It's no secret that I'm not a huge fan of Twitter, Blogging as an information source, and the branding of "Web 2.0" in general. I'm sure it's only because I'm buried in technology that I see little difference between sites like myspace, facebook, twitter, wordpress and their "Web 1.0" forefathers such as web forums, newsgroups, and simple, daily HTML pages updated by university researchers that linked to each other in the mid 90s. I think it's cool that all these new people are using technology, and posting half-naked pictures of themselves where I can access them conveniently. It's also groundbreaking that I can click around and access their half-naked friends as well. My point is that these changes have really nothing to do with the technology itself which hasn't changed much, just simply with the way some people are using webservers to auto-create content and link it together. I'm not that impressed, and neither is the market.

News corp reports that Fox Interactive Media and Myspace (combined assets of 70 news corp websites) has revenues of only USD $228 million for quarter 3, with an income of only $6 Million. Somewhere buried in there is the actual number for Myspace, but the fact that they aren't breaking out myspace into its own reporting segment financially tells me that myspace is the stinker, and FIM is covering for it.

Moving on to twitter, I honestly cannot believe that someone hasn't killed this site yet. There is functionally little or no difference between the way the twitter status bar and the comparable status on Myspace or Facebook operate. Add in an API to allow searching which everyone seems to gratuitously tout for doing market research, and presto! I no longer need more than one account to accomplish all the same tasks. I've been noticing the same handful of CNN and other network reporters that mention twitter over and over in their articles, regaling it as a new tool to see what is popular on people's minds and how they are reacting to current events. honestly if the same search functionality existed for myspace bulletins or status updates, they would regale that instead. For me, the most insulting case of pitching twitter was a (Article)recent CNN article where they included this quote regarding the Mumbai terror attacks in November: "Mumbai is not a city under attack as much as it is a social media experiment in action" I think this quote says a lot, it shows that the users of this service and the people that are constantly promoting it are losing touch with reality in their evangelization of this sideshow technology. I'm sorry guys, but Mumbai was a city under attack, and over 160 people ended up losing their lives that day during your social media experiment.

This is twitter jumping the shark.

One of the biggest complaints I have about using blogs as your news source, twitter as a current events news source, or even TV news programs, is that the fluidity of unfolding current events cannot be reliably sorted out except by people at those locations, even in those cases, most people that will be reporting to twitter or to some other blog service are not trained journalists. They may report with emotion, and with what they feel the current situation is, however the quality of the reporting will be less reliable as a result. Also, just because a certain report is highlighted and passed on by many twitter users, and is then picked up as a trend on some twitter reporting tool doesn't mean its valid. Think about how many "YOU MUST REPOST THIS MESSAGE" bulletins you see on myspace daily, how many fake items get bubbled up and passed around?

The job of a professional news service is to wade through all this crap and present a decent number of well prepared articles. I honestly don't care to read a long winded blog just to find out how many people died in Mumbai, or if they caught the terrorists, I need it in 3 to 4 paragraphs, and I need it to be accurate. All the shit going by on the TV, twitter and blogs is just conjecture, it doesn't matter who reports a single item first, it matters who gives the most comprehensive picture correctly first. Even if twitter and blogs become one of the many sources that reporters start to use, I will always value their service of fact checking, cleanup and presentation in concise format, and I don't think that will ever change.

Blogs, including this one, are factually questionable, and are at best entertainment pieces until verified using journalistic technique.

When McCain voted for the $700 billion bailout of all the banks, effectively nationalizing 9 private banks against their will, he lost all credibiity as a fiscal conservative. For the record, when Cuba nationalized all of our assets in Cuba between 1959 and 1961, the total tab was $2 Billion 1961 dollars (source: http://www.vii.org/papers/cuba.htm) or  $14.1 billion in 2007 dollars (source: http://www.westegg.com/inflation/)

So I could say that McCain voted for a nationalization, within the borders of our country rather than on the foreign soil of another nation, of a magnitude 50 times greater than was expropriated by Castro during a communist rebellion, and I would not be lying.

