Facebook is a Love/Hate Thing…

…I personally love it.  My buddy, the Cranky Monkey – well, let’s just say he’s not a fan.  CM was quoting an article on MSNBC that I found quite amusing.  I didn’t have much to blog about today, so I figured I’d give the rebuttal to this article.

Article comment #1: Facebook fosters the illusion that every person you know actually cares that you left your Nikes in the locker room at Crunch.

Article rebuttal #1: Actually, not much of a rebuttal here.  I don’t care about your Nikes, I don’t care if you want to take a nap.  I do, however, care if you have a funny quote or something that will actually entertain me.  Leading by example, my current status reads: “Last week I helped my friend stay put. It’s easier than helping someone move. Just go over there and make sure he doesn’t load anything in a truck.”

Article comment #2: Nobody cares that you left your Nikes in the locker room at Crunch.

Article rebuttal #2: Refer to Article rebuttal #1

Article comment #3: If you join Facebook to find out what your kids are up to, you might actually find out what your kids are up to.

Article rebuttal #3: If you are a good parent, you already know what your kids are up to.  If you have to get on the interweb to find out what your kids are doing, someone should be monitoring your actions, or inaction, as a parent.

Article comment #4: You don’t want to find out what your kids are up to.

Article rebuttal #4: I’m on #4 and I’m quickly finding out the author of this article may not be qualified to be an editor for a national news site.  They are repeating comments to take up space.  Refer to Article rebuttal #3.

Article comment #5: Unless, of course, you want to find photos of your 19-year-old daughter making out with another 19-year-old coed for the edification of a bunch of 19-year old dudes doing beer bongs. (That’s age 19, if you’re lucky.)

Article rebuttal #5: If you’re kid is 19, you shouldn’t be monitoring what they are doing.  If you are still monitoring them, you are too obsessive and need to let go and let your kid be an adult.

Article comment #6: You can announce your divorce on Facebook via the heart icon thingy.

Article rebuttal #6: How about sticking to a commitment for once and not getting a divorce?  Maybe then you won’t have to tell everyone you are getting one.

Article comment #7: Don’t announce your divorce on Facebook.

Article rebuttal #7: Refer to Article rebuttal #6.

Article comment #8: Don’t announce your divorce on Facebook for a number of reasons, the least of which is that all your “friends” will respond on your “wall” with sympathies that in a different era would’ve been delivered in privacy. You wouldn’t console somebody by shouting across a room full of people. Why are you doing it on a Facebook “wall?”

Article rebuttal #8: Refer to Article rebuttal #6 and #7.  I’m getting tired of this referring thing.

Article comment #9: You people take Facebook way too seriously.

Article rebuttal #9: Who?

Article comment #10: A woman was killed after changing her relationship status on Facebook.

Article rebuttal #10: Facebook doesn’t determine the mental stability of people.  This maniac would have done what he was going to do anyway.  Stop blaming the wrong people.

Article comment #11: Remember that Burger King “Whopper Sacrifice” application that allegedly offered a free Whopper coupon for every 10 friends you dumped? Well, you probably shouldn’t have dumped a couple of your oldest friends, two of which are hardcore vegans. At least one of them didn’t find it hilarious at all and now they won’t “re-friend” you.

Article rebuttal #11: If you are willing to dump your friends for a free whopper, you need to be paid a visit by the maniac in Article comment #10.

Article comment #12: If you join Facebook to find people you used to know, you’re just as likely to find your middle school BFF Jill as you are to reignite the passions of that one guy from Photography class who has been stalking you since junior college.

Article rebuttal #12: No one is forcing you to hit “Accept” on the friend request you freakin’ douchebag.

Article comment #13: “Don’t Get Botox”

Article rebuttal #13: “Don’t Get Botox”

Article comment #14: Facebook can get you fired. Yes, you. Just like you are not that one person who can drive safely while talking on a cell phone, you are not that one person who is in no danger of getting fired for something stupid posted by or about you on Facebook.

Article rebuttal #14: Try not posting anything that will get you fired.  Jackass.

Article comment #15: What’s more, your boss is on Facebook. If you join, you’re going to have to decide whether to accept his or her “friendship.” If you accept, you risk losing your job for something he or she stumbles upon. If you attempt to play it safe by not accepting your boss’s “friendship,”  you risk losing your job for offending him or her.

Article rebuttal #15: If you feel like ignoring, your boss will get over it.  I’ve never heard of anyone getting fired for keeping business and personal life separate.  Even if that did happen, chances are you are burnt out and need a new job anyway.  Oh, you were fired?  Great, now you’re eligible for those increased unemployment benefits from new stimulus package.

