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From the company that inspired a South Florida hardcore band in the mid-90s to write a song titled “America on line” summing up the pain of using and being used by said online service proclaimed, “…there’s a difference between using and being used, you’re being abused…” comes the new America Online.
Since 2006 AOL has been a free service. No longer requiring the $24 each month for unlimited service the once dial-up ISP giant has been struggling to tread water with concrete shoes made by Google, Myspace, Yahoo and other innovating industry behemoths.
Before Myspace profiles and Facebook poking there was AOL Instant-messaging (still used) and chatrooms that owned the 90s.
After an innovation hiatus, the company is making sub-headlines again by introducing its first made for Mac OS application in years called AOL Desktop that features MapQuest integration that is apparently ready for mobile use and may soon include GPS for AIM users to find each other. Could be exciting if Google doesn’t beat them to it.
Finally, AOL has made itself a partner in the NBC/Fox venture called Hulu. You may have heard the sad news about Apple and NBC not getting along on with an iTunes contract. Hulu is going to essentially be to iTunes what the Zune is to the iPod. But either way, AOL is making press releases and innovation on any scale is good for everybody.
Th3 m3mb3rs 0f th3 ML4 l0s3 sl33p 0v3r 1t, k1ds c0uld g3t *RS1* d01ng 1t, 4nd n00bs 3y3rywh3re g3t pwn3d by 1t. 1s th3 wr1tt3n l4ngu4g3 dy1ng? 0r tr4nsf0rm1ng? Wh4t 1s 0ur d3st1ny? D03s L33t Sp34k d3f1n3 us 4s w3 m0rph 1nt0 sup3r hum4n b31ngs wh0 suff3r fr0m 4 c0ll3ct1v3 4tt3nt10n d3f1c1t d1s0rd3r th4t sp4wn3d fr0m 4 v1rus th4t 0r1g1n4lly 1nh4b1t3d th3 m0th3rb04rds 0f 0ur W1nd0ws 95 b0x3s 4nd h4s n0w s0ught r3fug3 1n hum4n t1ssu3?
R3m3mb3r wh3n 4ll th3r3 w4s t0 f34r w4s Sh0rth4nd? 1t w4s 31th3r 1nv3nt3d by 4l13ns 0r m0nks wh0 h4d n3v3r typ3d 4 c0nv3rs4t10n 0n 4 d3v1c3 1nt3nd3d t0 sp34k 1nt0 0r f0r th4t m4tt3r t4lk3d sh1t t0 4n0th3r pl4y3r 0n W0rld 0f W4rcr4ft.
Wh3n th3 l4ngu4g3 4p0c4lyps3 c0m3s, d0n’t s4y 1 d1dn’t w4rn y0u!
The members of the MLA lose sleep over it, kids could get *RSI* doing it, and all your english are belong to us. Is the written language dying? or transforming? What is our destiny? Does Leet Speak define us as we morph into super human beings who suffer from a collective attention deficit disorder that spawned from a virus that originally inhabited the motherboards of our Windows 95 boxes and has now sought refuge in human tissue?
Remember when all there was to fear was Shorthand? It was either invented by aliens or monks who had never typed a conversation on a device intended to speak into or for that matter talked shit to another player on World of Warcraft.
When the language apocalypse comes, don’t say I didn’t warn you!
For you gentle people that read green blogs like Treehugger, magazines like Dwell, or liberal online newspapers such as the New York Times you’ve probably read an article or two about prefabricated homes. First off, these aren’t anything like your grandpappy’s mobile home.
In a decade where McMansions have reigned claim to suburbia, the prefab home is making itself more noticeable and available than it has been since after the second world war when hundreds of dozens dotted American cities.
There’s really no doubt that the popularity of these tiny “green” homes will climb because of several obvious reasons: Enter a new generation of young adults that DISLIKE the corporate MTV; the mess of advertising that litters everything from sidewalks to myspace; the wars fought over a non-renewable resource and the oversized road-hogging grocery-carrying vessels that use it; and the logic behind urban sprawl.
A prefab home is the future because its healthier, safer, and cleaner for both its occupants: human and nature. These homes can be placed on stilts hovering over 5 acres of swamp, forest, or prairie or nestled on the roof of a six-floor walkup in Chinatown. They’re flexible, customizable, and zen. What more could you want? Namaste peeps.
Let’s step away from technology and communication for just one story and stick our noses back into global warming. Americans (as seen on TV!) are pretty notorious for enjoying big burgers (guilty), living in huge McMansions, vegging out in front of enormous televisions, and peddling gigantic gas guzzlers around town. So let’s talk about transportation… stateside.
Here you’ve got your ULEVs (Ultra-Low Emission Vehicles), SULEVs (Super Ultra…), and the PZEVs (Partial Zero Emissions Vehicles). At least that’s what the stickers on the windows of new cars claim. And sure, there’s other acronyms driving around but the only ZEVs I’ve seen are the two-wheeled kind locked to lamp posts.
It used to be that the American car manufacturers were pretty content ignoring the environmental “hearsay” and busy building bigger SUVs and wider cars with more cup holders but just recently trends are finally starting to reflect the rest of the world. While little is being done to revolutionize the automobiles coming out of Detroit, the Big Three (GM, Ford, Chrysler) have started to wise up their advertising. They’ve put a new name on E85 fuel calling it “Flex Fuel” which has been at gas stations sprinkled all over the western half of the U.S. for years. I haven’t found any stats indicating otherwise but I’m pretty certain automobiles have been able to run on E85 since the dawn of forever.
Read this: Flex Fuel vs. Diesel vs. Hybrid
Before this turns into a complete condemnation of American automobiles let me segue by suggesting the obvious–we need better transportation solutions. Technology in every other industry that doesn’t rely on the price and availability of petroleum progresses infinitely faster. Meanwhile the average MPG on automobiles in the last 10 years has increased at a truly pathetic pace.
Americans (and citizens of the globe!) shouldn’t be so concerned about finding alternative fuels but rather finding alternatives to traveling altogether. For most of us, its too soon to know what’s going to happen, but keep an eye and an ear out and we’ll start to understand our future together a little bit better.
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