Ramblings 5/23

Things have been a little hectic here at Crabb Hollow, so I haven’t had a chance to post any new cartoons or respond to comments. Hopefully, I’ll get caught up on my deadlines and other distractions in a few days. It never ceases to amaze me how time seems to speed up the older I get. I need a thirty hour day.

One item deserves mentioning…Earlier this week I must have accidently let a spam monster into my sanctum sanitorium, because I have been innundated with weird messages from strangers that require my personal attention before they appear on the page. All of the suspect spam comes from Facebook accounts, and I am hereby deleting any that show up here. I am not a fan or participant of Facefuck Facebook, and the whole thing gives me the creeps. Who needs Big Brother when everyone willingly plugs their lives in the Holy Grid?

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

17 Responses to Ramblings 5/23

  1. Michael Anderson says:

    Zuckerberg is Satan, that much is pretty clear. But I still recommend a “buy” on the stock. I mean seriously, an opiate is an opiate and as the most powerful head of the largest drug cartel the world has ever known, Zuckerberg and his Facebook opiate empire will be turning dross into gold for the foreseeable future.

    • Ryan Mount says:

      Do those Facebook patrons have any money to spend? I keep getting mixed messages on the plight of the 18-24 demographic. Certainly people above that age are broke.

      Maybe if they monetize the service in penny increments, kinda like Richard Pryor did in Superman III that might work?

  2. Don Baumgart says:

    I first tumbled to the bad behavior into which Facebook leads its addicts when news stories started to pop up about insurance companies denying claims of injury to young maidens shown twisting the night away…in their own photos! Divorce lawyers love what soon-to-be-former spouses put there…much easier than an all-night motel stakeout. Maybe the Devil made you do it, but don’t brag about it on international websites.

    “Beelzebub has a devil set aside for me.” – Freddy Mercury, Queen

  3. Greg Goodknight says:

    Facebook will become uncool when the rabble figures out Facebook isn’t the product… they are.

    • Ryan Mount says:

      That’s assuming such a consciousness will arise. I’m skeptical. Most of the “kids” have abandoned Facebook for the mouse-wheel scrolling site Tumblr. Tumblr is like Facebook, without adults.

      • Michael Anderson says:

        Ryan, I agree with you that GenY, and the nextGen in line, have lost interest in Facebook. But older GenX, and silly Boomers, are still flocking to it in droves. It’s all about the soccer moms.

        Once they get the monetization correct–a la Google–Facecrap will be very golden. Which will last at least until the last Boomer croaks, which I hesitate to inform you will be around 2049.

        • Ryan Mount says:

          > I hesitate to inform you will be around 2049.

          That’s a lot of years of having to listen to “get off my lawn.” Up here, it’s more like “get out of my grow.”

          With regards to their future profits, they’re gonna need to go out and start buying companies that actually make money and plug them into the platform. As I mentioned above, the Superman 3 strategy seems to be the approach these days. Just as Nintendo and Electronic Arts what they think about Apple’s App Store.

      • Michael Anderson says:

        Here is a great analysis of the FB IPO trainwreck: http://www.quora.com/Facebook-IPO/Did-Facebooks-stock-perform-according-to-expectations-on-its-first-day-of-trading

        I am still believing that a year from now, FB will continue to have solid value.

        • Agreed. easiest and most effective way to form and add to a virtual community, beats the hell out of being alone in a box in the city, or stuck out a country road, with too few neighbors with common interests. A selective magnet for all the needles in the haystack that interest you.

        • Ryan Mount says:

          I like how people are suing the Casinos for their gambling problem. Ah the joys of American entitlement.

          • Judith Lowry says:

            Ryan,

            Most Indian Casinos stress awareness of addiction issues and many offer counseling and intervention services. It is usually written into their community agreements.
            I think Native Americans are realistic about the nature of what they are offering as entertainment and recreation, and take some measure of responsibility in partnership with persons wishing to recover from substance or gambling addictions.

          • Ryan Mount says:

            Well, if we had interest rates that were, well, realistic, people would save instead of playing the markets. But because we have a government and a central bank keen on keeping inflation low, there’s no incentive to save. So everyone ventures into the markets thinking that it’s like a bank. It’s not.

            So I’m complaining about grown-ups taking risks, and then playing the victim when the deal goes south.

            This is prime example of how the government is creating financial chaos with half-assed regulations and no oversight. They (we really) either need to take the lead, or get the #$%! out of the way. The government has enabled this behavior.

            JP Morgan Chase is not the same “Chase” in downtown Grass Valley. Why we allow something as conservative and boring as a Bank to be in businesses like this is beyond me.

  4. I hit upon this the other day, and while I am still an active FB user, anything that shows up that asked me to share further, I don’t do, not even donations to worthy causes. The real scary part here is that FB is also snaring data from non users who never go there, you have to read and understand the whole article, link at top, to get this:

    http://farstars.blogspot.com/2012/05/fb-probes-much-deeper-than-you-ever.html

  5. Tumblr seems like GG’s vision of Keachie’s brain, at first glance.

  6. TD Pittsford says:

    My objection is now and always has been the indiscriminate dispersion of private information, now given willingly under the guise of “social networking”. It is Big Brother in every sense of the word and frighteningly enough it’s spreading into virtually every aspect of our lives. I can’t tell you how much I resent (in addition to the outrageous prices) that while filling up our tank, we are treated to TELEVISION right at the pump. It’s not bad enough that we have to endure mind-numbing commercials at home, but now we must watch them in restaurants, bars, and anywhere else where there’s an electrical outlet. For God’s sake, read or re-read “Brave New World”, “1984”, and “Animal Farm”. They are more relevant today than they were when they were written. The Internet is a two-edged sword but an astounding number of people who think they are on the cutting edge, are really on the business end of the headsman’s axe. Yes, it can be that dangerous.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *