normalization blog

A Guide to Responding Like An Asshole to Perfectly Legitimate Negative Replies to Your Posts Online

2010-04-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

Step 1:

Completely ignore whatever the response to your comment or post actually says. This works better if you don't read it.

Step 2:

Immediately point out that you are a) attractive b) not single c) have an awesome dog or d) rich. The more awesome your life is, the more you should talk about it in your reply.

Step 3:

Make sure to begin your reply with a complete sentence, but quickly derail into total nonsense. This will confuse your "opponent" and allow for more vigorous descriptions of your awesome life.

Step 4:

Make sure to point out before hitting submit, that you were being sarcastic/snarky/critical. THIS IS KEY. Otherwise your idiot opponent, who dares say something you don't agree with, probably will have absolutely no idea how to respond.

Google: Energy Moguls

2010-02-19T08:28:00.000-08:00

Google was recently granted approval by the FERC to begin buying and selling energy on Feb 23rd. It's too early to say for sure, but preliminary talks seem to indicate that Google Health is next on the horizon.

Google CEO Believes all Secrets but own "Filthy", for "Poor People"

2009-12-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

http://gawker.com/5419271/google-ceo-secrets-are-for-filthy-people

Why bother waiting around for American Big Brother to get its act together? We're already subsidizing every large company; might as well just let them take the reins.

The generous explanation for Schmidt's statement is that he's revolutionized his thinking since 2005, when he blacklisted CNET for publishing info about him gleaned from Google searches, including salary, neighborhood, hobbies and political donations. In that case, the married CEO must not mind all the coverage of his various reputed girlfriends; it's odd he doesn't clarify what's going on with the widely-rumored extramarital dalliances, though.

Schmidt's philosophy is clear with Bartiromo in the clip below: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." The philosophy that secrets are useful mainly to indecent people is awfully convenient for Schmidt as the CEO of a company whose value proposition revolves around info-hoarding. Convenient, that is, as long as people are smart enough not to apply the "secrets suck" philosophy to their Google passwords , credit card numbers and various other secrets they need to put money in Google's pockets.

Google's Evil Expands with Google's Expansion

2009-12-06T12:50:00.000-08:00

Big surprise there.

Google now tracking logged out visitors.

The company explained: "What we're doing today is expanding Personalized Search so that we can provide it to signed-out users as well. This addition enables us to customise search results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your browser."

I don't think anyone seriously believed they haven't done this before. Perhaps I should change the headline to reflect the fact that this probably makes them LESS evil.

Adventures in Capitalism; or, Spot the Irony

2009-12-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

Bloggers must now disclose when they receive freebies in exchange for blogging

Dallas Observer Unveils Hot New Management Plan: Reporters to Report Directly to Sales Managers

Inept Management 101: Threaten Your Employees Whenever Possible, but Especially in a Recession

2009-09-29T21:26:00.000-07:00

In the wake of the Great Recession, how are employers keeping employees on their guard so as to maximize the lack of raises, cutting of hours, and extreme demoralization?

According to employees, threats are on the rise:

Employees repeatedly described threatening communication: “Be thankful you have a job,” “You can be replaced,” “There are lots of qualified people on the street who would love your job.” Such statements remind workers their jobs are on the “chopping block.” According to Rouse, some supervisors seem to purposefully foster a “culture of fear” to maintain control during the financial crisis. “Several people believe employers are using the crisis as an excuse to ‘throw people under the bus,’” she said.

According to employers, however, the story is different:

Despite significant economic changes, leaders reportedly have not changed the way they communicate with employees. Approximately 64% of working adults in the study reported supervisors use a ‘business as usual’ mentality during the crisis; 82% of working adults expressed frustration with supervisors’ lack of adaptation during the crisis. Senior leaders expressed significantly less concern about employee issues, such as layoffs and downsizing, than front line workers. Instead, senior management focused on market-related issues, such as declining sales.

Could both be true? Could threats, looming layoffs, under-busing (© googletrickedme 2009), and intimidation be business as usual? Apparently everyone surveyed thought so; while still clinging to the hope that when this whole recession thing clears up, their bosses will turn into respectful, humane leaders:

Working adults expressed a strong preference for leaders who are transparent, honest, and visible. The majority (55%) of participants who shared open-ended comments recommended increased supervisor openness; 33% wanted more honesty.

You can find the full results in pdf form, courtesy University of Phoenix Online.

Pandorum promotional stills released!!!!

2009-09-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

Healthcare Reform: Let Me Show You It

2009-08-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

Why don't we just apply HIPPA to individual plans?

Wouldn't this fix approximately 80% of the problem with existing health insurance in the US without adding trillions in cost? Why shouldn't health insurance coverage be portable to individual plans? There is no legitimate reason to protect those taking advantage of employer's plans to be saddled to a job just to get health care.

Teamwork, Overtime, and Heroics: Actually Bullshit Management?

2009-06-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

In addition to the fact that causing your employees to work overtime practically every project is obvoiusly a sign of incompetent management, there are now studies that prove it:

Choice is turning into expectation at most companies built upon the "team work" model, with pressures coming from project teams, responsibility for meeting profit or production targets, imposed deadlines and employees left to manage their own careers. A separate study at a software engineering firm, for example, determined that interdependent work patterns, "a crisis mentality," and a reward system based on individual heroics led to "inefficient work processes and long working hours.

That's right, all that shit about team work, honesty, and sticking together was just another scam to get you to work a part time job in addition to your regular job, for the same fucking price. Don't you feel liberated?

Sadly, studies also indicate that you can't just quit your job and rely on your wife, because as the sole sucker in your relationship, she is only willing to put in like twenty hours a week unpaid at her job, and could get fired at any second!

You can check out these interesting facts here, while your shit job is still paying you to dick around online.

Dear "SyFy" Channel:

2009-03-16T14:31:00.000-07:00

I, a female in your most sought-after demographic (white, young, educated, with a cushy job that Great Depression II has not yet taken from me), have been an avid watcher of Sci Fi Channel programs for almost as long as you were a channel.

Literally, thousands upon thousands of hours spent watching re runs of old movies like Tremors II, Revenge of the Giant Worm from Hell, television series such as Sliders--even your atrocious version of what used to be Sliders. I watched these things like clockwork. Sliders, a once a week habit. Tremors II, every Thursday, Saturday matinee and Sunday evening.

Take it from me, I am not one to nut over my internalized self-conception as a "nerd" or "geek". Obviously I can work a computer, and have some opinions on technology, but I'm as average as the rest of you dimwits. The main difference being, I am not that swayed by marketing folks' asinine assertions that for example, "SyFy is actually what the 18-34 set would type in a ' text message ', or electronic communication primarily used for cellphone to cellphone interaction" is anything but ball massaging. SyFy may feel hip and fresh to you, but that is because you paid so much dang money for the most ludicrous conclusion ever--it had damn well better "feel" right.

In conclusion, SyFy channel--I am no longer ever watching any of your programs live again. I will not use the new "syfy.com" name. I will not support your pointless vendetta in trying to make science fiction "ungeeky". Guess what! Geeks are about the most passionate users you can have. Trying to get them to nut over "serious dramas" that just _happen_ to involve robots is about as retarded as the name "syfy" itself. Categories serve a motherfucking purpose--allowing us to find shit that we're looking for without knowing it by name.

Is your masturbatory nonsense really so important that you feel you should do away with thousands of years of information technology? OH RIGHT--IT is just waaaay too geeky for people who make shows about fucking vampires and robots and mysterious space anomolies. I forgot.

For the record, if you re wondering how I am going to get your wonderful programming now that I have mentally aborted your existence--I am going to steal it. In fact, I am going to steal everything you air-- I don't even care how fucking bad the 4400 was, or how much every new show you ever produce is going to suck now that you got BSG out of your system. I am going to use technological "geekery" as you probably think of it, and steal the fuck out of all your "original" content.

For the record, I support your decision to alienate yourselves from probably the most powerful userbase out there. Go for it, this will be more entertaining than Tropicana. And while we are at it--stay the _fuck_ away from SF.

A Conversation with Alan Kay--must read if you hate java

2009-03-13T10:46:00.001-07:00

http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1039523

Kidnapping People for Political Pull Since '71: The disasterous Iranian 2022 rebranding?

2009-01-14T19:03:00.000-08:00

Seriously Iran, what the hell? If you were one person, and 'murricn, you would be on Most Evil within five years, all level 19 all over the place..

Google's Promote/Delete functions change everything

2008-11-22T11:40:00.000-08:00

Finally someone gets a new feature right.

Google search now has promote and delete functions. Hell fucking yes. Experts-exchange and other pay for content sites are now going to be deleted. Resources that outdate modern "SEO" bullshit or are done by regular people (rather than those with enormous marketing budgets able to get all the cross links required for infamy) finally stand a chance of showing up where they belong.

The truth is, that while basically sensible, the way search ratings work currently is fundamentally flawed. "Basically sensible" in the realm of public policy is tantamount to pure, unbridled facsism by the insane. Being popular has absolutely nothing to do with being useful with the advent of personal computing having changed forever the balance between technical/educational information and pure entertainment oriented tripe. Bitchy rants against one thing or another are likely to be just as highly rated as instructions for how to use or detailed histories of--given the human fascination with a car wreck, senseless garbage stands a better chance of rising to the top like so much infocream.

Finally, the more anal and righteous of us will get a heavier vote--if only for our own search results.

Attention Yahoo, New York Times, and other users of "Live Search"

2008-04-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

DOES NOT WANT.

Nobody sane wants to automatically search yoru site when highlighting lines or words. People highlight for one reason and one reason alone.

To HIGHLIGHT the text.

Whether this is for reasons of readability, emphasis, inability to focus, who cares. It all boils down to the same thing. Nobody sane doesn't know how to search for something, and nobody sane wants a laggy ass pop up hovering over something they are actively attempting to read.

ENOUGH.

Stuff White People Like: Sports Analogies

2008-03-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

Plaxo Can't Succeed without Illegal Spam, No Tie Network and Pulse are Phoney, Plus Fuck you Bunny_14@yahoo.com

2008-03-05T08:45:00.000-08:00

Plaxo.

