schlagging.com

Racists and a-holes

Posted on January 16th, 2008 by Josh.
Categories: politics, internet.

Have you ever been to azcentral.com?

It’s a local news site, run by the local NBC station and The Arizona Republic.

I like the site, so that I can keep up with local happenings. But man oh man, do I loathe their commenting system.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice commenting system. The people, however, ruin it.

My first indications occurred some time ago when I noticed the flame wars between fans on any UA or ASU related article. Mostly, the comments had to do with calling Tucson “Northern Nogales” and their desire to “send it back to Mexico”. Oh, and the altering of Wildcats to “Mild Rats” is oh so clever, too. Whatever.

Stupid sports bickering is one thing. But I DARE you to find me an article that doesn’t have comments from someone, somehow relating the article back to illegal immigration - NO MATTER what the article is about. For instance, this weather report.

The internet is such a stupid place, sometimes.

2 comments.

Wow. Just… wow.

Posted on October 1st, 2007 by Josh.
Categories: internet.

Some people think that they can say anything they want and be tough guys on the internet, with complete anonymity and no recourse for their actions.

For example, I’ve actually been getting death threats here at schlagging.com. Yeah, really! Check it out:

Joe (zbh2002@hotmail.com, from Loyalist College in Ontario) - in regards to a post about my tattoo design, writes:

you fucking asss fucking shit mother fucking dog fucker

what are you doing to my country’s flag? you fucking asshole ill fucking kill you if/when i find you. you goddamn crack head!

Wait, so he’s American? Or Korean? And going to school in Canada? And making death threats on the internet… riiiiiight.

Matt (matt2b@yahoo.com, from Ontario) - in response to a legitimate criticism of some of Kanye West’s work:

bet josh is a big fag! cya on msn u faggot motherfucker!

He wasn’t done there, though. Thought to leave me another message just to make sure I knew that I’m a fag:

josh ya faggot motherfucker! how ya been?! hit me up u cocksuckin’ fag!

Genius. There have been a few other threatening comments, in regards to the Kanye West post.

I didn’t realize until I researched IP addresses that both of these guys are from Canada. Ontario, to be more precise. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought Canada was a rather pacifist nation. WTF, eh? Chill out internet guys. You’re not anonymous.

2 comments.

1337

Posted on August 27th, 2007 by Josh.
Categories: sports, internet.

So I was on the ASU football homepage, trying to figure out what shit team they’re playing this weekend because my friend invited me to go tailgate and have some beers. I’m not opposed to this, as long as I’m not missing the Wildcats game. Anyway, on their site, they ask visitors how many games ASU will win. Of course, I am obligated to choose the lowest possible answer. I don’t know if they’re that bad, but the results were funny to me. If you don’t get it, don’t worry. That just means you’re not uber l33t h4xxor5.

1 comment.

This Is Spartaaaaaaa!!!!

Posted on March 16th, 2007 by Josh.
Categories: movies, internet.

Found this stuff while surfing the web.. Gotta love Photoshop!

Edit: Had to add a link to this gem I came across - http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=231.

0 comments.

Another day, another Facebook

Posted on September 6th, 2006 by Josh.
Categories: internet.

I’m disappointed. 24 hours ago, I was overjoyed. What is the catalyst for these moods? Facebook’s latest feature: the newsfeed.

I love random statistics. I love to see how often I listen to certain songs, and so I love iTunes and its integration with sites such as last.fm and mog. I love sports stats. I could spend all day looking at statistics and tweaking my fantasy baseball lineups. I like keeping track of my computer’s network, processing, and hard drive stats. So when Facebook gave us a new way to track everything our friends do, it was just more of the same to me. I like being able to see at a quick glance when people update their profiles, join groups, etc.

I was growing very bored with Facebook as of late, and began logging in less and less frequently. MySpace had begun to win me over, despite its ugliness and how poorly the site is run at times. I just had more things to look at. Why do people go to these sort of sites? Usually, to cure boredom and see what their friends are up to. That’s why Facebook’s new features are brilliant.

