Author Archives: zephoria

today i understand teens (fucking spam)

When Melora Zaner told me that teens didn’t use email, she was talking about the generational gap of preferred communication methods. Although i’m anxiously awaiting her actual report on this, it doesn’t surprise me in the least. Around 1998, colleges stopped giving out email accounts and pretty much everyone reverted to free accounts (Hotmail, Yahoo and the like). Hotmail purports to have about 1/4 of all email addresses worldwide.

This week, i got the first spam burst that has truly crippled me. Normally, i’ll get a burst of like 10000 messages; it’ll piss off my ISP, make a mess out of my phone and whathaveyou. But this current round is unbearable. Some spam system is hitting random things like joe [at] danah [dot] org and ben and a lot of other random first names. I used hundreds of names at my domain name for specialized addresses. I have no clue which ones i use. But i do know that i can’t handle this, my phone can’t handle this, and i’m utterly uninterested in coping with it.

Personally, i’m horrified by technological communications. My voice mail crashed this week. My email is a wreck. Fucking spammers have inundated my blogs. I just want face-to-face interactions without having to deal with organizing them. This is when i really wonder what life was like before the phone (or even the telegraph). I definitely have romanticized notions of moments of showing up a the town pub when i want to be social.

::grumble::grumble::

economics of crack (or how i learned to despise broadband)

I was at a party last night, telling a friend that i was going up to Tahoe to work for the weekend. As our conversation progressed, i asked him why he doesn’t use AIM. He told me that it is equivalent to putting crack in front of an addict so he refuses to install it. This is how i feel about broadband and cable in general.

In theory, i could turn off broadband. But i never do. And even when i’m in a remote location, avoiding the Internet, the first thing that i do is see if i can get connection. There’s something nice when it says “no” in return. I feel this odd sense of relief, mixed in with the normal anxiety about being offline.

I miss having to log in to the Internet. There was something ceremonious about it, something that made it feel like a connection instead of an addiction. By default, i was offline. I could CHOOSE to go online. Now, it’s an addiction and i have to avoid it.

Frankly, i miss the time when there was a cost to logging in. I felt the clock ticking, felt the cents running away as i paid per minute. This motivated me to engage with the Internet with a purpose, not to lag. Get the answers to my questions and move on. Now, there’s no hurry; i pay per month.

I would pay someone to charge me per minute for my broadband, someone to force me to self-regulate, to gain control. Of course, it’s always the institutions that shouldn’t encourage me to avoid that do this most successfully. Take BART. I often fail to take BART because i haven’t pre-paid for it.. i might as well drive. But if i had a monthly pass, i would never drive. Why is it that public transit knows how to motivate me to not participate while the Internet just calls me in. Ah, economics and the twisted way in which our society encourages us to be commercial.

on orkut

OK… the social networking phenomenon has screamed again. This time, orkut. [Read the CJNET article.]

Personally, i’d like to see where they’re going with this. As it stands, it doesn’t look much different than any of the other YASNS pieces and there are still kinks that are irritating. But one thing’s for sure… if Google can’t figure out how to optimize a network computationally, no one can.

I’m just still so uncertain about sites that do explicit articulated networks. And i’m certainly not motivated to contact friends and beg them to join. Of course, if you’re on there and want to find me, i’m using the name i use for all sites that refuse lower case names.

Update: Please note that i’m purposely not commenting on Orkut for a few days. Of course, i’d love to hear your thoughts, but i’m holding my tongue for a bit.

social networking software + me = Etech

For those who will be at Emerging Tech this year, i’ll be giving a presentation on the tension between users and creators in the social networking software space, focusing on how users repurpose technologies to meet their needs.

In addition, Joi Ito, Mimi Ito, Howard Rheingold, Scott Fisher and i will be on a panel about social mobility.

Also, Liz and i are going to gather folks who want to talk about categorizing blogs.

And finally, i’m psyched to attend the Digital Democracy Teach-In.

I hope to see some of you there!

avoid diebold: register absentee

Avoid the questionable Diebold machines. Register as an absentee voter so that you can have a receipt of your vote. In many states, this takes quite a while so DO IT NOW. [I’ll still love you even if you vote for someone i don’t like, but i’ll be very angry with you for not voting.]

If you’re in California, here’s the form. It takes all of 30 seconds to fill out.

Until the Violence Stops screening

V-Day is going to do a San Francisco Premier screening of “Until the Violence Stops” on January 28th. This is a benefit screening of the film that premiered at Sundance. If you believe in ending violence against women, this is a good way to help out. Attend the screening, support women and help raise money to end violence worldwide.

TICKETS AVAILABLE BY CALLING THE BRAVA THEATRE – 415-647-2822

on deception

When i was 14, i learned what it meant to be deceived by someone i loved. I saw lie after lie unfold in front of me in complete horror. It clicked and, since then, lying is about the biggest sin you can commit in a personal relationship with me. I’ve always told friends and lovers that i can get over cheating/chaos/anything, but i can’t get over lying, so just don’t magnify stupidity with cruelty.

Deception has so many levels. All too often, people lie to themselves, convince themselves of their lies and by the time they lie to you, they genuinely don’t believe it’s a lie. (Anyone see the State of the Union?) It’s all a matter of perspective, right? I’m certainly not innocent of this.

But there’s something so painfully demoralizing about feeling enthusiasm fade to exhaustion as the pieces of an intricate web of deception through avoiding the truth unfold. It’s not as cruel as an intentional lie, but it’s impossible to feel any form of trust or respect at the other end. ::sigh::

misbehaving nominated for a bloggie

Sometimes, i amaze myself. When i saw that BoingBoing was nominated for a Bloggie, i scanned the list. I didn’t even think to look for any of the blogs that i’m involved with. Later, i was talking with Cory and he made some remark about how we’re up in the same category. I looked puzzled and he informed me that misbehaving was up for a Bloggie.

How funny. It never even dawned on me that our venture into hellish conversations around gender & tech would be recognized, but i have to admit that it brings me great joy. So, if you support us, please go and vote!

your critical book list?

I’m still shocked that so many people read my musings here. I also know that most people who read this don’t post. Yet, if you keep coming back, you must be interested in some cross-section of the topics that interest me. So, now i have a question for you…

What books have changed your perspective on the world? What books do you think EVERYONE must read?

And, more importantly, for those of you who see holes in my arguments, what would you recommend to fill them?