Boy Was I Wrong

Note from 2022 Rachel: File this under things I changed my mind about almost immediately.

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Google Plus is Google, Plus

Here were some of my first thoughts on Google+:

  • “Hey, it looks kind of like Facebook, but prettier!”
  • “Hey, you can share things on it like Facebook, but with different circles of people. Or just one person. Like Gmail!”
  • “Hey, wait, what the fuck is a circle? How do I add people?”
  • “Hey, alright, I get it. Now I’ve got people in my circle, so how do I share things with them?”
  • “Hey, okay, so I post things into this box and hit send to specific groups of people… really like Gmail.”
  • “Hey, neat, it uses Gchat so I can chat with people… like Gmail.”
  • “Hey, so it’s… like facebooktwittergmail? Why do I want this?”

Then I spent four hours on Google+.

Because of the integration with Google’s new topbar, I can absolutely see this being Google’s first successful social media venture. The topbar runs across all of Google’s services. If you’ve embraced the new “Preview” theme, as I have, in Gmail, then the Plus UI is mimicked. Regardless, I’ve been told that notifications still appear in your Gmail interface. So whether you’re in your Gmail inbox or Googling something, your Plus notifications will appear in the topbar, and you can reply to them without ever leaving the service you’re using. You simply click your notification and reply to comments or see your tags, and then go right back to what you’re doing. It’s a brilliant idea, beautifully executed.

And so are the circles, because they recognize your want to share different things with different groups of people, and they make them easy to access and understand. By building in circles as a necessity, rather than a “feature” like Facebook’s “lists”, you’re organizing your friends in a way that makes sense, right off the bat. No one uses Facebook “lists”, but everyone will use Circles - because they have to. This will allow for increased privacy and ease of sharing, two things which Facebook users constantly complain about not having. Granted, the settings are there with Facebook, but in my experience most people find them overly complicated, and difficult to figure out. Settings should be intuitive, and major props go to Google+ for giving the user control without really making them feel like they have to take any extra steps.

The app for android is also pretty spiffy, and while I personally don’t want to “Hangout” with my contacts in video-chat windows of (up to) 10 people, I understand why some might find that feature desirable. It also integrates with Google Chat, so all your chat contacts are already available to you in your sidebar. Which is great, because I am an avid user of Google Chat, and pretty much shun all other chat alternatives.

Final thoughts: Yes, this isn’t really different from Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter (or any/all combinations thereof). But the interface is clean, pretty and easy to use, the integration with other Google products is tight but not pushy (unlike Buzz), and social media is fun.

Complaining on the Internet

Note from 2022 Rachel: Love that I thought I should complain about not getting credit for something I didn’t make.

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About a week ago, I posted a photo. Cut to 616 “notes” on said photo, and literally all of them seem to link back to the first reblog, TumblrBot.

I love you TumblrBot, but the reblogs crowd my inbox with email notifications, and I don’t even end up with attribution for posting the content. Also, the source link, which was Nedroid, seems to be gone on all the reblogs.

There’s no real point to this post, I just think it’s sort of lame.

MagicSchoolBusIsBack

I Just Want To Say That I Hated Every Moment Of That Piece-Of-Shit Show

Great shirt, or GREATEST shirt? (I want one.)

No Parking Sign Lists Incredibly Severe Consequences at someecards.com

Source unknown

New Wikipedia Game, Brought to you by XKCD

“If you take any article, click on the first link in the article not in parenthesis or italics, and then repeat, you will eventually end up at "Philosophy”.“ - xkcd

The game, then, must be played thusly:

  1. Click Random Article from the Wikipedia sidebar.
  2. Click the first link in the article not in parenthisis or italics.
  3. Track how many clicks it takes to get to the article on ”Philosophy“. The fewer clicks the better.

First round:

From the random article on Kaga, Ishikawa, I got to “Philosophy” in 18 clicks. For added fun, track the path you took to get there:

This game proves that all things begin with Philosophy. (I once made up a variation of this game using the article on “Baby Got Back”. That proved nothing.)


This shirt is a pixelated “Princess Bride”/video-game reference. That you can buy on the Internet. It’s everything I love. (via Woot)

Dear Tina Fey

Note from 2022 Rachel: God I now absolutely hate this post

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In your book (which is wonderful, by the way), towards the end (SPOILER ALERT), you mention a theory:

I have a suspicion—and hear me out, ’cause this is a rough one—I have a suspicion that the definition of “crazy” in show business is a woman who keeps talking even after no one wants to fuck her anymore. … This is the infuriating thing that dawns on you one day: Even if you would never sleep with or even flirt with anyone to get ahead, you are being sexually adjudicated by these LA creeps. Network executives really do say things like “I don’t know. I don’t want to fuck anybody on this show.” … (To any exec who has ever said that about me, I would hope you would at least have the intelligence and self-awareness to know that the feeling is extremely mutual.)

There is also a point in your book where you address some ass-hats on the Internet who’ve written you ill-guided, semi-illiterate missives. So in the hope of becoming one of those ass-hats, I just wanted to say:

Every smart, funny, attractive boy I know between the ages of 18 and 60 wants to fuck you. Literally every boy.

I just thought you should know.

Good luck with all your future endeavours, and thank you for being super-great.

Sincerely,

A girl who sort of wants to be you (kinda. a little. totally.)

The more New Yorkers like something, the more disgusted they are. “The kitchen was all Sub-Zero: I want to kill myself. The building has a playroom that makes you want to break your own jaw with a golf club. I can’t take it.”

Tinay Fey, on New Yorkers and getting a manicure, in the absolutely wonderful Bossypants.

It’s so unfair! I have eight other senses, but I’d trade them all, even smision, to be able to taste.

-Bender, The 30% Iron Chef

The 7 Emails You’re Ignoring In Your Inbox

What’s this? Some sort of new image sharing site?

Note from 2022 Rachel: It was, but it is now defunct

My MlkShk brings all the boys to the yard.

[dead link]

Nope.