Category: society

  • Dear FB, Twitter – We want narrowcasting, not just broadcasting!

    Earlier this week, I wanted to send a Facebook message to my dancer friends in the Bay Area  to invite them to a local event.  I ended up manually sifting through my entire friends list, since there’s no way to invite or message an intersection of friends.  Similarly, I wanted to post a twitter note to…

  • A heartwarming story about bridging the culture gap

    A heartwarming story about bridging the culture gap

    A gaggle of giggling young teens — pre-Facebook — pesters this cranky, lonely guy, and asks him… everything. Luxembourg, 1998. On a whim and with zero preparation, I’d decided to spend a weekend there, only to face crappy weather and a lack of available nearby hostels. After much schlepping, I wearily ended up in Echternacht at a…

  • Time spent on social networks and the like – I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours

    After having fallen hugely behind on browsing my Facebook newsfeed, Friendfeed, etc., I decided to see just how much time I had been spending during those “on top of it” days… and, by extension, how much time it’d take me to keep up each day. Around 10pm last night, I “cleared out” my Reader, and…

  • Insane transparency — Seeing or even setting what your colleagues earn

    At Google, we have pretty radical transparency, at least in Engineering where I sit.  With few exceptions, we can all see what every colleague is working on (via the Project Database or “PDB”), what they’ve recently accomplished (via weekly self-composed “Snippets”), and even what their core contributions have been to the company (their Google resume). …

  • #geekfail — Valuing immediacy over depth, accuracy, and understanding

    Yesterday, I learned about the turmoil in Iran… from the blogosphere.  Some have argued that the immediacy of news on this and other breaking topics is a sign that mainstream media has failed and online media—specifically “real time” components of online media—have triumphed.  I believe such an assumption is not only dead wrong, but dangerous…

  • On public displays of affection — but not that kind

    Today, we send and receive notes publicly in a way that seems shocking when viewed by communications standards just a decade ago. Expressions of friendship, social plans, etc. “I miss you!”…“Hey, are you going to Fred’s party tomorrow?”…“Save me a dance this Wednesday!”… etc. Why do we like this, why do we post rather than…

  • Dependence on the Internet

    Just going through some of my old files, and I came across an unpublished journal/rant thing re: my frustrations upon loss of Internet connectivity.  This was from back in *2001*.  Amazing how some dependent at least I was on the Internet back then! Okay, I feel as blind as a bat right now. My internet…

  • Facebook’s Frustrating Friending… and my reluctant choice

    I have over 500 Facebook friends.  That’s a statement to help you understand my predicament, not a badge of honor.  Of these, a handful are close friends, a big bunch are “regular” friends, a ton of ‘em are colleagues with which I have varying degrees of social contact and interest, and an even larger ton…

  • Proposition 8 isn’t just about civil rights, it’s about love and commitment

    Hi there, I don’t tend to post much about politics in this blog, especially nowadays.  But I have something I want to talk to you about that’s more than “just politics.”  It’s about my friends.  It’s about—with semi-apologies to Princess Bride—True Love. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Proposition 8, I’ll quickly fill…

  • I, Robot

    Hello.  Good day.  A little quiet?I’m feeling a little blue myself.You know, A little anxious for no particular reasonA little sad that I should feel anxious at this age.You know, a little self-conscious anxiety resulting in non-specific sadness.The state that I call blue. – spoken by the narrator (“Man In Chair”) in the awesome musical…