I’m Addicted to Reading Forums
I think I’m an addict. I just can’t stop reading the postings on discussion forums. Lately, I’ve been reading four different forums on the topic of the T-Mobile G1 (Google) phone, and I just can’t stop… someone please help me!!
Although these forums offer good tidbits of information, I’ve come to the realization that the majority of people who post forum messages are 12 to 17 year-olds. The biting, nasty comments, misspelled words and bad grammar, and sometimes childish responses is starting to be a real turn off. It seems that with the anonymity of the internet and hiding behind an avatar login name, most forum posters feel they can be as rude and nasty as they want. Would they actually say these comments directly to my face (or in front of their parents)? Probably not. Maybe I’m becoming an old fogey, but I just find this environment distasteful. If so, why do I still pursue these forums? Probably because I get intermittent reinforcement with the few gems of knowledge that I happen upon. Read the rest of this entry »
My New Home Page – iGoogle
Ok, I’m so fed up with the Excite.com email thing (see my previous post) so I searched around for an alternative. My first stop was at iGoogle, which is a fully customized home page site that looks promising. iGoogle allows you to define multiple tabbed pages, where you can load different specific content based on “gadgets”. So I have a “Home” tab as well as a “Recipes” (for making something different for dinner), “PC Info”, and “Travel”. Now I can separate out news from travel info in the different tabs and have everything neatly organized. I also have an email gadget for previewing any email in my gmail inbox (yes, I’m trying gmail.com also for my general email). It all looks pretty good so far.
The only thing that I’m missing, is the ability to view my local TV shows in grid format. I’ve got a few beta gadgets installed that claim to do this, but the data is off-line currently. But, no big deal, as this isn’t a show stopper. So, I’ll give this a go for a while and see how well it works out. Maybe I’ll try out Google’s online apps as well (such as Documents, Calendar, etc.) 
Excite.com Email Sucks
I’ve been using excite.com as my primary email for the last several years, mainly because it’s a “permanent” email address that I can use, which doesn’t change regardless of what ISP I happen to be using. It has worked pretty well for me, and I especially like using it because I use Excite.com as my main home page for news, sports, TV listings, etc. Just recently, Excite changed their web email interface to something that appears to be Java-based, and it just plain sucks. It’s slow to start up, the emails that I select take forever to load up and be displayed, and I just hate it!
It’s obvious why Excite made this change, since I now have a giant ad sitting at the bottom of my screen (which takes up so much room I can hardly read my email message). So, it looks like I need to get off of using Excite for email and try something else. And, I might as well look for a better news page to use as my home page. So in my opinion, Excite just shot themselves in the foot with this change…
What Ever Happen to Personal Integrity?
On one of the Zune Forums I visit, there are numerous postings by people who brag about getting “free stuff” from Microsoft and various online vendors. From what these people explain in their postings, they are not really getting free stuff, but rather are being deceitful and dishonest so they can steal from vendors. For example, one person explained how he lied to Microsoft Support so he could get them to send him a new set of Zune Premium Earbuds. He also encouraged others to do the same, as he was proud of his accomplishment. Another poster bragged how he lied about not receiving merchandise he had ordered so that he wouldn’t have to pay for it. Note, that most of these posters are adolescents, so it doesn’t surprise me that they feel proud or entitled to this “free stuff”.
So what ever happened to personal integrity or being an honest person? Why do young people brag about stealing, or wear their thievery as a “Red Badge of Courage”? I would certainly hope that these few individuals who are lying and stealing are in the minority of their peers, but I’m afraid that is not the case. Aren’t parents teaching their children to be honest people?
Of course, it’s this kind of stealing from corporations, defaulting on credit card debit, etc. that contributes to the increasing cost of consumer goods. I also believe in Karma, so what you do to others will eventually come back around and get you. Read the rest of this entry »
Pet Peeve: Unreadable Forum Postings
As you can tell from my previous postings, I frequent the different Zune forums on a regular basis to get information and help others with answers to their questions. Often, I’ll find questions concerning video conversion which I answer with a suggestion to visit this forum for more information. But I’ve noticed that a lot of people are using shortcuts, Internet acronyms, and simply misspelled words in their postings that really irritate me. Something like the following:
lol. I need hlp converting vids becuz i want to wtch vids on Zune lol. Plz hlp lol cuz my Zne is sad wo vids lol.
Just typing that sentence is irritating to me! And, why the need to put in all the “lol” jargon? (I’m assuming that lol = laugh out loud). I can only guess this type of posting is written by a teenager who is too lazy to type out full words or use correct grammar. I wonder how do these teenagers graduate from Junior High or High School? If they are so use to writing in this manner (probably text messaging on their phones), how do they write term papers for class? That must be a big problem, unless MS-Word can correct all their grammar for them.
For me, this type of writing is just as bad as writing a posting or email in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS!! (That’s a whole different pet peeve topic…)
Pet Peeve: “Free Downloads”
If you’ve been searching for free video conversion tools on the Internet, I’m sure you’ve come across a lot of “Free Download” applications. They’re advertised as “Free”, but essentially they are not really free. They are crippleware versions that can be downloaded for free. So you think you just downloaded and installed a freeware application, but instead you have a trial version that is crippled or has a big watermark across your converted video. Now, there’s nothing wrong with shareware or crippleware, just so long as they don’t advertise it as “Free” and trick you into wasting your time downloading and installing it. Read the rest of this entry »
