Blue
Commentia: Various opinions on the events of Alpha Complex. And, y'know, the rest of the world.
News, and commentary
Mar 28, 2007
Iteration 28 March 2007: Talking Points
- Why Having More No Longer Makes Us Happy — for middle-class and upper middle class people, this seems to be the case. All of our lives, we were taught: work to consume, consume to be idle. Problem being: what's the point? Utter idleness is not all it's cracked up to be (though longer periods of non-busyness certainly wouldn't be unappreciated). When do we stop consuming? Our economy is constantly coming up with one more service, one more product, that we as individuals Absolutely Must Have. Never mind Oprah's latest guru hardsell: the secret is balance. Each individual needs to define, then achieve, balance. (And much like religion, one person's balance ill fits another's life. People can draw inspiration from others, but in order to truly be content and fulfilled, people need to take charge of defining their own version of 'balance'.)
- Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage — Interesting to note. To me, as a consumer, the high gas mileage on the Prius is very attractive. I'm not so sure it's attractive enough for me to pay the huge price for the Prius, though demand seems to have slackened a bit (at least locally). It's also interesting to note: people who want to 'buy green' need to think about the entire lifecycle of the product, not just their use (and disposal) thereof.
- Washington governor signs Internet tax bill — something important to note, particularly since I'm planning to move to that state. How, though, will this be enforced? Some retailers will collect the tax, others won't. California currently has a space where residents can state how much they bought online in the preceeding year, and voluntarily pay the tax on that. I know how often I fill that out. I think that Washington's initiative is headed for a similar fate: haphazard enforcement, amounting to a greater burden on small businesses than a benefit, and ultimately a questionable value for the state. (Which reminds me: I need to start researching that state's laws for small businesses...)
- Many Americans See Little Point To Web — Well, sure. It's a tool. While some of us have quite the digital lifestyle, it's not a requirement. It's perfectly possible to survive and even thrive without doing much more than checking email occasionally (and I almost typed that sentence without a nervous twitch...almost.) But despite what certain persons would have us believe, it's not essential for everyone to have a blog. It's not essential for everyone to have a MySpace page. The web offers as many utter distractions as it offers useful tools — and humans are tool users. But just like I'm not going to invest in a jig saw any time soon, not everyone needs their own web site. (This is why I didn't do well trying to market my design services: when someone told me that they didn't need a web site, I took them at their word and stopped pestering. Sadly, this just didn't translate into enough income to support myself. Meh.)
- National debt is a gigantic time bomb — In a way, this is tied to the first article linked in this week's list. When does a country have enough? When does it need to get more of whatever-it-is, when does it need to start planning for alternatives to whatever-it-is, how does it go about getting more of whatever-it-is, and what costs will the country pay in pursuit of its own balance? I'm heartily glad that I have no children. They, and their children, could be very hard hit if the US doesn't find a smarter way to work in the Middle East.
- McCain comes out for gay marriage on MySpace — More proof that idiots are everywhere, and MySpace is their latest prime watering hole...a US presidential hopeful's eager (but not 100% tech-savvy) staffers create a MySpace page and hotlink to another person's images. So the owner swapped the image on their server. (Not with something quite as bad as that...then again, a conservative politico having an image say that they've reversed their position on gay marriage, particularly between passionate females...probably isn't at all good in Sen. McCain's view.) McCain's staffers scrambled to fix their mistake. But shouldn't they have not made that mistake in the first place?!??
- Organic Food: the farmer's condundrum — People are all atwitch for green, natural, organic...but if your "organic" vegetables are imported from Mexico, South America, or China (with all the travel and gasoline that entails) how much is being preserved by buying 'organic'? Don't just buy organic because you think that you're doing good. Stop, think, find out the core thoughts behind a movement, and then live by those core thoughts and beliefs in the way you deem best rather than they way they're advertised or labelled.
- San Francisco to ban plastic bags — I remember when I was younger, and the huge debates over 'paper or plastic' started. They died out to some extent...but now they're back again. People say use plastic, not paper, because the paper uses up trees and the lumber industry is so destructive. Yes, that's true. It's equally true that folks carrying canvas bags into, say, grocery shops get the hairy eyeball because they're suspected of stealing. (I know. It's happened to me a few times. I sympathize with the store owners and managers; but I've got to carry my stuff somehow.) It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Just one question...what will I use when I need to empty the catbox? It's not as easy to tie-close a paper sack...
