Saturday, May 22, 2010
Google celebrates Pac Man 30th anniversary with icon game: follow-up
For reasons that are not logical to this one, it did not work well. In the YouTube video, many video viewers were commenting again and again "use the arrow keys." That was less obvious given my Internet-based orientation, which says that because the game's online and in my face, I should be able to use my cursor. Right?
Well, most commenters were ready with a correction, but a handful were downright psychotic about it, calling me racist names. I banned them - well, OK, not all of them because as a YouTube Partner those comments actually wind up adding to my income from Google. So someone's mental illness can actually work in my favor! Still, the comments were hot and heavy, but I maintain the logical approach is to be able to use the cursor.
The ribbing about my cursor logic went to a higher level this morning during breakfast with my friend Hanna at Atlanta's Flying Biscuit Restaurant at 1655 McClelland. To take an aside for a plug, It was my first time there and in the Candler Park Area of Atlanta, and I loved both. I highly recommend ordering the Smoked Salmon Scramble and the pancakes! (I like putting steak sauce on the grits!)
But I digress.
When I told Hanna about the video and the Pac-Man game, and my approach, she immediately said "Use the arrow keys!" OK, I got the message but then she added some butter to it. "Come on. You're an idiot if you can't figure that out." So the argument was on like Donkey Kong; I restated my point that on an Internet game, one expects to be able to use the cursor to control it, if it's well designed.
And to hammer home my point, I asked our waiter if he saw the game and what controls he used. "The cursor," was his response.
Well, a high-five was given for that answer. But Hanna was having none of our joy: "You're both idiots!," she fired back.
That was one time being an idiot was a cool thing.
I'm not sure if Google intended to cause exchanges like that, but really they should have made the cursor easier to use.
Rock the Casbah!
Anna Chlumsky gets PR for My Girl; don't forget In The Loop
My Girl's about the coming of age of a little girl and stars Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, Macaulay Culkin, in addition to an 11-year-old Anna Chlumsky. Here's a scene from My Girl where Culkin is kissed by Clumsky in a way that can only be called adorable:
Now, Anna Chlumsky's 30 years old and while she's getting massive publicity over the 2010 re-release of My Girl, what's lost is her great role in the British political satire and 2009 Seattle Film Festival Opening Gala Movie In The Loop.
Here Anna Chlumsky, now back into acting after working as a fact checker for Zagat and other jobs because she thought her calling was elsewhere, plays an assistant Liza Weld, for which Anna got a lot of critical acclaim.
Below, Anna talks with Warren Etheredge (who has the camera on himself way too much of the time) about In The Loop at SIFF in 2009:
While My Girl is good, you should see In The Loop, too.
New York interior designer, contractor Christine Smith Associates and Zennie62
Christine Smith Associates |
The trip is sponsored by New York interior designer and contractor Christine Smith Associates, the premier female contractor and designer in New York City.
Christine Smith Associates is well known among New York's most successful movers and shakers and corporations for excellent interior work on finished spaces, kitchens, bedrooms and closets, and bathrooms.
In 2008, The New York Post Page six took note of Christine Smith Associates' work, when Cindy Adams wrote:
GUYS are around hauling demolition, filling dump trucks, wearing black T-shirts that read "Christine Smith." So who's Christine Smith? A stunning, skinny, befurred, 6-foot blonde with silver buckles on her jeans and waist-length hair. And why's anyone hauling fixtures wearing her shirts? She's this season's contractor du jour. Looking like a model, this lady is demolishing johns, pulling out sinks, building walls and redoing kitchens all over the Upper East Side.
Zennie62 is proud to be associated with and have the prestigious Christine Smith Associates firm as TechCrunch Disrupt trip sponsor, and looks forward to bringing an exciting week to the readers of this space.
Andrew Cuomo running, NYC round-up -- Suzannah B. Troy
Today I filmed him celebrating his 74th birthday.
Good news, Andrew Cuomo has finally declared his candidacy for governor and I believe it is a shoe-in but the down side is he is inheriting a mega-mess and corrupted "gov" from Albany to City Hall and New York may be heading towards a depression if we aren't officially in one yet.
Good luck Andrew.
Now for the really bad news. If you want to stab someone or a couple of people to death than NYC is the place to be and simply say it was self defense.
Do you remember the Jack the Ripper type stabbings of two people in the subway in the West Village and there were no working subway cameras around? Well the grand jury let the murderer walk because uh, huh, it was self defense!
