Miscellany
With social networking and social media sites being all the rage these days, there are bound to be snafus from time-to-time. Who knew that they're potential employer would be searching for your MySpace profile before offering the job? I wasn't even sure that my mom knew what Twitter was, much less how to follow the RSS feed in Outlook, until a recent incident. And when I got an email from a friend asking why in the world I was bouncing between listening to the Wicked Broadway Cast Soundtrack and various Muse albums, I finally stopped to think: maybe I should uninstall that Last.fm widget from MySpace and Facebook. And then I thought maybe we're all just too connected?
I have to imagine that we've all had at least one embarrassing story about social networking. A picture that you "don't remember" being posted on a friend's page, a blog comment that you meant to set to private, an unintentional "outing" of or by a friend... I've seen just about all of them. I'm know we're not going to give up on social networking any time soon. It's kind of our thing now. Free love has turned to free, on-demand information and connection. But what I want to know is: What embarrassing Social Media snafu have you suffered? Personally, my screw-ups could fill an entire series of posts, but I want to hear about your missteps!
Leave a comment and spill the beans!
NYU Professor Daniel Rozen's electronic wooden mirror is a total trip: displayed earlier this week at NYU's Interactive Technology Program, this fusion of modern thinking and the timelessness of little wooden blocks not only sounds cool - it works.
830 wood panels mounted on tiny motors move according to directions from a computer hooked up to a small camera - that sticks out from the middle of the mirror like a thumbstick pointer embedded in a laptop keyboard.
Check out a video after the jump to see what I'm talking about - it's a noisy but effective invention. The only thing missing from the wooden mirror is the ability to answer petty, self-involved questions along the lines of "Mirror, mirror, made of teak - who's written the best blog post all week?"
Electronic Wooden Mirror makes your reflection large, vague [DVICE]
Correcting an item in the Wall Street Journal which said that Dell intends to phase out its XPS line of gaming PCs, Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden let it be known that the company intends instead to phase in the XPS line. With Alienware.
Having snatched up Alienware, Dell plans to "invest like crazy" in the development of the Alienware brand while merging the two teams, Alienware and XPS, together. This is, of course, what one does when one owns two top-selling brands of gaming PCs. One splices them into a single mega-selling brand of gaming PCs!
There will be an XPS refresh or two before the brand phases out blends into the Alienware hive mind. Dell's expansion of XPS systems into all-in-one PCs and other non-gaming offerings means that the XPS name might survive after all, albeit in a different form.
Dell denies rumors of XPS phase-out [Electronista]
Recent rumors concerning mergers and two little companies called Virgin Mobile USA and SK Telecom (parent of Helio) were forcefully squashed by SKT, who called the topic "groundless."
This led quite naturally to the contradictory announcement by Virgin Mobile USA that the two companies are indeed involved in "preliminary discussions" of "possible strategic opportunities."
Diametrically opposed statements? Vague, unhelpful PR lingo? Smells like business as usual to me - expect to hear more about this over the next few weeks and months. Also, expect not to hear anything about this over the next several months and weeks. Welcome to America: for more unenlightening doublespeak, please enjoy our presidential race, our news media, and our celebrity culture coverage!
Bring money.
Virgin Mobile USA Confirms Early Talks With SK Telecom [MocoNews]
[story and picture via Engadget]
Feeling down?
Love drag queens?
Need a little shot of love in the morning?
Daily Drag Queen Affirmations is the site for you! The site features a subscription service that for $20 will provide you a short video every day for a year of a drag queen saying something inspirational and funny to you to lift your spirits.
Taking a look at the samples, the clips are wonderfully funny and cute, and I'm already thinking about gifting a subscription to a few friends of mine.
I'm not really sure where they got such mellow drag queens (Miami drag queens tend to serve up a cold dish of biting tongue and sarcastic wit to whip one into shape instead of inspirational sayings) but the results are great, and the FAQ is a hoot to read as well:
Refunds?
Hell no.
Will they make me feel better guaranteed?
We can't legally guarantee anything. In fact legally we have to say these are for entertainment purposes only. BUT it sure as heck makes us feel better. And we have loads of folks who thank us every day for making their world a bit brighter!
Why $20?
