You're not wrong.
New phrase : Goog-suck.
Usage : my life / job / website is pure Goog-suck.
And don't even think of trying to contact a human in that machine..
BOOGLE GUZZ
SUCKS
GUNGA DIN
It's not a bad negotiating ploy, SB. But I still think you're unlikely to be offered stock options upon signing.
Is the lack of caching keeping google from doing a good job with the unfogged pages? That is, do they purposely do a worse job on stuff they can't devour inside their monstrous, soulless servers of surreptitious surveillance? Incidentally, both yahoo and bing, while better, still have large gaps. It gets more difficult to search the archives every day.
I don't know whether the ghost in the machine is going to give me a candy bar or an anal probe.
Could be worse choices.
Has Steve Jobs' "Of course they're evil" been mentioned on one of the other threads?
To make a fraught comparison, remember when ogged told us we're all history's monsters because you can't be a superpower and NOT be such? Google has become monstrous, because anything that big is a monster.
I don't know whether the ghost in the machine is going to give me a candy bar or an anal probe.
Surely apo has some good advice for how to search when you're looking for an anal probe.
because anything that big is a monster.
Oh yeah? What about the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man?
If you're open to the experience, you don't have to search for an anal probe. It will find you.
I just noticed that when I go to Yahoo Mail, an account which I use mostly to sign up for potentially spammy things or when forced to leave an email address for a blog comment, there's a box asking "What are you doing right now?" and offering to share the answer with everyone. So the Facebookification of the internet hit there, too.
What ever happened to "do one thing and do it well"?
OT: Since Walter Frederick Morrison is dead, does that mean frisbee masturbation is off limits now?
This is happening with fascinatingly bad timing, as I just accepted a job offer with the big G this week. I don't generally buy into "don't be evil" as actually being a controlling policy, but I think that it motivates a fair number of things they do.
Also, the technology we develop at my current job is probably strictly worse for privacy, long-term, than Google is, so I'm probably making the world better just by shifting.
(Presidential because I'm not giving notice at my current job until Tuesday).
15: Oooh! Get them to bring Google Fiber to Austin!
Congratulations, TJ. Make fixing Buzz (which I think, unfortunately, means disabling it entirely) your priority #1. Eliminating the hoohole should be priority #2.
What ever happened to "do one thing and do it well"?
That went out text streams.
I've had this nagging thought in my mind since posting 12 that besides being associated with Unix, the injunction to "do one thing and do it well", or something phrased almost identically, appears in a song. But the best I'm coming up with is "Find something difficult to do and do it right", where the 'right' might not even be part of the lyric, since it's "Find something difficult to do and do it -- write your English music", though I've always sort of thought it's supposed to be both "right" concluding the previous clause and "write" beginning this one.
And then I found five dollars.
Oooh! Get them to bring Google Fiber to Austin Durham!
Tea Party vs Sarah Palin! This is wonderful.
19: I'm coming up with Ecclesiastes 9:10 -- "Whatever comes to your hand, do it with all your might." Probably not directly what you're thinking of, but the sort of thing that could end up in song lyrics pretty easily.
So, I'm also noticing that in the latest Facebook layout, if people I am friends with comment on statuses of people I am not friends with, the entire status thread shows up in my newsfeed. I am guessing (hoping?) this occurs only for threads of friends with public profiles?
22: Swing low, sweet hanging fruit.
23: You can set your profile to 'friends' or 'friends of friends.'
One potential (if stupid) source of the search problems:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^POST$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !(yahoo)|(^lynx)|(^Palm680)|(^HTC-8500)|(^Blackberry)|(^Mozilla.*320\)$)|(^Nokia)|(^MOT-Q)|(UP\.Link)|(^links) [NC]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !^x
RewriteRule cgi-bin/mt-comments.* - [F]
Note that there's nothing user-agenty for the googlebot. This shouldn't matter because there's no reason for it to be POSTing rather than GETting, but who knows. I added a googlebot exemption.
HAVING THEN IN REGARD TO THIS SUBJECT ESTABLISHED THAT EVERYBODY ABLE TO LIVE ACCORDING TO HIS OWN PURPOSIVE CHOICE SHOULD SET BEFORE HIM SOME OBJECT FOR NOBLE LIVING TO AIM AT--EITHER HONOR OR ELSE GLORY OR WEALTH OR CULTURE--ON WHICH HE WILL KEEP HIS EYES FIXED IN ALL HIS CONDUCT (SINCE CLEARLY IT IS A MARK OF MUCH FOLLY NOT TO HAVE ONE'S LIFE REGULATED WITH REGARD TO SOME END), IT IS THEREFORE MOST NECESSARY FIRST TO DECIDE WITHIN ONESELF, NEITHER HASTILY NOR CARELESSLY, IN WHICH OF THE THINGS THAT BELONGS TO US THE GOOD LIFE CONSISTS, AND WHAT ARE THE INDISPENSABLE CONDITIONS FOR MEN'S POSSESSING IT.
PURITY OF HEART IS TO WILL ONE THING
Slightly OT: Facebook apps keep warning me that "Facebook is going to stop sending notifications [of when it's my turn in a Scrabble game, etc.], so sign up to have that shit sent to email!" and of course I don't want my inbox cluttered with random notices and click ignore. Is this legit? Because if I can't use Facebook as an easy game portal, I don't really see why I should bother much with it.
