Month: March 2013

Overreaction, Again and Again

On By JohnIn psychologyLeave a comment

In Olympia, man walking with an umbrella triggers brainless, knee-jerk response in the locals: panic, stupidity, lock down of area schools, and a “manhunt”. READ

Couple of thoughts:

  • it’s Olympia. In Washington. State. It rains there. Sometimes lots. People use umbrellas to keep rain off.
  • the locals freak out about an ordinary, everyday object and think it’s an “assault rifle”… so they call in people with real assault rifles.
  • the usual show of force and herding of the populace ensues.

The mind boggles.

It just occurred to me that the ice-scraper/snow-brush thing I keep in my vehicle will likely, eventually, be mistaken by one of these mental midgets as an evil assault rifle. Guess maybe I should stop storing it in the rifle case in my car.

To Help You Identify Evil

On By JohnIn sociologyLeave a comment

As I’ve said before, it’s in places that, sadly, most people can’t even comprehend. From the blog feed, something I’d marked a few weeks ago then forgotten about (hey, I got busy and all FOUR of my readers are getting this content for free, so learn to cope) was a gem from Kevin’s The Smallest Minority.

Go read it.

Evil is wearing the mask of the compassionate authoritarian-type who only wants what’s best for you, it wants you to be safe and secure, and it will work to kill you so nobody else can.

On Smart Phone Dependence

On By JohnIn psychology, techLeave a comment

Quick show of hands: on the exceedingly rare occasion that you’re without your smart phone, does it make you feel naked? Or liberated?

Okay, you lurkers — you don’t need to respond.

Just try it, though. Leave your smart phone at home or in the car while you’re at work for a day.

Sometimes I’d like to drop my iPhone in a lake.

On the Pending Death of Google Reader

On By JohnIn amusing, tech1 Comment

Of all their products, I spend most of my time in Google Reader.

So, thanks, Google, for announcing you’re killing off something useful.

Can I ask you a couple of things?

First is Google Wave: what the hell were you thinking? No, I’m not asking why you took it away. I’m far more interested in what the line of reasoning was that led to its creation in the first place.  Was it supposed to be the next generation of IRC? The only useful thing that came out of Google Wave was, well, Google Pulp Wave Fiction:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcxF9oz9Cu0

…and possibly Google Wave Hunting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VD0wzo_Gw4

So, what, then, is Glass supposed to be? The next generation of the unification of cell phones and digital cameras? What are you trying to do? Introduce the ancestors of the WALL-E universe?

And don’t even get me started on Google+. Sure, go check it out. I’ll wait.

Yup, looks a lot like Facebook.

And now you’re killing off Google Reader:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A25VgNZDQ08

(spotted here. By the way, if you haven’t seen Downfall, the film that clip is originally from, I encourage you to watch it.)

I wanted to use Safari’s built-in RSS aggregator, but Apple killed it recently. Then I was going to use Mac Mail’s built-in aggregator, but Apple killed it off, too.

So, for now I’m using Feedly. I’m not hugely impressed. I find the interface to be somewhat awkward and presently it’s nothing more than a front-end for Reader’s API. Feedly says that they’re working on a cutover solution when Reader goes TU.

At least we can still export our feed list to an XML file and keep it around until something useful comes along.