It's quite the litigious news day for the Internet, what with the news that a
Yelp user is being sued for his negative review of a doctor, and a model is
suing Google because of anonymous nasty comments about her which were posted on a Blogger-hosted blog.
Disregarding the validity of each case, they both present interesting cases for how we should and shouldn't use the Internet; as for Yelp, you're supposed to be able to post negative reviews (reviews tending to be one way or the other); will each negative claim be investigated? Could I be sued for not being able to prove that I found a hair in my burrito?
Forget just dealing with your
mom becoming a Facebook junkie; more and more,
older people are joining the social network, and of course, they're our grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, great aunts, etc. I don't do too much these days that I'm embarrassed about, but it still gives me pause, posting things I'd want my friends to see and then remembering that I've friended my octogenarian aunt. I'm even a little weirded out being friends with my younger sister — but that's mostly because I don't want to know everything she does!
By visiting
1000 Things That Matter, you are encouraged to leave a couple of sentences, or a video, or a picture, to express what matters to you. The
blogger who started the project hopes to take the responses and create a short film about the future of telecommunication. Here's what he had to say about his latest venture:
If meaning is created through language then our society is created through its communications technology.
I've made my predictions for what 2009 will bring, and even though it's the new year, I'm still looking back — on what I adopted in 2008. I converted to smartphones and the iPhone (two versions in two years) pre-'08, but this year I bought my first flat screen HDTV and a console for fun (the Wii) and a console for fun and Blu-ray (Playstation 3).
As TV faces the
digital conversion, I saw a lot of people go big with this and get their first high def TVs.
Phew, a happy ending to a tourists-getting-lost story! A couple of tourists who got lost in the cold, snowy Swiss mountains
were saved by the light of their MP3 player, whose faint light was seen by the rescuers on the lookout for them.
I count myself lucky that I've never been in a scary situation I've needed to be rescued from, but I often consider what would help me in an emergency like that — the GPS on my phone is not only good for trying to find a restaurant I've never been to.
I guess the soccer mom vote is not only vital to elections, but video games as well now; recently, Microsoft
had a group of women host Xbox 360 parties — providing popcorn, a subscription to Xbox Live, and
Scene it: Box Office Smash, with the hopes that they'd show their friends the system's advantages.
The marketing hope is not unlike the Tupperware parties of the '80s (I actually went to purse parties in college); let people test something out in a non-threatening environment. I think it's also brilliant, because for younger kids, it's often their mothers who will make the decision of whether a video game console is acceptable or not.
A teenager who had surgery to remove a brain tumor made news when he also
listened to his iPod during the procedure (well, while he was conscious). It reminded me of how I always listen to my iPod when I'm at the dentist; not having to hear the drill as loud saves me from having minor freak-outs.
It's not just the sound of my preferred music that I like, either; having something I'm so familiar with is comforting, and a great distraction if I'm enduring something painful or uncomfortable.
In a technology trend that's even more disturbing than my little sister
texting at the dinner table, it seems that the hot thing in funerals is to be
buried with your cell phone.
I know that I have stated rather emphatically how much I love my cell phone (and maybe "swooned over" is truer than "stated"), but taking that vow to the grave — literally — is pretty major.
The article goes on to mention that this is not limited to phones — some people have been buried with iPod earbuds in, music playing — which I find kind of touching.
Wow: According to my iPhoto count, I took about 5,700 photos this year — that's almost 500 a month! And that's not counting photos I took for work. As much as I'm a photography buff, I am also pretty social, and feel the need to capture all events (and even when your friends might look at you like you're a paparazzo, they'll appreciate it later when they have the photos).
Last week I told you about my geek tip for
remembering where you parked in a huge parking structure or mall lot by taking a pic with your cell phone's camera, but needing to know where you parked isn't confined to being in a parking lot. Have you ever tried to park in a big city, for instance?
I happen to live in a very busy neighborhood where parking places are scarce.
