Microsoft...

It's hard to decide whether they're evil or just stupid sometimes. They have a story on Microsoft trying to patent custom emoticons. This is disgustingly evil! Or stupid. I mean, no one in their right mind should be trying to patent something like custom emoticons.
You can check out the patent application here. Warning: It's a long read :/

An even stupider side of Microsoft can be seen at the IE (Internet Explorer) Blog. Those people are definitely on crack...

Yay! Weekend!

I got WIRED today! And it's the weekend! Let's see what WIRED has for us, shall we?
First up is aSmallWorld, an interesting social networking site that is truly based on exclusivity. This makes a lot of sense.

Any such limitations on membership would be unthinkable for a social network like Friendster or Orkut [or mySpace], where the goal seems to be to grow as big as possible, as fast as possible. But in Wachtmeister's view, those sites have become bloated free-for-alls - so open and inclusive they're useless. Or, as Cheray Unman, an ASW member and former VC living in Mill Valley, California, puts it, "If I'm trying to find someone to look after my purebred Samoyeds while I'm in St.Tropez, I'm not going to ask some naked Burning Man hula-hooper on Tribe.net"

This model of exclusivity makes a lot of sense. The basic idea behind social networking is that by having many weak links and having people connect based on those links, new ideas/relationships will be created and all will be good. But, as can be seen from Friendster, MySpace and other sites, this isn't always the case. Sometimes those weak links have too little in common and the groups on those sites don't help bridge the gap. aSmallWorld differs from this inclusive weak-link based model to one based on exclusive strong connections.

"[aSmallWorld] is designed for those who already have strong connections with one another. It allows you to interact more effectively with like minded individuals who share same circle of friends, interests, and schedule."

This type of model would be very effective if used for other interests such as country music or something. MySpace's extended network is terrible. Somehow, by having 3 friends, I have 22 435 957 friends in my extended network. That is a disgustingly large amount.

Anyway, if someone wants to invite me into the aSmallWorld community I would be grateful...I can't wait to get Paris Hilton added to my friends list...

The second interesting thing from WIRED has to do with photography and social scenes (a constantly recurring theme eh? kinda like highschool...). I give you, The Cobra Snake. This is an interesting idea as the guy started out by sneaking into clubs and taking pictures. Now he's in talks with producers from The Simple Life to produce a reality show about himself and has had his pictures in the LA Times. This man is awesome, he makes parties look like a damn good time.
Check out these pics:
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3

Another interesting site is eyes wide apart. Has a lot of kickass drawings.

And the last site for today, a good one I promise, is Daily Dancer. This guy is "a computer geek who loves to dance! Every weekday morning, you can watch me dance to a different song." Songs include, 1999 (Prince), Another One Bites the Dust (Queen), and of course, the Macarena.

This OMouse signing off...(off-air) Where the hell is the booze?

Very interesting.

Well, I was looking at Microsoft exploits and I found this one. There are a bunch of images that will crash Internet Explorer. It just kills itself after a few seconds of trying to load. Pretty nifty I think. *puts on a revolutionary beard and straps on an AK47* "Comrades! This is a great weapon that can be used!"..Anyway, it would make a formidable defense against a flood of any sort. I remember how the Pentagon redirected a flood (the hackers searched for words that were missing on the site..i.e. freedom, etc.) to a Java Applet that flooded the hackers' attack machines.

Also, the previous post I wrote, Is Linux For Losers?, needs an addition. The guy who looked at the source code of Linux didn't mention the comments in the Windows 2000 leaked source code. The article says the good is pretty solid, but since the guy said that because of the comment, not because of code quality, he wanted to switch. If I used his logic here, I wouldn't be using Windows 2000 at all.

Links.

• Crash image 1
  
• Crash image 2
  
• Crash image 3
  

Bam.

Internet Explorer users will notice the little banner below the title of the blog when they check out the site. It should get them to switch. Next, I'm thinking of using common IE exploits to give them a little shove in the right direction (I'm kidding of course, that would be a Micro$oft tactic, see: Disabling Netscape Beta Browser).

Anyway, I'll post a bit more later on.

What I posted at MySpace *shudder*

Subject: Integrating Mail and Blogs, etc.
Current Mood: PORTALS SUCK.

Integrating Mail and Blogs, etc. into a website makes it a portal and turns it into Yahoo. I personally do *not* use Yahoo because it is a nasty disgusting thing that should be dead. There is way too much fucking clutter.

And I see the same thing with MySpace. And what the fuck is up with adding all these people as your "friends". Bands are *not* your friends unless you've played tonsil hockey with them. MySpace pseudo programmers! GET OFF YOUR ASSES! At least with OKCupid they have Friends and Real Friends. Just two types of classifications, that's all I'm asking for. Also, OKCupid doesn't try to be my blog and mailer and forum, etc.

Oh, and Microsoft will be taking your share of the market too. Especially with their similarly named MySpaces. You should sue. I think you would win too because they have pretty much the same product with pretty much the same name. I know I would definitely go after them. And looking at SecurityFocus.com, there are 72 exploits for IIS 5.0. Oh, and the different versions of Apache have very very few exploits. The newest one apparently has zero.

And according to Netcraft, you're running Windows 2000. WTF?! And apparently, you are using IIS?!

This is how I go about my business on the Internet:
1. Check GMAIL using THUNDERBIRD or the ONLINE INTERFACE.
2. Check GOOGLE GROUPS (Forum)
3. Check OKCUPID (Online Dating, Social Networking)
4. Update BLOGGER (Google's Blog Site)
5. Update FLICKR (Image hosting)

I use more than one site for everything. It makes sense. It's called specialization and it is awesome. Why the hell would I want to be tied down to one site when I can have 4 or 5 that specialize? This is where Yahoo went wrong. It's not a search engine, it's a portal. And it's very complex when you already have a dedicated blog at LiveJournal and Blogger and have another one at MySpace. You'll end up double or triple posting and that is a Bad Thing (TM).

Simplify, maaaan. Either you're a social networking site, or you're a blog, or you're a forum or you're an online store. Remember, you can't have your cake and eat it too :/