Tikkabik

Have Online Communities become Havens for the Terminally Angry? | ITworld: “What I didn’t use to see was what we have now: a close to total breakdown in online civility. It seems to me that more and more online conversations are dominated not merely by rude people, but by people suffering from OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) and Asperger syndrome.”

(Via @ianbetteridge.)

I haven’t been able to figure out if this is the result of a sea change in people’s behavior or the inevitable consequence of a larger percentage of people being online. One thing is for sure, though – it proves the truth of this corollary proposed by Penny Arcade more than half a decade ago: Green blackboards (and other anomalies).

Any time you get people mildly inclined towards misanthropy together in a venue that enables them to hide their own identity to avoid responsibility for their actions, seriously vile, anti-social behavior is the result. Griefers, trolls, flamers of all stripes. It’s one of the myriad reasons I find myself decreasingly interested in participating in any sort of online community – the risks and the effort just aren’t worth it.

And typically, as soon as you come up for air in “the real world,” you realize that any impact you’ve had at all in that online community contributes precisely nothing whatsoever to what’s happening outside, where it really matters. So what, precisely, is the point? Let the babies have their bottle.

The Five Funniest Things About the “LeBron James: Global Superdouche” Broadcast — RollingStone.com: “The weird thing about this Lebron story is that seven or eight years ago, he seemed like a nice kid. All he did was step into a media machinery designed to create, reward, nurture, and worship self-obsessed assholes.”

(Via @timwindsor.)

The frosting on this particular shit-cake has to be the histrionic retort from Dan Gilbert, majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Like LeBron’s one-hour TV special, it reads like an exercise in egomania. Ultimately it just makes me happy I don’t work for the guy, because he sounds like a real jerk.

I’ve finally gotten around to posting pics of the finished siding and steps. Pics were taken before the screen door went on the front, but you’ll get the general idea.

We’re very happy with the work.

Our house is sided, the trim on the windows is done, a new front door has been hung on the front, new storm doors have been installed on the front and kitchen doors, and new steps are in place.

The house looks pretty much brand new from the front. I’ll take some pictures this weekend to show what’s happened. It’s all very nice and I’m very impressed with Capizzi Home Improvement’s work.

Joe Barton’s perverted shame – By William Saletan – Slate Magazine: “The beauty of Barton’s speech, as a weapon of mass self-destruction, is that it wasn’t off message. It was standard conservative rhetoric: Private sector good, government bad. But the context was all wrong. When the private sector is dumping millions of gallons of oil into U.S. waters and destroying the coastal economy, government-bashing looks insane.”

(Via Glenn Fleishmann on Twitter.)

Tea Party – Confessions of a Tea Party Consultant – Rogues of K Street: “Conservatives now live in the political-party equivalent of Mad Max. Law and order inside the Republican Party has deteriorated, leaving regional warlords to scavenge over what’s left.”

(Via Roger Ebert, on Twitter.)

I’ve posted five photos of the house re-siding in progress. I’ll take more as the project progresses. It’s moving quickly.

Capizzi Home Improvement has arrived and set up a workspace in the driveway; the contractor who’s doing the siding expects to begin work this morning.

Siding the house – and putting aluminum trim around the windows downstairs – is the cap on a lot of cosmetic (and functional) surgery the house has been getting for the past year.

In 2009 we had the roof replaced. It was an important change for a couple of reasons – one was that the original roof was still on the house, which was built in the late 1980s. It was due for replacement. At that time they also installed new gutters and trim around the upstairs windows.

But the new roof also incorporated a ridge vent to improve air circulation upstairs. It hasn’t negated the need for air conditioners, but it certainly has improved the quality of the air in the upstairs bedrooms.

This year it was time to have the house sided. I’m frankly sick and tired of touching up the paint on the front of the house every year, so I’m delighted to see this done. The vinyl siding will pretty closely match the warm yellow color Bonnie chose for the house when we first had it painted when we moved in. They’re also putting in aluminum trim on all the first-floor windows, replacing the front door, which has rotted near the bottom, and replacing both storm doors, which are also well past their expiration date.

Finally, we’re also having the front steps replaced.

The wooden steps in the front of the house are a bit oversized and somewhat wobbly, and have large, ungainly railings. My bet is that one of the previous occupants of the house was partially disabled – that would explain the excessive use of s-shaped handles on interior doors throughout the house, and might also explain the big railings on the front stairs.

Anyway, the contractor is going to tear that entire thing out and replace it with pre-set concrete stairs that look like cobblestone. It’ll make it easier for me to get the snow off of in the winter time (though I won’t be able to use ice melt or rock salt there anymore).

Once the exterior is done, we can start to think again about the interior. Replacing the rugs with new (wood) flooring, finally finishing my office space with a floor and making some renovations to the family room all top the list.

No shortage of home improvements to make.

I’ve been quick to defend AT&T from detractors who say that the iPhone would be better off on another network – any other network. I agree with Steve Jobs – I think whomever in the U.S. ultimately got the iPhone would have buckled under the weight of the phone. I also don’t think the phone is perfect – it’s one big reason why I’m looking forward to getting my hands on an iPhone 4, with its improved antenna design.

But AT&T’s stunningly incompetent data management has struck not once but twice in the past week or so. And each time I really have to wonder what the fuck is wrong with them.

Last week it was reported that the e-mail addresses of more than 100,000 iPad 3G users were exposed because of a security breach on AT&T’s servers. Ultimately the hacker who blew the whistle on this was arrested, but there’s no question that AT&T shouldn’t have gotten caught with its pants down like this, either.

Then there was the iPhone 4 pre-order debacle.

I tried all day yesterday to place a pre-order for an iPhone 4. I started at about 5:15 AM ET when I first rose to get the kids ready for school, and repeatedly retried throughout the day. Each time I failed, until almost dinner time.

With the exception of a period of time where the Apple Store was offline completely, each time I tried, the entire process would fail when Apple went to verify my account with AT&T. Going to AT&T’s Web site was similarly pointless.

AT&T’s authentication servers got hosed. It’s plain and simple that AT&T simply wasn’t up to the task of verifying the onslaught of subscribers who wanted to upgrade their phone.