- Taking the week off — “It’s this culture of attacking women that has especially got to stop. I really don’t care if you attack me. I take those attacks in stride. But, whenever I post a video of a female technologist there invariably are snide remarks about body parts and other things that simply wouldn’t happen if the interviewee were a man.” There are limits people should follow. At what point do others need to step in and rap people on the knuckles? While lawmakers wrangle over Bong Hits 4 Jesus, women in the US, Canada, western Europe (all ostensibly first-world countries, by the way) are objectified by people who, if challenged, would claim that they were just joking. Yo. Idjits. Rape and death are not jokes.
- New drive afoot to pass the Equal Rights Amendment — I haven't read the full text of the ERA. But shouldn't all people be given the same rights? And if they aren't, why not? (Oh. Right. People are fragmented, fearful, tribal zipperheads.) The law contains the following words: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. This really isn't enough, because it doesn't strictly, explicitly cover all religions, all ages, all ethnicities...but, suckily, we have to advance in baby steps. Because people are fragmented, fearful, tribal zipperheads.
And last but not least: two points to think about. Common enough wisdom, but we forget them all the time.
- Being responsible isn't easy.
- If you want things to change, you have to learn, get up, and do something.
Other Participants
Permalink
Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K. And elsewhere.
Mar 14, 2007
Iteration 03/14/2007: News and Commentary
- What credit card companies don't want you to know
Credit card and bank fees will eat you alive. You'll blink, and you'll wind up so far in debt you won't be able to easily get out. And while many individuals in the 80s declared personal bankruptcy and had their lifekilling credit card debt erased, the credit card companies got tired of the shenanigans and lead a reform of personal-bankruptcy laws. Now your interest will be frozen, but your accumulated debt won't go away. Read this article, grab your scissors, and take back your life by slicing your credit cards in half. (Yes, they can be a useful tool...if you have the discipline to use them very, very sparingly.)
- How to survive really hard times
This was written before the year 2000 rollover, but the information's just as handy. (And, coming on the heels of last week's list, a nice point of continuity.) Most of us take technology and plenty so much for granted, we literally wouldn't know what to do if we found ourselves without a regularly restocked store of some kind. Kind of a disturbing lack of knowledge...especially seeing how the country's sliding further and further into debt, and our infrastructure isn't what most people thought it would be. (New Orleans *still* hasn't really recovered from Hurricane Katrina.)
- Oprah's ugly little secret
Raises an interesting point: how much responsibility does a person have, when promoting something as prone to reinterpretation as an idea?
- How my eyes were opened to the barbarity of Islam
Another interesting piece, particularly because it will have people asking, pissed-off-ed-ly, “Isn't Islam supposed to be the religion of peace?” Yes, yes it is. And Christianity is a religion of love and tolerance - and look how many bigoted, angry, hateful people put a veneer of righteousness on their actions by claiming to adhere to a particular section of the Bible? Any time religion or philosophy becomes used as a political tool, start questioning every single thing that comes from whomever's wielding that particular club. (And yes, what happened to the woman who wrote this article is hideous and disgusting. However, the Magical Changing Personality isn't limited to one particular country...or even one particular gender.) Learn the reactionary message that 's on the surface, or look beneath and learn the larger lesson. The choice — and the responsibility — is yours.
- Subliminal advertising leaves a mark on the human brain
It's interesting that this is illegal in the UK...and that it isn't illegal in the US. It's also interesting to note that for the subliminals to take effect, some degree of concentration or focus is required. If you're like me, and multitask while watching TV, the subliminals have less chance of getting to you. (Apparently.) Also a good reason to watch TV with friends or family, and talk during the commercials. (Certainly it's more fun than a tinfoil hat...)
- Wipe out a single memory
While this hasn't been tested on any animal higher than lab rats, it could be a good therapeutic tool for survivors of severe trauma. However, I remember reading a book (science fiction, naturally) where a character objected to another's offer to suppress a certain memory. All I am are my memories, the character pointed out; and without those memories, we lose any lessons from those memories. That's valuable to remember, if this technology is ever refined to the point of being used on humans. (...but could they go through and remove the subliminal memories?)
