links for 2009-02-10

“The report also accuses the PCC of being in some kind of disarray, because the number of complaints is going up. In fact the number of complaints going up reflects the fact that the public now knows more about it". Hang on there a second, so what you are saying is that if the number of complaints about something, say, picking at random, a BBC Radio 2 programme, goes up dramatically, it isn't because there is any problem with the show, it is just because more people have heard about it, and shows that the BBC is doing a good job of handling complaints? Really?

"Blogger Penny Red has started the group to support the National Take a Photo of a Police Officer Day 2009. This movement is being formed to highlight the imminent change of law that could make taking photos of police officers illegal under anti-terror legislation."

"It was only an amount of time before mobile broadband USB dongles gained designer status. Mobiles have been painted with that very same brush for some time now, with the likes of Prada, Armani, Dolce and Gabbana all getting in on the act. What’s next to gain the fashionable tag in phone apparel? Are we likely to see Dior microSD cards or Chanel SIM cards? When will this madness stop! *sigh*"

Mixed responses in the comments to a rant which seems to essentially boil down to the NUJ not being very hip with the new fangled web 2.0 stuff that Dave lives and breathes.

"Lets start with comparisons. Newspapers? the total circulation of all daily newspapers worldwide is about 480 milllion. Cars? There are about 800 million cars on the planet. Cable and satellite TV subscriptions? About 850 million. Personal computers including desktops, laptops and netbooks, about 1 billion. Fixed landline telephone connections, about 1.2 billion. eMail users about 1.3 billion. Internet users about 1.4 billion. Television sets about 1.5 billion. And credit cards? About 1.7 billion people carry at least one credit card in their wallet. But there are 4 billion mobile phone subscriptions now in January 2009."

"I could comment on how well SharePoint lives up to these principles but that doesn’t seem the right way to end such a lovely snowy week."

"We've always had newspaper cuttings and archive files in libraries. But what should we do with when the accessibility of our stories online are claimed to cause a story for wrongdoers of the past?". The comments seem pretty unequivocal that the public think once you've done wrong once, it should stay available as a matter of record. And you possibly have to walk around with a copy of the article printed on your t-shirt...

Looks like this is the graph to pull up next time somebody starts mythering that their house price has fallen 1.7% in the last year etc etc. From the promising looking Times Labs Blog.