Can we please BAN the use of relative dates? They seem entirely use-free to me.

You know what I mean, right?  It’s when, instead of a date/time-stamp on a blog post or article it says “3 hours ago” or worse “3 months ago”.  It’s useless in so many ways and I’ve never heard an argument for the use of relative dates.

“They’re perfect for people who don’t really care when something was posted!”

“Relative dating, for when specificity doesn’t matter!”

“Who wants a cold, in humanly precise date and time on an Internet post? Give me warm, human vagueness any day!”

I’ve tried really hard to come up with a good reason for relative dating to be better than absolute dating.

Isn’t it ridiculous that we even have a phrase for that?  “Absolute dating.”  Funny how that just refers to “putting the actual date down.”

Imagine if we tried to use relative dating on formal documents.  You sign your tax return “4 months ago.”

I guess you can avoid being late that way.

Ever wonder if there'd be an Internet after the Armageddon? Yep! But who turns it on? The Keymasters...

From coalspeaker:

They are the keymasters..

The BBC reports that there have been seven people chosen from around the world to restart the internet in a case of catastophe.. The seven, including Paul Kane from the UK, will hold the privelege and responsibility of ensuring that the net reopens itself to the world in situations of disaster..

Gizmodo reports:

“The basic idea is that in the event of an Internet catastrophe, the DNSSEC (domain name system security) could be damaged or compromised and we’d be left without a way to verify if a URL is pointing to the correct website. That’s when the holders of these smart cards would be called into action”

Seven people chosen with no one person holding the magic key to begin cyber life as we know it..

With great power comes great responsibility..

I think I saw something like this on Doctor Who once…

Wanna know what the keys to the Internet look like?  Apparently, they look like hand-written library cards.

Also from coalspeaker:

These are the keys to restarting the Internet. Really.

Just don’t get them confused with your Metrocard. You might end up making the subway system self-aware. O_O

Actually, that might be kinda cool.

Does the Internet rob us of the "joy of the unexpected" or does it provide it?

whitneymcn:

“There is another point to be made about the broad effects of iPads and Kindles on our culture. The clues people give about themselves used to be displayed proudly, or not, on the shelves of their homes and apartments. At dinner or a cocktail party, just a few moments in front of a bookshelf or record or CD rack could provide the kind of insight about your host it might otherwise take years to develop. In a future world without bookshelves, we will have many of these clues all neatly contained in files in your pocket or backpack. But, a phone or kindle is private, and access to it is more intimate than a moment in front of a rack of CDs.”

—

Marc Ruxin: The Death of Touch and the Lost Joy of the Unexpected

While I, too, have some concerns about trading physical artifacts for digital, I totally agree with the comment below…but man, I think there’s a full blog post in response to this. Assuming there’s time today…

(via tedr)(via newspeedwayboogie)(via mikehudack)

This assumes that we still meet people by going to their apts. I’ve met several hundred fine folks right here online, and know their pets’ names, what kind of music/books/art/pop culture/food they like, who many of their friends are, and often even more intimate and revealing details of their lives that you would never stumble across staring at someone’s bookshelf. And if they’re local and want to grab some food or a cocktail, I feel as if I already know enough to carry on a decent conversation with them in a noisy restaurant. 

The phrase “the broad effects of ______” is always a red flag for me. I would argue the opposite, honestly. Tumblr has brought the “joy of the unexpected” back into my life.

(via aatombomb)

(via mikehudack)

I agree with aatombomb when he mentions what is a red flag to him.  Trying to define what the Internet (or any component part of it) is or does for everyone is absurd.  You might as well try to define how everyone uses a hammer.  Sure, the obvious use is for nails, but you can also pull nails out, then there are other types of hammering that can be done with it—from railroad spikes to tent stakes, to even, in a pinch, a home invader’s head.  The point is, Kindles and iPads are just doing what was already being done by the computer—removing stuff from our shelves.  However, blogs (not just Tumblr blogs), Twitter and other socnets replace our shelves.  Nowadays, if you read a book that you are proud to have read, you do something far more effective than displaying it on your shelf for your apartment-visitors to see—you blog/tweet/facebook it on the web for everyone to see it.  People will Google the book and stumble across your content. I know because I made a friend who found me after he Googled for an anime series I reviewed on my blog—we’ve been friends ever since.

A red flag for me is when people knee-jerk a negative reaction to some new thing that comes along.  Wasn’t it Jack Valenti that said the VCR was to Hollywood like the Boston Strangler was to a young woman? 

We need to stop being so afraid of the future.

@Jay ThePal IS: "Jay TheCharacter @ #140Conf!" Guest Starring @KayThePal!

Jay ThePal (me) goes to the 140 Character(s) Conference in New York City! Follow his (my) adventures as he meets people, sees people talk and makes new pals!! YEAH! He met up with all sorts of people, from founders of companies to a politician to Internet strategists and a LOT of really cool people from the Twitter! Check it out!

OH YEAH: Watch this docu and listen for cuttings from my new theme song--It's done by Skitzofrenic check out more music here: http://www.myspace.com/skitzonuts BUT WATCH THE DOCU FIRST, MAN!!

Thanks to everyone who spoke to us! Please @reply us on Twitter @ThePal or @JayThePal or @KayThePal if you met us and we haven't followed you back, yet! Connect! It's what the Internet is all about, man! YEAH!!

Watch a 76MB MP4 version by clicking here (or slurp it up with your podcatcher, man!) Thanks to Lisa from OnLisaReinsRadar.com for hosting! YEAH!

OH YEAH, here's the YouTube embed and you can even watch it in HD, man! COOL!!

Amazon.com Gives Me VERY Inaccurate Search Results

Not that there's anything wrong with the subject matter of the book it listed amongst the other results a couple weeks back while I was comparison shopping for "electric razors"--it's just DEFINITELY NOT what I was looking for. You would think Amazon MIGHT have a protection against this sort of thing.

Just another episode in the never-ending adventure show: "Perils in Online Keyword Usage!"

For the last episode, go here:

http://thepete.com/how-keyword-targeted-ads-are-far-from-perfect-why-does-facebook-think-im-christian

Catch a clue, oh, Masters of the Internet! Sometimes keywords aren't everything!

GASP... I know it's practically blaspheme but, sadly, it is the truth.

I really wasn't looking for a novel called "Razor Burn" from a company called "Romentics".

Posted via email from thepete's posterous

Free-Marketing PC Infiltration Via Botnet

Wow, repeat that headline to someone from the 19th century and they'd call an exorcist. What it means, in words Stephen Colbert would find offensive, is that unbridled capitalism is allowing more Windows PCs to get hacked thanks to a for-hire network of little hacking robot programs or "bots."

According to a PCWorld.com article from yesterday at Yahoo News, "Security researchers studying the latest Internet crime trends have discovered a new Eastern European website that uses a large botnet to infect vulnerable PCs. The operators of the botnet and website charge clients for each successful PC infection."

Pretty cold, huh? And it's much worse than you might think, too.