Adam's Ideas » miscellaneous

if a bridge collapses in China, does anyone care?

Adam — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:09:03 +0000

Yet again I want to point out that the Canadian media cares more for Americans than any other nationality.

A bridge has collapsed and killed at least 28 people in China, but do you hear about this on the hourly news reports like the yankee bridge?

Facebook reads your messages

Adam — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 03:10:51 +0000

I sent a message to a friend about some learning guides. Facebook read that message and while I was writing the message an ad appeared.

Their using fancy-pants ajax to read my emails and dynamically create ads!

Stupid wrist = broken glass

Adam — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:26:10 +0000

I just tried to do some dishes and ended smashing some important glass. Having a broken wrist is worse than having Stephen Harper in my house.

At least with Harper I wouldn’t care if he shattered like glass.

Broken wrist

Adam — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 18:43:38 +0000

Thankfully I will not need surgery for my wrist.

I’m an uninformed officer

Adam — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:38:02 +0000

EVERY time I read “uniformed soldier” or “uniformed police officer” I read uniformed as uninformed.

Sadly it usually fits with what I’m reading.

Stupid Bridges

Adam — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 22:33:23 +0000

Why is that recent bridge collapse that killed hardly anyone getting more attention than rain in India that has killed so many more people?

As Canadians, do we value American lives more than Indian lives because it looks like we do. I’m sick of our media only covering white people suffering and ignoring the problems of the rest of the world.

Done with summer

Adam — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:40:37 +0000

I’m sick of this heat and this cast is functioning like a nice warm glove – making matters worse. Also, what’s up with every left-handed person telling me that now that I have to use my left hand I will become a better person. I swear that there’s a conspiracy of southpaws out there. Waiting.

Everlasting Unions

Adam — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 16:51:20 +0000

Require cheating.

55 percent of married women engage in extramarital sex at some time during their relationship (compared with 60 percent of men)

Best Mac RSS reader

Adam — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:40:11 +0000

Vienna is a fantastic RSS reader for the mac, use it.

Discovery Endurance

Adam — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:17:21 +0000

Discovery Kids has a series called Endurance that has teams of kids competing against each other to win a free trip to Hawaii. The goals along the way to winning is to collect “pyramid pieces” that are based on simple character traits like trust and commitment (somehow respect isn’t on the list).The premise:

Leaving behind friends, family, cell phones, television, mp3 players and electricity, 10 guys and 10 girls from all across America will join together to compete on Endurance: High Sierras. Not knowing what adventures and challenges await them, they will have to overcome the pain and survive the Elimination Game just to qualify as one of the 14 official Endurance: High Sierras contestants. This year the kids will not only have to face some of the most grueling challenges yet, but they’ll have to use their wits and make enduring friendships in order to last in this exciting new season!

There is no mention of viewer participation within the game, it’s purely teams of two competing against each other. The challenges that they face are glorified camp games. While the puzzles are literally virtual puzzle pieces that you put together, the interface is frustrating. Their website doesn’t even provide a venue to talk about the show, even where they provide polling to engage the user.

The weekly recaps are not provided as video clips, only long boring text.

The flash player they are using twice crashed my browser and the menus on the left hand side of the site don’t appear if you follow the links from above. The overall usability of the site deters from its impact and, of course, usefulness. Why even bother making a site this choppy?