You dont get to playa hate someone as a socialist, then fly to washington DC and approve a $700 Billion plan to nationalize our financial system.
Sorry, you fail. "Epic Fail", as they say in the vernacular.

You must think we are all idiots to not notice.

I'm against the nationalization in principle because its probably the most socialist act of our government of all time, and one of the largest acts of nationalization by dollar value in the last 70 years, out of any country, including the USSR.

However i do admit it will probably be the quickest path to resolution and although Obama voted for it, he at least is not pretending to be a lassisez faire capitalist like McCain and every other republican who voted socialist did.

I agree with him that a modern nation needs to expand its social services, such as with healthcare. Its almost like saying paying for highways should be optional, "I CAN RIDE MY HORSE AND BUGGY IF I WANT THROUGH THE WOODS TO GET TO GRANDMAS HOUSE, NO WAY I SHOULD BE PAYIN' FOR SOME BROWN GUY TO DRIVE DRUGS FROM MEXICO ON A HIGHWAY MY TAX DOLLARS PAID FOR!"

It's ludicrous, to consider life in the US without access to highways and the affordable products they transport to our citizens is an absurd arguement at best and completely intellectually dishonest. Yet this is basically the same arguement against providing a basic level of healthcare for everyone. I feel that at this point in history, we are at the turning point where the automobile and tractor trailer became ubiquitous and inseparable from our daily lives, (somewhere between 1930s and 1950s) with regards to healthcare. People 50 years from now will look back on the 1970s through today as the horse and buggy days of health care and how backwards we were for the way we used to provision this ubiquitous and inseparable component of our daily lives.

I'd like all of you who are against healthcare reform to refuse treatment the next time you are struck with an uninsured spiral fracture in your leg, because that shit will probably cost you about $40,000 in treatment, you should all be real republican men and just, you know, walk it off or something. That would be a good start. Another thing you could all do is vote to change the hippocratic oath that our doctors take upon completion of their schooling, and just prior to being granted their license to practice. Because that oath is what insures that they serve everyone who enters a hospital in need, regardless of their ability to pay. So when someone from the inner city shows up with a gunshot wound and no insurance, guess who pays for the admission and 50 hours of surgery? You do! via local bond acts, state levies to health insurance companies for unpaid services, and other federal relief. Who's to say how many people are double dipping in that fiasco? To say you don't want a structure way to at least organize the bottom tier of our healthcare system while preserving private insurance and services for the rich elite who probably wont be showing up anywhere without being able to pay is like pretending that the 3rd infantry division just could never possibly take down Baghdad in circa march 2003.

What do you call today's victory for Obama?

In 2004, Bush won 286 to 231 electoral votes on a 2.4% popular margin.

This year, Obama will likely win 364 to163 on a 6% popular margin after they are done counting in North Carolina.

Decisive victory? Blowout? Landslide? Prison bitching display of victory over everything that has been wrong over the last 8 years?

I guess I can accept all of them.

I thought about putting together a little travel tips section based on some of my observations during roughly 200,000mi of flight per year on public aircraft.

- Get fiberglass hardcase suitcases. I have a black, two-wheeled samsonite with about 300,000mi on it already. It can go carry on with most airplanes, or can go underneath if you have purchased some liquids or have other objects prohibited from the flight cabin. While it is extensively scuffed up, its always been water tight, and has never let a single bottle of booze or other fragile object break. Make sure to avoid the quad wheel joints, the tiny wheels break and jam up. plus the two wheel units use standard rollerblade wheels and bearings available at any target, whereas the 4 miniwheels are proprietary and require professional repair.

- keep a full set of most things in your laptop bag and center your life around this bag. Laptop, power converters, mini camera, battery chargers, ipod, frequent flier cards, spare set of underwear and socks, mini deodorant (solid not liquid), toothbrush (toothpaste optional), network cables, rolling papers, and whatever else you need for one night or after the shower in the airport lounge. I'm preferable to the "incase" brand you can find at apple stores or online. I like the fully padded exoskeleton, all my chargers, cameras, ipod things, all of that is protected, not just the laptop. it also has a hidden travel document pouch and a pretty concise interior.