Oh lord, it would be terrible if those notifications came as emails instead of notifications. I would stop doing all activities like that.
More helpful Google Buzz advice.
21: I really hope the right wing's experiment with the Tea Party turns out to be as successful as the left's experiment with founding a Green Party in the US. In particular, I hope Palin turns into the right's Ralph Nader.
33: I was thinking LaRouche, but I share your aspirations.
I just noticed that when I go to Yahoo Mail, an account which I use mostly to sign up for potentially spammy things or when forced to leave an email address for a blog comment, there's a box asking "What are you doing right now?" and offering to share the answer with everyone.
That's been there for months, since right around the time they shut down Yahoo! 360.
We use Evites for every soccer game. There's SUPER annoying recent feature that asks you to submit more details about yourself before it posts your reply.
I pressed "Skip this step" a few hundred times before succombing to the pressure. I filled out parts of the form and submitted my answers.
IT IS STILL HARASSING ME. I think it wants a photo; yeah fucking right. I get angry about it weekly.
*Andar lo hacierlo*!
Now that I've got your attention --
For "Sir Gay":
What's up, my "chunking" and *main-lining* brothers?
[It's even *elaborate*, right?]
All right, so okay, right, so: I've been aware of this for a while, but poking around with Boogle Guzz makes clearer to me that from Google's perspective, what you have is a Google account. Not just a gmail account, or a Google Reader account, or what have you. (You may, of course, have more than one of these Google accounts.)
I'd forgotten, to tell you the truth, that there's a profile that goes along with that account. Messing around in the profile settings, I see all sorts of things I hadn't quite realized were in place: apparently I have one contact (who's that? I ask myself. Ah, it is myself under a different email address; dunno when I was assigned as a contact for myself), though I luckily am not sharing my contact information with my, uh, contact.
I was, however, showing my full name to anyone who chose to view my profile. Not showing it when I send email, as I'd had sense enough to change that way back when, but showing it if using Boogle Guzz, say.
No conclusion other than that people might want to take a look at their profile settings, where the privacy settings appear to be located.
Why do you people keep finding 5 dollars? Does God love you?
38: It pays to create at least two completely different identities and then use them to test for info leakage in Google, FB, etc.
"Don't be evil" is perhaps an ideal but it's no guarantee no harm.
Why don't we all just stop doing this shit. How many people are on facebook because they're afraid of missing shit that would otherwise happen on the phone or in person?
Shorter recent Google releases: There is nothing stupider than smart people being stupid.
44: Or the quip from one of the Demotivators posters: "None of us is as dumb as all of us."
43: Because some of us have forgotten how to talk on the phone?
I hate talking on the phone. Given the chance, rather than talk to them on the phone, my procedure is to fall out of touch with 100% of my friends who I no longer see in person. If it wasn't for Facebook my life would be incredibly lonely and boring right now.
Clearly there are different people who communicate in different ways. I never liked AIM, for example.
It's a nightmare. I want to go live on a commune 200 years ago.
Sadly, while I hate talking on the phone, I think I hate Facebook just as much. I want all social interaction to be conducted in blog comment sections. Is that really too much to ask?
Or in an agrarian commune. That's good too.
42: I was considering that.
text: I dunno about Facebook, but where Google is concerned, I've migrated pretty much all of my email correspondence to it, and I've tended to use Google Reader as a default rss reader (not that I check it very often). I take your point generally.
Do you know how increasingly difficult it's becoming to get people to just email directly, rather than going through Facebook's interface or whatever? I swear to god! It's like emailing involves a fearful commitment or something!
There was a post a couple of years ago in which ogged recommended various news readers he'd been checking out. Maybe I'll look for it.
If not for gchat, some of my better friends would probably still be mere acquaintances. Something about having that list of green-dotted contacts there to the left of my email as I work has been conducive to the formation of social bonds.
And LB brings up a good point: What's with all this newfangled communications technology, anyway? What's so wrong with just communicating through blog comments?
IM is an important part of my tiny social life. Facebook is negligible.
Ugh, phones. I am the sort of person who gets excited when they realize that it's possible to now do things like order pizza over the internet rather than call in. I have no problem interacting with people face to face that I don't know but the introduction of the phone means that I will avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid if possible. Or, it used to. I'm getting a little better about this as I age.
Despite all the Google-bashing, however, I must say that I am currently monitoring someone's AOL mail account for them, and my God ... The 'news" items they cycle through in the webmail are particularly depressing. A mix of tabloid and Fox and Friends level political coverage that makes you more ignorant (in a biased way).
Facebook-society is weird and artificial for the most part; one feels (doesn't one?) hampered, on occasion, by protocol one wots not of. More potentially intrusive or whatever. (Persons who are my facebook friends will note that this is not always the case, with me.) IMing is much nicer; you can have actual conversations.
51: I've used gmail since way back when you had to be invited. I think it was always a plot. I'm switching to the new mozilla thingy.
Back on Google's case: Give me an option to see my Inbox in time sequential order in Gmail*. Yes, yes, you are *so* right that conversation view is superior. Now go make it optional.
(Or else I might begin to consider to think about how I might be able to move my business to another free e-mail provider.)