Article comment #16: Oh, and you’re also at risk of alienating your oldest friends by bumping their rank in your “Always show these friends” box. We’re talking your adult friends, like, in their 30s and 40s, with jobs and kids and all kinds of grown-up responsibilities.

Article rebuttal #16: Most likely these are the friends that you are willing to dump for a free Whopper.  Everyone will get over it.  Except for the maniac from Article comment #10.

Article comment #17: Your otherwise grown-up friends are angry at you for bumping their “Always show these friends” rank because obviously you’re trying to communicate some kind of super secret Facebook message along the lines of, “I value your friendship two-people less today than I did yesterday.” It’s like watching your friendship stock plummet.

Article rebuttal #17: OK, this redundant commenting is getting on my nerves.  Refer to Article rebuttal #16.

Article comment #18: The esteemed widow of former Emperor of Malawi did not just send you a “friend” request, nor is she bearing a unique and prosperous offer straight out of Nigeria just for you.

Article rebuttal #18: I’ve never received BS like this.  These scams are a MySpace and Hotmail Junk folder issue.  Not Facebook.

Article comment #19: And while we’re on the subject, I’VE JUST BEEN HELD UP AT GUNPOINT IN LONDON AND I NEED YOU TO SEND ME $600 NOW!!!!!

Article rebuttal #19: The author is cleverly disguising Article comment #18 as a new comment.  I can see through the bullshit.

Article comment #20: Facebook is most concerned about Your Privacy. (And the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny are friends!)

Article rebuttal #20: If you had an ounce of intelligence in you, you’d know that no one cares about your privacy.  They just say that so you’ll shut up.  Again, don’t put anything self deprecating or personally identifiable about yourself that could lead to hacked accounts, financial ruin, whatever.  Would you do this in normal conversation?  No.  Would you do this in any type of electronic communication?  No.  Why do this on something everyone can see then?  Oh, maybe because you are a douchbag.

Article comment #21: Don’t connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts. People you haven’t heard from for, like, seven years — people you never thought you were friends with — will leave lame and annoying comments on your Tweets.

Article rebuttal #21: Most people get on Facebook or whatever social network to get in touch with people.  It’s an acceptable risk.

Article comment #22: It’s like, hey, if you want to rekindle the friendship I never thought we had, call me or at least send a private e-mail. Jeez.

Article rebuttal #22: If you are that sensitive about the method of communication, you have the option to email a reply privately.  You have options.  Jeez.

Article comment #23: OK, the cool thing about having your Facebook and Twitter accounts connected is that your Tweets show up as your status updates. But then, if people respond on Twitter and maybe ask you something, and you respond via Twitter, it shows up as your Facebook status, and that’s annoying.

Article rebuttal #23: That’s a technical issue.  Complain to Twitter and Facebook tech support.

Article comment #24: While you’re sending zombie challenges to all your “friends,” there’s a guy in Egypt using Facebook to foment democracy.

Article rebuttal #24: If you are spending your time on zombie challenges, chances are you probably don’t care about some guy fomenting democracy.  There’s even a higher chance that you aren’t qualified to take on the guy that is fomenting democracy.  Leave it to the professionals and you don’t have to worry wasting your precious zombie time.

Article comment #25: Eventually, someone will post photos from your high school yearbook. Dang, your hair was big.

Article rebuttal #25: Fine with me.  I like to reminisce about the time when I had hair.

Rooster’s final thoughts:

You only have to involve yourself in stuff you want to involve yourself in.  You have options to participate or not participate.  No one is forcing you to do anything.

If you are going to publicly and nationally advertise your issues with Facebook, make sure you are fully qualified to be an editor of such an article.  This means that you can take your 25 comments, eliminate redundancy, and post your 12, maybe 13 comments so as not to bore your readers.  The author can learn from people like CM and myself.  Make your point and be done with it.  Jackass.

Talk Nerdy to Me

OK, bare with me here.  I’m going to talk nerdy for a minute.

I know a lot of people have shared woes about Windows Vista, including me.  Overall I like it, but man, there are some major resource hog issues.  Here are the programs I use on a constant basis:

• SQL Server Management Studio
• Adobe Photoshop CS3
• Microsoft Outlook, Word, and Excel
• Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

At least 3 out of those 6 programs require massive CPU usage and make things very slow, if not impossible to run together at any given time.  If your not technical, here is how the issue can be explained best:

Sure, the car is able to perform well, but as with anything, if you overtax it with, oh let’s say the equivalent to a 25 foot tall 25000 lb man, that shit is going to bump and scrape and never get any where.

Well, today I discovered a nice solution.  Microsoft doesn’t seem to readily advertise this feature.  Most likely because it would be a blatant admission to the fact that they built a giant piece of crap operating system.  This feature is called “Ready Boost”.

