30 September 2007

Hotel key cards and internet information

This morning I ran into a guest who insisted that she needed to keep her key card (I work in a hotel), due to the *fact* that we have her name, address, and credit card number on there. Apparently she read a rather long article about it, of all places, on the internet. I would like to make a couple points here:

  1. Hotels do not encode personal information onto key cards, doing so would be just plain foolish.
    1. It is a major liability issue for the hotel, and the lock manufacturers.
    2. Hotels have no reason to encode that information.
    3. In about half the hotels that use key cards the encoder is not even attached to the computer.
  2. People are not using common sense when they receive information from the internet. The internet makes in extremely easy for people to give information, and to receive information; this does not make every bit of information on the internet true, in fact in makes the information on the internet less reliable than information that you would receive in person.
    1. Repeating false information, that you received on the internet, in real life only makes you seem more foolish than the original article.
    2. When you receive information from the internet that claims to be absolutely true, do some research. You will be surprised at just how often the information is false.
    3. If you receive an email, that contains false information, from someone be sure to send back an email explaining what was inaccurate.

20 September 2007

it’s how he treats his inferiors

As I was driving to work this afternoon I passed a semi full of pigs. This semi was shoved full, to the point that you could see that the pigs had to stand on each other. I find this more than disturbing.

I can not help but find it amusing that most humans (in my experience) seem to feel that they are superior to ever other living thing on Earth; yet we treat these living creatures as if they don't matter. It makes me wonder how we must look to any alien species out there.

“You can’t get the gauge of a man by how he treats his peers, it’s how he treats his inferiors that shows his true character." -Dumbledore

Yes, the quote is from Harry Potter, but I think it is very true.

18 September 2007

Nebraska Senator sues God

It's about time! It's not for the reasons that I would really prefer, but it will be interesting to see where this goes. I love the last sentence of the article, take a read.

Nebraska state Senator Ernie Chambers, who represents legislative District 11 in North Omaha, has filed an unusual lawsuit on Friday. According to court documents obtained by Wikinews, Chambers has decided to sue God, looking for a judge to issue a "permanent injunction" against the highest power.

Chambers says in his suit that god has spread fear across the globe causing "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants. [God also caused] fearsome floods, horrendous hurricanes, earthquakes, plagues, famine, genocidal wars, birth defects, terrifying tornadoes and the like" and he wants the courts to order God "to cease certain harmful activities and the making ofterroristic threats."

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Nebraska_Senator_sues_God

17 September 2007

Micro-Blogs

Today I took the plunge into "micro-blogging" (I had some extra time). First I played with Twitter, the service that you hear so much about, next I played with Pownce, then I played with Jaiku. For my hour of use (about 1/3 of an hour each), I have found that I prefer Jaiku. Below I will rate each site on the things I was looking for.

Love at first sight
This is my ranking on first impressions of the site, and ease of signing up.
1 - Jaiku -- The site did not appear cluttered, and signing up was extremely easy (you can even sign up through IM).
2 - Twitter -- This site had the most cluttered feeling of all three, but signing up was still fairly easy.
3 - Pownce -- The site was not overly cluttered, but signing up is a pain in the @$ (invite only).

IM going to be using this
The only way that I could use a micro-blogging site consistently, is if it easy to post - I feel that IM (instant messenger) would be the best way for me to do so.
1 - Jaiku -- Jaiku makes good use of IM. It is not as easy to setup as Twitter, but once you have it set up, you can do many things with it. Jaiku only uses Jabber (GTalk) naively, but you can use AIM, Yahoo, and MSN through another service. In addition to the normal set of commands, you can also use IM to loggin, logout, create an account, delete an account, and a bit more. The largest problem is that the IM account they use always shows as off line, so it doesn't show on my list.
2 - Twitter -- They make it easy to setup the IM features. You can use AIM, Jabber (GTalk), LiveJournal, and .Mac.
3 - Pownce -- You can download their software (run by AIR) and use that, no other options.
Twitter and Jaiku really are tied in this section, Twitter is easier, but Jaiku has more features.


How very utilitarian of you
1 - Twitter -- Wins hands down in this department. The number of utilities that have been developed for Twitter is staggering. The default utilities are the best that I have seen so far. A running "badge" that you can easily put into a blog, or site. The API means that anyone can make a utility, so things will only get better.
2 - Jaiku -- A few utilities, not much to talk about (that I could find anyway). They do make "badges", and they do look nice, but don't work as well in my blog as the ones from Twitter. Jaiku released their API as well, so things will get better as well.
3 - Pownce -- A distant third again. No API, no utilities that I could find - only their desktop software (see above).

Let me send that to you
1 - Pownce -- Their big advantage is that you can send files to people.
2 - Jaiku -- No file transfer.
3 - Twitter -- No file transfer.

Keep Talking
The only reason I can see to keep using *any* micro-blogs, is so that I can talk to people, I have a real blog to express my thoughts.
1 - Jaiku -- They have the most community minded service out there. People can comment on your posts, and it is easy to follow. They also have channels, which are communities. They make doing all of that dead easy.
2 - Twitter -- You can reply to posts, but it feels more like a quick add on, rather than something they intended from the start.
3 - Pownce -- You can reply, not much else.


I will be using Jaiku mostly, but will play around with Twitter as well. If I'm lucky, Twitter will adapt some of the things that Jaiku already has.