The Weekly Round-Up: 27.03.09

You may have noticed that things move around a lot in supermarkets. You're not going mad, it's happening. They're doing it on purpose, the swines.

The idea is that supermarkets move produce from aisle to aisle to encourage you to buy different things to those you'd normally buy when you stumble across unfamiliar stock in familiar places.

For example, if you go to the aisle where you normally get cereal and instead find dusters, the supermarket hopes you'll think 'Silly me, no cereal here, I shall continue my search elsewhere in this delightful store. In the meantime, it's been a while since I had dusters for breakfast so I'll give them a go'.

There is a problem with this theory. The problem is that it's a load of old nonsense.

People don't like it when you move stuff around that you like. They get cross - and well they should because it is annoying.

What's the technology angle here, you may ask?

Glad you asked. Facebook users were up in arms this week when the site underwent another significant redesign, just a few months after another big look-and-feel change. Some people weren't overly pleased with that one and they're even less pleased with this one.

The biggest complaint about the new Facebook is that it looks too much like Twitter, with its focus on status updates (and no, looking at it from this angle doesn't help). The argument from users is that if they wanted to focus purely on microblogging their every move they'd just get a Twitter account, which, all things considered, is a pretty reasonable argument.

On top of that came the story that the UK government plans to monitor social networking websites.

Happily for Facebook's millions of users and appropriately for the web 2.0 trailblazer, the wisdom of crowds prevailed, and the company revealed it plans to make some changes to its new design.

Good crisis management? Possibly - but the very best form of crisis management involves avoiding a crisis in the first place.

Staying with social media, Twitter has been in the news this week. Actually, at the moment, the Round-Up has a suspicion the microblogging service is getting more coverage and column inches than the recession. And why the hell not? It's great.

On the news front, firstly there was the news that someone had set up a bubble machine to send out a stream of bubbles whenever someone mentions it on Twitter.

Second, there was the report that primary schools are planning to teach kids how to use Twitter, Wikipedia and blogging and spend less time studying history, which again prompted the Round-Up to resent the fact it was born into Generation X rather than Generation Y.

Third, was the news that some guy had wired up his pot plant to send him tweets when it was thirsty.

And it's called Pothos.

The people behind the tweeting plant dreamed up a device that allows plants to tell owners when they need water or if they've had too much.

Rob Faludi, one of the tech-obsessed plant loving founders, said: "Obviously plants can't talk or Twitter directly, so we have to help them along with that."

Thanks for clearing that up, Rob.

In fact, the plant's social media enabler is made of soil-moisture sensors that are connected to a circuit board. They measure the level of moisture, and then communicate the information to a microcontroller.

The device determines whether moisture levels are too low, or too high, and then transmits a wireless signal to Twitter as a plaintive tweet for sustenance.

The tone of voice of the tweet can be personalised to suit either the owner or the type of plant.

Kate Hartman, another member of Botanicalls (the company behind the scheme), said: "There's always a basic 'I'm thirsty, could you please water me' message. But they also accelerate in terms of need, so there's an urgent message: 'I'm desperately thirsty, please water me'."

People following the plants receive updates on the soil moisture content and whether it's being cared for.

"I feel a bit more guilty when I don't water Pothos, because everybody knows," said Hartman.

"Actually receiving a message from a plant is just very engaging, and I think kind of unexpected. There's a magic to it that people really enjoy."

Sure.

'Pothos' has more than 2,650 followers on Twitter. Which is roughly 50 times how many the Round-Up has.

Which is a somewhat humbling experience.

Personal technology pervades every facet of society these days. One by one, the last bastions of old school are being swept aside as gadgetry continues its ascent to ubiquity.

Consider cruise holidays, long seen as a peaceful way for ladies and gents of a certain age to enjoy the world - at a gentle pace.

But now even this final sanctuary from 21st century technology is under attack.

A cruise line firm has come up with the splendid idea of introducing "technology concierges" to teach its passengers how to use their own high-tech hardware.

The company hopes its technology concierges can help guests fully understand the "sometimes daunting features" of popular devices they own or are thinking about buying.

These e-enablers will "enlighten" bewildered guests about the newest trends and teach them finer nuances of popular hardware including the iPod nano, iPhone, BlackBerry Bold, Kindle 2, Palm Treo Pro and sat-nav devices.

So it's a bit like the Apple Store experience, except you can't escape, unless you hurl yourself overboard and dive headlong into the cold, cold sea.

In years to come, our ancestors will be able to track the courses of cruise ships that criss-crossed the oceans.

On the bed of the sea will be long lines of iPods, BlackBerrys and Treos, cast overboard by frustrated octogenarians who have long since given up in search of buffet and bingo, leaving the technology to the fish.

"So really, Mrs Smith, the iPhone is a truly converged personal communications solution for the 21st century."

"That's nice, dear."

SPLASH!

Finally this week:

Don't recruit staff, don't train staff, don't supervise or retain staff. And whatever you do, don't worry about security. Generation Y is coming to the office and inevitably they're all twittering.

Want an iPhone? Don't want a contract? Fine, that's £599. What's that? You want an iPhone AND a contract? Thought so.

Want to know why government IT projects are a bit rubbish? Westminster insiders are happy to tell you.

Still want more? Try your luck with this week's caption competition.