Aliasing (What’s in a name these days?)

Aliasing. So what’s in a name these days?

 

“ As the media world changes and evolves I feel increasingly vulnerable. What is my justification for this? I guess it’s because I’ve exposed information to the world in a way some others have chosen not to. I try to work out why I’ve done it. I remember that in the past I was quite guarded about what I published to the web.

When I first started out with the web I kept my anonymity with alias’. It’s relatively simple to do considering an alias can equal true of an email address of which there are thousands of account providers on the web. Just try putting the search term “web mail” in to a search engine and see what comes up. I used to worry as I was one of a relative few who used the web in the way I did (of which I’m sure there were millions to put it in to context). Now more people do I am less concerned with use of email alias and more concerned about the use of names for publishing. I guess as soon as an entity is on the web (via the internet or otherwise) it is published so the name may have some significance.”

 

What is in a name? How could it protect a user? How could it help expression?

“ I sometimes wonder why my parents named me the way they did. Perhaps it has something to do with religion? Does my name protect me? I guess this depends whether those who share it (at least my Christian name) act negatively and positively in a way that would benefit me. That and every other normal psychosocial interaction I would guess. I’ll admit to liking the child name books that you sometimes see mothers reading. They are a source of fascination to me. The ground for names and the positive and negative aspects descried above could all add up to something spectacular in todays data terms. Understanding this could help an individual express and protect themselves.

I guess there are different ways of parenting. Via knowledge, genealogy and by some other process I have not thought of. Entities could and can give themselves several names and this in turn could have some association with use. Of course, it could have disassociation too.”

 

Am I naive? Is this used as force for corruption and suffering as well as a force for good?

“ Well naive may be denying what I’ve typed above though I guess there could be far more depth to situations than I’ve described. If people cannot communicate I would argue that it is much harder for such ideology to be used as force for good or bad.

What names can I think of myself, perhaps even for myself?

I’ve just come up with the below. I’d require a more time and lots of encyclopaedia use to come up with names that are more interesting and that have more depth.

David Sideways

Thomas Granted

Angela Thirsting

Pamela Handling

Interesting don’t you think? Do you think this makes society seem shallower than you originally thought or does it give more depth? Not questions I feel I am knowledgbly equipped to answer.”

UK Government Sites

A few useful sites, that, as far as I understand are linked to the government, in some shape or form.

Benefits: Better than going to and from the office several times and getting in a muddle.

Driving: Where to get road tax from, get a new license if it goes missing and find phone numbers for asking questions about the above and more.

Energy Saving: Looks like these schemes are rolling out over the next few years. Worthwhile understanding before investing I’d suggest.

Fraud Protection: This is a registry service. A place to start if paranoid perhaps.

Self employment: This is a useful position to be in when between jobs and encountering other difficulties. It’s not simple to understand quickly. I’m not sure I’d recommend this to everyone.

Trading standards: I assume this is for reporting trade disputes and otherwise. Also a source of useful information if you’re starting up as a business vendor. Linked to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Communicate (Power Saving)

I thought this looked pretty good.

http://73ray99.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/communicatepowersaving.jpg

Another way of communicating power saving in a not too offensive way. I’ve set the background to black as well so the image fits in.

Just a word of caution. I accept no responsibility for screen-burn of the characters on to your monitor due to the use of a black and white image. Something to think about if you already use a bold image like this one.

Download the image. Crop it, flip it, resize and rotate it if you like.

Metaphorical speeding fines (to avoid making decisions too fast).

Please wait.

It’s so easy to blame someone else or something else for our problems. It’s only on reflection that people can look back and say “I made a mistake there” or “we both did” or “this decision clearly didn’t work out”.

When it comes to blame (especially when it comes to making the real decisions) it’s important to take time to consider things. Especially if the parties involved are anxious, inebriated or uneasy for one reason or another. I’ve met people who would consider the above as being weak. This in some cases would result in a speeding fine and in others it would be considered vigilant. Both need to be considered either way.

So, how is this workable? It really depends on how willing and able people are to accept how difficult (or simple) others find some tasks and subject matter. This can be dependent on a great deal of things.

I see it as something simple. Like a swear jar, perhaps doing an unpleasant task someone else doesn’t like or paying for something. Remind me if you like.

Trialling software from magazines. (In vogue?!) Not so much these days.

There is a great deal of trial software out on the web these days. It isn’t even that hard to find.

Adobe offers it’s whole family of products up for download as does Corel and Microsoft .

As an individual user I’d argue it possible to do most things I’d want (disregarding profitability in some cases). If you’re an individual user trying to work out what tools suit your style of publishing. The above are a good place to start.

