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shadowkatHmmmm...
1. Pillowfort has now entered the fray on free speech (and not in a good way. Apparently they are banning content that they've determined to be inappropriate or pornographic in character...(I seriously hope it's not just a bunch of people without their shirts on. I just looked at site called Deviant Art with all sorts of warnings, that had been banned on Tumblr, and all I saw were a bunch of similar sized and colored people without their shirts on, male and female. It was quite lovely and humane. And I thought...okay the people who think this is pornographic, probably should stay away from French beaches (unless they've changed a great deal from when I frequented them in the 1980s), and never see the musical Hair. Nudity is NOT pornography. Nudity used to titillate or objectify the human body in a way that is degrading is pornography - see Playboy, Playgirl, and Penthouse magazines. It's not that hard to figure out the difference.)
The battle is currently over NSFW or what some identify as "pornography". This is a old old old battle that predates the internet by about 70 or more years.
On Tumblr -- it is owned by Verizon, apparently, and Oath, which has a similar decree to LJ and AOL, which is why I left both. What is that? Oh. "We own your content and can do whatever we bloody well please with it, including censor, remove, repost, publish, market, reproduce, etc...unless you pay us not to." Well, forget that. I'm moving to DW. Bye now.
They are both upfront about it now. LJ's agreement pretty much stated that -- and I couldn't access my journal, post in it, or change it without agreeing to the agreement. I could however delete. Which I promptly did. Tumblr at least told me upfront.
Why did people move to Tumblr over DW to start -- well not being savvy in US and Global copyright laws they didn't move for the same reasons I did. They moved because LJ went on a tear about NSFW art a while back, and it was easier to post art work from phones etc to Tumblr than to DW or LJ. DW by the way is insanely difficult to post images to -- it is not an art, photo or image friendly site. Tumblr on the other hand is. I'm more interested in writing than posting pictures, so DW worked for me. But if I'd been the opposite? I'd have gone to Tumblr.
2. Forget Tumblr, it's all Steve Jobs fault -- hee hee.
Eh no. There were other people working on the technology at the same time as Jobs, he just got there first. I've family members who are software engineers and know quite a few, if Jobs didn't create the Iphone, someone else would have eventually. Also people were already moving in the direction of apps long before the smartphone took off. Facebook popped up before smartphones.
And, I remember Voy, Bronze Beta, chat rooms, and LJ fights over free speech and content. There were wars about that long before apps. Also they had walled content and moderators removing content long before the arrival of the smart phone.
Do I like smartphones? No. I preferred it when they didn't exist. But alas, they do. I resisted as long as I could get away with it -- but eventually I hit a wall and realized, okay, you have to have one because this is how EVERYONE else is doing business and operating today. Tough boogies.
When did I figure it out?
It was a slow process. My immediate family is not a fan of gadgets. (Understatement of the year.) We're luddites. We wait a VERY long time before buying a new gadget. We learned our lesson when my Dad bought one of the first 8-Track Players...because he thought it would take off, and didn't see how cassette players would (less durable). We all know how well that turned out, don't we? (Are there any 8-track players around now? No. Actually there aren't that many cassette players either -- so my father was right about the durability issue.) Deeply humbled by this turn of events, my father and the rest of my family, chose to be very cautious around new technological advances and gadgets. (In other words, we decided we were not tech savvy and to let the experts work all the kinks out first, before we considered jumping on board. Also cheaper.)
My flight was cancelled because of a computer failure in 2004. And I had to borrow someone's cell phone in line -- to call my travel agent pal and my parents to see what I could do about it. (Nothing, they had a computer error and all the flights were cancelled for two days. It was Christmas Eve and I only had Monday off, because my idiotic boss refused to allow any one to take time for Christmas -- because the department needed to be covered and there were only three of us. Of course the other two were born and bred New Yorkers who didn't have any family out of state. It was only a problem for one year. My parents came up the second year, and the third year we got bought out by another company and everyone was laid off. I did however learn that I needed a cell phone -- because there were no phone booths or pay phones that I could use. Everyone had cell phones.)
So I got a cheap flip-style cell phone.
Then...the smartphone got invented. And my friends wanted to text. My cell didn't text. And use messenger. My cell couldn't use messenger.
So I got a Samsung Android phone.
Android phones and Messenger are unmixy things. Also you have to keep them charged. But if you keep them charged the battery burns out. And the typeface was impossible. And it kept breaking.
My brother who wrote the user manual for the Android phone, convinced me to buy an Iphone, more user friendly, he told me. He was right. The Android phone did not work for me.