-Try to get an unlocked quad band GSM phone. Yes, this includes the iphone and most blackberries, however you need to get them unlocked. this will save you money, and encourage local people in the country you are going to to call you since you can purchase a local, prepaid chip where you goto next. Europeans usually know about this, but american phones are not usually sold like this by default and furthermore, verizon and sprint are not compatible. AT&T and T-Mobile are.

- Manage your sleep. Usually if you can get just a few hours of sleep on the plane, thats all you really need to tough it out for a full day of work when you land. As long as you can make it to 10 or 11pm that is usually enough to get a decent's night sleep and not wake up too early the next day. If you follow this rule of staying up to 10 or 11pm, regardless of east/west travel, you should be in good shape from a jet lag perspective.

- If you are a person that is prone to sickness or you have been on a real run of sleepless nights before embarking on a long haul flight, make sure to load up on vitamin C, at least 500mg before the flight, preferably for a couple days. Once you are on the flight, use your utencils to eat, and no matter how tempting, do not bite your nails, pick your nose or wipe the sleep seeds out of your eyes when you wake up since that guy in the next row (even in 1st class) has been coughing the whole way over and you dont want to rub that across any mucous membranes. I pretty much never get sick from the airplane just by doing this.

-Try to keep some basic antibiotics with you. A 3 day z-pak regimen is something you can ask for from your doctor or pick up without question in most latin american countries. When you do get an infection while travelling, this will save you a ton of time by not having to find a healthcare provider.

On the more adventurous side:

- If you are going to an underdeveloped area, make sure to get Hepatitis A, Typhoid, a DTaP booster if you are in your late 20s, and most importantly the Yellow fever vaccine along with the U.N. approved yellow card. The yellow card is needed if you travel between tropical countries that have a yellow fever risk. Better to get this shot in your home country rather than at the airport clinic in Quyagil, Ecuador minutes before your board the plane. Legally, you need to have this vaccine 10 days before the date you will need it to cross a border, but its possible to bribe people for this card in some locations.

-If you are going to an extremely rugged area like the Amazon for instance, add to this list a few other things. You'll need to get an anti-malarial regimen, surprisingly these are available at most drugstores in the US. just tell the doctor that perscribes you where you will be headed and they can perscribe the right regimen for that region. You should also keep some clean first aid supplies including syringes, more antibiotics, and water purification tablets. Adventure medical kits makes a pretty good one for this purpose. The syringes are obviously not for your own use, but are intended to be provided to a doctor if you are concerned about the sterilization techniques used at any hospital you might turn up at.

Just like to say thanks to Santiago for providing me with some great skiing in august. The sunburn was my fault for doing a highly accurate Oliver Reed impression the night before and subsequently forgetting to wear any sunblock for 12 hours of direct exposure duing an off-piste extravaganza with a Swiss couple and an old man from Mackenzie.

The mountains here reach an inspiring 18,000ft (5,400m) and are only about an hour and a half to get to, even in traffic. Last week 2 meters of snow fell and it was still pretty decent for me when I got to it this weekend.

I must be getting old, because nobody has exclaimed "YOU ODNT KNOW ME!", "YOUR OFF MY BUDDYLIST, BICTH!",  "YOU ARE A LOSER WHO WILL DIE ALONE!", or "SHUT UP I AM PRETTY!" on my myspace in a long time. It's been months since anyone deleted me, can some of you just start shitting on me, I can't take it anymore, why do I bother logging into this thing? The one I miss the most was the time I got accused of plotting to kill someone and throw their body into the pond in the park, and oh shit, she was going to tell everyone that knew me. I've had a lot of myspace drama, but that one was an absolute classic. Easily the most spectacular way to say "THIS RELATIONSHIP HAS JUMPED THE SHARK!" that I've ever heard of.

But seriously, you guys are boring the shit out of me. Can someone have some hot, insecure, out of state girls add me so they can try to get me all wrapped up in their pathetic worlds again? Wow listen to me, did I actually fall into having a life again? shit.