It's like emailing involves a fearful commitment or something spam!
Ah, I absolutely love threaded email. There's a 14 message thread at the top of my box right now in which some friends and I have been hashing out dinner plans (because yes, it takes 14 messages to perform such a task.) Since each message in the thread has relatively little content, and there are a lot of them, keeping them together (update, thread now 15 messages) keeps my inbox at a manageable enough size that I can survey its contents with a glance.
What's the relation, Josh? The people who use fb's message system, do you suppose they don't use email at all?
Who wants to start up a medical marijuana farm with me? I won't make anybody talk on the phone. There will be no property rights.
58: me too, and I'd love to switch, but that's exactly the problem: I've used it forever, and a bazillion people have that email address. So I think I'm stuck with it forever, no matter how intrusively google invades my privacy. They could sell the contents of my emails to telemarketers to call my hourly with specially-tailored-for-me telemarking pitches, and I don't think there's a damn thing I could do about it.
Didn't we already go through this exact cycle with cell phones? And then eventually Congress passed a law requiring that you be allowed to take your existing phone number to any cell carrier you wanted. Why not do the same thing with email addresses? I want to keep my @gmail.com address, but I want to use it with someone less evil. (Who is that? Hotmail?)
Ah, I absolutely love threaded email.
Me tooooo.
59.1: I declined to use Gmail for a long time for that reason. Since when does anybody want threaded conversations to be not just the default option but the only option? Who are you people?
I am heartened by the phone hate here. Telephones: Bad.
What Google needs in order to partially restore my trust is a big, prominent button that says "Maximum Privacy Settings" and which sets everything up so that nobody has any identifying information about me from any Google service. There'd have to be an exception for the advertizing bot, but that's inoffensive to me. Even better - give me an option to pay for the service and make privacy absolute, including from the adbot.
but I want to use it with someone less evil. (Who is that? Hotmail?
I've used hotmail and yahoo, and their platforms suck. Really, truly, suck. I'll put up with the evil.
61, 65: Sure, sometimes i like that view, but you can have your threads and sequence them too is all I am saying.
The people who use fb's message system, do you suppose they don't use email at all?
No, but if someone sends you a message via Facebook you don't have to go hunting through thickets of spam to find it, and potentially have it end up in your junk-mail folder. (You also don't have to remember the correspondence of e-mail address to real name, but that's a separate issue.) I'm not a huge fan of Facebook's messaging system, but it definitely has its advantages over e-mail.
That's a good idea. I bet a lot of people would like to be able to restart from zero.
68: I have too, and I agree. That's why I went all-in with google. But now it's breaking my heart.
I've used hotmail and yahoo, and their platforms suck. Really, truly, suck. I'll put up with the evil.
Which Yahoo! mail did you use? Their older system sucked, true, but I've been pretty happy with the newer, AJAX-ified one.
(mutt is still the gold standard of mail clients AFAIC, but I haven't been able to convince myself to pony up for POP access to my Yahoo! mail so I can use it.)
I get and send very little FB correspondence. Really the only reason I'll use it is when I am trying to get back in touch with someone and don't know whether the last email address I have for him or her is still one he or she checks frequently. (The assumption is that he or she will be checking FB frequently no matter what, which is valid for some but not for others.)
smash your typey screen things! They are blabbing about you to everyone!
I agree with 68. I've had a hotmail address forever so I still use it for many things, but I've migrated as much as possible to separate gmail accounts for separate activities (primarily so I can have all the e-mail involving the nonprofit I basically run in one place, with a workable search function). Hotmail's search function is truly shitty, as is its folders scheme. And I love that in gmail a particular message or thread can be in more than one folder at the same time.
(The assumption is that he or she will be checking FB frequently no matter what, which is valid for some but not for others.)
My sense is that most people who, like me, check FB only very infrequently have it set up to email them whenever they receive messages on FB.
74: The fact that you like the Facebook messaging system seems to indicate that we're looking for different things; I find it incredibly annoying, especially its failure to tell me that I have new messages. (This happens quite frequently).
But I've had a Yahooo email account since 1995. I liked it through about 2002 or so. I largely switched to gmail in 2005 after a long interval of using campus email, which tells you how much I disliked Yahoo by that point. I still use it on occasion and overall have not found it to be a pleasant interface. I'm willing to be told that there are great things about it lurking below the surface.
Lot of Chicago grads at Google. Just sayin'.
77: Again, I totally agree that gmail's got the best web-based interface out there. (At least compared to its main competitors.) (Although I also agree with 74 that the newer yahoo interface is surprisingly good (surprising good considering how awful the old one was, not surprisingly good when compared against gmail).) I'm not currently unhappy with the email service--although I am pretty damn upset about the whole buzz nonsense--probably upset enough to switch if doing so were low-cost. But that's my point--switching is very high cost. When the anal probes finally come, I'm going to have no way to refuse.
I don't have to go hunting through thickets of spam either. In fact, I hardly ever see spam at all—my main email-related problem is idiots who send me email actually intended for other recipients with my family name.
mutt is still the gold standard of mail clients AFAIC
Isn't mutt the one with a boner for vi? No thanks!
