EricaJoy

Message to Web Thingy Developers: I am a lazy bastard

This post is dedicated to the hard working developers behind whoisi.com, profilactic.com, FriendFeed.com (to whom I give special thanks for providing distractions for me daily), and all the other social aggregators out there. I do this out of love.

Dave Winer just made a post about whoisi.com, singing its praises and awesomeness.

I checked out the site. Cute, another follow this person aggregator. Searched for my “EricaJoy” (if I learned anything at Google, it is branding) and found nothing. Went through the steps to add myself (for uh testing purposes) by adding the site I own (heh, you’re reading it) and waited for the magic.

Nothing happened.

I clicked the “Add another site button” and waited for more magic.

Still none.

I then screamed at my computer (I do that, don’t you?) and closed the site.

What was the cause of my frustration? The fact that here is Yet Another Social Aggregator that wants me to add info into it instead of being smart and finding my info that I’ve already put on the internet eleventyhundred times.

>>>WEB THINGY DEVELOPERS READ ME<<<*

The Social Graph API is your friend. It is my friend. It is smart, charming, sexy, and the life of any party. Other API’s are jealous of it. Here’s what it does:

With the Social Graph API, developers can now utilize public connections their users have already created in other web services. It makes information about public connections between people easily available and useful.

Oh ho, what was that? Did that little block quote just say it can use the public connections I’ve already created on other sites to help figure out  “who is I” (see what I did there)?

Let’s see what the social graph API knows about me:

I’ll be damned, look at that. Based off one URL, 6 of my other identities have been discovered.

Lets make like some hypothetically very well done site has used this API and presented me with these 6 sites saying something to the effect of “Hey thanks for adding ericabaker.com, these look like they might be you too. Are they?” to which I respond “Why yes they are, thank you for asking,” by clicking on every single one of them to add to the data about me. Now the site knows that These Sites Are EricaJoy’s and can do another API query to find even more sites that belong to me.

Oh snap. Look at all my identities out there for some smart web site to associate with me. Where is my Staples easy button when I need to press it?

Executive Summary:

I am lazy. Use the Social Graph API instead of asking me over and over and fricking over again where all my profiles are.

*Sorry, that was obnoxious. But effective, no?

Posted in Google, internet, rant, social networking |

Movin’ on up…err…across

Today we had the grand opening of our Chelsea Market space which is <tour guide>conveniently located right across the street from the Google office on 8th avenue</tour guide>. Senator Charles Schumer did the ribbon cutting along with Sergey Brin, Craig Neville-Manning, and a room full of Googler’s (including yours truly).

Getting the IT stuff up and going in our Chelsea Market office has been the source of many of my meetings for the past eleventy months so I’m happy to see it finally complete. Congrats to everyone involved in making this space happen!

(Pics after the jump)
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Google, random |

I Wasn’t Always Like This

This may come as some surprise to you but the woman (geez, when did I become a woman) that you all know and love *ahem* has been through quite a few iterations. There was the tomboy revision, the “athlete” (I use that term very loosely) revision, and the tough chick revision (now coming to a close), with a few other short lived revisions in between. However, before the revisions, there was the core code; bookworm and computer lover.

For the last 8 or 9 years, the computer lover has been at the forefront. I’ve immersed myself in technology, gadgets, and the internet and had a blast of a time doing it, meeting some people and influencing some lives along the way. However, true immersion comes at the cost of losing a bit of ones self and for sure and certain, I lost the bookworm. Oh, I’d listen to my audiobooks and read the random best seller I picked up in the airport but it wasn’t the same. When I was a real bookworm, my library card showed frequent stamps since I was checking out books at least once a week, often twice a week. I used to wake up dead tired in the morning for school because I’d stayed up until 2 am reading a book under the covers. There was a point in my life where I used to get yelled at by my mom for using all the hot water after losing track of time while reading a book in the shower.

Anyway, it seemed all that faded away as I became more engrossed with computing and the intarwebs.

Until this evening.

Tonight I got on the train to come home at about 8:30pm (post TGIAF shenanigans kept me at the office until that hour). I opened my Kindle cover, did the ALT+Home thing (that still seems so awkward) and continued where I’d left off in my book. I’d been reading that book while I was walking the halls at work, on the train ride to work, sitting in the DMV, and on the train ride to the DMV. When I got home around 9pm, I continued reading my book while laying on my bed with a cool breeze coming through the window. Aside from the sound of the fan oscillating, the occasional car door slamming, and the “ice cream” (I use that term loosely as well) man, there were no other sounds. When I got up to take a biobreak, I checked the clock on my cable box in the living room and realized 3 hours had passed.

Let me explain the gravity of that. I got home and didn’t turn on or touch a computer for 3 hours. If you know me well, you know this is unheard of. The last time I did that was the night…wait I actually don’t remember the last time I did that. Tonight though, I sat back, relaxed, and immersed myself in a book instead of a computer for 3 hours. Come to think of it, I’ve been spending a lot more time reading and a lot less time stressing or geeking out. I’ve bought and read 3 books in the last few weeks because its been so easy to do so. Finish one book, connect to the store, buy another book. Sure, I haven’t returned to my old book devouring pace but I can feel that part of myself coming back out and until 45 minutes ago, I was starting to forget that part of me even existed.

Thanks for that Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and whomever else was behind the Kindle.

Posted in Kindle, my life, personal |