The reporter from The New York Times does not interview the two victims families so we never hear their side. The people that were murdered were rude and offensive and thew a bag with bottles but I believe they were murdered and the murderer and knew what he did and that was why he fled.
Maybe New York needs to do better recruiting for the District Attorney's office?
Also remember Keyanna Jones? If you don't let me introduce her memory. She was a stunningly beautiful teenage girl. Please click on the link to see her beautiful smile face. This beautiful African American girl was in the wrong place at the wrong time, murdered by a man being teased and harassed by teenagers that exited the bus with him. Keyanna had nothing what so ever to do with these teenagers. Maybe the news reporters got it wrong but as I understood it, she had no weapon. Her last words were words of peace and she was murdered because this guy was being harassed by a group of teens and she happen to walk up to the bus stop with her friend and witnessed the madness pouring out on the street and called for calm and was stabbed to death in the heart!!!! The murderer of a girl more than half of his age walked.
The mayor talks about guns but look how people are being stabbed to death and walking free. Take a moment and look at Keyanna Jones's beautiful young sweet face...read the story and explain how her murderer walked away clear and free.
My letter in The New York Daily News
Words to the wise
Manhattan: Keyanna Jones, age 15, died speaking pearls of wisdom and peace ("'God takes good ones,'" June 27). Fragile egos and false pride are driving up the murder rate.
Suzannah B. Troy
Yesterday Emonee Williams became another teenage girl to be stabbed to death and in her own home in the Bronx by her Mother's boyfriend who was asked to leave the apartment.
I do not believe he will walk free since he has a record and sometimes grand juries, juries and judges get it right but apparently not soon enough because another beautiful teenage girl died in New York City. Apparently even staying home doesn't mean your safe.
Andrew Cuomo and anyone currently in office who is not a lame duck, or too busy stealing tax payer money really needs to step up to the plate calling for "peace on the streets" as well as for Albany to balance their budget which was supposed to be done April 1st.
Welcome to New York.
Facebook Privacy: The Word of the Week by NIKKY RANEY
The word of the week is PRIVACY.
(note: all links I include are the most recent links I can find meaning within the past day or so)
It has been a rough week for Facebook, and an even more troubling week for Facebook users. The privacy issues regarding Facebook have gotten so extreme that it made the cover of Time Magazine.
I am torn between feeling anger toward Facebook, or feeling critical of users like me. If Facebook users don't want private information getting out into the internet, then why are we all posting this information on Facebook in the first place?
These privacy issues are so extreme that May 31, 2010 has been dubbed as "Quit Facebook Day" by QuitFacebookDay.com. According to the site there are already over 10 thousand users signed up to quit. The site compares quitting Facebook to quitting smoking:
"Quitting Facebook isn't easy. Facebook is engaging, enjoyable and quite frankly, addictive. Quitting something like Facebook is like quitting smoking. It's hard to stay on the wagon long enough to actually change your habits. Having peer support helps, but the way to quit Facebook is not to start a group on Facebook about leaving Facebook."
Are the Facebook Quitters taking this way too seriously, or are the rest of us not taking it seriously enough?
The Wall Street Journal recently posted and article which confronted Facebook, Myspace, Livejournal, and other social-networking sites for "sending data to advertising companies that could be used to find consumers' names and other personal details."
In my previous blog entry I included many links regarding Facebook privacy as well as the terms of service & Facebook's privacy code, etc. But it is now being said that Facebook may have been breaching its own privacy policy.
WSJ interviews and posts quotes from a "Facebook spokesman." That really doesn't show much credibility, because we don't exactly know WHO this Facebook spokesman is. I will do a blog entry on credible sources & the use of anonymous sources in the near future. I would personally like to know WHO this "Facebook spokesman" is, and why doesn't he want his name to be attached to the quotes he is providing? There are numerous reasons why a source may want anonymity, but the only reasons that I feel are legitimate are if the quotes/information provided could cause the person to lose a job or put the person in danger. Why does WSJ trust this "Facebook spokesman." Why wasn't someone from Facebook who would agree to go on record and have his or her name printed alongside the quote chosen? Anyway, I seem to be getting off track. Although, that does count as PRIVACY. The Facebook spokesman desired the need for PRIVACY, and WSJ allowed him (or HER) to obtain this privacy, which is funny since the interview seems to focus on the LACK OF PRIVACY given to the users. Irony, the Facebook spokespeople desire privacy:
" '"We were recently made aware of one case where if a user takes a specific route on the site, advertisers may see that they clicked on their own profile and then clicked on an ad,' the Facebook spokesman said. 'We fixed this case as soon as we heard about it.' "
Mashable has always been one of my favorites (I even have given Mashable.com its own bookmark on my Safari Bookmarks Bar). Mashable writers have been consistently updating the site with the latest news regarding Facebook privacy. They reasonably posted a survey asking, "Are You Planning on Quitting Facebook? Why?" Since I last checked the poll the majority voted "I like Facebook. I'm staying."
