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24 posts

What is Google+?


Google+ is a new social networking site. Yes, new social networking sites come out every other week. Yes, no-one cares.  Yes, Google has tried to get into the social networking field before, and failed. This might be different. Most social networking sites are intended to be additional to whatever social networks you already use. Hell, many even have buttons to share stuff from them to Facebook or Twitter.

Google+ is different. The message of Google+ is that it does everything Facebook does, and more, but also lets you control your privacy and sharing better than Facebook. The goal of Google+ is nothing short of consigning Facebook to the dustbin of history, alongside MySpace.  Continue reading →

Social Media Makes Being Unemployed Tolerable and Terrible

Hello Crasstalk viewers! As my inaugural post to this dysfunctional, yet entertaining community, I thought I’d kick off by relating my musings on the intersection of two subjects in which most hardcore bloggers are sadly familiar: social media and unemployment. As I’ve recently taken on a new hobby (drawing circles), I’ll start out with this diagram:


Continue reading →

Are you living in an Internet Bubble?


Eli Pariser makes a great case for why the Internet, as we know it today, is not the information free-for all that we all believe it to be. Editors, the gatekeepers of the past, have been replaced by algorithms that have been designed to tailor Google search results and Facebook News Feeds to your tastes and interests, while leaving out ideas that are uncomfortable but important. Great video from TED2011. Comment.

Confessions of a Farmville Addict

Hi.   Wow  — I can’t believe I’m here.  I never thought it would get this bad.  But I’m here.  I have to admit it.

My name is Eddie L, and I have a problem.  I can’t turn away from Farmville.  It calls to me.   My herd of black sheep.   The penguins I keep in a pen with my turkeys, even though I know that’s ecologically unsound.  I ignore logic and believe I can grow both pomegranate and potato, even though they require opposite climates.  I reap, reap, reap Nature’s digital bounty, even though I never rotate my crops and I know I am creating another Dust Bowl.  I have abandoned logic!

So, I have come to you, Farmville Addicts Anonymous, for help.

Shall we begin?

I admit I am powerless over my addiction – that my life has become unmanageable

Like I said, my name is Eddie L., and I wish to acknowledge I am a Farmville Addict.  I am powerless over the demon call of Farmville.  I admit my life is unmanageable, because my life consists only of selling off my pen of pigs in Farmville.

I believe a power greater than myself can return me to sanity

Spock.  It must be Spock.  Spock was always the creature I turned to for guidance in this wacky world – before my motley collection of cows and horses and reindeer and ducks took over my life.  I used to be a Classic Dork – not a Farm-obsessed freak.   What would Spock, that pointy-eared lover of all that is orderly – say about Farmville?   He would say it is not logical.  I bow to you, Spock.

I am making a decision to turn my life over to a higher power

I am all yours, Spock.

I will make a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself

The only question here is what character flaw led me down the path into Farmville, a delightful place with a no-place-like-home farmhouse and a well-cared for chicken coop of happy hens.  Why do I so desire to grow apple trees, yet have no desire to dirty my hands or actually sweat?

I must admit to a higher power, myself, and another human the exact nature of my wrongs

Spock, there is no doubt.  I have behaved terribly.  If I can say that to Spock, I can say it myself.   I am doing so here.  I would like to confess my sins to my wife, but I don’t remember what she looks like.   Perhaps if I leave the Man-Room, where the computer is kept, I can find some wedding pictures to refresh my memory.

I must be ready to ask a higher power to remove these defects of character.

I am ready for my Mind Meld, Mr. Spock.

I must make a list of all those I have harmed, and be willing to make amends to them. I must make said amends

First off, there is the wife.  I understand she lives, still, somewhere in this home.  I’ve been told, via text message, that she wears earplugs all day long to block out the sound of  Farmville music, which grates upon her very soul.  Darling, the music will stop.   And I will take you out!  Perhaps to a — those places where they sell already cooked food for human consumption?  I can’t remember what they’re called.