Do I like my I-phone? Eh, it has a great camera function, except when I can't get rid of the photos and they overload the phone's memory. Plays great music, but no memory and if it goes out of range, no music. Horrible service. The internet, wifi, and the cellular come in and out. GPS is...not necessarily reliable. I hate the Siri function -- it's useless and annoys me. But I like the In Transit notifications, the Jetblue Plane APP, the ability to make appointments on it and track appointments, the alarm function, the time function, the calculator, and FB Messenger and Texting on it. Also great camera. First time I've ever felt comfortable using a camera in my life.
So..love/hate relationship. Don't use it all the time. Forget I have it half the time. Don't talk to people on it. I basically use it for everything but as a phone.
Also..I really hate being in a perpetual phone booth. People? You don't have to be in constant contact with whomever. It is possible to go to the movies, out to dinner, to the theater, to church, and walk down the street without talking on your cell phone constantly or texting on it. Also when you are on your phone in a movie theater -- it's akin to shining a flashlight in the faces of everyone sitting next to you or near you. They do want to kill you or bash you in the head with your cell phone. That nasty look of death? IT's genuine.
So, if I thought getting into a time machine and killing Steve Jobs would resolve the cell phone problem? I'd consider it. But alas, it won't. Would have happened anyway.
3. I'm wondering if they teach history in public schools any longer.
Coworker: I'm thinking Obama should run again.
Me: he can't run again.
Coworker: Why not?
Me: Because they can only serve two terms.
Coworker: I did not know that.
ME: Did you skip the US Constitution in school somehow?
Coworker: So when did this happen?
Me: With Franklyn D. Roosevelt who ran and won four terms..
Coworker: Who is this guy and how many terms?
Me: You don't know who Roosevelt is?
Coworker: No. And you're telling me that he served four terms?
Me: Well he died during the fourth term in office, then they passed an amendment to the Constitution to make sure it didn't happen again. Did you skip history in school?
Co-worker: Next time I'm going to lie...and pretend I know.
Other Co-worker: She's just schooling you.
Me: You need to read a few books on WWII.
On the plus side, he's a whiz at math and taught music. I'm beginning to wonder about our education system -- do they not teach history in public schools any longer? I can understand not knowing who Ruthered B. Hayes is...but really?
1. Pillowfort has now entered the fray on free speech (and not in a good way. Apparently they are banning content that they've determined to be inappropriate or pornographic in character...(I seriously hope it's not just a bunch of people without their shirts on. I just looked at site called Deviant Art with all sorts of warnings, that had been banned on Tumblr, and all I saw were a bunch of similar sized and colored people without their shirts on, male and female. It was quite lovely and humane. And I thought...okay the people who think this is pornographic, probably should stay away from French beaches (unless they've changed a great deal from when I frequented them in the 1980s), and never see the musical Hair. Nudity is NOT pornography. Nudity used to titillate or objectify the human body in a way that is degrading is pornography - see Playboy, Playgirl, and Penthouse magazines. It's not that hard to figure out the difference.)
The battle is currently over NSFW or what some identify as "pornography". This is a old old old battle that predates the internet by about 70 or more years.
On Tumblr -- it is owned by Verizon, apparently, and Oath, which has a similar decree to LJ and AOL, which is why I left both. What is that? Oh. "We own your content and can do whatever we bloody well please with it, including censor, remove, repost, publish, market, reproduce, etc...unless you pay us not to." Well, forget that. I'm moving to DW. Bye now.
They are both upfront about it now. LJ's agreement pretty much stated that -- and I couldn't access my journal, post in it, or change it without agreeing to the agreement. I could however delete. Which I promptly did. Tumblr at least told me upfront.
Why did people move to Tumblr over DW to start -- well not being savvy in US and Global copyright laws they didn't move for the same reasons I did. They moved because LJ went on a tear about NSFW art a while back, and it was easier to post art work from phones etc to Tumblr than to DW or LJ. DW by the way is insanely difficult to post images to -- it is not an art, photo or image friendly site. Tumblr on the other hand is. I'm more interested in writing than posting pictures, so DW worked for me. But if I'd been the opposite? I'd have gone to Tumblr.
2. Forget Tumblr, it's all Steve Jobs fault -- hee hee.
Eh no. There were other people working on the technology at the same time as Jobs, he just got there first. I've family members who are software engineers and know quite a few, if Jobs didn't create the Iphone, someone else would have eventually. Also people were already moving in the direction of apps long before the smartphone took off. Facebook popped up before smartphones.
