Fifth Anniversary! Last time on the fifth floor, I hope.
"You have a funny voice and everything about you is like a cartoon character. I’m afraid our child might be born in crayon."
— My Wife
Why Tumblr?
I’ve decided to move this relatively unread blog from Blogger (owned by Google) to Tumblr. Aside from what I consider to be a better feature set and more intuitive interface, the main reason for the transfer is this: personal information disaggregation. I’m de-Googling myself, somewhat. Un-googling myself? I’m also de-facebooking myself (completely). Below, I’m reposting the letter I sent to all of my facebook friends shortly before deleting my facebook account:
Dear Facebook,
I’m writing to say goodbye. After over 6 years, I’m leaving you. I feel like I hardly knew you. But then again, you certainly know me. You know what I told you about myself. You knew what others told you about me: what I was doing, what I liked, where I went, what I was buying and more. You let others put up pictures of me without my knowing it. Not once, not twice, but three times you shot first and asked questions later with regard to protecting my privacy; not to mention your founder’s questionable respect for other people’s privacy throughout facebook’s history. You’ve always opted everyone in; now I want to opt out.
Come to think of it, your entire purpose is to sell my information to advertisers. I don’t begrudge you, it’s a brilliant business model. How could a search engine know more about me than a site I load with my personal information, interests, personal connections and history? You even built-in a “like” button to better understand my likes and dislikes within the facebook universe; recently expanding your thumb[s up] into my eye wherever I browse. But I’m worried about what you are doing with all of this data and how you protect it. On top of that, facebook, your Terms of Service basically state that you own my data as long as I have an account with you.
I know you consider yourself a “social utility;” Outlook on Steroids. I think that’s right. A utility provides basic services at low, regulated prices: electricity, telephone, TV and, now, social interaction. The convenience of this utility is great, but the price is too high. I want my privacy back. Unlike the world of real utilities, where my choices are limited to one, two or three service providers (potentially capping my Quality of Service), the Internet gives me dramatic choice.
Video - Vimeo
Photos - Flickr
Email - Gmail
Chat - Skype
Link Sharing - Twitter
Blogging - Tumblr
Events - Punchbowl
Networking - LinkedIn
Killing Time - Any book
All of these sites provide significantly higher service quality than you. But that’s not all. The best part about all of these sites? They are each owned by different companies. I don’t have to rely solely on your technological ability to protect massive amounts of my personal information. More importantly, I don’t have to rely on your “good intentions.” I’m disaggregating myself in an attempt to reclaim what little protection of my privacy exists in the modern internet world. By the way, that goes for you too, Google. So, if you need to reach me, just send me an email. That technology isn’t exactly out of date and the email server won’t tell everyone what I had for breakfast.
It was oatmeal.
Best of luck to you in the future.
grill
Right Choices
With mgp’s shot across my bow, I figured this is a good time to point out something in my life about which I made the right choice: college. This video reminds me why I refused to consider attending a certain University in CT, despite it’s quality reputation and its crew coach’s pursuit of my (once upon a time) rowing abilities:
To be honest, when I first saw the video, I thought it was made by The Lampoon or The Onion. Or maybe even some kind of weird response to this prank:
But then I read the accompanying New Yorker article. Man, oh man. Yale really does suck.
Also, Brian Williams…I’m just shaking my head.
I have been fortunate enough to convince a wonderful woman to spend the rest of her life with me. As we have taken the plunge into wedding planning the last few months, I’ve come to despise the term fiancé. Maybe it’s that Seinfeld episode playing over and over again in my head, but I hate the word:
I’ve recently taken to referring to her as my “Future Wife,” or “FW.” That felt like too many syllables/a mouthful, so I tried to shorten it to “F-dub,” but it was pointed out to me that “F-dub,” sounds suspiciously like “Ephed Up.” I’m really not trying to make any kind of comment about modern engagements or marriage; just that I hate the word fiancé.
Sunday Ticket
I don’t have DirecTV. I know a lot of people really like their eight screen, Sunday game showcase. This way, you can watch 8 games at the same time, switching the audio at any moment to the most exciting/relevant game. It sounds like a great idea and I hear the execution is terrific.
I would like that for election night coverage, please. Flipping back and forth between CNN, MSNBC, Fox, ABC and CBS is driving me a little nuts.
There are probably some other things I would probably want this feature for on a more regular basis, but I can’t think of any at the moment. Any suggestions? I know the Grum would like it for “Antiques Roadshow.”
Projection Porn
It’s so funny that they rush to project states that are obviously (MA, CT, TX, WY, etc.), but are so overly cautious on toss-ups/leaners. I know this is a good thing and how it should be, but considering the fact that they are talking non-stop for about 12 hours, it’s just funny to watch them talk themselves in circles without saying anything. It’s like they are caricatures of themselves from four years ago.
So much equivocation and so many qualifiers before saying anything.
“If these polls turn out to be accurate, which they likely aren’t, I would be willing to say, which I’m not saying yet, that it would be no surprise, except to some, that I am a total douchebag.”
Update (8:04pm): And I spoke too soon. Five minutes after I write this, MSNBC does not hesitate to call PA for Obama. I heard earlier that Philly was going to be such a monstrous win for BHO (625k+ margin) that it would offset weakness in the West, but that’s pretty quick.
