Owning your own businesses is really cool. You set your hours, work at the pace you want (depending on the revenues you want, which typically means working like a dog), and basically do want you want. And that’s the fun side of things (except that the day job interferes sometimes, but that’s manageable)!
But then there’s the other side where you have to schmooze and compromise and bargain and negotiate and talk in circles and feel like you’re being screwed over (whether you are or not). It’s a tough slog, as me and my business partners are fond of saying. It what’s kept me from writing here lately.
So, I noted that I recently rejoined Facebook, although in a much more diminished capacity. I have not filled in any profile details about myself, and I’m being much more selective about who I befriend. Not because I’m a grouch, but because I’d prefer to maintain contact with those people in my life who are important to me, rather than be concerned with what Johnny Douchebag from high school can glean from my profile.
Having been back on the social network for under a week, I’m finding myself far less motivated to participate as much as I had before. Facebook is a communications tool for me. It’s not an ERP that will help launch my career, organize my life, or do my dishes. Nor is it a gaming platform, or a place for me to publish my interests to the masses. That’s what this blog is for, and I have much more control over how Pseudo Psyence behaves. Thus I will treat Facebook as a diversion.
I realize that when I disabled and zapped my account, Facebook likely kept all my demographic information, so really there’s nothing to hide from. But I won’t provide the network with more fodder so I can be advertised to. The irony is that I’m working with partners right now to develop a software application that will serve ads based upon users’ personal information. I will happily use this system, because it provides significantly more value than Facebook, and we’re designing it so it will never spam anyone ever.
Like, ever.
So welcome back to Facebook, me. You swore you’d never return, but you realized after a fashion that it’s better to be a part of the system and to analyze its failings from within than to not participate at all. Sounds like an excuse, doesn’t it?
Paul—a friend of mine whose passion for music is matched by a very select few other people I know—got really big into mash-ups a few years back. He went from listening to music on CD, to MP3 and vinyl, and now the man remixes his own tracks. And kids, these mixes are excellent get-you-dancin’ mash-ups.
My discovery of Paul’s new website was prompted by something I’ll be writing about later on today or tomorrow: I’m back on Facebook. Stay turned for a list of reasons and excuses.
Ars Technica is reporting today that at least one of the targets of the RIAA’s file-sharing lawsuits is fighting back. It’s nice to know that, finally, someone is. From the article:
Andersen is a single mother living in Oregon who was sued by the record labels in February 2005. She eventually filed a counterclaim against the RIAA, and when the labels voluntarily dismissed their case against her last June, she filed a malicious-prosecution lawsuit. In it, Andersen accuses the RIAA of fraud, racketeering, invasion of privacy, libel, slander, deceptive business practices, and violations of the Oregon state RICO Act.
Last month, a federal judge dismissed Andersen’s original complaint, saying that she had “not adequately stated claims for relief,” but gave her a one-month window to refile. Her attorney, Lory Lybeck, told Ars that he plans to file a new 80-page complaint tomorrow. “The focus of the amended complaint is essentially the sham litigation and abuse of the federal judiciary to operate this criminal enterprise that has harmed Tanya Andersen and thousands of other people,” Lybeck said.
I have this little calendar at work called “Dumb Dares for the Office.” Today’s dare wasn’t phrased very well, and there was some ambiguity. The dare says this:
Post a sign-up sheet offering your services for free lunchtime chair massages.
The confusion arises over whether or not anyone’s office chair really needs a massage. So my colleague Michael drafted the following advertisement for chair massages:
Is your chair feeling a little run down? Does it seem to have a week-long case of the Mondays? Well bring your chair to Cubicle 37 today! At Cubicle 37 we specialize in chair massages and other relaxation techniques to soothe and comfort your work chair.
And these services are not just for work chairs! Bring in your kitchen chairs, bar stools or even foot stools. Remember footstools are people too!
We are so confident that your chair will feel and work better we offer a complete money-back guarantee. If your chair is not completely satisfied with its massage, you get your money back! That’s right! Your money back!
Cubicle 37—located at the corner of “Working? and Hardly at All!
We Care, About Your Chair
Cory Doctorow has an excellent piece in the Guardian about how important it is that citizens question security measures, and not be punished for something like taking photographs simply because it might breach security (hey, if my photo-taking breaches security, maybe you ought to consider that your security licks ass). From the article:
We can’t rely on the authorities to defend us against attacks that outstrip their capacity to adapt to them. Remember, the same police force that’s plastering London with signs exhorting us to “let experienced officers decide what action to take” is the same police force that gunned down a Brazilian for wearing an overcoat, and shut down Soho when a Thai restaurant burned its chilli sauce, releasing spicy smoke.