ReclaimPrivacy.org states that their mission is to "promote privacy awareness on Facebook and elsewhere." The site provides a tool that may be used to scan your Facebook privacy settings.
Macworld.com promotes Reclaimprivacy.org, and advocates that the site is credible. Philip Michaels, Macworld.com's executive editor, tested the site on his own Facebook and reassures that Reclaimprivacy.org can be trusted:
"There’s one thing about the ReclaimPrivacy.org tool that struck me as curious: When I scanned my Facebook settings in Firefox, I got the all clear on everything—even the categories still flagged with a yellow Caution label in Safari. My takeaway message? As helpful as the ReclaimPrivacy.org tool is—and it is very helpful—it’s not a silver bullet for every privacy concern you’ll have on Facebook. The best weapon you have is still your own common sense—though a little clarity from Facebook itself would be welcome, too."
I would like to point out that the best point made in the quote above is "The best weapon you have is still your own common sense." Thank you so much for saying this. (I don't know if Philip Michaels will ever read this, but if he does I want to thank him. And I would also like to say that I am in love with my 13" Macbook Pro!)
For those of you who have read my previous post regarding Facebook, and my own personal experiences with Facebook you may be questioning my own common sense. Since I sent the Facebook officials my government issue ID and proof of residency. I trust that, because I sent it to Facebook through an e-mail. I did not post it publicly onto Facebook. I think that the biggest concern is that the information posted on people's Facebook is getting out to the public, whereas I personally trust that the e-mail exchanges between Facebook officials and myself will stay private.
An article on Telegraph.co.uk includes a quote from Mark Zuckerberg from his interview with Time Magazine:
" 'The way that people think about privacy is changing a bit. What people want isn’t complete privacy. It isn’t that they want secrecy. It’s that they want control over what they share and what they don't.Our core belief is that one of the most transformational things in this generation is that there will be more information available.... Even with all the progress that we've made, I think we're much closer to the beginning than the end of the trend.' "
I am not questioning Zuckerberg's credibility. (I am still willing to send you brownies if you let me get the information back from my old Facebook account which you disabled due to my overuse of Facebook. I am sorry, I just really love Facebook. As you can see I have been very good on my new Facebook account, but I would still appreciate obtaining the old information on my other disabled account) I am just wondering how many users Zuckerberg has polled or asked regarding the privacy issues. Is this something he has assumed, or has he reached out to the Facebook users and asked, "Hey, how are you feeling about our privacy policy. You feel safe?" If Zuckerberg has in fact done this, then I am sad that I was not included in the questioning.
I think that the big issue is Facebook users have maybe trusted Facebook a little too much, and shared more than they would have liked to via their Facebook profiles. The advice I can give is this (for people who would like advice for making their Facebook information more private, I have been helping my mother with her Facebook).
Make an e-mail address strictly for Facebook. Go to your Account Settings, and edit your information. You will first add an e-mail address to the one you already use for Facebook. Then once you have confirmed that e-mail address via e-mail you can delete the e-mail address you previously used to log onto your Facebook account and have the new "strictly Facebook" e-mail address as the only e-mail address used for Facebook. This way if any advertisers do somehow obtain your e-mail address, they do not have your PERSONAL e-mail address, only the address that you use to log onto your Facebook account.
Only add people on Facebook that you trust, or create different "lists" or "groups" which customize which friends can see what, etc.
Edit your application's privacy by going to your privacy settings.
The thing about Facebook Privacy is that usually the new features are enabled automatically for everyone's Facebook, and we all need to go in and manually disable the features that allow applications to obtain information, etc.
Don't post things that you don't want people to see, and if you already have -- go through your Facebook profile and delete the things that you don't want posted.
I think the bigger issue is people that are adding their professional acquaintances to Facebook and then posting drunk photos & compromising status updates.
