Facebook? Whatever

I had thought for a while that Facebook might have “peaked”, though equally I suspected that it may simply be that I personally hadn’t had much time to visit recently. However, it seems that, over the last few months, I have not been alone in finding the draw of the newsfeeds, virtual hugs and pokes weaker than they once were - even Bill has had enough, though it’s claimed it was simply taking too much of his time (what’s the difference?).

Like so many new technologies and products, particular websites go through the usual phases of contagion, “greatest thing since sliced Hovis” hype, and then slow deflation until they either die, or settle in with their core audience or niche. Just as Friends Reunited is still around, so Facebook, Bebo and Myspace may well continue, but the media hype is fast waning. The Facebook CEO has made his mint out of Bill Gates, and the world will move on. Facebook, I suspect, will turn out to be to 2007 what Second Life was to 2006. In 2008, science and technology correspondents will have to think of something else to write about in between Apple product launches and the next week’s edition of New Scientist.

So I will still be visiting my profile on FB, but don’t expect any quick response to your hugs or pokes – it’s nothing personal!

Great Government Website Crashes no. 42

This is getting silly. At this rate I could do a blog dedicated to government websites going down.

And on the morning the latest (worsening) inflation figures are released. Spin doctoring ain’t what it used to be.

Update: And just like that, it’s back up again. I have the Midas touch!

Die Norton die!

I found something puzzling about one of the PC World commercials running recently, where the salesman tells the customer that his new PC comes bundled with Norton Internet Security and GoBack. What was confusing is that he was presenting this as a selling point – i.e. something positive. I would have been apologising, as a Bugatti salesman might when informing a new owner about the two tons of lead weights in the back.

If your system came with Norton 2005 or (you poor soul) 2006 then you may not be particularly bothered by this little story. However, anyone who has installed Norton Bloatware for themselves, or upgraded from earlier versions, as I have had the misfortune to, may have noticed the steady deterioration in system performance. My now antique laptop originally came with the 2003 version of Norton AntiVirus. All well and good, then 2005 came along – getting worse - then 2006. Ugh.

Norton used to be a good product. But now it was like an experienced bouncer who, not happy with supervising the door, begins hassling the cleaning lady because she didn’t smile at him one morning. He would then try redecorating the club, badly. Yet even this would have been forgiveable as a well intentioned desire to please, if he hadn’t also been working his way through the bar stock.

So, having 266 days left on my subscription, being nagged to run LiveUpdate even though I had just done it and security flaws in the, err, security software, I decided it was time to get rid of it - or at least to try. Over an hour later, and small lumps of Symantec’s bloated flab still litter the registry and SystemWorks stubbornly appears on the Add/Remove Programs list. I’m pretty sure that it took Dave Bowman less time to shut down the homicidal HAL9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Norton didn’t start singing “Daisy daisy”, but it did start looking for non-existent installation CDs and whined about my anti-virus software being disabled (until it lost the ability to whine, that is. Hah!).

He had heard that uninstalling Norton was a fiddly job …

Anyway, having eventually sorted it, I am now running NOD32, following a number of recommendations.

Right, that’s enough geekery for now, got a nappy to change. Sometimes my weekends are just a non-stop rollercoaster of fun.