Plaxo has been the scourge of the honest internet since day one, but lately their spamtrocities have reached an apex knowing no bounds of decency or reason.

Plaxo, fuck you. I do not know anyone with the email name of "bunny_14@yahoo.com" and neither does anyone else.

This is the fakest email name I have ever encountered.

Aside from getting spam whenever my one stupid friend signs up for one of your services, I am now getting spam from Bunny_14. A quick google search shows this person is NOT EVEN SIGNED UP FOR ANY OF YOUR FAKE SOCIAL NETWORKS--OR EVEN ON THE INTERNET AT ALL. This is not clever, and I am going to sue you for all 14 of your dollars.

A word about No Tie Network (ing?), and Pulse: These services are stupid, and a clear marketing ploy. It's like you finally caught on to Facebook's marketing agenda, after 4 years of tireless study, and now are trying to catch up by offering absolutely no value to people who will in turn provide you with tons of demographic and niche marketing information.

Now if only people who respond to 419 scams were actually worth anything to marketers, you'd be all set.

Great Job Posts

2007-10-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

The kind of job posting that makes you yearn for the good old days, when we all thought this would be possible.

Dynamic Tech company seeks creative Sr. Web Developer

Reply to: job-450348261@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-10-16, 12:31AM EDT

My name is Mitsu Hadeishi. I am currently looking to enhance our R&D team.

Over the last fifteen years, I've led a series of engineering teams to design and implement innovative, successful software products. My past projects have included complex virtual communities, advanced multimedia development platforms, object-oriented integrated development environments, a variety of websites, and interactive video stories built with a custom domain-specific language. In addition to software architecture and development, my background and interests include AI, art, meditation, film, and philosophy.

Now, as the VP of Engineering for Temboo Inc., I'm building a top-flight team of innovators and gifted problem-solvers to join me in creating and extending a revolutionary new kind of technology. If you value cross-disciplinary creative thinking, believe that technology can change the world for the better, and aren't afraid to discuss aesthetics and object models in the same conversation, we'd like to hear from you.

Temboo is a young, cutting-edge New York company. We have developed a new software model which uses a simple, intuitive graphical interface to allow non-programmers to quickly build complex workflows and applications comprised of disparate interacting components such as databases, web services, and web applications. Think of our technology as an "inter-operating system," a visual tool for developing advanced
information services which actually works.

By allowing businesses to focus on what their information systems should do, instead of worrying about how to do it, our technology paves the way for a new paradigm of software development. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not. Contact us to find out more.

We have versions of our product currently live; some of our first customers are leading financial institutions. Our unique company culture promotes individual contribution, innovation, excellence, and the belief that work should also be fun.

We are looking for someone with excellent creative problem-solving skills who is interested in exploring new architectural approaches, someone with an extensive background building web applications using a wide variety of frameworks and technologies. Deep understanding of, and experience with, Java is a must, and we're looking in particular for experience with technologies like Spring, Hibernate, JSP, and Freemarker/Velocity, but it's a plus if you also have exposure to a variety of other systems (for example: PHP, Python, Ruby, C#, as well as frameworks like Tapestry, Mambo, Plone, Django, .NET, Rails, etc). We want someone with broad as well as deep web development experience.

We offer competitive compensation, flexible working hours, a casual office environment, and respect for individual contribution and autonomy. We're looking for people who have interests outside of work as well (please mention some of these in your cover letter if you like). Sense of humor is also a must!

We are looking for a software developer with experience in building friendly user interfaces; we're particularly interested in engineers who have worked with information architects and/or interaction designers and have some familiarity with the principles of user interface design. Customers love us because of our unique, elegant UI, which is a defining element of the Temboo system. This means the front-end developer(s) will play a vital role in the Temboo team.

This person will build interfaces that simplify complicated processes, and will have the opportunity to think creatively about how users interact with technology. In this role, you'll be an individual contributor on your own projects and will work closely with our server-side development team. Ideal candidates will be enthusiastic about pushing the envelope of UI technology and shaping the future of Temboo products.

Ideal candidates will have:
• Experience with AJAX, DHTML and JavaScript
• Experience with Python
• Experience with OO programming
• Experience with a range of web programming languages such as Java/JSP and PHP
• Understanding of good user interface design principles
• Excellent communication and organizational skills
• Enjoys working in a high-energy environment with a focused, talented team

Additional bonus points for candidates with:
• Familiarity with agile methods like XP and test-driven development
• Experience developing games
• Experience with Qt
• Experience with C++/MFC/ActiveX development, as well as C#
• Experience developing tools that use visual metaphors
• Experience developing applications with Flash
• Sense of humor

Our unique company culture promotes individual contribution, innovation, excellence, and the belief that work should also be fun. We offer competitive compensation, flexible working hours, a casual office environment, and respect for individual contribution and autonomy. We're looking for people who have interests outside of work as well (please mention some of these in your cover letter if you like).

Does this sound like you? If so, there may be a place for you at Temboo. Candidates outside the New York area will also be considered for employment on a remote basis, or for relocation to NYC (where everyone should experience living for at least part of their lives).

Location: NYC/ Tribeca
Compensation: Very Competitive
Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
Please, no phone calls about this job!
Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

drupal. it's time we've had a chat.

2007-10-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

drupal. you like to say your codebase is superior. more technically advanced.

you like to act like you give more, and take less, leaving the developer with more time to ... develop.

and i have to say: it's a pretty convincing act. until you actually install the code and begin looking around.

WHAT A WASTE OF "DEVELOPER" TIME AND ENERGY.

What a convincing con game you have played with so many customers, "developers" and hapless themers hell bent on staying within their profession as you jackasses lay waste to their landscape of opportunities.

Drupal. You are a giant steaming pile. You are worse than garbage; you are a series of bickerings about fucking arrays that shouldn't be invoked in the first place. You make designers life hell and then like to act like its the designers who have their heads on backwards.

Well guess what. It is you who have your heads on backwards. Fuck your stupid admin menus for every goddamn option. In some content management systems even stupid designers can use things like template tags to control this. This may seem inflexible to you dolt-drupalists out there, but in fact its much better: no need to deal with scads of tiered admin menus to turn off options you never wanted to think about in the first place; no need to be stuck with scads of empty id-less divs around every "block". No need to write tons of overriding stylesheet classes... just fucking apply an attribute once and you're done! No need to install extension packs and plugins or whatever the fuck you're deciding to call libraries for your asinine little collection of php to make do what SHOULD BE AND ALWAYS HAD BEEN default behavior. Don't you see how treating each piece of content as the same fucking thing, complete with title and blah blah blah blah attributes, makes it a giant, unwieldy steaming pile?

In some stylesheets you don't need helpful comments like /* puts a 1px border around images*/ because there are no fucking absolute styles. Some of us have learned how to properly class our fucking divs thank you.

Please stay out of it, this leaves you with more time to bicker about where to put your stupid fucking variables that are set in one of 200 expandable administrator menus.

2007-07-10T07:25:00.000-07:00

For all those thinking "Wow, China doesn't fuck around ... "

Just a friendly reminder that it's in no way possible for one figurehead to be "in charge" of corruption millions-wide.

Submission Cover Letters: "Reimagined"

2007-06-28T16:26:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the string of Bravo-sponsored reality cooking programs, I have invited myself to "reimagine" a much-loved and well-worn staple of review journals and zines everwhere: the author biography cover letter.

Dear Editor,

Thank you for the opportunity to read my work. I have enclosed "Story", ~3500 words, for your consideration.

As you will notice, I've gone ahead and changed the margins on yah--I figured you don't see enough words in the average line of text you read daily.

I also went ahead and updated the font.

I have been published in a lot of trashy numbers run by self-important editors, and I feel my work speaks for itself. I really hope you decide to publish me.

Truly yours,
Original Writer

Judging a Book by its Cover: Essential Blogging

2007-06-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

Today we bring you a column new to googletrickedme and indeed--new to the world. The first ever (*cough*) JUDGING A BOOK BY ITS COVER.

Our book today is Essential Blogging: Selecting and Using Webtools by dynamos of modern publishing Cory Doctorow, Rael Dornfest, J. Scott Johnson, Shelley Powers, and Benjamin & Mena Trott. Check out this beauty:

There you have it; all you need to know about web tools and blogging. The big cat, in a show of irreverent playfulness, squashing down the smaller kittens in its path. Leering smugly in no particular direction. Representing nothing, and seeing all.

The drab green jumps off the cover of the book. It grabs you by the shoulders, it demands, "Be my bridesmaid! Pay for this awful dress!"

The smaller cats, of course, are no communists--they leer at each other, suspicious of the small auspice of still being present. Two plot attacks while another futily strokes at the tail of the big cat.

All in all, this cover indicates a great deal of blogging expertise on the behalf of the words inside. I would buy it, had I any interest at all in the subject.

Constant Prompts for Action during Change-Of-User-State

2007-06-15T13:54:00.001-07:00

Intuitive.

I have been using this word incorrectly for years.

Turns out for me intuitive means logically based; derived from much consideration as to the soundness of methods.

Breaking News: Congloms Buckle Under...

2007-05-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

to crushing international pressures.

More at 11.

09:F9:11:02:9D:74:E3:5B :D8:41:56:C5:63:56:88:C0

2007-05-01T07:15:00.000-07:00

Is this an illegal blog posting?

iGrill

2007-04-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

First, there was iGrill.

And now, there is iGrill. The first actual grill dedicated to your ipod addiction. That's right, just plug in your ipod to any iGrill-compatible George Foreman grill. You can be grooving to the sweet smell of charring meats and your favorite tunes to boot.

Do Standards Really Matter?

2007-04-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

Answer: no.

Thoughts on being the tech savvy one in any given set and in this case, editorial set

2007-03-14T06:36:00.000-07:00

Katie-

Couldn't open this--now it's yours =)

-Coworker

Attached: Hands.rtf

Middle Managers Belive Creativity/Innovation Stem Directly from Low Overhead

2007-02-04T09:16:00.000-08:00

**After a long delay I've decided to make this old news public. Enjoy, faithful readers!

Today we've got some great news for the insolvent business owner or the cheapskate on the go: Lowering the overhead of your business is a satisfying and effective way to increase your rate of innovation. And as every modern person knows, innovation holds the key to the future.

