Matthew Lang

As I'm writing this in my editor in Ghost, the title reads "Social Media Sucks". Yeah, I know. Strong words in that title. I don't like them either, but having them at the top of my editor as I write this actually reminds me of all the great things that social media brings. Here's a few of the positive things I get from Twitter:

• My son's golf course and coaching updates from @paisleypro.
• What's on the grill at the home of @culturaloffering.
• Local news and updates from @paisleyorguk.
• Deep thoughts and revelations from @patrickrhone.

There's so much more as well and from the 300+ accounts I now follow there are so many more that I could list. It's a tailored timeline that I curate to my own needs.

If I don't like something that someone says, then I unfollow.

Disagreeing with someone though is a different thing, and while I might disagree on certain topics with people I follow, it doesn't mean they're wrong and I'm right or vice versa. It's a difference of opinion and that keeps my timeline interesting. I enjoy that.

The worst of Twitter is something that I haven't been personally experienced but I see time and time again. People with a large number of followers become easy targets for the Twitter mob and their flaming torches and pitchforks. The mob that prides itself on correcting every wrong done. The mob that stands for justice and equality. What they actually stand for is easy pickings. They find the easiest wrong to correct and pounce. This is the worst of Twitter and is going to drive people away from the platform.

Stephen Fry was the latest victim of the Twitter mob. I don't blame Stephen Fry for leaving Twitter. I also don't think he overreacted in leaving. He made his decision based on not one past experience but several. It's sad that people are driven to such measures. It makes Twitter a less entertaining place.

I've update the title of this post, to reflect the changing tide of Twitter. I just wish it was more like it was in the beginning.

I love reading posts like this. Discovering how different people tweak the home screens on their smartphones gives you a small indicator to how that person acts and thinks.

Another interesting point is Shawn's decision to use the iPhone 6+.

Another thing with the iPhone 6s Plus is that it somehow managed to take over the spot my iPad used to hold. It was such a sly move I never saw it coming. But somehow, over the course of a few months, I just stopped using my iPad for reading and note taking.

— Apps and Workflows: iPhone (6s Plus) Edition by Shawn Blanc

I'm toying with replacing my current iPhone 6 but the decision to go small with the new iPhone 5SE out in March or go big with an iPhone 6+ still eludes me.

Ghost's plan to relocate their business to Singapore is a blow to innovative internet businesses in the UK.

Why locate your business in the UK if it's going to suffer EU under a tax regulation that was designed to catch out the giant technology companies?

Nor do the numbers lie. According to the EU VAT Action campaign, HMRC has admitted that 78% of the VATMOSS returns being processed in the UK only bring in 1% of the total revenue they get from this scheme. HMRC have gone so far as to eject 3000 of those small digital businesses out of the MOSS system because their tax revenues are so tiny that they are essentially not worth processing. Yet the scariest number in this whole drama was the Campaign’s finding that only 1% of impacted businesses are even aware of the MOSS requirements. That 1% is fed up struggling under the burdens of a regulation designed to go after multinational corporations whose sweetheart tax deals were brokered by EU politicians in the first place.

— Digital platform Ghost leaves the EU thanks to #VATMOSS by WebDevLaw

Ghost made the right decision in relocating and I wish them all the best in their new digs.

It's stuff like this that just boggles my mind.

Compared with the overall vastness of space, the moon is very close to us: it's just 238,900 or so miles away. But compared with our daily experience, absolutely everything in space is absurdly far apart. In the gap between us and the moon, you could neatly slide in all seven of the other planets — with a bit of room to spare. That includes Saturn and Jupiter, which are about nine and 11 times as wide as Earth, respectively.

— 11 images that capture the incredible vastness of space by Vox