Why indeed? Please feel free to give us more.
If you're interested, head on over to their page and give the samples a look.
Daily Draq Queen Affirmations [DDQA]
[via: Coolest-Gadgets]
If you don't think the science of sex is a hairy subject, just ask the late Dr. Kinsey. Or the makers of your favorite depilatory cream, wax, or wheat thresher. Luckily, there exists no shortage of science-minded horndogs on the internet, nor of literal-minded scientists just waiting to offer up clinical but accurate answers to your our most perverted puerile ponderings.
Thanks be to NewScientist for this latest excuse to talk about sex in a sciencey environment - their reader Q&A is full of geeky probings such as "Does the female orgasm serve a biological purpose?" (apparently not - ouch), and poses complicated questions such as asking if the human drive to constantly have sex stems from the fact that our ladies don't go into heat visibly.
But thank the good gay lord, there are some questions not preoccupied with lady-bits, such as whether or not circumcision makes it harder to have an orgasm (some say yes, but apparently that's a hot-button topic for sexologists both amateur and professional). Also, such burning issues as why anal sex feels so good for both partners (not really a mystery) and the length of time it takes for the scrotum to refill with semen.
In the name of all that's scientific, how could anyone not want to know if saltpeter is an anaphrodisiac?
Readers' Q&A: The science of sex [NewScientist]
The IRS is now sending out the economic stimulus payments, with many folks getting anywhere from $300 - $600 deposited to their bank accounts, so the question to all you Homotrons out there is this:
What are you doing with your economic stimulus money?
Now, if you're the type that carries around a good bit of debt, I'd side with Steven Gray of PC World and use it to pay down your debt so that you're in a better position during these trying economic times:
[I decided] to do what the government should have done with my windfall (and yours and everybody else's): Pay down debt. I hope that, four years from now, when the next presidential election and the next rebate bonanza coincide, my rediscovered sense of fiscal responsibility will have translated into a manageable financial situation in which reckless deficit spending is only an unpleasant memory.
Indeed, Steven Gray.
However, if you're a member, like me, of the debt-free club, then we'd love to hear what kinds of awesome gadgets you might be getting with your check.
Me? The answer is obvious: My money's going to buy the new 3G iPhone next month. Beautiful, touchable broadband in my pocket... yummy.
We know, you thought that your wanker was yours and yours alone. You also thought that you and that special someone had naming rights to your member. But what if someone else called their Johnson “Rocco?” What would you do then?
Luckily, there’s a way to guarantee that your significant other will not be talking about some other dudes junk for good. Enter Name Your Wang, a new service that allows you to register your wang’s name for a small $17 fee. You’ll even get a certificate. A pretty one. You can hang it next to your GED.
Maybe you’re thinking that this site may not be legit. Well, a quick look at their Q&A should shore up all your worries:
2) Is this for real?
This site is for real. We are the only authorized site to issue certified wang certificates. All copy cat sites are a joke and should not be taken seriously. According to Government regulations their can only be one issuing site. Nameyourwang.com was chosen above all the rest.
So, yeah. Make sure to swing over and register Rocco before its too late!
Another week, another step closer to the 3G iPhone. I'm all set and my economic "stimulus" package money is already earmarked towards the new precious.
...Don't look at me like that! It's my patriotic duty!
...Yeah, it makes me feel a little dirty using it as Bush intended, I know.
Enough about my guilt, let's get on to the linkage:
After all the buzz about Facebook last year and it's trailblazing efforts to change the tone of the Social Networking industry, other Social Networks would be remiss to not follow suit. By releasing their API, Facebook literally changed what it means to be a Social Network, and in doing so garnered itself not only good press, but many new users and, perhaps most importantly, a better market value (which could help them allot considering Microsoft may be looking to buy them now that the Yahoo! deal has gone south). So it may not be too surprising that Social Network giant and market leader MySpace has been making efforts to match Facebook pound-for-pound, and even one-up them in some respects.
