Brief notes

From The New Wolfs Howl: I know, I know: I haven’t been posting very regularly just lately. What can I say? I’m sorry. I don’t know if it’s the New Year or cosmic rays, or the value of the pound but nothing has really sparked me enough to make any comments (well, that’s not quite true, but I think everyone else has said everything I would say quite eloquently enough so I’ll stay away from the subject).

Which leaves us with the latest installment in the ever popular Brief Notes series; you know you love it!!

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If Apples were.. well, Microsofts, actually

From The New Wolfs Howl: Just came across this story at TUAW, reporting that an anti-trust lawsuit has been filed against Apple for monopolising the online music industry with their tie-in of iTunes to iPods.

Most of the commenters seem to be of the opinion that this is a frivolous lawsuit that has no merit, and that the law firm that took the case should be despised for taking a case that will obviously fail. The contention is that just because Apple have been successful at what they do, why should they be punished?

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Tags: Apple, Microsoft, Antitrust

Do you tell Facebook everything?

From The New Wolfs Howl: You may have heard today that ‘noted’ blogger Robert Scoble has had his Facebook account suspended because he was - in their eyes - scraping data from the site. The fact that he was using a tool to take data that he already had on his profile and port it to other social network environments is beside the point, they say. He was violating the terms of service and his account is forfeit.

I could care less about whether Scoble gets to have his Facebook account back (I imagine he will, because Facebook can’t afford to lose any more credibility with their audience), but what all the various arguments back and forth have highlighted to me is the vast amount of data that is sitting on Facebook; Scoble may have only been harvesting data he already had access to, but what about the less scrupulous user? And if you voluntarily put all that information online, is it still yours?

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To self-host or not to self-host?

From The New Wolfs Howl: As I’ve mentioned, I started blogging nine months ago using the multi-user platform WordPress.com. It is a great introduction to the world of blogging, as it makes it really easy to get yourself set up and publishing - the only thing holding you back is whether you can think of something to write about.

But as you go on, you start to realise that, good as it is, WordPress.com is quite restrictive in what it allows you to do. You can’t have javascript in your sidebar widgets; you can’t alter your theme unless you buy the CSS upgrade - and even then you can only alter the way it looks, not the way it works; you can’t have anything commercial, like Adsense or services like PayPerPost; and a host of other things, which will be more or less important depending on what you want to achieve with your blogging.

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Do you BlogSpeak? Use Wolfie’s new guide

Thanks for visiting. For all the latest articles, check out our new home at http://wolfshowl.com.

I do a lot of reading of blogs, forums, etc and I often come across abbreviations that seem to be common knowledge to most people but which, for one reason or another, I take a while to work out. I figured that I couldn’t be the only one that felt that way so I decided to inaugurate Wolfie’s BlogSpeak Dictionary.

I’m going to start with the first few that spring to mind for me, but what I want is for you to tell me the ones that you’ve come across that baffled you to start with (or still do) and we’ll see if we can come up with the definitive reference guide. To those of you who are more geekspeak-savvy, these may seem simple but bear with us.

So, in no particular order:

FWIW - For What It’s Worth.
Usually meaning that actually I think it’s worth quite a bit, but I’m trying not to seem overly strident about it. Or else, indicating that there’s nothing anyone can do to fix it, but FWIW, everyone agrees that it needs fixing.

FYI - For Your Information.
You’ve been a complete dick and I think you need to know these facts so that you don’t continue to be a complete dick.

HTH - Hope That (This) Helps.

IMHO - In My Humble (Honest) Opinion.
This is what I really think.

IMO - In My Opinion.
This is what I really think, but I don’t feel particularly humble today.

LOL - Laugh Out Loud / Lots Of Laughs.
Great big belly-laughs were caused by what you just wrote - could be sarcastic!

YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary.
This is what happened when I tried this, but it may not work as well for you.

TPTB - The Powers That Be.
Forum moderators, company CEO’s, Mac in the post-room: whoever’s responsible for making the decisions around here.

OMG - Oh. My. God!

BTW - By The Way

FAQ - Frequently Asked Question.
As in, “What does FAQ mean?”

IIRC - If I Remember (Recall) Correctly
Please tell me I’m not going insane; it did use to be like that, didn’t it?

AFAICS - As Far As I Can See
But there’s probably something very obvious I’m missing .

b0rked
Something somewhere has gone terrible wrong.

That’s just a few (with some possible indications of how and when they might be used ) but there must be lots more. Add your submissions in the comments and I’ll start including them in the entry.

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All opinions in this blog are either my own or else they’re made up just to get a rise out of you and make you angry. Either way, they’re probably not very well thought out or expressed so do yourself a favour and don’t take the world so seriously.

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Tags: Humour, English