If like me you’re a programmer there may be some other platforms that are of interest. However, Apple, Microsoft and Linux reward users of their operating systems with free tools in this area. Well to an extent. Codewarrior provides a platform for most programming languages though I haven’t used it extensively (this version at all).

I’ve been hunting around for database development suites. Borland Interbase is one that I’ve used.

The point I’m trying to make is that this software is more available than it used to be now that most people can make use of relatively high speed broadband. When I started out looking for freeware and trials the type of software detailed above, was only really attainable on the covers of magazines. So perhaps, it is the face of business that is changing?

You may notice that much of the above software is that used for business. Much of the academic software used by universities, although free, requires an academic license.

Freeview television listings

It seems with the current spread of media over the internet it is simpler to find useful information. In this case television listings. What’s good about those that are online is that they constantly up date. A little like an on tv channel guide but a quicker to search through.

I’ve listed a selection below that I’ve been looking at. If you’ve not used pages like this before I’d recommend you do.

The Daily Mail‘s offering is simple to use though not as extensive as immediately extensive as some of the other. Readily customisable.

The guardian‘s listings are clear to view but not as complete as some others.

The Radiotimes‘ listings could be clearer though they are more complete than some others.

TV Choice Magazine appears to provide the clearest, most simply used listings.

The telegraph.co.uk‘s listings are what I have used for a while now. It took me a some time to find this page but is the one that works best for me.

Spectacles (and the lack of them). An insight.

People often wear spectacles. It was something I was a little worried about when I first wore them a few years ago. I’m not so bothered now. It seems spectacles have become an essential part of my life. What I find strange is that the friends I had at school who used to wear the large thick lensed glasses don’t wear any at all. They’ve all had laser treatment or use contact lenses (which amazes me considering how poor their eyesight must have been in the first place). And I am the one who is more often seen wearing glasses. Albeit expensive designer ones.

I’m undecided on whether glasses make people look more sexy or not? Certainly they do give a certain emphasis to wearers eyes. I think some of it depends on an individual’s colouring in the first place.

Take a look at the following pictures. As you’ll see. I have many pairs of glasses or spectacles.

The above are a mixture between prescription and 3D vision glasses.

These are all prescription glasses.

What is interesting about the above black and white pictures is that the colouring seems to work okay on all of them. I think for me to carry off the black rimmed glasses on the right. As I am blond. I would need to grow more facial hair and perhaps wear a hat. I’m quite happy wearing them with a hat but without I’ve decided the look doesn’t quite work (how sad of me!). It’s a personal preference based on feedback I’ve had from others. Not necessarily anything spoken. Just the way people look at me and articles I’ve read in womens’ magazines. Which, if you’re a guy. I’d recommend if you’re trying to get a real critical viewpoint on appearance and perception on a wide variety of problems. It’s a little like approaching a problem knowing that you’re naked in some way. It’s hard to do but the result is more honest (Perhaps not representative of groups as a whole. I’d say it’s better to understand grounding behind criticism than not. Especially if approaching situations alone.). If you’ve had perfect vision for a most of your life like I have. Consider how many problems could arise from mistaken identity and those that appear in agony aunt columns in newspapers and magazines. It’s an insight which doesn’t seem so stupid and one I feel many more would do well to understand. Especially considering how little we can tell about others senses from just looking at them from a distance.

Do you have any feedback or stories?

Startup Inspector for Windows

If like me, you’d rather use an old computer than buying a new one. A good way of keeping it running at a usable speed is by limiting the processes that load at start up. When Windows (of all versions I have used) starts. It loads many programs that remain redundant in use after the operating system has fully loaded in to memory. This slows the whole operating system down.

Using a program like Startup Inspector allows a user to prevent these processes from loading and keeps an otherwise slow computer running smoothly. It takes a bit of experimentation to get working. However, following these two principles seems to work well enough for me.

1. Do not prevent processes linked to the Windows System folder from loading.

2. The more memory a process shows up as using the slower the computer will be with it running.

It’s possible to link to the program at download.com .

If like me. You use an Apple some of the time. This feature is easily accessible through the system properties folder.

1973 50p

There was a guy in my class at school who always used to go on about 50p. I had no idea what he was on about. However, I do have some old coins and some of them are 50p s.

The one I like specifically is the 1973 50p. Mostly because of its design. It shows joining of hands which, I guess is meant to represent peace. When doing a little further investigation I discovered it represents the Britain’s accession in to the EEC . So a contentious symbol considering European politics today. Especially with regards money. A few years ago these coins were taken out of circulation and replaced by smaller lighter coins. So this symbol is not seen on coins any more. Although, it seems that 50ps’ have become a popular choice for alternative design. Perhaps because of it’s size.

Protected: Cleansing Skin

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