generic

Tracks with my own level of enthusiasm exactly. Simpatico, this sign and I are, right down to the fonts.

(via stayinbedgrowyourhair)

Internet access keeps going in & out at my new place. My new roommate keeps acting like this is no big deal. 

Roommate: “It works for me. The wireless works when I use it”

This is like saying, “The television works when I use it.”

In fact, it’s worse. Coming home to a non-functioning Internet is like coming home to a house without electricity, without running water. It’s a minute-by-minute problem, and believe you me, I will make it your problem so you’d better fix it sooner rather than later or you’ll be finding a new roommate, quickstyle.

Truth be told, if I had to choose between electricity, running water, or a functioning Internet connection, I’d have to think real hard for about 20 minutes.

Big conference call yesterday morning. Thought I’d telecommute and SURPRISE! Guess who had to hold it from a coffeeshop. Unprofesh, people. And no, it’s not my computer and yes, I have the right password.

This is an URGENT PROBLEM and non-negotiable. Fix it.

(via laughcamp)

OKAY GUYS IMMA GO TROLL JEZEBEL NOW WHO’S WITH ME?

(via david)

Eh. I have a hard time believing that. Facebook has national implications. Sen. Schumer isn’t railing against tumblr’s ridiculous censorship policies.

But it might be a better movie—specifically, a better comedy. Julia Allison and topherchris make a much more colorful supporting cast than the people surrounding Zuckerberg’s personal narrative. Marco would give deadpan looks to the camera a la The Office and the meghano shtick practically writes itself. So many titles spring to mind (The Meme Factory, off the top of my head).

It takes Aaron Sorkin to sex up the other thing.

(via zanypickle)

spotswood:

So ruined by the earthquake, the freeway had to be torn down to great controversy. Seriously. People were PISSED. I mean, really. How could you tear down this beautiful, convenient, totally necessary freeway?

I take this as an example of a very good lesson. I am learning that sometimes, very well intentioned people who have lots of facts and seem very confident and knowledgeable are, how do you say, fucking wrong. And you should just do it anyway…

Facebook, you are such an asshole. I change my relationship status and all of a sudden I’ve gone from someone who’s interested in politics to the kind of loser who gets excited by those LiveLinks ads at 2 o’clock in the morning. This is bullshit not relevant to my interests.

The good news? I’m black now.

Golly, San Francisco Bay Guardian. Your comment software is always finding new & innovative ways to suck.

Not only do I have to fill out a captcha every single time I comment, your site has decided that commenting on, say, 2 or 3 posts in a row, automatically qualifies as spam —  DESPITE THE FACT THAT I’VE FILLED OUT THE ANNOYING CAPTCHA, which I’m pretty sure only humans can do. This annoyance really compliments that 10 minute lag between posting the comment and when it actually appears on your site.

sfwithkay:

A Wunicorn is an unprotected wireless network so rare that you doubt it even exists, though you hear stories that long ago there were happy herds roaming the neighborhood, unabashed, unafraid. It shows up when you’ve moved into a new apartment and can’t get an appointment for a cable installation for 7 days because of the holidays. It will show up in strange corners of the room, usually those blocked by boxes, and its presence will be so fleeting that if you don’t immediately run over to it with an offering of a macbook, it will surely disappear. The Wunicorn loves to taunt. At times when you do manage to catch it, you’ve caught but a mirage, for as you whisper gently, “Take me to Gmail, creature,” it won’t respond to your pleas. But times like these, my friends, when I am riding upon the mythical Wunicorn, oh, they are so good. So good.

When I tell you Justin Timberlake is playing him in the movie, know this: I am not kidding.

(via brooklynmutt)

Cory Doctorow: Why I Won’t Buy An iPad (And Think You Shouldn’t, Either)

… clearly there’s a lot of thoughtfulness and smarts that went into the design. But there’s also a palpable contempt for the owner. I believe – really believe – in the stirring words of the Maker Manifesto: if you can’t open it, you don’t own it. Screws not glue. The original Apple ][+ came with schematics for the circuit boards and birthed a generation of hardware and software hackers who upended the world for the better. If you wanted your kid to grow up to be confident, entrepreneurial and firmly in the camp that believes that you should forever be rearranging the world to make it better, you bought her an Apple ][+ …

Buying an iPad for your kids isn’t a means of jump-starting the realisation that the world is yours to take apart and reassemble; it’s a way of telling your offspring that even changing the batteries is something you have to leave to the professionals. 

If you want to live in the creative universe where anyone with a cool idea can make it and give it to you to run on your hardware, the iPad isn’t for you.

Whateverrrr.

On behalf of the uninitiated masses, I just want my shit to work. I’m not a mechanic or a budding computer geek. I’m like the guy on the right. I want to drive the car, not work under the hood. I couldn’t care less how it works. That’s why I switched to Apple in the first place, after a decade of working on the Windows platform. I got sick of the crashes and the viruses and then being told it was all my fault for not installing this or uninstalling that.

Those Mac vs. PC ads? It’s the only ad campaign that’s consciously convinced me of anything and it was one of the smartest decisions I ever made. I don’t want to customize my machine or become an expert in its use. I just want the machine to operate correctly and not crash. If that’s a positional good, so be it. Why is that so much to ask? Why is the megalomaniac in Cupertino the only one who understands this?

And that’s why I won’t be buying an iPad — because it doesn’t work. It doesn’t play flash video. It can’t be overstated how basic this is. I can’t watch the Colbert Report or Bloggingheads.tv or a million other kinds of video content that have supplanted television in my daily life. I won’t be spending $500 on an inferior internet browser, not if I can’t carry it around in my pocket. I won’t buy a car that I can’t drive on a third of the roads. Fix that, tinker boy, and we’ll make you rich(er).

kevinmonty:

I’m very close to deleting my twitter account right now.  I’m not naive.  I already know that ever tweet about being hungover is archived by countless organizations already.  That said, I still like the idea of them not being *easily* accessible to everyone years in the future.  Especially by the government who I generally don’t find competent enough to log public tweets as they are published presently.  I go through that account and purge what I don’t like every month or so.  That freedom is lost.