Jerome Turner

Google+: The hyperlocal blogger's friend

At the Talk About Local 2012 unconference the other day, someone asked whether there is a point to Google+ (which I guess came out of some discussion).

#tal12 talking about google+ is there a point to it? Yes/No

— Sasha Taylor (@Sasha_Taylor) April 28, 2012

I resounded with a definite yes, for one main reason: the Nearby
stream. Regardless of whether these people are your friends, you've
ever heard of or met them before, the people you find in that stream
of G+ are nearby, or in other words, hyperlocal. So I felt it was
particularly relevant to an unconference on that subject. If you've
never explored Nearby on the app yourself, have a look now. Whatever you may think of the content of people's posts, you can collect all these people into a new circle, as I've done, name it after your location, and then use this to pump out hyperlocal news, or whatever is relevant. It's a perfect way to build up a hyperlocal audience, and if you check out Nearby regularly, you'll notice new people there to add to your circle. Then if your main hyperlocal activity is in the form of a blog, for example, you could advertise there. They can obviously block you, but that's their choice. Rather than feeling disconnected, and a bit like simple reading the web, as is often the case with Google+, it does give it a bit more of a relevant, everyday context. 

source

I Kindle, therefore I read (more)

I like the fact that owning a Kindle means I can pretty easily keep
track of what I've read, and when, roughly based on my download list
on Amazon. And it turns out I've read a lot, for me at least. I've had
a Kindle for just over a year, getting it on 3rd March 2011, my
birthday. Since then I've gone through the following.

Oliver Twist, Dickens, Charles (worth reading, even if you think you know the story, and I found out, the origin of the phrase 'the laws is an ass')

Let the Right One In, Lindqvist, John Ajvide (I read it, then watched the film, not the US one. Both good actually)

Hunted Down: the detective stories of Charles Dickens (short, free and readable, but no Sherlock Holmes)

A Song of Ice and Fire (1) - A Game of Thrones, Martin, George R. R. (great start to the series)

A Song of Ice and Fire (2) - A Clash of Kings (Song of Ice & Fire 2), Martin, George R. R.

Hard Revolution, Pelecanos, George (good, but not as much like The Wire as I might have expected, so a bit of a disappointment, given he wrote some episodes.)

Pigeon English, Kelman, Stephen (award nominated, and I think it won. If you can get over the slightly contrived prose, it's a good story well told)

The Testament of Jessie Lamb, Rogers, Jane (another award nominated, showed promise but actually lacked the expected twists, a bit pedestrian)

Slights, Warren, Kaaron (not great but I stuck with it for the unusual
storyline)

A Song of Ice and Fire (3) - A Storm of Swords Complete Edition (Two in One), Martin, George R. R.

Great Expectations: Premium Edition, Dickens, Charles (long, or it felt it. And quite laughable in places but for the wrong reasons, namely that you could see some of the plot twists a mile off)

Concrete Island, Ballard, J. G. (A great Ballard story. Short, definitely worth a look, a fantastic take on the Robinson Crusoe story.)

A Song of Ice and Fire (4) - A Feast for Crows (Song of Ice & Fire 4), Martin, George R. R.

The Fall, Hogan, Chuck, del Toro, Guillermo (yay vampires. Now that zombies are or were the hip thing, might seem a bit old hat but it's good schlocky action fun)

Little Star, Lindqvist, John Ajvide (after Let the Right One In and the amazing Handling the Undead, this disappointed. I was expecting something weirder, better twists, but it didn't quite come together for me. Almost a bit too YA, despite the violence)

Ubik, Dick, Philip K. (my first ever by him, and it was good, quite jarring for someone not used to reading this kind of sci-fi though)

(some of) The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection, Doyle, Arthur Conan (one massive book with everything in, and I've ploughed through a fair chunk, top stuff)

Outpost, Baker, Adam (yay zombies. yay oil rigs. yay, arctic conditions. very readable, great action thriller with a nice twist on the zombie apocalypse theme)

The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch, Dick, Philip K. (Quite good, some nice ideas going on here, but it got a little confused at times)

Frozen Fire, Bowler, Tim (it was only when I saw the writer biog that I realised this was aimed at young adult fiction - on reading it I did keep thinking it was a bit emo...)

What It Was, Pelecanos, George (this was better than Hard Revolution, more of a straight up thriller with less of a political agenda. Made me think of Elmore Leonard, in a good way.)

A Song of Ice and Fire (5) - A Dance With Dragons: Book 5, Martin, George R. R. (current slog. Good, but again, long)

So does that list prove anything? Well, a few of those were cheap or
free, so that motivates my reading occasionally now. I'm also reading
quicker because of 2.5 hours a day on public transport, so that's part
of it. I think the Kindle shopping experience probably draws me
towards experimenting with new genres, like sci-fi. And also makes it
easier to dig out based on populist or popular reading, such as those
award-nominated ones.

Pandemic - BBC Radio 4 drama by John Dryden

On a tip from a friend, I just listened to all three episodes of a radio drama called Pandemic. Yes, all very zeitgeisty, we like our dystopian nightmares at the moment don't we? Each episode follows a point in time during a viral pandemic, the present, future, and past, in that order. Each can be listened to on its own, but you actually get more from hearing all three, in order, there are secrets to unlock in doing so. Anyway, it's all very enjoyable stuff, there's something about the way it's edited, very choppy and fast moving, that's very powerful and keeps the pace going very nicely, unusually so for radio drama - think something like the TV series 24. I could actually have seen this working as a much longer series. And dare I say, much better than most TV at the moment.

Anyway you can still listen to it on BBC iPlayer, but only for a few days before it's taken down, so move quick. 

My son is in this month's Wired UK

The other day I sent Wired UK a message on their Facebook account,
showing them a photo of my littl'un, who had been laying bits of
plasticine over Brian Cox's facial features on a recent cover of
theirs, or 'modding it' as I put it. And they printed it in the
letters page, yay. I'd have missed it if a friend of mine hadn't
spotted it.

1981 Suzuki Omnichord... my next favourite instrument