I also wish to make amends to your cat, Eleanor Roosevelt Rigby.   I’ve been so obsessed with faux animals that I forgot we have a real living furry creature here at home!   How exotic!  I think it’s the poo.   The Farmville animals don’t poo.  Eleanor does.  I don’t like poo.  But I will learn to live with it.  Poo is the price of love.

I will continue to examine my shortcomings and admit when I’m wrong.

Honey, you are always right.  Always.

I will seek through meditation the peace and guidance that comes from a higher power

Spock, I beg of you to not abandon me.  Perhaps Captain Jean-Luc Picard can offer some guidance.   Please, make it so.

Having had a Dork Awakening through these dozen steps, I will spread the word to other addicts, and tell them there is help.

Spock will help you, too.  Or perhaps your Spock are the Golden Girls.  Hello Kitty?  Or Curious George.    It matters not.  Take off the overalls.  Turn away from Farmville.  There are real, living creatures out there.   You may be married to one of them!  There is hope.

My name is Eddie L, and I am powerless over the lure of Farmville.

Facebook Pet Peeves

All right, crabby-pantses, it’s time for another vent session. After the wild success of our first pet peeves post, authored by the excellently-named Baconcat, who has successfully combined two of my very favorite things into one username, and bbqcornnuts’ post on parenting pet peeves I didn’t even know I had, I got to thinkin’. We covered the obvious sources of irritation: driving, social courtesies, roommates and spouses, grammar, and a curious number of annoyances related to the mouth.

What did we leave out? There was only one original comment that mentioned Facebook. I’m disappointed in you all. Surely we can do better than that.

Bypassing the easy targets, like Farmville invitations and TMI statuses (though please, don’t hold back if that is indeed what peeves you), I’d like to share a few of my pet peeves.

1. Overuse of ellipses. Punctuation an ellipses is not a substitute for:

  • Periods
  • Question marks
  • Commas
  • Semicolons
  • Spaces

Learn it. Live it.

2. Cryptic, attention-whoring statuses. The only things worse than these are the people who respond to them.

Image: Natalie Dee

 

3. Facebook status arguments. We’ve all gotten into at least one of these (let me pretend I’m not the only one, okay?). Now you’re arguing with someone you most likely barely know, but god damn it, someone is wrong on The Internet and you’re not going to bed until they see how right you are. Not only are you now wasting your time and blowing up your Friends’ newsfeeds, you’re embarrassing yourself and the person whose status you’ve hijacked.

4. Status updates from people I despise, but am socially obligated to stay Friends with. This may also apply to those I am Friends with to preserve my own sanity and avoid more DRAMA. I’ve amassed quite a collection of these since graduation, and oh, what a wealth of irritation I can mine from their status updates alone.

Seriously, what is this?

We’ve got our fashion design major, with regular uploads of “high-fashion” photos of her and her design major friends sporting ill-fitting clothes and awkward facial expressions. I was recently treated to a couple of her rather obnoxious updates. Yesterday morning, she posted this: “Tried on swim suits today…it is time to work out. Now.” Then, not more than 24 hours later, this: “No incorrectly scaled patterns, my waist is not 33 inches wide…try 9 inches less…” According to my calculations, that’s a 24-inch waist. Gooch says I’m allowed to sock her one if I ever see her again. You’re all witnesses.

This last one’s personal beef for me, but I have to get it out there. I have a Friend (formerly best) who unFriended me last summer, for reasons we don’t need to get into. She recently reFriended me with a long apology I accepted. I do not like her, nor do I like her ex-fiancé. When they weren’t fighting, they were sickeningly affectionate with seemingly no regard for who was in the room. I’m talking baby talk, PDA, the whole nine yards. That’s why her status today was particularly vexing: “IF THESE PEOPLE DON’T STOP BEING SO AFFECTIONATE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME I’M GOING TO VOMIT INTO MY COFFEE.” She’s taken to typing in all caps recently. I suppose she’s forgotten about the hours of vomit-inducing PDA my boyfriend and I were subjected to. I now have to refrain from replying sarcastically, unless I want to get into a Facebook status argument, and we all know how I feel about those. The irony is quite delicious, though.

