And so now I’m on Facebook

Having staved it off for years I’ve finally joined Facebook. Here are a few initial thoughts:

I was disappointed that the only authentication method offered was old fashioned passwords. We are still as an industry struggling with making the leap to a better means. And it’s not like there are none out there. OpenID and Infocards can no longer be considered new. A question for a future blog entry might be why these technologies are not succeeding. Indeed just this week SlashDot.Org ran a story about how OpenID is losing ground.

There is a whole different set of social rules on Facebook, and I don’t know what they are. For instance:

One of my friends wanted to add detail about my previous employment experience, which is something I wasn’t prepared to do myself. And so I refused. Have I offended him? I don’t know.
My initial “note” indicated that I don’t do much with FaceBook, and that people should see my blog. This elicited a long discussion, not involving me. If I don’t reply, have I offended?

Why is Facebook even necessary? Isn’t this what we want the Internet to be in general? Why should this form of communication be limited to one site? For one, people are tired of spam on the Internet and so they are looking for an email replacement. Beyond that, having one’s own web server is a royal pain in the ass. But moreover, the comment I got more than once was that a blog is isolating. Why is that? What makes this blog isolating as compared to Facebook?

Yet Another Book Review: The Official Filthy Rich Handbook

I like a book that starts out in the following way:

Remember when having a couple of million dollars meant something? Neither do we.

Thus begins The Official Filthy Rich Handbook (How the other .0001% lives), by Christopher Tennant. Very few of us have been in the position of having to decide which island to buy, or how to throw an over-the-top society party. And with the economy in the dumper, fewer of us are likely to get there any time soon, but when we do, this is the book to have. It includes all sorts of fun directories, like private clubs, personal travel management, and realtors. While not every restaurant mentioned is out of reach of us mere mortals- I have been to Il Fornaio often, and it is very affordable to working people – certainly I look forward to the day when I get to decorate my first private jet. Did you know that Tom Cruise has a hot tub in his? Talk about physics challenges.

Perhaps the best way to describe this book is to borrow from Tom Wolfe who has a splash on the back cover:

Reading this handbook is like eating 12 baked Alaskas in a row…

Ah glutony! Those looking for charity should look elsewhere.

Seen on a Chilis check

“No Purchase Necessary.”

Out of the kindness of my heart, I purchased the meal anyway.

(Enter a sweepstakes for providing customer feedback.)

Happy New Year!

Happy 2009, Everyone! We brought in the new year with coverage of Times Square by NBC. After having mentioned in a previous post how we would have a leap second this year, NBC in fact brought it up, and then didn’t show the clock going to 23:59:60. Booo!!!

I wish you and yours a much happier and a healthy 2009! Many changes are coming to all of our lives. There will be a new administration in the White House, and with it new priorities, and perhaps a new discussion about how we can all make our lives better.

Maybe we will also see new inventions, and the rise of new artists. We will see the new Harry Potter movie, with any luck. And we’ll see new places. Although who knows where, just yet.

In Memory: Malvina Douglas

My great aunt died yesterday at 1:00am localtime. Born Malvina Simon, my aunt Mal was a force to be reckoned with. A brilliant woman, she met her husband Kenneth at the University of Chicago, and it was love at first sight. He was a well regarded translator of books and poetry critic.

They married relatively late in life, and did not have chidren. This turned out to be somewhat fortunate, as he was killed in a freak accident, when a curtain rod fell from an apartment in New York City, where they lived. Even more freakish, the curtain rod belonged to former governor Averell Hariman. (On that same day, my younger sister was running a high temperature, and my next door neighbor had just broken my brother’s arm. It was a truly freakish day.)

My aunt settled into a 5th avenue apartment on Museum Mile, after having convalesced at the home of friends in England. In a way, tragedy followed her life. In the early 1980s, her younger brother had a stroke, and it fell to her to manage his care. Even in this a story can be told. Malvina found a caregiver who was remarkable, and dealt with my great uncle’s every need. This woman, Priscilla, passed away from a long illness on the same day her charge died.

She too suffered from ailments. Her life was probably shortened by contaminated drug packaging. But even then she took the time to write about her brother and Priscilla.

Malvina is survived by a three nephews, a niece, two great nephews, two great nieces, and her older brother, my grandfather.

We will all miss her.