Category: Tech Talk

What a gaffe!

Posted on by Nimgimli

Yesterday this was posted at “The Unofficial Apple Weblog”:

If you’re feeling overwhelmed from the onslaught of YouTube forwards, newsreader headlines, Miniclip games and software demos we tirelessly blog for you, Procrastinatr just might be your solution. Even though it’s only a 0.8b version, this handy little app can help you make molehills out of mountains and start managing your time again.

Turns out, the app in question was a piece of malware!! A few hours later the post was amended:

TUAW readers: I sincerely apologize for the damage that Procrastinatr did to iCal. I didn’t notice any discrepancies in my calendar after trying this out (as almost all of my calendars are synced from Google Calendar), but please know that I have learned my lesson, and I will take much better care in the future before posting anything like this again.

I’d love to totally hack on the guy since TUAW is part of the Weblogs, Inc. Network family of blogs and I dislike that group. But working for a news publication, I see how hard everyone pushes to be first to announce any little bit of news, or in this case a new product. Best coverage doesn’t seem to be as important as First coverage. I don’t understand this attitude… most web surfers have their favorite sites to visit…they’re not constantly rotating through sites to see which one gets the story up five minutes ahead of the others. *shrug* But I’m just a reader…how should I know what readers want?

Anyway, this frantic scramble to publish first leads to problems like this one. How much trust has this person lost now? I know I won’t be first to try any software TUAW links to in the future!

Are you an Internet Addict?

Posted on by Nimgimli

Looks like modern medicine is catching up to what MMO players have known for years: that some people become addicted to the internet. *turns the mirror to face the wall*

Growing concern over Internet addiction

Not to make light of the situation, because I do know people who have lost themselves online, but this paragraph makes the whole article sound like a late April Fool’s joke:

Internet addicts may also get the “cyber shakes” when off line, exhibiting agitation and typing motions of the fingers when not at the computer.

I can honestly say that no matter how far gone people get, I’ve never seen anyone making ‘typing motions’ as described here. Now I’ve seen lots of people addicted to various substances and behaviors drum their fingers due to being restless and anxious. But that has nothing to do with it being like typing.