Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v4

Category: Computers

  • Android app updates

    An Android app I needed to use refused to allow me into it unless I updated it. BONUS: Every time I hit the update button, it took me to the iTunes Store. So, I went to the Google Play Store. It said I had the current version. So, I visited the store from a laptop…

  • 15 days of fame

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    Looks like the storm of visitors to this blog looking for information on that fake video circulating Facebook is over. Most of the searches were for the hostname of the server which I happened to mention in the post. Which, I guess put me to the top of the search results. One individual found me…

  • A Dunbar model in social media

    This made me wonder about the possibilities of a better model. Fifteen years into the Facebook era, it i well established that people are not actually friends with the hundreds or thousands of Facebook friends they may have. They could not be if they tried. Research has found that there seems to be a limit…

  • Fb Messenger virus

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    Got a message from a coworker that suggested I was in a video. Naturally, I am supposed to click on it, but it felt wrong. A quick Duck Duck Go search revealed it to be a virus. If you think a virus was installed on your device, then my advice is to find a trusted…

  • Juggling Social Roles in Social Media

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    Sociology has a concept of us holding multiple social roles. At home, I am both a husband and a father. With relatives, I am a son, nephew, or cousin. At work, I am a supervisee, mentor, subject matter expert, or organization historian. Things get a bit more undefined out in the wider world, but I…

  • Micro Quorums

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    Listening to the Radiolab Bit Flip episode. If you haven’t listened, then you really should first.

  • Reward Tracking and Product Recalls

    Stores like for us as consumers to give them a customer ID to track what it is that we are buying. Many have phone number or a card or an email address. They use this information to track our purchases and personalize their nudges for us to buy products.  There is one way they might…

  • Friendship Placebo

    Social media plays with our minds in allowing us to stay connected to old friendships. We feel like we are maintaining the relationship. But, it lacks something. Social media tends to bring out our worst. We portray ourselves at our best. We compare our worst to others’ best. Assumptions, gossip, and negativity abound. It really…

  • Personalization modes

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    In shopping for Mother’s Day the algorithms now think I am female. Obviously, they took the items I looked at for this quest and incorporated them into my profile’s records and are basing new recommendations on them. They are fresher. And they have left over inventory they want to move. So, I get it. This…