This is going to be a baaaad item of the week. Not bad like I suck at writing, but bad like I hate this damn product. I’m not writing this so much because I thought it would be a nice review for this week, I am writing this to encourage IT admins, etc. to steer far and clear of this product.
It’s bad… real bad. Worse than you thought, most likely.
In the world of text messaging, emailing, instant messaging, blogging, journals, and all the other forms of e-communication, the smiley is a common form of expression. Behind a keyboard, emotional exchange loses its value almost entirely, so there needed to be some way to exchange reactions and emotions via an emotionless form of communication. The smiley came to be the answer.
Of all the variations of smileys out there, one can truly be considered the “all-purpose” smiley: the tongue face ( =P ). It can come off as happy, jokingly, disturbed, etc. This smiley can also let you get away with saying just about anything you want.
With the tongue face, you can really say just about anything you want and get away with it. It creates an air of uncertainty in the mind of the reader about if you were serious or not, and they will default to thinking you were just kidding. Next time you are chatting with someone, say something midly hurtful and bust out a tongue face. I will bet a small portion of my salary that the response is in the realm of “lol” or “haha” or some such equally neutral response.
Psychologically speaking, people want to believe that others are inheritly good-natured… especially those we are familiar enough with converse with and joke with. Thus, when someone says something that is hurtful but throws down a tongue face, we don’t know what to make of it. “Maybe they were just kidding… yea… thats it.” However, this can only go so far. If you say something overtly invasive and it cuts deep, the tongue face will NOT get you out of it. For instance, calling a girl fat or ugly is not likely to be reprieved with a tongue face.. prepare for a fight.
Item of the Week is a little late this week, my apologies. This week we will look at the Dell Vostro 1400 laptop that I have been using for about a year or so now. Sure, not the newest laptop, but its a business class laptop that finds a home with me, a personal user, and fits exactly what I was looking for.
The Vostro is a sturdy, mid-range laptop that boasts key performance features where other laptops fall short. Though the 1400 no longer exists with Dell, it is a statement as to the power of the Vostro line and shows how strong a laptop can be and how it can fit the niche of computer power where other laptops simply can’t keep up.
Alliteration ftw, amirite?
In the latest economics move, Ben Bernanke is trying to urge Congress to push through yet another stimulus package with the intent of jump-starting the economy. If Congress goes forward with this, I will lose almost all ability to have any faith in anyone in administration knowing anything about economics or history.
I ask, so?
America: socialism != communism or Marxism or totalitarianism or any of the other bullshit the GOP would like you to believe. Look up some of the major foundations of socialism and how America can benefit. Things America needs, like nationwide health-care and market regulation. Believe it or not, there are countries in Europe that live (and thrive) on this political system. Even if Obama is a socialist of some kind (he’s not really, he just has taken from socialist ideas) what is the problem with that? Our country has done well for itself under this pseudo moderate system of representative democracy, but sometimes shit needs to change.
Go read about shit for yourself. Just because McCain (or Obama) says it, doesn’t mean you should believe it. Go fact check stuff for yourself and make your own judgements. Don’t let the media or candidates vote for you.
EA says that 99.8% of gamers don’t care about DRM. The only people I know that don’t care about DRM (be it on games, music, etc.) are the people that don’t know what DRM is. In any case, here’s to two more copies of Spore that will never be purchased.