We've heard allot of really interesting things from MySpace lately. Within the past few months, the company has launched a Music Service, opened it's API to App developers, and even sprung a online Karaoke service (don't tell anyone, but that's my new guilty pleasure). Now, we have word that MySpace is launching a new partnership with Yahoo!, Twitter, Photobucket and eBay to incorporate "data portability" into their services, and combined with their support of the Open Social Initiative, it seems that this company is really making a strong effort to open its doors when it's traditionally been a closed door environment. This data portability essentially means that you can link your accounts together to share information and not have to repost pictures on all your sites or update your status to MySpace and Twitter, etc.
This openness seems highly reminiscent of the more recent moves on Verizon's part to open it's network. Although two completely different industries, I think the concept is the same. In the past, most companies followed a standard secretive approach to the market: you never knew what was going on inside their doors and the best way to own a market was to trap consumers inside your walls. Openness is a new concept for highly competitive industries though. So what's driving this? Has the consumer base changed so much that we no longer accept closed-door approaches to business? In this age of blogs and wikis, are we demanding more accessibility now more than ever? I would tend to say yes, but then there are always the exceptions, companies like Apple that still have a stranglehold on their business model. But even when talking about Apple, they seem to be dipping their toes in the waters of openness with the upcoming launch of the consumer end of the SDK for their iPhone.
It looks to me that we are entering a new and exciting age in the world of consumerism, and I for one am very excited about it. I have always believed that I should be able to interact with a company on my terms, and have tried to support companies that support that kind of interaction. Until recently, that's been hard to do, but I suppose I'm not the only one that felt that way as more and more companies bend to that trend. I look forward to the day that all companies wise up to this new force in the market place, and gladly support the efforts of companies like Facebook, MySpace and Verizon. Obviously, my hope is that these companies live up to their own hype, and only time can truly judge their actions, but for now, I'm glad to see the effort.
Hydro-physio training helps just about anyone, whether you're physically debilitated or looking to strengthen up without shocking your joints. That said, the Hydro Physio Lifestyle, pictured, looks like some serious Sci-fi. It also makes me want to pee a little.
Combining a jacuzzi and a treadmill, the Lifestyle is easy to install - at least when compared to a pool and underwater technology. Featuring glass side panels and adjustable water heights (also known as "a drain"), as well as moody underwater lighting, the Lifestyle is the absolute best in the underwater treadmill market. Hear that, Namor?
Mostly I'm thinking about what a stand-up, see-through robot swimming pool could do for my sex life, but I've also gotta wonder if it comes with a built-in pee sensor - that or goldfish.
Hydro Physio Lifestyle - Future of exercise and wellbeing [BornRich]
I'm a big language dork, and at least one of my fellow Homotronites feels the same strange passion about words (hi, Den Den) - so I know that philologists can get their manties in a bunch over anything from punctuation to pronunciation. And while I can't say that I'm truly surprised that there are tech folks who'll leave scathing comments about the pronunciation of "OS X," I sure do find it silly as all get-out.
Rich Brown over at Crave got more than an earful after his recent unboxing video of Psystar's Open Computer - not about the subject at hand, but rather his pronunciation of Apple's operating system: Rich erred fatally by pronouncing the title "Oh-Ess-Eks" rather than "Oh-Ess-Ten." I had no idea such a reserve of bile existed for this linguistic foible!
I routinely go back and forth between the two pronunciations - believing Chomsky when he debunked the notion of a universal grammar and heartily enjoying my own personal lexicon, replete with all of its idiosyncrasies and variety - but I do understand (and occasionally share) more stentorian opinions on words and how we use them.
Unfortunately, using a big ol' Roman numeral in its title makes OS X an excellent target for linguistic drift: not only are both pronunciations understandable, but modern usage of Roman numerals and their pronunciations are different than in the good old days of Henry VIII - witness the lack of those who read the words of "Malcom Ten" or listen to "DM-Ten." Or anyone who breaks a bone and gets a "ten-ray!"
Whatcha think? I'm with Brown, who's decided to embrace his individuality and "be the JIF to your GIF, the EARL to your URL, and the DUB-DUB-DUB to your WWW."
You go, boi.
Apple OS X: You say OS Ten, I say OS Eks [Crave]
And girls who like girls who like fembots!
Gadget of the Week
Show-stopping "half-VGA" screen and HSDPA/UMTS support, gorgeous video playback: Bold, Bold, Bold!
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