Security literacy can only be acquired through continuous practice and evaluation. The more our society punishes those who question security, the less secure we all become.
I received an email from Geoff yesterday explaining the ongoing harassment he’s had to suffer since he graduated from our alma mater, the University of Alberta, in 2003. It begins: “So ever since graduating back in like 2003, I keep getting notices from the U of A that I owe a $5 library fine. I chuckled at this folly until this week, when I decided to take action and sent the following to their online appeals system [...]“
I wish to appeal my $5.00 late charge at the Sci Tech library. I don’t have any excuse for this charge; rather, I am appealing because maintaining this fine is costing you too much.
I apparently incurred this fine in 2003, which is also the last year that I attended the U of A. In the 4 and a half years since, I have been receiving a quarterly statement in the mail reminding me of this grim financial burden. Each time you mail me this notice, it costs the University 52 cents. By now, the U of A has spent $9.36 of some poor student’s tuition money on my $5.00 fine. And this is solely on postage. What about the cost of the printing, the envelope, and the lost time required to administer your relentless collections juggernaut? Surely you are now pushing the $15.22 mark, depending on how well you negotiate your bulk paper discounts.
And all of this is to say nothing of the toll that your oversized envelopes and reminder slips take on the environment. For shame, Library Services. Your actions speak louder than the students in Rutherford South.
[Yesterday's] release of Bully: Scholarship Edition on the Wii and Xbox 360 has a group of teachers up in arms over developer Rockstar Games’ attempts to market violence.
While all Rockstar releases generate some amount of controversy, this latest spat is most notable for the fact that the title already generated almost identical controversy when it was initially released on the PlayStation 2 in Oct. 2006.
Now, we all agree that bullying sucks. But these groups getting up in arms over a videogame will do nothing except maybe get a bit of publicity.
These groups MUST focus their energy on attacking root causes to solve bullying problems in schools. They will never be able to prevent Rockstar from making violent videogames, nor should they. It’s up to parents to monitor what kinds of vids their kids are playing, TV shows they’re watching, ill shit they’re getting involved in, all to ensure that the little douches don’t turn into complete assholes.
I took yesterday off to recover from the weekend… Didn’t get nearly as much done as I’d hoped to, aside from laundry that is. So, not it’s Tuesday and I have a case of the Mondays. Oh well. As my day-job boss is fond of saying, “Onwards and sideways!”
I spent about $600 last January on a pair of skis, some poles, and bindings. I didn’t hit the slopes at all in 2007. And I’ve only skied three days this year. But man, oh man, do I ever need to get at least seven more good days in.
This past weekend, I went down to Kicking Horse with Fish, my brother Josh, and a big posse of people. The trip was arranged through Backside Tours, a company based out of Edmonton that organizes tours focused on balancing the party with the riding (as opposed to just focusing on drinking, which is what many of the other tour companies are known for). We stayed in some unbelievable accomms: Whispering Pines condos. We had ten people in our unit, and each of those people got to sleep in a nice bed, enjoy a private hot tub, eat in and a huge kitchen and chill in the comfy chairs of a big living room. We also played our fair share of drinking games.
Sunny, clear skies, calm nights and warm temperatures made sure we didn’t waste anytime: good runs, a few tumbles, and clean, fresh mountain air. I wish I wasn’t home. Must take advantage of the rest of winter. I recommend you do the same.
Even though I deleted my Facebook account a good long while ago, I’m thinking of re-registering. While I was getting a perverse kick out of being on the fringes of what my close network of friends were doing, it’s turned to something of an inconvenience. I miss out on old friends coming back to town, and I’m far less informed about what’s happening with people’s day-to-day—I’m a busy guy, and like it or not, Facebook enabled me to better stay in touch with people.
I still have qualms with the privacy implications of the system, and whether or not I want people to know what I’m up to, but there are ways around that. Scotty, my roommate, isn’t on Facebook either, but he said he’s thinking of signing up. “I’ve boycotted it long enough,” he told me this afternoon. “It’s become inconvenient to not be on it.”
But there are, of course, other more complicated reasons that make me think I should stay away. Stupid as it may sound, the big one is pride. The I-told-you-sos I expect to have lobbed at me are plentiful. I would probably NYAH someone was well, if they returned with their tail between their legs. I know a few people who’ve left and comeback: Jorge and Fish come to mine. But I cannot seem to fully buy in to being easily connected to people again.
I’m going to think about it over the next few weeks, but I know that as people leave for the summer, Facebook will enable me to stay connected. And I’ve noticed already there are some people with whom I’m not longer speaking simply because it isn’t convenient.
I should probably feel worse about what that says about my laziness than about people saying “I told you so.”
