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By now I’m sure that everybody is familiar with the story of Megan Meier – the girl who committed suicide after getting bullying notes from a parent posing as a teenager on MySpace.
If you watched the Today Show today, they had the girl’s mother on the show talking about how a 20 year prison sentence wouldn’t be enough for Lori Drew – the mother who posed as a teen on MySpace and started a friendship with Megan only to end it badly.
Now, I understand your daughter killed herself. It’s very sad and unfortunate and it doesn’t deserve to happen to anybody. I also understand the grief and sadness and confusion and anger you’re going through – but everybody needs to separate these feelings from their actions. Justice is about the law – not revenge.
I say that because Lori Drew didn’t actually break any laws. It’s not illegal to tell somebody how you feel. In this case, Lori said “the world would be a lot better place without you.” That’s not a crime, that’s an opinion. It’s a terribly wrong and misguided opinion, but an opinion nonetheless. Ms. Drew shouldn’t be thinking like this, but her thoughts are not a crime – even if she expresses them. We’re not living in 1984 yet.
I hate to bring it up, but there was obviously something not stable going on with Megan if a MySpace comment can cause her to commit suicide. Somebody should have noticed the signs earlier and gotten her some help.
So why am I going off on this? Because of the charges they flied on Ms Drew. After local police couldn’t find anything to charge her with, the Feds stepped in and charged her with conspiracy and felony hacking. Yes, that’s right, hacking. They’re claiming that since she lied about her age to MySpace she “hacked” them.
There’s a big problem with that interpretation. It means anybody who provides a fake email, fake name, or fake phone number to any website is also a felony hacker. Just think how many times a day you refuse to give your information out. It can be downloading something that wants your email address, or your cell phone number on a checkout page. If this interpretation holds up it means that over 90% of internet users can be charged with felonies. That’s a serious problem.
Now, I’m not saying they’d go around charging people for not giving a proper email address, but what’s to stop them from using it against somebody when they can’t make other charges stick; like in the Drew case?
Don’t get me wrong. Megan’s death is a sad tragedy that could have been prevented if somebody had noticed her warning signs. Ms. Drew’s actions were horrible, immature, and pathetic – but not illegal. She deserves tons of guilt, shame, and ridicule. She should probably go get some mental help too based on what I’ve read, but she doesn’t deserve to be behind bars.
May 16th, 2008
If you need to go anywhere in the Detroit area today – you probably can’t get there. There’s nothing in town to cause extra traffic, it’s just that the state has totally fucked up every major roadway there is.
Detroit has 2 major arteries. I-75 and I-94. One goes north and south, the other east and west. They both go through downtown Detroit, and intersect at a 30 degree angle somehow just near the city limits. They’re the main route into, out of, through, or around the city – as well as the only path for truckers going to and from Canada.
For the past few months I-75 has been shut down for 5-10 miles near the bridge to Canada. The detour has been to take 94 and then hop onto 75 north of the construction. As I found out today on my way to the eye doctor though, the detour is closed. The new detour is to get off on Warren Avenue – only Warren Avenue is under construction too.
So let’s recap. Freeway closed. Detour closed, and the Detour to the Detour is closed. This left me driving in circles for nearly an hour before I found a way to get back on the freeway and head home.
That’s just going northbound. Going south is a whole new can of worms. Since 94 only hits 75 north of Detroit, the southern detour is currently to take 94 west (out of the way) to southfield. Get off, drive 3 miles along the street in front of my house, and then get onto 75 where there’s no construction. This detour has been in effect for about 2 months now, and already it’s impossible for me to get out of my subdivision between the hours of 8am and 7pm. The road is constantly full of trucks and it’s impossible for me to drive anywhere.
Worse yet, the 75 construction is going to be this way for 2-3 more years. They’re redoing the whole thing with no plans of opening it. Worse yet, the current detour (southfield, the main street by me) is scheduled to be renovated DURING the 75 shutdown. Yes, that’s right, they’re shutting down another detour.
Does anybody at MDOT talk to each other? Why can’t you do one project at a time? Is it really necessary? What idiot decided to shut down the detour of the detour of the detour? This morning I managed to lose track of what I was actually detouring from. At one point, my GPS actually just said “stop at closest gas station and ask where the fuck you are.”
