I’ve been contemplating my interaction with the internet lately. Here’s some ramblings:
Targetted Ads
Is there value to ads focused not just on where you are, but how you got there? If you provided the referer string your web site receives from visitors to Google (or some other advertising service), would the ads that appear on your site be context sensitive? Not just ads that appear because you came here to read a post on Satellite Radio — but because you came from a car customization web site to read a post on Satellite Radio. Seems to me the folks who sell custom car radios would value you more that way, than if you were just reading about car customization OR satellite radio.
Mobility
I love bloglines’ ability to shorten my trips to the web. They show me what’s new on my favorite sites so I don’t have to visit them and perhaps miss something important, because I’ve just viewed 20 other sites and don’t remember what was current on this one last time I saw it, a week ago.
But what I don’t like is that nobody does that with my email — I can’t combine my gmail, broome.us webmail, yahoo mail, isp mail, etc. into a single place online that’s accessible from anywhere (i.e., web-based) and stored encrypted so I can store it on a public server and nobody else can browse it – or throw advertisements at me based on the private information in it.
eMobius (www.emobius.com) might eventually get there, but that’s a long way off. Thunderbird (www.mozilla.com/products/thunderbird) has the spam/interface features I like, but doesn’t let you store your settings online – not that I know of, anyway. The idea here is to leave your email on its own server and just use some happy interface to filter spam on those email accounts, remember what’s been read, etc. The settings used by that interface get stored online, so you can catch up on your favorite info (rss, email, etc) from home or vacation without skipping a beat. You can download the interface to use wherever you are, or log in to a web-based version. Seems like someobody would’ve thought of that already.
LG 4015 – second thoughts
My new cell phone has some annoying behavior. The volume buttons are on the side, right where your thumb goes to have a conversation — which is good. It’s also right where your thumb goes when you pick it out of your pocket. It beeps every time the button is hit, even when the clamshell case is closed and it doesn’t actually do anything. This means your pocket constantly beeps when your car keys bump it during the walk through the office. Goofy.
No rifle for you! Come back, one year!
Had to buy a new fridge when the free one finally gave up the ghost about a month ago. That put a serious vacuum in the funds I was saving, hoping to buy the Browning A-bolt Hunter II rifle I’d been eyeing. Which is okay, really, since Ps’ Uncle Wayne just keeps saying “he doesn’t need a gun” – I can just borrow one of his when I go hunting with him in November. But it’s not the same as having your own, and getting comfortable with it at the range. I learned by shooting a 9mm handgun a few times that my aim needs some help. Maybe I can squeeze a .22 into the budget and get used to that.
Free to a good home: 2 dogs
This pains me, but my dogs and my daughter are incompatible. Both are great things by themselves, but when Sarah startled Maryn the other day, she got snapped at. Daughter stays, dogs must go. They’re wonderfully behaved, housebroken, sleep in portable metal crates, current on all their shots. If I like you, I’ll even give you the crates, the 40-pound bag of food I bought them most recently, all their toys, collars, leashes, etc. One stipulation – they have to go to the same home, and they need love. Maryn will track your hand down to get a pat on the head, if she can. I’ll miss that.