Facebook becoming a walled garden?

Back in July 2008, Facebook added the ability to take content you published elsewhere on the Internet and make it available to your friends on Facebook. I really liked this design and made use of it despite the flakiness of Facebook's implementation.

Yesterday, Facebook informed users that they were killing this feature on 22 November 2011.

Websites killing off features is nothing new but I'm disappointed for a number of reasons...

Updated layout

Just made some changes to the layout of my blog thanks to some new features provided by Blogger...

Main changes are:

• Cleaner layout for users
• New mobile-optimised layout
• Removal of stale links and broken content

Really like the new features and the much improved tools for bloggers. The writing and editing environment is much better than what existed before.

ComReg Notifies UPC of a Finding of Non-Compliance with respect to Notification of Proposed Changes to Contract Terms and Conditions

So looks like UPC have been found not complying with
Regulation 17(4) and Regulation 17(5) of the Universal Service Regulations. The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) have notified them of this non-compliance this week so we have to wait and see what happens...

It is unclear from ComReg's notification if it was the price increases on 04 Jan 2011 or the changes to terms and conditions that have resulted in UPC's non-compliance. It's worth noting that the media have been reporting that it is related to the price increases but there is evidence that UPC have been changing their T&Cs on their website without notifying customers for some time too. :/

The regulations in question are:

4. An undertaking referred to in paragraph (1) or a provider of electronic communications services referred to in paragraph (3) shall, not less than one month prior to the date of implementation of any proposed modification, notify its subscribers to that service —
1. of the proposed modification in the conditions of the contract for that service, and
2. their right to withdraw without penalty from such contract if they do not accept the modification.
5. A subscriber referred to in paragraph (4) may withdraw from his or her contract with the undertaking or provider, without penalty if he or she does not accept a proposed modification referred to in paragraph (4).

S.I. No. 308/2003 — European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services)(Universal Service and Users' Rights) Regulations 2003

The above legislation is a result of Directive 2009/136/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council:

Article 20 in the directive states:

2. Member States shall ensure that subscribers have a right to withdraw from their contract without penalty upon notice of modification to the contractual conditions proposed by the undertakings providing electronic communications net­ works and/or services. Subscribers shall be given adequate notice, not shorter than one month, of any such modifica­tion, and shall be informed at the same time of their right to withdraw, without penalty, from their contract if they do not accept the new conditions. Member States shall ensure that national regulatory authorities are able to specify the format of such notifications.

Press coverage

• IrishTimes.com - UPC in breach of code over price hikes
• ENN.ie - In The Papers 2 February
• Telegeography.com - UPC rapped for breaking code of conduct over price increase
  
  

Want to export all *your* facebook data? you now can...

1. Click on account in the bar above.
2. Click on "Account settings" (or just go to https://register.facebook.com/editaccount.php)
3. look for the "Download your information" section.
4. click on "learn more"
5. click on "Download"
6. wait for the email from Facebook.
7. download the zip file with your data.
8. PROFIT!!

Note: you can't download information by other people (including their email addresses). There are some workarounds but personally, I'm not that fussed about this limitation. Getting *my* data out of facebook is much more important.

Thanks facebook! Took you a while but this makes me a little happier. :)

original blog entry: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=434691727130

boot note: I was originally going to post this as a facebook status update but the length was too long (720 characters vs the 420 character limit). so now it's on my blog which will propagate to facebook... =)

Camaderry, Glendalough, Co. Wicklow (reverse)

Date: 20 June 2010
Description: Described as a moderate walk in the Lonely Planet guide, I found this tougher at the start than I had expected (about the same intensity as the steep section of Lough Bray). After some messing around at the start (we failed to locate the gravel path Gary had mentioned and end up scrambling up the river bed), we finally hit the ridge and took the shortest path up (straight up!). We found a forest road that brought us up to 350-400m approx and then followed a grass path up to 500m approx (nice stroll). The final climb to the first peak (677m) was strenuous but not too bad. Following the saddle over to the 698m peak was straighforward. Heading over to the reservoir was also fine. The guidebook indicated that finding the path through the heather was a game of luck and our findings agree (even from the top of Camaderry we saw no visible paths down towards the streams). Instead, we headed over to the reservoir perimeter road and then followed the stream back down to the bridge and onto the miner's village. At the miner's village, the local park service had set up a "Falcon Watch" session where visitors could use binoculars or telescopes to look at Peregrine falcon chicks and their parents. They only do this once a year so do check our their website. After chatting with the staff for a few minutes, we made our way park to the car park through the trees (trying to raise a signal (unsuccesfully) on our mobiles so we could contact our driver!).


View Walking route: Camaderry, Glendalough, Co. Wicklow (reverse) in a larger map