Centralization, in part, killed LJ. It's a problem for every social media platform because it gives power to a single organization to use and manage access to our data. If social media was a set of protocols that enforced only a universal format for our content and we could them select which organization we wanted to use to host and control access ( Read more... )

Just a note: we're in the midst of another great depression, and we haven't hit bottom yet.  The last six months were a false recovery due to government spending, but that spending is just about tapped out and it'll be a long time before Republicans allow more deficit spending.  You'll start to see the economy bear this out during the second half ( Read more... )

Apparently, I'm not the only person who thinks that Kesha acts like a drunken whore...

"KE$HA MUST ACT LIKE A DRUNKEN WHORE AT ALL TIMES."

And just for good measure, I went back to watch the original Tik Tok video and I realized...  the scene where she's coming down the stairs and heading out the door, with the family at the kitchen table...  I'd ( Read more... )

And good riddance ( Read more... )

I've just discovered for myself that Yelp cheats, hiding bad reviews presumably if a store owner desires it (the rumor is that Yelp charges for this service).

On December 18th, 2009, I logged into Yelp for the first time and provided some reviews to the establishments I was familiar with.  I wrote one scathing review about Scopazzi's Restaurant and ( Read more... )

Reviewing SlashDot, I ran across this gem: Microsoft Employees Love Their iPhones

It doesn't surprise me in the slightest to learn that many people at Microsoft using iPhones.  The iPhone is an extraordinary phone, and while it wasn't the first of the SmartPhones, it quickly became the best of them.  It bothers me that people might think that ( Read more... )

As I was saying ( Read more... )

This is a technical overview of my ideal Social Networking experience; one which I'd even be interested in creating, given enough time...

We begin, of course, with a user, who creates an account and populats their account with their meta-information including the person's name, email address, birth year, birth month, birth day, work locations, alma ( Read more... )

Several weeks ago, I abruptly departed from Facebook.  I didn't have a single reason for leaving, rather I had a whole bunch of half-reasons.  I'll get into them shortly.

First, I want to mention that it has been painful to do without the daily interaction with all of my friends.  I truly love you.  You make my life better and I hope that I had a ( Read more... )

Driving home this evening, I crested the summit of the Santa Cruz mountains and was greeted with some weird weather.  It was raining, and it was simultaneously snowing.  I stopped the car, disbelieving what I was seeing, but a step outside the car confirmed it.  Snow.  Nothing that was sticking to the ground, but white, fluttery, slow-falling snow