All the charm of a martini bar, without all that "courtesy"

30 Jul 2008 No Comments

by ryanin Technology, Web Tags: , , ,

Curmudgeon mode, Engage!

I’m a big gadget/Web/Internet/wasting time fan, but the latest waste of time just made me laugh today. It’s called firefly. Firefly (sorry, firef.ly; did no one learn from del.ici.ous, wait, deli.cio.us, damn it del.icio.us?) is a service that lets you add (sigh) live chat to your web site. Really. Live chat. You know, for all those deep, moderated discussions taking place on the Web.

Firefly runs on Flash and a Javascript library (as far as I can tell), that lets anyone on your site chat with the other people on your site. I don’t know if someone on the homepage is chatting with someone on a sub-page, but really, who cares? This only works when a couple of things are in alignment: you have sufficient traffic and people want to talk about what you’re writing about.

Those two things also basically guarentee that you will have a high Internet troll quotient. And now, he’s a real-time, unmoderated, permanently S3-stored troll. It’s also next to impossible reference another chatter to, yah know, have a conversation.

It’s a cute toy, but that’s all it will be. Om Malik is saying it’s in Alpha on HuffPo; I’d love to hear how they’re dealing with political Internet trolls over there.

How to Drive Your Significant Other Crazy

21 Jan 2008 2 Comments

by ryanin General Tags: , , , , ,

In the Bad Way (driving them crazy the good way is not for this blog).

  1. Ramble on about work politics.
  2. Endlessly talk about, price out, and search for discounts on an MacBook, but then end every conversation with “…but I’m not going to buy one.”
  3. Take out cilantro and set it on the counter whenever you cook dinner, but never actually but any in since you know your S.O. hates it.
  4. Go to dinner, order the most expensive beer on the menu, then wax about how much better another beer as (even though that beer cannot be purchased at this restaurant).
  5. Only put hyper-nerdy, niche sci-fi/comedy films in your movie rental queue.
  6. Stare agape when your well-read movie-aficionado S.O. hasn’t seen the above movies.
  7. Order seemingly-random T-shirts on impulse, then insist that they agree about how cool they are (they’re not).
  8. Eat their chocolate. This may be cause for justifiable homicide in some states.
  9. Blog lists of things that drive them crazy.

Does Computer Use Actually Cause Carpal Tunnel?

15 Oct 2007 No Comments

by ryanin Health, Technology Tags: , , ,

Maybe not.

Slashdot | Does Computer Use Actually Cause Carpal Tunnel?

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