- Emma Darwin's diaries
The diaries of the wife of naturalist Charles Darwin have been scanned and put on line. Check it out: It's Darwin's wife's blog, now in Google's cache! (But...Darwin married his first cousin? So an early theory of evolution, check...but no worries about potential inbreeding? Gah.)
- How to solve the diabetes epidemic
Governments, the healthcare industry, food manufacturers and distributors know that large amounts of sugar and fats cause health problems, even in children. This is hardly news. Yet high-sugar, low-protein-content foods are not just made available, nor even easily available...but high-quality foods, healthsome foods, are not just more expensive, they're harder to find. Eating habits start young, but so many parents, schools, and care groups are either busy, or strapped for time and money. It's easier to give the kids less healthy foods...far too easy. But the food producers and distributors are businesses, and they put profits first. (Of course.)
- California moves closer to banning trans-fats
This did occur in New York City earlier this year: restaurants, eateries, any place that prepares and sells food is going to have to start changing its menu to disinclude trans-fats in the cooking and preparation. Even in California, land of the hippy-dippies and the overly health-conscious, this will not be easy. (A friend was researching moving to CA from TN, and she was researching prices of personal chefs so she would know how to price her food. She asked me: doesn't anybody in that state cook?!??)
I'm going to have to loop back and provide the other three links later - there's actually Something To Do, yippee. (And there's a new episode of Jericho tonight. And we're halfway to Friday. w00t!!)
Other Participants
Permalink
...for marketing purposes, that is.
Feb 01, 2007
What happens when you try to commit viral advertising using electronics placed randomly in urban settings? Boston thinks they may be terrorist bombs and closes bridges and universities.
The devices, promoting an adult cartoon, contained blinking lights that bore the image of an extraterrestrial brandishing the middle finger. After officials mistook the devices for something more nefarious, network TV pundits spent hours pondering which America-hating zealot may have planted them.
This comes straight from the department of You Can’t Make This Stuff Up, (Apparently) Unlimited.
But which is scarier: the fact that Boston virtually shut down, or the fact that these devices have been in place for months in several other major urban areas?
Turner said the devices had been been in place for up to three weeks in nine cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco. While Turner apologized profusely for the mix-up we are reminded of the adage that there’s no such thing as bad press.
Somewhere on the eastern seaboard of North America, bomb-sniffers are sitting over their liquid lunch, muttering truculently: “How was I supposed to know? It didn’t look like one of my kids’ video games… Jee-yay-suz. I’ll bet they don’t pay us any overtime, either.”
Permalink
Everyone on da intarwebs is in need of a cookie and a nap.
Dec 20, 2006
Originally, I was going to do a bit on basic accessibility and usability. I changed my mind as I was reading others' tales of overload, stress, burnout, and plain old lethargy — other T13ers, Holidailies participants, even the other sites I read.
While it's easy to put this down to exhaustion following NaNoWriMo, NaBlaBleeBloWhatever (I know it has a name, I just can't remember it), Holidailies, and the holiday-season prep, people can — and do — burn out at any time during the year. They burn out because they just can't think of anything scintillating to write; or because they can't even think of anything new to write; or they're tired of messing with their current blogging software that won't do what they want it to; or they're not getting comments so why continue; or what have you.
Everybody goes through this. This is normal. But there are some ways to avoid this, or put it off, or at least make the doldrums less severe and of shorter duration:
Round 72::8 — Thirteen Tips for Avoiding Burnout
- Make the site a welcoming place to visit. By that, I don't mean make it look like the idealized grandma's kitchen (unless you truly love that look and want that look, in which case go for it!) I mean, make your site easy to read, easy to navigate, and easy to add comments or share with other people. Whether you want your design theme to be Americana-comfort or art-nouveau, site visitors should know how to find things to read (or download, or purchase) and how to use all the features of your site. When people know how to contribute, they're more likely to do so.
