Mar

25

Ever get the feeling Osen is following you?

Filed Under me so g33ky, tout le fromage | Leave a Comment

In all likelihood, Osen Komura is following you. In fact, Osen Komura is following upwards of 37,000 profiles on Twitter and rising. So who is this guy? The IP address in his Location box resolves to Twitter’s own URL. Although little is known about Komura, a little digging today on Google cleared up some of the mystery.

Normally, I won’t follow a person on Twitter based on whether that person follows me. I’m not following Osen Komura either, but I do tend to have a look at the Twitter page of every new follower I get. An email notification pops into my inbox; I check them out. I block some of them; I ignore most of them. I keep my numbers of follow:follower fairly low. I spend too much of my time on internet noise as it is, I don’t need to add more to the mix.

But here’s where Osen Komura comes in— Osen is purposely making noise for himself as an experiment in Twitter/web behaviour. It’s simple, and possibly pointless, but here’s the gist of it:
Osen follows you, but will you then follow Osen? Apparently, Komura is trying to find a magic formula with that ratio. Call it an experiment in human behaviour relating to the “friend” culture of the web.

His Bio blurb on Twitter:
“Questions about my experiment? Just read my timeline. All of it. It’s all there.”

There are only 24 updates (as I write this) and no real revelations. In fact, there hasn’t been an update for 11 days. I guess following upwards of 37,000 Twitter users leaves little time for yourself. ;)

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Mar

21

As seen on Twitter

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Tweeted by Merlin Mann of 43Folders:

Accepting a social network’s “friend” request should cost a dime. Even that tiny amount could radically realign the fake web friend economy.

So true. I think it should also cost a dime to follow someone on Twitter just to stop the collectors who ‘follow’ thousands of users. I do not wish to be followed to build someone’s stats. Internet rock stars like Merlin get loads of followers (he has over 10,000!) and it’s expected. But the number he follows? Under 150. A collector’s stats will often be the reverse of that.

Payment plans aside, there should be a rule on following and friending:
Keep it real, relevant, and manageable.

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Feb

28

when to stop kicking that horse

Filed Under me so g33ky, tout le fromage | 1 Comment

My last post announced a project I’m working on— the quirky illustrated book of poetry aimed at the young and young at heart (to sound cliché about it). This means I need access to a scanner. We have a lovely all-in-one machine stationed in Neil’s office but it’s inconvenient for me to use. We have two single-purpose flatbed UMAX scanners that have been collecting dust on a shelf in the water heater cupboard. How to resurrect one of them…

I’m a smart cookie when it comes to getting shit to talk to other shit. I go into a rabid hyper-focus for driver/cables/device/network issues. Most of the time I can make the seemingly impossible work, and sometimes I dig around in the opensource community to get these things done. I spent the better part of this evening getting the compiled installers downloaded and installed and the scanners spluttering along, teasing me with potential. Then I installed VueScan— which is a commercial application with a long and positive track record for coaxing the zombie scanners of yesteryear into modern workstation compliance. Fortunately, Neil had purchased a professional license years ago and no longer used it. VueScan just works. I don’t have to worry about SANE or TWAIN or backend packages that are nearly impossible to track down. That’s the only thing about opensource that can drive me crazy— the scavenger hunt that some projects require to get what you need working.

Sometimes, the cost of chasing your tail and wasting your hours is better spent on a commercial application. At least in this case, we managed to dig out the license on an old archive on an unused computer. Now it’s just a shame I can’t get those couple of hours back…

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Jan

21

Now with added convenience

Filed Under me so g33ky, regular, tout le fromage | Leave a Comment

First, thank you to all those who commented (and so quickly!) on my last post. The internet is a remarkable thing.

Second, it was brought to my attention (indirectly via Neil) that it wasn’t easy for people to subscribe to my RSS feeds. OH! But I have remedied that tout de suite. Thank you Paul for bringing this up. So now, just look for the:

and you can get your feed on. Nom nom nom… tastes great!