And, I remember Voy, Bronze Beta, chat rooms, and LJ fights over free speech and content. There were wars about that long before apps. Also they had walled content and moderators removing content long before the arrival of the smart phone.
Do I like smartphones? No. I preferred it when they didn't exist. But alas, they do. I resisted as long as I could get away with it -- but eventually I hit a wall and realized, okay, you have to have one because this is how EVERYONE else is doing business and operating today. Tough boogies.
When did I figure it out?
It was a slow process. My immediate family is not a fan of gadgets. (Understatement of the year.) We're luddites. We wait a VERY long time before buying a new gadget. We learned our lesson when my Dad bought one of the first 8-Track Players...because he thought it would take off, and didn't see how cassette players would (less durable). We all know how well that turned out, don't we? (Are there any 8-track players around now? No. Actually there aren't that many cassette players either -- so my father was right about the durability issue.) Deeply humbled by this turn of events, my father and the rest of my family, chose to be very cautious around new technological advances and gadgets. (In other words, we decided we were not tech savvy and to let the experts work all the kinks out first, before we considered jumping on board. Also cheaper.)
My flight was cancelled because of a computer failure in 2004. And I had to borrow someone's cell phone in line -- to call my travel agent pal and my parents to see what I could do about it. (Nothing, they had a computer error and all the flights were cancelled for two days. It was Christmas Eve and I only had Monday off, because my idiotic boss refused to allow any one to take time for Christmas -- because the department needed to be covered and there were only three of us. Of course the other two were born and bred New Yorkers who didn't have any family out of state. It was only a problem for one year. My parents came up the second year, and the third year we got bought out by another company and everyone was laid off. I did however learn that I needed a cell phone -- because there were no phone booths or pay phones that I could use. Everyone had cell phones.)
So I got a cheap flip-style cell phone.
Then...the smartphone got invented. And my friends wanted to text. My cell didn't text. And use messenger. My cell couldn't use messenger.
So I got a Samsung Android phone.
Android phones and Messenger are unmixy things. Also you have to keep them charged. But if you keep them charged the battery burns out. And the typeface was impossible. And it kept breaking.
My brother who wrote the user manual for the Android phone, convinced me to buy an Iphone, more user friendly, he told me. He was right. The Android phone did not work for me.
Do I like my I-phone? Eh, it has a great camera function, except when I can't get rid of the photos and they overload the phone's memory. Plays great music, but no memory and if it goes out of range, no music. Horrible service. The internet, wifi, and the cellular come in and out. GPS is...not necessarily reliable. I hate the Siri function -- it's useless and annoys me. But I like the In Transit notifications, the Jetblue Plane APP, the ability to make appointments on it and track appointments, the alarm function, the time function, the calculator, and FB Messenger and Texting on it. Also great camera. First time I've ever felt comfortable using a camera in my life.
So..love/hate relationship. Don't use it all the time. Forget I have it half the time. Don't talk to people on it. I basically use it for everything but as a phone.
Also..I really hate being in a perpetual phone booth. People? You don't have to be in constant contact with whomever. It is possible to go to the movies, out to dinner, to the theater, to church, and walk down the street without talking on your cell phone constantly or texting on it. Also when you are on your phone in a movie theater -- it's akin to shining a flashlight in the faces of everyone sitting next to you or near you. They do want to kill you or bash you in the head with your cell phone. That nasty look of death? IT's genuine.
So, if I thought getting into a time machine and killing Steve Jobs would resolve the cell phone problem? I'd consider it. But alas, it won't. Would have happened anyway.
3. I'm wondering if they teach history in public schools any longer.
Coworker: I'm thinking Obama should run again.
Me: he can't run again.
Coworker: Why not?
Me: Because they can only serve two terms.
Coworker: I did not know that.
ME: Did you skip the US Constitution in school somehow?
Coworker: So when did this happen?
Me: With Franklyn D. Roosevelt who ran and won four terms..
Coworker: Who is this guy and how many terms?
Me: You don't know who Roosevelt is?
Coworker: No. And you're telling me that he served four terms?
Me: Well he died during the fourth term in office, then they passed an amendment to the Constitution to make sure it didn't happen again. Did you skip history in school?
Co-worker: Next time I'm going to lie...and pretend I know.
Other Co-worker: She's just schooling you.
Me: You need to read a few books on WWII.
On the plus side, he's a whiz at math and taught music. I'm beginning to wonder about our education system -- do they not teach history in public schools any longer? I can understand not knowing who Ruthered B. Hayes is...but really?