Category: society and culture

This includes the social impact of entertainment, but not books, media, and TV shows reviews—that stuff should be in arts and letters.

Calling *professionals* who use Facebook

Inspired by Holly’s post, I was hoping you could help a friend out from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the only cool paper in Pittsburgh 😉

Can you speak to the changing demographic on Facebook — is that indeed the case? Are you seeing a changing demographic — why would the biz crowd be attracted to the Facebook? I’m looking for established professionals who use the tool for whatever reason — except keeping up with their college-age kid. People who’ve been turned on to the site since it went public.

Can you help me today before 3pm EST?

Please Contact Cori: cshropshire[at]post-gazette[dot]com

Thanks!

Posted on by tychay 0

Way to “PA”

Me: I mean I’m pretty shy—oh, don’t laugh, it’s true. Internally, I have to really force myself to talk to a new person. I just want to crawl into my hole.

H—: But I think you like to meet people.

Me: Especially at Caltech. You talk to a girl there are only two possibilities: 1) You talk to her with four other guys talking to her; or, 2) you talk to her for like ten seconds before four other guys come around to talk to her.

H—: Hahah. Well, you know what they say… “The odds are good when the goods are odd.”

Me: “The odds are good when the goods are odd?” Sounds like a poster advocating a Prince Albert.

Posted on by tychay 0

Plaxo is evil. Plaxo is spam.

Disclaimer: I worked as an engineer at Plaxo a long time ago (in internet years… in human years it was five months ago).

In October of last year, an engineering colleague asked me about this whole “Plaxo is evil. Plaxo is spam” thing. At the time I went in to a long boring lecture about Plaxo and privacy/security. (I don’t need to go into it here, you can read this to get a taste.)

After sitting through it, he asked me this simple question: “If you didn’t work for Plaxo, would you use it?”

I answered, “I’ll do you one better. I’m not going to be working for Plaxo much longer, and I’ll continue to use it after I leave.”

“Good enough for me.”

[The power of connections. The power of search. After the jump]Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 11

The Lunch 2.0 story so far

Lunch 20 @AOL.COM

LUNCH 20 @AOL.COM
AOL, Mountain View, California

Nikon D70, Nikkor 12-24mm f/4G
f/4 at 1/25 second, iso 500, 12mm (18mm)

Summer is here and Lunch 2.0 is starting up again. There are two events scheduled already, and from two of my favorite Web 2.0 startups to boot!

The first one will be at LinkedIn. Which is important because their founder is on the board of the company that pays my salary. We’re the second entry in their newly-born corporate blog! Next step: get Mario to blog about my LinkedIn Haikus (they really work, honest!).

The other one will Ning on June 14. Little known factoid: Ning was our very first Lunch 2.0, even if they didn’t know it. (Ahh, back in the good old days when Lunch 2.0 meant sneaking into a company’s cafeteria and sticking our Lunch 2.0 flag in the ground… or fork in their cake.)

IMG_0563.JPG by Mario Sundar

Gina Bianchini of Ning and Reid Hoffmann of LinkedIn at Web 2.0 Expo. Two people dear to my heart. And it’s not because they’re hosting Lunch 2.0.

Oh, who am I kidding. It is. We love you guys! 😀

The what and wherefore of lunch-two-point-oh

Lunch 2.0 is about participating in an interesting conversation over a free lunch.

If you are interested in being a diner, going to a Lunch 2.0 is really easy. Just say you’re going to attend and our hosts will deal with the fallout. 😀 Afterwards, write about it in your blog, post some photos, or produce a video. (Send us an e-mail so we can link it.) While that’s not a requirement, it’s that sort of buzz is what pays the bills when our hosts have to justify this craziness to their corporate overlords. Or, if you are a corporate overlord, host one yourself…

If you want to host a Lunch 2.0, it’s really easy to become an “eatery.” Just send Mark or me an e-mail. We really want to eat your lunch. Honest! Mark explained our philosophy best:

Lunch 2.0, much like Web 2.0, is all about being open. We welcome any companies that are interested in hosting Lunch 2.0 events 🙂

C’mon Lunch 2.0 has got to be hipper than that moleskine that you carry around to keep your lo-tech creds up.

Lunch 2.0: Taste the buzz.

Warning: A long and inconsistent story ahead

Speaking of waxing nostalgic, I think it’s about time I finally post this article about the Lunch 2.0 story. The first time I tried to write this was in response to a query by FutureWorks back in October of last year. The second was in February to celebrate the first anniversary of Lunch 2.0. This will be the third attempt, so it’ll be a long one…

It’s about time I got my story straight about this Lunch 2.0 thing (or at least, my lies consistent). What follows is the honest-to-God truth (uh, sort of).

[How we created Lunch 2.0: The True Hollywood Story after the jump]Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 27

A little twitter told me…

I removed this rant from my last entry.

<rant>

I like to say Web 2.0 is just Web 1.0 on the cheap. But that doesn’t mean we’re any less losers.

The only difference is instead of being about the New Economy, it’s about how the Old Media “just doesn’t get it.” And instead of talking about when our options are going to vest, we’re talking about what so-and-so had for lunch because of some Twitter SMS we got.

Fuck, we make fun of those people who pick up People while in line for the checkout stand, but at least it cost them nothing, unlike the $236.70 SMS charges we’ve racked up.

</rant>

Sometimes I think we deserve all the beatings we got in high school.

Posted on by tychay 4

Facebook @ SXSW

When did SXSW become the “It” conference? I remember when people in the Valley would say “I have to go to SXSW” followed by a sigh that reminded me of how I used to approach mowing the lawn.

First comes the music, then comes the money, then come the geeks? Or is this another excuse for LA to jet to TX for some real BBQ?

In any case, if you are there, you might want to attend the the Facebook party tonight. Apparently, like an acquaintance’s Burning Man tent, there’s going to be Red Bull on the house.

Be sure to register now to get the super secret location sent back to you. If you are bored and sober, ask the Facebook people what’s up with the FQL thing—all my mad, non-existant SQL skills transferred to an API? Or, why salt every request in the session with a ref counter provided on client side?

Be sure to get them good and drunk before doing so. The answers might be halfway interesting then. 😀

Posted on by tychay 1

More thoughts while waiting for my fast food

I’ve talked about this before, but since I’m on the move again, grocery shopping is out and fast food is back in. Here are three thoughts that have occurred to me while waiting for my order at the nearest three fast food joints:

When I was in college, a “Thirsty two ouncer” from AM/PM was a huge drink. Just now, at Carl’s Jr. I used a coupon for a free 32 oz. drink. I had to put a medium cap on it. I shudder to think what a large looks like.

When ordering the Sidekickers from Arby’s (Mozzarela Sticks with Marinara Sauce, Loaded Potato Bites with Cool Ranch Sour Cream, Onion Petals with Tangy Southwest Sauce, or Jalepeno Bites with Bronco Berry Sauce) you save a penny if you get two orders of the small instead of a single order of large. FYI, in all three cases, you get five in the small and ten in the large. I guess the penny is a “I’m-not-a-glutton” tax.

At McDonald’s you can save nine cents if you order a double cheeseburger without a patty instead of a cheeseburger directly. (Yes, that’s right: the double cheeseburger costs less than the cheeseburger.)Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 8