Digital Economy Act
The controversial Digital Economy Bill has now been rushed through the House of Lords and the House of Commons without a fair and proper debate. The Act allows websites to be blocked and internet connections to be turned off at the request of backward-thinking corporate giants.
Here’s a quick guide to what the Digital Economy Act covers from The Guardian.
The complex bill was discussed in just two hours by a handful of MPs. And it seemed that Labour candidate Tom Watson was the only one who had enough technical knowledge to understand the consequence of the flawed bill.
Despite their campaign to ‘save the net’, 47 Lib Dem MPs, including my local MP Vince Cable, didn’t bother to show up.
‘Even if all 63 Lib Dems had voted, it would have made no difference to the result.’ – Lib Dem Representative
If all of the 63 Liberal Democrats had voted then there would have been 94 noes (189 in favour). It would have made no difference to the outcome of the vote, but it would have shown that the Lib Dems are ‘the party that is different.’ Instead, it shows that they are just the same as the others.
General Stuff
Political rants aside, it’s been a while since I last blogged. I’ve been 18 for two months now, and short of being able to vote in a pseudo-democracy, getting a phone contract and buying alcohol legally, it’s not that different to being a ‘child’ under the eyes of the law.
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Filming for my upcoming documentary ended up just before Easter. The last few interviews included: Tall Ships, Pulled Apart By Horses, Walter Schreifels and Tubelord. As well as that, I went to four gigs in four nights (Frank Turner, Motion City Soundtrack, New Slang and Fun.)
Since the Easter Holidays have started, short of putting off revision for the subject I don’t need to do well in and start coursework that I should have started months ago, I have absolutely nothing to do. Timing is annoying?
HTC Desire
After 3 years with an outdated Sony Erricson phone, I treated myself to a new smartphone.
I heard a few negative things about the Sony Ericsson X10, so I went with the HTC Desire. And in short: it’s probably the best phone on the market at the moment.
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T-Mobile have some really flexible contracts on offer at the moment. My contract is 100 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited internet for £10 for 24 months, which is perfect for me. On top of this, I had to pay £164 towards the cost of the phone.
The Desire runs on Android 2.1 with HTC’s custom Sense UI. It has GPS, an accelerometer and all sorts of widgets and applications as well as everything else you would expect from a smart phone. Believe the positive reviews, this phone does everything you’d want it to do and more.
Ravensbourne
Since my last blog post, I was invited for an interview at Ravensbourne College for FdA Digital Film Production. I was offered a place on the spot, which I later accepted. The college is currently in the process of relocating next to The O2 in the Greenwich Peninsular.
As part of this move, the university-sector college have changed their name from ‘Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication’ to ‘Ravensbourne’, which is a bold move in itself. What’s even bolder is their new logo, which has led to a massive backlash from both students and staff.
Personally, I think that basing the logo on the Penrose tiling system that covers the new building is lazy. The supporting branding is far superior to the logo and requiring context to make a logo look bearable isn’t ideal. However, I am starting to warm to the logo after the initial… shock.
You can read more about the new Ravensbourne brand here.
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Bring Me Your Love
(City and Colour)
Transmitter Failure
(Jenny Owen Youngs)
My Dinosaur Life
(Motion City Soundtrack)
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