The couple of email addresses I give out are linked to organizations whose entire purpose is identity-maintenance (alum.mit.edu, for example), and I just forward to my current actual email host. Unfortunately, this took both some advance planning and some luck, and if you've been advertising your name@emailprovider.com address instead of name@identyandforwardingservice.com (including vanity domains), it is a big problem.
78: Yes, I guess a more complete version of my assumption would be that people either check FB frequently or keep FB tied to an email address that they check frequently, whereas an old email address for so-and-so that I found in my archives might be these days ignored.
And I love that in gmail a particular message or thread can be in more than one folder at the same time.
Sadly, I've never figured out how to actually use a filter to transfer incoming email to a folder. I can label it as belonging to some folder, but it doesn't automagically go into that folder when it comes in.
This seemed so weird to me that I figured I either hadn't managed to determine how to make this happen, or else gmail didn't see why I would want it to happen (much like it doesn't see why I might want unthreaded emails).
I don't have to go hunting through thickets of spam either. In fact, I hardly ever see spam at all
Well aren't you special.
I've never received spam on my gmail accounts, but my old-as-the-hills hotmail account gets at least several a day. Not thickets, but still annoying.
In fact, I hardly ever see spam at all
Yeah, I was under the impression that the "thickets of spam" problem was a thing of the past for most people. I get thickets of spam at my gmail, but they all end up in the Spam folder. Every once in awhile there's a false positive and a bulk mailing in which I actually am interested ends up flagged, but overall it's pretty damn good.
This seemed so weird to me that I figured I either hadn't managed to determine how to make this happen,
It's this. I have multiple filters set up, many of which direct email from list serves directly to their own folder while skipping the inbox. I can try to explain how to do it if you'd like (or someone else more apt than I can).
64: I've used it forever, and a bazillion people have that email address.
I have an old e-mail address like that from about 1996 which I still *pay* a bit for. (Plus it is the world's simplest address, myreallastname@xy.net.)
My oldest email address is so spam ridden (yahoo account) that it is virtually unusable.
88: If I've been too stupid to figure it out to date, I may deserve to be forced to, you know, figure it the hell out myself. As long as I know it can be done.
Lot of Chicago grads at Google. Just sayin'.
Not the nefarious institution of Studds Terkel! Time to flood its gates with mediocre applicants.
people I am friends with comment on statuses of people I am not friends with, the entire status thread shows up in my newsfeed
This is how I know SEEKRIT FACTS about a regular commenter here (not really).
The fact that you like the Facebook messaging system seems to indicate that we're looking for different things
I seem to have given the wrong impression: the Facebook messaging system is horribly crippled and in most ways completely inadequate to my needs. But it does have a couple of very big advantages over e-mail, and those advantages are even bigger for people who aren't as tech-savvy as the average commenter here.
91: It can be done. Go to settings, then choose filters from the tabs along the top of the page, and then click "create a new filter" and follow the directions.
94: Oooh. I thought that was a weird sentiment coming from you.
Isn't mutt the one with a boner for vi? No thanks!
You can set it up to use pico as the editor if that would make you more comfortable.
55: I empathize. I will say, though, this has gotten easier as I've taken the time to really get to know my local pizza place by calling regularly.
I do really like mutt. Now if I could only get people to stop sending HTML email.
Has anyone tried a hosted Zimbra account for email? If so, with 01.com in particular?
Sadly, I've never figured out how to actually use a filter to transfer incoming email to a folder. I can label it as belonging to some folder, but it doesn't automagically go into that folder when it comes in.
It's as "in" that "folder" as it will ever be -- it's just also in your inbox. So if you want to replicate the experience of sending it directly to a folder or folders, you want your filter also to "skip the inbox".
99: Heh, that's the thing I miss most about mutt: it makes phishing attempts so laughably obvious.
A: Mineshaft Pizza, may I help you?
B: David? How are you?
A: Um, fine. Who's this?
B: It's Di!
A: Oh, hi again. You ready to order a pizza?
B: Oh, no, I just ate. I just wanted to call and say "hi".
A: Ah, okay. Um, hi.
B: How's Suzy doing?
A: Um, she left early. Listen, I need . . .
B: You seen any good movies lately?
A: Really, I need to get back to . . .
B: What kind of music do you like?
At one point so many people were saying their hotmail accounts broke that I started assuming any time I saw a hotmail suffix, that it must be an old obsolete address, and I should go hunting for their new address. The gmail one, you know.
95: I'm going to continue to be really dumb here. The options for doing something to a message filtered according to the parameters I've specified do not include something like "Move to Folder X".
Hence my difficulty. The closest thing I see to "Move it to Folder X" is "Forward it to ________" which appears to me to want some other email address.
gmail doesn't have folders, it has labels so you want to add a label and skip the inbox.
105: Gmail doesn't actually have folders, just labels.
101: Yeah, I've got the "Skip the Inbox" part, just don't see where I say what folder I want it to be in.
95: I'm going to continue to be really dumb here. The options for doing something to a message filtered according to the parameters I've specified do not include something like "Move to Folder X".
Right. Gmail doesn't actually have folders. It has the inbox, it has the archives (not in the inbox!), and it has labels. You can look at emails by label, though, so labels feel a lot like folders. The closest thing to moving a message to a folder is to (a) give it the label or labels you want, and (b) archive it (i.e. "skip the inbox").
