kopiko

• I hate rap music.  I just don’t see any sort of musical ability there and I can’t believe that people listen to it.  Personally, I think filling your mind with that crap keeps you in your current miserable state of nonexistence.  There, I said it.
• Today was one of those days with a frustrating temperature.  If you wore a coat, you would sweat.  If you didn’t, you would shiver.  Welcome to Grove City College.  If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change to something else.
• Daylight savings time has come to an end.  Now it gets to be dark super early.  It actually ended a few days ago, but I’m just now realizing how dark it is out there.
• Facebook got a new little logo.
• John Kerry managed to dig himself a grave yesterday with his comments about how kids who don’t study end up in Iraq.  He now says he screwed up a joke and it came out wrong.  Maybe he should have studied his notes more.
• I applied for jobs today in far away places like Sudan and Myanmar.

Post #96

Here’s another Facebook update, since it really has been intriguing me. I love that the users of Facebook think that they are the owners of Facebook. This is an IP nightmare in my opinion. Who owns the content on a website? The person running the website or the people who put the information there? The answer of that question may or may not lead to wondering who then should control access to that information, as seen here in the Facebook case. Maybe I’m looking more into this than anyone else, but I’d love to be taking the IP class that I took last year so I could ask these questions to the lawyers teaching the class.

Readership to this blog is steadily increasing. It’s not growing at any sort of astounding rate, it’s just interesting to see. I’m surprised at how many people actually visit here and don’t read this with some sort of reader, like Google Reader or Bloglines. Does anyone out there use Bloglines or something other than Google Reader to follow feeds? And can you offer some comments on them? (I know what you do already, Neil)

It’s cold and it’s raining again. I just went up to the gym to work out for the first time this semester. I need to get back into that habit so I don’t revert to the old way.

Amuse yourself with the “Best of Craigslist“. They may or may not be safe for work.

make firefox better

Obviously, you’re using Firefox to browse the internet. I’ll make that assumption because I know that you want to use the best product around for getting the job done. If you aren’t there yet, go here and download Firefox to get started.

That said, there are tons of extensions and add-ons to make Firefox better. Here are the ones that I use and that I recommend. (If you’re using other sweet ones that would make it even better, leave a comment. I’d love to hear what you are using!)

• Talkback. I think this one was suggested by Mozilla.
• Tabbrowser Preferences. I like the ability to customize the way tabbed browsing works for me. I hate things that open in new windows.
• Google Web Accelerator. I’ve saved 48.9 minutes as of this posting.
• Google Browser Sync. This is a wonderful extension. I can get my bookmarks anywhere in the world.
• IE View Lite. This lets you view pages in IE by an option on the right click menu on any page.
• Bug Me Not. This gives you a login to pages that you need to register for. For example, if you want to see an article on the New York Times website, they want you to register. Just right click on the login box and choose “Bug Me Not”.
• Greasemonkey. Thisone is necessary for running user scripts. These are additional helpful add-ons that can change the way programs are run and the way you interact with the internet. I run three of these user scripts:
  • Automatic MySpace Media Remover. I love this one. It automatically disables any media items on MySpace pages. In the place of the item, there is a box that says the player has been disabled. You can click on that to bring back the media player. This is helpful if you’re visiting a music MySpace, but I really don’t care what the rest of the world is listening to.
  • Facebook Autologin. This one is a timesaver. It skips a step in the process to login to Facebook.
  • Google Reader Subscribe. I use Google Reader as my feed aggregator. This puts a small floating icon in the bottom left of my screen if there is a feed to subscribe to on a website. Just click the icon and you can subscribe via Google Reader.

facebook responds to the kick in the face

To the cheers of its throngs of users, Mark Zuckerberg has issued another blog entry that apologizes for the way news feeds were introduced and the privacy issues that arose.

This is proof that if approximately 750,000 people unite in a about three days, change can occur. How can this be harnessed into changing something more important? Is there a way to get people to do more than to join an online group? Or is there a way to use that group as a mandate to take action?

facebook behind 9/11

I think utter disbelief is what I’m feeling right now. I think I would use the word “wow” but I feel that it doesn’t quite capture the astounding nature of the day’s top two events. In no particular order:

1. Facebook has gone stalker, as previously mentioned. However, in an interesting move, the masses have responded, ironically enough, with Facebook. Close to 400,000 Facebook users have joined a group protesting the latest stalker trends that the website has introduced. Personally, I find this incredible. Yes, I’m against the newsfeeds and the mini-feeds, but I’m also shocked at how quickly 400,000 college students were mobilized. Apparently I’m not the only one surprised, because Time just picked it up in an article today. My generation won’t vote, won’t get involved in anything, but is willing to sit back and complain about it. However, maybe this proves that the methods used to reach the 8 million people on Facebook need to change. Perhaps the last generation’s way of doing things just won’t get this generation off the couch.
2. Academics have claimed that 9/11 was an inside job. Yes, 75 of these super smart people are blaming the Project for the New American Century. You can think what you want about the PNAC (I don’t have an opinion). But come on, do you really think a large group of people could pull something off like say, flying planes into the tallest building in NYC, and have it be a secret for years to follow? And why would this group want a plane in the Pentagon? How would you wire these huge buildings with explosives without having any of the people who worked in those buildings notice?

Before we ignore some of the more tangible things of life, take a look at Fay Weldon’s excerpt here. I thought it was interesting.

I called my friend SH for her birthday this morning. She turned four years old today. She was going swimming. Reflecting on my fourth birthday, I realized I don’t remember my fourth birthday. I certainly don’t remember who called me or what birthday presents were given to me. That raises questions in my mind.

House had its third season premier last night. I watched it this evening after finishing my fluids homework. I think this season is going to have a slightly different slant than the previous two.

Here’s a good one to end on tonight. Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, will be in NYC on September 19 to speak to the UN assembly. He stated that he’d like to debate the Americans there. I don’t know about you, but I think a Ahmadinejad/Bush debate in front of the UN would be the political highlight of the decade.

update, September 07, 2006 @ 16:16:

The Facebook group I mentioned is approaching 650,000 members and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal this morning. The group will also be mentioned on the CBS Evening News tonight with Katie Couric.