Musings of a sexual camel…

More and more frequently I am receiving e-mails with the following subject matter;

“Mr X has written on your funwall, to send a response, click here”

Immediately I’m reaching for the delete button. You see it’s not that I don’t like to get e-mails from people, I love to get e-mails from people, its just, well - Facebook.

There I’ve said it, am I the only Facebook loather in the world? (haven’t reached the hate stage in my relationship yet). The problem is simple - I don’t understand Facebook’s place in the world. In face I’m irritated by it, am I turning into a grumpy old man?

Maybe I’m annoyed at myself, I am after all a member myself (more out of constant nagging than anything else). Note to self, have more will power to say “no!”

I spend a lot of time on the internet I read a lot, research a lot and use the tools available to me to communicate with other people. I find Facebook frustrating however because I don’t feel it gives me anything in return for my efforts, to me its an unbalanced equation. On the one side you have annoying little web apps (built using Facebook APIs) which do nothing but waste time, whilst on the other you have a huge corporation (yes it is a corporation) which WILL make heaps of cash from the crop of information it “harvests” from its users. No, I’m not anti-capitilist or anti-corporate, but its all about give and take. Facebook is all take.

Legal Andrew has summed this up perfectly. Have you read the Facebook Terms of Service (ToS)? I know not many people do but you should, check his blog for the juicy highlights, it makes interesting reading believe me.

I do consume other services of a similar nature, but I get something out of them;

• MySpace - awesome, great community builder, very useful for checking out new bands or looking info on existing ones
• Messenger (and other IM’s) great, good for communicating with the other side of the world, fast and efficient
• There are more but I think you get the point

Bottom line, I don’t mind having info recorded about me, my activities etc if I feel I’m getting something out of the relationship.

Understand?

You don’t do you.

Alright, now to reply to that funwall message.

UPDATE: Today I heard that Facebook costs businesses an estimated $5billion a year from lost work hours! Aside from the cost there is a potential security risk to businesses from all this activity, not to mention the risk to your own job security! Check the article from the Sydney Morning Herald here.

You know every now and then I have a “this is why I’m here” moment.

That moment occurred a couple of weeks back when I visited Mount Tamborine National Park, this place is nothing short of beautiful and as such can’t be accurately portrayed with words.

So I’ll let the photos do the talking, enjoy.

http://photos.myhappymedium.net/mttamborine

So I just (attempted) to serve an eviction notice. Why? Because last night another possum moved in.

Yet again it came down the chimney and yet again it went on the rampage looking for food. Fortunately not too much damage inflicted this time and the cleanup was small compared to the last visit. Also somehow it got back out because I can’t find it in the house anywhere.

Curious, I know possums are good climbers (they’re tree dwellers after all) but I didn’t think they’d be able to climb back up the chimney. Everyday’s a school day

Tonight I went to see Good Charlotte at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. Now here’s the thing, I’m not a huge Good Charlotte fan but do enjoy their music when I hear it…and besides it was live music which I don’t get enough of.

I was neatly installed down the front about 8 metres from the stage which made for some good views (and not just on the stage either). However the night wasn’t without its hiccups… Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week, I had a conversation I dreaded. “My computer says [insert generic error here] and now won’t [insert generic complaint here].

I deal with these problems all the time and so don’t mind fixing them, its part of my routine, this one however was different. I won’t bore you with the details but suffice it to say it wasn’t recoverable over the phone and it looks like the hard drive will need replacing along with all the contents. I know, I know, no big deal except if you have all your important data on said drive (to be replaced) and no conceivable way of recovering it.

Now unfortunately it’s always the same, its not until you’ve crashed the car that you decide you should’ve got more insurance.

What am I talking about?

Backups.

Boring, boring, boring backups but just like travel insurance they’re a necessary evil. Take a flick through your My Documents folder (go on I’ll wait here), I think you’d be surprised how much valuable info is inside. Do you see why they’re necessary now? Before you go rushing off to back up to CD or whatever, think for a moment. When you’ve made your backup, what are you going to do with them, put them in the draw next to your computer?! That way when your PC gets destroyed in a [insert generic act of god here e.g. fire], your backups will also get destroyed too.

So you see, backups really are a pain. I’ll cut to the chase shall I - I’ve found what I believe is the best solution, online backup.

Online backup takes away all the pain, it allows total control of what to backup AND the backup is stored off site. The backups are also encrypted to prevent any snooping. Naturally I’ve done the donkey work for you, I’ve signed up with this company. I’ve been using it and so far I’m impressed.

There, that’s another problem dealt with. Now just to deal with all the others…