I love meeting some girl who starts right off by telling me she's only slept with 9 people. Ah yes, 9 people, just below double digits, thanks for sharing...funny how I don't recall asking. But I'm glad its 9 people and not 10, I don't know how I would feel if you broke that magical barrier. Would it be a feeling of awe and inspiration, similar to watching someone break the 500 home run barrier, "You know, A. Rod was a piece of shit at 499, but as soon as he hit 500 I realized, hey we're dealing with a heavy hitter here...". Perhaps it would be more of a tragic feeling like 4,000 troops killed in the Iraq war, "3,999 was totally a reasonable number for wartime casualties, however now that we've hit 4,000 well, I just say start the flag burning now!" or maybe even a blind rage like the  unleaded gasoline prices at $4.00, "Man I was fine for the last 2 years of paying $3.95 pretty much every day, however when we hit $4.00 yesterdayI finally realized that there was something terribly wrong with the Bush administration's foreign policy..."

Either way, one thing is for certain, when you tell me you "only slept with 9 people before", I'm pretty sure you meant to say 2 to the 9th power a.k.a. 512.

thanks.

1) It is creepy. When you sign up, if you are just clicking along, you will usually end up having facebook spider your email account, IM account, etc without understanding that it is going to announce to everyone it can cross reference that you are now on facebook. The amount of personal detail you have to fill in, including a real name, credit card, etc is weird. What's next? Do I get a box of dildos in the mail if my credit card statement shows a trip to the adult video store? Also, accounts that can never be deleted is even more strange. Absolute permanency is against everything the internet stands for.

2) It is antisocial. You cannot view anyone's profile by default. There is no surfability to facebook like myspace has. I can spend hours clicking on bands sites, comedians, angry bi chicks that can't figure out why the busboy always cums in their hair but never calls them again, checking out scantilly clad 18 year olds posing for me in their bathroom mirrors, and hilarious comments that people leave for eachother. Facebook is almost as dead as using linkedin, I felt like I was typing in a resume when I signed up at the site and surprise, surprise, consequently everyone on there behaves like they are at work. Nothing encourages you to comment, there are a number of dumbass "I bought you as a pet" or "I think you are a hottie!" apps but to me thats like going out to a bar and playing scrabble.

3) Way too many options. I find myself wishing there was a "set everything to be like it is on MySpace" button. I want public profile, I want people to see the city I am in but not the fucking street address, I want people to see my blog, my comments, I want something like a bulletin feature so that I can squwak-box to my friends but not leave anything behind for the blog police. I can't figure out how my profile looks to other users. And while I hate using skins myself, I find them amusing when other people use them.

4) Far from meeting new people, I usually have awkward encounters with people from my past on facebook. "Whoops, forgot to buy them a wedding present", "Oh shit, still have his blazer from 2002", "Never gave him back that box of porno, wonder if he remembers...", "Never called you back after the BJ in the woods" It's like a drunken shamble down memory's dark forgotten alley. Thanks a lot, I'm not on the edge of a nervous breakdown everday anyway.

5) Everyone on facebook is pretty boring. The kind of person who likes to live in the apple store, likes their life to looks like the apple store, privately sheilds their profile from both laud and ridicule, enjoys wasting hundreds of hours per month adjusting settings on a website, and has 25 ways to update their private profile that is so loaded with stupid scrabble games and $1 virtual plants is probably not someone I want to hang out with. Facebook attracts the J Crew, Wine and Cheese (but nothing too fancy) crowd. These are the annoying overcompetitive people in the middle that we have to deal with every day. Never won or lost enough to not care anymore. Paddling away on some small pond in dockers talking about the Gibson account, what the boss wants for his birthday and did you test drive that new BMW? Fighting eachother in vertically striped shirts in extremely driveable, architecturally planned, suburban strip-mall bars, wondering what will happen next but never willing to do more than wait. Seems to me the people on myspace are more interested in living and having a good time, not measuring dicks every 10 minutes.