primate programming

Slave labor has emerged a new trend: primate programming

visualizing friendster

OMG. Ben Discoe visualized Friendster from his perspective. Tell me that’s not gorgeous! ::bounce::

Of course, as he properly points out, it is only a static image from his perspective without all of the proper interconnections. And the clusters are a bit confusing because not all of those people are evenly interconnected. That’s why the visualization of an n-degree system is such a pain in the toosh.

[I should note that the first question after my SIGGRAPH talk was “Would it be possible to visualize Friendster?”]

OK.. i so want one of my own. And i so badly want to analyze this data. Wah!!

Friendster banned in the workplace

I received three reports today of Friendster being banned in the workplace. Of those, only one person told me which companies (Wiley and Salmon Smith Barney). In the latter case, the writer notes “in the case of ssb, it’s just a sad
story of an evil employer that makes its employees work crazy hours and then doesn’t allow them to try to make external friends. this sort of asymmetric work/life fusion shouldn’t be tolerated.”

This raises an interesting question… In theory, dating is not really permissable at work, right? You’re there to be productive and productive only. With the tech boom, life revolved around work. Thus, those lines started to really blend. Ironically, there has been a significant backlash against those blended lines, yet the number of hours at work has not declined (in the States).

On one hand, i definitely realize that Friendster is more of a distraction than Solitaire (and that’s often banned). On the other, it’s painful to watch us turn into a corporate society where life is solely about work.

multiple YASNS contexts

OK.. earlier i posted that one of the most powerful things about these services is that they provide an additional context in which to recognize people, right? People that you recognize from the bar suddenly become accessible when you see them on Friendster. Well, i have a new phenomenon going on in my participation on these services. It seems as though people think that it’s totally appropriate to add one as a Friend when they recognize them from another YASNS. I find this very peculiar, although it does validate my feeling that these services provide an additional meaningful context.

Table of Condiments That Periodically Go Bad

After a group of friends “gift economied” all of their condiments, another friend posted a great reference – Table of Condiments That Periodically Go Bad

Everything is Political

Everything is Political is Paul Krugman’s latest op-ed. In it, he argues that major departments of our government continue to become more and more corrupt and controlled by those in power. ::sigh:: So much for balance of power.

I have to admit that i’m both outraged and exhausted with being outraged. Of course, this is even more frustrating because i know that’s how those in power maintain power.

Speaking of which, oh boy am i dreading the California recall election. Half of the punk San Franciscan culture kids are running, viewing the whole thing as a joke. Of course, this only strengthens the Republican side so i end up wanting to *strangle* these folks because the last thing that i want to see in California is a Republican governor. Dear me oh my.

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Digging for Googleholes

Steven Johnson’s most recent Slate article entitled “Digging for Googleholes” reveals the not-so-omni-present side of Google. One of the problems that Johnson targets is the dreadful synonym capabilities. Interestingly, on “Google Weblog” today, they referenced a new Google advanced feature that allows people to search for synonyms.

bloggers vs. diarists

It’s dreadful how backlogged my INBOX is, but i’m trying to go through it a bit right now. In it, i found this link trying to differential bloggers from diarists. In it, online diarists are considered the drama club at a high school while bloggers are the yearbook staff (or perhaps they are the A/V staff).

Of course, this did *not* help me resolve my identity. Darn myself for way too many extra currics… who would’ve known that it would destroy my ability to properly label myself online?