The World Through Jeff's Eyes

Morning Findings: Smiling, Dancing Dog and a Sad Rhino

2010-08-31T09:53:00.000-07:00

In light of my previous post, I thought I'd lighten the mood a bit with some things I found on... *cough*... Yep, Reddit.

This video amazed me. The dog has fantastic rhythm and fluid motion. He dances a lot better than I can, which isn't saying much, but regardless, very impressive! The clothing he wears is pretty stupid though. Some people might say that this is animal cruelty, but what do you think? He looks like he's smiling to me, mouth wide open and his tongue hanging out.

And secondly, I found this image as well.

Poor Rhino... I don't have the heart to till him...

The Downfall of Digg

2010-08-31T09:47:00.000-07:00

I was a frequent user of Digg, a user-based news website where users can submit articles and vote for the best articles. The best articles float to the top and front-page, while the others are buried into darkness and most users will never see them. I would check Digg nearly every 10-20 minutes, and always found a new article to read up on. Some were serious, some funny, and some incredibly interesting. The content ranged from silly animal pictures to breakthough scientific discoveries.

Recently, Digg was updated to v4. The layout changed, the process changed, EVERYTHING changed. Now, in order to see any user-submitted articles, you have to "Follow" them, much like you follow a friend on Twitter, where previously all submitted (provided they were voted up, or "Dugg" up) articles would be seen on the front page. This, plus the layout change, the removal of the "Upcoming" section (a section where users would be able to see articles that have just been submitted), and the removal of the ability to "Bury" articles completely changed the heart of the website.

If you check the front page now, you'll find a couple of things. In the middle is the "Top News", and on the right, a list that displays the top news, ordering them from the most diggs on top, to the least on the bottom. Since the "Upgrade" to v4, the front page consisted of articles auto-submitted by the websites themselves. For the first few days, the front page was covered in articles auto-submitted by Mashables, Techcrunch, Engadget, and a few others. But lately, the users of digg, in retaliation to this complete change that contradicts the original nature of the website, have started to fight back by submitting and digging news articles from a rival site, Reddit.

Reddit is similar to Digg, save for the eyesore of a layout. Users can submit articles or comments and have the community comment on it. The community, much like Digg's, often provides thoughtful discussions about the original poster's message, article, or picture.

If you look on the right side, you'll notice that the top-dugg articles have around 3700-4700 diggs. If you look a bit closer... All of these articles are actually from Reddit. But note that the link on Digg does not link to the actual article/image that was posted on Reddit first, it actually links to the Reddit page where that article/image was submitted!

If you look through any of the comments on the Digg article pages, you'll notice how seemingly every user has a few choice words for Kevin Rose, the CEO of Digg.

As Digg crumbles (though perhaps there's a chance it can redeem itself if it changes back at all), many users have been migrating to Reddit. The Reddit front page has seen many posts welcoming the ex-Digg users, some friendly, some... Well, not so friendly.

Anyways, the internet is serious business. It always has been, and will continue to be so. At this point, I'm only checking up on Digg every now and then to see how it's doing. But from now on, I'll get my news and my lulz from Reddit.

A Frustrating Day in Winnipeg - The Search for the INQ Chat 3G

2010-08-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

Well, the time to move out is coming up fast! I'm heading off to Waterloo, a city about an hour away from Toronto, to study Computer Science and Math at the University of Waterloo. I've been (slowly) making the grueling preparations and such for the long drive out there, but I've got a loooot more to do yet.

One thing that I had to do was figure out my cellphone situation. I'm currently on a 3-year contract with MTS (AUGH), but since I'm moving and my parents won't need the phone, I'll be trading the contract off to a friend. Since I'll need a phone, I've started looking up all of the different companies I could go with. While I'd love to get an iPhone or an Android phone like the Nexus One or the Droid X, I figured it would be better to save a bit of money and go with a simpler phone on Fido or Koodo.

I did some research on both companies, and found most of the phones that Fido were offering were fairly old and got pretty bad reviews. I began looking up some information on Koodo's phones, and found the INQ Chat 3G phone. It's been released in Europe for a while, and just recently came to Canada.

So, the quest to find a store in Manitoba that could set me up with a Koodo plan with an INQ Chat 3G phone that would seamlessly work in Ontario... began!

I looked around Best Buy's website, and found a couple of ads for the same phone I've been looking for. The same day, I found an ad in a Wal-Mart flyer advertising the phone as well. With plans already established to do some school supply shopping in Winnipeg, the Best Buy and Wal-Mart cellphone areas were added to our destination list!

We walked into Best Buy and headed straight towards the cellphone section. I asked them about the phone, and at first they had no idea what I was talking about. I pointed to the four TVs set up along the wall that was playing an ad for the phone. The girl explained to me that they don't carry the phone because the INQ Chat 3G uses a system that is incompatible with the networks available in Manitoba. Disappointed, we headed off to Wal-Mart.

In Wal-Mart, the same thing happened. I asked them about the phone, and they mentioned it not working in Manitoba, so they don't sell it.

I understand that it's easier for a company to use the same advertisements across all of their stores than to use unique advertisements, but I don't understand how a whole province can advertise a phone that is completely incompatible with it's entire system. A bit of fine print or something would have helped nicely.

In the end, we decided that I would pick up a new phone in Ontario on the day I move in (as if it wasn't hectic enough). Thanks Manitoba. You're a good ol' pal!

My first post!

2010-08-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

Whew! Now that I've got my blog set up, let's see where it all goes! As my first post, I'll simply link to an interesting video I found today on the ol' YouTube.

Poor Emma learns the lessons of life the hard way. From the young age of six, the harsh world of commercialism looms above. Here's hoping you get a bigger pool someday, Emma, you deserve it. Fight the man, Emma. You'll only find that as you grow older the boxes only get bigger and flashier, yet the pools seem to become smaller and smaller.

I myself am not a swimmer type of person, but regardless.