Disqus - Latest Comments for Douglas Cootey

Re: Poor Customer Service At Best Buy: The True Story Of Sour Face Jim & Handshake John

Douglas Cootey — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 20:32:51 -0000

I think most of the nay-sayers here are missing the point. Sellsius° is already a good customer. He's a rewards member which proves he's a regular customer as well. And there is nothing wrong with trying to get a good deal on an expensive purchase, especially if a manager agrees to it. Frankly, I'm not sure what planet some of you guys live on. When I'm shelling out hundreds or thousands of dollars on a product why would I think to myself as some of you seem to suggest, "Dang, I'm really getting raped here, but poor Best Buy needs my money more than I do because they're a business.."

We are the consumers. We have the money. We have the power. After the three month nightmare I've been going through with CompUSA to get them to honor their extended warranty on my very expensive PDA I have zero loyalty to any corporation whatsoever who conducts business in such a customer-hostile way. They are not entitled to my money. Make demands. Sellsius° was 100% in the right.

Re: Make Sure Your Blog Is Mobile Compliant

Douglas Cootey — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 09:43:19 -0000

Great idea. I've been looking into this for the past week since I bought an iPhone. I haven't found Blogger pages to be too iPhone friendly, however. Not any more than any other web pages. I've spent the morning digging around Blogger's help pages and Google looking for a simple way to enable mobile support for my blog. Looks like I'm going to have to roll my own CSS code to do it - like I have time for ONE more project this week. :)

What Blogger blog were you looking at that rendered well for mobile devices? I'd like to study it - get some tips...

BTW, Chris Brogan recommended I contact you regarding Podcamp in SLC. I'd like to get in on that. Maybe help out. I'm a SLC blogger. Maybe you can tweet me (TheLaughingImp) or email me with details? Thanks.

Re: Photowalking Salt Lake City v2

Douglas Cootey — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 17:23:59 -0000

That was a great outing. Thanks for blogging about it so I could find out about it. ;) I'll have my pics up later today.

~Douglas
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☆ The Splintered Mind - Overcoming Neurological Disabilities With Lots Of Humor And Attitude

Re: Use Your Site Stats To Write A Better Blog

Douglas Cootey — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:52:12 -0000

Great tips, Thom. Another great service is hittail.com. I like it for the long tail stats it gives me.

Re: Attended My First KenCon Tonight

Douglas Cootey — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:54:51 -0000

Sounds like it was a great meetup. Nothing motivates you like meeting people already successfully doing what you dream of doing. I know some people can find that discouraging, and maybe in the past I did too, but of late I've come around to thinking that you need to be surrounded by successful people if you want to be successful. There's an infectious synergy to be gained by hanging with doers instead of dreamers.

~Douglas
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☆ The Splintered Mind - Overcoming Neurological Disabilities With Lots Of Humor And Attitude

Re: Do You Know What Facebook’s Beacon Project Is?

Douglas Cootey — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 01:46:05 -0000

I tried finding the prefs to turn this off and there was nothing there. Privacy>External Websites is where I looked. Is there a different place? It seems I found the correct location but the prefs haven't been enable yet.

~Douglas
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☆ The Splintered Mind - Overcoming Neurological Disabilities With Lots Of Humor And Attitude

Re: My Moleskine Crashed Hard

Douglas Cootey — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:08:04 -0000

That's a terrible tragedy, Thom. I love my moleskines and hate to think what I'd do if they were lost.

As for your question, it is the nature of all information to be transient. In fact, many claim that electronic information is more ethereal and transient than old school written-with-ink-on-paper information. Your moleskine will survive a power outage unlike unsaved documents. Your moleskine will survive a pot of cocoa poured on it, though it will look worse for wear. I'd buy more Moleskines.

Good luck finding them. Hopefully you put a reward amount in the front that will entice somebody to return them. Or better yet, maybe they were picked up by a Good Samaritan.

~Douglas
☆ The Splintered Mind - Overcoming Neurological Disabilities With Lots Of Humor And Attitude

Re: My Moleskine Crashed Hard

Douglas Cootey — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:01:24 -0000

I imagine when the snow clears you might find the others. Here's a time where you can hope for Global Warming to pitch in and do its part. ;)

I'm sorry, though, that the Moleskine didn't like being seeped in snow and rain for a night. I guess I'll have to revise my "pot of cocoa" comment. ;)

Actually, you've given me cause for pause. I haven't tested the ink of the pen I'm writing my journal with. If it's as waterproof as the pen you used I could be in trouble.