However, I seem to be in the minority in my opinion of the new feature. Hordes of students are banding together, shouting buzzwords like “stalkers” and “big brother”.

It’s as though all of this information that is being displayed is new and never before seen.

It’s as though one can’t go to someone’s profile and discover these things. The problem people have with the newsfeeds is that it now makes “stalking” a simple task, as opposed to a hard one. Updated information is scattered, and often goes under the radar. What’s the problem with allowing your friends to see when you update something?

That brings me to my next point: people don’t mind sharing tons of personal information. They just don’t want to shout it from the mountaintops. In that regard, I can sort of see where they’re coming from.

I was about to close with this point:

But if you think about it, the only people who’ll see your actions are your friends. Don’t want someone tracking your every move? Don’t add them as a friend! It really is that simple, folks.

Then I went back to Facebook and noticed that anyone and everyone can view feeds on profile pages.

My suggestion to the Facebook crew: don’t get rid of the newsfeeds simply to appease the masses. They’re great for killing boredom and give people like me a reason to come back to the site when looking for a boredom cure. But please make these newsfeeds only viewable to friends of users. A few other suggestions: News Feed as a seperate section (or a customizable News Feed for the homepage), RSS feed to help with the clutter.

And to all of the complainers out there: it really isn’t that bad. If people want this sort of information, they’ll get it. Facebook Stalker comes to mind. There’s nothing you or facebook can do about it, other than deleting your profile and not sharing personal information with anyone.

These capabilities are nothing new. This just makes it clear to the general public what can be (and is being) done with the information you choose to share.

0 comments.

Goooooooogle

Posted on July 2nd, 2006 by Josh.
Categories: movies, sports, internet.

Seriously, though. I’ve become very dependent on Google. This once could have been said of Microsoft Office. When I first discovered Outlook, I was amazed. Archiving every bit of email on my desktop, keeping track of events in my calendar (synched with my Palm Pilot, of course) - it was great!

But now, Google comes along with Gmail (if you don’t have a Gmail account, seriously.. what are you waiting for??) and more recently Google Calendar. Google calendar allows you to plan out your life. When I think about scheduling something with friends, I go to the Google Calendar, create an event, and send out invites. Maybe it’s annoying when they get all of the invites, but I’ve only heard them laughing about my obsession. Which is okay.

I tend to put everything on my Google calendar - from birthday reminders to happy hour with my friends to reminding myself to set my WWE fantasy roster for the week (yes, WWE has a fantasy game, and yes I’m that ridiculous that I’m actually participating). On top of that, you can set it up so you get text message reminders when an event is approaching. So even if I’m for some reason away from a computer for more than 24 hrs, I’ll probably have my phone on me and I’ll keep myself up to date with my plans.

Okay, I’m sick of talking about my obsessive tendencies about organizing things electronically.

So have you seen the new Superman movie? I saw it last weekend, and I loved it. It felt like I was watching a true sequel to the original Superman - just with a lot more computer graphics and modern actors. I saw it on an IMAX screen in 3D, and it was worth every cent of the extra four dollars I paid for my ticket. Seeing Superman flying through the air and saving the world is one thing - but to see it all happen in 3D? Amazing.

What else? I feel like so much has happened since I last posted here. Well, the Suns lost. I got bored with the NBA once again. I got into the World Cup craze. USA and South Korea lost. I got bored with the World Cup. The Diamondbacks have lost a LOT of games, but I still haven’t gotten bored with Major League Baseball. I went to WWE Judgment Day. The DVD was released. I bought it. I’ll be taking some screen captures later to show you all how many times I got on camera.

Yeah. Other stuff happened, but those are the highlights of my life, I think. Sports and staying indoors during the day as much as possible. Unless it’s time spent in the pool.. or the river. Which is where I’ll be this Saturday. Okay. Enough rambling. I’ll be back. Sooner than the last time. Sentence fragments. Whoo!