Just think about how the times have changed: While having a manager devoted entirely to the management of electricity was once mainstream, the abundance of cheap oil and power in general led to the virtual destruction of this position. And why should there be a salaried employee to just pay whatever the electricity bill may be for a given month? It's not like there's some global moratorium on electricity use after all. And as the internet grows and grows, with cheap fiber popping up all the time, it's time to say goodbye to the ways of the past: namely, axing internal sysadmins for corporations that house large amounts of servers.

You may be wondering, gentle reader, how someone as inexperienced as I could come up with such a bleeding-edge idea. The truth is, I'm just taking the advice of one of the modern giants: Google's Very Own Dave Girouard. At a recent Mass Technology Leadership Council meeting he used the example of security to paint the bleak landscape that is IT today: “Information security, as critical as it is, needs to be taken care of by organizations who live and die by it, who invest the money, time, resources and staff. Why should every company in the world have to build up their own expertise and have to maintain servers and provide security?”

Certainly there is no networking configuration, no kind of server or product, that can't be best maintained not by the organization who lives and dies by its efficacy, but by a giant conglomerate, invested solely in the security of others. Because if the focus of this huge company, with all the power of being the "market leader", is on the security of all your company's information, there is really no way to go wrong!

Should Poor People Have Lunch Breaks?

2007-02-03T09:03:00.000-08:00

Inspired by a recent OpinionJournal article revealing the shocking truth about overpaid public educators, I thought I would suggest my own ideas for how we can help balance the economy while normalizing salaries for the skills and worth of different sets of people.

Poor people are notoriously bad at accepting their lot in life; remember all the articles we see every day on minimum wage, welfare, better public education and etc aimed at placating the lazy masses? They are so populous that dedicating space to providing citations would be incredibly superfluous. The point is, how much time and energy is wasted every day towards solving the selfish problems of a few?

Here's my proposal: make the poor earn their own keep, like everyone else in life. Why should minimum wage workers be entitled to lunch breaks legally--if they could be making an extra $7 during that time? Any responsible parent in a similar position would certainly work through rain or shine to bring in the kind of money necessary to support a family in at least a one or two bedroom apartment in Michigan, Kansas, or Georgia.

Show the world we mean business about supporting our children, and abolish breaks for minimum wage earners!

Good Customer, Bad Customer

2006-12-18T08:07:00.000-08:00

Working for the arts, I do a good amount of customer service, and have in basically any real job I have ever held. This stems from the inability of the kind of company I like working with (small, independent, funded by the product) to hire people just for customer service, or establish Customer Relations departments, or to outsource to the South, or India, or other places that don't care at all about customer satisfaction. And while my particular job niche is unique, this fact about customer service is not. There are many kinds of service industries in which people intimately involved with the business, are also intimately involved with the problems of customers. Think of family-owned restaurants, catering companies, small software and web development firms--even huge companies like Shutterstock. Hell, even Jet Blue's president fields problems on flights, as part of his business plan. That's right--there's value to be gained for companies by keeping an eye on this thing--it's not just due to the caprices of slightly mentally retarded workers who have managed, somehow, to snag a job.

And usually when someone higher up than "customer service rep" on the ladder is dealing with customer issues, they are heavily invested in solving them. Usually they are at a job like this because of their ability to make changes, to fix things, to do shit their way--and it is a point of pride to actually solve problems when they come up.

Most consumers, used to dealing with enormous conglomerates, just do not understand this fact. They work for one of the Baby Bells, or for a Cable Corp, and the thought that some businesses get by by offering a product, selling it, and letting the sale spread the good word is just way too much to fathom. And if I were used to constant department rearranging, exponentially rising executive salaries, outsourcing, management playing favourites, dwindling salaries in the face of inflation, etc., maybe I wouldn't believe in solvent business models either! But the fact is, that most companies are not giant conglomerates. Independent art is doing better than it ever has. And the greedy consumer probably deals with these small companies on a pretty regular basis.

This is where the aggravation starts. Of course, someone contacting customer service is already angry--whatever they thought they were getting just isn't happening. Let's ignore for a moment the fact that even at this point, most questions have already been answered by the average business, either on an FAQ, or perhaps on the order form you filled out. Let's just focus on the opening. Usually it begins with a description of the problem: "I signed up for ___ on ____ and have heard nothing so far!" Of course, this is only the case 60% of the time. Some customers skip right to step two, which is insulting the business model and questioning the expertise of the entire company: "I am beginning to wonder if company ______ is nothing more than online hoodwinkers, staffed by babboons!!", leaving the "rep" to wonder why the are so angry in the first place. An observant reader will notice the rising tone of hysteria, as expressed through the number of exclamation points. The third and final step is the ultimatum: "If you do not give me twice the product I ordered, I will report you to the credit industries and start the website _______totallysucks.com to let the world know!!!!!!!!!!!"

Sometimes, it is probable that these customers, used to a lifetime of consuming anonymous, bulk-rate goods, are just threatening to get freebies. What these customers may not know is that in a small company, this kind of idiocy will not go unnoticed. While you may get an extra storage case for your cds, or maybe an extra year of some promotional magazine (at first!), you probably also got blacklisted. Your emails might even become a running joke. You might just get marked as spam.

Other times, it is obvious that the customer is a bleeding idiot. This usually is when someone signs up for something to be delivered in the future (such as a CD, or an event, or a subscription service) and is so angry to not be immediately gratified that they don't even bother reading what they signed up for. Unless this is a repeat performance you probably won't be blacklisted, but is having an email panic attack at some annonymous person really such a great idea? You never know when you will run into these people again, and they will probably think you are kind of slow--a few kittens short of Cat Lady.

The final kind of customer is the self-righteous pedant--the favored kind of Bad Customer. Usually they seem intelligent, and may even be a Very Important Person in their community or niche. Immediately the "rep" wonders why they believe ranting and offering up generic broad-based insults to be the best method to getting their way (For all the bad customers reading this: Insulting the company and the intelligence of the person answering your complaints is just silly! We would say "Then take it elsewhere" if we were willing to overlook the fact that hysterical people are not likely to understand the simple logic in this suggestion, and would probably try to spitefully harm the business through underhanded reporting). After a few insults, the SRP begins telling the service rep perceived problems in the business model.

This is where it gets hilarious. Remember, that in small businesses, customer service reps often know more than you'd assume--they are probably integral to running the business--and therefore are neither excited nor intimidated by the lecture. With a fullon smirk they will probably read all about how the business is doomed to failure because of consistently not living up to the standards we falsely present; how other businesses competing with us "undoubtedly" do a better job; how it is inconceivable that anyone could be happy with the service; how we should trust that the SRP is speaking for the volumes of disenfranchised customers who feel the exact same way, but don't have the courage to speak up. These emails often contain gems that can only be shrouded in the generalities necessary to keep innocents innocent.. but include:
-Telling a service rep (who happens to closely supervise all customer service and foreign distribution) that "You obviously find it impossible to cater to international customers, judging by my sale which I am sure is the only one so far."
-Telling a service rep (who happens to be a lead programmer for the main software offering) that some totally bogus information you entered is "Probably something wrong with your website."
-Telling a service rep who does bulk sales that "This could never work at the enterprise level" after a particularly impressive pull.
-Telling a service rep something patently untrue, such as "I ordered and paid for three (3) ___" when the service rep is the main bookkeeper looking at your credit card transaction for 1/3 the amount claimed.

So now you know! Not all customer service reps are dumb as bricks, stuck in a dead end job, and completely uncaring about your problems unless you threaten to get them fired! Amazing, isn't it?

(And a big thanks to all the Good Customers, who state their problem, what they'd like to happen as far as solutions go. Hopefully we made some real changes to our processes and you experience no more trouble in the future!)

Why DON'T We Need a Moon Base?

2006-12-11T13:39:00.000-08:00

(OR A response to a highly opinioned, but apparently poorly researched OP ED piece I happened upon in Slate.)

I'm going to start this piece by jumping down to the bottom of the column and discussing the "legitimate research" that NASA should be doing, instead of planning to establish a moon base in the next 20 years. Because, you know, many people could spend entire lifetimes cataloguing large space objects, and not even make a dent. So here in order, are the priorities NASA should have, if it wants to enjoy the paradoxical progress possible in today's modern world.

1. Exhaustive studies of Venus, Mars, the Sun.
While this is a nice thought, an "exhaustive" studies of these three major solar bodies is almost certainly less feasible than setting up a base on the moon. Sure, probes are only a few million each, but fully automated probes designed specifically to "exhaustively" learn everything about each body? Well, let's just say I don't think we've got a great handle on networking at this point, let alone AI...
2. Track all large space objects that may be on a collision course with the Earth.
Statistically speaking, this is the least valid of your little goals. A fairly large object JUST smashed into Russia. Also, there are billions upon billions of space objects out there. Doing a comprehensive database at this point seems a little silly, considering we don't really have the processing power to go back and search something like that just yet.
3. Continue with the telescopes!
Not so much an argument as staring blankly, wondering why you think this can't be accomplished DURING other research projects.
4. Breakthrough in propulsion technologies
Yeah, I can't imagine how building a permanent base on the moon, requiring frequent journeys back and forth between Moon and fossil-starved Earth, could impact the rate of research here at all.

Because if you're not going to the moon with it, propulsion technology research is totally cheap to fund a no-brainer.

Right??

Another small point. Taking off from the moon on a rocket DOES require an "enormous" amount of fuel. However compared to the amount of fuel it takes to reach terminal velocity on Earth, it is relatively small. Keep in mind that the total weight of the Lunar Excursion Module was only a small fraction of the total weight of the entire craft taking off from earth--including the fuel it contained! THE MIND BOGGLES.

Undoubtedly, establishing a moon base will cost a great deal of money. We will need additional technologies if a permanent base is to thrive--but these technologies are EXACTLY what the US needs if it is to stave off the impending economic disaster. It seems incredibly naive and shortsighted to balk at huge research initiatives (and putting up 1/300,000,000th of the price) and at the same time assert that several equally huge/impossible projects should take "priority" because they are perceived to be more fiscally responsible. What could be more fiscally responsible than ENSURING someone figures out how to recycle human wastes 100%. Or ENSURING that our crews find a way to produce all needed vitamins and calories out of a modicum of water, transplanted mass, and whatever we may find by drilling into our harsh mistress--excuse the sci fi pun.

