Tag Archive
Goodbye Facebook
So, it’s a month to the day since I posted my most recent tirade against Facebook, but this time I’m writing to report that I finally kicked Mark Zuckerberg’s travesty to the curb. Granted, there wasn’t much left there to delete… And that was the aspect that made it more difficult, actually. I didn’t have much [...]
Facebook Is My F-word
“Facebook has devolved from a social networking platform to an operating system for third-party applications.” I cringe at the mention of it. It’s more contemptible than “free”, with all that’s been done to make that word utterly meaningless—if not borderline fraudulent—mostly from the lips and keyboards of marketers. It’s more despicable than “f*ck”, which despite [...]
RTFM: The Next Generation
Back in the day—and probably still, in certain dark corners of the Internet—curious n00bs spouting often-asked-and-answered “obvious questions” (at least to those being asked) were quickly booted in the posterior and sent reeling from Usenet newsgroups, IRC, and (later) discussion forums with the phrase “RTFM!” left ringing in their ears for good measure. Nowadays it’s a much [...]
Product #FAIL: Koodo Phone Case
Here’s a few questions it might be useful to ask before designing a mobile phone case, or alternately, before buying a warehouse full of some other manufacturer’s mobile phone cases: (1.) Should we use rivets to attach the belt clip to the main body of the case? (2.) How many should we use? (3.) How large [...]
Why did you steal my recycling bin?
You must have noticed that it wasn’t yours. I mean, for one thing, mine was taller. Much taller. It probably had 30% more capacity than your typical bin. That, and it was obviously newer and much nicer than your UV-faded, weather-beaten, run-over-by-the-car experiment in plastic durability. I guess I’ve answered my own question. I suppose you [...]
Product #FAIL: Crest for Kids
Can you see anything wrong with this product? Perhaps. But how about from inside a sealed box? No, and as luck would have it, that’s how these kid-friendly tubes happen to be sold. Having had some time to field test it (something I’m guessing Crest didn’t do), I can see at least two fun-enhancing benefits [...]
The Future of Health Care?
Should health care be rationed? It’s really a moot question because health care is already being rationed in the United States. HMOs (health maintenance organizations), like any other (successful) insurance company, remain profitable by taking in as much money as possible, while paying out as little as possible. Instead of looking at your car, calculating [...]
Thank you, Vince McMahon
“Led proudly by the Fox News channel, today’s media seems to have torn a page from the Vince McMahon handbook of television drama. ” One of the greatest things about living in America is the comfort of always knowing you’re right. If your military, for example, happens to bomb a country halfway around the world [...]
Fear and Patriotism in America
If fear is the yoke that keeps the American people living in ignorance, then patriotism is a set of horse blinders, preventing them from seeing that things can, or should be, any different. The media tells Americans that they live in the greatest nation on Earth. Everything is great in America. Kinney is the Great [...]
All Hail Wal-Mart
All hail Wal-Mart, the largest employer in America. It ranked sixth on the Forbes 500 list of companies in 2003. As a result of it’s huge influence on local economies, Wal-Mart has come to expect generous incentives (popularly dubbed “corporate welfare”) from state governments, in return for building in their area (Meyerson, 2003; Associated Press, [...]
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This work by Todd Richard Lyons is licensed for use, distribution and remixing under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License (en français).