Big Brother (AOL) is watching you and your search habits. And logging them. And giving them to people who ask. AOL has removed the database but not before it was replicated.
Now if you want something scarier, you can search the database for yourself. I assume this will eventually be taken down so use it while you can.
I admit I get a little satisfaction from being linked to by someone who has been on the forefront of blogging since 1999 and has written books and essays (including weblogs: a history and perspective in September 2000) on the topic. Obviously Rebecca’s Pocket didn’t link to this old blog that has been around in some form since the dawn of (internet) time, but to the one that actually gets play. And it was only a link-in-passing, but me likey validation.
If The Simpsons wasn’t animated, this would be the opening sequence. Nice editing. It’s also very accurate.
Steve Martin (yep, that Steve Martin) blogs — well, in this case, one blog entry — about the politicism of leap seconds.
There was a bad web design trend around 1996 and 1997 that has since gone away, thankfully. There were many people who designed websites and decided that the user would be required to listen to music, usually annoying music, when the sites finished loading. Sometimes, there was no way to stop the music, but usually you had to press the Esc key or click the browser’s stop button.
Thankfully, this annoying “feature” fell out of favor. Unfortunately, however, it’s back in the form of MySpace profiles. I fcuking hate MySpace, the third most-visited site on the internet. It’s such a horrible website, poorly designed and programmed, it’s a miracle that its shoddiness hasn’t caused the site to crumble under its own increasing mass.
Of course, to appeal to the masses (and to cater to bands that are unsigned for a reason), MySpace lets users add music (and videos) to their profiles. This means that even if I’m not already listening to my own music while browsing, my experience will be completely interrupted. It is disgusting. Turn off the profile music and make it an option to start playing. Otherwise it is a horrible annoyance.
Of course the answer is to stop using MySpace. More and more people are using it as thier main form of online communication, so just giving it up is unfortunately not going to work for me. I’ll just deal with it until people realize that even the Netscape blink tag was less annoying than automatic music (especially automatic “bad” music).
They will. Eventually something much better will replace MySpace in the minds of the hordes that use it. I have faith. I have faith because if I didn’t, I might cry. :>
I had too many people on my instant messenger buddy list with whom I no longer talk or have since moved to new screen names, and I was pushing the 200 name limit. That signaled to me it was time for a fresh start, so now I’m working with a blank slate. Send me an instant message so I can add back in those who like talking to me. :>
Something frightens me when I look at the visitor statistics for this website and I notice that someone has been visiting from the Executive Office of the President. (Actually, apparently the latest governmental visitor was from FEMA.) I’m glad they’re not too preoccupied with national emergencies so they have time to browse my website.
Checking email obsessively lowers your I.Q. It would be nice to receive an email with some positive news. I’d like to stop checking.
DreamHost, my web hosting provider, just tripled its disk space for all users, new and old. Now if only they would triple the number of domains you’re allowed to carry on one plan.
Gmail now offers POP access, which means you can use Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, or any number of programs to access your email there, in addition to the innovative conversation-style web interface. This makes the service much more valuable to me. Now I’ll actually use it.
I have ten invitations to spare, so if you would like an account, send me an email or comment here.