links for 2007-05-31
Posted in links on May 31st, 2007 by delicious-
Yet another search engine… or is it something cool because people are invovled?
Online Identity == Identity ( or Screw You, Facebook )
Posted in rants on May 31st, 2007 by r3vI really quite despise sites that have rigid rules around usernames. General courtesy rules (e.g. such as no profanity in a username) are fine, but any site that tries to force me to use my “real name” I find immediately frustrating.
The most recent tussle with this problem was with Facebook. Their registration system really tries to box you into using your real name. I entered “r3v” and it told me, “You must provide your full name.”
So, then I changed my entry to “r3v zero”. (r3vZERO, r3v.zero, etc are names I tend to use when a system won’t allow me to use a three character name. (e.g. XBox Live) It’s like adding a 0, without making it look like “revo”. Heh. Other times, I use “xt0ph3r”. (e.g. Digg, Myspace) Another pet peeve.)
“The name contains invalid characters.” It doesn’t like the 3. I can’t have a number in my name, it seems. So, I de-1337ed and tried “rev”. No go, of course because last name needed. So, now I’m “Rev Zero” on facebook. (They enforce capitalization.)
End result? They still don’t have my given name and I’m stuck with a stupid username. Neither of us are happy. What good was that?
Some might argue that I should have just given in and used my given name, but why? I don’t use my given name for nearly anything online, including sites that grant a fairly large, if not boring, view into my personal (aka real) life. The vast majority of my friends either know me only as r3v, know me primarily as r3v or, at least, know that’s what I always try to use online.
I’ve actually put some effort into it. (r3v.com is a three letter dotcom, ya know. Wasn’t cheap to kick the squatter off.)
Therefore, “r3v” is almost always the best way to find me, or even find out more about me. Forcing me to use my “real” name (or some made-up bullshit) is actually COUNTER productive.
They should have leveraged one of the things that MySpace actually GOT RIGHT. Myspace allows you to enter your given name, but keeps it hidden and allows it to be searched on. As a general rule. it’s bad when MySpace does something better than you. K?
PS: (I haven’t committed to the “Rev Zero” name yet, I’m still looking for a better way to game their system. I have, however, gone ahead and added it to my ClaimID.)
Reading Stack
Posted in books on May 23rd, 2007 by r3v
Always late to a meme, I decided to post my “Reading Stack” to Flickr, as mentioned on BoingBoing a couple of weeks ago.
This is actually representitive of the true stack. For instance, there are more PHP books in the stack since I’m a PHP n00b and there are a LOT more comics in the stack.
links for 2007-05-21
Posted in links on May 21st, 2007 by delicious-
“Death isn’t always sad…”
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(tags: digg)
Maker Faire / Survival Research Labs 2007
Posted in misc, photos on May 21st, 2007 by r3vSunburned face, tired feet and a nose full of ash*. What’s that add up to? A day at Maker Faire 2007!
Once again, the robots, geeks, nerds, hippies, hackers, freaks, kids, and guys-on-segways came together to put on and attend the Maker Faire. It is, in their own words, a “two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It’s for creative, resourceful folks who like to tinker and love to make things. We call them Makers.”
Annette and I took Liam today, it was a blast. So much to see. I took (probably) over 300 photos, and we didn’t even cover everything. I’ve uploaded a crapload (i.e. 160) to flickr.
Our friends, Toast and Jillian (aka BecauseWeCan), had a booth again this year, showing their wares. The LED Coffee Tables were a BIG hit.
The day ended with a show by SRL. It f’n rocked. We were in the stands, but it was too loud for Liam (despite the earplugs) and so Annette took him some place safe. That turned out to be a good thing, since the bleachers got flooded with smoke, ash and, of course, noise. Groovy.
If you missed it this year, I suggest you try for next. (edit: If San Mateo let’s them come back! Takling with one of the SRL crew, I found out their machines got impounded. Now you know it was a good time. edit2: Turns out it wasn’t the cops that had the machines, it was the fairgrounds. They were a bit grumpy about the mess.)
*=ash provided by SRL. ;)
Monterey Photos
Posted in photos, travel, wine on May 19th, 2007 by flickr
The Beach Resort view of Monterey Bay @ night, originally uploaded by r3v||cls.
We went to Monterey for wine tasting last weekend and I took a ton of pictures. I finally got around to picking the not-so-sucky ones and uploading them. Take a gander, if you care.
The photo here is the only night shot. It’s awesome and I need to figure out how to do it better.