Because seriously, who else is going to figure out an alternate means of fueling large vehicles? GM?

An Open Letter to the Writers of "Dexter"

2006-10-31T10:31:00.000-08:00

First of all, I think the show is overall pretty well-written, and none of the main characters are that hateable. And the premise of the show is somewhat clever. Credit where credit is due, and all.

But, you seem to have made a rather ridiculous assumption that is tainting the watching experience significantly. For whatever reason, you seem to think the average watcher will not understand that the show is about a serial killer who catches serial killers. You seem to have assumed (at the expense of assing both yourselves and your viewers) that the average person will not have already gleaned, from the ads and the slogan and the first five minutes, that this is "not your average crime drama".

We get it, Dexter kills people! It is beyond retarded to have the character continually reflecting on this fact. Large portions of the plot are devoted to this very act! Most people can put two and two together, when they see someone arranging and committing a murder. They will realize, that he is a murderer.

I'm sure you're trying to be "pulpy" but you're doing a disservice to your craft AND your audience.

Bad Science, or Who Funds this Shitrag?

2006-10-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

I'm a fan of bad science in several permutations. I'm also a fan of pop science, including all sorts of fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction, experimental fiction, and pop science novelists like Michio Kaku and Brian Greene.

So why do I hate Seed Magazine? Let me count the ways.
#1) "Climate Changing Sci Fi: How Global Warming is turning a genre once filled with pipe dreams into a pipeline of ideas."

Nice try, but check out these incredibly early innovations (this is just a small sample, more available at Technovelgy):
* * * * * * * * *

How about just about everything in this famous Heinlein work? Did you know that Arthur C. Clarke invented the communications satelite?

This is all just leading up to point #2: Do you actually research these stories, or just pull topics directly from news at nature dot com? I'm looking at you, Seed Magazine.

Science IS culture. A wise man once said, What we Need More of Is Science. I truly beleive this from the height of my cranium to the depths of my bowels. And yet I feel that with reporting comes responsibility--vaguely sensationalist articles about "science" hardly add to the value of public discourse.

SquirrelMail

2006-10-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

Squirrelmail, you really are for nuts. It's completely crazy to just use the unix case-sensitivity as the only way to determine which domain one desires to log in to. THANKS POWWEB/SQUIRRELMAIL

A Million Reese's Pieces

2006-10-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

The Thinkingman's Webcomic Roundup

2006-10-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

QWANTZ. While I love anything with elements of absurdism and syntax, it is clear from reading Qwantz comix that the writer has neither friends nor a sense of humor--which diminishes the amusement I might otherwise feel.

TOOTHPASTEFORDINNER. I'd like to congratulate Drew on all the Hot Sex he must be getting lately; the comics lately are ballsy, lusty, sensual, sexy, sultry (thanks, Michael!). The introduction of the bong element to longstanding themes such as "office threeliners" and "Bands: They Make You Suck" really spices it up a notch. Which brings me to...

MARRIED TO THE SEA. I can't help notice that "Married to the Sea" rhymes with Natalie Dee. Coincidence? Well, if alliteration and baby ass are funny, I kind of doubt it! And this is why Married to the Sea is great. The power of Natalie Dee and Drew combine into one insidejoke fest, centered around bizarre "olde style" art and morality.

ACHEWOOD. Achewood is the only comic I read every day--every day that Chris feels like giving me a new comic. How many Wednesdays have I wasted mourning for the little red "Strip returns thursday"? How will the Magreaux dog/Doppelganger arc end? I will let you know in approximately 12 business days.

WIGU. Wigu (Rowling), I stopped reading you in 2003. Coincidence? I think not.

EXPLODING DOG. Exploding Dog has really stepped it up in recent times. Not only are there several (full color) illustrations every day, he manages somehow, to keep his simple and minimalistic style new and quirky in every strip. There is also a "Drawing by Mail" thing going on now, and this is the exact kind of gimmick a person wants in their webcomic.

QUESTIONABLE CONTENT. It looks like QC has finally arced back to making fun of "indie" "nerds" in band tshirts. I can't wait until it goes back to making fun of "indie" "nerds" in popped collar polos and converse! And that little mac robot, Ho Ho! Rich hipsters really do love shitty music and iTunes boxes!! KEEP PREACHING THE TRUTH JACQUES! Oh and the fat girl is insecure about her size but addicted to food! Ho Ho HILARITY! She even works in food service! This is the type of humor that just keeps being funny, strip after strip after strip, for years and years, and plus the consistency is just great. I could read a strip from the beginning and the current one, and the only difference between the punchline would be that none of the characters have the same face now. I like knowing I can go back in time to 2004 for that same Mercury Rev joke I made in 1998.

XKCD. Sudo make me a sandwich. 'Nuff said. Though I do have slight problems when he gets into physics and seems to imply that people who like physics are highly unrealistic about free will.

S.3930.

2006-09-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

Why is this number so absent from all the reports of the death of civil liberties?

CALL CONGRESS BY ENTERING YOUR ZIP HERE.

SEE HOW YOUR REP VOTED HERE.

SOON TO COME: FORM LETTERS FOR ALL YOUR POLITICAL DISSIDENT NEEDS.

Thanks metafilter for the appropriate convention.

2006-09-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

Tales from the Front Line

2006-09-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

Recounts of battle scenes are always gruesome and perhaps a society that recounts this sort of thing is morbid, or backwards, but certain cultures, certain modes of socialization, necessitate the retelling.

American Society today necessitates war stories.

Today I witnessed an act normally only to be found dwelling deep within the underworldly tangle of Soap Opera (or Reality Television) plots. Armed only with my pink package slips, I approached the Business/Passport window warily. And lo, the man in front of me lurches at another just returned from the window!

"You spit in my face!" one accuses, with another hearty shove. I step back and look around, bewildered. Somehow those in line are just nodding their heads in agreement, as if to say, "Yes, I saw that man spit in this man's face!"

And it ended as soon as it had erupted, a Business Reply regular stepping into the fray and quelling the combustible elements.

The attacker (or counter-attacker perhaps) returns to line!

It's true; if you are already going to the Post you may as well get what you needed.

"Don't Trash it: Harass Faceless Corporations!"

2006-09-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

Lifehacker: A little tip from me to you, on saving time on the internets. If you need to tell someone how to be trashy, they do not need to be trashy that badly. You are doing a disservice to yourself and your ilk. How likely is it that an organization with the power to just replace whatever product you are dissatisfied with doesn't keep track of how much energy you devote to their customer service representatives?

Dubious that major chains already track your spending, saving, complaining, each promo you take advantage of? Take it as you will, but it's pretty clear there is a limit to this kind of ridiculous behavior.

Stop Blaming Symptons As Causes!!

2006-08-28T20:17:00.000-07:00

Manic disorder is not (NOT, NOT!!) caused by any drug. It is not caused by marijuana. It is a mental disorder.

People suffering from a manic episode are very, very prone to using medications to control them. Manic people are self aware. They know when they are tweaking out. As a result they are not prone to upper abuse, but rather, DOWNER AND NARCOTIC ABUSE. Shit people, think this out.

Beware! America on Alert!

2006-08-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

Do not use the phrase "conversation session".

This PSA brought to you by PhraseWatch: We Watch Your Phrases.

The Only Thing Sadder than Elders Being Young At Heart

2006-08-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

...is when 20-somethings need to throw an irreverent party dedicated to Eros, themselves, and Lovin' Life. Seriously, if you are so care-free, why did you hire people on stilts with streamers? Why did you need to "free" the rave? Why couldn't you just have enjoyed the wonderful life you've already got rolling for yourself, instead of needing to throw some party to rub this carefreeness in everyone's face? What's so freaking great about a half an hour train ride with a bunch of people you don't know, a bunch of people who you can't relate to outside of the fact that they fear their imminent decline more than they fear public ridicule, muppets, glow necklaces, body glitter in 90 degree weather, or shame?

One Night Fire.

Huge Room Available--With a Twist!

2006-07-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

$550 - Huge room available - with a twist!
Reply to: hous-186020008@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-07-25, 9:58AM EDT

Hello potential roommates!

I come to you today with an offer you might not be able to refuse. Due to my current roommate's imminent departure, I have available a large furnished room on the first floor of a three-story walk-up in the heart of the East Village (4th Street and Second Avenue). There are two bedrooms in the place, and yours would be the largest.

I don't need to tell you that this is near all the cool spots, including restaurants, bars, cafes, theatres, concert halls, etc. However, the room itself is private, at the end of a long hallways, and very quiet. The dimensions are 15x17, and it has two windows which look onto our interior courtyard. Bed, wardrobe, desk, and air conditioning come with the room. $550 includes all utilities.

You may be wondering why the price is so low. Well, here's the twist: I am a 25 year old male with a slight social problem which, to some, makes me an undesirable roommate.

I'll get right to the point: I have a compulsion to put ice cubes down people's shirts. As my roommate, you will likely bear the brunt of this problem.

Don't ask me to explain why I do this. It's a serious psychological issue, and years of therapy haven't helped.

Let me emphasize: it will not go ANY FURTHER than the ice cubes. I am not abusive or perverted in any way, and I will never make lewd comments or touch you inappropriately. I also do not drop heavier or steaming hot objects down people's shirts. Only ice cubes.

What this means for you: when you are sitting on the couch, or at the dinner table, or basically anywhere in the apartment, I may come up to you and drop an ice cube down your shirt.

I always have ice cubes on hand. DO NOT thnk you can simply get ride of all ice trays in the apartment. Trust me, I have tried this, as have various roommates. It doesn't work, I will only buy more.

I prefer someone who does not like to have friends over, unless they understand my problem. They are prone to having ice cubes put down their shirt.

Your bedroom door has a sturdy lock, so you will always be secure while sleeping. Ditto for the bathroom. I may turn the doorknob on rare instances, but a stern word is usually enough to send me on my way.

