I assure you not everything I publish is a rant. I’m just feeling feisty lately… my latest target is television. A few people have described their experience with a month without TV and I’m following suit. My roommate and I had talked about dropping Comcast for months now because, frankly, that’s too much money to pay for a lot of crappy channels. In this day and age I should be able to pick and choose. Since nobody is offering the a-la-carte TV package we decided to opt out entirely. Besides, we’d rather waste away in front of the computer than the television…

But seriously, if we are to spend any time in front of a television we decided we’d rather be watching movies. After surfing IMDB one day I realized there are a ton of flicks out there that I just never got around to seeing. This is where Blockbuster Online comes in. I already threw 10 movies in our queue last night and I’m excited to start watching them (on our 52″ TV with 7.1 surround sound. Yay home theatre).

But the thing is, there are a ton of movies out there and I have no idea what they’re about or if they’re any good. This is where you guys come in. If you have any suggestions on movies that I must see, then leave a comment and I promise you I will. Joe is first in line with The Princess Bride. In fact, if you haven’t noticed, I set up a Movies page to document my experiences (most recent on the home page). So, help me out… What should I watch?

I’m pissed: “NO LIQUIDS OR GELS OF ANY KIND WILL BE PERMITTED IN CARRY-ON BAGGAGE. ITEMS MUST BE IN CHECKED BAGGAGE. This includes all beverages, shampoo, suntan lotion, creams, tooth paste, hair gel, and other items of similar consistency” (Link). I never check a bag, ever. I always put everything in the backpack and rolling luggage. There is no fucking way this is keeping us safer. Simple as that. The damned terrorists have won.

There has always been a bit of talk on RSS and whether or not it will be widely accepted. Many people suggest that ‘RSS’ doesn’t seem to flow off the tongue too easily. Why not, though? I don’t think we’re giving people much credit. People can be taught anything. Heck, we’re all still typing www. aren’t we? Does anyone know why? Additionally, I hear people instruct me to visit an .html page all the time. Do they know what HTML means? Most likely not. Do they know what .html pages are? Of course they do. That’s all they need to know.

So why don’t you think people can be trained to subscribe to RSS? People were easily hooked on email. As Brian mentioned, the concept of opting-in is hardly revolutionary. So why couldn’t the same be done for RSS? With browsers (and Vista) integrating RSS don’t you think people will naturally figure out the benefits? I agree, it’s hard to re-train people. But, the way I see it, people are increasingly finding more information online. If they wanted to get an email for every cheap fare and recipe available out there they’d realize thats just too much email (in addition to all the spam that would come along with it). Their friend will then say something to the tune of: ‘oh, you don’t know how to subscribe to that stuff’?

So why don’t we have a .rss file extension? Oh wait, we do, it’s called .xml. When I visit nytimes.com/…/Busines.xml I have a pretty good idea of what I’m about to open. In theory this file extension will open an XML file allow me and my browser/reader/whatever to open the feed the way I want. So why the hell doesn’t it work that way? I open a .html file in Firefox/IE and a website loads. I open a .doc file in Firefox/IE and a document loads. But when I open my .xml file I’m suddenly greeted with the most unfriendly looking collection of symbols, tags and words I’ve ever met. This is exactly why RSS hasn’t taken off yet. It lacks the consistency.

File extentions are there to create a certain level of consistency. In other words, when I open a .doc file I know I’m opening some sort of document. As a typical web user, when I open website.com/feed/atom.xml or something.com/rss/ how am I supposed to know what I’m visiting? When I see a page load with a bunch of nonsense like <channel> do I know what to do next? Of course not! So why isn’t my browser doing that for me? Why can’t I tell my friends to go to somewebsite.com/subscribe.xml (or even better, .rss) and have the computer do what it’s always done: recognize the extension and do something useful with it.

It’s way too hard to visit a website, search for 10 minutes for their ‘RSS’ or ‘Feeds’ or ‘Subscription’ page, copy the location, paste it somewhere, etc. If my friends can tell me to visit a .php or .html page I should be able to ask them (just as easily) to visit my .xml or .rss feed. Feeds will never get past early adopters if we don’t create some sort of consistent way to treat the user. I really don’t think renaming RSS will do the trick.

