In which we find out that I'm an irredeemable curmudgeon.

Mar 24, 2007

I vaguely remember this meme from 2002-2003, back when it started...

1. Do you have a myspace account? Why or why not? — Nope. MySpace was originally conceived of as a place for bands to promote their music and interact with their fans. I'm not that hard-core of a music fan, so was not interested in having a MySpace page. Now that MySpace's visible online presence has devolved even further, I have less incentive to create a page than I ever did.
2. Do you have an IM client? Why or why not? — I have one, but I don't use it often. In fact, I rarely use it - I had to get an IM client for my latest contract, and at this particular gig, they used Gmail's chat client. I don't forsee that I'll use it after this.
3. I am 'forced' to have an IM client for work so that i can be contacted immediately (we are either working from home or spread out over various offices throughout our complex). I do not have a choice over which client to use. Do you think that an employer has the right to require you to have an IM client, even if its on your own personal computer? — If it were a computer owned by my workplace, I can see them dictating the software. If I am working for a client and they want me to install an IM client, I would balk. I won't wear a Blackberry for any employer, because I don't care to be quite that accessible. I won't install an employer's software on my home machine - partiallly because I am a contractor, and don't really need the hassle of cluttering up my machine with software from this client and that. If they really need someone to be that instantly accessible and email isn't enough for them, they can either have the person in-house or they can take a Prozac.
4. Due to work and personal reasons, i have a ton of IM 'identities' and use multiprotocol instant messaging applications. Currently, I use both trillian pro for XP desktop and laptop, and then proteus for OS X. do you use a multi-account IM client like trillian, gaim, adium, or proteus? Why or why not? — I have one IM identity, and I've only ever used it for a gig. I have email accounts, and people can keep in touch with me that way. I don't really appreciate realtime interaction via computer. If I'm going to interact with someone realtime, I'd rather meet with them face to face or, if necessary, call them.
5. Do you have a flickr, picasa, photobucket, snapfish, or other photo-sharing account? Why or why not? — No. Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, et al. were services conceived of for people who did not have their own webspace, or had webspace with a free provider who didn't allow hotlinking (meaning that people can't view images hosted on those servers). These photo-sharing services also have an element of social networking, in that people can share tags, mingle photostreams, and so forth. I don't take many photos; and those that I do, I make available off of my site. I don't care to participate in the social-networking aspects of those photo sharing sites; and I don't want my photos to be served up with ads or build the link ranking of the parent site.
6. Do you purchase songs/mp3s or movies via iTunes for download? Why or why not? — I don't own an iPod (I have an MP3 player from Creative Labs), so I can't play anything off of iTunes, anyway. I've contemplated getting a subscription to something like Rhapsody, just for trying out new music - but I don't ever want to only have a song in MP3 format. MP3 is what's known as a lossy file format: every time the file is accessed, a small fraction of data is lost. Eventually, that song you've downloaded from the web will start to show its age (unless you never listen to it, in which case...why download it in the first place?) I vastly prefer to have my music in a longer-lasting format; then I'll have a good copy of the song for whenever the MP3 version starts to degrade too much.
   I also believe that the current system of music and movie distribution is badly broken. I don't think that the artists and creators are properly compensated for their contributions, and the financiers and middlemen (RIAAssholes, I'm looking at you) often take an inordinately large amount of money from artists. However, I don't know enough about how the current system works, or needs to work, to know what fixes to suggest. This doesn't mean that I'm going to stop buying CDs and DVDs, though. I appreciate having a way to 'try before I buy', so that I know that the CD I'm going to purchase doesn't have two good songs and ten semi- or un-interesting tracks. But I know how much work goes into creating a movie, writing a story, or composing a song. I'm more than willing to compensate the artists whose work I enjoy and admire. And I'm not willing to risk downloading a junk or malicious file (some of which are put there by the RIAAssholes and all their little minions.)
7. Do you use (or have you ever used) a file-sharing program like napster (pre-lawsuit), limewire, or kazaa? Why or why not? — I haven't used any. I think that, as a concept, P2P networks can be a pretty good tool for exchanging data. I just have never felt all that easy about opening my home computer up to others, even through a supposedly secure interface. If I had access to a trusted network, and we had to exchange files, we might use some P2P application. Otherwise...no.
8. If you play this meme, you probably have a blog or a blogger identity. Do you have currently or have you used another blogging tool/service in the past, like wordpress, MT, qumana, imeem, etc.? How did that go? — I have never actually had a Blogger identity. Blogger and its ilk were conceived as a publishing platform for those who a) did not have their own webspace; b) don't know how to install or configure scripts; and/or c) want to participate in the social/community aspect. It's all very Webby. I've had my own web space since 1995 and had my own servers since 2002. I learned, early on, how to install and configure Perl and PHP scripts. And I've never wanted to be a part of the whole social-community aspect of any online services (which is why I do not have an active identity at MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut, Ryze, Tribe, or any of the other social networking services, other than a few where I signed up to prevent someone else from taking the name and splitting the identity. I gave that up as a lost cause, because these things spring up like rabbits.) I like having the scripts and web space under my complete control. No service upgrade will ever catch me unawares, deprive me of a feature I enjoy, or wipe out my entire site. If I want to use a different script, I can do so. By having my blog on my own space, I have more control over what happens with it. Yes, it costs money. Yes, it takes time. Yes, it takes knowledge. But this is all knowledge that I already had, and since these servers also power my business, I was paying for them anyway. And time? Hey - I never ever am surprised by a feature disappearing, or by being unable to log in to my account. Tradeoffs abound.
   By the way, I love my current blogging platform (script name withheld because...why let the kiddies know which script to target?) I've used it for my professional sites, as well as for several client projects.

Keywords: | social networking | Saturday | memes |
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