You often get the sense that a lot of people have lost their sense of responsible consumerism. You know, the kind that leaves money in the bank even after you’ve made a “cheer me up” purchase. My old neighbors / friends called it “retail therapy“ – go to Wal-Mart and get a cart of things that’d been  on your mind for a while. It’s cathartic to an extent, but you get the sense that’s what we’re being conditioned to do, and some folks have a terrible time snapping out of it.

I like folks like Dave Ramsey – don’t subscribe to his shtick (he’s got a book that prescribes a system for financial health), but it seems legit. Clark Howard is another name in the consumer advocacy biz – he was a big name in Atlanta for a while, and now he’s on CNN in their Sunday lineup (I believe). Outside of these names, I don’t know of too many other voices out there telling folks to stop blowing moolah on frivolous crap (not since this guy).

The creepy part is really the folks behind the ad, and any state that passes up opportunities to tout local liquor stores and strip joints for religious agenda items. Seriously Florida, I just want to see a glimpse of the seedy lives Truckers live when I do my roadtrips. Can we leave the fetuses out of it?

It certainly wasn’t a terrible film, but there were definitely some oddities in it that throw off simple folks who’re expecting to see a film about warring robots (that transform).

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090623/REVIEWS/906239997

I agree with Ebert’s disdain of every second of film spent on the Witwicky family is like all the worst Erkel moments replayed on some tortorous projector in formulaic slapstick Hell. But the robots were cool, and tickets for only $5 each where we went, so it was all good.

If you didn’t see the film, perhaps the robot testicles reference eludes you. A good link on the matter:

http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2009/06/transformers-has-actual-robot-testicles

Because seriously, aren’t we due for another Matrix reference?

I was talking with a few people about browsers yesterday. It’s funny how IE started out as a standard (because Netscape? Seriously?), but widely regarded as buggy and annoying. Mozilla had a good run, but it had to move on and let Firefox take center stage, which was a huge hit in the developer community (glory be Firebug, hallowed be thy name).

Odd side note: for the sites I work on (sites with more than 60 hits a day), IE6 is still more widely used than Firefox 3. True story.

For a while, I was a Maxthon guy – still am, actually. It sits on top of IE and makes it 500% more usable. Only in the last few months did I discover enough Firefox plugins to make it comparable, but lately I’ve found FF experience buggy here and there.

So Firefox purists and, well, everyone else who never cared enough to switch their browser have had a lot to quibble over. IE and Firefox are definitely different enough to give every front end web developer a daily migraine. Personally, if I tell a DIV “be 400 pixels wide”, I expect him to stay 400 pixels wide, regardless of it’s padding! (Dammit!)

As much buzz as Firefox has received in recent years, even the biggest Firefox advocates are starting to move to Google Chrome. Apparently it doesn’t choke when one window is waiting on a server (like FF and IE). It also doesn’t hog memory like the others the longer you use it. Not sure if these statements are totally true, but Google has a permanent, self-promoted air of perceived awesomeness around all their products, so at least that’s how the browser is viewed currently. No doubt in a year people will curse the simplicity of chrome and some other issue it’s lacking in.

Of course , all this flies over the heads of most users, who really just want to google map directions and play dumb Facebook apps. On that note, here’s a humorous video on what lay people think a “browser” is. Clearly, they are not the target audience for this cartoon.

So Scott from Google, what’s the lesson? Your company’s browser product is largely overlooked. Because, like it or not (and Firefox know this already), regardless of hyper-intelligent design and perceived security features, most folks don’t care how they get to the Internet, just what shows up on the pretty screen when they search for Lindsey Lohan gossip.

- George

Sure, you could write this off as one person being way too touchy about her barber’s handy work (and a haircut I had every summer until I was 12 no less), but it’s not a new theme. It just seems like today’s parents have become way too sensitive about what their kids are exposed to, what activities they’re scheduled for, how quick they’re learning and, most importantly, how they’re being raised.

I won’t rant about how wimpified kids are becoming. I’ll just say these aren’t little pet projects that we’re incubating until they’re ready to leave home for college – they’re individuals that parent’s are hopefully guiding through their own individual growth. Lighten the hell up; they’re not some delicate balance that’ll crash and fall apart if your vigilance falters for a moment. They’re resilient, quick-minded, savvy little versions of you that want your love more than anything else.

And a Nintendo DS for their 10th birthday wouldn’t hurt.

- George

Apparently, a few resourceful Nigerians have caused a lot of financial woe abroad with these emails.

• http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8171053//
• Good list of these emails: http://fraudgallery.com/

You’d think the fact that they rarely state your actual name would be the first clue, but of course it’s probably a lot easier to say if you didn’t hand over your bank account info to a distressed barrister. Spoiler: it’s a bad idea.

For your edification, some lively discussion on events in Nigeria.

See the creepiness and utterly amazing markup here:

• http://atlanta.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=shabby%20chic
• http://atlanta.craigslist.org/search/bar?query=massage

When congratulatory emails go out for whatever reason – successful product launch, good financial quarter or the corporate communications is bored – it’s a great time to start matching up the names in the email with what those people actually do from day to day. Not to say there’s any relationship between the two, but that it’s usually amusing to find how far pat-on-the-back emails can stretch the truth.

In my mind, it would be a true stroke of genius if someone could make a job off someone else’s work. That would be powerful delegation. Delegation already has the power of transferring credit from the assignee to the assigner, but truly masterful delegation would have the power of building a job entirely on credit earned from the work of others… without their knowledge.

It’d be incredibly scummy as well, but to a degree worthy of awe.

By the way, the Three Gorges Dam in China is my design and direction. If you need me, I’ll be working remotely, checking up on their progress. From Starbucks.

- George

I’ve had a handful of cell phones over the years, and generally ranged between $30 and $50 a plan. Finally, I weened off a personal cell with a prepaid phone, and finally since I carry my work phone with me each day, I dropped the personal cell altogether. Not much a phone user in general, but if you need to get a hold of me, I’ve got a number you can use.

Not trying to preach a values lesson here, but good Lord! Most the folks I talk to pay upwards of $100 a month on their data and voice plans. That’s like gas and electricity for us. Hey, I’m not frugal by any means – I only eat the florets off broccoli and toss the rest out like used rubbish. But $100 a month? To be able to settle arguments at a restaurant with Wikipedia at your fingertips? Dunno…

And at what point do they finally admit that phones have nothing new to offer (outside of “Taco Bell innovation”) until someone creative comes along? The new iPhone 3GS is released, and what makes it the next stroke of iLord genius? (ty Daniel) It’s faster.

Come again? It’s faster. So when you’re killing time at the next red light Googling your name, just think how much faster it’ll be in the major metropolitan areas of the country. Because we all want to save time… killing time. Or am I missing something?

I could be. And it’d be a damned shame.

- George