Baffled by Rebecca Black? You're not alone

Cyberclinic

The competition for the worst music video ever is a hotlycontested one, with several hundredweight of dubious emotionalsymbolism and bad lip-synching slung online every day. Last weekend,however, the internet made a final decision. The efforts of widelyderided DIY artists of yesteryear such as Getu Hirpo and Reh Dogg(worth a Google if you're not familiar) were deemed to have beeneclipsed by a song called "Friday" by American teenager RebeccaBlack. It's hard to sum up the depressing banality of the video,tune and lyrical content, but suffice to say that your average fiveyear old would sneer at its lack of sophistication. No awards willbe heading Rebecca's way, but a whole heap of attention certainlyhas.

The video for "Friday" has had 38 million views at the time ofwriting. It's hard to know how many of those 38 million peopleconsidered the song to represent great entertainment but, judging bythe anger that's been provoked, probably a couple of dozen. "I hopeyou get an eating disorder," was a typically cruel, unhingedresponse to the mild cultural offence that had been committed. Butstrangely, a crisis of conscience took hold online, which doesn'thappen often. The focus of rage switched from a blameless 13 yearold to Ark Factory, the LA-based outfit behind the video. Black'sparents reportedly paid Ark $2,000 to have their daughter feature inthe superficially professional but ultimately awful production, anda glance at their artist roster revealed that this was far from aone-off. They're repeat offenders, having attempted to harness thelimited talent of budding child stars such as Lil Nay Nay and JolieAdamson. "It's complicated," sings Jolie on one tune, before goingon to outline her emotional state - which is, as you might expect,far from complicated. The true target established, renowned internetvigilantes 4Chan set about their task with vigour.

You'd think that Ark Factory would consider any publicity goodpublicity. After all, their whole business model is about reaction,not content, and the inanity of Rebecca Black's song got her a spoton American breakfast television. But Ark seem troubled by theinvective suddenly directed at them. A widely scorned video of anArk launch party has been made private, web pages about the companyhave disappeared - although their main site remains, as does aninfomercial. The hysterically excited voice over describes Ark as "aplace you can call your world," whatever that means. It's baffling -like pretty much everything connected to the "Friday" phenomenon.

The new iPhone software upgrade brought with it a whole heap ofpersonal strife as I battled with error messages and restore issues,but when it finally decided to obey my high-pitched screaming itoffered up a new "Personal Hotspot" feature. Nearby laptops andtablets can now connect to the phone via wi-fi and use its 3Ginternet connection - but only if your network lets you. Thequestion many are asking is "Er, why doesn't my network let me?"

You'd think that if your price plan allows you to download acertain amount of stuff per month, the way you do it shouldn'tmatter - any more than whether you use it up watching videos,streaming music or playing endless games of online Scrabble. But inthe US, the AT&T network has been issuing stern rebukes to peoplewho've bypassed restrictions and found a way of "tethering" theircomputers and phones, even if their download limits haven't beenreached. The first reaction from customers has been "Blimey, how didthey know I was doing it?"; the second a colourful variant on thephrase "up yours". But as many commentators have said, that'scapitalism. AT&T can do what they like, and customers just have tovote with their wallet.

In the UK you have a choice if tethering is something you finduseful. While Vodafone charge a 15 per month premium, 3's One Planwas launched late last year as an all-you-can-download, do-what-you-like, we-don't-care option. You'd hope that all networks wouldfollow. For most, tethering is just an occasional convenience, andwe don't choose to use a slow 3G connection on our laptop purelybecause we can. We've got better ways of spending our time. (Ithink.)