Category Archives: Information Stupor Highway

Idiocy on the internet.

Techy Wordplay Suggests Corporate Ass Play

Headlines like this one on News.com.au make me wonder if web editors are too pressed for time to see the big picture, or if web writers are quiet geniuses exploiting the 24-hour news cycle to publish subversively hilarious copy:

Possibly related posts:
RIM’s Balsillie Tears Jobs a New One;
Unimpressed, Jobs Turns Other Cheek
RIM Market Share Comes up on Apple from Behind
BlackBerry Claims It’s Not the Size of the Chip, but the Research in the Motion

BlackBerry Makes Reach for Jobs’ 10-Incher, Apple Could Take a Licking in the End

Most Ridiculous URL of the Day

tbs.com/avocados

And another thing about the Twitter

….it makes it real easy to go off message. Like really, really off message.

One Politician's Incredibly Unfortunate Tweet

Monday night, a spokesperson for California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman left a letter off the end of a bit.ly address in a campaign-related tweet. In a world of tiny urls, one letter makes all the difference. Think genetic mutation.

What Sarah Pompei’s followers were treated to wasn’t the promised endorsement by the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of San Diego County. Instead, the truncated link takes you here:

So, vote Whitman! Recommended by cross-dressing Asian pop dubbers the world over. And please, people, remember to tweet responsibly.

[Via Gizmodo]

What I Learned from an Online Dating Site (Gays Heart Buffy, I Heart Gays)

A statistical study performed by the folks at OkCupid illustrates gay and straight interests based on key words in the profiles of 3.2 million users. The data suggest with remarkable clarity that stereotypes are indeed based on facts — and explain exactly why I go for gay guys and people often think I’m a lesbian.

Results for men:

Results for women:

Damn you, internet.

[via gawker]

How ’bout another game?

Well, kind of a game, anyway. You remember Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, right? If you dig into IMDb’s advanced search functions you can enjoy a sort of solitaire version.

On the homepage of imdb.com, select the pulldown menu next to the search box and choose Advanced Search. From there you can search by Collaborations and Overlaps by entering the names of two actors. How else would I have known that Rob Lowe and Tracy Morgan both appeared on the 2004 ESPYs? (Works for crew as well as cast.)

For more fun — or research, or time killing — the Advanced Name Search lets you search actors by place of birth (or death), height and star sign. Jennifer Grey and I are both 5-foot-3 Aries from New York. (I think we went to the same high school, too, actually. Bonus: when I sort by ascending height, the title of the page becomes “Shortest Aries Females….”) With the Name Text Search you “select a section to search within (mini biography, trivia, quotes) and enter a word to search for (e.g. “arrested”).”

That one, by the by, turns up 483 names if you search within bios and 526 if you pick trivia. Have at it.

Cries of a Digital Degeneration

Take in this rather brilliant modernday reinterpretation of Allen Ginsberg’s seminal work by filmmakers Tiffany Shlain and Geralyn Dreyfous.

I look forward to their upcoming project, Connected, from which the images in that video were drawn. The film, say Shlain and Dreyfous

explores the visible and invisible connections between the major issues of our time — the environment, population growth, technology, human rights, and the global economy – demonstrating how they are all interdependent. … It reveals how the interdependence of people and forces lies at the core of our existence, and imagines what the world would look like if we lived in a way that acknowledged this reality. The film suggests that for centuries we have been declaring independence and perhaps it’s time to declare our interdependence.

In the meantime, click here, here and here to listen to Ginsberg reading Howl (in three parts). Read the whole poem here.

[Thanks, BJ]

Thank You For Holding, How Can I Not Help You?

Ever had one of those customer service calls that makes you feel like you’ve been going in circles for hours? You were. And if you’re a customer of Time Warner Cable, they’ve probably serviced you a dozen different ways already (with no Vaseline).

The New York Times reported yesterday that the city is trying to alleviate the the pain all TWC customers feel at one time or another, like when you’re given that infamous four-hour window:

But now, customers may finally get a small measure of justice for what many complain is unfair and just plain rude treatment at the hands of the cable-company giants.Under the terms of a new contract negotiated with City Hall, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision will have to pay for failing to honor appointments. And they will have to do a lot more to make sure that subscribers are getting good service.

The contract would make cable customers eligible for a credit equal to a full month’s bill if a technician does not arrive on time….

Customers can request notification by e-mail, phone or text message when a technician is heading to their home. And in most cases, after making a choice from an automated menu, a customer should have to wait no more than 30 seconds to speak to a representative.

Until then we have to suffer the old fashioned way, on the phone and online. With the reliably shitty service the company provides and the torturous hoop-jumping required to deal with it, I have to wonder why they’d offer to send you transcripts of the online chats you can have with their associates.

After the jump, a real TWC live chat technical support session between a customer at the end of his rope and a service rep at the end of her shift — with emphasis and commentary added. By me. With a hefty dose of enraged empathy.

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Nerds Fail to Seal the Deal at Atl Sci Fi Convention

I swear I have a rubber in here somewhere. (from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anitasarkeesian/)

The 24th annual Dragon*Con event wrapped up in Atlanta this weekend, leaving some nerds wondering “did I just miss my chance to score?” Thank goodness for Craigslist Missed Connections:

Hottest guy at Dragon Con! – w4m – 27
Date: 2010-09-06, 11:01PM EDT
Captain. Jack. Sparrow. I hit on you (in front of my date) at the Hyatt bar. Please reply to this if you’d be interested in hearing what I *didn’t* get to say…

Dragon*Con; You were Wolverine, and I was Poison Ivy – w4m – 25 (Marriott, Atlanta, GA)
Date: 2010-09-07, 4:16PM EDT
I can’t figure out why I left without getting your contact information. I know your name is Dan, and you make leather jackets. You were the best Wolverine I’ve ever seen. We talked for a while, just standing in the crowd. I wish I could find a picture of us. Hopefully, I’ll see you at another convention soon. :)

Spencer, I need a hug. – w4m – 28 (Dragon*Con)
Date: 2010-09-06, 11:31PM EDT
If I had a TARDIS, I’d go back and make myself ask you to dinner. Temporal paradoxes be damned.

More after the jump.

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Arcade Fire and Google Chrome Take Over Your Home Town — And Every Window on Your Desktop

Heed the advice at thewildernessdowntown.com and download Google Chrome to launch this experimental interactive video for the new Arcade Fire song “We Used to Wait,” from director Chris Milk and the boy wonders at Chrome Experiments.

Safe to venture it’s a music/web/video first, of Google Earth proportions. Totally safe for work, unless there’s a chance of the boss coming by in the next four minutes or so. Alt + Tab will get you nowhere.

Check it out. Pretty cool stuff indeed.

Here, Let Me Google That for You

I really don’t mind being asked for, say, a restaurant reco or an easy and direct subway route. I’ve lived in this city a long time and am proud to impart my wisdom. But we’ve all gotten that query like “what are the museum’s hours?” which could just as easily be resolved by the query-er himself spending eight seconds on the internet. For that there’s let me google that for you.

lmgtfy.com

Go to the site, type the search term into the fake Google search bar and hit return. It will spit out a link. Hover over it to reveal a tiny url — it’s more subtle — copy it and send the link to your friend.  I could describe what it will do, but it’s more fun to experience it for yourself:

http://tinyurl.com/2wry68a

You’ll end up looking like a wise-ass, but a magnanimous wise ass: you’re friend’ll get his answer in the end.