I can’t wait until the Southfield construction starts – at that point I will have no way to get to Detroit or anywhere north of there without turning a normal 15 minute drive into a 2 hour side street fiasco.
May 13th, 2008
While playing Mario Kart Wii with a cop friend of mine the other day we started getting into a discussion of the legalities and illegalities of automobiles. Don’t ask how, but it had something to do with him petitioning to get Waluigi disqualified from the race.
Did you know that the vehicle you’re driving right now is most likely illegal. In fact, most cars drive off of the dealership lot already in violation of the law.
In Michigan (and at least 20 other states that he knows of) it’s illegal to place advertising on or around the license plate. That means the little frame with the dealership name on it is reason enough for a cop to pull you over and write you a ticket. It’s also illegal to cover up any part of the plate with writing on it. This means that all the nice new Ford and GMC SUVs that have steps in the back are in violation – as the step on most of these cars covers up part of the word Michigan on the plate.
Clear covers that go over the plate? Also illegal. The same goes for those lights that go on around or near it.
My friend said he’d never stop anybody for this, which then raised the ethical question of “doing your job and following the law to the letter” but that’s another discussion.
Has anybody ever seen anybody stopped for one of these infractions? And if somebody is, how long until there’s a class action suit against all the dealerships who illegally modify cars on their lot?
May 9th, 2008
It’s raining outside, and I CAN SEE IT WITHOUT MY GLASSES!!!
http://bridgewayseniorliving.com/giving-tuesday/flower-22656_640/ I had LASIK on Monday and it’s great!
For those who don’t know me I recently developed an allergy to my contacts, and wearing glasses to play hockey or softball was just awkward. It’s only been 2 days since I had it, and already I can see 20/25 and have no pain. The first day, my eyes felt like there was something in them all day and everything looked like I was underwater. After sleeping on it (with these awkward goggles) I woke up to seeing very clearly.
If anybody’s considering LASIK, don’t let the videos they show you scare you. It’s all really quick and painless. I got there at about 1:45 and by 1:50 they were already checking my vision to make sure I was ok with how they were going to correct it. I was then given a valium (great stuff!) and led into the laser room.
The whole procedure took less than a half hour and was very painless. It’s a weird feeling to feel a razor cut your eye, and the machine puts a LOT of pressure on you when it’s working – but no pain. Afterwards everything looked like I was underwater, but still better than without my glasses. My eyes even felt very dry and burned a bit similiar to when you get chlorine in them.
Within a few hours my left eye was great while my right eye remained blurry. This really threw off my depth perception and I became really bored without being able to drive, watch tv, or read. I listened to the entire works of Charlie Robinson before going to the bar and putting up with all the “Bring it here Ricky” comments due to my weird looking goggles.
All in all I’m happy. It was a bit expensive, but if I don’t have to wear glasses or contacts until I’m 40 it will pay for itself. My right eye is still 20/25 but she said it can take up to a week to fully clear up.
May 7th, 2008
My alter ego, Xeido, is now officially a level 70 night elf druid in the World of Warcraft. That’s the highest level obtainable right now.
It took me 20 days of playing time over the past many months, but last night at around 1am, I finally “dinged” that last time.
With that said, I can now officially say that World of Warcraft is the most addicting time suck in the world. If you want a social life after work, don’t start playing.
April 29th, 2008
I’m a baseball fan. I love watching the Tigers (even all through the late 80’s and 90’s when they sucked) and I will watch no matter what. But that’s me. There’s a lot of people who think the game is boring – and I can see where they’re coming from.
The freakonomics blog has a post today about making baseball more interesting and I thought I’d share some ideas of my own.
Gone are the days where fans would drool over a 2-1 10th inning win pitchers duel. Now, they want offense. It’s the same problem as in the NHL. With that said though, I don’t think lack of offense is baseball’s biggest problem. I think too much time wasting is the problem. All the action of a 3 hour game can be condensed into 18 minutes of film. That’s the problem.
So how do we fix it?