On infrequent occasions, I have been known to follow someone onto the street to put an ice cube down their shirt. Once, I showed up at a roommate's place of business. However, this was a wake-up call, and I can assure you it's something I may not repeat.

Okay, I think that covers it. As you see, this is a great room in a terrific location, for a very, very low price. Quite simply, you won't find a deal like it anywhere in the city. However, my roommate will have to be tolerant. It takes great patience, and others have failed. It may seem like a minor problem, but eventually all the ice can become very annoying.

Otherwise, I am a caring, conscientious person. I work in finance, and enjoy mountain biking on the weekends.

So send me e-mail me if you're interested! Please address the ice cube problem and how you plan to deal with it. I need to be sufficiently impressed, because I don't want to find another roommate after one month. Ignoring the problem only makes it worse. Also include some of your favorite hobbies.

My current roommate is leaving to move in with her boyfriend, but before that, we had a successful relationship for one year. She even said the ice was something of a relief in the summer months, which can become very hot.

Females are preferred, but guys, don't let that deter you! Move-in would be anytime between now and September 1. I'm flexible.

Thanks for listening!

The Cheese Stands Alone?

2006-07-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

Who thinks supporting Israel is a good idea?

Why Are Americans so Angry, Indeed.

2006-07-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

This speech by House Rep Ron Paul is quite a doozie, asking why the American public at this moment in time is so pissed off, considering all the times we weren't in the past. While I can't tell whether or not I agree with what Ron Paul is suggesting (I think, show King George to the Declaration!), it is certainly informative and worth the read. I'm going to supplement a few points with some links, for the pleasure of the viewing public.

"Generally, anger and frustration among people are related to economic conditions; bread and butter issues."

Ding ding! So, considering the state of social security (a program people already pay into), the rising costs of health care and rising unhealth of the public, and housing, why are Americans so angry?

"Yet today, according to government statistics, things are going well."

That does seem fishy, Ken. If jobs for young Americans are so great, and paying off your college debt isn't, say, threatening to make retirement impossible at any age, and families aren't struggling to survive without admitting bankruptcy, what could the issue be?

"Even the poor have cell phones, televisions, and computers."

Compare this to the last century, when the poor only enjoyed such 19th centurian inventions as the can opener, and canned goods.

"Public school is free."

And doing a damn good job of making sure kids can think with more than just their Bibles.

Really people, it boils down to fear. Fear, and constant misdirection by media, which is preventing the Declaration from being put to King George.

RIP Syd Barrett

2006-07-11T09:21:00.001-07:00

We hardly knew ye.

Oh where are you now
pussy willow that smiled on this leaf?
When I was alone you promised the stone from your heart
my head kissed the ground
I was half the way down, treading the sand
please, please, lift a hand
I'm only a person whose arm bands beats
on his hands, hang tall
won't you miss me?
Wouldn't you miss me at all?

The poppy birds way
swing twigs coffee brands around,
brandish her wand with a feathery tongue
my head kissed the ground
I was half the way down, treading the sand
please, please, please lift the hand
I'm only a person with Eskimo chain
I tattooed my brain all the way...
Won't you miss me?
Wouldn't you miss me at all?

Thanks, BBC.

Plagiarism: God's Little Crediblizer

2006-07-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

By now we are all familiar with the treachery committed by various high-levels in the British Government through the leak of the Downing St. Memo. But did you know that T. Blair had actually plagiarized a decade-old student thesis in his "dodgy dossier" outlining the *reasons* requiring illegal actions to provoke a war. Seriously, he couldn't make up his own reasons here?

The New York Post reports today on another infamous plagiarizer: Ann Coulter. And all these years I just thought her to be unscrupulous, and full of shit. Apparently she actively sought out and misapplied facts and opinions not even her own just to incite Christian hate of Liberalness. Come on Ann. Did you really need the help?

Apple Caters to New, Sinking Low

2006-04-16T07:27:00.000-07:00

Recently Apple computers made a little girl cry in order to hold a press conference about how to better improve customer experience.

I'm touched.

A "Majestic-12" Index? Eat that, Google

2006-03-23T07:38:00.000-08:00

Russinan programmer Alex Chudnovsky, most likely inspired by H. Truman's hand-picked protectors of the classified truth, decided that something more noble than mere science should be done with distributed computing--and what could be more noble than giving the power of indexing back to the people? Guardian reports on his efforts to create an index (eventually to be openly available) based on the shared efforts of unused cycles.

I can't wait for Majestic-API!

Actually Newsworthy: New Faster, Greener HD's Nearing Market

2006-03-21T14:58:00.000-08:00

Finally, something that resembles actual tech news instead of statements of the obvious pawned off as so many "feedable" nuggets: Samsung has released a32-gig NAND-based flash drive, suitable for replacing the low-tech hard drives powering the computers of the past.

Supposedly consuming only 5% of the power required for traditional drives, SDD's will also read 3x faster and write 1.5x faster. And here I was assuming I'd have to wait for optical drives to be impressed by vague rumor-quality internet specs!

Everyone finally catching on: Podcasting here to stay.

2006-03-16T17:32:00.000-08:00

I knew podcasting was truly "the next great thing" quite distinctly on two occasions: One, when a techie friend reccomended the podcast of some 13-year old, and Two, when Scoble and Dave Winer told me so today.

Scoble's post seems to be broken at the moment, so I took screenshots and will get them online ASAP.

You know, Dave, I agree with Scoble too. XML is neat.

Origami "H"

2006-03-07T08:44:00.000-08:00

Mac OSX can be Hacked?!!

2006-03-07T07:58:00.000-08:00

Mac's have unpublished and largely unexplored security problems? And here I was thinking there were no mac exploits due to magic. ZDNet reports that the winner of a "Hack my Mac" contest gained control to the Mac Mini server in question in "20-30 minutes".

Cult of Mac must be really feeling this one--not too many people call their securities problems "easy pickings" and "uninteresting" in the same breath. Thanks, Gwerdna.

MAXTHON: This IE Killer is Thon to the Max!

2006-02-28T17:43:00.000-08:00

Maxthon (whatta name!) is a neat new browser that is obviously aimed to takeover the IE market. In addition to being somewhat prettier than other alternative browsers, it has buttons familiar to IE folks for things like Windows Media Player, "home", etc.. It also has nice "2.0" stuff like rss notifcation popups when a site you navigate to has a feed available.

Here is a peek at how the different tabs split the screen!

I haven't completely explored but it seems to lack a few functions I really like, like a macro for view source and copy image location. Still looks promising.

Late-night Update of Events

2006-02-26T00:05:00.000-08:00

Google is fronting. Paypal better step up.

Lots of people excited over origami. Yadda yadda microsoft magical take-on-Apple-mashup-mobile. I am not searching for any links for you (as you have seen it all).

The feds told Google to go screw (and provide that little bit of info they requested). Google will probably respond by cornering large areas of the cable market.

RSS is still a hot topic; people are inconvenienced at American airports; Cheney was given written permission to do .. something illegal.

Attention engine and world-changing literature coming soon to an internet near you. Get it while it lasts, kiddies.

RE: Why It's All About Me

2006-02-21T10:33:00.000-08:00

The New York Times has what could be called an article but will be called an op ed on the growing problems of students acting as if college is a business rather than some mystical life-passage experience. Responding to the problem of students using email as an easier way to approach professors, the times comments that "while once professors may have expected deference, their expertise seems to have become just another service that students, as consumers, are buying."

Strangely enough, the article fails to explore this college-as-business model, and lacks statistics on the hours per week a student should expect based on their tuition per week. As a current college student, I decided to do the math.

Weekly $$: 966
Weekly class hours: 12.5 (including time with assistants)
Hours per prof: 2.5
Pay rate (per hour): $96.66

Considering my smallest class has over 30 students (and the largest perhaps 200--I'm a humanities student, mind you), the knowledge of my professors had better be damn deep.

While I am certainly touched by the difficulty professors cited in the op ed seem to have prioritizing their communications with students, I feel it is a gross misrepresentation of what going to college has come to mean to imply that a professor is not someone being paid more or less directly by the students. The doctoral glut which has been steadily rising in this country since the late 60's should (and has if you are willing to look at facts as proof of trends) indicate that perhaps the reason college rates are so high is that a post-high school education is a kind of commodity being allowed by the number of students willing to pay out the ass for a college degree.

Professor Dede states that the previous system, characterized by deference to Professors, "was probably driven more by the notion that professors were infallible sources of deep knowledge." Uncertain how to respond to student emails (which make professors feel "responsible", as if to "be on call all the time"), perhaps these professors need to rethink their own assessment of email as a cultural and communication tool.

Then it won't be as obvious that "professors' expertise could rapidly become outdated." And the old, respectable system of deferrment can be put back into place.

MPAA Pushes for Personal Visual Licensing

2006-02-14T14:37:00.000-08:00

BBC reports yesterday that any consumer of live mobile television shall be fined (irregardless of whether said media was legally purchased or not) without the possession on part of the viewer of a Television Viewing License. Picking up steam from such American, MPAA-inspired "Sensory Goods" licensing, the TV Licensing (is this an actual company name or is this some BBC-gang, this yank wonders) group has apparently "already caught people watching TV on computers."

In other news, a black grandmother living in the illustrious ghettos of East New York was called on today to bridge the profit gap in the hilarious Silver Screen flop, "The Longest Yard." Released on Memorial Day Weekend alongside films such as "Daddy Day Care" and "Monster in Law" the film surprisingly grossed very little, but publicists at the MPAA say that with a slight increase in lawsuit turnover, it could turn out to be a financier's cream dream.

Americans in Jail

2006-02-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

Did you know over 2 million Americans are in jail?

That is 34% more prisoners than China has prisoners in jail, although China has 241% more people overall.

"Irony" Is Not Analogous to "Appropriateness"

2006-02-06T17:03:00.000-08:00

While irony is certainly a hot topic in today's postmodern landscape, there is nothing ironic about the incorrect use of a fairly simple literary conceit. For some reason, AP calls the incorporation of Google Ads into the personal web site of the first author to participate in Harper Collins' new online publication system "ironic".

