data report Archives - The Sociable

Most European languages “unlikely to survive in the digital age”

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Dozens of European languages are threatened by a lack of technological supports, a major international study called Languages in the European Information Society has found

Tell us if your broadband is up to speed or if it’s under performing

Web

The Sociable’s Irish broadband speed test. Tell us how fast your internet connection is

Piers Dillon Scott11 years ago

4.8K

Believe it or not Ireland ranks as 13th in the world for broadband quality speed, ahead of our European friends such as the UK and Germany. But is number correct? More often than the not broadband speeds promised in the telecom’s ads or websites don’t reflect what the average home or business receives. Tell us how fast your internet connection is.

Fine Gael Labour's Programme for Government tagcloud

Meme

Fine Gael and Labour’s Programme for Government #infographic

Piers Dillon Scott11 years ago

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"Government", "new" and "public" were the most mentioned words in Fine Gael and Labour's Programme for Government released this week.

Geolocation Privacy concerns, via Microsoft

Mobile

Geolocation apps causing new privacy and safety fears for smartphone users

Piers Dillon Scott11 years ago

5.24K

Smartphone users are becoming more concerned about their privacy when using geolocation apps, according to a survey released by Microsoft this week to coincide with Data Privacy Day. The survey found that users have a host of concerns for their privacy when using location based phone apps Some 84% of respondents said that they fear such applications could be used to help unknown people steal personal information or identities.

Social Media

Foursquare records check-ins from every country in the world, and also 1 from space

Piers Dillon Scott11 years ago

2.8K

Foursquare users checked in over 380,576,305 times in 2010, including once from the International Space Station, the company announced today. Describing 2010 as “an insane year” the three year old smartphone social network released some information (in infographic form, of course) about their userbase.

Languages on the internet infographic via & © TNW

Web

Chinese to overtake English as the dominant language of the internet

Piers Dillon Scott11 years ago

4.7K

Chinese will overtake English as the dominate language on the internet in the next five years, according to data collated by TNW. TNW says that there are over 400m Chinese language internet users, a number approaching the 530m English language internet users. Along with this already large number Chinese has also seen a 1,277% increase in online use in the past decade.

Social Media

Watch live tweets from the #ictumarch

Piers Dillon Scott11 years ago

2.27K

Despite plummeting temperatures, the Irish political landscape will heat up on Saturday as thousands of people are expected to take part in the planned Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) march.

Social Media

Bing Maps Ireland’s #bailout Tweets

Piers Dillon Scott12 years ago

2.76K

Bing Maps showing Twitter overlayFor a second consecutive week only one topic has been occupying Irish Twitter users – the €85 billion EU/IMF #bailout.

Brains Byte Back

We explore how our brains, psychology, and society are impacted by the ever-evolving technology that surrounds us. If you want to be better prepared for the new information age, have a healthier relationship with technology, and get more out of life using top technology and psychology hacks, this is the podcast for you! Every other Friday we bring you interviews with leading experts in the fields of technology and psychology combined, with past guest speakers such as New York Times journalists, MIT Professors, and C-suite executives of top tech companies.

You may have heard of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers, commonly known as Rajneeshees or sannyasins, from the incredibly popular Netflix documentary “Wild, Wild Country.”

Well in today’s episode we speak with a former follower of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh cult to get a better understanding of how this society functioned, what it was like to live in normal society as a member of the cult, and what it was like on the famous Oregon ranch.

With our guest, Annie (who has asked to remain anonymous but showed her mala that she wore during her time as a Rajneshee to prove her affiliation with the cult), we find out how she first find out about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the Rajneeshees, and what inspired her to join their cult, where she goes into great detail about how she found them when she was 16 at an Alcoholics Anonymous event.

She also shares why life as a Rajneeshee was difficult off the ranch in normal society, as society often treated them with a mixture of suspicion, curiosity, and fear. In fact, she was fired from all of her jobs due to her membership in the cult, but she also explains how she saw this as a positive, “a trial by fire” as she claims.

Annie also goes into detail about what it was like visiting the ranch in 1983, when, she believes, much of the footage used in the documentary was filmed. She talks about the important role meditation played in being a Rajneeshee and what a normal day was like on the ranch.

She also shares her thoughts on how accurate the documentary was, how close she came to meeting Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and finally, how she left the cult in the end.

Overall, Annie explains why she doesn’t see the following as a religion or cult, but instead as a community and how this community had such an overall, lasting positive experience in her life.