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If this isn’t all over the internet yet, it soon will be.

Forget tags and keywords, folders and files. This is how photos should be organised:

via boards.ie photography forums

Today while browsing on a site that had absolutely nothing to do with photography, there was an Amazon banner ad down the bottom offering me lenses.

So it knows I like photography, so what?

• These are Canon lenses, to fit my camera
• These are lenses I was already interested in

Amazon already knows what I want, now they just want to convince me to buy from them with low low prices.

Before everyone goes screaming Big Brother and putting on their tin foil hats, I’m not at all worried by this. In fact it leaves me with positive feelings. This can only be a good thing.

• Amazon only offer me stuff I want and stuff I’m interested in - I don’t mind looking at ads for things I like
• This means they save money advertising things to people who don’t want them. They can pass these savings on to the consumer (while also maximising profits)
• Imagine the amount of computing power used to do this for all of Amazon’s users & products. Now imagine all the rest of the computers powering Amazon’s competitors and every other service on the web. Higher demand for computers is a good thing - more innovation, more progress - means better computers for use in non-commercial fields like medical research, science, etc. Yeah, there’s negative side-effects. But what problem can computers create that they can’t fix?

Although Tom commented favourably on the site’s design on this post, I’ve been getting kinda bored with it. So I’ve thought up something else:

You can get a closer look here, but be warned: if you’re not using Firefox, it mightn’t be worth it. I’m just looking at design & layout, I haven’t attempted to make it work in multiple browsers, or apply it to WordPress yet.

Anyway, see anything you don’t like? Anything you really like? Gimme a comment.

UPDATE: I submitted the mockup to BrowserShots, so you can see what it looks like in various browsers as the results come in

I’m still not sure if I believe it.

TCAL, the ever-reliable source for Internet time-wasting is no more.

I’m gonna have to work a lot harder to find quality stuff on the net now.

Much mourning and messages of condolences continue on the announcement post.

My contribution:

I didn’t see that one coming.

To be honest, it’s the only way TCAL could have gone, and a great to way to end it.

Now they’ll have to give you the obligatory “end of career better give him an Oscar” type Blog Award.

PC World reports that

Microsoft, Google, [Yahoo, and Vodafone] will develop a code of conduct with a coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to promote freedom of expression and privacy rights.

This seems to be quite related to these companies’ policies relating to censorship and monitoring of internet activities in China and similarly restrictive areas.

It’s good to see large corporations like these seriously considering their moral responsibilities and valuing peoples’ reservations about their conduct, and, as engadget reports, working with some very well supported and respected non-profit groups such as

the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, Business for Social Responsibility, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders.

Doubts have been expressed over how this code will be policed and enforced, but overall it looks like a step in the right direction.