IM-tiquette
Oct 26, 2008 Instant Messaging
Instant messaging has grown in popularity greatly since its infancy. It started with chatrooms and IRC channels in the 80’s and has grown into a large business with almost every large company wanting a piece (and by that I mean each company is offering its own type of IM client and protocol). With every iteration, instant messaging clients have offered more and more features such as file transfers, voice chat, video calls, VoIP, etc.
Instant messaging has brought the world together and allowed people all over the world to communicate in real time without having to pick up the phone. While this is fine and dandy, one must keep in mind that certain etiquette rules apply to IM’s as well (just like with email and phone conversations).
wikiHow has a great article on How to Practice IM Etiquette. Among the tips listed:
- Read and Use status messages (there’s a reason developers allow us to set ourselves as “Busy” or “Away”)
- Use correct grammar (it’s so much easier to read and make sense of what you want when you follow this rule)
- Give time to respond (IM’s are semi-asynchronous. They’re more real time than email but only when the other person is there and can understand what you are saying.)
- datm (Don’t abbreviate too much)
Read the article and brush up on your IM-tiquette!
Tags: AIM, AOL, communication, Google, Google Talk, Gtalk, ICQ, IM, Instant Messaging, internet, MSN messenger
OSCAR: McMaster University’s way of upping the suckage
Oct 3, 2008 Bad Business
McMaster University uses a centralized database for all of its co-op, internship, part-time, full-time, etc. job postings. Companies and individuals from all walks of life post jobs to this job board in hopes of attracting McMaster students to their jobs. The database is used by many departments, including Engineering Co-op and Career Services on which I depend for finding co-op positions for next summer. This post is a tale of the frustration that is OSCAR (Online Student Career and Recruitment, the most lackluster, non-sensical job bank in the world.
Let’s start at the beginning. OSCAR’s URL is https://oscar.mcmaster.ca/mcauth. For most sites, just typing “oscar.mcmaster.ca” would be enough to take me to the right page. Not so for OSCAR:
Ok, maybe the problem is that I did not connect through HTTPS just plain old HTTP. Entering https://oscar.mcmaster.ca helps, somewhat. I now get a 404 page from IIS.
Finally, I type its full address https://oscar.mcmaster.ca/mcauth and SUCCESS! I’m in…
This may be an issue with how the subdomain is set up and not with OSCAR specifically, however it is still an annoyance. I’ve since bookmarked it so I don’t have to go through this experience again.
After logging in (which if you’re using Firefox version < 3.0 can be an adventure) I am ready to search for a co-op or internship position. According to the handbook on using OSCAR I received, I'm supposed to select both the Co-Op category and Internship category:
The search returns a WHOPPING 9 results!
I find it hard to believe that there are only 9 co-op/internship postings for the whole school. The [Change Criteria] link above the results tally allows me to go back and change the search parameters. If I click it, I’m presented with the same page as above and allowed to enter new parameters. I clicked it to double check the search I performed and it was as expected, the Co-op and Internship categories were selected.
Another feature of OSCAR is the ability to save searches for quick reference in the future. A few months ago I did a search for co-ops and internships and I saved it to my saved search list.
Clicking it yields 49 search results.
How is this possible? Different search criteria? Possibly. Let’s click the old [Change Criteria] to see what the parameters are:
Surprise, surprise, THEY ARE THE SAME!!!
How can this happen? How can it be that the SAME search parameters yield two VERY different results? What kind of system is this?
And what about the fact that, and I quote from the “OSCAR Student Guidelines”:
Using keywords will severely and falsely limit the number of jobs you will be able to see.
It’s this kind of thing that makes me wonder about people’s decision making abilities. How could the people in charge of Career Services have picked a system so inefficient and so difficult to use? It boggles the mind.
Significant moments in Internet history
Sep 28, 2008 News
The internet has been around from quite a while now, ArpaNet being it’s predecessor. It grew greatly during the 1990’s and has become a nexus of information offering up news, images, videos and connecting people and businesses all over the world.
CNET UK has put together a list of The 50 most significant moments of Internet history. It’s a really interesting read. I didn’t realize some of the sites I use so frequently are that young, or in some cases that old.
Some of the significant moments include:
- Flash 1.0 - December 1996 [almost 12 years old, wow!]
- the First Spam - May 1978
- IRC - August 1988 [I definitely did not know IRC was this old. I figured 10-12 years tops!]
- MP3 Patented - April 1989 [19 years of MP3s, if only the RIAA had known what this patent would bring about]
- YouTube switched on - February 2005 [Only 3 years? WOW! YouTube has become such a "staple" of the online experience]
Apart from the main list, they also have a few Notable Mentions for you to check out. Which ones surprised you the most?
Follow Eureka’s smartest home, SARAH on Twitter
Aug 13, 2008 TV Shows
I was watching last night’s episode of Eureka and noticed this:
It seems the SciFi channel has gone ahead and created a Twitter account for sheriff Carter’s house, SARAH (Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat).
I think it’s a great way for fans of the show (at least the more technogeek oriented ones) to interact with the show (sortof) and give their input. Plus, Twitter gets advertised and more people may join. Good on them if this is a marketing scheme. SARAH already has over 2,000 followers and is herself following over 800 people, with 1 favorite.
I’m following her, and you can too at http://twitter.com/_S_A_R_A_H_. While you’re at it, feel free to follow me as well http://twitter.com/FlyingDan.
Tags: internet, social networking, twitter, web 2.0