- Don't overload the plate. Have you ever been to a party, or someone's house, where you're asked if you'd like some coffee? Tea? A biscuit? A sandwich? Lemonade? Milk? Muffins? Some candy? At some point, you cross the line from being able to say “No, thank you, not right now” to thinking “When can I leave...!” If a web page shows dozens of links, moving pictures, videos, music clips, glitteries, *and* text at visitors all at once, the visitors can get overwhelmed. They may miss your content because they only saw all the other stuff. Know when to say “enough is enough”
- Be polite to your visitors. Make sure that your type is not illegibly tiny, that your pictures won't make a dial-up user's connection hang, that your music has a clearly-marked way to turn it off, that your comments don't absolutely require that people have some type of membership to leave any kind of comment, and that your text is relatively readable.
- ...and on the flip side, this is your site. You don't want to not speak your mind on your site, or not post something because you think that a few people won't absolutely love whatever-it-is. It's your site, it's your opinion, it's your thing to like or not like. Sure, for everyone out there who loves snowflake graphics (just using my site as a noncontroversial example) there's going to be dozens of people who can take it or leave it and a few who mentally roll their eyes and say, “Oh. Another one.”
- Write about anything that interests you. It can change from day to day. You can write about privacy legislature one day and post photos of your pets the next. You can tell people about what your kids did in temple last week, segue directly into a mini-rant about the evils of thoughtless consumerism, and finish off with your thoughts on the latest computer game. Just make sure that whatever you write about, do it in such a way that you'd want to read the piece.
- Don't write about things for which you aren't truly enthusiastic. This, too, will come across in your writing. (This doesn't mean don't accept money to post your opinions on consumer goods. But if you're joining one of the paid-blogging services (aka sponsored blogging) and then posting about a product or service that you would never have a desire to use, then either 1) your post will be lackluster and people will be able to tell; or 2) if you're a writer of any quality, you can probably get a job writing ad copy — and those pay better.)
- Spend time reading other peoples' sites (or media sites). The best writers read at least as much as they write. When you read something you enjoy, an idea gets started in your own brain: maybe it's a different take on a similar subject. You just never know.
- Take breaks every now and then. (Remember, the more experiences you have, the more blogfodder you'll have.)
- If you write factual or informing posts, make sure to state things as clearly as you can. Link back to your source-articles (so that if, later on, one of those source-articles is discredited you can revise what you wrote.) This also has the effect of giving those who disagree with your viewpoint, an alternate target. Perhaps they'll rage about what they consider poor legislation, or a public figure acting without thinking, rather than simply slag on your opinion.
- Do not post in the heat of anger. Good rarely comes of such things. (For one, I may think faster than I can type...and I'll end up with horrid grammar.) In addition, if you must attack-write, attack ideas rather than people. Why? 1) Ideas can't have their feelings hurt; and 2) ideas don't carry out flame wars.
- Don't put anything out there that you wouldn't want a potential boss, a potential suitor, or a potential friend to read. If it's published on the Internet, it will still be around ten years from now...and even blogging under a pseudonym won't conceal who you are. People can check the Wayback archives, domain owner records, and comments on other sites. Your chosen topics and syntax can even provide clues to your identity. Know this, and don't post anything thoughtless or mean-spirited that can come back and cause someone pain — because chances are good that it will do just that. (Later edit: here's an interesting article on Yahoo about this very subject.)
- If you're not having fun, on some level...why are you maintaining a blog?
- Always keep backups of your site. This can be harder to do, if you're using a free service like Blogspot/Blogger/LiveJournal/GreatestJournal/et al. But then, if that free service fails you don't lose your years of hard work. Sure there may be a lot of digital dandruff in there...but there's probably also a lot of irreplaceable memory-posts, too. (Tip: if this ever happens to you, go through Google IMMEDIATELY and view the cached copies of your old site pages, then save those pages to your hard drive. It takes a lot of time, and you might not be able to get everything back; but it's better than having nothing. Google cache will be easiest to stripmine for two to four months following the “death” of your site. After that, things may get a bit more difficult.)
I'll be posting a list next week; but since some of you may not, happy holidays to all and I'll hope to see you all in 2007!
Links to other T13 posts
Permalink
It seemed like such a good idea at the time.
Dec 17, 2006
Arizona Senator John McCain has proposed legislature which, ostensibly, would help law enforcement officials track online sexual predators.