Wow, I'm really glad I previewed. Though I suppose my comment would have been in the spirit of the title of the OP.
I've put a "dammit" label on comment 106.
Whereas comment 109 gets a "HA ha" label.
Google doesn't actually have folders, just OH SHIT COFFEE ENEMA OUT OF NOWHERE
I will say, though, this has gotten easier as I've taken the time to really get to know my local pizza place by calling regularly.
I think this would make it easier. I don't tend to order food for delivery very often so I'm rather unsure of the process, which makes the phone part of it that much worse. Maybe I should work on this.
115: To avoid eating too much take-out food yourself, you could volunteer to do all the take-out ordering for your friends. Whenever any of them are hungry, they call/e-mail you, and then you call the restaurant.
You should start calling me up, (), and pretend to order food from me. I can take on many different customer service personae, from surly to solicitous.
just OH SHIT COFFEE ENEMA OUT OF NOWHERE
"Nowhere"?
117: Can you do hiLARious ethnic stereotype accents to go with the different cuisines?
I am not writing this in all caps. We'll have to see whether the undoing -- because I was messing around-- and recreating of the filters I already had in place (which had said "Skip the Inbox" and "Label as Blah") actually accomplish anything.
As you were.
So what y'all are trying to say is that GMail has folders, not labels?
117: Will you also wear different uniforms on demand?
Blume: Honey, where'd you put my massive, unabridged German Dictionary?
Sifu: Nowhere!
You already had filters in place?
I can take on many different customer service personae, from surly to solicitous.
Imagining the possibilities here is endlessly amusing.
I have gmail filters in place, and they work just fine if I'm reading gmail online, but filtered and unfiltered alike get forwarded to my BB inbox.
124: Coffee filters. In Sifu's butt.
125: In what I think was probably the only episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 I ever saw, whatshername with the crooked eyes got a job as a waitress at the local diner and was performing miserably, messing up orders, dropping things, etc. But then she took on a persona, that of a brash, moxieful diner waitress from the 40s or something, and suddenly she was completely on top of everything and performing like a champ.
I'm pretty sure the moral of the story is that if Parenthetical acts like one of the characters from 90210 when she's on the phone with the pizza place, she'll be able to order with aplomb.
You should start calling me up, (), and pretend to order food from me. I can take on many different customer service personae, from surly to solicitous
Can you do hiLARious ethnic stereotype accents to go with the different cuisines?
Will you also wear different uniforms on demand?
This is obviously leading to some kind of sexual role-playing.
129: What's really needed is to substitute "furry mascot costumes" for "uniforms".
I can wear whatever () wants me to.
You're just jealous, Mutch.
Oh, and:
whatshername with the crooked eyes
Racist.
134 s/b "Jealous Mutch?"
135: No, not crooked like that, crooked like a Picasso.
124: Uh, yes. This is obviously user stupidity error on my part; I've reset them according to current instructions, which I'm pretty sure is how they were set already, though I undid them just now in fooling around with editing them, so maybe I'm wrong about how they'd been set.
One variable: the ones I chiefly want in place are to act on messages that are being forwarded from another account. It's conceivable that things don't work in quite the same way on forwarded emails. I've noticed that I don't always receive all to-be-forwarded emails in the first place.
We'll see.
One variable: the ones I chiefly want in place are to act on messages that are being forwarded from another account. It's conceivable that things don't work in quite the same way on forwarded emails.
Well, you could have the parameters of the filter set wrong. (That is, that your filter isn't actually set to filter the messages you think it is.)
I have a theory about the younger(as in younger than me) generation -- that with the development of communications technology that have, on the one hand, enabled people to talk on the phone wherever they are, and, on the other hand, enabled people to communicate instantly in many new ways without talking on the phone, a kind of dimorphism has resulted, in which about half of the younger folk spend their entire waking lives talking on the phone, and the other half don't talk on the phone at all and will go to great lenghs to avoid even the simplest phone conversation.
I don't actually believe this theory, but writing that long sentence killed some time anyway.
138: Hmm. Shannen Doherty has a Sexiness rating of 85, and a Success rating of 45, for an overall Editors' Rating of 65. I'm somewhat surprised that the editors of askmen.com give (apparently) equal weight to Sexiness and Success.
116, 117, 122, 125, etc.....: Laughing this hard is not making writing this paper proposal any easier.
I think Otto should start a pancake delivery service.
Shannen's profile also includes this gem under Quotes:
"If God wanted us to be naked, why did he invent sexy lingerie?"
Why indeed, God? WHY?
139: your filter isn't actually set to filter the messages you think it is
Mm, maybe so. I tend to think of messages to and from an email discussion list as coming *from* that list's email address, but it may make more sense to consider them as going *to* that email address.
Will do.
I think Otto should start a pancake delivery service.
If you'd just call him, maybe he already does.
"Vee haf vays of making you pancakes!"
Calling for takeout requires a simple script. Decide exactly what you want and then call.
1. If call is answered with the name of the restaurant, begin with "Hi. I'd like to place an order for [pickup/delivery]." You may be placed on hold! Do not worry; just say "sure" and wait to say the above.
2. You may be asked first for your first name and phone number. Otherwise, go ahead and name each item you would like to order, using the exact name on the menu, with a pause after each item for acknowledgment.
