Summer break

[owl]

I have a week off work, first since Christmas. I'm just lying about in the sun, trying to make a dent in the reading and watching piles. The first day or two I thought I should have some kind of project, but actually it's probably better for me if I don't.

I've joined Google+, but so far it's all the professional crowd. It's more of an overlap with Twitter than Facebook for me at the moment, but it's a bit disappointing overall. The Stream is a complete FB ripoff, I'm never going to use the video chat, Sparks is mildly interesting but I can do a better job at the moment with Google Reader + Twitter, and the much-vaunted Circles....I'm getting tired of all the tech blogs falling over themselves to say how wonderful they are when 1) they are pretty much Facebook lists (in fact, FB lists are better in several ways; you can set a default (a la LJ/DW) so you don't have to keep choosing one for every update, you can create a new setting on the fly—show Birthday Fun update to "Friends, except $BIRTHDAY_PERSON", and FB lists also apply to chat, so you can be offline to Work People and online to everyone else)
2) LiveJournal had the basic idea back in 2000 or so (brad retweeted someone saying as much. It must be weird being a Web 1.0 social media dorm-room entrepreneur looking at the 2.0 lot, but on the bright side for Brad, it seems like he still gets to code, unlike the Zuck.)

I also got a bit freaked out, for the first time, about how much Google actually already knows about me. Yes, Facebook knows a lot too, but that's because I put it there. Google is more "Whoa. Where did you get that from?"

I'm re-reading Wyrd Sisters, thanks to this blog post about how Pratchett's writing of women developed. This is not helping reduce the to-read pile, which shamefully includes rj_anderson's Arrow, which I've owned for months and months.

I could be doing with some ice cream or ice lollies, but there seems to be sad lack of same in the freezer. Oh well, this can be my healthy diet week.

Comments

[kerravonsen]

I suspect that Google+ is getting the hype simply because it's Google. I certainly don't feel any need to join it. Heck, it took me years and years before I joined Twitter. Why would I need yet another Social Media thing in my life?

This is not helping reduce the to-read pile, which shamefully includes rj_anderson's Arrow, which I've owned for months and months.

Me too!

[azurelunatic]

I'm hesitant to settle too deeply into Google+ because of the thing where I don't use the legal name in social settings, and Google+ suspended at least one of my pseudonymous friends. So I have it, but it makes me nervous.

[owl]

Yeah, I've heard of people getting their plus accounts disabled because of pseudo-anonymity, and also people getting their Gmail or whatever disabled because they broke the rules on Plus. :(

And I can see the point about real names adding accountability, but what's your real name? The one on government bits of paper, or the one you've gone by for a decade?

[azurelunatic]

I think of this name as my real one. Most of the people who matter use it. My family use my birth name's diminutive. The best friend, for reasons only known to him, tends to use my legal name instead of the diminutive.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

You know, I didn't even know you could do that with FB lists.

[owl]

The more you know. I wonder if FB will promote its lists more now, if that's seen to be Google+'s killer app. I would not be at all surprised.