[tags]rss, xml, feeds, syndication, blogging[/tags]

I’m torn. Is it fair for Comcast to compensate me a dollar-and-change for a full day’s worth of downed cable access? I spend a lot of time on the internet! It’s my life! I feel that my inability to get online and watch TV was worth waaaaay more than a dollar. But wait, I truly feel that my cable bill is outrageous. So, huh, does the cable market make any sense? Oh well, with no internet I had to actually sit down and write my 10-page paper on entrepreneurship. I’ll be sharing it soon..

I love my school and the police that protect us from… ourselves. Smoking pot is a lesser crime than littering, yet they’ll dedicate these resources to catching a few teens? Last year the only person given a citation was a kid who set up a snack stand to sell chips. He didn’t have a vendor permit…

I wrote a play to spite Mr. Veloso (“…Then you come up with a play.”), I hope he hates it. That jerk.

Scene: It’s a dark cloudy morning. The sun is trying to get up but can barely poke through the clouds. Devin rolls over and looks out the window and takes a long look…

Devin: Good morning, World- oh, no I guess it?s not all that good. Today looks like hell.
World: Yup, decided to take the day off. Is that a problem? I?ll crush you if it is?
Devin: Well, no, I was just wondering why today has to be so sucky?

[A tall, happy figure enters the room with a big smile.]

Google: Hey guys, mind if I interrupt?
Devin: Google! Man I haven?t seen you in, like, forevers.
Google: I know, I know. I got busy. I was even thinking of doing some cool stuff for Gmail?s birthday but I got lazy.
Devin: Whatever dude, you made a doodle, you?re still the bestest!
Google: Thanks man, I try. Oh and thanks for re-installing Google Desktop. I really value your data-err, support.

[World checks his watch and decides to check out]

World: Well, I?d love to sit here and watch the lovefest, guys, but I?ve got a flight to catch?
Devin: Ya, whatever, World?.

[Exit World, stage left]

Google: Anyway, I heard you guys talking. You really think today?s a crummy day?
Devin: Ya, basically. The World isn?t giving me much reason to even get up today.
Google: Oh seriously? Well here, I?ve got something you can play with then: Google Calendar.

[Devin opens up a blank page with 7 columns and some tabs]

Devin: Oh snap! This is so .. white, and, box-filled! The rumors nailed this one on the head!

[The sky clears, birds chirp and flowers begin to bloom.]

Google: Dude, I know, right? I thought you?d like it. It was really hard to get the ?boxy? feel, but then, hey, I made it work.
Devin: That you did, dude! I love it. I hope it?s not a beta, though.
Google: Uh, ya, about that?

[Google starts shuffling his feet and looks down at the ground]

Devin: Google! Come on, man? how long for this one?
Google: Well, it might be a while?
Devin: Why?s that?
Google: Well, for starters, when you go to add a new ?Calendar? to your ?Calendar? it won?t show that ?Calendar? unless you sign out and sign back in to ?Calendar?.
Devin: o_O;
Google: Exactly! No biggie though right? Plus it doesn?t yet work in Gmail like I said. Anyway, I?d better run. Make sure you tell your friends it uses AJAX!
Devin: Oh sure thing, buddy! I LOVE AJAX! I LOVE WEB2.0!
Google: Um. Yeah you do. Later?

[A goofy asian slides into the room like Kramer from Sienfield.]

Bryan: Did someone say Web2.0?
Google: No, Bryan, nobody likes you. Go code a ?blog? or whatever it is you do all day?
Bryan: Jerk.
Devin: I still like you Bryan!

[Bryan goes out the door where he proceeds down to Devin?s kitchen. Presumably to make Devin some eggrolls.]

Devin: Weird.
Google: Indeed.
Devin: Well, whatever, Google. See ya later man, I?ll be sure to forget about this in a few weeks just like blog search, catalogs, finance and all the other great products you?ll throw at me!
Google: Attaboy! Don?t forget to buy stock!

[End Scene]

[tags]google, calendar, cl2, review, play[/tags]