Breakfast at Lani's

Evolution of the Telephone

 A really neato thing about Google Buzz is only having to remember one (1) username and one (1) password.  This is especially effective for my step-daughter who does not have a Twitter or Facebook account.  She can email, chat, webcam, track her calendar, and now, update her daily status all via Google Buzz.

I'm not going to pretend it doesn't completely trip me out that an 8 yeard old knows how to email.  Or type.  Or use a search engine.  Or even turn the computer on.  It's a bit crazy to watch but I refuse to become my generation's version of  "those darn kids and their rock and roll music".  I refuse to let this shock me.

So,   I walked into her room the other day and she was voice chatting with her best friend.  I peered over her shoulder and her best friend yelled, "Hi LANI! My mom wants to say hi!"  Her mother and I could only stare at each other in amazement. 

What did we have when we were 8 years old? 

The only forms of communication I can think of (other than sitting my ass on my banana-seat bike and pedaling myself over to my best friend's house) were passing notes in class and using the telephone.  Notice I say telephone and not phone or cell phone. I feel telephone is a more appropriate word to describe the device that sent interrupted electrical pulses (known as pulse dialing) to the telephone system.  It was OLD SCHOOL.  I nearly had a conniption fit when the NKOTB came to my town in 1991.  I spent three hours on the phone trying to get through to ticket master! 

Why not use redial?

What a novel idea! And I would have except in 1991 I hadn't even heard of redial!  I spent 3 hours rotating that stupid dial clockwise and all I got was a bad case of carpal frickin' tunnel!

As demonstrated in the screenshot below, I am delighted that my step-daughter, Arwen,  will never have to experience such pain....

 

Do you feel the buzz?

I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about Google Buzz.  Granted, it's only been live for two days, but still, I usually have a pretty good idea how I'm going to integrate a new piece of technology into my life within the first 12 hours.  Google Buzz? Still undecided. 

At first, I was confused. Like, really confused. I had no idea how I was suddenly seeing 30 of my "closest friends" status updates and discussions. My first thought was /unsubscribe please.  I mean, I already use Twitter, Facebook, myspace (shhhhh!), and Google Wave.  Do I really need another social networking tool?

Apparently I do. 

I keep gmail open throughout the day and it's usually not a distraction.  Every once in awhile the little google icon pops up from the corner of my screen and lets me know I have a message, but other than email? I don't do much with it.   

Something changed yesterday. 

The Google brains added a neat  speech-bubble-icon underneath the inbox link.  My eyes cant help but gravitate towards it! 

Every.  Single.  Time.  I log into gmail I want  must NEED to click that icon!  I'm trapped.  Updates are now full blown conversations that I want must NEED to be apart of.  I no longer have to log into Twitter or Facebook because I can update straight from Buzz! 

Streamlined social networking with real-time updating? Yes, please! 

The downside? Well, Google, the problem is... I actually really LIKE Facebook and Twitter.  I like Facebook applications and I like being able to follow Brent Spiner, GOD, and MC Hammer on Twitter.  I really do, and I have a feeling that none of them are going to hook me up with their gmail addresses so that we can buzz together. 

So, I'm back to being undecided. 

What do you think?  Do you feel the buzz?

Too "Cuil" for school?

Big News today about the new search engine, Cuil (pronounced cool), developed by former Google employees. The engine claims to index 3x more pages than google, making it the “arguably the most comprehensive search engine on the web.”

Excited about the new engine, I ran a quick vanity search. Here are my results:

No results because of high load...

Due to excessive load, our servers didn't return results. Please try your search again.

That is SO not cuil.

Oh, snap!

"Get yourself an immense love gun!"

My good friend (and fellow video game producer), Ngoc, and I were recently discussing the potential of social gaming and how networks like facebook or myspace are the perfect platforms for viral games. Yes, viral as in virus - a game which spreads, as the name suggests, like a contagious, air-borne disease through an overcrowded urban transport.

I went to bed last night thinking about both realms: Facebook & MySpace, and I began to wonder which one would be the more efficient vehicle. MySpace certainly has an enormous community (Thank you Tila Tequila), but are their communication highways as well paved and maintained as Facebook's?

Personally, I tend to enjoy the Facebook experience more than MySpace. First of all, MySpace has far too much spamming. I had hoped for an improvement; Tom had just sold the company for 100 octodecillion dollars and I figured he'd spend a few bucks on cleaning up the place. I was wrong.

Tom got rich, what does he care.

I remember that giddy feeling of checking my gmail, hoping for a message from MySpace, informing me that someone had posted a new comment or sent me a private message. How exciting.

After a few years, things changed. Private messages began to explore more colorful subject matter, rarely did I receive a message thats subject wasn't one of the following, Fantastic Growth Achieved, Make your thing as big as life, Express Meds Delivery or Interested in Weight Loss? The really weird thing is - most of these messages came from friends. I mentioned in my last post that I'm a very sensitive person, so you can imagine my shock when I saw a message from Quentin telling me that my size matters, "Wow. Not something I imagined he would be too concerned about, but OK, the size of my penis is very important to Quentin. Noted." Eventually I figured out their accounts were being hacked. Phew, Quentin's needs were all just a big-huge misunderstanding.

For awhile, page commenting had me frightened.  I actually began to question the sanity of the friends who were thanking me for adding them. Don't get me wrong, I love a sparkly unicorn waving, "Thanks for the Add" as much as the next girl, but is it really necessary?  Eventually I made the decision to disable anything HTML in the comments section, it couldn't be helped, it was causing my page to load slower that a Vista boot, and that's just not right.

No need to thank me for the add folks, the honor is all mine.

Sadly, I can now say that I am no longer a MySpace member. All the customizable neon fonts-on-black backgrounds finally got to me.

I love you Becky, but if I have to put up with listening to Evanescence just so I can view your page...I'm going to have to respectfully pass.

What your poison? Facebook or MySpace?