cry havoc

Isn't there a responsive layout on dw? This non-responsive crap is almost impossible to read on my phone.

[Note: get a drink and have a seat. This is almost up to my usual levels of longwindedness, but this time, I do have a point! Other than the one on the top of my head.]

I came across an insightful comment the other day while researching, and the comment resonated with me strongly in light of the requirements compiling I was tackling at the same time.

"If you're not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold." -- blue_beetle

Think about that for a bit, but first I want to run past everyone some of the thoughts bouncing in my head as a result of researching Delicious, Diigo, Pinboard, and various other (past and present) bookmarking applications. One particular journal entry (from 2008) compares Delicious and Diigo, though I'll rephrase some of the author's conclusions, since I think he got his main summary backwards. Here's the basis of his argument, thought:

Delicious, an original web 2.0 company, still has “user-generated” as its core raison d’être. Diigo has the later-stage web 2.0 philosophy of being a “social network”.

In essence (and to undo the backwards of his summary): Delicious is grounded in using content to find users, while Diigo emphasizes using users to find content. Somehow, I'm not surprised that so far, of the folks replying to my informal poll, that most of you have indicated that you follow the content and then, as a secondary step, discover like-minded users -- seeing how many of you have said you preferred old!delicious and don't like or care for the diigo approach.

Granted, these two things (users, content) are intertwined: you find a tag you want to follow, you start seeing the same names pop up, you realize the same people are marking things you're also liking, and you may switch your focus from the tag to the user, in hopes they'll lead you to even better stuff.

Here's the crux, though: what is the actual product?

This shit ain't free, y'know. Servers and storage and developers and designers don't just grow on trees. It's got to be paid for, either in cash or in kind or in stock or in some way, but usually cash since most landlords & mortgage companies don't accept vegetables, these days. If you see a product that you can consume, and it's free, someone paid for it. Maybe not you, but someone: NSTaaFL, after all.

( Let me step back here, to the days when I first found an investor, wrote a business plan, and opened a bookstore... and other commentary about the dot-com and post-dot-com business models. )

More thoughts later. For now, it's your turn.

I just got back from Sears. My little veedub, the longtime trooper, has been having sluggish starts on some mornings. I rephrase that: in the morning, it won't start at all. By noon, or midafternoon, it'll start... sluggishly. Last time I tried, I think I flooded the engine or something, and figured I'd let it sit, then have it towed over to get a new battery. But today, it started on its own (by around 3pm, after a half-day in the winter sun), and I said, oh, hell, I could use some chocolate, let's go to Sears.

Me: I need a new battery.
Sears Guy: *opens hood*
Sears Guy: *looks at car*
Sears Guy: .......
Me: *not paying attention* Y'know, I'm thinking, I can't remember ever getting a battery for this car.
Sears Guy: .........
Me: It's a '96, and I got it in '98...
Sears Guy: .........

This is where I look around and realize there are now six Sears Guys all flocked around my engine compartment. Which sounds really obscene, but carrying on.

Me: Hello?
Sears Guy #1: We don't sell this battery anymore.
Me: You don't? That sucks, because it's been a great battery. I was gonna ask for another just like it.
Sears Guy #1: I imagine it's been the best battery anyone's ever seen.
Me: Hunh? It's a regular Die Hard. Aren't you supposed to change them like, I don't know, once a decade?
Sears Guy #2: *does the math* Or about every fifteen years, in your case.

All the other Sears Guys look shocked. I think some of them even looked positively reverent.

Sears Guy #1: Ma'am, batteries are expected to last about three years.
Me: Really?
Sears Guy #1: Really really.
Me: ...
Sears Guy #1: ...

Everyone else joined in the moment of silence, and then:

Me: Maybe I did change it and forgot.
Sears Guy #1: No, we discontinued this type.
Me: What, like a year or two ago?
Sears Guy #1: Like ten years ago.
Me: Wow. So I really haven't ever changed it.
Sears Guy #1: You're either doing something really right with this car...
Sears Guy #2: ... or really, really wrong.
Me: Can I go with "right"? I like how that sounds.

When I left -- with new battery in place -- four of the guys were arguing over where best to display that positively ancient battery in a good location of honor. I'm not sure whether to be flattered, or worried.

I was watching a Taiwanese pop-idol drama (that is very much NOT the usual fare), called Gloomy Salad Days. I'll post more on it later, but the object of my extreme fury right now is Wikipedia. There's an entry for the drama, with episode summaries, cast listing, etc. The drama deals with some pretty intense topics -- teenage pregnancy, same-sex love (both male-male and female-female), even a transgender character. What's important to me is that the transgender character is not just respected by the script -- his wish for a regular, every-person kind of life as the man he is (on the inside) is treated by the script as right, as a valid and worthwhile desire. That's pretty unusual.