Being furious enough to torch but not destroy, the most powerful nations also having the most firepower, and the religious right accomplishing what they set out to do about women's abortion rights all count as ironic if you ask today's media.

I've got your irony right here.

Google Censors in China, MS Opens Up Source?

2006-01-25T08:42:00.000-08:00

AP reports that Microsoft, bowing to EU pressure, plans to open up its source code in the coming weeks. The EU initially levied a fine and demanded that MS open up its source, and offer an unbundled version of its operating system not including Windows Media Player.

In other news, Google agrees to censor search results in China, and has reportedly blacklisted such topics as "Falun Gong" and "human rights". Apparently Google has decided that censoring meets their "don't be evil" (Google's famed corporate motto) standards, joining up with Microsoft.

I thought Google loved open source, and Microsoft loved selling out to infringe on free speech? One thing corporations can apparently agree on is that when money calls, it's wise to pay heed, no matter how sardonic the tone.

Google Vs. BabyBells (and Y! for Good Measure)

2006-01-24T19:01:00.000-08:00

Tonight Y! offered me "lightning fast magic-bullet downloads":

Though I've felt the Cyberextortion issue between Bell South and Google mostly spoke for itself, I couldn't resist the urge to share this visually-appealing little bid for my opinion.

"Disruptful" Protestors to be Banned Under Patriot Act

2006-01-23T15:13:00.000-08:00

In a little noticed provision of the latest installment of the Patriot Act, Bush gives Secret Service agents the ability to jail anyone behaving in a perceived "disruptive" fashion. In addition to the obvious pro-abortion, feministic, or anti-war actions that cause disruption, those appearing to contain "disruptive potentiality" can also be jailed.

Think criticizing the War in Iraq, or the Bush Administration's energy policy, is protected somewhere in the Constitution? Think again. These actions have clearly been ruled by our leaders as disruptive to the point of being considered civilian terrorism. The government has carte blanche to use its powers of surveillance to compile lists of "potential disruptors," who can then be jailed for showing up at political events or coming too close to SS.

U.S. Dept of Justice to Join Search Startup Fray

2006-01-21T09:23:00.000-08:00

Are Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL all so blinded by the Child Pornography Question that they are forgetting about the ultimate importance of proprietary-formatting the competition into oblivion? Handing over the hard-crawled index of urls, along with the search-term data which will undoubtedly lead some to believe that children are viewing 50% pornography when using search engines, is tantamount to "disclos[ing] trade secrets and was [described by Google Lawyer Ashok Ramani as]"overbroad, unduly burdensome, vague and intended to harass." (News.com FAQ on the "Google Subpeona")

I'm a bit surprised that tech companies are just bowing down to blatant requests for information that is worse than useless unless one intends to start some kind of search engine, and even more surprised that the Government is pretending they want to glean information about how effective filtering is as far as children viewing porn. As Gonzales states in the TimesOnline article, the subpeona does not request "any additional information that would identify the person who entered the search". So why is such a thinly-veiled lie fooling AOL et al? Or is Google missing out on the Federally-created super-Aggregator of the Future?

Perpetual War, Forced Nationalism, and Constant Surveillance

2006-01-16T17:07:00.000-08:00

While reading an old favorite, 1984 tonight, I decided to check out the latest tech news&distractions ala netvibes and stumbled upon a Drudge report speech by none other than Al Gore. I noticed a few interesting tidbits:

"We are told by the Administration that the war footing upon which he has tried to place the country is going to 'last for the rest of our lives.'"

The "the theory of the unitary executive" which stipulates that "the President's authority when acting as Commander-in-Chief or when making foreign policy cannot be reviewed by the judiciary or checked by Congress. President Bush has pushed the implications of this idea to its maximum by continually stressing his role as Commander-in-Chief, invoking it has frequently as he can, conflating it with his other roles, domestic and foreign."

("When added to the idea that we have entered a perpetual state of war, the implications of this theory stretch quite literally as far into the future as we can imagine.")

AND THEN GORE GOES TOO FAR:
1. He quotes Orwell: "We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield."
2. He calls the VP on a false statement: "Last week, for example, Vice President Cheney attempted to defend the Administration's eavesdropping on American citizens by saying that if it had conducted this program prior to 9/11, they would have found out the names of some of the hijackers... Tragically, he apparently still doesn't know that the Administration did in fact have the names of at least 2 of the hijackers well before 9/11 and had available to them information that could have easily led to the identification of most of the other hijackers."
3. He points out how the US government partially allowed for 9/11 to take place: "Because of incompetence in the handling of this information, it was never used to protect the American people."
4. Shortsightedness involved in the Medicare failure: "Many in the House and Senate raised concerns about the cost and design of the program. But, rather than engaging in open debate on the basis of factual data, the Administration withheld facts and prevented the Congress from hearing testimony that it sought from the principal administration expert who had compiled information showing in advance of the vote that indeed the true cost estimates were far higher than the numbers given to Congress by the President. Deprived of that information, and believing the false numbers given to it instead, the Congress approved the program. Tragically, the entire initiative is now collapsing."
5. Mentions the word fascism (dude's a politician! holy crap!): "Is America in more danger now than when we faced worldwide fascism on the march-when our fathers fought and won two World Wars simultaneously?"
6. Triumphant finish: "I mentioned that along with cause for concern, there is reason for hope. As I stand here today, I am filled with optimism that America is on the eve of a golden age in which the vitality of our democracy will be re-established and will flourish more vibrantly than ever. Indeed I can feel it in this hall."

That's the feeling of a heartbeat, unencumbered by the assassin's bullet.

President Orders Insurance Company to Fill Gaps in Bad Medicare Plan

2006-01-16T11:34:00.000-08:00

The shameless leftwing Times reports today on possible errors in the handling of the new Medicare drug plan, going so far as to participate in possible 'scaremongering': "The handling of the drug benefit threatens to become a political liability for Republicans, as older voters and people with disabilities complain that they have been denied essential medications."

Alienating the voter base could be an unwise political move? Bush really seems to be trying to pull the strings of this one together, and any negative judgement seems very premature. Very, very premature.

Liberal Media Outs "Virus-like" Quality of Networking

2006-01-15T13:39:00.000-08:00

Washington Post reports today on an unsafe feature of Windows wireless networking defaults, potentially allowing any outsider with an open internet connection to exchange data packets with your own personal computer.

If users do not choose to follow the annoying popups warning about anti-virus and firewall protection, Windows will automatically seek out "any available wireless connections." Mark Loveless, guest hacker, invited Post blogger Krebs to his hotel room to expose the flaw. They both set up open wireless connections and search for each other's connection name, and voila! begin exchanging data packets.

Krebs goes on to detail how Microsoft gets around this ".....er, feature": enabling your firewall, disabling automatic connection detection, and switching your automatic setting from any connection to infrastructure networks might all seem like viable options, but can people really be expected to follow pop-up warnings, turn off connections they are no longer using, or set a password for their home or office wireless network?

MS is reportedly planning to fix this potential error by automatically disabling all internet access in the next Service Pack update.

Fuzzy Math and the "Liberal Media"

2006-01-13T09:40:00.001-08:00

Businessweek chimes in today on the rising problem of censorship in dictatorships, and specifically China. How does such an advanced society manage to survey so much "private" information?

Well, for starters, they employ nearly twice as many people as the "estimated" CIA employ just to spy on its citizens. In addition to this, China has nearly five times the population of the US. Ben Elgin warns "What few Westerners know is the size and scope of China's censorship machine and the process by which multinationals, however reluctantly, censor themselves. Few also know that China's censors have kept up with changing technologies, from cell phone text messaging to blogs."

There is a growing governmental concern in the US that American rights are being threatened by China's free speech policies. However, increasing initiatives in the House, and the rise of technologies such as podcasting and video blogging, will eventually catch up to the would-be Chinese censors.

Irony of Censorship in Global Politics

2006-01-13T04:47:00.000-08:00

In what could be the zaniest twist in the China-MSN Spaces debacle, Rep Christopher Smith (NJ) is calling for a meeting of House Committee on Human rights this February to discuss which dictatorships, on a global scale, can be determined to be the most lawful and just.

In addition to inviting watchdog group Reporters Without Borders, the HR Committee is requesting advice from U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a 12-person panel selected by Congress. Rep. Smith and others seem hopeful that with proper communication between Congress, the House of Representatives, and various Senators and Representatives, as well as staff Republicans, an agreement equally fair to all will be made.

The US has traditionally played the role of "international watchdog," bringing to the forefront of the media attention to potential terrorist threats that has been invaluable in the War Against Terror. As such, Congressional representatives views such threats at M$ censoring bloggers in another country as a serious offense. From the annual USCESRC's annual report: "While these interactions between U.S. corporations and China's government may be legitimate commercial decisions, in sum they had the effect of helping to build and legitimize the government's media censorship efforts."

Rep. Smith makes yet another germane point about the HR travesty that could be occurring in countries which are not the US: "He recently traveled to Vietnam, where he had an emotional meeting with the family of a man serving a 13-year prison sentence. His crime? Translating an American document about democracy that he had downloaded from the Web." In the US, a comparable intellectual crime brings only 4 years of justice. Something must be done.

OPML Editor Thoughts, fileHandler Musings

2006-01-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

When you make an app that lives in userland and in coderland, maybe no one will want to use it. Hat tip to Steve for that conversational gem.

I picked up Dave Winer's OPML Editor over the weekend, and excuse the pun, but I am literally drowning in a River of poorly-aggregated News about how to use this thing. I'm sure if someone else made a tiny effort, the editor itself could be made to tie together all the idiosyncracies in one place. Specifically the nav is unwieldy, why are text options under "Edit" and why are various 'editing' functions in other places (most notably "Community", which has this misanthrope seriously scratching her head--am i supposed to be social-bookmarking through this?)

This is not to say that I am giving up or even feel that many a lesser man would do so; I am merely pointing out a problem inherent in making a computer program that does what it does too well. When you are dealing with grid streaming or sorting lots of data, there is just no interface stopgap you can insert in between the highly conceptual and actual boxes a user can click.

"People obviously want to think their cars can nail each other. That is a given. How well the business community adresses those needs is up to you and me." Exciting times.

