I’ve been posting ads for our administrative/office assistant position for a few days now, and have gotten a lot of really good responses. However, someone is continually flagging my posts for deletion - SEVEN TIMES. That’s all great and everything, but Craig’s List is such a stupid system, it gives you no explanation for the removal whatsoever. So, when your post gets taken down, it’s pretty much up to you to figure out what was wrong with it. I have written a total of SEVEN versions of this ad, slowly weeding out every controversial statement in it. Here’s one of the earlier versions - maybe our readership (three people or more!) can offer some insight as to why I’m being targeted…
I was reading some news at CNN and this sidebar caught my eye. I think that there’s a lot to be learned from this simple metric. Here are a couple of my thoughts:
Pop culture ranks over relevant, serious issues (avoidance perhaps?)
Sex-related topics and taboo are high on the list (because IT sells)
It’s very popular to hate the president (news flash!)
What do you think? Anything come to mind seeing that list? Any emotions?
So Livy was cooking dinner for some people we were having over tonight, and asked “what’s the best way to cut an onion?” I promptly did a google search and turned up a plethora of information. We opted for the YouTube result because it’s easier to watch a 60 second video than read a vague description for 10 minutes.
She gets after me regularly for wanting to win arguments or elaborate on interesting facts we hear and discuss via a web search from the couch. Still, I find it’s best to answer random questions that come up as soon as they’re raised, because they are usually forgotten quickly. It’s akin to keeping a pad and pen at your bedside - just in case you get a spontaneous great idea in the middle of the night or your subconscious solves a problem from the day after some time compiling new long-term memories.
The point is, the Internet is good for something. People debate the quality/truthfulness of the information out there, the prevalence of some not-so-savory content and information, the problems with accessibility, and so on. Still, there are enough tools out there today that it’s not so bad filtering through the useless static and getting what you want.
Then there are the times you don’t want a textbook answer. If the media organizations had grown to their current size and the Internet had not, we would have little help for wading through the non-stop propaganda we get from every side. Nationalism, the moral righteousness of various political philosophies, environmental activism, etc. By virtue of the Worldwide Web’s worldwide nature, we have the benefit of the various extremes of opinion in any given context, as long as we take the time to do thorough research - exposing ourselves to multiple perspectives.
Does that mean we should expose ourselves to as much information as possible? No, common sense and personal judgement should be adequate to derive conclusions on a great many things. For instance, seeing someone cut an onion in a manner that is quick and effective once was enough for us to go on with our lives without watching 10 other, similar videos. The dynamics of the process are not so complicated that more than that is necessary.
Where does it all go from here? Chances are, the quality of information on the Internet will not improve. There will be 50 bazillion Hello Kitty fan sites, and only a handful with truly relevant and precisely accurate information. At the same time, though, the tools for reaching the relevant information will only get better, and by means of syndicating all of it together maybe, just maybe, we’ll be better off for having it.
I recently read a blog post over at the Google Picasa site that made me think of all those “easter eggs” that were embedded in nearly every desktop application of the late 80s, early 90s. Turns out the practice is still alive and rears its head in the most recent version of Picasa. If you use Picasa, try this: press Control-Shift-Y while in Picasa.
I think the practice of allowing easter eggs to exist in code is a bad policy. It complicates the codebase, eats up space (bandwidth, disc, memory), and serves no purpose other than 60-seconds of entertainment for an “egg” that is quickly forgotten. Eggs should never be allowed in production code, IMO.
Do you know of “eggs” on current production software releases? Do you think allowing eggs in production code is a good business policy? Please share.
The Cyber Sprocket gang was well represented at May’s meeting of the Charleston, SC Linux Users Group (CSCLUG). We met at Kennedy’s on Calhoun and enjoyed hor d’oeuvres and wine compliments of the Charleston Digital Corridor leadership, Nell and Ernest.
The meeting focused on the open source community’s direction in Charleston, and the future of the CSCLUG. The crowd was diverse and included programmers, friends of programmers, hackers (or “security experts” if you prefer), freelance writers, the economic development masterminds from the Corridor, and of course the Sprocketeers. I mostly played the role of bartender by fetching Nell all the wine she wanted and keeping Ernest’s glass too-full.
Noah Schiffman (the security expert and self-appointed head of the CSCLUG) was available with a couple of laptops running Linux (virtually or natively) that gave us the brief pleasure of challenging our abilities to get Wifi running on distributions of the operating system we’ve not worked with before. At least I got the Mac connected.
Cyber Sprocket is a strong supporter of community efforts to improve open source awareness and to promote an overall improvement in the local technical knowledge base. As the Internet has grown in accessibility and content, we have seen a corresponding growth in the availability of lackluster programming how-to guides that have taught an entire generation how to “do it wrong,” and we are committed to bring this to light and correct it. CSCLUG is a perfect place to jump-start the learning process, simply by means of exposing yourself to new/different technology. If you’re interested in trying something other than the Vista Home Edition that was packaged with your Dell, then come to the next meeting and show your support!
Now for some more blurry, iPhone photography of the event! (after the break)