1 comment.

Transmitters? We don’t need no stinking transmitters!

Posted on January 18th, 2006 by Josh.
Categories: games, music, sports, internet.

To take an idea from Brad, I’d like to share with you some podcasts that I regularly listen to.

But first, some of you might ask - what the hell is a podcast? Well, a podcast is essentially a radio show available for download over the internet. Some are actually broadcast on some sort of radio (typically XM or Sirius), but most are strictly bound to the web. This allows for freedom from the restrictions of federal regulations, and allows for a much wider variety of topics than you’d expect to hear from radio shows otherwise.

I tend to listen to them on the commute to work and while I’m sitting in my cube plugging away at code. They’re a good way to keep up to date on what’s going on, or to get a good laugh in.

All right, so now that the explanation is out of the way, here’s what I listen to:

• this WEEK in TECH - TWiT is a weekly podcast, covering all that is technology - from general hardware to general software to gaming to televisions to whatever else you can dream up. It is hosted by Leo Laporte, and is sort of a roundtable discussion involving Leo and other former hosts of the no longer existing Screensavers show from the also deceased Tech TV. Great way to keep up to date on what’s new in technology, and get the perspective from some of the top voices in the field today.
• Major Nelson Radio - Major Nelson is the Xbox Live gamertag of Xbox Live Director of Programming, Larry Hryb. Each week, he gives an insider’s view of Xbox Live - talking about what’s new on the system, as well as presenting one or two interesting interviews from people he pulls out of the hallways into his office. Once, even - I was listening and recognized the voice of a guy I went to college with, who is now working for Microsoft! Great podcast if you’re an Xbox gamer - I find myself becoming more and more of one since I’ve got nothing better to be spending my time doing..
• Daily Source Code - Delta Sierra Charlie is a daily show, hosted by former MTV VJ, Adam Curry. Some have proclaimed him as the father of podcasting. That point can be up for debate, but he certainly played his role, and continues to do so today. Sometimes I listen to it just because I run out of other podcasts to listen to, but it’s interesting often enough that I stay subscribed to it.
• Gamespot presents The Hotspot - Ah, more video games. Of course. Editors of Gamespot get together to discuss what’s new in the world of video games each week.
• Hi My Name Is Mark - Mark Hoppus, of Blink-182 fame, does (or did) his bi-weekly podcast - playing music from and interviewing bands whom he enjoys and/or is working with. I say “or did” because he hasn’t done a new episode in almost two months now, and I’m afraid it may have just been a short-lived experiment. But it was fun to listen to while it lasted - maybe it will be revived one of these days..
• Diggnation - The guys behind the digg.com bring you this weekly show that goes through the top “dugg” stories of the week - usually stuff involving technology. Usually interesting to listen to.
• 1up.com podcast - Again, not sure what’s up with this podcast lately. It hasn’t been updated in a few weeks, but it gave a similar perspective as The Hotspot, but this one is of course with the editors of competing site 1up.com.
• ESPN Radio podcast - Daily roundup of the highlights from ESPN Radio: interviews, opinions, and more.
• Official Green Bay Packers Podcast - Interviews and press conferences of Packers players and coaches. I just signed up for this one, but I think they also do a weekly preview of games during the season. Go Pack Go! They can only go up from here..
• The Edge 103.9 Morning Ritual, Last Character Standing - I wrote an email a while ago to the good folks over at The Edge, suggesting they do podcasts of segments from their morning show. Well, lo and behold, they did it! They now upload each week’s “Last Character Standing” for our enjoyment. If you’re not in the know, LCS is a weekly competition where they put two character/comedians up against each other and have the listeners vote for a couple hours over the phone and internet to determine who will survive to come back the next week. Since I’ve been listening, it’s been domination by Jerry the Dog’s inner monologue. “Hey, my nuts! And I can reach them.. with my mouth! How cool is that?” Hopefully, they’ll make a podcast feed for their weekly “That Guy” rants.

0 comments.