~Douglas
☆ The Splintered Mind - Overcoming Neurological Disabilities With Lots Of Humor And Attitude

Re: Are ADHD medications overprescribed?

Douglas Cootey — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 18:55:03 -0000

Medications do work for some people, but there's not enough emphasis on their detrimental side-effects. There's also not enough being said about doctors pushing meds as magic pills that cure people of their problems. Because not all people are the same there should more variety in how doctors are handling these cases.

It seems people with AD/HD find solutions in one of the following ways:

a) Medications
b) Medications in tandem with coping strategies
c) Coping stategies
d) Denial
e) Disinterest in finding solutions to their problems

Most doctors I have had experience with push solution a because they have good intensions and ultimate faith in the pharmaceutical industry. They don't emphasize learning how to live and cope with AD/HD, or even use it as an asset. I wonder if there was more emphasis on points b & c if we wouldn't see so many cases of a which are setting off the extremists and fueling the fires of phobia and ignorance.

~Douglas
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The Splintered Mind - Overcoming Neurological Disabilities With Lots Of Humor And Attitude

Re: Are ADHD medications overprescribed?

Douglas Cootey — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 20:51:08 -0000

Well, when I was researching medications 14 years ago nobody discussed side-effects. If the doctor had told me that one possible side-effect of desoxyn was Touerette's syndrome I would have run screaming from the office. Instead, he didn't say a thing and I became damaged after only 2-3 weeks on the medication. These days there have been enough law suits and malpractice suits that all you hear during a drug commercial is "Our drug will solve all your problems...unless you take it on Tuesday following a rain storm during March, and if you are allergic to photons, and if you find it difficult coughing up blood. Our drug may cause your intestines to explode, your left hand to fall off, yada yada yada..."

What I was was referring to was the media. They hardly ever mention the detriments to taking medication. You get one of two types of articles. Those proclaiming the new medicated millennia is upon us for a happier, better world and those that claim that we're a bunch of hypochondriacs overmedicating our children. Always just two sides.

Well, that's true of most issues, but it rankles most for me when AD/HD is involved. I'd like to see more informed reporting. Not just the crib notes version from whatever press release they're basing their report on.

I'm glad you liked my blog. I look forward to reading more of your comments. ;)

~Douglas
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The Splintered Mind - Overcoming Neurological Disabilities With Lots Of Humor And Attitude

Re: Underachievers in our own mind

Douglas Cootey — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 20:07:50 -0000

Thanks for the kind words, DnW.

I have very strong reasons for not preferring medications. They broke me and made me worse. I know my experience isn't typical, but when my state's premier specialist on AD/HD became irritated with me because I couldn't take meds (He wanted me to be on Dexedrine, but it caused facial, tongue, and vocal tics within the first day so I immediately discontinued their use) and had nothing to offer me for help with my AD/HD, I knew there was a problem with the industry.

It's hard being the lone little voice out here preaching the powers of mind and attitude over mood and disability. To some people I keep company with Scientologists, and herbologists, and aromatherapists, and who knows what else out here on the fringe (Phrenologists?). I can't say it's comfortable company to be lumped in with since I am not affiliated with any of them, but it does make for some lively discussions on each of my columns. LOL

Hope to see you around again soon.

~Douglas

Re: Helping is Everything

Douglas Cootey — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 05:04:19 -0000

Cute mural.

Speaking of kids, mine are at Boise at a Feis at the moment. My eleven year old is hoping to get her first "Prize Winner". My seven year old said "This is the first feis I have ever been excited to go to in my life!" LOL With them luck! Best of luck with yours as well.

Re: Poor Customer Service At Best Buy: The True Story Of Sour Face Jim & Handshake John

Douglas Cootey — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 20:32:51 -0000

Re: Lions and Tigers and Bears…

Douglas Cootey — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:38:03 -0000

I am the type of parent that believes that a child should be allowed to scuff his/her knees while learning. At the same time, however, I hold a tight leash. There are some scuffs that should be avoided. Experiences like abuse & violence should be protected against at all costs. Consequently, because of experience, I don't allow sleep overs or let them wander the neighborhood (we live in the city), but I do allow hours and hours of activity filled days where they learn and grow and even fail while we wait in the wings.