3. You will probably be asked for clarification (white rice or brown, whether there should be condiments, etc.) on a few points. Make a note of this for future calls so you can be ready with these details in your next order.
4. Find out how long it will be until it is ready or delivered.
It's that easy! The big hurdle for me was figuring out step one. I was never sure what I needed to say at the first, but the above script gives the phone operator the opportunity to get a pen and be prepared before you start ordering.
The irony is that despite my pseud, I don't even own a box of Bisquick.
And...and...I bet AWB isn't even white and ursine in real life!
Calling for takeout requires a simple script.
Pwnd by 128.2.
So that would be:
1. Hi, I'd like to place an order for delivery.
2. Parenthetical, at comment 142. Yes, I'd like an order of your Ebelskiver.
3. With the lingonberries, please.
4. How soon can you be here?
white and ursine
I kinda am, actually.
Mm, ebelskiver/aebleskiver. I haven't had those since I was last in Solvang.
Now I'm hearing AWB doing a Chamillionaire parody in my head.
I've been jonesing for an ebelskiver pan recently. Can you deliver one of those, Otto? Cast iron, not one of those crappy aluminum & non-stick ones.
I have friends who are really unhappy about making delivery calls, so I end up doing it. They don't even like walking into restaurants, getting tables, and ordering.
Just a friendly Danish reminder: The new-style aebleskiver pans with the flat bottom are much easier to use. And get that pan HAWT!!!
156: What do I look like, Willams Fucking Sonoma?
I appreciate the straight forward advice, AWB. Food for delivery just doesn't come up as often where I live so I'm unfamiliar with it - however, now I will always have my handy script.
This takeout script has been brought to you by seven years in Park Slope. One of the best things about taking the F train home is that it comes above ground for two stops before going back under; perfect timing for placing an order and picking it up on my way home. Sad, really.
159: No, no, Otto. I ordered the solicitous service persona.
160: So are you going to order as Kelly? Or Brenda?? Dylan???
Further to 159: I also requested the "Swedish Chef" accent.
What was the geeky one called? The paper editor with the crush on Brandon? Andrea?
161: I always loved breaking into daylight while riding the subway. Never thought about the cellphone reception window of take-out ordering though.
A proud moment in my life was when after placing a semi-complicated order for myself and my kids (they pre-schoolers) , the server responded with, "Well ordered!" (and it was--well-timed pauses, smooth delivery, no corrections) The pathetic thing is that it was at a Wendy's.
164: Andrea. And Gabrielle Carteris was nearly 30 when she began playing a high school student.
I never really identified with any of the 90210 characters. I think I was too young; it was always my mother's show and not mine.
It looks like turning off Buzz is insufficient if you've ever put something public in your Buzz. You have to go into "All Mail" and delete the public Buzz items, or else anyone who knows your profile URL (presumably, anyone who is/was following you) will still be able to see them.
169: New Google ad campaign: "People liked us! So we fixed that!"
I'm having a lot of trouble dealing with 168.
171: I'm sorry, JRoth. The show started when I was 9!
Oh good. I'm not 100% sure of this, but I think you and everyone else who was party to the public Buzz conversation might have to delete it twice -- from their profiles, and then again from All Mail.
Everyone. Twice.
My friends really loved 90210, but I didn't understand what was going on, or why everyone was attracted to Luke Perry. Wasn't he kind of stupid? One of the great things that My So-Called Life got right was that Jordan Catalano was good-looking, but actually kind of a douche when you got down to it. 90210 depicted Dylan as a douche, but romanticized it too much.
I think that by not turning on Boogle Guzz, I have managed to avoid entering any information into it.
Sometimes I make the mistake of commenting on a blogger blog with my google username, which then shows up as the name I gave to the alter ego writing a blog which I stopped writing five years ago. This must happen a lot.
I think that by not turning on Boogle Guzz
Didn't they turn it on automatically, and you have to opt out?
90210 depicted Dylan as a douche, but romanticized it too much.
But not intentionally! They intended for him to just have a lot of teen angst, no?
I was looking at settings in my google profile (because I unthinkingly turned on buzz, before, and somehow linked it to twitter, where I had previously mocked a student's homework excuse. it's okay with me if she sees that after searching me out, but I don't want to inflict my public mockery of her on everyone else who has ever emailed me).
Anyhoo, RFTS, LB et al, it looks like you can un-hook your gmail account from your blogger login, by going to the "dashboard" and then "websites authorized to access account".
I think. It seems. One would hope.
Allow me to be the first to say Happy Birthday Presidents! Your holiday rocks!
Andrea. And Gabrielle Carteris was nearly 30 when she began playing a high school student.
The thing is, they had her dress like someone's mom, too. Some high school kids do dress like they're 30, but don't cast the 30 year old to play the kid who dresses like their 30, because everyone will wonder why that teacher is in love with Steve.
177: I guess I enjoy the tension that arises when a protagonist is stupid with love for a dude that the show itself seems to know is a dick. Felicity did this well, too.
Yeah, back in 1990 people didn't know about Cougarism, so it was really confusing.
I think 30 is generous for Gabrielle Carteris circa 90210. The dude who played Brandon was at least 30 himself. They should do a reunion and place it twenty years in the future.