On the surface, this sounds all well and good, even an excellent idea. Just about every society agrees with the statement that sexual predation is a bad thing, and sexual predation of children is an extremely bad thing. The implementation of the proposed legislation, however, is a bit worrisome. The definition of the sites responsible for purging material, and the data that must be retained, is more than a bit vague, while the penalties are fairly draconian.
Any web site that allows user participation (blogs, forums, chat rooms) and which collects user data would be required to submit reports of aggregate user activity, retain data, and allow that data to be searched on demand of US federal officials. All such sites would also be required to report any offensive behavior on their site, and retain all data relating to the circumstances for six months. Internet service providers — including hosting companies, so including me — are already required to do this. This new legislation would extend that responsibility to any site that could be considered a social networking site: blogs; forums; tag boards requiring registration; anything that allows user participation and requires membership to participate.
Text taken from Think Progress:
– Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000.”
– Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports, but under McCain’s legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face “even stiffer penalties” than ISPs.
— Social networking sites will be forced to take “effective measures” — such as deleting user profiles — to remove any website that is “associated” with a sex offender. Sites may include not only Facebook and MySpace, but also Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists, and blogs like DailyKos, which allows users to sign up for personal diaries.
This would apply to sites that allowed membership, whether those sites require payment for the membership or not.
As I said previously, this initially sounds like a very good idea, and one that almost everyone can agree with on the surface: stop online sexual predation and online sexual abuse of minors. However, how far will this law go? What requirements will be placed upon site owners? And, again, what’s the definition of obscenity? According to CNet, a man in Alabama has been indicted and accused of being a child pornographer. There is no evidence that he has ever taken photos of unclothed minors. The accusation of child pornography came about because of the argument that his models “struck poses that were illegally provocative” (full text here). I have not seen the photos in question; and if anecdotal evidence is accurate there is plenty of “borderline” activity happening in the world of teen modelling. However, the definition of obscenity has always been a moving target, defined by community standards. Now, with the changing sociopolitical climate in the US, and the growing recognition of online communities as communities in and of themselves, it’s not inconceivable that one day sites which host discussions about family planning and lifestyle options, religious and philosophical debates, even the screaming matches and flame wars may be forced to close their doors because the owners are either unable to keep up with the cost of educating themselves about online obscenity and reporting requirements, but because the topics themselves are declared obscene.
Note: there was a comment made on another site that calls out Declan McCullagh for inaccurately relaying information about legislative proposals. This does not negate the fact that such a law would place a burden on individual site owners when the ones who need to be removing content that breaks the law are the ones who are already legally required to do so: communities like MySpace, LiveJournal, Blogger/Blogspot, Facebook, and their ilk; web hosting providers; and internet service providers. The fact that a site allows a user to create a profile page or a list of life goals should not automatically make the owners of all such sites responsible for policing content.
Permalink
Consumers loathe digital rights management! In other news, the sky is up.
Dec 12, 2006
And can we have a great big gigantic WTF
“There's a problem here. CD sales have fallen 20 per cent over five years. The message here is not that CD sales are coming back, the ability to obtain pirated music is now so widespread the DRM looks to consumers more like a problem than a benefit.”
Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff (read more)
Ya think?!??!????!!!!!!!
The music industry has spent time trying to force consumers to cling to old distribution methods when they damn well should have been hopping on the digital-distribution bandwagon much faster, much earlier, and much more smoothly.
Instead, now they look like a gaggle of obstructionary fossils. Instead of freaking out that consumers were pissed about paying $15 for CDs with one or two songs they liked, the music labels should have figured out more ways to let consumers buy exactly the music they wanted, when they wanted.
It's possible there's still time to turn it around. It's possible that the music labels can get their heads out of the sand (or their backsides) and start routinely providing consumers with ways to pay how the consumers choose (per song, per month, or a funded incremental account). It would take some retraining; but if they provide a quality experience and are genuinely responsive to what consumers want, it's possible that piracy won't be as widespread as they phear.
On the other hand, keep going on this lame-ass track, and more of us will eventually decide to download things like BitTorrent and check out songs before we buy them...only to find that it wasn't what we wanted after all.
Related entry: Didn’t I pay for that already?
Permalink
3 of 9 pages < 1 2 3 4 5 > Last »
