Random Internet Discovery

Random Internet Discovery of the Week

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If I had decided exactly what strip I was running today, let alone actually made it, the strip would be posted about now. Instead it’s probably not going up until after 3 PM PT.

Still no votes on the RID poll? Do you people care that little about it? Well, this is probably hardly the first time I’ve linked to some vegetarian site, and it’s definitely not the first time I’ve linked to a recipe site…

Random Internet Discovery of the Week

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Yes, my laptop is back in proper working order.

I was directed to the specific image, not the page itself, and I find it fascinating that there are lights popping up only in what could be called “civilized” areas. Not just localized in cities; almost exclusively in the US, Europe, and to a lesser extent, India, East Asia, and for whatever reason, the southeast coast of South America.

Da Blog Poll on the future of the RID is being extended through the end of June. Someone is going to tell me what to do with the RID if it’s the last thing I do.

Random Internet Discovery of the Week

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I don’t see how this is any different from a spiffier version of this. I mean, it’s barely been two months since that earlier RID! The alternative is to get insane, and probably hypnotized.

The Random Internet Discovery is a colossal failure compared to what I originally had in mind for it. I hoped I would have a bunch of interesting sites that would appeal to me and that I would want to disseminate and expose to the teeming masses flooding Da Blog. Back when I had my political series last fall I hoped to bring in whatever interesting political sites I could find. Maybe I could find interesting webcomics or other interesting things.

Instead the RID has been a parade of funny astronomical stuff, cat pictures, other funny pictures, sites that should probably be illegal, religious sites not worth commenting on, interesting lists and tools, and just plain incomprehensible stuff. There have been maybe one or two RIDs worth commenting on since I started it in August or so.

The RID hasn’t been part of the “enlighten the world” plan I had for Da Blog at all. Its main value has been in giving me one less day that I have to think about posting. The irony of that is that I had planned to write rather interesting commentary for the sites I actually found relevant and interesting. By and large, the RID has been incredibly disappointing and pointless.

So I’ve started a new Da Blog Poll, the first since the new year. It’ll run for two weeks and ask whether or not I should continue the RID, stop it, or introduce biases into my StumbleUpon account. I ran a similar poll when I started the RID and the consensus seemed to be that I should allow all interests in, and I didn’t intend to introduce any biases by flagging it whenever I encountered a site I liked, but that system doesn’t seem to have worked that well. “Fixing” RID by introducing such biases could make RIDs slightly rarer, by bringing in sites I would need to actually write something about, but it would also make RID more meaningful to me and to my audience.

Your thoughts?

Random Internet Discovery of the Week, and other stuff

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Remind me to come back to this website sometime and actually check out the offerings.

Not the RID: So apparently Ashton Kutcher has set up a bet with CNN to see which will be the first to a million Twitter followers. Normally I wouldn’t have anything to say about it, but I was moved to comment by this remark shortly after issuing the challenge:

I just think its amazing that 1 voice can now be as powerful at an entire media network. thank you twitter! / Thankyou social media. You have given an individual (all of us) the power/ truth back. That’s something to compete for!!!

Power of the individual my ass. The only reason you’ve got almost a million followers is because you’re a celebrity and you know it, Ashton. Is Ashton Kutcher blowing the lid off news stories being ignored by the mainstream media? I didn’t think so, and I doubt anyone is using social media networks for that purpose either. Instead Kutcher is “on here to connect w/ u w/ no filter“. Which is bullshit by itself, there’s no way Kutcher is getting rid of the “filter” entirely, that’s literally possible, any psychologist would tell you that, and monumentally stupid to the extent it is. It just means Kutcher handles his own image control.

(And why isn’t Britney Spears getting involved, considering where she ranks? It’s telling that the closest thing to “involvement” she has is rather corporate.)