I have personally deleted most of my youtube videos (I had about 45 at one point), and I have tried to delete all the things that I posted back when I was in middle school & high school (including my old blog that I had during high school which I used more as my public diary and less as a blog). There are still traces of me on the internet that I cannot get rid of due to forgetting of passwords and things that I posted elsewhere or that someone else has posted of me, but I think that I am young enough to be able to redeem myself and keep myself in good shape in regards to The Future of Journalism.
So, I think the big lesson here is: Yes, Facebook has done some things that are wrong and have broken the trust with some of its users, but Facebook users should think twice about posting things on the internet that are private in the first place. If you are posting something on the internet that you only want specific people to know, give those people a phone call, tell them in person, send an e-mail, etc. Facebook, Twitter, etc. aren't the only ways to communicate.
This entire issue is worldwide, and I feel like by only posting the articles via USA & UK news sources that I am leaving out the fact that Facebook users are WORLD WIDE, and this privacy issue is affecting all of the users. I was born in the Philippines, raised in America with my Filipino mom and American dad, and I like to pride myself on keeping up with all international news, so I feel obligated to include links to other news sources outside of the US that involve Facebook Privacy. All links are directed to the Facebook Privacy articles both in the US and outside the US. Basically, here is a list of other articles about Facebook Privacy that I didn't talk about in my blog entry:
Privacy. That's the word of the week.
Tune in next Saturday to see the next Word of the Week.
(That is, if there is another word that can outdo the popularity of the word "privacy" for next week, or will we still be dealing with Facebook privacy issues…)
Posting this post onto Zennie62 blog & The Future of Journalism
Blog post written by: Nikky Raney
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions or concerns e-mail me nikkyraney@nikkyraney.com
For Twitter updates, I have recently made my twitter account public.
Bono rushed to hospital + Suzannah B. Troy beats out NYT mag Stieg Larsson
Friday, May 21, 2010
Yahoo!'s CEO Carol Bartz at Tech Crunch Disrupt, New York City
Carol Bartz took over for Yahoo Founder Jerry Yang as CEO on January 13, 2009. Bartz took on the challenge of reviving one of the Internet's pioneer brands, which had suffered from the disease of over-bureaucrasy.
Bartz' most recent and most exciting move was to acquire Associated Content, a news website of over 380,000 contributors, making it several times larger than Examiner.com.
Yahoo!'s purchase of Associated Content should cause the mainstream media to shudder, but the simple fact that's not the case shows just how little the mainstream media understands what's happening.
If Yahoo! structures its website relationship with Associated Content properly it could cause a massive cannibalization of online news traffic. If New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. had nightmares trying to deal and then partner with Google, and The Wall Street Journal's minders think The Huffington Post is annoying, they've not seen anything yet.
But that's only if Yahoo! knows exactly what it's doing with Associated Content, and that remains to be seen. Carol Bartz will pack the room for what will be an exciting chat. Personally, I hope Michael asks if any part of the twitter account Fake Carol Bartz (@fakecarolbartz) is true - especially the F-bombs.
How's that for buildup?
Google celebrates Pac Man 30th anniversary with icon game
Google celebrates Pac Man 30th anniversary with icon game. 30 years ago, Pac Man was created and became perhaps one of the most addictive games ever developed. Installed in a large video game box, Pac Man became the favorite after-school and at times during school time-waster, and in online form it still is.
Google proved that today with its' installation of a "logo-based" Pac Man game placed where the standard Google logo is located on its page. This blogger tried the game several times and did not do well simply because the cursor that you would assume was to control the Pac Man failed to do so. The result was that I was absorbed every time.
I thought it was the fault of the Apple Safari Browser's memory leak problem, which does make sense given the fact that the cursor was working some of the time, but not all of the time. And in Pac Man, time is really important.
Of course, posting a YouTube video of my failure gained comments of advice. Apparently I was supposed to work the 'page up, page down' keys, which I did do and gained more success than what's on the video screen.
Rats!
Well, you can see how much fun Pac Man can be to play. No wonder it's lasted 30 years!
Back to playing it!
Bloomberg's goat sing? Stieg Larsson 4th? -- Suzannah B. Troy
Rand Paul: Ron Paul's son is a wacky guy on civil rights - pt.1
Rand Paul is a wacky guy |
I also said Rand Paul was nothing to worry about because he had wacky ideas like trying to get rid of The Americans with Disabilities Act. Rand Paul's expected to make a wild blast or two, but so soon? Dr. Paul came through with flying colors when he said that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 should not have included private business, when one of the major reasons for the passage of the Act were the famous sit-ins at restaurants, private businesses, that discriminated against blacks.
