Category Archives: a/b

Narrative Paralysis

March 8, 2013 – 9:33 am

Yesterday on the subway I watched a man write “KEY INSIGHTS” at the top of a page in his Moleskine, and then just stare at the page unmoving for the next six stops. He hadn’t budged when I stepped off to switch trains; I have to admit that as the minutes ticked by, I struggled [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in interfaces, life | Comments (1)

Flip All The Pronouns

November 7, 2012 – 8:56 pm

Maya and I have been playing through Windwaker together; she likes sailing, scary birds and remembering to be brave, rescuing her little brother and finding out what’s happening to Medli and her dragon boat. She’s the hero of the story, of course. It’s annoying and awkward, to put it mildly, having to do gender-translation on [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in digital, hate, interfaces, parenting, toys, vendetta | Comments (202)

Bear Baiting (updated…)

June 12, 2012 – 7:45 pm

You may have heard that the FunnyJunk website – no link, but it’s your typically garish stolen-content-to-sell-ads web-hovel – have tried to extort one of the people they stole stuff from, to the tune of about $20k. The Tubes Were Displeased: “I really did not expect that he would marshal an army of people who [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in awesome, interfaces, vendetta | Comments (1)

On The Perpetual Threat Of Regressive Nonsense In Children’s Literature

May 10, 2012 – 9:33 pm

We took Arthur’s Science Fair Trouble out of the library for Maya the other day, and let me tell you: I had always suspected that most of what adults tell you is bullshit, but children’s books live at some horrible Venn overlap of Moore and Sturgeon’s respective Laws where 90% of everything is not only [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in academic, books, documentation, fail, future, interfaces, parenting, science | Comments (8)

“I ain’t in this for your revolution and I’m not in it for you, Princess.”

April 3, 2012 – 9:54 am

It’s an old joke, with that wonderful undercurrent of bigoted misogyny that so many old jokes have: some creepy old dude propositions young woman by asking if she’d sleep with him for a million dollars, which she concedes she would. He follows that up asking if she’d sleep with him for a nickel; she replies, [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in arcade, digital, doom, fail, hate, interfaces, losers, vendetta | Comments Off

Finished (Updated…)

March 31, 2012 – 8:08 am

UPDATE: Scroll down. But they’re still finished, make no mistake about that. I’ve mentioned in the past that RIM’s fundamental problem is that they’ve been shipping the same goddamn device, over and over again, since at least 2004. But check this out: on the heels of Blackberry’s recent announcements of collapsing financials and a management [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in digital, documentation, doom, fail, hate, interfaces, losers, vendetta | Comments (3)

The Tale Of The Tape

February 26, 2012 – 11:57 pm

Kevin Gildea is hard to google. He’s an English professor in the Ottawa area, part-time (from what I can tell) at both Ottawa U and Carleton. When I was in his class a decade ago, he never gave you the sense of being self-aggrandizing enough to have a web presence, much less the fan base [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in awesome, documentation, parenting, toys | Comments (10)

Ferris’ Wheel (Updated)

January 26, 2012 – 4:53 pm

16:11 < colleague> if they do a sequel I so dearly hope ben stein and charlie sheen aren’t invited 16:11 < mhoye> “… Drugs?” 16:11 < mhoye> I think they have to be. 16:14 < second_colleague> why no ben stein? 16:14 < other_colleague> cause he’s gone INSANE 16:16  * mhoye thinks they should swap roles. [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in awesome, doom, fail, hate, losers, weird | Comments (3)

Where The Rubber Meets The Road

September 14, 2011 – 7:28 pm

Exhibit 1: Eric Schmidt, on the Google+ “real name” policy. “If you think about it, the Internet would be better if we had an accurate notion that you were a real person as opposed to a dog, or a fake person, or a spammer or what have you. [...] If we knew that it was [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in digital, doom, fail, hate, interfaces, losers, vendetta | Comments Off

Google– (Updated)

August 23, 2011 – 3:20 pm

I just deleted my Google+ profile. They asked me why, and I told them: You’ve successfully deleted Google+ and associated social content We’re sorry to see you leave! Please help us improve by telling us why you are leaving and what we can do better. This survey is optional but your feedback is much appreciated. [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in digital, fail, interfaces, life, losers, vendetta | Comments (4)