Posted on April 9, 2012 by achernow
Ok. So I’m sure you’ve seen the news that Facebook is buying Instagram for a Billion dollars. And I’m sure, if you spend any time on the internet, you’ve seen people freaking out over the fact. People: You need to calm down. Facebook is no worse than say, your ISP.
The people who are freaking out about this seem to be the same sorts of people that have no problem giving out their personal information to join the rewards card club at the local supermarket, or to fill out a survey to get a free drink from Starbucks, or to join Twitter. These are also, probably, people who use Gmail and leave themselves logged in while searching for things on Google. Guess what: I bet Google knows more about you than Facebook does.
Facebook is not evil. The purchase of Instagram is not bad for users. (Hell, I bet a bunch of you are like me and already share your pictures to Facebook.) This is not going to create some sort of temporal privacy vacuum.
So calm down, take a breath, and stop freaking out over this. Actually, I have a better idea. If you want to freak out about something, how about freaking out about the war on women’s rights that the GOP is waging right now.
Tags: facebook, freakout, instagram, waronwomen
Posted on February 7, 2012 by achernow
This was originally published on my Google+ Profile.
I hate to say this to my friends in traditional media. We’re becoming irrelevant. Sure we still have the brand power of a television newsroom, and there are still a lot of newspapers out there who are doing the investigative pieces we just don’t have the room, time, or resources to do. But by-in-large, we’re becoming irrelevant in the world of digital journalism.
I submit into evidence, this New York Times article on BuzzFeed. Online media, not a traditional outlet, broke the story of McCain’s endorsement. A few years ago, heck, even a year ago, that would almost be unheard of. It would have been the AP, or ABC/CBS/CNN/NBC, or the Washington Post/New York Times/Chicago Tribune who would have broken the news. And honestly, I suspect that the student website at VA Tech may have actually broken the story, and that Joe Paterno had actually died, and that the family covered that up until the morning, when traditional media would have been staffed up and able to get the word out.
The “TL;DR” of this is: It’s only a matter of time before sites like BuzzFeed and HuffPo start breaking things more often, pushing us even further into the background.
This is my opinion. It in no way reflects the opinion of the newsroom I work for.
Tags: Commentary, media, politics
Posted on January 17, 2012 by achernow
So after finding out that I’m once again in a market without any of the big donut chains, I turned to Twitter to see if I could find a few recommendations on some local donut places. Oh boy! I got a few and it looks like some good ones too.
See… I’m a donut fan. I’m betting a bunch of you are now picturing Homer Simpson. I’m NOT Homer Simpson, trust me. But I do like a good donut. I got spoiled growing up, while we had the 2 big chains (Dunkin’ Donut and Krispy Kreme) we also had this awesome little place called Spunky Dunkers Donuts in Palatine. It had originally been a Mr. Donut but when Mr. Donut folded the local owners went off on their own rather than closing the donut place. I could spend a bit of time talking about them, but this is about finding donuts in the Twin Cities.
So let’s get eating!!!
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