- Limit the batter from stepping out of the box. Watching Cabrera bat, he has to step out, re strap his gloves, swing the bat, adjust his elbow and ankle things, spit, and re set his feet between every pitch. Why? If it’s a ball, he didn’t even move. I think the batter should only be allowed to step out of the box if he swung at the pitch. That allows them to re-adjust if they have to and still makes the game much quicker.
- Speaking of the batters box, it’s always gone by the time the 3rd hitter steps up. Guys will erase the inside line so that they can get away with crowding the plate. This makes it so the pitcher can’t throw high and inside. I say we put in a permanent box outline made out of home plate material. Players are supposed to be IN the box anyway, and the slippery surface will force them to not step on it while setting up. It’ll also be pretty harmless for sliding.
- Let’s change the innings required to get a win to 6. (4 if the game doesn’t go more than 7 innings.) The game has become too specialized with pitchers who will come in to pitch one batter. I remember the good old days before middle relief when pitchers routinely pitched a full game. Increasing this number to 6 will see starters stay out there longer and eventually generate more offense from the lack of specialized pitching.
- With the pitching changes we just made we can safely change the 25 man roster to a 23 man roster. There’s no longer a need for as much specialized pitching. Less players per team also builds recognition among the fans. Hockey has the same problem. Most fans in Detroit couldn’t name 3 Colorado Rockies or 2 members of the New York Islanders. A 23 man roster will help this.
- Another roster change is a call up rule. Often teams will send somebody down to the minors for rehab, or bring them up to the majors for a spot start. This is all fine and has to be done because of injuries, but it really turns the
25 23 man roster into a 40 man roster. Let’s impose a 15 day rule. Any players sent down to the minors have to stay for 15 days. Any players called up must also remain for 15 days before they can be sent back down.
- Expand the strike zone again. Actually, just call it the way it’s written in the rule book. The strike zone is unofficially shrinking more and more each year. Many umps have taken the letters to knees and turned it into waist to knees. Let’s bring back the high strikes. More strikes means more swinging which means more action for the fans. It’s also time to bring back the outside strike. Watch an ump set up next time and you’ll see him cheating toward the inside of the plate. This is because most foul balls go to the outside – the ump doesn’t want to get hit. It keeps him out of harm’s way, but it also gives him a poor view of outside strikes. It’s time to get the umps some proper protection.
- Make intentional walks instant. I know that technically a runner can run on an intentional walk pitch, but I don’t think it’s ever happened. This just wastes time while the commentator goes into some stupid story. If the pitcher wants to walk somebody, let them just point to first base and bring up the next guy.
So there you go. There’s some quick easy ways to make baseball a lot more interesting without really changing the rules of the actual game, the height of the pitchers mound, or the sizes of the field.
What do you think?
April 28th, 2008
A while a go a family member sent me a link to her pictures on prestige portraits – a pretty well known photo company here that probably does 90% of area high school senior pictures and such.
Anyway, they have a feature that lets you email your comps to friends and family so that they can choose which ones they like. It’s a much cooler system than the “here’s your samples, give us a $300 deposit and bring them back later when you order” style that I had to do when I was in High School.
Where they’ve screwed up though, is that they automatically add all of these email addresses to their mailing lists. I say lists here, because I seem to get all kinds of promotions from them. They even emailed me how I can buy reprints of the photos I was looking at. I can see the thinking behind their marketing team, but there’s one major point at play here: I never gave you my email address, nor did I opt in. All of your marketing emails are in fact spam (and I report them as such to gmail.)
I found an unsubscribe link (which is very cludgy and barely works) but it seems to have worked.
For those of you in the marketing business: NEVER (repeat: NEVER) start enrolling people into newsletters if they themselves didn’t opt in to that newsletter. In fact, it should always be a double opt in where they confirm it from an email.
Prestige, please change your policy. I’m probably not the only pissed off person.
April 24th, 2008
I’m happy to announce that I just launched another site today. It’s something I’ve been working on for a long time now, but couldn’t really decide on a name for. The new site is called TextBunch.com. It’s “group messaging made simple.”
If you’ve ever been on a softball team, bowling league, or even had a fantasy baseball draft you probably know how much of a pain it can be to call everybody and let them know when the game is, or what time the draft starts. TextBunch solves that problem.
