Tim Rowe's Observatory

The (Almost) Inevitable

Mon, 28 May 2007 12:08:45 GMT

After claiming that I was going to maintain my Blog here, I've started two others externally.

This is partly because I only 'pop in' to NCN now and again.

The blogs are here:

www.timrowe.co.uk/

plus here www.stressreduction.org.uk/

The second contains entries of a more philosophical nature. That's not to say that the foirst one *won't* though. It's just geared more towards the comings and goings of daily life.

I'll continue to pop-in here, of course :)

Why Learning A New Language May Make You Forget Your Old One

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 08:55:36 GMT

In a study appearing in the January, 2007 issue of Psychological Science, Levy and his colleague Dr. Michael Anderson discovered that people do not forget their native language simply because of less use, but that such forgetfulness reflects active inhibition of native language words that distract us while we are speaking the new language. Therefore, this forgetfulness may actually be an adaptive strategy to better learn a second language.

[link]

Linux

Fri, 5 Jan 2007 22:02:12 GMT

Well, after months of procrastination, I've finally taken the plunge and ditched Windoze in favour of Kubuntu.

Much to learn, for sure, but the install was a breeze - certainly in comparison to Windows XP.

Trends in Blogging

Thu, 4 Jan 2007 14:20:40 GMT

It'll be interesting to see how Blogging in general fares during 2007.

Anyone and everyone, it seems, now has a Blog. I've noticed, somewhat cynically, that people are using Blogs simply to get listed in Google. So they'll Blog on a pet subject - or more likely Blog about something they want to sell or promote - except that they'll do it in a rather mechanical way so that key phrases abound in their copy.

Now, there's nothing *wrong* with that per se, but I think we'll a kind of 'sorting of the wheat from the chaff' as Google gets hip to the glut of Blogs that are simply promotional tools - and not very good ones at that!

I've cut the number of RSS feeds I subscribe to by about half. Often I don't get the time to read them anyway.

I wonder what the next Big Thing will be Internet-wise. Will it be Web 2.0 or has that kind of peaked and petered out already?

I'm Back (I Never Really Left!)

Tue, 2 Jan 2007 20:30:41 GMT

This feels better. I had a Blog outside the walls of NewCiv for about a year, but somehow I felt disconnected. I logged in from time to time, saw the occasional name that I recognised, and received the occasional internal email.

On December 31st I deleted my Blog. I'm like that in some ways. I don't 'archive' much. I tend to destroy things and start again - hopefully without burning too many bridges en route.

I also noticed that my Blog was becoming a bit *too* personal for my liking and, frankly a bit boring.

So, for the few of you who *do* know me, an apology - sorry for not having been in touch. 2006 was a year of great shifts for me - particularly the latter half. Hopefully, I'll be able to elaborate a little on some of the key points sometime, without becoming too self-indulgent.

That's all for now. I'm off to update my profile :)