182: A simpler time, with simpler people in it.
because everyone will wonder why that teacher is in love with Steve.
Because he's SO FINE! Duh.
183: she was 29 when the show began.
183: Her birthday is 1/2/1961. The show started ran from fall 1990 through spring 2000. So, GC was 29-39.
No, not crooked like that, crooked like a Picasso.
Rossy de Palma was on Beverly Hills 90210? I'd have watched if I'd known.
187: except she left the show in 1995. So, 29-34.
189: Ah. I saw the (1990-2000) in her credit line and didn't click to see that her post-1995 appearances were largely restricted to reunion and the series finale.
181: Agreed. Dylan was never attractive to me because he was rather straight-forwardly dickish, and the writing on him was always too confusing to really make him much more than that. Ben from Felicity and Jordan Catalano are both good examples of love interests that are complicated enough to be enticing but also essentially douches. (And let's face it, most of us have fallen for a douche at some point.) I think FNL does this well with Tim Riggins, who's also clearly an ass but is somehow made lovable by a measure of self-awareness. (And not just Taylor Kitsch's face.)
I don't believe that I have ever seen an episode of 90210, but Shannen Doherty was on Charmed, which is often on television when I visit the gym. The '90s were a surprisingly drab and dowdy period for women's clothing.
Whatever. She was an old lady. So how many mattresses are you guys buying this weekend?
Yeah, I think I'm done talking about GC's age.
193: I don't trust the vendor. His prices are INSAAAAAAAAAANNNEEEE!!!!!!!!!
Google doesn't have folders, just labels.
Google doesn't have folders, just labels.
I remember reading a front-page post about that in 2004.
The labels work basically just like folders, ari, except that you can put multiple labels on a single email (whereas you can't put the same email into multiple folders, obviously).
196: I'd be watching my "nowhere" if I were you, ari.
There's no tension when everyone's in love with someone who's depicted as genuinely crush-worthy. But the smart girl hopelessly enamored of the unattainable faraway boy who she knows deep down she wouldn't actually want if she got him? That's me drama!
It's unpatriotic if you don't get at least three. Then you make a fort out of them and watch the John Adams show, smoking hashish.
Interesting observation, ari. However! If you have the Mail app on your iPhone set up to access your gmail through IMAP, you'll find that in order to access the messages to which you have given a particular label, you navigate to a folder with that label's name. So are they folders? Or are they labels?
Ari, did you see that Werner Herzog has narrated another children's book?
I was really drunk when I wrote the following comment, and I can't even figure out what it means. But, interestingly, the following week I went out for the evening without wearing a bra. I wasn't trying to be sexy or anything; I just didn't feel like wearing one. I think I can pull it off, in winter anyway.
I wore lots of really short dresses and black tights in the 90s. Like, every single day. I was not drab! But, say, Elaine Benes-wear was pretty dull (all those sleeveless pullover dresses over turtlenecks! bleah!).
Query: What is the greatest N such that ingesting N distinct, currently-marketed OTC medications would have no intolerable ill effects? Which sets of distinct medications verify the result for the greatest such N?
207: I did. Mike Mulligan, right? I think it was even better than Curious George. I'm not sure why I didn't post it. Laziness, probably. Plus, I hate the internet a lot. Not enough folders + too many labels.
Or maybe it's too may labels and not enough folders. It's kind of hard to tell sometimes.
211: If you stick with Tums, N approaches however many are contained in the little plastic container.
Not to bring down what is becoming a totally engaging and not tedious thread, but Standpipe, please confirm that your question is entirely theoretical.
400 Tums don't count as distinct, I think.
I like talking to people I know well on the phone. Talking to strangers on the phone is awkward and uncomfortable, and this is why I keep putting off making a dentist appointment.
And, as I have noted before, I mourn the death of Instant Messenger.
Now Facebook is telling me my profile page does not exist. Excellent.
Did I break Unfogged?
Talking to strangers on the phone is awkward and uncomfortable, and this is why I keep putting off making a dentist appointment.
I just had my first dentist appointment in a while and, honestly, this was one of the things that had kept pushing "make dentist appointment" down my to do list.
Talking to strangers on the phone is awkward and uncomfortable....
Fixed.
I find Facebook sort of uncomfortable. I can imagine a universe in which I would welcome the queries of old classmates, but it isn't this one.
The day I found myself googling a query like that in 211 was the day I realized I needed help fast. Given the OP, my search is probably now part of my permanent record.
I can imagine a universe in which I would welcome the queries of old classmates, but it isn't this one.
Now I'm wondering if I should feel vaguely insulted that I haven't gotten the number of friend requests from former classmates that everyone else has. I got a couple when I first joined, but it's been probably a year since anyone from either high school or college has found me.
228: My theory is that this mostly depends on how many of those friend requests you accept/initiate. Once you friend one person, their friends all see you and think "Hey, I want to be Josh's friend, too!" (I get all excited when some person I always thought was cool sends me a friend request, and then I see they have 687 friends, so I'm not actually all that special.)
Oh, also, it may depend on your privacy settings. I think I'm only visible to friends of friends, for example, so plenty of people couldn't find me even if they wanted to. I think.
