If you see a chair like this on the sidewalk, grab it! Inspired by the culture of “curb-mining” (finding cool things on the sidewalk and bringing it home with you), Soho furniture store Blu Dot began an experiment to track the journey of these sidewalk treasures. Beginning today, 25 of these chairs will be placed all over NYC, up for grabs for whomever spots it first. Many of these chairs will be GPS-equipped so we can all keep track of where they are and where they ultimately end up. The chairs’ journeys will be updated on the website and on Twitter.
Maybe following the travel patterns of a piece of furniture doesn’t sound appealing to you, but this whole experiment will culminate in a documentary featuring the chairs’ final owners, set to be released during Blu Dot’s one-year anniversary of its Soho store opening.
Personally, I think this is a classier way to get on camera than The Real World or The Bachelor. But then again, I also have a weird fascination with furniture…
You know how some people you follow on Twitter seem to forget that their posts are public? And sometime it’s just a little TMI? No one really needs to know about the details of your love life, however steamy or dull, so save the drama for yo’ mama… or for Relatious.
This new micro-blogging site is dedicated solely to relationships and love connections. Users have 400 characters to write about their triumphs and mishaps or ask for advice from fellow users. Like Facebook and many other community-based websites, each post can be “liked” and commented on by others.
The concept and application of Relatious is reminiscent of Yahoo! Answers + texts from last night, with a sprinkle of Craigslist’s Missed Connections. It gives readers a voyeuristic look at the scandalous lives of others, providing a fix of relationship gossip for us to live vicariously through (or to make us feel slightly better about our own love lives). Howerver, like TFLN, it reeks a little of facetiousness; some posts are surely made up or highly exaggerated. I do feel bad for those who attempt to use this website for relationship advice, as it doesn’t really seem other users are taking their questions seriously and often give sarcastic, rude responses.
On the other hand, at least these people won’t be clogging up with my Twitter stream.
Apparently there are still people who haven’t joined Facebook or Twitter or MySpace, and they’re not all necessarily century-old technophobes like my parents. The Washington Post published an article about social networking refuseniks, people in their 20s and early 30s who just refuse (refusenik = refuse + beatnik, get it?!) to join any of these digital communication websites. They truly are in the minority as a study showed about 85 percent of all Internet users between the ages of 18 and 34 visited Facebook, MySpace or Twitter in August.
Of course, these refuseniks cite reasons like “Oh, I like my privacy” or “I can focus on things I really care about,” but let’s face it, these kids miss out on a lot. To name a few, you can’t see embarrassing pictures from the pub crawl last weekend, you don’t get to know exactly which one of your friends is in the bathroom/work/bar at any given time and, most importantly, you don’t get invites to all the cool, ragin’ parties (and then you miss out on seeing the pictures of the parties you weren’t invited to…it’s a vicious cycle, really).
But maybe these kids do have the right idea. Perhaps, in the semi-words of one Janis Ian, [Facebook] is a life-ruiner; it ruins people’s lives. Sometimes Facebook gets too complicated, drama gets started over something trivial and people can break up. But where would we be without status updates and wall posts? It’s really just a toss-up.
It’s like, well…um…it kinda sorts your…um, it’s just REALLY COOL and I need it NOW.
That’s pretty much the conversation I’ve been having regarding Google Wave. I don’t really know what exactly it does, but it’s from Google, so it must be great, right? Well, a new website has been launched, pitting Google Wave against other difficult-to-understand topics.
As fun as this may be (voting is fun!), the interesting tidbit is that it seems this website was created by a Facebook employee, clearly with a negative view of Google Wave. Is it jealousy? Is this beginning of another internet turf war? Will we be seeing some sort of integration of this new service into Facebook (à la the Twitter-standard @replies in the statuses)? Oh Mark Z, quel scandalous.
Need to find out if your date is a crazy or a creep? Now there’s an app for that. I’m not sure if blind dates still happen, but if you find yourself in such a situation, don’t be caught unawares! Assuming you have one piece of data, such as a name, e-mail, or phone number, Date Check from Intelius can give you a whole range of information on your suitor.
Features start at the very basic end (showing horoscopes and calculating astrological compatibility), going to the mid-range crazy (checking for the names and ages of everyone living at the subject’s residence), to full-blown psycho (with the Sleaze Detector and Net Worth features). Sleaze Detector warns you of any criminal convictions, felonies or misdemeanors (um, hello, bad boys!) and Net Worth (my personal favorite) tells you all about his/her property, because obviously the square footage and assessed property value are excellent indicators of romantic suitability. Why stop there, Net Worth? What about investment portfolios, savings accounts, and maybe inheritances, too?
The app itself is free, but pulling the information is not. But who can put a price on a possible love match? I’m eager to see how well this app fares, given that the Offender Locator app was such a hit. Caveat emptor: sometimes it’s better not to Google before your date.
![Apparently there are still people who haven’t joined Facebook or Twitter or MySpace, and they’re not all necessarily century-old technophobes like my parents. The Washington Post published an article about social networking refuseniks, people in their 20s and early 30s who just refuse (refusenik = refuse + beatnik, get it?!) to join any of these digital communication websites. They truly are in the minority as a study showed about 85 percent of all Internet users between the ages of 18 and 34 visited Facebook, MySpace or Twitter in August.
Of course, these refuseniks cite reasons like “Oh, I like my privacy” or “I can focus on things I really care about,” but let’s face it, these kids miss out on a lot. To name a few, you can’t see embarrassing pictures from the pub crawl last weekend, you don’t get to know exactly which one of your friends is in the bathroom/work/bar at any given time and, most importantly, you don’t get invites to all the cool, ragin’ parties (and then you miss out on seeing the pictures of the parties you weren’t invited to…it’s a vicious cycle, really).
But maybe these kids do have the right idea. Perhaps, in the semi-words of one Janis Ian, [Facebook] is a life-ruiner; it ruins people’s lives. Sometimes Facebook gets too complicated, drama gets started over something trivial and people can break up. But where would we be without status updates and wall posts? It’s really just a toss-up.
-Kelly](http://13.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_krk9gwj4gL1qznz4co1_500.jpg)