Don't Blow your Beta, Google

2006-01-10T06:01:00.000-08:00

I've read a lot about Google Video but initially saw nothing interesting in what was a pretty obvious move to commercialization of an added search option (I was justifiably more excited about Google Pack). Apparently Google has learned nothing so far from its time as a very established web presence, flying in the face of their capricious users by dropping a lead sinker into the stomach, like so many Holiday Fruitcakes of yore. And Michael Arrington just got done convincing us not to blow our betas.

Seemingly there has been a wave of large corporations publically humbling themselves (think Sony) so this could certainly be a long-term marketing strategy.

"It's as if you've been controlling me your whole life"

2006-01-07T15:02:00.000-08:00

"It's almost as if you control me completely"
"I'm ok, just ... human."

I have a confession to make, blog friends. My favorite movie is The Coneheads. In many a state of mind I can find other movies which are equally enjoyable (the 5th Element or Yor: Hunter of the Future come to mind) but for some reason (maybe childhood has something to do with it) this film is particularly germane.

The Next Big Thing: Bundled Downloads?

2006-01-05T13:06:00.000-08:00

Amid almost rabid speculation this week, Google had announced for them by "people familiar with the matter" the upgrade of Google Video to include film and tv downloads (for a fee) and the introduction of Google Pack. Offering paid content in their video service is an obvious move (who doesn't believe video to be the "big thing" of 2006?) but can only be successful depending on what content providers jump on board (do cable companies and the like have any impetus to give Google rights to distribute video, given changes like On Demand?).

Google Pack, on the other hand, seems a little lackluster. Picasa is a pretty good (and very intuitive) bit of photo editing software, but is photo editing, antivirus, Firefox, and Google Maps a) a legitimate software bundle or b) a comparable rival to MS? Sure, downloading seven desktop apps individually is a bit harder than downloading seven all at once, but Google's applications are so diverse and appeal to such drastically different groups that I wonder if bundling will ultimately be a wise move. Of course, this entire post should have been postponed until Google's announcements at CES tomorrow .. but what's the fun in speculation if you already know what's going down?

Ann Coulter is a Dirty Tramp! (Eugh!)

2006-01-03T16:53:00.000-08:00

Ann Coulter lives up to her nameskae as the degenerate slut of the right-wing, humming Carl Rove all the way to the bank, in her latest and greatest, "who Fucking Cares, I'm Ann Coulter???"

"I wouldn't love to have sex with her normally, but I'd love, LOVE, LOOOOVE, to have dirty degrading sex with Ann Coulter. Jeeeeez"

"That is the Kind of Girl you Donkey-punch. Eugh!"

PS Since when is this easy broad a jew??? Someone should have notified my Rabbi!!!

Government Finds Illegal Spying Program "Vital, Legal"

2006-01-01T15:20:00.000-08:00

Enraged by the latest threat to national security, Bush firmly stressed the importance of a domestic spying-agenda, AP via Yahoo reports. Bush defended his choice to tap calls "calls going to and originating from the U.S." without due process by underlying the strategerie involved in this type of espionage: "I think most Americans understand the need to find out what the enemy's thinking." Public response to the leak has been less than sympathetic to Bush, who stressed later in his talks with media that "there's an enemy out there." and "They attacked us before, they'll attack us again."

Bush's supporters in the Senate are calling for private Intelligence Committee hearings to determine whether what goes on in secret in the Executive Branch is legal.

Government Finds Bittorrent Useful and Illegal

2005-12-28T18:23:00.000-08:00

Another not-so-surprising tale of useful technology (so hotly debated in our American Courts of Justice) being made difficult for the average joe to access (while retaining his rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness) while those on top reap the benefits.

I've always been a fan of bittorrent because basically, it seems to work. The key seems to be finding a method that doesn't infringe on the rights of the media conglomerates while still allowing networking to function as a network. Filehandler may be on to something ;]

Incompatible Formats Are Exclusive by Nature?

2005-12-28T17:36:00.000-08:00

LXer reports on the fact that MS' XML format, ignoring many guidelines that have been established in the open source community, seems to be some kind of ploy to get people to use MS software. How, exactly, could a software company push products that merely feign interoperability? From Is Microsoft's XML Format About Openness or Control?: MS's XML format is described as "a partial implementation of XML standards that outright ignores SVG and XForms support in favor of their own proprietary technologies."

I am left with only one question. What's so bad about activeX?

GoogleBuy: All your google-acquisition viewing aggregate needs.

2005-12-26T21:51:00.000-08:00

SEO by the SEA posts today on Google's many acquisitions through the years, retrospectively explaining the trends in Google's commercial Search development. While many search and data-mining buys seem obvious to the continued success of Google, a few goodies leave more to the imagination:

Picasa: While this neat little desktop app has been clearly visible on Google's homepage for quite some time, Google has done surprisingly little to pimp Picasa or it's picture-messaging client Hello. The combination of organization/editing software and simple photo chat client could be much more powerful with the inclusion of some kind of live people and photo search..

Ignite: Considering the OSS Summers (or whatever the "We hire naive kids to make the world a better place" campaign was called) and all the specific search-type patents, a legal group should hardly be a surprising choice (especially one that seems to be more into making websites than making cases)..

Zipdash/Dodgeball: When your powers combine, Google is amazingly adept at tracking anyone with a PDA or cellphone! GOOGLEPLANET.

Man Versus Machine, Part IV: Reflection, the Final Showdown

2005-12-21T09:48:00.000-08:00

Mirrors and pseudo-mirrors, that bird-killing anomaly known more commonly as a clean glass window, have tripped up humans for generations. A wiley foe, the mirror requires both a keen understanding of science and the ability for a cognitive being to accept itself as existing outside of its own mind, but nary a soul suspected this common looking-device to represent the final fault line between beast and machine.

What else can I say, people. We need to embrace science before science embraces us, gently but firmly, with its magnificent lambent snuff-pillow.

Perl coders &their Shameful Wits

2005-12-20T07:18:00.000-08:00

From CPAN: "Perl packages for, say, Linux PDAs or SONY Playstation, or XBox, or toasters, or so forth running Linux are not "ports" as such."

From use Perl;: "contributor xdg -- known in what is alleged to be real life as David A Golden..."

Some people clearly do not watch enough television.

New Paradigms of Corporo-Architecturo-Nihilistic Abandon

2005-12-15T11:09:00.000-08:00

In a perfect world, sentient beings sense the inherent separation of form (matters of asthetics, for example) from function (the very means of conveyal of this mysterious form) sometimes to the point of interpreting the ever-dynamic relationship between the two. This is art, people--this is how we live. We artists, we livers of life.

Trusting the most reduced classifications of someone else in regards to that other's own intellectual creation flies in the face of any use of reading something created by another. The point of sharing information is not to file it away in memory as the writer intended, but to judge the information contextually and come to your own personal conclusion about its most basic reduction. Even if the former were even possible (many, many modern theorists argue that human experience is so individual as to make shared internal lexicons laughable, but this point is really neither here nor there) there is a very clear advantage in the pooling of information from slightly different perspectives.

For this reason (there are other more technical reasons why I am opposed to popular 'metadata' trends which will be saved for another time) I am perhaps shocked by the xml craziness that is Structured Blogging. This is not really news, of course, as earlier efforts such as Hug n'Kiss or even the w3c's Semantic Web can be held largely responsible. And the fact that this announcement seems to be causing more confusion (Are these two people arguing?) than action really shouldn't be news either. I'm not going to be the bigger man here (is flying in the face of standards ever really being the bigger man? hmm?) and try to outline why all of this is just so wacky. I'll get back to you when I'm done categorizing bits of my content. Bam!

"Asking the Internet" and Other Euphemisms for "Googling"

2005-12-08T11:50:00.000-08:00

While the ever-increasing commercialization of the net has me variously cringing and laughing, very few advancements cause both these reactions at once. However, Yahoo Search Blog is a beautiful thing, and their latest and greatest on "Looking things up using the internet" has me sniggering over the ubiquity of Google (surely anyone who actually "asks the internet" is more familiar with the verb "to google", "googling" "googled").

As a device to pimp their Yahoo Answers, this article is cake (if you want a ghost writer instead of homework help, search engines aren't going to be much use), but can Yahoo have their cake and eat it too?

Tags: The Lazy Man's Search Algorithm

2005-12-06T11:01:00.000-08:00

The Web 2.0 bubble seemed to burst (I'd define the burst of a bubble as the time when the volume of "hype" overshadowed the volume of relevent programs, apps, widgets) right before or right as I started this blog and I've got to wondering why I'm having such a hard time parsing out all this bad data.

I read rather quickly (thanks, comp lit!) and am used to systemitizing volumes of information, so I'm feeling a bit ashamed of this new development in how I/we navigate the web. Ajaxian has a brief (but interesting and of course well-linked) story today on Ajax and Tags, which begins by asserting "Tags are an essential ingredient for any self-respecting web 2.0 company." While this certainly seems to be the case (I can't really think of anything recent on Techcrunch that didn't have tagging as an option) I'm skeptical of the overall ideology of this UI feature.

The problem seems to be the difficulty of sorting through volumes of information. People aren't particularly good at this, and computers don't seem to be that effective on their own. The only example I really need is Google, which still gets buzz for reinventing search, something which marks the infancy of the ubiquitous net company. By simply considering what basic data is available via the internet (traffic) they "revolutionized" how people access information (based on relevence and .. traffic!). Web 2.0, with the various fervent attempts to reinvent the internet, to bring us onto the threshold of a new world, is obviously invested in making user access to relevent information as easy as possible. And so we come to ...

..tagging. Users are allowed to add words to whatever picture or article, which is then *automatically* linked to every other picture or article described with that word by a user! How ingenius. Push the responsibility of relevency onto the end-user.

Advice for the Unemployed Advice Columnist

2005-11-30T11:12:00.000-08:00

Some great advice is getting hits over at digg.com today, which brings to mind a topic close to my heart. Advice columnist employment peaked in the mid-1940's, amidst wide-scale hope and excitement around the field of magazines and columns, dedicated to each small niche of human experience. When the boom happened, it left a lot of would-be advisors to the public at large without a public to advise. What is a talented but underqualified columnist to do?