I do feel, however, that we as parents have a tendency to overprotect as you found yourself doing. We are responsible for protecting them, so we can't be faulted for motive. We just need to make sure that our protection doesn't deny them opportunities for growth.

Good post.

<abbr>Douglas Cootey´s last blog post..The Pile That Ate My Day - One Man's Tale of Vanquishing ADHD Boredom</abbr>

Re: 2009/02/06/tweetube/

Douglas Cootey — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:16:26 -0000

I'm not sure what part of "Tweetube for MacOSX" the poster above didn't understand, but just to clarifyâ€¦this is Tweetube for _MacOSX_. So when Jennifer says you don't need a YouTube account to use Tweetube for MacOSX, she's correct.

The biggest advantage I've seen with this app so far (haven't posted a video yet) is that it is not Flash. Why should Tweetube for MacOSX be web based just like the already existing services? That doesn't make any sense. This is a dedicated app for OSX that doesn't require Flash. That means no Flash overhead. No Flash slowdown. My fan didn't kick in on my MacBook immediately while I was testing it. It didn't kick in at all, which means no fan noise. Seesmic may have improved their website, but it still is CPU intensive. Video Flash apps always tax the CPU. Now the CPU can be used to just record video. Very nice.

Another benefit is that the conversations started using Seesmic, etc. often carry on at those other services, whereas this app let's the conversation stay at Twitter. Very nice upside indeed for Twitter users.

25 seconds is also a nicer cap for me to work with than 12 seconds. I think I'll definitely find a use for this app, assuming people want to see my ugly mug. ;)

Douglas Cootey
@SplinteredMind on Twitter

Re: Moving On

Douglas Cootey — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 14:00:11 -0000

Chris,

This new development may jeopardize me meeting you at podcampSLC, but I'm excited to see what you pull out of the hat over the next few weeks. You're an interesting guy and it's been fascinating coming across the breadcrumbs you leave all over the web. You've really opened my mind to the potential of social media and networking. Good luck!

Douglas

Re: The New Gig

Douglas Cootey — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:17:17 -0000

Congratulations, Chris. Well done.

Glad to hear you'll still be able to work the Podcamp scene. You've really got something going there. I'm excited to hear about your new developments.

~Douglas

☆ The Splintered Mind - Overcoming Neurological Disabilities With Lots Of Humor And Attitude

Re: Twitter Literati

Douglas Cootey — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 18:55:49 -0000

I would be very interested to know how many followers one needs to have to reach this critical mass. I currently have 69 followers (@TheLaughingImp) and I can ask questions until I'm blue in the fingers and not receive replies more often than not. You are in an enviable postion, Chris. I wonder if we could quantify how many followers it takes to generate such fruitful replies, what ratio of following to followers one needs to have to get to that position.

~Douglas

Re: Twitter Literati

Douglas Cootey — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:36:38 -0000

I replied to this already, but must have forgotten the Captcha...

I wonder how many followers one needs to be in this enviable position, Chris. There is a critical mass that needs to be reached before what you type out into the ether comes back with replies. You have obtained that critical mass. A person like me, however, who only has only 70 followers, can type until his fingers are numb and not receive a reply. When I ask for advice I am often greeted with silence. When I discussed a serious Facebook privacy issue today I was greeted with silence. Who am I? Nobody of real consequence.

But you, @ijustine, etc. can utilize these networks to great results. Heck, I once read a blog post by Wil Wheaton describing his head cold and he received over a hundred replies, many which suggested tissue brands he could try. All people do not have that kind of feedback from the net.

I mention this not to be critical, but to point it out. I wonder if there is a ratio of followers to following that creates this critical mass? Or is the inertia brought in from other sites/networks? It's an interesting problem. Many people would love to know how to get the responsive network you have.

Douglas Cootey
TheLaughingImp on twitter

Re: Twitter Literati

Douglas Cootey — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:33:57 -0000

As you point out, one can follow hundreds of tweeters then see a percentage of those tweeters follow back. That is one way I've seen people have large followings with very few actual tweets. However, what quality friendships are these? Exactly.

I have thought about this some more since I posted (and Christa, I do all those things you recommend). I wonder if the problem, if it can be called a problem, is that I have selected people to follow who I can learn from. Perhaps by being so picky about who I follow, I have created a one way flow of information, i.e. people who are great at sending out into the world fascinating info, but who are too busy to actually respond back to @ replies - or reply to other people's questions.

