Evil

There has been some recent news in the last month that I want to talk about. Google announced several weeks ago the new Google+ infected search results, where they attempt to shove as many aspects of Google+ in front of the user, whether the user wants it or not. This goes against something Google has said they never would do, for years and years - polluting their own search results with preferences of their products over competitors. Back in the late '90s and early '00s this is the exact reason many people switched to Google in the first place. All of ther competitors pulled bullshit such as this, and Google being the "good guy" did not. Zuckerberg and his monstrosity has them so scared that they've now abandonned their own principles in the name of market share. In recent weeks, a new browser bookmarklet has emerged for improving Google web search results by eliminating the special tratment of Google Plus pages. The bookmarklet, called "Focus on the User", as John Gruber writes:

Open source “Don’t be evil” bookmarklet that uses Google’s own data to show social results ranked by relevance instead of promoting Google Plus above all others. John Battelle wrote an article on the motivation behind and creation of the Focus on the User bookmarklet. Danny Sullivan also wrote an explanation as to how it works. MG Siegler chimed in as well: But again, the key issue here is that what Google is doing with Search+ is making Google worse. This bookmarklet illustrates that in a very effective way.  And, if all of that wasn't enough, Google's new privacy policy changes come to mind. These have gotten so much attention that main-stream sources are writing about it. A good start is "Google's Broken Promise: The End of 'Don't Be Evil'" by Mat Honan (note, John Gruber says that "'Don't be evil' has been over for a long time."
The Electronic Freedom Foundation posted a good artile on their blog conceringing Google's privacy policy changes. Danny Sullivan, at SearchEngineLand writes: In many ways, this is Google growing up into the new portal it has become. Rather than people signing up for individual products, Gmail, YouTube and so on, they’re now signing-up for Google — or at least a single set of terms (in most cases) for all the company’s products. It’s similar to how you sign-up for Facebook, rather than individual products within Facebook. Whether you like it or not. MG Sielger wrote, over at the new PandoDaily, that the reason Google is making all of these user hostile moves is simply due to their continued need to be relevant (as their own ads, their primary revenue source, rely on this). Sarah Lacy touched on both the topics of their privacy policy changes and their new compromised search results in an article called "Google: Do Yourself a Favor and Just Come Clean Already". I wish to point all of these things out to you dear reader, because I'm beginning to feel that my thoughts I put down on pixel, some months ago, are starting to feel more and more like a very good decision.

There Is But One Constant In The Universe

There is but one constant in the universe: No matter how many times via phone, in person, or over email that you tell a sales person that you will get back in touch with them once you hear something… Whether, yes we will buy your product, or no we will not… Especially when it is not up to you to make a decision, but your boss for whom you've done the research for, turned over the information and are waiting to hear back from… The sales person will incessantly call and or email you every 2-3 days non-stop to "just check in" with "how things are going". Constantly. UHG.

Comments Still Off

MG Siegler, writing on his blog ParisLemon:

Here’s the thing: while some try to paint comments as a form of democracy, that’s bullshit. 99.9% of comments are bile. I’ve heard the counter arguments about how you need to curate and manage your comments — okay, I’m doing that by not allowing any. MG's post is very short and therefore I do not want to quote the entire post here, verbatim, but the last paragraph is also important. He basically makes the same point that I've made here before. If you wish to comment on a post you see here, do so via Twitter, or your own blog, or your LiveJournal site…whatever, I don't care. The vast majority of people do not read blog comments anyway. By not allowing comments on my own site, the barrier to entry to do so usually eliminates most of the idiots typically found within the comment sections of most websites who have comments. As MG says: Commenting is a facade. It makes you think you have a voice. You don't. Get your own blog and write how you really feel on your own site. Earn your voice. Perfectly put. Also, I've linked to this several weeks back, but if this topic is new to you then I suggest you read Matt Gemmell's post as well.

The Greatest Paper Map of the United States You’ll Ever See

Seth Stevenson, writing for Slate:

American mapmaking’s most prestigious honor is the “Best of Show” award at the annual competition of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society. The five most recent winners were all maps designed by large, well-known institutions: National Geographic (three times), the Central Intelligence Agency Cartography Center, and the U.S. Census Bureau. But earlier this year, the 38th annual Best of Show award went to a map created by Imus Geographics—which is basically one dude named David Imus working in a farmhouse outside Eugene, Ore. Here is an example of part of the map, the state of Pennsylvania. Please avoid buying one of these for about 10 more minutes (just long enough for me to order my copy before they sell out).

My Year In Cities 2011

This will be my third year keeping track of this, having done so for both 2009 and 2010 previously. In 2009 I saw Jason Kottke do this and liked it, so I decided to do it too. Once more, one or more nights were spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days Alexandria, VA*
Wirtz, VA*
Barboursville, VA
Baltimore, MD
Chevy Chase, MD
Toronto, ON, Canada
I'm down from last year's nine cities, back down to six. Still, an improvement over 2009's list of five.

Here we go again...

Yet another Presidential election year is upon us and again, the Paultards are out in force. Every time I mention one of the many things Ron Paul has said in the past which makes me oppose him as a candidate (for anything), or any of the other crackpot, crazy ideas that he touts, his supporters come out of the woodwork like cockroaches white-knighting for his cause. One particular rebuttal is that he voted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell. What they fail to say (and probably don't know) is that he supports DOMA, the Marriage Protection Act, and the We the People Act which explicitly allowing discrimination against homosexuals. Is he homophobic? I don't know. Is he interested in protecting rights of homosexuals? Clearly not. He doesn't want the federal government meddling in people's affairs, but he has no problem at all with state government banning same-sex everything if they so choose. I don't think he is racist or homophobic, but it doesn't matter because he'll allow the racists and homophobes at the state levels to write racist and homophobic laws. Being the president is a practical job, and he's a philosopher with no concern for practicality or the real-life consequences of his philosophies. I shouldn't have less rights than my compatriots just because I was unlucky enough to born in a certain region. And I shouldn't have to wait 50 years for bigots to learn better either.

A Statement From Louis C.K. (December 13, 2011)

Louis C.K., writing on his website:

It's been 4 days. A lot of people are asking me how it's going. I've been hesitant to share the actual figures, because there's power in exclusive ownership of information. What I didn't expect when I started this was that people would not only take part in this experiment, they would be invested in it and it would be important to them. It's been amazing to see people in large numbers advocating this idea. So I think it's only fair that you get to know the results. Also, it's just really cool and fun and I'm dying to tell everybody. I told my Mom, I told three friends, and that wasn't nearly enough. So here it is. Spoiler alert: it worked. Also, Mike Rundle makes a very good observation: