I’m glad I watched The West Wing long before I saw Babylon 5’s The River of Souls. I’d have never made it through WW without cracking up at inappropriate moments if it went the other way around.
Category: General
BSG Series Finale
I’ve just finished watching the Series Finale of Battlestar Galactica. There are no spoilers here, and I’ll save my opinions on the ending for those who have seen it and are interested in hearing about it. No, what I’m writing to talk about today is an unfortunate reaction to the close of the show. Ok, not jsut to this show, but to any long running TV series, set of books, or other extended storytelling universe. Inevitably, when planned out, and well executed, the ending to a story like this leaves me with a sense of completion, a sense of ending, a sense of finality. It could be the closing credits for the last time, the closing of the back cover, whatever, but it is done. This is a feeling I don’t get if the story is short (most movies), ends unplanned (prematurely canceled TV shows, some books), or is open ended enough that there is clear unfinished material.
It can be a nice feeling, to have this sense of resolution (satisfied or unsatisfied though I may be). I sit and enjoy the resolution. And then I’m faced with the abrupt and harsh reality that in life we don’t have resolution. We have to get up off the couch and keep going with our day, because there’s always the next thing to be done, the next day to greet, the next chapter to begin. This is simultaneously a buzzkill and a refresher. It’s rather annoying, actually.
Facebook, ToS, recap
If you haven’t already heard, Facebook just changed its Terms of Service, and not in your favor. To recap and review:
- CNet discusses the changes made
- Amanda French compares ToS from several major sites, and finds FB to be overreaching
- Digital Natives agrees, but also points out that it won’t make a lot of difference
My reaction: I sure hope FB changes its mind and comes more back in line with common practice. These days no one reads the ToS any more than they read the EULA, and although legally millions of people have just given up ownership rights, they don’t know it, probably won’t know it, and will probably be very peeved when (if, I suppose) FB starts doing things with their info. I’m not sure why FB went this far with the ToS, but it has to either be for legal protection or for further data mining and potential new streams of revenue.
The Tao Of Backup
This site (http://www.taobackup.com/index.html) was originally written to promote software that hasn’t existed for a decade or so, but the lessons are just as timely now as then. It does a nice job of summarizing all the principles of backing up data. I’ll admit, I don’t follow all of them, but I’ve got most of them down…