5. Anyone who says, “And that’s why I don’t have Facebook.”

Image of attention whore via Natalie Dee.

Facebook Steps Up Efforts to Discourage Underage Users

Facebook policy advisor Mozelle Thompson revealed that the website removes 20,000 user accounts per day that are  created by users who are under 13 years of age.  The number was revealed at a hearing of  the Australian Parliament’s Cyber-Safety Committee. Facebook has faced growing scrutiny of its privacy policies and how they affect teenagers both in Australia and the US.

While the company contends it is making a vigorous effort to weed out preteens, it is a difficult task given that the site has 600 million users worldwide. Last April several Senators, led by Al Franken (D-Mn.) sent a letter expressing concern about Facebook’s privacy controls. Franken stepped up pressure last week over the company’s plans to allow access to user names and addresses. Underage users are a special challenge for Facebook because of concerns over exploitation and exposure to online predators.

 

This guy really shouldn't have a Facebook profile.

 

 

Your Facebook News Feed Is About to Get Angry

Hello, my name is Dogs of War and I’m an addict.  I’ve been addicted to Angry Birds for what seems like a millennium and I’m powerless against those egg stealing pigs.

There is one thing I will not do though, and that is to play Angry Birds on Facebook.  I have my phone with me at all times and that is about as much as I can handle.  But tens of millions of you will be playing Angry Birds on Facebook and publisher Rovio hopes to make some serious scratch.

The mobile version is bird focused and has no social interaction outside of wanting to get a higher score than your friends.  However, the Facebook version will give the pigs more time in the spotlight and like all successful Facebook games will feature social interaction.  So, get ready to use that “hide” button to save yourself from constant updates about your mother and high school friends getting 3 stars and saving the eggs.

Picture and source: El Reg.

How Obsessed Are We With Facebook? This Much.

 

Yes, we all know that many, many people are on Facebook.  A lot.  But seeing the numbers, in visual as well as text form, shows that many of us spend way, way too much time on Facebook.

Is this where we want to be? But is Facebook a tool to enhance our social lives, or has it become a replacement for it, and does it matter? As for what it’s doing to users, it was reported on Wednesday that two researchers at Cornell found that using Facebook boosts self-esteem. On the other hand, an Oxford neuroscientist warned that Facebook and other social networking sites may be leading to less empathy, a shakier sense of identity, and an aversion to real-life interaction. While it remains to be see whether children are in imminent danger of growing up into sociopathic confused shut-ins, that a large percentage of people now spend more time interacting online (hi, guys!) than in face-to-face situations is vaguely troubling even to one who has been more or less glued to a computer since the age of eleven, when I discovered AOL message boards and was unaware that there would ever be anything better than a dial-up modem.

What does Mark Zuckerburg think about all of this? I don’t know, but I imagine it goes something like this.

 

Video: Alex Trimpe on Vimeo

Music: “Deadwriter” by RJD2

Image via smemon87’s flickr

Back up Facebook, simply, for free

Lots of you guys use Facebook. Facebook is notoriously hard to back up. Although I’m not aware of any large server outages, if you post a lot of pictures to Facebook its good to have the important ones saved in a secure place. There are a number of programs you can download that scan through the Facebook directories and download each and every file individually, they’re hard to use. There’s a simple solution.

Backupify will download and save your facebook profile and files on their server, for free. It requires you to sign up for an account with them, but its a very simple solution to a very tricky problem.

(Yeah, click the link above. It should be red.)

Follow the directions for the setup, and you’ll soon be on your way. If you have any problems, contact them!