I am a bit p[icky when it comes to what shows up in my email box, so when a Facebook application sends me a message without my explicit approval, I report it for sending spam and then block it.  The problem is, this isn’t an application.  It’s a note, or something, and you can arbitrarily tag people.

The first time this happened it was my sister, and I scoured her 25 Random Things looking for where she mentioned me, even indirectly.  There was no mention of me. Until now, “tagging” me usually meant I was in a photo, and I was happy to receive notification of a 3rd party putting information about me on the internet.  Thats a good use of notification.

I went to my Facebook privacy settings and found that there was a setting to disable email notification when someone tags you in a note.  That would be fine… until someone wrote something about me in a note and tagged me, and then I would have no idea.

So, users are violating the spirit of what tagging is supposed to be used for, which is hardly Facebook’s fault.  But it still annoys me.I suppose I will not have to live with two flavors of chain letter style spam, one from traditional email, and one from facebook.  Facebook should step up and find a way to solve this problem though, without forcing me to blanket deny all communications from them.

• It shines light on the fact that Apple is casting an unfair stereotype of PC users
• It gives existing Microsoft costumers a group of people they can feel proud identifying with
• It makes Apple look like elitist snobs (which, to be fair, they are)

Disclosure:

I am operating system agnostic.  I use Linux at work, PC at home, have worked extensively with Mac’s.  I consider them all fairly similar platforms for software development, with PCs lagging behind a little because of the lack of a real shell environment, but it still doesn’t slow me down all that much. I have an iPod, it was free.  I don’t like it all that much more than the MP3 player it replaced, but it’s fine.

Conclusion:

Anyway, good job Microsoft (I don’t say that often).  Also, Vista is a steaming pile of crap, and when I got my new PC with it preinstalled, all of my applications crashed so often I had to go revert to XP and download tons of hard to find drivers to get it all to work.  Maybe they should hire the person who came up with that commercial to sort out their product development.

Improvements:
One problem with walkscore is the distance between your location and the resource appears to be determined mathematically by examining the latitude and logitude of the two locations. This is fine, if your’s superman. Unless I can jump over rivers, scramble over buildings and cross private property, the math doesn’t work out. I assume the problem is that there is no data out there for determining how far it is to walk somewhere, only to drive. Maybe that alone should give us cause for concern.

My Scores:

• Home (Denver): 54/100
• Home (NJ): 15/100
• Work: 14/100

• Getting soaked in champagne sprayed out of bottles from the majorettes
• Looking down to realize a majorette was on her hands and knees crawling between my legs
• Watching the tuba player charge headfirst, with instrument, into the impromptu mosh pit
• Deviant, clothed, mock sexual acts
• An unfortunate full blown view of the male majorette’s… little majorettes
• Several costume changes
• Tight sound in spite of the band members being separated in a sea of dancing club-goers

All in all it was quite an experience, but not for the conservative of feint of heart. If they come your way, definitely check them out. You can see their touring schedule here

