Eclectic Trains

Are you a Mechanical Turk? I am. This picture of a keyboard has come from a web service called acobox.com - a copyright free image hosting service. Acobox were offering any takers via Mechanical Turk $1 if they were prepared to host one of their images on their blog*. Well, here it is and I've done what was asked. I wasn't obliged to write anything nice about Acobox or anything about them at all in fact. I just had to use a photo. But, as it happens, it seems like a really simple and useful service for a blogger like me. A copyright free hosting source for photos of all varieties? I'm signing up.

Actually, this was part of an investigation I'm conducting into digital piece work (which sounds exploitative), or crowdsourcing (which sounds like an amazing social experiment) on Uncrunched.com, my anti-credit crunch blog. Amazon's crowdsourcing site, Mechanical Turk, has literally thousands of micro-jobs that can be completed by anyone with a broadband connection and a desire to "earn" micro-money.

That's 171 words and with these final words included - that's 228 in total - my assignment is complete. (Acobox wanted me to write a minimum of 150 words). Visit Uncrunched.com in a few days for an assessment of the whole experience of me becoming one of the growing millions of VPWs (Virtual PieceWorkers).

*Sponsored Post

Oh my goodness! It's the 30th June and no blog-posting to speak of, or write of, in June. My promise to myself - so you really don't need to know this - was to post at least one blog a month and I'm barely hitting that target. It's positively Stalinist in it's 5 year planishness, if you get my drift...

...So here is a posting with lots more promised in July when my life slows down. I'm just work busy (a good thing, I suppose), forget hectic social life excuse - that's for 20 year olds!

However, I did manage to steal a family holiday in late May (half-term break) in the only country I will ever have the chance of learning the language of - France. Brittany, to be precise. And I have to report that all we seemed to meet were universally friendly French people which is certainly not how the alleged curmudgeons are perceived from this side of the English Channel. Now you might argue, cynically, that these Frenchies were only being friendly because they were taking my money e.g. the main people I had to try out my "O" Level French on were indeed: waitresses, supermarket checkout staff and the gites owner. You suspect that under their breath you can hear them mutter: "Here comes the stupid English family holidaying in France when the Euro is so strong and we've just put up our food and fuel prices to catch up with les Brits...mutter... mutter...". I know what you are thinking, but no. I like 'em. I like their roads, their food and wine, their countryside and their wildcat strikes when they have just about had enough of anything that is fromaging them off.

And do you know what? secretly, oh so secretly, I think they like us...

...In Dinard near to where we stayed, just across the bay from St Malo, they hold a British Film Festival every October... More about this in my next posting (I promise).

But if you can't wait here is a link: http://www.festivaldufilm-dinard.com/index-en.php

...there's even a statue of Hitchcock in the town...