Rand Paul is a wacky guy. Dr. Paul's wacky because only such a person would not even consider the moral issue of how his black friends might be treated in such a situation. But then, it's fair to speculate that Dr. Paul has no real black friends. I don't mean the people he sees at work, but people who are regularly over to his house for a visit. People he's known a long time and keeps in touch with who are black. Someone with black friends would not stop to even consider allowing a society where his friends would be treated that way.
Rand Paul is a wacky guy.
Rand Paul's wacky because after appearing on The Rachel Maddow Show, and trying to two-step his way out of Maddow's intellectual trap (he failed), Paul then went on Laura Ingram's show and called Maddow part of the "Looney Left." What's funny is that it was before the same "Looney Left" that Rand Paul announced that he was running for The Senate a year ago. Check it out:
Video One:
Video Two:
Rachel Maddow made Rand Paul look, well, wacky. For example, Dr. Paul avoided a direct answer to Rachel's question if he would oppose Bob Jones University if they tried to bring back a ban on interracial dating at that private institution. Besides, why would a reasoned person even bother to touch sensitive racial issues unless he had a race issue? Paul says he abhors racism, but if so, really, why go there?
Allowing private companies to exclude on the basis of race, to be racist, is to support institutional racism. Thus, Rand Paul is actually helping to foster the very problem he claims to "abhor." Rand Paul's confused: "institutional racism" involves more than government. Institutions are private businesses too.
Rand Paul's a wacky guy. He's just another Southerner who's for some reason obsessed with race and in an unhealthy way.
There always seems to be the person in the South, generally older white and male from my experience, who wants to talk about race and what happened in the past. When one gets into such talks, they discover its that person who is trying to deal with their own racism that's festered over time. Rand Paul needs to let go of the past and help build the America of the future, one office medical patient at a time. In other words, not in the U.S. Senate.
Rand Paul now says he does not want the repeal of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. But that was never the question. The question was does Paul support it, and the answer is still yes, but no.
Rand Paul calls that a "yes" according to his website:
"Let me be clear: I support the Civil Rights Act because I overwhelmingly agree with the intent of the legislation, which was to stop discrimination in the public sphere and halt the abhorrent practice of segregation and Jim Crow laws."
Note that Rand Paul still leaves out the "private" sphere. He's clear, alright, clear as mud.
Rand Paul is a wacky guy.
Stay tuned.
Bret Michaels back in hospital after stroke: Celebrity Apprentice?
Bret Michaels |
Before this news, Bret Michaels was riding high. The lead singer of the group Poison was touring and his appearance on Donald Trump's latest installment of The Apprentice series gave him exposure outside his area of music stardom.
Then a massive brain hemorrhage sent him to the hospital. Now, just as it seemed Michaels recovered and he was set to go on tour again, he not only has a stroke, but a reported hole in his heart or "Patent Forum Ovale" according to MTV.com.
What's up in the air as of this writing is if Bret Michaels will be able to attend the final Celebrity Apprentice. Michaels is up against Holly Robinson Peete for the prize of Celebrity Apprentice 2010 and in my poll, 80 percent of voters and of well over 6,000 votes, have picked Bret to win.
Stay tuned.
Lindsay Lohan will NOT be arrested:CNN, Larry King, Nancy Grace wrong
While CNN's programs Larry King Live, Nancy Grace, and Showbiz Tonight were having a field day with the idea that Lindsay Lohan would be arrested because LA County Judge Marsha Revel issued a bench warrant for her, they forgot one thing: Lohan's lawyers could just post bail and get the bench warrant removed.
That's what happened, and it was announced by TMZ.com at 4:22 PDT, which is 7:22 EDT and apparently too late for the East Coast Media to react and make a correction.
Lindsay's legal rep paid $10,000, or 10 percent of the $100,000 bail the judge set to have the bench warrant recalled.
Judge Marsha Revel will see Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer Shawn Chapman Holley Monday at 8:30 AM and then they will set a date for a probation violation hearing. Lohan is in France for the Cannes Film Festival, and was said to have been at a party on a yacht.
Lohan's lawyer didn't go any favors when she said "that's what she does at her age" and then said if it were her, she would not have done that. What she should have said was "My client is conducting business in France and such events as a party are a way to network and press the flesh to discuss the movie projects she's involved in."
While Lindsay's lawyer Shawn Chapman Holley worked hard to get her client off the arrest warrant spotlight, she did her no favors before the television cameras. Shawn Chapman Holley must learn to make a more professional presentation representing her client.
Stay tuned.