Posts by Jack

The internet is for violent jerks, study finds

No one ever blames television anymore.

"China's ministry of health defines a 'net addict as someone who spends at least six hours a day on the web and suffers sleeplessness, lack of concentration, and yearnings to get back online."

Because no one ever spends that much time watching *television*, or misses it in any way if you cut them off from the tube.

Really, to my mind this "Internet Addiction" stuff is just another version of the usual, "Eeek...it's *new*!" panic we've seen over pretty much any new popular thing that comes along.

Beeb gets its rocks off in Second Life

Sadville: No treally all that Sad....

I don't see the real sadness of Second Life. I mean, I build stuff there on occasion, which is fun, (A bit like playing like very sophisticated Lego.) and a lot of week day evenings, I sit around and hang out and chat with friends.

(One of the things that has come up in conversation, is a desire to post a sign at the site where they teach you how to design an avatar that says, "Thank you for not making your breasts bigger than your head.")

Is that *really* more pathetic than passively watching television, which is what most people seem to spend most of their non-work time doing?

Man threatens lawsuit after negative eBay feedback

Why Neg rate after a refund...?

To the people wondering why a buyer would post a negative rating when the buyer had gotten their money back, consider this.

The seller misrepresented what he was selling and the condition that it was in. This dishonesty (or, to be charitable, possible incompetence) meant that the buyer was 1) Out the use of the money they paid for the item until the refund came though. 2) Was unable to get the *right* product, the one they actually wanted and thought they'd paid for during the time between ordering the item, returning it, and getting the refund. 3) Had to go to the trouble of packing up and shipping back the wrong item.

If someone were to do that to me, then yes they could expect to get a negative rating. If someone is going to sell stuff, I expect them to accurately describe the condition of the item, and accurately describe what they're selling. If they can't be bothered to do that, then perhaps they shouldn't be selling at all.

Demand drops for games consoles Stateside

What seems more likely...

...is that with gas prices as high as they are in the states, and so many people loaded down with gas guzzling SUVs, that the disposable income that would normally be used on things like game consoles is now going straight into people's gas tanks.

No one *needs* a gaming console but they do still need to drive to and from their jobs, the grocery store, etc. I think that his is likely at least a big a factor in the dropping sales as any of the other things mentioned in the article.

Teens use technology to party in strangers' pools

Perhaps...

...they could stop painting their pools that blindingly obvious, bottom of a pool aqua color that can apparently be seen from orbit?

(Do they even *make* pool paints in other colors?)

Gamers not social misfits, after all

Why no "Television Addiction" study?

I find it interesting that first with "Internet Addiction" and now with "Game Addiction", that they talk about 30 hours a week spent at these things as potentially unhealthy, yet never there's never any talk of "Television Addiction", where the vast majority of people spend at least 30 hours a week, on their asses, glued to the screen.

Scientist warns against technology addiction

What about Television Addiction?

This looks to me like someone decided to slap a new name on Internet Addiction, that scary thing that psychologists were warning us about back in the late 90's, back when the 'Net was new and different.

Back then I looked at their figures for how much time you were supposed to have to average on the internet per-week to make you "addicted", and found that it was generally *less* time than most people spent watching TV each week, yet somehow no one ever seemed to talk about Television Addiction.

I suspect that in this case, if you asked a number of those questions but had them related to television, and how many people interrupt their social time and personal conversations to watch a show or game on the TV, and how much total time the spend in front of the tube they'd have to claim that most people are Television Addicted.

Paris, because her presence on the tube makes a good antidote for Television Addiction.

eBay gets negative feedback about ban on negative feedback

PHB's firmly in charge at e-bay...

Ah, what an excellent move, and a sure sign that the PHB's are firmly in charge at e-bay.

Problem: We're losing transaction fees because people are refusing to do business with the scammers who get bad ratings.

PHB solution: Eliminate feedback, so people won't be able to see who the scammers are, and thus will trust *everybody*!

Yeah, *that'll* work.

I never did care for e-bay itself, but I did do a lot of business with half.com (An e-bay subsidiary that sells books and the like at fixed prices.) which is owned by e-bay and uses their rating system.

Fortunately, Amazon.com has a similar system for the things that I'm interested in *and* still allows actual feedback, including negative comments. I suspect that their business will be picking up quite a bit over the next few months as people look for an alternative to e-bay's new PHB inspired, "Trust *everyone* sight unseen!" policy.

Power outage knocks out major websites

About Second Life...

Actually, although it didn't take Second Life down completely, it left them with a lot of issues. Stipends were late, the grid was buggy, (More so than usual that is.) and there were significant issues with logging in.

I suspect that the reason they weren't down completely is because they have several facilities that aren't located in San Francisco.