Here and There

But this is a good thing, I promise. My Twitter feed will clear up a lot of real estate on this here blog for when I really have something to say about something. A majority of “posts” over the years have more constituted micro-blogging than anything else. After much contemplation, I decided Twitter offered the perfect space in which to convey these little bit-size nuggets of awesome.

So follow me, please, into the random unknown. Or just check that nifty widget at the top left of the site.

Who knows what we’ll find …

My Parents Joined Facebook, the blog.

Thx: Sullivan

Not that I ever fell out of love …

Yesterday was a big day for teh Goog. They announced Google Earth 5.0, which includes the ever-useful underwater views and past maps (the announcement occurred at and coincided with my own trip to the California Academy of Sciences (more on that later, here or Yelp), and an appearance by Al Gore, with whom I did not lunch).

And, nearer and dearer to my own OCD, they’ve released tasks for mobile browsers, including iPhone.

Honestly, if they just get comment-capability built into Google Reader, I will rest well.

This site could split my house in two: Fuck You, Penguin.

Sorry to be writing so much about Facebook these days, but I suppose being unemployed has left me with infinitely more downtime, and so, more time to poke around on Facebook. And due to a few interesting situations on the site lately, I have more to think about.

A few days ago, my new sister-in-law, whom I hardly know, friended me. She’s a really nice girl, so naturally I accepted. She seemed new to the site, and really, why not? I already have dozens of “friends” on Facebook whom I rarely talk with, much less truly know anymore.

Then, late last night (Christmas Eve), I was shocked to find a friend request from … my mom.

Read the rest of this entry »

I noticed a week or so ago that just before the end of YouTube clips, there appear several “related videos” thumbnails just below your video. They’re coming on a good five or so seconds before your video finishes playing.

Distracting. Unnecessary. Lame.

Do I need to say how great this is?

A certain person from my past recently “friended” me on Facebook. This came after a steady stream of Southwest High (Fort Worth) alumnus had been contacting me, and it had actually been a pleasant experience — catching up, reminiscing, whatnot.

But this person came along and posed a challenge. Gee, the last thing I remember about them was how, sprinkled throughout high school, they taunted me and threatened to beat me up.

It’s really hilarious now. If it had come to blows, I would’ve been okay, maybe got roughed up a bit, but probably dealt equal damage to my adversary. I wasn’t scared of this person, more like just annoyed. The thing was, I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t like me. It was a bit like the cantina scene in Star Wars, only Obi Wan wasn’t there to slice this person’s arm off.

We had been friends in middle school, up until about seventh grade, when he quit skateboarding and became “preppy,” ditching me and other friends. And for what, I’m not exactly sure.

But those were the days of defined interests and cliques. Yeah, they still exist today, but I guess we’ve all grown up.

Still, this person’s sudden emergence on Facebook posed a dilemma for me. I don’t wish evil upon too many people, but still, I wasn’t quite sure friend + this person went together very well.

In the end, I accepted, and will treat this “friendship” as a possible means of healing that past rift. I don’t expect miracles. But maybe he’ll prod through my Facebook profile and realize I’m not that big an asshole. Maybe he’s calmed his shit down.

Believe in redemption.

Taking a page from Kottke, I’d like to offer my own little nugget of Muppetry:

It strikes me over and over again how useful it would be for RSS readers to include an option to view comments, should they exist for a particular item.

For example, Google Reader is my reader of choice. There, along the bar at the bottom of each item, along with items like “Add star,” Share,” and “Email” would be a link that said something like “Show comments.”

Of course, I don’t know much about how RSS and comments work. Perhaps the software that runs whatever site is in question would have to enable RSS on its comments. I’m not sure. But it seems … possible. Right?

The worse the economy gets, the more pop-up ads proliferate.

I realize this isn’t really the kind of blog that posts or could get away with posting open threads. I have the readership (there they are, in the stats I check out on a daily basis), but not the commenting readership.

And that’s not to berate you, I assure you. I realize the shortcoming is mostly of my own doing. I’m not provocative enough, or do not write at length enough about provocative topics, to warrant long comment threads.

But here’s one for you: Can anyone out there suggest a viable track for professional journalism to take?

Now that we’re witnessing the collapse of newspaper journalism as we know it, is the business model built upon ad revenue even workable anymore?

Discuss please.

I must’ve missed last week. Oh, well:

Of course I’m ecstatic over this, but what I really like is that the administration will hold states to real, measurable progress over public works. Also, I’d like to see “rail” included in any “roads and bridges” talk.

But the bit about schools and information infrastructure gets me all giddy. Still kinda can’t believe this guy is about to be our president (not a moment too soon, of course).

Yesterday, I posted about how the new Google Reader is janky on iPhone.

Today, I moseyed on over to the Reader blog and then to its Digg page. There, I found in the comments a completely different Google Reader URL from the one I had bookmarked. Funny that Google didn’t bother to document this change to iPhone users, and that if you visit Google on the phone’s Safari browser, the link at the top in the nav bar still points to the old URL, the one that doesn’t wrap text. Oh, well.

I have to say, it was worth the browser crash*

Google unveils a new look for its (beloved by me) Google Reader. The RSS tool continues to be my main go-to after Google Mail.