thelump.net

This Week in Lumps
#40 [26/02 - 03/03]

· As you may be aware, I’m a big fan of homepages. On this blog before I’ve talked about my two favourites, iGoogle, and Pageflakes (both over weeks 10 and 11). Both of which I use, and both of which I find very handy, albeit if they are very similar in what they provide (in fact my wee RSS Feed app is quite popular on Pageflakes, so hello to everyone currently reading this after clicking on that). Joining in with a less personalised, yet still bloody handy alternative is the new BBC homepage, which officially launched out of beta at the beginning of the month.

The controller of bbc.co.uk, Tony Ageh, branded the old version very much ‘out of date’, and in need of modernisation. Way back last year, the 14th December, a beta version was launched, showing how users can manipulate the homepage to suit their own needs, by adding, removing and rearranging different categories, such as ‘News’, ‘Weather’ and ‘Entertainment’. This new widget-based design takes what has become popular with sites such as Facebook and iGoogle, and brought it to the attention of Internet users who may not have seen it before.

This isn’t new territory for the BBC; back in 2000 a less successful older brother called myBBC was launched, which allowed people to select the stories they wanted to see and move them around on the page. 8 years on, and the ability to create and maintain this kind of service is much easier, and hits a target audience who are now ready for this next stage of progression.

Rest assured, those of you who are used to this technology (like myself) will be asking, nay hoping, that 3rd party apps will become available, such as a ‘thelump.net’ one, or ones for your email, RSS feeds, Digg.com or even your favourite columns at The Guardian, etc. Well, it’s good news, as the homepage will be revealing this update soon, once the dust from the main release has settled. Richard Titus, the BBC’s head of user experience design, admitted:

“[the audience] …will get what it wants, whether it’s from the BBC or elsewhere. The only way to remain relevant in the new digital universe is for us to go to them.”

Couldn’t agree more.

~

· A slightly strange topic to end this week, but it’s been in the news and I feel like talking about it. The opening story is that Gordon Brown has warned retailers this week that he will force them to cut down on plastic bag use if they do not act voluntarily, and the first to do so is the overpriced food palace Marks and Spencer, as it is to begin charging customers 5p for each carrier bags, with the money raised going to an environmental charity. Gordon wrote in the Mail:

“If government compulsion is needed to make the change, we will take the necessary steps.”

Now, you may think, what’s the big fuss? 5p is hardly going to break the bank, and its going to a good cause right? Well, yes, you are. But you seem to be missing the point. If on the one hand you’ve slowly turned into your parents, and are using the bags over and over week in week out, from shopping to litter bags to scooping up dog muck, then fair play to you, you can keep the big Next bag full of them under the stairs, and we won’t say another cross word. However, those of you who bin them straight after getting home from the shops, you are in my firing line.

Boffins this week released figures set to back up why our PM is so against these hand-cutting carry-alls- It is estimated that plastic bags take over one thousand years to decay, which, considering in the UK alone, around 13 billion bags are given free to shoppers every year, is a long long time. Their production and disposal is adding to CO2 emissions, but why is it that the consumer has to fork out? After all, we only can use what the supermarkets offer, and sometimes we’re not even asked if we would prefer not to have them altogether. It seems that M&S, as well as the general public have become selfish and lazy when it comes to plastic bag usage; modern alternatives have been available now on the continent for many years, and once again, we’ve slipped behind. China, it seems, has taken its action on a much larger scale- the Chinese government has announced a nationwide ban on stores distributing free plastic bags from June 1st, meaning only bio-degradable alternatives will be the option.

But this is just the ones providing the bags, the big trouble is those who shop at the stores, and bring their shopping home in them.

Those of you who like the occasional trip around the food section of Marks and Sparks are probably only there to purchase one or two bag fulls, and the alternatives have been presented to you at the counters for nearly 18 months now - M&S provide a cheap (£1) yet sturdier option to the plastic option, and I have been using these myself- it’s reusable, handy, bigger, and much less of a strain on the fingers once you leave the store. Knowing you’re doing the environment good is just the cherry on the cake. So why can’t the other supermarkets ban the bags altogether, and go for this option? As long as they keep having plastic bags at checkouts, people will still use them regardless of whether they have to pay 5p per bag.

And even though I disagree with her, Melanie Reid does a great job of arguing the case for the other side of the fence:

“If you want to know whether people are really prepared to give up bags, then ask why Tesco is going to continue dishing them out for free. Because Britain’s most successful food retailer is a weathervane for society: it knows fine that, come the check-in queue on a Saturday morning, after a stressful family shop, people aren’t going to prioritise the health of dolphins and turtles over their own convenience.”

Anyway, next time you go to the supermarket, please consider what you take your goodies home in - either take your own recycled bags, or buy a environment-friendly alternative. it makes sense, doesn’t it?

~~~

That was the week in lumps, a week in which: I get behind the motion that the hat should come back into fashion, Will Ferrell’s new movie is a bit of a flop (maybe because he keeps playing the same character over and over again?), Terminator 4 will star Christian Bale, and will be out in 09, a couples phone bill was £11,000 after trying to download Friends on their phone from Germany, If (like me) BioShock was your game of last year, then this fan made artwork may just help tide you over, Radiohead say No to Glastonbury, some Doctors confessions made me giggle, this poor kid gets duped into thinking he’s been given an XBox (this will either break your heart, or get you really angry, or both), is it just me, or is this story about a 21 year old father of 7 a little bit fucked up? Oh, and the top 25 TV put down’s were announced (although in my opinion, there are a few classics missing).

sorry for the short week this week, it is a situation outwith my control (a broken boiler in my flat, and constant snow in Glasgow does not make for good blogging conditions!). I’ll make it up to all of you, I promise :)

and finally, this…is… PORTAL!

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