Misstuned

News Bits from 17 June - 4 July

I’m off to go blow shit up (yay, illegal fireworks!) and stuff my face, in a long-standing American tradition.  Peace out, y’all! </Futurama reference>

  1. Srsly, wtf is wrong with American beef?! I have yet to DIE from eating it.  You see, my South Korean friends, it kills you slowly through heart disease, not quickly through Mad Cow disease.  So srsly STFU about it. []
  2. Oh, and BTW, CBS, I don’t appreciate you calling me mentally weak when your minions at KDKA can’t figure out to make fireworks display information in BIG LETTERS on their homepage.  Forsrs.  It doesn’t take a college education to learn that on 4 July in America, what people want to know is when the fireworks are.  </argument> I win. []

Commenting Etiquette

I don’t think I should have to post about this, but I do. It’s a pretty prevalent thing.

A lot of people don’t use proper manners when commenting on others’ blogs. I’m not just talking about being rude or “flaming”. I mean simple common courtesy1.

For those of you who aren’t sure whether your web manners are up to date, here are a few pointers:

  1. If the post isn’t about someone’s layout, don’t comment on only their layout. At least one sentence about their actual post, please.
  2. Don’t sign up for comment rotations if your post consist entirely of detailed research papers about your life.2
  3. Don’t comment on sites only because you read that they return comments. That’s just selfish.
  4. Return all worthwhile (non-spam, non-off topic) comments received on your own site. Not only does it build web-connections, but it’s just polite.

Read more »

  1. Oxymoro~n… AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAaa. Ahem. Sorry. It’s just, y’know. []
  2. What I mean is the kind of site where every post is a 5 page detailed documentary about every single moment about their life. Unless you’re an astronaut on the space station - which you’re probably not if you have enough free time to read this - the world doesn’t need to know about your entire life’s Kleenex usage statistics. Sure, it’s your site, but it’s just rude and stupid to expect people to connect with you when you don’t post about anything except you. Post about the things you like and read and want to remember. Don’t be afraid to post surveys and quizzes and stuff sometimes. It’ll give people more of an interactive feel. []

Who Owns Comments?

I noticed this over at WLTC, and figured I’d like to post something about it. I seem to have eventually gotten around to it.

Would most of you agree that when you post a comment on a blog, you still own your comment, but you give the blogger the universal, irrevocable right to reproduce, distribute, and edit the comment for clarity, no strings attached?

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Americans Are Getting Shafted by Broadband ISPs

[...]“Americans pay far too much for Internet connections that are far too slow compared to consumers in other countries. This unprecedented initiative brings together public- and private-sector groups to build the political and popular will to address this critical problem.”

Today’s launch included the release of One Nation Online, an overview of the current state of broadband adoption in the United States, demonstrating that the digital divide remains vast. Half of American homes still are not connected to high-speed Internet. This poor broadband performance has dropped the United States to 15th place in international broadband rankings — down from fourth place in 2001.
Source.

Basically, we Americans are really getting shafted by Comcast and the like. Not only are they BLOCKING OUR !@%#$&*~in’ BITTORRENT CONNECTIONS1 , but we’re paying too much for our crippled service compared to other countries. 2

  1. No matter if what you’re transferring is perfectly legal like competing online television provider’s videos or if you’re downloading Britney Spear’s latest album []
  2. Since this is from Freepress, I’m just going to guess that they’ve already figured inflation and the economy or lack thereof in. []