As for whether the info I send out is interesting, you can be the best judge of that. I have been on Twitter long enough to know that my stream of tweets is no more or less dull than the best of them. However, I don't jet set around to conferences. Maybe I should start doing that. :)

"Honey, it's a necessary expense. I need to built my Twitter base." Yeah, she'll buy that. ;)

Douglas Cootey
TheLaughingImp on twitter

Re: Social in Real Space vs Social Networking

Douglas Cootey — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 06:45:42 -0000

Excellent advice, Chris. Of the mixers I've been to in the past few months, having a list of URLs beforehand to get familiar with the people I was going to meet would have helped me put them in context. Instead, they were a stream of friendly faces that didn't entirely stick in my mind except for the people I already knew.

Re: OoVoo- Video Chatting for 2008

Douglas Cootey — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:24:13 -0000

Chris, how's it compare to iChat video conferencing? It seems to support more people in the conference than iChat, but how's the user experience?

Re: Two More Ways to Share This Blog

Douglas Cootey — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:13:58 -0000

I find the widget unnecessary. You're using OSX right? Then you have PDF power at your fingertips built right into the OS. Type Command-P (or select File>Print) and click on the PDF button to reveal the PDF menu. You can print to file, email, fax, etc. It's all there. I've put some links below for you. Not sure how they'll work on your blog.

http://skitch.com/darkstream/emsi/pdf-power

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Re: Wake Up to How You Share on the Web

Douglas Cootey — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:08:38 -0000

FB changed their TOS over a year or two ago to own all our content, but we continued using it even though the new TOS had a lot of people upset. It was the price to pay for connectivity. This time seems different, though. Now they changed the TOS on the sly and opted us all in, even if we removed our content.

Since we have already made a deal with the devil before, now we have to rethink our dealings going forward.

Today I'm changing my account so that my blog RSS feeds no longer dump into my FB wall. I have no idea how much content FB culls from my feed, or how much they'll lay claim to when they do. Most of my content is released under the creative commons, but FB's new TOS seems to indicate they can monetize my content. Not what I want. From now on I'll have to just manually point links to my new blog posts with summaries.

Am I over reacting or being careful? What are you going to do?

Douglas
@SplinteredMind
I crossposted this to Facebook

Re: Wake Up to How You Share on the Web

Douglas Cootey — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:56:26 -0000

Matt wrote: "People keep saying they’re going to stop posting their feeds and writing to Facebook, but that doesn’t stop someone else from posting your content on Facebook, does it? If you’re interpreting this as, “Facebook owns all content posted to Facebook,” then someone could post your feed or writing on his/her profile and then Facebook would still theoretically own it. The point is, any time you post something online, you inherently lose some control of it."

I was trying so hard not to be paranoid, but yes, this occurred to me too. In such a case you'd obviously have the courts on your side, though you'd have the expensive prospect of proving it. Facebook would be pulling out this TOS to give them protection from such cases.

In fact, this Facebook stance isn't legally defensible, IMO. I can't, for instance, claim that I hereby own all content on this site if Chris Brogan agrees to these terms by simply reading them. Whoops! Too late.

The problem is 1) we have to wait for a copyright infringement and 2) we have to prove it was an infringement. Facebook is obviously trying to cover their legal fannies with a very broad hat. The question is if you want to count on them playing nice in the future. We have no control over what others do with our content once we share it.

Douglas
@SplinteredMind

Re: Wake Up to How You Share on the Web

Douglas Cootey — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:59:30 -0000

Mirco,

Then why the new TOS if it's the same? No, they're staking out new rights by taking away some of ours. The question is if this is OK with you. For some, it is not.

Douglas
@SplinteredMInd

Re: Wake Up to How You Share on the Web

Douglas Cootey — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:29:43 -0000

Andrew,
While I agree with almost all of your points, and truly stand on your side of this issue, I need to correct you on one aspect. Facebook is claiming a global license over your content, not ownership. In real life, this will not amount to much of a distinction, but it is an important one. You still own your content, but by using FB you give them the rights to use your content cart blanche forever.

I believe this makes the TOS more insidious. By granting themselves such a wide license they can enjoy the benefits of ownership of your content without the messy legal ramifications of claiming ownership of your content. They can have the best of both worlds: using your IP when it suits them and disowning it when it does not.