At it’s core, TextBunch is basically a text message mailing list. Users can create a group, add members to that group, and then easily send a message to that group. Right now group sizes are limited to 10 members, but as the site comes out of beta that will soon change.
I’ve got a few more features planned, but I wanted to get the site out there so that you can play around with it first. (Plus, I needed to use it for today’s softball practice.) So create a group and tell me what you think.
April 18th, 2008
How many people out there list their cell phone on their business card? It’s something I’ve always done, but am starting to see less and less of. As a fan of this practice, I only list my cell on my current business card. In fact, I’ve often refused to have a company line opting instead to use my cell or skype for everything.
In a smaller company, listing your cell phone is a great way to get intimate with your customers. Knowing they can get a hold of you in an emergency is a great benefit for most people. From my experience customers rarely abuse this, opting only to call you if it’s extremely important.
With that said, there are a few times it can be a bad idea. I remember once being yelled at by a boss when the CEO of a company called me on a Sunday wanting some text changed on a yet to be released feature and I told him that I wouldn’t be able to do it until Monday. I happened to be at a Michigan football game, and there was no way I was going to get to a computer. All in all, these experiences are rare to me.
Then there’s the occasional “old business card” folly. I was woken up today by a frantic employee of a company that I had worked with in my last job. I left that job over 6 months ago, but this employee had no way of knowing that. She was panicking because the prices on her website were wrong, and wasn’t very happy when I told her that I no longer worked for that company. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the number of anybody there who she could call either.
So what do you think? Are cell phones on a business card a good idea or a bad one? What are your experiences?
April 17th, 2008
There seems to be a lot of confusion about this question on the internet. I was unable to find a decent website that deals with bidding on trademarked terms on Google adwords and it’s pretty well hidden in their TOS, so here goes.
Oh yeah. Now’s also a good time to say that everything on my blog reflects MY opinions and and views, and not those of my employers (current, past, or future.)
So can you advertise on trademarked terms?
Yes – if you don’t include that term in your ad title, text, or url. In other words, I can bid on the word “Kleenex” as long as my ad doesn’t say “Kleenex” Instead, I’d have to use a generic term like “facial tissue” in my ad.
To quote the adwords TOS: (for the US, UK, Ireland, and Canada) “When we receive a complaint from a trademark owner, we only investigate the use of the trademark in ad text. If the advertiser is using the trademark in ad text, we will require the advertiser to remove the trademark and prevent them from using it in the future. Please note that we will not disable keywords in response to a trademark complaint.”
That last sentence is particularly useful. Google doesn’t care what you bid on, they care about what’s in your ad.
So should you bid on trademarked terms?
Absolutely! Especially if it’s a case of Kleenex, Chap Stick, Q-Tips, or any other trademark that has now become synonymous with the product. Even if you’re not selling a product, it can be helpful to bid on the name of your competitors. If you sell blue widgets for a price lower than company X, then by all means you should be biding on the term “company X” with an ad like “Blue Widgets – 10% cheaper than the competition” or something.
What do I do if somebody is outbidding me for my trademark?
You have a few options here. #1 is to simply outbid them. If somebody is searching for your trademark, it’s probably a very good lead and you can pay more for it. #2 is simply let them. It’s your trademark, they’re looking for it by name already, chance are they’re going to click your ad. #3 is to work on your organic SEO. If you’re not showing up in the #1 organic spot for your name, you need to be. This is really simple to do for trademarked terms.
OK great, but what do I do if somebody is using my trademark in their ad?
If you own the trademark and somebody else is using it in their ad, you should report it to Google. You can do that using this form.
If they’re simply bidding on your keyword there isn’t much you can do. It’s perfectly legal. The famous American Blinds case showed us this. Of course, chances are that American Blinds already knew this before they tried to sue, since they were even doing it themselves.
If somebody is bidding on your trademark though, you may want to check out their website to make sure that they’re not using it there. Chance are they aren’t, but it can’t hurt to check.
I hope this clears up advertising on trademarks. It can be a very profitable advertising strategy if done right.
April 15th, 2008
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