• PvPOnline
  You have to be living in a hole to have missed this one. It follows the day to day lives of a group of people that work for a gaming magazine. It has quality art and really great storylines.
• Wigu
  Back from the dead! The second comic by Jeffrey Rowland, a follow-up to his successful “When I Grow Up”. It follows the adventures of a boy named Wigu and his family. Have you seen my “I am made of poison!” T-Shirt? This is where it came from
• Diesel Sweeties
  Diesel Sweeties is mostly one-liner type comics with occasional short story arcs. The writing is witty and unique, and the art is all old school pixel style.
• Sinfest
  Sinfest is a comic about Slick and Monique, two young urban hipsters and their friends. Regular guest appearances by god and the devil. Very good stuff.
• Wapsi Square
  How do I begin to describe this? It’s a character comic that revolves around a short, busty Latin girl with lots of spunk that works for a museum. Very unique storylines and interesting characters that sometimes pull from ancient central american legends.
• Chugworth Acadaemy
  Chugworth Academy has beautiful art, leaning towards the anime/manga style. It contains quite a few adult themes and the authors comments are sometimes totally non-sensical, but I have crushes on the whole cast
• Alien Loves Predator
  What would it be like if an alien (you know, the snake-like critters from Aliens) and a Predator shared an apartment together in Manhattan? Pretty much what you would expect. Unique artistically in that the whole thing is done with digital pictures of action figures (with a lot of Photoshop touching up). Quite hilarious.
• Sore Thumbs
  Sore Thumbs is the first totally political gamer comic. A dorky conservative guy and her uber-hot anime style liberal sister run a video game store together. Lots of interesting characters and an emphasis on longer story-arcs.
• Penny Arcade
  Like PvP Online, Penny Arcade is a widely known comic. It’s about two roommates and mostly focuses on gaming themes, with some hilarious deviations. Quality.
• Rob and Elliot
  What can I say about Rob and Elliot? It has to be one of the funniest comics of all time. It never ceases to surprise me with plot twists as predictable as the weather in Colorado and great art. I absolutely adore this comic!
• Mac Hall
  Mac Hall has absolutely beautiful art, and the writing isn’t bad either. This comic is about to get cut from my daily list though, as updates are incredibly sporadic, sometimes going weeks between postings.
• Real Life
  This comic is about a guy named Greg, and it is loosely based on his real life. Real life events drive the major storyline, but the day to day stuff is much more interesting than anyone’s life could actually be. Unless you happen to have time machines and be involved in international conspiracies.
• Dinosaur Comics
  I just added this into my daily routine and it is hilarious. The comic itself is the same six panels of art everyday with only dialogue changes. It is very surreal humor with a lot of philosophy and over thinking of everyday events. Be sure to hover on the image to read the alt text after you read each comic, two punch lines for the price of one!

There are several comics I have enjoyed in the past and have stopped reading. I used to really like MegaTokyo, but got turned off by inconsistent updates and too many stick figure art days (which I never found interesting at all). One of my all time favorites was Bobbins, but sadly it came to an end. Scary-go-round, the follow-up project to bobbins was good, but it failed to hold my interest. Sheldon is a good comic about a boy, his grandfather and a duck. I stopped reading it when they started recycling strips. Greystone Inn was interesting, I can’t remember why I stopped reading it. Maybe I’ll start again!

Post comments, let me know what you’re reading!

Rating: 5/5

I just finished reading this book by first time author Audrey Niffenegger. I thoroughly enjoyed her writing style. She has a nice voice, descriptive and enticing, and plenty of plot threads to keep you turning pages even when you start fighting sleep during those late night reading sessions.

The book is primarily about two people, Henry and Clare, who are friends and lovers. The catch is that Henry involuntarily time travels, and pops up anywhere in recent history sans clothing and usually feeling sick. This causes lots of interesting, as often good as bad, situations depending on where/when Henry appears. We find him visiting Clare as a child while he is middle aged, popping into his childhood bedroom and talking to himself, seeing intense moments in his life over and over from different angles.

The situation reminds me of the Cassandra Complex. If Henry sees something in the future, he knows that no matter what he does that’s the way it will turn out. As a result he guards this knowledge carefully, as sharing it with others in the “present” can lead to great frustration as they try to undo the future. The book goes on in an appropriate level of detail to describe the scientific rationales for his involuntary temporal leaps, but not in so much detail that you can pick it apart.

Beyond the time travel aspect, the book describes a touching and, for me quite familiar, love story between Henry and Clare. The characters are highly accessible and believable, and you experience their joy and sorrow as you read.

The book also lends itself to great conversation and it even has a couple pages of discussion questions in the back. While most of them are a little on the obvious side, they point out certain themes throughout the book that are fun to discuss.

All this translates to a rating of 5 out of 5. Niffenegger manages to combine the great American novel with a science fiction story, and it works. It works well. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy, at the very least you will find it interesting, if not a truly cathartic experience.