Re: Wake Up to How You Share on the Web

Douglas Cootey — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:31:55 -0000

There's a lot of panic out there. A lot of anger. Stepping outside of the storm for a bit, what's a creative to do? I've still been thinking about this as I start my day.

You want to build a brand using socnets. You want to spread the word about your books. You need to write about your content in order to get people interested. FB doesn't own your content; they just maintain a license to use it as they see fit. Putting aside their ham-fisted and discourteous implementation, does anything really change here?

The debate seems to boil down to two sides: those that trust FB and those that don't. The ones that trust, see this as business as usual and the price one pays to get larger exposure for their blog, service, IP, etc. The ones that don't trust FB generally see this as a creepily ominous powergrab to lay claim on their content without their consent. They are troubled by a TOS that can change on a whim. What if FB decides to own your content over another weekend in the future? What if they assume you agree to this by the fact you logged in to see what yours peers were up to? Paranoid delusions? Are you sure?

Personally, I have decided to continue using FB for the moment, but to severely reconsider the amount of information I post there. I release my blog content under a Creative Commons license anyway, preventing only altering and monetization of my content, so giving FB a license to use my content is fine as long as they give attribution. I probably will keep pictures I post only of public events going forward, however. FB can do what they like with my status reports. I'm thinking of a spicy one to post for them right now.

Re: The Tricky Balancing Act of Online Sharing and Privacy Concerns

Douglas Cootey — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:40:22 -0000

This is an important subject for me as well. My wife is very nervous about any mentions of her online. Even the preceding sentence would make her nervous. In contrast, I am all over the internet with photos, video, and words, words, words. This is why, when we thought of doing a podcast with my daughters, we hid their identity as well as mine. There's a really great Harry Potter podcast out there I did with my girls that nobody but my closest friends ever knew was linked to me. My 16 year old has a podcast that's been online for 3½ years and we've never shown her face or let people know who she is despite the fact that she wants to be a country music singer/songwriter and performs openly locally.

It's a dangerous world and we as parents need to be careful. Whenever I see people's blogs filled with photos of their kids, complete with town names, school names, etc. I cringe. Within a few hours of my 16 yr old (then 13) setting up a Skype account without my knowledge, she was sex chatted by a pedophile. We must constantly be on guard to protect our children.

Just because I have made the decision to be public, doesn't mean my wife or children have. When my daughter finally has some songs for sale, we'll pull the veil of privacy aside. It will be a big move that we won't take lightly, but we'll still keep the faces and names of our other children private and far from the public eye.

Great article. Thanks.

Douglas Cootey
☆ @TheLaughingImp/@DouglasCootey on Twitter
✍ The Splintered Mind - Overcoming AD/HD & Depression With Lots Of Humor And Attitude

Re: Blogger Bumper Sticker Contest [part 1]

Douglas Cootey — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:09:14 -0000

Plays on old themes sound stupid:

Blogger On Board

Re: Blogger Bumper Sticker Contest [part 1]

Douglas Cootey — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:11:10 -0000

I can see somebody just posted that. Whoops. LOL They also posted something else I was going to submit (Caution! I Brake To Blog). How about this one.

To Blog Or Not To Blog. That Is The Question.

Re: Blogger Bumper Sticker Contest [part 1]

Douglas Cootey — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:11:56 -0000

Blog Nekkid!

Re: Blogger Bumper Sticker Contest [part 1]

Douglas Cootey — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:13:06 -0000

If you are close enough to read this,
would you subscribe to my feed?

Re: Don’t forget about Yahoo’s blog search, blogger admonishes

Douglas Cootey — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 14:42:44 -0000

I see another problem revealed by this test. All the search engines show mostly the same sites up at the top for "brrreeeport". GoDaddy's heist of brrreeeport.com is even on the first page of hits on Google today. So not only are the numbers all over the place, but the results favor the top guns. The long tail serves to prop up the head even further. With this meme, nobody's missing out by not reading thousands of "Me, too" posts, but other topics might be better served by the long tail and be completely missed for all the action up top. I'm not complaining as much as wondering what can be done about it.

I write about ADHD & Depression, not tech necessarily, and a search for ADHD over at Google Blog Search doesn't show my site within the first 100 results. In comparison I show up in the top ten results at Technorati. I could find splogs and a T-Shirt blog that dated into last summer in those Google results, though. (As an aside, with Google's insistence on maintaining search logs matched to IPs and their search ranking punishing small sites are we at the dawn of Google's irrelevance in Web2.0?)

