Solonor's Inkwell

HurricAid

If you want to know what’s really happening in New Orleans from the perspective of folks on the ground (or 27 stories up, as it were), Wired had a story yesterday about a group of employees of Zipa who are holed up in their data center. They have been blogging the tragedy as it has unfurled since right after Katrina hit. It’s unbelievable stuff.

http://mgno.com/

So, Google Talk is all the buzz. Already, the geeky amongst us are scratching their heads and going, “So what?”

It’s a chat client. Big whoop. It doesn’t do anything any other chat client doesn’t already do. In fact, the only three things it does are IM, voice chat and hook into e-mail. And it’s so Google-y plain looking!

The only people you can talk to are other Google Talkers. Any geek knows that if you have more than one set of chatty friends on the internets, half are going to be on AIM, half are going to be on Yahoo, and half are going to be on MSN. You need something like Trillian to tie them all together.

However, I think you have to remember the target audience. It’s not the geeks. It’s the masses. Google is out to kill AIM, MSN and Yahoo. Does Google Talk do more than Trillian? No. Can you already IM, voice chat, and e-mail with all the others? Yes. But this thing is waaaaay easier to install, setup and use than any of them, and it’s a damn sight nicer to your PC than the clients from the big boys. All I had to do to start talking with Brian last night was click a button. No complicated mic setup. No IP addresses to configure. Just instant talk.

If I had to recommend a chat client for grandma*, this would be it.

Note: The “grandma” line has nothing to do with the fact that I also chatted with Michele, who’s turning 43 today. Really. *snicker*

Must I do everything Michele tells me? Yeah, ‘fraid so. It’s a weird habit.

The latest meme thang going around is to list off five of your quirks, idiosyncrasies and weird habits. I really had to dig deep for this, because I am so damned normal, but here goes.

1. It doesn’t matter that it’s 100-degrees, I cannot sleep uncovered and without the blankets around my neck. Vampires, you know.

   Why having a blanket around your neck (especially since it’s not laced with garlic) would give a vampire pause, I’m not sure. It’s probably the snoring that keeps them away, after all.

2. I cannot stand the thought of a knife or a razor slicing skin (I almost fainted just typing that).

   I can watch gorey movies with exploding body parts, heads getting chopped off, bullets tearing holes in people, limbs being severed (“Look, you stupid bastard, you’ve got no arms left!”), but even the thought of slicing gives me the creeps.

   I have to leave the room during doctor shows whenever there’s an injection being administered, as well.

3. I can’t stand listening to a CD with just one artist on it.

   Unless it’s a great album that you can’t break up (like Dark Side of the Moon or Days of Future Passed), I must have either a various artists CD or at least have it randomized. If there’s a CD changer, it must be fully loaded and on random.

   You don’t want to ride in the car with me if you want to listen to the same radio station for the whole trip, either. It ain’t gonna happen. It changes after every song. Always.

4. I have this weird thing about writing (and talking) in parentheses.

   If you read this blog for any length of time (seek help!), then you may have noticed that one. But it’s not just when I write. I talk like that, too! I can’t just tell someone a fact. I have to twist and turn through the whole backstory (sometimes taking diversions that have a tenuous connection to the tale I’m spinning) and make it a punch line. (My voice changes tone when I go into parenthesis mode, too.) It takes me five times longer to tell people things than it should.

   I pity anyone stuck in a burning building if I am the one that has to run around and tell them to get out.

5. .sdrakcab epyt ot ekil I

   If you get on IM with me, I will eventually try to have a backwards conversation with you to see what you’re made of. My brain is wired such that I have no problem typing backwards in live chat. I don’t know why. I can do it word-by-word or with whole sentences.

   So far, I’ve only found three people who have a clue what I’m doing and can do it themselves: Sgt. Grump, Bran and Natalie (though she’s not very good at it).

   .em naht deriw yldriew erom s’eh esuaceb, ti ta ssa ym skcik pmurG

Well, there’s my freaky list. Where’s yours, ya nutjob?

UPDATE: Apparently, I also play with my hair and cannot sneeze without making a noise that sounds like oriental jibberish at the end. And thanks to this post (and my big-mouthed “I can’t think of any quirks” statement), every habit I have is now being pointed out by my loving spouse…