The Final Frontier

Finally, after weeks of delay I’ve received my 500GB Iomega MiniMax HD*, which looks like a Mac mini and also acts as a Firewire / USB hub.

This is good news because space was indeed proving to be the final frontier – now with videos and RAW images archived, I can create some more atrocities to inflict on the world.

(*Yes, it has a cool, blue light on the front).

Strange Girl

One of my exes bears a striking resemblance to Miss Shears Spears, particularly her eyes, and she was insane too. Never shaved her head, though.

OK, she wasn’t insane, just A Strange Girl when you scratched the surface. Going out with me probably didn’t help!

Your Opinion is Worthless!

These days, it seems every news web site in the world has a way for people to post comments, blog-style. Techy news sites have long had these features, but now it’s hit the mainstream as The Thing To Do.

And you’d think this was a good thing with everyone having their say, all “democratic” and shit. No longer does an editor handpick contributions with real value, it all goes out there, although usually a moderator will check for “unsuitable” language, that’s about it. Trouble is, the odd profanity would be the least of problems.

This kind of feedback might work on blogs, most of the time, but I just don’t think it works on a large scale, not even on very popular blogs. It becomes little more than noise. So, you have to sift through all this crap to find something meaningful, or simply not bother.

Take a look at any of these discussions and you’ll see the same pattern repeated: some people simply agree with the main gist but don’t really add anything; others disagree but seldom make a good case as to why. Then, buried in a hundred comments are probably a handful of gems that add another angle or make a good point that is really worth reading.

So why does it bother me? While I like the idea that anyone can contribute and nobody is acting as the thought police, I think it’s misleading for people to believe that because they *can* say something, they really should, when it clearly adds nothing to the conversation.

I believe my concern is with something much bigger, though. Maybe it’s because I have been on the receiving end of people’s uninformed or pointless opinions and have seen others suffer the same onslaught of crap. It’s off-putting! To survive, you have to develop a thick skin, then risk becoming an arrogant cunt.

Maybe it’s also because of my involvement in podcasting. Same rules apply: just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should. Since podcasting went mainstream with iTunes, the amount of crap out there has become ridiculous. And there’s the danger that what is good about one podcast could be dismissed on the basis of all the shit out there. So, lots of people are doing it, which is good, but not so many people are listening, which is not!

I really don’t mind if someone is honest enough in saying “this is a personal journal” or “just another tech news clone” – ironically, it’s things like these that tend to be the most worthwhile, but too often there’s all talk and little substance to be found.

You deluded fools! Your opinion is worthless!

But not everyone’s. So I guess that’s it: I hate the dilution and resent the negative consequences. I know there are people out there who would have plenty of good stuff to say, but they shy away for fear of getting bombarded with crap, or are drowned out by loud-mouths with little to offer. And then we’re back where we started.

It will probably all work itself out in the end.

It was Snow Going at the Supermarket

They’re predicting snow for us tonight. Several inches in some places, but there probably won’t be that much here. Anyway, it is the way in this country that even the lightest dusting can bring everything slithering to a halt for a day or so.

Tonight, I had to call into Tesco for the usual pathetic few things and… I should have known… but I just didn’t think…

It was hell. Aisle after aisle of people filling their trolleys to capacity and beyond, each with enough food to feed a family of six for a fortnight. To those people, I wanted to say this:

It’s one day of snow, it’ll probably all be gone by the weekend, SO WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SHOPPING LIKE YOU’LL BE SNOWBOUND FOR WEEKS YOU DAFT CUNTS???!!!!

I feel better now.

Update 8/2: For the record we got about an inch and it melted. No matter, the good men and women of suburbia now have enough food to last until March.

Update 9/2: Of course, they didn’t predict the several inches of snow we would get today until this morning. Fortunately, the good men and women of suburbia now have enough food to last until March, etc, etc. Too bad they have to get home from work on a sledge.