Month: September 2009

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International Brotherhood Week

It is always a nice day on which you get something confirmed in hard data you already knew was true. For example the sweet fact that zodiacs contribute exactly zero, zilch, nothing to the question wether people match or not.

The best days of OKCupid are over, its no longer the geeky place where people exchanged long mails about smart quizzes and that got most of their new users from the Startup-screen of edonkey 2000. I do wish OKCs owners lots of money and fame for what they did with this site, but I do kinda miss the old days ;)

Anyway, I recommend following OKCs blog closely, they have a dataset that dwarfs Gallup and they are smart enough to do funny things with it.

And one does wonder how hindu marriages work out.

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Humor

{man; look; nice; gawk; find; whois; init; sed; talk; wine; date; grep; touch; finger; flex; unzip; head; tail; mount; workbone; fsck; yes; gasp; fsck; more; yes; yes; eject; umount; makeclean; zip; sort; done; cu; split; exit: xargs!}

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Obama ante portas

In other countries, people might feel flattered or exited. In other countries, maybe people wouldn’t care. In the US, parents are horrified at the prospect of their president talking to their children – lest he infects them with his socialist propaganda.

And that isn’t even a joke.

The whole language form a country which under Bush spent more money on government than most European countries – if you deduce the European expenditures for public health care (which is – of course – privatized in the US). That makes, per republican definition, the US a more socialist country than, lets say, Germany.

But of course the right wing always insinuates what they would do themselves if they were in power: indoctrinating children with spiritual mumbo-jumbo, ballooning the public finances, and redistributing private wealth. So the parents flock to protest and threaten to take their children out of school for that day: They didn’t choose this segregated school to have some black guy talking to their kids all of a sudden.

Not all that new then, but what impressed me was the fact that those people seem to be that terrified that they actually loose the ability to listen to what they actually are saying. Apart from the likening of President Obama to Hitler, Kim Yong Il and the devil himself (which is again a feat worth of socialist propaganda), my favourite quote of the day is from Chris Stigal:

“I wouldn’t let my next-door neighbour talk to my kid alone”

Ah, yes. I do hope all your neighbours read this.

Watched some more old West Wing episodes two days ago, and there are a lot of things to like and adore the USA for. Clearly Texas is not one of them.

P.S.: In case you wanted to know what President Obama wanted to say, here’s some info.

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Internet für Anfänger: Der Streisand-Effekt

In Deutschland tut man sich schwer mit dem Bloggen – nicht nur, dass die meiisten Blogs wenig mehr sind als wahlloses Dissen von Ungeliebtem, ein recht striktes Rechtssystem tut sein Übriges, um unliebsame Blogs plattmachen.

Eines der offensichtlichsten Fälle, der bisher in allgemeiner Unzufriedenheit endete, ist der des Sportartikelherstellers Jako. Unkenntnis des Internet, gepaart mit Übereifer, führten hier zu einem PR-Gau, der dazu führt das die Rechtsanwältin Iris Sanguinette von der Kanzlei Horn & Kollegen in der Blogosphäre verhaßt ist, der Sportartikelhersteller Jako sich genauso schlecht dabei weg kommt, und das inkriminierte Blog ist natürlich vollständig offline.

Elend also rundum, und als Erklärung kann nicht mal herhalten, dass findige Rechtsanwälte inzwischen das Abmahnen als Geschäftsmodell entdeckt haben. Man kann sich des Eindrucks nicht erwehren, als sei in der causa Jako schlicht bräsige Besserwisserei im Spiel gewesen, keine boshaften Absichten also außer dem so beliebten “guten Recht” das einem gehört, wenn man dafür bezahlt, gepart mit der Unfähigkeit, sich die Konsequenzen des eigenen Handelns hinreichend vor Augen zu führen.

Das Bedauerliche daran ist, dass nun wirklich niemand geholfen ist, dem Blog nicht, dem Internet nicht, Jako nicht, seinen Kunden nicht, und Frau Sanguinette sicherlich auch nicht. Außer, dass ein paar mehr Leute vielleicht gelernt haben, was der Streisand-Effekt ist.

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Mirror-Fencing

As an Addendum to the last entry: Not very surprisingly, Murdochs son now called for an end to goverment-sponsored media. I admit its boring that someone says exactly what is to be expected from him, I still find myself dissapointed at the fact that none of those smart guys can come up with a better idea than to outlaw competition. News are not “free” in the intertubes, I pay the service provider, and I pay my taxes which pay for those News. If your business can’t generate the revenue you need, change your business plan. Its been done before.