Archive for July, 2008
…have social skills? You’re hired!
Thursday, July 31st, 2008 | teh internets | No Comments
Since my days as a n00b on the Internet way back in 1998, I always wondered why there were jerks on the web. When forums were all the rage, you’d have at least one jerk either posting some off color comment or a all-out feed war. But now, with these community sites, there seems to be more politics behind the negative posts. Flaming, as its called, seems to be a smart way to manipulate situations to a users advantage.
Take YouTube for instance. Lets say you post a video of your daughters baptism. Harmless right. Well after a few ‘cute’ responses, some anti-[insert your denomination here] user decides to flame you and your sect. You naturally fire back. Then another user post…claiming you’re trying to convert the community with your propaganda. And the cycle continues till your user name is ruined. Thus ending your community reputation.
..so what the !@#$ is that supposed to mean?
If you’re online and get into those type of situations, don’t reply. Silence keeps the conversation from beginning. If you work for a community website, the same applies. Don’t fall for the old bait-and-switch that commonly happens out here. The down side with employees of community websites and getting flamed is that when you get attacked, the company is attacked as well…and then you have a PR nightmare on your hands….like Vimeo and their decision not to host certain game-play videos. I hope their smart enough to keep quiet and ride out the storm.
take this Jobs and shove it
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 | teh internets | No Comments
I work with mac fan-boys. breathe mac, live mac, love mac. (hurl)
Don’t get me wrong, OSX was a pretty awesome when it came out (a discussion for another day), but the real beauty is the hardware. Steve Jobs, love him or hate him, put out some pretty nice products during his second term..how you ask? By using them. Think about it…
Jobs wanted an nice mp3 player with nice form factor…IPod.
Jobs wanted an easier way to organize his music…iTunes.
Jobs didn’t want to pay $$$ for songs that suck…iTunes Music Store
Jobs didn’t want to carry around an IPod and cell phone….do I need to keep going? See the theme?
so what the !@#$ is that supposed to mean?
a) when building a product, the best way to insure success is to use the product in everyday scenarios. If you have trouble using the product, there’s a pretty good chance that end users will also. If Microsoft had to use Vista 24/7 without tech support, I’m sure things would be different. I try to design/develop around this methodology as well, though it does take quite a few revisions before things are finalized (case in point, this blog design)
b) I need to quit screwin around an get an iPhone (like everyone else)
what does it take to fill up?…geez
Sunday, July 20th, 2008 | personal vendettas | No Comments
So….here in the so called metropolitan area known as Raleigh Durham, I’m noticing more gas stations limiting the amount of gas you can charge to your credit/debit to $75. What was once an annoyance has now become a viral epidemic and I find myself without a full tank of gas but I guess that translates into less drive offs or non-payment somehow.
I mean…at first, I would simply accept it and drive off, perhaps filling up later in the week. But now….Now I just run my CC again and get the extra 5 to 10 gallons I need to top off the ride.
So what the !@#$ is that supposed to mean?
Doesn’t VISA, MasterCard, Discover, etc charge a service fee each time anyone swipes? Last time I checked, I wasn’t paying that fee….So now, the jerks who own these stations have to pay double fees if people want to fill up…and let me tell you…when gas is under $4, I top it off.
New home…now what?
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 | personal vendettas, teh internets | No Comments
Yeah…so I’m phasing out the RR home server since its way cheaper to host elsewhere (and I need a laptop). The one thing I’ll miss, however, will be having my own email server…my mail on my own server, no ISP’s or government types snoopin around….no “Carnivore” (ref: Swordfish)
But, I think a combination of the Road Runner rumor mill (TWC might be migrating to a per MB service) and continuous bad service are the motivational points fueling this effort. No more bragging to friends, no more trying to outsmart TWC NAT or watching bots bombard my Apache server with IIS requests
so what the !@#$ is that supposed to mean?
a) I’m not gonna pay extra for upstream/downstream. They (TWC) are lucky I pay at all.
b) even though I will have a non ISP email server, It still wont be in house…which means a copy of my email will be on a server I don’t control (…..POP accounts get backed up just as much as IMAP accounts)…and I don’t like that.
c) I can turn off my desktop, which has accumilated atleast 5 lbs of dust.
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