Allow me to propose a few steps to remedy this heartbreakingly personal, yet widespread economic tragedy.

GET A JOB.
Get out there and do it! The steps that follow will guide you more specifically on your quest for employment.
START A BLOG.
With all your training and practice at your art, you are ready to show the world what you can do! Set up a blog. It's just like an advice column, except that the writer/blogger must choose their topics on their own! Try to stay relevent. This is key when trying to advise successfully.
READ UP ON ENGLISH CONVENTIONS.
Now that you've got a job and a blog, you're ready to learn about the language you're going to be manipulating. While you're at it, try to learn a thing or two about what you think you want to do with your life.

PROGRESS

2005-11-24T17:15:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while Worldchanging comes through with an article about a startup or new development that is just short of ..worldchanging. This particular development is so smashing, that the folks over at everyone's favorite ecobot blog use that same very phrase.

Starsight is a project combining free light for the masses (that's streetlight to you plebians) with free LAN access, with options for broad-scale net access and battery charging. Inventive stuff like this, which pairs green design (the whole shebang can be powered with solar panels) with intelligent design (free internet, veritable illumination of the public, relief for the hair-dryer and cell-phone-less), is proof that progress is bound to come, even if it has to go through third world nations (thus knocking most developed nations out of the top tier and possibly allowing for revolution? are humans so predictable?) first.

Will this blog outlive its namesake??

2005-11-23T13:24:00.000-08:00

This news-cum-scifi article over at Slate has me wondering .. what is previously stated in the title of this entry.

MS to Google: Back off OSS

2005-11-22T20:13:00.000-08:00

In the second recent article I've seen about Microsoft opening up some of its "formats," Brian Jones describes MS' long-term attempt to create useful data formats and systems and how the upcoming standardization of the XML format fits into this corporate vision. XML has many advantages over more traditional hypertext markup languages including machine-readable tags, separation of context and style, and the support of standardized data formats, so it's a positive step to make this a standardized language that developers and coders will be able to tinker with freely. However, XML is already a W3C standard, so it seems like a late-coming idea to start making protocols standard as Jones so poignantly implies in his statement that "for the past 6 months, our goal with these formats was to open them up so that anyone could build solutions on top of them".

Googling Literature: The Debate Goes Public - New York Times

2005-11-19T11:39:00.000-08:00

A recent NYtimes article details Thursday's "Live from the New York Public Library" debate on Google's decision (it is silly to harp on the fact that the literary establishment has always been a bit beyond the times-for example, publically facing off on Google after Google's decision has been made and plan set in motion-but is worth at least a parentheses) to scan books in order to make book searching more effectively, supposedly. Nick Taylor, president of the Author's Guild, eloquently points out that the issue here is not about trying to infringe on fair use, but "the issue here is indeed control. It is the appropriation of material that they don't own for a purpose that is, however altruistic and lofty and wonderful, nevertheless a commercial enterprise." I am perhaps reading this line from a more cynical point of view, but the fact remains that for all Google's usefulness, it is merely filling in a few gaps in providing consumers with products, for which corporations will pay dearly, it seems.

In a field like publishing, you can't really have one website giving itself the rights to all the words contained in a work, even if it claims it isn't going to actually use those words. Google's Adler stated that copyright law is designed to deal with "the moment anyone starts to do things that have an actual harm," affirming that in the past copyright disputes have shown that "copyright law is very well designed to deal with that." I'm not completely sure to which instances of copyright law disputes have ended in such a fashion, but I'm sure as a future conglomerate of information, Google is well-acquainted with law cases about what it should and should not be doing.

Washingtonpost on the "Soul" of Google

2005-11-13T19:47:00.000-08:00

Summarizing google's marketing strategies and successes as "disruptive innovation," this piece in the post does a good job of summarizing many of google's more troubling movements as of late without passing any real judgement. While a personal vendetta to stamp out MS through superior practices is nothing too shocking, stockpiling information that is only mostly legal (not to mention, buying off hordes of OS coders and college-kids to write software for them .. is this project was so successful, where are all the products?) has most everyone raising an eye. Of course I am pro-caching in most every form; I just don't think that any one corporation should be allowed to slowly amass enough wealth and resources to monopolize the entire system of information. These guys are obviously smart--which is why other smart people should step up to make sure they don't set up their own self-perpetuating system or anything.

The autonomic computing edge: The role of the human in autonomic systems

2005-11-12T12:52:00.000-08:00

IBM shares some thoughts on a common theme in many tech, political, and even futurist blogs: the movement from man-operated machines to machine-operated machines that has been foreseen as long as man has contemplated artificial intelligence. Guys like MarshallBrain have been saying for a while that if no one steps up to actively create new jobs for people, there will be mass unemployment at a level never seen before due to robots taking over the economy. My take on the problem is a little less extreme, seeing as how we have been dealing with the industrial revolution for over a century now and in many cases industrialization has led to an overall improvement in the quality of life. I'm not saying that some kind of commune-setting with networking couldn't be the ideal pastural life for man, I just don't think socialized man should fear its own progress.

So while I'm generally wary of anything a big corporation releases for public consumption, I would agree with IBM that trying to hold back development and efficiency (in a word, progress) to save jobs, or for fear of AI taking over, is a little bit silly in light of the fact that humans are more efficient and versatile than it will most likely ever be to make one machine. Can't we free up good programmers who would otherwise be maintaining systems for more creative programming? Nevermind. Resist our Robot Future!!

RIAA attacking our culture, the American Mind | The Register

2005-11-10T15:42:00.000-08:00

RIAA attacking our culture, the American Mind | The Register

This is an oldie but a goodie, worth re-reading in light of all the Sony DRM stuff. Makes me wonder who needs to take a hint, consumers who protest against violations of their rights to property and privacy, or the RIAA and record execs.

Cracks on Cracking 2.0 Bubble (via Wired)

2005-11-10T12:24:00.000-08:00

I'm a little bit disappointed that it wasn't /. that had the belated article quoting the Nicholas Carr article which places blame for the decline of traditional publishing (good, professional journalism) due to the overwhelming influx of user-contributed free information. An actual professional journalist, Carr begins his scathing critique of Web2.0 (and basically everything that's happened on the web since the late 90's) with a few interesting, if tangential, thoughts on the symbology and metaphysics of the internet. In a show of professionalism he abandons this thread and pushes straight into the hard facts, revealing the trash one can find at even the most reputable of free-information oriented websites. Websites like Wikipedia, while creating a great deal of hype for themselves, can be downright "appalling" when it comes to the facts (what feasible reason could an online database aiming to replace publisher-produced print encyclopedias have for allowing its contributors to add rumors, jokes, or misinformation on Jane Fonda or Bill Gates?). Until Americans understand that you get what you pay for, and thus realize that no matter how dangly a carrot free content can be, it is imperative to choose quality over anything else.

At this point in my critique I'd get back to the Wired article, but Wiki's Jimmy Wales doesn't need to be requoted in defense of his project. Fleshed out with relevent content but fraught with name drops (O'Reilly's, Web2.0, RSS, and Flickr seemed particularly relevent to cutting-edge developments on the web as I skim through the article again), this expose on the seductions and let-downs of the internet strikes a chord with this cynical reader. Nice journalism, guys.

Asian Man Made Example to World

2005-11-07T08:41:00.000-08:00

BBC reports on a Hong Kong man jailed for three months in what the "film industry" hopes will be an example to would-be bittorrent users. Chan Nai Ming, ironically calling himself "Big Crook," was brought down by sharing the three blockbusters Miss Congeniality, Daredevil, and Red Planet.

Shame on you, Chan, for costing Hollywood over $4.86 billion a year. Those people have prep schools and efficient, German-engineered vehicles to get through the treacherous sloping roads of Urban California to pay for.

On a more serious note, I always figure it's a matter of time before a new technology which allows "content users" to infringe upon "copyright law" gets noticed by service providers and the proper authorities are informed and convinced of a position. While I take this as bad news for all the bittorrent users out there, I'm not all that surprised. I would guess that in the U.S. the difficulty in pinpointing where files are coming and going (until new legislature is passed at least) paired with the fair-usage aspects of the technology (is there a more sensible way to share popular files than by parceling out the bandwidth?) would throw a stick into the gears of due process.

This has me wondering, where are the tech lawyers? Why aren't people invested in the success of their tech companies using, changing, and resharing information also coincidentally lawyers, and farsighted? Someone should be suing everyone right now. It's just not fair that the richest corporations are the only ones getting in on it.

I'm taking the chance to plug Steve's post about changing copyright law. Come on, bloggers, you love giving away your opinion for nothing--and in this particular instance someone might actually read what you have to say.

CNN says, "Paris is Burning"

2005-11-07T07:58:00.000-08:00

Baby.

Ahahaha. Anything composed for news media is in such poor taste lately.

"Desktop 2.0"

2005-11-05T05:15:00.000-08:00

Aren't we being a little hasty in calling various ajax/dynamic web apps "the next desktop"? It's been obvious for some years now that the tech sector is becoming more and more invested in making their products easily integrateable to the web, and to live info--which makes calling websites like netvibes and goowy "desktops" a bit overstuffed. Is setting your default load page to either of these sites (or numerous other competitors) and easily accessing your mail and rss feeds really the next generation of computing?

I sure hope not. I can do that now. I'm sure I could find or script widgets to do that easily enough right on my actual desktop. Hype isn't always this lacking in substance and creativity, is it?

Politicians to ban networking

2005-11-04T13:31:00.000-08:00

Techdirt has an interesting and perhaps scary article adding to the pandemic of people in power trying to stop the progress of things they do not understand.

Edit: Steve has some stuff on this over at Kill Yourself.

A Computer As Every Classroom

2005-11-03T18:41:00.000-08:00

Worldchanging has an interesting bit about affordable computers; something it's nice to rehash old problems such as "a computer in every classroom" when there is a shifting tech paradigm.

Companies interested in cheap, efficient production (eliminating unecessary and often costly bells and whistles of more costly and available models) obviously impact developing nations and emerging minorities in socially-stratified but capitalistic societies. It'll be interesting to see how bigwigs compete with this sort of thing.

2005-10-26T06:16:00.000-07:00