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WELCOME TO THE Weird Wide Web – where we take a look at the week’s best offerings in tech and social media news.
Computer test of the week
So, this week, a computer programme passed the Turing Test for the first time in history. This means it fooled people into thinking it was a 13-year-old boy. It seems like a pretty big deal, but Gizmodo looked at why this test is actually bulls**t.
Facebook vs Snapchat move of the week
It it’s latest attempt to take down Snapchat, Facebook prematurely launched a photo-sharing app called Slingshot before quickly taken it down again, according to TechCrunch. Similar to Snapchat, the app allows you to send timed picture or video messages to your friends, the catch is that you have to send a photo/video first before you can view something your friend sent.
In other news, Facebook Messenger also added instant video sharing this week, 15 second videos similar to Instagram, although nobody really cared about that.
Note swapping option of the week
Here’s a new way to leave passive-aggressive notes for your workmates or even let your crush in the office know they’re looking well today without making a fool of yourself.
The social networking app Secret has announced a new feature, confining the stream to within the walls of a company or workplace. A chance for a bit of fun with colleagues or potential to completely destroy a business from the inside?
Guilt-inducing gadget of the week
This pocket-sized gadget can tell you exactly how many calories are in that slice of chocolate cake you just ordered. It analyses the chemical makeup of the food and sends the data to your smartphone.
Mother and child development of the week
Any mother out there who wants to take a photo of them breastfeeding their bundle of joy and post it on Facebook, now you can. The site has done a U-turn and is now allowing users to post photos where breastfeeding is featured saying “we agree that breastfeeding is natural and beautiful.” Well, that makes everything ok then.
Constructive Instagram criticism bot of the week
You may find your friend taking too many selifes to be annoying, but chances are you don’t want to tell them in case you hurt their feelings, or come across as obnoxious. Enter Pic Nix, a free service that lets you (anonymously) shame a fellow Instagram users for over-posting 16 offences.
Created by ad agency Allen & Gerritsen, it uses a robot named Silent B.O.B to put together the photo and message before tagging said user and posting it.
a&g / Vimeo
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14 Henrietta Street is fantastic for both tourists and locals. The guide takes you upstairs to huge staircase for the music room, drawing room and bedroom and you hear about the great and the good, eg Gardiner, Molesworth and names you know. Right out of a Jane Austin novel
Then a swift shock to the system when you go the corridor neglected by slumlords and to the basement how people in the 1900’s lived
You finish on the 1st floor when a family as recently as the 1970’s lived. Delph with the Chinese patterns, godawful smelling carbolic soap (some love the smell??), lucozade when it was a health product in a glass bottle and other products
The guides are super and love their job, buy a ticket :)
@Michael McLoughlin:
Still use the Carbolic soap , yer only man for the weekly wash. Can also be used as a deodorant and as paint remover. Mrs not too keen on it mind you.
Fantastic job done by all involved in putting this together, and the guides brilliant !! Couldn’t recommend enough .
Mother was a nurse in the old coombe hospital at Meath st. God she tells some horrific stories of calls to tenements in that area
@Eamonn O Connell: wow, I’m a nurse,would love to hear your mams stories.
@Gill Dempsey: Somme very sad stories of hard births and lost babies. The poverty was unbelievable but the people were very good she could walk up Meath Street and into any tenement building at any hour and got only the height of respect from people. no fear of being attacked are interfered with in any way
Once it got dark we had to use a bucket for the loo . The 2 toilets were in a little yard under street level. A back stairs led down to them. Rats were always around. No go area at night.
The tenements are making a comeback!
Does anyone know if Henrietta Street was the actual street used as the fictional Chandlers Court in the classic 1980 RTE rendition of Strumpet City by James Plunkett?
I’m a Bolton St DIT Eng graduate (1990) and remember well the near by cobbled stoned Street that is Henrietta St, leading up to Kings Inns.
I have a US version of the DVD and still enjoy watching it – Real Dublin entertainment! (It does however put my 3 US teen sons to sleep
I have a very intresting story from care at 16 into a tenement what a disaster who needs a mother she was not a fit mother
Does anyone know if Henrietta Street was the actual street used as the fictional Chandlers Court in the classic 1980 RTE rendition of Strumpet City by James Plunkett?
I’m a Bolton St DIT Eng graduate (1990) and remember well the near by cobbled stoned Street that is Henrietta St, leading up to Kings Inns.
I have a US version of the DVD and still enjoy watching it – Real Dublin entertainment! (It does however put my 3 US teen sons to sleep
@Roland Kelly: as they get older they will find it interesting I imagine
Over the last few days you have used a number of photographs to which I own the copyright [the Chinese New Year being another example] … my photographs are made available free of charge to anyone who wishes to use them [many are used by Wikipedia] but in order to use them you must clearly indicate who owns the copyright and you must supply a proper link to the source. Indicating that the source is Wikipedia Commons is the source is not sufficient. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Street,_Dublin. For copyright conditions please refer to https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HENRIETTA_STREET_-_DUBLIN_(402556531).jpg
I visited 14 Henrietta Street last week. It is a brilliant experience and I would highly recommend it!
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