...and then you get to the Wikipedia entry. It's not just that it's a jumble in terms of grammar, spelling, and punctuation -- it's clearly an adaptation/translation from a non-English description -- but the real capper is that some asshat decided to use apostrophes around the transgender character's pronouns. As in, 'he' does this, 'he' does that. Maybe it's just me, but after watching the episodes that give the transgender character such respect, and empathize pretty much entirely with his plight, and give voice to his desire for acceptance, friendship, and love (and then give all of that to him!) -- I found the apostrophes to be absolutely and completely offensive, above and beyond violating the very spirit of the storyline itself. It's not an understatement to say I was livid.

So I edited, as I'm wont to do, here and there, when an entry is particularly egregious in re bad writing. I cleaned up the descriptions, made them clearer grammatically per English, adjusted some of the inconsistent anglicization of some of the names (ie, the surname Ah, which when written as simply A is awkward in English)... and then rewrote the episode summaries to remove the apostrophes. If the character is identifying as male, then per English, use "he"; if the point (which I would disagree with strongly, but still grant) is to say it's a female character from the get-go, then freaking use "she". You don't put freaking apostrophes around someone's pronoun unless you're mocking them or intending to imply that the pronoun is false.

This evening, I'm back by Wiki, and I see an odd note about a message. I'll let it speak for itself.

Although everyone is welcome to contribute to Wikipedia, at least one of your recent edits, such as the one you made to Gloomy Salad Days, did not appear to be constructive and has been reverted or removed. Please use the sandbox for any test edits you would like to make, and read the welcome page to learn more about contributing constructively to this encyclopedia. Thank you. ~ Draksis314 01:39, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Dear Draksis:

Fuck you.

Nolove,
me.

---

see comments for updates -- haven't gone back to the entry myself yet; still working on that calm-down concept.

Because sometimes you're the shark... and sometimes not. BEHOLD THE GLORIOUS CHUM.

$result = mysql_query("SELECT `termid` FROM connected_texts");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_BOTH)) {
    $orig_term_tax_id = $row['termid'];
    $result2 = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM term_relationships WHERE `term_taxonomy_id` = '$orig_term_tax_id'");
    while ($row2 = mysql_fetch_array($result2, MYSQL_BOTH)) {
        $objectid_textid = $row2[0];
        if (!$bookpart) {
            $result3= mysql_query("SELECT `bookpart` FROM `texts` WHERE `textid`='$objectid_textid'");
            while ($row3 = mysql_fetch_array($result3, MYSQL_BOTH)) {
                $bookpart = $row3['bookpart'];
                if ($bookpart == '1') {
                $bookno = $objectid_textid;
                $result4= mysql_query("UPDATE connected_texts SET `textid` = '$bookno' WHERE `termid` = '$orig_term_tax_id'");
                }
            }
        }
        $result3= mysql_query("SELECT `bookpart` FROM `texts` WHERE `textid`='$objectid_textid'");
        while ($row3 = mysql_fetch_array($result3, MYSQL_BOTH)) {
            $result4= mysql_query("UPDATE texts SET `book` = '$bookno' WHERE `textid` = '$objectid_textid'");
        }
    }
    $bookpart = '';
}

It's amazing what your brain can do when it's not got two tons of unhappy perched on top.

I don't really do locked posts much, anymore, so I'm going to be culling down my access list to three two* groups: in-person friends and longtime critters. So if you're seeing yourself drop off the access, I'm still reading you. I'm just going to keep the access list narrowed tightly until I organize this journal -- since things got converted from two different LJ accounts with some funky locks and filters. I hadn't realized some thing had been left open accidentally, so I want to clean up those messes, and then I'll have a better handle on what and where there's a need for access.

* Also, it appears I can't count.

I've run out of room when it comes to styles. Damnit.

( test case, 25 styles behind the cut. )

I don't actually mind the Network page all that much, although I do find it annoying that there's no explanation anywhere about what it is or does, which would have been a nice thing to have instead of just feeling like it got sprung on me. Regardless, one thing I intensely dislike about it are the feeds. If I want a feed, I'll subscribe to it, but opting me in when the majority of the feeds come without cuts, are often image-heavy, and worst of all may have duplicates... well, that's just annoying. I considered making a suggestion that we have the option to ignore or remove the feeds, and then I realized, why bother?

( how to filter out the feeds on the network page )

I know someone on my flist posted a review of a bunch of different writing tools, both PC and Mac, but now I can't recall who or where. Could the esteemed person who did so, please speak up? I'd like to be able to forward a few folks your way, to get that information for themselves. It looked pretty handy, but since I've got Scrivener now, I only kinda noted the info and moved along... naturally, since I only seem to do that when it's info I'll find useful later. (Go figure, eh.)

So, who was the brilliant person who posted the variety review?