Oxfam America banner

Mind Boggling Stupidity

This piece of utter retardation just popped up on my radar; and, after a solid round of bashing my head against my keyboard, I was compelled to comment. The short version is, Chris Anderson at Wired is making the argument that the availability of enormous clouds of data will allow scientists to eschew the scientific method and just pull conclusions from correlations within “the cloud.”  His main argument for this, Google doesn’t have a proper model of why PageRank works, but it does so, there you go.

Ars Technica provides a better rebuttal of the scientific points that I feel like writing; so I highly suggest that you read that. But I do have some comments I’d like to make.

To start, why, for the love of Ahura Mazda, must every Web 2.0 dork conflate Google with the rest of the gods damned universe. First, Google is an advertising company, nothing more, nothing less. The sooner you nerds realize that everything that comes out of Google Labs is directed at creating a pool of eyes to view those ads, the less disappointed you’ll be when reality comes crashing down. Second, Google’s success is a result

Continue reading Mind Boggling Stupidity

Note to Social Media Retards, the World Doesn’t Revolve Around You.

One could argue that I pick on the kids at The Apple Blog.  But, gosh darn it, they make it so easy.  Case in point.  Today one of the crew over there posed the question, “Should Apple have had a bigger presence at SXSW?“  To which I will be glad to provide an answer.  No.  Here’s the brutal reality kiddos.  “Social Media” is a gnat on the windshield of every other person on the planet.  Seriously, walk into a bar anywhere in the world, pick a random stranger and ask, “So, what did you think of Scoble’s latest blog post.”  I guaran-fucking-tee that the answer will be, “Who the fuck is ‘Scoble’?” followed by, “Who let you out of your parents’ basement.”  I know, it sucks, but it’s the truth.  You are truly insignificant, and you’ll probably die cold and alone in a pool of your own urine.  Life is a bitch, best to kill yourselves now.  Cheers!

Web 2.Oh No!

YouTube Preview Image

Yep, been there done that.  via Fake Steve Jobs

swfobject.embedSWF(“http://www.youtube.com/v/fi4fzvQ6I-o&color1=0x3A3A3A&color2=0×999999&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&hd=1″, “vvq-85-youtube-1″, “425″, “344″, “10″, vvqexpressinstall, vvqflashvars, vvqparams, vvqattributes);

Wikipedia Sucks

I may, or may not I’m fickle that way, write up a larger piece on the manifold problems with Wikipedia.  In the meantime I highly suggest reading some of the criticism at Wikipedia Review and Wikipedia Watch.  

Monkeysphere

I just ran across this via Violent Acres. While the tone is sarcastic, the theory is actually dead-on. This is what I was getting at in my post a while back.

Friends

Which is better, to have many people you call “friends,” or just a few that you hold dear in your heart? It seems to me that, for ages, society has told us that we’re not worthy unless we’re loved by many. Media tells us that being alone is a horrible thing. If someone dies, and only a few people attend the service, it’s sad. It doesn’t matter if the people who profess to be your “friend” are as phony as a three dollar bill, it’s just important that they all say they’re your buddy. Back when Sail Inn was still open, I would have said that I had lots of friends; and I would have been wrong. The truth is, there are only a few people in the world that I truly love, that I would call “friend,” and I’m fine with that. For anyone coming into this internet tide-water via MySpace, realize that I’m not condeming those who’s list of friends counts in the hundreds. Everyone is different, and I’m admittedly a sociopath. I’m just saying that, for myself, it’s the quality of the friendship that matters more than anything; and I’ve been lucky to have a very

Continue reading Friends