Alan Is Good

Haiku Monday May 25, 2009

This, my destiny?

Unsatisfied, Humpty cried

Find the rest of me. . .

It’s like when you finally convince several of your friends to give your favorite TV show a chance, and then the episode they watch is the lamest one of the season.

Thanks, Tom.

Haiku Monday May 18, 2009

¿Que tienen el sol,

Salsa, y los serpientes?

La sonrisa mia.

Feliz Cumpleaños, Jalapeño Mom

Unveiled sometime in the past 24 hours, Tom’s latest trick is the new integrated MySpace IM.  I know it’s not like that anymore, but I still like to imagine MySpace president Tom Anderson and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg viciously coding away night and day to vanquish the other.

The custom IM friends screen looks a little something like this: 

And when you pop the chat window out:

10 Cool Things About MySpace IM 

1. Easily turn off that annoying “pop” sound 

2. Pop-out window chat function 

3. Ability to go ‘invisible’ or ‘hidden’ and still chat

4. Bulk add/Bulk remove friends for customized friend IM list

5. Easy to add individual friends to IM list/Block list

6. Option to chat with ‘Everyone’ (strangers)

7. Uncluttered layout for multiple chats

8. Epic smiley selection (including pirate)

9. Option to hide the MySpace Chat bar

10. Option to disable MySpace Chat completely

I bet my social networking wrestlers would have loved to use this as fodder earlier this week.  MySpace quietly unveiled the integrated MySpace IM sometime in the past 24 hours, and it resembles closely the ‘new’ Facebook Chat we were treated to earlier this week.  (MySpace previous released their IM service as a program you download, install and use just like AIM – only it was horrible, unlike AIM)

Copying Facebook?

Well, Shabooty thinks so.  MySpace IM functions the same way – see who’s online, chat them up, some of them may have the “inactive” icon next to them (it’s a moon on Facebook Chat), and at first there’s an annoying “pop” sound whenever someone enters/exits/IMs you.  Some people may see it as a copycat move, or that it’s too little too late, but I disagree.  Copying Facebook would have been releasing an inferior integrated chat service that everyone finds annoying and opts to avoid, and then two months later fixing all of the problems even though you’ve lost everyone’s attention.  MySpace always had a silently weak chat service, and then they quietly launched that lame IM service you can download, but those were betas that no one noticed (and probably weren’t harmed by negative feedback).  I think their foray into the “all up in your face” IM world is far more polished and was arguably executed better.

Facebook made some good changes to their chat earlier this week, but I still have issues with their approach to the integrated chat.  I feel like Zuckerberg’s over-thinking it.  

AlanIsGood on MySpace:

Another Xtranormal video by AlanIsGood:

Haiku Monday May 11, 2009

Line drawn in the sand

Search for what you cannot sea

To make one last stand

A 17-year-old girl called 911 to help her father, who was having a very bad seizure at their home in Lincoln Park, Michigan.  In a panic, she says, “What the f***!” because her call wasn’t going through.  911 recordings begin when the caller is dialing, so the station heard her remark.  

Well, a very upstanding, old fashioned and honorable officer of the ‘law’ curses back at her and disconnects her call!  She calls back; he belittles her a bit more, and drags this on for another 6 minutes, while her father is suffering on the floor of their home.  When he finally calls the fire department, his version of the story paints her as a hostile caller.  

One last part – she rushes to the station a few blocks away to confront the cop IRL and she gets arrested and detained!  Check the video below:

Usually there’s at least a 70/30 split and two different sides to a story, but not here!  I’ve argued against online censorship in the past, but IRL censorship in emergency situations is a f***ing joke.  I’m glad that we live in the age of the internet for situations like this one.  This kind of injustice and law enforcement abuse of power has been happening for hundreds of years now, and it has left thousands of people frustrated, helpless and even dead – because the buck has always stopped with the law.  Imagine this situation happening in the 60s – no one would hear the girl’s story, she would feel frustrated and depressed with the world, and have a serious lack of respect for every cop she ever met.  

The internet, new media journalists and digital public relations have changed all of this.  No one wants negative press bestowed upon their station, business or establishment – and nowadays people are witnessing, video cameras are watching and tape recorders are rolling, ready to archive the misbehavior of a**holes with power.   

The cop will no doubt be harassed and the station will have a tough time dealing with the negative PR.  Even though he will probably keep his job, there’s a solid black eye on his career for a while.  Digital justice prevails.  Here’s an internet acronym palindrome that I think sums things up:

WTF FTW!