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Okay, a serious question for those of you on Facebook: is there anything which would get you to quit? And please believe me, I ask only out of sincere curiosity; if Facebook makes you happy then go right on using it, I’m not looking for material to start a “quit” campaign. You know me.

But I am curious, after reading the latest round of (to me) disturbing pronouncements about how Facebook intends to push users into more “sharing,” and expects to go right on doing so.

I mean, is there some point at which the company finally overreaches and pushes you away, some point at which Mark Zuckerberg sounds too sinister and megalomaniacal for you? Or is Facebook access like having a phone number for you, now, or like the internet itself, and the idea of voluntarilly pulling the plug one which you can’t even consider a practical question?

Meanwhiles, I feel like I could just re-post a lot of this right now; both the general feeling of “it’s all just coming unglued, isn’t it” and most of the details still apply. I’m starting to think that there’s another corallary to / problem with the old conventional wisdom of “don’t do anything unless there’s a crisis,” which is that unfortunately, once a crisis arrives, it becomes really really difficult to coordinate any kind of helpful response because there’s a fucking crisis screwing everything up.

I think we can remember this particular week, when we look back on the lengthy unfolding compound mess, as the week when Uncle Paul just kind of broke down for a moment and publicly sagged beneath the weight of despair.

Other notes… (more…)

They’re probably out there, but at the moment I can’t think of any better example of “failing upward” than that of Meg Whitman’s appointment as CEO of HP.

Of course, “HP” seems to be in a kind of death-spiral, so that’s a factor as well; this is probably an example of more than one farcical phenomenon. Including the revolving door between corporate America and politics, except that in this case neither Meg-a-millions nor Carlyfiornia Dreamin’ actually had political careers. Just failed attempts at them.

Even so, as a Republican politician, you can always rest assured that corporate America has you covered, with far better benefits than even those you’re tasked with taking away from everyone else. Get rejected by the voters and there will always be some nice fat corporate sinecure awaiting you, plus a “golden parachute” for when you screw up that, too. Apparently, in at least some cases, you don’t even need to hold office at all; just try your best and you can still hit the benefits jackpot, as Meg has just demonstrated.

All of which, of course, also illustrates the fact that contrary to much protest otherwise, successful results really aren’t considered a prerequisite for membership in our society’s rich-and-powerful “elite.” It’s entirely possibly to be a disastrously-incompetent nitwit, and prove it, and never be “moved down a division.”

Yet heaven forbid that we raise taxes on the wealthy. All the geniuses would run right off to Galt’s Gulch in protest and we’d be completely screwed without them, you know.

I’ve been around long enough to know that Microsoft has been lifting ideas from Apple since day one, basically. Nothing inherently new in that. But lately, between Microsoft’s general forlorn aimlessness, and the pathetic me-too quality of moves like the Microsoft Stores or their deeply-misguided “I’m a PC” commercials, it’s no longer so much “evil” as it is just embarrassing.

It seems like Microsoft is turning into FHQWHGADS from The Cheat’s “Everybody to the Limit” video, with Apple in the role of Strong Bad:

“Come on Microsoft. I see you, jockin’ me. Tryin’ to play like ‘you know me.’”

“Man, Microsoft, you’re just making yourself look worse, you know? I mean, everybody’s just gonna feel sorry for you. I mean, I do.”

Well okay, no, I don’t. But otherwise.