Overall, it was an interesting test of the big boys' indexing capabilities and flexibility. Thanks for running it.

~Douglas

Re: Steve Rubel is testing memetrackers

Douglas Cootey — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 00:32:58 -0000

Digg is a great site to skim, but the community there is really sad. It seems mostly made up of High School seniors and College freshmen who think the high point of communication is using the F word in creative ways. Heaven forbid you mention religion in a positive light. I haven't done that myself. I'm allergic to being stoned. ;)

Still, Digg drives a lot of traffic. It's not traffic that stays and builds your regular readership, though. They move on to the next link - the perfect AD/HD generation...

Re: Ouch, what if Microsoft designed the iPod box

Douglas Cootey — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 12:13:24 -0000

Robert, thanks for posting that. A link I saw earlier suffered from the Digg effect.

Very funny stuff. Just slightly exaggerated to be funny, but very on target. Really shows the difference in corporate philosophies.

Re: More details on Origami

Douglas Cootey — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 11:07:47 -0000

The leaked ad is high on hip and low on sell. The device appears cumbersome and doesn't, at first glance, appear to have any protective screens. Considering that I live off my Palm Zire and carry it around in my pocket I can't see myself switching to this device despite the beautiful hires display. It's too big. Where would I keep it? These are my first impressions. Obviously, I'd have to use it to really see, but with the latest PDA and phone trends of having empty mockups for display models I may not get that chance. It will be interesting to see what MS has in store for tonight.

Re: Oh, Origami, what art you?

Douglas Cootey — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 18:40:28 -0000

The "leaked" ad for Origami is sure targeting women and the hip 18-25 demographic. I don't know how well it will succeed, though. Seems a bit cumbersome.

Re: Microsoft should get “Numbers”

Douglas Cootey — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 23:48:54 -0000

I am reading the comments here and shaking my head. This being Numbers 1.0 you folks are mostly correct. Feature for feature Excel has much over Numbers. But you don't understand Apple's strength. It's never been in feature. It's always been in the user experience. Sometimes they add features to create the user experience. Sometimes they just bump them up for a product refresh like the current iMac announced today, but they always focus on the experience being better than their competitors.

I also believe you are missing Robert's point. He is advising MS to check out the way Numbers works and to learn something from it. How does that make him a fan boy?

Douglas
http://TheSplinteredMind.blogspot.com

Re: The MacMini HDTV revolution

Douglas Cootey — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:44:11 -0000

I wouldn't be so quick to blow off the AppleTV. It truly has felt like a misstep for Apple, but I think licensing issues rained on Apple's party when the AppleTV was released. The movie labels have been a lot tougher to get on the Apple band wagon than the record labels (Who would have thought the RIAA labels would be considered flexible in comparison?) Adding a browser can be fixed in a software update. With Fox offering rentals through iTunes the AppleTV may finally fulfill the needs it was designed for. Still, I already have a Mac Mini so I'm very interested in what Dave has to offer.

Re: Of bad backs and sprained ankles

Douglas Cootey — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:20:04 -0000

I wonder if the irony and humor is only in the eye of the beholder. Those who supported President Bush or had back problems might have seen the outcome for Cheney differently. Mignon Fogerty of Grammar Girl fame recently posted an episode about this issue regarding Sarah Palin and the unfortunate turkey accident. (Irony, November 2008 http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-ir...). I recommend viewing it. Mignon, who politically did not align with Sarah Palin in the slightest, handled the topic professionally and with balance.

The human mind specializes at seeking patterns. This survival mechanism constantly scans the environment for patterns to anticipate upcoming events. The downside is that if we are not careful we tend to draw connections when they aren't there. It is a form of pareidolia, in my opinion, where we see shapes and faces in clouds that don't exist. Cause & effect? Karma? Humor? It all depends on our viewpoint.

To me, however, this is an ironic situation. The world's second most powerful man, the architect of so many American policies over the past decade, is reduced to a helpless invalid on his last day of office. I wouldn't go so far as to find it funny as others have done, however.

Interesting post. Thanks for sharing.

~Douglas
@TheLaughingImp/@DouglasCootey on Twitter

<abbr>Douglas Cootey´s last blog post..Depression Blogs You Might Find Interesting</abbr>