Category Archives: web

The Inflated Worth of MySpace

Why doesn’t myspace want me to block spammers?

  1. I get an email from a new “friend” and have to click the link.
  2. MySpaceMustBeLoggedIn.pngI have to log in manually, because myspace is too stupid to provide me with a link in the email that will log me in and/or keep me logged in from last time. The link already has “id=901C2C3E- C4C7- 4B01- 8C3A- B8E67467D47F” in it, and it still couldn’t log me on.
  3. I’m shown the invitation and have to click through to the profile.
  4. I click “block user”.
  5. Java script pops up a confirmation panel and I have to click “OK”. Yes I really want to block this user. If I did it accidentally, I could always go unblock them.
  6. Another page reloads to re-confirm that yes, I really want to block this user. I click “block this user”.
  7. Back on the invite page, I take one more click to “mark as spam”.

There could easily have been a “mark as spam and block user” button there, and with auto-login, it could have taken me two steps. Why doesn’t myspace do this? Because they’re stupid? Yes, that’s true. But I think the reason they don’t is they like spam users. It drives up their “usage” stats, and makes them look somehow still relevant.It’s January 1 – and I have one spam friend invite. Come December 31 2007, I’d wager I’ve had 200 more. And hopefully, the slow to the party print media will have pronounced “MySpace is Dead”!

meme: I am a True Neutral Human Sorcerer/Rogue

I did this for fun because BGwScott did it, and I was all aflutter after getting my Internet back after 4 days of it being dead. But then I got email from Manuel, one of my old high school buddies who I played D&D with a few times, commenting about our continued interest in games (though the interests don’t include D&D anymore). So, here’s the meme:

What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?

I Am A: True Neutral Human Sorcerer/Rogue (3rd/3rd Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-13
Dexterity-12
Constitution-12
Intelligence-15
Wisdom-14
Charisma-12

Continue reading

Thursday Games

Thursday night I left work and went straight to the Sharpstown Mall – Houston’s Premier Urban Mall (mostly out of a need to avoid the Galleria – the other mall on the way home from work). I had quite fun with the cultural experience. Did a little shopping, and have been humored by the people who literally think i was in imminent danger by going there.

From there I went straight to Greg’s house for game night, where he Peter and I were the only attendees. (Paul showed up as I was leaving – and I think he and Greg continued gaming).

RaceForTheGalaxyLogo.jpgWe played 4 games. Race for the Galaxy (2007) was ranked #31 on BGG! An interesting colonization themed card-based game. It takes most of your first play to get the mechanics down enough to pay attention to any strategy. I wasn’t wowwed, but would certainly play it a few more times to determine if I liked it or not.

If Wishes Were Fishes (2007) GBB Rank 988 – a very light fish market themed game. I liked it more than I thought I would. It would be easy to tech to kids, and has nice fun purple worms as part of the game.

HansaView.jpgHansa (2004) BGG Rank 159 – TG recently acquired this at an Internet fire sale, but I hadn’t yet played it. So, Greg taught this one and it is a nice shorter length game but with some interesting mechanics providing for some definite strategies with a variety of levels of antagonism. I have sine played it with two-players (with TG) and with three again. I definitely like it. Minimal, but good.

Aqua Romana (2005) BGG Rank 638 – This was a nice closer to the evening. Not too long, interesting mechanics. Building aqueducts with tiles that are determined by men moving about the field of tiles. Definitely worth a place in the rotation.

I got home around midnight to find my DSL disconnected. The phone repair guy had come to fix the dead phone – which had fixed itself already – but he saw there were “wiring problems” from outside so the disconnected the “upstairs line” so the other phones would work. What he actually did was disconnect the DSL.

Many days talking to many idiots finally payed off and this morning a competent repair man replaced many parts of the 10 year old DSL wiring – and hopefully it will remove the static I’ve had on my phone for over a year.

I also get DHCP directly fed from AT&T/SBC. Apparently no one else in Houston is like that. I was one of the first ADSL customers to get hooked up (working software design out of my house – paid by the company) and they’ve maintained it for those who have stayed. I’m one of the last.

I remember when it used to feed an unlimited number of IP addresses (because they didn’t know what they were doing). That lasted a few years, but they finally figured it out and now will only feed one IP address per DSL connection.

twitter

twitter logoDoes anyone out there twitter?  Do you know anyone who does?  I guess since I’m cell phone-less that it’s of limited use for me.  (Though if I had an iPod Touch I could use that, perhaps.)

Select a Candidate

A few days ago I was listening to a podcast while biking through Memorial Park all the way to the West Loop and in an extended PBS interview with Mike Gravel I was struck by how much I liked him (and of course how he had no chance in hell of being taken seriously, much less elected).

So, I was not surprised when he ended up at the top of the list after a short quiz on political views. There was also a perfect stratification of Dems at the Top and Reps at the bottom, with Ron Paul being the highest (R). It would have been interesting to have some 3rd party candidates in there, but with over a year until the election they’re not stupid enough to have any candidates yet (much less 10).

Mike Gravel
Score: 49
Agree
Iraq
Immigration
Taxes
Stem-Cell Research
Health Care
Abortion
Social Security
Marriage
Death Penalty
Disagree
Line-Item Veto
Energy
Chris Dodd
Score: 49
Agree
Immigration
Taxes
Stem-Cell Research
Health Care
Abortion
Social Security
Line-Item Veto
Marriage
Death Penalty
Disagree
Iraq
Energy
Dennis Kucinich
Score: 49
Agree
Iraq
Taxes
Stem-Cell Research
Health Care
Abortion
Social Security
Line-Item Veto
Marriage
Death Penalty
Disagree
Immigration
Energy

— Take the Quiz! —

Here’s the entire list:
Mike Gravel – 49
Chris Dodd – 49
Dennis Kucinich – 49
Barack Obama – 42
Hillary Clinton – 42
Bill Richardson – 39
John Edwards – 36
Joe Biden – 32
Ron Paul – 28
Rudy Giuliani – 20
John McCain – 11
Mitt Romney – 10
Sam Brownback – 7
Jim Gilmore – 5

Digital Rights Management Screws

There is a great pool on flickr called “DRM is like…

Digital Rights Management. It’s only on legally purchased music and keeps you from doing things that are legal to do with purchased music. It’s what makes “squirted” music on Zunes only play three times. It’s what makes NBC’s new “free video service” (with commercials) only allow you to view a TV show for a week. (How long will that VHS tape of Heroes last?)

How long till it dies out? I’m really interested to see the end game. Open media is the only answer.