I figure that no one who knew me before I was married could find me -- my name went from too common to search on to hyphenated with very unusual. And I can't think of who'd bother, but that's another matter.
Oh man. People, I don't recommend cleaning. It's a fucking chain reaction. You spend hours scrubbing the tub and then realize that you need a new shower curtain. Dust your bookcases and realize you need to get out the wood conditioner. And so on, and so on.
Hah. I plan to spend an enjoyable three-day-weekend packing, cleaning, and coordinating repair, maintenance, and renovation projects on two houses.
I like packing. And I like some types of cleaning, particularly when I'm in the mood for a good spring (or fall or whatever) clean. This, however, is the frenzied night before my parents arrive type cleaning and thus is a bit stressful.
234: I have the perfect stress-reducing option for you!
I am working late, and will have to come in tomorrow. This is the problem with taking vacation.
the frenzied night before my parents arrive type cleaning
Heh. I feel for you. I got a call from my aunt a few nights ago proposing that she and my uncle come to visit for a weekend in April for the cherry blossoms in DC. They've never been to visit.
Sure! Uh. Sure! (Oh my god I will have to clean ... everything. This is so embarrassing. I have until April.)
Yeah, this is the first time my step-dad has been to my house and he is very, very clean. I'm neat but not clean (as I'm sure I've said here before) so I feel the need to have the place look better than it normally does.
This is why you should be cleaning my house, not yours. No stressful, judgmental family! Just good, wholesome clutter and dirt.
Do I get to through away things? I love throwing away other people's stuff. (Uh, not that I would ever do that unless you asked me to.)
Oh yes indeed. Many many things. Starting with a metric butt-ton of paper my wife has saved for inexplicable reasons. And you can make fun of our books while you're packing them!
Ok, you've convinced me. That sounds like fun.
And yet, I still have this horrible feeling that tomorrow you will be entertaining your family and I will be packing my own books and fixing my own bathroom.
And Gabrielle Carteris was nearly 30 when she began playing a high school student.
The ages of some of the actors in Logan's Run are pretty funny.
244: You might be right. We're going birding. Two whole days of birds! Woo.
Birding just seems like a more environmentally friendly version of golf.
A perfectly nice walk spoiled?
I'd say it's more like going to a zoo without cages, but that's me. I do actually like watching birds and enjoy hiking with occasional pauses.
And we enjoy hiking with parentheticals.
The ages of some of the actors in Logan's Run are pretty funny.
What is it about their ages that's funny?
Hiking is fine and birds are fine. It's the identifying and accounting part that I find off-putting. Too close to my day job.
My parents got into birding around the time they retired. They'd sometimes invite me and then I'd say "enjoy!" or "have fun!" and go back to watching tv.
250: It's the squiggly lines. They look like letters, but they're not!
Anyway, I probably should go board my flight. About 45 minutes ago they called out someone by name for an earlier flight and told him that his bags would be removed from the plane and his ticket canceled if he didn't show up immediately. I don't know if he showed up.
251: Oh, right. I let others do the hard stuff, but I must say there is a certain sort of satisfaction that comes from recognizing a bird and knowing a little bit about it. But I like knowing what I'm surrounded by.
252: Fake accent narrating this on-topic video.
And so on, and so on.
Our minds do not work in the same way.
Hiking is fine and birds are fine.
And if you get tired of walking....
Some places say straight up, "Pick up or Delivery?" Then they look you up in their computer.
On the e-mail stuff. Brock was talking about the high cost of switching e-mail accounts and wishing that they were portable, and that made me wonder how much those personal domain things cost?
How much would it cost to get an e-mail which said blanders@brocklanders.com and then have that forwarded every time you wanted to switch free e-mail programs.
I kind of like the idea, because then I could put down a personal e-mail on my resume that looks a bit more professional than hotmail or yahoo.
262: Where does one go to purchase such a thing?
http://www.google.com/search?q=personalized+email
Yeah, it looks like verisign has one called .name, but I found their website totally confusing.
(1) What is the greatest N such that ingesting N distinct, currently-marketed OTC medications would have no intolerable ill effects? Which sets of distinct medications verify the result for the greatest such N?
--- Are homeopathic "medications" part of this game? In which the answer is presumably as many of your stomach can hold.
(2) If you don't like the Google UI, investigate IMAP. The basic idea is to switch on IMAP for your Google account and, in your preferred email reader (Mail.app on Mac, Exchange on Windows, or whatever), create an IMAP account referencing your Google account. Searching for gmail imap will give the details.
The result of this three minute exercise will be that your email will live both on Google servers and on your local computer, you can read and write it using your email app of choice, and when visiting friends or whatever, you can still use the web interface.
(3) If you want a personalized email address, the essential point is to buy yourself a domain name. There are a million people in the domain name selling business. As pointed out, it will cost you anything from $7 to $50 a month --- chances are highly unlikely you want the fancy services of the high-end providers.
Once you have your domain, got to /www.google.com/a, do their voodoo to prove that you own the domain you claim you do, and sign up as one of the free classes of accounts. Fill in your email account info and you are done.
If you get more ambitious, you can use this google setup to create multiple email accounts, create web pages etc etc.
I got cloggie.org to be independent of providers or free e-mail services, then switched largely to gmail because the spam got unbearable. Alanis Morrisette would call it irony,