If there is one social network type thing that I'm getting into more and more, it's FriendFeed. A lot of social networks really need a network of people you know to join as well, to make it more worthwhile. That does help in certain ways with FriendFeed too, but this one can be used as an explorer and way of making new friends.

I really use to it find new photos from Flickr and Flickr and Zooomr users. Using the Greasemonkey FriendFeed Filter script is something I highly recommend.

It's something that I liked from the outset as a concept, but has taken time for me to really get value out of it. As I've added people, so I receive news of what their friends are adding, and I have the option of subscribing to them too. If they are producing great photos, then that's what I do!

It's worth checking out, even if you just want a new way to find cool photos. By the way, it works a million times better than Flickr's own explore features, and unlike on Flickr, you can see all the photos a contact has added, not just the most recent five. And of course, feel free to add me as a friend if you do join up!

Thanks Opera. Thanks a whole bunch. I spent a half hour writing a post only to find the site crashed when I pressed submit. When I clicked back the page refreshed and I lost the whole post. Thanks a lot. I know you are a free service, so my complaint has its limitations, but still....going offline for sometimes hours at time, pretty much everyday, for day after day, week after week, month after month. Not professional.

My post, which I really can't be arsed to rewrite in full, was simply about the latest 'copyright scandal' and was in general response to this quote...

But a large number of that crowd simply don’t appear to understand the law or the position held by the content creators. If the Copyright holders WANT to give their stuff away for free, that’s up to THEM, not some third party. And saying that if you put something on the Internet you should expect it to get stolen is stupid and even silly. That’s like saying putting your car in a mall parking lot is begging someone to steal IT!

My point was that the internet is nothing like a parking mall and that if you embrace it fully you should expect, and even accept, that your work may be stolen. It might not be right, according to the law, according to your sense of morals and according to the concept of respect. But this is the internet and it largely operates outside of the law, morals and respect. Until you figure a way of changing that, learn to live with it. You have to make the adjustments, not the internet. This isn't a case of others not understanding the law or a content creators position. It's about the content creators not understanding the internet.

If you don't want your work 'stolen' then don't upload it to the net. Or mark it as Private - most photo sites have the facility - so that only those who you want to see the work can see the work. Or put a big copyright image over it, as I've done below. But stop moaning at Flickr. Flickr is Web 2.0 dude! It's about sharing, the social, innovation, globalisation and being seen. If that's not for you, then fair enough. There are other places on the web more suited to your needs. But that's your issue, not Flickr's.

Over the last weeks...maybe it's been months!...I've been transferring all my blog posts onto Blogger and all my photos on to Flickr. And yesterday, at last, I finished the job! Every digital photo I've ever taken and not lost is there. Sadly there are quite a few that did get lost. A lot of Mexico photos, a lot of Milwaukee photos and all my Amsterdam photos disappeared when my hard drive packed up. Still, I do at least have most of them printed out at A4 or A3.

I now have a total of 165 sets, 7 collections and 3,003 photos stored on Flickr. I hope their hard drives hold up better than mine did! You can now check out my full and complete Flickr sets!


A cheeky little monkey I snapped in Sri Lanka!