Saturday, June 05, 2004
A fan after my own heart
Star Wars: A Penetrating Analysis.
I somehow feel as though I've bookmarked this before.
Next up, US Patent#7,262,222: Breathing While Using Handheld Device
Microsoft has patented the use of double-clicking when using handheld devices. Yet another bullshit "intellectual property" land grab. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll be able to work for any company in my field with a clear conscience once I get out of school.
Amazon: IP assholes all the way
Via MeFi, we learn that Amazon recently filed a service mark application for the term "plog". Assholes. Still haven't repented from One-Click. Guess I won't be reopening my Amazon account after all.
Bush hires private criminal defense lawyer
Sunday, May 30, 2004
Emerge Card Services employees must die, screaming in pain
Every day or two, for the past month at least, I have been getting unsolicited telemarketing calls from a company called "Emerge Card Services". Most telemarketers, once they realize you're not going to pick up the phone, give up. Not these motherfuckers. They just call and call and call and call, each time insinuating that they've got some intriguing offer for Emerge card members. This, in spite of the fact that I have changed my answering machine message to say the following:
Hello, you have reached (my land line number). Please place this number on your permanent do-not-call list, as you are required to do by Federal law. This includes if you work for Emerge Card Services, as there is no Emerge card member at this residence. Thank you.
I'm pretty sure that this language requires them to stop calling me, or else go to jail and/or pay large fines. I think they persist in calling because they actually don't listen to answering machine messages, only human beings; and because they believe that some unfortunate rube who is an Emerge card member lives at this address. But the amount of effort required on my part to actually make these Emerge assholes poor, and put them in prison, is so great that I'll probably never do it. At most, I'll report them to Qwest and get my phone number changed. And that's why these Emerge scumbags keep calling: because they know they can. It costs them nothing to harass people. They don't care what's right. They do it because they can.
If I could, by pressing a button on my telephone, anonymously make these people, their children, their parents, and their parents' friends die immediately, in excruciating pain, then I would. If I could, by pressing a button on my telephone, anonymously set fire to the houses of every manager at Emerge Card Services, I would do it. I would do it because I can.
Al Qaeda could easily wreck the global economy
...if it wanted to, by attacking the Saudi oil infrastructure. Which raises the question: why haven't they attacked the Saudi oil infrastructure? So asks a disturbing post at Billmon.
Social software in global cultures
Interesting post at Many to Many:
An interesting interview with Intel anthropologist Genevieve Bell challenges assumptions of technology in disparate cultures. “My hypothesis was that there was no variation, that there was a global middle class engaged in the same kinds of relationships with technology. It was a hypothesis that was rapidly disproved.” We have highlighted the use of social software to support third places, between work and home, by early adopters in the West, however:
One of the things that became clear in Asia, and is becoming true in the West, but we’re not really good at seeing it, is that people are using these technologies for those third activities. In Asia, it’s visible in the way people use mobile devices to support religious activities. The nicest example is people using their mobile phones to find Mecca. LGE, a Korean handset company, has produced a Mecca-finding handset with GPS technology in it. So it’s a tool of religious devotion. They anticipated selling 300 million units in the first couple years.
The world is turning into a Bruce Sterling novel.
Labels: culture, social-software