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to have a stab at making this day awesome.
(Starting with more coffee…)

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Jan

3

Reconstruction underway

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If you notice some quirky behaviour or funny smells coming from this site over the next day or two (optimistically, just the next hour or two), then that’s the growing pains of upgrading both the back end and front end of regularjen.com.
reDSC04555
Comments will be accessible on the updated site. Do let me know if I’ve broken anything when accessed from your gorgeous portal into the interwubbins.

UPDATE: Phase One complete. WordPress back end updated. The style of the site (theme) doesn’t seem broken on my end, so I think I’ll go have something to eat and then delve into Phase Two: the new theme.

UPDATE II: Internet Explorer 6 and 7 seem seems to be having a hissy fit with my post headers. I’m not surprised and the fix is on the way.

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Dec

5

Revealing the Human Behind the Avatar: a book by the Fuelmyblog Community

Filed Under me so g33ky, regular, tout le fromage | 5 Comments

GO BUY THIS BOOK.

fuelmyblog book
(click photo to enlarge)

It’s the Fuel My Blog book, and benefits the Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres charity. It’s available in Hardcover or Softcover and Blurb.com ships all over. Prices can be reflected in dollars, pounds, or euros.

Oh yeah, and I’m in it. :)
So run! Run fast! Grab your credit card and buy the book. You’ll be doing a good thing and also get to know up to 63 pages full of people you didn’t know before.

—

See related post: likely appearing in a book thanks to Fuel My Blog

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Dec

3

I told you Facebook was evil. Now we know it’s Spyware.

Filed Under me so g33ky, tout le fromage | 2 Comments

Though I’m feeling poorly, I couldn’t resist a post about Facebook, linking and quoting John C. Dvorak’s blog (which quotes PC World).

Facebook Admits Ad Service Tracks Logged-Off Users
Facebook’s controversial Beacon ad system tracks users’ off-Facebook activities even if those users are logged off from the social-networking site and have previously declined having their activities on specific external sites broadcast to their Facebook friends, a company spokesman said via e-mail over the weekend.

Right. So, erm. Facebook owns you in more evil ways than you ever thought. Pretty cool, eh? Even now that Facebook is caught red-handed with their spyware, the social networking site has only provided a partial opt-out option for the Beacon program. So, basically, it sounds like they’ll still track as much as they can and you can’t do a thing about it.

Spyware. Spyware behind a site that everyone wants to be in more than a strip club with an all-you-can-eat buffet. Sounds like a great place but really too good to be true, innit.

For those not knowing my previous posts on the terror that is Facebook, I offer links for your reading enjoyment. Don’t forget the comments, especially the ones about trying to delete your Facebook account. (Searches on deleting Facebook accounts come a close second to resetting nvram as my most popular posts.)

See also: (in order from earliest to latest)
Social networks become social handicaps
A little complaint about Facebook
OK, maybe I do have something against Facebook
Evidently, Facebook owns me
Some thoughts and then the next post will not be about Facebook. Promise.
Erm, no. Still not interested in Facebook. Ta.

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Nov

29

likely appearing in a book thanks to Fuel My Blog

Filed Under me so g33ky, photos, tout le fromage | 4 Comments

Little ol’ regularjen has been a part of Fuel My Blog for awhile and some of you may remember my Blog of the Day achievements (one & two). Turns out, they’re doing a book for charity about bloggers and if I’m not too late for the submission deadline, I’ll likely be in it.

It’s a fun idea– The Human Behind the Avatar. Keep your eyes on the Fuel My Blog blog for when you can purchase a copy. The benefiting charity is Medicines Sans Frontier (Doctors Without Borders). You can also get a sneak peek at the blogger photos here.

Here’s the photo I’m submitting–
for_fmb.jpg

Now to write my copy on why I blog and what my blog is about. :D

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