Ready Boost uses up to 4 gigabytes from your flash drive and adds it as memory to your computer when activated.  Just plug it in and things start to run much, much smoother.

So again, taking the nerdy talk to something every one can understand: What this is doing is taking this:

…and turning it into this:

OK, I’m done talking nerdy.

Stupid iTunes

I’ve been a major fan of the iPod, iPhone, and iTunes until last night.  For some unknown reason, I pulled up iTunes last night and I got an error message “You’re iTunes library has been corrupted. The file has been rescued and saved to your iTunes folder”.

As I look at iTunes and realize my iTunes library was cut from over 150 gigabytes of music to a little over 55 GBs.  I cringe.

Then I look at my playlists, of which I have spent probably days worth of time setting up folders and lists just to my likinig.  All gone.  I cringe harder.

Then, thinking that the “rescued file” might just fix everything back to my personal settings like I’ve done when transferring all my music from computer to computer, I locate the .itl file and import it.

Nothing.

I cringe so hard I nearly fall out of my chair.

I look up help articles and forums on just this subject just to find that “Oh ya, iTunes for Windows  in Vista sometimes just gets corrupted.”

Stupid iTunes, stupid Windows Vista.  Can’t we all just get along?

Well, I guess it could be worse… it could be a Zune that gets bricked by the Y2K9 bug (yes, 2009 bug).  (Wilbur, sorry to use you as a public example!).

Anyway, if this corrupted .itl file ever happens to anyone, I found a program that will reimport all your music, settings, playlists, play counts, ratings, the whole sha-bang.  Download it from http://www.ipod-computer.com/.  P.S. It also works great for when you want to download anything from a friends iPod!

VOIP

Technology is supposed to advance us. It is designed to make our everyday lives easier and more efficient. VOIP was designed to do just this. Except… it doesn’t. VOIP is a freaking retarded idea. Sure, we get free long distance.

That’s nice, but guess what? I used to work in telecom, and I know for a fact that free long distance can be given with a simple command in the billing system. So what is the purpose of VOIP now?

I’ll tell you what the purpose is: To piss me off.

We have VOIP in our office. The phones, in their infinite wisdom, wait until we dial in to a conference call and THEN decide they need a reboot. This reboot takes a good 4-5 minutes as it restarts the phone, runs the ‘programs’, and refreshes the IP.

So, now I was able to call in, call my name that I am present, and then the phone drops. Then I get instant messages for the 5 minutes saying “where are you?”, “what happened to you?”, “we need your response”, “are you on mute?”, or something else to that effect.

If technology is supposed to make our lives simpler and more effective, I propose we go to the most efficient method: Plug a regular phone line into the wall and make your call. Holy crap… it works, it’s proven as effective, and it’s simple. This is one technology that makes life more complex.

I vote “BOOOOOO!!!! To VOIP”. It’s pure jackassery.

i can’t even title this…

I can smell your brain fart…

Scientists have found a way to tell when someone is about to have a brain fart.  To sum it up, what was found was that “one set of brain regions that is normally active only when a person is awake and relaxed began firing up — in other words, it’s as if the brain started resting. At the same time, another group of brain regions that is usually lively when a person is sustaining effort on a task began toning down. After people made and detected any mistakes, the abnormal behavior went away.”

So, what does that tell us?  Science proves stupid mistakes are biological.  Maybe this explains why someone might represent their Super Classy car (see previous post), or people at work, no matter how intelligent, can manage to pull a stupid mistake, or even worse yet… voting for Hillary in 2008.

They are going to try and make a portable device that can detect these brain abnormalities up to 30 seconds prior to making a stupid mistake. 

In other words, scientists want us to be able to smell a brain fart before it actually happens.  Amazing.

Source

More on HD vs. Blu-Ray

So, as a follow up to every one giving HD-DVD the boot, Best Buy apparently decides to drop their Xbox 360 HD-DVD peripheral from $200.00 to $50.00.  CompUSA dropped theirs to $90, but includes but includes 7 HD movies. 

Hm… is it worth it yet?  No.  Still a waste.

Source: Best Buy Drops Xbox HD DVD Player Price To $50

Blu-Ray Wins the Battle

Source: Toshiba to exit HD DVD

This is exactly why I told the salesman “I am not going to buy the HD DVD Player for the Xbox 360″.  I had a feeling Blu-Ray would ultimately win.  Maybe I should have bought a PS3… I would have been ahead of the game.

I wonder if Microsoft will be forced into getting a Blue-Ray external for the 360, or if they are going to move to the “download” option?  Probably the latter since production costs are virtually zero and they are already set up for it on Xbox Live.