One Little Prick

If you follow the Fat Man up-chuck you know I’ve developed a fascination with all things ‘widget‘. Wrapped up in all of this small portable hype are open API’s. 90% of Twitter usage takes place outside of Twitter - which is kinda nuts, but wholly indicative of where the web is heading. We want what we want, where we want it, often within the social networks we inhabit or the desktops we decorate or the start-page we stare at.

If the blogosphere is, ‘a frontier town with no lawman (I mean, O’Reilly has a badge on, but no gun and no jail). You can do just about anything you want, but the politically savvy folks tend to arm themselves to the teeth and gang together to protect their property. Everyone else is in the middle of chaos, either fighting blindly for attention or politely asking (by linking early and linking often) if they can join the big Gang.’ (Michael Arrington) . Then the widgetosphere is a deranged pastor coming onto your land and suggesting you open up to your neighbours, give them some rum to take home with them so they tell all their friends what a good shot you are.

Then some fool comes along and claims Rock You, purveyors of every annoying Facebook app you’ve ever been force fed, is worth $400m! Based on user base and absolutely no business model at all.

Whilst my web brethren decamped to Austin for SXSW, I went to the Science Museum with my daughter to attend a lecture on Bubbles (I’m not making this up). I learned a lot about bubbles and molecules, stuff I’d long forgotten. You need just the right mix of washing up liquid and water to create giant bubbles and plenty of huffing and puffing to propel them into the air. Kids love them.

With the Bebo sale and now the crazy valuations for Rock You and it’s competitor Slide, it looks like the mix is about right to create an almighty bubble.

All it takes is one little prick to pop it.

Herewith my scratcher courtesy of Rock Star, enjoy it’s simple ability to enrage anyone with a brain cell and to forever make you curse the sound of a rusty penny being chucked into an old tin which is as much as the sound designers at Rocky You can manage by way of special effects.

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