Tech News, Utopia, and Freedom

Overall, I think the last post with Flock went well. There seemed to be a minor issue with an image, but that's not really a problem. I actually did a lot of reading today. Mondays always seem to be the best days for news. I'm not sure why that is, but I have noticed it for the last few weeks.

Digg vs Slashdot

It seems that Digg is the new big thing. There was an article in Business 2.0 Magazine about "The 50 Who Matter Now" and they decided to include the 10 people who used to matter, but don't anymore. This story was on the front page of Slashdot, partially because Rob Malda, slashdot founder, was mentioned in the list of people who don't matter. The article mentions digg, and so do some comments made on the slashdot page, so I decided to check it out.

The main difference between slashdot [wikipedia] and digg [wikipedia] is the speed and breadth of topics covered by each. Slashdot content is managed by editors. Stories can be submitted by anyone, but it is the editors who decided what will be posted on the main page and what will fall by the wayside. For several years, this was a very strong model, and slashdot grew to be a very large community. Digg has been around for a little over a year, so I read, and has amassed a great wealth of users. The site is "utopian" and is not moderated in any way, the deciding factor for what stories become popular and which do not, is votes. It is a democratic system where everyone can contribute and help decide what is interesting and what isn't. Dvorak has written an interesting article, "Understanding Digg and Its Utopian Idealism."

I have avoided digg so far, for a couple reasons. First of all, I read slashdot, not because it is the most accurate, fast-paced, or unbiased news source out there. In fact, I read most of the stories that are on the front page of slashdot before they actually appear there. There are a few interesting gems ("IMMUNIZING THE INTERNET, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE WORM") that slashdot uncovers, but I mostly read slashdot for the comments. The comments are often more interesting than the story themselves and provide a lot of extra and often irrelevant information. So many of the commenters go off the title and blurb of the article without actually reading the article itself that the comments often bring up interesting arguments for or against the topic. Plus they make great jokes.

I have yet to get into digg, so I don't have years of experience with it. I do feel a little jaded in that I didn't get involved right away and am behind the curve, but that is only a partial deterrent. My roommate has been reading it for months, and has passed along lots of interesting tidbits that came from digg. I suppose I just don't like to feel like I'm missing out on some great news stories. Digg moves so fast that I'm afraid that I might miss a really interesting story. It might be small, and less interesting to the collective whole, but I find it intriguing. Plus I'll always feel obligated to check it constantly. I could just skim over the popular topics for that day at the end of the day, or during the day like I do with my current news sources of choice, but I'm not sure.

To me, digg brings the fad-type stuff to the surface, and then it quickly fades away. Of course, there are the stong issues that remain relevent, but I feel like digg is still too much of a fad. After saying all this, I'm going to add digg to my list of feeds I read on a daily basis. I'm a hypocrite I guess.

Drunk Friend Alarm Clock

It's not the nicest thing to do to someone, but I thought it was hilarious, so I'm sharing it. A co-worker of mine showed it to a couple people in the office today. We all had a good laugh.

Sarcasm

I read this article, and I was pretty impressed by the idea. I'm used to using <sarcasm></sarcasm> type tags when writing something and I want the scarcasm to be very obvious. Or least use </sarcasm> after the statement to make sure they know at the end that it was meant to be sarcastic. I think we read ahead in general, so in a small sentence we can see the exclamation point coming, and it prepares us for the added emphasis on the statement. I associate the exclamation point with emphasis so much that I don't even have to think about it when I see it, its automatically emphasized in my head.

The author gives some pretty lousy examples to use the sarcasm point, but overall its a good idea. The comment at the bottom is a really good point. I don't think I'd ever use it, but if it came into popular usage I think I'd start to adopt it.

Newspapers

I'm just going to link this article because I thought it was interesting. I used to read the wall street journal, but it costs money to receieve the print version and it isn't as easy for me to browse through as the site. I never found newspapers to be all that appealing, especially since I've grown so dependent on the internet for information. I use wikipedia for almost any topic that I want quick information about, and I google for current events. I use google as a spellchecker.

If I want information about a subject, its always nice to hear from an expert or someone who has done accurate research about it (like a newspaper reporter) but its just more convenient if its online. I think there is still a market for newspapers that become showcases for well reputed authors that need to conform to a set of rules. They cover the more "press" type material and are daily publications. They are the people in the war zones and at the white house and the conventions. I don't know if this will ever happen, but I do see the world continually moving away from paper and print.

The Iditarod

I was reading an article about the world's most dangerous races, and one of the races was the Iditarod. I remember this old Disney movie called Iron Will where the guy competes in a dog-sled race. It was really inspiring to me, and its something I'd like to try some day.

I recently got into skiing. Its obviously a winter sport, but I tried it and really went at the mountain fearlessly, and I improved a lot in a short time. It was something I had a lot of fun doing, and I can't wait to go again. I'm not sure where the parallel in my head is between skiing and dog-sled racing, but they're both interesting to me. The idea of participating in a prestigious long distance racing event is something that I'd like to see come to fruition. At some point in my life, I hope to participate in it. I know that it would probably take a lot of time, money, hard work, and training, but I don't think it would be worth it if it wasn't a real challenge.

The Burning Man

I read about this event a few years ago. I don't remember where I heard about it, but I thought it was really cool. I guess deep down I've always been into the survival type things, I just never did it. Plus this is a great experiment in freedom and groups and art and so many other things. I would also like to do this some year.

I really like doing anything that makes me feel completely free. I have trouble finding new things that give me that thrill. I got it when I first got to school and went in to the city by myself. I had it the first time I went to Connecticon (more about that in a few days). I want it again. That feeling where I have endless possibilities spread out before me and I can pick any one and the consequences don't matter. Thats the kind of life I'd like to lead some day. Where every day is exciting, unpredictable, and free.

technorati tags:digg, slashdot, burning, man, iditarod, drunk, friend, alarm, clock, dog, sled, skiing, freedom