Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

My Web 2.0 Suicide Note

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Good by cruel internet as I press Ctrl, Alt Del on Facebook. Do not worry nor call 911 or suicide hotline. I am still alive.

I decide to commit Web 2.0 suicide or in other words clear out and close my Facebook account. What brought this on was the realization how little how little control I have over privacy, account, and personal information on Facebook. An illustration on the Evolution of Privacy on Facebook shows why I am disturbed by Facebook’s privacy policy.  By April 2010, accord to the graph, most of my Facebook information form gender to pictures could be accessed by the entire internet.

The privacy issue came home to roost when I surfed over to cnn.com for an article on unemployment and noted my logged in Facebook account ready for me to click likeit . It is the sharing of my account to third party sites that got me worrying. Not to mention Facebook pushing me to friend people I do not even know. Facebook and Google apps is why I turn nose up in the web 2.0 and the coming cloud computing. When one stores data on Goggle or any other web app host like photobucket and blogger , one essentially surrenders ones privacy and profile information to the hosting company. It is way I prefer this blog on my own rented server space than using an apps hosting site

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CompuServe Classic: Thanks for the memories

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

CompuServe Classic: So Long, Old Friend

“No, your monitor won’t blank out, your Internet connection won’t stall and your PC won’t crash, but a major event is about to ripple across the Internet today: CompuServe Classic is closing.

After 30 years the plug will be pulled on what was once the finest online service on the globe. (CompuServe 2000, a newer iteration of CompuServe will continue.)

And the saddest part is that it ends not with a bang, but with a whimper. Ask anyone about CompuServe today and the response will probably be “Are they still around?”

And that’s not fair for a service that once meant so much to cyberspace–long before we started calling it cyberspace. It dates to a time when most home PCs didn’t even have hard disks, just floppy disk drives, and when most PC users never went online. ”
Blog Post Here

I signed up after my discharge form the navy in 1993; I was on both Prodigy and CompuServe, pre-internet. In a way the 1990’s were the start of conservative activism on the net. I remember the first attempt to pass the farness doctrine in 1993, for the first time we had the bills in hand   while the debate was still going, it was then I realize the net will change the face of politics.

There was other non politic stuff, I was introduced to Bill Holbrook’s Kevin and Kell while on CompuServe and I still have some of my recipes downloaded form the cooking forum.

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Twitter and Texting No Thanks You

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

I feel I am being assaulted from all sides about Twitter, texting, social networking and the god forsaken need to be constantly connected via I-Phones and the infamous Crackberry , but  worst is texting and Twitter.  It is not only at my fellow furries I am focusing my wrath but also at politics and talk radio. For example talk show host Hugh Hewitt is singing to praises of Twitter as if it a it the cure for all that ails conservatism and Republican. Party, never mind it will take more than technology to solve to contradictory nature of so call conservatism or, in my opinion, to cover Mr. Hewitt lack of intellectual depth and insight or to express there of.

 

I feel the worst is we will lose the power of writing. Great ideas are transmitted in the written word. The problem is texting and Twitter will be all inspiration will be lost if writing is reduced to a few line of bullets. For example imagine A Shakespearian Sonnet, the Gettysburg Address, a passage of the Bible or even the preamble of the Decoration of   Independence    ran through the 140 characters grinder of twitter, all inspiration and meaning would be lost.

 

One doesn’t not have to have a degree in English grammar, just write. I was research the claim about Civil War soldier vs. High School Educated students today. Even without even a middle high school education and with many spelling and grammar mistake, I believe the point  can be made that a Civil war soldier with a fourth  grade education can express themselves in writing better  than  the Hip Hop culture or the average Tweet.

 

The problem is many I fell. It can be stifling influence of the hip hop or culture bowing down at the alter of instant gratification. Writing takes time even for me a post may take weeks because my difficulty in writing and may contain many spelling and grammar errors (reversed letter order, missing words, wrong word). Only 25% of what I write gets posted.  Many times I would write a paragraph and find the ideas jumbled to where I delete the document and move on the next subject. 

 

I not am asking any person reading this for perfect grammar or the next Gettysburg Address but instead of Tweeting Just take the time write and make a paragraph or two. I would love to red your thoughts and experiences.  

 

This document contains 1962 characters. Any Tweets or comments not in or at least attempt to write in complete sentence will be mercilessly deleted in protest.

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