Hands off my phone!

The old technologies were always the best.
Photo by @mararie on Flickr

I believe my mobile has managed to make everything humanly possible to make life more difficult. The instant access to communication isn't always the best thing to have in a heated argument; I believe in arguments letters really were the better way to handle things, as you had at least one day between them to think things over and decide whether some things really are worth arguing over. In return the expectation from other users that one should be "always connected" is also rather frustrating.

One of the worst sins of mobile telecommunications, however, lie in the ease of procrastination. If it wasn't bad enough sitting in front of a blank essay whilst having 300 tabs open in Firefox about the philosophy of Bostrom's simulation argument of life, now I can also sync these tabs to my mobile so I can continue reading whilst I'm away at the expense of finding a loved one's Christmas present.

There is one area where my phone has helped immensely, however; an area that to be honest makes everything else in life work like clockwork. And that would be my calendar. Without it and the ability to sync it online everywhere, I would forget even about doctor's appointments I'd only booked hours ago, let alone important birthdays or anniversary's. And for that alone, the other sins of Web 2.0 can be forgiven.

What on Earth has happened to Life with Playstation?

Life with Playstation ended in the first week of November

I have a bunch of downloads waiting to complete; so I do the good thing as I usually do and switch on Life with Playstation as I go to bed. The PS3 needs to be on and guzzling power to complete the downloads anyway, so I may as well do the world's research into diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer. I was quite surprised, therefore, to have a message come up and tell me the Life with Playstation project had come to an end. A few clicks on a search engine later confirmed the project had reached it's conclusion.

Life with Playstation was an application that did software simulations on protein folding, and runs the FAH ("folding@home") software. The ways proteins fold (or rather, misfold) have been linked to all kinds of nasty diseases. Work is distributed across the millions of people with the software, which runs in the background on installed on PCs and Macs in order to test many different permeations and confirm each others results are correct. The PS3 version was slightly different in that it couldn't run as a background app, but had to be opened by the user for it to do it's calculations. Although this meant it didn't do work automatically, I did find it useful when I had background downloads and I needed to leave the system on anyway.

So what exactly happened? Some have reported that the folding@home project is coming to an end with the impression that the ending support and use of the application is the logical conclusion. The PS3 project is certainly over now (making it a self-fulfilling prophecy?), but recent posts on the folding@home blog stating they have a lot going on in pushing the envelope into new technologies and that they are really excited to see what the next 5 years bring don't seem to add up with this story. Additionally, work units are still coming up on my Mac application.

Maybe it was becoming too much work for Stanford University (hosts of the project) to support the Cell processor, and they were no longer getting as much in terms of computing power from the world's PS3s compared to the world's computers. Or maybe Sony became fed up of supporting software that didn't fit with it's ethos of instant entertainment. Either way I'm getting more and more frustrated with the applications and features dropped from the PS3 since launch. I'm also surprised Sony wouldn't want to support many of the other distributed computing projects in the world, such as those run on BOINC, an alternative to FAH that provides a common application for organisations to create distributed computing projects and users to join any of those organisations.

Anyway, I've fired off e-mails to the respective companies, and will update this blog with their answers.

Is "Crazy" An Offensive Word?

Nick Griffin Is Educated To Degree Level, So Of Course Never Uses Offensive Language. Image via Wikipedia

My partner bought a few books for the nursery she works at, and was absolutely disgusted by the use of the word "Crazy" in the book. Apparently in the book the dog gave some kind of "Crazy look" to his owner for throwing a stick, and Chloe didn't feel it was an appropriate use of the term for nursery age at all. So she took it back.

It most most likely because of the mental health activism (and issues) I have been through that she is so sensitive to the use of the word. But is it really that bad? Everyone says it!

Well, in my opinion, yes. By using the word Crazy, for example, it devalues the stress and agony a person who has ever been labelled as "crazy" or"mad" may have gone through. It also conjures up more disturbing images of Norwegian psychos murdering hundreds at youth camps.

Worryingly as well there is the continued misuse of words like "schizo" to suggest someone or something that is talking to themselves, or that someone's argument contradicts itself. A misuse because technically this is multiple personality disorder. I'm not trying to be pedantic, but rather that not only does the use of the word devalue and negatively portray the illness, but also shows a complete lack of understanding. Also tourrettes is regularly portrayed as a negative aspect of a person, when even people like politicians are using it to describe a person who won't let the speaker finish.

But will this ever change? Is this not just something that will stay a part of popular culture forever? I don't think so. A relatively short time ago racism was a natural part of day to day life, as well as sexism. And we have made amazing strides in moving to a place where, although it is still there, discrimination against someone of a different race or sex is illegal and seen by the majority as wrong.

Also there are more recent controversies such as with the toy based on a character called "spastic". Although not intended at all offensively, and being a word not used in it's home of the United States, it lead to the company removing from sale all of these toys because of the outcry from British society. And more recently there is the "Mong" scandal by Ricky Gervais, where despite him initially refusing to apologise because he thought it was no an acceptable term removed from it's initial meaning (debatable considering he was pulling the stereotypical face as well), he eventually backtracked as he learnt it was still something incredibly offensive to a large group of people.

But I'd like to be clear I don't think legislation should be the main answer. People should be free to say whatever they want- but also anyone or any organisation is free to challenge that opinion, as in the example with Gervais. Unless a person is inciting violence towards a particular group, I don't see a reason for a person to be arrested based on what they think. It also can lead to an increase of people who feel they are being forced to think a certain way by the "Politically Correct" police. I think seeing public figures apologise for their comments, like Ricky Gervais, Nick Clegg or even David Cameron is more powerful. And the best place to change views is to challenge them publicly, rather than allowing them no platform. Although certainly in institutions like the police and hospitals, the laws or rules they abide by must contain anti-discrimination clauses.

Education is an extremely important part of the answer. But remember, even Nick Griffin has a degree in Law.

Reposted on my technology and environmental political blog at http://greenpirateuk.blogspot.com

Related articles

• Megan Fox and Jeremy Clarkson make biggest mental health gaffes of the year (rethink.org)
• Forget the Ricky Gervais 'mong' row, disabled people need action (guardian.co.uk)
• Md. Lawmaker Proposes Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Bill (baltimore.cbslocal.com)
• The culture of silence must end (mind.org.uk)