 hospital in Wales and is essentially at the moment a 1 trick pony. It only allows the Gwent hospital staff to look at GP records. Whilst this does indeed reduce risk it does fall short of being a true IHR, for example it does not allow interchange of discharge information back to the GP's.
I work in Wales in an NHS trust and I am envious of the systems that are currently being provided in some hospitals in England, for example Birmingham have electronic prescribing and they can transfer information directly to GP's. These things are a long way off in Wales. The systems I describe could actually save more lives than the systems that informing healthcare they are currently spending Tax payers money on. I've still got an antique of a system to work with that was installed in the early 1990s!
Jonathon Palmer, Haverfordwest
GOOGLE GLITCH
I experienced this glitch, and I am very concerned that Google report it is a temporary problem. Maybe this is their way of hiding it from the public.
I run www.naval-history.net (nearly 2 million visitors per annum). Over the last few weeks I have had two such warnings trying to open my site and I know at least one other visitor has. Ten colleagues I contacted had received no warnings. Of the other 5,000 visitors daily, who can say.
When this first happened yesterday, I contacted the BBC newsdesk thinking this was a major virus attack on Google, to be told my computer had a glitch. It obviously had not. I run Windows on a Mac, and both systems experienced it.
It suggests to me Google either has a potentially major software problem or is undergoing a serious attack.
Can I suggest you keep an eye on this.
Gordon Smith, Penarth
APPLE MINI MAC
Alan Gent is right (Letters and blogs, January 29). I am right. All God's children are right, at least some of the time.
Alan Gent is right in saying that the Mac mini is a standalone computer. This hits the nail on the head. That is its appeal, to those who wish to spend less by purchasing a Mac, but not keyboard, monitor, and mouse.
Of course, Apple could always licence Mac OS X 10.4 to Dell. Then Dell would sell, and Apple would get one bite of the cherry, with the initial purchase, and probably another, when people upgraded to Leopard (OS X 10.5).
Roger Larkinson, Bedford
Alan Gent opined that Apple's Mac Mini would likely go down in history as something most users never quite got the hang of.
I take it Alan hasn't read the Mac Mini pages on Apple's own website (http://www.apple.com/macmini/), especially the Big Ideas section.
Mac Minis in Jeep dashboards; Mac Minis gathering data for astronomers; pharmaceutical companies running heart failure simulation software on Mac Minis; Millennium Falcon Mac Mini mods for Star Wars geeks (with working iSight camera) and plenty more unexpected uses.
I don't know what Alan will make of all this, but I'd say these folks have clearly got the hang of what the Mac Mini is capable of.
Jonathan Wilson, Cambridge
In response to Alan Gent I would just like to point out that many current PC users who may be thinking of upgrading to OS X already have a keyboard, mouse and display. These whilst not bearing the Apple logo will more than likely work just as well.
Will Gore, via email
LIBRARY SEARCH
Colin Cohen in yesterday's Letters [Thursday 29th January] says he was surprised you didn't mention "... copac.ac.uk, which covers all British academic libraries online". Not true, it only covers 'major University, Specialist, and National Libraries in the UK and Ireland, including the British Library'. This leaves out a large proportion of UK University Libraries. See: http://copac.ac.uk/libraries/
Crispin Partridge, London
